Haunted by Your Touch (6 page)

Rooms
. An image of Rafael’s bedroom flashed in my mind. It was his private sanctuary, the place he never brought anyone back into.…

Holy shit, I was so
stupid
! I’d spent all this time looking around the castle when I should’ve been concentrating on turning his bedroom upside down. I spun around, hugging the wall as I made my way back toward the main part of the castle.
It took several agonizingly stretched-out minutes during which I was sure I’d be discovered, but eventually, I made it close enough to recognize where Rafael and I had first come in.

Now, where had we gone from there again?

Two lefts past the fancy sword display,
I began to chant to myself, easing past the corner before ducking out into the open hallway.
Then right at the ancient-looking tapestry…

By the time I passed the blacked-out window on the third floor, I was sweating even though the castle corridors were chilly
and
drafty. Then, once I reached Rafael’s wide bedroom door, that sweat turned cold on my skin. Logic said he should still be out like a light, but what if I was wrong? I’d never tranqued a three-quarter demon—or possible
Pureblood
—before; how did I know how long the sedative would keep him out?

Only one way to find out. I took a deep breath, then gingerly opened the door, muscles bunched to run if I heard the slightest sound of movement within. When nothing but deep, rhythmic breathing met my ears, I dared to go all the way inside before closing the door quietly behind me.

Rafael lay right where I’d left him, his big body still in that elegant sprawl. Guilt flared in me once
again, but I squashed it. If I was wrong, I’d wait for him to wake up and then offer the most sincere apology of my
life
, but until then, I had a job to do. I stepped around him, one hand on my gun just in case he’d been faking sleep to lunge at me. When he still didn’t move, I began my search.

I owed my animal reserve relative huge for this one.

Nothing was under the bed or in the three closets that artistically blended into the room. Of course. That would have been too obvious. I tapped along all the walls, feeling for any inconsistency in the stone that might mean a barrier. Then I piled pieces of furniture on top of each other to make a precarious ladder that I fell from twice before ascertaining that the opaque glass with the odd designs was
not
a gateway to another dimension.

Finally, prodded by a pinch from my bladder, I went into the bathroom. The tub was sunken, made of highly polished stone, and looked like it had a real faucet, too. When I was done using the toilet, it flushed just like a normal one. Rafael must have had a clever pumping system inside the castle to have pulled
that
off. The bathroom was pretty nice for one belonging to a
bachelor, with towels neatly stacked on a stand by the tub, a stone sink with another authentic faucet, and even a faux picture-frame window with one of the plush drapes pulled back for artistic effect.

Who’d have thought a potentially evil demon ruler would have good decorating taste? Too bad there wasn’t anything in the bathroom that looked like it might be a barrier, though. Despair pricked me. What if all my efforts tonight were a waste, and all I’d succeeded in doing was tipping my hand to a powerful demon who was going to be so
pissed
when he woke up?

I left the bathroom, determined to search more of the castle again, when something nagged at me. I spun around, heading back into the bathroom, to run my hands over the fake window. It couldn’t be here. Not right out in the open like this…

When my hand slipped under the drapery to touch the wall behind it, I froze. Very slowly, I pulled away the entire drapery to reveal the wall, and a harsh sound escaped me.

This wasn’t a wall. It was a dimensional barrier.
Two
of them, in fact.

I traced my hand along the barriers, noting
the difference in feel between them. The one on my left felt completely rigid, even colder than the stone wall around it, but the one on my right… ah. That felt pliant. Cautiously, I pressed against it, surprised when my entire hand slid through. I jerked back at once, seeing water clinging to my fingers before dripping onto the floor.

The one on the left was a barrier I couldn’t cross, which meant it must lead to a Pureblood dimension. Right here, under everyone’s noses, Rafael had hidden two gateways into the other side, and there was no innocent reason he would’ve done that. This discovery made me want to go over to Rafael’s supine form and start kicking him. All of my worst suspicions were confirmed. Rafael was in league with Purebloods, and no one had caught him because no one knew he had his very own private access in his
bathroom
, of all places. No wonder he didn’t keep a lot of people on staff in his house. He must not have wanted to increase the odds of anyone finding this and telling others.

Yet he’d brought me back here. For a second, I was confused. Why would he do that and risk my finding this barrier? But then, like a hot poker to my heart, I understood.

Rafael had had no intention of letting me leave. He hadn’t brought me back to his house because I was more special to him than any other girl; he’d brought me back because he’d been planning to give me a personal tour of the barrier when he pulled me through and delivered me up to some Purebloods! Maybe my spotting Ashton earlier had spooked him. Maybe he was just sick of me poking around asking questions. Whatever the reason, it was clear that he’d intended to eliminate the problem once and for all.

Jab, jab, jab!
went that poker in my heart. What a fool I’d been.

I shook my head, disgusted to find my vision blurred. Rafael wasn’t worth my tears, and neither were my hurt feelings. If I should be crying for anyone, it should be Gloria and all the other Partials who’d suffered because of what lay in front of me. Grimly, I forced myself to focus, pressing again on the barrier to the right. My hand slipped inside just as easily as before, coming out dripping water once more. I could penetrate it, so this gateway had to lead back to my world.

My stomach roiled with nausea. Did Rafael allow Purebloods to go back and forth shuttling
Partials through these two barriers? How easy that would be, and how private. Even if one of his people found traces that had been left after each passage, who’d think twice about water being splashed on a bathroom floor? No one, that’s who.

I left the bathroom, my fingers trembling with the urge for revenge as they curled around my gun. But when I stomped over to Rafael and stared down at him, despair replaced the rage seething in me. He deserved to be killed in his sleep for all he’d done, but even as I raised the gun, my hand wavered. Rafael looked almost angelic lying there, with golden russet hair draped over part of his face and his mouth slightly open. His beauty shouldn’t have mattered to me, nor should the memory of how I’d felt in his arms, but even though he deserved it, I knew, deep down, that I couldn’t pull the trigger.

My Partial side might have been howling at me to shoot and avenge my people, but killing Rafael felt wrong in every fiber of the rest of me. For once, the three-quarters of my humanity were stronger than even the urgings from one-quarter’s worth of seething, vengeful demon.

I lowered the gun and spun back around, heading
into the bathroom. Maybe I couldn’t kill Rafael, but I could warn people about him. I wasn’t so weak that I couldn’t do
that
.

I stared at the barrier to the right. Wherever it opened up to, it was somewhere wet, so I’d better take some deep breaths first.

I didn’t wait for Lena to put the car in park before I jumped into the passenger seat. My younger half sister gave my sodden clothes a disbelieving look before rubbing her nose.

“What is that
smell
?”

“You don’t want to know,” I replied shortly. Rafael’s portal had indeed opened up somewhere underwater. No wonder the location of the other gateway had remained hidden on this side for so long. What Partial in their right mind would go for an exploratory dive in the waters of a sewage treatment facility to stumble across it?

“Guess now I know why you told me to bring you a change of clothes. I would’ve brought a bucket of water and some bleach, too, if I’d known how much you’d stink—”

“Drive,” I cut Lena off in exasperation. “We
don’t have much time. You don’t even know the shit that’s about to hit the fan.”

“You found something out about Gloria?” she asked, losing the mocking tone at once. To my relief, she also hit the gas, lurching the car forward with the carelessness of a teenager who’d only recently learned how to drive.

“Did you get ahold of Dad?” I replied, not answering that. If I could avoid involving my little sister in this, I would.

“Left a message, but you know his cell has crappy reception in the Bahamas. Bet that’s why they go there every year for their anniversary, so it’s harder for us to bug them.”

I agreed with her reasoning. Normally I wouldn’t begrudge my father or my stepmother their private time together, but it was more than an inconvenience now. Of course, his being out of town was why I’d chosen
this
weekend to break my promise by going back to Nocturna. I knew he’d never even realize I was gone, and Lena was fine staying home alone. She was more mature at sixteen than I’d been at that age.

“Aunt Nancy and Uncle David?” I asked next.

Lena shook her head. “At the movies. They’re supposed to go out to eat afterward, too.”

Damn it! It figured everyone would be unavailable when I had the most important news of my life to relay.

That left Lena. I gave her a hard look that she didn’t see as she concentrated on the road.
More mature than I was at her age, for sure
. And I had to tell
someone
before I went back. Just in case I didn’t return.

“Rafael’s involved in shuttling Partials out of Nocturna and into the next realm. He has two secret barriers in the bathroom of his castle.”

Lena swerved, narrowly avoiding another car before easing back into our lane to the tune of angry horns blaring.

Yeah, guess I should’ve had her pull over before I blurted that out.

“You’re shitting me!” she exclaimed.

I didn’t criticize her language, though my father would have, had he heard her use that word.

“I wish I were,” I said glumly while another tiny, invisible spear jabbed me in the heart.

“You saw the barriers yourself?” she went on, glancing at me.

“Maybe we should talk about this when you’re not driving—”

“I’m fine,” she cut me off, looking back at the road with a clenched jaw. “Go on.”

“I went through one of them to get here. It opens in the sewage facility a few miles back; that’s why I stink,” I said. “All I know about the other one is that it doesn’t lead to anything on this side, so I give you three guesses as to where it
does
go.”

Lena was silent as she absorbed this, getting onto the freeway. We were several cities away from the Bed Bath & Beyond gateway, and it was already afternoon. I had to get back to that gateway before dark or risk giving Rafael a whole day to think up a way to stop me from telling others what I’d discovered. He’d know I’d found the barriers. The puddle of water I’d probably left on his bathroom floor crossing over would be enough to let a smart bastard like him figure it out.

And if I gave him time, he might decide to come after more than just me. I glanced at Lena again. Maybe it was a good thing my father was out of town. In fact, Lena, my cousin, and my aunt and uncle should all follow suit.

“When you drop me off at the mall, I want you to go straight to tell Aunt Nancy and Uncle David what’s going on. I’ll tell everyone I can
over in Nocturna. Maybe Jack’ll believe me, he’s a friend. Billy… I don’t know, but I’ll try. But even if not everyone believes me, I should be able to get enough of them riled up to demand to see that bathroom for themselves. Once they do, Rafael’s finished.”

Damn the little needles of pain those words caused me. What was the matter with me, still getting upset over the well-deserved fate of a murderer?

“Are you going to be all right?” Lena asked softly. “I know you’ve always had a thing for Rafael….”

“I’m fine,” I said briskly, echoing her words from before. I didn’t want to talk about it, let alone think about it. “Got any paper towels in here?” I went on, changing the subject.

She pointed to the glove box. I opened it, relieved to see a travel pack of tissues
and
a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer. I should have just squirted the entire bottle all over me, but even that wouldn’t have been enough. Instead, I dabbed some on a tissue and flipped the vanity mirror down, determined to get the nasty grime off my face and hands, at least.

But one good look at my reflection made a
scream escape me. Lena didn’t swerve again, though she yelled, “What the hell!” at the top of her lungs.

Words failed me. I squeezed my eyes shut, sending a fervent prayer to any god listening that I hadn’t seen what I had. Then, very slowly, I opened my eyes.

The five pinpoints of light around my pupils were still there, taunting me. I’d seen them before in other Partials’ eyes, such as my father’s when my real mother was alive. These weren’t the temporary flickers of illumination that happened during the heat of the moment. They were the mark of claiming for my kind, more intimate than a wedding ring and far harder to get rid of.

Despite my suspicions before, and what I’d found out afterward, at some point when I’d been in Rafael’s arms, the demon in me had decided I was his—and marked my eyes so everyone else would know it, too.

The lot’s exterior lights, set to switch on at the same time every evening, lit up right as Lena pulled into the Bed Bath & Beyond shopping complex. As if we needed reminding that we
were almost out of time. She hit the gas as she swung the car around to the back and headed toward the Dumpster. My fingers had been drumming impatiently on the dashboard for the past ten minutes, but now I yanked the straps of my new backpack tighter on my shoulders. It had cost me a couple extra hours to fill it with the necessary contents, but no way was I going back into Nocturna unprepared.