Dark Kiss. Michelle Rowen

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      “You and me, maybe the movies on the weekend. Or we could go to Crave.”

      Oh, boy.

      I suddenly had the very clear image of me telling Carly about this and her not speaking to me for a few decades, even though it totally wasn’t my fault. Or maybe it was. I was still talking to Colin after everyone else associated with Carly had collectively decided to give him the death glare whenever he was nearby.

      He’d drawn closer to me until there was barely a foot separating us. Too close. Anyone who saw us might get the wrong idea.

      I twisted a piece of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail tightly around my index finger and inhaled deeply. “Oh, Colin. I, uh, really like you. Seriously, but—”

      I stopped talking.

      His scent—I didn’t believe it was just soap, like he’d said last night at the movie theater. He smelled … edible. He was too close to me right now. I could barely think straight.

      “But what?”

      I shivered, now focused entirely on his mouth. “Oh, my God. I’m so hungry right now.”

      He grinned. “How is it possible that you can make that sentence sound so sexy?”

      “Sexy?”

      “Yeah.” He leaned closer to me.

      No, he wasn’t leaning closer. I was pulling him closer, sliding my hands over his shoulders and around his nape to tangle into his hair.

      Just as his lips were an inch from mine, I came to my senses. I braced my hands against his chest and pushed him away from me.

      He looked at me with confusion. “Uh, what was that?”

      “I don’t know. Sorry … I need to go.” I swallowed hard and walked away from him. Quickly. I didn’t stop until I passed through the doors of the school and felt the cool morning air on my face. I gulped it in and tried to push against the hunger that had almost made me kiss Colin. The need was nearly impossible to resist.

      But I’d resisted.

      Something caught my eye. A blond guy stood at the bottom of the stairs by the path that led to the parking lot. He was watching me.

      I gasped. It was the kid from the alley last night.

      The one Bishop had killed.

      He casually turned and started to walk away. Without thinking twice, I ran after him.

      “Wait!” I tripped over my own ankle and almost fell before staggering to a stop on the narrow path that wound through school grounds. The blond guy had sat down on a bench and was watching my approach. His dirty and bloody clothes from last night were gone, replaced by clean blue jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt.

      “Hi there,” he greeted me casually. “Samantha, right?”

      “You—” It was difficult to form coherent words. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

      “Depends who you mean by you.”

      “You’re alive.”

      “Am I?” He looked down at himself, holding his arms out in front of him for inspection, then his gaze swept the length of me. “Hey, so are you. What a coincidence.”

      A cloud of confusion swirled around me, making me dizzy. “But I—I saw you get stabbed in the chest last night.”

      He got to his feet and closed the distance between us in only a couple of steps. I staggered back from him and looked around, realizing that we were all alone.

      He cocked his head. “Did you really see me get stabbed?”

      “Yeah, I did.”

      “Are you completely sure about that?”

      I glared at him. He was mocking me and I had no idea why. “Completely.”

      He rubbed his chest. “Funny, because I feel just fine.”

      “I’m not crazy.”

      He walked a slow circle around me and it felt like he was studying every inch of me. Like, every inch.

      “Name’s Kraven.” His lips curled into a smile that didn’t look friendly. “I’d say I’m pleased to meet you, but that would be a lie. I mean, things like you are the reason for this little mess, aren’t they?”

      My stomach churned and I wrapped my arms around myself, trying not to shiver. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

      I continued to deny it, even to myself. There wasn’t anything else I could do. The moment I accepted that something was seriously wrong here—and with me in particular—was the moment I believed this insanity was real. And I wasn’t quite ready for the asylum.

      “Sure you don’t. You’re just a normal girl, right? And that relentless hunger you’ve suddenly developed—what do you think that is? Just a regular case of the munchies?”

      I shook my head, trying to block out how much he seemed to know about me. “Bishop stabbed you. I saw it with my own eyes. So why aren’t you dead?”

      Kraven’s mischievous grin widened and his amber-colored eyes began to glow bright red. “Because it takes more than that to kill a demon.”

      chapter 5

      I couldn’t move. Fear crawled through my gut like a fistful of cockroaches. “A demon?”

      “Impressed?”

      I wanted this to be a movie on TV so I could press the off button and make it all go away. The cold feeling grew deeper, sinking so far inside me I didn’t think I’d ever feel warm again. I was sure all the color had drained from my already pale face.

      Other than his eyes, there was nothing that made him seem anything other than human. He had a small freckle at the left corner of his mouth. His hair was the kind of blond color people got if they were normally light brown but spent the entire summer working outside in the sun. He looked so normal. Like a boy I might see at the mall, or the movies, or … eating garbage in an alleyway.

      Unlike Bishop, there was no madness in his expression. Kraven was totally sane.

      Which meant that I had to be the crazy one.

      “Wh-what do you want from me?” I stammered.

      “I want to do my job. The sooner the better.”

      “What’s your job?”

      “Why would I tell you my secrets?” Kraven brushed the front of his shirt, straightening out a wrinkle in the fabric, before his gaze, which had changed back to its normal amber color, returned to my face.

      A cold line of perspiration СКАЧАТЬ