Stone Cold Touch

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  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.

  And involved mutual finger licking.

  Zayne slid in first, and Sam sat up straighter. I hid my grin as I sat down next to Zayne. “Sorry we’re a little late.”

  “That’s okay,” Stacey said. “We’ve been munching on breadsticks.”

  “Probably would’ve been quicker to walk.” Zayne leaned back, draping his arm along the top of the burgundy cushion behind us. “But there’s no way I’m leaving my baby parked along the street.”

  The mention of Zayne’s car sparked Sam’s interest and he immediately launched into a conversation about the Impala. Stacey and I both stared at the boy. I guess we’d been expecting him to start hyperventilating, but he played it cool.

  After the waitress arrived to take our drink orders, Sam waved a breadstick like a wand, sprinkling garlic all over the checkered tablecloth. “Did you know the reason they went with a Chevy Impala on Supernatural was because a body would fit in the trunk?”

  My brows furrowed.

  Zayne handled it like a pro. “I’m pretty sure you can stash two bodies in the trunk.”

  Sam grinned, but then his gaze flickered up at the same second Zayne stiffened beside me. There was a change in the eatery, a shifting of the air on an unnatural level. Beside me, Zayne stretched, craning his neck, and I knew the second I heard his swift curse under his breath. I knew, even though it didn’t make sense.

  Across from me, Stacey’s brows shot up. “Um...”

  I closed my eyes as I felt him stop beside the table.

  “Fancy meeting you guys here,” Roth said, and dark humor dripped from every word. “All together.”

  When I forced my eyes open, he was still there. He winked when he caught my gaze, and I wanted to do what that teacher had done this morning.

  “Hey, Roth.” Sam gave him a little wave. “You want to join us? There’s more than enough room.”

  My mouth snapped open, but before I could say a word, Roth slid into the seat beside me. I stared at Stacey, who looked as though she needed a bucket of popcorn.

  “How convenient that you find yourself here,” Zayne replied. His arm was still draped along the back of the booth, but he leaned forward, dropping his other arm on the table. “With there being, I don’t know, thousands of restaurants in the city.”

  Roth’s lips curled up as he stretched out, folding his arms. Somehow, stuck between the two of them, the booth suddenly felt like a one-seater. “I guess I’m just lucky.”

  “The statistics of him accidentally ending up here are rather slim,” Sam murmured to himself while Stacey slowly turned to him. “But it is right down the street from school, so that ups the probability.”

  My eyes widened. Oh no, save the baby pandas! I hadn’t told Zayne about Roth attending school. After Roth had been snared in the demon’s trap and vanished, I hadn’t seen the point.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Zayne asked.

  No one at the table besides Roth knew any better and someone was about to blab it, so I jumped in, figuring it was better if it came from me. “Roth goes to our school.”

  Zayne’s body locked up beside me.

  I dared a peek at him. He was staring at Roth. “Is that so?” he murmured.

  “You guys don’t know each other?” Stacey asked.

  The muscles along Zayne’s forearm flickered. “We’ve met a time or two.”

  Roth smiled broadly. “Good times, too.”

  Oh God...

  “You know he’s a Warden, right?” Sam whispered, leaning forward. “I think we told you once at lunch, but I can’t remember.”

  “Sam!” Stacey hissed.

  He frowned. “What?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, “but it seems rude to point that out.”

  “It’s not rude.” Roth’s golden eyes twinkled with mischief. “I said before, I think it’s epic.”

  Zayne smiled tightly as the hand on the table curled into a fist. “I bet you do.”

  I wanted to bang my head against the table.

  “Oh, it is. You out there, helping fight crime and all that good stuff,” he replied, and I swallowed a groan. “It’s amazing. I bet you lay your little—er, not so little—head on your pillow every day feeling like a hero. Wait. Do you even sleep in beds? I’ve heard that Wardens—”

  “Do you really need to be sitting here?” I interrupted, losing my patience. Goading Zayne wasn’t going to help anything.

  “Well, someone did ruin my lunch.” Roth looked at me pointedly. “So I am hungry.”

  Sam grinned. “Yeah, you kind of do owe him a meal.”

  My shoulders slumped.

  Zayne sat back, staring straight ahead.

  “This just got real awkward,” Stacey murmured, but her dark eyes glimmered with interest.

  Not as awkward, surprisingly, as when I’d licked Zayne’s thumb like...I didn’t even know what. But dinner was painful. Roth and Zayne spent the whole time trading snide remarks, Sam and Stacey were too busy watching them as if each word they slung at one another was a tennis ball, and by the time I asked for a check, I was ready to throat punch someone.

  Mainly myself.

  Roth was currently asking Zayne how much he weighed, being that, according to Roth, Zayne was made out of stone. Meanwhile I stared over the back of the booth, praying our check would arrive pronto. When Sam returned from the restroom a second time, a patron at the tiny bar in the back of the restaurant fell off the stool. My eyes widened as Sam glanced over his shoulder and then looked at me, nose wrinkled. Damn, they were getting sloshed back there. Must be some good happy-hour specials.

  “I weigh enough,” Zayne replied. “What about you? Look about a buck and twenty soaking wet.”

  He snorted. “You might want to look again, or better yet, get your eyes checked. Do Wardens get degenerative eye diseases?”

  I sighed as I scanned the mostly empty tables and rocked back and forth like a total mental patient. I’d already gone to the bathroom once but was considering hiding out in there until we left. The eatery didn’t seem to get a lot of business, but it was right
before the dinner rush. Zayne and Roth’s out-snarking contest faded into background noise as my gaze slipped over an occupied table. Something drew my attention back to the two men sitting at one of those tables for two. Both were slightly older than me. I’d peg them as around Zayne’s age. Both had brown hair cut in identical buzz cuts—like the kind cops or military guys wore. Their white dress shirts looked pressed, if not tucked in. From what I could see, they were wearing light-colored khakis. Obviously, there wasn’t any kind of weird aura business since I couldn’t see souls now, but something about them snagged my attention.

  It might have had something to do with the fact that they were staring at our table, the unblinking stare of a psychopath that had you in his crosshairs.

  I shivered as my gaze locked with Khaki Guy on the right. His expression was bland, cold even. A robot’s.

  Roth’s hand landed on my thigh, causing me to jump. “What are you looking at, shortie?”

  “Nothing.” I went to remove his hand, but Zayne beat me to it.

  “Hands off, buddy.” He practically tossed Roth’s hand back at him. “If you want to keep it attached to your body.”

  Roth inclined his head, his expression sharpening. Ruh-rohs. He opened his mouth, but the waitress finally arrived with the check and I snatched it up. “You guys ready?” I said to Stacey and Sam. They looked transfixed as they nodded. Zayne quickly took care of our tab and I all but pushed Roth out of the booth.

  He bent low, his breath warm in my ear as Zayne slid out behind us. “Don’t run off,” he whispered. “The three of us need to talk.”

  Zayne’s eyes narrowed and he slipped between Roth and me, a huge barrier that caused Roth to grin like a cat that just spotted a mouse trapped in the corner of a room. I pretended I needed to use the restroom yet again to get Stacey and Sam to go ahead, giving us privacy. I figured whatever conversation we needed to have was better held here and not somewhere too remote where the two guys would likely try to kill one another.

  As soon as Stacey and Sam dipped out the front, Roth took a seat where Stacey had sat, motioning us down. I sighed as I slid back into the booth. The little bit of spaghetti I did eat wasn’t doing well in my belly as I hazarded a glance at the table from earlier. The two men were still there, watching us.

  “You need to make this quick,” Zayne said. “Because I’m not sure how much more of your presence I can stomach.”

  Roth faked a pout. “You’re so mean, Stony. Perhaps you have something shoved up your ass that you need to remove?”

  “Roth,” I said, gripping the edge of the table. “Knock it off.”

  “He started it.”

  I gaped. “What? Are you guys two years old?”

  He glanced at a stewing Zayne and that faint twinkle in his eyes was back. “Well, he does look like he shit himself and needs his diapers changed.”

  “That’s it.” Zayne started to rise, but I placed a hand on his arm.

  “Just stop. Please?” When he blew out a breath and sat back down, I kept my hand on his arm just in case. “What do you want to talk about, Roth?”

  Roth’s gaze dropped to where my hand rested. “He didn’t know we share classes.”

  I pulled my hand away, stiffening. “I never got around to telling him, and I seriously hope that’s not why you wanted to talk.”

  He shrugged. “I just think it’s interesting that you’d keep your best little stone friend in the world in the dark.”

  Zayne tapped his fingers along the table. “Get to the point, Roth.”

  Leaning back in the seat, he was the picture of lazy arrogance. “There’s a reason why I’m here, other than the delicious lasagna. It’s also the reason why I’m back at the school. Although I do find it amusingly normal, there’s more.” His gaze slid to me. “We think a Lilin was or is at the school.”

  “Details.”

  Roth explained what had happened today and then I went over the fight from earlier in the week. “I really didn’t think about it until today. I was planning to tell you—”

  “After dinner?” Zayne asked. “And that’s when you were going to tell me about that?” He nodded in Roth’s direction.

  Roth snorted.

  “Yes,” I said. “I didn’t want it to, you know...”

  “Ruin the dinner?” He smiled at Roth. “That’s understandable.”

  Roth rolled his eyes. “Anyway, the strange occurrences at school aren’t the only reason. I think the Lilin will try to make contact with Layla,” he continued, surprising the Hell out of me.

  “What?” I demanded. “You didn’t say that earlier.”

  He smiled at me. “You really weren’t in that talkative of a mood.”

  That was true, but whatever. “Why do you think that?”

  “The Lilin would be drawn to you,” he explained quietly. “After all, you share the same blood.”

  I shuddered. My family tree was seriously screwed up. My father was a Warden who wanted me dead. My mother was a superdemon no one messed with and now there was a Lilin who could claim me as some sort of half sibling. Yay.

  “Would the Lilin be dangerous to Layla?” Zayne asked, shoulders rising like he was about to scoop me up and take flight.

  Roth shook his head. “I really don’t know.”

  “That’s not our biggest issue,” I said, leaning forward. “If the Lilin has been messing with people at school, then that’s already four people that we know of. What’s going to happen to them?”

  “I don’t know if there’s a way to stop them from losing their souls and turning into wraiths. There could be more than the four we know of. Hundreds that are...infected by it.” Roth raised his brows. Infected was really a good way to look at it. “Really, there’s no telling if the ones that are infected are the ones the Lilin is trying to take.”

  “Take where?” I asked.

  Roth shrugged. “Remember, when Lilins create a wraith, they can control it. They are the only things that can. Think about the chaos. Not only is there a Lilin running around, but it’s creating nasty, demented spirits that really do not like the living.”

  I had forgotten about that. Somehow. “The only way we’d know the Lilin’s endgame is if...” I swallowed, unsettled. “Is if the ones at school die.”

  He nodded as his gaze shifted to Zayne. “So that’s why I’m there and that’s why I’m going to stay there. And I also think we need to do a little investigation.”

  I arched a brow and when he didn’t continue, I sighed. “Details?”

  “I think we can safely assume that Dean has been infected. We need to talk to him.”

  “He’s been suspended for God knows how long,” I pointed out.

  Roth smiled slyly. “I’m pretty sure I can get his home address easily.”

  Not doubting that, I glanced at Zayne. He nodded slowly. “Maybe he can tell us something that points us in the direction we need to go.”

  “See?” Roth’s eyes gleamed. “I’m necessary.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.” Zayne met Roth’s coolly amused stare. “But I’m promising you this, if you do anything that hurts Layla or even causes her to look at you strangely, I will personally destroy you.”

  My eyes popped out of my head. “Okay. Well, I think this little meet and greet is over.” I nudged Zayne with my arm. “Let’s go.”

  He held Roth’s gaze for a moment longer and then rose. Turning to me, he offered his hand and I took it, letting him pull me up. There was no denying the fierce protective vibe he was giving off, but protector had always been Zayne’s role.

  “I never meant to hurt her in the first place.”

  We both turned to Roth, who was standing. I sucked in a soft gasp, but Zayne’s lip curled up. “Whatever, man.” He leaned over. While he was broader than Roth, he was not as tall, but he still got all up in his face. “You can play your little games with anyone else, but you’re not going to pull that shit with her.”

  I squeezed Zayne’s hand before an epic de
ath match occurred. “Let’s go.”

  A muscle flickered in Roth’s jaw as we turned. I knew he was behind us and when I looked over my shoulder, I wasn’t surprised to see him. But I was surprised to see the two Khaki Guys standing up. I frowned.

  Roth’s eyes narrowed and then he followed my gaze. His attention swung back to me, lips pressed in a tight line. It was as if he got what I was thinking—something was up with those dudes.

  Outside, the streetlamps were coming on, casting light across