around your soul...” I pushed the words out. “It’s too difficult. I don’t like how I feel when I’m near you. So I want you to do what Cassandra suggested, what the others think you should do, and stay away from me. I want all of you—every one of this team—to stay away from me.”
“Me, too? I’m staying at your house right now, remember?” Cassandra said uncertainly.
“Except for Cassandra,” I amended, glancing in the blonde’s direction. “But you need to give me my space, too. I’m not part of the team anymore.”
“You never were,” Roth grumbled.
Bishop just fixed me with a steady look, his face tense, his eyes glowing soft blue in the darkness surrounding us. “You’re so damn stubborn.”
I tore my gaze from his. “Just stay away from me, Bishop. Please.”
He hissed out a breath. “If that’s what you really want.”
“More than anything.”
I started walking away, my ankle crying out with pain with every step I took. I focused on that pain, welcoming it into my life so I wouldn’t start to cry for real. Or turn around and tell him to forget everything I said, that it was a momentary burst of craziness that I already regretted.
It was the right thing to do. He had to regain his focus. The sooner he did, the sooner this mission would get back on track. And the sooner he could go back to Heaven and be cured.
I wanted to think it was the gray’s dead victim that had inspired this decision, but it was something earlier. Before Stephen, before Seth. It was when Bishop had let me kiss him. How he hadn’t fought it. He’d wanted it as much as I had.
I could have killed him tonight, without any resistance at all.
I cared about him too much to ever want to hurt him like that.
Instead, I’d hurt him in other ways if it would keep him away from me.
I’d gone a few blocks from Ambrosia toward the nearest bus stop before I realized somebody was following me.
My shoulders tensed, but I didn’t have to turn around.
“Did he tell you to come with me?” I asked tightly.
“Uh-huh,” Kraven said. “I’m just a humble foot soldier following orders.”
I let out a groan of frustration. “Awesome. So he’s already ignoring what I asked for.”
“Your charming list of demands? Yeah, well, maybe this will be a onetime thing. Wouldn’t want to cramp your new girl-power lifestyle choices.”
“I can find my own way home.”
I started to ignore him again, but just like last time, he followed me onto the bus when it arrived. He sat in front of me, leaning over the back of the seat to eye me curiously.
“So what’s up?” he asked.
I tensed. “Are you trying to annoy me?”
“Is it working?”
“Yes.”
“You’re grumpy. Did somebody have a fight with her beloved tonight?” He rolled his eyes. “You two are way too intense, even apart from each other. Together, it’s like...ugh. Spare me the drama.”
I crossed my arms, refusing to rise to the demon’s bait. “It’s great how you can ignore death and mayhem so well.”
“It’s a gift.”
I shifted my gaze to look directly at him. “One acquired before or after Bishop killed you?”
That wiped the grin off his face immediately. “You really know how to bring down a fun evening. Is that your special talent? Other than the mind reading and zapping?”
“You could tell me the truth about what happened.”
His smile returned, only it was colder this time. It gave me the chills. “I could. But if there’s one thing you should know about me, Samantha, it’s that you should rarely trust anything I say.”
Only at rare moments like this did I think I was chipping past the demon’s thick armor and seeing the real James beneath it all. I found that oddly encouraging. “You called me Samantha.”
He cocked his head. “It’s your name, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. But I usually get gray-girl or sweetness.”
“Two adorable nicknames.”
“Two sarcastic slurs.”
“Potato, po-tah-to.”
And just like that, his mask of smart-ass indifference was back up. I gripped the edge of my vinyl-covered seat as the bus turned a corner. My dagger pressed against my right leg, which only served to remind me of the night Bishop visited me in my bedroom, kneeling in front of me to help strap the sheath around my bare thigh.
“I honestly have no idea what to think about you, Kraven,” I said, turning my gaze to the city streets speeding past us.
His grin widened. “Are you saying you think about me? Like...in the shower, maybe?”
I shot