Untouchable

by Stephanie Doyle

  But most of all she didn’t want him to be dead because…she didn’t.

  At eighteen minutes and four seconds, the branches started to rustle and she could see him extract himself from where he’d been hiding. So quietly, so smoothly had she not had her eyes glued to the spot she wouldn’t have seen him emerge.

  “Lilly.”

  The quiet call from below jolted her into action. With a fluidity of motion, she reached out for a nearby branch and let her weight drop as she swung down to the ground a foot away from him.

  “Do we go after them?” she asked.

  “What did she mean when she said another special gift? That garbage about the air around her personal space.”

  “I do not know. It was as if she could feel us somehow. Sense that we were close. Part of her skills along with the force field.”

  Tarak rubbed his eyes with one hand. “You certainly don’t come from the most normal family in the world, do you? All right. We now have to assume that she can tell when we’re getting close. You heard what they said?”

  Lilith nodded. “They want to outrun us.”

  “Which means we have to stay close but not too close. We’ll move out before dawn and do our best to stay on their trail.”

  “And then what?”

  Lilith couldn’t see much in the pitch-dark of night but she could tell by his stillness that her question annoyed him.

  “Then we…Yeah. Still haven’t figured that one out yet. And now it’s more complicated. How the hell do we steal something from someone who can tell when we’re close and can put up a shield against any attack?”

  Certain the question wasn’t directed at her, Lilith turned away to look for a place where they could sit tight for the next few hours. Next to the tree seemed the best bet. Not that she was worried about predators sneaking up on them. She had no plans to sleep for the rest of the night.

  “I cannot keep asking you to do this,” she finally confessed even though she couldn’t imagine what she would do without him. “This is my responsibility. I have to get the necklace back and destroy what’s inside it. You’ve already done enough. You’ve led me to her. I…I can go on from here. On my own.”

  And the next time, if she was faced with the decision of offering her life to stop Echo, she could do it knowing that Tarak would be safe. That she wasn’t risking him in the process.

  Tarak let out a sound that might have been a huff. Then he crouched down to a squat so that he was eye level with her. “Really? What would you do next?”

  “Follow her. Wait for a chance to act. Maybe try to confront her again.”

  “Ah, confrontation. Let’s see. The first time you tried it, she killed your friend. Just now when you had the chance you didn’t move. She was right below you. You must have seen her.”

  “I could not be sure you would be safe.”

  “No. You could not be sure you could accomplish what you needed to do and get out alive.”

  Was that true? In her heart was she not prepared to forfeit her life to stop Echo? It made her feel weak. “I must do anything,” she whispered. “Everything. She is evil.”

  “She is. And I have no doubt that you will do what you need to do when the time comes. But admit it, Lilly. You’re a practical little thing. A soldier at heart, you’re on a mission. That mission has multiple parts. Retrieve the necklace, stop Echo and get out alive if you can. You know that your only chance to succeed with all three phases is to have help. My help. We’re in this together. To the end.”

  “You just said you do not know what to do,” she pointed out. “What if the end is also the end of your life? Sitting up in that tree, waiting, not knowing if you were alive or dead…I…”

  “What?”

  “I have never felt such panic. I did not like it. I do not want to feel it again.”

  “No, it’s not a good feeling. But when you saw that I was alive how did you feel then?”

  “Relieved,” she admitted. “Happy. Maybe even euphoric.”

  “See,” he said, smiling. She knew because she could see his gleaming white teeth against the blackness that surrounded them. “There is always balance.”

  “But we still do not know how to get the necklace,” Lilith repeated, irritated that she could not think of a solution to the problem.

  “I’ve got a few hours, haven’t I?”

  “I did not mean to criticize. I have no answers, either. I find this so frustrating. Wanting something that I am unable to obtain. In the village I had everything I needed. I was thirsty, I drank. I was hungry, I ate. I wanted knowledge and I studied. This is so different.”

  She heard a small chuckle and wondered what she said to make him laugh.

  “Frustrating doesn’t begin to cover it.” Tarak stood and stepped back a few paces toward the dense thicket where she knew he’d left his gear. He returned with the backpack and sat close again, offering her his canteen.

  “I should not. You cannot touch where I have put my lips. There could be drops of water left on the rim.” Maintaining her water supply hadn’t been a problem during their trek. Either she’d found a stream or had been lucky enough to find a few large leafs filled with rainwater for her to fill her water sack. But she knew it was dry. So did Tarak.

  “I’ll drink first, then you’ll finish it. You need to be fresh for whatever happens tomorrow.”

  She saw the motion of him lifting the canteen to his mouth and tipping it back, then listened as he gulped heavily.

  When he handed it to her again she thought about where her lips would go. She hesitated, realizing for the first time she would taste the essence of a man.

  “It’s all right. Just reach for the edge of the canteen. You won’t touch me.”

  Without realizing it she almost had taken the canteen from his hand without her gloves. She’d removed them for the attack. She might have been able to blame the night’s excitement on her carelessness if only she knew it wasn’t true. Her carelessness had come from her eagerness to put the canteen to her mouth.

  For a taste, she might have killed him.

  Distressed, she put her hands behind her back. “No. Give me my gloves first. I must have them.”

  “I bet you don’t need them now,” Tarak countered. “I bet if you could see your hands you would see that the sheen has receded. They’re gone. We’re relatively safe here for a while. There would be no need for the poison to surface.”

  “My gloves.”

  Thankfully he didn’t argue further. Instead he reached into one of the pockets on the backpack and pulled out the gloves. “Why can I touch these?”

  Lilith felt the material fall into her lap. “The poison doesn’t transfer. I wear silk to protect others because it’s a tight weave. Not very porous. In case I touched someone the toxin would not pass through the material.”

  “I see. So I could touch you as long as you were clothed.”

  “Covered, yes.”

  “Covered,” he repeated softly. “So as long as your body was covered in silk I might be able to touch your hand.”

  “Yes.”

  “Or your arm. Or your thigh. Or your belly.”

  Lilith shook her head. “No, you couldn’t.”

  “I could. You said. I could touch you. Stroke you. Your breast. Your back. I might touch all of that as long as it was draped in silk?”

  Her breathing became shallow and her heart bumped against her chest. She felt flushed but it was different from when they had been waiting for Echo’s men. This physical reaction was…pleasant. Almost.

  “Why do your words make me feel this way?”

  “Because you can imagine it. You can think about what it might be like for me to touch you and you can see in your mind that it would feel good.”

  “Does it?” Lilith pushed, desperately curious to know. “I have never been touched. Like in the way you are saying. What does it feel like?”

  “Put your gloves on,” Tarak commanded softly.

  Lilith took on
e of the gloves from her lap and fitted her fingers inside it. Then she pulled until the material nearly reached her elbow. She repeated the same process with the other one. When she was done she sensed a fraction of movement and then before she could pull back Tarak had caught her around the wrists.

  “Trust me. Close your eyes.”

  It wasn’t as if she had a choice to trust him or not. Her trust was instinctive at this point.

  Lilith closed her eyes on his suggestion and then waited in high anticipation for what was to come. He loosened his grip on her wrists. Then he slid his hands down until they were touching palm over palm. For a moment he didn’t move and that sensation alone was fascinating. The warmth and weight of his hands on top of hers.

  He took her right arm in his and ran one strong hand up her arm to the point where the material ended, turning it slightly on the journey back down, then up again and down. The sensation was hypnotic. She felt like a cat being petted and suddenly understood why they purred.

  Switching hands, he repeated the slow, even movements, this time turning her hand up and rubbing slow circles on the place where her wrist met her palm. Her pulse jumped and Lilith wondered if he could feel the change in the beat where his thumb rested.

  His fingers touched the tips and waited there for a breath. It was the slightest connection between them and yet it felt as if they were inseparable. Finally he linked his fingers between hers, gently moving his hand so that she could feel them sliding together. Interlocking.

  Her breath hitched and he tightened his grasp, connecting them in a way she’d never been to another human. This was what it meant to hold. To be held in return.

  She opened her eyes and saw that he was staring down at their linked hands. His expression was indiscernible in the dark.

  “It does feel good.”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “It’s like being part of someone. Not being just yourself. Does that make any sense?”

  She could see in the moonlight another hint of white that signaled a smile. “Yes, it does. But you should know that it’s not always like this. Sometimes touching doesn’t feel like anything at all.”

  “How could that be?”

  “I don’t know. For some it’s different. More important. For others it means nothing. When it does happen between two people they call it chemistry.”

  “We have chemistry,” she confirmed. “Why do you think that is?”

  “Because I must have really pissed off someone in a former life,” he mused. “That or Buddha has a very sick sense of humor.”

  “I do not understand.”

  “It’s ironic, that’s all. That we should have this very strong chemistry, but can’t take it any further.”

  Lilith tugged her hands back and felt his fingers slip from hers. The feeling of loss was instant. Perturbed, she wanted to blame him for even showing her such a thing existed, but she could not regret the experience.

  “We should rest,” she said as she found a nearly comfortable spot against the tree.

  “For an hour or so, yes.”

  “You will come up with a plan.” She felt confident that he would eventually.

  “That’s the idea. I suppose we’ll just follow them. Wait for some kind of opening. Her radar or whatever the hell it is she’s using to track us will let her know that we’re following her. I wonder if it works as well if we’re ahead of her. If we could get in front of them maybe we could find a way to separate her from her men. After that, who knows?”

  “She cannot be unstoppable. If that were so then she would not have needed our mother’s information to build her empire. She would already have one.”

  “Good point.”

  Satisfied with his agreement, Lilith tilted her head back against the tree and closed her eyes although she knew sleep would not come. She felt Tarak shift and move so that he, too, rested his back against the other side of the tree. They were back to back with the width of the tree between them and still she could feel his hand in hers. Could still hear in her head the sound of his breath quickening when their fingers linked.

  “You have had…chemistry…with a woman before,” Lilith stated although she wasn’t sure why it mattered. She was not completely ignorant of the ways between men and women. She knew from the men in the village that their sexual drive could be very strong. For that matter the same could be said of the women. And it wasn’t as if the monks and the nuns were without these feelings. It was what made their celibacy a sacrifice. Still the idea of Tarak touching another filled her with a burst of anger. No, not anger. Envy. A destructive feeling she’d worked hard to eliminate in herself. Clearly she had not succeeded.

  “I have. But of all the things I’ve done with a woman I’ve never spent the night holding someone’s hand. Reach back.”

  Lilith considered what he was offering. In reality it could be dangerous. She knew that contact with her gloved hand would not kill directly, but over time, if the toxin should absorb through…

  The poison is gone for now.

  It was a fleeting thought. One that Tarak had planted when he suggested she could have control over her power. But some latent instinct shouted to her that it was the truth. It was safe to touch him like this.

  Reaching her arm back around the tree, she searched for and found his outstretched hand. She didn’t think it strange, either, that she knew which hand would be waiting for her. Their fingers locked and rested on the ground.

  Lilith took a deep breath and thought that maybe a quick nap would be all right. As long as Tarak was there with her.

  Holding her hand.

  Tarak blinked open his eyes. His training had allowed him a brief rest while still being in tune with his surroundings. Between the natural predators and the human ones, the consequences of letting down his guard could be fatal for both of them.

  A glance up at the sky told him that a little more than an hour had passed. The darkness was softening. In another hour or so the sun would begin to rise. A tingle in his shoulder had him twisting a bit and he could feel Lilith’s hand fall away from his. He shook the still-sleeping limb a few times and then quietly rolled to his feet.

  He let his ears and his instincts do the searching for danger. He decided that if there was anyone nearby waiting to attack them they were better at the game than he was.

  And he knew there were few that were.

  He circled the tree they’d used for shelter and camouflage and crouched down to where Lilith still remained sleeping. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the right. Her lips were curved gently as if she smiled in her sleep.

  Curious, he reached for his knapsack nearby and pulled out a smaller penlight designed to illuminate a specific target without giving away a position.

  He flicked it on and aimed the light at her cheek. So perfectly smooth. Brown like heated caramel. She was perfection. If it weren’t for the fact that she was deadly.

  In repose there was no sheen on her skin, as he suspected. There was no reason to be alarmed, at least in this instant. He wondered if she believed him when he said she could control it. That there could be times in her life where she would not hurt the ones she touched.

  He doubted it. The woman had gone her whole life and had never allowed herself to be touched. Never experimented once. Not that he could blame her. Apparently anytime anyone did reach for her it was violently and it immediately resulted in death.

  Hell of lesson for a child to learn.

  Maybe it was time for a new one.

  Since caution had never been his strong point Tarak didn’t think overly long about what he was about to do. He simply lifted his hand and with the stroke of his finger gently touched her cheek. One swish from the top of her cheekbone to the bottom of her chin.

  Then he waited. And waited.

  Nothing. No convulsions. No swelling in his finger or arm. No tightening in his chest. None of the usual symptoms of exposure to a nerve toxin. The man she’d touched only hours ago had gone down in
seconds.

  Happy to be right, he couldn’t help but hum slightly under his breath. “Oh, the possibilities.”

  Lilith blinked open her eyes and he could see she was stunned to find him so close.

  “Get back!” Instantly she scrambled away from him, trying to work her way around the tree and farther out of his reach. When he pointed the penlight at her face again he could literally see the shimmering essence that signaled the toxin seeping out of her skin.

  “What were you doing?” she shouted at him, although still smart enough to do so in hushed tone so as not to alert anyone who might be listening. Good girl, Lilly. “I could have moved unexpectedly. I could have touched you!”

  “I’ve got news for you, Lilly. I touched you.”

  She was standing now and checked her gloves furiously to see if they could have fallen off her hands. “Impossible.”

  “Actually, no. Right there on your cheek.” He pointed to the spot. “Not the most scientific experiment in the world I’ll grant you, but it proved that I was right. You’re not as deadly as you think you are.”

  “That cannot be,” she said, obviously mystified by his statement. “I have always been dangerous.”

  “Oh, darling. I didn’t say anything about you not being dangerous. At the very least you’re treacherous to my peace of mind. Come along. We’ll talk while we walk. I think I might have a plan.”

  “You touched me knowing you could have died. I am thinking your next plan should be a little more sensible.”

  He might have been irritated by her lack of faith if he didn’t find her absolutely charming when she was miffed.

  As they headed out, Lilith fell back a few steps. She kept him in sight but the small distance between them allowed her the space she needed to think. To process what had happened.

  He’d touched her, but he did not die.

  Curious, she pulled off her glove and ran her hand over her cheek. She felt nothing but skin. No mark or indicator of where he’d touched her. No residue of feeling. She was furious with him for taking such a risk. But she was even more furious that he’d done it while she was asleep.