“Yeah, he looks like he’s really helping the search,” I said with disdain. “If you’re searching for slutty girls.”
“Distractions happen.”
I chewed my bottom lip and looked up at him. “I’m surprised that out of the whole team you’d pick your demonic brother to spend the evening with.”
Bishop’s expression tightened.
When he finally released his hold on my wrist, I grabbed the front of his shirt before he could move away from me.
“Are you ever going to tell me more about the two of you?” I’d come up with no reasonable explanation of how one brother became an angel and the other a demon, despite the tiny breadcrumbs of info I’d collected along the way.
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Yeah, right. How about you at least tell me the name you had when you were human? I know one thing for sure—it wasn’t Bishop.”
“Okay.” He eyed me. “It was Barbara.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“And you still look like you want to punch me.”
“I’m barely restraining myself, actually.”
That smile returned to play at his lips. His gaze moved to the other side of the club and his expression grew grim again. “I need to talk to Roth. Wait here.”
Another team member. Another demon. Roth, however, made Kraven look like a friendly teddy bear. And Kraven was not a friendly teddy bear by anyone’s definition.
“I thought you wanted me to leave?” I said.
“I’ll take you home when we’re done here. Give me five minutes. Stephen’s dangerous and I don’t want you finding him by yourself.”
“I can handle him.”
Bishop returned my challenging look with one of his own. “Five minutes.”
“Fine.”
I watched as he walked across the club to where tall, handsome and hateful Roth stood by the long bar that only sold nonalcoholic beverages and appetizers. The crowd of kids swelled to cut off my view of the two.
Even with Bishop gone, my hunger hadn’t faded one bit. Strange. I thought I’d get a chance to compose myself better.
“Hey, Samantha.”
Damn. I glanced over to see Colin Richards standing right next to me. He was poised directly in what I’d termed my “orbit of hunger.” Two feet or less. The danger zone.
“Colin,” I squeaked out. “Hey.”
I wasn’t romantically interested in Colin at all, but unfortunately, the feeling wasn’t mutual. He’d taken my rejection hard, especially when I showed very nonrejection behavior whenever he entered the orbit and I couldn’t control my hunger quite so well. Most people respected your personal space. Colin wasn’t one of them.
He swept his gaze over the short, black skirt and silver tank top I’d chosen to wear so I’d fit in with Kelly and Sabrina and the rest of the Saturday night crowd.
“You’ve kept a low profile this week,” he said. “Are you specifically avoiding me, or just generally being a bitch to everyone?”
I winced at his sharp words, but then I smelled the alcohol on his breath. So much for this being a booze-free club. Some kids tried to sneak it in, anyway. Colin was becoming well-known for drinking too much and getting into trouble. When he dated Carly over the summer, he’d made a bunch of vodka-fueled bad choices, including cheating on her at a pool party.
“Nice,” I said drily. “And maybe when you sober up, you won’t be such an ass.”
This earned me a humorless snort as he drained whatever was in his plastic cup. His gaze slid down the front of me again as if he was having trouble keeping his attention on my face. My cheeks grew warm at his blatant gaze.
“Who was that guy you were talking to?”
I blinked. “None of your business.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“Again, none of your business.”
He was being very confrontational tonight, which made me sad. Colin was actually a really nice guy, despite some of the more epic mistakes he’d made in the past. And I knew I’d hurt him last week, so I wouldn’t hold this particular discussion against him in the future. This time, anyway.
Walk away, I told myself. But my feet refused to move. I fought my rising hunger with every ounce of strength I had. The more I fought, the colder I got until goose bumps broke out over my bare arms and I shivered, despite the club being at least eighty degrees. The cold was a side effect of not having a soul.
Colin leaned closer, which only made things worse. I didn’t smell the vodka on his breath anymore; what I smelled was warm, tempting and entirely edible. Less so than Bishop, but still more than anyone else in this club right now.
“Heard from Carly?” he asked.
That woke me up like a glass of cold water thrown in my face.
Colin, like almost everyone else, believed Carly had run away with a secret boyfriend and was off having a misguided, but romantic adventure.
“No,” I said softly. My eyes began to burn.
He snorted again. It was an unpleasant, mocking sound. “Look at you, all misty over Carly taking off with some guy. Feeling abandoned by your BFF? Poor Sam. Boo hoo.”
I gave him a careful look. “I know I hurt you—”
“Hurt me?” he scoffed. “Please. I’m over it.”
“Yeah, sure you are.” I studied him, uncertain how to deal with this problem. “Look, Colin, I’m sorry. Really. But it’s for the best. You don’t need to be near me right now. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you backed off before my friend gets back.”
“Jealous, is he?”
I’d had more than enough of this conversation and I needed him to step away from me now. “Leave me alone, Colin. I don’t like you. At all. Get it through your head, okay?”
I forced myself to look at the dance floor again.
“You’re such a liar.” His words slurred together, heavy with enough underlying pain to make me flinch. “Everything that comes out of your mouth is a damn lie. You liked me. I know you did. I saw it in your eyes. You think you can just walk away from something like that? That I’d let you?”
Let me? “I think you need to go—”
But before I could say another word, Colin grabbed hold of me and crushed his mouth against mine.
Chapter 2
No!
I tried to pull away from him, to shove against his chest as hard as I could.
But it was too late. The hunger that had swirled around me the entire time I’d been at Crave, which had intensified to an impossible to ignore level when Bishop was close to me, that waited patiently while Colin blurted out what was on his mind—
It spilled over.
The pounding dance music muted. The sparkling lights faded. The club disappeared. My rational thinking ceased. And my hunger took over.
This wasn’t a kiss with a drunk boy who liked me and was mad I didn’t like him in return. This was about feeding—that part of me that was missing a soul and was constantly trying to devour everyone else’s.
It was what I feared the most. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. But that was exactly what I was doing.
Feeding on Colin was so natural for me. In this mindless state, it was the most natural thing in the world—neither good nor bad. And with every bit of his soul I devoured, delicious warmth spread through me, chasing the horrible, endless cold away. My thoughts about hurting him vanished. I would feed until I was satisfied, and since I’d barely ever fed before, that would take a
long time.
Someone grabbed my upper arm and painfully wrenched me away from Colin. Colin staggered back and dropped down into a nearby booth. Thin, black lines branched around his mouth and his skin was sickly pale. His eyes were glazed. His chest moved rapidly as he gasped for breath.
Haven’t taken it all. Just a piece...
The grip on my arm tightened and I turned to see that it was Kraven now in front of me, shaking his head.
“Honestly,” he said. “Can’t let you out of our sight for a minute, can we?”
“Let go of me!” I was working on instinct only, still possessed by the hunger. I stared at Colin. “I need more.”
“You need more?” Kraven grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him instead of Colin. “Try this.”
He kissed me hard, releasing my arm to slide his hands into my long hair. I automatically tried to feed, but there was nothing there. Regular demons like Kraven didn’t have souls. This was the proof. With no soul to feed from, this was just a kiss.
And yet, strangely enough, it still seemed to satisfy me. I wasn’t feeding, but my hunger began to ease a fraction at a time.
But then the kiss stopped. Abruptly.
“What the hell are you doing to her?” Bishop snarled.
He grabbed hold of Kraven and wrenched him away from me, slamming the demon hard against the wall.
Bishop’s eyes blazed bright blue. They did that sometimes. He’d told me it was a bit of celestial energy that rose up when he got emotional. Based on the current neon brightness, he was very emotional.
My head continued to clear, although not as rapidly as I’d have liked it to. I staggered back from them and landed in the booth across from the slowly recovering Colin. A quick sweep of the club showed that nobody was paying us any attention.
Neat trick that demons and angels had—they could cloak an area to gain a little privacy when problems arose.
Kraven shoved Bishop back from him. “Sorry, but your little girlfriend was in need of some help.”
“That was you helping?”
“Worked, didn’t it?”
I sent a look at Colin. My mind had now cleared completely and my control was back. Guilt and horror slammed through me at what I’d done. The black lines around Colin’s mouth had faded completely, but his eyes were still glazed. A gray’s victim seemed to go into a short-term trance while they were being fed upon. Since I’d experienced it from the victim’s side, I knew that it felt way better than it looked. Exciting, exhilarating, amazing—just like a good kiss should be.
But there was nothing good about this kiss. If I’d successfully taken all of Colin’s soul, I could have killed him. Or, if he was strong enough to survive it, he would become another gray, capable of hurting others.
Either thought scared the hell out of me.
My gaze shot to Bishop. “Colin kissed me. I—I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself after that.”
Colin shook his head as if to clear it. He glanced at me, and then at the two tall boys staring at him.
“What—?” he began.
“How do you feel?” Bishop asked him.
He scrubbed his hand over his forehead. “Um, okay, I think. What happened?”
Bishop grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him out of the booth. “Don’t kiss her again. Ever. You hear me?”
Colin gaped at him. “Who are you?”
“You don’t want to know. Leave now.”
Bishop let him go and Colin staggered back, then glanced at me as if waiting for me to defend him. Instead, I forced myself to look down at my hands, which I’d clasped in my lap.
“Sorry,” he began. “I, uh, don’t know what I was thinking.”
Without any further argument, he slunk away from us and was swallowed by the rest of the crowded club.
“Your girlfriend’s a great kisser,” Kraven said drily. “Her tongue is like...wow. She doesn’t hold back. You’re really missing out with that pesky soul of yours.”
Bishop turned on the demon, his eyes flashing. “Stay away from Samantha or I’ll kill you.”
“This is the thanks I get for saving the day? She was going to suck that kid dry right here in the middle of the club. Besides, why are you mad at me? I think some of that angel attitude should be pointed in her direction. Or can gray-girl do no wrong in your eyes, even when she slips up? Or slips someone else the tongue?”
Bishop’s expression didn’t lose a fraction of its fury. “I think you do want me to kill you. Is that your goal?”
Kraven gave him a humorless smile. “Don’t know. How many times can one brother kill the other? Are you looking for some kind of Guinness World Record here?”
“Try me.”
Kraven liked to mess with the minds of others, but I wasn’t in the mood for it now. He wasn’t helping anything by baiting Bishop like this.
“Why do you have to be like this?” I asked.
He finally spared a look in my direction. “Please. You should be thanking me for saving your pretty little ass a minute ago. Instead, I get vilified. Whether either of you wants to admit it or not, the kiss worked. It snapped you out of your monster madness.”
Bishop’s brows drew together as if he was considering this possibility. His gaze then hardened. “We’re leaving.”
Kraven saluted. “Yes, sir.”
I’d wanted to come here tonight so I could find some answers. I’d honestly thought I was in control of myself and my hunger.
But I’d hurt Colin, and if Kraven hadn’t stopped me I could have killed him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Bishop as I pushed myself up from the booth.
Bishop didn’t meet my eyes. “How much of that boy’s soul did you take?”
I couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t replied to my “I’m sorry” with a breezy “it’s okay.” Couldn’t blame him for that.
I let out a shaky breath. “Not much.”
“Be careful. He’ll instinctively seek you out in the future so you can finish the job.”
“How do you know?” Kraven asked.
“Believe me, I know.”
I was definitely ready to leave. I’d done more than enough damage for one night. Stephen wasn’t here so there was no reason to hang out a moment longer. I wanted to run home and hide my face from the world, but instead I tried to stay calm and not let anyone see how devastated I was. I said a quick goodbye to Sabrina and Kelly, who’d thankfully missed all of my drama while they’d been busy dancing.
Roth caught up with us at the front door past a poster advertising Wednesday’s “Halloween Bash.” We exited the club, and the cool, late-October air immediately chilled me. Stars sparkled in the clear, black sky and the moon, along with the parking lot floodlights, lit up the night around us. I ignored the cold, instead pulling my too-thin coat tighter around my shoulders.
Roth scanned the three of us silently trudging along the sidewalk. “Did I miss something?”
Bishop’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“Me and gray-girl just made out,” Kraven said.
Roth made a face. “Disgusting. Why would you want to kiss something like her?”
“Research.”
I expected no less from Roth. I was well aware that he despised me. Tonight only proved that I was in more trouble than I thought.
I scanned the night surrounding us, anything to take my attention off what had happened with Colin and Kraven.
“I?
??m taking you home,” Bishop said.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “To keep me out of trouble.”
“For starters.”
At that moment I spotted something in the sky that grabbed my attention. I felt the color slowly drain from my face. “Can’t go home. Not yet.”
“Why not?”
I pointed at the sky behind him where a familiar searchlight had just appeared in the distance—although I knew none of them could see it like I could. “Looks like you’re getting a new recruit.”
Chapter 3
“Don’t know why a gray can do this,” Roth grumbled as he trailed after us. “Why can she see the searchlights when we can’t?”
He didn’t know the truth and neither did Kraven. Only Bishop knew and he’d sworn me to secrecy about it.
I wasn’t just a gray.
Bishop always talked about the universal balance and how important it was. Well, I was about as balanced as you could get. Equal parts dark and light thanks to my birth parents—whom I’d never met. Up until a week ago, I didn’t even know I’d been adopted.
My father was a demon named Nathan, my mother was an angel named Anna.
Anna had been killed shortly after I was born and Nathan had joined her in the Hollow, her final resting place. The same place Carly had been sucked up into.
Theirs was a forbidden romance doomed from the start, but it had produced yours truly. Because of this, I was what was termed a “nexus”—the center, the connection—and the fact that I’d lost my soul meant I could allegedly channel the powers of both Heaven and Hell.
It helped me do things, see things. It made me special. It made me valuable. Clinging tightly to this thought after what I’d done to Colin was the only thing keeping me from completely freaking out.
“Why are they sending someone else?” Kraven asked, ignoring the other demon. He didn’t sound happy.
“I don’t know,” Bishop replied. He walked so close to me that I could barely concentrate. My hunger still had me tightly in its grip and the scent of his soul, of him, did crazy things to my head. “You’re sure it’s one of our searchlights, Samantha? Not just a regular one?”