Page 146 of Stone Cold Touch

I gagged. The stuff tasted like warmed over death, but Roth kept it to my lips, rubbing his thumb up and down my throat, forcing me to swallow it all. “I’m sorry. I know it tastes bad, but it’s almost over.”

When it was all gone, he laid my head back on the pillow.

“If this doesn’t work, I will take out the entire coven.” A muscle thrummed in Roth’s jaw. “I hope they are aware of that.”

“I think they are.” Cayman retreated once again as Roth turned his attention back to me. “I’ll go make myself...uh, scarce for a while.”

Roth didn’t acknowledge him. Instead he shifted and stretched out beside me. My legs felt like lead had fused to the bones. My head turned slightly and my gaze met Roth’s. I could see that he was thinking the same thing I was.

Maybe Cayman and the coven’s witchy brew had been too late.

“I just want to hold you right now.” His voice was gruff. “That’s all I want.”

My chest squeezed. If this was it for me, that’s what I wanted, too. I didn’t want to go out alone. It was more than that, but I could barely process what that meant. My lips formed the wordokay,but it took too much energy to speak.

He wrapped his arms around me and his body was pleasantly warm. After a few moments, I could no longer keep my eyes open. Fear eased off as a smooth, rolling peace washed over me. If this was dying, it wasn’t so bad. It really was like falling asleep.

Roth’s arms tightened around me as he curled his body around mine, tucking my legs between his and my head under his chin. He drew in a breath. I took the next one and slipped further into the darkness.

“Layla?”

I wanted to respond, but I was beyond answering. The void beckoned and there was no denying it.

“Can you hear me? I want you to know something,” he said, his voice hoarse and thick and sounding so very far away, but full of urgency. “I love you, Layla. Do you hear me? I’ve loved you since the first moment I heard your voice and I will continue to love you. No matter what. I love you.”

34

Coming out of the void was a process of epic proportions. My fingers twitched at my sides. My toes curled. The sweet scent of something spicy and wild floated around me. From the moment my brain started churning to when I opened my eyes, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had taken hours.

I blinked and found myself staring at a broad chest. A naked chest. A naked male chest. My thoughts were fuzzy about everything, but I had a general recollection of everything that had gone down. Had I died? Because this wasn’t really a bad afterlife. But no, the deep, steady ache in my body warned me I was very much alive.

My hands were tucked against a hard stomach, resting near the head of a beautifully scaled green dragon.

Roth.

One of his arms was draped over my hips and the other was under my shoulders. His hand was buried deep in the mess of my hair. His chest rose and fell steadily. I could feel Bambi on the other side of me, stretched out. What an odd...sandwich to be a part of.

No matter what. I love you.

A tingling heat swept over my cheeks and cascaded down my neck. That had to have been my imagination throwing those words at me. Demons didn’t love likethat.Not even ones like Roth, who could pull off some very un-demonlike things. But I remembered the sound of his desperation.

I lifted my head just a little. Thick dark lashes fanned his cheeks. His lips were slightly parted. As he slept, there was a youth and vulnerability in his features that were never seen while he was awake.

He looked like an angel.

I didn’t know how long I lay there and stared at him, but it was probably enough time to certify me as a total creeper. The time was useful, though. I was alive and other than the soreness in my body, I had the sense I was fine. The bloodroot was out of my system; the wound in my stomach had healed for the most part. I’d be up and kicking around in no time.

But everything had changed.

So much so that I couldn’t really even grasp how different my life would be from this moment on. There was no way I could go back to the compound. I didn’t want to, not after what Abbot had done to me—the cage, the warehouse downtown. No way. And if Nicolai and Dez hadn’t intervened, I would’ve died...and that was what Abbot had wanted. Like my real father, he, too, wanted me dead. Yeah, that stung and the bite lingered. But I couldn’t dwell on it.

Irefusedto dwell on Elijah or Abbot anymore.

School? That was gonna be a no-go. With or without Bambi, it was too much of a risk. I couldn’t take the chance of infecting anyone else, especially when I still had no idea how I was doing it. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t stay here. The Wardens would be after me. So would Hell once it got out that it had to be me behind it all. And the likelihood of ever seeing Zayne again seemed slim, and that tore me up, as if I’d been stabbed all over again. I could barely remember a time without him and now I’d face however long I walked this Earth without seeing him again, and that...that was going to kill me, especially knowing what I had done to him. The only thing I could hope for was some real confirmation that he was okay. Everything about my life had changed, but somehow I would survive. I would have to.

Roth’s lashes fluttered and then they swept up, revealing golden orbs that were bright with relief. He opened his mouth and then wet his lips, but he didn’t speak. We stared at each other, and in that moment and in that bed, locked in a tight embrace, it was just us and nothing else.

Then he lifted his hand from my hip, placing the tips of his fingers against my cheek. “The claw marks have healed,” he said. “There’re just faint pink lines. Who clawed you?”

---