May 13, 2010 - Day Four

Dear Readers,

We continue our Special Edition Romance Previews of THE DEMON IN ME by Michelle Rowen. Today is Day Four of our exciting sneak peek. Enjoy!

THE DEMON IN ME (Living in Eden – Book #1) Hell hath no fury… Fate has led Eden Riley to become a “psychic consultant” to the police, even though her abilities are unreliable at best. Those paranormal powers are about to get her into a jam she couldn’t have predicted. After her hunky police detective partner guns down a serial killer in front of her, Eden realizes that she’s quite literally no longer alone. A voice in her head introduces himself as Darrak. He’s a demon. But not in a bad way!  …like a woman possessed.  Darrak lost his original body 300 years ago thanks to a witch’s curse. This is the first time he’s ever been able to speak directly to a host, plus there’s a bonus. Eden’s psychic energy helps him to take form during daylight hours. He wants to use this chance to find a way to break his curse — finally. Otherwise, Eden’s going to have to learn to live with this sexy demon…like it or not.   And she thinks she might like it.

Excerpt 4

This is a scene from Chapter 7…. Darrak is able to take corporeal form during daylight hours, but he is compelled to stay close to Eden at all times. In this scene she wants to, uh, test that theory…. 

The doors on the elevator closed before he got in. Eden jabbed at the ground floor button. She heard Darrak yell her name, and then a bang as he pounded on the elevator door. 

The elevator began to descend slowly and she stifled the immediate feeling of guilt that swelled inside of her. 

She wanted to see how far they could be apart? The opportunity had just presented itself nicely. 

Eden’s apartment was on the fourteenth floor. By the eighth she began to feel a bit lightheaded. She brought a hand to her forehead and inhaled shakily. She didn’t remember feeling that way when Darrak tried to walk out of the office yesterday. 

The impromptu experiment was working. 

Six floors at approximately ten feet per floor? So that was sixty feet. 

Seventy feet. 

Eighty. 

A sharp pain wrenched through her stomach. She doubled over and staggered back until she hit the wall of the elevator. A moment later, thick black smoke slithered in through the crack at the top of the elevator door. It moved to pool on the floor, then slowly took form. 

Just before the doors opened on ground level, Darrak had fully rematerialized. He crouched on the floor at her feet, his chest heaving. Sweat beaded his forehead. His current expression was anything but the pleasant and amiable Darrak she’d begun to expect. In fact, he looked furious. 

She’d wanted to see what would happen—to test their boundaries and perhaps find out that they didn’t actually have any, but now the stab of guilt returned to replace the pain that she’s felt before. 

“Don’t do that again,” he said darkly. “Please.” 

She swallowed hard. Well, at least he said please. “I just wanted to see if we could—”

He rose to his feet, grabbed her upper arms firmly, and pushed her up against the mirrored elevator wall. In human form, he was very tall. And big. And strong. And she suddenly felt extremely intimidated by him—especially by that angry look in his blue eyes that for a split second she could have sworn changed to a strange, flickering amber. 

“You want to get rid of me.” Despite the fiery look in his gaze, the words were as cold as ice cubes lobbed at her ears. “I get it. We both want that. Do you think I want to put up with you every hour of the day, either? Think again. But right now we can’t do anything about it but try to make this work.” 

“Let go of me.” 

“First I want to make sure you understand me.” His eyes narrowed. “And just so you know, being forced to lose form like that hurts like hell. And I know what Hell feels like.” 

“I understand.” She said through clenched teeth, before her own swell of anger faded. She’d only wanted to test a theory, not cause any him more pain. “I felt something unpleasant this time, too.” 

“Of course you did.” 

She frowned at his quick agreement. “But yesterday I didn’t feel anything when you tried to leave the office. And even during the exorcism…I only felt a twinge. But today it was actually…painful.” 

“Lucky you.” A cold, humorless smile curled his lips. “It means we’re bonding.” 

(excerpt continued on Friday)