Fingers twitching, I pushed out, moving Dez to the edge of the platform.
“That guardrail looks a little rickety. You should probably give it a good kick. Get it out of the way.”
It didn’t need a kick. One nudge with the toe of my shoe was all it took. It came loose with a clatter, sailing through the air before hitting the ground, several pieces coming loose and bouncing away.
“Was there something you wanted to add, dear?” Samsen said with a sickly sweet smile. “Last words or a final declaration of love, perhaps?”
“If you kill me, my dad will be pissed,” Dez breathed. She was trembling slightly, still trying to shrink away from my grasp. Her Poker Face was gone. She was desperate. “You think you got spanked when you let Kale go? That’ll be nothing compared to this. They sent you to get us—not to kill us.”
Samsen backed up a step, frowning. It was too much to hope he’d trip and tumble over the edge. “You may be right… You’re part of that pet project of his. That Supremacy thing, right?”
“Yeah,” she said, voice shaking just a bit.
A disturbing smile slipped across his lips. A voice in my head begged, over and over, for him to stay silent. But he didn’t. He opened his mouth to speak and my heart stopped.
“Oh well.” He shrugged and waved to the ground with a flourish. “Push her over.”
“No!” I screamed…
But I obeyed.
Dez gasped as I swept her feet. Eyes wide, she slipped over the edge of the platform.
I fell to my knees, fingers catching her wrists just before they disappeared. Her body jarred, stopping suddenly and swinging to the left. “I have you!”
“Kale!” she cried, grabbing the shoulder of my shirt to try to steady herself.
Samsen said to push her over. He hadn’t said not to catch her.
She managed to stabilize, but my grip was slipping. I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
Behind me, there was an amused chuckle, and a moment later, Samsen was standing over us. “You’ve always been a tough one, 98. Anyone else would have simply pushed and let go. You…you are stubborn.”
I started moving back, pulling Dez up and over the edge of the track, but I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Samsen slammed a foot down and the unstable metal beneath our feet rattled and shook. “Stop. You’re not to pull her up.”
My muscles burned and my brain rebelled, but I stopped moving, frozen. Dez gasped and tried to hook her foot over the edge, but she couldn’t quite reach.
Something clattered to the ground on the other side of the room, catching Samsen’s attention.
“Hang for a while,” he said with a snicker, eyeing the far corner. There was a stack of boxes and several brooms. As Samsen made his way down several of the steps, I watched as something shimmered and one of the brooms disappeared. It had to be Kiernan.
“Hang on, Dez,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Grab hold of my shoulder and try to pull yourself up. I can’t—” With every ounce of strength I had, I tried to move. It did no good. “I can’t move. I can’t pull you up.”
Her left wrist still in my grasp, she reached out with her right hand and tried to grab my shoulder. At first, all she got was a handful of my shirt. The motion dragged me forward and she panicked and let go as we both began to slide closer to the edge.
“Don’t,” I hissed, frantic. “I’m fine. Try again. Hurry.” Samsen was busy checking on the noise. Now was the only chance we’d have.
She tried again, this time managing to wrap her arm over my shoulder and around my neck. “I can’t hold on,” she cried, slipping a bit. “I can’t—”
“You can,” I whispered. “Swing your leg up. Hook it through the edge of the platform. Try harder.”
She tried again—and failed.
“Denazen is impenetrable. A fortress that no one ever gets into—or out of. Yet you managed. When they took me—when they locked me back in that cage—it was you who got me out. You did the unthinkable, Dez. You. Can. Do. This.”
The tip of her sneaker popped over the edge. Closing my eyes, I focused on my right hand. My pointer finger twitched. Then my thumb. I managed to move it an inch—maybe two—but her foot slipped back into the darkness. A rage-infused scream was building deep in my throat.
Samsen, deciding that the noise had been nothing, came back up the steps and settled beside me. Kneeling down, he whispered, “What would it do to you—if I told you to let go? Would it destroy you? Snap that last remaining shred of sanity Denazen left intact? Would it push you over the edge and finally make you into the monster they tried so hard to sculpt? I always enjoyed poking you the most, 98. You tried so hard to resist. Remember?” He sighed. “Always tried—and in the end, always failed.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. In my grasp, Dez was still struggling to climb back up. She’d managed to hook her shoe into the slots on the edge of the platform and was halfway over the rim.
“Loosen your grip.”
I did. I tried not to, but it was useless. He was right. I always failed. Dez screamed and slipped a few more inches. Her leg, wrapped around the edge of the platform, unwound and disappeared.
11
Samsen laughed. “Very nice. How does that feel? To know you’re going to be the reason that pretty little head cracks open and spills her brains all over the ground below. Now let g—”
A slight breeze hit my neck and sent the edges of Dez’s hair fluttering sideways. Samsen’s eyes widened for a moment, then rolled back as he toppled forward, landing facedown on the platform beside me. It was like someone had snapped a rubber band inside my gut. Something shattered and the connection was broken. Rendered unconscious, he no longer had an influence over me.
In control of my limbs again, I dragged Dez up and across the edge of the track. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I pulled her close, aware that I was almost cutting off her air and not caring. She was safe and in my arms, and that was all that mattered.
I turned to see Kiernan in the shadow of the platform, standing over Samsen with the broom in her hand. “Kinda likes the sound of his own voice, doesn’t he?”
Dez pulled away and stumbled to her feet. “Oh my God, I totally said the same thing!” Kiernan grinned and tossed the broom over the edge. It clanked twice before falling still at the base of the track. “I knew I liked you.”
I nodded to the ground. “I saw you across the room. How did you make the broom disappear?”
Kiernan winked at me. “It’s hard to do, but if I try, I can sometimes extend my ability to something I’m touching. Nothing big, and I probably couldn’t have made it last long, but it was enough for me to move across the room with it.”
I smiled and reused the phrase she had said at the house when she’d seen Dez’s ability. “That’s some wicked trick.”
Dez laughed. The sound made the air flow freely through my lungs. I’d come so close to losing her.
“What do you say we blow this place?” Kiernan said. “I’ve had enough amusement park fun to last the rest of my natural life.”
“Oh, come on. This was…interesting,” Dez said to her, starting toward the steps.
Kiernan snorted. “Interesting. Right. I’d love to see your idea of super-awesome fun...” She turned to wink at me.
Dez made a move to follow, but something caused her to stumble. She went down, missing the edge by inches.
“Get back here, you little bitch,” Samsen growled. He’d extended his arm, his fingers wrapped around her ankle. There was a gash across his forehead that disappeared into his hair. A trail of blood trickled down the side of his face, making him look even more crazed than normal. “I’m not—”
I stomped down, crushing his wrist under the heel of my shoe. Bones snapped. The rest of his sentence was swallowed by an anguished scream. Withdrawing his hand, he let go of Dez’s ankle and cradled his fingers close.
I advanced, hitting him again with my gloved hand. I’d lost th
e left when we ran from Samsen, but still had the right. The blow landed at his throat, causing him to choke and gag on the words he was trying to get out.
“Get to the ground,” I hissed as Dez got to her feet and moved closer to the stairs. She hesitated momentarily, looking from me to Samsen, before finally nodding. She understood that I needed to deal with this alone.
As soon as she was at the bottom with Kiernan, I turned to Samsen. He’d gotten to his feet and was trying to back away, still trying—and failing—to speak.
“You said I owed you—you’re wrong. You owe me.” I brought my right leg up and kicked out hard. It caught him in the gut and he stumbled back with a grunt, teetering to the side while struggling to catch his breath.
Still favoring his wrist, Samsen jerked away as I brought my foot down again, narrowly managing to avoid the blow. He drew both legs in and scooted back along the platform to put some distance between us, and I followed, unrelenting.
Everything faded into the background. All that remained was me—and the twisted, hateful creature that took so much pleasure in seeing others suffer. For the first time, I wasn’t worried about his ability. The fury in my chest had exploded.
I shot forward and grabbed a handful of his shirt. Afraid. The man who had forced so much death on the world—had taken so much pleasure in it—was afraid. Could this really be the thing of my nightmares? This sniveling, groveling creature trying to beg for mercy?
Pulling him up, I avoided his eyes and brought my elbow down across his throat again, this time harder. He sputtered and coughed, gasping for air. If he couldn’t breathe, then he couldn’t talk. If he couldn’t talk, then he was truly powerless. I needed to take that away from him. His power. A man like Samsen was nothing without it.
He was right. I’d been an angry child. And over the years, that anger had grown and become rooted deep inside. Every cruel thing Samsen and Denazen did—every cruel thing they made me do—had fed it. Fostered its growth and made this moment inevitable. I’d pushed it down and blocked it away, but now, finally having Samsen’s fate in my grasp, it broke free like an unstoppable force.
This. This was what I’d never wanted Dez to see. My true inner self. Because it was blackness and rage and parts made of death and violence. It wasn’t all I was, but it remained a large part and always would. Where Dez brought out the light, Samsen brought out the darkness.
“You used to tell me I didn’t deserve to live. That I was nothing but an animal to train and use.”
His eyes went wide, and he shook his head, frantic. Sounds came from his mouth, but no actual words. Only more coughing.
I spun us around and positioned him at the edge of the platform. He teetered, the only thing keeping him from drifting back and over was my hand on his shirt. “Were you wrong? Is that what you’d like to say?”
He tried to speak again but could only nod enthusiastically.
I leaned in, getting dangerously close to his face, and shook my head. Warmth radiating from his skin made me uncomfortable, the throbbing of his pulse so excessive that I could almost feel it against my own skin. In his ear, I whispered, “You were right about Denazen not making me a monster.”
I pulled back so I could look into his eyes. Eyes that had haunted my entire childhood. They held no sway over me now, and the freedom I felt in that moment was second only to the touch of Dez’s lips. “But you were wrong about having to push me over the edge. There’s no need, because I’ve already gone over. You made me a monster, Samsen. Now the only thing left to do is give you a glimpse of how all your hard work has paid off.”
“Don’t—touch…” he managed to choke out.
I laughed. It was a horrible sound that burned in my throat. It caused the darkness to explode in my chest as the last vestiges of control slipped away. “I have no intention of touching you, Samsen. That’s too easy. Too fast and merciful. Why should you be shown mercy when you don’t even know what it truly is?” I took a deep breath, resigned. “No. I won’t have your stink on me.”
“What—”
The realization in his eyes sparked the same moment I let go. It was the first—and last—flicker of life I’d ever see there.
He screamed the entire way down, silenced finally with the sickening sound of impact.
12
“You have everything? Money? Directions?”
I kept my distance. I’d lost one glove during the chaos and was still feeling a little wound-up. Accidents could happen. Distance was the safest thing right now.
We’d left through the employee exit in the Master’s Chamber and followed the path to the main gate. Two blocks away, Dez used the first pay phone we came to—she had lost her cell again—to call home and let them know Kiernan would be along shortly.
Sue had gotten on the call, and I cringed. Even from several feet away, I could hear her yelling. I recognized that tone all too well. She and Dez were still getting to know each other, and even though Dez sometimes wondered, Sue worried about her. She always had and always would. Finding out we’d had an incident with Denazen agents didn’t make her happy.
Kiernan was still hesitant about the Sanctuary, but after seeing firsthand the lengths Denazen would go to get what they wanted, she was more than convinced life would be safer with us than on her own. At least for a little while. She was going on a trial basis with the promise that if things weren’t to her liking, she would leave without warning. Dez hadn’t seemed worried, convinced that once Kiernan set foot in the Sanctuary, she’d never want to leave.
We watched Kiernan pull the purple truck from her driveway and disappear down the road. Once she was out of sight, I turned to Dez, who was leaning against Ginger’s old car. She was frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“He deserved it,” she said, her hand slipping into mine. “Stop feeling guilty.”
I didn’t know what to say. My mind was warring with my heart, concepts of right and wrong furiously battling for dominance inside my head. Dez could always tell when something was wrong—and she was right.
Sort of.
I did feel guilty…but not about what I’d done to Samsen. I should have, but I simply didn’t. It would have been easy to pull up and incapacitate him so we could get away. It would have been equally easy to render him unconscious and let Ginger handle him in a more humane way. Possibly law enforcement. But the truth was, I felt no real remorse. Worse than that, it made me happy to know he was gone. To know I’d finally won…
And I knew that was wrong.
She squeezed my hand. “Accidents happen, Kale. With only one glove, there wasn’t much you could do.”
Accident. She didn’t realize what I’d done. She’d seen me kill Denazen agents before. Watched as I purposefully touched their skin and they crumbled to dust. But this was different. I’d had another choice and had chosen to ignore it. What would she say if she knew the truth? Could she still claim I was a good person?
I wanted to tell her the truth about what I’d done, but the words wouldn’t come. Not all of them. “I’m not sorry that he’s dead, Dez. I don’t feel guilty about what happened to him; I feel guilty about the way it makes me feel. I feel…happy. Relieved.”
She sighed. “The things he did to you were horrible—and I’m sure you weren’t the only one he did them to. He wouldn’t have stopped. People like him—like my dad—they don’t ever stop. It’s okay to feel the way you do.”
She pulled her hand from mine and turned. We were face to face. Inches apart. With the lightest brush of her lips, she rested her forehead against mine. “It’s normal—human. But don’t let it eat away at you. I know you don’t believe me when I say it, but you’re a good person.”
I wasn’t a good person. Today, I’d proven that. If not to her, then to myself. But arguing wouldn’t do any good with Dez. The Kale she saw was pure and perfect, and I wanted it that way.
Needed it to stay that way.
I forced a smile and wrapped my arms around her sh
oulders. “I think next time I would prefer something different.”
“Different?”
“I don’t think amusement parks are really for me…”
Acknowledgements
As always, there are many people to thank. My village is amazing and I—as well as Dez and Kale—wouldn’t be here without them.
Thank you to my parents. For always letting me be me. It worked out in the end!
To my husband, Kevin, who has the patience of a saint. I promise, now that this is out, I’ll make you dinner…as long as I don’t forget…
And to my critique partners, who are quick to read as well as support.
A huge thank you to my editor, Liz, who not only keeps my comma fetish in check, but also has super hot-guy-eye. *ahem—check the cover, peeps*
My agent, Kevan, for her patience and continued support.
And last, but most definitely not least, the fans. It’s you that make this all worthwhile. For all your love and support, thank you.
Keep reading for sample chapters of
TOUCH
book one of the Denazen series by Jus Accardo
When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home.
Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.
Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent her life keeping safe.