Stone Cold Touch

The fire had moved up my arm, and I tried to pull away, but Zayne locked me down, keeping my injured arm straight and still. A dizzying swarm of curses left my tongue, and Zayne chuckled hoarsely.

“I had no idea you had that kind of mouth on you,” he said.

“I don’t care. I want her to stop. Now.” I tried to pull back, but his grip tightened. “Stop. Please.”

“We can’t stop, baby. It’ll be over soon. She’s almost half done.” Zayne’s body was stiff, and Bambi started to slide up my hip. The last thing we needed was for her to come off and eat Danika. But the snake stilled. Maybe Zayne was right and she had an upset belly. “And then you’ll be perfect,” he added.

“I’m not perfect.” My entire body throbbed like one giant raw wound. God, I was a wimp. No pain tolerance whatsoever. Then again, my skin was being stitched back together with minimal numbing. “I s-smell like a demon.”

“You don’t smell like a demon.” He seemed to hold his breath as I screamed into his chest again. “You smell like...like freesia.”

“Freesia? I—I smell like blood and demon,” I whispered hoarsely, squeezing his hand until I felt his bones as she made another loop. “Sorry,” I gasped out.

“It’s okay.” Zayne managed to get closer, fitting his body against mine. “You don’t smell like blood.”

I moaned as Danika tugged on the thread. “You’re a really bad liar.”

“Finished,” she said, letting out a ragged breath. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“I-it’s okay.” I pressed my face against Zayne’s chest, inhaling that winter-mint scent of his. My fingers ached from clenching his hand and shirt. “T-thank you.”

She drew in a deep breath as she quickly bandaged the wound. “You should rest for a few minutes, let your body settle down, and it might be a good idea to take a deep sleep tonight, just so you’ll feel better quicker after the loss of blood.”

Deep sleep meant retreating into a shell-like form so we could rest on a cellular level, but I’d never slept like that before. Even though I probably would’ve shifted today if Bambi hadn’t made an appearance, I hadn’t shifted since the night in the gym and I didn’t think I could ever sleep that way.

I didn’t know how long we lay there with Danika sitting on the edge of the bed. Zayne smoothed a hand up and down my back until eventually the tremors subsided and the contents of my stomach settled a bit. He eased his leg off mine.

“You okay?” Zayne asked. When I nodded, he pulled back a little, smoothing a hand over my damp cheeks. “You want to try to sit up?”

Not trusting myself to speak yet, I nodded again. With Zayne’s help, I got the quilt readjusted and sat up. My head swam a bit and dark spots clouded my vision.

“I can get her some pain relievers,” Danika said, her voice slightly off as she stared at her elegant hands while wiping off my blood. “Jasmine won’t notice that.” Looking over her shoulder, her gaze landed on where Zayne’s arm rested over my shoulders. “I can get you something to wear.”

“There...there should be a hoodie on my bed.”

Danika left and returned quickly with the hoodie and while both of them turned away, I carefully eased it up over my bandage. When I was done zipping it up, they faced me.

“Thank you,” I said again.

“How do you feel?” Danika moved to sit beside me.

“I don’t think I’ll puke.” At her relieved look, I tried to hide my weak grin, but Zayne saw it, and his eyes lightened. “That...sucked.”

“You did good.” She glanced over at Zayne. He stood in front of me, arms crossed and features stark. “What do we do now?”

My brain felt like mush, I figured because I needed sugar. Lots of sugar. It helped with the cravings. And a nap. Maybe two naps. Just because. Then I was going to bed.

Zayne sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I don’t think this is the time.”

“She needs to know. Obviously.”

Ears perking right up, I lifted my head, my gaze bouncing between the two. “Know what?”

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but instead he took a step and sat beside me. “There has been something I’ve sensed about you over the past couple of days.”

“Okay.” My arm burned something fierce, but dread pushed away the pain. “I smell like a demon?”

“You don’t smell any different than usual. That...asshole never should’ve phrased it that way, but I do...” He exhaled deeply as he rubbed a hand along his jaw. “I have sensed the demonic side in you more.”

My already sensitive stomach dropped.

“It’s really no different than sensing another demon,” Danika said, twisting her hands together. “But it’s as though we’re sensing a certain kind of demon—an Upper Level one.”

Air whooshed right out of my lungs as I twisted toward Zayne and my voice came out in a pitiful whine. Upper Level demons were the most powerful, the most dangerous. “I’d rather smell like a normal demon.”

He didn’t say anything, but a tortured, pinched look crept across his face.

A second went by. Then a minute. I’m not even sure it had sunk in. The fact that I felt like an Upper Level demon to them was moldy icing on the cake. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“How could I? You would have thought the worst and I didn’t want to bring that down on you. And it doesn’t matter, because you’re part Warden. You’re inherently—”

A low hum reverberated through the house and steel shields slammed down over the windows, causing Danika and me to jump. Similar thumps sounded as Zayne shot to his feet. I’d never seen the windows do that before, but I knew what it meant.

Zayne whirled as Danika paled. “Demons,” he said, hands curling into fists. “There are demons here. Stay here. Both of you.”

He was already out the bedroom door.

Danika and I exchanged looks and, rising in mutual agreement, we followed him downstairs. What they had told me could wait. For the shields to go down on our home, we had to be under attack.

Two of the clansmen stood guard in front of the sitting room, where I knew Jasmine must’ve been cloistered away with the babies. The front door was open, which caught me off guard. There was steel reinforcement there, too, but for the door to be open, as if there was nothing to fear? The night air seeped in, bringing with it a certain scent.

My pulse kicked up and my mouth dried.

Maddox blocked the entrance and he turned, eyes narrowing on us. “Danika, you need to stay back.”

“What’s going on?” she demanded as her pupils stretched vertically. “There are demons out there. I sense them.”

“We’re well aware. Abbot is with them,” he replied. “So are the men. This is none of your concern.”

Danika stiffened beside me.

I didn’t sense jack, which solved the question about that, but that smell—oh my God, that smell. Tiny hairs rose all over my body as I stumbled forward blindly.

“Layla.” Danika rushed after me. “You shouldn’t go out there.”

Maddox didn’t try to stop me as I dodged around him. The scent grew stronger as I stepped out into the chilly air. Goose bumps raced across my flesh. The sweet and musky aroma invaded my nostrils. My overworked heart kicked into overdrive and too much—too much—emotion rose swiftly through me.

I saw Zayne standing in the driveway and beside him was his father and Geoff and Dez and others, but it was the darker forms beyond them, near the lawn leading to the woods, that drew me closer. My legs shook as I picked up speed and raced down the steps.

Zayne turned halfway, holding up a hand as if he wished to stop or catch me. His jaw was set in a hard, forbidding line. “Layla—”

I didn’t stop. Nothing in this world could’ve made me stop. Exhaustion and pain were forgotten in a rush. Zayne stepped just a few inches to the side, completely facing me.

Then I saw him.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes as my heart stopped in my chest and then sped up. Everything messed up about the past two weeks vanished the moment my eyes locked with that golden-colored gaze.

“Roth,” I whispered.

CHAPTER FIVE

He was as tall and striking as any prince topside could ever be.

And he looked like he had the first time I’d seen him.

Lazy locks of raven-black hair fell over his forehead, brushing against equally dark, arched brows. His cheekbones were broad and high; eyes slightly tilted at the outer corners were a dazzling blend of gold and amber, giving his face a near inhuman quality. Those lips, with their fuller bottom one, were currently parted. A black T-shirt stretched across a chest that I knew was unbelievably well-defined and a toned stomach—the kind of stomach that put six-packs to shame. His jeans hung low on his hips, held up by a studded belt.

Only thing missing was Bambi and she was currently wigging out on my skin, slithering up and down, but Roth was alive and he was here.

His eyes widened slightly. Might’ve been my imagination, but I swore I could see the glint of the metal bolt in his tongue as he wet his lips. The muscles in his jaw tensed as an unreadable look flickered across his striking face, and I forgot about everyone else. My heart was swelling so big I felt as if I could float right up to the stars.

Someone said something, but it was lost in the pounding of my heart and the blood rushing through me.

Roth took a step toward me as his gaze swung sharply to my right. He stopped, his eyes flashing an intense amber. A hand clamped down on my upper arm, just below the bandage.

My step faltered as I swallowed a cry. Zayne moved forward at the same time Roth did, but Abbot bent his head to mine. “Mind yourself, girl. No matter what he did for us, don’t forget he’s still a demon.”

“Actually, I’m a prince,” Roth corrected him in that deep, rich-as-dark-chocolate voice that sent a wake of shivers down my spine—the voice I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear again. “It’s best you don’t forget that.”

Abbot stiffened and his hand tightened a fraction as I tried to pull free.

“And it would also serve you well to let go of her,” he continued, raising his chin a notch. “So we can start waving our little white flag of friendship without spilling blood.”

“Not that spilling blood would be such a bad thing.” Beside Roth, a demon I recognized as an infernal ruler smiled broadly, displaying straight, white teeth. Cayman was sort of like demon middle management. I had no idea who the third demon was that remained behind the other two.

“And you will do well to remember you’re on my property.” Abbot did release his hold, and I would’ve raced forward, but the look Roth sent me warned me not to.

Confused, I drew in a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart. I wanted to ignore his look and throw myself at him. Just so I could touch him and make sure he was real and he was okay, but I couldn’t forget where I was. Half my clan was outside and although Roth had sacrificed himself—well, it had appeared that way—for the greater good, no one would be happy if I started climbing all over him like a deranged spider monkey.

But as I stared at him and it really began to sink in that Roth was here and he was okay, I couldn’t understand how this was the first time I was seeing him. Better yet, how had he gotten out of the fiery pits? They were supposedly inescapable.

Or why he was here.

Abbot seemed to rise to a fuller height. “And there will never be a ‘white flag of friendship’ between our kinds.”

Roth placed a hand to his chest. “Ouch, there went all my hopes and dreams of our kinds dancing together under rainbows.”

A vein started to protrude from Abbot’s forehead. He turned to me. “You need to go inside, Layla.”

Like holy Hell I was, but before I could say that, Roth inclined his head and said, “No, she needs to be here. I came for a reason, although we got a little off track.”

A little off track with what? How long had Roth been here? Pushing my hair back from my face, I felt as though my brain was running in slow motion. I glanced at Zayne, but he was focused on Roth as if he wanted to punt kick him back to Hell. The corners of my lips slipped down. I got that Zayne and Roth could never be BFFs, but had Zayne forgotten what Roth had done for him?

Maddox had made his way outside and stood beside a silent Dez. At some point, Maddox must’ve shifted, because he was in his true form. His skin was the color of granite and his wings reached out to an impressive eight feet. Nostrils flat and yellow eyes glowing fiercely, he showed his fangs. “There can be no reason why we’re allowing them to stand here.” He turned to Abbot, clawed hands forming fists. “Tomas is missing and I’m wagering they have something to do with it.”

Uh...

Bambi curled around my stomach and then stretched, as if she were happy with the reminder of her early-evening meal.

“I have no idea who Tomas is,” Roth replied, his lips—lips that had burned themselves into my memory—curled into a smirk. “Then again, you Wardens do all look alike.”

Maddox hissed. “You think you’re cute?”

“Nah, I think I’m sexy.” The smirk spread, but it didn’t reach his cool ocher eyes. “And I also think I’m hilarious.”

Dez and the rest of the Wardens tensed. I guessed they thought Roth should be intimated by so many of them, but Roth...well, the more sticky the situation, the more of a smart- ass he became.

Cayman winked at me as he swaggered forward. My brows rose. All of this seemed surreal. Maybe I’d lost too much blood, passed out, and all of this was just some kind of bizarre dream.

“Can we get to the point?” Cayman asked gamely. “Time truly is of the essence.”

Abbot exhaled deeply, nostrils flaring, but he nodded.

“We have a huge problem,” Roth said, focusing on the clan leader. The smirk slowly slipped from his face, and a chill slithered down my spine. “A Lilin has been born.”

All the Wardens stared at him as though he’d dropped his pants and done a little dance. I gaped at him, mind rapidly replaying what Roth had said. We couldn’t have heard him right. There was no way a Lilin—a race of demons that could strip souls with just a touch—could have been created. They were so vile that stripping the souls didn’t just kill the human or Warden in question, but turned them into vengeful wraiths—spirits hell-bent on causing destruction. The Wardens had been created to wipe the Lilin off the Earth back during the times of Eve and that damn apple.

“That’s impossible,” Zayne snarled. “What kind of crap are you trying to pull?”

Roth shifted his gaze to him, his expression a hard mask. “I’m not trying to pull anything and trust me, there’re more interesting lies to be told.”

“It can’t be true,” Abbot stated, folding his massive arms across his broad chest. “We know what it takes to raise the Lilin and those things didn’t happen. Not to mention, Paimon was stopped before the ritual could be completed.”

“A demon trying to lie to us?” Dez snorted as a cold breeze stirred his hair. “Such a surprise.”

Mischief, the kind that would bring down entire cities, flared in Roth’s eyes. He opened his mouth, but I stepped forward. “How is this possible? You—we know that it’s not.”

Roth kept his gaze trained on Zayne. “It is.”

“How do you know?” I demanded.

A Warden snorted and muttered, “Can’t wait to hear this story.”

His lips curled up on one side. “As all of you should know, if you’ve read your ‘when the shit hits the fan’ manual, there are four chains securing Lilith in Hell.”

I nodded. I knew that Lilith, my estranged mother, was chained in Hell, but didn’t see how that had anything to do with this.

“Two of the chains broke when Paimon tried to perform the ritual, leaving only two chains secured,” he continued. “A third—”

“Wait.” Abbot raised a hand. “How exactly did two chains break? Paimon was stopped and Layla’s innocence—the key to the ritual—remains in place. So this cannot be true.”

Oh my God...

The whole innocence thing again. I bit back a groan as I folded my hand around my necklace. For the Lilin-raising ritual to have been completed, several things had to have taken place. The blood of Lilith had to have been spilled and that had come from the ring I still wore around my neck. My blood had to have been drawn and that also had happened, but the last two were the biggies.

I’d had to have taken a soul and would have had to have lost my innocence, like in the biblical sense. Only Zayne and Roth knew I’d taken a soul and Abbot could never know or he’d put me down. The other part? I was still a virgin, so it couldn’t—

“Paimon had the blood parts down,” Roth said, following my train of thought. He didn’t look at me as he spoke, but there was a razor-sharp edge to his words. Knots formed in my belly. “She was cut. I saw it.”

How in the world he’d seen the tiny prick during the fight was beyond me. “Yes. Paimon drew my blood and it spilled, but...” That night came back to me in a rush. After Roth and Paimon had been trapped and sent to the fiery pits, the floor had been scorched where they’d stood and there’d been a hole in the ground, right where I’d been tied down.

Abbot’s brows slammed together. He opened his mouth and then turned a piercing stare on me. I shrank back from the accusation in his glare. Did he know about Petr? That I’d taken the Warden’s soul in self-defense? I could already feel the noose circling my neck. Zayne shifted closer to me, and the air leaked out of my lungs.

“Your innocence,” Abbot said in a low, deceptively calm voice. “You claimed that you were still innocent, Layla.”

Claimed? “I didn’t lie to you.”

“Then how did the chains break?” he demanded.

“Now he believes us,” Cayman said, shaking his head. “How quickly he doubts Layla.”

Even though that accurate observation stung, I ignored the infernal ruler as my gaze tracked over the demons and Wardens. Nicolai looked away when my gaze met his. Dez and Maddox stared at me with a look of dawning understanding. I couldn’t even look at Zayne to see if he was also jumping to conclusions.

The only good thing I could see right now was that no one assumed I’d taken a soul. Instead, they believed I dropped my undies. My lips pursed. I was torn between denying what they were assuming, thereby revealing what I’d actually done, and keeping my mouth shut.

Zayne let out a deep breath. “Layla told us that she’s...well, you know what she said. We have no reason to doubt her, but we have every reason not to trust them.”

The relief that coursed through me was short-lived when Roth arched a graceful brow. “Considering I threw your ass out of that trap and took your place, I’d think you’d have a tad bit more faith in me.”

I closed my eyes. This conversation was about to go downhill fast.

“And I thank you for that,” Zayne responded in clipped tones. “But that doesn’t change what you are or the fact that Layla is still—”

Heat swamped my cheeks. “Okay. Stop. All of you. This gossipfest about my virginity is not something I want to continue.”

“You and me both,” muttered Dez.

“But I was still rocking a hymen the last time I checked, which means I’m a virgin.” My hands formed ineffective fists when Roth’s brows climbed up his forehead. “So can we not talk about this anymore?”

“Then if what you’re saying is true, the demon is lying,” Abbot spat.

“The demon?” Roth scoffed. “That’s ‘Your Highness’ to you.”

“Okay.” Cayman glided forward, raising his hands in mock surrender as the Wardens bared fangs in warning. “Nobody is lying—not our Crown Prince or our wittle, precious, virginal Layla.”

I shot him a dirty look.

He grinned. “As always, the text in which the ritual was written does not go into detail explaining how or what it takes for Layla to lose her innocence.”

“I wish you would stop saying that,” I muttered, rubbing my brow. I was starting to get a headache. “It’s not like you can just ‘lose’ your innocence or accidentally misplace it somewhere and forget about it.”

Abbot’s eyes narrowed.

“Good point.” Cayman shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he rocked back on the heels of his boots, and by the glee in his expression, I had this horrible feeling that I’d just talked my way into a corner. “The loss of innocence refers to carnal sin and it’s not like you have to do the deed to experience the pleasure of sin. Correct?”

Blood drained from my face as my mouth dropped open. Oh, I had experienced pleasure with Roth. That blood rushed right back to my face as the hours before we’d gone for the Lesser Key played out in my thoughts. Roth and I...we hadn’t done it, but we’d done other things. Well, he’d done things with his hand that I had only—oh God, I really needed to stop thinking about that right now.

Roth’s impossibly long lashes lowered as what Cayman had said sank into the minds and imaginations of all those present. One by one, they looked at me like...like I’d murdered a nursery of babies and then bathed gleefully in their blood.

“What?” I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the next. I glanced at Zayne. A muscle throbbed along his jaw.

Cayman dipped his chin. “In other words, all she needed to do was have an orgasm.”

“Oh my God,” I moaned, smacking my hands over my burning face. I’d rather be back in the alley, about to be sliced and diced by the Warden, than where I was.

“And most likely not by herself,” Cayman added. “Besides, that is the only explanation.”

Someone kill me now.

Zayne swore under his breath and I thought I heard the word whore muttered from someone in the peanut gallery behind me, but I couldn’t be sure because no one reacted to the low murmur. It didn’t take a genius for anyone to figure out whom I’d experienced “the pleasure of sin” with. Wasn’t like I had a lot of options considering the whole “getting too close to anyone with a soul” thing.

“Well...” Roth drew the word out. “This is awkward.”

I slowly lowered my hands. “You think?”

He didn’t look at me. “So now that we have this covered—”

“But what about the taking of the soul?” Nicolai demanded.

Hair rose on the back of my neck. The change of subject should’ve given me happy feet, but Hell, it just got worse.

Roth shrugged. “The Lesser Key is an ancient text, remember? That means it’s not the easiest thing in the world to interpret. Clearly we all got something wrong, despite my superior intelligence. You have the Lesser Key. See if you can figure out what.”

The Wardens seemed to believe that for the moment, but Abbot shot me a look that said we’d talk later and that was so not a conversation I was looking forward to.

“But back to the issue at hand—three of the chains broke, meaning there is a Lilin.”

That again. “Wait,” I said, drawing in a deep breath. “I didn’t know her chains would break if the Lilin was created.” Unease curled in my belly as I glanced at Abbot, Zayne and then back to Roth. “None...none of you have told me this. You all just said that if the Lilin were created, everyone would be too busy rounding them up to worry about Lilith.”

“It wasn’t necessary to tell you,” Abbot responded in a clipped voice.

A hot and ugly emotion replaced my anxiety as I twisted toward the man I once looked upon as the closest thing to a father I’d known. I was so sick of the lies—about the fact that Lilith was my mom, that Elijah, a Warden who acted as if he loathed my very existence was actually my father. Abbot had kept all of that from me. “Really? Considering who she is to me, how isn’t it necessary?”

“Good point,” Roth acknowledged.

“You didn’t tell me either,” I shot back. His lips formed a hard line, and I willed him to look at me, to explain why he’d kept that major detail to himself. When he didn’t, apprehension took root deep inside me. “And if the fourth chain breaks, then Lilith is freed?”