Page 75 of Stone Cold Touch

He leaned back against the couch. “You’re going to have to give me more details.”

“Every time someone has touched me—skin on skin—I get these faint traces of emotion that don’t belong to me.” I thought of Stacey and when she’d touched me while she’d been talking to me about Sam. I’d felt hope—hope that hadn’t belonged to me. Then again with Roth, with Zayne, and even when I’d walked down the street and bumped into people the night I’d been trying to see auras... My eyes widened. “It started when I stopped seeing auras! Like pretty much immediately afterward. Holy crap.”

“Damn,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “So, you could feel what I was feeling when I was touching you?”

“Faintly. Like a rush of emotions. Nothing too strong.”

His lips tipped up in a small smile. “Well, I’m glad, then. Because if you’d been feeling everything I’ve felt when we’ve touched? That would get really embarrassing considering all the feels I had going on.”

I laughed even though my cheeks burned. “Yeah, I guess that would be awkward.”

“Kind of.” He swallowed, and then placed his hand on my cheek. “What do you feel now?”

“I don’t know.” It was hard, trying to decipher between my own jumbled emotions and what could possibly be coming from him, but there was one that I thought might be his. A constant thread that wove its way around my trepidation. “Happy?” I whispered, curling my fingers around his wrist. The warmth increased, like basking in the summer sun. “Happiness.”

His smile spread, reaching his eyes. “Yeah, that’s about right.”

I tried to make sense of how losing my talent for seeing souls had somehow triggered the ability to feel others’ emotions. I dropped my hand and started to move off his lap, but his hands moved to my hips, securing me in my place. I raised a brow at him.

Zayne’s grin oozed boyish charm. “What?”

“You know what.”

One shoulder rose in a shrug. “Focus on the important stuff here. The whole emotion thing. We know that a succubus or incubus feeds off emotions, right? And Lilith was considered a succubus in some texts. Maybe it’s an ability that you’ve always had that’s just coming out.”

In other words, a demonic ability. “You know, why can’t some Warden abilities start manifesting?”

“Does it matter?” He tapped his fingers against my hips.

“It should. To you.”

That grin slipped into a frown. “It doesn’t. Feeling someone else’s emotions isn’t evil. Probably would come in quite handy.”

I supposed, but it was just another thing that made me so different from Zayne and uncomfortable in my own skin. A thought occurred as my body relaxed and I folded my hands between us. “Do you think the Lilin can feel emotions and see souls?”

“I don’t know.”

I didn’t even know why I wondered. Maybe it was because I wanted to know how similar my own DNA was to this creature’s.

Zayne shifted and I slid forward an inch. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“You do?”

He nodded. “You’re thinking about that coven and when you can find out more about the Lilin.”

As usual, he was pretty spot-on. “Well, my reasons are purely selfish. The more we know about the Lilin, the quicker we can find it.”

“And the crone won’t be at this club until a full moon?” he asked after a few moments. “That’s still a few weeks away—December the sixth, I think.”

I nodded absently. Demons, gargoyles, witches and their full moons.... “So, you’re okay with me going?”

“Not really, but I figure you’ll find a way to go anyway and I’d rather be supportive of it than be in the dark.” Tipping his head back against the couch cushion, he watched me from behind lowered lashes. “And I’m assuming Roth is thrilled about the prospect of going to this club with you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“I get that the witches don’t want me there, especially those kind of witches, but I’m going to go with you that night—at least as far as I can go,” he continued. “And, as much as it kills me to say this, going in there with Roth is a good idea.”

“What?” Surprised, I stared at him. “Did you really just say that?”

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