Zayne stretched up, kissed my forehead and then rolled onto his side. “I really need to get into gear, and I need to get changed.” He swung his legs out from under the sheet and stood.
He was totally naked.
Totally freaking na**d and I was staring at his behind, his rather firm and— “Oh my God!”
Glancing over his shoulder, he arched a brow as his sly smile turned wicked. “What?”
“What?” I gaped at him, but then my gaze dropped and my face burned like the first circle of Hell. “Oh my God,” I said again as I rolled off the bed, onto the other side. A giggle crawled its way up my throat and burst free. “You are so freaking naked.”
“Really?” His response was dry as he plucked up the sheet. He turned slightly and—oh dear God, I whirled around, eyes widening.
Holy baby gargoyles, he was...
“You doing okay over there?”
“Yeah,” I croaked, feeling flushed for a whole different reason. I turned slowly.
He chuckled as he wrapped the sheet around his waist, covering his...his goodies.
“I’m going to have to drop this again to get changed.” His eyes danced with mischief. “Not saying you have to leave, but...”
“I’m leaving.” I shot around the bed, my hair trailing out behind me. As I passed him, he reached out, tapping my behind. I jumped, shooting him a look. “You are so bad.”
“Terrible.” He grinned as he backed up, one hand resting on the knot of the sheet. “See you in a bit.”
I meeped something to the affirmative, and then flew out into the hall. My entire body was flaming as I pressed one hand against my still-tingling lips and the image of Zayne’s behind emblazoned itself into my eye sockets.
He had a great ass.
And from what I’d seen, he wasn’t hurting in any other department either.
I giggled as I turned to the stairs, almost plowing straight into Maddox. He halted at the top step. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
His expression was sharp, not entirely trusting, but he nodded. As he stepped to the side to let me past, a wave of irritation pricked its way up my back. Would it kill him to say something? The Warden had never spoken to me.
Not once.
Taking a deep breath, I moved my foot to the step below and a cold blast of air came from the hall behind me, stirring my hair and sending thin tendrils around my face.
I looked to my left and all I saw was Maddox’s face white with shock, and then he tumbled head over feet down the steep stairs.
Screaming, I hurried down the steps, grimacing when he smacked the hardwood floor below, his head cracking off the floor. I reached his side as feet pounded from every corner in the house.
He lay at an unnatural angle, arm twisted behind him and one leg bent at the knee. I bent down. “Maddox?”
He didn’t answer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Seconds later, and I still had no idea what just happened.
Dez was the first to reach us. He placed a hand on my shoulder and gently moved me aside as he knelt. “Maddox?” he said to the pale, unmoving Warden. When there was no response, he placed a hand on Maddox’s chest. “Christ.”
I folded my arms over my chest. I knew that Maddox had to be alive. A fall wouldn’t kill a Warden, but in their human form, they were susceptible to injury, even the severe kind.
“How did this happen?” Dez looked over his shoulder at me.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. He was coming up the stairs and then he just fell backward.”
Zayne came down the stairs, dressed only in a pair of loose sweats. “What the Hell?”
“He fell,” I explained lamely.
“Jasmine!” shouted Dez as he rose.
Within seconds, Jasmine arrived, her eyes widening. She turned, handing Drake off to Danika. “Keep Izzy and Drake out of here,” she said, turning back to Maddox.
Danika nodded, glancing to where Zayne and I stood. She turned, quickly taking Drake back the way they’d come. A door shut softly.
As Jasmine knelt on Maddox’s other side and placed slim fingers on his neck, the rest of the crew arrived. Once they heard that Maddox had fallen backward down the stairs, Abbot turned to me.
Shrinking back, I realized I was so about to be crucified.
“He simply fell backward?” Abbot asked, disbelief ringing from his voice as he stepped around Maddox’s prone legs. “You expect me or any of us to believe that?”
At least he cut to the chase this time. “Yes! He just fell. I don’t know if he lost his balance or— Wait, there was a rush of cold air right before he fell.” And now that I said that out loud, I knew it hadn’t been the first time. “It was the same with the windows. There was a gust of—”
“Of wind?” Abbot finished doubtfully. “Did the air kick on with enough force to knock out windows or throw a two-hundred-and-thirty-pound Warden down the stairs? That’s if we used the air-conditioning this time of year, which we don’t.”
“Okay. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I’m not lying.”
Zayne moved to my side. “She has no reason to lie, Father. If she said he fell, he fell.”
“She has every reason to lie,” his father spat. I blanched. “Once was enough, but this?” He gestured at Maddox. “One of our own—a guest of our clan—has been injured, and another is missing.”
I stiffened at the implication, even though the latter was very much on point. Zayne stepped forward, blocking me. “What are you saying?”
“Guys,” Jasmine spoke up. “I need to move Maddox to get a better look at his injuries. Right now, it looks like he’s just knocked out. Maybe a broken arm or cracked skull, which will heal. But I need help moving him.”
Zayne and Abbot, who were currently in an epic stare-down, didn’t seem to hear her.
Dez nodded as he moved to stand before Maddox’s feet. “Nicolai? Can you get his arms?”
As Nicolai did their bidding, Abbot eyed his son. “There is no way that I, or you, can believe that he lost his balance and fell.”
Wardens typically were a wee bit more graceful than that, but there was no other explanation...other than that strange wind.
“Are you suggesting that Layla pushed him?” Zayne challenged as the muscles in his back rippled. “Because that’s stupid.”
Abbot stepped up to Zayne, going toe-to-toe, and my heart sank. “Watch how you speak to me, boy. I am your father.”
I had the wild urge to laugh as I pictured Darth Vader’s helmet descending on Abbot’s head. Thankfully, I didn’t, because that would seriously not help things.
Geoff came forward. “May I suggest something?” When Abbot nodded curtly, he continued. “Whatever happened would’ve been captured on video. The same with the windows.”
My gaze swung to him sharply. Why hadn’t I thought of that? “So you guys saw the video and what did it show?”
“The windows blowing out, seemingly by themselves,” Geoff replied.
Zayne lifted his chin. “Let’s go see the videos, then.”
I wasn’t sure how much it would help since they’d already seen one video of me not doing anything, but we headed down to the command center. Near the training rooms it was always several degrees cooler than anywhere else, but today, it seemed as if it was the same temperature as the above floors as we walked down the narrow, dimly lit hall.
I stuck close to Zayne, knowing better than to say much of anything right now. Anger radiated off Abbot in waves, clogging the hall. Even Bambi, who’d been relatively sedentary, grew restless, slithering along my stomach.
Tension was coming off Zayne as he stuck close to my side. He didn’t speak as we entered Geoff’s home away from home.
The command center was a circular room that quickly became crowded when we piled into it. Monitors lined half of the wall and the other sections were covered with old band posters, ranging from Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd and AC/DC to Aerosmith. Some of them looked authentic with their edges curling upward.
It was weird—the tiny glimpse of Geoff’s personality mingled with the creepy, NSA-level security.
Geoff strode to one of the computers and his fingers danced over the keys. The screen focused on the now empty stairway and landing, began to rapidly back up, then stopped just as I came into view...with my fingers touching my lips.
Nice.
Exhaling softly, I glanced up at Zayne and he looked down at me. One side of his lips curved as a knowing gleam filled his eyes. Sigh.
I turned back to the video just as Maddox appeared on the screen. There was no volume, but you could see him step out of my way. Cameras didn’t lie, and there was no mistaking the distrusting look he’d cast my way.
The room was silent as the monitor revealed exactly what I’d told them. From the positioning of the camera, it was clear the moment I’d felt the blast of air. My hair, which looked white on the screen, stirred as if I’d walked in front of a fan. The camera caught the widening of Maddox’s eyes and the slight gape of his mouth the second before he went down. What I didn’t realize when it happened was when Maddox fell, he didn’t bounce off the steps. He went ass over teacup in the air, not hitting anything until he reached the bottom.
Like he’d thrown himself backward.
Or had been pushed by a great force.
“I didn’t touch him as you can see,” I said, raising my gaze to where Abbot stood beside Geoff. “I didn’t do anything.”
A muscle feathered along his jaw as he watched Geoff stop the recording.
“There’s no denying it.” Zayne folded his arms across his broad chest. “She didn’t lie.”
“But she was looking at him,” Abbot replied, turning to us.
My brows shot up. “Unless I developed some supercool powers without realizing it, looking at him didn’t throw him down the stairs.”
His gaze flicked to me, and pressure clamped down on my chest. The way he stared at me, like I was a wolf among the poor little sheep he was charged with protecting, struck deep. There was no hiding his open distrust, and I didn’t understand where it came from. Yes, I had lied to him, but he’d lied to me about bigger, more important things—like who my mother and father were for starters.
It hadn’t always been like this. I hated the scalding tide of tears that drenched the back of my throat. It was weak to cry, but it hurt to acknowledge that Abbot no longer looked at me as a part of his family. That was so clear now.
Zayne had been speaking, but I hadn’t been paying attention. Whatever he’d said, most likely in my defense, had angered his father.
“We don’t know what she’s truly capable of. I doubt she even knows,” he replied.
Anger was like a shot of steel in Zayne’s spine. “What do you mean we don’t know? I know what she is and isn’t capable of. How can you be any different?”
The earnest and steadfast way he defended me, in spite of the obvious discontent it was brewing between him and his father, made it feel as if a hand had shot through my chest and closed around my heart.
Abbot swore under his breath, and when he spoke, it was as though I wasn’t in the room or he didn’t care that I was. “You need to look past your feelings, son. She is no longer the small, frightened child I brought home. The sooner you understand that, the better.”
I sucked in a breath as the burn moved into my stinging eyes. Except this was a different kind of blistering provoked by a maddening rush of emotions. My skin crawled, causing Bambi to twitch along my back, and the need to feed punched me in the gut.
Geoff pursed his lips and looked away as Zayne stared at his father, his mouth slightly open, as if he couldn’t believe what his father had just said.
Humiliation mingled with the soul-deep hurt. I took a breath and didn’t trust myself to speak. I had to take another. “Then what am I?”
Abbot looked at me but didn’t respond.
My voice wavered when I spoke again. “Why do you even let me stay here?”
There was a moment of silence and then Abbot looked away. A heavy sigh shuddered through him. “I really don’t know.”
I winced as Zayne stepped toward his father, his eyes flashing a bright, unnatural cobalt. “How can you even say that?”
Unable to stand here and not do something I’d regret, like burst into tears or kick Abbot in the stomach, I whipped around and headed out of the command center. My hands tingled as I curled them into fists. I was breathing too fast—two breaths in, one breath out. When had Abbot grown to dislike me so much? It struck me as I crossed the training room, causing me to stop suddenly. He hadn’t trusted me for a while, but that mistrust had been more pronounced from the moment Roth had returned and broken the news that a Lilin had been born.
* * *
“Layla.”
Gripping the locker door, I bit back a groan at the sound of Roth’s voice. Although I didn’t acknowledge his presence, he leaned against the locker beside mine. I so wasn’t in the mood to deal with him today. “What?”
“You look like shit.”
I shoved my load of books inside. “Thanks.”
“You also looked like you were about to fall asleep in bio.”
“How is that any different from anyone else in class?”
He chuckled darkly. “Good point.” He stopped as a sophomore approached his locker, which was the one Roth was currently resting his butt against. The boy stopped and Roth raised a brow. The boy turned on his heel and hurried off. Roth grinned as he tilted his chin toward me. “Didn’t get much sleep last night?”
After everything that had happened yesterday, sleep hadn’t come easily. I shook my head as I reached for my afternoon books.