Wicked Kiss (Nightwatchers) - By Michelle Rowen Page 0,100
and how she hoped I’d be there, even though I’d been missing in action lately. No calls from the school. I’d missed the better part of two days, but they hadn’t checked up on me yet. For all they would have known I was sick at home. It was a big relief.
When I hung up, I heard my bedroom door open, and I repressed a smile.
“It’s only been five minutes. You’re already checking on me?” I turned to the door, surprised to see Cassandra standing there, not Bishop.
“Are you all right?” I asked, concerned by how upset she looked.
She shook her head. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
I swallowed hard. “Care to be more specific? There’s a lot happening.”
“With the angel I was sent to find. How much damage she’s done—how many lives she’s destroyed after escaping the Hollow.”
“That’s not your fault,” I assured her.
“Feels like it is.”
I moved toward her and took her hands in mine and squeezed them. “No, it’s not. It’s her—she’s disturbed. Really disturbed. And this—it’s the only way she can cope. Can you think of any way we can help her without having to kill somebody she possesses?”
“I keep trying to find another way. I don’t know.”
“Can we talk to her? Can we reason with her?”
“I hope so.” She blinked, her eyes glossy. “But I’m not just upset about that. It’s...Roth, too.”
I watched her carefully. “What about him?”
“I can’t explain how I feel. Before, I—I could barely even tolerate being in the same room as him. He annoyed me so much. And normally, I’m very even tempered! I am praised for my calm and professional manner. Always!”
“I’m sure you are,” I agreed without hesitation.
“He’s become a distraction. He’s the reason I haven’t been able to concentrate on my real mission as much as I should.” Her forehead furrowed, but then her expression relaxed a fraction. “What am I saying? Am I seriously trying to blame him? It’s not his fault. But he’s...a great inconvenience to me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “Yeah, that’s usually the way it is with boys—no matter who they are.”
Cassandra’s eyes snapped up to mine. “When he kissed me for the first time last night I slapped him. Really hard. But all he did was laugh at me before kissing me again. And that time...”
“That time you kissed him back,” I finished for her.
“He’s trying to make me look like a fool,” she whispered, her expression agonized. “He doesn’t really like me.”
“Wrong. He does.” No reason to play games here. “I read his mind. I saw that he’s confused—just as confused as you are—but there are real emotions at stake here...for both of you. Nothing simple, nothing neat, but it is real.”
This confirmation didn’t seem to make her happier; if anything, her expression became only more miserable. “That’s even worse than I thought.”
My chest grew tight and I hugged her. “Don’t worry. Nobody has to know you’re breaking the balance rules with him. I swear I won’t tell anyone. You’re safe.”
“It’s not that.”
I leaned back. “Then what is it?”
She wiped her eyes. Then her gaze rose to meet mine again. “Wait. You can read minds, too? Is that like what you did with Bishop—how you saw his memories? How can you do that?”
I thought she already knew this. Letting more of my secrets out of the bag—even though I hadn’t considered this one a secret—made my heart start racing. “It’s just more of that supernatural intuition,” I said evenly. “I think Jordan’s got the same thing going on.”
She studied me a little too closely and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. Her eyes widened with shock. “Samantha...are you a nexus?”
I stopped breathing. “What?”
“It would explain everything, actually. I’m not sure why I didn’t consider it before. But...if that’s true...how could you be a gray, too?”
I fought to stay calm and look confused instead of panicked over this hypothesis. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m nothing special. Just a messed-up kid who has a minor bit of sixth sense going on.”
Her strained expression didn’t ease off. “Sure you are. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re both in way more trouble than we’d like to admit.”
I swallowed hard. “Maybe.”
She didn’t keep grilling me on the subject. She left, closing the door softly behind her. I sat down heavily and stared at myself in my vanity mirror, trying to harness my racing thoughts. Even up here I still felt Bishop’s presence downstairs. My hunger