Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements #2)(14)
Author: J. Lynn

“Layla…”

I dragged my gaze up and sucked in a tiny breath when I saw how bright his ocher eyes were.

“Like what you see?”

My hands curled into fists. “No. Not at all.”

“You lie.” A smirk appeared on his lips. “And you’re still a terrible liar.”

Striving for patience, I dropped my bag on the floor. “Why are you here, Roth?”

He didn’t answer immediately. “You want the truth?”

I rolled my eyes. “No. I want the lie. What do you think?”

A soft laugh followed. “I kind of like school. We don’t have places like this down below.” He shrugged a shoulder. “It’s normal.”

Something squeezed in my chest. It was the same reason I liked school—it was normal and I could be normal here, but I refused to relate to him on any level. “You shouldn’t be here.”

One brow arched. “Because of you?”

I wanted to scream yes—dear God, yes! “Because you being here is pointless.”

“Not really.” He finally lowered his arms, and I silently thanked God, because his stomach was no longer a major distraction. “You can’t tell me that the death match in the hallway this morning wasn’t weird.”

I didn’t say anything.

“And I doubt this is the first strange incident recently, right?” His eyes were hooded as he watched me.

Part of me wanted to tell him no, because I didn’t want to see that smug look of his grow, but that would be stupid. I couldn’t forget the very real, very huge problem we were facing. “There have been a few things. Dean—a kid who’s never done anything—hit another boy so hard it actually killed him for a few seconds. And then I’ve seen couples really making out—”

“Nothing wrong with that,” he replied, grinning.

I narrowed my eyes. “Except we have a strict no PDA policy and a teacher walked right past them, even as they went into the girls’ bathroom.” I tucked my hair back and then dropped my hand to where the ring dangled off the necklace. “So you think the Lilin has been here?”

He nodded. “It makes sense—after all, it was created here. Which is why we need to talk. You should be able to pick out the Lilin, or at least any strange demons around here.”

“Uh…” I looked away, twisting the chain around my neck. I didn’t want to tell him, but he was a demon and maybe he knew what was up with it. “Well, you see, not really.”

Pushing off the wall, he stood straight, all attention focused now. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t see auras anymore. Nothing. Happened a few days ago.”

His head tilted to the side. “Details.”

I sighed. “The auras were kind of wonky at first, blinking in and out at lunch, and then I got this sharp pain behind my eyes, and I can’t see them anymore. So I’m virtually in the dark. I don’t sense other demons Wardens do—you know, not as strongly. I’ve never had to work that muscle.”

“This is too much of a coincidence.”

“That’s what I feared,” I said, dropping the ring. “I was hoping it didn’t have anything to do with the Lilin.”

Roth didn’t respond. His gaze flickered over me, brows lowered in deep thought. The study was so intense it made me want to squirm. “So how do you think it’s interfering with my ability?” I asked when the silence became too much.

“I don’t know.” Roth finally looked away, scratching his hand through his hair. “But we’re going to have to find the Lilin the old-fashioned way.”

“We?”

His lashes lowered and the demure look was almost laughable, except it was incredibly sexy, which I kind of hated him for. “Yes. We. You and I. Us. Two peas in a—”

“No.” I held up a hand. “We are not working together on anything.”

“Haven’t we had this conversation before?” He took a step forward, and I backed up. “And remember how that ended up. We made the perfect team.”

I kept retreating, until my back hit the cool wall. “That was before you said I eased your boredom.”

The tip of his tongue moved over his upper teeth, showing off the ball holding the bolt piercing in place. Supposedly it wasn’t his only piercing—I stopped that thought. I so did not need to think about that.

“That was a jackass thing to say. I admit it. I tend to…say stupid things. I’m an ass.”

“I have to agree.”

His lashes rose and he moved so fast I didn’t track it until he was right in front of me, totally up in my personal space. “I didn’t mean what I said about Eva either.”

Something inside me—something stupid that needed to be stabbed to death—opened up like a blossom seeing the sun for the first time. I tried to quash it. “I don’t care.”

“Yes. You do.” He lowered his head, his lips dangerously close to mine. I locked up, the air freezing in my lungs. His head tilted, and my heart pounded in my chest. “It hurt you.”

“Why do you even care if it did?”

Roth said nothing, and my lips tingled from how hard he was staring at them. He placed his hands just above my hips; the touch light and barely there. I wrapped my fingers around his wrists and started to remove his hands. “Don’t,” he said, voice low.

“Then why?” I whispered, caving to the tiny spark of hope. “Why did you say all of that? If you didn’t mean—”

“It doesn’t change anything.” He pulled back, moving several feet in a blink of an eye. “We need to be friends. Or at least get along to the point where you aren’t destroying perfectly good fast food when I open my mouth.”

Just like that, he was a different Roth. Not the guy who’d held me weeks ago or done all those wonderful things to me. The question burst out of me before I could stop myself. “Did I mean anything to you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Roth said, voice flat as he turned to the steps. He stopped with his hand on the rusted-out railing. “It never did, Layla.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It took a lot to push past what Roth had said and finish out the day. I didn’t get him, and it would be a long time before I could stop trying. Throughout my afternoon classes, I was torn between wanting to find Roth and do to his face what I’d done to his hamburger, and just wanting to stare at him.

Being a girl sucked sometimes.

I dragged myself out of school and to the street corner. The site of the old Impala brought a tired smile to my face. I’d almost forgotten about Zayne joining us for food, and while I’d been dealing with Roth, I hadn’t had a chance to give much thought to the fact that Zayne had agreed to hang out with us.

Which was so rare.

Deciding to forget about a certain fickle demon for the next couple of hours, I opened the door and slid into the passenger seat. I smiled as I dropped my bag in the back. “Hey,” I said.

Zayne grinned. He was wearing a ball cap and it was pulled low, shielding the upper part of his face. Some guys couldn’t pull off a baseball cap, but Zayne did and he did it well. “Where we heading to?”

“Little Italy—the one two blocks down.”

“Cool.” He checked the side mirror and then after a few seconds, he eased out.

“Thank you for coming,” I said, resting my head back on the seat. “I was surprised that you said yes.”

“You shouldn’t have been. I wanted to come.” He reached over, tugging gently on a strand of loose hair. “How was school?”

I turned my head toward him, studying his strong profile. “Nothing I want to talk about now.” Because if I told him about the Lilin suspicions, I would inevitably have to tell him about Roth and I wanted to enjoy this little outing. “After we eat?”

He glanced at me and was quiet for a moment. “Should I be worried?”

“No.” I liked the way the ends of his hair curled out from under the cap. “What did you do today?”

“Slept.” He laughed as he drove past the eatery, looking for a parking garage. “Last night was boring. Streets were dead. For some reason that makes me more tired the next day.”

“Is it odd that it was so dead?” I thought about the Lilin.

“Depends. If it continues, then yes.” After finding a spot on the ground level—he had mad luck—he killed the engine and turned to me as he pulled the keys out. “Hold still,” he said, and I obeyed mostly out of curiosity. He reached over, smoothing his thumb along my lower lip. “You had a tiny piece of lint there and I think…”

His words trailed off, ending in a ragged inhale. At first I didn’t realize why—what I’d done, and then things began to register—the gut-wrenching sensation that caused my insides to coil into tight springs, the dilated look to his pupils, the sudden vibrancy of his blue eyes, the way his chest rose sharply and the salty taste of his skin as my tongue glided over the slightly rough pad of his thumb.

Oh God.

Oh my God.

I was licking his thumb. Like really licking his thumb.

And my body responded to the illicit, wholly forbidden taste of his skin. A heaviness settled in my br**sts and heat flowed through me. He didn’t pull away. It seemed as though he was straining forward, his upper body already over the gearshift between us.

Blood burning for two very different reasons, I jerked back, breaking the contact between us. My cheeks were on fire—my entire body was on fire. I didn’t know what to say or do. Zayne stared at me, his chest rising and falling out of rhythm. I didn’t know what he was thinking. I didn’t want to.

Mortification replaced the simmering heat that was turning my insides into lava. What in Hell’s bells was I thinking? Needing air and space, I quickly unbuckled myself and all but threw myself out of the car.

My eyes stung. There was no way I could sit through this early-dinner thing after doing whatever I was doing. I’d have to hail a cab or walk home or move to Alaska or sew my mouth—

As I rounded the hood of the Impala, Zayne was suddenly in front of me. The baseball cap was turned backward and his eyes were wide. No doubt he thought I was a freak. I was a freak. Like a total creeper coward, I darted to the side to get around him. He blocked my path, settling his hands on my shoulders.

“Whoa,” he said softly. “Where are you running off to?”

“I don’t know.” My throat felt as if it was closing off. Could I be allergic to his skin? That sounded stupid. Maybe it was a panic attack. “We should go. Like now. Or we can go home if you want. I’d totally understand and I’m so—”

“Hey, no need for all of that.” His hands curled around my shoulders. “It’s okay. Everything is fine.”

“No, it’s not.” My voice cracked. “I—”

“It’s fine.” He tugged me forward, and when I resisted, he pulled harder. I face-planted in his chest and inhaled his crisp scent. “Look, you’ve been under a lot of stress and crazy stuff has been happening.”

True, but that was absolutely no excuse for licking someone’s finger. I squeezed my eyes shut as his arms went around me. He dipped his head, resting his chin atop my head. Only Zayne could be this understanding. He was too perfect sometimes.

And I was too weird all the times.

“I don’t know why I did it,” I said, my voice muffled. “I didn’t even realize I was doing it until…well, you know, and I’m so sorry.”

“Stop.” He rocked to the side, the movement soothing. “It wasn’t…”

I drew back a little, daring to peek up at him. “It wasn’t what? Gross? Because I’m pretty sure you’d prefer that I hadn’t—”

“You have no idea what I prefer and what I don’t.” The way he said it wasn’t dismissive. More like a statement of fact.

I searched his face for an answer to a question I wasn’t ready or willing to ask. His gaze met mine, and I lowered my lashes. His hand cupped my cheek and an overwhelming feeling of fondness rose inside of me, along with something deeper, more intense.

Zayne slipped his hand away. “We should get going. Your friends are waiting for us.”

I nodded, and as we headed out from the parking garage into the fast-fading sun of November, he whipped his cap around, shielding his eyes. We didn’t speak as we walked the half block to the eatery, and I wasn’t sure if it was due to my finger licking or something else.

The pretty college-age hostess who led us down the narrow aisle of booths and tables spent most of the trip checking Zayne out.

“If you need anything, please let me know,” she said directly to Zayne as she stopped before one of the high-back booths.

He smiled. “Will do.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Stacey and Sam were already inside the restaurant, sitting side by side in a booth big enough to seat six. They were cute, though. Sam with his wavy hair brushing the edges of his glasses, and Stacey sitting with her hands clasped on the table. I really hoped that whatever they were embarking on worked out.