Haunted by Your Touch

thing would stop them from taking us deeper into the woods, but nothing happened. The Purebloods must be able to see in the dark.

Purebloods. My nose threatened to close completely with my fresh spurt of tears. Ashton and Drew were Purebloods, and every child of my race knew what would happen if we were ever taken by one of them.…

I slowed when the horse’s rapid pace brought me to the end of the field. Once there, I trotted along the edge of the forest instead of entering it. Ashton could still be hiding somewhere in the tall grass. Or maybe he’d outpaced me and made it into the forest; it wasn’t likely, but Purebloods were very fast runners. The barrier had to be where Ashton was heading. He’d seen me, and I didn’t doubt that he’d recognized me, too.

Did I risk getting lost in the forest trying to beat him to the barrier, or should I continue combing the grasses? The forest offered more danger than just further reduced vision. Ashton might not be the only Pureblood in the area. Most residents of Nocturna avoided the forest. They knew that going into it might be the last thing they ever did.

If only batteries didn’t always fry when crossing through the gateway! What I wouldn’t give for a high- powered flashlight right now, or some night-vision goggles. Sure, I had my guns, but without visibility they didn’t do me much good. Ashton could be waiting to ambush me from above in a tree, and I wouldn’t even see him until he knocked me off my horse.

I muttered a curse before swinging the horse around and backtracking through the waist-high grasses. Maybe Ashton was somewhere close, hiding. Waiting to see if I was rash enough to go into the forest and give him the advantage. The other thought was too frustrating to contemplate. Maybe he was already in the forest, running toward the barrier, and I was letting him get away.

I led the horse in a brisk trot down the length of the field parallel to the tree line, cursing the darkness and the high grasses the entire time. Ashton could be fifty yards away, but if he was stealthy, odds were I wouldn’t spot him. This field was large, too. Five miles square, easily. Ashton had all the time in the world if he chose to wait me out.

Something stirred the grass ahead, about thirty feet in the distance. I didn’t charge right toward it but did a wide circle, not wanting to startle my target into hiding.

Yes. A definite disturbance in the grass. I tightened my grip on my gun until my hand ached. Come out, Ashton, where I can see you.

My heart began to hammer as a tall form stood up where that disturbance was, revealing himself from the concealment of the grass.

Thank you! I sighted down the barrel and—

“Mara.”

I jerked the gun up just in time. That silhouette strode toward me, starlight faintly reflecting off golden- crimson hair as he drew near.

Rafael. He’d been out here searching, too.

“Did you see anyone?” I demanded in a low voice, half wondering if he’d tell me the truth if he had.

“I saw no one.”

Something in his tone made me narrow my eyes. “He’s out here,” I said crisply when I diagnosed what that tone was. Doubt. “He might have headed into the woods.”

Rafael turned to consider the tall, forbidding forest ahead of us. “Go on,” he said finally. “I’ll watch out for you.”

I shouldn’t have found that reassuring, but for an inexplicable reason, I did. Maybe it was because I hoped I was wrong about Rafael’s involvement with Purebloods, even if the cynical part of me doubted I was wrong. Or perhaps it was my frustration at the thought of Ashton skipping through the woods, chortling to himself over how I was too chicken to follow. Caution urged me not to trust Rafael, but desire for revenge had me spurring the horse into the ancient forest with a firm kick.

Just like before, three-quarters cautious human was no match for one-quarter reckless demon.

I bent close to the horse’s neck as I navigated the woods, trusting the animal when he sidestepped over dips in the ground I couldn’t see. I’d only gone a couple hundred yards before I realized my chances of finding Ashton in this pitch-black maze had gone from bad to worse. The trees towered above, shutting out most of the light and making only the immediate area in front of me faintly visible. If I’d been human, I couldn’t have seen my hand in front of my face, but I didn’t have enough demon in me to see as clearly as Ashton could. Still, I kept going, hoping he’d be arrogant enough to show himself or try something.

Of course, if Ashton was in league with Rafael, these darkened woods would end up being my tomb. I didn’t like the idea of rotting here forever, so I discarded that thought. I’d chosen to trust Rafael—for the moment. So for the moment, I’d believe that if Ashton tried to ambush me, Rafael would step in long enough for me to get off a few good shots.

Then, oh, then, I’d make the Pureblood pay for what he’d done to Gloria.

But as my internal clock told me that more than an hour had ticked by since I’d first glimpsed Ashton at Bonecrushers, even my dim hopes of catching him waned. There simply were too many places he could hide in these woods. I kept my senses as sharp as possible, straining to hear the slightest sound that wasn’t a natural part of the woods, but nothing stood out. No telltale footfalls, no snapping branches, no indication of the Pureblood who’d gotten away for far too long.

Still, I didn’t stop but kept steering the horse grimly in the direction that I hoped was the right one. Getting lost here would be easy, with no real way to identify landmarks, and forget about navigating by the stars. I only caught the barest glimpses of them through spaces in the canopy of leaves above me.

Just when I thought that I was indeed hopelessly lost, something loomed ahead, as black as a snapshot into oblivion. My pulse picked up as I realized what it was. The barrier. I hadn’t been going in circles; I’d steered the horse right to the end of Nocturna and the wall that marked the boundary between it and the next realm.

That wall loomed above the trees, disappearing from my vision into the sky. I ignored the thumping of my heart and went nearer, thinking that although it wasn’t made up of rock, it looked like the sheer face of a cliff. Once we were only a dozen feet from it, my horse sidestepped away with a nervous neigh. Truth be told, I was rattled by the sight of it, too. I hadn’t seen it since that night, when I’d stared in horror as a section of it had parted to let Ashton—still clutching Gloria—through. If not for Rafael, I would’ve been next to vanish into its surface, never to be seen again.

Physicists had an explanation for barriers that separated the multiverses from one another. They called it M theory, hypothesizing that the membranes dividing up the dimensions were invisible. In that, they were close to right. They were invisible, but only to humans. If you had demon blood in you, you could see them plain as day, and this one was huge.

I climbed off the horse, still holding the reins so the animal couldn’t bolt away, to walk over and trace my hand over the cool surface of the barrier. If I’d been a Pureblood, I could have parted this with my power, pulling me and anyone I had a hold of through the gravitational field separating the realms. But if I were a Pureblood, then I would have been a ruthless predator like Ashton, snatching away Partials to feed off of. Making sure my victims were young, because the life essence from youth had more power to nourish me. Bastard.

Some powers would never be worth their price.

“Get away from that.”

At the first syllable, I whirled, aiming my gun, but then I recognized Rafael’s voice and froze instead of squeezing the trigger. Damn it, that was twice I’d almost shot him tonight! This time, not a single twig had snapped, nor had any other noise preceded him to warn of his presence. He was so silent that if I hadn’t been staring right at him, I’d have sworn no one was there.

“You think something’s on the other side, just waiting to pull me through?” I asked, very softly.

I couldn’t see his features, but I could make out the pinpoints of light in his eyes, like specks of stardust in the dark.

“You never know.”

I stared at him as I moved away from the barrier. Rafael looked more like a compilation of shadows in the almost nonexistent light. Him, the barrier, the woods… it all served to make the rest of that memory come roaring