Dark Kiss (Harlequin Teen) (17 page)

Forcing myself to stay strong was harder than it had been before. Roth had very nearly killed me. I wasn’t used to dealing with violence. Even when my parents were having problems, their fights were all verbal rather than physical and they tried to have the worst of them away from me. It didn’t always work, but while it wasn’t pleasant, I was accustomed to words being thrown around as weapons. Not
actual
weapons that could make someone bleed.

I’d dealt with my personal family stress through my snarky sense of humor, and later through shoplifting. I didn’t do well with holding it all in. Before too long it came spilling out in one way or another.

Tonight, it felt like it wanted to be tears. I felt a sob building in my chest. When I inhaled, it sounded ragged.

“You okay?” Kraven asked from behind me.

I just nodded and kept walking.

“How much farther?”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Another ten minutes.”

We kept walking for a while before he spoke again. “You can tell me, you know.”

“What?”

“What you really are. You can tell me the truth.” He’d increased his pace so he walked next to me now, and he studied me with a strange look on his face. Confusion, curiosity, a bit of anger—but not all directed at me. Maybe he was mad at himself for not figuring out all of my secrets yet.

I shook my head. “I know you think I’m trying to hold something back, but I have no idea what’s going on. Seriously.”

“You have power over us and I don’t know why. It worries me.”

That made two of us. I wish I knew what made me so different. So
special.
It would help. “I don’t know what to tell you. I was normal before, so normal that nobody ever looked at me twice, and now I’m not.”

“You give the angel back his mind when you touch him, you can see the searchlights to find us when we’re lost, you can control the hunger of being a gray so much that you haven’t needed to feed yet, you can zap us at will…and the reading minds thing—I don’t understand it, but there’s a reason for it. And I’m going to figure it out.”

“Is that some sort of threat?” I asked, glaring at him.

His jaw was tight. “More like a promise. This mission is too important to let anything trip it up.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you can’t wait to get out of here, just like Bishop. But I’m not sabotaging anything. In case you’ve been asleep and haven’t noticed it, I’ve been helping.”

“Sorry, but I don’t trust that easily.” He was silent for a moment.

I swallowed hard. “Look, Kraven, I know you hate me and don’t want me to be a part of this. We have that in common. I want this over with. Quickly. And then I want to forget all about it.”

“Bishop told you to go to school like normal. Are you going to do that?”

I hadn’t really thought about it much yet. “Maybe.”

He made a sour expression. “Remember, he’s crazy. I think you should stay home. Stay out of trouble. Just fake being sick and hang out in your house and wait it out. You’ll be less of a problem for us that way.”

I gave him a withering look. “You just helped me make my decision. I’m
definitely
going to school tomorrow, just like Bishop suggested. Thanks for making that easier for me.”

I picked up my pace, leaving him a few steps behind me again. He was such a pompous jerk I didn’t even know how to handle it.

“Wait, I want to test something. Stop a second.”

Reluctantly, I stopped and turned to face him. “What now?”

The light from a streetlamp shone down on his hair, making it seem much lighter blond than it had earlier, a fiery gold color. “I’m thinking of a name. Can you read my mind right now when there’s no drama involved?”

There was no humor on his face. He was being dead serious. I hissed out a sigh, met his gaze directly and tried to focus. He wasn’t fighting me and there was no wall up around him like I’d felt with Roth in the beginning. What he was thinking about came to me easily, as if I was reading it off a page in a book. In my mind’s eye, it even looked like fancy handwriting—black ink on yellowed paper, being written with a quill.

“James,” I said. “That’s the name you’re thinking about right now. Isn’t it?”

His brows drew together. “Let’s keep going.”

He started walking again, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans. Nothing was said the rest of the way to my house. For a second, I tried to read his mind again, but my attempts hit a wall similar to Roth’s. He was shielding his thoughts from me now.

I guess I’d passed the test.

We finally reached my house. As I walked up the driveway, my mother pulled her car up alongside me. Another late night at the office.

I tensed as she got out of her car and glanced at the two of us.

“Hello there.” She reached out a hand to Kraven. “I’m Eleanor Day, Samantha’s mother.”

The smile that had been missing from Kraven’s face for the last twenty minutes reappeared as he shook my mother’s hand. He sent an amused glance in my direction, no doubt to see how mortified I was at the thought of a demon touching my mother.

“You can call me Kraven,” he said. “It’s an honor to meet you, Mrs. Day.”

My mother smiled back at him, clearly charmed by the tall and handsome blond boy standing in her driveway. I tried very hard not to roll my eyes. Or gag.

“Kraven was just leaving,” I said firmly.

“Yes, that’s right.” He grinned. “Lots to do, worlds to save. You know the drill.”

My mother actually laughed out loud at that. It was a light and joyful sound I hadn’t heard in ages. “Well, I’ll let you two say your goodbyes. Don’t mind me.”

She gave me a look that clearly stated that I needed to fill her in on the details the first chance I got. My mother now thought Kraven was my boyfriend. Great. Just what I needed.

When she went into the house, I looked at Kraven. He was staring at the front door.

“Something wrong?” I asked. “Other than everything?”

“Your mom and you…”

“What?”

“Are you adopted?”

I blinked. That was the absolute last thing I would have expected him to say. “No.”

“You sure?”

“I think I’d know something like that.”

He shrugged. “It’s just that you look nothing alike and I didn’t really feel any…” He sighed. “Wait. For a second I forgot that I don’t care. I’m out of here.”

He turned and began walking down the driveway, dismissing me without so much as a goodbye.

“Wait!” I called after him.

He cast an unfriendly look over his shoulder at me. “What?”

“Who’s James?”

The demon stared at me for a few seconds as the remainder of the smile left his eyes. “That was my first name back when I was human.”

He turned and started to walk away, but I caught up to him and grabbed his arm, looking up at him with shock. “You were human?”

He didn’t smile. “Didn’t you know? A whole lot of angels and demons began their lives as human.”

“No, I—I didn’t know that.” I couldn’t find my voice for a moment. “Even Bishop?”

He snorted softly. “You didn’t read that in my mind before? I’m surprised, since you’re so fixated on anything to do with him. Would have thought you’d hone in on that info immediately. There’s a bunch of memories of him stuck in my brain, whether I like it or not.”

“What do you mean? Do you—did you know him? Before?”

“You could say that.”

“How?”

“Bishop,” he said very softly after a long moment of silence passed between us, “was my brother.”

Without another word, he pulled his arm out of my grip disappeared into the night.

Chapter 13

Hold on. Did he just say that Bishop was his brother?

His
brother?

I stood in the driveway staring at the empty street after Kraven had disappeared. I was in complete shock.

This was impossible. And yet…I’d
sensed
there was something between them. Something that went deeper than the expected animosity of a demon and an angel having to work together for a short time.

Bishop and Kraven had once been human. And they’d been brothers.

Yes, definitely in shock.

This was big. Too big.

Bishop hadn’t told me. But he knew, it wasn’t as if he’d forgotten. From the moment he’d seen Kraven in the alleyway, I’d sensed something—sensed that Bishop already knew him. It had been a subtle hesitation on his part, but it was there. I wondered how long it had been since they’d last seen each other.

How did one brother become a demon and the other an angel?

It hadn’t been a heartfelt family reunion between them. There was bad blood simmering just under the surface.

Brothers. Wow. I really hadn’t seen that coming. I mean, they didn’t even look very much alike. Same build, same height, both gorgeous, but totally different hair and eye colors.

But they were brothers.

I forced myself to turn away from the dark street and go to the front door. My mother was sorting through the mail as I entered the house. She glanced at me with a smile as I closed and locked the door behind me.

“He’s very cute,” she said. “Have you two been seeing each other long?”

I grimaced a little. “He’s just a friend.”

“Maybe for now. But boys don’t walk girls right to their front doors unless there’s some reason behind it. Trust me.”

She was right about that. Unfortunately the reason behind it was to get me here in one solid but shaky piece after having my neck snapped like a dry twig by an enraged demon. I shuddered and found myself touching my throat even though it didn’t feel injured in the slightest anymore—not even bruised.

“I remember my first serious boyfriend,” she said wistfully, not noticing my bleak expression. “The captain of the football team, if you can believe it. I was totally crazy about him, but then I was all about dating and being social in high school. You’ve been so serious with your grades lately—which trust me, I’m not knocking at all—I didn’t think you had time for boys.”

I was barely listening to her, still going over everything that Kraven had said to me a few minutes ago. “Am I adopted?”

It took a moment before I realized she hadn’t replied; she was just staring at me with surprise.

“What did you say?” she finally said. “Adopted?”

Hearing her say it out loud made me realize how ridiculous it sounded. I wished I hadn’t said anything at all. “Forget it, it’s nothing.”

“What on earth put that into your head?”

“Kraven…he said that we didn’t look anything alike. And, well, he’s kind of right now that I think about it. You’re a blonde. So’s dad—although he’s a bit darker. Not as dark as me, though.”

Bishop and Kraven had different coloring, but they were related. This had to be the same thing.

I’d been ready to put it out of my mind, if it wasn’t for the look of shock on my mother’s face. She appeared to be at a total loss for words.

“Well, am I?” I began again, starting to feel ill. “You’d tell me something like that, right?”

Finally, she composed herself, running a hand along her hair, currently up in a French twist. “Of course I would, Samantha. Something that important, you’d have a right to know.”

“Well…good.”

While she’d all but denied Kraven’s suspicions, it still didn’t set my mind at ease. She’d hesitated when I’d asked her if I was adopted, something that hadn’t occurred to me one single time in seventeen years.

I was probably just imagining things. After all, it had been a really tough day.

* * *

I didn’t sleep much that night. Instead, I stayed awake, staring at the scary shapes the shadows made on my ceiling and playing “worst-case scenario.” Not exactly the most fun game at three o’clock in the morning. My alarm clock couldn’t go off fast enough.

When it did, I had second thoughts about going to school. For a moment, I wanted to stay home and hide like Kraven had suggested. However, being that
he’d
been the one to suggest it was enough to prompt my butt out of bed and off to school. Hiding was for people who waited for others to save them. That wasn’t me. I would face my problems head-on.

I mean, I’d rather not, but I would if I had to.

My future was in Bishop’s hands now. Once he got his team organized and did what he had to do to find the Source of the grays, then he’d promised to help restore my soul.

I wondered if I’d ever see him again after that. After he went back to Heaven and life got back to normal for both of us. Maybe he’d forget all about me.

I didn’t think I’d ever forget about him.

The thought made something start to ache in the center of my chest.

In the meantime, I’d focus on being normal. If I didn’t, then there’d be too much damage to clean up when everything went back to life as usual.

Even after the way I’d been eating lately, I was surprised that I was exactly the same weight as before when I got on the scale. One pound
less,
actually. Carly wouldn’t be too pleased about that. I think she wanted me to gain a few pounds to go along with the ton of calories I’d been scarfing down every day since—

Oh, crap.
Carly.

I’d forgotten to call her last night to make sure she got home okay. Also, to fill her in on the highly edited version of what had happened between me and Stephen. She was going to kill me.

I checked my phone while I sat on the linoleum floor by our lockers, but it was still acting glitchy. It was like it wouldn’t hold a battery charge for more than a couple minutes. I had no idea if she’d been texting or calling about how angry she’d been when I’d ditched her last night.

I hadn’t really ditched her. Things were just kind of complicated right now. She’d understand. Eventually.

Out of the corner of my eye I finally saw her approach our lockers. She had a big smile on her face, which was surprising on several levels. She wasn’t a morning person by any definition of the term. I slowly got to my feet.

“You look happy this morning,” I said cautiously.

“I am happy this morning.”

If she was happy, then I was happy. Not in the grand scheme of things, but I’d try my best.

“Sorry I didn’t call you last night.”

That was enough to dim the shiny cheer on her face. She gave me a sideways glance. “Guess you were busy. Did you have fun with…what was his name? Bishop?”

“Sure.
Fun.
That’s what I had.” I grabbed my books and shut the locker behind me. “You probably want to know all about it. And about Stephen, too.”

“We’ll talk later,” she said. “I promise. Bye!”

And that was that. She was gone, like a blond streak down the hallway toward her first-period art class.

After everything that had happened last night, that she wasn’t pissed at me should have made me feel a lot better. One less thing to deal with. But for some reason, her übercheery attitude felt a bit fake. And after being her best friend since we were five, I knew fake Carly from real Carly. This was definitely fake Carly.

Great. She
was
pissed at me, but trying to hide it. Just my luck.

Maybe I should have stayed home today. And tomorrow. And right through senior year.

But staying true to what Bishop had suggested—that I go back to my normal life—I trudged along the hall toward English class. It wasn’t long before someone fell into step with me. I knew who it was without even looking.

Yet another problem I wasn’t sure how to deal with.

“So you never gave me an answer yesterday,” Colin said.

Oh, yes, yesterday. When I’d practically inhaled him through my mouth when he got too close to my orbit of hunger. By the look on his face, I think I’d given him the wrong impression. Couldn’t say I blamed him. I would have gotten the wrong impression if some guy seemed to have trouble keeping his hands and lips off me, too.

We passed through the hall thick with other kids, all moving in different directions as the bell finally rang. The sound of lockers clanging shut echoed down the hallway.

“We should probably talk,” I told him, trying hard to keep at least three feet between us at all times.

“I totally agree.”

Best that I let him down easy. Rip this Band-Aid off nice and quick right now and this wouldn’t hurt any longer than it had to.

“This isn’t going to happen, you and me,” I said.

His smile faded and he slowed his pace only steps from our class. Most of the hall was empty now apart from a few stragglers like us.

Damn it. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought this up now, after all. It wasn’t like I could just walk away from him. I wasn’t that coldhearted.

“You aren’t even giving it a chance,” he said. “I felt it yesterday, there’s something between us.”

I couldn’t exactly tell him that the reason I’d been so attracted to him was that when he got too close to me, I hungered for his soul. It wasn’t something he’d likely take at face value.

I’d been paying close attention to my interaction with other people. And it had everything to do with personal space. In the halls, surrounded by kids, I felt hungry all the time, but I didn’t lose my mind and attack anyone with my lips since most people kept their distance. But Colin—he, for some crazy reason—had decided he liked me as more than a friend. That meant he tried to get closer to me. And closer—that was a bad thing. Too close and my brain stopped working normally and my hunger shifted into overdrive.

He was getting too close right now.

Not that Colin wasn’t appealing on other levels. Colin
was
very cute. He’d gotten even better-looking since the summer, when he and Carly had been seeing each other. However, his shaggy sandy-blond hair could use a bit of a trim.

Suddenly I found myself stroking that sandy blond hair back off his forehead like I had no control over what my hand chose to do. I stared up at him hungrily.

Bad. This was bad. He’d gotten too close. Only a foot away now and my brain started going blurry at the edges. And his scent, like cinnamon, apple pie—spicy and warm—became impossible to ignore. Bishop smelled even better to me and I was drawn to him like nobody else, but he didn’t have a soul to worry about.

Colin did.

His brown-eyed gaze had darkened and he slid an arm around my waist, pressing me up against a set of lockers. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel it, Sam.”

“I don’t.” I sounded breathless.
So hungry.

“I know you don’t want to hurt Carly. I get that. But just give me a chance.”

I was shaking my head.
Too close, way too close.
“I can’t do this.”

He didn’t seem deterred in the slightest. “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”