Then the sky flashed with bright, white light and another thunderclap shook the world beneath my feet. The flash of light momentarily blinded me and I shielded my eyes from its glare. The skies darkened again an instant later and I looked around, stunned.
Bishop was gone, a scorch mark where he’d been lying the only evidence he’d ever been here.
Same for Kraven, Connor and Roth.
They were gone.
It had worked. The last of the grays were gone and the barrier had disappeared immediately. The team had been pulled back to Heaven and Hell.
A sob rose in my throat.
Someone grabbed me, pulling me to them and hugging me hard. It was Jordan.
“I thought— Oh, God. You’re alive. You’re, like, seriously the most bizarre person I’ve ever met in my life, but you’re alive. And I’m alive. And...Stephen...”
Stephen and Carly had fallen to the ground, both unconscious.
I rushed toward my friend as she started to come to. Jordan limped over to where Stephen lay and gripped his shoulders as he blinked up at her.
“What...?” he began. “Where am I?”
Carly pushed up from the ground. “Uh, what happened? Why was I lying on my back in a parking lot?”
“What do you remember?” I asked tentatively.
“Crave. We went there to confront Stephen about being a total dick to you. You met up with that hot guy named Bishop and totally blew me off. Nice, by the way. And now I’m here.” She glanced to her left and made a face. “Hey, the total dick’s here, too. Oh, and Jordan Fitzpatrick. Awesome.”
Jordan and I exchanged a glance.
“What about you?” Jordan asked Stephen. “What do you remember?”
He rubbed his forehead. “I also remember being at Crave. I’d come back to visit you. University sucked and...I don’t know. Nothing’s working out the way I wanted it to, except, well, I needed to see you.” He frowned deeply. “That’s it. That’s all I remember...and now I’m here.”
They didn’t remember being grays and they didn’t remember losing their souls.
They had no idea I’d given my soul to save their lives.
And Bishop had sacrificed his existence to save mine.
“You fixed them. You did it.” Jordan’s voice was hoarse. She reached out and pulled me into another tight hug. “And for the record, I remember. I remember everything, okay? You’re not alone.”
I was glad to hear it. But all I could do right now was nod as the tears streamed down my cheeks.
Chapter 37
I guess you could say life went back to normal after that night.
Normal, however, was a relative term now.
Carly and Stephen didn’t remember anything about being grays. It was for the best, especially for Stephen. He’d unquestionably done some bad things. To have to live with that now that he understood what he’d done wrong when his morals had been unnaturally off balance, well...I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Which Stephen actually was for a short time.
Carly, admittedly, had to deal with everyone who thought she’d run away from home with some random guy and had now come crawling back. She was understandably confused, but couldn’t account for the missing time. Therefore, she decided that that’s exactly what must have happened. She’d had a romantic adventure and then—she figured—hit her head and got temporary amnesia.
If she believed such a fantastical explanation, I wasn’t going to try to convince her otherwise. Bottom line, I was just happy beyond words to have my best friend back.
And speaking of friends, I now counted Jordan Fitzpatrick, my former nemesis and tormenter, among them, as crazy as that sounded. But I guess it didn’t sound all that crazy. What we’d experienced together...well, it changed us forever. Both of us.
Jordan knew things about me that nobody else knew. And if she tried to tell anybody, they’d think she was nuts. For the foundation of a new friendship, that was about as solid as it got. She could still be a total bitch from hell, though. Now I preferred to think of it as part of her charm.
She was still seeing Stephen. Even if he didn’t remember the bad stuff that had happened, she remembered the good stuff—that even when he’d been turned into a super-gray, he still loved her. They were kind of meant for each other if you asked me.
My mother returned from Hawaii with a fantastic tan and a digital camera full of pictures. She was as relaxed and happy as I ever remembered her being. And, total bonus, she’d met a man while away, one who lived in a city only a couple hours’ drive from Trinity.
She didn’t understand why I was being extra nice to her, more talkative, more interested in what she was doing. I just told her I’d missed her. And I said the same thing in an email to my father in England. I missed him, and I hoped he’d visit me again soon.
He replied only a half hour later telling me that he’d be here for Christmas and was so happy to hear from me it had brought tears to his eyes. And that he loved me very much.
The email made me cry, too. Happy tears. All this time, I thought he was the one ignoring me, but it was actually the other way around.
I went to school every day. No sick days permitted for someone who died one night and came literally a breath away from death the next.
Colin had happily transferred his current crush to someone else, someone who was able to completely return it. Someone who didn’t give him mixed signals due to hungers, which were now an unpleasant memory.
It was his ability to deal with only a partial soul that had made me realize Carly and Stephen could survive with the same. It was a hypothesis. Luckily, one that had worked.
So, yeah, I was still a nexus. Still one that would forever hunger for supernatural energy, but all in all, I was doing pretty darn good, thank you very much.
Even though I thought about him every day. Every night. Every moment in between.
He’d given everything he had left to save my life and I’d failed to return the favor.
“I’d like to introduce a new student,” Mr. Saunders announced at the beginning of English class on Friday. I scribbled in my binder randomly, a sketch of wings in black ink that covered the entire page of a previously graded test. “If you could all help him catch up this late in the semester, that would be much appreciated. Please introduce yourself, young man.”
“My name’s Adam. Adam Bishop.”
My pen froze and my gaze shot up from the page.
Bishop stood at the front of the classroom.
“Where do you hail from, Adam?” Mr. Saunders asked.
“All over the place. But I’ll be staying in Trinity for a while.”
“Well, welcome. Please take a seat.”
He took an empty seat near the door at the front of class without looking at me.
Bishop was here.
Here in my English class.
What was going on?
Seven days had passed. Seven horrible days since the whole team had disappeared, leaving no trace except for the scorch marks that I’d visited three more times since. I’d hoped they might come back—all of them, any of them.
Now Bishop had just strolled into class like he was any other transfer student starting school in a new city.
It was impossible to pay attention to a single thing Mr. Saunders said as I counted down the minutes until the end of class. When the bell rang, Bishop stood up and was one of the first out of the room. I threaded my way through the crowd, keeping him locked in my sights. I trailed after him through the halls, past my locker and out the exit, practically tripping down the stairs in my effort to keep up with his long legs.
“Bishop!” I shouted after him when he reached the pathway leading toward the parking lot.
He stopped and turned to glance back at me.
I’d had time to figure this out. An hour to work over every possibility in my head.
He was dead, lost to me. He’d given his last bit of energy to heal me.
If he’d somehow be
en resurrected by Heaven, I would bet that, just like Carly and Stephen, he now had no clue who I was. He had amnesia!
However, he was alive.
I could work with amnesia.
“I know this is going to sound crazy...” My words tripped over each other in their race to leave my mouth. “But you already know me. I’m Samantha. You were here before and some bad things happened. I—I thought you were dead! You were dead, but I guess you’re not anymore. You’re here. And you must be here for a reason. Bishop, this is wonderful. You have to remember me, we went through so much together. You have to!”
Bishop cocked his head to the side, a smile curling the corner of his mouth. “Oh, don’t worry, Samantha. I remember everything.”
I gaped at him. “You do?”
“And for the record, I wasn’t totally dead. Just mostly dead.” He swept his gaze over the area lined with trees that had lost almost all their leaves this late in the fall. “I’m glad you followed me. I needed to speak with you alone.”
I stared at him. “How can you act so ‘whatever’ about this? You nearly died! You were pulled back to Heaven and...it’s no big deal?”
“You’re angry.”
“Furious. Seven days, Bishop! I’ve been grieving you for seven days. I thought I’d lost you and...and you just randomly start going to my school? Why are you back?”
“I would have contacted you before, but I couldn’t.” He raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you missed me.”
I crossed my arms, glaring at him even though my previously shattered heart was now pounding with sheer joy. “Less and less each moment that passes and you don’t tell me what happened.”
This made him laugh, and for the first time, there wasn’t an edge of insanity to it that I could hear.
“You’re fixed?” I asked, breathless. “The soul you had...”
He nodded. “Gone. They tried to fix me and they did a good job. However, it couldn’t all be reversed. I guess I’ll always be a little unhinged.” He crossed his arms and regarded me carefully. “You’re still a nexus. You gave your soul away to save Carly and Stephen.”
I tensed. “I had no choice. If I didn’t, they’d be dead.”
His expression turned serious again. “Heaven and Hell aren’t big fans of nexi.”
“So I’ve heard.” I took a deep breath. “So, what now? Are you back as a new student of McCarthy High, or an angel of death to take care of a little problem named Samantha Day?”
“Both. Heaven knows what you did, Samantha. What you were willing to do to save the world from your father, to save your friends. It’s earned you some respect. But you’re still a nexus, which means you need to be watched.”
“Watched,” I said tentatively. “Not killed.”
“No, not killed. So that’s why I’m here. I requested this new mission personally. Consider me your brand-new guardian angel.” He gave me a wicked grin. “If that’s okay with you?”
This was the last thing I expected. I had no words to reply—not right away. It was all too incredible.
Again, he sobered. “I mean, if you want them to assign someone else...I know Connor could handle it and...”
“No,” I said quickly, not able to repress my smile a moment longer. “I’m more than okay with this arrangement.”
His grin returned. “Well, good. And by the way, the future’s not set. As a nexus, you have the powers of both Heaven and Hell inside you and with your special status in the eyes of Heaven, you have the opportunity to be transitioned to fully angel if you choose to be.”
“Angel?” I said, startled. “Me? Are you serious?”
“Very serious.” He drew closer, until we were almost touching. “I think you’d make an amazing angel, Samantha.”
“Nah,” another familiar voice said nearby. “She’d make a way cooler demon.”
My gaze shot to the left to see Kraven approach.
The demon grinned at me. “For the record, I remember everything just fine and dandy, too, and I have my entire mental faculties intact, unlike ninety-eight percent over here.”
Bishop’s jaw tightened. “I thought you were going to let me talk to her on my own first.”
“I lied. Deal with it.” Kraven walked a slow circle around me, his gaze sweeping the length of my body. “So, sweetness, I’m back. Don’t throw yourself into my arms and embarrass yourself. We got plenty of time for that.”
I knew he was joking, but at this very moment, I kind of felt like giving the demon a huge hug since I was genuinely delighted to see him. Instead, I restrained myself and tried to act blasé. “You’re here, too? Why?”
“Balance. Duh.” He shrugged. “Heaven sent someone to keep an eye on the potentially dangerous little nexus. Hell had to ante up, as well. And I’m the one they sent. Shocker, right?”
“Total shocker.” Of course. The balance, couldn’t forget about that. Heaven and Hell working together yet again, and I was the reason for it this time. I was both amused and a little disconcerted that they thought I might be that much of a threat someday. For now, anyway, I felt as close to normal as I ever could, even with the supernatural energy emanating off both boys now nudging my inherited hunger back to life.
“Roth gives his regards,” Kraven said. “Back to his regular routine. Hopefully he’ll forget all about that angel.”
“You think that’s possible?”
“Not a chance. Anyway, don’t be too disappointed, but I gotta skedaddle. Things to do, places to go, gorgeous women to meet. I’m sure my little brother will keep a close eye on you and he won’t mind me slacking a bit. Right, kid?”
“Don’t call me kid,” Bishop said.
“Remember my offer on the demon thing, sweetness,” Kraven said. “Infernal transitions don’t always go smoothly, but there’s never a dull day. But for now I’ll leave you two alone. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Without another word, he strolled away down the path. I watched him leave, shaking my head with disbelief.
“So you two are...reconciled?” I ventured.
“Let’s just say, it’s an interesting work in progress. I guess we’re going to have lots of time to spend with each other to see what happens.” He curled his hand around mine. Touching him was pure bliss, something I never thought I’d experience again.
Then he let out a low snort of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Nothing, it’s just—it seems that the inconvenient addiction of mine, the moth to the flame...hasn’t gone anywhere, after all. I guess it was more than that all along.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. “I knew it.”
“You did?”
“Well, I knew it for me.” I shook my head, looking up at him, still stunned this was real. “So we’re just two unsouled supernatural beings now who go to high school together and are kind of crazy about each other, huh?”
His blue-eyed gaze met mine and held. “Pretty much, with varying degrees of crazy. Does that work for you?”
I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him. “It works just fine.”
Bishop was back. He was my guardian angel. And just like rebuilding his relationship with his brother, we now had plenty of time to see what might happen next.
I honestly couldn’t wait.
* * * * *
Aknowledgments
Thank you to you, dear reader—yes, you! You’re smart, savvy and gorgeous—never doubt it. Follow your angels and try your best to ignore the demons. Even the really cute, snarky ones.
Thank you to my family and friends—without your love, support and encouragement, I’m not sure what I’d do. Like, seriously.
Thank you to T. S. Ferguson and Natashya Wilson for letting me share this duo of Nightwatchers books with the world, and for giving me the time and the opportunity to extendamix the ending of this one to make it just a little more wicked than it was to begin with.
Thank you to my story fairy. Never stop launching shiny new ideas in my
direction. It’s big fun to chase after them and see where they land.... Look, there goes another one now....
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ISBN: 9781460306499
Copyright © 2013 by Michelle Rouillard
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Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers) Page 38
