Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

I waited with bated breath for Zayne’s answer, because I honest to God wasn’t picking up much through the bond except for that momentary flash of happiness when he’d hugged Stacey. I didn’t know if that meant he wasn’t feeling anything powerful enough for me to sense, or if he was better than I at controlling his emotions. Probably the latter, but I did know that when Zayne and Layla had talked while Roth and I had met with the witches, he hadn’t seemed all that relieved by the conversation. If anything, he’d been morose and...confused that night.

Zayne looked at Layla, and I thought it might be the first time he’d actually looked directly at her since they’d arrived. “No, I’m not mad,” he said, and I believed him. “Just surprised. That’s all.”

Layla couldn’t hide her surprise, and I wondered if she’d expected Zayne to say the opposite. A tiny, decent part of me actually felt bad for her as a small, hesitant smile began to appear. “Good,” she whispered, blinking rapidly.

Roth dipped his head, pressing his lips to her temple, and my gaze shot to Zayne. There was no reaction. No blast of jealousy or envy through the bond or on his face.

Zayne only smiled faintly and then asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Good.” She cleared her throat as she patted her stomach. “Just a little sore. I think that damn Nightcrawler was trying to disembowel me.”

The low growl that came from Roth was startlingly similar to the sound Zayne had made.

“I think I’m glad I’ve never seen a Nightcrawler,” Stacey mused, lips pursed. “That name alone doesn’t bring the warm fuzzies.”

“There was a whole horde of them incubating in the old locker rooms at school.” Layla tossed it out there like it was no big deal. “It was a while ago, and Roth and I killed them all, but man, those things are mean.”

I had so many questions about why a horde of incubating Nightcrawlers would be in the locker rooms of a human school.

“I really didn’t need to know that.” Stacey shuddered. “At all.”

“Hey, you’ve only got a couple of weeks of summer school, and then you’ll get your diploma.” Layla smiled at her friend. “Then you won’t have to worry about our little version of a Buffy Hellgate.”

“I think we have more demonic activity at that school than Buffy did in all the seasons,” Stacey commented.

I had to wonder how many demons beyond Roth and maybe Cayman she’d seen. Only humans who were accidentally introduced to the world of things that went bump in the night and somehow survived and those who were entrusted to keep the truth safe knew.

Stacey probably thought I was one of those exceptions.

“Summer school?” I had no idea if that was normal in the human world, and also not all that sure I knew what it even meant.

“I ended up missing a lot of school at the beginning of the year.” Stacey tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear and folded her other arm across her stomach. “Too much for me to make up, so I’m stuck in school for the next couple of weeks.”

“But they let her walk with her class during graduation,” Layla told me. “These classes are more like a technicality.”

“A technicality?” Stacey laughed softly. “I wish. It feels like some kind of cosmic punishment. Do you know what that school smells like during the summer?”

“That I do not,” Roth answered. “But I am dying to hear.”

Stacey pinned him with a look. “It smells like hopelessness, unfairness and a pair of old, wet sneakers that have been worn through all the back alleys of the city without any socks on.”

Ew.

“You know, I used to think I was missing out on the whole public school thing, but I was wrong.” Zayne closed his eyes briefly. “So wrong.”

“I kind of miss that smell,” Layla murmured, and everyone shot her a dubious look. She shrugged.

“Well, no one else will get to know that smell and love it like you.” Stacey smiled.

“Oh, right. The school’s getting remodeled or something in the fall. It’s about time. Pretty sure both the lockers and the air-conditioning system are vintage.”

“As was the food,” Roth chimed in.

Confusion flickered through me. “How do you know what the food was like?”

Roth’s smile was like smoke. “I was a recipient of public education for a very short period of time.”

I almost laughed at the absurdity of the Crown Prince of Hell attending public school.

“Anyway...” Layla faced me. “You saved my ass a couple of nights ago. Twice.”

I stiffened. “Not really. I mean, I was just doing what I...needed to do.”

Her pale gaze held mine. “You know it wasn’t nothing. It was a big deal, and things could’ve gone south worse than they already had.”

That was true. I’d purposely cut myself to draw the demons that had been surrounding Roth and Layla. The moment they’d scented my blood, the whole mass of them had bum-rushed me like I was an all-you-can-eat demon buffet, allowing Roth to get Layla out of there.

“You have my thanks,” she finished.

I started to argue, but realized there was no point, so I just nodded.

“Are those the building plans we found at the senator’s house?” Layla changed the subject, slipping free of Roth and coming to the island to look at the paper.

“Yep,” Zayne answered.

As he filled them in on what we knew, which wasn’t much, I sat back and listened. Well, I pretended to listen while I snuck glances at Zayne...and Stacey.

They ended up side by side as Zayne began to show everyone the articles he’d found on Senator Fisher. She asked a lot of questions, as if discussing powerful senators who were involved with demons was a conversation she had once a week. And that wasn’t all she did.

Stacey was touchy.

Very much so.

It seemed playful. A teasing punch or a smack on the arm, as if it were something she did quite often. A hip bump broke up the punches every so often, and Zayne responded with a quick grin or a shake of his head. Even if I hadn’t known that they’d been intimate before, and even with my relationship experience being pretty much limited to the bleachers, I still would’ve picked up on it. There was a comfortableness between them, an ease that said they knew each other very well.

The bitter burn in my throat tasted a whole lot like envy, so I cracked open the ZAYNE drawer and shoved that feeling inside, then slammed the drawer shut.

It remained cracked open, just a sliver.

Resting my elbow on the island and my chin in my hand, I watched the four of them huddle around the building plans. Now I knew how Peanut felt in a room full of people with no one paying a lick of attention to him. Did he throw himself a pity party like I was? Probably.

I dragged my gaze away from the group and stared at the gray cement floor. Zayne was telling them about the demons from last night but leaving out details, maybe so that Stacey wouldn’t have questions.

My glasses slipped down my nose, and I squinted. There was a small crack in the cement, and I wondered if it had been made on purpose. Too much perfection was considered a bad thing nowadays, a flaw itself. How ironic was that?

Why in the world was I thinking about cracks in the floor? My mind was normally one continuous nonsensical thought after another, but this was ridiculous. Still, it was better than—

“Hey.” Zayne’s voice was followed by the weight of his hand on my shoulder.

I jerked my head up so fast that my glasses started to take flight. Zayne’s reflexes were on point. He caught them before they left my face, straightening them.

“You okay?” he asked, voice low.

“Yeah. Totally.” I smiled as I realized we had an audience. “Just zoned out. Did I miss something?”

His gaze searched mine as a slight frown appeared between his brow. “They’re getting ready to head out.”

How long had I been staring at the crack? Good Lord.

“But first, you’re going to take me on a tour of your place,” Layla said.

Zayne lifted a shoulder. “Well, there’s not much more than what you’re looking at now.”

Layla turned toward the closed doors. “There has to be more.” She started walking toward them. “Show me.”

Zayne wasn’t given much of a choice. He caught up with Layla just as she opened the door to the linen closet. Roth was only a few steps behind them, and that meant...

I looked to my right and found Stacey smiling tightly at me. “Hi,” I said, because I had no idea what else to say. “You’re not joining them on the tour?”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve been here before.”

Keeping my face blank was an Oscar-worthy effort. “And you didn’t tell Layla?”

“Nope. Zayne didn’t want her to know, and yeah, I thought that was ridiculous, but I learned a long time ago not to get between them and their functional dysfunction.” Angling her body toward me, she propped her hip against the island. “You know that I know.”

“You know what?” I glanced over to see Zayne and crew disappearing into the bedroom.

“That there’s only one bedroom.”

I turned back to her. “You’re correct.”

Her brown eyes stared into mine. “Zayne is a great guy.”

A prickly heat invaded my skin. “He’s an amazing guy.”

“And I don’t know what’s really going on here, but I have a feeling Layla and Roth aren’t being completely honest about you.”

“Whatever is going on here is none of your business,” I told her, voice low.

“We’re going to have to disagree on that, because Zayne’s my friend and I care about him a lot, so it is my business.”

“You’re right. We’re going to have to disagree on that.”

She lifted a brow. “Just know, if you hurt him in any way, you’ll have to deal with me.”