White Hot Kiss

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  arguing over. Something to do with pineapples and cherries, but a few seconds later, I sneaked another glance at Roth. His smile was smug, even a bit daring.

  And I had a feeling I was in trouble.

  * * *

  After finishing my makeup bio exam, I dumped my books in my locker. Abbot probably didn’t want me tagging tonight, but that was what I had planned. Risking his wrath was far better than locking myself in my bedroom or being forced to be around Petr. As I shut the door, I felt an unnatural stirring of air around me. Glancing up, my heart stuttered to a halt.

  Roth slouched against the locker beside mine, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. “What are you doing?”

  “Jeez.” I stumbled backward. “You almost gave me a stroke.”

  One side of his lips curved up. “Whoops.”

  I shouldered my bag and edged past him, but he easily caught up with me. I pushed open the heavy metal doors, welcoming the cool evening air. “What do you want?”

  “I thought you’d like to know that I cleaned up the mess yesterday.”

  I figured as much, since Abbot and Zayne were supposed to check it out last night and hadn’t yanked me out of bed to yell at me about the corpse. “Good for you.”

  “And you’re tagging, right? Even though I asked you nicely not to. I can’t let you do that alone.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve already told you why. It’s not safe for you.”

  I bit back the urge to scream. “And why is it not safe for me?”

  He said nothing.

  Beyond annoyed, I started forward. The streets were thick with commuters hurrying to the metro hubs. Maybe I could lose him in the crowd. A block later, Roth was still at my side. “You’re angry with me,” he said casually.

  “I guess you can say that. I don’t really like you.”

  He chuckled. “I like that you try to be honest.”

  I glanced at him warily. “I’m not trying. I am being honest.”

  Roth smiled broadly, flashing surprisingly sharp-looking teeth. “That’s a lie. A part of you likes me.”

  I stepped off the curb, irritated. “I’m not the one lying right now.”

  Unfazed, he reached out and caught my arm, pulling me back just as a taxi zoomed by so fast it whipped at my hair. The cabbie honked his horn, yelling something obscene at me. “Careful,” Roth murmured. “I doubt your insides are as pretty as the outside.”

  I was instantly aware of how my chest felt pressed against him. Warmth inexplicably flooded me, like I was basking in the summer sun. Our eyes locked. As close as we were, I could see that his eyes weren’t pure gold, but there were flecks of deep amber in them. They churned crazily, drawing me in. That wild scent of his cloaked us.

  My hand curled against his chest. When had my hand landed on his chest? I didn’t know, but my gaze had dropped to his mouth. Those lips...so close.

  Roth’s one-sided smile tipped up higher.

  Snapping out of it, I wiggled free. Roth’s chuckle raised my hackles. I managed to cross the street without getting hit. My body still tingled from the brief contact.

  And that was wrong.

  Luckily, I found something to distract me. Standing on the opposite corner was a Fiend.

  He was loitering outside a hotel that was under construction, standing next to the red scaffolding that climbed the front of the building. The Fiend looked like any of the number of punk-rock kids that could be found on the streets of D.C.

  “You know, you could have said thank-you for saving your life.” Roth was suddenly beside me.

  I groaned, keeping an eye on the Fiend. “You didn’t save my life.”

  “You almost got plowed by a cab. And if you want to get plowed, I will gladly volunteer my services. I promise you I’ll be a lot—”

  “Don’t even finish that sentence.”

  “It was just an offer.”

  “Whatever.” I watched the Fiend eyeing a construction worker who was starting to climb down the scaffolding. “If I say thank-you, will you go away?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you,” I said eagerly.

  “I lied.”

  “What?” I looked up at him, frowning. “That’s messed up.”

  Roth leaned down so that our faces were inches apart. God, he smelled wonderful. I closed my eyes briefly and I swore I could feel him smile.

  “I’m a demon. I tend to lie from time to time.”

  I felt my lips twitch into a smile. I quickly turned away to hide it. “I’ve got things to do, Roth. Go bother someone else.”

  “You going to tag that Fiend over there?” he asked. We’d stopped outside a game shop a few stores down from the construction site.

  I said nothing.

  Roth leaned against the redbrick building. “Before you tag the kid and sentence it to death, why don’t you see what he’s actually going to do.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Why would I let him do something that I know is going to get someone hurt?”

  “How do you know someone is going to get hurt?” Roth cocked his head to the side, sending waves of raven-black hair across his smooth forehead. “You’ve never actually waited to see what one is going to do, have you?”

  I started to lie, but I turned away, focusing on the Fiend. The demon with spiky green hair scrubbed a hand along his jaw as he watched a construction worker hop down and head over to another section blocked off by orange mesh rope. The man picked up some sort of saw, waving it around as he laughed at something his buddy said.

  “Just wait and see what happens before you judge him.” Roth shrugged. “It won’t hurt.”

  I sent him a sidelong glare. “I’m not judging him.”

  Roth tipped his head to the side. “Do you want me to pretend I have no idea what dastardly things you do after school?”

  “Dastardly?” I rolled my eyes. “I’m just tagging—”

  “Which lights them up for the Wardens to take out later,” he finished. “So I have no idea how you can think that’s not playing judge and jury.”

  “This is stupid. You want me to let him do something evil? I don’t think so.”

  He seemed to consider that. “You know what I think your problem is?”

  “No, but I bet you’re going to enlighten me.”

  “Why, yes, I am. You don’t want to see what the Fiend does because you’re afraid that it isn’t going to be something nefarious, and then you’ll have to deal with the fact that your Wardens are murderers and not saviors.”

  My mouth dropped open, but my stomach also lurched at his words. If what he said was true, it would turn my world upside down. But it couldn’t be true. Demons were evil.

  “Fine,” I snapped. “I’ll wait.”

  Roth flashed a cheeky grin. “Good.”

  Muttering under my breath, I focused on the Fiend again. I was going to have some ’splainin’ to do when it took out an entire sidewalk of commuters. Considering any other option was impossible. My whole life was built around one simple belief: demons deserved to be punished without question.

  The Fiend pushed off the marbleized stone and reached out, casually brushing his fingers along the bottom part of the scaffolding, then kept on walking. A second later, a loud groan pierced the noise from the traffic and the scaffolding began to shudder. The workers’ heads whipped around. The man dropped his saw and yelled out. Several other workers rushed out from the side of the building, gripping their yellow helmets as the whole scaffolding came down, collapsing like an accordion behind the orange rope.

  As the plume of dust settled and curses exploded like gunshots, pedestrians stopped on the sidewalks, some taking pictures with their phones of the mess. And, God, it was a mess. Who knew how long it took to put the scaffolding up, and tools had been attached to it, but they were most likely destroyed when the scaffolding collapsed.

  I just stared.

  “Hmm,” Roth drawled slowly. “That was definitely a setback in the project and some
wasted money, but pure, scary-bad evil? Nah, I don’t think so.”

  “It... He probably meant for it to fall onto the sidewalk.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.”

  No one had been hurt. Almost like the Fiend had waited for the last man to come down from the scaffolding before he’d touched it. I couldn’t process what I’d seen.

  Roth draped his arm over my shoulders. “Come on. Let’s find another.”

  I shrugged his arm off as we started down the sidewalk. Roth was humming that damn song again.

  “What is that?”

  He stopped. “What is what?”

  “The song you keep humming.”

  “Oh.” He grinned. “‘Paradise City.’”

  It took me a few seconds to put it together. “Guns N’ Roses?”

  “Good stuff,” he replied.

  We found another Fiend messing with the poles connected to the streetlights. All four sides of the intersection went green at once. Epic fender benders ensued, but again, no one was hurt. The Fiend could’ve messed with the pedestrian signal, which would have been really bad, but she hadn’t.

  The whole thing was more mischievous than sinister.

  “Want to go for third time’s the charm?”

  “No,” I whispered, unnerved and confused. It was just two demons. It couldn’t mean anything.

  Roth arched a dark brow. “You want to tag? No? I didn’t think so. How about we do something else?”

  Stopping at a crosswalk, I shot him a look. “Is that why you ordered me to stop tagging? Because you think the Fiends are harmless?”

  “I know the Fiends are harmless. Not all demons are. Some of us are really bad, but the ones you’re sentencing to death? Nope.” He paused as my stomach sank. “But no. My request really doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

  “Then what?”

  He didn’t answer until we crossed the street, stepping up on the curb. “Are you hungry?”

  My stomach grumbled in response. I was always hungry. “Roth...”

  “I’ll sweeten the deal for you. You eat with me and I’ll tell you about the other one who was like you. You’d love to know, wouldn’t you?” He flashed a winning smile. “Hang out with me and I’ll tell you what I know—at the end of our little adventure. Not before.”

  I stepped around a cluster of tourists. My curiosity was burning a hole through me, and it was easier to focus on that instead of the possibility of damning relatively harmless Fiends to death. But a deal with a demon was literally making a deal with the devil. “What’s the catch?”

  Roth looked terribly innocent. “You let me hang out with you. I promise. That’s all.”

  “You’ve already lied to me.” I folded my arms. “How do I know you aren’t lying now?”

  “I guess that’s a risk you have to take.”

  An elderly couple passed by, smiling at us. Roth gave them one of his most charming smiles while I debated what to do. I doubted Abbot expected any tags tonight since I wasn’t even sure I was still allowed to be doing it. Drawing in a shallow breath, I nodded stiffly. “Okay.”

  His smile slipped into a grin. “Great. I know just the place.”

  “That worries me,” I replied blandly.

  “You excite me.”

  I flushed, busying myself with adjusting the strap on my book bag. Then he reached down, prying my fingers off the strap. I felt my heart skip a beat and my face blaze hotter.

  “Are you always like this?” Roth asked, turning my hand over in his.

  “Like what?”

  “Easily flustered, forever blushing and looking away.” He ran the tips of his fingers over my palm. The caress sent a jolt through me, following the pathway of nerves all the way to the tips of my toes. “Like now. You’re blushing again.”

  I slipped my hand free of his. “And you’re always annoying and creepy.”

  He chuckled. Not a fake laugh. Roth was genuinely amused by my insults. Twisted. “There’s this little diner by the Verizon Center that has the best muffins in the world.”

  “You eat muffins?” It struck me as odd. “I figured you drank virgin blood and ate cow hearts.”

  “What?” Roth laughed again, and the deep sound was pleasant. “What have the Wardens taught you? I love muffins. Want to take the metro or walk it?”

  “Walk,” I said. “I don’t like the subways.”

  We started off toward F Street, which would take us some time on foot. I kept my gaze trained on the glimmering souls in front of me, aware of Roth on every level. The weirdest thing was, when I looked at him and didn’t see a soul, I felt relief instead of horror. Being around souls all day gnawed at me. The emptiness was a reprieve.

  But it was something more than that.

  Being around Roth was sort of freeing. Besides Zayne and the Wardens, he was the only one who knew what I was. Even my best friends had no idea about me. Roth knew, and he didn’t care. Zayne and the Wardens cared. Granted, Roth was a full-blooded demon of God knows what, but I didn’t have to pretend with him.

  “I don’t like going underground, either,” Roth said after a few moments.

  “Why? It should be like going home to you.”

  “Exactly.”

  I looked up at him. With his hands shoved into his pockets and the earnest expression on his face, he looked strangely vulnerable. But when he glanced down at me, his eyes bespoke a predator’s stare. Shivering, I squinted at the bright sun. “What’s it like down there?”

  “Hot.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I figured that much.”

  Roth pulled an anti-Warden flyer off the back of a bench we passed and handed it to me. “It’s kind of like here, but darker. I think it tries to mirror everything topside, but it gets twisted. Not a very scenic place. Lots of cliffs, rivers that have no end and wastelands where cities have crumbled. I don’t think you’d like it.”

  The flyer had the same crudely drawn picture that most did. I tossed it into a nearby trash can. “Do you like it?”

  “Do I have a choice?” he asked stonily. I could feel his eyes on me, studying my reaction.

  “I’d say so. Either you like it or you don’t.”

  His lips thinned. “I like it here better.”

  I tried to keep my expression blank as we stopped at another busy intersection. “Do you come here often?”

  “More than I should.”

  “What does that mean?” I tilted my head back, meeting his intense stare.

  “It’s...real up here.” He placed his hand on the small of my back, and the weight burned through my thin sweater in the most...unusually delicious way as he guided me across the street. “So, when did you start tagging?”

  I chewed on my lip, unsure of how much I should tell him. “I was thirteen when I started.”

  His brows furrowed. “It took them that long to realize you could do it?”

  “No. After they...found me, they knew I could see souls. I guess I’d babbled about seeing their souls or something. It was an accident that anyone even knew I could tag demons.”