“Is that what they’re doing?”

“Yeah, I mean...” But I stopped talking. At first glance, I’d assumed they were doing just that—two people kissing passionately, so into each other that they ignored the world around them.

But at second glance...

Before I could say anything or do anything, Cassandra walked directly toward the couple and grabbed hold of the man’s arm.

He broke off the kiss and turned to face her. His eyes were black, his skin so pale in the darkness that it seemed luminescent.

He was a gray.

I turned my horrified gaze to his girlfriend—or, victim, rather—who looked just as Colin had earlier. Glazed, dazed, with the telltale black lines branching around her mouth. She collapsed to the ground.

No one but us had witnessed this. We were fifty feet from the main road.

The gray looked to be in his early twenties, and was handsome when his pallor returned to normal and his eyes shifted back to human.

“Can I help you?” he asked calmly, wiping his hand over his mouth to remove traces of his victim’s lipstick.

Cassandra’s hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. “I know what you are.”

“Do you?” He raised an eyebrow at the blonde angel who’d stopped him from continuing his dark kiss.

The girl who’d fallen to the ground wasn’t moving. Her eyes remained glazed, and she wasn’t snapping out of it as Colin thankfully had. The black lines remained around her mouth.

“Oh, God. No,” I whispered.

This gray had taken her entire soul in that kiss, and she hadn’t been strong enough to survive it.

“She’s dead,” I said, louder. My stomach convulsed. “You killed her!”

“Too bad,” he said without emotion. “She was very tasty.”

Cassandra’s eyes flashed with rage. “You’re evil. A plague upon this city. Upon this entire world. You must be destroyed.”

He laughed. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

She didn’t pull out a weapon, but she stalked closer to him. I held my breath, watching, trying not to look at the dead girl again. I hadn’t seen anything like this before. I’d seen the kiss before, I’d been guilty of the kiss myself, but I’d never seen it kill anyone.

This was proof that it could. That what I was, and what I could do—that this ravenous hunger I felt every hour of every day—was one hundred percent evil.

I felt no pity for this gray. Instead, all I felt was rage. I wanted Cassandra to kill him right here and right now. She was a warrior like the others; there was no doubt in my mind about that.

But as she drew closer to him, the gray watched her with open amusement. “You’re one of the people I’ve been hearing about. The ones trying to stop us from having any fun in this town.”

She launched herself at him, her hands out as if prepared to grab his throat and strangle him. But with a flick of his wrist, he backhanded her. It was so hard that she went flying through the air and hit the wall on the opposite side of the street with a violent smacking sound.

Cassandra crumpled to the ground unconscious.

I spun to face the gray, stunned. “What did you—?”

He grinned at me. “Impressed?”

I rushed toward Cassandra and snatched a jagged piece of wood from the side of the road, holding it in front of me.

The gray watched me carefully. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

“Defending myself from a killer.” My voice shook.

He laughed. “Seriously? You’re one of us, in case you weren’t aware. I saw you last week with Stephen at Crave.”

Suddenly, I recognized him. He was one of my Aunt Natalie’s minions who’d hung out at the nightclub. This was one of the grays who’d held Bishop in place while Natalie tortured him.

Fear and hatred stormed inside me.

“You’re not supposed to feed!” I held the sharp piece of wood out in front of me like I was a vampire slayer. I wanted to check Cassandra and make sure she was all right, but I knew I couldn’t turn my back on this monster for a second.

“I didn’t. Not for a long time. I tried to follow the rules.”

“Why are you so strong? Grays aren’t any stronger than humans. What are you?”

He studied me without looking the least bit concerned about my impromptu weapon. “You know butterflies start as ugly caterpillars, right?”

My heart pounded so hard I could barely hear over the sound of it. “Is this science class?”

He shrugged. “You need to come with me. We can be friends.”

“I don’t want any more friends. Not like you.” Something occurred to me. My gaze snapped to his. “Where’s Stephen? I need to find him!”

His lips stretched over straight, white teeth. “Come with me and we’ll all have a nice chat.”

Crap. Even the possibility that he knew where to find Stephen was like throwing out tantalizing bread crumbs and then asking me to follow him to the loaf. But I couldn’t trust him.

“No way. Tell me where Stephen is.”

“Nah. Not if you’re hanging around friends like these.” He flicked a glance at Cassandra.

I swallowed hard, not sparing more than a worried glance at the unconscious angel. “Why are you different than other grays?”

“Am I?” He gave me a grin—one of those frustrating ones that showed that he believed he knew something I didn’t know...and he wasn’t talking.