My aunt was anomalous—a demon with a scary glitch created in the conversion from human to infernal being. She had a disturbing taste for human souls and had been branded a problem that needed to be dealt with, especially since souls, both light and dark, were essential to helping keep the universal balance. She was tossed into the Hollow still alive as her punishment. Nathan, too, had an anomaly—according to what Natalie had told me, he could kill with a touch by absorbing life energy.

Seventeen years later, Natalie escaped and arrived here in Trinity. Her strange ability had evolved. Now she was able to create more creatures with her hunger through the “kiss.” And they could do the same. Like a contagious disease. That was why there was a barrier up, so none of us “infected” could spread this disease to the rest of the world. It was an invisible citywide quarantine that would be here till we were all gone.

Natalie had known who I was. And being that I was the daughter of a demon and an angel, she thought that my nexus abilities could help her on her path of destruction and revenge. To do so, she got Stephen to remove my soul in a single kiss. She’d used the metaphor of removing a lid from a box. The soul was the lid keeping my supernatural abilities closed off to me. As soon as it was removed, the contents of this strange and scary box were finally revealed. She’d also promised that she was the only one who could lead me to my birth father, who still existed...somewhere. I figured he was still trapped in the Hollow.

And yet, even though she presented this “upgrade” to me as something good and beneficial, I still had to deal with the hunger of a gray. She’d told me she believed these hungers would fade for me since I wasn’t totally human to begin with.

The evil woman was a liar about many things.

A week had passed since she’d been killed, and, if anything, my hunger was even worse than before.

So Natalie failed. She died before I could learn more information about my birth father’s whereabouts. But before she was killed she’d used Bishop’s dagger to carve him up as duress to get me to do what she wanted. It nearly worked. I’d been very close to doing anything to make her stop torturing Bishop. That must have been when he’d realized that injuries from the dagger would chase away his growing confusion.

“Are you all right?” Cassandra touched my arm, snapping me out of the horrible memory.

“Yeah, fine.” I inhaled shakily and looked up at the sky. It was clear and black and studded with stars. My eyes burned, but I swallowed back my tears.

I tried to put on a brave face, but this was all still very new to me. I’d gone from being a normal high school student trying to keep a high average in order to ensure a bright future—to not knowing if I’d have a future at all.

Fear was not a friend. All it did was weaken me. I couldn’t let myself be weak.

And I flatly refused to be afraid of this angel. I refused to be afraid of my future. I was in control here. I’d find Stephen and everything would be better again. My life would never revert completely to what I’d thought of as normal, but it would give me time to figure everything out. And it would give me a chance to find Carly again. If my aunt had managed to escape from the Hollow, then she damn well could, too.

I needed to change the subject to something more productive. Immediately.

“Can Bishop be helped?” I asked. “He’s not supposed to have fallen. Somebody messed with him. But he gives me the impression this is permanent.”

“There are only a few angels gifted with the ability to burn a new soul into a fallen one. It’s not a process that is typically reversed.”

“But it was a mistake! They have to make an exception for him.”

“I completely agree and I hope that’s what they’ll choose to do.” Her brows drew together. “He’s dealing with these difficulties with admirable grace and strength. He’s rather amazing, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He is.” I agreed with everything she said, but it still rubbed me the wrong way that she was so impressed by him. I kicked my jealous thoughts into the corner like a pair of dirty socks and tried to ignore them. They weren’t helping. Also, they smelled bad.

We’d finally emerged from the dark and abandoned neighborhood containing the church. This was more populated, more active, with a main road up ahead and lines of restaurants. It wasn’t far from the shopping district known as the Promenade.

Still at least another twenty minutes before we got to my house, though.

I had to keep extra money in my purse for bus fare from now on. Like, seriously. I enjoyed a good walk, the chance to clear my head and get some fresh air, but this was ridiculous.

We passed a couple homeless people sitting with their backs against the fronts of closed-up shops. I scanned their faces quickly, but neither one was the homeless person I’d been searching for.

There was a man named Seth somewhere in this city. Just like Bishop, he was a fallen angel, one who’d fallen a long time ago. I knew he could give insight and help if I introduced him to the team, but I hadn’t seen any sign of him in a week. I’d started to think that maybe he’d just been my imagination.

No, he wasn’t. He was real. Carly had met him, too.

I’ll find you, Seth. I swear I will. I  need to talk to you again.

Cassandra slowed to a halt, studying an amorous couple on the side street we’d turned down. The streetlamps cast spooky shadows on the sidewalks and brick walls.

“It’s not polite to stare at people making out,” I told her.