A Touch Menacing

by Leah Clifford

  He wasn’t making sense. “But there wouldn’t be a body, just ashes,” Eden said. She thought of Vaughn, burned beyond recognition before she’d given him a merciful end. “Do you think she was just too hurt to run?”

  Az squeezed her shoulder. “Gabe saw her,” he said in a low voice. “Dead. A body.”

  “That’s impossible,” Eden said. “Why do you think it was her, Jackson?” she said into the phone.

  “I told her not to go. We could have run. We could have . . .”

  She made a scribbling motion to Az. He nodded and snapped a pen and a pad of paper up from the nightstand, tossing it to her. She bent her knee, paper and pen poised. “Can you give me your” —a tremble coursed through Eden— “your address, Jackson.” She started again. Her vision blurred as pain shot through her. “Az, help.”

  His arm instantly came around her shoulder. “You’re okay,” he said as he eased her onto the bed.

  She heard Jackson’s sharp gasp. “Az? He’s one of them!”

  “No! He’s on our side!” she argued, but Jackson drowned her out with his angry screams. “It’s not what you—”

  The background noise went suddenly silent as he hung up.

  “Fuck.” She dropped the pen, cradling her stomach. Az rubbed her back until she sat up and wiped the corners of her eyes. Despite the pain, there were no ashes. The discomfort ebbed, but didn’t quite leave her. “There’s another death breather. From the sound of it, she’s taking out too many Siders. She’s going to be overloaded on Touch soon. Do you know where Madeline lives?” Lived, she corrected mentally, but couldn’t bring herself to say. Az’s face fell as if she had. He nodded. “We need to go there. I can take the girl’s extra Touch. Sullivan, too.”

  He leaned and rested his forehead against hers. “You’re sure you can make it?”

  “I have to make it.” She hung her hands around his neck. His closeness felt like a gift. “When I asked Jackson if it was the Fallen or Bound who made the Sider, he said neither.” She pulled away enough to gauge his reaction.

  He raised a cautious eyebrow. “What’s that mean?”

  “I have no idea.” The wording of it unnerved her, though.

  “Then let’s go. If there’s a new kind of Sider, Gabe will want to know about it. Maybe it can help him.”

  “Why’s he so set on figuring out how we started?” she asked. It seemed like a colossal waste of time. Dangerous for no purpose. Eden leaned down and shoved her shoes on, fumbling to tie the laces. She realized she couldn’t remember taking them off last night.

  Az stared down at his hands, tangled up in his lap. “Finding out how it started means there’s a chance he can figure out how to undo it.” He sighed hard. “So says Gabe, anyway.”

  She let the idea spin around in her brain. “But we’re dead,” she said. “What’s to undo?”

  “Well, he has a theory,” he said, sounding uncomfortable. “That without your paths, you can’t die. That the Siders are paused.”

  They both looked up as the door opened, and Sullivan and Jarrod came through. Sullivan slid the chain into place. “Hey!” she said cheerfully. “You’re awake!”

  Eden smiled back. When she looked at Jarrod, though, he seemed sullen.

  “Eden finally talked to Jackson,” Az said as he helped her up. She had to lean on him more than she liked. “Something’s going on with him. If you guys are ready, we can explain on the way over there.”

  “Sounds good,” Sullivan said, her voice chipper. Beside her, Jarrod said nothing until she squeezed his hand.

  He glanced up. “Ready when you are.”

  They stood for a moment, Eden and Az on one side of the room, Jarrod and Sullivan on the other. It was only when Sullivan turned, slid the chain, and opened the door again that Jarrod looked at Eden. Gone was the determination in him she’d always taken for granted. “Let’s get this over with,” he said.

  CHAPTER 23

  Last night, when he’d carried Erin into the apartment he used to share with Az, it had been ransacked. Part of Gabriel wondered if he’d done the damage himself in the first days he’d been Fallen, come home like some sort of muscle memory and torn apart everything left of his old life. He tried not to think about it. Tried to keep his head out of the dark place his nightmares inevitably slithered to.

  He hadn’t slept last night. Instead, he’d watched over Erin while she whimpered in fitful dreams, listening for any little noise to indicate that the Bound had come after him. But it seemed Michael had deemed it best to leave him alone. How long the reprieve would last, Gabe had no way of knowing.

  His mind spun around the Sider girl on the stairs before Raphael had found him. Was Touch really unused potential, replenished as their futures struggled to catch traction, like spinning tires? Could that potential reform their own paths if he found a way to unstick them? I have to find out what caused them, he thought. That’s the key.

  Gabe reached down and shook Erin’s shoulder lightly. She launched up, instantly awake. “It’s all right,” he reassured her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone he’d taken last night. A bloody fingerprint stained the screen.

  “I need your help,” he said as he scrolled down the contacts. “Madeline knew how to get in touch with everyone, in every borough. Who is in Brooklyn?”

  Erin stared at him, her eyes swollen almost shut from the tears she’d cried last night. “Maddy really never told you?” Gabe shook his head. He let the phone fall to his lap. “Erin,” he whispered. “I need to know how the Siders started. Do you know? The Sider in Brooklyn. Is that the first Sider?” He took her hand.

  “Gabe, they might be the only safe ones left. I can’t give them away.”

  “Please.” He didn’t know what to say to convince her. “They’ll get you—all of you—if I can’t figure out a way to stop them. Please. Help me.”

  She bit her lip and took her hand out of his. “I don’t have a number for them. I doubt they’re in Maddy’s phone, either,” she said slowly.

  “Wait. Them?” Gabe asked, confused.

  Erin glanced up, a hesitant decision in her words. “I can take you there.”

  Even before she’d led him to the Brooklyn neighborhood where the mysterious Siders lived, Erin had seemed like she was trying to back out. Every question he’d asked her on the subway had gone unanswered. They’d already lapped the block once, and now they were standing on the sidewalk, wasting time. Finally, Gabriel threw up his hands. “Which house, Erin?”

  The look she gave him was caustic. Erin twisted away.

  “Wait, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, stopping her before she could take off. “You can trust me, Erin! What do you need me to do? How can I show you?”

  Erin slowly raised her hand. “She usually doesn’t like visitors,” she said. “Looks like she decided to see us, though.”

  Erin was pointing to the fancy columns adorning the front of the home they’d been standing in front of. Now, though, the door was open, and a girl leaned on the frame.

  She didn’t look more than eighteen. Her hair was done up in a delicate plait, surrounding her head in a thick, dark halo. On her hands she wore silk gloves, their color a perfect match to her tailored gray pants and blouse. Everything about her screamed money, sophistication.

  He took the steps one at a time, never taking his eyes off the girl.

  “Hello, Erin,” she said, her voice clipped. “You’ve brought a friend.”

  Something about her voice was so familiar.

  “I know you, don’t I?” Gabe said before he could stop himself. He racked his brain to place her but only came up with a memory of lightning striking in the distance. “But how?”

  Was it something from when he was Fallen? Nervousness skittered through him. Had she been with Madeline? He barely remembered that time—only snapshots of the forbidden things he’d done in back hallways of clubs, glances cast over his shoulder at the mortals he left behind when Madeline found him, guided him back to t
he strobe lights of the dance floor. These are not memories you want to think about. Gabriel shook his head to rattle them away before what came to the surface was worse. Leave the darkness behind you.

  He held out a hand. “I’m—”

  “Gabriel,” she said, ignoring the hand he offered. Her voice was stilted. “I’m very curious to know what brings you to my home.”

  Erin stepped in front of him. “Annalise, please. It’s important. He’s one of the good—”

  “Don’t be naïve, Erin. None of them is good.” She took a step back inside. “Go away, and don’t bother coming back because I won’t be here,” she said, grabbing for the knob and starting to close the door. “I’ll let Madeline know where we are. Eventually.”

  Erin jammed her foot into the frame. Gabe’s heart sank. This girl didn’t know about Kristen’s, about the extermination.

  “It’s a war, Annalise,” Erin said.

  “So you brought it to my doorstep?” Annalise let go of the door and leaned close to Erin. “If you say pretty please, I’m sure your good friend here will tell the Bound to play nice.” She turned her nose up at Gabe. “After all, they’re known for being compassionate,” she spat.

  “Madeline’s gone!” Erin blurted. “The Bound know how to destroy us. Permanently.” She stepped back into Gabe, as if needing him to hold her up. He could feel her trembling. “They attacked us last night, at a ball. They obliterated us. You have to help Gabriel. He’s the only one on our side.”

  Annalise paled. “Madeline’s . . . gone? Everyone is . . . ?”

  Gabe tried to catch her thoughts, but the cacophony was an indecipherable mix of colors and memories, fragments of words. She’s hiding what she’s thinking. Alarm bells sounded in his head. She shouldn’t have known how to do that.

  “Who are you?” Gabe demanded. He moved closer, but then a guy’s voice called out from inside the house.

  “Annie?” Gabe heard the thud of footsteps clomping down an unseen staircase. “What’s going on?”

  The door yanked back, and behind Annalise stood a guy who could have been Az’s brother. The curly brown hair, the blue eyes. The high cheekbones. Gabe stared as the guy took them all in, lingering on Annalise. Finally, he nodded to Erin. “Long time no see,” he said to her cautiously. He held out a gloved hand to Gabe. “And you are?”

  “Very confused,” Gabe managed.

  The guy looked at Annalise, rigid beside him, then past Gabe and Erin to scan up and down the street. “Well,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder, “it’s freezing. Can you be very confused inside?”

  “Good idea,” Gabe said. Focusing on the guy’s thoughts, Gabe picked up nothing unusual: worry about what Gabe and Erin’s presence meant, the calm he was trying to push to Annalise, an ache to spread Touch. He may have looked like Az, but this boy was a Sider.

  Annalise flinched as Gabe brushed by her. There was no chance he was leaving without answers. “I’m sorry,” he heard Erin whisper behind him.

  Inside the house, gorgeous wood trim lined the hall and wound up a spiral staircase. The guy opened a set of carved pocket doors leading into an elegantly furnished living room. “I’m Donavan,” he said, and gestured to an overstuffed couch. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  Annalise reached for Donavan as he started to sink onto a love seat.

  “This is just Sider drama. You don’t have to stay.” Through the static of Annalise’s thoughts, a dram of panic oozed out.

  “I don’t know what was going on outside, but it looked a little more serious than that. I’m not leaving you alone right now, Annie.” Donavan sat and pulled her down with him. “So what did I miss?” he asked.

  “There’s something both of us are missing, apparently. Talk,” Gabe said. “Who are you?”

  When no one said anything, Erin spoke up from beside him. “Donavan ran Staten Island before Vaughn.”

  Annalise gave her a look that swore murder.

  Donavan took Annalise’s hand almost unconsciously. “Right, but Annalise is here, and the commute is killer. So I opted out. Did something happen to Vaughn?” Gabe saw Annalise’s hand clench on Donavan’s. Donavan glanced down at her and then back to Gabe. “I’m sorry, but who are you again?”

  Annalise’s tone was resigned. “Gabriel’s not a Sider. He’s Bound.”

  Fear crept onto the guy’s face, and Gabe’s frustration boiled over.

  “I’m not like them!” he yelled. “They slaughtered everyone at Kristen’s and burned their souls. I am trying to help you!” He stood there shaking as the others watched him in a stunned, nervous silence. “There’s still time,” he said, lowering his voice. “I’m trying to find out how the Siders started. If I can trace it back, if I can find a way to fix your paths, or—” He shook his head, at a loss as to where to start, what to ask first.

  Erin’s voice was quiet. “Were you the first Sider, Annalise?” The other girl bit her lip, but Erin went on. “Please. He really is trying to help us.”

  “That I know of, yes,” Annalise said simply.

  For a long moment, no one said anything. Donavan raised his and Annalise’s clasped hands and pressed her fingers to his lips. “Listen,” Gabe said, no longer pulling punches. “You know how to hide your thoughts, which takes at least some sort of practice. And I recognize you. Was it an angel? Did we cause this somehow?”

  “You and I met once, in passing,” she answered.

  Blue-black storm clouds fought their way up from Gabe’s subconscious. Annalise above him, her arms held out for balance. “Where?” Gabe asked. “When?”

  Donavan, too, seemed bewildered. Is that why she’s fighting this? Gabe thought. He doesn’t know how she became a Sider, either. She doesn’t want him to.

  Gabe watched Annalise, her face pinched with whatever memories tormented her. “Promise me you won’t kill us,” she whispered. She looked up at Gabe. “And if you can’t, promise me you won’t kill Donavan. Say it.”

  Beside Annalise, Donavan’s eyebrows drew together.

  “I promise I will not harm you or Donavan,” Gabe said without hesitation. A week ago he would have worried that the words would bring a punishment. Now, he was surprised to find how little he cared. I’m seeing this through. “How did you become a Sider?”

  She swiveled to Gabe as if daring him to act. “I’m a Sider because of you, Gabriel,” she said, heat behind the words. “Without you, none of this would have happened.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Last night, when he’d carried Erin into the apartment he used to share with Az, it had been ransacked. Part of Gabriel wondered if he’d done the damage himself in the first days he’d been Fallen, come home like some sort of muscle memory and torn apart everything left of his old life. He tried not to think about it. Tried to keep his head out of the dark place his nightmares inevitably slithered to.

  He hadn’t slept last night. Instead, he’d watched over Erin while she whimpered in fitful dreams, listening for any little noise to indicate that the Bound had come after him. But it seemed Michael had deemed it best to leave him alone. How long the reprieve would last, Gabe had no way of knowing.

  His mind spun around the Sider girl on the stairs before Raphael had found him. Was Touch really unused potential, replenished as their futures struggled to catch traction, like spinning tires? Could that potential reform their own paths if he found a way to unstick them? I have to find out what caused them, he thought. That’s the key.

  Gabe reached down and shook Erin’s shoulder lightly. She launched up, instantly awake. “It’s all right,” he reassured her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone he’d taken last night. A bloody fingerprint stained the screen.

  “I need your help,” he said as he scrolled down the contacts. “Madeline knew how to get in touch with everyone, in every borough. Who is in Brooklyn?”

  Erin stared at him, her eyes swollen almost shut from the tears she’d cried last night. “Maddy really never told you?” Gabe shoo
k his head. He let the phone fall to his lap. “Erin,” he whispered. “I need to know how the Siders started. Do you know? The Sider in Brooklyn. Is that the first Sider?” He took her hand.

  “Gabe, they might be the only safe ones left. I can’t give them away.”

  “Please.” He didn’t know what to say to convince her. “They’ll get you—all of you—if I can’t figure out a way to stop them. Please. Help me.”

  She bit her lip and took her hand out of his. “I don’t have a number for them. I doubt they’re in Maddy’s phone, either,” she said slowly.

  “Wait. Them?” Gabe asked, confused.

  Erin glanced up, a hesitant decision in her words. “I can take you there.”

  Even before she’d led him to the Brooklyn neighborhood where the mysterious Siders lived, Erin had seemed like she was trying to back out. Every question he’d asked her on the subway had gone unanswered. They’d already lapped the block once, and now they were standing on the sidewalk, wasting time. Finally, Gabriel threw up his hands. “Which house, Erin?”

  The look she gave him was caustic. Erin twisted away.

  “Wait, I’m sorry,” Gabriel said, stopping her before she could take off. “You can trust me, Erin! What do you need me to do? How can I show you?”

  Erin slowly raised her hand. “She usually doesn’t like visitors,” she said. “Looks like she decided to see us, though.”

  Erin was pointing to the fancy columns adorning the front of the home they’d been standing in front of. Now, though, the door was open, and a girl leaned on the frame.

  She didn’t look more than eighteen. Her hair was done up in a delicate plait, surrounding her head in a thick, dark halo. On her hands she wore silk gloves, their color a perfect match to her tailored gray pants and blouse. Everything about her screamed money, sophistication.

  He took the steps one at a time, never taking his eyes off the girl.

  “Hello, Erin,” she said, her voice clipped. “You’ve brought a friend.”