Dark Kiss

He leaned back against the store window, slouching as if it was difficult for him to remain standing. Concern gnawed at my gut.

I didn’t want to feel responsible for this guy, but I did anyway. I liked to think I wasn’t like the other coldhearted people around here—I refused to let myself be like that. I couldn’t sidestep someone just because they were in trouble and saying crazy stuff.

I let out a shaky breath. “It’s going to be okay, Bishop. I’ll help you.”

He looked at me with surprise. “You will?”

“Of course.” I reached for his hand.

The moment I touched him, a strong crackle of electricity coursed up my arm.

I gasped.

And then a vision slammed into me like I’d just been flattened by a truck.

A city in darkness, melting and draining away like water in a bathtub—falling into a dark hole in the center of everything. People, thousands and thousands of them, trying to run away but getting pulled into the vortex. There was no escape.

Bishop was there trying to help. To save everyone, including me. I reached for his hand as he yelled my name, but he was swept away from me before I could touch him.

Then it was all over.

Where there had once been a city, there was nothing but darkness.

The horrifying image left me shaking and gasping.

Bishop looked down with shock at my hand in his before I pulled away from him. Thunder rumbled in the skies above us.

“No, wait.” He grabbed my hand again.

“Did you see that?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“See what?” He frowned. “I didn’t see anything. But when you touch me … I can suddenly think clearly for the first time in days.”

I stared at him, finding it hard to catch my breath. The strange vision—had it been my imagination? I was shaking so hard that I could barely form words. “You’re crazy.”

His expression held deep surprise. “Not anymore.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“But it’s still true.” There was way more clarity in his gaze now. “I don’t understand how you’re able to do this, but—do you feel it, too?”

“What?”

“We have a connection. The moment I saw you … I don’t know what it is. Maybe you were sent to help me. Maybe they knew I needed you to find me. That has to be it.”

The sharp edges of the disturbing vision had softened in my mind like they were nothing more than a remembered dream. Now holding Bishop’s hand felt … good. Too good. Touching him had chased his confusion away—although that made absolutely no sense. I suddenly realized it had chased my chill away, too. Warmth slid slowly up my arm and through the rest of me. Yet, despite this newfound heat, his touch still made me shiver.

I looked down at my hand in his but didn’t pull it away this time.

“Maybe I’ll be able to find the others now,” Bishop said.

“What others?” My voice sounded hoarse. “Your family?”

“No. The others. They’re … supposed to help me.”

“You’re still holding my hand.”

He raised his blue eyes to mine, and a smile played on his lips for the first time—a really amazing smile that made my heart skip a beat. “You have no idea how good this feels for me.”

I had to admit, it felt pretty good for me, too. Dangerously good.

“I don’t know what you are or where you came from,” Bishop said, “but thank you.”

I felt dazed. “What I am?”

He nodded. “To make me feel this way you must be very special … and you don’t even realize it, do you?”

I almost laughed at that, but what came out sounded like a nervous hiccup. “Trust me, I’m not special. But you do seem better. Not sure I can take the credit for it, though.”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through since I got here. I’m not used to making mistakes, but now it feels like that’s all I do. I hope it’ll be better now.”

He had been horribly confused. And now, suddenly—because he was touching me?—that confusion was gone. It didn’t make any sense.

“Who are you looking for?” I asked.

His expression grew pained again, and he craned his neck as he looked up into the sky. “I was told there would be columns of light—searchlights—to help lead my way, but I can’t find any. They were to be my guide and I’m lost without them.”

I glanced back in the direction of the movie theater. “Uh … you don’t happen to mean something like that column of light, do you?”

His brows drew together. “I don’t see anything.”

I frowned and thumbed in the light’s direction. “You can’t see that bright beam of light over there?”

“No. But …” He hesitated and gave me a hard, skeptical look. “But you can?”

“I don’t know how anyone could miss it. I thought it was coming from the movie theater.”

“Samantha …” Again, as he said my name, I felt that strange shiver course through me. “If you can really see the light, you need to show me where it leads.”

I remembered the story about Carly and the hive of bees. She’d been stung ten times and the doctor said she was very lucky it hadn’t been worse than that. If it were me, I wouldn’t ever have eaten honey again because of that painful memory. But not Carly. She still loved honey. Then again, Carly’s always been a little bit crazy.

I remembered Stephen walking away Friday night at Crave, leaving me standing there all alone. That had been my first painful bee sting in a long time, and a recent one, too. I was still recovering from it.

“You said you’d help me,” he said. “Did you mean it?”

Bishop wanted me to lead him to the column of bright light that he said he couldn’t see. And I was going to do it because … well, I didn’t really know why, but I was going to do it anyway.

I let out a shaky breath. “Okay, fine. Follow me.”