I crossed my arms. I hadn’t even taken off my coat since I’d first arrived. My chest felt tight and I literally felt sick to my stomach from everything I’d heard from her. “I want to go now.”

She nodded. “I won’t try to stop you. I’m leaving now, too. Thank you for coming here and giving me a chance to talk to you. It means more to me than you know.”

I turned away from her, half expecting her to tackle me at the top of the stairs and demand that I bring her the dagger right now. But she didn’t. I grabbed hold of the railing as I started down the twisting stairs. A few seconds later, Carly was right behind me.

“Did that go okay?” she asked. “You look really pale. Paler than normal, which is a feat in itself.”

“Fine. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

I didn’t sound all that convincing, but considering how swollen my brain felt, it would have to do. I’d wanted answers—I’d gotten them, although I wasn’t sure how to deal with what I’d heard. I now had a whole lot of information to sort through.

“So what now?” she asked.

“Forget half-priced chicken wings. I just want to go home.”

“Okay, no problem. We’ll go.”

Part of me wanted to dismiss everything Natalie had told me, but I couldn’t. Despite who she was, she’d seemed so genuine. And there was that strong sense of familiarity about her that made me want to believe that she’d been mostly truthful with me just now.

What she’d said about my soul holding back the gifts I’d had since birth, like a lid on a box—she was right. It was like a puzzle piece snapping into place and showing me a little more of the mysterious picture underneath. But not quite enough to figure out what it actually was.

If she’d been telling the truth about that, was she telling the truth about how I shouldn’t trust Bishop? That he was actually my enemy?

As we left the club, I tried to ignore the frigid air that closed around me. The sky was clear and dotted with stars, and the moon hung low, lighting things up enough to see easily.

As we turned the corner to get to the parking lot, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with Bishop.

Chapter 15

I froze. After the conversation I’d just had with Natalie, he was the last person I was prepared to see right now. And yet, when my heart started beating faster, I knew it wasn’t just from surprise. I couldn’t look anywhere but at him. He was framed by moonlight and his gaze immediately locked with mine. His scent—warm, tempting, addictive—immediately affected me as if he’d just pulled me into his embrace.

Kraven stood next to him. Roth and Zach were nowhere to be seen. Believe me, the first thing I did after getting past the shock of seeing Bishop was to check the area for the demon who’d broken my neck last night.

“Hey, sweetness,” Kraven greeted me, his eyes sweeping the length of me with a leering edge. “Looking good tonight. I hope you didn’t get all hot just for little ol’ me.”

Ignoring the demon was becoming a habit.

Bishop didn’t say anything at all, which surprised me until I realized that he didn’t appear to be completely lucid. It had been a whole day since I’d last touched him to help take the crazy away. I wanted to touch him right now, even after my mind-jarring conversation with Natalie. I wanted so much to help him, to trust him.

But I forced myself to hang back.

He seemed to struggle to hold on to his concentration. His jaw was set as his gaze flicked to the club behind me before it narrowed into a glare. “Why, Samantha?”

“Why what?”

“He means ‘why are you here when it’s so horribly dangerous and he’s worried about his little girlfriend,’” Kraven paraphrased with a smirk. At Bishop’s sharp look, he shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

I shifted my feet. “Half-price chicken wings on Tuesdays. That’s why.”

Bishop laughed and the sound made me jump. His gaze twisted into me and suddenly it felt more threatening, almost like how he’d looked at me that night in the alley when he realized what I was.

Natalie’s warning about him being my enemy echoed in my mind.

“Shouldn’t be here,” he said in that broken-up, staccato way of his when he wasn’t completely lucid. “Not again. Bad things play here.”

“You told me to act normal. Coming here is normal.”

That earned me an even sourer look. He opened his mouth as if to argue, but closed it. The heat of his glare made my heart race even faster.

Kraven seemed happy to take over. “It’s naughty and you know it. We’re here to check the place out. We were here earlier today, too, but there wasn’t anything interesting to see.”

Of course they were. Even though Stephen had told Bishop the Source never came here, why would he believe that?

“Speaking of dangerous…” Kraven cocked his head, his attention now on Carly who was studying him back just as intently. “Looks like you’re not the only cute gray in the general vicinity.”

This wasn’t a double date in the making between the four of us. This was trouble. I had a free pass right now with Bishop and the others, but I didn’t want anything bad to happen to Carly.

“Who are you?” Carly asked Kraven. She didn’t seem either swayed or impressed by the two tall, good-looking guys facing us.

“Nobody you’d want to meet in a dark alley,” Kraven replied. “Trust me on that.”