Forbidden Touch

by K. S. Haigwood

  Lazarus had shown him to the room he would be staying in, then said he was going to turn in for the day. He was going to brainstorm on how to get him out of all of this mess with the cops, and suggested that Mitch should do the same.

  Well, he was trying, but he couldn't get Ciera out of his mind long enough to come up with how to put a toilet seat down, much less frame someone for murder.

  His body had tingled a few times a little earlier, and he had wondered what had caused it to happen. Maybe it was one of the skills that vampires possessed. Lazarus had many, and he said he would show him how to use them tomorrow. Mitch wondered aimlessly if Lazarus had tried any of his tricks on him when they had worked together.

  He shrugged, then grabbed the clothes Lazarus had given him off the bed. He had to get her blood off his body. Lazarus had shown him where the bathroom was when they had come up to the upper level. He was glad that he was still going to be able to walk in the sun. He smiled. Wouldn't Ciera be freaked out about that?

  He gritted his teeth together and punched a hole through Lazarus' sheetrock wall. Fuck! He had to stop thinking about her. She was dead to him. He made his way to the bathroom and flipped on the light. He put his hands on the vanity and leaned into them. "God, help me, please. Tell me what to believe." A memory of Ciera flashed through his mind again. He thought about picking the toilet up and throwing it through the bathroom window.

  He took several deep breaths, and then took his clothes off and threw them in the waste basket.

  He turned the water on and stepped under the hot spray. Memories of when he and Ciera had been in the shower at his mother's house, crept into his mind; he didn't fight it this time. He could already see it was a battle he wouldn't win anytime soon.

  He let her naked body enter his mind. Then her hands were on him, and his were on her. He sighed as the warm tingly feeling began to happen again; it was stronger this time. It actually felt kind of nice. He still didn't know why it was happening, but he was guessing if he went ahead and let it happen instead of fighting it, he would eventually realize what it was. Maybe it happened to all the vampires, and Ciera had just failed to mention it.

  He closed his eyes, letting his head fall under the spray. He thought of her. It seemed he could do nothing else. The tingling was getting stronger and stronger, and the urge to say her name was almost too much to bear. He gave in.

  "Oh God, Ciera. Not again!" Dane said, and pulled over on the shoulder of the road.

  She was actually convulsing in her seat. He hoped it wasn't some bad side effect from the elephant tranquilizer he'd injected her with. He shook her violently, and shouted her name the same time that Mitch did.

  She opened her eyes to fog again, but it was different this time. It was clearing away, and she could hear rushing water. She could see a form standing in front of her, but through the fog she couldn't make out what it was. She took a step forward, and that was all she needed. She gasped as she saw Mitch in a shower, hot water running down that gorgeous, naked body of his. He heard her and his eyes shot open.

  "Oh my God, Mitch!" she went to hug him, but her body wasn't really there in the shower with him, so she fell right through him. It seemed that somehow her spirit had left her body and gone to him, but how?

  He jumped out of the shower without turning the water off. His eyes were wild and pissed. "What the hell are you doing here? You never wanted me, and now you want to torture me?" He was breathing hard, and he turned his head from her. He couldn't let her see that she meant enough for him to cry. And dammit, that was exactly what was about to happen. He was pissed, and he was shaking. Tears would flow next.

  He reached in the shower and shut the water off, then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist and his damn boy that always seemed to pop up whenever he thought about her. There was no use in telling him that now was not a good time. The guy thought anytime was a good time when it came to Ciera.

  He walked out of the bathroom and down the long hallway to his bedroom. He turned on her when he walked through the door, because he knew that she'd followed him. "How are you here?"

  Her eyes were full of tears as she stared at him, shaking her head. "I don't know," she whispered, and then finally gathered herself together enough to think. "Whatever he has told you is a lie."

  "Really? So you didn't murder those people?" he asked, and watched her expression closely. She didn't seem to be lying, but hell, he didn't know who to believe.

  "No. Dane told me last night while you were going through transition that your father murdered all of those humans because he knew you would be assigned to the case. He knew the Elders would assign Dane to hunt him down, and he made Dane an offer he couldn't refuse. He knew if he turned you into a vampire that you would hate him, so he needed me to do it so he could have you, and you would hate me. Your father and Dane thought if you hated me, I would run to Dane for comfort. He is in love with me but I don't love him, Mitch. I love you."

  "You lie!" he shouted.

  She shook her head and shiny translucent tears fell down her face. "I'm not. I promise I love you. I didn't know anything about all of this until last night. I swear. Dane realizes that I'm never going to love him, even if you've stopped loving me. He's coming with me to get you."

  His eyes grew wide. "Do not come here," he said slowly, and his voice was full of menace. "If you come here, I'll kill you."

  She covered her mouth and nose with her hands and shook her head slowly as she cried. "Mitch, you have known me longer than your own father. He is lying. Why can't you see that? You know I couldn't do something like this."

  He raised his voice. "If you come here, I will kill you, Ciera!"

  She dropped her hands to her side in defeat. "Fine," she nodded. "I won't even put up a fight. I guess our souls weren't meant to be together after all." She smiled through her tears, but it wasn't a happy smile.

  "Yeah, I guess not. Why are you still here?"

  She stomped her foot. She loved him. Oh, God, how she loved him, but he was pissing her off. "Because you haven't sent me back to my body, you bastard! I don't have the skill to do this, but evidently you do," she crossed her arms over her chest. "Maybe I will just go sit on the front porch and twiddle my thumbs until Dane gets here with my body."

  Mitch blinked a few times. He hadn't even thought that it had been his skill that brought her to him. He looked at her and forced himself to calm down. "I don't know how to send you back," he said quietly.

  She rolled her eyes. "What were you doing before I showed up? My body went all tingly this time and one other time before."

  "Mine did too, three times. I didn't know what it was, but the third time I quit trying to fight it."

  "Were you thinking about me?" she asked.

  "What?"

  She huffed. "It's a simple question, Mitch. I'm only trying to help you figure out your skill here, and from the condition that you were in," she motioned toward the center of his body with her hand, "in the shower, would I be guessing right if I said that you weren't thinking about Paul down the street?"

  He looked down, and was happy to find that fighting with Ciera didn't turn his boy on. But he didn't want to let her know that he'd been thinking about her. He sighed. So what if she knew? She knew that he loved her. Why wouldn't he be thinking about her? You couldn't get over a broken heart in a freaking day. Maybe he could tell her that he'd been thinking about wringing her neck for the next decade. He shook his head. No, he was man enough to tell her the truth. "I can't stop thinking about you, but they are not all happy thoughts, if you know what I mean," he growled.

  "Maybe if you told me to go back to my body, and think about something else, I could go."

  He shrugged. "It's worth a try."

  She held her hand up. "Wait!"

  He sighed. "What?"

  "I just wanted to say something before I leave. A few days ago, you were ready to stand up to my immortal family. If they tried to hurt me, you were hell bent on protecting
me. Then after I almost died from going too long without feeding, you said if I let anything like that happen again, you were going to make it real damn easy for my family to find you. You told me you would do anything for me. I am only asking you to do only one thing for me. Believe me."

  "I can't. You've lied too many times," he whispered.

  "I've never lied to you. You are listening to all your daddy's lies. Where is the man that would do anything for me? Where is the man that loves me?"

  He looked up and met her stare head on. "You killed him last night," he said, and then closed his eyes and willed for her to go back to her body and leave him alone. He made sure that his mind was filled with anything but her, then he opened his eyes to an empty room. He dropped to his knees and cried.

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  Chapter 37

  Ciera opened her eyes to the comfort of her leather seat. Dane was freaking out again, and for some reason she found that cute. He never freaked out about anything.

  He was breathing just as hard as she was, and his face was panic stricken. "I'm sorry I gave you that tranquilizer, Ciera. I didn't know it would have this sort of effect on you."

  She shook her head at him. He thought it was the drug that was making her do this. She had an evil thought to let him think that, and make him suffer for all the things he had done to her. After all, it was his fault that she was in all this mess. But she had forgiven him, and she couldn't do that anyway, it wasn't in her nature to be mean. "It isn't you. I think it would be a good idea if you drove the whole way. If it happens, and I am behind the wheel, we will wreck for sure."

  "What the hell is it then?" he asked in surprise.

  "It's Mitch. Evidently he has the skill to call spirits to him if he thinks about a person hard enough. He's been thinking about me. He pulled me to him earlier, but I thought it was a dream. Then with the tingling thing a little while ago, that was it again. He fought it that time, but this time he didn't, and he pulled me to him."

  She began to cry and Dane looked out the window. "What did he say to you?" he said through a clenched jaw.

  "He hates me," she sobbed. "He has believed everything you said he would." She looked at her shaking hands, and clenched them into fists. She wanted to punch something. "He told me not to come…or he would kill me."

  Dane didn't want to say the famous "I told you so," so he didn't. But he was at a loss for what to say to her. "Let's just go back to Euphoria."

  "No! He doesn't know the truth yet, Dane. I can't give up on him that easily. Would you give up on me if I believed a lie?"

  He sighed and covered his face with his hands. He knew he wouldn't ever give up on her. She would have to kill him to keep him away from her. And by the look on her face, she felt the same way about Mitch. Damn it, he thought, what did he have to do, or say to her, to fix all of this in his favor, where she would be happy too? It looked as though he was destined to be without her, and he couldn't accept that. He didn't know if he ever would be able to. "I would never give up on you." He looked back at her. "I never will give up on you."

  She stared at him. He was such a different person now, and she almost wished that she did love him. Almost. "Then you know how I feel."

  "This is suicide. We can't win against Lazarus. His skills are beyond anything I've ever heard of, and if Mitch is half as strong as his father, we are in some deep shit here."

  "Take me to the nearest airport; I'll go alone. I never asked you to risk your life," she said, and he hit the steering wheel so hard the airbag came out.

  "Fuck!" He grabbed the slowly deflating bag and ripped it out of the column. He threw it in the back, then looked out the window again. "Don't you realize that if you go in there and get killed, I will have no reason for living? It seems that we have a dilemma here. You can't live without Mitch, and I can't live without you. But can't you see that Mitch is fine without you? He has told you to stay away from him. Listen to him and listen to me. I want you. I love you. He doesn't."

  Her mouth fell open slightly. She was dumbfounded by this new Dane. It wasn't possible for him to love her this much. He wasn't her soulmate. He had always flirted and said that he was in love with her, but she had never taken him seriously. "I don't know what to say to that."

  He made a sound with his throat and shook his head. "Don't bother." He put the car in drive and the tires squealed as he took off too fast.

  After dragging himself to his feet, Mitch quickly dressed. He walked down the hall, grabbed Lazarus' keys to his cruiser then walked out the front door. Surely no one would suspect Mitch to be driving around in his partner's unmarked police car. The windows were tinted so dark that no one would be able to tell if it was him or Lazarus behind the wheel anyway. They really did look that much alike.

  He needed to use a phone, and he didn't want Lazarus knowing who he needed to talk to.

  He drove to the far side of town. The part of town where crime was abundant, and the people here were too worried about hiding their own ass, and too busy to look around to see if they could spot a serial killer. He parked at a convenient store and put Lazarus' ball cap and the guy's Ray bans on. He walked in and tried to control his shaking as he asked the woman to give him five dollars in quarters. She was too busy talking on her cell phone to even look up at Mitch as she handed him his change. Good.

  He got back behind the wheel and pulled his car up to the payphone beside the store.

  He dialed information, and got the "City and State, please?" recording. He responded with, "Newport, AR."

  A live person came on the line then. "What listing in Newport?"

  "I need you to tell me all the listings that you have for psychics there," Mitch said, and the operator actually snickered.

  "There are three with that prefix, Sir," the amused operator said.

  "The one I'm looking for is called Alice," Mitch said, and then held his breath.

  "Yes, Sir, I have an Alice Croften under psychics. Would you like that number?"

  Mitch blew out his breath. "Yes please," he said, then jotted down the number the operator gave him.

  He hung up the phone, then put the receiver back to his ear and deposited enough money to make the call. Lazarus had more change in here if he ran out before his call was through. He quickly dialed her number and waited. It only rang once.

  "What took you so long, Mitch?" Alice said in his ear.

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  Chapter 38

  Mitch sat in shock for a moment. Of course, Ciera could have compelled Alice the other day and told her that he, by some slim chance from hell, may call her soon to see if she had lied to him. He didn't know whether to talk to her, or just hang up the damn phone.

  "Mitch dear, I'm afraid that we don't have time for this. Just say yes or no to my questions and this will go a lot faster, all right?"

  He waited a moment then managed to stutter out, "Y-y-yes."

  He could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke her next words. "Very good, dear. Now, I see that you have become a vampire. Is that right?"

  "Yes," he said, without emotion.

  "I also see that you are not with Ciera, and that you think she has betrayed you. Am I right?"

  "Yes," he said, a little forced.

  "Uh-huh, I see. And you thought that Ciera had compelled me to tell you lies as well?"

  He didn't say anything, so she continued. "Mitch, I am not compelled. Ask me anything about your life that you are positive Ciera doesn't know about."

  He thought for a minute and said, "What was my high school GPA?"

  "Heavens, Mitch, I'm not that good. I need something that stands out a little more. Something that was very important in your life."

  The only important thing he could think of was Ciera. He growled in frustration then spat out, "What was my age when I lost my virginity?"

  She didn't laugh. Actually Mitch couldn't even hear her breathing on the other end of the line. A couple of minutes passed. He thought she had hung up on him,
then she was back on the line. "I'm sorry it took me so long. You are a good deal away from me, so it is a little harder to read you, but I think I have." She paused and cleared her throat. "You lost your virginity to Megan Tralowski when you were sixteen. The two of you had been going steady for some time and you thought that you were falling in love with her. When it was over, twenty seconds later, she quickly dressed, kissed your cheek, and told you that she had only done it to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. You made yourself a promise then to never fall in love."

  Mitch's eyebrows went up into his hairline. Next time he wouldn't ask her to tell him something so personal about his past. No one, besides he and Megan, knew that his first time had lasted less than a minute. "All right, I believe you. Should I believe her?"

  "What does your heart tell you to believe?"

  He really hated when people answered a question with a question, without really answering the question at all. He growled. "My heart has betrayed me before, Alice. If you know what I need to know, then please, just tell me."

  The line went dead in his ear. He looked at the receiver like it was going to tell him what was wrong, and then he put it back to his ear. "Hello?" The operator hadn't come on to tell him that he was almost out of time. What the hell was up with the damn phone, he thought.

  He reached through the window and pushed the little metal lever that would disconnect the call. He let it go then put the phone back to his ear. There was no sound, no dial tone, no operator telling him to put some damn change in the slot if he wanted to make a damn call, nothing. His brow furrowed and he tossed the phone out the window, then put his car in drive. He had to find another phone.

  Ciera had turned the radio on not long after Dane had stopped talking to her. The car had Satellite Radio and she had turned it to the fast hip-hop beats of today's music. She actually liked most of today's music. With every decade that had past her by, she found her style of music changed with the times. She had liked Country music in the nineties, Punk Rock in the eighties, Disco in the seventies, and she had absolutely loved Elvis, and of course Motown, in the sixties. Who didn't? Anyway, music was a wonderful distraction. The comforting beats of treble and bass relaxed the nerves, making it easier for her to strategize a plan.