The boy looked confused but calm. “She was like…guiding me. I was lost and she helped me find my way.”
It was shocking to me that he would have dreamed about me. Or maybe it wasn’t a sign of anything and he just had me confused with some other short, skinny brunette. “Do you know who you are?”
He glanced around the park. “I don’t know who I am or how I got here. I’ve been sitting here waiting. Hoping somebody would come by who can tell me how to get home.”
“Can we just get on with it?” Kraven asked, his arms crossed. “Nobody’s here. Tick tock, Bishop. You know? I could be back out patrolling right now. The Source could be doing a song and dance in the middle of Main Street and we’re missing it.”
Bishop looked at me. “Samantha, maybe you should go now.”
“No, please,” the boy said. “Don’t go. Stay here. Help me.”
He reached out a hand to me. There was something in his eyes, something that made me want to stay with him even knowing what was about to happen. I felt a sudden and overwhelming sense of compassion toward him. If I could help him through this, I wanted to do just that.
This ritual was brutal and ridiculous. Was it really the only way they could get here and avoid ending up having the disorientation like Bishop had? Sucked either way, if you asked me. Either you were a clueless kid wandering the city about to get a knife through the chest or you were a crazy kid wandering the city uncertain of what to do or where to go next.
If this was supposed to be a slick mission involving both Heaven and Hell, I would have expected something much better planned out and controlled. There were too many things that could go wrong. Even class field trips were better organized than this.
“Can you do me a favor?” I took hold of the kid’s hand. He’d dreamed I’d help him. I would try my very best to do just that.
“What?” he asked.
“Can you show my—my friends—” I couldn’t think of another word to describe Bishop and Kraven at the moment “—your back? They need to see if you have a certain mark.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the two boys. “My back?”
“It’s not as weird as it sounds,” Kraven said. “Well, mostly.”
“Uh, okay.” The kid stood up from the bench and raised the back of his shirt up so we could see the imprint he had. It was a lot like Bishop’s—feathery, open lines, some shading. Still huge, but not as dark and ominous as Kraven’s.
Another angel.
“Disappointing,” Kraven murmured. “But, whatever.”
Bishop nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Thank you. You can sit back down.”
He did, and he looked at me again. “You’re going to help me. You promise?”
I nodded, my throat too thick to swallow properly. I felt ill at what was to come.
Bishop glanced at me again and our eyes met and held. “You can go now. We’ll handle this.”
“No.” The kid gripped my hand, keeping me from getting up. “Stay, please.”
Just like with Kraven, when I looked into his eyes I had an effortless connection with this kid. He was scared, but he was trying to be brave. And he’d been telling the truth. He’d been waiting here, knowing deep down that help would be on the way. That someone was looking for him.
“You’re brave,” I told him.
“Am I?”
“Yeah.” I tried to smile, but it was shaky. “It’s going to be okay. I swear it will.”
While I was more than convinced this was all real, it didn’t mean I wanted to accept it. My brain kept trying to deny everything I’d been told and everything I’d seen since last night with Kraven and…the knife…
The knife that Bishop now pulled from the sheath while the kid kept his attention on me. Fear swelled inside me.
“Heads up,” Kraven said and began whistling loudly as a pair of people strolled past us on the nearby path. They didn’t even glance in our direction.
“Are we shielded?” I asked nervously.
Kraven grinned. “We are now.”
“Bishop, wait…” I began. There had to be another way to do this.
But Bishop took hold of the kid’s shoulder and pushed him back against the bench.
Finally, the kid turned to look at Bishop, his gaze hitting the now-glowing knife. “What are you—?”
It was the last thing he said before the dagger met its mark.
Everyone in a two-block radius would have heard my scream if we hadn’t been shielded. But no one could hear me. No one could see this.
“Look away, Samantha,” Bishop snapped, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t look away from the boy who’d just been stabbed in the chest right in front of me. His grip on my hand grew tighter, nearly tight enough to break my bones, before it slackened and fell away. His eyes closed and he slumped backward.
This wasn’t real. It was just a ritual that would actually help the kid. Even knowing that, I was still trembling like a leaf. I got to my feet, staggering back from the body.
It looked so real. It was one thing to know in your head that something was a supernatural ritual and that the kid would bounce back. It was another thing to be two feet away from somebody who just got a knife through their chest.
The kid looked dead. Really dead.
Maybe Bishop had been wrong and this had been a mistake and it was my fault because I had led Bishop and Kraven here. I’d heard the horrible sound as the knife sliced into flesh and bone.
“Hey,” Kraven said, frowning at me. “It’s okay, you know. Same thing happened to me and I recovered quickly, better-looking than ever.”
I must have looked really bad if he of all people was offering me words of comfort.
The demon reached for me, but I scooted away. “Don’t touch me.”
He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Chill out, gray girl. Give it a minute and you’ll see it’s no big deal.”
“No big deal,” I repeated shakily. “This is a big deal. You…you’re both nuts if you think this is remotely normal.”
“This isn’t normal,” Bishop agreed, watching me with concern. “Not to you. Not to us, either. You should have left.”
“You’re right…I—I should have.”
But I kept staring at the kid. Bishop closed his hand around the dagger and pulled it out. The blade was covered in blood that looked black in the surrounding darkness. My stomach lurched and I clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle a whimper. This time Kraven actually touched my arm. I looked up at him to see he was frowning at me, but not because he looked angry.
“Another couple of minutes should do it,” he said. “I survived. This angel dude will, too.”
I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get away from here, away from the blood and death so I could clear my head. I turned away from the angel and demon and started to run as fast as I could.
Chapter 10
“Samantha!” Bishop called out to me after I’d run about a block. “Stop!”
I finally did. My lungs felt like they filled with ice every time I took a deep breath. I’d known what was coming and why it had to be done, so I wasn’t sure why it had freaked me out as much as it did. Maybe because I’d had a front row seat for the action this time instead of watching from behind a corner.
I’d crossed over a side street. No trees here. Just concrete and tall office buildings, most of their windows dark after a long workday. A car drove up through a tunnel leading from the underground parking, splitting the space between me and Bishop. It would have given me a chance to keep running, but I held my ground. I had a feeling I wouldn’t get very far.
Bishop crossed the street and stopped half a dozen feet away from me. A streetlamp shone above us, which made the scene feel marginally better than if we’d been in complete darkness. It was an illusion of security.
“You know I had to do that, right?” he said.
I let out a shaky sigh and nodded.
“I had Kraven wait back there for the angel to wake up. And he will wake u
p. He’ll be fine. Better than before. And he’ll remember why he’s here in the first place.”
“To help you hunt and kill monsters like me.”
Bishop’s jaw tightened. “We’re to patrol the city mostly at night—that’s when most of the grays who’ve lost their reason and humanity come out and threaten humans. We destroy them—there’s no saving them. Other grays, like Stephen, haven’t given in to their hunger enough to turn completely. I need to find the Source and talk to her.”
“And say what?”
“I’ve been told to give her the choice to retreat—to go back where she came from. If she refuses, I must send her there myself. Then I can figure out how to deal with the remaining grays, and I’ll have the team in place to assist me.”
His meaning couldn’t be clearer. “Deal with” would likely have a lot to do with that dagger of his. “Can grays that aren’t feeding, that are in control of their hunger…can you help them like you’re going to help me?”
He was silent for a moment. “It’s possible. But they would need to be willing to be helped. You are. However, I can’t guarantee they will be.”
Good point. Stephen said he liked himself better as a gray. If given the option to have his soul restored, there was a strong chance he’d refuse. “I always thought angels were supposed to be peaceful.”
He scanned the street. No more activity since we’d stopped to talk. This wasn’t a busy area at night. “We do what has to be done. We follow orders. We protect humans from supernatural forces so they never need to know they’re being protected.”
“You do this a lot?”
“It’s my job. And I was honored to be chosen for this mission.”
Yeah, honored. Thrown out of Heaven so hard that he landed on his head, and he was honored.
“Are they always this violent?” I asked, trying hard not to think of the kid with the chest wound whom I’d run away from in the park. “These missions?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Sometimes.”
“It’s a stupid ritual. Whoever thought of it is…stupid.”
His lips twitched as if he was fighting a smile, but his expression remained serious. “I’ll be sure to relate your opinion when I return. Maybe they can take it under advisement in future ritual creation.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
Tentatively, he closed the distance between us and took hold of my shoulders, his heat sinking into me. I tensed, but didn’t pull away. “I’m not making fun of you. What you did tonight, leading us here…you did it perfectly. Even Kraven can see how important you are. How…”
“Special?” I finished for him.
His smile widened. “Very special.”
“I’ve never felt all that special before.” Like, ever.
“Well, you are. To me you are.”
I swallowed hard. There was a strange longing in his voice, one I found all kinds of confusing. He’d drawn closer still and he held my shoulders gently. Being this close to him made my head spin. I pressed one hand against his chest to push him away, but suddenly realized something very important.
“You have a heartbeat.” I wasn’t sure why finding something so human about him surprised me so much—enough to knock away some of my previous fear and summon my curiosity again.
He nodded. “Of course. What did you expect?”
“I don’t know.” I remembered Kraven foraging through the Dumpster. “Do you need to eat?”
“Yes.”
“Sleep?”
“More than I’d like to with so much to do.”
“I see.” I didn’t really, but I was faking it as best I could. “Do you look like this where you come from? Same appearance, I mean. Just, maybe, with wings?”
He nodded again. “Except here, sometimes our eyes—”
“They glow.”
“It’s a little celestial energy. It’s what gives us our angelic abilities.”
“And the demons…their eyes glow, too, but it’s red instead of blue.”
“Hellfire. Same sort of principle.”
“Right.” I felt dizzy. “I—I think I need to sit down.”
Bishop slid his arm around my back to help keep me on my feet. I braced both my hands against his chest now. Our eyes met and there it was again—just that easily, my heart did a cartwheel worthy of an Olympic gymnast. I suddenly had the urge to wrap my arms around him and hold on tight—just like I had earlier, before the demon interrupted us. Despite what he was, despite what I’d just seen him do, I felt safe with Bishop.
At least, I felt safe right now.
Maybe we were both crazy.
“So now what?” I asked, my voice a whisper.
His gaze had locked on mine as if he was transfixed. He swallowed hard and shook his head a little as if to clear it. “Now you’re going home. You said you’d give me an hour of your time. It’s been an hour.”
“You hold true to all of your promises?”
He grinned a little. “I try.”
“I have a question.”
“I’m not all that surprised. What is it?”
“Is this how you plan to treat all the grays you come across to make sure they’re not the zombie kind? This, uh…personal attention?”
It took a moment before he replied. His eyes burned into mine. “Not really planning on it.”
“I’m just special.”
“Very.”
“Why?”
“I really wish I knew.” His hold tightened on my waist and he looked as if he was fighting some sort of inner battle. He let me go, then rubbed his hands on either side of his head. “I must be seriously messed up if I’m feeling this way.”
I bit my bottom lip, reminded once again that he might consider me special, but I was still a hungry gray. “I’ll try not to take that personally.”
“No, I…” He sighed. “This isn’t like me, Samantha. Trust me. I was completely and utterly dedicated to this mission from the moment it was put into effect. Nothing should distract me. And now I find I’m all too easily distracted. By you.”
Okay, that clarification made a huge difference to me, one that made my heart leap. “Oh.”
He shook his head. “This is complicated. More than you even know.”
“I know. You’re going home in a week. It’s like you’re on a really messed-up business trip, that’s all. When you get back you’ll be…cured. No more crazy.”
He held my gaze. “I promise I’ll help you. Anything I have to do, I’ll do it.”
“Why? I mean, I understand that you’re an angel…” I was still having trouble accepting that as being a real thing, even though I knew it was. “And you’re going back home soon. But I’m supposed to be your enemy.”
“You’re not my enemy. I should have known that the moment I met you. I did, but for a second I doubted my instincts. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“If I’m so different, maybe other grays are just like me.” I thought of Stephen and the others who were in the Crave lounge. “Some of them, anyway.”
“It’s possible. There could be others who can consistently control their hunger as well as you can—who never feed at all.”
My stomach picked that exact moment to grumble. “So what happens if they don’t? If I don’t?”
He blinked and didn’t reply for a moment. “I don’t know.”
I laughed nervously. “Great. That’s helpful, thanks.” Then I swallowed hard. “It’s not easy, you know.”
His brows drew together. “Are you having trouble with the hunger?”
“It’s a constant issue for me now. I need…” I grabbed hold of a long dark lock of my hair and twisted it nervously. “Why does it have to be a kiss? That is so lame. Now I want to kiss pretty much everyone I come across.”
“Everyone?”
I thought about it. “Not everyone. There’s only a couple people I really feel the urge to grab hold of and kiss really hard, like I can barely control myself.”
S
omething dark slid behind his gaze. If he was a normal boy and I was a normal girl, I might have guessed it was jealousy. “The original demon was said to have an irresistible allure that humans were drawn to. Maybe that’s what happened with Stephen. You couldn’t help but be drawn to him. And maybe that’s what it’s like with you, as well.”