“Me, too.” She blinked back tears.
They followed me down the hall toward the office at the far end where Connor had tied up the still-unconscious Stephen, the ropes tight at his wrists and ankles. Bishop and Kraven stood nearby. I lingered at the doorway as I filled Bishop in on everything—everything except Roth and Cassandra’s secret romance.
Jordan stood next to me, her attention fully focused on Stephen. She slanted a glance at me as I watched her carefully. “What?”
“Don’t you want to go home?”
“Not yet. I need to know what’s going on here.” She blinked. “And nobody’s kicked me out yet.”
“So Blondie’s an angel with secrets, huh?” Kraven said, rolling his eyes. “How utterly shocking.”
He had his smart-ass mask firmly in place. The fact that he’d saved Bishop from the Hollow hadn’t come up since it happened. It was one of many elephants in the already too-small room.
Roth thrust his chin at Stephen. “Why didn’t you just kill this loser?”
“Because he has Samantha’s soul,” Bishop said with a look toward me. Our eyes met. He was holding on to his sanity with both hands tonight, but I could see it was a struggle. I wanted to help him, but I held back. Since I was a large part of the problem right now, the least I could do was stay out of the way.
“So what do we do?” Connor asked.
“We deal with this,” Bishop replied. “Then we go out and find a way to stop that angel.”
“And how do we do that if it doesn’t have a body to kill?”
“Simple,” Roth said. He was making an excellent attempt at not looking at Cassandra at all, even though she stood right next to him.
“Simple?” she said with disbelief. “How can you say anything about this is simple?”
His jaw tightened, but he still didn’t meet her eyes. “Sounds like the angel sometimes possesses a body before it feeds. That’s when it’ll be at its most vulnerable. We can kill it with Bishop’s dagger.” He finally glanced at her, giving her a half grin. “Not simple, but fairly brilliant. Don’t you think?”
She didn’t comment on Roth’s brilliance.
But I would. “That’s a terrible plan.”
Roth glanced at me, his eyes narrowing. “Why?”
“Because you’d have to kill a human—or whoever the angel is possessing. That’s called murder.”
He just stared at me. “Bishop, could you muzzle your pet, please? She’s getting all moral on us.”
I spun to face Bishop. “You can’t possibly think this is a good plan.”
His expression was grim. “It’s not a good plan. But it may be the only one we have that will work.”
I felt the color drain from my face. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m serious. That angel’s driven at least two dozen people to their deaths, including Zach. If it takes the sacrifice of one innocent in order to save an entire city, then that’s unfortunately what will have to happen.” His harsh expression softened just a little. “Try to understand.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t find the words. It was a horrible plan, the worst ever, but I couldn’t think of another way to end this. And I didn’t want more people to die because of that angel’s hungers.
“This is so messed up,” Jordan blurted out. “Everything I hear is seriously blowing my mind. Are you all for real? You’re literally making Samantha look like the only sane or smart one in this room right now.”
Coming from Jordan, that nearly sounded like a compliment.
“Red’s mouthy,” Kraven said. “Could be a problem.”
“What are you going to do?” I challenged him. “Kill her, too?”
“Don’t give me any ideas, sweetness.”
Then Stephen grunted, low and weak. He was waking up. Everyone’s attention shot to the restrained super-gray. He raised his head with effort and blinked open his eyes. There was dried blood on his forehead from where he’d hit the wall twice.
He scanned the five of us, lingering on Jordan, before he ended with Bishop. “Change of scenery, I see?”
Bishop had already drawn the dagger out and I eyed its sharp edge with trepidation. “Time to talk, Stephen.”
“I like talking. When I feel like it.”
“Wait,” I said. “Stephen, are you better now?”
His forehead furrowed. “Better than what?”
“Before, you were so depressed. You wanted to die.” His confused look told me everything I needed to know. “You were right, Bishop, the effects of the angel’s touch fade if given enough time.”
“Good to know.” Bishop was silent for a moment. “You and Jordan need to wait outside now.”
I turned a dark look at him. “And let you do your thing?”
His blue-eyed gaze remained neutral. “That’s right.”
“Your way of dealing with problems kind of freaks me out, Bishop.”
“We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this subject. There’s no time to argue.”
Stephen snorted. “Are you defending me, Sam? That’s so nice of you.”
I spun to face him, anger heating my cheeks. “I should let him carve you up. You haven’t done a damn thing to earn my trust or respect. Everything you’ve done has been to hurt me. To hurt Jordan.”
His expression shadowed. “I never wanted to hurt her.”
“Are you serious?” Jordan sputtered. “You knocked me out, you kept me prisoner. You nearly had a hobbit feast on my soul. What do you call that? True love?”
He stared at her incredulously. “Yes, actually. I did all that so we could be together again.”
I stared at the two of them, realizing that Stephen really did this out of love for Jordan. This was one seriously twisted romance I was witnessing.
Jordan let out a frustrated shriek, spun around and stormed out of the room.
“Go with her,” Bishop advised.
His shoulders were tense as he clenched the dagger. His body language showed his stress more than his even expression did. He didn’t want me to see what he had to do to save my life.
How many times have you hurt someone to get what you want? I thought. How many have you killed on your missions for Heaven?
I couldn’t read his mind, but I knew the answer would probably scare me very deeply.
Still, I didn’t budge from my spot.
Bishop groaned. “Samantha, you have to be difficult, don’t you?”
“Don’t let him hurt me, Sam,” Stephen said tightly. “I did it all for love. You get that, don’t you?”
I believed he did. And I also believed he was manipulative enough to use my sympathy for that weakness against me.
Bishop wasn’t filled with patience tonight. He sheathed his dagger, then took me by my arm, sending a shiver of electricity racing across my skin. He then directed me out of the office and back into the sanctuary where Jordan had fled to.
Cassandra joined us.
Bishop nodded toward Jordan. “Can you help with her, Cassandra?”
The angel nodded, and approached the redhead who watched her with a tense, guarded expression.
“What do you want?” Jordan asked sharply.
“Look at me.” Cassandra smiled when Jordan did what she asked. “You need to go home now. It’s been a difficult ordeal for you, but it’s over. Everything is okay. You don’t have to worry. Everything you’ve seen tonight, all the strange and confusing things that have scared you—you’re going to forget them. They’ll be like nothing more than a fading dream.”
Jordan blinked. “What are you, crazy or something? Get away from me.”
Cassandra cleared her throat. “Um, it usually works much better than this.”
“You’re losing your edge, Blondie,” Kraven said. He’d also left the office, and now leaned casually against the back wall of the church.
“What are you doing out here?” Bishop asked.
“I follow the drama. It’s entertaining. Besi
des, Connor and Roth have Mr. Tall, Gray and Devious under control. Don’t get your feathers ruffled.”
I inhaled sharply as Bishop took my arm again. I’d been trying my best to ignore it, but his soul was doing crazy things to my head right now.
“You need to leave,” he said firmly.
“I can’t.”
“I can’t think when you’re here. And I need to be able to think.”
The events of the night swirled around me, making me dizzy. So much had happened I couldn’t process it all, but I didn’t want to leave. I slid my hand down my leg to feel the leather sheath strapped to my thigh.
Suddenly, I remembered what it had held.
My eyes bugged and I grabbed the edge of Bishop’s shirt. “Bishop...Stephen, he took my dagger earlier. He probably still has it.”
Clarity shone in his eyes, then he turned from me and stormed out of the sanctuary and back to the office. The rest of us followed.
Connor lay unconscious on the floor near the wall, which now bore an angel-sized dent. Roth lay on his back, gasping, the familiar, small golden dagger protruding from his throat.
The wooden chair the super-gray had been seated in was now in pieces.
Stephen had escaped.
Chapter 24
Cassandra let out a strangled cry and rushed to Roth’s side. She pulled the dagger out and immediately set to work at healing him.
Kraven went to check on Connor, but thankfully he was already starting to regain consciousness.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my chest so tight it was hard to breathe normally. “I forgot all about the dagger. I should have said something earlier. Now he’s gone.”
Bishop turned to me, and I expected to see anger in his eyes that I’d been so thoughtless, but there was nothing like that. There was frustration there, but it wasn’t directed at me.
“No.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “You’ve been through a lot. You didn’t forget on purpose. This isn’t your fault.”
“Sure it is,” Kraven said.
Bishop sent a glare at him. “Actually, if you’d stayed in here this could have been avoided.”
“Or I could be the one with the knife sticking out of me.” He shrugged. “Maybe you’d like that.”
“Maybe I would.”
“Ouch.”
The anger fell from Bishop’s gaze as he turned from his brother and, if you asked me, it was as if he regretted his harsh words. He kept my hand in his like he needed the contact to keep his mind clear.
The longer I was near him, the less clear my head became.
“Connor, take Jordan home and make sure she stays there,” Bishop instructed, his voice tight.
“Can’t,” Jordan said. “I have plans tonight.”
He looked at her with surprise. “You were kidnapped and imprisoned in a locked basement storage room by your obsessed boyfriend for nearly two days and you have plans?”
She glared at him. “I have a social life, you know. There’s a huge Halloween party tonight I can’t miss. I spent a ton on my costume.”
Bishop gave me an exasperated look, which almost coaxed a smile from me despite everything that had gone so horribly wrong.
I shrugged. “She says she has a costume.”
“I’m Cleopatra,” Jordan said, as if that explained everything. She cocked her head. “Wait a minute. I think I’m remembering something important.” Then she inhaled sharply. “When Stephen first found me, before he knocked me out, I told him about the party. He seemed...interested in going. As if it might make him feel normal again. He said we could go together.” Her eyes moved back and forth rapidly as if she was remembering the moment in detail. “I mean, obviously he was just playing games with me, trying to get closer so he could grab me. But still, maybe he’ll show.”
“Where’s this party?” Bishop asked, his voice measured and almost too calm.
“It’s Noah’s party.” Jordan looked at me. “You’re invited, too, right? He has the hots for you, FYI.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, well, the feeling isn’t mutual.”
“Gray-girl’s curious charm doesn’t seem to be lost on many,” Kraven drawled, amused. “Hobbits are hot.”
“It’s not at his house,” I said, remembering what Kelly told me in the school hall yesterday. “He found another place?”
“Yeah, an abandoned house in a private area on the far east side of the city—at Oak and Peters. Thinks it’ll add a spooky touch. Figures it might be busted, but that’s supposed to make it more exciting.” She crossed her arms. “I’m going.”
I watched Bishop carefully for his reaction to the stubborn redhead. “Connor, like I said, take Jordan home safely. What she does after that is entirely up to her.” He shifted his gaze to his brother. “Kraven, go with Roth to this party and keep an eye open for our gray friend. Connor can meet you there later.”
“And if we see him?” Connor asked.
“Detain him. Any way possible.”
Connor’s eyes narrowed and there was a hard set to his jaw. “With pleasure.”
They didn’t wait. They left, Jordan sending a glance back toward me, but no goodbye. It would have been easier for her if the angelic influence had worked. Whatever made her different, that gave her the supernatural intuition, had prevented her from being influenced.
She would remember everything she’d seen, everything she’d learned.
It was dangerous information for a seventeen-year-old. I should know.
When they left, Bishop looked at Cassandra. “You’ll go with Samantha back to her house. Wait for her outside the church, all right?”
“All right.” Cassandra glanced at me, then left the two of us alone.
“And where will you go?” My chest clenched at the thought of saying goodbye to him again.
“The others want me to stay away from you. I think we’ve already proven how dangerous it can be when we’re too close.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, very dangerous. So where are you headed?”
He held my gaze. “To your house.”
My brows rose. “What?”
He snorted softly at my surprised reaction. “I honestly don’t care what anybody says, I’m not letting you out of my sight right now. Understand?”
I just nodded, stunned he was even suggesting this. He could have easily let Cassandra take me home and joined the others at the house party.
But he wanted to stay with me.
He took hold of the small dagger now lying on the top of the empty wooden desk. He wiped the blade on his jeans to clean it of Roth’s blood.
“I believe this is yours.” He handed it to me. When I took it from him, our fingers brushed against each other.
I returned it to its sheath under my skirt. “Thank you. I’m sorry about what happened—”
“Don’t apologize. And Kraven’s wrong. It wasn’t your fault. What Stephen did to you...” His expression darkened. “I could have killed him for that.”
“Killing isn’t always the answer.”
“I know that.”
I swallowed hard. “I saw you kill Kraven. In your memory.”
He turned away, but I caught his arm.
“It wasn’t you,” I said firmly. “It couldn’t have been. There has to be some other explanation why you’d do that.”
When his gaze met mine again, this time it was stormy. “It’s funny, you seeing that memory.”
I laughed this time, a dry, humorless sound. “What’s so funny about it?”
“Because...a lot of the details are a blank for me. But I guess, somewhere in my head it’s all still there, crystal clear.” His brows drew tightly together. “What happened with Kraven...he was my brother. We had our problems, sure, but—I remember the cold certainty that came over me that night. The knowledge that he had to die and that his soul was bound for Hell...but—” he rubbed a hand over his mouth and looked away from me “—I don’t know why I couldn’t stop myself from killing the one perso
n who ever gave a damn about me.”
I stared at him. This was the confirmation I’d been looking for. “You can’t remember why you did it? Seriously?”
He gave me a wry look. “It doesn’t excuse what I did.”
“But in a way it does. It tells me you weren’t yourself at the time.”
“But I still did it. Nobody else. You saw that yourself.”
I tried to figure it out, but failed miserably. “No matter what you might have done, you’re still an angel. Your soul was not dark and heavy enough to become a demon, so as horrible as it was, it must have been the right thing to do at the time. You told me yourself—killing Kraven and sending him to Hell is what helped you become an angel. There has to be a reason for that.”
“There was.” He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “There was somebody on my side. Somebody who put in a good word for me—somebody who also sent people to Hell whenever he got the chance.”
“Who?”
He searched my face as if waiting for me to recoil from him with disgust and horror over all of this. But I’d been in training lately to handle a lot of bizarre stuff. I could handle more. I was like a pack mule for supernatural craziness now.
“My father,” he finally said.
I blinked with surprise. “Your father?”
He nodded slowly. “Just like your birth mother—my father was an angel. That got me a chance when otherwise I know I would have been damned.”
“Your father was a—an angel.” Maybe this pack mule’s back wasn’t as strong as I originally thought.
“Yeah. Let’s just say, my mother had widely differing tastes when it came to men.” He shook his head, his expression shuttering as if he’d realized he’d said far too much. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”
I needed more time, more information. But he’d put an end to it. Quite honestly, I think this was the most I’d ever gotten out of him. While mind-blowing, I considered it serious progress.
We caught up with Cassandra, and together we headed back to my house. Once there, it felt very strange to have Bishop come in through the front door. It seemed like such a mundane thing for someone like him to do.
Entrances through bedroom windows, however...
Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers) Page 25