Michelle Rowen - Wicked Kiss

“Are you all right?” Cassandra touched my arm, snapping me out of the horrible memory.

“Yeah, fine.” I inhaled shakily and looked up at the sky. It was clear and black and studded with stars. My eyes burned, but I swallowed back my tears.

I tried to put on a brave face, but this was all still very new to me. I’d gone from being a normal high school student trying to keep a high average in order to ensure a bright future—to not knowing if I’d have a future at all.

Fear was not a friend. All it did was weaken me. I couldn’t let myself be weak.

And I flatly refused to be afraid of this angel. I refused to be afraid of my future. I was in control here. I’d find Stephen and everything would be better again. My life would never revert completely to what I’d thought of as normal, but it would give me time to figure everything out. And it would give me a chance to find Carly again. If my aunt had managed to escape from the Hollow, then she damn well could, too.

I needed to change the subject to something more productive. Immediately.

“Can Bishop be helped?” I asked. “He’s not supposed to have fallen. Somebody messed with him. But he gives me the impression this is permanent.”

“There are only a few angels gifted with the ability to burn a new soul into a fallen one. It’s not a process that is typically reversed.”

“But it was a mistake! They have to make an exception for him.”

“I completely agree and I hope that’s what they’ll choose to do.” Her brows drew together. “He’s dealing with these difficulties with admirable grace and strength. He’s rather amazing, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He is.” I agreed with everything she said, but it still rubbed me the wrong way that she was so impressed by him. I kicked my jealous thoughts into the corner like a pair of dirty socks and tried to ignore them. They weren’t helping. Also, they smelled bad.

We’d finally emerged from the dark and abandoned neighborhood containing the church. This was more populated, more active, with a main road up ahead and lines of restaurants. It wasn’t far from the shopping district known as the Promenade.

Still at least another twenty minutes before we got to my house, though.

I had to keep extra money in my purse for bus fare from now on. Like, seriously. I enjoyed a good walk, the chance to clear my head and get some fresh air, but this was ridiculous.

We passed a couple homeless people sitting with their backs against the fronts of closed-up shops. I scanned their faces quickly, but neither one was the homeless person I’d been searching for.

There was a man named Seth somewhere in this city. Just like Bishop, he was a fallen angel, one who’d fallen a long time ago. I knew he could give insight and help if I introduced him to the team, but I hadn’t seen any sign of him in a week. I’d started to think that maybe he’d just been my imagination.

No, he wasn’t. He was real. Carly had met him, too.

I’ll find you, Seth. I swear I will. I need to talk to you again.

Cassandra slowed to a halt, studying an amorous couple on the side street we’d turned down. The streetlamps cast spooky shadows on the sidewalks and brick walls.

“It’s not polite to stare at people making out,” I told her.

“Is that what they’re doing?”

“Yeah, I mean...” But I stopped talking. At first glance, I’d assumed they were doing just that—two people kissing passionately, so into each other that they ignored the world around them.

But at second glance...

Before I could say anything or do anything, Cassandra walked directly toward the couple and grabbed hold of the man’s arm.

He broke off the kiss and turned to face her. His eyes were black, his skin so pale in the darkness that it seemed luminescent.

He was a gray.

I turned my horrified gaze to his girlfriend—or, victim, rather—who looked just as Colin had earlier. Glazed, dazed, with the telltale black lines branching around her mouth. She collapsed to the ground.

No one but us had witnessed this. We were fifty feet from the main road.

The gray looked to be in his early twenties, and was handsome when his pallor returned to normal and his eyes shifted back to human.

“Can I help you?” he asked calmly, wiping his hand over his mouth to remove traces of his victim’s lipstick.

Cassandra’s hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. “I know what you are.”

“Do you?” He raised an eyebrow at the blonde angel who’d stopped him from continuing his dark kiss.

The girl who’d fallen to the ground wasn’t moving. Her eyes remained glazed, and she wasn’t snapping out of it as Colin thankfully had. The black lines remained around her mouth.

“Oh, God. No,” I whispered.

This gray had taken her entire soul in that kiss, and she hadn’t been strong enough to survive it.

“She’s dead,” I said, louder. My stomach convulsed. “You killed her!”

“Too bad,” he said without emotion. “She was very tasty.”

Cassandra’s eyes flashed with rage. “You’re evil. A plague upon this city. Upon this entire world. You must be destroyed.”

He laughed. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

She didn’t pull out a weapon, but she stalked closer to him. I held my breath, watching, trying not to look at the dead girl again. I hadn’t seen anything like this before. I’d seen the kiss before, I’d been guilty of the kiss myself, but I’d never seen it kill anyone.

This was proof that it could. That what I was, and what I could do—that this ravenous hunger I felt every hour of every day—was one hundred percent evil.

I felt no pity for this gray. Instead, all I felt was rage. I wanted Cassandra to kill him right here and right now. She was a warrior like the others; there was no doubt in my mind about that.

But as she drew closer to him, the gray watched her with open amusement. “You’re one of the people I’ve been hearing about. The ones trying to stop us from having any fun in this town.”

She launched herself at him, her hands out as if prepared to grab his throat and strangle him. But with a flick of his wrist, he backhanded her. It was so hard that she went flying through the air and hit the wall on the opposite side of the street with a violent smacking sound.

Cassandra crumpled to the ground unconscious.

I spun to face the gray, stunned. “What did you—?”

He grinned at me. “Impressed?”

I rushed toward Cassandra and snatched a jagged piece of wood from the side of the road, holding it in front of me.

The gray watched me carefully. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

“Defending myself from a killer.” My voice shook.

He laughed. “Seriously? You’re one of us, in case you weren’t aware. I saw you last week with Stephen at Crave.”

Suddenly, I recognized him. He was one of my Aunt Natalie’s minions who’d hung out at the nightclub. This was one of the grays who’d held Bishop in place while Natalie tortured him.

Fear and hatred stormed inside me.

“You’re not supposed to feed!” I held the sharp piece of wood out in front of me like I was a vampire slayer. I wanted to check Cassandra and make sure she was all right, but I knew I couldn’t turn my back on this monster for a second.

“I didn’t. Not for a long time. I tried to follow the rules.”

“Why are you so strong? Grays aren’t any stronger than humans. What are you?”

He studied me without looking the least bit concerned about my impromptu weapon. “You know butterflies start as ugly caterpillars, right?”

My heart pounded so hard I could barely hear over the sound of it. “Is this science class?”

He shrugged. “You need to come with me. We can be friends.”