Touch If You Dare

by Stephanie Rowe

  “Damien’s with him. Rocco’s dying, man.” The youth’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “He doesn’t want to live.”

  Reina recoiled at Sylvan’s words. “Who’s dying?” she demanded. What was with her ability to attract dying beings into her life? She couldn’t handle any more of them, thank you very much.

  The kid looked over at Reina with a startled expression, as if he’d just noticed her. His gaze dropped to her breasts, and then he scrambled backwards. “It’s a girl,” he shouted. “It’s another girl! Run away! Run away!”

  Yes, of course. A completely typical reaction by a teenage boy to the appearance of a female.

  Jarvis caught him by the collar and arrested his escape with gentle ease. “Sylvan, this is Reina Fleming. You don’t need to fear her. Reina, meet Sylvan. He’s a little skittish around women.”

  Sylvan was skinny, with baggy jeans that were a little too saggy, a shock of red hair, freckles, blue eyes, and sadness in them that she’d seen too many times in her own. She loved him immediately. “Hi.”

  Sylvan stared at her without speaking, pressing back against Jarvis’s chest as if the man of hate could save him.

  Jarvis lightly set him aside. “Don’t touch me, kid,” he said gruffly. “It’s not smart.”

  “What?” Sylvan shot him a look of panic. “Why?”

  “There’s no hate in Sylvan’s eyes,” Reina said. She could tell Jarvis cared about the boy, and it wasn’t fair that he should deprive himself of reaching out to him. “I think he’s okay.”

  “No one is safe.” Jarvis stepped back, and she saw the self-disgust on his face. She also noticed him reached up to ruffle the kid’s hair, and then force himself to drop his hand before he made contact. A man who had spent a lifetime holding himself back from connection with others. “Where’s Damien?” he asked again, his voice strained.

  Sylvan shot Reina another wary look before pointing at a white door tucked in behind a red velvet curtain. “He’s in there.”

  Jarvis nodded at Reina to follow, and then he glanced over his shoulder. She did the same, and then was shocked to see the bar’s patrons had converged at the bottom of the altar steps. They were all leaning forward in a disturbingly predatory way and there was a fair amount of drool dripping off their pearly whites.

  “See?” Jarvis tightened his grip on his sword. “Vampires don’t respond well to me.”

  “Not all vampires have difficulty with you.” Reina nodded at Sylvan, who was casting a hero-worship look at Jarvis as he pushed open the door.

  “Give him time.” Jarvis took one last survey over his shoulder, and then followed them inside. “I got to him once already.”

  He locked the door behind them.

  Call her pessimistic, but she didn’t feel like that was going to be quite sufficient if things got ugly.

  Chapter 17

  “Love is pain, boy, and you’ve got to snap out of it,” Damien was saying as Jarvis walked into the sunlit room.

  The sight of the boy on the canopy bed was not what he’d expected. Rocco was so pale that only his eyebrows and lips were noticeable against the white sheet. Damien was sitting in a foldable chair, staring intently at the boy. The boy was dying. Jarvis knew that instantly. “Damien.”

  The older vampire’s face lit up. “You came!”

  Jarvis snorted. “It’s not a smart man who looks that happy to see me.”

  Reina hurried over to the bed, startling Jarvis. She knelt down beside Rocco and touched his forehead tenderly. “He’s like ice.” Her voice was so full of concern for this stranger that Jarvis’s throat tightened. How was it possible to be as loving as Reina? How could she really exist?

  “Don’t touch him, lady!” Sylvan grabbed a pencil from a nearby table and brandished it like a dagger. “Get away from him!”

  “Don’t threaten her.” Jarvis yanked the kid back with a growl. “She’s not like other women, kid. She’s all good.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jarvis knew he meant it. Despite all he’d learned about women being ruthless, evil, and untrustworthy, he’d put his life in Reina’s hands without hesitation. In fact, he kinda already had.

  Her worry about Rocco was evident in the gentleness of her touch, in the kindness of her voice. Reina was bent over the dying vamp, her hair falling over her shoulders as she whispered to him. She didn’t even know the kid, and she was there, giving her heart to him. She wasn’t like the women he knew. She wasn’t like anyone he knew. She was beautiful. She was sheer, angelic radiance, and he knew his world was forever changed because she’d been a part of it.

  She looked up then, as if sensing his perusal. He smiled, and she smiled back, her eyes lighting up in a way that made something inside him melt just a little bit.

  “You’ve come to make Rocco hate the girl? His father returns tonight.” Damien leaned back in his chair. His eyes were shadowed, his body gaunt.

  “If he hangs around me long enough, he’ll hate everyone.” Jarvis trailed his hand over Reina’s hair as he passed her on his way to the window, as if the breeze could take away his stench. “I’ve got an offer for you.”

  “I knew it!” Sylvan beamed at him. “You’re going to help! I knew it!” He raced toward Jarvis. “High-five, man!”

  “Stop! Don’t touch me!” Jarvis pointed his sword at the kid, stopping him in his tracks, trying not to notice the crestfallen expression on the youth’s face. “It’s not you, it’s me,” he tried to explain. “I’m the problem.”

  Sylvan shook his head, his face starting to glow again. “No, dude, you’re awesome. You’re the most powerful being in the universe, and you’re here to help. You’re a god, man. A god.”

  Reina looked up, and he saw her smile. “Keep telling him that,” she said. “He doesn’t believe it.”

  Sylvan whirled around, fingers curved into claws. “Get away from Rocco, woman!”

  Typical kid. Thought he had it all figured out, and he had it all wrong. Had his faith in the wrong damn place.

  Damien set his hand wearily on the youth’s shoulder. “Sylvan. Take a walk. I need to talk to Lord Hate.”

  “No! I won’t leave.” Sylvan broke free and raced to stand beside Jarvis. He folded his arms over his chest, checked out Jarvis’s stance, and then mimicked it perfectly, down to the distance between his feet and the angle of his hips.

  Something shifted in him at the sight of Sylvan imitating him. “I’m hell, kid. Trust Damien.”

  “No.” Sylvan folded his arms and moved closer to Jarvis.

  “Let him stay,” Reina said. “He seems to be unaffected by you, and every time he speaks, Rocco’s eyes roll back in his head. Rocco knows he’s here.”

  Sylvan tossed a suspicious look at Reina. “You’re just saying that so we’ll stop watching you, and you can stake him.”

  “No more hostility toward her,” Jarvis warned. He set his hand on the kid’s shoulder before he could remember not to. “I trust her, and you will respect her or you will leave.”

  Sylvan looked up at Jarvis, then over at Reina, and indecision flashed on his face. Finally, he gave a reluctant nod. “Okay.”

  Okay. Just like that. Jarvis had spoken and the kid had ditched a lifetime of lessons about how women weren’t to be trusted. Shit. He didn’t know what to make of that. Didn’t these people get that he was the bad guy?

  Damien shoved back from the bed, walked across the room, and poured himself a glass of milk from a small fridge. “You have a deal,” he prompted.

  “Yeah.” Jarvis gave up ditching Sylvan. He could knock the kid out if he went over the edge. He nodded at Reina. “Reina’s the one who can make the offer.”

  Both vampires turned toward Reina in surprise. “The woman?” Sylvan sounded disgusted. “We can’t trust a woman!”

  Jarvis flicked the kid in the head, and then he spoke to Reina. “Have you heard of the Sisterhood of the Fairy Tale Hero?”

  Reina nodded. “Of course. It’s an organization of women who have
Princess Gatherings and believe that the men of today aren’t as manly and heroic as the ones in the fairy tales.” Her gaze flicked to Sylvan. “They are particularly irked by the vampires who refuse to follow their calling of being violent, blood-sucking warriors, thereby depriving women of their birthright to tame real men.”

  “They’re a bunch of witches,” Sylvan snapped. “This girl, Sarah Dutton, met Rocco at a fairy picnic, and she totally seduced him. They went out a bunch of times, and he fell in love with her. So, I double dated with them, you know, ’cause she had this friend who had this great rack…” Sylvan paused to catch his breath and Jarvis could feel the heat rising from Sylvan, his anger, his fury.

  Instinctively he put his hand on the kid’s head, then pulled away. Seriously, Jarvis? Trying to ease a hotheaded reaction with his touch? The kid needed Reina, not him.

  “And then, after dinner, we were on the beach and getting all up close and personal, you know, the way chicks like, and then Sarah whipped out this mug of blood and threw it all over both girls.”

  Reina sat up. “She was trying to get you to attack her?”

  “Yeah, man!” Sylvan moved closer to Reina. “Totally disrespecting that we aren’t that kind of vamp, you know? And Rocco almost snapped, and then I got him down, and he was pissed at her for not respecting him. I mean, trying to get us to bite them! We don’t even know them! It would have been empty, meaningless, blood sucking, and that’s just crap. Can’t do that, can’t go there, you know? It’s got to be blessed by the Holy Spirit and be all about love and eternal commitment and shit. You know?”

  Reina raised her brows. “Um, yeah, okay, I guess blood sucking would be best done that way—”

  “Damn right!” The pencil snapped in Sylvan’s hand. “I got him out of there, and I thought we were good, but then she got so pissed at him for refusing to rip her throat out, and she broke up with him by text. Rocco didn’t think she meant it, I mean, seriously, they’d been dating for like two months, and she’d ditch him just because he wouldn’t give her the action? Is that right?”

  Reina shook her head. “No, of course not. You deserved to be honored for your choices about who you are.”

  Sylvan blinked. “Really?”

  “Of course, really.” She was rubbing Rocco’s hand in a gesture so tender it made Jarvis think of how she’d done the same to him. He wanted her back by his side. Touching him. “So, then what happened?”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Damien interrupted.

  “We do,” Jarvis said quietly. “This is part of the deal.”

  Sylvan moved closer to Reina, as if entranced by her willingness to listen. Of course he would become captivated by her. What male could possibly be immune to her aura and her spirit? “So, then, she wouldn’t talk to him. Wouldn’t return his calls. Nothing. He went to see her, and she asked if he’d attack her, and he tried, he really tried, and he even got his fangs to extend, and then he couldn’t do it. So she staked him. Said that if he loved her, staking him would make him attack.”

  “And he didn’t?”

  “Nope.” Sylvan sighed and looked at Rocco. “She left him to die. I found him, brought him back here, but he’s given up. Can’t live without her, can’t be the man she wants him to be.” His voice broke, and he went down on his knees in front of Reina. “Can you save him, ma’am? Can you?”

  She looked at Jarvis. “You can, can’t you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not inflicting myself on anyone.”

  “What is going on?” Damien slammed his empty milk glass down on the dresser. “Who’s got the deal for me?”

  Jarvis nodded at Reina. “Make the offer.”

  She stared at him, and then comprehension dawned. She turned to Damien. “I work for Death, and we’re launching a new Reaper this weekend. We’re looking for investors who would like to sponsor the event.” She hesitated, and Jarvis could see her discomfort with the rest of it. “And we’re seeking recommendations on souls to reap.”

  Damien blinked. “You’re asking me for money to pay you guys to wipe out the Sisterhood? You guys do contract work? Shit, I had no idea. I thought we all just died when we died.”

  Sylvan frowned. “You’ll kill the Sisterhood? That’s not right.” He leapt to his feet. “No one should kill or inflict harm on others. Ever!”

  Reina blanched, and Jarvis’s heart softened for her. Reina was never going to be the brutal hard ass she had to be to make this happen. Fortunately, he was fucked up enough not to have the same limitations. “Here’s the deal, kid,” he said. “Everyone dies at some point, and the Afterlife is a bang up place for eternity. Death manages the processes and keeps a balance.” Well, Death kept a cash stash in his pocket, but Jarvis didn’t think now was the time to mention it.

  “People fear death,” Reina said. “And there’s no reason to, really. The Afterlife is really wonderful.”

  And with those words, Jarvis got it. He understood why Death wanted to use Cam, why Cam wanted to do it. “And since the new Reaper is the Guardian of Love, everyone whose soul is reaped by him will experience the love and inner peace that’s been eluding them their whole lives. They will go into the Afterlife with purity in their hearts.”

  Reina looked at him. “No more taking five hundred years to rid your heart of the stains from being in the physical world. Instant peace.”

  “Instant peace,” Jarvis repeated. Like the kind Reina gave him, only it would last forever.

  “It makes such sense,” Reina said, staring at him with understanding on her face as well. “It takes away the fear.”

  “World peace.” Holy shit. It did make sense. In a completely fucked up way, of course, but it still made sense.

  “So what?” Sylvan got in Reina’s face. “Death is still death, and just because it’s this ultimate high doesn’t mean it’s right to pull the trigger early. You can’t do that! It’s wrong!”

  “It’s all right, kid.” Damien leveraged himself off the desk. “Sometimes you gotta stand up.”

  “But you’re part of the Tribe! We believe in peace and—”

  “Survival.” Damien ran his hand through his hair. “People abuse us, knowing we won’t strike back, and now that the Sisterhood has their claws onto us, we won’t be safe. They’ll be jumping us at intersections and staking us at red lights just to get us to become their fairy tale heroes.” He gestured at Rocco. “These two are my best altar boys. They believe in our philosophy in their deepest of hearts, and look what they get for it.”

  “No.” Sylvan stomped his foot. “We can do this with love, the right way! The world can be at peace. We’ll have a vigil for Rocco.” He ran for the door. “I’m getting my friends. We can do this without violence. I know we can!”

  The door slammed shut behind him, leaving the three adults alone.

  Damien sighed. “I appreciate the utopian view of the youth, but I can’t let more boys suffer like Rocco. Women like that can’t be allowed to run around staking young boys before they’re old enough to handle it.”

  “They need to be protected. Killing off the Sisterhood would do it.” Jarvis saw Reina’s indecision. Her discomfort with the whole notion of what they were talking about. Hello, woman? They weren’t actually going to allow Cameron to assassinate anyone, even murderous fairy tale princess wannabes. “Reina.”

  She met his gaze. “What?”

  He gave her a look of impatience, and her face cleared as she realized his point. That they weren’t actually going to do it. “Oh, right. Great.” She stood up. “It’s three billion dollars, and it’ll be done by Friday.”

  “Three billion?” Damien pulled out his checkbook. “That’s a bargain.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You have three billion dollars at your disposal?”

  “Of course.” Damien’s pen flew over the paper as he filled out the check without hesitation. “We got the church in a deal with the Vatican.”

  “So?”

  “So, how much money does
the Catholic church have?” Damien ripped out the check. “They share well when threatened with vampires on their holy turf.” He winked at her. “We might not believe in ripping the throats out of dainty young maidens without provocation, but we’ve got no problem taking money from an organization who tries to convince the world that we belong in hell.” He set the paper in her hand. “My boss is going to love this idea,” he said. “How is this going to work?”

  Reina took the check, turning it over in her hand, as if unable to believe it could be that easy to solve her problems. “We’ve rented out Foxboro Stadium Friday night. How many seats do you want?”

  “Three boxes for the royalty, and then maybe a couple thousand for the others.”

  “Done.” She tucked the check in her pocket. “It’s been lovely doing business with you, and I appreciate the opportunity to reap on your behalf.”

  Damien grinned. “I must say that I’m really pumped to see the Guardian of Love at work. It’s really a monumental moment for all of humankind. I’m impressed as hell with the idea.”

  Jarvis felt his good humor disappear. “It is top secret,” he said. “No one can know Love is involved, or you forfeit your money.”

  Damien swore. “Then I need to retrieve Sylvan. He’ll share that information freely.” He glided for the door, and then turned. “But if Rocco isn’t on the hate parade by the time I get back, I’m stopping payment. Take care of him, Lord Hate.”

  The door slammed shut before Jarvis could reply. “Fuck that—”

  Reina caught his arm. “Don’t you get it? Rocco has given up hope. Hate gives him something to live for—”

  “Then he’s better off with a visit from Cam.” He grabbed her hand and laid it over his heart. “Can’t you feel that? It’s black in there, sweetheart, and it’s a hell of a way to live.”

  She splayed her hand on his chest. “Rocco can’t get to love from where he is. Give him hate. Not enough to kill her. Enough to give him a reason to live.”

  He pulled her hand off. “I’m hell, Reina. You don’t understand how bad that is because you can’t feel it. I’m an insidious poison and—”