Read Touch If You Dare for Free Online

being involved in something that was more than they could handle weren’t as low as he would have liked. “Cam!”
    Again, no answer.
    Just the distant roar of the waterfall he and Cam used to play in. How many times had his dad held him underwater, teaching him how to push past his limits, to reach beyond what every cell his body was screaming at him that he couldn’t do?
    The old man had cared enough to nearly drown Jarvis thousands of times, while poor Cameron had been off weaving daisies into crowns for the raccoons and making googly eyes at the neighbor’s girls. His dad had long given up trying to bless Cameron with the ability to be a man, and Jarvis felt a sudden pity for his little brother, left behind without any of the skills a young boy should have. What kind of life would Jarvis have had if he’d been left with love as his only tool to survive?
    He shuddered at the thought. Yeah, hate was a bitch, but he’d take that over lolling with the butterflies any day of the week. What could love get you anyway? A stake in the heart by your girlfriend, for one. Thank the gods of hell he didn’t have to worry about that soft emotion infiltrating his body, even if it did seem to agree with Blaine.
    It wasn’t his cuppa, and he was good with that.
    “Can you sense Cameron?” Blaine asked. “I thought you guys were connected.”
    “Yeah, we were, but it’s been a long time.” Jarvis closed his eyes and tried to attune himself to his brother’s frequency, but he was too tense. Too much energy bouncing around. “I’m on edge. Can’t do it.”
    That wasn’t a good sign. A quick inspection revealed there was a second tiny star on his palm now, beside the first one. He closed his fist. “Damien said Cam had been using a bonfire to contact Death.” The sky was blue in all directions. “Can you pick it up?”
    “Fire? Now you’re talking, baby.” The skull and bones tattoo on Blaine’s chest began to smoke. Blaine was three-quarters flames, and he had a special bond with anything smoky and hot. He closed his eyes, then pointed to the southeast. “That way.”
    “Eagle Vista.” Jarvis headed in that direction, vaulting easily over a crumbling stone wall at least ten feet high. How many times had he struggled to climb that thing when he was a kid? And now, after being ruthlessly mutated, he could jump it easily. What a man he’d become. Pa would be proud.
    Jarvis burst out of the woods and saw his brother. Cam was sitting in the water, arms draped loosely over his knees. Fish were jumping into the air in front of him, and a dove was perched on his bare shoulder. His hair was long and shaggy, mud was caked on his back, and his beer belly hung over the waistband of his jeans. He’d gone to hell, but he was alive. “Cam!”
    His brother didn’t turn.
    “He’s talking to someone,” Jarvis said. “Can’t see who it is.”
    Jarvis shaded his eyes as he jogged toward his brother. With the sun setting behind Cam, he hadn’t seen the other person at first (raise your hand if you think it’s a bad sign that he’d failed to notice an entire person ), but now he could see the dark silhouette of a man standing in front of his brother. The broad shoulders, the tuxedo, the dark hair… “It’s Death.” Jarvis unsheathed his sword. “Hey!” he shouted. “Get away from my brother!”
    Death turned sharply toward them, then he held up his palm. A stream of black dust exploded toward them.
    “Oh, shit.” Jarvis raised his sword to block the particles, but they parted around the blade. They smacked Jarvis in the chest and flung him backward. He landed hard on his back, and icy coldness crushed down on him, sucking the air out of his lungs, the strength out of his body.
    Blaine was down beside him, utterly still. Face gray.
    Jarvis fought to breathe as Death helped Cam to his feet. The death dust had put him a thread from the cold permanence of eternal night.
    Jarvis pictured Angelica: her blonde hair,