Along the side of the building, a door was ajar with a brick placed in it to keep it that way. It was the only indication that the church might not be totally deserted after all. No, a small group of demons and angels had set up camp here.
I wondered if a demon could enter a church that wasn’t abandoned.
The need to see Bishop pushed me onward. The door made an eerie creaking sound as I pushed it open farther and I stepped into the cool, dark halls of St. Andrew’s.
Voices echoed down the narrow hallway. Keeping close to the wall, I made my way into the church. It smelled old, like mildew and rotting wood.
Even though I was cold, always cold, a trickle of perspiration slid down my spine. Fear was alive and well in this currently soulless body.
“…should be here by now,” Kraven said, although I couldn’t see him yet. “I left the note first thing this morning.”
“This is none of your business.” Bishop’s voice sounded angry. And shaky.
My breath caught and a shiver went through me.
“Not my business you’re in bad shape? You’re part of this. You drop your end, that’s a quarter more responsibility the rest of us have to carry. And this isn’t over yet.”
Zach spoke then, his voice calm and even-toned, as if he was accustomed to coming between the two. “It will all work out. I have faith.”
“How nice for you,” Kraven replied drily.
“I hate this!” Roth snarled, joining the conversation as something crashed to the floor. I glanced around the corner to see the demon kick a stack of chairs at the front of the hall up toward the pulpit. The chairs might have been used if there were extra people in attendance and not enough space on the built-in wooden pews that lined the cavernous room. Two of the large stained-glass windows along the walls were broken, but the one at the very front was still intact and beautiful, even at night.
“What’s your problem?” Kraven snapped at him.
“My problem?” Roth grabbed a vase from a side table and looked as if he was going to hurl it at the window behind him. Kraven caught his arm to stop him. Roth pushed the other demon back. “My problem is this sucks. All of it. What are we waiting for tonight? I want out.”
“You signed up for this. You were given a choice, remember? You can’t go back yet.”
“I don’t mean back to Hell, I mean out. I want to go out on patrol. I’m so bored. I killed three of those soul-sucking freaks last night and I want to find at least as many tonight when they crawl out of their holes. Give me the dagger.”
“Bishop’s not giving it up,” Zach said. “He thinks you’ll go after Samantha.”
“I don’t need the dagger for that. I can kill a gray like her without it, just takes a bit more effort. Nearly did, but you had to go and heal her.”
Zach turned away from the demon and moved toward Bishop, who stood with his back braced against the wall as if it was an effort to stay vertical. “What can we do to help you?”
Bishop shook his head. “Nothing. Just—give me time. I’ll be fine.”
Kraven groaned. “I’ll go get her. I’ll drag her ass back here myself even if I have to knock her out first.”
“No,” Bishop replied sharply, glaring at the demon. “Harm her and I swear I’ll tear you apart.”
This was ridiculous. I put on a brave face, stepped out from behind the corner and walked up the aisle toward them. The other three eyed me with varying degrees of surprise. Bishop slowly raised his gaze up to lock with mine.
Seeing him made my heart skip a beat. I’d missed him so much, but I hadn’t realized it until this moment. I wanted to run directly to him, but I stopped myself.
I couldn’t seem to be neutral when it came to the angel. What I felt for him was too big to wrap my mind around. It had been wrapped around a lot tonight.
But what I felt for him was real. Seeing him again cemented that fact for me.
“Well, what do you know?” Kraven said. “Were your ears burning, sweetness?”
“A little,” I admitted.
The greeting between us was almost friendly, at least compared to the death glare I got from Roth. After all, I was one of the things he wanted to head out tonight and kill to help combat his boredom. If he said he’d killed three last night, how many others were there? How big of a problem had grays become in the city?
There wasn’t widespread panic. There weren’t cops stationed on every street. They had to have it under control. At least, I really hoped so.
Still, considering what I’d seen Bishop do with that dagger as he performed the ritual on the others, it seemed like an excessively violent end for anyone. While what Carly had done scared the hell out of me, I wouldn’t say she deserved a dagger through her heart for it. Paul had walked away, even though he was missing part of his soul now. I just hoped she hadn’t done any lasting harm to him.
“What are you looking at?” I snarled at Roth.
A cold smile played on his lips. “Lunch.”
I shuddered. “Dream on, freak.”
“Every night.”
“You need to stay away from me.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t. Heard what you can do, though. Read our minds. Don’t try to do that with me.”
I focused on him, holding his gaze for longer than I wanted to. “Too late. Already done.”
I didn’t need to touch them; I just needed eye contact and an open mind. Tonight it seemed as if his walls were down whether he realized it or not.
His brows drew together. “So what was I thinking just now?”
I felt stronger with every moment that passed. The power of Heaven and Hell—yours truly had access to it, at least according to Natalie. This was just a small taste test. “You’re thinking that you hope nobody here can tell how scared you are. How out of your league. How a meaningless asshole like you could have been picked for a mission this important.” I forced myself to smile at him. “I’m paraphrasing of course, but am I close?”
He flinched as if I’d actually struck him. Nice. This guy’s self-hatred issues made Kraven look like Mr. Well-Adjusted.
I wasn’t quite finished, though. “I guess you don’t want anyone to know what a coward you really are underneath it all, do you?”
His eyes narrowed. “Be careful, bitch.”
“Oh, I intend to.”
He stormed out of the room. Yes, I’d definitely hit the mark with him, which I wasn’t so sure was a good thing. He was going to hold a grudge against me.
Zach touched my arm and I jumped despite myself. I’d been putting on a brave front, but I was quaking inside just from being here. “Ignore him, Samantha. Are you okay? You recovered from the other night?”
I looked up at him, meeting his pale green eyes. I searched for any kind of deception or cruelty there, but found nothing but an earnest angel who really wanted to know if I was okay.
“I’m better. Thanks to you. If you hadn’t been able to heal me—well, I don’t even want to think about that.”
“I only wish I could help him, too.” He nodded toward Bishop.
Kraven watched me a bit warily after my exchange with the other demon. “So are you here to work your mojo with my darling brother or do you want to do some card tricks first?”
I guess the news that Bishop and Kraven were related wasn’t a secret anymore. Zach didn’t react to it at all.
I approached Bishop slowly, my gaze moving over his tall form, broad shoulders, dark hair. His muscles strained against the sleeves of his T-shirt. He’d barely taken his eyes off me since I’d entered. I’d noticed him tense up when Roth sounded like he was going to get violent with me again, as if ready to jump in and beat the other demon down to the floor, but now he leaned heavily against the wall as if it was the only thing keeping him on his feet. There was a sheen of perspiration on his forehead and his blue eyes were unfocused.
My heart twisted as I shook my head. “What am I going to do with you?”
He let
out a short bark of a laugh that made a chill run down my spine. “Good question.”
I thought of the homeless guy I’d seen a few times now—the one I was positive was another messed up angel. “Why would Heaven let this happen to you?”
“Got banged up coming here…they didn’t know it would happen. Not this bad.”
“Is that a guess or a hope?”
He didn’t look away from me, but there was a glazed look in his eyes that scared me. “Both.”
I clenched my fists at my sides. “Honestly, Bishop. You should have found me before this. Why did you wait till I came here?”
His jaw was tight. “I wanted to handle this on my own.”
“Nice thought. But everybody needs a bit of help sometimes.” I held my hand out to him. “Well?”
I wasn’t going to force him; he had to choose this for himself. He’d asked me in the beginning to help him. It was even part of our deal. But I knew he’d rather find a solution to this problem on his own.
Finally, he reached forward and grasped my hand tightly in his. And—just like the first time we’d touched—it was like lightning struck us. He gasped out loud. The electricity that sparked was even stronger than before. Warmth slid through me, chasing away my chill. Our eyes met and held, and I swear this connection we had felt like magic. Pure magic.
Being so close to him made me dizzy. He was like no other guy I’d ever known in my life. But he wasn’t a guy—he was an angel. And I’d missed him—missed his scent, his warmth, his eyes, his mouth…everything about him drew me closer and made me never want to leave his side.
Wow—intense. Our connection overwhelmed me with only a touch. My touching the homeless guy hadn’t given him sanity, and it hadn’t filled me with warmth. This kind of magic—it only happened with Bishop. How could I ever doubt anything this incredible?
Bishop inhaled, squeezing his eyes shut as his grip on me tightened. When he finally opened his eyes again, they were clear blue and totally sane.
“Better?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. “Much.”
I smiled. “I’m here to help.”
He didn’t let go of my hand. He reached down to take the other, as well. “You still shouldn’t have come here. It’s too dangerous.”
“But here I am anyway. So get used to it. I mean—” I looked down at our hands “—is this so bad?”
His gaze caught mine again and held. “It’s good. That’s why it’s so bad.”
When he entwined our fingers, for just a moment I forgot about everything else—it all slipped away and there was only him. When Bishop was totally sane, I wanted to kiss him so badly I could barely restrain myself.
And the way he looked at me, too, with gratitude and something else, something way deeper and more intense…
“I can practically hear the violins playing,” Kraven drawled. “So romantic, I could die. Should Zach and I leave the room so you two can go at it, or what?”
I gave him a sharp look. “Are you ever not a jerk?”
“Not ever,” he confirmed.
“What about when you were human?”
His smart-ass grin faded. “I don’t talk about that.”
“But you wanted me to know your human name. And that you and Bishop were brothers. Care to share any more about that? Either of you?”
His unfriendly gaze moved to the left as the door clanged shut. Roth had returned from his temporary pity party. He looked at us sullenly but didn’t say anything.
“That was just a test of the emergency broadcast system, sweetness,” Kraven said. “Don’t let it go to your head that I was trying to get personal with you.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, James.” I think I’d just discovered the demon’s Achilles’ heel. Talking about his human life was off-limits. But I guess I wanted to test those limits just a little. It had been one of those nights.
My using his real first name earned me a look of sheer disdain. “Sucked any souls out of mouths tonight, gray girl?”
“No. Stabbed any helpless victims?”
“Our victims aren’t helpless,” Bishop said.
My gaze shot back to him. “Sure, they aren’t.”
“You haven’t seen a gray after they’ve fed too much.”
I frowned as a memory of Carly flitted through my mind.
“Samantha.” Bishop squeezed my hand to get me to keep looking at him instead of the jerk of a demon. “What happened? What did you see?”
My throat thickened. “My friend…I think she’s in trouble.”
“The one you were with the other night?”
I nodded, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “I’m worried about her.”
“Did you see her feed?” Zach asked.
I didn’t reply right away and they all exchanged a look that made me nervous. I couldn’t admit what Carly had done. I couldn’t put her in danger. I knew what they’d do to her if they learned the truth. “Bishop, you said you can restore my soul. Well, I want you to restore her soul, too.”
“Restore souls?” Roth finally spoke up. “Somebody’s living in a dreamworld, aren’t they?”
I looked at him sharply. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t restore a human’s soul once it’s gone.” He glanced at Bishop who was sending a dark glare his way. “What?”
My mouth was suddenly as dry as the desert. “But Bishop said—”
“Yeah, I’m sure he would have said anything to get you to use that mysterious mojo of yours, right? Good going, angel.” A smile stretched across Roth’s handsome face. “Nice and devious. I approve.”
For the second—or third?—time tonight, it felt as if the floor had fallen away beneath my feet and I was about to fall into a pit of darkness. “Bishop…is that true?”
Bishop gave Roth a dark look that might completely shrivel a weaker demon to the size and consistency of a raisin. When Bishop finally turned his gaze to me his fierce expression had only softened a fraction.
“If there is a way to restore your soul I will find it.”
I let go of his hand and staggered back from him. “You lied to me? You—you told me angels don’t lie.”
“Oh, angels can definitely lie when they need to,” Kraven said. “Trust me on that. They just prefer not to since it makes them feel all dirty inside.”
Bishop’s jaw tensed. “It wasn’t a lie. I told you I’d help—that I believe there’s a way. And when I go back to Heaven, I’ll find it.”
Panic gripped my throat. “That’s not what you promised me!”
His brows drew together. “Yes, it was.”
“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise,” Kraven murmured. “News at eleven.”
Despite my other misgivings, I’d had faith that Bishop was being truthful with me about this. And now, to learn that it had all been a lie—that this was it for me and for Carly…
He was no better than a demon.
Before Bishop had a chance to say anything else, I stormed away from him and back down the dark hallway to the open door. I made it outside the church by the broken sign before I had to take a moment to try to get control over myself. I braced my hands on my thighs and gulped in big mouthfuls of air.
I’d agreed to his deal and done everything I’d promised to do, and all the time he’d known he might not be able to hold up his end of the bargain.
I’d fallen for a guy who’d promised to save me only so he could get something in return. My heart felt like it had broken into pieces, scattered on the front lawn of this abandoned church just like that sign.
How could he do this to me?
I didn’t remember his exact words, but he’d left me with the certainty that he had a solution. The solution. I wanted to give him my trust—and, yes, my heart, too—but how could I do that now?
Angels might not usually lie, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t shamelessly manipulate a girl who’d developed a major crush on a beautiful, blue-eyed angel.
“Samantha, stop!” Bishop
rushed after me while the others stayed inside. He grabbed hard onto my wrist to keep me from going any farther.
I slapped him as hard as I could across his face. The stunned and outraged look he gave me was almost comical. I guess no hysterical teenage girl had ever hit him before.
I felt something hot and wet on my cheeks and realized the tears I’d been holding back all night were starting to fall. I wiped at them with annoyance. “You led me to believe there was a way to restore my soul, but you were just guessing. Why would you do that to me? You know how much this means to me!”