Page 93 of Stone Cold Touch

I leaned back. “Yeah, no thank you.”

He slid the bottle in front of me and leaned against the bar. “Would you like a drink, then?”

My eyes narrowed. “I’m fine.”

“Smart girl,” he replied. “Then again, I doubt there is any deal you could make me.” He looked over my shoulder, scouring the bar. “You’re looking at me like I just murdered a baby, sugar. You know what I am. You know whatyouare.”

“You just let a guy trade his soul for love.”

“Part of his soul—just a teeny, tiny piece. That’s all.” His gaze moved back to mine. “What was Roth thinking by bringing you here?”

I shrugged. “I have no clue.”

“And where is he?”

“Headed off to get us food.”

He laughed. “Roth brought youherefor food? That’s great. You look as comfortable as a kitten huddled in a pile of pit bulls.”

I made a face. “I look that out of place?”

“You got that look that says not quite human, but that’s not it.” Cayman cocked his head to the side. “Frankly, when you look around, you look like you’ve smelled something bad, sugar.”

Did I?

Cayman flipped the white towel across his shoulder. “I don’t have to know you that well to know you ain’t happy with what you are.”

“That’s not...” I trailed off. There was no point in denying it. I still hadn’t fully come to accept that I was both Warden and demon—the embodiment of goodandevil.

He smiled again. “You know, I know why Roth brought you here. He wanted you to see this—to understand what this place is.”

“A den of sin?”

Cayman chuckled. “Cute, sugar, but I’m sure he told you that a certain kind of people come here, right?”

“People whose souls are already tainted?”

He nodded as he lowered his voice. “These are the bottom of the barrel, the humans who do bad all on their own. They find their way here because it’s in their nature, and we’re doing society a favor with the services we provide.”

My brows rose.

“We’re aiding the process, getting them out of the gene pool so to speak, one little nip and suck at a time. That is what most demons do. We don’t go after the innocents. We go after the sinners—and, boy, do we love them.” He straightened. “That’s what your Wardens don’t understand. Just because there’s a few bad demons in the bunch, doesn’t mean what we do isn’t a very necessary evil.”

His words rained down on me as though I’d stepped out into an ice storm. Was that why Roth had brought me here? To show me that evil was necessary in the world and maybe not even that wrong?

I glanced around the bar again, easily spying the humans, and Roth was probably right. If I could see their souls, I’d see their sins. But what did that have to do with me?

It was so obvious that I sort of wanted to smack myself in the face.

Maybe Roth was trying to show me that somehow, some way, the demon part of me was necessary. That the demon side had been the one who’d given me the ability to see souls, and now to feel others’ emotions, and it had been the demon that had forced me to shift the night Paimon had tried to free Lilith. In reality, he’d always been trying to show me the benefits of my darker heritage. A small grin pulled at my lips. Thinking of those benefits didn’t lessen the blow of Abbot’s obvious disgust with me, but it helped.

“So has Roth wooed you away from all common sense, yet? He’s a yummy one, isn’t he?”

Caught off guard by the question, I felt my smile fade. “No! No. It’s not like that.”

“It’s not?” Cayman’s eyes seemed to catch and swallow all light. “How is it ever not like that with Roth? Denying him is like not breathing air.”

“Well, then, I must not be breathing. Roth and I are just friends.”Friendssounded so lame and wasn’t even particularly true considering our past.

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