Haunted by Your Touch

been paying close attention—and stringing him along with those occasional twig snaps—I might not have been aware that he was onto me.

Best of Rafael’s guards by far. Had to hope he was the smartest, too, and that he believed me.

Once he was close enough that his torch would soon reveal me to his sharp eyes, I quietly climbed up a tree, sitting myself in a crook of branches. The leaves provided better camouflage than the tree trunks would. Then, keeping my gun trained on him, I waited for Jack to draw nearer.

After he passed directly beneath me, so close I could almost count the strands of the wide silver streak in his dark hair, I cocked the gun. The sound made Jack spin his horse around, pointing his own gun, though not high enough to be a danger.

I aimed very carefully, the light from his torch helping me. Then I pulled the trigger.

Jack’s gun blasted out of his hand with little more sound than a sharp cough. Silencers were a great invention, if you asked me. His horse reared, but Jack got it under control, wisely not reaching for one of his other weapons. Once his mount was still, he stared at his empty hand. Blood seeped out from some superficial cuts, but otherwise, he wasn’t hurt.

“That you, Mara?” he asked with a grunt.

“Before you yell for the others or do anything else,” I said rapidly, “just listen. I could’ve shot you five times in the past ten minutes if I wanted to, so that ought to prove I’m not your enemy. But Rafael is. He may or may not be a Pureblood himself, but he’s definitely in collusion with them. I know it sounds crazy, but I have proof.”

In the flickering torchlight, I saw that Jack’s mouth was hanging open. “Proof?” he asked at last. “What proof?”

“A set of secret gateways in his castle, one leading to my world, the other to a Pureblood realm,” I replied, jumping down from my perch in a show of good faith. “I saw them. I went through one. It’s true.”

Before replying, Jack sent his dark blue gaze raking over me, taking in the various weapons I had strapped on. “You were in his castle?” He sounded doubtful.

I nodded. “Last night… er, or it would’ve been last night, if you had day and night here. Some people from Bonecrushers saw us leave together, and we didn’t go to his hotel room, which you can confirm. I think Rafael brought me home because he intended to use that gateway to get rid of me permanently once he was done having fun with me.”

“And you stopped him? Managed to get away from him?”

He still sounded doubtful, but at least he was listening instead of yelling for the other guards. “I tranqued him when he wasn’t paying attention. He never even saw the needle coming.”

To my surprise, Jack began to laugh, though he kept it from being loud enough to draw attention to us. “You got the drop on Rafael?” he said at last, quieting his chuckles. “He must be beyond pissed at you.”

“I have no doubt,” I replied dryly. “But that’s not important. What is important is telling as many people here as we can so he’s stopped. You have to help me, Jack. He’s killing our kind, either directly or indirectly.”

“Where are these gateways in the castle?”

I took it as a good sign that he was asking about their location instead of questioning their existence. “In the bathroom attached to his bedroom. I’ve never seen two barriers so close together before, but they’re there. Trust me.”

Jack seemed to mull this over, the lines of his face deepening as he frowned. I waited, hoping that all the time we’d spent together before would serve me well now.

“It’s worth checking out,” he said at last. “We need to avoid the other guards, though. Rafael’s got a DOS out on you. If one of them sees you, he might take you back to Rafael no matter what you’d tell him.”

DOS, detain on sight. I had no doubt that the other guards would be less likely to hear me out, let alone believe me, since I didn’t know most of them.

“Get me to Bonecrushers. The more people who hear about this at the same time, the better. Not even Rafael can stand against a mob of pissed-off Partials.”

“Climb up,” Jack said, holding out his hand.

Despite the years I’d known him, I hesitated. What if Jack didn’t believe me and was just pretending so I’d be in the vulnerable position of having my back to him? He could shoot me, pistol-whip the back of my head, or even stab me, and there wouldn’t be much I could do about it.

“I’ll get on behind you,” I said, my hard tone letting him know that wasn’t negotiable.

He let out another grunt. “Suit yourself, Mara.”

Jack didn’t seem at all uneasy about giving me that kind of advantage. I shook my head, feeling ashamed. Being duped by Rafael made me give everyone a suspicious eye now, even people who didn’t deserve it.

“Sorry,” I murmured as I accepted his hand and climbed up behind him.

Jack spurred his horse once I was settled, dropping his torch into the first brook we came across with a muttered “Don’t need them seein’ you up here with me.” Instead of following close to the torch-strewn path that led into town, Jack went into the thicker part of the woods. After he gave up our only source of illumination and headed away from the path, the woods soon returned to their normal, almost impenetrable darkness. Jack seemed okay with it, though. He steered his horse confidently through the trees, making me wonder how many years he’d patrolled this particular section to get so familiar with it.

Very familiar with it, in fact, because he spurred his horse again even though I now couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of me.

“Should you be going so fast?” I called out, stretching to be closer to his ear so he’d hear me.

“Aren’t we in a hurry?” he countered, the words whistling by me as he kicked the horse to increase its pace even more.

Yes, I wanted to get to Bonecrushers as soon as possible. Definitely before one of Rafael’s guards spotted us, but riding at a gallop when you were mostly blind wasn’t my idea of smart. Even if Jack knew these woods like the back of his hand, he was only a quarter demon like me. So if I couldn’t see, then he couldn’t see—

The truth hit me right between the eyes, but unfortunately, so did the large overhanging branch that Jack saw in time to duck from and I didn’t.

My last thought before lights exploded in my mind was, Pureblood…

Chapter Six

Icy water splashed over me. I came back into consciousness with a jerk, my senses sluggish but instinct warning me of danger. Remembering what had happened before my eyes even opened, I reached for my weapons but realized my hands were bound.

“Yep, that woke her,” Jack’s familiar voice noted with an undercurrent of laughter.

My gaze swung around as I tried to orient myself. It was very dark, but I could make out Jack standing several feet away on the edge of a river. I was in that river, getting chilled to the bone from the frigid water, someone big holding me in a tight grip from behind.

Must be Rafael, I realized, the sinking sensation in my stomach increasing until it felt like my gut had descended to my knees. I hadn’t told Jack anything about Rafael that Jack hadn’t already known, because Jack was a Pureblood, too. What if all the guards in Nocturna were Purebloods? Hell, what if half the population was, Partials being slowly weeded out under the watchful eye and instruction of its centuries-old ruler?

At least my family knows about Rafael, I thought with a pang. When I didn’t come back, they’d tell other Partials, too. Enough that even Rafael and his people wouldn’t be able to suppress them forever. It wasn’t the most compelling legacy to leave behind, but it was all I had.

“Best patrolman in Nocturna, huh, Jack?” I said bitterly while Rafael dragged me deeper into the river. I tried not to panic, not to wonder if drowning hurt, because I wanted to die fighting, not begging. “No wonder you were always first to discover who crossed over. You could see in the dark, you filthy Pureblood.”