A Touch Menacing (44 page)

“Eden!” Kristen called sharply from downstairs. “Come on!”

She glanced back. “When Gabe found Madeline at Kristen’s ball, she
was
dead. She didn’t turn to ash because she was already mortal, Jarrod. Mortal!” Eden backed toward the stairs, gesturing for them to follow.

It took a second before Jarrod found his voice. “You mean . . . we can all be mortal again?”

“Where are they?” Sullivan burst into motion, running down the stairs after Eden. “Did they tell you?”

Az and Kristen were already waiting by the front door. “Yeah, we got an address,” Eden said. “It’s not far, but we’ve got to hurry. The Siders Jackson had with him made Rachel turn them all. That’s what was going on when he called before. She’s carrying way too much Touch. Jackson took some from her, but it wasn’t enough. Sullivan and I can help.”

Sullivan grabbed Jarrod’s hand, practically skipping down the stairs. “I knew it would be okay,” she said.

Jarrod didn’t answer. At the door, Kristen looked nervous. Az wasn’t smiling, either, something haunted and lost in his eyes as he watched Eden come down the stairs.

Before Jackson even answered the door to the apartment, a scream rang out through the hall.

“Jesus,” Eden whispered.

Jarrod started to wonder why no one had called the cops when the cry was smothered into a barely audible moan. He glanced around, his hand on Sullivan’s back. Eden pounded on the door again. The place was a shithole. Riding up the elevator, he’d been sure the cables were going to snap and plunge them to the basement. It didn’t even have real doors, just retracting gates that made it feel like a cage. Down the heavily stained hallway, he spotted a staircase.
Thank God,
he thought. There was no way in hell he was getting back in that elevator.

A hollow clink sounded against the door as a chain was released. The dead bolt clunked. Finally, Jackson opened the door.

“Where is she?” Eden demanded.

Frantic, he pointed behind him. “Kitchen.”

“Jackson,” Kristen said. She took him by the elbow and moved him out of the way enough to let Eden storm by. “You tried to help her, didn’t you?”

He nodded, running a hand back and forth over his shaved head. The skin was raw and red. He was wired, carrying far too much Touch. “I couldn’t pass. I couldn’t leave her alone.” He shuddered and lowered his pinkie to gnaw on the nail. “She just keeps screaming.”

Az closed the door and redid the chain and dead bolt. “There’s no one here but you and her, right?” he asked.

Jackson nodded. A sliver of blood showed on his fingernail where he’d bitten the cuticle too deep. He grabbed suddenly for Kristen. “Mad’s dead!” he cried. “She’s dead!”

“I’m so sorry, Jackson. Sebastian, too.” As Jarrod watched, she seemed to shake it off. “You did so well,” she said as Jarrod led Sullivan past. “Madeline would be proud.”

They entered the kitchen just as Eden tipped up and away from the girl. “Okay, you can breathe, Rachel,” she said.

Though Jarrod didn’t see a bedroom, a mattress had been dragged from somewhere and was wedged between the wall and the front of the stove. The girl on it trembled, her arms twitching and jerking. With a shaking hand, she wiped her mouth.

Eden squeezed her shoulder. “Any better?” she asked.

The girl nodded absently, but it was the change in Eden that stopped him dead. She looked healthy, the gray color gone from her skin. Her cheeks glowed rosy. With her free hand she waved over Sullivan.

“This will be just like you did with Jarrod, only you’re going to be getting a lot more Touch,” she coached. “Be sure to hold your breath.” She kept her hand on Sullivan’s back as Sullivan leaned forward and took the dose.

Az pressed in behind Jarrod. “How are you?” he asked Eden.

She winked at him, and he seemed to relax a bit. “Ready, Jarrod?”

Jarrod moved forward. “Should she be losing Touch that fast?”

“Can you imagine what would happen to me if I took out twenty Siders? Especially twenty paranoid Siders, who’ve been storing instead of passing? She’s way overloaded. And I don’t think anyone even told her anything.” Eden rubbed the girl’s back. “Jarrod, take a dose,” she said. He hesitated. The girl, Rachel, already looked glazed, like she was well on her way to being out of her mind. “She needs to get rid of it,” Eden insisted when Jarrod didn’t move. “What happens if later Sullivan and I need to be dosed and you didn’t take it?”

“That’s not playing fair,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you just have her turn us mortal now?”

“No!” Az blurted. “Eden and Sullivan can help her regulate if she’s turning Siders mortal. We can save them from the Bound. If she does it to Eden now, though, she’ll just take back all the Touch she got rid of.”

Eden stared down at the girl. “You’re right,” she said. “Jarrod, take the dose from her. We need to keep her levels as low as possible so she can help Siders as we find them.” Eden motioned for Sullivan to switch with him.

Rachel didn’t move when Jarrod kneeled next to her, just kept staring off into space. He turned her face toward him without thinking about his ungloved fingers. Instantly, her glamour dropped away. Jarrod jumped back in surprise. One of her eye sockets was hollow. The other oozed, part of the rotting eyeball dripping down her cheekbone.

Sullivan’s scream pierced the silence. On the mattress beside him, Rachel’s jaw dropped open, tendons stretching, and she wailed and then went quiet. Her bones creaked, the fabric of her shirtsleeves swaying as she wrapped her arms around herself and started to rock. Jarrod couldn’t believe she’d dosed both Eden and Sullivan and still carried so much Touch.

“Jesus,” he managed. “Yeah, I guess she won’t be running out any time soon.”

The Touch thrummed into him, his mouth going numb, his throat tickling with vibration. The dose was bigger than anything he’d ever gotten from Eden. On her lips, he could taste salt. “Rachel?” Eden said suddenly.

Jarrod found the girl staring at him. Not blankly, but actually making contact as he pulled away from her.

“It hurts,” Rachel moaned, and he thought she was done until she swallowed and added another word. “Less.”

Eden smiled at her. “We’re gonna have you give us more, okay? We’ll keep going until it stops hurting at all.”

Rachel stiffened, backing herself against the rusted stove. “I don’t know you. What’s going on?”

Eden didn’t have a chance to answer before Kristen’s voice grew louder in the living room. Footsteps crossed to them, and she poked her head around the corner.

“We need to go,” she said. Eden started to argue, but Kristen shook her head. “We need to go
now
, Eden. Do you know where we are?” Her voice pitched up. “This was where Gabriel stayed when he was Fallen. It’s not safe here.”

Eden swore, stumbling to her feet. “We can’t keep running like this!” She glanced down at the girl. “We can’t get caught. She’s everyone’s chance to survive.”

“But what happens when there’re no Siders left? Who changes her?” Az asked.

Eden helped Rachel to her feet. “That’s a bridge we’ll cross when we come to it.”

Jarrod slammed his fist into the wall before he spun on Kristen. “If you screw us over . . . if us having to leave again is some plan to turn her over to Luke, I swear to God . . .”

He didn’t bother finishing the threat, instead wrapping Rachel’s arm around his neck. Her legs wobbled and gave out. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered, and dropped to a knee, throwing her over his shoulder.

She gave a surprised “oomph.”

“If we’re going, let’s go,” Jarrod snarled.

Az backed out of the way and headed into the living room. Jackson already had the door open.

“Stairwell,” Jarrod said. “We’d be sitting ducks in the elevator.”

“Good call.” Eden passed him at a jog, opening the door to listen down the stairs. After a second she gave them a thumbs-up, and the rest of the group charged down the hallway. “There’s no need to panic,” she said as they clomped down, her words almost lost in the pounding echo of their feet. “We don’t even know that they’re coming. This is just a precaution.”

“Right,” he heard Az mumble from behind him. Jarrod could feel him wanting to get by, to get closer to Eden, but with Rachel over his shoulder and the stairs steep, Jarrod didn’t dare stop to let him pass.

When they reached the bottom, Eden slammed into the push bar and swung the door open wide, spilling them onto the street. She turned back to Jarrod as soon as they were out. “I want Rachel to dose us again,” she said. “We might not get another chance, and we need her functioning. And me functioning.”

He could hear how short of breath Eden had gotten just from the few flights. She was better, but not nearly as strong as she needed to be. He slipped Rachel off his shoulder and leaned her against a brick wall.

“Thank you,” Rachel said.

Jarrod bent over, resting his elbows on his knees. The Touch she’d passed him was still settling. He could feel it, slithering through him. Already he was itching to pass it off to any mortal they found, but he had to hold on, save it in case one of the girls needed it. Which meant he had to keep his head clear. No dark thoughts.

When he stood up again, Sullivan was next to him. “What’s wrong?” she asked, worried.

“Too much Touch makes any of us sick, crazy. You and Eden can hold much more than I can.” Even as he said it, a wave of pain washed through his abdomen. He clenched his teeth until it passed. “When Eden used to dose me, I’d pass it off to the mortals pretty quick so it didn’t affect me.”

“But now you’re keeping it for us, in case we get hurt?” she asked quietly.

He gave her a quick nod. “Can Rachel dose Sullivan again?” he called out to Eden.

Rachel seemed more animated, coming around with each dose she gave. If it was true—if she
could
make Siders mortal again—Eden and Sullivan would have to stay with her, drain her of the Touch she accumulated with every Sider she took out. And if they were getting massive doses of Touch from Rachel, they wouldn’t need to take out Siders.

Kristen sidled up to her. “I’m first.” She glared back at the look of uncertainty Eden gave her. “Do you have any idea how much time I’ve put into training myself to store? After you two, I’m the most capable person in this group to help her.”

“We need to find out how to get the Siders to come to her,” Eden said as Rachel dosed Kristen. She turned to Jackson. “Or better yet, we can have her go to them. Stay on the move.”

Suddenly, Kristen’s whole face shifted, going pale. Jarrod turned just in time to see someone with an odd, loping gait walk the last few feet of the cross street they stood on and disappear behind the edge of the apartment building.

“He was in my yard.” Venom filled Kristen’s voice. “I saw him last night,” she said, stepping forward. “I’ll kill him for what he’s done.”

Az grabbed for her arm. “Are you crazy? We go. Now,” he said as he snagged her. “Do not run unless they see us.”

“Shit,” Jarrod whispered, knowing it was probably too late already to make an escape. The Bound were like roaches; spotting one meant they’d already infested a place. His eyes skipped around, taking in roofs and fire escapes and cars parked on the side of the street. They could be anywhere. Beside him, he heard Sullivan’s frightened breaths.

Eden wasn’t bothering being inconspicuous. She slowly walked backward. “Az, stick close to Rachel. They can’t get to her.”

“Understood,” he said as he moved to the girl’s side. “If we get split up—”

A foot slammed into Jarrod’s chest. He flew back as the angel finished materializing, and landed hard. He rolled out of the way just as a fist plunged into the gravelly snow.

Even before he finished the roll and was back on his feet, he focused on the blur of Eden’s black coat. Still alive. Another Bound popped into existence beside him. He threw a punch and heard the thing’s nose crunch under his knuckles.

“Az, get Rachel!” he called, praying. Jarrod took the split second to glance around. Their group had scattered. Four Bound—including the one he’d punched—had Az and Kristen flanked, backing them slowly toward a chain-link fence.

Rachel ran for him instead of Az. “Who are they?” she gasped beside him.

“Angels,” he answered distractedly. Where was Sullivan? He swept across the scene again. Panic surged into him. Where the hell was Eden?

At the fence, Kristen drew something out of her boot. She dropped a sheath and brandished a curved blade. It glinted evilly in the winter sun. “No closer,” she commanded.

A gasp rippled through the Bound.
A knife?
Jarrod wondered. He’d let her get close to Eden and never thought she’d been armed. He expected the Bound to laugh. One eased closer. Jarrod watched, torn between getting Rachel out of there and staying to help.
Would the Bound hurt Az?
he wondered, knowing even as he thought it that they would. He was half Fallen. To them he was nothing. And he was with the Siders.

For the moment, it looked like the angels were trained on Kristen, or, more accurately, the knife. She held it in front of her with both hands on the hilt.

One of the Bound made a horrible metallic sound. “You struggle valiantly but in vain. Weapons mean nothing in weak hands.”

She carved the blade through the air, stopping it near the angel’s neck. “Don’t,” she warned, “call me weak.”

The angels stumbled back a step.

“Who would give such a weapon to you?” Another step back. Whatever the knife was, it had them ready to run.

“Lucifer,” Kristen snarled. “You will leave me and my friends. If any of you harm us, it’s his wrath you’ll have to fear!”

A murmur of dissent went through them. Even Jarrod couldn’t look away. A blade forged in Hell. The only thing that could kill one of the Bound. Kristen’s hair swirled around her in the breeze, wild, her eyes flashing. She looked badass. She looked terrifying.

One of the angels winked out of existence.

Then two more.

“We are many,” the last growled. He backed slowly away. “Your kind dims.”

And then he, too, was gone.

“Kristen!” Az shouted. “Do you even know what the fuck you’re holding?”