Authors: Michelle Rowen
Something Wicked
Table of Contents
PROMISE FROM A DEMON . . .
Like she’d said, their relationship was seriously complicated. But she supposed it didn’t have to be. She helped him. He helped her. They were just partners in finding a solution and nothing more. And one day soon they’d go their separate ways, and she’d forget how it felt to kiss him or how good his body had felt against hers when they’d made love. It was something they hadn’t discussed much—kind of like an elephant in the room.
It made it a little easier to pretend it had never happened.
“Go to sleep, Eden,” Darrak said, his voice as warm as his presence. “Everything will be better tomorrow.”
“Promises, promises.” She closed her eyes. It took a while, but just after midnight she finally drifted off.
“I’ve been bitten and smitten by Michelle Rowen.”
—Sherrilyn Kenyon,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Let us welcome this fresh voice to the genre.”
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Midwest Book Review
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
SOMETHING WICKED
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / October 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Michelle Rouillard.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-44396-5
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®
SENSATION
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Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to . . .
Cindy Hwang, Leis Pederson, and the entire team at Berkley Sensation.
My wonderful agent, Jim McCarthy.
My friends, online and off, who support me and give me plenty of encouragement and pep talks when the demons who aren’t as good-looking as Darrak show up at my doorstep uninvited. They’re usually much smaller and uglier, and I call them the weasels of doubt.
My fabulous readers who have read my books, enjoyed them, and told me so, which never fails to make my day. I sincerely hope you enjoy this one as well.
My high school typing class and Mavis Beacon computer programs for teaching me to type properly back in the day. My handwriting has suffered greatly over the years, but I can do sixty words a minute on my MacBook, easy as pie.
Being a writer is a dream come true, and I’m thankful for the chance to continue to explore the strange, chaotic expanses of my imagination, where a year later they come out as pretty little rectangles with colorful covers and neat typography. It’s truly amazing to get to do this for a living, and I’m still not convinced I’m not just imagining this reality. It’s possible. I’ve seen
The Matrix
ten times.
ONE
“Would you look at this place? Equal parts lust and desperation. It’s fantastic.”
Eden grimaced. She’d been trying to pay as little attention to Darrak as possible, but it wasn’t easy. The demon was very hard to ignore.
“It’s a singles’ club,” she replied. “What did you expect?”
“This, of course. But it’s even better than I thought it would be.”
“You have a strange sense of what
better
is.”
A tall man holding a bottle of Corona tapped Eden on her shoulder. When she turned to look at him, he leered approvingly at her. “Who are you talking to, sexy lady?”
She cleared her throat. “Nobody. Just talking to myself. I do that frequently now that I’ve stopped taking my medication.”
“Uh . . .
okay
.” He slowly backed away from her and went to hit on someone else. Someone
sane
.
Darrak snorted. “Busted.”
She felt her face redden. She had to remember that no one but her could see or hear Darrak at the moment. He was her demon. Her
inner
demon. After all, Eden Riley was the current cover girl for demonic possession.
This time she spoke under her breath so no one would hear. “I thought you said you were going to keep quiet once we got in here?”
“I lied. Besides, you need me to coach you through this, don’t you? I thought you said you’re a bit out of your element.”
He was right about that.
“Okay, so coach me. Now what should I do?”
“Walk over to the bar, order a drink, and scan the room. I know he’s around here somewhere. I just have to spot him.”
“You still haven’t told me how you found this guy. How were you able to contact anyone in your, uh, current condition?”
“I have my ways.”
Well, that was cryptic. But instead of grilling him about it, Eden walked across the floor of the dark nightclub, Luxuria. It was very upscale, with gleaming black floors and an indigo interior. A cascade of pretty sparkling light moved slowly across the hundreds of faces and bodies in attendance. But the lust and desperation Darrak mentioned seemed to permeate the entire building, giving it a distinctly unpleasant ambiance Eden was able to pick up with her subtle sixth sense.