of the signs of stasis, I reminded myself silently. Just like the hunger, it’s getting worse.
I bleakly focused on the night sky for a moment, which was dotted with bright stars. No searchlights. No quests for new team members tonight.
“Blondie told you to patrol without her tonight—and she also told you to stay away from gray-girl,” Kraven said, crossing his arms. “Trying to impress her with your warrior prowess and angelic obedience so you can land a ticket back to Heaven and a chance to regain your brain. Right?” He glanced at me. “For the record, he’s still cutting his flawless angel skin to maintain his sanity without your magical touch. Won’t last forever, though. He knows it, too.”
“Bishop, no!” My voice broke. “You have to stop doing that.”
He hissed out a breath. “Sometimes I have no choice.”
I shivered. “What does Kraven mean, it won’t last forever?”
Bishop spoke to me, but his attention was now on the demon. “Little by little my sanity’s slipping away no matter what I do to try to stop it. This soul inside me...the more it takes hold of me, the more damage it does to my mind. And some damage can’t be fixed.”
“No.” I said it firmly, even though my stomach sank all the way to the ground at this confirmation. “That’s not going to happen to you.”
“No?” He flicked a glance at me, his blue eyes haunted. “You don’t know what it’s like when the craziness grips me.”
“You don’t think I know what it’s like to start to lose your mind and your control? We might be complete opposites in a lot of ways, Bishop, but this much we have in common. Sometimes we lose a battle. But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the war. Only if we stop fighting is it really the end.”
His jaw tightened. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Damn right, I am.” My surge of anger over his fatalistic attitude had helped chase my own away. “No maybes about it. We’re going to fix me and we’re going to fix you. Somehow, someway.”
“FYI, I’m not kissing you, too,” Kraven said to him. “So you can just forget it.”
I shot the demon a look. He wasn’t fooling me with this nonchalant, joking facade of his. Whenever he dealt with Bishop, there was an edge to him—to both of them. Something dark lurking under the surface. Barely restrained animosity.
I continued to wipe at my mouth to remove the taste of Kraven’s lips, disturbed that the kiss had lasted way longer than it had to due to the unexpected mind meld. I looked around. “Something about this area triggered me. Like, out of nowhere. I’ve never felt anything that horribly immediate before.”
Bishop also scanned the street as if searching for clues. “And now? How are you feeling?”
“Better. Just—” I turned my gaze to his “—don’t come any closer to me right now.”
Something slid through his eyes then, something vulnerable, before it disappeared and his expression hardened again.
Then something else caught my attention.
A woman slowly shuffled down the street toward the abandoned house at the end of the block. She was making a mournful, whimpering sound. My blood ran cold. It sounded like she was in desperate pain.
And she sounded exactly like I had only a short time ago.
“She’s a gray,” I said, my voice catching.
At the house, she grasped hold of the bars of the gates and shook them, as if attempting to break them down to get to the house.
Bishop and Kraven shared a look.
“I can’t go back there,” I whispered. “Whatever’s happening to her...it happened to me, too.”
The gray was openly weeping as she clawed at the gates, her shoulders racking violently with her sobs.
“I’ll take care of her,” Bishop said.
My gaze shot to him. I knew exactly what he meant. And it wasn’t to send her to a psychiatrist to work out her problems. A chill went through me. “But she’s so helpless right now. You’re just going to kill her?”
His face was tense. “I’ll talk to her first. But if she’s lost herself...if she’s gone into stasis...we know what that means. She can’t think straight.”
I couldn’t help it; I reached out to grab his arm. “Neither can I sometimes.”
He looked down to where I touched him, his expression tormented. “You’re different.”
“You sure about that?” Kraven asked without any humor.
“Yes,” he hissed. “So let me deal with this.”
The demon waved a hand. “Be my guest.”
I watched tensely as Bishop turned to walk toward the woman. He didn’t reach for his