LITMIR.BIZ

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and every muscle in my body tensed in sympathy.

      I remembered that this felt worse before it felt better—like fire burning straight through your flesh and into your bones.

      Finally, Zach returned her sweater to its regular position and helped her to her feet. She wavered unsteadily for a moment, but then got her balance.

      “You’re next,” Zach said, before he quickly worked to heal Bishop’s broken shoulder and facial cuts and scrapes.

      This was close. Too close. That gray had wanted to crush him into dust right in front of me.

      Cassandra looked at Zach. “Thank you.” Then at Bishop. “Both of you.”

      Roth cleared his throat. She flicked a glance at him.

      “I saved you, sweetheart,” he told her flatly. “You almost got sucked into the Hollow.”

      Her expression tightened, but she finally nodded. “Thank you, Roth.”

      “Yeah, whatever.” He laughed. “I saved an angel’s ass. Can’t believe it. Good thing you’ve got a nice ass.”

      Her cheeks turned red before she looked at me. “I apologize for failing you.”

      I stared at her, stunned. “Failing me? He knocked you out cold.”

      “It’s unacceptable.” She shook her head, looking angry at herself. “I should have expected—”

      “Expected something like that?” Bishop said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re not omniscient. You didn’t know. That was different than anything we’ve ever been faced with before.”

      “It was horrible.” She let out a shaky sigh and let Bishop put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him.

      Despite everything we’d just experienced, the sight made my face start to burn. I fought hard not to let my inner flare of jealousy show on the surface. “He knew where Stephen was.”

      Bishop’s gaze flicked to mine. “Did you want us to let him live?”

      My attention brushed against the dead girl nearby and my throat closed. “No. He was a monster. But I—I don’t understand why he was that strong.”

      He let go of Cassandra to come stand right in front of me. I studied the ground, feeling his gaze on me, before I finally looked up to meet it. He raised his hand as if to touch me, but then his hand dropped to his side, clenching into a fist. “I haven’t seen anything like that before. Feeding too much...it must make them very strong just before it destroys their minds.”

      “Maybe he was about to change,” Roth said. “Maybe this was the last gasp of strength before he lost himself completely.”

      “I’m glad Cassandra will be staying with you,” Bishop said. “She can keep you safe.”

      “I’ll do my very best,” Cassandra said softly.

      She hadn’t exactly kept me safe a minute ago—or herself, for that matter. That gray would have easily dragged me out of here if Bishop hadn’t shown up. But I couldn’t hold it against her. That gray’s strength had been a surprise to all of us.

      “Go home. Get some rest,” Bishop said to me, then turned to Cassandra. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

      She nodded. “Again, thank you for your assistance. I thought we were on our own.”

      “Bishop tends to stalk from a discreet distance,” I said. “You’ll hardly notice him, really.”

      His gaze snapped to mine and a smile tugged at his lips. “I’m not stalking you. Never have.”

      The smile helped warm me. “Watching from a distance. Secretly observing my every move. I think you might need a dictionary, angel.”

      “You’re welcome, by the way.”

      My cheeks heated again, for a completely different reason this time. “Thank you.”

      Finally, with effort, I tore my gaze from his and began walking away. Cassandra caught up to me a block later. We exchanged a look, and I couldn’t help but notice her expression and mood were much graver than they had been when we’d left the church.

      “You okay?” I asked.

      She just nodded, keeping her eyes on the path ahead of us.

      Even for an angel, being broken and then healed again had to be a traumatic experience. I’d planned to dislike her forever, especially due to her immediate connection with Bishop, but I found I couldn’t after what had happened.

      I wasn’t saying I liked her, but despising her for being perfect, blonde and beautiful wasn’t a good enough reason for absolute and immediate dismissal.

      I wasn’t positive, but I was pretty sure Bishop followed us back to my house at a discreet distance.

      I’d only been kidding before about him being my stalker.

      He was definitely my guardian angel.

      Chapter 7

      So much had happened tonight, it was hard to believe it was only a little after nine o’clock when we finally arrived at the small bungalow I shared with my mother.

      Home sweet home. I had to say, just the sight of the familiar house helped calm my nerves. Even considering who was with me.

      I’d lived here all my life. Until a couple years ago, it was me, my mother and my father. Since the separation, it was just me and Mom. My father lived in England now. I only saw him rarely. Even the emails had started to come with less frequency than they used to.

      It would make me sad if I let myself think about it too much.

      “Here we are,” I said, stopping at the end of the driveway. My mother’s car was here. I guess she wasn’t working late tonight. Miracles happen.

      Cassandra had been very quiet the rest of the way here, as if lost in her thoughts. Her expression revealed nothing about how she felt about having her back broken by a gray...and now voluntarily sharing a house with another one.

      In the silence, I’d found it impossible not to think about that gray’s victim. One moment swept away by a kiss from a sexy stranger, the next feeling your life fading away to nothing. A kiss of death.

      She didn’t have a chance.

      I swallowed past the thick lump in my throat and tried to focus on something else, anything else. I’d decided to tell my mother that Cassandra was one of my friends from school. That her parents were gone for a few days, and she was afraid to be alone.

      Not perfect, but it would do. My mother would believe it. She believed a lot of things without asking too many questions.

      I let Cassandra into the house, eyeing her warily as she brushed past me. She studied everything her gaze landed on as if assessing it for a future report. The bamboo blind at the window, the colorful rug by the front door. The framed photos on the walls, which no longer included my father.

      My mother pretended not to dwell on the divorce, but I knew it hadn’t been her decision. My father hadn’t moved across the ocean just to work at the London branch of his law firm...he’d moved there to be with a beautiful blonde British intern half his age. He almost never emailed anymore and I couldn’t remember the last time we talked on the phone.

      I tried to follow Mom’s lead and not dwell on things like that. But it made me understand my mother’s angst.

      The sight of empty wine bottles lined up to go into the recycling bin made me wince. Cassandra didn’t seem to notice, but I did. There were way more this week than usual. And there were usually too many.

      I wasn’t the only one in the family with a growing addiction to something unhealthy.

      “Sam, I’m glad you’re

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