The Touch (Healer Series) (34 page)

  
“I love you, Addie.”

  
She couldn’t block herself again, although
she tried. She couldn’t pull her hand away. She knew what he was doing and
couldn’t stop it. Her eyes grew wild, just as they had that night in the barn
when she saw what he had done to save Rose. She closed them tightly, willing it
to stop. She tried to fight, to loosen his grip on her hand, but couldn’t. His
love for her was stronger than her entire body.

  
She started coughing, the life coming back
into her, her chest rising and falling with the breath she had been struggling
for. She looked back over at him, pleading, except he wouldn’t let go. Max
heard her gasp and ran back over to them, sliding on the ground as if heading
for home base. It was too late; Addie was coughing, brought back to life from
being near death. AJ looked up at them and smiled before closing his eyes, his
lips still curved upward.

  
He knew he was going to die that day. He was
happy to do it for her.

Book
Two Preview

The sky was aqua blue, the cotton ball clouds having dissipated as
though they knew the threat of darkness had vanished. It appeared she was staring
directly into the very clearest depths of the ocean. Her breathing strained
like someone was pressing on her chest, and she fought to regain a steady
up-and-down, in-and-out rhythm for air. The sun was a vibrant orange, lighting
up the entire horizon as if a beacon of hope. The wind rushed through the
trees, rustling leaves and scattering birds that flew above without ever a care
of losing that freedom. How lucky those birds were.

  
Devin’s
darkly shrouded body lay still in death just yards from where AJ and Addie had
collapsed, the Grim’s chest no longer heaving up and down in the familiar
pattern that echoed life. His black eyes were still open in shock, as his death
had happened so quickly. He hadn’t had time to be anything more than aghast at
the sight of the end. His clothes torn and bloodied, his mouth was finally
silent. Without hateful and antagonizing words filling up the space around him,
he almost seemed kind and human – although Addie knew better.

  
Her
body flinched on the grass beneath her, seeking to sit up but still unable to.
Every inch of her tingled, ached and burned. She could feel the blood running
from the few open wounds on her arm and leg, so warm against the early-evening
chill of her skin. The shorts and shirt she had thrown on earlier seemed
nonexistent as the breeze sent chills through to her very core. She tried to
move and was barely able to lift her arms let alone her entire body.

Her tired eyes opened into slits, the
light from the sunset blinding her momentarily as she searched the immediate
proximity in an attempt to recall what had just happened. While she’d watched
every moment of the battle, it had been surreal and she wasn’t certain she
actually believed the movie her mind was replaying. It was as though this was
all a fairy tale concocted as part of a movie; not something that occurred in
the lives of real people.

  
Her
warm brown eyes looked up, down, right and left as her eyelids blinked
furiously to wash away the fogginess. She rolled her head to the other side and
blinked again before the daze cleared and she was able to make out a form.

  
His form.

  
She
tried to move her lips but the words wouldn’t come. Her mouth was so dry, her
throat scratchy. She tried to swallow but there was nothing to ease the pain
and so she tried to call his name again.

  
“AJ…”
she managed to squeak out, her voice scratchy and high-pitched. His head was so
near to hers. She knew if she could just make it a little louder he would hear
her.

  
“AJ…”
she called again.
And again.
And
again.
The name was so familiar yet it felt so strange rolling off her
tongue in a voice she didn’t recognize. The desperation was starting to show in
her murmur. Every moment from the last day was a blur, a cloud of the unknown.
Was it just a horrible dream or a cruel reality? Had everything ended? Who had
been victorious?

It was only then that she began to
notice they weren’t alone.

  
Max
sat beside her, crumpled into a mass with his head buried in his set of dirty
hands. The paths down his dusty cheeks were evidence of saddening tears and
they forced Addie’s thudding heart down into her stomach. Her chest burned with
the familiar pain she always felt as she was about to cry. It welled within
her, starting in her stomach and working its way up into her throat.

  
The
tears peeked out of the corner of her eyes and fell like anchors towards the
now hallowed ground.

  
“No,
no, no, no, no…” she
cried,
her voice as rough as
before. The adrenaline rush came on just as it had the night Rose had fallen
from the ladder, forcing every inch of her body to tingle and shake. Her chest
rose up and down, the sobs welling inside of her but unable to escape. If she
cried, she felt it would all be too real. That he’d be really gone. If she held
it in, perhaps time would stand still and she could lie here forever simply
looking at him.

  
“Max!”
she cried, locking eyes with her friend and then looking over at AJ as if to
signal Max to help; to will him to run over and heal the man she loved. “Max,
heal him…please…Max…MAX!”

  
Max
sat next to her, his own tears piercing his eyes with fervent speed. He was
frozen in place, unable to flex a muscle to even reach out to Addie. He wanted
to stop the pain she felt but he knew the order of the universe would not allow
him that luxury. He had always followed the rules, never broken them. He
wouldn’t start now. AJ was gone, and there was no sense in everyone losing
powers over this. He needed his gift to justify all that had happened; if he
could help people, AJ wouldn’t die in vain.

  
He
remembered back to a few days before as he and AJ had sat in the old rocking
chairs donning the rustic front porch of the bed and breakfast. Neither had
spoken as their eyes simply scanned the horizon, taking in the beauty of the
green and gold fields. Max had known AJ’s thoughts were all on Addie and how to
protect her. The kid had already told Max to take care of her after the battle,
knowing he wouldn’t walk away from it alive. With so many Healers in the area
Max wasn’t convinced AJ would lose his life – until he placed a hand on his
friend’s shoulder and allowed the visions to flow.

He had never opened himself to AJ this
way and the force of the future was sickening. He had watched AJ grow from a
naive young man into a strong and powerful warrior for good; it seemed impossible
that the end was nearing for the kid. Yet the visions flowed furiously through
his mind; first the battle, then AJ healing Addie.
Finally, visions
of the two of them crowding around AJ’s visibly lifeless, tears filling their
eyes.

Max had yanked his hand away that day
on the porch, unable to absorb what he had just seen. AJ only looked over at
him with a knowing stare – an apologetic stare - and then shifted his gaze back
onto the horizon.

  
“It’s
okay, Max,” he had said, his eyes never again making contact with his oldest
friend. “I’m prepared and willing. I know the way things have to be and I’ve
accepted it. My heart doesn’t ache for the fact that I will lose my life, but
rather that there are people left behind who will ache in their heart for me.” AJ
understood what his mother must have felt in her last months on earth.

  
It
had taken everything in that moment for Max not to cry and now he found himself
unable to retain the flow of tears. The walls were down, the barriers gone with
his friend lifeless on the ground in front of them. Addie looked back over to
him, her face red with a mixture of anger and devastation and her heart
shattering into a thousand pieces as the seconds passed.

  
“Please,
Max,” she begged again, her voice fading to a whisper. “Please, oh please….”

  
He
knew she’d hate him forever. He knew she’d never forgive him for staying put
and not rushing to AJ’s side. He knew she would never recover wholly from the
pain of losing someone she loved, and being betrayed by another.

  
“I’m
sorry…” he whispered back, heat stinging his face from the shame and damage his
response would reap. “I’m so sorry, Addie….”

  
Her
neck arched, forcing her face towards the sky as the sobs began to increase.
Her hands were gripping the ground as if the entire world might flip over and
spill her in a never-ending free-fall through the sky. Her head felt like
exploding as images of all the what-if’s ravaged her mind. What if she’d not
volunteered to help? What if she’d told him how she felt sooner?

What if she’d forced him to give in to his feelings for her? Would
he still be alive? She thought about their kiss, the electrifying shock it had
sent from her lips all the way down through her toes. She would have stayed in
that moment longer if she had known.

  
The
sadness crept from her mind throughout her entire body. The soreness from
Devin’s throw was nothing compared to the pain that surged within her soul at
the loss of AJ. Unlike Robert, AJ hadn’t walked away. He had died for her. He
had done all of this to protect her and her daughter. He had loved them as no
one else ever had and now she would have to bury him.

  
She
turned once more to look at AJ, to will him back to life. She realized his hand
was still on her arm, his soft skin connecting to hers. She became perfectly
still, not wanting to lose that moment. She wanted the feeling forever.

She closed her eyes, wishing for the
world to swallow them both up and send them to eternity together. She could see
them as she let her mind leave her body. She and AJ, stretched out in a perfect
T-shape on the ground as she swirled higher and higher up into the sky and
through the branches, breaking through to the radiance of the sunset. That was
what she had always wanted; to share every sunset with him.

  
Her
sobs lightened to a choked whisper and her exhausted eyes opened once again to
AJ. She used her strength to roll onto her side, bringing her free hand down on
top of his.

  
“Take
me with you,” she whispered, the words shattering her very soul. She felt
selfish not thinking about Rose. Rose needed a mother. Addie had first-hand
experience in needing a mother’s love, but she couldn’t help but think that the
anguish over AJ would end if she could just be him, wherever he was.

  
The
flow of tears picked up again. Her stomach warped into knots and she heard a
sob escape Max’s lips behind her.

  
Then a
gasp.
AJ’s body twitched as though life had just rushed back into him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Allison Rios was
born and raised in Joliet, Illinois. Writing has been her relaxation and hobby since
childhood, when she began taking notes on neighborhood happenings (the big
stuff, like someone mowing a lawn or washing a car) and putting together
hand-written newspapers. She grew into a career in public relations, marketing
and web but never lost the love for writing fiction.
 
In between a full-time job, chauffeuring kids and shopping for
high heels, she
spends her free time typing out daydreams and creating
new worlds with her imagination – a hobby she likes to share with her children.
She is currently working on the next book in the Healer series.