Wicked Kiss

by Michelle Rowen

  “She’ll be grounded till she’s forty,” one girl said with a malicious grin.

  She was probably right.

  All day I tried very hard not to think about what I now knew about Bishop.

  His name. His past.

  All the people he’d killed that had earned him a date with a noose more than a century ago.

  I already knew he was an angel of death, but this—it felt worse. It felt dark and evil and unredeemable.

  There had to be more to it. In fact, I had no doubt there was. But still, why couldn’t he have been the one to tell me any of this instead of his vengeful brother?

  After a full school day where the most dramatic thing that happened was witnessing two kids have a screaming break-up fight in the hall by my locker, I went home and let myself inside, locking the door behind me.

  Part of me wanted to go see Bishop, but the other part was too chicken to face him.

  “Pathetic,” I grumbled. “Some super powerful Heaven/Hell hybrid you are, hiding your head like an ostrich when things get scary again.”

  Fine, I was pathetic, but I wasn’t an ostrich. I just needed a little more time to process all of this.

  Everywhere I looked around the house today, especially as I tossed out the remainder of the Chinese leftovers, I saw Cassandra.

  She had secrets she wouldn’t tell anybody, too, when maybe we could have helped her deal with them. I wondered if that was an angel thing.

  I missed her more than I ever would have thought possible.

  It was after six and getting dark outside when the sound of someone pounding on my front door yanked me straight out of my memories. I approached the door cautiously, peeking outside past the bamboo blind to see who it was.

  Red hair. Green eyes. Furious expression.

  Reluctantly, I opened the door.

  “I really hate you,” Jordan informed me.

  “Good to see you, too.”

  “You’ve ruined my life, do you know that? Ruined. My father thinks I’m some sort of lying juvenile delinquent since I won’t tell him where I was. He threatened to send me to live with my mother. I do not want that. Like, ever. She ignores me way better from a distance.”

  She seemed paler today, making the scattering of freckles stand out that much more on her nose. “Are you all right?”

  “Stellar. Really stellar, thanks so much for asking.” Her glare was like a laser beam cutting through my skin. “You?”

  “Super duper.” I pushed the door open wider. “Do you want to come in?”

  “No.” With a glower, she brushed past me as she entered the house. I scanned the driveway where both my mom’s car and Jordan’s—a Mercedes sports car I knew her mother had bought for her—were now parked, and the street beyond to see that no one else was lurking around before I closed the door. “You took off last night during all the drama and I didn’t see you again. What happened with that angel dude? What happened with the ghosts? Is Julie okay?”

  “Everything’s...” I grappled for the right words, but found myself at a loss. “Everything’s a bit better today, I think. Julie’s spirit is free. She’s not trapped here anymore.”

  Something hard in Jordan’s eyes eased off just a little at that and they grew glossy as she turned away from me. “I felt like something happened. I—I sensed it last night when I got home. After the raid. Like a pressure had eased through the entire city. That’s why I’m here. I needed to know. I wanted to forget it, forget you and your creepy friends, forget Stephen, but I can’t. And that pisses me off.”

  Jordan definitely had some supernatural insight going on. This was only more proof. “Feel better now?”

  “Yeah, just peachy, thanks.” She glanced around. “Where’s your mom?”

  “Hawaii.”

  “Convenient.”

  “You have no idea.”

  Jordan didn’t speak for a moment, her arms were crossed so tightly that it looked painful. “Is he really evil now? Like, forever?”

  It was kind of obvious she was talking about Stephen. “I don’t know.”

  She groaned. “A lie would have been awesome.”

  “Sorry. Yeah, he’s going to be great. Just like shiny new, no problem at all.”

  “You’re a terrible liar.”

  “So I’ve been told.”

  “Where’s your freaky angel guy? The one with the blue eyes to die for. Isn’t he keeping you under close watch anymore?” She didn’t wait for me to answer as she checked herself out in the full-length hallway mirror. “What’s his deal, anyway?”

  “Who, Bishop?” I twisted a finger tightly into my hair. “Oh, you know. Grave robber from the nineteenth century, serial killer, murdered his brother in cold blood. Now he’s an angel of death with a soul driving him completely insane, and his brother’s a demon specializing in vengeance and snark. Boring story, really.”

  Jordan gaped at me. “Okay. And I thought I was in serious trouble when it came to my love life.”

  “Don’t worry, you are.” Now I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know, we could get the two of them together. Bishop’s soul is destroying him...Stephen needs a soul. A nice swap-o-rama might just do the trick.”

  Her eyes widened. “Do you really think—?”

  “I was being sarcastic.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Damn.”

  I eyed her. “Why are you really here, Jordan?”

  “Honestly?” She sighed. “I didn’t know where else to go. My father’s going to be furious that I took off again without saying anything, but I don’t think I could be in any more trouble than I already am. So here I am, seeking out the one person in the city who I actually have something in common with. Crazy, right?”

  “Pretty crazy,” I agreed. And as crazy as it sounded, I was glad she was here. “Are you hungry? I could order something.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You and me hanging out on a Thursday night? Who would have thought?”

  I actually laughed at that. “Not me, that’s for sure.”

  As I turned toward the kitchen, the vision that slammed into me was more powerful than any other I’d ever had. It knocked me right off my feet and I hit the ground hard, my short fingernails clawing at the hardwood floor.

  Powerful. But familiar.

  A city in darkness, melting and draining away like water in a bathtub—falling into a dark hole in the center of everything. People, thousands and thousands of them, trying to run away but getting pulled into the vortex. There was no escape.

  It was a parking lot—a wide and empty one next to an abandoned grocery store with a broken sign. Everything and everyone was drawn here like a magnet. Nobody could escape from the swirling and greedy mouth that devoured everything it could as if there was no end to its hunger.

  Bishop was there trying to help. To save everyone, including me. I reached for his hand as he yelled my name, but he was swept away from me before I could touch him.

  Why was I still there? Why wasn’t I being taken, too? My feet were planted firmly on the ground as I watched this all unfold—this disaster beyond my worst nightmare. The end of the world. My world.

  All of it being taken into the Hollow’s open and endlessly hungry mouth.

  “Why not me?” I screamed at it. “Why aren’t you taking me?”

  The Hollow answered in that deep, dark voice I’d heard before inside in my head. “Because you are me. We are the same. And I ne
ed you—I can’t do this without you.”

  Every word it spoke turned my blood to ice. “Who are you?”

  “You already know who I am.”

  The vision ended as if a door had slammed in my face and I found myself crouched on the floor, shaking. Jordan was next to me, staring at me with fear and confusion.

  “What. The. Hell?” she managed. “What the hell was that? Did you just have a seizure or something? Should I call 911?”

  My throat felt so raw I knew I must have screamed here, as well. “A vision. I get them sometimes because of what I am.”

  “A total freak of nature?”

  “Yeah.” I was that, but it didn’t make what I saw any less true. So what was it? A vision of the future? What future? When would it happen? And how could I stop it?

  The Hollow was sentient. I’d already figured that part out. But what did it mean when it said that we were the same?

  And what did it mean when it said that I already knew who it was?

  Something I hadn’t thought about since last night came back to me in a rush. After everything that had happened since, I’d all but forgotten it.

  It was something Connor said while we were trying to deal with the bodiless angel.

  “All a damn distraction. What’s his game? Where the hell is he hiding?”

  Only I’d heard him, but there was something in his tone...

  Connor knew something the rest of us didn’t.

  Since he was an angel, I wasn’t terribly surprised he was keeping important secrets from us. But this secret couldn’t remain that way. Whatever he knew, I needed to know, too.

  I looked at Jordan. “Mind giving me a drive somewhere?”

  I half expected her to say no, roll her eyes and take off without another word—unless that word was an insult. But I’d come to learn that if there was anybody full of surprises, it was Jordan Fitzpatrick.

  “Sure,” she said, nodding firmly. “Just tell me where.”

  * * *

  Hard to believe it had only been a day since the last time I was at St. Andrew’s. Felt more like forever.

  I swiftly checked the sanctuary and the rooms along the hall at the back. Jordan trailed after me as I explored.

  “Notice that I’m not grilling you right now,” she said. “But I would love to know what we’re doing here again. I don’t like this place.”

  “I’m looking for somebody.” Distracted, I moved through the church trying to sense something, feel something.

  Ten minutes later, the door squeaked and I spun around to see the angel in question had returned to his perch.

  “Hey, Samantha,” Connor said when he spotted me. “Good to see you. Bishop’s not here, he’s out patrolling. Roth’s still missing. We also got information that there are next to no grays left in the city and he’s trying to confirm it. Most dropped dead after stasis.”

  My mouth went dry. “Next to no grays left? Seriously?”

  “As far as we know, it’s just your pal, Stephen, for sure. The guys tell me you’re all cured.” He eyed me with curiosity. “You’re no longer hungry for souls, right?”

  No, I was hungry for something, but it wasn’t for souls. “That’s right.”

  “Well, good. I mean, I’m not promising anything, but if Stephen’s the only one still breathing, that means we’re close to finishing this mission.” He glanced to my left. “Jordan, you’re back.”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “Too bad that memory wipe didn’t work last night. Everything would be a lot easier then, huh?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah, maybe. For you.”

  Jordan was making friends all over the place with that charming personality of hers.

  I was busy reeling from the possibility that Stephen might be the last gray in the city. The team had been patrolling for more than two weeks trying to take care of the gray problem. But to think that it was close to being over...

  Of course, Carly would still be a gray, too.

  Carly...

  I shoved her image away and focused on the angel standing directly in front of me.

  “I came here to talk to you, Connor.”

  “Me?” He pointed at himself. “That’s sweet, Sam. I know we haven’t had much time to get to know each other very well.”

  “No, we haven’t. You were the last to arrive, not counting Cassandra.”

  His expression shadowed at her name. “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Connor, what did you mean last night about that angel being a distraction?”

  He didn’t speak for a moment. “What?”

  “I heard you. You mumbled it to yourself. You said that she was a distraction and that you didn’t know what his game was or where he’s hiding. Who’s he? Who were you talking about?”

  Connor’s jaw tightened. “I think you must have been hearing things.”

  “Nope. I’m completely positive about what I heard.”

  He shot a glance at Jordan, then back at me. “Okay, ladies, lovely chatting with the two of you, but I really need to get back out there and do my job.”

  When he turned toward the door I ran toward him and grabbed his arm. “Connor, please. You need to talk to me. You know something and you need to tell me what it is.”

  He turned to face me. “What’s your deal, anyway? Why are you even a part of this? How are you not a gray anymore—just like that? Bishop won’t tell us anything he knows, but there’s something weird about you.”

  “Tell me about it,” Jordan murmured.

  “You know way too much about everything,” Connor continued, his gaze narrowing. “And how do you see the searchlights? How did you get a message to Bishop about where you were locked up? How do you read our minds?”

  “Want me to do it right now?” I asked. “Because I will if you don’t start talking.”

  “You can try. I’m way older than I look so I’m pretty good at blocking that sort of thing, especially if I know to expect it.”

  He was right. Even staring him right in his eyes I couldn’t break through the wall he had up. There had to be another way. I didn’t have time for this.

  I hissed out a breath of frustration. “If I tell you why I can do stuff, then you have to tell me something about what you know. Can we make that deal?”

  Connor cocked his head, considering. “Maybe. If what you’ve got to say is good enough.”

  I said it before I second-guessed myself. “I’m a nexus.”

  His eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  “Sounds like a car,” Jordan mused aloud. “An expensive one. Oh, wait. That’s Lexus.”

  I tried to ignore her commentary. “You guessed what I was the moment you got here, but then you doubted yourself.”

  “Holy crap, you’re a nexus. I knew it!” He frowned and shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Because Bishop told me not to. He said it was too dangerous.”

  “Well, yeah. Guaranteed. But really, that mostly depends on who your birth parents were.”

  I shot him a look of surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you know who they were?”

  “Sort of. A little.” Bishop thought this was the be-all, end-all of secrets, but I didn’t regret saying anything. I was really sick of secrets. Secrets had gotten Cassandra killed by her own hand. Secrets had kept Bishop’s dark past hidden for far too long. Secrets were what I now wanted to get out of Connor to keep everyone alive.

/>   Secrets only made everything more confusing and helped no one.

  “Demon dad or demon mom?” he asked.

  “My birth father was a demon named Nathan, who jumped into the Hollow seventeen years ago.”

  Connor gaped at me. “Holy crap.”

  “You already said that.”

  “Nathan. He wouldn’t happen to be any relation to the demon named Natalie, would he?”

  This time I gaped at him. “You knew about my aunt Natalie? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  He cringed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “What do you know about them? About him?” I grabbed his arm tighter and then looked down at where I held on to him. My unidentified hunger suddenly seemed to wake up and zone in...

  On Connor.

  My fingers dug deeper into his flesh and Connor started to tremble.

  “I can feel that. What are you doing, Sam?” he asked, his voice raspy. “What are you doing to me? Stop it!”

  It was his energy. It sparked against my skin like a live wire. I could actually see it. His supernatural energy was the same glowing, celestial blue that an angel’s eyes turned. And with a touch, I suddenly realized I could absorb it into myself to feed my brand-new hunger.

  And it tasted really, really good.

  Chapter 32

  “Let go of him!” Jordan tried wrenching me away from the angel, but failed. “God, you’re like a total monster, aren’t you? Forget a hobbit, you’re a...like a...oh, I don’t know. Some monster thing. You’re the movie geek, not me!”

  Finally, I let her pull me away and I gasped for breath. Connor fell to his knees, bracing himself against the floor. He looked up at me wearily and grimly.

  “I take it you got that little talent from your birth father. Angels don’t usually have anomalies like that to pass along.”