The kid rolled over and grabbed hold of my throat. He pushed me back and then slammed me down on the pavement, knocking the breath out of me. His eyes glowed red in the darkness.

Demon.

There was no mistaking his intentions right now—he was going to kill me. It had happened so fast, I couldn’t concentrate enough to summon my ability to repel him, to find that crack in his wall, and it wasn’t coming naturally to me at the moment as it had before. This guy wanted me dead and he wanted to be the direct cause of it.

Then the metaphysical wall he had around him thinned. I was able to easily read his mind as I stared up into his eyes.

Gray…she’s a gray. Kill her. Have to kill her. Have to kill all of them.

Bishop had his arm around the kid’s throat, trying to pry him off me.

It had all happened so fast. And I still couldn’t breathe with his hands tight around my throat as he squeezed the life out of me.

Then I heard a sharp crack and felt intense pain for a white-hot moment before it disappeared completely. The world began to grow dim at the edges. Blurry. Dark. There wasn’t even enough time to get scared. It had all happened in a matter of seconds.

Off—get off! They were only words in my head. I couldn’t speak, but I forced every bit of conviction I could into them, burrowing into that wall, wearing it away until the crack finally widened and I accessed my inner pool of power. A lightninglike shock exited me and entered him. He literally flew back from me and landed hard, a dozen feet away.

He’d hurt me badly, but I wasn’t sure how. I couldn’t move, could barely breathe. I couldn’t feel my body. My consciousness, my very life, was draining away.

Bishop loomed over me, his expression agonized. He touched my face gently with a shaking hand. “Samantha.” My name was no more than a whisper. “This is my fault. Please—no, this can’t happen. Look at me. Don’t close your eyes.”

He pressed his warm hands to my throat, much gentler than the demon had. In the periphery of my vision, I saw Kraven storm up to us and slam hard into the new demon, taking him down to the ground just as he’d started to get up.

“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Kraven demanded.

Bishop looked furious enough to kill. “That bastard just broke her neck.”

Chapter 12

My neck was broken. That would explain why I couldn’t feel anything from my shoulders down.

He’d done it…he’d killed me. My life was slipping away. I’d been under the impression they needed the dagger to kill a gray, but I guess I’d been wrong. Maybe the dagger just helped make it a quicker death.

“Why aren’t you healing her?” Kraven snapped. “We might still need her.”

“I’m trying,” Bishop gritted out, but there was a sharp edge of panic in his voice. “It’s not working.”

“Let me try.” Someone else kneeled at my side, nudging Bishop away. Warm hands touched my throat, their heat sinking deep into me. I could barely see anything except for his outline. Reddish hair. Green eyes that began to glow blue locked with mine.

You’re going to be okay. Angels can heal if we get to the injury fast enough, even something this severe. This only just happened. Try not to be afraid.

It was his thoughts, and he’d sent them to me as if he already knew I could read his mind. The angel—he was the one we’d found sitting on the park bench.

His touch heated up till it became so painful, I cried out as it burned through me, but then it was gone as quickly as it had arrived. My heart pounded hard—but it was still beating, which was a good sign.

The angel helped me sit up. “Better now?”

I touched a shaky hand to my throat and stared up at him with shock. “You—you healed me.”

“I did my best.”

“What are you doing?” the new demon snarled. “Why did you save her, you idiot?”

Bishop got up off the ground next to me, walked to the demon currently being forcibly held down by Kraven and slammed his fist into his face. The next moment, he ripped him out of Kraven’s grip, threw him up against a nearby SUV and began to beat on him harder. It took both Kraven and the new angel to pull the two apart.

They looked so much alike—angel and demon. I would never be able to tell what they were if I didn’t already know.

Blood trailed out of the demon’s nose and the side of his mouth, courtesy of Bishop’s fists. He also bore a cut on his forehead, marring his movie star good looks, but then the red-haired angel touched his skin and the injury healed instantly with a soft glow of blue light.

“Get away from me,” the demon snapped.

“You need to calm yourself,” the angel told him.

“She’s a gray!”

“She’s with us,” Kraven said. I was surprised by this admission, given our shaky history. He didn’t want me dead anymore, but I knew it wasn’t because he liked me. It was because he thought they might need me again.

I’d just come as close as I ever had in seventeen years to seeing everything vanish forever. I’d never given my mortality a whole lot of thought before.

Almost dead. Right here, only minutes ago. But now—it was like it had never happened. I’d had my neck broken by a demon and then been healed by an angel.

I was definitely in shock.

Slowly, I got to my feet and crossed my arms tightly over my chest to try to stop trembling. The cold of the night pressed in on me, even worse than before. My throat, though, it still felt warm, as if I had a thick and comforting wool scarf wrapped around it.