Death Touch novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Rules

Forrest is cruel in the first lesson, Mara stops a dying leaf, and he says that once she can hold a leaf, she holds him.

The first lesson started at five in the morning, and Sergeant Dalton did not say good morning.

He said, "Pick up the plant."

I stood in the empty training room with the potted plant on a steel table in front of me.

It was small and green, with five leaves.

I had my gloves on.

"I thought you said not to touch it."

"That was last night. Pick it up."

I picked it up by the pot.

"Now take off your right glove."

"Sergeant."

"Do it."

I peeled the glove down my fingers, slowly, my heart going hard.

Eighteen years of habit told me to stop.

"Touch the leaf," he said. "Don't hold it. Just rest your finger on it."

"It'll die."

"Then it dies. It's a plant."

His voice was flat and cold, and I hated how much it steadied me.

I set my fingertip on the nearest leaf.

The pull came at once, that small hot drain under my skin.

The green went grey around my finger.

The grey spread outward, and the leaf began to curl.

"That's the kill," Dalton said. "What did you do to start it?"

"Nothing. I just touched it."

"Wrong. You wanted it."

"I did not."

"Your whole body leaned in. I watched it from here."

He walked around the table.

"Your shoulder dropped and your breath went out. Whatever Fenn taught you, she taught you to feed it."

I glared at him.

"You don't know anything about what she taught me."

"I know you're standing there letting a leaf die and calling it an accident."

The grey crept toward the stem.

My jaw tightened.

I thought about pulling my hand away, which was what I always did.

Instead I held my finger still.

I thought of the opposite of wanting.

I thought of a closed door, a stone, the cold nothing of a lab at night.

I let my shoulder rise and my breath hold.

The pull faltered.

The grey stopped.

It stopped on the leaf, a hair from the stem, and stayed there.

I stared at it.

It was the first time in my life anything had stopped.

"Don't breathe on it," Dalton said quietly. "Hold it."

I held it for ten seconds, then twenty.

The tip of the leaf stayed dead.

The rest of the plant stayed green.

When I finally lifted my finger, my hand was shaking so hard I had to set it down.

"I did that," I whispered.

"You did one leaf."

"I stopped it."

"After you killed it." But the corner of his mouth moved, just slightly, before he flattened it again. "Do it again tomorrow."

The door banged open behind us.

A girl with short blond hair and a duffel bag as big as she was stumbled in, out of breath.

"Sorry! Wrong room, I'm looking for the staff wing, they said I'm your roommate?"

She pointed at me.

"Are you Mara? You killed Brent Talmadge's hand! Everyone's talking about it. Is that a real plant?"

I did not know whether to laugh or die.

"I didn't kill it. He'll keep it."

"Even better! I'm Trina Allbritton. Tulsa. I sleep like a dead person and I eat everything, I hope that's okay."

Dalton rubbed his eyes.

"Cadet, you're not supposed to be in here."

"The colonel signed my transfer himself, Sergeant. He said I volunteered." She grinned at me. "I did not volunteer. But I'm very friendly."

"She's not allowed to touch you," Dalton said to her, not unkindly. "Ever. Understand that now."

"Yes, sir." Trina's grin faded just a little. "I'll stay in my half."

I felt something strange in my chest, small and warm and unfamiliar.

Nobody had ever volunteered to stay in a half for me.

Dalton waited until she'd gone to drop her bag.

Then he turned back to me, and he was not smiling anymore.

He looked at the plant, then at me, and the hard line of his mouth went tighter.

"Again tomorrow," he said. "And once you can hold a leaf, you hold me."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend