Page 126 of Stone Cold Touch

Agreed.

I petted the cat one last time and then we hurried through the house. Once we were back inside the Impala, I was relieved to find that the sickly scent hadn’t lingered on our clothing. Glancing at Zayne as he threw the car into Drive and peeled out of the narrow backstreet, I let everything I’d held off seep back in.

With the adrenaline still kicking around in my veins, my thoughts held a razor edge to them. As each one fell into place, it sliced and diced.

We’d reached the rural road that Zayne had taken as a shortcut to get to Alexandria by the time I found it in myself to speak. “We can’t ignore what we found.”

He cast me a quick, sharp look. “What do you mean?”

“Who that woman was. We can’t ignore it, Zayne. I did that to her.” The words cut through me. “I must’ve fed off her more than I thought I did.”

Zayne’s knuckles blanched from how tightly he was grasping the steering wheel. “You would’ve known if that was the case. There has to be another explanation for this.”

“What?” I demanded, curling my hands into tight balls. “The only one is that the Lilin has been following me around and took her soul.”

“Then that’s what happened.” His jaw locked down. “That has to be it.”

I stared at him. Tears burned my eyes. His adamant defense of me was heartbreaking. “What if...what if there isn’t a Lilin?”

“What?”

My stomach roiled, but I needed to give voice to my fear. I had to put it out there. “What if there is no Lilin, Zayne? What if we just think there is—and Hell thinks there is—but there’s not.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“But it does,” I whispered as the trees blurred past us. “Think about it. No one really knows what was required to complete the ritual. It’s about how we perceive it. What if I needed to lose my virginity for it to work? I haven’t. So if Cayman was wrong, then the ritual didn’t work. It couldn’t. And Abbot even said that it was a Lilin or something similar. I heard him that night. It’s probably why he ordered the other clan members to watch me. He suspects it, too!”

“If the ritual didn’t work, then how did Lilith’s chains break?”

“I don’t know, but it could be something I’m doing. I’m her kid. I probably have an impact on it. Think about it. What the Lilin can do is the same thing I can do—take a soul. We just do it in different ways.” Words spilled out of me, as fast as we were driving. “And where is this stupid Lilin? How come we haven’t seen it and neither has Roth? It’s supposedly at the school, but no one has found it. But I’m at the school! I’ve been around everyone who’s been infected so far and God knows how many other people.”

“Then what about the cocoon in the basement and the Nightcrawlers?”

“Who knows why they were there or what was in the cocoon. It wouldn’t be the first time something demonic showed up there because of me. Remember the zombie in the boiler room? Raum—the demon Roth took out?”

Zayne shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re even saying this stuff.”

“I can’t believe you refuse to see what’s right in your face!”

“Shit.” He swerved to the right, slamming on the brakes. I pitched forward, caught by the seat belt as we screeched to a stop on the shoulder of the road. He twisted toward me, eyes a furious shade of electric blue. “But you didn’t feed off Dean! Or Gareth! You are not responsible for this, Layla.”

“Maybe I don’t need to feed to take their souls. Who knows?” My throat clogged with rawness. “My abilitieshavechanged. I can’t see auras anymore, but I can feel emotions. Maybe my ability to take souls has changed, too.”

“This is absolutely ridiculous. Do you hear yourself?”

“Do you hear me?” I threw back. “What I’m saying isn’t impossible and you know it.”

When he didn’t say anything, I unhooked the seat belt. I couldn’t sit in the car. I couldn’t be near him with my emotions so explosive. The need to feed was there, simmering below the surface, which was just great.

I pushed opened the door, ignoring his shout, and started walking. I made it a few feet and he was suddenly in front of me. “You need to calm down,” he said.

“You need to listen to me! You know that stuff that’s been happening at the house? I thought maybe it could be Petr, because I took his soul, but maybe it isn’t him. Maybe it’s me.” My heart was beating so fast I thought I’d be sick. “Maybe Abbot is right and I’m unaware of what I’m doing.”

“No—”

“You don’t get it!” Wind whipped around us, but I barely felt it. “I was mad when the windows blew out and I was annoyed with Maddox when he fell because of the way he looked at me! And both you and Danika said I feel like an Upper Level demon to you all now. You said that yourself!”

“That doesn’t mean you’re going around killing people and not knowing about it!” The wind seemed to toss the words in his face. “I know you, Layla.”

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