She just stared at me, seemingly on the verge of arguing. But then she nodded. “Okay.”
I didn’t waste another second. I followed after Bishop, terrified of what would happen next.
This angel had driven Julie and Zach to suicide. She’d nearly done the same to Stephen. And many of the souls trapped in this house would be due to her deadly touch.
I couldn’t let that happen to Bishop, too.
Why was she possessing him? Out of everyone in this house she had chosen him? How was that even possible?
It didn’t matter. This was happening. And I had to do anything I could to stop it.
I grabbed Kraven as he passed in front of me.
“You going to tell me what happened, or should I guess?” he asked, cocking his head. “You look like you’ve recovered nicely.”
“Bishop’s possessed. Get the others. Meet us outside.”
His frown deepened. “What are you—?”
“Just do it!” I screamed at him, before pushing past him and running after Bishop.
He walked slowly, as if his legs were fighting every step. Finally, we were a full block away from the house before he stopped and stood there, his back to me. I stuttered to a halt.
“Bishop...” I began.
“Damn it, Samantha, I told you not to follow me.” He sounded angry, his voice drawn tight to the point of breaking.
A sob rose in my throat. “I’m not leaving you like this.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you should have thought of that before you let yourself get possessed.”
“It happens through touch. I saw a kid get possessed and I grabbed him. I was going to bring him outside to get him away from the others. But it transferred to me and now it’s trapped. Kid’s okay. The angel wasn’t in him long enough to do damage. I can hold it. Better in me than somebody else.” He hissed out a breath. “Let me figure this out.”
“Great. You do that.” I tried not to panic more than I already was. “Okay, figured it out yet?”
“Let me go,” he said, his voice quavering. It wasn’t him now; there was a tonal difference, one that scared me. It was the angel who was now speaking. “You can’t restrain me forever.”
“I can damn well try,” Bishop said through clenched teeth, as if talking to himself.
“She gives you happiness—this girl. So many good emotions to choose from when you look at her. I can taste it—all of it. I can leave you broken and raw and begging for death. You know what it’s like to be fallen and anchored to something that mutes your ties to the celestial. To be discarded from the place you considered home. You gave them everything and they gave you nothing in return.”
Yes, this was a fallen angel. One who’d been driven completely insane thanks to her soul. Perhaps this was all she was now—that unnatural soul given a life outside its destroyed body. An echo of pain and misery that had no choice but to loop around again and again on itself.
My empathy for her was dampened by how many people she’d harmed since escaping from the Hollow. But maybe she could still be reasoned with. She had been an angel—that meant something to me. It represented goodness and light.
No matter what Bishop had done in his human life, he was an angel. And no matter what this angel had done after she’d fallen, that didn’t change what she was at her heart.
At least, I really hoped it didn’t.
I approached slowly. “Please don’t hurt him.”
Those glazed eyes moved to me. “I can’t help what I do. I hurt those who have what I don’t. And all I want is more.”
“Yes, you can help it. You can stop this.”
“I want peace. I want silence. But death is not an option for me. I tried to die before. I failed.”
Bishop’s eyes were glazing more. It was now hard to tell what color they normally were.
“What can I do to help you?” My voice twisted with desperation.
“No help. Too late. This body...” He held his hands up before his face. “I could get used to this. He said I could live again if he released me.”
“Who said that?”
“Soon,” he whispered. “Soon you’ll know everything. But I want to live again now. I want my pain to end now. I can’t wait any longer.”
“The only way you can live is by destroying the lives of others.” It was Kraven speaking behind me. My heart pounded so loud in my ears I could barely hear him. “You can’t do that. Not with him, anyway.”
“Brothers,” the angel said. “You and he are brothers. You care for him.”
He shrugged a shoulder. He still had his red cup in hand and he swirled its contents. “Wrong. Actually, I hate his guts. But if anybody’s going to destroy his angelic life, it’s going to be me, not you. So hands off.”
“He’s mine. And you can’t stop me. Neither of you can.”
I glared at the deadly angel who possessed Bishop, anger shoving past my fear. Nobody had any idea how to deal with this creature, apart from sticking the golden dagger through its borrowed chest. Well, this particular chest wasn’t going to be sacrificed like that since I had grown extremely fond of it. They’d have to kill me first.
I approached, placing one foot in front of the other.
“Gray-girl, what the hell are you doing?” Kraven growled.
“I’m not a gray anymore,” I told him. “That part of me dropped dead earlier. The rest of me crawled back to life.”