Dark Kiss

by Michelle Rowen

  “Well, well,” she drawled. “Look who’s here.”

  “Carly, right?”

  “Present and accounted for. Where’s your tall, blond and handsome friend tonight?”

  “Not here.”

  She pulled a hand mirror out of her purse and checked her face, applying some more lip gloss while her date recovered from losing part—or all—of his soul. “You’re a popular guy around here, Bishop. Everyone wants to know your story.”

  “Not much to tell.”

  “Samantha’s not here.”

  “That’s okay. I wanted to see you.”

  Her brows went up. “Really? Why’s that?”

  “Because I want you to kiss me. I want to be like you.”

  She studied him curiously for a moment. By now her eyes had shifted back to their regular cornflower-blue. “What about Sam?”

  “She’s not here.”

  Carly rubbed her lips together and swept her appreciative gaze over Bishop, from his eyes and then downward. “She’d be mad at me if I did that.”

  “Do you care if she is?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Do you want to kiss me?”

  She gave him a wicked grin. “Oh, yes.”

  Jealousy twisted inside me. Even though I knew what the kiss was for, I wanted to be the one he asked. And I hated how my so-called best friend was looking at him. She wanted to consume him, body and soul.

  But Bishop was mine. If she touched him I’d kill her.

  Irrational. I hated how irrational I’d become when it came to Bishop. But even now, after everything I knew about me, about him, I wanted him. I wanted to kiss him again.

  Carly slipped out of the booth. She wore a tight black dress tonight that showed a lot of leg and plenty of cleavage. She oozed sexiness like I’d never seen before.

  But Bishop barely spared a glance at Carly’s curvy body. He looked over her shoulder and up to the second-floor lounge. Natalie stood by the glass barrier looking down at him.

  “Can you introduce me to Natalie?” he said.

  Carly nodded. “I can do that. I know she really wants to meet you.”

  There was something in the way Natalie stared at Bishop that made my blood run cold. It was a look I hadn’t seen in my aunt’s eyes before. Curiosity turned to cold hatred. Deep malevolence. She knew who and what he was. And she looked like she wanted to kill—

  Snap!

  Back in the alley, I was gasping for breath, clawing at the brick wall behind me to help keep me on my feet. Kraven now had a hold of my arm and I yanked it away from him.

  “What?” he asked, frowning. “What did you see?”

  I had to get past him. I had to get to the club and stop him from going upstairs to that lounge. Stop him from kissing Carly or getting anywhere near my aunt.

  I hadn’t seen a pretty demon with a supernatural eating disorder just now—one who wanted freedom, wanted help with her problem. One who wanted to reunite me with my real father and tell me tales of my parents’ doomed love affair.

  No, this demon wanted to kill the angel who’d been sent to find her. And I knew with a clear and cold certainty that she would take great pleasure in being the direct cause of his death.

  I’d given her the benefit of the doubt, feeling some sort of important family bond with her. But it was lies. All lies. I was so sick of being lied to.

  Natalie might very well be my aunt, but she was evil. And now she was going to kill Bishop.

  The problem was, Bishop was already on a suicide mission.

  Wait a minute.

  A suicide mission. That was it—that had to be it.

  I looked at Kraven with wide eyes. He studied me back cautiously. “What’s up, gray girl?”

  Bishop had set out tonight to lose his soul—that was true. But it wasn’t because he felt sorry for himself and believed this was his one chance to go back to Heaven. It was because he knew destroying himself would open up a passageway to the Hollow.

  And he wanted to take Natalie with him.

  No, I had to be wrong. This was too crazy of a plan.

  Then again, Bishop was kind of crazy to start with.

  “Samantha, talk to me,” Kraven said after I went deadly silent for a moment, lost in my thoughts.

  Funny, I think this was the first time he’d ever used my real name.

  I turned my attention back to the tall, blond demon. That he was looking at me with concern etched onto his handsome face almost made me smile.

  I had a plan now and I really hoped it would work.

  “You know,” I began, “before all of this, the last time I got in major trouble was when I was caught shoplifting.”

  Kraven looked surprised at the abrupt change in subject matter. “Thou shalt not steal. I approve. What did you take?”

  “A scarf, a bottle of nail polish. Nothing major.”

  “Why did you do it?”

  “I saw something I wanted, so I took it.” I shook my head. “Also, because I was dealing with some family drama and it was a way to get attention. It was stupid.”

  “We all make mistakes.”

  “You, too?”

  His jaw tensed. “Trust me…compared to some of the things I’ve done, shoplifting is no big deal.”

  I pushed a slow smile onto my face. “I think you’re right. You’re not so bad. In fact, you’re kind of charming when you want to be.”

  He eyed me cautiously. “Oh, yeah?”

  I nodded. “And you try to hide it, but I think you sort of like me, don’t you?”

  “Don’t flatter your—” His words cut off when I threw my arms over his shoulders and gave him a tight hug. He didn’t return it, instead standing there rigidly, until I finally let go of him. He just stared at me, stunned. “What was that for?”

  “Good night, James.” I turned and walked out of the alley, sliding the dagger I’d just stolen from him into my leather bag. I guess I’d really taken him by surprise with that hug. He hadn’t felt a thing.

  Maybe I was a better thief than I thought I was. This wasn’t a scarf or a bottle of nail polish, though. No, this was infinitely more important to me right now.

  I made it an entire block before I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder, stopping me in place.

  Crap.

  A cold smile played on his lips while his eyes glowed red in the dark. “Cute trick, sweetness.”

  I decided to play innocent. “What do you mean?”

  “Give me back the dagger.”

  “What dagger? Oh, you mean that shiny gold one?”

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re devious and manipulative. You’re right, maybe I do like you.”

  I tensed. “I need to borrow it.”

  “Then you should have asked me nicely.”

  “May I borrow the dagger? Pretty please?”

  “No. Give it back.”

  “I’ll return it later, I promise.”

  I turned away from him, but he grabbed my wrist tightly. “I’m still trying to be nice, which isn’t all that easy for me,” he said. “Give it to me.”

  I spun around to face him and pressed my free hand against his chest. “You need to remember not to get too close to me. I’m dangerous, remember?”

  If he had any walls up, they didn’t get in my way this time—I was too driven to get away from him. The electricity came to me in an instant and flowed through my arm into the demon. He looked shocked—literally—before he flew backward and hit the window of a darkened office. It cracked as he slid to the ground unconscious.

  Bishop had told me angels and demons needed to sleep and eat. By the looks of it, they could also be knocked out cold when necessary.

  Kraven had done his Vulcan neck squeeze on me without a moment’s hesitation. This just evened things up between us.

  “Sorry,” I said as I passed his still form, feeling guilty about what I’d had to do regardless of whether or not he deserved it.

  I started running toward Crave, praying I
didn’t arrive too late.

  Natalie wanted me to bring her the dagger so I could help her escape the city. Well, I was bringing it to her, but for a different reason entirely.

  I knew it was the only way I could kill a demon.

  Chapter 22

  I might have partially accepted that I was the daughter of a demon and an angel, but as I pushed through the entrance of Crave with the dagger weighing heavy at the bottom of my bag, I just felt human and scared.

  Maybe I should I have told Kraven what I was and what I knew. Bishop had said not to, but the demon could have helped. He was part of this mission, too. But there was no time to go back and get him. For all I knew, he’d be unconscious for hours after the amount of power I’d put behind my last zap.

  My searching gaze fell on a familiar face. Colin stood off to the side of the dance floor about twenty feet away from me. I almost waved at him, but I stopped myself. I’d hurt his feelings this morning. By the look on his face right now, I wasn’t sure if he’d ever speak to me again.

  Colin looked away first, plastering a smile on his face as he talked to a pretty girl I recognized from school. Maybe he thought it would make me jealous, but instead I hoped he was interested in someone else. Someone safe. One thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t safe anymore.

  Snap!

  Carly slid her hands over Bishop’s shoulders and was gazing up at his face.

  He flicked a glance at the other side of the lounge. Natalie waited a dozen feet away, watching them carefully, her legs long and lean under the short skirt of her tight, midnight-blue dress. Her lips twisted into a dark smile of approval.

  “Kiss me,” Bishop said.

  “Okay.” Carly smiled at him and tightened her grip on the front of his T-shirt, drawing his face closer to hers. Her eyes fixed on his mouth.

  Snap!

  There was no time to waste. Heart thundering, I took the stairs two at a time until I got to the top and, ignoring everything and everyone else in the lounge, I made a beeline for them. Just before their lips touched, I grabbed hold of Carly’s arm and wrenched her away from Bishop. I guess I was stronger than I looked because she staggered back toward the glass barrier where she stared at me with shock.

  “Wh-what the hell?” she stammered. “Where did you come from?”

  “That seems to be the question of the week.” I stood in front of Bishop, blocking him in case she got any more ideas. I felt his angry gaze burning into my back. He was close enough that I felt his breath warm against my skin. “Stay away from him.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I heard you’ve been all over Colin this week. Isn’t it only fair I go after the guy you’re interested in?”

  I glared at her. “Don’t try to justify this.”

  “I thought we were best friends.”

  “I thought so, too.” My heart ached. She had a glazed look in her eyes and I knew I couldn’t get through to her right now. She didn’t understand this was wrong.

  Bishop finally spoke, a low growl. “Damn it, Samantha. You shouldn’t be here.”

  I forced myself to turn enough to look at him and my chest tightened. The last time I’d looked into his eyes, I’d desperately wanted to kiss him again.

  Nothing much had changed since last night. I still did.

  A little of the steely resolve faded from his gaze and his dark brows drew together. I guess my emotions were written all over my face.

  The girl who’d tried to ignore romance because she was trying to avoid painful stings had basically made a permanent move right into the beehive.

  “I shouldn’t be here?” I let out a shaky breath and tried to sound calm. “But I love this club. I come here almost every night lately. Good times.”

  When in doubt, scared to death, and fighting a truly fatal attraction, it was best to tap into a little sarcasm.

  “This isn’t your business.” Despite his words, something slid behind his eyes. Something vulnerable. He hadn’t expected me to come here, to try to stop him. He thought this was the end for him. Seeing me again had shocked the hell out of him.

  But he wasn’t looking anywhere else. He’d asked Carly to kiss him, but now his gaze was only on me.

  “I guess we’re not exclusive, you and me, huh?” I desperately tried to sound flippant. It didn’t work very well. “You want to see other people. I get that. I mean, I don’t blame you. Last night…it shouldn’t have happened.”

  The same pain I felt twisted in his expression, and his gaze slid to my mouth.

  Our kiss—it hadn’t just been addictive to me.

  I couldn’t kiss him again. If I did, I could destroy him completely. So, of course, it was all I could think about now.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” he said again firmly.

  “Neither should you.”

  He hissed out a frustrated sigh and raked a hand through his dark hair. “I’m exactly where I need to be.”

  I’d kept Natalie in my sight since I’d come up here, afraid to turn away from my aunt in case she managed to escape. But she hadn’t even tried. She watched my exchange with Carly and Bishop with growing interest.

  Stephen was also there, standing close to Natalie like the good and obedient minion he was. Other grays were up here as well, eight of them—six guys and two girls who were all watching us with vacant expressions. The other times I’d been here they seemed like regular kids. Tonight, they didn’t.

  I realized that their eyes had all turned to black.

  I turned my widening gaze to Bishop’s.

  His expression was grim. “Leave now, Samantha. This doesn’t have to involve you.”

  He sounded commanding, but there was the slightest catch in his voice. I didn’t have to be able to read his mind to know what he was thinking right now. He knew if I walked away it would be the last time we ever saw each other.

  “I know what you’re trying to do,” I said quietly, for only him to hear.

  His jaw clenched and he gave me an almost imperceptible shake of his head. “Please, just go.”

  “I can’t do that. There’s another way.”

  “No, there isn’t.”

  He didn’t know that I had the dagger. I had other plans for tonight. And I wouldn’t let him die like this, no matter what.

  Natalie finally approached. Her gaze moved between me and Bishop. Carly stepped back, now giving me a sullen look. “It seems rather dramatic over here. Everything okay?”

  “Never better,” I lied.

  I looked into her eyes and tried to read her mind, but it felt different from the others. With them, I could feel when they had walls up. With her I felt nothing. And I sensed nothing.

  “Did you bring me what I asked you to?”

  “I’m still working on it.” It was a lie, of course, but I had no intention of handing the dagger over to her.

  Disappointment skittered across her pretty face, but then she nodded at Bishop. “You care about him, don’t you?”

  There was something in the way she said it. It wasn’t the curiosity of an aunt wondering which boy her niece was currently interested in. There was an edge of unpleasantness that hadn’t been there before.

  A shiver went through me. “Are you asking as my aunt or as somebody who wants to use my feelings against me?”

  She raised an eyebrow, regarding me with amusement now. “I feel like something’s changed between us, Samantha. I thought we were establishing a close bond. Was I wrong about that?”

  My throat felt tight. “You said they’re under control.” I thrust my chin toward the group of grays watching us creepily. “And that losing a soul is more freeing than harmful to a human, other than having to deal with the hunger.”

  “I did say that.”

  “But Carly’s changed.” I struggled to keep my voice from breaking. “I want my best friend back. The one who still knows the difference between right and wrong like I do.”

  Carly groaned. “Oh, brother. Give me a break. The universe does not revolve
around you, Sam. Get over yourself.”

  I flicked a glance from her back to my aunt. “See what I mean?”

  “So you don’t think it’s for the better? She’s kind of sassy like this, don’t you think?”