Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers)

Chapter 24



Cassandra let out a strangled cry and rushed to Roth’s side. She pulled the dagger out and immediately set to work at healing him.

Kraven went to check on Connor, but thankfully he was already starting to regain consciousness.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my chest so tight it was hard to breathe normally. “I forgot all about the dagger. I should have said something earlier. Now he’s gone.”

Bishop turned to me, and I expected to see anger in his eyes that I’d been so thoughtless, but there was nothing like that. There was frustration there, but it wasn’t directed at me.

“No.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “You’ve been through a lot. You didn’t forget on purpose. This isn’t your fault.”

“Sure it is,” Kraven said.

Bishop sent a glare at him. “Actually, if you’d stayed in here this could have been avoided.”

“Or I could be the one with the knife sticking out of me.” He shrugged. “Maybe you’d like that.”

“Maybe I would.”

“Ouch.”

The anger fell from Bishop’s gaze as he turned from his brother and, if you asked me, it was as if he regretted his harsh words. He kept my hand in his like he needed the contact to keep his mind clear.

The longer I was near him, the less clear my head became.

“Connor, take Jordan home and make sure she stays there,” Bishop instructed, his voice tight.

“Can’t,” Jordan said. “I have plans tonight.”

He looked at her with surprise. “You were kidnapped and imprisoned in a locked basement storage room by your obsessed boyfriend for nearly two days and you have plans?”

She glared at him. “I have a social life, you know. There’s a huge Halloween party tonight I can’t miss. I spent a ton on my costume.”

Bishop gave me an exasperated look, which almost coaxed a smile from me despite everything that had gone so horribly wrong.

I shrugged. “She says she has a costume.”

“I’m Cleopatra,” Jordan said, as if that explained everything. She cocked her head. “Wait a minute. I think I’m remembering something important.” Then she inhaled sharply. “When Stephen first found me, before he knocked me out, I told him about the party. He seemed...interested in going. As if it might make him feel normal again. He said we could go together.” Her eyes moved back and forth rapidly as if she was remembering the moment in detail. “I mean, obviously he was just playing games with me, trying to get closer so he could grab me. But still, maybe he’ll show.”

“Where’s this party?” Bishop asked, his voice measured and almost too calm.

“It’s Noah’s party.” Jordan looked at me. “You’re invited, too, right? He has the hots for you, FYI.”

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, well, the feeling isn’t mutual.”

“Gray-girl’s curious charm doesn’t seem to be lost on many,” Kraven drawled, amused. “Hobbits are hot.”

“It’s not at his house,” I said, remembering what Kelly told me in the school hall yesterday. “He found another place?”

“Yeah, an abandoned house in a private area on the far east side of the city—at Oak and Peters. Thinks it’ll add a spooky touch. Figures it might be busted, but that’s supposed to make it more exciting.” She crossed her arms. “I’m going.”

I watched Bishop carefully for his reaction to the stubborn redhead. “Connor, like I said, take Jordan home safely. What she does after that is entirely up to her.” He shifted his gaze to his brother. “Kraven, go with Roth to this party and keep an eye open for our gray friend. Connor can meet you there later.”

“And if we see him?” Connor asked.

“Detain him. Any way possible.”

Connor’s eyes narrowed and there was a hard set to his jaw. “With pleasure.”

They didn’t wait. They left, Jordan sending a glance back toward me, but no goodbye. It would have been easier for her if the angelic influence had worked. Whatever made her different, that gave her the supernatural intuition, had prevented her from being influenced.

She would remember everything she’d seen, everything she’d learned.

It was dangerous information for a seventeen-year-old. I should know.

When they left, Bishop looked at Cassandra. “You’ll go with Samantha back to her house. Wait for her outside the church, all right?”

“All right.” Cassandra glanced at me, then left the two of us alone.

“And where will you go?” My chest clenched at the thought of saying goodbye to him again.

“The others want me to stay away from you. I think we’ve already proven how dangerous it can be when we’re too close.”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah, very dangerous. So where are you headed?”

He held my gaze. “To your house.”

My brows rose. “What?”

He snorted softly at my surprised reaction. “I honestly don’t care what anybody says, I’m not letting you out of my sight right now. Understand?”

I just nodded, stunned he was even suggesting this. He could have easily let Cassandra take me home and joined the others at the house party.

But he wanted to stay with me.

He took hold of the small dagger now lying on the top of the empty wooden desk. He wiped the blade on his jeans to clean it of Roth’s blood.

“I believe this is yours.” He handed it to me. When I took it from him, our fingers brushed against each other.

I returned it to its sheath under my skirt. “Thank you. I’m sorry about what happened—”

“Don’t apologize. And Kraven’s wrong. It wasn’t your fault. What Stephen did to you...” His expression darkened. “I could have killed him for that.”

“Killing isn’t always the answer.”

“I know that.”

I swallowed hard. “I saw you kill Kraven. In your memory.”

He turned away, but I caught his arm.

“It wasn’t you,” I said firmly. “It couldn’t have been. There has to be some other explanation why you’d do that.”

When his gaze met mine again, this time it was stormy. “It’s funny, you seeing that memory.”

I laughed this time, a dry, humorless sound. “What’s so funny about it?”

“Because...a lot of the details are a blank for me. But I guess, somewhere in my head it’s all still there, crystal clear.” His brows drew tightly together. “What happened with Kraven...he was my brother. We had our problems, sure, but—I remember the cold certainty that came over me that night. The knowledge that he had to die and that his soul was bound for Hell...but—” he rubbed a hand over his mouth and looked away from me “—I don’t know why I couldn’t stop myself from killing the one person who ever gave a damn about me.”

I stared at him. This was the confirmation I’d been looking for. “You can’t remember why you did it? Seriously?”

He gave me a wry look. “It doesn’t excuse what I did.”

“But in a way it does. It tells me you weren’t yourself at the time.”

“But I still did it. Nobody else. You saw that yourself.”

I tried to figure it out, but failed miserably. “No matter what you might have done, you’re still an angel. Your soul was not dark and heavy enough to become a demon, so as horrible as it was, it must have been the right thing to do at the time. You told me yourself—killing Kraven and sending him to Hell is what helped you become an angel. There has to be a reason for that.”

“There was.” He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “There was somebody on my side. Somebody who put in a good word for me—somebody who also sent people to Hell whenever he got the chance.”

“Who?”

He searched my face as if waiting for me to recoil from him with disgust and horror over all of this. But I’d been in training lately to handle a lot of bizarre stuff. I could handle more. I was like a pack mule for supernatural craziness now.

“My father,” he finally said.

I blinked with surprise. “Your father?”

He nodded slowly. “Just like your birth mother—my father was an angel. That got me a chance when otherwise I know I would have been damned.”

“Your father was a—an angel.” Maybe this pack mule’s back wasn’t as strong as I originally thought.

“Yeah. Let’s just say, my mother had widely differing tastes when it came to men.” He shook his head, his expression shuttering as if he’d realized he’d said far too much. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

I needed more time, more information. But he’d put an end to it. Quite honestly, I think this was the most I’d ever gotten out of him. While mind-blowing, I considered it serious progress.

We caught up with Cassandra, and together we headed back to my house. Once there, it felt very strange to have Bishop come in through the front door. It seemed like such a mundane thing for someone like him to do.

Entrances through bedroom windows, however...

“I’m starving,” Cassandra said immediately. She hadn’t said much on the way here, keeping quiet and looking pale. Now that her secret was out, her real mission, I had no idea what was going on in her head. When I’d met her eyes to try to find out more by reading her mind, I’d found that her walls were up—solid and impenetrable.

She disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Bishop and me alone.

“Are we going to the party tonight?” I asked.

“No. The others have it under surveillance. We’ll go back to Ambrosia and look for Stephen. Someone there has to know where he is.”

His gaze moved over everything in the foyer, from the throw rug, to the coatrack, to the framed pictures of me and my mom.

“Pretty boring stuff,” I said, embarrassed by the level of mundane he was able to witness in such a small space.

His attention moved to me. “Hardly. I find everything here...very interesting.”

My face felt warm. His soul was hard to ignore right now, as was my hunger, but I hoped I had a decent lock on it.

The calm before the storm, I thought. Gets better before it gets worse.

Such a pessimist.

No, a realist. There was a big difference.

“Earlier, you said that you didn’t want to let me out of your sight,” I said cautiously.

He didn’t take his eyes off me for a moment. “That’s exactly what I said.”

“There might be a slight problem with that plan.”

“What?”

I took my coat off and threw it on the coatrack like I’d done hundreds of times before. “I need to take a shower.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Well, make it a fast one and I won’t have to check on you.”

“Fastest ever.” I turned away from him before he could see me blush and rushed up the stairs to the second floor.

Before I hopped in the shower I quickly checked voice mail. There was a message from my mom about how much she was enjoying her vacation. Another one from Kelly confirming the new location for Noah’s Halloween party and how she hoped I’d be there, even though I’d been missing in action lately. No calls from the school. I’d missed the better part of two days, but they hadn’t checked up on me yet. For all they would have known I was sick at home. It was a big relief.

When I hung up, I heard my bedroom door open, and I repressed a smile.

“It’s only been five minutes. You’re already checking on me?” I turned to the door, surprised to see Cassandra standing there, not Bishop.

“Are you all right?” I asked, concerned by how upset she looked.

She shook her head. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

I swallowed hard. “Care to be more specific? There’s a lot happening.”

“With the angel I was sent to find. How much damage she’s done—how many lives she’s destroyed after escaping the Hollow.”

“That’s not your fault,” I assured her.

“Feels like it is.”

I moved toward her and took her hands in mine and squeezed them. “No, it’s not. It’s her—she’s disturbed. Really disturbed. And this—it’s the only way she can cope. Can you think of any way we can help her without having to kill somebody she possesses?”

“I keep trying to find another way. I don’t know.”

“Can we talk to her? Can we reason with her?”

“I hope so.” She blinked, her eyes glossy. “But I’m not just upset about that. It’s...Roth, too.”

I watched her carefully. “What about him?”

“I can’t explain how I feel. Before, I—I could barely even tolerate being in the same room as him. He annoyed me so much. And normally, I’m very even tempered! I am praised for my calm and professional manner. Always!”

“I’m sure you are,” I agreed without hesitation.

“He’s become a distraction. He’s the reason I haven’t been able to concentrate on my real mission as much as I should.” Her forehead furrowed, but then her expression relaxed a fraction. “What am I saying? Am I seriously trying to blame him? It’s not his fault. But he’s...a great inconvenience to me.”

I couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “Yeah, that’s usually the way it is with boys—no matter who they are.”

Cassandra’s eyes snapped up to mine. “When he kissed me for the first time last night I slapped him. Really hard. But all he did was laugh at me before kissing me again. And that time...”

“That time you kissed him back,” I finished for her.

“He’s trying to make me look like a fool,” she whispered, her expression agonized. “He doesn’t really like me.”

“Wrong. He does.” No reason to play games here. “I read his mind. I saw that he’s confused—just as confused as you are—but there are real emotions at stake here...for both of you. Nothing simple, nothing neat, but it is real.”

This confirmation didn’t seem to make her happier; if anything, her expression became only more miserable. “That’s even worse than I thought.”

My chest grew tight and I hugged her. “Don’t worry. Nobody has to know you’re breaking the balance rules with him. I swear I won’t tell anyone. You’re safe.”

“It’s not that.”

I leaned back. “Then what is it?”

She wiped her eyes. Then her gaze rose to meet mine again. “Wait. You can read minds, too? Is that like what you did with Bishop—how you saw his memories? How can you do that?”

I thought she already knew this. Letting more of my secrets out of the bag—even though I hadn’t considered this one a secret—made my heart start racing. “It’s just more of that supernatural intuition,” I said evenly. “I think Jordan’s got the same thing going on.”

She studied me a little too closely and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Her eyes widened with shock. “Samantha...are you a nexus?”

I stopped breathing. “What?”

“It would explain everything, actually. I’m not sure why I didn’t consider it before. But...if that’s true...how could you be a gray, too?”

I fought to stay calm and look confused instead of panicked over this hypothesis. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m nothing special. Just a messed-up kid who has a minor bit of sixth sense going on.”

Her strained expression didn’t ease off. “Sure you are. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re both in way more trouble than we’d like to admit.”

I swallowed hard. “Maybe.”

She didn’t keep grilling me on the subject. She left, closing the door softly behind her. I sat down heavily and stared at myself in my vanity mirror, trying to harness my racing thoughts. Even up here I still felt Bishop’s presence downstairs. My hunger swirled, making it difficult to catch my breath.

Now Cassandra knew my secret, too.

I jumped in the shower and tried to let the scorching hot water—a relief after being locked in that basement for so long—wash my cares away. Didn’t work in the slightest. I got out in record time.

It wasn’t until I turned on my blow-dryer that I had the vision.

I didn’t have many of these. But when I did have them, they flattened me with their intensity. This one wasn’t an exception to the rule.

Like a waking dream with the intensity of a hurricane. The images shifted, sliding, turning so I could barely see anything properly.

It was a house—a big house with tons of kids there wearing masks and costumes. They milled about, drinks in hand; making out, talking, having fun. Music blared all around.

I also sensed the mind of the angel—the bodiless one. Somewhere else. Somewhere close. She wasn’t like the others—the team of angels and demons I’d come to know. She was different. The essence of what she once was distorted like a reflection in a funhouse mirror, turned monstrous, feeding on joy and hope to keep her own misery at bay. She knew doing this was draining her victims of the will to live. It filled her with despair, but she couldn’t stop. Survival and hunger were this angel’s only remaining motivations.

She was as wretched as she was terrifying.

She felt drawn to this house. It was like a bright beacon lighting her way through the dark city.

And when she arrived she would find so many kids who were filled with life and joy...

It would be an incredible feast for her.

The vision shifted, like metal twisting after a car wreck. It was after—bodies strewn around the house, lifeless, blood everywhere, it smeared the walls and oozed out onto the carpet and hardwood floors.

Noah’s Halloween party had turned into a mass suicide.

The vision ended and I staggered back, my head splitting in pain. It knocked me right to the floor. Immediately, I scrambled to get up, finished getting dressed and raced downstairs as fast as I could.

Bishop looked at me with alarm from where he stood, still in the foyer, this wild girl who’d practically flown down the stairs with still-damp hair.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded.

I explained as quickly as I could what I’d seen. Cassandra appeared, her arms crossed. She’d heard me. Neither of them told me not to worry, that it was only my imagination.

“Has it already happened?” Cassandra asked shakily.

I shook my head. “No, but it’s going to.”

“A vision of the future.” She eyed me warily. “Do you have these often?”

“Thankfully, no.” My last one had been a vision of the city being destroyed and sucked into what I now knew to be the Hollow. I didn’t remember it with perfect clarity—I think it was a way of my mind rejecting the sight of such an apocalyptic disaster.

But the future could be changed. Neither of my horrible visions had to come true.

“We’re leaving,” Bishop said firmly. “Right now.”

“I’m coming, too,” I said just as firmly.

He met my gaze. “Yes, you’re coming, too.”

Looked like I was going to Noah’s Halloween party after all.