The Touch (Healer Series) (33 page)

  
Devin pressed his fingers against her chest
and sent a shockwave through her body. She could feel the energy release itself
from her, her legs turning into mush and unable to hold her weight. She went
limp in his arms, fighting just to stay awake. The wine had thrown her off and
she was defenseless.

  
AJ sprang forward from the trees. They hadn’t
gotten there in time. The shield had worn off as he was bolting through the forest
with Max and Devin had grabbed Addie before he could reach the field.

  
“Put her down!” he yelled, so loudly that it
startled even Devin. The rage was powerful in his voice.

  
“Or what?”
Devin
replied.

  
He knew as long as a mortal was in his hands,
AJ couldn’t touch him. The most important law the Healers held was to never
harm a mortal.

  
Devin’s eyes shot upward and then back down
along the tree line as he suddenly felt the presence of other Healers.

  
“You’ve brought others?” he said, a flicker
of fear running through him for a moment.

  
Devin didn’t know how many. He could only
feel them coming. He felt foolish for so blindly falling for Addie’s ploy; he
should have seen through it.

  
“Let her go, and it’s just you and I,” AJ
said, taking advantage of the fact that Devin didn’t seem aware the others could
not fight him. They were there for intimidation only, and it seemed to be
working.

  
Devin looked him up and down, sizing up the
situation. He knew a Healer’s word was sealed and they could not go back on it.
If AJ challenged him to a man to man battle, the others could not intervene. He
seemed satisfied with that, his power stronger than ever. He was confident that
he could easily defeat AJ.

  
Devin smiled.

  
“Gladly!” he screamed, tossing Addie ten feet
through the air.

  
She landed with a thud on the grass and AJ
looked at Max, directing him with a nod to attend to Addie. She was still, her
breathing minimal. Max flipped her onto her back, and she was wheezing. He
tried to get an image, a vision of any sort to tell him whether or not to heal
her. It was impossible to see anything except for a blur. She opened her eyes
slightly, and stared at Max.

  
“You can’t touch me until AJ is safe,” she
whispered, gasping for breath.

  
“Addie, he made me promise-”

  
“I don’t care…what he promised. Don’t touch
me until he’s okay. I won’t let you…he might need you to save him. Don’t you
dare waste it on
me.
He can change lives Max, I
can’t.”

  
Max ignored her plea and she pushed his hand
away.

  
“I won’t let you read me! Gram told me how to
block you. I won’t let you see if I’m supposed to be saved.”

  
“She’s blocking me!” Max yelled at AJ.

  
AJ looked over at him and down at Addie. She
was stubborn. So was he, he thought. He wasn’t going to let her die. A surge of
anger thrust into his veins. He felt empowered, livid, and prepared to fight.

  
The two men circled, AJ’s arms prepared to
swing at any moment. His broad shoulders were tense, the muscles visible
through his shirt as he assessed the situation to make the best move. His brows
were furled, the hatred coursing through his body. He’d spent the last few
years helping people, making them better and removing their pain, and comforting
them when he couldn’t save them. He had never intentionally inflicted pain
since he became a Healer, and the thought of doing that now sickened him and
made him hate Devin more.

  
He knew he was not as strong as Devin in the
sense of his powers. He would need to use brute force to throw Devin off and
take the advantage. He reiterated his goal: he was ready to die if it would
remove Devin from the planet.

  
Devin was quick, agile. He had less muscle
mass than AJ, yet what he lacked in muscle he made up for in strength from
experience. He
sneered
a wicked smile as they stared
each other down, his feet moving him in a circle, ready to pounce.

  
Devin threw the first punch, his hand
connecting with AJ’s jaw and whipping his opponent’s head. AJ responded with an
uppercut to the stomach, knocking Devin back a few feet, another uppercut by AJ
followed by a kick from Devin knocking them both to the ground.

  
As the fight began and the two involved
became focused only on each other, the Healer’s emerged from the woods and
surrounded the two in a circle, entrapping them in the middle as the fight
raged.

  
Devin paid no mind to the others, intent on
destroying AJ. He charged the Healer, barreling into him with a shoulder. It
knocked AJ back before the Healer recuperated enough to grab Devin in a
headlock. Devin’s arms swung methodically, crushing AJ’s ribs with repeated
side punches.

  
A few more of those caused AJ to release
Devin, who stood upright and raised his hands in the air. He didn’t even seem
winded. AJ was beginning to feel the adrenaline rush fading from his system.
Devin charged him again, and AJ jumped aside causing Devin to fall. He sprang
back up immediately and
swayed,
the drugs Addie had
laced the wine with beginning to take effect.

  
Devin looked at her, the anger fueling his
fight. He sprang at her to end her life for her betrayal and was met with the
full force of AJ’s body, knocking both men to the ground. AJ landed on top,
throwing punch after punch, twelve in total. His hands were sore. Although
Devin’s head fell to the side, motionless, AJ hadn’t left a mark – no cuts, no
bruises, no blood. He let his arms fall and as he did, Devin’s head turned back
with an evil grin. Devin sprang up, tossing AJ aside.

  
AJ landed on his back, a rock cutting into
this skin. Devin grabbed his feet, dragging him back the center, the rock
cutting a gash from AJ’s lower back all the way to this shoulder as his body
was dragged across it. The blood seeped out just as it had days before with
Rose’s speared leg.

  
“Such a great responsibility, helping people,
isn’t it AJ?” he said, circling AJ’s beaten body. “Just a shame you couldn’t
save your own mother, isn’t it?”

  
Devin laughed and picked AJ up, punching him
again in the face and letting him fall.

  
AJ looked over at Max and Addie, her still
body lying there, Max desperately trying to find a sign to heal her. AJ’s body
was weak and he grimaced. The world had turned to slow motion as Devin circled
around him.

  
AJ looked back over at Max, the words
silently forming on his lips:
take care
of her.

  
Devin saw his glance and stood over AJ, glaring
directly into the eyes that his hatred had memorized a month before.

  
“It’s really a shame she has to die. She
looked to be so much fun. You really can’t have it both ways though, huh? It’s
either save her or destroy me – you can’t do both. And saving her means I’ll
still be here to ruin your life.”

  
He cackled
,
his arms
spread out as he looked mockingly at the other Healers.

  
“And none of you can touch me, how glorious
is that?”

  
AJ had nothing left but tried desperately to
get up. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that he needed to win. Losing
was not an option. Death didn’t matter for him. Even after the punches, Devin
was standing as if nothing had happened, barely a mark on his body to show that
AJ had inflicted punishment of any kind upon him.

  
Devin walked over and picked AJ up by the
shoulders, laughing. He cocked his arm for one final blow, whispering into AJ’s
ear first.

  
“The fun I’m going to have with her when
you’re not here to stop me…”

  
He let loose, sending AJ flying backwards through
the air, against the Healers that had formed a circle around the two. As he
landed against two of them, something Devin hadn’t anticipated happened – AJ
absorbed their strength. They pulled away moments before he absorbed it all,
and the others stepped together to fill in the gap and create a tighter circle.
Recharged, AJ ran back at Devin, tackling him to the ground. Devin kicked him
off and AJ again landed against a Healer, absorbing the power. While the other
Healers couldn’t attack Devin directly, there were no rules that they couldn’t
pass their power onto AJ. Devin looked at the circle, realizing it was not only
one, but multiple circles surrounding them, hundreds of Healers worth of power
awaiting battle through AJ. He ran at AJ and his steps were off, the drugs
infiltrating his system. They did so at a slower pace than a normal human,
although they were definitely working.

  
As he got close, AJ moved to the side and was
able to clothesline Devin, sending him hard onto the ground. The battle ensued
for what seemed like an hour, Devin growing weaker and woozy as AJ continually
recharged, the circle growing smaller and forcing a tighter and tighter
fighting ground. Devin began to realize that AJ could fight damn near forever.

  
Devin charged again, swinging, and AJ laid
him out with a right hook, his bones as thick as steel when they connected with
the Grim’s chin. As Devin lay on the ground AJ climbed on top of him, placing
his hands on his enemy’s heaving chest, usurping the energy Devin had left. The
Healer closest grabbed onto AJ doubling his power and one by one, the Healers
joined hands until the charge was too great for Devin. With a final breath that
hinted at regret and apology, Devin lay lifeless on the ground before them with
his eyes wide open and aimed at the sky.

  
AJ looked around him, the Healers now walking
to each other and passing on strength where needed for the purpose of survival.
He couldn’t stand. Nearly all of his strength had been taken out of him by his
last blow to Devin and his rubber legs were questionable at best. He crawled on
his hands and knees the fifty feet over to Addie, pulling her up against him.
He wrapped his thick, branch-like arms around her back and hoisted her up from
the ground, brushing the rogue hair back out of her battered face. She was
bruised and cut from the fall, the streaks of blood across her head a red
river. Her breathing was nearly gone. He pressed his forehead into hers,
begging her to live, to carry on for him.

  
“Baby, don’t leave. Let us see – open your
mind. Let me in. Let us in. Open up! Let me see,” he pleaded, no visions coming
to his mind. Max tried as well, placing his hands on her shoulders. There was
nothing.

  
Max walked away, giving them space. If Addie
didn’t open up, he couldn’t help her. He had no choice, and he couldn’t watch
as his friend lost the woman he loved. He’d already lived it once himself.

  
AJ lay down on the cushion of grass beneath
them, his body so near to her they could have been mistaken as one. With his
strength fading, she let her head fall in his direction as she opened her eyes.

  
“Addie,” he whispered. “Baby, don’t go…”

  
He reached his hand over to her and as it
touched her, he saw the visions he had struggled to understand before. She
wasn’t closed off to him. They showed her taking care of Helen and Matthew;
spending time with Rose. They showed her working with children. She was meant
to be saved and the realization was pure gold to his fading mind; a treasure
and a gift that were far greater than anything he had ever received in his
life. AJ smiled at her.
She smiled back.

  
The wind was swaying through the treetops,
whipping the branches of the oak tree above them back and forth. The sun’s rays
speckled their faces and danced back and forth as they peeked through the holes
made by the branches, the warmth of it forcing chills through their bodies.

  
He knew he was going to die that day, although
he thought it would be in battle with Devin; not holding Addie’s hand.

  
He had felt it from the moment he came to
town; something was always off. As he smiled at Addie, he remembered how she
looked the first time they’d met, leaning against his car with the sunlight
reflecting off her hair, the same way it reflected off of it now. Her smile was
contagious and it made him believe that in this little town, life could be
different.

  
He just hadn’t realized how different. He
squeezed Addie’s hand, sending the warmth she had felt the first time they
touched coursing through her veins again. It was electric. Her body arched with
the force, life being breathed back into her.

  
He kept smiling, the pain of the energy
escaping him causing his lips to twitch slightly and Addie knew.