Haunted by Your Touch

Chapter Nine

I ran through the woods, close enough to the main lighted path of lanterns that I wasn’t worried about colliding with a tree, but far enough away that I shouldn’t have been easily visible to the mounted patrols. Of course, at least one guard didn’t need lanterns to see, but I wasn’t worried about Jack. He wasn’t patrolling the woods. He was up ahead by the barrier, ready to be the first to greet—and size up—any new entrants into Nocturna.

Still, I slowed down when I was within a hundred yards of the clearing that skirted the barrier and picked my way more cautiously through the trees. No need to screw things up by being impatient. Then, once I was close to the cross section that marked the beginning of the lighted path before the clearing, I hunkered down on all fours, digging quietly.

When I was satisfied with the shallow ditch I’d created, I crawled into it, covering myself back up with dirt and some nearby fallen leaves. Only my hands and my face were left exposed, and I’d already camouflaged my skin to blend more with the forest floor. My dark brown hair didn’t need any additional help to blend in, so with my new nest and the darkness, I should have been nearly invisible.

Long minutes ticked by. I was glad no watches worked in this realm, or I would have been checking the time incessantly. Instead, I sought to stem my edginess by thinking back over everything that had led me to this moment. Gloria’s excited smile flashed in my mind from that afternoon so long ago at the movie theater. Mara, this is Drew and Ashton. They’re Partials, too, and guess what—they know how to get into Nocturna!

So many things had happened as a consequence of our stupid decision to go with two strangers into a realm we’d been warned about, but now that memory didn’t bring only pain. A part of me would never get over losing my cousin, but another memory flashed in my mind, showing the good that had come out of such tragedy.

Large hands smoothed the hair back from my face, their gentleness a welcome balm after the brutal force Drew had used when he’d bound me and thrown me over his horse. I tried to squelch my sobs, vaguely embarrassed that I’d been smearing tears and a runny nose all over the chest of my unknown savior. But he’d taken me in his arms without hesitation when I’d collapsed after the shock of watching Gloria being yanked through that barrier, and he whispered that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me… and I believed him. Without even seeing his face, some part of me knew that he meant every word, and with that knowledge came a sense of peace that I shouldn’t have felt under these horrible circumstances.

Then he let me go, standing and awing me with his height as I stared up at him. A scraping sound preceded the sudden flare of a match, making me gasp as I got my first real look at him. He was staggeringly beautiful, with hair the same reddish gold of the flame, a strong jaw, wide mouth, and eyes the most incredible shade of blue. It took me a second before I could even register that he’d spoken.

“Do not fear. My name is Rafael, and I am ruler here.…”

No wonder I’d thought he looked like an angel that night. I’d been close to right; Rafael was the son of an angel, albeit a fallen one. I’d dreamed of him for the next several years, stricken whenever I’d heard my aunt and uncle report that his name had been linked with Purebloods. The night after I turned twenty—the end of the embargo Rafael had sternly outlined when he’d taken me back to the barrier—I’d returned to Nocturna, expecting my adolescent longings to vanish under the reality of seeing him again.

Instead, they’d grown stronger, until even the suspicions I’d had hadn’t totally been able to harden my heart against him. Now that I knew what he’d been hiding—why he was so often close by when Purebloods were captured, and that both our bloodlines marked us for each other—I was filled with joy and determination.

Only a few things stood in the way of Rafael and me starting our lives together, and I was going to tear those things down.

Hoofbeats thudded in the distance, growing closer. After a few tense moments, I smiled. Someone was headed right this way. I cocked my gun and waited, straining my eyes for the first hint of the rider.

That hint came in the shock of white running through the crown of the rider’s hair. I smiled wider as I sighted down the barrel, taking my time, careful to compensate with my aim for the rolling gait of his horse so I wouldn’t accidentally shoot the young girl Jack had in front of him. All the training and target practice I’d done over the years boiled down to the next few seconds. No way would I miss. No way.

And then I pulled the trigger. Not once, but three times, sending out a trio of staccato coughs that didn’t even startle the horse. Jack slumped in his saddle, moaning. The girl grabbed him and the reins at the same time, steering the horse toward my position with a quietly authoritative “Yah!”

Atta girl, Lena. You are SO much more mature than I was at your age!

I rose up from my shallow ditch, waving so she could see me and ripping off pieces of duct tape from one of the two rolls I’d stuck into my pants. In the seconds it took for my sister to make it over, Jack tried to go for his gun, but she yanked it from his belt and threw it near my feet. Then I had the duct tape slapped over Jack’s mouth before he could even gasp in shock at seeing me.

“Best patrolman in the realm, aren’t you, Jack?” I purred nastily at him. “I knew you’d be the first to make a young teen feel welcome here. You were so kind to me and Gloria that night when we were kids, and you were the first to welcome me so many other times when I came back.…”

Jack’s eyes bugged even as he made furious muffled sounds behind the gag. I ignored him, yanking him from his horse and handing off another roll of duct tape to Lena, who began to wind it around his wrists.

“I think you punctured a lung,” she said, giving one of the bleeding holes in Jack’s torso a critical look. Her coolness surprised me. I’d been worried about including her in my trap to take Jack down, concerned that Lena wouldn’t be able to handle being so close to Jack when I shot him, but she insisted on being involved. She did make the perfect bait for Jack, and contrary to my prior apprehension, she seemed to be downright blasé about his wounds now.

At my gape, Lena shrugged. “What? I’ve studied anatomy already. Besides, dissecting a dead pig last year was much grosser than this, let me tell you!”

“Little sis, sometimes you scare me,” I muttered, securing Jack’s feet. Then, once he was bound just like he’d bound me, I hefted him sideways over the horse, enjoying the pained “Oomph!” he made against his gag. Three bullets wouldn’t kill a Pureblood, but they would hurt like hell, and Jack had so had that coming. That, and a whole lot more.

“Okay, we’re going to double back very quietly to the barrier and then you go straight back through to our realm like we agreed,” I said, glad her part in this was over.

Lena shook her head. “There are too many other riders around the barrier. We passed two on our way here, and I heard more aside from them. You’ll have to take me with you.”

I chewed my lip. The plan had been for her to lure Jack into picking her up so he could bring her this way, where I’d shoot him. That had succeeded, but then Lena was supposed to go right back through the barrier afterward so she’d be safe—and wouldn’t see what else I had in store for Jack. But if any of those other guards caught her with me and a trussed-up, shot patrolman, who knew what might happen? They might shoot first and ask Lena’s age later. I also couldn’t send my little sister off alone to walk back to the barrier. Not when there were still Purebloods roaming around.

“You know you don’t have a choice,” Lena pointed out logically. “So quit wasting time gnawing on your lip and let’s get going.”

My father and stepmother were going to kick my ass for this, but…

“All right,” I whispered. “Get up there and make sure he doesn’t fall off. I’ll walk so I can keep my hands free.”

After all, I drew the line at having Lena shoot someone, if it could be avoided. Yes, she’d had a gun concealed in her jacket just in case Jack tried anything before I had him in my sights, but even though Lena knew how to shoot, I hoped she wouldn’t need to.

Lena kept one hand on Jack and the other on the reins as she directed the horse to follow me. I didn’t need to stay close to the light from the nearby path as I made my way toward Jack’s cabin. I’d taken this route dozens of times before, lulled into a false sense of security by the guard who had seemed so friendly and compassionate. Lies, lies, lies. If not for Rafael forbidding me to return while I was a teen—an order that, coupled with what had