Wicked Kiss

“It’s not always me. And it’s not all the time.”

I gaped at him, the thought that he’d been monitoring me made me feel like a potential shoplifter. “You don’t trust me.”

His brows drew together. “This isn’t about trust.”

“Sure it is.”

“If Stephen tries to contact you when you’re alone, then I need to know.”

I swallowed hard. “I’m worried you—or one of the others—is going to find him first and stick your dagger through his chest with no questions asked. One less gray to clean up later. But that can’t happen. I need him alive, so you need to back off.”

That painfully sexy smile touched his lips again as he studied me. “Yes, definitely feisty tonight.”

I snorted softly, but refused to let down my guard completely. “I need my soul back. I can’t live like this.”

“I know.”

The music shifted to a new song, even louder than the one before, if that was possible. The ground shook with the nearby dancers stomping on it. A waitress holding a tray of fried appetizers moved past us.

“Are you here alone?” I asked.

He glanced toward the far corner of the dark and noisy nightclub. “No. Brought some backup to help with the search while the others are out on regular patrol.”

I looked to see who it was and cringed at the sight. Someone tall and blond and familiar.

Kraven worked with Bishop to save the city from things like me. At first glance I would have guessed that Kraven was another angel.

Nope.

Heaven and Hell worked together very occasionally on problems that threatened the integral balance of light and dark, good and evil.

Soul-eating monsters were just such a threat.

Kraven represented the dark side of the scale.

He was with a girl off in the corner and it was obvious that he was hitting on her. Heavily. He braced his hand over her shoulder, creating a partial cage she looked in no hurry to escape from. She grinned up at him as if in love. For all I knew, maybe she was.

As I watched him warily, wondering what his plans for that innocent—or not so innocent—girl were, he glanced over his shoulder at me. A cool smile curled the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, he looks like he’s really helping the search,” I said with disdain. “If you’re searching for slutty girls.”

“Distractions happen.”

I chewed my bottom lip and looked up at him. “I’m surprised that out of the whole team you’d pick your demonic brother to spend the evening with.”

Bishop’s expression tightened.

When he finally released his hold on my wrist, I grabbed the front of his shirt before he could move away from me.

“Are you ever going to tell me more about the two of you?” I’d come up with no reasonable explanation of how one brother became an angel and the other a demon, despite the tiny breadcrumbs of info I’d collected along the way.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Yeah, right. How about you at least tell me the name you had when you were human? I know one thing for sure—it wasn’t Bishop.”

“Okay.” He eyed me. “It was Barbara.”

“You’re hilarious.”

“And you still look like you want to punch me.”

“I’m barely restraining myself, actually.”

That smile returned to play at his lips. His gaze moved to the other side of the club and his expression grew grim again. “I need to talk to Roth. Wait here.”

Another team member. Another demon. Roth, however, made Kraven look like a friendly teddy bear. And Kraven was not a friendly teddy bear by anyone’s definition.

“I thought you wanted me to leave?” I said.

“I’ll take you home when we’re done here. Give me five minutes. Stephen’s dangerous and I don’t want you finding him by yourself.”

“I can handle him.”

Bishop returned my challenging look with one of his own. “Five minutes.”

“Fine.”

I watched as he walked across the club to where tall, handsome and hateful Roth stood by the long bar that only sold nonalcoholic beverages and appetizers. The crowd of kids swelled to cut off my view of the two.

Even with Bishop gone, my hunger hadn’t faded one bit. Strange. I thought I’d get a chance to compose myself better.

“Hey, Samantha.”

Damn. I glanced over to see Colin Richards standing right next to me. He was poised directly in what I’d termed my “orbit of hunger.” Two feet or less. The danger zone.

“Colin,” I squeaked out. “Hey.”

I wasn’t romantically interested in Colin at all, but unfortunately, the feeling wasn’t mutual. He’d taken my rejection hard, especially when I showed very nonrejection behavior whenever he entered the orbit and I couldn’t control my hunger quite so well. Most people respected your personal space. Colin wasn’t one of them.

He swept his gaze over the short, black skirt and silver tank top I’d chosen to wear so I’d fit in with Kelly and Sabrina and the rest of the Saturday night crowd.

“You’ve kept a low profile this week,” he said. “Are you specifically avoiding me, or just generally being a bitch to everyone?”

I winced at his sharp words, but then I smelled the alcohol on his breath. So much for this being a booze-free club. Some kids tried to sneak it in, anyway. Colin was becoming well-known for drinking too much and getting into trouble. When he dated Carly over the summer, he’d made a bunch of vodka-fueled bad choices, including cheating on her at a pool party.