Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen
He could die tonight from stasis and he still had my soul, and Carly’s soul, too.
It was over. I’d failed.
“Damn it,” I whispered, my throat closing. Hot tears streaked down my cheeks, but I furiously wiped them away. They wouldn’t be any help right now. Tears never helped.
“There you are.”
My gaze shot to the right. Sitting on the curb was someone I recognized immediately. Someone I’d been searching the city for, just as I’d been searching for Stephen.
“Seth!” I didn’t want to take my eyes off him in case he disappeared like an elusive ghost, but I had to crane my neck to keep searching for Stephen.
He was gone.
“It’s over.” I inhaled sharply, raggedly, and forced back the burn of tears. All I could feel now was the pain in my ankle. I let myself drop down onto the curb next to him.
“Over? It’s hardly started, beautiful star.” He called me that, beautiful star, and I had no idea why. One day I’d have to ask him why that was his chosen nickname for me when I cared enough to know the answer. “One by one they’ll all disappear until there are none left. But that doesn’t mean it’s over. Soon, but not yet.”
Didn’t sound like much had changed when it came to Seth. The fallen angel always talked like this—half insane homeless dude, half Yoda. I knew he saw things, important things. Visions, kind of like what I had sometimes. Somewhere deep down there was importance to the things Seth said to me.
Over? It’s hardly started.
Okay. Good to know, I think.
One by one they’ll all disappear.
Grays? They were disappearing, thanks to stasis. Thanks to the team’s nightly patrols and Bishop’s shiny knife.
Until there are none left.
A chill went through me at this. I guess I didn’t need a code breaker to help figure out that hidden message.
Seth looked much the same as he had the last time I’d seen him. Of an indeterminate age—anywhere from thirty to fifty. Dark hair, shaggy, dark beard, black eyebrows. Unfocused brown eyes. There weren’t many lines around those eyes, which told me he was probably on the lower end of the age scale. Possibly even younger than that.
I noticed something different about him this time.
“What are those?” I asked.
He glanced down at his arms. The sleeves of his shirt had been pushed up. On his skin were wispy lines, like a tattoo. He pulled his shirt down to cover them.
“Part of the package,” he said. “Comes with the territory, I’ve realized. They’re pretty, don’t you think?”
Not really, but I chose not to comment. I wondered if an angel or demon stayed in the human world long enough, they’d gain those marks. “I’ve been looking for you, Seth.”
“Hard to find myself sometimes. We all get lost from time to time.”
“There’s someone I need you to meet. Another fallen angel. He’s found ways to deal with...his soul.” Ways that made me queasy whenever I thought of him cutting himself. “But I need to know if there’s anything else he can do, anything you tried when you first fell that helped?”
Seth grinned to show perfect, white teeth, so unexpected in his otherwise ungroomed, grimy face. “Forget him, beautiful star. He won’t matter in the end. And now the time grows close—close enough to touch.”
“The time for what?”
“Can’t you feel how close you are?”
I shook my head. “What are you talking about? Close to what?”
Seth cocked his head and gazed at me as if mesmerized by what he saw there. “Your death, of course.”
Chapter 17
I reeled back from Seth in shock. “My death?”
“It’s written all over you like a poem.” Madness glimmered in his eyes. “It’s your destiny, beautiful star. A necessary step of a longer journey.”
The angel had managed to put my darkest fear into words and throw them out on the cold night air as if they meant nothing at all—just a random observation.
“How can I stop it?” I asked tightly.
“You can’t.”
“I’ll fight it.”
“You can try. You’ll fail.”
I clenched my fists at my sides so tightly that my fingernails bit into my palms. I focused on that pain, and the pain in my ankle, and tried to think, to rationalize this.
Seth was crazy.
He said crazy things.
And yet...I knew that stasis was coming for me just like with Stephen. Stasis, that dark and deadly wraith in the distance, growing closer by the day.
“Go back to your little angel and his friends,” Seth suggested, standing up from the curb. “Enjoy the time you have left.”
I forced myself up as well and grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
I looked right into his eyes, trying to channel that part of my nexus ability that allowed me to read the minds of angels and demons. This hadn’t come with an instruction manual, but it was always waiting just below the surface for me to tap into.
And...yes...I could sense something, feel something. It was there, as if shining at the bottom of a dark pool of water...I just couldn’t reach it.
The others could block me if they tried hard enough. I could bust through it if given enough time. I pictured it like a tall, solid wall of ice. Ice cracked, and it could be broken.
“You spend too much time focusing on the wrong things, beautiful star. It will be your undoing. You obsess about your fallen angel, yet he’s not the only one to fall, is he? The girl fell far to the ground and death claimed her, locking her in its embrace.”
My breath caught. “Are you talking about Julie? Julie Travis? You know what happened at the mall? Why did she do that? Was there a reason for it?”
“There’s a reason for everything.” Seth glanced around our surroundings, the dark and empty street that made me think we were the only two in the city if it wasn’t for the buzz of activity a block ahead, back near the club. “Something has been released here, something beyond the gray. It devours all that is good. And the lost ones wander, their numbers growing daily. They search for escape, just as we all do. But they’re trapped, just like we all are. You already know this—you know more than you think you do.”
I was losing him again. For a moment, he’d almost been making sense. “What do I already know? Stop playing games with me, Seth.”
“Life is a game, beautiful star. One with a time limit. And it’s time to accept your destiny.”
“If my destiny is death, then I don’t accept it.”
“You have no choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” My anger had given me the strength that accepting defeat had bled away. This time I looked into Seth’s eyes with every bit of focus I possessed. He knew things. And damn it, I was going to find out what they were.
That mental wall was there, blocking my access to his thoughts and any truth he was trying to hide from me. I sensed the crack and pressed hard against it.
She’s not ready yet. But she will be soon.
That was all I got before I was shoved right out of his mind and the crack in the wall closed up tight, smacking me in the face like a bungee cord. I staggered back and fell over my injured ankle, gasping with pain as I hit the ground hard. A car came around the corner, momentarily blinding me with its bright headlights as I struggled to rise to my feet and look around.
Seth was gone.
* * *
What Seth said could have been a pack of lies. Every rambled, crazy word of it. Talking to him had been a waste of my time.
She’s not ready yet. But she will be soon.
Trying to figure out the workings of that fallen angel’s mind would wind up driving me crazy, too.
My hand stamp worked fine to get me back into Ambrosia, no questions asked. I retrieved my coat right away, hoping to chase some of the chill away, or at least attempt to ignore it as long as I could.
Clutching the handrail, I descended the sparkling, crystal staircase to get to the main club. Limping, I made my way through the crowd, the loud music filling my ears, the scent of the souls pressing in on me, threatening my focus.
The first person I recognized didn’t see me. Cassandra zipped by, so close I could feel the breeze she created with her swift movement. Roth was right behind her. He grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her into one of the alcoves, covered by the beaded curtain. I followed, confused.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Roth demanded.
“Away from you,” Cassandra replied angrily. “Now leave me alone.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Honestly, take a hint, demon. The farther away from you I am, the easier everything is.”
“Easy’s boring.”
“I’m here for a reason. And it’s not to entertain you.”
“Trust me. You’re not that entertaining.”
I pressed against the wall, favoring my ankle. I didn’t understand why Bishop would send them here together to search for Stephen. It was obvious to me how much they despised each other.
“I swear, demon. Let go of me.”
“And what if I say no?”
“Maybe I’ll get Bishop’s dagger and shove it through your chest. Put you out of your misery.”
Roth laughed darkly. “That a promise or a threat, angel?”
“Your choice.”
Enough of this. I pushed the curtain aside and looked in at them. Roth had Cassandra pressed against the wall, his hand on her shoulder. Her eyes glowed blue in the darkness as she looked at me.
“Good.” She shoved away from the demon. “This is over.”
He grabbed her wrist to stop her. “It’s not over till I say it is.”
“Let go of her!” Everything about this demon set my teeth on edge. I didn’t know why Cassandra didn’t kick his butt like she’d done the other night. I knew she could flatten him without barely lifting a finger.
Roth gave me a dark look. “Mind your own business.”
“I’m making this my business.”
He actually laughed at this. “Isn’t that sweet. The gray cares about you, angel.” He tightened his grip on her wrist. “Are you two besties now?”
I didn’t bother trying to reach for my new knife. Bishop was right; it was too hard to access under these jeans. Instead, I touched Roth’s bare arm and bust through his mental barrier as easy as cracking an egg. He must have been distracted tonight. I only channeled a low-level zap into him, but it was enough to make him unhand Cassandra and stagger back a few feet until he hit the wall hard. He let out a satisfying grunt of pain.
My gaze shot to Cassandra. “You okay?”
She stared at me. “How did you do that?”
Oops. I really didn’t like the look on her pretty face. Instead of being upset over her confrontation with the jerk of a demon, she regarded me with confusion...a look that began to shift to growing clarity. As if things were slowly clicking into place for her.
More dangerous clues to what I really was.
“Forget it.” I swallowed hard, averting my gaze. “I have to find Bishop.”
Without waiting another second, I pushed through the curtain and scanned the dark club. Memories of what I’d seen in his mind—when he’d killed Kraven—rushed back over me with the force of a tidal wave.
It was a long time ago, I reminded myself. Whatever made him do that, he wasn’t the same person as he is now.
It had scared me to feel the cold inside of him, his apathy for the pain he’d caused someone he loved. For a moment, I’d reeled from that horrible truth, wanting to hide my head like an ostrich and forget I’d seen anything. But I couldn’t. And I knew I had to learn more to make sense of it all.
That was what realists like me did with things they couldn’t wrap their heads around. They gathered information and hoped it would all fit into tidy stacks, leading to firm and resolute answers. But this didn’t. And I didn’t think it ever would.
I knew Bishop hadn’t forgotten. And I knew it ate away at him every time he saw Kraven now. With so much bad blood between them, I didn’t know how they were able to work together at all.
Who was this horrible Kara person and what had she done to Bishop to change him so much?
I made it to the middle of the dance floor, searching for any sign of either the angel or the demon, when the sound of a blood-curdling scream cut past the loud music. I wrenched my head in the direction of the ear-splitting sound, but everyone around me began moving, rushing, pushing against each other to get to the stairs.
I grabbed a stranger’s arm. “What happened?”
The man’s eyes were wild with fear. “Somebody just got murdered.”
He slipped away before I could get anything else from him.
Horror clawed at me, and I started to fight against the crowd to get back to the dance floor. “Bishop! Where are you?”
I saw the victim first. He lay in the middle of the now-cleared dance floor, on his back, his eyes glazed. A sparkling fall of lights from the ceiling brushed his pale skin. And the all-too-familiar black lines branched around his mouth.
“Oh, no,” I whispered, clamping a hand over my mouth.
A gray’s victim lay dead, having been drained of his soul. And it had happened right in the middle of a crowd.
I took another step closer, but a strong hand closed on my arm, stopping me from taking another step. I spun to look, ready to fight—but it was Bishop.
“Don’t get any closer,” he warned. “You don’t want to be involved in this.”
“I already am involved.” I pulled away from him, stepping back a few feet so I could try to clear my head. Even now, even with this horrible sight in front of me, being close to Bishop was dangerous—as we’d proven without a doubt earlier.
I could still feel the brief kiss we’d shared, just before the memory meld had saved him from my rising hunger.
“I need to get you out of here.” His expression was grim. “Are you coming or do you have a bizarre urge to talk to the police when they arrive?”
Smart-ass. “Fine. I’m coming.” I couldn’t turn my attention back to the dead man who’d come here tonight to dance and drink and have fun, only to meet someone who kissed him—that exhilarating magical dark kiss that stole his soul and his life.
Kraven met us at the stairway, downing the rest of his drink in one gulp before discarding his glass. “Long time no see, sweetness. Did you have fun tonight?”
I stared at him incredulously. “Someone just got killed! Don’t you care?”
He flicked a glance toward the body as he began to ascend the stairs behind me. “And how would my caring make any difference? Still happened.
“Why couldn’t you stop it?” I demanded, turning to look at Bishop as we left the club to meet Cassandra and Roth outside.
“Keep walking,” he said tightly.
I held my tongue until we got a block away and turned the corner where we were sheltered from the rest of the people who’d fled the nightclub. The sound of the approaching police and ambulance sirens made me shiver. I drew my coat closer, but it didn’t help at all.
Cassandra stood nearby, scanning the area. Roth leaned against the wall. Kraven had his arms crossed, his expression uncharacteristically dour.
“Well?” My attention was fully fixed on Bishop. “There were four of you in that club. A club that you said yourself is a known hangout for grays. Couldn’t you have stopped that? I thought angels and demons could sense grays.”
His brows drew together and he regarded me for a moment without speaking. “I was focused on looking for one gray tonight. Stephen.”
“In case you need a reminder,” Roth growled. “You’re looking at a gray. She could have killed that human herself.”
I gaped at him. “Are you kidding?”
“Hardly.”
“Or maybe Stephen did the deed himself,” Kraven suggested. “Does he swing both ways when it comes to soul sucking?”
I sent a withering look in the demon’s direction. “He didn’t do it, either. It was somebody else.”
“How do you know that for sure?” Bishop asked, watching me closely.
“Because I followed Stephen out of the club a half hour ago.” I allowed that to register for him, and his blue eyes widened a fraction. “Yeah. I talked to him. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to talk to me.”
“And what happened?” Cassandra asked, drawing closer. “Did you get your soul back?”
“No.” I fought to keep my voice from quaking. “He’s not all that interested in helping me right now. He’s going into stasis as we speak. He could be dead by morning and I have no idea where he went.”