Touch If You Dare

by Stephanie Rowe

  Reina was already pulling back the sheets. “Let’s get him under the blankets. He’s so cold.”

  Jarvis smiled at her instinctive desire to help someone in need. Whether it was his bad interior design that was sapping his energy, or a young kid suffering from a broken heart, she was there, offering her support. Never failing. He lightly brushed her hair off her shoulders. “Sweetheart, he’s a vampire, so he’d be like a block of ice even if he wasn’t willing himself into the Afterlife.”

  “So, we need more blankets, then.” Undeterred, she doubled over the comforter as Nigel leaned over the kid.

  “Pascal’s still sleeping it off in another one of your guest rooms,” Nigel said. “I stashed the other five we rescued in my place. They’re all in bad shape. I don’t know if they’re going to make it. Christian resurfaced and he’s up there with them playing nurse.” Nigel passed his hands over Rocco’s forehead, and his palms began to glow a pale pink. “I put in some porn movies for Pascal, so hopefully all that bumping and grinding will get through his coma and jerk him back.”

  Reina looked up. “You use porn as a medicinal aid?”

  “Sure.” Nigel winked. “You know what men are like. We see the world in shades of sex and violence.”

  Reina’s gaze flicked curiously to Jarvis. “At the same time?”

  “Not me.” Nigel looked offended. “Sex is a beautiful, magical experience that embodies love, poetry, and angels flitting around.”

  “Really?” Reina leaned a little closer to Nigel, a small smile curving her mouth. “That’s such a lovely image.”

  “Hey.” Jarvis sat down on the bed between Nigel and Reina, shouldering his friend to the side. “You give the rest of us a bad name when you talk like that. Make the rest of us sound like insensitive clods.”

  “You are an insensitive clod.” Nigel rubbed his palms together, then held them over Rocco’s heart.

  “Stop it, Nigel,” Reina snapped, putting her hand protectively on Jarvis’s thigh. “Jarvis just likes to pretend he is, and when you make comments like that, you just encourage it.”

  Reina had taken his side against the artist warrior who represented everything she was? Jarvis was on board with that. “I don’t need to be defended.”

  “Of course you do.” She patted Jarvis’s shoulder, and he kinda felt like purring and arching his back. “You need to be defended from yourself.”

  “Too many nights spent with disenfranchised souls has messed with your perceptions, woman.” Nigel was chuckling. “No one can see any good in Jarvis except his own mother.”

  A dark shadow appeared in the corner, thick and black. “My mother died when I was born,” Jarvis said quietly.

  “Exactly. She had no time to realize you weren’t lovable—”

  Reina smacked Nigel in the head. “Don’t be an ass. I’ve dusted you once, and I can do it again.”

  Nigel raised his brows at Reina. “You’re getting violent on his behalf? What? You love him or something?”

  Jarvis tensed.

  “Of course I do.” Reina bent over Rocco again, her hair shielding her face.

  The room started to spin. Jarvis’s hands got cold. Cold? He hadn’t been cold since the day he was born.

  “You do?” Nigel looked shocked.

  “Well, of course, I do. He’s a good man with a good soul. He should be loved.” She pointed a finger at Nigel. “And you love him too, so don’t try to deny it.”

  Sensation rushed back into Jarvis, and his fingers started to burn again. Of course he qualified for loving. Reina’s all-encompassing love included every freaking creature that lived, breathed, thought, or talked. She hadn’t been referring to that other kind of love.

  Course not.

  Nigel chuckled. “Of course I love him. Doesn’t mean I can’t see that he’s an insensitive brute with no emotional depth whatsoever—”

  Rocco groaned suddenly, and Nigel stopped talking. He closed his eyes and laid his hands on the youth’s chest. “Mother fucker,” he whispered. “He’s going out now.”

  “No!” Reina leaned over Rocco. “No woman is worth dying over! Hang on!” Tears spilled over as the boy’s body began to convulse. “Don’t you dare—”

  “Hey, babe.” Jarvis rubbed his hand over her back. He had no business putting her in this situation. Her soul was far too raw when it came to people dying around her. “Let me take you out of here—”

  “No! He needs help, can’t you see?” She laid her cheek against Rocco’s. “Come on, sweetie. You can make it. You can fight it.” She was starting to tremble, and the icy cold emotion of raw, debilitating terror was cascading off her. “He can’t die. He’s so young. My sister Bertha was sixteen, just like him and—”

  He knew then that Rocco was not just a vampire to her. Rocco was all the people she’d loved and lost. She was reliving it again, and it was his own damn fault for sucking her into it. Jarvis gathered her in his arms, careful not to break her contact with Rocco. “You’re not alone, sweetheart.” He let the heat from his body fill her, blanket her, comfort her. “We’re still going to save your sister. I swear we will.” He stroked her hair, feeling completely out of his comfort zone. How the hell did he ease her pain? He wasn’t someone who eased pain. He caused it. He broke souls. He made people’s worst fears come alive within them. And it didn’t bother him. It really didn’t. It never had.

  Until now.

  Until this second, with Reina emanating fear so deep he could almost feel it past the boiling heat of his own body.

  For the first time in his life, he wanted to be his brother. He wanted to be able to heal. He didn’t want to be able to kill a dozen demons with one sweep of his sword. He wanted to bring peace to the heart of one amazing woman who had spent her life trying to save her world and failed every time.

  And he had no fucking idea how to do it.

  He leaned forward, until his lips were right next to her ear. Her dangling heart earring swung lightly against his lips. “I swear by all that’s holy and way the hell out of my reach that I will find a way to save your sister. You will not lose her.”

  She didn’t look up, didn’t stop shaking, didn’t stop whispering words of encouragement to Rocco, but she reached up with one arm, wrapped it around Jarvis’s head, and held him to her.

  He stayed right where she wanted him, his cheek against the side of her face, her fingers gripping his hair so tightly, as if he was her lifeline. As if he was actually, somehow, someway, giving her comfort.

  He wouldn’t have moved from that spot for all the gold in the entire world.

  Nigel’s palms began to glow and the air began to hum. “I need more energy. Now.”

  Jarvis shook his head. “My energy’s so tainted right now. If you channel my vibe, it’ll blow his head off and yours—”

  “Jarvis.” Reina touched his face. “Please,” she whispered. “You can help.”

  Hell. How could he turn that down? He couldn’t. Not when she was suffering like that. “Fine.”

  He stepped back, pulled out his sword, and began whipping it in a circle over his head. The air began to hum, his blade glowed, and the atmosphere began to crackle. Dark shadows grew on the walls, dancing, laughing, crawling closer. Taunting him.

  Interesting. The specters were a new twist. Wasn’t thinking it was a good sign.

  He pried his gaze off his stalkers and focused on the trio on the bed. Nigel healed with energy, and Jarvis could harvest it and dispense it. Normally, he wasn’t tainted enough to wreck his friend, but now? He was no bundle of whimsy, that was for sure. He let the energy travel into his body, and his hand began to pulse. “You sure about this?”

  “Shit,” Nigel said. “I think we lost him—”

  Jarvis slammed his hand onto Nigel’s bare shoulder. His palm was so hot, Nigel’s shoulder caught fire, and black smoke exploded into the air.

  “Jesus, man.” Nigel gasped as his hands began to glow. “You weren’t shitting me. You need to take a bath in ang
el dust or something.”

  Jarvis started to pull back. “I’ll stop—”

  “No, no! Keep it coming.” Nigel’s hands were glowing black now, and smoke was pouring out of his palms into Rocco’s chest. The kid was jerking and twitching, and Reina was trying to hold him still.

  The gaping wound in the kid’s chest began to close. Jarvis realized Rocco’s lips weren’t quite as blue anymore, and his face had the faintest beige tinge instead of being sheet white.

  Holy crap.

  It was working.

  He was saving a life.

  Shock and awe. No other words. Jarvis renewed his commitment to his sword, turning up the energy harvest. He shoved it all into his friend, hoping like hell that Nigel would be able to transform that much negative energy into a healing force.

  Rocco unleashed a high-pitched shriek of agony. “Cut it off,” Nigel shouted suddenly. “Cut it off!”

  Jarvis jerked his hand off his friend, stilled his sword, and stepped back. Shadows were dangling from the ceiling, and the air was thick and turbulent. His handprint was burned into Nigel’s shoulder, and his teammate’s muscles were trembling.

  “Get out of here,” Nigel ordered. “Now.”

  Jarvis swore when he saw Nigel’s face turning gray. Shit! “Let me take it back—”

  “I need it, but I can’t take any more,” Nigel ordered. “You’re bleeding shit everywhere. Get out!”

  There was a scream from the room that Pascal was stashed in. Jarvis was bringing the whole place down. There was no time to make it to the elevator. Without hesitation, he sprinted for the balcony.

  “What are you doing?” Reina’s frantic shout barely reached him as his foot hit the railing and he launched himself into the air off his thirty-fifth floor penthouse.

  As he began to fall, he heard Reina’s shout. “Can he fly?”

  He didn’t need to hear Nigel’s answer.

  He already knew he couldn’t.

  ***

  Discovering that the agonizing pain that jerked Natalie out of her happy-place-coma was actually a gold-tipped arrow in her butt was… well… a little freaky.

  Natalie fisted the shaft she’d just pulled out of her backside. It had no blood on it, was made of a light pink steel shaft, and it had a golden tip that appeared to be made out of a large signet ring with a double heart on it. She stared blankly at it. “I just have no context at all for knowing what this is.”

  “Natalie! Are you okay?” Trinity knelt beside her.

  “Hi, Trin.” She held up the arrow. “Did you do this?”

  “Shoot you with an arrow? No.” Trinity examined it. “Why? Should I try it? Would that help?”

  “But if you didn’t do it, who did?” No one else was present, and they were twenty feet beneath ground in a cement dungeon with no windows and impenetrable bars… Oh… “I’m in jail? I’m that bad?”

  “You were, but your little catnap seems to have mellowed you a bit. We need to keep you away from certain boys, sweetie.” Trinity scanned the room. “Okay, so that’s just a little bizarre that someone shot you with an arrow down here. Does the Godfather carry loaded?”

  “The Godfather?” At the mention of the sexual dynamo who had already rocked her world about a dozen times, Natalie was hit with an incompatible mix of total lust, bubbling warmth, and indescribable terror. “His name’s Matt. Matt LeFlandstrom.”

  “Matt? That’s way too ordinary. He should be named Vlad the Impaler.” Trinity hovered closer. “So, is he armed? Does he have a tracking device on you?”

  “I don’t think so.” A soothing warmth began bubbling at the spot where she’d been hit with the arrow. Natalie smiled as a peaceful sensation soothed her. Trinity’s face took on a golden hue, as if she were a little Buddhist statue of friendship. She touched her friend’s skin, but it was soft warmth, not hard metal. “Are you turning into gold?”

  “No.” Trinity helped Natalie sit up. “How do you feel, sweetie?”

  Natalie shook her head, and the motion felt effortless and light, as if she were floating in space. “There’s a weird buzzing in my ears and I’m seeing in shades of gold.”

  Trinity frowned. “Really? Is that normal for you in that condition?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never been in this condition.” Natalie tried to stand, but her legs were shaky, and she fell back down. Excitement shot through her. “Did you see that! I’m weak! I’m weak! I’m healed! I—”

  “Your sister dusted you.” Trinity’s face was apologetic. “I’m so sorry, hon, but it’s just the residual effects of the dust.”

  “How do you know? Nothing has ever made me weak before.” Natalie slammed her fist into the back of the chair. The chair didn’t break, and pain screamed through her hand. “Oh, dear lord! That hurt!” Tears filled her eyes and her heart began to swell with the most amazing feeling of love. “Nothing has hurt me in weeks.” Her chest began to pulse, almost painfully, and she bent over, trying to catch her breath. “Oh, my God. I’m healed. I’m not going to die.”

  “I came as fast as I could!” Gina Ruffalo, the soul-switching candidate and sous chef extraordinaire, raced down the cement stairs carrying a gigantic gun. “I brought the elephant tranquilizer I filched from the zoo last month. Is it time?”

  “No!” Natalie beamed at her. “I’m healed.”

  “What?” The gun fell limply to Gina’s side in visible devastation. “You are?”

  Natalie’s heart thumped with appreciation for the guardian angel who had been her only hope. “Oh, Gina, we’ll find a way to get you to heaven. I promise. It’ll be no big deal to find someone who’s dying and who is willing to trade bodies, you know? You’ll be reunited with Phillip and have that wedding night you never had before he broke his neck falling off your sex hammock—Ow!” Her butt was suddenly burning, like a thousand hot razor blades were jamming in her backside.

  “What’s wrong?” Trinity grabbed her arm. “Tell me what’s wrong!”

  “My butt’s on fire.” Natalie knuckled her padding. “Something’s happening to me.”

  “Let me see—” Trinity tried to roll her over, and the pain shot through Natalie.

  “Don’t!” She shoved Trinity away, and her friend flew across the cell and crashed into the cement wall. “Oh, no. I’m strong. Dammit! How can I be strong?”

  “You’re still dying! This is awesome!” Gina yanked open the cell door, leapt inside, and slammed it shut. She punched a code into the keypad, and there was she sound of loud clanging as the pistons slammed shut. “We’re trapped in here with you until Reina comes back. This is it, girls.” She hoisted the gun onto her shoulder. “Say when, chica. I’ll knock you into the land of sweet dreams until Reina gets here.”

  “No, no, no, not yet.” The pain vanished from her backside again, and Natalie was suddenly filled with the most lovely feeling. Of total joy. Of peace. Of appreciation. She beamed at Gina. “Even though I met you only a few months ago, you are my best friend ever, to trade your body with mine. I love you so much.”

  Gina winked. “No sweat, hot stuff. I’m glad to be of assistance.”

  “And you.” Natalie whirled around to where Trinity was struggling to her feet. “You’re my best friend, too. I’m so sorry I hurt you.” She threw herself at Trinity, knocking her friend over again with a giant hug. “I love you, Trinity!”

  “I love you, too,” Trinity gasped. “Nat, you’re getting awfully strong. Are you still afraid of dying?”

  The words, the question, made something go queasy in her belly. “Oh, no. I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy, actually. No fear at all.” The happy feelings began to infuse her even more, getting stronger and stronger. She whirled toward Gina. “Hit me up. Now.”

  “Done.” Gina raised the gun and fired it.

  The dart hit Natalie in the shoulder.

  She waited.

  They all waited.

  She didn’t fall down. “Do it again!”

  “Again? It’s an elephant dos
age,” Gina said. “It’ll kill you.”

  “It can’t kill me. I have to die in a more dramatic way. It’ll be fine—”

  “Oh, my love!” A male voice filled the room, and Natalie whirled around.

  Her heart filled with delight when she saw Vlad the Impaler standing halfway down the staircase. He was wearing the same tux he’d had on the night before. It was wrinkled and dirty, and he was missing one shoe. His hair was disheveled, stubble encased his jaw, and he had a golden arrow broken off in the front of his thigh. He looked beautiful. “Matt!”

  He beamed at her and held out his arms. “I’ve missed you, my love!”

  “Shoot her!” Trinity shouted.

  There was a loud crack, and Natalie was vaguely aware of something slamming into her hip, knocking her back.

  “My love! You’ve been shot!” Matt’s face paled, and he vaulted down the stairs.

  “I’m okay!” She jumped up. It was so marvelous to see him. She felt like her life had just come to meaning. To purpose. “I’m so happy to see you!” Natalie reached the bars and flung herself against them. Matt caught her and hauled her close. The metal bars pressed against her breasts as she shoved her face through the bars.

  His lips met hers instantly, and she felt like her world had just exploded. She gripped his shirt as he showered kisses all over her. “I love you, Matt.”

  “Oh, babe, I love you, too.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his heart. “I never thought I would feel like this. I feel so alive. I feel like there is someone out there who cares, who loves me despite all my flaws.”

  Trinity yanked Natalie back. “Hey, testosterone boy, if you make love to her now, she’ll die, and you’ll lose her. Is that what you want?”

  Matt’s brow furrowed slightly. “I don’t want to kill her.” He backed up.

  Natalie screamed, her whole body aching for him. “Don’t leave!”

  His face was panicked now, terrified. “I can’t live without you, my love. I would be devastated if I killed you.”

  “I can handle it.” Natalie shook the bars, frantic as he began to move away. He couldn’t leave her, couldn’t walk away, couldn’t abandon her. “I need you!”