Wicked Kiss

by Michelle Rowen

  “That’s not your fault,” I assured her.

  “Feels like it is.”

  I moved toward her and took her hands in mine and squeezed them. “No, it’s not. It’s her—she’s disturbed. Really disturbed. And this—it’s the only way she can cope. Can you think of any way we can help her without having to kill somebody she possesses?”

  “I keep trying to find another way. I don’t know.”

  “Can we talk to her? Can we reason with her?”

  “I hope so.” She blinked, her eyes glossy. “But I’m not just upset about that. It’s...Roth, too.”

  I watched her carefully. “What about him?”

  “I can’t explain how I feel. Before, I—I could barely even tolerate being in the same room as him. He annoyed me so much. And normally, I’m very even tempered! I am praised for my calm and professional manner. Always!”

  “I’m sure you are,” I agreed without hesitation.

  “He’s become a distraction. He’s the reason I haven’t been able to concentrate on my real mission as much as I should.” Her forehead furrowed, but then her expression relaxed a fraction. “What am I saying? Am I seriously trying to blame him? It’s not his fault. But he’s...a great inconvenience to me.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “Yeah, that’s usually the way it is with boys—no matter who they are.”

  Cassandra’s eyes snapped up to mine. “When he kissed me for the first time last night I slapped him. Really hard. But all he did was laugh at me before kissing me again. And that time...”

  “That time you kissed him back,” I finished for her.

  “He’s trying to make me look like a fool,” she whispered, her expression agonized. “He doesn’t really like me.”

  “Wrong. He does.” No reason to play games here. “I read his mind. I saw that he’s confused—just as confused as you are—but there are real emotions at stake here...for both of you. Nothing simple, nothing neat, but it is real.”

  This confirmation didn’t seem to make her happier; if anything, her expression became only more miserable. “That’s even worse than I thought.”

  My chest grew tight and I hugged her. “Don’t worry. Nobody has to know you’re breaking the balance rules with him. I swear I won’t tell anyone. You’re safe.”

  “It’s not that.”

  I leaned back. “Then what is it?”

  She wiped her eyes. Then her gaze rose to meet mine again. “Wait. You can read minds, too? Is that like what you did with Bishop—how you saw his memories? How can you do that?”

  I thought she already knew this. Letting more of my secrets out of the bag—even though I hadn’t considered this one a secret—made my heart start racing. “It’s just more of that supernatural intuition,” I said evenly. “I think Jordan’s got the same thing going on.”

  She studied me a little too closely and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Her eyes widened with shock. “Samantha...are you a nexus?”

  I stopped breathing. “What?”

  “It would explain everything, actually. I’m not sure why I didn’t consider it before. But...if that’s true...how could you be a gray, too?”

  I fought to stay calm and look confused instead of panicked over this hypothesis. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m nothing special. Just a messed-up kid who has a minor bit of sixth sense going on.”

  Her strained expression didn’t ease off. “Sure you are. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re both in way more trouble than we’d like to admit.”

  I swallowed hard. “Maybe.”

  She didn’t keep grilling me on the subject. She left, closing the door softly behind her. I sat down heavily and stared at myself in my vanity mirror, trying to harness my racing thoughts. Even up here I still felt Bishop’s presence downstairs. My hunger swirled, making it difficult to catch my breath.

  Now Cassandra knew my secret, too.

  I jumped in the shower and tried to let the scorching hot water—a relief after being locked in that basement for so long—wash my cares away. Didn’t work in the slightest. I got out in record time.

  It wasn’t until I turned on my blow-dryer that I had the vision.

  I didn’t have many of these. But when I did have them, they flattened me with their intensity. This one wasn’t an exception to the rule.

  Like a waking dream with the intensity of a hurricane. The images shifted, sliding, turning so I could barely see anything properly.

  It was a house—a big house with tons of kids there wearing masks and costumes. They milled about, drinks in hand; making out, talking, having fun. Music blared all around.

  I also sensed the mind of the angel—the bodiless one. Somewhere else. Somewhere close. She wasn’t like the others—the team of angels and demons I’d come to know. She was different. The essence of what she once was distorted like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, turned monstrous, feeding on joy and hope to keep her own misery at bay. She knew doing this was draining her victims of the will to live. It filled her with despair, but she couldn’t stop. Survival and hunger were this angel’s only remaining motivations.

  She was as wretched as she was terrifying.

  She felt drawn to this house. It was like a bright beacon lighting her way through the dark city.

  And when she arrived she would find so many kids who were filled with life and joy...

  It would be an incredible feast for her.

  The vision shifted, like metal twisting after a car wreck. It was after—bodies strewn around the house, lifeless, blood everywhere, it smeared the walls and oozed out onto the carpet and hardwood floors.

  Noah’s Halloween party had turned into a mass suicide.

  The vision ended and I staggered back, my head splitting in pain. It knocked me right to the floor. Immediately, I scrambled to get up, finished getting dressed and raced downstairs as fast as I could.

  Bishop looked at me with alarm from where he stood, still in the foyer, this wild girl who’d practically flown down the stairs with still-damp hair.

  “What’s wrong?” he demanded.

  I explained as quickly as I could what I’d seen. Cassandra appeared, her arms crossed. She’d heard me. Neither of them told me not to worry, that it was only my imagination.

  “Has it already happened?” Cassandra asked shakily.

  I shook my head. “No, but it’s going to.”

  “A vision of the future.” She eyed me warily. “Do you have these often?”

  “Thankfully, no.” My last one had been a vision of the city being destroyed and sucked into what I now knew to be the Hollow. I didn’t remember it with perfect clarity—I think it was a way of my mind rejecting the sight of such an apocalyptic disaster.

  But the future could be changed. Neither of my horrible visions had to come true.

  “We’re leaving,” Bishop said firmly. “Right now.”

  “I’m coming, too,” I said just as firmly.

  He met my gaze. “Yes, you’re coming, too.”

  Looked like I was going to Noah’s Halloween party after all.

  Chapter 25

  “We can take my mom’s car,” I said, grabbing the keys before I left. “But I can’t drive.”

  “Why not?” Cassandra asked.

  “No license. I’ve been meaning to get around to it.”

  “I can drive,” Bishop said, taking the keys from me.

  “You have a license?”

&
nbsp; “Well...not technically. But that’s never stopped me before.”

  “Good enough for me.” I climbed in the backseat. Cassandra got in the passenger side. “Just—promise me not to hurt the car.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Try, like, really hard. Despite dealing with angels, demons and otherworldly death vortexes, you haven’t seen my mother when she’s angry.”

  “I could grab a different car,” he offered. “I’ve hot-wired them before.”

  “Stealing cars,” I said under my breath wryly. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “I preferred to think of it as borrowing.” He flashed me a wicked grin that made my heart race even faster before he turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the driveway.

  I didn’t want to think about how this night would end, but I knew that everyone at that party was currently at risk. If we didn’t do something to stop the bodiless angel, it would be a massacre.

  As we neared the house, I felt the harsh stirrings of my hunger. It cramped my stomach. “Wait. Don’t get any closer.”

  Bishop must have heard something in my tone that alarmed him. He pulled up to the curb and backed up twenty feet. “Better?”

  “Yeah, a little. This house—it’s the same one where I had a hunger freak-out before. When I was with Kraven.” I recognized the neighborhood immediately. Even from where we were—a block away—I could see my mom’s real-estate sign out front.

  This was where the Halloween party was being held.

  “What is it?” Bishop asked. “What’s triggering your hunger here?”

  “I don’t know. Although...maybe...” I got out of the car when he and Cassandra did, sending a wary gaze down the street.

  “What?”

  “It’s stupid, but my mother said this house is haunted. That’s why she was having a hard time selling it. Maybe I can sense the ghosts? Does that make any sense?” Noah had arranged for his Halloween party to be held in an allegedly haunted house. If I was my normal, everyday self I would have thought that was really cool.

  “We’ll check it out. You—” Cassandra gave me a concerned look “—wait here by the car.”

  I hated that I’d have to hang back and not be a part of this, but with the way that house made me feel, I knew there wasn’t any other answer.

  Something else approached from the shadows nearby. It took a moment for me to realize it was Kraven.

  “Good party,” he said. “You’re missing all the fun.”

  “You took Jordan home?” Bishop asked.

  “I did. She’s a charmer. And by that I mean she’s a total bitch.”

  “But she’s safe.”

  “Debatable. She’s already here at the party—must have gotten into her costume in record time. I gave her the evil eye when I saw her ten minutes ago, and got the middle finger in return. Like I said, charming.” He swept a glance back toward the house. “I know this is a problem area, based on gray-girl’s reaction the last time we were here.” He eyed us. “Why are you here?”

  “I had a vision,” I explained. “The angel that killed Zach is coming here.”

  “Visions.” He raised an eyebrow, scanning me. “Right. Forgot you could do that. You’re like a veritable toolbox of supernatural handiness, aren’t you? No wonder my brother doesn’t want to see you dead. Yet.”

  There was something off about him, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Something crueler and ruder than normal.

  “What’s your problem?” Bishop asked, a hard edge of unpleasantness in his tone.

  This made Kraven laugh. The cold sound shivered down my spine.

  “My problem. You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s happened earlier tonight. Crazy stuff, right?” He glanced at each of us in turn. “I keep coming back to the moment I saved your ass, brother.”

  I had wondered if they’d forgotten about that. I sure hadn’t. The moment when Kraven saved Bishop from being swept into the Hollow right after Zach was burned into my brain.

  Bishop studied him with his arms crossed over his chest. “If you have any problems with me, we can deal with them later.”

  Kraven shrugged. “Nah. I want to deal with them now.”

  I looked at Bishop to get his reaction to this; there was a look of deep annoyance on his face. He turned to Cassandra, and unstrapped his sheath and dagger from under his shirt, then handed it to her.

  “Go,” he said. “We’ll catch up to you. Survey the party and see if there are any problems. If there are, you know what to do.”

  Cassandra flicked a glance at me, her gaze worried...and there was something else there. An edge of sheer determination and resolve.

  She was good at her job. This was what she’d been sent here for—to deal with this lost angel. After that, I knew Cassandra would be able to focus on helping the guys with the continuing gray situation—as well as dealing with whatever was going on with her and Roth.

  The sooner this bad angel was destroyed, the better. I just hoped Cassandra would be able to think of a way to reason with her.

  She walked right up to Kraven, who was blocking her path.

  “You going to give me a problem right now, demon?” she asked tightly.

  “No, Blondie, you’re not my concern tonight. Go flutter away where you’re needed. I think Roth’s already in the house. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see you.”

  Something in the way he said it—that all-too-familiar mocking edge to his words.

  He knew about Cassandra and Roth.

  The demon knew too much for his own good.

  With a glare that showed that she might be thinking the same thing, Cassandra took off at a run in the direction of the party house.

  I drew my coat closer to block out the chill. I assumed Bishop would want me to wait in the car while they checked out the house, but I wasn’t ready to crawl back inside yet.

  It was so cold tonight—like below zero. At least, that was how it felt to me.

  Increased cold, increased hunger.

  I blocked out the sound of Stephen’s voice from inside my head. I wasn’t like him. I wasn’t. My birth parents were very special. I was special, too. I would be different.

  I would not lose hope.

  “So here we are,” Kraven said, his arms crossed. He moved slowly toward us, his gaze locked on Bishop in a chillingly predatory way. “You, me and your little girlfriend. Or is she? I’m getting confused. You can’t kiss her. She’s basically one of the things we’re fighting against here in this city that will keep us trapped for as long as she’s still breathing. Being around you is torture for her. I wonder what the appeal is. Frankly, I can’t see it.”

  “Are you going to whine all evening or get to the point?” Bishop asked.

  “Whatever. I do sort of get it, you know. You’re addicted. She’s addicted. It’s kind of adorable, if you’re into junkies. Won’t end well, I can guarantee you that.”

  “If I wanted your opinion, James,” Bishop said unpleasantly. “I’d beat it out of you.”

  Kraven smirked at him. “Noticed that you got rid of the only weapon in this city that can kill either of us. Did you do that on purpose?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I’m going to vote yes on that. You’re afraid I’m going to kill you.”

  “More like the other way around.” Bishop looked at me. “You should go back home.”

  “And miss this brotherly standoff?” I said. “Not a chanc
e.”

  Nope. No way was I missing out on this. After what I’d seen, what I’d heard, and the way my imagination was working overtime to put it all together, I wanted to know more about them. Both of them.

  Kraven laughed again coldly. “You haven’t fooled her completely, you know, with your angelic sparkle. She knows there’s bad blood between us.”

  “I could have spotted that from a mile away,” I told him. “Even without a glimpse at some of Bishop’s memories.”

  Bishop cringed at the reminder that I’d seen bits and pieces of his very sordid past.

  “Bishop,” Kraven said, rolling the name over his tongue with distaste. “I never asked. Did they give that painfully insipid name to you or did you choose it yourself?”

  Bishop stood there, unflinchingly. “They gave it to me.”

  “New identity, new existence. You think you can forget who you were? Like it’s that easy?”

  “Trying to.”

  “It’ll never happen.”

  “You saved me tonight, Kraven. Don’t say you were trying to push me into the Hollow. Because you weren’t.” His jaw tightened. “That means something to me.”

  Kraven scoffed, his attention turning to the Italian restaurant a block up the street where he’d kissed me the other night to help me deal with my hunger. “It would have solved a lot of problems to see you take a nosedive in there. It was a knee-jerk reaction to save your ass, nothing conscious about it.”

  When Bishop turned away from him I saw an edge of pain slide through his gaze that made my heart wrench. Whatever he tried to make either of us believe, Kraven still had the power to hurt him with words.

  “Enough of this,” Bishop growled. “We don’t have the time. We have to get to that house and stop a group of kids from committing mass suicide. Understand? What happened to Zach isn’t going to happen to anyone else.”

  “If I’d let the Hollow take you,” Kraven continued as if he wasn’t paying attention to a word Bishop said, “then I wouldn’t have been able to witness your continued suffering.”