Wicked Kiss
Something hard in Jordan’s eyes eased off just a little at that and they grew glossy as she turned away from me. “I felt like something happened. I—I sensed it last night when I got home. After the raid. Like a pressure had eased through the entire city. That’s why I’m here. I needed to know. I wanted to forget it, forget you and your creepy friends, forget Stephen, but I can’t. And that pisses me off.”
Jordan definitely had some supernatural insight going on. This was only more proof. “Feel better now?”
“Yeah, just peachy, thanks.” She glanced around. “Where’s your mom?”
“Hawaii.”
“Convenient.”
“You have no idea.”
Jordan didn’t speak for a moment, her arms were crossed so tightly that it looked painful. “Is he really evil now? Like, forever?”
It was kind of obvious she was talking about Stephen. “I don’t know.”
She groaned. “A lie would have been awesome.”
“Sorry. Yeah, he’s going to be great. Just like shiny new, no problem at all.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Where’s your freaky angel guy? The one with the blue eyes to die for. Isn’t he keeping you under close watch anymore?” She didn’t wait for me to answer as she checked herself out in the full-length hallway mirror. “What’s his deal, anyway?”
“Who, Bishop?” I twisted a finger tightly into my hair. “Oh, you know. Grave robber from the nineteenth century, serial killer, murdered his brother in cold blood. Now he’s an angel of death with a soul driving him completely insane, and his brother’s a demon specializing in vengeance and snark. Boring story, really.”
Jordan gaped at me. “Okay. And I thought I was in serious trouble when it came to my love life.”
“Don’t worry, you are.” Now I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know, we could get the two of them together. Bishop’s soul is destroying him...Stephen needs a soul. A nice swap-o-rama might just do the trick.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you really think—?”
“I was being sarcastic.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Damn.”
I eyed her. “Why are you really here, Jordan?”
“Honestly?” She sighed. “I didn’t know where else to go. My father’s going to be furious that I took off again without saying anything, but I don’t think I could be in any more trouble than I already am. So here I am, seeking out the one person in the city who I actually have something in common with. Crazy, right?”
“Pretty crazy,” I agreed. And as crazy as it sounded, I was glad she was here. “Are you hungry? I could order something.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You and me hanging out on a Thursday night? Who would have thought?”
I actually laughed at that. “Not me, that’s for sure.”
As I turned toward the kitchen, the vision that slammed into me was more powerful than any other I’d ever had. It knocked me right off my feet and I hit the ground hard, my short fingernails clawing at the hardwood floor.
Powerful. But familiar.
A city in darkness, melting and draining away like water in a bathtub—falling into a dark hole in the center of everything. People, thousands and thousands of them, trying to run away but getting pulled into the vortex. There was no escape.
It was a parking lot—a wide and empty one next to an abandoned grocery store with a broken sign. Everything and everyone was drawn here like a magnet. Nobody could escape from the swirling and greedy mouth that devoured everything it could as if there was no end to its hunger.
Bishop was there trying to help. To save everyone, including me. I reached for his hand as he yelled my name, but he was swept away from me before I could touch him.
Why was I still there? Why wasn’t I being taken, too? My feet were planted firmly on the ground as I watched this all unfold—this disaster beyond my worst nightmare. The end of the world. My world.
All of it being taken into the Hollow’s open and endlessly hungry mouth.
“Why not me?” I screamed at it. “Why aren’t you taking me?”
The Hollow answered in that deep, dark voice I’d heard before inside in my head. “Because you are me. We are the same. And I need you—I can’t do this without you.”
Every word it spoke turned my blood to ice. “Who are you?”
“You already know who I am.”
The vision ended as if a door had slammed in my face and I found myself crouched on the floor, shaking. Jordan was next to me, staring at me with fear and confusion.
“What. The. Hell?” she managed. “What the hell was that? Did you just have a seizure or something? Should I call 911?”
My throat felt so raw I knew I must have screamed here, as well. “A vision. I get them sometimes because of what I am.”
“A total freak of nature?”
“Yeah.” I was that, but it didn’t make what I saw any less true. So what was it? A vision of the future? What future? When would it happen? And how could I stop it?
The Hollow was sentient. I’d already figured that part out. But what did it mean when it said that we were the same?
And what did it mean when it said that I already knew who it was?