Stone Cold Touch (The Dark Elements 2)

I had no idea how he could prove it, but I didn’t want to risk it. Bambi grew restless as tension poured into me. “That’s not true.”

He looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes. What about the rules, I wanted to scream. Humans were never supposed to know that demons existed. Something the Alphas had decreed—that humans must have faith without proof of a Hell. Always sounded crazy to me, but he had to be aware of them and he didn’t care. “All you tell is lies.”

Zayne dropped his arm and moved in front of me. “Don’t make me do something I’m going to regret.”

“There is already plenty you should regret.” He moved away from Zayne.

My heart beat wildly again. He wanted to expose me, right in front of my friends. I didn’t care about the greater consequences of such an action. These were my friends—friends who thought I was normal and accepted me. I couldn’t let this happen.

I grabbed Stacey’s arm as I sent Zayne a panicked look. “Come on, let’s just go. We can—”

“She doesn’t want you to know the truth,” the man said, reaching into his back pocket with his free hand. Zayne stiffened, but all he pulled out was a paper that had been rolled up. He shoved it at us, showing what turned out to be a photo of an older woman. Whoever the lady was, she was wearing some kind of orange shirt, her light blond hair was greasy and stringy. Scabs covered her slack lips and heavy lines crossed her face.

Sam frowned. “You’re showing us a mug shot?”

“Her name was Vanessa Owens,” he said, his hand trembling causing the thin paper to flutter. “She was twenty when she worked at a state-run foster care back in the late nineties, going to school at Georgetown. She had a bright future ahead of her—a loving boyfriend, a close-knit family and friends.”

Stacey cocked her head to the side, brows knitted together. “Let me guess? She found meth? Because it looks like she did. Drugs suck. Not sure what that has to do with any of this.”

I stared at the picture. Nothing about her name or her face was familiar to me, but there was a growing unease that bloomed in my chest.

“This is enough,” Zayne said, wrapping a hand around my arm. “Let’s get the Hell out of here.”

“He doesn’t want you to know either—because the Wardens protect her, protect what she really is and what she did to this innocent woman.”

“I’ve never seen this woman,” I said, feeling trapped. The few people in the lobby were looking over at us, but I didn’t think they could hear what was being said. “I don’t know who she is.”

“You may not remember her, but I’m sure she remembers you. After all, you destroyed her life,” he said, lips curling back in disgust. “She watched over you while you were in foster care and you, true to your nature, fed off her and took a part of her soul, sending her into a downward spiral that ended in drugs, robbery and eventually death.”

Blood drained from my face so quickly I thought I would pass out. The woman’s face in the photo shifted, became younger and was replaced by vibrant blond hair, flawless skin and a warm smile.

Oh my God...

This was the woman I’d fed off when I’d been younger? The woman I’d attacked, which had prompted the Wardens’ discovery of me? I’d known that she had been hospitalized after I’d fed off her, but this?

“Whoa,” Sam murmured, rubbing his brow.

“She had been in and out of jail for ten years until recently she decided to rob a convenience store. She shot and killed one of the clerks and was killed by the police when they responded to the scene,” the man said, lowering the photo. “This is what you’ve done. How many more lives have you stolen since then?”

Zayne said something and tugged on my arm again, but I was frozen. All these years, I’d never really thought about what had happened to the woman. I’d thought that since I hadn’t taken her soul completely, she would’ve recovered. That she would be okay. But I’d effed up this woman like no tomorrow.

It struck me then and my stomach roiled so tightly I thought I might hurl all over the guy. What I had done to this woman by taking just a part of her soul was no different than what had happened to Dean and what was happening to Gareth and God knows how many more.

“You’re a demon,” the man seethed. “And the time will come when you won’t be able to hide what you are.”

I had no idea how the church knew so much about me, but at this moment, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except what he’d claimed and what I’d realized about myself.

“Wow. Man, you’re crazy.” Stacey crossed her arms, shaking her head. “Like not even in the slightly entertaining way, but in the ‘it’s time to call the police and possibly think about getting a restraining order’ kind of way.”

“You don’t believe me?” he asked.

She snorted. “Does anyone believe you?”

“You’ll see.” The hand holding the water bottle moved so quickly there was no stopping him. Even Zayne hadn’t seen it coming. With some pretty excellent force and aim, he shook the bottle at us. Water doused Stacey and me, and hit Zayne’s pants leg.

Stacey shrieked as she flung the water off with her fingers. “What the Hell!”

Water ran down my head, across my face and into my eyes, pooling in several spots on my shirt, turning the material transparent, except...except it wasn’t normal water. I stumbled back a step, bumping into Stacey as Zayne shot forward, sweeping his arm across the man’s chest, knocking him back several feet. He whirled back to me and the horrified look creeping across his face confirmed it.

“Oh no,” he whispered.

My skin stung all along my forehead and across my cheeks. My vision blurred and the inside of my mouth smarted as though I’d swallowed hot sauce. Patches along my br**sts and stomach started to throb. Bambi whirled around my body, escaping to my back.

The sting quickly escalated, turning into a fierce burn that robbed the breath from my lungs as I raised my hands. Thin wisps of smoke wafted from the tips of my overly pink fingers.

“Oh my God.” Stacey’s horrified voice reached my burning ears. “Layla...”

The guy stumbled to his feet, the empty bottle clutched tight in his hand, and when he spoke, satisfaction dripped from his voice as he spat out two words that changed everything. “Holy water.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

I was only vaguely aware of Zayne punching the Church of God’s Children guy into next week. He hit the opposite wall and slid down. The water bottle of doom rolled across the floor. My skin felt as though it was being burned off my bones. This was nothing compared to the tiny amount Roth had used when I’d been clawed by the Nightcrawler.

Pain rippled through me like a shock wave. Doubled over at the waist, I tried to breathe through it, but it was nearly impossible. I could hear Stacey’s strained voice, but she sounded so very far away.

“We need to go.” Zayne was closer and then he was gathering me to his side, steering me out of the hallway and through the lobby. The cool air from outside intensified the burn and I bit down on my lower lip. “I need to get this off her.”

“Someone please tell me what’s going on?” Stacey asked, closer and clearer. “I don’t understand what just happened.”

“I don’t have time to explain right now. Drive.” He tossed the keys at Sam and if I hadn’t been close to keeling over anyway, I would’ve done so from the fact he was letting someone drive his Impala. “Your house is closer.”

Sam caught the keys, but he shook his head. “We can’t go to my place. My parents will freak.”

A low growl rose from Zayne’s throat. “I need to get her in a shower now. I don’t care what your parents think—”

“No,” I wheezed. “Take me...to Stacey’s place. It’s only a couple more blocks.”

“Layla—”

“She’s right. My mom isn’t home and I’m only a couple of blocks away. If you take Fifth Avenue, it might even be quicker,” Stacey said, out of breath. “But shouldn’t we take her to the hospital? Her skin is all pink. Was it acid? Oh my God, did that freak—”

“It wasn’t acid and a hospital can’t help her.” We’d walked about half a block before Zayne cursed and scooped me up. God knew what we looked like to people around us, but I was beyond caring. I bit back a moan as he shifted me. “Sorry,” he whispered, voice hoarse.

“I don’t understand,” Stacey repeated, her voice sounding distant again. “It was just water. It hit me, too. I don’t understand.”

No one replied and when we finally reached the Impala, Zayne crawled into the backseat with me and tried to wipe up most of the water with an old shirt he had in the back, but it didn’t help. I needed a shower. The trip to Stacey’s house was pure Hell. I was vaguely aware of Zayne calling Nicolai and warning that we might have a possible demonic-level PR disaster on our hands. I followed the conversation enough to know that Nicolai would check out the theater, do some damage control. At some point, my vision cleared enough to make out Stacey’s stricken face.

She stared at me as though...as though she didn’t know what she was looking at, and maybe her brain was refusing to put two and two together, but it would eventually. And I couldn’t deal with seeing her look at me like that. Closing my eyes, I kept them that way until we arrived at Stacey’s house.

The pain deep in my core was just as bad as what was firing off across my skin. I didn’t say anything as Stacey led the way upstairs and to the bathroom she used. Sam stayed downstairs, no doubt to research how holy water could burn a person. He’d been remarkably quiet through all of this.

“No one should be home for at least two hours.” Her voice was garbled. “Can I...can I help?”

“Do you have anything she can wear?” She must’ve nodded, because Zayne said, “Leave it outside the door.”

“But—”

“We’ll explain everything.” He opened the door, ushering me in. “I promise.”

Stacey caught the door before he could close it. “Are you okay, Layla?”

“Yes,” I croaked out, keeping my back to where she stood. “I’ll...be okay.”

Zayne managed to get the door shut then. He moved around me, turning on the shower. A second later, I was under an icy stream of water, gasping for breath. Drops pelted my face, ruining all the hard work with the mascara and eyeliner.

“The clothes have to come off,” he said.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I turned sideways, nodding my agreement. Neither of us spoke and there was nothing sexual about the fact that I was standing in the shower, being drowned by a steady stream of cold water as Zayne stripped me down to my undies. Gone were the skintight jeans, the thin braided belt and my bra. Everything that had been touched by holy water had to come off.

Bambi had made her way to my lower back, where she was curled into a small, protective ball as Zayne kept turning me around and around, his arms getting soaked as he made sure all the holy water was rinsed away.

After about five years of circling the drain on the fifth circle of Hell, the burning eased off and tiny little bumps spread across my stomach as shivers coursed up and down my back. Blinking the water off my lashes, I could see that my arms, currently folded over my chest, were a lovely shade of ouch.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t stop him,” Zayne said finally, turning me around. “I should’ve stopped him. I could’ve stopped him.”

“It’s not your fault. Who knew he...was going to throw holy water on me.”

He looked up. “I should’ve expected something.”

I shook my head, shivering. “It’s n-not your f-fault.”

A look of doubt settled onto his face, making him appear older. “You’re not burning anymore.”

“N-no.”

When Zayne turned the water off, I couldn’t feel my face or my toes, which was probably a good thing. My skin was the kind of cold only a snowy February day could rival.

He quickly wrapped a large fluffy towel around me, tucking it under my arms.

“Hold this,” he said, and I grabbed the edges, knotting them together. He picked me up out of the tub and twisted. Sitting down on the rim, he pulled me into his lap and grabbed another towel, immediately soaking up the water from my icy hair. “God, you feel like an ice cube.”

“Why did he do it there, where it was just Stacey and Sam who’d hear and see, instead of in front of a large crowd of people?” I asked, teeth chattering.

“It was personal. It’s the only reason.” Zayne rubbed the other towel up and down my arms, chasing the chill. “How are you feeling?”

“B-better.” I stared at the buttercup-yellow wall as Zayne got the blood going in my chilled skin. I don’t know how much time had passed before I spoke again. “What are w-we going to tell them?”

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he gently rubbed the towel over my cheeks. “The truth, I guess.”

“What about the r-rules?”

He curled the towel around my bare shoulders. “Well, technically they’ve already been broken and an Alpha hasn’t landed on our heads, right? And they’re your best friends. You trust them.” He paused. “I also have no idea how to come up with a lie that’s going to make them believe anything else.”

I tried to smile, but failed. “What if S-Stacey hates me now or is a-afraid of me?”