Touching Fire (Touch Saga) (42 page)

Without a word, Archer moved to take it up. He examined it, for dents maybe? I didn’t know.

“Like I said, it’s not going to be tomorrow. You still have centuries—”

“To what? Decide when’s a good time to kill the only parent I have left? How can you stand knowing that you’ll be the death of your father?”

He sighed. “It’s the way things work in our world. Once you’ve accepted to be his descendent, you can’t back down. That is your destiny now, just like it will be your destiny to one day take his place. Then one day, you will pick a descendent and—”

“That’s horrible.” I turned away, shaking my head. “
He should have told me. I would never have accepted…”

“Maybe that’s why he didn’t
tell you. Look,” he moved over to me and took my hand. He lightly pressed the rawel into my palm and curled my fingers around it. “It’s a great honor to be chosen. A decision like this isn’t made lightly. It’s made with the understanding that one day, that person will take your place.”

“And your life,” I muttered.

He tightened his hand around mine. “No one can rule forever, Princess. Change is a necessary thing in our world. With every new leader comes a new evolution.”

“I don’t want to be a new
evolution. I just want people to stop dying because of me.”

There didn’t seem to be anything to say after that. Archer led me back into the house. Isaiah looked up from his book when we walked in.

“How’d it go?”

“I failed,” I said, dropping into the cushion next to him.

“You didn’t fail,” Archer insisted, shutting the second set of doors behind us. “You just need more practice.”

“How’s the book?” I tried to peer at the page he was on.

Isaiah shrugged. “Just reading about the Tree of Life and that door, you know the one that if opened could spill death and destruction—?”

“
Is that in there?” I leaned into his shoulder to see the pages. “What does it say?”

“It probably says what all our history books say.”
Archer dumped his tall frame into the armchair. “That there will be a child born, a child with the blood of two worlds in her veins and with this blood lies the key to unlocking eternal darkness.”

“That could be anyone,” Isaiah said when I
jerked away, my stomach queasy.

“Not really,” Archer said. “
Before her highness, there has never in all the time since the nexus was created, been a child such as her.”

I swallowed hard. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Why?”

“Because!” I tossed the book down hard on the coffee table. “One person can only destroy the world so many ways. I mean, I’m already a weapon for Garrison. I can’t also be a key to the apocalypse.”

“Because you said so?”

I wanted to pitch the book at his face. “Yes, because I said so!”

Archer shrugged. “Well, there’s a way you can avoid at least one of those things. Do the blood ritual. Give up one of your bloods. Become entirely mortal or entirely sin.”

Isaiah looked at me. “You can do that?”

I watched Archer. “Celia said it wasn’t guaranteed.”

“It’s not,” he agreed with a careless flick of his fingers. “But it’s still worth a try.”

“What would she have to do?” Isaiah asked for me and I wondered which he was hoping I would become.

Archer grinned. “Well, she would have
to return to Luxuria and Ashton would have to find someone with a powerful lineage, a Sire or something close.”

“Then what?” I asked when he stopped.

His smirk broadened. “Then you marry them, join your blood with theirs.”

My jaw dropped. “What?”

“Marriage is a sacred union, Princess. It’s not just a connection of names the way mortals do it. It’s a powerful merging of souls, body and power. Not to mention regions.”

“And if I want to be mortal?” I challenged.

“Same rules would apply, but!” He put up one finger to halt anything I might say. “They would have to be entirely mortal. No superpowers.” He cocked his head ever so slightly towards Isaiah. “Sorry, Charming. You can’t play the game.”

I glowered at him. “
How do I know you’re not lying?”

“I could be.” He folded his arms beneath his head
and dumped his feet onto the coffee table to cross at the ankles. “But you know I’m not. So either you find yourself a Sire, or a descendent of one to share your eternal life with,
or
you find a pathetic human with roughly fifty years to live and then die.”

I gritted my teeth until it hurt. “
I really hate you.”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, Princess. I didn’t make up the rules.”
He hopped to his feet. “I think it’s suppertime.”

As he disappeared into the kitchen, I turned to Isaiah. “
I’m going to ask Ashton,” I said. “I’m sure there’s more to this than Archer’s telling us.”

He nodded. “
Let’s not think about it anymore tonight. I’m personally tired of hearing about war and the end of the world.”

I chuckled. “
Yeah, me, too.”

He draped an arm around me while reaching out with the other to take up the remote. I braced myself, expecting a great number of horrific things on the screen. But he turned to some action comedy movie and left it there.

“I think we’ve seen enough for one day,” he said when I looked up at him. “We’ll check tomorrow.”

I didn’t argue. Truthfully, I was glad we weren’t watching the news. I wasn’t in any mood to see more death and chaos.
It was actually nice pretending things were normal for a couple of hours. It was nice cuddling on the couch with the guy I loved, doing something as mundane as watching TV. I did, however, wish Archer wasn’t there. But not all dreams were perfect.

The
rest of the evening was uneventful. We watched TV, anything but the news. Archer and Isaiah argued a few times on who was the bigger action hero,
Stallone
or
Schwarzenegger
. I disagreed with both by adding
Buffy
.
Buffy
trumped all, in my opinion. Neither agreed with me, but I didn’t care.
Buffy
rocked.

It was nearing midnight when Archer finally threw in the towel and stomped off to bed.
Against my back, Isaiah’s chest rose and fell, rumbling with a slight groan.

“I didn’t think he’d ever go to bed,” he said into the back of my head.

I chuckled and rested my head more comfortably on his shoulder. On my abdomen, our entwined fingers moved restlessly over the others. I watched them in the semi-darkness, pale against gold. His hands dwarfed mine considerably, but I liked the sight of it. I liked how his thumb roamed over my knuckles and along each finger in turn. And I liked how the roughened pad scratched my skin. But more than anything, I liked how it felt being wrapped in his arms and tucked protectively against his chest. I liked how his heart beat against my shoulder blade and his breath whispered along the back of my neck. I couldn’t help wonder if this was how it would have been if we were normal.

Isaiah wrapped a coil of my hair around his fingers and gave an affectionate tug. “What are you thinking?”

I chuckled. “Don’t you know?”

Under my head, his shoulder bumped. “Yes, but I want to hear it.”

“I was wondering if it would have been like this if we were like everyone else, if we had met like other people.”

He made a contemplating hum.
“You know what I think?” He dropped his face until his lips were inches from mine. “There is no way everything I feel was manufactured in a test tube. Even Garrison isn’t that good.”

I found myself grinning before I could stop it. “So what are you saying? That if you saw me walking down the street…”

“I would throw you over my shoulder Tarzan-style and run off with you.”

I burst out laughing. His chuckle warmed the side of my face as he trailed kisses down to my neck. I was still laughing when I
twisted my torso and nuzzled his shoulder. My fingers slipped into the ever present band restricting his hair. The presence of the stupid elastic frustrated the hell out of me. I hated the thing, which of course was illogical. But I really loved the sight of his hair down around his face, which was why I didn’t think twice when I ripped it free and tossed the offending thing somewhere over my head.

“Feel better?” he murmured into my throat.

I laced my fingers through the silky strands, fisted and dragged his mouth to mine.

“Yes,” I whispered just before I closed the distance between us and captured his lips in a long, passionate kiss that curled my toes and set my body on fire. It was a dangerous sort of kiss, especially when there was such a small possibility of interruption and even less chance of stopping. But I just didn’t care. The whole world could have gone up in flames and I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

The mute light from the TV spilled over us as the movie continued without us. Neither of us noticed, or cared, too consumed with each other to worry about anything else. It was probably why we didn’t hear the front doors open until blinding light broke the darkness.

I thought it had to be Archer as I scrambled upright, dragging my rumpled clothes back into place around me. I started to turn towards the hallway when I realized Isaiah was looking at something over my head.

Ashton scowled at us as he pocketed his keys. Celia was discreetly studying her shoes. And we just sat there, not sure what to do, or say. It was clear what we were doing, or close to doing without explanation. So I just went with the first thing that came to mind.

“Hi!”

Ashton closed the door, looked over the room. “Where’s Archer?”

Clearing my throat, I untangled myself from Isaiah and rose to my feet. “
Sleeping, I think—”

Without waiting for me to finish, Ashton marched across the room and disappeared into the hallway. A moment later, we heard the door being thrown open and raised voices.

“What are you doing?” Ashton snarled.

“Practicing my
pirouette! What does it look like?” Archer shot back.

Ashton said something we couldn’t hear.

“They’re watching TV!” Archer exclaimed.

The rest of the conversation was had in low, angry murmurs. The longer it took, the hotter my face became. Was this what all teenagers had to endure with their parents? Total humiliation at getting caught making out with their boyfriends on the couch? Geez.
It was definitely one adolescent experience I was sure I could have lived without.

“We did not realize it was so late,” Celia said, breaking into the heavily awkward silence. “I did tell
Acheron to wait until morning.”

I tried to offer her a smile, but it came out forced and a little tight. “It’s fine. We were just watching TV anyway.”

We both knew I was lying. Celia didn’t comment on it as she glanced at the TV and stayed fixed there. I stole a peek at Isaiah and found him watching me, his face not helping the situation at all.

“Stop that!”
I scolded him through our connection.
“This is serious.”

Obligingly, he straightened his shoulders and did an almost plausible
attempt at wiping the grin off his face.

I shook my head and looked away before I broke into a fit of giggles, because really, it wasn’t funny.
It was severely mortifying and made even worse by the fact that everyone in the room were essentially strangers. Ugh.

Archer shuffled into the room a step behind a furious Ashton. He wore a black t-shirt and black boxers that shimmered like silk. His hair was in disarray
and stuck out in odd points around his face. He yawned loudly as he stuffed his glasses on.

“
I left you three here alone because I was under the assumption that I could trust you to behave,” Ashton began.

Archer threw himself on the sofa. “I
was
behaving myself.”

“You, I told to watch over things,” Ashton snapped at him.

“I’m a sin, not a babysitter for God’s sake.”

This seemed to only enrage Ashton all the more. “You know what is at stake, Arcarius
. You know how important—”

“Why are you yelling at me? I’m not the one who was humping on the sofa, okay? Yell at them.”

I won’t lie. I face-palmed. But it was short lived when Ashton remembered we were in the room.

He stared at me, then at Isaiah, then back again. It was like he couldn’t decide which of us to start yelling at first. I wondered if it was a good idea to remind everyone in the room that I was seventeen, but I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Seventeen was still not eighteen and thus had no real power of say.

“Sit down,” he said at last.

We sat, because what else was there to do when your father was about to put the law down?