Read Touching Fire (Touch Saga) for Free Online

so cold. What happened?”
    “Long, weird story.” I barked a laugh. “Basically your average day. I’ll tell you later.” I touched the hand on my cheek lightly. “Are you okay?”
    He nodded.
    “What were those things?” I looked down at the place by our feet where the hole had been. “I’ve never seen anything like them.”
    “Me neither,” Isaiah admitted. “ But they were strong. I couldn’t get them off me.”
    Fear coiled in the pit of my stomach. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
    “ Not to interrupt this lovely reunion, but can I get my arm back, please?”
    Startled by the unexpected request and the voice, we turned to the figure standing behind us. My defenses went up instantly. The sharp, ivory spike in my hand was up and aimed in the direction of the leather clad boy glaring back at me from behind his dark shades. I felt Isaiah’s hand on my arm, drawing me back.
    “Back off!” I warned. “I kicked your ass once, I’ll do it again.”
    The boy’s lips pinched thin. “I’m sorry. What now? No. You took a cheap shot and got lucky.”
    Bull! “I owned you!”
    The boy visibly bristled. “Owned—”
    Ashton walked up behind him then . I expected him to rip the boy to pieces like he had the Shadow Brothers. Instead, he rested a gentle, bloody hand on his shoulder.
    “It’s all right, Archer.”
    He was no longer a demon. His face had converted back to its devilishly handsome features, once you overlooked the faint blush darkening his jaw and the fact that he looked like he’d bathed in a tub of blood. But my radar had been struck and I wasn’t falling for no pretty face.
    “What are you?” I leveled the toothpick at him. “Like for real. That…” I waved erratically at the pile of human remains. “Was like something from Saw , or Nightmare on Elm Street . Are you a telekinesis?”
    “Telekinetic,” Isaiah mumbled under his breath.
    I ignored him.
    Ashton grimaced and rolled his eyes heavenwards as though someone up there was going to help him with the answer. “Yes and no.” The person up there was clearly no help at all. “It’s a bit hard to explain with the limited time we have.”
    “ What about him?” I stabbed at leather boy. “You know him?”
    “Archer is with me,” Ashton said evenly. “He’s my … back up.” It was said with a slight tilt of his lips, like he found that amusing.
    “He’s a jerk,” I corrected.
    “Well, this jerk saved your pretty behind, Princess.” Archer countered and I finally recognized the hint of Ireland lacing each syllable. “Now do you mind?” He held out a gloved hand.
    I stared at him, convinced his journey through the bus stop had jiggled something loose.
    “The spike, Fallon,” Ashton supplied helpfully.
    I looked down at the thing in my hand and really examined it for the first time. It was long, about the length of my arm, and ivory smooth with points on both ends that could skewer a person. It reminded me of a really big toothpick.
    I wasn’t wholly convinced giving the guy a weapon was a good idea, but I passed it over. Archer snatched it out of my hand and, as I watched in fascination, he injected it through a gap in the palm of his right glove and fed it up through his arm.
    “ Now that is talent,” I mused.
    Spike fully sheathed, Archer raised his head and smirked. He opened his mouth to comment, but the piercing whistle of sirens in the distance halted him.
    “I think we should move along,” Ashton said, head turned in the direction of the sound. “The police aren’t our only problem.”
    He looked to Archer and said something in a language I didn’t understand, and from the frown on Isaiah’s face, he didn’t understand either. But Archer pursed his lips and turned his head to scan our surroundings. His fingers flexed on either side of him as he replied in the same foreign language.
    Ashton nodded. Then looked at me. “We need to go.”
    It was probably a good idea. The entire street was in chaos and