Bishop looked at him. “Is that what you want? To watch me suffer?”
Kraven’s lips thinned. “That’s what I’ve wanted ever since you sent me to Hell and got a first-class elevator ride up to Heaven as some sort of shining champion.”
“You think it was that easy for me?”
“I don’t give a damn how easy it was.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Both of you?” I snapped, unable to keep it inside any longer. I usually said what was on my mind without too many filters. Tonight wasn’t going to be the exception to the rule. “You could have had this out with each other for the last three weeks, but you wait till now? Why now? Why here?”
Kraven glared at me. “Because I saved him tonight and it pissed me off. That’s what I used to do, you know. Save his ass when he got into trouble. And he thanked me by shoving a knife into me when he knew I was already on Hell’s shortlist.”
“Don’t try to pretend you were a good guy, James,” Bishop said darkly. “You weren’t.”
He snorted. “Nah, I was as badass as they came back then. But I was also young and stupid. I didn’t even get a chance to try to redeem myself for the things I did. I might have succeeded.”
Bishop hissed out a breath. “Whether you believe this or not, I wish I could go back and change what I did.” Again, he averted his gaze from his brother as pain slid through his eyes.
A small muscle in Kraven’s cheek twitched. His dark gold hair had fallen into his eyes and he swiped it back. His amber eyes held the same pain I saw in Bishop’s. “Like I’d believe a damn thing you say.”
“It’s the truth. Believe it or don’t believe it. Right now, I don’t care. There are bigger things to deal with in this city tonight than our feud.”
“Feud?” Kraven snapped. “You think this is as simple as a feud?”
Bishop straightened his shoulders and wiped the pain from his face before he turned to Kraven again. “It’s ancient history.”
“Doesn’t even bother to apologize,” Kraven said, flicking a glance at me. “How do you like that? Total son of a bitch.”
My chest felt so tight listening to all of this, I could barely breathe. I understood Kraven’s outrage, and I also believed that Bishop regretted what he’d done. “You two need to talk about this later.”
The demon shot me a dark look. “And here I thought you were drooling to learn the truth about my brother. Maybe you’re scared to know it now. Might change how you feel about the two of us. Might make you like me more.”
“You don’t even give me a chance to like you,” I snapped. “Before you go and say something to make me hate you again.”
“Ouch.”
“But...I know there’s still good in you, Kraven,” I continued, forcing myself to stay calm. “You proved that by saving Bishop earlier.”
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, bite me, sweetness. Seriously.” Then he returned his gaze to Bishop. “By the way, I know she’s a nexus.”
My stomach dropped.
Bishop froze. “What?”
“Angel and demon parents. I think you’ve been acquainted with nexi in the past as one of Heaven’s lapdog assassins. Killing them, anyway. Not whispering sweet nothings in their ears.”
Bishop’s expression darkened. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So I guess that makes three that should be put on your kill list, right? A dangerous angel-demon hybrid like sweetness here, and two rule-busting renegades like the romantically inclined Cassandra and Roth.”
Bishop stared him down. “Are you finished running your mouth?”
“Oh, I’m just getting started.”
Bishop stormed toward Kraven, grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him down on the hood of my mother’s car hard enough to make me shriek. “No, you’re definitely finished. It’s over. I’ve tolerated you long enough. Your hate has made you blind—you keep us from getting to that house and helping those who need help because you’re so consumed by your own self-pity. You destroy anything you touch—just like old times. I see that now. You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Screw you,” Kraven spat out. “What do I care what you think? You’re crazy. You’re losing it.”
“How about this, James? Make a threatening move toward Samantha and I will kill you. And this time there won’t be any deals or rituals to resurrect your sorry ass again.”
I couldn’t help but agree with the demon. Bishop had every right to be angry with him, but there was something erratic about his behavior now, something crazed flashing behind his gaze. Something dangerous.
“Bishop, let him go,” I said, my voice shaky. “Please. We don’t have time for this.”
When he looked at me, Kraven shoved Bishop back from him.
“You think you can kill me? Not if I kill you first. You can’t even handle being leader as it is. You can cut yourself up as much as you like, you can hold hands with gray-girl all day long, but soon it won’t help. You’re going to be completely bat-shit insane soon, no matter what quick fix you have in place. And I’ll be happy to sit back and watch the show with popcorn in hand.”
Bishop’s fists were clenched at his sides. “I’ve felt guilty for killing you all this time. When I saw you for the first time in that alley with no memories...knowing I had to stab you...”
Kraven’s eyes glowed red in the darkness, betraying his anger, his pain. “You did it without any hesitation. Both times.”
“You don’t know what’s going on in my head.”
“I don’t want to know. I hate you.”
Kraven grabbed Bishop’s shirt and slammed him against a brick wall so hard that the surface cracked. Bishop shook it off and launched himself at the demon, grabbing him hard. They started to fight in earnest now, years of anger and pain built up to overflow tonight. Two immortal beings raging against each other, able to hurt, to draw blood, to break bones, but not kill each other. Not without the dagger.
“Stop it,” I growled. “Both of you.”
It was so cold I swear my skin was turning to ice. My hunger hadn’t stopped for a moment. It had only increased, doubling every minute, even though we were far enough away from the house that it shouldn’t have bothered me, and there was enough distance between me and where Bishop and Kraven were fighting.
My heart pounded faster and faster. My breath came so quickly I thought I might hyperventilate. A wash of darkness moved across my vision.
I let out a harsh cry and collapsed to my knees. The world spun—reminding me of the one time me and Carly did vodka shots before a house party to give ourselves courage, but ended up violently ill instead. But this was worse—much worse than that. I clawed at the pavement, breaking my already short nails.
“Samantha—” Bishop was at my side a moment later. There was a bloody gash on his forehead.
I moaned, then dragged in a ragged breath that hurt my throat. “No, don’t get close. Too close. Too much. So cold, Bishop. It’s so cold. Please...”
Kraven stood nearby. His face was bleeding, too. “You know what’s happening to her. You know what this means.”
“Be quiet,” he snarled.
“It’s time. Don’t wait to see what happens to her next—or how much she’ll suffer. Put her out of her misery now.” Instead of joy in the demon’s tone, there was dark certainty. He didn’t say this to be cruel. This was something they’d discussed before.
What to do when I finally went into stasis.
&nb
sp; “I thought you actually gave a damn about her,” Bishop said tightly. “Guess I was wrong.”
Kraven shot him a look of disdain. “Suggesting a quick, clean death, rather than melting on the sidewalk? Rather than seeing her turn into a total sociopath? Yeah, you’re right. Guess I don’t give a damn.”
Bishop swore. “Go to the party. Find the others. Help them. Stop that angel any way you have to.”
“Wait. What about...I can kiss her again if it’ll help.”
“It won’t help. Not anymore.”
“But—”
“No. You’ll never kiss her again.”
Bishop picked me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing more than a feather and cradled me against his chest. Then he turned away from Kraven and began running down the street in the opposite direction. I could barely lift my head to see Kraven still standing there watching us get farther and farther away, a bleak look in his amber-colored eyes.
He knew the same thing I knew—whether I lived or died, this was the end for me.
Chapter 26
Kraven had put it perfectly. Tonight, I would either die and fade away, or I would go into a zombielike state. And if I survived, I would come out the other side totally evil.
A living nightmare.
I’d rather die than be like that.
This was happening too fast. It had been drawing closer and closer, but I’d really started to believe I was different. I’d believed the lies.
I wasn’t different. I was a gray. And I was terrified of what was to come next.
Bishop came to a townhome and kicked the front door. The lock splintered the frame as it swung open. It was all dark inside. Nobody was home. He carried me inside to the living room where he gently placed me down on the sofa.
I twisted. It wasn’t pain, really. But something bad was happening to me. The cold and hunger combined to make me numb as it burrowed into me—a caterpillar creating its cocoon. My vision went blurry and my skin turned to ice.
“What can I do?” Bishop asked harshly. “What can I do to help you? I need time to find Stephen. To get your soul back. It’s not too late.”
I just shook my head back and forth. It was too late. It was happening, and it was happening now. “Stephen said the only way to hold off stasis—would be to feed.”
“When did he tell you this?” His voice turned angry. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Whatever was inside me moved through my limbs to my fingers and toes, making everything numb and cold. “Doesn’t matter anymore. I wouldn’t do it, anyway. I won’t hurt anyone like that—not again—no matter what.”
“You should have told me anyway, Sam. Damn it.”
He never called me Sam. Always Samantha. More formal—even though I loved how he said my name. “But I can’t feed. I can’t—”
Then, suddenly, his mouth was on mine. I let out a cry of surprise. He kissed me hard and deep, gathering me in his arms so much that he raised me right up off the sofa.
This is what I’d dreamed about—Bishop’s lips on mine as he kissed me with total abandon.
But it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“Feed,” he whispered. “Come on. Feed on me, Samantha.”
His heart beat fast against my own weakening pulse. I still sensed his soul, I still craved it more than anything else, but there was a wall there, muting it, closing off my access to it—even if I’d wanted to take it. My heart wrenched at the thought of hurting him. But if he’d done this before, I wouldn’t have had any choice. I would have lost control and destroyed him forever.
I had control now. But there was a very good reason.
No, scratch that. A very bad reason.
“It’s too late,” I whispered.
“No.” His voice caught and twisted. “I won’t accept that.”
“I’m dying.”
“No!” He got up and kicked the coffee table, sending it flying across the room and splintering into the wall. Then he fell to my side again, his expression agonized. “Take my soul. Take all of it. I don’t care. I can’t lose you.”
When he crushed his mouth against mine again and kissed me so hard and desperately, my lips felt bruised.
But nothing happened. It was a while before he finally relented.
My voice was strained and barely audible. “Do your job. Take my life. End this. Don’t let me become like Stephen.”
“I’m not giving up on you.”
Tears streaked from the corners of my eyes. The horrible cold pressed in on me on all sides, despite Bishop’s warm touch. Icy fingers sank into me, freezing me from the inside out. “You’ve killed things like me before. Why is this any different?”
“Because you’re different.” He reached down to clutch my hands in his. His brows were drawn tightly together above eyes that blazed bright blue. “You’re better than this. You don’t realize how strong you really are—not yet. You’ve only just started to know what you are. You’re amazing. And you can fight this.” His voice was broken, raw. “I can try to heal you, Sam. Stay with me!”
As he spoke, his voice had grown fainter and fainter. I wanted to reply. I wanted to tell him that I loved him. I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted to be with him, now and forever. Despite everything, despite my fear over his past, despite it being such a short time since we’d met. Despite the secrets and lies...
I loved him.
But there was nothing he could do to save me.
My vision...my world...faded to gray.
Then to black.
Then to white.
And then...uh, blue.
Blue?
Yes. Blue. With fluffy white clouds.
There was something at my back. Something hard. I pressed my hands down to feel hard sand.
Where was I? What just happened?
“Are you going to lie there all day or what?”
I recognized the voice, but it was a moment before I could put a name to it. I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around to see that I was in the middle of a wasteland, just the one from my dream about Bishop...where he’d kissed me and then killed me.
I swiveled until I saw Seth sitting nearby at a table, looking at me.
“You,” I said, confusion crashing down all around me. “I...uh...what’s going on?”
“You died, that’s what’s going on.”
I slowly got to my feet, turning around in a slow circle to take in the endless desert that stretched out all around me. The sky was the same flat gray I remembered from the last dream. And it was warm—I hadn’t felt this warm outside, or in, since my soul was taken. At least, not unless I was holding Bishop’s hand.
“I’m dreaming right now. But how can I dream if I’m dead?” I whipped back around toward him. He looked different from the last time I saw him. Cleaner. Better groomed. His dark beard was trimmed short, not long and scraggly. Now I realized he was at least ten years younger than I always thought he was. If he was even thirty I’d be surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“In your after-death dream?”
“Yeah.”
He shrugged. “I guess you wanted me here.”
I studied him, trying to figure out what didn’t seem right. Then it clicked. “Wait. You sound totally sane.”
“I am sane here.” He glanced around. “Other places, not so much.”
I looked down at the table he sat at to see that there was a game of chess set up. “I’v
e dreamed about chess before.”
“You were playing it?”
“Yes, I mean, I think so. But I don’t know how to play chess. Checkers, now we’re talking. But chess is complicated.”
“You’re right. It’s very complicated.” He waved a hand. “It’s your move, by the way. I’ve been waiting a very long time for you to get here.”
I sat down across from him and looked at the board before meeting his brown eyes. “How can I play if I don’t know how?”
“You know more than you think you do.”
“You said that to me before, but seriously, I don’t know.”
“Then I’ll teach you. Be happy to. Only...” He glanced around. “We don’t have much time left.”
“I’m dead.” I said it flatly, shocked that the idea of it didn’t trouble me as much as I thought it might. Just like before, I still felt numb. “And I’m dreaming.”
“You are.”
Maybe it was because I felt better here. More whole. There was no hunger, no cold. But still, there was something missing. Something that felt empty in my chest.
Bishop. My hands began to tremble and I pressed them tightly together. “I can’t stay here.”
“First, make your move.” He nodded at the board.
One piece glowed with a soft blue light, drawing my attention. “What’s that piece called?”
Seth looked down the board. “That’s the bishop.”
My breath caught. When I put my hand on it I felt it hum pleasantly against my skin. The piece knew where it wanted to go; all it needed was my help to get there.
I pushed it forward two spaces. “Is this okay?”
“Yes.” Seth smiled, leaned forward, and made his move, knocking over my bishop with his piece. He snatched it off the board and placed it to the side. “Check.”
“Check? What does that mean?”
His lips curved. “It means I’m winning.”
I blinked at him. “Why am I dreaming about you, Seth? Why now?”
Wicked Kiss Page 29