Touching Fire (Touch Saga)

by Airicka Phoenix

  She shrugged, a ghost of a smile playing around her lips. “You need clothes, unless you wish to remain forever wearing Isaiah’s.”

  I looked down at the sweats. “They’re actually kind of comfortable.”

  She made a humming sound, but it was the mischievous glint in her eyes that brought the color to my cheeks. “Well, I leave it up to you. I personally would love the company. Lally is still so young and it would be nice to shop with another woman for a change.”

  “Yeah,” I said at last. “Shopping might be fun.” Something I hadn’t had in eons. “Do you think it’s safe?”

  A dainty hand flicked at me dismissively. “Of course. It will be but a few hours. We won’t even be missed.”

  True to her words, the next morning, Celia went right up to Ashton and stated she was taking me shopping. As I expected, Ashton protested by stating the obvious.

  “It’s not safe.”

  “I will be with her the entire time,” Celia promised. “Fallon and I both need a little girl time.”

  Ashton sighed. “Take Archer.”

  “Me? What did I do?” Archer protested, looking horrified.

  “We will only be gone a few hours, two at the very most. The girl needs clothes, Acheron!”

  “I got her clothes,” Ashton stated, sounding amusingly insulted.

  Celia raised an eyebrow. “Darling, please. I love you, but I would never wish your taste in fashion on even my worst enemy.”

  He glowered at her, then at me like I somehow had a hand in insulting him. “Celia, you know you can’t just—”

  “Two hours, darling. I promise. Thank you!” She pressed a kiss to his cheek, even though he hadn’t said a word in agreement. “We will be back before you know it.”

  Ashton’s gob-smacked expression would have been entertaining if it hadn’t been mirroring my own. And like him, I wasn’t given a chance to get in a word edge wise before Celia had me by the arm and was dragging me, by force, out the door at a near run. I barely managed a wave in Isaiah’s direction before we were bolting down the dusty corridor.

  “Quickly before he gets his jaw off the ground,” she said with an almost endearing giggle.

  Chuckling, I fell into step with her as we ran out the door to the pretty BMW parked out front. We threw ourselves into our seats and had just strapped in when Ashton and Isaiah appeared at the top of the stairs. Celia gave them a little finger wave before stomping down on the gas and shooting us out of the driveway.

  I couldn’t stop laughing. The look on Ashton’s face was priceless.

  “He’s going to kill you,” I said, finally catching my breath.

  Celia glanced through the rearview mirror, grinning. “Oh, I believe it.”

  I sat back in my seat. “I had practice this morning. I guess it’s okay if I miss one day. I really do need clothes.”

  “You can still make it. We really won’t be that long.”

  I frowned as we reached the magical mountain wall and Celia pushed the button to let us out. “Are there any stores open?”

  We slipped through the opening and started down the woodland path.

  “There are a few,” she said. “Nothing too extravagant, I’m afraid. But you have no plans to hit the runway in Paris, do you?”

  I snorted. “Right, because that’s even a possibility.”

  We drove in silence until we reached the highway. She turned right.

  “Fallon,” she said softly. “I want to apologize to you about my behavior the other night. I know it was appalling. I feel horrible about it.”

  I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. It was a stressful day for all of us. Besides, you saved my life. It’s kind of hard to hold a grudge after that.”

  Celia chuckled. “The mortal world always brings the worst out in me and I am just ashamed of how I acted.”

  “How come you don’t like it?”

  She sighed. “It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s just the filth that loiters here that makes me cringe.”

  “Lilims?” I wondered.

  She shot me a quick sidelong glance. “Has Acheron told you about them?”

  “Kind of. We didn’t go into details, but I got the gist of it.”

  A sound of disgust escaped her. Her knuckles went white around the wheel. “Repugnant worms.” Whoa. Someone had some serious hate issues. “They will do anything to get their hands on Acheron, or any Sire.”

  “Why?”

  “Power. They believe they were created first.” She barked a cold laugh. “Sin has been around for eons before they crawled out of the filth they were created from.”

  “And what exactly are they?”

  “They have many names. The Dark Children. Spawn of the Devil. Demons.”

  I exhaled sharply. “I am so never getting used to all this. I can’t believe there are demons out there.”

  “Are you really so surprised?” she teased. “Of course there are demons. There are angels. There are fairies and goblins. There are beings that you have never even heard of. All our worlds are separated only by a maze of doors.”

  “The nexus.”

  “Yes, and they simply loathe us.”

  “Why?”

  “Why because everyone believes in sin. Who believes in demons and fairies? That is how they get their power, the belief of mortals. It is why they, unlike us, are allowed to wander this realm so freely. While we are a direct threat.”

  I cleared my throat. “And vampires? Do they exist?”

  Celia looked at me. She blinked, then she burst out laughing. “You are such a laugh, Fallon.” Yet she never answered my question. “Oh, your father meant to tell you last night. I suppose he was deterred by, well, you know. But he wanted you to know he was unable to find the bag of clothes you requested.”

  Amalie’s diary!

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, the car was still there, but all the contents were gone.”

  My heart skidding in my chest and I kicked myself for not having asked Ashton myself. “Does the military have them?”

  She shrugged a slim shoulder. “Perhaps. But there is no hope of finding them if they do.”

  Oh God no … I lost Amalie’s diary. I lost the only thing connecting me to her. How would I tell her that her worst fears and wishes were now in the hands of strangers?

  “Fallon? Are you all right?”

  I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. Why hadn’t I taken it out? Why hadn’t I gone back for it when I had the chance? Why hadn’t I hidden it somewhere safe rather than in my duffle?

  “It’s all right,” Celia soothed. “We will get you new things.”

  She didn’t understand. How could she? She had no idea what was in that bag and I couldn’t tell her.

  I was still lost in an ocean of my own self-loathing when the car rolled to a slow halt alongside a curb. I managed to blink out of my dilemma to glance at our ruined surroundings and frown.

  We were on an abandoned street. The shops here were boarded up, some had their windows broken, others were painted with graffiti, but they all had one thing in common. They were empty.

  I looked to Celia. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything here.”

  Yanking the keys from the ignition, Celia chuckled. “No. I have to see someone very quickly. I won’t be but a moment.” She raised those feline eyes to me. “You are welcome to come.”

  Curious, I nodded and followed her from the car. She rounded the hood and motioned for me to follow as she led the way down the sidewalk. Her heels were the only sound in the otherwise chilling silence. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of Isaiah’s sweats to keep them from trembling. Bits of debris and garbage rolled at our feet the further we went.

  “What are we doing here again?” I asked.

  “Just visiting an old friend,” Celia answered without slowing her stride.

  I couldn’t imagine what sort of friend lived in such a place, not that it was my place to judge. All of Canada probably looked like t
his. What were people supposed to do? It wasn’t their fault.

  Finally, after nearly ten minutes of walking, we came to a bricked building. It was as worn down and desolate as those around it, but it was in reasonably good condition. We made our way down the narrow alleyway running between the shop and the store next to it. I cringed at the rancid stench of festering sewage and rotting garbage. By the time we turned down a set of metal steps leading into the basement of the shop, I was barely keeping my stomach down.

  A bell jingled overhead when Celia pushed the door open. She squeezed her tiny frame between a set of bookshelves on either side of the door. Row upon row of shelving lined the entire room, making the size of it impossible to determine. A thin opening wound its way to somewhere at the back. But all I could think was how it stank of dust and dead things. Not comforting.

  “Wait for me here, will you?” Celia said. She never glanced back to see if I would as she continued onward, leaving me alone with weird things floating in jars.

  There were all manner of things lining the shelves. Bugs, dead birds, captured butterflies beating their pretty wings against glass, snakes, a rat, and eyeballs floating in green liquid. There were severed hands and amputated toes. There were livers, spleens and intestines. It was a house of horror. Definitely the sort of place idiot people went into and never left. If it were a movie, I would be yelling at the idiot to run. Instead, in true horror movie fashion, I moved deeper into the maze. I even considered calling out for Celia. I was already on a bad roll. What difference would one more stupid act make? But I didn’t.

  “You are being unreasonable, Alwin,” I heard Celia croon. “We had an agreement.”

  “It changes!” squeaked another voice. “Too much heat. Too much. Can’t do it. Nope.”

  “Alwin.” There was a scuffle, the scrape of a heel on concrete. “Please do not test my patience. I came all the way here to see you. I will be most displeased if you do not keep your word.”

  “Can’t. Nope.”

  I heard Celia sigh. “What a shame. I will have to take my business elsewhere it seems. Perhaps your brother.”

  “Fiete?” the voice squeaked.

  “Perhaps. He has expressed a great deal of interest in what I possess.”

  More and more, it was beginning to sound like a badly clichéd movie. I could have been totally wrong, but I just wanted out of that place and away from those jars. So, I did the logical thing. I moved closer.

  I saw Celia first. She stood with her back to me, small hands pressed into her hips. In front of her was a tiny man, barely coming to her waist and wearing puke yellow from head to toe. He was fretting anxiously, wringing his hands and shifting from foot to foot. I couldn’t see his face, but I couldn’t help wonder if he’d escaped from Santa’s workshop.

  “What do you say, Alwin?” Celia coaxed. “Do we have a deal?”

  The bouncing from foot to foot escalated until it looked as though he was doing a jig. “The girl,” he squeaked. “The girl. Nope. Too much. Too strong.”

  “The girl knows nothing,” Celia insisted. “This would be the perfect opportunity, before she has a chance to lose her ignorance.”

  The girl? What girl? Then it hit me. Me girl. I was the girl.

  My gaze swung around at all the jars and I swore. No way was I going to let myself become bloated pieces in jars. Forget that.

  Rounding on my heels, I bolted through the shelves, desperately trying to remember which rows I’d come down. The last thing I needed was to be trapped there in that funhouse.

  I found the door and wasted no time wrenching it open and throwing myself out into the rancid air. My feet took the stairs two at a time as I screamed Isaiah’s name over and over again in my head as loud as I could.

  “It’s Celia!”

  I reached the top and rounded the rickety fence. My sneakers pounded on concrete as I pushed myself down the sidewalk, away from the car, hoping to lose myself amongst the buildings before Celia realized I was gone.

  “Fallon?” I heard Isaiah’s voice break through my panicked mind.

  “It’s Celia!” I said again.

  “Where are you?”

  “Fallon!” I twisted my neck around to find Celia standing on the sidewalk, making no move towards me, but watching as I ran from her.

  “Fallon!” Isaiah’s voice had me looking forward again. “Where are you?”

  “I don’t—” The squeal of tires had me looking back again.

  I cursed when I saw Celia behind the wheel of her car, speeding towards me.

  Abandoning the road, I dodged into an alleyway between two buildings. It was too narrow for her to follow, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do so on foot. The end opened into the next street and I tore across and ran in the opposite direction, heading down instead of up. I estimated that if Celia turned into the first available street and drove up the one I was on, running down would keep me from meeting her head on. It seemed like a really good plan. Smart even. Except I could never predict that the end of that road stopped dead and I don’t mean like a dead end or a building. There was an enormous crater in the middle of the road about a hundred feet deep and fifty feet across.

  Spitting out all manner of bad words, I pivoted and ran back the way I’d come. My gaze swung wildly from side to side, hoping to find an opening. Instead, I found Celia coming towards me, a great, red shark descending on its prey.

  “Isaiah…” Even my inner voice sounded desperate and scared. I had no idea what sort of powers Celia had. I had no idea if I could fight her. She could easily over take me and … what? What did she want?

  Thinking fast, I picked up a piece of rubble and pitched it into the glass window of a nearby antique store. The sound of shattering glass was deafening, but I didn’t give it any thought as I scrambled into the opening and jumped inside. Rows of fancy tables, chairs and mirrors lined the way to the back where a glass counter sat. I bypassed that and went straight for the door marked Staff, praying against all odds there was a backdoor somewhere on the other side.

  Outside, I heard the squeal of tires. I heard Celia calling my name. I wrenched open the door and threw myself into the darkness.

  For a full heart-stopping second, I was back in Luxuria, trapped in the closet with that monster. My skin began to sweat and my stomach roiled before I shook the feeling away quickly and scrambled for a light switch.

  Dim light spilled over stacks of furniture and mountains of crates and boxes. There was a single person path down the center leading somewhere towards the back and I took it. The broken corner of a vanity nicked my cheek, but I didn’t stop. I could hear movement in the other room, hurried footsteps following my retreat. My heart thundered in my ears as I reached the end and found a loading door. Sweat slickened my palm as I grabbed the doorknob and yanked.

  Nothing happened. It was locked and I was locked inside. I searched wildly for the bolts, hoping it didn’t need a key. Sure enough, it was a key lock and me without the necessary key.

  Swearing viciously, I kicked at the metal plate at the bottom of the door. Behind me, voices overlapped as I was joined by more than one person.

  “You go in!” one voice hissed.

  “I went in last time, you go in!” the second voice snapped back.

  “Move out of my way, you idiots!” a third voice snarled, this one female. “Can’t do anything right.”

  I started to search for a place to hide. Maybe they’d leave if they thought I wasn’t there. There were enough crates lying about. If I could just climb into one…

  The furniture began to dissolve like someone had just poured acid all over them, or a box of hungry termites. They turned to nothing before my eyes and I was left standing in an empty room with three very ominous creatures.

  Not human. That much was clear. They were oddly shaped, too many bends in their spindly joints. The female was almost skeletal with a mop of faded purple hair and shiny black eyes. Her skin was a pea-green that reminded me of puke. She smiled
and between purple lips, razor sharp fangs glinted in the light. Behind her were two men, at least I thought. One reminded me of a pear, round at the bottom and narrower at the top. His head was oblong, resting on thin shoulders. No neck. His skin was a blue that clashed horribly with his straggly orange hair and orange waistcoat over purple trousers and blouse. The other one was miniature sized, had normal length arms and legs, but with paper white skin, black lips, black eyes and shaggy black hair that gleamed blue in the light. It might have been a woman. It was wearing a black and white checkered dress and platform shoes.

  “And that is how you do it.” Rasped the woman, flexing her long, disjointed fingers. The light lanced off the metallic tips on each finger like razor blades. “Hello little traitor.”

  I would have been offended if I wasn’t scared out of my mind. Isaiah, where are you?

  “Come with us now,” she crooned, like if she talked softly, I would be more inclined to listen. “You won’t be harmed if you do as you’re told.”

  “What do you want?” I finally found the voice to ask. “Who are you?”

  “We,” the woman purred, dragging the e for all it was worth, “are the children of time. We are korrigans and we have been sent by our Mistress to fetch you.”

  I dug into my pocket and came out with my rawel. I aimed it at the woman. I was relying solely on the hope that she wouldn’t know what it was, or that I had no control over it.

  “Don’t come near me. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  The woman blinked her black eyes, neither amused nor afraid. She seemed simply annoyed. “Stupid girl. Your pathetic devices don’t frighten us.”

  Wonderful.

  “Now come with us.”

  I opened my mouth to tell her it would be a cold day in hell before that happened, or a hot day because apparently hell was already cold, when the lights around us flickered. This wasn’t so bad, except every time they dimmed, dark shapes scuttled across the walls like giant spiders. The chilling click of scampering nails on concrete sent tremors down my spine.

  “Be gone!” the korrigan hissed. “We got her first.”

  The thing on the wall, creepy-crawled its way to the ceiling where it clung like a great shadow. I couldn’t see a single distinct feature. No arms or legs. Just a blob of black suspended over my head.