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How could he do this to me?
I didn’t remember his exact words, but he’d left me with the certainty that he had a solution. The solution. I wanted to give him my trust—and, yes, my heart, too—but how could I do that now?
Angels might not usually lie, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t shamelessly manipulate a girl who’d developed a major crush on a beautiful, blue-eyed angel.
“Samantha, stop!” Bishop rushed after me while the others stayed inside. He grabbed hard onto my wrist to keep me from going any farther.
I slapped him as hard as I could across his face. The stunned and outraged look he gave me was almost comical. I guess no hysterical teenage girl had ever hit him before.
I felt something hot and wet on my cheeks and realized the tears I’d been holding back all night were starting to fall. I wiped at them with annoyance. “You led me to believe there was a way to restore my soul, but you were just guessing. Why would you do that to me? You know how much this means to me!”
He let out a snarl of frustration. “What? You think I’m a shameless jerk who gets off on lying to innocent girls? I thought you knew me better than that.”
“I don’t know you at all! You and Kraven are brothers. Maybe you’re a lot more alike than I thought. Maybe you should be a demon, too.”
His jaw tightened. “You’re right, I should be.”
My breath caught. “What?”
“A long time ago, I was one of the bad guys.” His face was stone. “Real bad, Samantha—you don’t know. But I’ve changed. New name, new job…new existence. Everything’s different now.”
He’d knocked me totally off balance with this unexpected glimpse into his past. But, really, for all I knew he was just lying again. I glared at him with more intensity than I’d ever felt in my life, our gazes locked on each other. Nothing existed at that moment but the two of us. “You’re still one of the bad guys, Bishop. This just proves it.”
I forced myself to turn away from him, but he grabbed my arm and spun me back around so he could look at me angrily. “Did I knowingly lead you to believe something that wasn’t one hundred percent true? Maybe I did. But you said you hated me. I had to say something that would keep you around. No matter what.”
“I do hate you.”
His fingers bit into my shoulders. “That’s your decision. But when I go back to Heaven, I will find an answer. I will save you.”
“Leave me alone.” I pulled away from him and started to walk again.
He was persistent, though. He still followed me, which only made this harder. Having him near me, even now, made it too difficult to think straight.
He said he was one of the bad guys.
I shivered. Who was he? What had he done—and how long ago? And why had he become an angel if Kraven became a demon?
Finally, I stopped and turned to face him. I glared up at his face. Despite the shadows surrounding us, there was a dim, unnerving glow in his beautiful eyes as he watched me.
As I was trying to form words around my racing thoughts, something surprising caught my eye. I stared up into the sky behind him.
He frowned. “What is it?”
It took me a moment to find my voice. “Kraven said there were supposed to be four of you on your team, right? Two angels and two demons?”
“Yeah, four.”
I kept staring at the column of light that had just appeared in the night sky. “Looks like you’re getting a bonus member.”
He turned to look in the same direction. “You see another searchlight?”
I just nodded.
He stayed silent, but I knew what he wanted to say. He wanted me to lead him to the right spot, just as I’d done with the others. Sounded like somebody had their signals crossed—literally—when it came to the total number of demons and angels currently in the city. If there was another one tonight, then there might be even more than that.
My possibility of getting back what Stephen had taken from me had fizzled and died tonight, no matter what the angel was ready to promise me now.
The question was, did I completely blame him for what he’d let me believe? Would I have done the exact same thing in his position, knowing what was at stake if I couldn’t find the others?
Damn it, I probably would have.
It didn’t make any of this right, nor did it lessen the anger or betrayal I felt toward him, but part of me did understand.
He wanted to help me. He just wasn’t totally sure if he could.
If he’d put it that bluntly, maybe I wouldn’t have agreed to help him in the first place.
I hissed out a long breath. “This is it, Bishop. This is definitely the last time I’m ever going to help you.”
Two of us could play the lying game.
Natalie wanted the dagger so I could help her leave the city. I wasn’t ready to do that just yet. My heart ached from hearing her tell me about my parents, but I couldn’t do what she wanted me to do. Not yet, anyway.
But I also couldn’t lead Bishop to the Source and let him destroy my aunt—the only connection I had to my real father.
Looked like I was still right in the middle. It sure didn’t feel like the best location to hang out for very long.
It almost felt routine now, following the searchlight that would lead us to an angel or a demon. I kept several feet between us so I wouldn’t feel as drawn to him as I normally did. Didn’t help much. Even with my lingering pain over feeling betrayed and lied to, my attraction to him was stronger than ever before as I felt his heated gaze on me while we walked.
