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A soul. Bishop had a soul.
And I’d kissed him because I’d felt that hunger for him from the moment we first met.
This wasn’t happening.
“Did you know already?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
Connor looked at me. “Yes.”
“How?”
“It’s why I was sent here.” He turned to study Bishop. “Something went very wrong when you left. Somebody screwed up. They made you fall. For real.”
Bishop stared at him, his brow furrowed. “How could that happen?”
Connor’s expression tensed. “There are those who want you to fail, for this mission to fail. The gatekeeper who sent you was one of the old guard—the very old guard. A zealot who thought the only answer to purge the human world of this new infection would be to destroy the city all Sodom-and-Gomorrah style. But to do that, you’d need to fail. When I got here, I expected you to be in bad shape, but you weren’t. So I figured maybe they’d been wrong and didn’t say anything. A soul usually messes up a fallen angel’s head big-time.”
Bishop just stared at Connor with shock as this sank in.
Zach’s expression was tense. “The rest of us were protected. But if nobody found us…we’d still be wandering the streets with no idea who we were.”
“Yeah,” Kraven agreed, eyeing me. “If you hadn’t found us, gray girl, we would have wandered the city forever.”
“She’s a damn gray,” Roth snapped. “Is this enough proof for you? She needs to die.”
“Back off,” Bishop growled at him. “She didn’t know this would happen.”
“She found us and that gives her a pass,” Kraven said. “This time, anyway.”
Roth sank back into the shadows. I was surprised they weren’t all ganging up on me at this point. I’d just proven that I was every bit as horrible as they thought I was.
I wanted to go to Bishop, to touch him, but I knew that would be the worst thing I could do right now. “This—gatekeeper who did this to him. Where is he now?”
“Punished. I hope he sees the irony when he’s cast out of Heaven for his crimes.” Connor swept his gaze around the group. “There was no way to know how badly Bishop was affected by this. The barrier blocks nearly all attempts to monitor the situation. So they sent me to help.”
I stared at him. “But if he couldn’t find the others, he couldn’t find you, either.”
He nodded grimly. “See, I didn’t know he couldn’t spot the searchlights. I just knew he’d be messed up mentally. Hindsight’s a bitch, isn’t it? But now I’m here and I’m in it to win it. Five are better than four, I say. The mission stands. This is just a minor setback.”
I gazed around, as if the night might have answers. The only light out here came from the full moon above and a lamp over by the street. A pair of headlights moved along in front of the church from a rarely seen car. I scanned the sky, but it was dark. No more searchlights, just stars.
“Sodom-and-Gomorrah style,” I murmured. “Just like my vision.”
“What?” Connor asked.
“I—I had a vision that the city was destroyed. Everyone gone. It was…epic.”
He frowned. “Do you usually have disturbing visions of the future?”
I cleared my throat. “Not usually. But is that a possibility? If the old guard wants to do that, will they? If the mission fails?”
“The mission won’t fail,” Kraven said. “So it’s a moot point. Put that out of your mind, sweetness. We have it covered.”
Somehow, his assurance didn’t help. A chill went through me then, which was surprising. I thought I’d gone completely numb.
Bishop raked a hand through his hair, his posture slumped as if he’d grown very tired. What I’d done to him had weakened him. “I can’t go back now.”
“Don’t say that.” I moved toward him, but stopped myself from getting too close. Even a few feet away his scent made me dizzy and triggered my hunger again. I wanted to kiss him so badly it was like I was going into withdrawal from keeping my distance. He affected me now even more than ever before. I clenched my hands until my short fingernails bit into my palms. The pain helped clear my mind.
“Why? It’s true. I might be crazy a lot of the time, but I’m not stupid.” He held my gaze, his face strained as if he might feel the same need to get closer to me, but then he tore his attention from me to look at Connor. “I was supposed to be extracted early, once I dealt with the Source. I got in through the barrier, so I could be pulled back out. That won’t happen now. And with this soul inside me, I might not get back at all, not if they can’t reverse this.”
“I’ll do what I can when I get back,” Connor said.
“Have you ever heard of a fallen angel returning to Heaven?”
Connor didn’t speak for a moment. “No.”
“Exactly my point.”
My heart twisted. It sounded as if he’d already accepted that this was the end.
Going back to Heaven and being cured of the madness that plagued him—it was all he’d wanted since he’d arrived, his beacon. If he couldn’t go back, he’d be like the homeless guy I’d met. I realized then that I didn’t even know what the guy’s name was. I hadn’t asked.
“I met someone,” I said, breaking the silence. “A homeless man who hangs out near Crave. He was kind of out of it, rambling. When I touched him, I felt the spark similar to when I touch Bishop. He’s an angel, too.”
