He looked over his shoulder at Jordan again, who was finally pushing back up to her feet. “Every soul I take makes me stronger. Strength means power. Power means I can have anything I want—become a true leader, respected and feared. But the others like us...they bore me. Most are too weak to survive stasis, anyway.”
I glared at him while holding my injured wrist protectively against my chest. “Too bad. You can have everything, but you’re all alone. Boo hoo. Maybe you should buy a goldfish to keep you company.”
Jordan reached for something on the ground—a loose brick I hadn’t noticed before—and slowly crept up behind Stephen. My breath caught as she swung it forward to bash him in the head, but he turned just in time and yanked the brick out of her grip. Then he grabbed her throat and slammed her up against the wall directly beside me.
Too close. I couldn’t be this close to someone with a soul right now. From the claustrophobia, to the pain, I’d become too weak. Hunger crashed over me and I literally whimpered.
Stephen’s expression shifted to one of victory.
“See, Samantha? You can pretend to be all high and mighty and above these earthly needs, like someone worthy of hanging around with Heaven and Hell’s best. But at your core, you’re exactly like me. And it won’t be long before you change to something much more interesting. We’ll get along better then.”
“What?” Jordan choked. “Samantha’s not...”
Stephen smiled. “Yes, she is. I made her myself. I took her soul in a kiss that she was begging me to give her. She’s wanted me since she wasn’t much more than a kid. Right, Samantha?”
“And now I want to kill you,” I growled.
He laughed at this and the sound sent a shiver racing down my spine. “I took her soul because her demon aunt asked me to. I actually felt bad about it at the time. Just a kid.”
I tried to kick him, but his grip increased on my throat. Jordan’s, too, since she let out a hoarse scream.
“Don’t hurt her,” I managed.
He didn’t loosen his grip on either of us. “You want to know my plan? It’s this. I’m going to leave you two alone for a while. It won’t be very much longer before you can’t hold back, Samantha. You’ll take Jordan’s soul, and you’ll take it all.”
“What?” My throat closed with horror at the suggestion.
His cheeks tightened. “If I did it myself, I’d kill her. And I want her to live. I want her to be...improved. There’s room for both of you at my side in the new world if you survive stasis.”
He flung both of us to the side and went to the door. “I’ll check on you later.”
He left.
I scrambled to the far corner of the room, which still wasn’t far enough away from Jordan to help clear my head.
I thought Jordan was crying for a moment, but when she pulled her hands away from her face, she looked mad as hell.
“Explain to me right now what the hell is going on here!” she demanded.
I tried to breathe shallowly as possible as I gave her a bleak look. “What part don’t you understand?”
“All of it!”
I studied her for a moment, her furious expression, the sparking anger in her eyes. “I think you understand more than you realize.”
“What does this have to do with Julie’s suicide?”
“Honestly?” I thought about it. “Nothing, directly. But in a way, everything bizarre that’s going on in this city is related.”
If Connor had been right in his hypothesis about the new demon in town, everything bad going on in Trinity was related to the Hollow and how it had become a two-way swinging door, rather than Heaven and Hell’s dumping ground. It had a case of bulimia now, purging what it had once swallowed down.
Jordan raked a shaky hand through her long, tangled red hair. “I thought I was going crazy, but it’s all true. Stephen’s a monster. And you’re...you’re a monster, too. Was he lying about that?”
I swallowed hard. “Depends on your definition of monster.”
She glared at me. “You’re one of these things that can steal a soul with a kiss.”
My chest tightened. “Afraid so.”
“And Stephen’s the one who changed you into one of these things.”
“Yes.”
She inhaled shakily. “He kissed you, but he won’t kiss me.”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t sound so disappointed. Believe me, this is not something you want. It’s horrible. This hunger, it’s...the worst thing I’ve ever dealt with.”
I’d already given in to it three times. It couldn’t happen again or I knew I’d lose myself completely.
She hesitated. “But you’re something else, too. Your parents...”
“My birth parents, you mean.” I chewed my bottom lip. She knew, so there was no reason for me to try to keep denying it. “I didn’t know the truth about myself until very recently.”
“What does it mean?”
“Only that I’m more confused about my personal identity than ever before.”
She paced in small lines, back and forth, her arms crossed over her chest. “Doesn’t that trump the whole gray thing? Isn’t that some sort of power that you can draw from to help you?”
I wished it was that simple. I really did. “What I am underneath, it’s got nothing to do with this. It’s like they’re separate things. Who my real parents are isn’t going to make anything easier.”
Her skin had paled to a ghostly white. “And now Stephen wants you to infect me.”
I pulled my knees up to my chest and started to rock myself. My mind flashed back to kissing Colin in the hall, how I’d had zero control then when I’d always been able to stop myself before. What happened to Stephen—it was going to happen to me. Soon. Or I was going to drop dead like that woman in the street the other night who’d disintegrated before my very eyes.
“I don’t know how long I can deal with this, Jordan. I’m losing it. It’s scaring the hell out of me.”
She got to her feet and took a couple steps closer to me. Before I knew it I’d risen to my feet as well, unconsciously drawn to her soul.
“You’re not kissing me,” she said uneasily, holding up her hands to try to keep me back.
“Trust me, Jordan, you’re the last person on earth I’d ever want to kiss. And it’s not just because you’re a girl. I’m sure Stephen would rather change you himself, but if he kisses you he’ll—” I swallowed hard. “He’ll kill you.”
“Stephen...” she whispered, then shuddered. “Have you kissed anyone?”
I nodded. “Two.”
“And did you kill them?” she asked breathlessly.
“Not yet.”
She started to tremble. “Oh, my God. This isn’t happening.”
My vision was narrowing by the second. Jordan had stepped away from me, but the scent of her soul was driving me crazy. I watched her like a wolf might watch a small, scared rabbit in the forest.
She attempted to look brave and assured. “Just...try to control yourself. You’re stronger than this!”
My thoughts were spinning away from me like the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. I tried to grasp onto them before they all blew away. Then something important occurred to me. “Wait. I wasn’t hungry when I was unconscious. It’s only when I’m awake.”
Her eyes were wild, panicked. “You want me to knock you out?”
I nodded crazily. “Do it.”
And then Jordan disappeared and all I could see
was her soul—shiny and tempting. The cure to my pain, the answer to my hunger. She scrambled for something as I drew closer, closer. Then I grabbed her shoulder, my right hand still useless, and pulled her closer.
She screamed, and swung something toward me.
Sharp pain slammed through my head as she successfully rendered me unconscious.
* * *
My head was screaming when I woke up this time. But along with the pain, a shaky clarity had returned.
My hunger, however, hadn’t gone anywhere.
“If I hit you again you’re going to get a concussion,” Jordan warned. “A fractured skull. Or a clot. Or an aneurism. Or...something really bad!”
I groaned, and looked across the room at her crouched in the opposite corner, clutching the brick tightly. “Or maybe I’ll get amnesia and forget all about this.”
The pinprick of light through the tiny window told me it was still day—but the sunlight was fading. I hadn’t been out for long this time. One of the fluorescent lights set into the ceiling flickered now, as if ready to go out completely. It cast spooky shadows through the room.
“He hasn’t checked on us again,” she said, casting a furtive glance at the door.
“He will.”
“When?”
“When it’s done. When you’re changed. When I’ve...fed.” The words tasted as bad as they sounded. There was a security camera up in the far corner I hadn’t noticed before. I gestured at it. “He’s watching us.”
Jordan moved into the camera’s line of sight and gave it the finger. “Screw you, Stephen! I hate you for this!”
“Ditto,” I murmured, then cringed. “Ow, my head.”
Her expression now was fierce and determined. Her anger toward Stephen had given her some extra strength. “Stay right where you are. I’ll use this again.”
I flicked a wary glance at her and her brick. “Feel free. But that’s only a temporary answer. My hunger...it’s worse than ever. I need to feed.”
“Not on me.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be a choice soon. If I go into stasis here...a brick’s not going to stop me.” I fought to come up with a plan of action, but I was tired and weary, hungry and in pain. I didn’t want to give up, but I was worried my strength wouldn’t last much longer.
“What about those angels and demons Stephen mentioned? You know them?”
“You could say that.”
“Where are they?”
“Not here.”
I longed for Bishop to come bursting in here in a blaze of glory. I’d never been the damsel in distress type, the girl who dreamed of a guy sweeping in to save her in the nick of time like they did in corny movies. Besides, if I looked at this objectively, I wasn’t the damsel in distress in this situation—Jordan was. I was the scary thing hiding in the shadows ready to leap out and devour her.
“I always knew,” Jordan whispered.
I stayed in the opposite corner to her, a good ten feet away from the orbit, wishing it would make things easier. “Knew what?”
“That there were things bigger than me in this city. Supernatural things. I always believed.” She actually smiled, a pained, scared expression. “My mom, she likes to go to psychics for readings. Does it every week. I think she does it instead of going to a shrink. With a psychic, she can blame all of her problems on otherworldly activity. But I don’t think she really knows it’s all real.”
“But you do.”
She hugged the brick to her chest as if it was a comforting teddy bear. “I felt it. I always thought I was a little bit psychic. Like, with ghosts and stuff. Nobody believed me when I was a kid, so I stopped talking about it. It faded to nothing for ages. Lately, though, it’s been getting worse.”
Something about what she said felt important. Really important. “Since when?”
“The last few weeks.”
I pressed up against the wall. If Jordan really had psychic abilities, they’d been triggered back into action at about the same time Bishop and the rest of the team had come here and the barrier was put in place to keep all supernaturals contained in this city-size zoo. “Jordan Fitzpatrick, psychic medium to the stars.”
She laughed drily under her breath. “You would not believe how much some of them can make. And I’m sure most of them are total frauds.”
“I’m sure.”
She blinked and her smile faded quickly. “I loved him.”
I didn’t need a map to keep up with her sudden change in direction. “I know you did.”
Her eyes grew glossy. “When he dumped me, I didn’t understand. I thought it was because he was in university and I was still in high school. But I thought what we had...even though we hadn’t dated for very long—I thought it was real. I fell for him so fast. He was so wonderful, but then I knew he had secrets he didn’t want to share with me. I tried to learn the truth, but all he did was push me away.”
I went totally silent. It was like she was talking about me and Bishop. “Some secrets can be scary.”
“Stephen didn’t scare me. Not then. He does now. He never did anything to hurt me before. Even when...I guess he was changed. I thought he was cheating on me. And the stupidest thing was I would have forgiven him. I would have taken him back, even after I heard he was seen making out with...” She looked at me, and clarity shone in her green eyes. “That was the time. When he kissed you. That’s when it happened.”
I nodded, the lump in my throat too thick to swallow past.
“That jerk,” she snarled. “He should have told me! I could have helped him before it got this bad. And now he’s out there killing people? He’s a killer, Samantha. The boy I love is a killer.” She looked at me strangely. “Why are you crying?”
“Damn it.” I pushed away the tears streaking down my cheeks with my good hand. I hadn’t meant to let myself weaken like this, but it happened. The more she talked about Stephen, the more I thought about Bishop and how much I cared about him even after witnessing some of the horrible moments in his past.
She looked at me with an incredulous expression. “I seriously need you not to flake out on me right now.”
I shook my head, which had begun to cloud up again. I couldn’t pull myself out of this hole I’d found myself in. It was only getting deeper. “I can’t concentrate.”
Her expression only grew more fierce. “You can. Now, just figure it out. From the sound of it, you’re oozing supernatural energy from your pores. You’re half demon and half angel, which is completely ridiculous, but I’m going with it, anyway. So figure out a way to get us the hell out of here so I don’t have to bash your brains in.”
My thoughts raced, and again I kept coming back to Bishop and that connection we had—how he was able to find me, even if it was unreliable lately. But I still had mind melds with him, as strong as ever. “There’s only one way I can think of. I need to contact somebody.”
“No cell phone, remember?”
“No, not by phone.” I closed my eyes. “I—I think there could be another way. But it might not work. In fact, I’m pretty sure it won’t.”
She let out a frustrated snarl. “Stop being such a damn pessimist and start trying.”
Words to live by, courtesy of Jordan Fitzpatrick, my high school nemesis.
In my dream about Bishop, the one where we were playing chess before things got disturbingly homicidal, he’d said something to me—that I could control our mind melds. I hadn’t believed it
at the time since they were so random, so unpredictable. They came out of nowhere like being flattened by a truck.
Then something Jordan said tweaked something in me. She’d said I was half demon and half angel. But this wasn’t totally accurate. I was the daughter of an angel and a demon. I was a nexus. I was the connection, the center point, the combination of the energies of Heaven and Hell.
If you asked me, that sounded way more powerful.
I’d always doubted this power, taken what came to me when it came. Seeing the searchlights was something I didn’t control. It just happened. Zapping the demons and reading their minds took effort. Other times it was effortless. If they didn’t fight me...it was effortless.
But maybe I was the one making things difficult.
I was certain my mind melds with Bishop were because I’d taken part of his soul—and it was still inside of me. That’s why I could see his memories if I looked in his eyes. Bishop’s soul was a bridge between us and had been ever since the kiss we shared. I needed to find that bridge and walk across it.
And I needed to do it right now.
Chapter 21
I focused on that piece of Bishop that was always with me. The memory of our kiss. The warmth of his touch. The deep and endless way he looked at me, even when I was frustrating him and vice versa.
His soul, the thing that had caused him so many problems, was beautiful—a ribbon of silver that stretched outward from me to a point in the distance I couldn’t see.
And this I saw with my eyes closed. I’ll admit it was bizarre, but I wasn’t going to second-guess myself. It was real. It was him. I knew it.
I held on to that ribbon of silver like a rope and let it guide me to him. I didn’t fight it, I didn’t force it. I just let it happen.
“Hurry up,” Jordan urged.
I pried open one eye with annoyance. “Would you give me a—”
Snap!
“—has to be somewhere in the city.” Bishop paced back and forth along the sidewalk. Dusk had fallen. Tall buildings surrounded him—glass, concrete, steel. Out of the corner of his eye there was traffic visible on the road, rush hour as everyone headed home from their jobs. He was right downtown, a nameless street I was sure I’d been on a million times before.
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