Page 44 of Stone Cold Touch

Bible Guy’s cheeks flushed.

“I doubt it,” I continued before he could speak. “I doubt there is a single intelligent thing either of you two have to say.”

“Layla,” Zayne warned softly, reaching my side.

“You should’ve been put down the moment you were birthed from the womb,” Bible Guy said, and the sincerity in his voice was startling. “You’re an atrocity.”

Whatever control I had was stretched too taut and snapped like a rubber band pulled to its limits. I moved faster than I probably ever had. Shooting forward, I snatched the thick Bible out of the man’s hands. Whipping my arm back, I swung it around and the sound of what had to be the most epic biblical bitch smack on Earth echoed through the garage.

Roth’s surprised laugh shook me to the core. “Damn. That’s getting served. In the biblical sense.”

Shock buzzed through me like a thousand confused honeybees. As the man stumbled back, blood seeped out of the split in the corner of his mouth. He turned wild eyes on me as he raised a trembling hand to his mouth. My gaze dropped to the Bible I held. The edge of the top was darker—stained. Zayne’s soft inhale rattled me and I dropped the Bible, expecting it to burn me.

It happened too fast.

The other guy lurched forward, his face a red mask of hate, contorted into something so ugly that it stole my breath. He reached under his shirt with his right hand, and I remembered seeing the glint of something metallic earlier. Roth cursed as the gun appeared in the man’s hand, but instead of taking aim at me, he pointed it at Zayne.

“No!” I shouted.

Zayne whipped around, and my heart jumped in my throat. I launched myself at him as a popping sound exploded. Before I could reach his side, Zayne shifted. His shirt split down the center and dark gray skin appeared. Something whizzed past my shoulder and the bullet found its mark, striking Zayne in the chest. He stumbled back.

There was a blur of movement to my left as the scream froze in my throat. The silence was broken by a high-pitched yelp, followed by bones cracking, then this fleshy sound of skin giving. Bible Guy spun on his heel, taking off as if the very Devil was chasing after him. I didn’t care. He could run.

I reached Zayne’s side, placing my hand over his chest. He was staring down at himself, quickly shifting back to his human form, skin becoming pink. “Oh my God...”

“I’m okay,” he said, but the words barely registered. Heart pumping, I ran my shaking hand over his chest, searching for the warmth and wetness of blood. I didn’t stop until he grasped my wrist, pulling my hand away. “Layla, I’m okay. Look.”

“How can you be okay?” My voice was thick with tears, edged with fear. “You were just shot in the chest.”

He smiled when I lifted my gaze to his face. “Look. The bullet bounced off. I shifted in time. There’s just a bruise. Nothing more.”

“Bounced off?” When he nodded, I glanced down and saw the bullet lying on the cement. The rounded edge was flattened, as though it had smacked into something impenetrable, which it had. My brain was slow to process it, and I should’ve known from the beginning. Zayne had shifted. A bullet wouldn’t breach a Warden’s skin.

I launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and clinging to him like plastic wrap. My heart still pounded in a sickening way because, for a few horrific seconds, I’d believed that the bullet had struck true, and in human form, a Warden wouldn’t survive a shot to the heart.

Zayne’s laugh was shaky as he gently detached my arms from around his neck. “You’re going to strangle me, Layla-bug.”

“Sorry.” I forced myself to step back. Trying to get control of myself, I turned around, drawing in a deep breath. It got stuck.

Roth was watching us, a distant look etched into his features, but it wasn’t him that caught my attention, that doused me with a bucket of ice water. On the ground, a few feet behind Roth, was the man who’d shot Zayne.

Or what was left of him.

The man’s right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, like that of one of those creepy marionette puppets. Red stained the front of his white shirt and the gun...dear God, it wasinthe man’s stomach, the handle sticking out. I tried to draw in another breath, but my lungs were seizing up.

He was still alive. I didn’t know how, but his chest rose in quick, sharp and shallow breaths. His dark eyes were wide and darting from left to right. His fingers twitched on his good arm.

My feet moved of their own accord. I stopped short of the rapidly spreading pool of blood. He drew in another quick breath and when he opened his mouth, blood leaked out. “It’s all...over.... We know what’s happening....” His brown eyes lost their focus as the blood leaked from his mouth in a steady stream. “We know about the Lilin....”

The man shuddered once and then there was nothing—no final gurgle or deep breath. The ragged inhale just stopped as his life seeped out of him. Although he’d tried to shoot Zayne and most likely wanted to kill him—kill all of us—seeing a life extinguished—a human life—wasn’t something I was okay with or even knew how to process.

I pressed my palm to my mouth as I stumbled back. A hand steadied me, but I couldn’t look away from the young man. Within seconds, his skin paled, taking on the pallor of death. The life was gone so quickly. Over. Just like that. The man was dead and there was a good chance that it had been my fault. They might have walked away from this if I hadn’t antagonized them.

“Oh God,” I whispered.

Someone tugged me back and forced me around. Warm fingers pushed the hair off my cheeks as I strained to see the man on the floor. “Layla.”

My eyes met amber-colored ones. Roth and I were so close—too close. His hands held me in place, spanning my cheeks, and his hips pressed against my stomach. “It had to happen. He was turning that gun on you and you wouldn’t have shifted fast enough. And he would’ve killed you.”

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