Chapter 26

26

Time dragged by uneventfully. Probably since I hadn’t left the house. Abbot hadn’t grounded me, which had surprised me. Even though it was obvious that I hadn’t caused the mess that had landed me in out-of-school suspension, I really had thought he’d find some way to lay that blame down on me.

I’d learned from my one brief conversation with Nicolai that an exorcism had been performed at the school Friday, after school let out, and that the wraith formerly known as Dean was no longer an issue. I was relieved to hear that the malicious spirit had been removed and there was no need to call in the Ghostbusters, but it didn’t change the fact that Dean had died without a soul and was therefore in Hell.

Dean hadn’t deserved that and it wasn’t fair. Worse yet, there’d be wraiths. Or there could already be more and we just hadn’t discovered them. The Wardens were investigating suspicious deaths, but it was impossible for them to catch everyone. We were operating in the dark, waiting for a disaster to come ashore.

At least when I had been able to go to school, I’d felt as if I could do something if anything happened, but being stuck here made me feel about ten kinds of useless.

That was it. I was stuck.

The only bright spot in the downtime was the phone calls and messages with Stacey and Sam. They were still under the impression that I’d be joining them for movies with Zayne, but that wasn’t happening. I hadn’t really seen Zayne. Not that I blamed him for avoiding me. Whenever I thought about him, a throbbing ache would light up my chest. I didn’t regret telling him the truth, but it didn’t make dealing with the consequences any easier.

Dinner had already been served and most of the Wardens would be getting ready to head out for the night. Before I headed down to the kitchen to see what food I could hoard, I walked over to where my cell rested on the foot of the bed.

On some kind of weird, annoying subconscious level, I reached for the phone. Stopping halfway, I drew my arm back. “Crap.”

There was a time bomb waiting on my phone.

A text message from Roth that was two days old. A text message I would not, could not respond to.

The message had been innocent enough. A simple are you bored yet? But it had been the first time he’d texted me since he returned from his little trip to Hell and for some screwed-up reason, the text made my stomach decide it wanted to be a gymnast every time I thought about it. In my head, the text symbolized a clearly drawn line and responding would be like cartwheeling across it.

Roth had been right the last time I saw him.

I didn’t understand jack when it came to him. I didn’t know what he was about or what he was trying to accomplish with the things he’d said to me. All I did know was that his outright dismissal of what we’d shared still festered like an infection in the chambers of my heart. That was a fact—a reality. I wasn’t going to allow it to happen again.

And then there was Zayne.

Drawing in a shaky breath, I forced myself away from the bed. As I left the bedroom, I tugged the hair tie off my wrist and yanked my hair up into a half-assed ponytail, which matched my half-assed attempt at dressing. My sweats were at least two sizes too big and the long-sleeve shirt was probably two sizes too small.

Hotness.

I veered away from the dining room large enough to accommodate an entire NFL team. Deep voices radiated from the room, broken up by the soft laughter of either Jasmine or Danika. I lingered for a second by the closed pocket doors, letting the ridiculous yearning to be a part of them take hold for a second.

Silly.

I shook my head and shuffled on toward the kitchen. Not the one that Jasmine fed her babies in, but what I liked to think of as the place where the food magic happened. The doors closed quietly behind me. House staff milled about, not surprised to see me roaming through the large, industrial space.

Morris turned from where he stood before several bowls, smiling when he spotted me. He reached over, picked up a covered plate and placed it on the island. Then he patted the spot before it.

I grinned as I hopped up on the stool. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged as he handed over a fork and knife, then removed the lid from the plate with a flourish servers all around the world would envy. Pot roast and red potatoes. My mouth watered.

I dug in, chewing to the sound of water running and dishes clanking together. Somehow, over the past month or so, that had become a comforting sound. None of the staff besides Morris really paid any attention to me, but I was okay with that.

I was kind of like them. Ghosts in the house. Nothing really there to get attached to.

God. My mood was somewhere between in the crapper and lying facedown in a puddle.

Gathering up my plate, I walked it over to where the dirty dishes were stacked. Like always I tried to rinse it off, but one of the staff relieved me of the plate with a quickness that was impressive.

“You know, I can clean up my own mess,” I pointed out.

The woman said nothing as she placed it with the rest of the dirty dishes. Making a face, I turned and sharp tingles radiated down my spine as my eyes locked with blue ones.

Zayne stood just inside the kitchen, his expression sheltered as his gaze dropped from my face to the knife I clutched in my hands. He arched a brow. “Should I be worried?”

I was a bit dumbfounded by seeing him in here.

Morris appeared, whisking the knife out of my hand. Eyes widening as he gave me a not-so-discreet push in Zayne’s direction, I stumbled like a doofus. “I was...uh, eating.”

“I gathered that much.” His gaze dipped again, and this time I knew I wasn’t holding any stabby weapons. He was staring at the wide strip of flesh my ill-fitting shirt was showing off. Heat flowed into my cheeks and then turned into a pleasant liquid feeling that went much, much lower. When his lashes finally rose I knew I looked like a tomato. “I was heading to the training rooms. Want to join me?”

Before I could respond, Morris passed behind me and gave yet another well-placed, strong shove toward Zayne. I shot him a look over my shoulder. “Geez.”

He winked.

As I turned back to Zayne, I saw his lips twitch as if he was trying not to smile. Good sign or not? “Sure.”

Zayne nodded and I followed him to the narrow door beside the oversize freezer. It was an entrance to the floors below that I rarely used.

“I overslept today,” Zayne said as he closed the door behind us. “Didn’t get in any workout before dinner.”

“Did...did you have a busy night?” I trailed behind him in the dimly lit hall, but he’d stopped and waited until I was walking alongside him. “Hunting?”

“We found an enclave of Terriers over near Rock Creek Park and were dealing with that most of the night.”

“Terriers?” When he nodded, all I could do was shake my head in wonder. Terriers were creatures that were a cross between an ostrich and a raptor, another class of demonic lovelies. “That’s kind of abnormal, right?”

Zayne slowed as we reached the door leading to one of the training rooms. “The last time we’d seen any was right before Dez brought Jasmine down here for the first time.”

“That was years ago.” I stepped into the room as he held the door open.

“Yep,” he said, passing me and crossing onto the blue mats, heading for the equipment laid out on benches. He picked up some white cloth and began wrapping his knuckles. “The thing is, so many of these demons aren’t allowed topside and, because we don’t see them often, we think they’re not here. But they are. They’ve just gotten better at hiding themselves.”

I thought of the club of sorts under the Palisades and all the demons there that weren’t supposed to be walking among humans.

“Want to join?” he offered as he finished wrapping his knuckles.

“No. Ate too much. I’ll just watch.” I tugged on the hem of my shirt and the moment I let go it popped back up, revealing half of my lower stomach. Probably should’ve revisited my wardrobe choices. After dinner, I was rocking a bit of a belly.

Zayne strode past me, settling both hands on the sides of the punching bag. “I really wish you’d reconsider eating with everyone.”

“I really wish you’d stop bringing it up.”

He looked over his shoulder at me, brows raised. “You don’t need to feel like you don’t belong in there. You do. And you’re missed at the table.”

I laughed at that. “By who?”

“Me.”

My lips parted and I really had no response for that. I watched him turn back to the punching bag. He fell back into position and raised his arms. “How have you been enjoying your time off?” he asked, throwing a punch that knocked the bag back several feet.

“I’ve been bored out of mind.”

Expression concentrated, he swung with his other arm. “And you have the rest of the week.”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me.” I sat down on the mats and crossed my legs.

A slight smile appeared as he moved around the bag, targeting different sides with different hand techniques. Sweat dotted his brow and dampened the blond hair at his temples. “We heard back from a contact at one of the hospitals—the same one Dean had been taken to. They had another DOA brought in two nights ago—a young woman who had no previous health conditions died of a massive heart attack. Heart blown out basically, like with Dean.”

I winced.

“Her fiancé will be out of town the day after tomorrow to attend the funeral in Pennsylvania, so I’m going to check out their town house,” he continued. “It’s the only way to see if she was infected, you know? If she’s now a wraith, her house would be the most likely place she’d be.”

The Wardens had been doing a lot of that lately—scoping out the recently deceased. “Can I go?”

He stopped, wiping the back of his forearm as he looked at me. A second passed. “You’re starting to sound like Danika. She’s been demanding to be allowed to go on hunts.”

“Why shouldn’t she be? The girl is trained. She’s a full Warden. She can fight.”

“You know the answer to that.”

I frowned. It felt weird to defend Danika when I’d spent so much time hating on her. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be just a baby-making machine.”

He shook his head as he turned back to the bag and got back to working out. Only he could beat the Hell out of something and not be out of breath. I’d be panting, lying on the floor in a puddle of sweat at this point.

“So can I?” I asked again. “I haven’t been tagging, so it would feel...good to do something helpful.”

Zayne threw a couple of punches and then drew back from the bag. The front of his gray shirt was damp with sweat. “I guess it wouldn’t be a problem. Sure.”

A wide smile broke out across my face. “Thank you. I really want to do something that doesn’t...”

I trailed off as he reached down and pulled the shirt off over his head and dropped it to the floor.

Holy hotness...

Now that was just so wrong.

My eyes roamed over his chest and defined stomach like those of a starved person looking at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Those sweats of his hung low, revealing the indents on either side of his hips. Zayne really didn’t have a six-pack. More like an eight-pack.

“What were you saying?”

Each ab was tightly rolled. As if someone had carved them into his stomach. “Huh?”

Two fingers suddenly pressed under my chin, forcing my gaze up to his face. The corners of his lips curled up as I flushed. “You were talking about going with me to the town house?”

“Oh. Yeah. That.” Important stuff that didn’t involve touching his stomach or anything like that. “It will be really productive.”

Zayne chuckled as he dropped his hand and returned to the bag. The way his muscles worked along his back and stomach as he threw punch after punch was truly fascinating.

I was sure if I sat here any longer and watched him, I’d turn into a puddle of goo on the mats, but I didn’t get up. This was better than looking through Tumblr posts of hot guys.

When he was finished, he swiped a fresh towel off the rack. I was pretty much still sitting on the mat with my tongue lolling out. He lowered the towel. “So, about the movies tomorrow...”

That was like having a bucket of ice water thrown in my face.

Reality sucked. I pushed to my feet, keeping my eyes trained on his sneaks. “Yeah, about that.” I exhaled slowly, working through the lump in my throat. “I guess I’ll text Stacey and let her know that the movie thing is a no-go for us—I mean, for me. There’s really no reason for me to go and it’s probably better that way, because it’s, like, Sam and Stacey’s first date and all.”

I started past Zayne, but he reached out, wrapping his arm around my waist. As he snagged me, the bare flesh of his arm connected with my stomach and I froze at the sudden intrusion of emotion. It was a tangled ball I wasn’t skilled enough at deciphering.

“Whoa,” he said, dragging me back so that I was right in front of him. He dropped his arm. “You don’t want to go anymore?”

“Well, I guess... I figured that after Thursday night and stuff, you wouldn’t want to go.” I stumbled over my words as though I’d just learned to speak yesterday. “And I completely understand that and—”

“Did I ever say to you that I’d changed my mind about tomorrow?” he asked, frowning.

“No, but—”

“But I never said that and as far as I knew we were still going.” He flipped the towel over his shoulder, watching me. “You didn’t change your mind. So we’re on.”

I gaped at him, wondering if I’d stared at his abs so hard that I’d given myself a stroke. “But why?”

“Why?” he repeated softly.

“Yeah. I... I screwed up. Big-time.” It seemed unnecessary to explain this. “Why would you want to go to the movies with me? Stacey and Sam are going to think that means something.”

His hand snapped out, catching my wrist and stopping me from fiddling with the hem of my shirt. “Do you think us going together means something?”

My tongue felt tied.

He lowered his head, his steady gaze searching mine. “Do you want it to mean something?”

“Yes,” I whispered, and there was a whole lot of truth in that one word.

His hand slipped up my sleeve, curling around my elbow. “Then we’re going to the movies tomorrow.”

It sounded so simple, but I truly didn’t understand why he’d still want to. A small smile crossed Zayne’s face, as if he seemed to know what I was thinking, and the words sort of fell out of my mouth. “I don’t deserve you.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” He reached up with his other hand and tucked a pale escapee from my ponytail back behind my ear. “That’s where you’ve always been wrong. You deserve everything.”

Perhaps my priorities were all kinds of jacked up, but as I applied the finishing touch in the form of lip gloss, the Lilin, the wraiths and the difference I felt inside me were the furthest thing from my thoughts.

As I leaned back from the mirror in my bathroom, I took in my outfit with a critical eye. Stacey would say I needed to show more boob. The dark jeans were tight, paired with a loose white blouse cinched at the waist with a dark blue braided belt and the black heels that made me feel taller than the Lollipop Guild.

My hair was down, falling into loose waves and the pink sweeping across my cheeks told me there’d be no need for blush. My pulse was a steady thrum as I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. Was I really going out on a date with Zayne? Was this really happening? Excitement hummed through my blood, making Bambi all kinds of antsy, but there was a part of me that felt as if I was dreaming.

Never once had I thought this day would ever, ever happen.

I picked up the tube of mascara, wondering if another coat would make it look as though spiders had mated with my eyelashes.

“You look great. So stop messing around. We’re going to be late.”

I jumped at the sound of Zayne’s voice and dropped the mascara. The plastic tube clanged off the sink basin. He stood just inside my bedroom and the smile he wore made me feel as if I’d spotted a rainbow.

He was wearing a dark gray V-neck sweater that stretched across his broad shoulders and he made light-colored denim jeans look damn good.

“Thank you.” I plucked up the mascara and placed it in its basket. “You look very...very nice, too.”

Zayne chuckled as I came out of the bathroom. “Your face is so red.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s cute.”

The fact I probably resembled a chili pepper wasn’t cute. My gaze wandered everywhere but his face. “Do you mind picking up Stacey and Sam at her place? I think it would be easier instead of taking two cars.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Good.” I turned, frowning at the mess that was my room. “I just need to find my purse.”

Zayne had moved closer, as silent as a shade. “You don’t need it. I’m paying. That’s what guys do on a date.”

My heart kicked at my chest. This was a date. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Scanning the scattered books and clothing, I gave up on finding the purse I rarely used and faced Zayne.

He was closer than before, so close that I could feel the warmth from his body. Slowly, I lifted my eyes and I was left unsteady. His gaze tracked over my face and the smile he wore slipped a little.

“You really do look beautiful,” he said, voice gruff. “But you always look beautiful, like something that’s not quite real.”

Hearing Zayne say something like that never failed to knock me into la-la land. All I could do was grin up at him like a fool.

The smile returned in full force and he laughed again. “Come on. We’ve gotta go.”

I nodded and as we turned, we realized that we weren’t alone. Out in the hallway, Danika stood with Maddox. Heat infused my body but was quickly chased away by a trail of icy fingers over my skin.

Danika was staring down the hall, her expression completely devoid of any emotion, and oddly enough, I felt a lick of pain in my chest for her. It was so weird, but I knew she liked Zayne—more than just liked him—and I felt bad. I felt as if I should put some space between Zayne and me.

But Maddox...? It was the first time I’d seen him up and walking around since the fall down the stairs. Not that he’d been out of commission this entire time, but I’d made sure to avoid him. Well, avoid pretty much all of them.

Maddox stared at Zayne with wide eyes. His jaw worked overtime, as if he was doing everything to keep his mouth shut as he looked at me.

I really felt as though I should put more space between Zayne and me.

Zayne reached down between us, threading his fingers through my mine, surprising all the sugar I’d consumed earlier right out of me. “What’s up, guys?”

With a small smile, Danika shook her head. “Nothing. We were just heading down to the training rooms. Right?” She looked at Maddox.

He wasn’t paying attention to her, his gaze fixed on our joined hands as though we were holding a grenade. Anger infused me, straightening my spine and replacing the awkwardness I felt.

“Something you want to say?” asked Zayne, his narrowed gaze on Maddox.

The Warden shook his head as he curled his lip. “Nope. Not a damn thing.” Then he turned, stalking down the hall, toward the stairs.

Danika sent us a sympathetic look that didn’t seem right on her. “Sorry. Have...” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Have fun.”

Once the hall was empty, I glanced up at Zayne. “Maddox didn’t look happy.”

“Do I look like I care?” Zayne’s grip on my hand tightened. “Now, come on. We have a movie to get to.”

Twisted around in the front seat of Zayne’s Impala, I stared at Sam and wondered if an alien had abducted him. Nothing about the guy sitting in the backseat next to Stacey was anything like the awkward, somewhat nerdy boy I’d known since I started school.

His usually unbrushed hair was actually styled. I figured he could tell all of us the year in which hair gel was created, but I’d had no idea he even knew how to use it. His curls were swept back from his forehead, artfully messy. The new look changed the whole landscape of his face. His jaw was stronger, a cut line. His cheekbones appeared higher, sharper, and without his glasses, his lashes seemed ridiculously long.

The way he sat was different. Body relaxed and legs spread apart as he stared out the window. His typical slouch was gone. He was dressed nice—a sweater like Zayne wore with a white dress shirt underneath it.

Sam looked really good. It was like seeing your son growing up or something.

And Stacey couldn’t keep her eyes off him...or her hand. Right now, her fingers were curled around his forearm and his hand...whoa. His hand was resting on her thigh, like her inner thigh.

I whipped back around, feeling like a peeper. My gaze shifted to Zayne. His right hand rested on his leg while his left held the steering wheel. I wanted to reach over and place my hand over his, but years of being nothing more than a friend to him prevented me from taking that action.

The worst thing ever entered my brain at that chosen moment. Would it be this hard with Roth to forget who I used to be versus who I was now? I quickly looked away, blowing out a low breath as I watched a cab stop to pick up a couple.

I will not think of him. I will not think of him. He had no place in this, in any of this.

Traffic was a beast and it took a lifetime to get to the theater in the historic district. The place wasn’t a Cineplex. More like an old-school theater with only a couple of movies showing, but it was quaint and cute and once we all decided on a film, we were ready to do this.

The lobby was mostly empty by the time we got our tickets, but the smell of buttery popcorn made the fact that we’d missed the previews okeydoke.

As we walked to the concession stand, Sam moved to Stacey’s other side, wrapping his arm around her waist, and I was guessing I hadn’t been around for the day that their relationship went from finally acknowledging each other into touchy-feely land.

Considering how far Zayne and I had gone without really going anywhere, I wondered just exactly what Sam and Stacey had shared, and made a mental note to demand the lowdown on their current state of affairs.

But right now, I was more concerned with my own current affairs.

Still surprised that I was here with Zayne after what had happened, I looked up at him. He was watching me as I nibbled on my thumbnail.

“You doing okay?” he asked, tugging my hand away from my mouth.

I nodded.

He dipped his head so that his mouth was near my ear. “So relax.”

It wasn’t until then that I realized how locked up my muscles were. I forced a couple of deep breaths, willing the tension out of my body.

“That’s better.” He placed a hand on my lower back and whispered, “I want to be here, Layla-bug. No matter what has happened in the past, I want to be here.”

Those words made the breath catch in my throat and spun my heart around like a ballerina. “I want to be here, too,” I whispered back.

His lips brushed my temple. “That’s what I want to hear.”

When he pulled back, my smile was so wide there was a good chance it would crack my face open in a good way. If there was such a thing.

The jiggle from the door behind us announced we weren’t the only ones running late. The sound drawing my attention, I looked over my shoulder and almost fell right over. Face-first into a trash can.

Walking through the door was the man I’d slapped in the face with the Bible—the member of Church of God’s Children that had gotten away. He was dressed the same way he’d been that horrible day—white shirt and pressed pants, hair cropped close to the skull. He carried a bottle of water with him. It couldn’t be a coincidence, but had he known we’d be here? Had he been following Zayne and me? Or my friends?

My mouth dropped open as I whipped around, grabbing the back of Zayne’s shirt. He turned, gaze questioning. “Look who just walked in,” I whispered.

He glanced back and he swore under his breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What are you guys chatting about?” Stacey asked, twisting toward us. As she did so, she leaned into Sam’s arm in a way that would’ve been supercute if I wasn’t seconds away from flipping out.

“Nothing.” Zayne sent her a sure smile as he slipped his arm over my shoulders, effectively moving me so I was standing in front of him. “You guys getting popcorn or something?”

“I have a need for Skittles,” Sam replied, eyeing the counter as he rested his hands on the glass countertop. The cashier, a young girl with more freckles than there were stars in the sky, was leaning toward him.

“Skittles?” Stacey wrinkled her nose. “You hate Skittles.”

Zayne curled his hand around my upper arm. “We’re going to go ahead and—”

The man stepped right in front of us and he looked directly at Stacey and Sam. “You shouldn’t be here with them.”

Stacey looked over at him, blinking slowly as Sam pushed away from the counter. A curious expression marked his face. “Excuse me?” she said.

“You shouldn’t be here with them,” the man repeated, voice low and shaky. “They are the devil’s minions.”

There was a pause and Stacey choked out a laugh. “Oh God, you’re one of those freaks that hates Wardens?” She tugged on Sam’s hand. “Hey, you finally get to meet one in person.”

Sam eyed the man. “Not impressed.”

“You don’t understand,” he said. “It’s not because of him as much—”

“Oh, yeah, we aren’t doing this,” Zayne cut in, his grip tightening on my arm. “Let’s go.”

“I’ll get popcorn later.” Stacey wrapped her hand around Sam’s. “And I’ll come back for your Skittles.”

We were walking away. Not fast enough for me, but we were walking away. My heart started to slow down. We’d made it into the hall leading to the closed doors to the theater Then three words stopped us dead in our tracks.

“She’s a demon.”

Air flew out of my lungs.

“She’s a demon,” he repeated with the kind of conviction only zealots could muster. “And I can prove it.”

Stacey faced him, shaking her head. “Are you nuts?”

I had no idea how he could prove it, but I didn’t want to risk it. Bambi grew restless as tension poured into me. “That’s not true.”

He looked at me with pure hatred in his eyes. What about the rules, I wanted to scream. Humans were never supposed to know that demons existed. Something the Alphas had decreed—that humans must have faith without proof of a Hell. Always sounded crazy to me, but he had to be aware of them and he didn’t care. “All you tell is lies.”

Zayne dropped his arm and moved in front of me. “Don’t make me do something I’m going to regret.”

“There is already plenty you should regret.” He moved away from Zayne.

My heart beat wildly again. He wanted to expose me, right in front of my friends. I didn’t care about the greater consequences of such an action. These were my friends—friends who thought I was normal and accepted me. I couldn’t let this happen.

I grabbed Stacey’s arm as I sent Zayne a panicked look. “Come on, let’s just go. We can—”

“She doesn’t want you to know the truth,” the man said, reaching into his back pocket with his free hand. Zayne stiffened, but all he pulled out was a paper that had been rolled up. He shoved it at us, showing what turned out to be a photo of an older woman. Whoever the lady was, she was wearing some kind of orange shirt, her light blond hair was greasy and stringy. Scabs covered her slack lips and heavy lines crossed her face.

Sam frowned. “You’re showing us a mug shot?”

“Her name was Vanessa Owens,” he said, his hand trembling causing the thin paper to flutter. “She was twenty when she worked at a state-run foster care back in the late nineties, going to school at Georgetown. She had a bright future ahead of her—a loving boyfriend, a close-knit family and friends.”

Stacey cocked her head to the side, brows knitted together. “Let me guess? She found meth? Because it looks like she did. Drugs suck. Not sure what that has to do with any of this.”

I stared at the picture. Nothing about her name or her face was familiar to me, but there was a growing unease that bloomed in my chest.

“This is enough,” Zayne said, wrapping a hand around my arm. “Let’s get the Hell out of here.”

“He doesn’t want you to know either—because the Wardens protect her, protect what she really is and what she did to this innocent woman.”

“I’ve never seen this woman,” I said, feeling trapped. The few people in the lobby were looking over at us, but I didn’t think they could hear what was being said. “I don’t know who she is.”

“You may not remember her, but I’m sure she remembers you. After all, you destroyed her life,” he said, lips curling back in disgust. “She watched over you while you were in foster care and you, true to your nature, fed off her and took a part of her soul, sending her into a downward spiral that ended in drugs, robbery and eventually death.”

Blood drained from my face so quickly I thought I would pass out. The woman’s face in the photo shifted, became younger and was replaced by vibrant blond hair, flawless skin and a warm smile.

Oh my God...

This was the woman I’d fed off when I’d been younger? The woman I’d attacked, which had prompted the Wardens’ discovery of me? I’d known that she had been hospitalized after I’d fed off her, but this?

“Whoa,” Sam murmured, rubbing his brow.

“She had been in and out of jail for ten years until recently she decided to rob a convenience store. She shot and killed one of the clerks and was killed by the police when they responded to the scene,” the man said, lowering the photo. “This is what you’ve done. How many more lives have you stolen since then?”

Zayne said something and tugged on my arm again, but I was frozen. All these years, I’d never really thought about what had happened to the woman. I’d thought that since I hadn’t taken her soul completely, she would’ve recovered. That she would be okay. But I’d effed up this woman like no tomorrow.

It struck me then and my stomach roiled so tightly I thought I might hurl all over the guy. What I had done to this woman by taking just a part of her soul was no different than what had happened to Dean and what was happening to Gareth and God knows how many more.

“You’re a demon,” the man seethed. “And the time will come when you won’t be able to hide what you are.”

I had no idea how the church knew so much about me, but at this moment, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except what he’d claimed and what I’d realized about myself.

“Wow. Man, you’re crazy.” Stacey crossed her arms, shaking her head. “Like not even in the slightly entertaining way, but in the ‘it’s time to call the police and possibly think about getting a restraining order’ kind of way.”

“You don’t believe me?” he asked.

She snorted. “Does anyone believe you?”

“You’ll see.” The hand holding the water bottle moved so quickly there was no stopping him. Even Zayne hadn’t seen it coming. With some pretty excellent force and aim, he shook the bottle at us. Water doused Stacey and me, and hit Zayne’s pants leg.

Stacey shrieked as she flung the water off with her fingers. “What the Hell!”

Water ran down my head, across my face and into my eyes, pooling in several spots on my shirt, turning the material transparent, except...except it wasn’t normal water. I stumbled back a step, bumping into Stacey as Zayne shot forward, sweeping his arm across the man’s chest, knocking him back several feet. He whirled back to me and the horrified look creeping across his face confirmed it.

“Oh no,” he whispered.

My skin stung all along my forehead and across my cheeks. My vision blurred and the inside of my mouth smarted as though I’d swallowed hot sauce. Patches along my breasts and stomach started to throb. Bambi whirled around my body, escaping to my back.

The sting quickly escalated, turning into a fierce burn that robbed the breath from my lungs as I raised my hands. Thin wisps of smoke wafted from the tips of my overly pink fingers.

“Oh my God.” Stacey’s horrified voice reached my burning ears. “Layla...”

The guy stumbled to his feet, the empty bottle clutched tight in his hand, and when he spoke, satisfaction dripped from his voice as he spat out two words that changed everything. “Holy water.”