His expression was dark and haunted. “He grabbed you. I wasn’t thinking straight. Besides, he never would have shown us his back if we’d asked politely.”
He was probably right about that. I slowly moved toward them, looking down at the boy lying on the ground. His dark, glazed eyes were still open, staring straight up at me. Bishop leaned over and finally closed them.
“Great, that’s helpful.” I fought against my welling nausea.
He eyed me, as if gauging my shifting moods. “You really do hate me right now, don’t you?”
“If he doesn’t wake up soon, I’m going to have to hate myself, too.” I kneeled down at his side. “Check him now. Please.”
Bishop rolled the kid over and pushed aside the jacket. I reached forward, my hand shaking a little, and gathered the thin material of his shirt before pushing it up his back so I could see.
I let out a long, shuddery sigh of relief. There was an imprint there. And just as we’d thought, it was a thick, black tattoo of wings, just like the one Kraven—
The kid rolled over and grabbed hold of my throat. He pushed me back and then slammed me down on the pavement, knocking the breath out of me. His eyes glowed red in the darkness.
Demon.
There was no mistaking his intentions right now—he was going to kill me. It had happened so fast, I couldn’t concentrate enough to summon my ability to repel him, to find that crack in his wall, and it wasn’t coming naturally to me at the moment as it had before. This guy wanted me dead and he wanted to be the direct cause of it.
Then the metaphysical wall he had around him thinned. I was able to easily read his mind as I stared up into his eyes.
Gray…she’s a gray. Kill her. Have to kill her. Have to kill all of them.
Bishop had his arm around the kid’s throat, trying to pry him off me.
It had all happened so fast. And I still couldn’t breathe with his hands tight around my throat as he squeezed the life out of me.
Then I heard a sharp crack and felt intense pain for a white-hot moment before it disappeared completely. The world began to grow dim at the edges. Blurry. Dark. There wasn’t even enough time to get scared. It had all happened in a matter of seconds.
Off—get off! They were only words in my head. I couldn’t speak, but I forced every bit of conviction I could into them, burrowing into that wall, wearing it away until the crack finally widened and I accessed my inner pool of power. A lightninglike shock exited me and entered him. He literally flew back from me and landed hard, a dozen feet away.
He’d hurt me badly, but I wasn’t sure how. I couldn’t move, could barely breathe. I couldn’t feel my body. My consciousness, my very life, was draining away.
Bishop loomed over me, his expression agonized. He touched my face gently with a shaking hand. “Samantha.” My name was no more than a whisper. “This is my fault. Please—no, this can’t happen. Look at me. Don’t close your eyes.”
He pressed his warm hands to my throat, much gentler than the demon had. In the periphery of my vision, I saw Kraven storm up to us and slam hard into the new demon, taking him down to the ground just as he’d started to get up.
“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Kraven demanded.
Bishop looked furious enough to kill. “That bastard just broke her neck.”
Chapter 12
My neck was broken. That would explain why I couldn’t feel anything from my shoulders down.
He’d done it…he’d killed me. My life was slipping away. I’d been under the impression they needed the dagger to kill a gray, but I guess I’d been wrong. Maybe the dagger just helped make it a quicker death.
“Why aren’t you healing her?” Kraven snapped. “We might still need her.”
“I’m trying,” Bishop gritted out, but there was a sharp edge of panic in his voice. “It’s not working.”
“Let me try.” Someone else kneeled at my side, nudging Bishop away. Warm hands touched my throat, their heat sinking deep into me. I could barely see anything except for his outline. Reddish hair. Green eyes that began to glow blue locked with mine.
You’re going to be okay. Angels can heal if we get to the injury fast enough, even something this severe. This only just happened. Try not to be afraid.
It was his thoughts, and he’d sent them to me as if he already knew I could read his mind. The angel—he was the one we’d found sitting on the park bench.
His touch heated up till it became so painful, I cried out as it burned through me, but then it was gone as quickly as it had arrived. My heart pounded hard—but it was still beating, which was a good sign.
The angel helped me sit up. “Better now?”
I touched a shaky hand to my throat and stared up at him with shock. “You—you healed me.”
“I did my best.”
“What are you doing?” the new demon snarled. “Why did you save her, you idiot?”
Bishop got up off the ground next to me, walked to the demon currently being forcibly held down by Kraven and slammed his fist into his face. The next moment, he ripped him out of Kraven’s grip, threw him up against a nearby SUV and began to beat on him harder. It took both Kraven and the new angel to pull the two apart.
They looked so much alike—angel and demon. I would never be able to tell what they were if I didn’t already know.
Blood trailed out of the demon’s nose and the side of his mouth, courtesy of Bishop’s fists. He also bore a cut on his forehead, marring his movie star good looks, but then the red-haired angel touched his skin and the injury healed instantly with a soft glow of blue light.
“Get away from me,” the demon snapped.
“You need to calm yourself,” the angel told him.
“She’s a gray!”
“She’s with us,” Kraven said. I was surprised by this admission, given our shaky history. He didn’t want me dead anymore, but I knew it wasn’t because he liked me. It was because he thought they might need me again.
I’d just come as close as I ever had in seventeen years to seeing everything vanish forever. I’d never given my mortality a whole lot of thought before.
Almost dead. Right here, only minutes ago. But now—it was like it had never happened. I’d had my neck broken by a demon and then been healed by an angel.
I was definitely in shock.
Slowly, I got to my feet and crossed my arms tightly over my chest to try to stop trembling. The cold of the night pressed in on me, even worse than before. My throat, though, it still felt warm, as if I had a thick and comforting wool scarf wrapped around it.
“I’ll kill you and send your ass straight to the Hollow, demon,” Bishop snarled. He was still being held in place by Kraven, despite fighting hard to break free. “If you touch her again, if you even look at her again, I swear I’ll do it.”
The demon stopped struggling against the new angel and stared at Bishop incredulously. “Why are you defending a gray? I’m just doing what I was sent here to do. You know…the reason you found me and brought back my memories? Stupid bloody ritual, by the way.”
Looked like we agreed on something at least.
Bishop appeared to be having trouble getting himself under control. There was a crazy look in his eyes now. My stomach twisted for him.
“That gray over there was able to find us,” Kraven explained. “Find you, too.”
“She’s got some freaky power,” the new demon said. “She zapped me.”
“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t tickle, does it?”
“What is she?”
“A pain in the ass. But bottom line, dude, you need to chill the hell out. Now. Or there’s going to be a big problem.”
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, looks like it. I strongly suggest you don’t give us any more trouble if you know what’s good for you. If you screw up this mission, you’ll have me to answer to.” He flicked a look at the new angel. “We have to keep a close eye on Bishop, too. He’s a mess right now.”
&nbs
p; Bishop laughed then, a broken and humorless sound that made a chill run down my spine. “A mess. Yeah, I’m a mess for others to clean up. Can’t see the light, can’t find the others. Can’t heal. Can’t do much except stand and wait and watch and wonder why and where and how and who…”
Kraven eyed him. “Uh, right, whatever you say. Gray girl? You feeling okay enough to help out a bit here?”
What I desperately wanted to do was to leave, to run away and leave them all behind. But I was still here, mostly because what just happened had weakened me to the point that I couldn’t do much of anything except wait to see what happened next. And I couldn’t turn my back on Bishop when he needed me the most.
Giving the new demon a wide berth, I made my way over to Bishop. His knuckles were red and bleeding. Concern swelled in my chest.
“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “I said I’d protect you, but I failed. I’m sorry, sorry, so sorry.”
I was feeling better. Physically, anyway. Mentally—well, I knew I had some brand-new nightmares to look forward to. But right now I just wanted to help Bishop. “Take my hand.”
Bishop watched me with glazed eyes, but he didn’t move. Finally, I reached for his hand myself. It scared me how quickly he’d lost it, lost his control, his mind, everything. I knew he hated this. But I couldn’t be with him all the time to help him out. Thankfully there were the others we’d found to help patrol the city when he wasn’t feeling one hundred percent. But was he really going to get better when he went back to Heaven?
I couldn’t think that far ahead. I could think only about this moment. Live in the now. The eternal now. If I didn’t, I was seriously going to freak out.
When I touched him, the now-familiar energy crackled between us. He squeezed his eyes shut and I glanced over at Kraven, who was watching us carefully.
He nodded at me. “So that went smoothly, didn’t it? Awesome plan, don’t you think? Who says angels and demons can’t work well together?”
I just stared at him dumbly. I guess my shock hadn’t totally worn off.
He grinned. “Oh, yeah. Everybody says that. With everything that’s gone wrong, you’d almost think we’d been set up to fail, wouldn’t you?”
I considered that with a gnawingly sick feeling in my gut. “Do you think they knew this would happen to him? That slamming through the barrier would screw up his mind so much?”
He shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe his noggin was weaker than they expected. Not a huge shock there. But luckily, he found you. Can you imagine how screwed we’d all be if he hadn’t? Work that mojo, gray girl. Consider me a true believer now. Hallelujah.”
I’d take it as a compliment if he didn’t sound completely sarcastic. “I don’t want anything to do with you. Any of you.”
“Any of us?” He gave me a knowing look. “Come on, now. I think you’ve picked your favorite. It’s adorable that you’re so open to caring for those with special needs.”
I just glared at him.
“I still don’t get it,” the new demon said miserably. He’d stopped struggling as if he’d finally accepted that he was outmatched. “Can somebody explain to me what the hell’s going on? I thought we were supposed to kill grays, not hold hands with them and exchange valentines. Was there a memo I missed somewhere along the way?”
“Nah,” Kraven said. “This is new. Trust me. I had problems with it, too. Still do. But it is what it is. What’s your name?”
The demon hesitated, giving Kraven a look that clearly showed he didn’t trust him…or anyone else. “Roth.”
“Well, Roth, welcome to the team. Unless you give us a hard time, and then we’ll have to kill you—for real next time. The crazy angel who nearly broke your nose has the annoyingly self-indulgent name of Bishop. The other angel is Zachary, but he’s cool with us calling him Zach.”
Zach was the one who’d healed me. I looked over at him. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” he replied with an easy grin. Where Roth was all fire and hatred, Zach made me feel comfortable just being around him. Plus, the fact that he’d saved my life definitely earned him a few million brownie points and my eternal gratitude.
“I’m better now,” Bishop finally said, his voice steady and his blue eyes cleared of any previous madness. My heart lightened.
“Hooray,” Kraven said drily.
Bishop did what he usually did and ignored him. He searched my face as if double-checking that I was really okay. “I never meant to put you in this kind of danger.”
His heat sank into me through our entwined fingers. I didn’t want to let go of him. “I know that.”
I wasn’t going to say it was okay, because it wasn’t. It would take me a while to recover from this.
“You should go home now,” he said.
“And then what?”
“Then—lead your life as you normally would. Go to school. Study. Do your homework. Try to be as normal as you can. I think it’ll help you deal with all of this.”
“Beats wallowing in my misery, right?”
He held my gaze with his. “Kraven will see you to your house.”
“He will?”
“I will?” Kraven raised an eyebrow.
Bishop’s jaw tightened. “Yes, you will.”
“Wait,” I said. “Can’t you walk me home yourself?”
“I need to talk to the others. I need to try to be the leader I was sent here to be. Kraven will get you safely home.”
Kraven snorted. “Are you sure about that?”
Bishop didn’t look amused in any way. “You won’t hurt her.”
“If I do, I’ll have you to answer to, right?”
“There won’t be enough time for you to answer. Next time I stab you with my dagger, you’re dead. Permanently. Remember that.” Venom dripped from every word he spoke. “So will you see Samantha home safely or not?”
Kraven’s perma-grin faded at the edges. “Whatever you say, boss.” He glanced at me. “Let’s go, gray girl.”
Even though I wasn’t afraid of Kraven anymore—although maybe I should have been—I wasn’t jumping at the chance to have him as my chaperone. Still, I wanted to go home and I did understand that Bishop, as the leader, needed to deal with the introduction of Roth and Zach into their new group dynamic.
“Go to school, be normal,” I said to Bishop. “That’s what you think I should do.”
He nodded. “I’ll be in touch soon.”
“I’m counting on it.”
With a last squeeze of Bishop’s hand, I reluctantly let go of him. It took a moment before I was able to look away from him. His jaw was tight and I knew there were volumes left unsaid between us.
I began to feel cold again the moment I stopped touching him.
I gave Zach a weak smile, but didn’t even glance in Roth’s direction even though the weight of his unfriendly glare on me was hard to ignore. Finally, I started walking away. Kraven tagged along silently, a few feet behind me, as if he’d prefer no one we passed knew we were together.
Forcing myself to stay strong was harder than it had been before. Roth had very nearly killed me. I wasn’t used to dealing with violence. Even when my parents were having problems, their fights were all verbal rather than physical and they tried to have the worst of them away from me. It didn’t always work, but while it wasn’t pleasant, I was accustomed to words being thrown around as weapons. Not actual weapons that could make someone bleed.
I’d dealt with my personal family stress through my snarky sense of humor, and later through shoplifting. I didn’t do well with holding it all in. Before too long it came spilling out in one way or another.
Tonight, it felt like it wanted to be tears. I felt a sob building in my chest. When I inhaled, it sounded ragged.
“You okay?” Kraven asked from behind me.
I just nodded and kept walking.
“How much farther?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Another ten minutes.”
We kept walking for a while before he spoke again. “You can tell me, you know.”
“What?”
“What you really are. You can tell me the truth.” He’d increased his pace so he walked next to me now, and he studied me with a strange look on his face. Confusion, curiosity, a bit of anger—but not all directed at me. Maybe he was mad at himself for not figuring out all of my secrets yet.
I shook my head. “I know you think I’m trying to hold something back, but I have no idea what’s going on. Seriously.”