Touching Fire (Touch Saga) (15 page)

“That was different.”

He just grinned at me. “How was your talk?”

My arms crossed of their own accord.
“Bizarre.”

“
What happened?”

I told him about my conversation with Celia while I paced the length of his room. It wasn’t quite as light and airy as mine. His furniture was dark and sturdy, kind of like him, and he didn’t have a terrace, which I
thought was sad. It was also a whole lot smaller than mine. Two of his could fit into one of mine. I felt a little bummed for him.

“Then she just touches my shoulder and says,
welcome home, Fallon.
Like I’m supposed to feel all warm and cozy after the horror story she just finished telling me.”

“She wasn’t trying to scare you,” he said reasonably. “She was trying to help warn you.”

“That what? The boogieman exists? News flash, I know! I didn’t need a reminder. Ugh!” My face took a violent scrubbing from my hands. “It was fine up until that moment.” I let my hands drop and faced him. “When did you meet her?”

He sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “
After you and your mom left, Ashton moved us to this two bedroom apartment over a gym. For the first few years, your dad insisted I return home for at least six months out of the year to train, even though I was already programmed with all the necessary hunting, tracking and combat skills. He would teach me my ABCs while he kicked my ass at hand to hand. I learned history while throwing knives at a dummy. He was merciless. Thirteen, fifteen, twenty hours every day for six months…” He blew out a harsh breath. “He held back no punches, took no short cuts, it was train and study until I thought I would lose my mind. But I knew why he was doing it. It was to protect you, so I never complained. I trained until it hurt and I studied until my eyes bled. If it wasn’t for Celia, I would get no break. She was always there to wrap my injuries, to make sure I ate and slept, although I never had the heart to tell her I didn’t do either.”

“And all that time, you never clued in that they were married?”

A faint sort of blush crept into his cheeks and he turned towards the window. He picked up the book he’d been reading. “Well, it wasn’t like Celia lived in the house. She would drop in every so often to see how things were going and then leave. I mean, not even Ashton ever stayed with me. He would beat my ass, tell me to do better tomorrow and leave.”

“And you never asked where he was going, or why?”

He shook his head. “No. I was only there to train. Plus, it wasn’t so unusual. He was rarely home when he was with your mom either. He was always getting called in to work.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You mean since he was a doctor and all.”

Isaiah looked down and I felt bad.

“I never had a reason to question him,” he said slowly. “
I always suspected something was going on between him and Celia, but never that they were married.”

“Just living in sin,” I finished.

He shrugged. “They were adults. I was still just a kid. I didn’t think it was my business to ask.”

“Maybe that’s why he
didn’t stay with you, or my mom.” I made my way to his bed and flopped down on it. “Since he can’t be the mortal world for very long, it would make sense that he would always leave to return here. Then he’d come back and pretend everything was great. It also makes sense why he would tell my mom he was a doctor. It’s the one profession that requires twenty four hour attention. I’m just surprised my mom never, I dunno, checked him out.”

Isaiah shrugged … again. “
Maybe she did and he did check out. Ashton is very clever. He always has a plan for everything. I mean, they were married for five years. I’m sure he’d done something to convince her he was who she thought he was.”

“So he’s good at lying,” I muttered. “Not sure I like trusting our lives to someone who can lie so convincingly to someone he supposedly cares about for that long.”

“He had his reasons.”

I squinted at him, disgusted. “There is no reason to lie to someone you
love.”

“He was trying to protect her, and you.”

“Then he should have stayed out of her life.” I glared hard at the ceiling. “She would be alive right now if he had.”

“But you wouldn’t be.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. I dragged his pillow under my head and closed my eyes.

“
When do you think this telepathic link will upgrade?” I asked at last. “When do I get to waltz through your thoughts?”

He chuckled. “I wasn’t given a
schedule.”

I sighed and opened my eyes. I met his across the room. “
It would be nice for a change.”

“Worried I might be lying to you?” He said it with a smile, but his eyes were serious.

I didn’t so much as blink. “Yes.”

He walked over to the bed. The mattress dipped beneath his weight
.

“I
haven’t,” he murmured. “And I won’t. You don’t need a telepathic link to know what I’m thinking. You only need to ask.”

I bit my lip. “What are you think
ing, Isaiah?”

His lips curved in the smallest of smiles. “That I miss
my motorcycle.”

I laughed.

His grin broadened. “So what’s the plan …
Boss
?” he teased, using my own words back at me.

I kicked his hip lightly with my foot. “
We stay and play nice. I’m going to talk to Ashton, see what he hasn’t told us and see about moving us somewhere between here and topside. There were like a billion doors in that place that got us here. I’m sure we can find somewhere else to go.”

“
Because you think I’ll just drop dead if I stay here.”

I
shrugged and closed my eyes. “That’s what Celia said happened to humans, which you are. It’s obvious you can’t stay here and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

Tendrils of hair
were swept off my neck, cheek and shoulder. The same hands rubbed down my arm and I sighed, snuggling deeper into the pillow.

“
You know what we should have done?” I murmured.

Blunt fingers with rough tips smoothed along the back of my hand to trace each knuckle. “
Gone to Mexico?”

I snickered.
“We should have gone back to the cabin.”

I heard the smile in his voice even as I felt the warm pressure of sleep blanketing me. “You hated the cabin.”

I yawned. “Yes, but I had you to myself, well, until Garrison decided to drop in.”

The last thing I heard before I dropped out of reality into dream world was,
“You will always have me.”

I awoke
with a scream lodged in my throat and my clothes plastered to my clammy skin. Blankets that had been tucked almost protectively around me were torn off as I scrambled free of their suffocating embrace to clutch my abdomen as the demon attempted to claw its way out. I gasped, doubling over, trying desperately to formulate words, but only managing squeaks of pain. The darkness pushed with an almost physical force against me as I tumbled out of bed and landed on my knees.

“Isaiah!” I tried to breathe through the agonizing pain.

I was dying. There was no other explanation for it. Where was the door? In the dark, the world was upside down and backwards and I was too blinded by tears to think straight. The headache that had been a minor irritation at the back of my skull was now a full blown war. I wanted to crawl under the bed. I wanted to scale the walls. I wanted to bang my head against concrete. Anything to make it stop. When it began to recede with the slow progression of molasses, I took the opening. Grabbing the mattress, I hauled myself to my unsteady feet and shuffled my way in the direction I was almost sure held my escape.

“Isaiah!” I called, breathing raspy.

There was no response and my own pain was drowned by the possibility that something had happened to him. Had someone taken him while I was sleeping? Where would he have gone and why hadn’t he awakened me?

Fingers finding the cool brass of the doorknob, I threw myself into the corridor, squinting as I was blinded by the sudden burst of light.
It took several minutes of crawling through memories and pushing aside the voices raging at me with questions I couldn’t answer before I found my bearings. The two corridors housing our rooms linked at the corner where it veered left and joined mine. Isaiah’s was tucked towards the back while mine was closer to the stairs. I knew that if I could find the main foyer, I could easily retrace my steps if I needed to. What I wasn’t sure of was why Isaiah would go to my room when I was already in his. It didn’t make sense. But I had to start somewhere.

Apprehension kept at bay the gnawing beast demanding sustenance. My drive to find Isaiah overruled all other needs.

I reached my room and threw open the door, letting it swing wide and strike the walls. A figure sitting on the beige settee in front of the fireplace jumped, as did my heart in a momentarily lapse of relief only for it to die a young death when I realized it wasn’t Isaiah.

“What are you doing in my room?” I charged the distance to confront the small, pale figure practically drowning in a sea of fabric.

“I … I…” Delphi blinked her enormous blue eyes like a broken china doll.

“Answer me!” I snarled
, stopping when I was in danger of walking straight into her. “Why are you here? Where’s Isaiah?”

Delphi hurried to her feet, tripping and stumbling on a basket of threads and needles. Spools rolled in all directions as the basket capsized.

“Oh no!” Forgetting about me, she swooped down to scoop the colorful reels of thread back into their confines.

“Hey, I’m talking to you
.” I moved to stand in her way.

“Mistress sent me to
fashion you a new wardrobe,” she said, sounding both frightened and agitated.

“No kidding.” I stepped aside to let her gather her things off the floor. “I bet you jumped right on the chance to lock me in a zombie infested closet again.”

Thin, pale eyebrows knitted between puzzled eyes. “I don’t understand the question.”

“
That wasn’t a question. That was a comment. This is a question, what the hell?”

If anything, she looked even more terrified, like I’d just grown six heads, each one spewing acid.

“I don’t understand!” she cried.

I threw up my hands. “You
locked me in the basement.”

Her blue eyes went enormous
in horror. “I would never, miss!”

I started. “What … are you kidding? I was there.”

She shook her head vehemently. “No, miss. I would never. I haven’t met you before tonight.”

I stared at her, long and hard until she fidgeted and looked away. “You’re
cray-cray, aren’t you?”

Delphi systematically replaced all the threads into her basket, each color coordinated from lightest to darkest. She shut the lid, took hold of the handle and
drew herself up, squaring her tiny shoulders and stiffening her spine.

“I haven’t the foggiest what you’re insinuating, miss. You’re welcome to request a second opinion if you believe my work isn’t up to par,
but I assure you I am the best and you won’t find any better.” She angrily clutched her sewing basket to her abdomen and jutted out her pert chin. “If you’ll excuse me.”

I had no idea what
she
was so angry about. After all, wasn’t
she
the one who locked
me
up in a closet with monsters? If anything, I should have been the one outraged. But no. She was furiously gathering her things like I had offended her. Unbelievable.

I shook my head. “I don’t have time for this. I have to find Isaiah.”

Delphi tipped her head back, pausing in her neat, but hasty folding of a beautiful turquoise roll of fabric. “The human?”

“Yes, the human,” I muttered, stopping short of rolling my eyes.

“He’s in the gardens with Master Blackburn.”