Page 7 of Stone Cold Touch

“No,” I whispered.

“Not even mine?”

“I can’t seeanysoul.” My pulse kicked up as it really settled in. “No one’s. It’s like with demons. Nothing around them.”

He curled his leg up as he leaned toward me, voice low. “And this just happened. They were blinking in and out and then nothing?”

I nodded again as my stomach twisted up in little knots. “At lunch, I got this really sharp pain behind my eyes and I closed them. When I reopened them, all the auras were gone. Just like that.”

“And nothing else happened?” When I shook my head, he rubbed a spot over his heart. “You didn’t come into contact with...with any demons?”

“No,” I said quickly. “I would’ve told you that right away.”

A tense look flickered across his face for a moment, and there was a twisty motion in my chest. Of course he wouldn’t expect me to tell him right away. I’d lied to him about Roth for two months.

“You don’t have reason to believe that and I... I’ve lied to you before.” I swallowed hard when he looked away. A muscle thrummed along his jaw. “And I am sorry for that, but I thought...”

“You thought what you were doing was right by not telling us about him and looking for theLesser Key,” he said quietly, not sayinghisname. “And I get that. I’m trying not to hold it against you.”

Pulling my legs up, I tucked them against my chest. “I know.”

He glanced over at me, expression softening after a few moments. “Okay. So nothing else happened? Right.” He blew out a deep breath as he shook his head. “I don’t know. There really isn’t anyone to ask. There’s no other...”

“Demon?”

“Yeah, that. There are no other demons around that can do what you can, so that leaves us very little to work on.”

My mother could see souls, or at least that was what Roth had said. Wasn’t as if I could ask her, though, since she was currently chained in Hell.

“Maybe this is just temporary,” he said, reaching over and brushing back a lock of blond hair so light it was practically as white as my face. “So let’s not freak out until we know for sure. Okay?”

I found myself nodding, but I was already starting to freak out. “I won’t be able to tag.”

Zayne tilted his head to the side. “You haven’t really been tagging recently, so that’s the last thing to worry about, Layla-bug.”

“You won’t tell Abbot, right?”

“Not if you don’t want me to.” He paused. “But why don’t you want him to know?”

I shrugged, not really wanting to talk about his father. Zayne loved and trusted him.

Zayne watched me for a few moments and then stretched out on his side. Offering his hand, he smiled up at me. “Want to skip practice?”

Training was important. It kept me from getting my butt handed to me when I did run into demons, but I nodded. Taking his hand, I let him tug me down beside him. We lay there for a few moments, me on my back and Zayne on his side.

He held on to my hand, careful not to push against the torn skin. “How have the cravings been lately?”

I sighed. “The same.”

There was a pause. “Have you been eating normally?”

Brows furrowing, I tilted my head back to see him. “Why are you asking that?”

He didn’t answer immediately. “You’ve lost weight, Layla.”

I shrugged. “That’s probably a good thing.”

“You didn’t need to lose any weight.” A small smile appeared on his lips but didn’t reach his eyes. “I know these past two weeks have been hard on you.”

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