Wicked Kiss

I said it before I second-guessed myself. “I’m a nexus.”

His eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“Sounds like a car,” Jordan mused aloud. “An expensive one. Oh, wait. That’s Lexus.”

I tried to ignore her commentary. “You guessed what I was the moment you got here, but then you doubted yourself.”

“Holy crap, you’re a nexus. I knew it!” He frowned and shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because Bishop told me not to. He said it was too dangerous.”

“Well, yeah. Guaranteed. But really, that mostly depends on who your birth parents were.”

I shot him a look of surprise. “What do you mean?”

“Do you know who they were?”

“Sort of. A little.” Bishop thought this was the be-all, end-all of secrets, but I didn’t regret saying anything. I was really sick of secrets. Secrets had gotten Cassandra killed by her own hand. Secrets had kept Bishop’s dark past hidden for far too long. Secrets were what I now wanted to get out of Connor to keep everyone alive.

Secrets only made everything more confusing and helped no one.

“Demon dad or demon mom?” he asked.

“My birth father was a demon named Nathan, who jumped into the Hollow seventeen years ago.”

Connor gaped at me. “Holy crap.”

“You already said that.”

“Nathan. He wouldn’t happen to be any relation to the demon named Natalie, would he?”

This time I gaped at him. “You knew about my aunt Natalie? Why didn’t you say anything?”

He cringed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“What do you know about them? About him?” I grabbed his arm tighter and then looked down at where I held on to him. My unidentified hunger suddenly seemed to wake up and zone in...

On Connor.

My fingers dug deeper into his flesh and Connor started to tremble.

“I can feel that. What are you doing, Sam?” he asked, his voice raspy. “What are you doing to me? Stop it!”

It was his energy. It sparked against my skin like a live wire. I could actually see it. His supernatural energy was the same glowing, celestial blue that an angel’s eyes turned. And with a touch, I suddenly realized I could absorb it into myself to feed my brand-new hunger.

And it tasted really, really good.

Chapter 32

“Let go of him!” Jordan tried wrenching me away from the angel, but failed. “God, you’re like a total monster, aren’t you? Forget a hobbit, you’re a...like a...oh, I don’t know. Some monster thing. You’re the movie geek, not me!”

Finally, I let her pull me away and I gasped for breath. Connor fell to his knees, bracing himself against the floor. He looked up at me wearily and grimly.

“I take it you got that little talent from your birth father. Angels don’t usually have anomalies like that to pass along.”

I reeled from what I’d done, staggering backward.

“I’m sorry.” I swallowed hard, clasping my hands together to stop them from trembling. “Did I hurt you?”

“I’ll recover. You didn’t drain me too much.”

I rubbed my fists hard into my eyes as my control returned. “My father was a demon who had an anomaly when he was converted from human. Natalie’s was that she hungered for souls, that’s what made her the Source of the grays when she came back here and started kissing people and infecting them with her problem. My father, though...Natalie told me that he could absorb life energy.”

“Sounds like a fun guy,” Jordan said shakily.

My stomach churned. “This can’t be happening. I—I already had one hunger to deal with. Now the moment I get rid of that I’ve suddenly developed this little addiction to supernatural energy?”

“How do you know it’s supernatural energy?” Jordan asked.

I looked at her. “I didn’t feel this way with Colin today at school. Or with you. Only with Connor so far. He’s supernatural. You just have some psychic stuff going on, but you’re still human.”

“Sounds like a good bet it’s supernatural only, then,” Connor said. “Hooray?”

Jordan helped Connor to his feet, scowling at the both of us. “Okay, angel-guy. Monster-girl told you her little wacko confession from hell. Your turn. What do you know that can help us? What have you been hiding?”

She’d kept up nicely with tonight’s program. I couldn’t help but be impressed that she hadn’t run away from here screaming after everything she’d learned.

“Fine, I’ll share.” Connor scrubbed a hand over the top of his scalp, then eyed both of us cautiously. “I knew when I came here that something was messed up with the Hollow. Like, seriously messed up. That’s the main reason they sent me as an unexpected addition to the team. Heaven knew the Hollow had a leak into Trinity by then, and that was the link to the gray problem. They also knew it was being caused purposefully by someone with an agenda. The leaky part of the Hollow is trapped here, just like the grays are—like we are. The barrier keeps it from opening up anywhere else.”

I took this in. “So what was your mission?”

“To check it out. To observe. To see if I could figure out if Heaven was right about who’s in control of something that isn’t supposed to have a controller. The Hollow isn’t supposed to be a place you visit and then jump back out. It’s a one-way ticket.”