Page 118 of Stone Cold Touch

“No.” Stacey shook her head again, sending her bangs flying across her face as she stared at me. “There’s no way.”

“Okay.” I stood up. “I am part demon. And here’s the proof. Bambi?” I willed her off my body, hoping she’d listen to me and not make me look like a fool. “Off.”

Bambi stirred along my back and then I felt her lift off my skin. A shadow of tiny dots formed beside me. Stacey jumped to her feet, her mouth working as if she was trying to say something as the dots shot together. A second later, Bambi formed and lifted her diamond shaped head, eyeing Sam and Stacey as if it was potential feeding time.

“Don’t eat them,” I warned under my breath.

There was a breath of silence and then Stacey screamed like a banshee, jumping up on the couch as if she was going to crawl behind Sam. “Oh my God! Oh my God! A snake! That’s a big-ass snake!” she screeched, going as white as a Warden’s soul. “Where in the Hell did that come from?”

“Me,” I said. “She mostly stays on my skin, like a tattoo. She’s a familiar.”

Stacey looked as if she was a second from passing out, so I called Bambi back. The snake hissed its forked tongue at me in annoyance but returned to my arm and then to my stomach.

“Holy shit-ball storm,” Stacey whispered, slinking down the couch. “I did not just see that.”

“Yes. Yes you did.” I sat back down.

“How did you hide that thing all this time? It’s huge!”

“Actually, she’s only been a recent development. Bambi is a demon familiar, but she’s not mine. Not really.”

A look of understanding dawned on her face. “Wait—wait a sec. Roth has a snake tattoo.”

I nodded. “Had.”

Her eyes widened to the point I feared she’d burst a blood vessel. “Are you saying that Roth is also a demon?”

“Full-blooded,” Zayne answered. “He’s really known as Astaroth, the Crown Prince of Hell.”

Stacey looked at Sam, who just stared at us, and then back to me. “I... I don’t know what to even say at this moment.”

“Whatever you think about demons, and despite what that bastard at the theater said, you should know that Layla isn’t evil. She’s good to her core,” Zayne said, and I smiled a little at the sincerity in his words. “She’s more Warden, morehuman,than anyone I know.”

Stacey made a face. “Well, fucking duh. I know she’s not evil. I’ve known her for years. She’s like the equivalent of an evil baby panda or some shit like that.”

I gaped at her while Zayne grinned at me.

“What about Roth?” she asked. “I mean, you just said Crown Prince of...of Hell?”

“Totally evil,” Zayne threw out.

I sighed. “He’s not totally evil. He’s here doing something really important.”

“Which is?” Sam asked, his gaze darting between us. “You have to tell us now.”

Zayne nodded slowly and then I told them everything about me—what I could do and who my mother was. Zayne took over halfway, giving them the lowdown on the whole situation with the Lilin and what we suspected was going down at school. Saying both of them looked floored would be the understatement of the century.

“But neither of you can breathe a word of this,” Zayne said, wrapping up the most epic info dump in the history of humanity and Wardenkind. “I’m serious. Our job is to keep the public from knowing that demons do exist. If you start telling people...”

“Kind of like if I tell you this, I’m going to have to kill you?” Stacey swallowed when neither of us responded. “Holy mind blown...”

When Stacey finally found the ability to speak again, she focused on probably the least important thing of everything we’d just told her. “So that’s why you’ve never gone out with boys before? Because if you kiss them, you take their souls?”

“I’d like to think that’s not theonlyreason,” Zayne muttered.

I nodded. “I’m kind of a succubus—just a very rare kind.”

“And this Lilin thing is like you? Except it can take souls by touching? Wow.” Stacey looked at Sam. “We seriously do need to change schools.”

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