Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers) (23 page)

“But you do.”

She hugged the brick to her chest as if it was a comforting
teddy bear. “I felt it. I always thought I was a little bit psychic. Like, with
ghosts and stuff. Nobody believed me when I was a kid, so I stopped talking
about it. It faded to nothing for ages. Lately, though, it’s been getting
worse.”

Something about what she said felt important. Really important.
“Since when?”

“The last few weeks.”

I pressed up against the wall. If Jordan really had psychic
abilities, they’d been triggered back into action at about the same time Bishop
and the rest of the team had come here and the barrier was put in place to keep
all supernaturals contained in this city-size zoo. “Jordan Fitzpatrick, psychic
medium to the stars.”

She laughed drily under her breath. “You would not believe how
much some of them can make. And I’m sure most of them are total frauds.”

“I’m sure.”

She blinked and her smile faded quickly. “I loved him.”

I didn’t need a map to keep up with her sudden change in
direction. “I know you did.”

Her eyes grew glossy. “When he dumped me, I didn’t understand.
I thought it was because he was in university and I was still in high school.
But I thought what we had...even though we hadn’t dated for very long—I thought
it was real. I fell for him so fast. He was so wonderful, but then I knew he had
secrets he didn’t want to share with me. I tried to learn the truth, but all he
did was push me away.”

I went totally silent. It was like she was talking about me and
Bishop. “Some secrets can be scary.”

“Stephen didn’t scare me. Not then. He does now. He never did
anything to hurt me before. Even when...I guess he was changed. I thought he was
cheating on me. And the stupidest thing was I would have forgiven him. I would
have taken him back, even after I heard he was seen making out with...” She
looked at me, and clarity shone in her green eyes. “That was the time. When he
kissed you. That’s when it happened.”

I nodded, the lump in my throat too thick to swallow past.

“That jerk,” she snarled. “He should have told me! I could have
helped him before it got this bad. And now he’s out there killing people? He’s a
killer, Samantha. The boy I love is a killer.” She looked at me strangely. “Why
are you crying?”

“Damn it.” I pushed away the tears streaking down my cheeks
with my good hand. I hadn’t meant to let myself weaken like this, but it
happened. The more she talked about Stephen, the more I thought about Bishop and
how much I cared about him even after witnessing some of the horrible moments in
his past.

She looked at me with an incredulous expression. “I seriously
need you not to flake out on me right now.”

I shook my head, which had begun to cloud up again. I couldn’t
pull myself out of this hole I’d found myself in. It was only getting deeper. “I
can’t concentrate.”

Her expression only grew more fierce. “You can. Now, just
figure it out. From the sound of it, you’re oozing supernatural energy from your
pores. You’re half demon and half angel, which is completely ridiculous, but I’m
going with it, anyway. So figure out a way to get us the hell out of here so I
don’t have to bash your brains in.”

My thoughts raced, and again I kept coming back to Bishop and
that connection we had—how he was able to find me, even if it was unreliable
lately. But I still had mind melds with him, as strong as ever. “There’s only
one way I can think of. I need to contact somebody.”

“No cell phone, remember?”

“No, not by phone.” I closed my eyes. “I—I think there could be
another way. But it might not work. In fact, I’m pretty sure it won’t.”

She let out a frustrated snarl. “Stop being such a damn
pessimist and start trying.”

Words to live by, courtesy of Jordan Fitzpatrick, my high
school nemesis.

In my dream about Bishop, the one where we were playing chess
before things got disturbingly homicidal, he’d said something to me—that I could
control our mind melds. I hadn’t believed it at the time since they were so
random, so unpredictable. They came out of nowhere like being flattened by a
truck.

Then something Jordan said tweaked something in me. She’d said
I was half demon and half angel. But this wasn’t totally accurate. I was the
daughter
of an angel and a demon. I was a nexus.
I was the connection, the center point, the combination of the energies of
Heaven and Hell.

If you asked me, that sounded way more powerful.

I’d always doubted this power, taken what came to me when it
came. Seeing the searchlights was something I didn’t control. It just happened.
Zapping the demons and reading their minds took effort. Other times it was
effortless. If they didn’t fight me...it was effortless.

But maybe
I
was the one making
things difficult.

I was certain my mind melds with Bishop were because I’d taken
part of his soul—and it was still inside of me. That’s why I could see his
memories if I looked in his eyes. Bishop’s soul was a bridge between us and had
been ever since the kiss we shared. I needed to find that bridge and walk across
it.

And I needed to do it right now.

Chapter 21

I focused on that piece of Bishop that was always with
me. The memory of our kiss. The warmth of his touch. The deep and endless way he
looked at me, even when I was frustrating him and vice versa.

His soul, the thing that had caused him so many problems, was
beautiful—a ribbon of silver that stretched outward from me to a point in the
distance I couldn’t see.

And this I saw with my eyes
closed.
I’ll admit it was bizarre, but I wasn’t going to second-guess myself. It was
real. It was him. I knew it.

I held on to that ribbon of silver like a rope and let it guide
me to him. I didn’t fight it, I didn’t force it. I just let it happen.

“Hurry up,” Jordan urged.

I pried open one eye with annoyance. “Would you give me a—”

Snap!

“—has to be somewhere in the city.” Bishop
paced back and forth along the sidewalk. Dusk had fallen. Tall buildings
surrounded him—glass, concrete, steel. Out of the corner of his eye there
was traffic visible on the road, rush hour as everyone headed home from
their jobs. He was right downtown, a nameless street I was sure I’d been on
a million times before.

“Or she’s dead,” Roth said from
nearby.

Bishop turned on him. “Shut your
mouth.”

Whatever look was on Bishop’s face earned
a dark glare in return. “I’m sick of shutting my mouth.”

Bishop cast a glance over the rest of
them—all were present, Roth, Cassandra, Kraven, Zach and Connor—watching the
angel with varying degrees of wariness, uncertainty or disdain.

He fixed his attention on Cassandra. “Take
Roth somewhere out of my sight.”

She approached Bishop, her expression
cautious. “We’re all worried about her, you know. When she didn’t come home
last night—”

“You should have told me immediately, not
waited until today.”

She winced at the harshness of his words.
“She wanted us to leave her alone. I didn’t think—”

“That’s right. You didn’t.” He brought his
hands up to his face to cover his eyes, hunching over a little. “Not
thinking...can’t think...can’t keep it together. My head, it’s messed up,
more and more.”

“Come on, Bishop,” Zach said. “You’re
strong. You have this. We believe in you.”

Bishop snorted at that, a dry, humorless
sound—a trait he shared with his brother. “This soul.” He took his hands
from his face and clawed at his chest through his black T-shirt. “It’s
destroying everything.”

“So make yourself bleed again,” Kraven
suggested. He was the farthest away, leaning casually against the glass door
of a building. “If you need someone to hold the knife, I’m happy to
help.”

“Why would you say something like that?”
Connor snapped. For the one who usually had all the jokes and quips, he was
uncharacteristically pissed off.

Kraven shrugged. “Sheesh. Don’t get your
panties in a bunch, sunshine.”

“Doesn’t help anymore. Nothing helps.
Only...her.” Bishop fisted his hands at his sides as he turned a furious
glare on his brother.

Kraven raised his eyebrows. “Why do I get
the look of death? It’s not my fault gray-girl went AWOL.”

When Bishop swore, there was a harsh,
insane edge to his voice that scared me. He was seriously losing it. And the
more crazy he sounded, the more our connection began to get staticky, like a
TV station with interference. “I need to find her. Can’t find her, can’t
sense her—not like I used to. Where is she?”

Cassandra tentatively moved closer and
hugged Bishop against her. “We’ll find her. I promise we will.”

Bishop looked beyond the blonde angel to
Roth, who looked back at him with open animosity, his eyes glowing red in
the fading light of dusk.

So supportive, that demon. It made me want
to kick him as hard as I could in his demon crotch.

Zach and Connor stood together to Roth’s
left, both watching Bishop with tense expressions.

“What do you need us to do?” Zach asked.
“Name it.”

“Help me find her.”

Zach frowned. “How?”

Roth let out an exasperated groan. “Enough
already. We need to hunt grays. And in case you’re forgetting, we have that
other demon in town doing his best to make your precious little humans off
themselves. Remember that?”

Cassandra paled and she drew a shaky hand
through her hair. “He’s right. We do need to keep focus. I’ll go with Roth
and patrol. You and the others keep searching for Samantha.”

Bishop didn’t reply for a moment, but his
gaze was unflinching on both Cassandra and Roth. “Fine. Go.”

They didn’t hesitate. With a final
searching look from the angel, and an unpleasant one from the demon, the two
ran down the street to disappear around the next corner.

It was a hopeless feeling, watching this
and not being able to do anything.

But wait...maybe I was underestimating how
much I could do. I’d taken hold of that piece of Bishop’s soul to lead me
here—that had been intentional.

Maybe I could intentionally communicate
with him.

“Bishop!” I sent his name through the
razor-thin connection, along that silvery ribbon that joined us.

He brought his hands up to his head, his
breath ceasing completely for a moment.

“This is ridiculous,” Kraven said. “Pull
yourself together. What do you want us to do, boss? Speak now or forever
hold your tongue.”

“I thought I heard...” Bishop whispered.
“No, it’s impossible.”

I kept watching, now stunned. Had he heard
me?

“What is it?” Zach asked, drawing closer,
concern in his green eyes.

“I thought I heard...her. Calling to
me.”

Zach and Connor exchanged a
look.

“Bishop!” I said it louder, my heart
pounding. “It’s me. I’m here!”

“Oh, give me a—” Kraven began.

“Quiet! I need to concentrate. I need to
clear my head so I can know if this is real.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Kraven
asked.

Bishop yanked the dagger from his sheath
and held it against his bare arm.

My view of what he saw flickered in that
moment of craziness. For a second, I feared I was losing the connection
completely.

Connor grabbed him before he made the cut.
“Don’t do this!”

Bishop pushed him back. “I have to. It’s
the only way.”

Horror crashed over me. “Don’t you dare
cut yourself!” My scream wasn’t delivered out loud. It was fully internal
and my words sped along the ribbon that joined us. It was the same one that
allowed me to see through his eyes—a metaphysical television
cable.

The blade stilled.

“It’s her,” he whispered.

“Bishop...” Zach said
cautiously.

I couldn’t believe this was really
happening. He heard me!

“Samantha?” Bishop said hoarsely. “Is that
really you?”

A million thoughts and questions raced
through my mind about how this was possible and what it all meant. But none
of that mattered right now. “I swear, Bishop, if you cut yourself again I’m
going to kill you!”

He snorted softly, still half-uncertain.
“This is incredible. Where are you?”

“Oh, boy,” Kraven said, coming into
Bishop’s sightline to peer at his brother curiously. “He’s definitely gone
completely off the deep end this time.”

I did what I usually did when it came to
the demon and ignored him. “Stephen grabbed me yesterday morning. He has me
in a locked room, but I don’t know where.”

“How can you do this? How can I hear you
in my head?”

“Now he’s talking to himself,” Kraven
said, bemused.

“Shut up,” Zach snapped at him. “You’re
not helping.”

Kraven rolled his eyes. “Whatever. He’s
crazy, that’s all. Don’t you see that?”

God, he was so frustrating. “Tell James I
told him to shut the hell up.”

Bishop snorted. “He’d just talk
more.”

The image I saw through Bishop’s eyes went
staticky again, it flickered to black, to white and then back to normal. “I
don’t think this is going to last much longer. Bishop, listen to me. I got
to you from that piece of your soul I took—it’s still inside me. It’s what
our bond is, why I can see things. It works both ways, I’m sure of it. So
you need to find that, too. You have to follow it.”

“I’ll do it. I’ll find you. I swear
it.”

“Hurry, though. I—I don’t have much
time.”

“What do you mean?” His voice turned harsh
and raw. “Did that son of a bitch hurt you? I’m going to kill
him.”

“Stephen locked me in a room with
someone—someone with a soul. Please, you need to find—”

Snap!

The thread connecting us disappeared and my mind returned fully
to the small, locked room. My eyes popped open.

“What are you doing?” Jordan demanded. “Do you really think
meditation is going to help us right now?”

I sent a look at her across the room. “You sure better hope
so.”

So strange, but just being in Bishop’s head helped to bring me
some much-needed warmth. The whole time I’d seen through his eyes I didn’t think
once about the previous memory melds, not once. I wasn’t afraid of him. All I
felt when I’d been in his head was that warmth. He wasn’t the same person now
that he’d been back then.

I’d told him I wanted him to stay away from me. He’d believed
me, even though I’d never told a bigger lie in my life.

“Now what?” Jordan asked, the anger fading from her voice.

I swallowed hard. “Now we wait.”

I concentrated on the sound of my heart beating, but I lost
count at a thousand. My stomach growled. It was so empty after being locked in
here for so long. Food might help a little; the more I ate the better I felt.
But not enough.

Something hit me and I opened my eyes to look down at the
energy bar that had pinged off my leg.

“Eat it,” Jordan said.

“It won’t help.”

“Eat it anyway.”

I ate it. And then I tried to come up with a Plan B. Because
with every minute that ticked by, my resolve and my control were slipping away
like the sand in a very scary hourglass.

My chills returned and my arms broke out in goose bumps. I
crossed my arms over my chest and tried to keep from shivering.

I could figure this out. I had to use my brain, which had
rarely failed me before—not including the F I’d received on my English test. I’d
assumed I knew enough. One can’t assume. One had to know for sure, because
guessing could lead to failure.

I could
pretend
to take Jordan’s
soul. Stephen would see through the camera and he’d come in. I’d use Jordan’s
brick to knock him out. Yeah, that was a plan.

A really lousy one.

“Come on, brain,” I mumbled under my breath. “Start
thinking.”

Sadly, it wasn’t cooperating today. A full hour had gone by and
Bishop wasn’t here. We were stuck and nobody was going to rescue us.

“I don’t like the way you’re looking at me,” Jordan said
uneasily. “I swear, if you come anywhere near me, I’m clobbering you.”

She scrambled to her feet as I moved closer to her. My wrist
and shoulder were still in pain, but it was a distant echo now. My hunger had
steadily moved to the forefront, impossible to ignore. Impossible to fight.

“I can take you,” she managed shakily. “You’ve never
intimidated me before. I mean, look at you. You’re the size of a hobbit.”

Normally, I’d resent that. I wasn’t the size of a hobbit.
Five-two wasn’t
that
short, but compared to
statuesque aspiring models like Jordan...

Size didn’t matter. Not in a case like this.

I’d made it across the room, so close now that she gasped and
raised the brick over her head, ready to smash it down at me like she had
before.

But this time I stopped her, snatching the makeshift weapon
away like taking candy from a very tall baby. It was time to end this. Stephen
had won. And once this was over, when he came in here after watching me devour
his girlfriend’s soul through that security camera and turning her into a gray,
I was going to kill him.

My vision blurred at the edges as I reached for her.

And then the door burst inward.

“Get them apart,” Bishop instructed sharply. “Now.”

There was no argument. The next moment, I was wrenched away
from Jordan. I fought hard against the very strong person who held me.

“Missed you,” Kraven growled into my ear. “Glad to see you’re
still in one piece, gray-girl.”

My struggling only made my wrist and shoulder hurt worse, but I
was still in a daze, unable to focus on anything except my hunger. “Let go of
me!”

“As hot as it would be to see you kiss another girl, I’m going
to have to decline your request.”

Only Bishop and Kraven had entered the room. Zach and Connor
were nowhere to be seen. My breath came fast and shallow, my attention now
focused on Bishop. He scanned Jordan, checking if she was okay while she cowered
in the corner, staring at the rest of us in shock.

Then his gaze moved to mine. And locked.

He was so beautiful, it took my breath away. And even though
I’d only been apart from him for a short time, every fiber of my being reached
out to him.