are?”
The young woman grasped Eden’s hand tightly in hers, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “Honey, it’s me.”
Eden frowned. “Excuse me?”
“It’s me,” the woman said again. “Your mother. I’m back!”
FIVE
Eden tried to process what she’d just heard.
Her mother? That was impossible.
This dark-haired woman was barely in her midtwenties and was completely different from her mother. Caroline Riley had looked just like Eden, only with blonde hair rather than the bright red Eden always dyed to a less attention-grabbing auburn.
“I know this comes as a shock, sweetie,” the woman said. “But it’s true. Maybe you should sit down.”
Eden did just that, staggering behind her desk and dropping back into her swivel chair. “What the hell is going on?”
The woman spread her hands. “Okay, so I died.”
“I know that part.”
“Next thing I know I’m in a holding cell in Hell scared out of my mind. I had no idea why I was there and it truly felt like forever, before they told me I was free. Next thing I know I’m back here, but I had no body. I had to improvise.”
“You’re a drifter,” Darrak said, eyeing her carefully.
The woman eyed him right back. “Is that what I am? Sounds like a good term for it.”
Eden’s heart sank. A drifter was a bodiless spirit who was able to possess humans at will, pushing aside their consciousness to make way for their own. Unlike Darrak, who was stuck with one human host until their death or his exorcism—or, preferably, his curse removal—a drifter could change bodies as easily as changing their outfit.
Her mother had died three months ago after breaking her neck falling down a flight of stairs in Las Vegas. She already knew Caroline had been sent to Hell. Lucas used her mother as blackmail to get Eden to help him out recently. She’d agreed, albeit reluctantly, and the last she knew her mother’s soul had been released.
Eden assumed she’d gone to Heaven.
Instead she’d flitted around until she’d found a suitable body—a young, pretty brunette.
“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.” Caroline laughed at her own joke. “Listen to me. Still hilarious after everything I’ve been through. But seriously, thank God I was able to find a body. Otherwise I’d be totally screwed. No way to communicate with you or anyone else. That would be so horrible. You know how much I love to talk.”
“Where did you get this body?” Eden said tightly.
She turned in a circle as if modeling a new dress. “She’s an aspiring actress. Twenty-three. She’s done a little lingerie modeling to pay the rent in the past. Adorable, isn’t she? I barely remember having boobs this perky.”
“And you just stole her body like it means nothing?”
“Borrowed. There are agencies out there who help set up this sort of thing. Who knew, right? This girl has rented out her body to me for six months. It’s not cheap, believe me.”
“Are you serious? You rented it?” Eden had never heard of anything like that.
“You think I’d just steal a body? What kind of person do you think I am?” Caroline pouted. “And here I thought you’d be thrilled to see me. Guess I was wrong.”
The nausea Eden had felt earlier again rose in her throat. “I don’t feel so good.”
“Can I do anything to help?” Caroline asked, moving closer.
Eden held up her hand. “You should leave.”
“But I just got here.”
“Seriously . . . Caroline, right?” Darrak said. He’d gone back to finishing off his donut from before. “This is a lot for her to take all at once. It’s been a difficult day already.”
Caroline’s gaze turned sharply toward the demon. “I don’t know what your game is, demon, but trust me, now that I’m here you’re not going to be able to corrupt my daughter any longer with your evil ways.”
Darrak sighed. “Just what I need. A cranky mother-in-law from Hell.”
Eden couldn’t process this. Her mother hadn’t been horrible, but she wasn’t exactly a kindhearted woman who’d baked cookies for her only child and been there as a shoulder to cry on or offer up advice when it was needed. No, Caroline Riley was more of a hard-drinking, professional gambler who’d been away more than she’d been at home, who’d paraded a succession of equally unreliable men through their lives as Eden was growing up.
Eden had learned at a very early age how to avoid phone calls from collections agencies, make dinner for herself, and take public transit at the age of ten since Mom wasn’t always around to pick