Page 103 of Stone Cold Touch

“Where to?” the cabbie asked.

I looked up, catching his reflection in the rearview mirror. Sleep pulled at his eyes and placed several deep wrinkles in his skin. “Dunmore Lane.”

He nodded, turning back to the road. “That’s a decent trip from here. You look a little young to be—”

A Warden dropped from the sky, landing in front of the taxi.

“Oh no,” I whispered.

The impact shook the cab and added another pothole to the street. His wings were unfurled, spanning several feet on either side. The broad chest, the color of granite, was smooth. I didn’t even have to look at the face to know who it was.

Zayne.

“Jesus!” the cabbie gasped, pressing a hand against his chest. Humans were well aware of Wardens, but I seriously doubted any of them expected to see one drop out of the sky in the middle of the night. “Where did he come from?”

Zayne placed one clawed hand on the hood of the taxi, tipping the car up onto two wheels. The cabbie clutched the steering wheel while I pushed against the back of the seat in front of me.

“Get out of the car now,” Zayne ordered, slowly setting the cab back on four wheels as his piercing gaze landed on me.

The cabbie twisted around in his seat. “He’s talking to you?”

I nodded.

“Then get out,” he said, pointing at the door. “I don’t want no trouble with them. He wants you out of this cab, you get out of this cab.”

I frowned, wanting to point out that I could be an innocent girl in need of help, but that wasn’t the case and I didn’t want to drag someone who was innocent into the middle of this.

Opening the door, I stepped out. The moment I closed it behind me, the cab peeled off, burning rubber as it flew down the avenue.

“You’ve been with him.”

My heart turned over heavily as I forced my eyes to meet his. In his true form, Zayne was an intimidating mass of granite.

“You smell like him, so don’t even try to lie.”

“I wasn’t going to. I swear.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Zayne—”

“I’ve spent all evening and all night looking for you,” he said, taking a step forward. His head was dipped low. “I stopped byhisplace. I couldn’t get in, but he met me on the roof. He said you weren’t with him.”

He said what? That had to have been when I was asleep, but why would Roth lie? Probably because I’d fed off a soul and he didn’t know if I was still high as a kite.

“He lied obviously,” Zayne snarled. “I can’t say I’m surprised by that, but from you?” The anger seemed to seep out of him as he took a step back. His shoulders slumped as he dragged in a deep breath. “You spent the night with him.”

The statement, not so much of a question, broke me. “No—no! It’s not like that. I didn’t go with him because of something like that.”

He turned his head and the light from the lamppost reflected off the shiny, black horns. The fact he was still in his gargoyle form in front of me was testament to how upset he was. There used to be a time when he hid what he looked like in his true form from me.

“I skipped lunch with him. That’s all! I know it doesn’t seem like that, but that’s why I left school with him.” My backpack dropped to the ground. “I was upset today over what happened last night with Abbot and I just... I just needed to get away.”

His head swung back to me. “Get away with him?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing what I was about to admit was going to be far worse than anything Zayne thought. “We went to this place and there was this woman there and I...”

“You what?”

I opened my eyes and saw again what that shade had shown me—my face. “There was this woman and I... I fed off her.”

Zayne stared at me, eyes widening. “No.”

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