White Hot Kiss

CHAPTER NINE

We turned onto F Street and I stepped closer to him, pointing across the road. “When I was little, I used to sit across from the performing-arts center and watch them through the windows. I wish I had a smidgen of their grace and talent. You should see me dance.”

“Hmm,” Roth murmured, golden eyes twinkling. “I would like to see you dance.”

Was it commonplace for a demon to twist every comment into something laced with sexual innuendo? The crowd grew thicker near the arts center, a sure sign there was a concert later. My gaze landed on a couple leaning against the corner of the building. They were locked together, oblivious to the world around them. I could barely tell where one ended and the other began. Envy reared its head, forcing me to look away.

Roth was watching me observe the boy and girl. He smiled wolfishly. “So what does a tag look like?”

“You can’t see it?” I smiled. “Well, I’m not telling you.”

Roth laughed. “Fair. Can I ask you something else?”

I peeked at him. He was staring straight ahead now, lips pursed. “Sure.”

“Do you like doing this? Tagging demons?”

“Yes. I’m doing something good. How many people can say that?” I quickly added, “I like it.”

“Doesn’t it bother you that your family willingly puts you in danger to serve their own purpose?”

Irritation flashed like a glare from the winter sun. “They don’t really want me tagging anymore, so they don’t willingly put me in danger. I’m glad I can help. Can you say the same about whatever you do? You’re evil. You ruin people’s lives.”

“We aren’t talking about me,” he countered smoothly. “And what do you mean they don’t want you tagging anymore? I think these Wardens and I have something in common.”

I clutched the strap around my shoulder, mentally spin-kicking myself in the face. “It’s nothing. I’m tired of talking about me.”

We stopped in front of the café Roth had spoken of earlier. The fresh cookies and muffins in the window sang to me.

“Hungry?” Roth whispered in my ear.

His closeness was making it difficult to breathe. I could see the edge of the snake’s tail poking out of his collar. I lifted my head, swallowing. “Your tattoo moves.”

“Bambi gets bored.” His breath stirred the hair around my ear.

“Oh,” I whispered. “So...does she live on you or something?”

“Or something. Hungry or not?”

That was when I noticed the We Don’t Serve Wardens Here sign. Disgust filled me. “I guess I know why you like this place.”

His laugh confirmed my suspicions.

“This is just rich.” I faced him. “They won’t serve Wardens, but they’ll serve your kind.”

“I know. It’s called irony. I love it.”

Shaking my head, I headed into the café. Those cookies looked too good to pass up. It was slightly warmer inside the busy eatery. The smell of freshly baked bread filled the air as did the soft chatter of people sitting at bistro-style tables. I ordered a cold-cut sub and two sugar cookies. Roth got a coffee and a blueberry muffin—the muffin still surprised me. We found a table near the back, and I tried not to be weirded out by the fact that I was eating dinner with a demon.

I searched for a normal question to ask as I munched on my sandwich. “How old are you?”

Roth’s gaze flicked up from where he was strategically breaking his muffin into several bite-sized pieces. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Probably not.” I grinned. “But try me.”

He popped a chunk of muffin in his mouth, chewing slowly. “Eighteen.”

“Eighteen...what?” I finished off my sandwich while he stared back, brows raised. “Wait. Are you trying to tell me you’re only eighteen years old?”

“Yes.”

My mouth gaped. “You mean eighteen in dog years, right?”

Roth laughed. “No. I mean eighteen as in I was born eighteen years ago. I’m a baby demon, basically.”

“A baby demon,” I repeated slowly. When I thought about babies, the image of something soft and cuddly came to mind. Nothing about Roth was babyish. “You’re being serious.”

He nodded, brushing the crumbs off his hands. “You look so shocked.”

“I don’t understand.” I picked up one of the cookies.

“Well, technically, we’re not really alive. I don’t have a soul.”

I frowned. “Were you hatched from brimstone or something?”

Roth threw his head back, laughing. “No. I was conceived just like you, but our growth is vastly different.”

I shouldn’t be curious, but I couldn’t help it. “How is it different?”

He leaned forward, grinning as his eyes glimmered. “Well, we are born as babies but within a couple of hours we mature. This—” he gestured at himself “—is just a human form I chose to wear. We all pretty much look alike, to be honest.”

“Just like the Wardens, then. You’re wearing a human skin. So what do you really look like?”

“As gorgeous as I do now, but a very different shade of skin.”

I sighed. “What color?”

Roth picked up his cup as he dipped his chin. He stared at me through thick lashes. “A boy must have some secrets. It keeps the mystery alive.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

“Maybe one day I’ll show you.”

“I won’t be interested then. Sorry.” I moved on to my second cookie. “So back to the eighteen thing again. You seem a lot more mature than normal guys. Is that a demon thing?”

“We’re omniscient.”

I laughed. “Such crap. You’re saying you’re born all-knowing?”

Roth grinned impishly. “Pretty much. I went from this big—” he held his hands about three feet apart “—to what I am now in about twenty-four hours. Brain grew right along with it.”

“That’s just weird.”

He picked up his coffee, taking a sip. “So what do you know about your other half?”

And he was back to me again. I sighed. “Not that much. They told me my mom was a demon, and that’s pretty much it.”

“What?” Roth sat back. “You really are that innocent of your heritage. It’s cute, but oddly infuriating.”

I nibbled on my cookie. “They think it’s better that way.”

“And you think it’s okay for them to keep you completely in the dark when it comes to the other part of you?”

I took another bite, shrugging. “It’s not like I claim the other half.”

He rolled his eyes. “You know, it kind of reminds me of a dictatorship. The way the Wardens treat you, that is.”

“How so?”

“Keep the people in the darkness, away from the truth. Makes them easier to control.” He sipped his coffee, watching me over the lid. “It’s the same with you.” He shrugged. “Not that you seem to care.”

“They don’t control me.” I broke off the cookie roughly, briefly considered throwing it in his face. But that would be a waste of a perfectly good cookie. “And I guess you’re on speaking terms with some of the world’s most infamous dictators.”

“I wouldn’t say I talk to them.” His lips pursed thoughtfully. “More like shove hot pokers through them when I get bored.”

I cringed. “For real?”

“Hell ain’t pretty for those who’ve earned their way.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Well, they kind of deserve an eternity of torture.” I glanced around the café, over the shimmering souls and framed portraits on the walls. They were pictures of former owners, each old and silver-haired. And then I saw her.

Or I saw her soul first.

Sinner alert. The essence around her was tainted, a kaleidoscope of dark shades. I wondered what she had done. Once her soul faded, I saw that she looked like a normal thirtysomething woman. She was dressed nicely, wore really cute heels and carried a to-die-for purse. Her blond hair was a bit brassy, but cut in a trendy bob. She looked normal. Nothing to be afraid of or to run from, but I knew differently. Evil simmered under the normal facade.

“What is it?” Roth sounded far away.

I swallowed. “Her soul—it’s bad.”

He seemed to understand. I wondered what he saw: a woman in nice clothes, or the woman that had sinned so badly her soul was now tainted?

“What do you see?” he asked, as if he was sharing the same thought.

“It’s dark. Brown. Like someone took a brush, dipped it in red paint and flicked it around her.” I leaned forward, breathless with want. “It’s beautiful. Wrong, but beautiful.”

“Layla?”

My nails dug into the tabletop. “Yeah?”

“Why don’t you tell me about the necklace?”

Roth’s voice tugged me back to reality. Tearing my gaze away from the woman, I sucked in a deep breath. I looked down at my cookie, my stomach filling with lava. “What...what do you want to know?”

He smiled. “You wear it all the time, don’t you?”

I felt around until my fingers touched the smooth metal of the band. “Yeah, I’m not big on jewelry.” As if compelled, I turned back to the woman. She was at the counter, ordering food. “But I wear this all the time.”

“Layla, look at me. You don’t want to go down that road.”

With effort, I focused on him. “I’m sorry. It’s just so hard.”

His brows furrowed. “You don’t need to apologize for something that is natural to you, but taking a human’s soul... You can’t go back from that.”

So many emotions shot through me. First was surprise. Why wouldn’t Roth, being what he was, want me to jump out of this chair and suck some soul? But then the bitter lash of sadness followed. “Why do you care?”

Roth said nothing.

I sighed. “It’s not natural—what I want from her, or from anybody, for that matter. I can’t even get close to a boy, Roth. This is my life.” I picked up a cookie, waving it in front of my face. “This is all I have. Sugar. I’m a walking ad for diabetes in the making.”

A deep frown pierced his striking face. “Your life is so much more than what you can’t do. What about all that you can do?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know more than you realize.”

“Well, that’s creepy and you’re a demon preaching to me about life. There is something inherently wrong with that.”

“I wasn’t preaching.”

I glanced at the counter. She was gone. I sank down in my chair, the relief as sweet as the cookies. “Anyway, the necklace belonged to my mother. I’ve always had it. I don’t even know why. I mean, it’s stupid since she was a demon and didn’t even want me. And here I am, running around wearing her ring. Pathetic.”

“You’re not pathetic.”

I cracked a smile, not sure why I’d admitted that. It wasn’t even something I’d ever said to Zayne. I took another bite of the cookie and dropped it on the napkin.

Moving as fast as Bambi, Roth reached over the bistro table, caught my hand and brought my fingers to his mouth. Before I could even react, he licked off the tiny specks of sugar the cookie had left behind.

I gasped, but the air got stuck in my throat. Sharp tingles spread down my arm and across my chest, then lower, much lower. A heaviness settled just below my breasts, different and intense, but not unpleasant. “That...that makes me uncomfortable.”

Roth peered up at me through thick lashes. “That’s because you like it.”

A huge part of me did, but I slipped my hand free, glancing around the small bakery. I felt unnaturally hot. “Don’t do that again.”

He grinned. “But you’re so tasty.”

I wiped my fingers clean on the napkin. “I think we’re done.”

He caught my hand again. “No. Don’t run off yet. We were just getting started.”

My eyes locked with his and I felt...I felt like I was falling. “Getting started with what?”

His fingers slid between mine. “Becoming friends.”

I blinked tightly. “We can’t be friends.”

“Why not?” Roth threaded his fingers through mine. “Is there a rule I’m unaware of?”

Suddenly, I wasn’t really sure anymore. He got up to take care of our tab while I tried to figure out what was going on between us. Could I be his friend? Did I even want to try? I probably should’ve made a run for it while he waited in line, but I didn’t.

A middle-aged waitress approached our table. Her soul was a faint pink—a complete contrast to the haggard look on her face and world-weary gleam in her eyes.

She picked up the napkins and empty plates as she glanced over her shoulder to where Roth stood. “That boy looks like he must be a handful.”

I flushed, at once very interested in the hem of my shirt. “You could say that.”

The waitress snorted and moved on to another table.

“Why are you so red in the face?”

“No reason.” I grabbed my bag, standing. “You promised to tell me about the one who could do what I can. I think now is the time.”

“It is, isn’t it?” He held the door open for me.

In the waning sunlight, all the buildings in the district looked old and unfriendly. We stopped near a small, neatly kept city park. I stared up at him, waiting.

“I know what you want to know, but I have a question to ask first.”

Fighting my impatience, I gave him a curt nod of assent.

He dipped his chin again, looking terribly innocent. “You’ve never been kissed before, have you?”

“That’s so not your business.” I folded my arms as Roth waited for an answer. “I think it’s obvious. I can’t kiss anyone. You know, the whole soul-sucking thing makes it difficult.”

“Not if you’re kissing someone who doesn’t have a soul.”

I made a face. “And why would I kiss someone who doesn’t—”

He moved unbelievably fast. I didn’t even have a chance to react. One second he was standing a good three feet away from me and the next his hands were gently clasping my cheeks. There was an instant when I wondered how something so strong and deadly could hold anything so carefully, but then he tilted my head back and lowered his own. My heart rate kicked into hyperdrive. He wasn’t going to kiss me. No way—

Roth kissed me.

The brush of his lips was tentative at first, an unhurried sweep of his mouth against mine. Every muscle in my body locked up, but I didn’t pull away like I should’ve, and Roth made a low sound deep in his throat that sent shivers down my spine. His lips caressed mine again, nibbling and clinging to them until they parted on a gasp. He deepened the kiss with a thrust of his tongue. My senses went into overload, firing in every direction. The kiss—it was everything I could’ve imagined a kiss to be and then some. Sublime. Explosive. My heart fluttered wildly, from a yearning so deep, darts of fear shot through my veins.

“See,” he murmured in a thick voice, and he let go, his fingers trailing over my cheeks. “Your life isn’t about all you can’t do. It’s about what you can do.”

“Your tongue is pierced,” I said dumbly.

A wicked gleam filled his gaze. “That’s not the only thing pierced.”

His words really didn’t sink in. Suddenly, I was so angry I thought my head was going to pull an Exorcist. He dared to kiss me. And I actually liked it? I didn’t know who to be more ticked off at—him, or my traitorous body, but wait—where else was he pierced? The last thought caused my brain to play happily in the gutter, and that ticked me off even more.

Roth cocked his head to the side. “Now you’ve been kissed. One thing off the bucket list.”

I hit him.

Cocked back my arm and punched him in the stomach like I was a heavyweight boxer.

He grunted out a choked laugh. “Ouch. That kind of hurt.”

“Don’t ever do that again!”

Even after I hit him, he still looked pleased with himself. “You know what they say about first kisses.”

“You regret them?”

His smile faded. “No. I was going to go with ‘you never forget them.’”

Struggling not to hit him again—or laugh—I took a deep breath. “Tell me about the one who was like me, or I am walking away from here.”

“You’re so dramatic.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Are you sure you want to know about her?”

I was sure of three things: I was never going to forget that kiss, I needed to know about this demon and I was really getting sick of his know-it-all attitude. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“The one who could do what you could was a bit more...invested in her ability,” he said, leaning against the back of a bench.

I pursed my lips. No further explanation needed. The one like me enjoyed taking souls.

“She was also very good at what she did, so good that she was one of the most powerful demons to ever walk topside. There were other things she could do besides taking souls.”

A bundle of nerves formed in my stomach. “What else could she do?”

Roth shrugged, his gaze fixed over my head. “Things you probably don’t want to know about.”

My breath caught as unease spread through me like a choking weed. “Who was she, Roth?”

His eyes met mine, and part of me already suspected what the answer was going to be.

“The demon was your mother,” he said, his gaze never leaving mine.

“Okay.” I swallowed. Hard. And I took a step back. “So that explains what I can do. Makes sense, right? Most people get their mom’s eyes. I just got her demonic soul-sucking ability. And her ring. What was her name, anyway?”

I wasn’t sure I even needed to know her name, because it would make her all the more real to me, but I couldn’t take back the question.

Roth let out a low breath. “Your mother was known by many names, but most knew her as Lilith. And because of that, you’re on Hell’s Most Wanted List.”

Sitting on the bench, waiting for Morris, I stared straight ahead, not really seeing or hearing anything. Okay, so my mother was a demon who sucked souls. That didn’t take a huge leap of intelligence to figure out, but I hadn’t expected who she was. Lilith? Like the freaking Lilith? The mommy of all things that go bump in the night? There was no way. There had to be another Lilith because that demon hadn’t walked topside for a millennium.

Folklore claimed that Lilith was Adam’s first wife and had been created like him, but she refused to become subservient to Adam. This caused many epic battles between them, eventually leading to God banishing her from Eden and then creating Eve. Needless to say, Lilith wasn’t a happy camper. To get back at Adam and God, she ran off and seduced the archangel Samael. Things went downhill after that.

That much was true, but the rest was mostly bunk from what I’d picked up in the old, crusty religious texts Abbot had in his office. The whole eating-babies myth was utter bull. Lilith never slept with Satan. She never slept with any demons. She slept only with one angel, and the rest were all human consorts. But the Alphas weren’t too pleased with her in the first place, and after she hooked up with Samael, they punished her.

Every child Lilith spawned from that point on was a monster—succubi, incubi and just about every other demonic creature you could think of. Worst of all, she’d birthed the Lilin, a race of demons who could steal souls with a single touch. They were her first and most powerful children. Around that time was when the first generation of Wardens appeared, created by the Alphas to battle the Lilin. They managed to wipe out the Lilin and capture Lilith. Texts claimed that Lilith had been bound to Hell by one of the Wardens, chained down there together with him for all eternity.

Like most things that Alphas did, that just didn’t make sense to me. Through the birthing of so many demons, Lilith turned into one herself—and because the Alphas had punished her, they accidentally created the Lilin, a legion of demons so feared and powerful that they could ensure no human ever made it past the pearly gates.

Humans who died without souls, no matter how good they were in life, existed between Heaven and Hell, stuck in the in-between for all eternity. Plagued with endless thirst and hunger, they turned into violent, vengeful wraiths that even demons were wary of. Wraiths could interact with the living world, and when they did, it usually ended in a gory mess.

Tucking my hair back, I watched a shimmery blue soul trail behind a man in ragged jeans. My mother couldn’t be that Lilith. Because if she was, what did that really say about me? How could I ever overcome a bloodline like that? And if Lilith was really my mother then Abbot would have to know and there was no way that anyone would let a child of Lilith walk around. Besides, there was the whole problem of her being chained to Hell. It wasn’t like someone let her out to get knocked up and birth a kid.

Hell’s Most Wanted List? I shuddered. Was that why the Seeker and a zombie— I cut that thought off. Nothing Roth had told me could be true. What was I even doing considering any of it? Trusting him would be like smacking the Wardens in the face. Demons lied. Even I lied. Well, my lying really didn’t have much to do with being a demon, but still.

Roth was just messing with me, trying to get me to stop tagging. And if Hell was after me, then that could be the only true reason.

Squeezing my fingers around the ring, I stopped a groan from escaping. I’d kissed a demon. Or he’d kissed me. The semantics probably didn’t matter. Either way, my lips had been all up in a demon’s. My first kiss. Dear Lord...

I almost squealed when I spotted the black Yukon, seriously needing a distraction from my troublesome thoughts. I stood and shouldered my bag. A strange shiver wiggled its way down my neck, raising the tiny hairs on my body. It wasn’t like the time before while I waited for Morris. This was different.

I turned, scanning the pedestrians on the sidewalk. Blurs of faint pink and blue and a few darker auras, but no one was missing a soul. Craning my neck, I stretched onto the tips of my toes and tried to see around the corner, past the fleet of cabs lining up. There didn’t seem to be anything demonic, but still, the feeling was familiar.

Morris honked the horn, drawing my attention. Shaking my head, I darted between two cabs and yanked the passenger door open. The feeling hit me again, like a cold hand traveling around my neck.

Shivering, I climbed into the front seat and pulled the door shut, my eyes on the line of taxis. Something...something wasn’t right.

“Do you feel that?” I asked, twisting toward Morris.

He raised his brows and, as usual, said nothing. Sometimes I pretended we had a conversation. I’d even acted it out once or twice for Morris. I liked to think it amused him.

“Well, I feel something weird.” I leaned forward as he eased the SUV out into the congested streets. Three cabs pulled out, too, blocking most of the storefronts and sidewalk. “It’s like there’s a demon nearby, but I don’t see any.”

Three blocks later and the feeling not only lingered, but grew like an ominous cloud. Malice and evil filled the streets, seeping into the Yukon, its presence choking. Beads of sweat appeared on Morris’s creased forehead.

“You feel it now, don’t you?” I gripped the edges of my seat. “Morris?”

He nodded, gaze sharp as he veered around a slow-moving truck and then cut in front of it, hitting the exit ramp. Two cabs were right behind us, plus a whole slew of cars were also entering the beltway.

The malicious feeling hung thick and murky. So potent that it felt as if whatever was causing the suffocating feeling was in the backseat, breathing down our necks. That was a feeling of raw evil, something I’d never picked up on around a Fiend.

“Morris. I think we need to hurry up and get home.”

He was already on it, foot slamming down on the gas as he weaved in and out of the congested traffic. Twisting around in my seat, I peered out the back window—and my heart tripped.

Behind us, a cab was so close I could see its silver cross dangling from the rearview mirror. The fact that the cabbie was inches away from kissing our rear end wasn’t a big deal; cabbies were insane when it came to city driving. No, it was the driver behind the wheel that sent a shot of fear straight through me.

Now I knew where the bad feeling was coming from.

The space around the hunched driver was blacker than any shadow, thick like oil. Thin slivers of silver, tiny specks of humanity, peeked through the darkness of his soul, barely there. His soul spread out from him, seeping through the front of the taxi, slipping over the dashboard and crawling over the window.

“Oh, my God,” I whispered, feeling the blood drain from my face. “The driver’s possessed!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, Morris wrenched the steering wheel to the right. A horn blared. Tires squealed. He slammed down on the brakes, whipping me around as he narrowly avoided clipping the back end of a delivery truck. A series of quick maneuvers later, and several cars were between us and the possessed cabdriver.

I stared at Morris. “Damn. For an old man, you sure know how to drive.”

Morris kept a tight grip on the steering wheel, but he smiled in acknowledgment.

A second later, we were on our exit ramp, flying down the road. The Yukon fishtailed as he hung a quick right, and I shrieked, grabbing the “oh, shit” handle. Then the heavy vehicle lurched forward as he put the gas pedal all the way to the floor. We hit the narrow two-lane stretch of private road at breakneck speeds.

And we weren’t alone.

The taxi was gaining on us, and then it was in the other lane, going in the wrong direction, inching up on us. My heart jumped in my throat as I stared into the taxi.

The blackness of the man’s soul faded, revealing a pale, empty face. The human was on autopilot, completely under the thumb of the demon that had possessed him. Possession, next to murder, was one of the worst crimes, and it was forbidden according to the Law of Balance. Humans lost all free will once a demon breathed its essence into them, possessing them. Only Upper Level demons could possess humans.

Roth? Seemed likely, since he was the only Upper Level demon I’d seen, with the exception of the one that had moved too fast for me to be sure. Dread filled my stomach like lead. Had Roth possessed this man because I’d refused to stop tagging? If so, I’d just put Morris’s life in danger. Anger and guilt swirled inside me, causing my hands to clench until my nails bit into my palms.

Suddenly the taxi was speeding alongside us. Like a pro, Morris kept his gaze trained forward, but a scream built in my throat. My muscles tensed, as if my body already knew what to expect.

Morris swerved. Two wheels went off the road, crunching over dirt. But—oh, God—he was too late. I squeezed my eyes shut, terror seizing me in its tight grip.

The taxi slammed into us.