Page 150 of Stone Cold Touch

I’d almost killed him.

The hurting from losing him hadn’t eased, and I doubted that it ever would. It was like losing a limb.

And my friends? Sam? Stacey? They were out of my reach, too, and I didn’t even know if I had also infected them and they just hadn’t shown symptoms yet. Not knowing that haunted me. God, so much was messed up.

In those dark moments, like now, I wanted to curl up in a ball and pretty much devolve into something entirely useless. I was seventeen and my life, in a way, was virtually over. Maybe I had a whole new life waiting for me, but it was one I’d never, ever planned on.

Roth strode into the living room, carrying a bowl of cheese puffs. He dropped onto the couch beside me, took one long look at me and then popped a handful of the cheesy goodness into his mouth. Only he could manage to eat something so messy and still manage to look sexy doing so.

Damn demon.

Things...things were tense between us. A lot had been said and a lot was still unspoken. One way or another, he’d laid it all out there for me and I wasn’t convinced that those painfully beautiful words he’d spoken had been a product of my imagination. I just didn’t know what to do with those words, if I should trust them or even allow them a place in my heart. Because my heart and my head were so messed up right now.

“What’s up?” he asked, reaching into the bowl and withdrawing a rather large puff.

I shrugged a shoulder as I glanced over to where Cayman was staring at the TV screen.Elfwas on.

Roth offered the cheesy puff to me. I took it, flicking it into my mouth. Crumbs dropped into my lap. Sigh. He didn’t say anything and I knew he was waiting.

I wrapped my arms around my legs and rested my chin on my knees. “I want to see Stacey.”

His lips slipped into a frown. “I don’t think that’s a smart idea.”

“I need to see her and Sam. I need to make sure I haven’t infected them,” I explained. Cayman was now, surprisingly, paying attention to us. “Now that I can see auras again, I’ll be able to tell.”

“Speaking of seeing auras,” Roth began, “I want you to take Bambi back. She may make your abilities go wonky, but she does make you stronger.”

I wanted to take her back, too, and maybe I would, but not until we discovered whether she was causing my soul-sucking ability to go to terminator levels. “I will eventually, but I think being able to see souls is important.”

“It is.” Cayman stretched like a cat. “But going to see your friend is stupid. The Wardens—your clan—will be expecting that.”

I held my ground. “They could be, but I need to see Stacey at least. She’s my best friend. I need to know if I’ve hurt her somehow. I... I can’t go without knowing.”

Cayman rolled his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder if you are part human.”

“Shut up,” Roth said to him, scrubbing a hand down his jaw. “Okay. I get it. We’ll do it, but we have to be fast and we have to be careful. And then we need to figure out where we’re going.”

Relieved, I loosened my hold on my legs. If only I could see Zayne, but that wasn’t possible. That would never be possible.

Across from us, Cayman sighed. “Speaking of places to go. I hear Hawaii is pretty chill. I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a beach vacation.”

wWe went to Stacey’s house the next day, a Friday. With her mom not being home and her little brother in day care until at least five in the evening, we were able to sneak into the house and wait for her there.

By sneaking, I meant that I scooped up the extra key Stacey always left under the huge potted palm tree on the back patio and we let ourselves in.

I breathed in the faint scent of apples and pumpkin, committing the smell to memory. Stacey’s mom had a thing for wall plug-ins that always made her house smell like a toasty fall afternoon.

Roth trailed behind me and I had a feeling he was checking out my ass. The clothing that he and Cayman had “picked up” for me wasn’t stuff I’d normally wear. Dresses, skintight jeans that I had to lie down to put on, leather pants and a whole slew of second-skin sweaters.

Today I wore a pair of white jeans and a black sweater that made me feel as if I was seconds away from stripping off my clothes and finding the nearest pole.

I glanced over my shoulder and Roth raised a brow as one side of his lips slipped up. “Can you walk in front of me?”

He chuckled deeply. “Not in this lifetime.”

Shooting him a quick glare, I hurried into the living room. Stacey would be arriving any moment and with some luck, Sam would be with her. Both Roth and I figured it would be safer not to tell her I was coming, and we’d circled her neighborhood a half a dozen times before parking three blocks down. Roth had felt that his Porsche was too noticeable, so he’d borrowed Cayman’s car.

Which was a vintage Mustang. Yeah, real inconspicuous there.

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