“I’m still working on it.” It was a lie, of course, but I had no intention of handing the dagger over to her.
Disappointment skittered across her pretty face, but then she nodded at Bishop. “You care about him, don’t you?”
There was something in the way she said it. It wasn’t the curiosity of an aunt wondering which boy her niece was currently interested in. There was an edge of unpleasantness that hadn’t been there before.
A shiver went through me. “Are you asking as my aunt or as somebody who wants to use my feelings against me?”
She raised an eyebrow, regarding me with amusement now. “I feel like something’s changed between us, Samantha. I thought we were establishing a close bond. Was I wrong about that?”
My throat felt tight. “You said they’re under control.” I thrust my chin toward the group of grays watching us creepily. “And that losing a soul is more freeing than harmful to a human, other than having to deal with the hunger.”
“I did say that.”
“But Carly’s changed.” I struggled to keep my voice from breaking. “I want my best friend back. The one who still knows the difference between right and wrong like I do.”
Carly groaned. “Oh, brother. Give me a break. The universe does not revolve around you, Sam. Get over yourself.”
I flicked a glance from her back to my aunt. “See what I mean?”
“So you don’t think it’s for the better? She’s kind of sassy like this, don’t you think?”
I didn’t reply. She was baiting me and I didn’t want to play into it. She found all this amusing. My pain was amusing to her.
Even still, the longer I was here, the more I doubted my original plan. Even if Natalie revealed herself to be a totally evil demon without a chance for redemption, could I really kill her?
Maybe not. But Bishop could.
I’d seen him wield this dagger without hesitation. It was his mission to come to this city and find the Source. To stop her because she was a dangerous threat to the balance of the entire universe.
I had to get the dagger to him. But that might be tricky.
Also, the fact that he was so close to me right now that I could feel the heat from his body sinking into mine—that his addictive scent had wrapped itself around me and made it nearly impossible for me to concentrate—my mind wasn’t working right. It never did when he was this close to me.
“What do you want?” Bishop said. It was directed toward Natalie.
She moved her attention from me, her face pinched and displeased now, but it shifted into something else. I recognized that look in her eyes. I’d seen it in Carly’s.
Predator.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She moved closer to him. Her gaze slid down the length of his body. “Happiness, wealth, true love. Just like everybody else.”
“That’s all?”
“What else is there that matters?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Destruction, vengeance, power, world domination.”
Her smile stretched, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Those are fun, too.”
“How did you escape the Hollow?”
She regarded him in silence and it seemed as if she was fighting to hold on to that calm and amused expression. “You know, Samantha, that dagger your friend Bishop carries—or usually carries—is one similar to what was used on your mother.”
Pain twisted inside me.
“Your father really did love her, but their relationship was forbidden. Nothing that threatens the perfect universal balance is allowed to exist, you see. Unfair, isn’t it?”
“Where’s my father?” I asked, trying very hard to keep my voice steady.
“I told you I’d take you to him if you helped me.” Her brown eyes, so much like mine, moved to me. “He’ll be disappointed that you failed to bring me what I asked for.”
“You want the dagger,” Bishop said.
Her smile returned. “I do.”
“What happened to you all those years in the Hollow? What’s it like in there? It’s not supposed to be like anything. It’s supposed to be the end of everything.”
Her eyes flashed red. “Maybe that’s how it is if you’re dead. But I was thrown in there alive, just like my brother was.”
“He wasn’t thrown, he jumped,” I said. “You told me he followed after Anna.”
“Same difference.”
“I’m sure you weren’t the first ones who entered the Hollow that way. It sucks in anything within its radius, not only the dead.”
“You’re right. There’s lots of garbage inside that Heaven and Hell didn’t think would ever see the light of day again. Everyone assumes that Hell is where that darkness and true evil end up. But even they have standards. Anything unacceptable, anything problematic or anomalous that can’t be properly categorized or used, gets tossed.” Her lips thinned. “But it’s not the end. It’s not a black hole of nothingness. It’s so much more than that now.”
“Since when?” Bishop asked. “When did it change?”
She laughed…an unpleasant sound. “Were you sent here to ask me these questions before you killed me? I guess they know something’s up with the Hollow. They’re afraid of what that might mean to their precious balance.”
He shook his head. “They’re not afraid.”
“They should be. Actually, they should be terrified. If I got out, other things will, too. I can promise you that. Other things that will make me look like nothing more than a pretty girl who likes to kiss pretty boys. All here in Trinity.”