Bridal Jitters

by Jayne Castle

  The difference between this section of the catacombs and those on the other side of the waterfall, of course, was that this sector had not yet been officially mapped. The safest way out would be to go back through the waterfall, but that would not be possible until Sam had recovered from the aftereffects of melting amber. Besides, Leon Drummond might be waiting on the other side.

  She checked her earrings. “My amber is still good. At least we won’t lose our sense of direction.”

  Underground, the only thing that kept you oriented was tuned amber. Without it, the endless miles of eerie quartz tunnels became a hopelessly impenetrable labyrinth, even with a locator.

  “Drummond tried to kill us,” Sam said without inflection. “My guess is he’s our Halloween trickster.”

  “The one who left that trap on our doorstep last night?”

  “Yeah. Someone must be paying him very well to sabotage Ewert’s map team. The guild frowns on that sort of thing. Bad public relations.”

  “Especially now when the guild is trying so hard to build a good public image.” Virginia scrambled awkwardly to her feet. She glanced down, half-expecting to find scorch marks on her trousers. She saw nothing but a few new wrinkles. She looked up again. “Sam, you must be exhausted.”

  “Not yet. The afterburn is still kicking in. The buzz will last for about an hour. Then I’m going to have to crash for at least two or three hours. No way to beat it.”

  She nodded. The syndrome was well-known. Ghost-hunters who expended large amounts of psi energy needed time to recover.

  Sam studied the corridors that branched off in different directions behind her. “We need to find a place where we can hole up for a while. In an hour I’m going to be asleep, like it or not.”

  She glanced around. “Why can’t we just stay here? No one else is going to come through that waterfall.”

  “Probably not,” Sam agreed. “But that’s not what’s got me worried.”

  “Well? What is worrying you? Aside from the fact that Drummond just tried to nail us?”

  “It occurs to me that whoever hired Leon Drummond to keep Mac Ewert from making any progress in this corridor may be working illegally on this side of the waterfall.”

  Virginia widened her eyes as understanding hit her. “Yes, of course. An illegal excavation project on this side would explain a lot. But if you’re right, we could run into Drummond’s pals any minute.”

  “I’d say that’s a definite risk.” He started toward her. “Come on, we’ve got to find a place to hide until I can sleep off the afterburn.”

  “There are bound to be some chambers or rooms we can duck into for a few hours,” she said. “All we have to do is pick one that doesn’t look like it’s been charted yet. Odds are no one will find us during the next few hours. Heck, I doubt if anyone will even come looking for us. Drummond must think we’re dead. He’ll no doubt report that we got reckless, got ourselves fried by that waterfall, and that the firm of Gage & Burch is out of business.”

  “True. He can’t have any way of knowing that we survived. All the same, I don’t want to take any more chances than necessary.” Sam looked at her. “We haven’t got a lot of time.”

  The prowling urgency in him worried her. She opened her mouth to say something reassuring, but the words got caught in her throat. He was only a short distance away now. For the first time since they had come through the waterfall, she got a close look at his eyes. What she saw there stilled her breath for a few seconds.

  Hot, intense, brilliant; sexual desire, elemental and dangerously compelling, blazed in his eyes. His gaze literally glittered with what, in any other circumstances, she might have mistaken for the first evidence that he felt a degree of genuine passion for her.

  Adeline’s question came back to her in an uncomfortable rush. “So, is it true what they say about ghost-hunters? Are they really amazing in bed after they’ve zapped a ghost? I’ve heard the sex is unbelievable right after a burn.”

  What she saw in Sam now, she realized, was no more than the aftereffects of a massive expenditure of ghost-hunter psi talent. Chemically speaking, it was the result of a combination of testosterone, adrenaline, and the potent biological cocktail his paranormal powers had dumped into his bloodstream.

  Nothing personal, she reminded herself. He wasn’t attracted to her, per se. It just happened that he was rezzed for sex, and she was the only female in sight. Anything in skirts would probably do just fine for him at that moment.

  “Uh, Sam? Are you okay?”

  “No.” He went past her, heading for the first branching corridor. “Let’s get moving.”

  Chapter 3

  He was freaking her out. He knew it, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Hanging on to his self-control required every shred of what little willpower he could muster. Getting them both safely through the waterfall had required more power than he’d ever used in his life; more than he’d known he possessed. He did not intend to tell Virginia the truth: that it had been damned close. They had made it, but in the process he’d poured so much psychic wattage through his amber that he’d destroyed the resonating properties of the precision-tuned stone. Melting amber meant you’d pushed the envelope. There was always a price to pay.

  He’d experienced the sexual buzz that often occurred after a major burn before. In the past, he’d always felt fully in control of the predictable arousal. But this time things were different. It wasn’t just that the burn had been bigger; the real problem was that this time, he was alone with Virginia, the woman he’d been lusting after for nearly two months.

  He was in the grip of a feverish desire that was all the worse because he had worked so hard to suppress and conceal it.

  All right, so he had a major hard-on. Just a few rampaging hormones. So what? He wasn’t a kid. He could control himself. He had to control himself. If he lost it now, he would probably terrify her and turn her against him forever. Any chance he had with her would go up in smoke.

  He tried to concentrate on moving ahead down the corridor, searching the walls for the barest hint of illusion energy that would indicate a hidden chamber they could use. All of the rooms that had ever been discovered in the corridors had been found sealed with illusion traps. If they could find a sealed room that looked as if no one else had ever de-rezzed the trap that guarded it, Virginia could unseal it, and they could hide inside for a few hours.

  Simple. All he had to do was concentrate and not think about the fact that she was only a few inches away.

  “Sam, you’re shivering.” Virginia touched his forehead with gentle, questing fingers. “Good heavens, you’re burning up. You must be running a temperature. Is this normal?”

  “Damn it, don’t touch me.” He closed his eyes briefly and drew a deep breath. Great. Now he was snapping at her. “We’ll both be sorry if you do.”

  She frowned; not with fear or trepidation but with a concern that horrified him. If she started in with the sweet, nurturing stuff, he was doomed.

  “This can’t be normal,” she insisted. “I think that burn must have made you ill.”

  “Trust me, it’s normal,” he said through set teeth. “A little intense, but normal.”

  He could not screw up and lose control. Not now. It was crucial that he did not scare her to death. Because maybe, just maybe, he really had heard her say “I love you” in those few seconds before he carried her through the waterfall.

  “Slow down, Sam, I can’t keep up with you.”

  He realized that he was loping down the corridor as he raked the walls for telltale signs of illusion dark. “Sorry.” He forced himself to slow somewhat.

  “It’s okay. Let me worry about finding a trapped chamber. We’re back into my field of expertise now.” She moved out ahead of him. “I think I see something up ahead. Yes, I can feel it.”

  He tried but he did not pick up the psychic tang of illusion dark. “I don’t feel a damn thing.”

  “Probably because your para-senses ar
e temporarily over-rezzed. But I’m sure there’s something up there.” She broke into a quick trot. “Positive. And it’s big. A big trap usually indicates a large chamber. Maybe we’ll luck out and find a palace. They always have lots of little antechambers around them. Plenty of places to hide.”

  He hoped she was right. Beneath the clawing surge of sexual need and the rush of the burn buzz, he thought he could detect the first warnings of the crash that would soon follow. He could not afford to collapse here in the open corridor. Not when there was a possibility that Leon Drummond’s cohorts might be in the neighborhood. He had to stay on his feet long enough to make sure Virginia was safe.

  He followed her around a bend and saw that she had come to a halt in front of what, at first glance, appeared to be a section of green quartz wall. But there was something not quite right about the center portion. He peered more closely, blinking to clear his jumpy vision. The wall wavered slightly before it came back into focus. Illusion dark.

  “Big,” he muttered.

  “Yes. Very unusual. Also very, very old.”

  The thoughtful, decidedly academic tone of her voice worried him. The last thing they could afford to do was waste time while she analyzed the trap from a professional point of view.

  “You can write it up for an article in the Journal of Para-Archaeology when this is over,” he said roughly. “Right now, we need to get into the space behind it.”

  She gave him a disgruntled look. “I know. Give me a minute here, though. There’s something different about this trap.”

  A new wave of concern washed through him, rezzing up the already fizzing effects of the afterburn just as it had started to fade. “Can you handle it? Because if not, we’ve got to find another—”

  “I can handle it,” she assured him. “It’s just... different, that’s all. I can’t explain—” She broke off. “Never mind.”

  She went to work untangling the trap that barred the door. Restlessly, he watched the corridor in both directions while she de-rezzed the entrance.

  “Got it,” Virginia whispered softly.

  There was a disturbing note in her voice, but he did not have time to question her about it. He swung around and saw that there was now an opening in the green wall. Virginia had already moved through it.

  He followed her quickly, surprised that he had to give his eyes a moment to adjust to the shadowy interior of the chamber. His first impression was of a vast space filled with green-drenched shadows. His surroundings glowed, just as the tunnel did, but the light emitted by the quartz was much weaker and much dimmer in here. The effect was an emerald twilight.

  The only thing he could tell for certain was that this chamber was large, much bigger than any of the others he had ever seen. In the gloom he could not make out the far walls or the ceiling. The space was filled with a number of structures of various sizes, all fashioned of the familiar green quartz. They were packed closely together and piled on top of each other, forming what looked like miniature city blocks crammed with a number of small apartments. The blocks were separated by narrow, twisting lanes.

  He started toward the nearest of the apartments, assessing it as a potential hideout. He saw a narrow opening. It looked large enough to provide access to the interior of the building but small enough to be protected by a single man armed with a mag-rez gun.

  Perfect.

  “Hang on while I reset the trap,” Virginia said behind him.

  He paced restlessly while she worked. In a matter of seconds, illusion shadow once more obscured the entrance of the chamber.

  “It won’t deceive a trained tangler,” she said as she turned back to face him, “but it might go unnoticed by a hunter or an excavation team worker, especially if he or she is in a hurry.”

  “With luck, there’s no one out there looking for us.”

  “But you don’t want to depend on luck, do you?”

  “No.” He scanned the dim chamber. “What the hell is this place?”

  “Who knows?” She walked slowly toward him, searching the narrow canyons between the apartment-like structures. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Maybe it was a zoo. All those little cubicles and small rooms might have once been cages for animals.”

  “Maybe. Could just as easily have been a storage locker facility or an office park or a prison.”

  “We’ll probably never know.”

  He came to a halt in front of the nearest apartment structure. It appeared to be several stories high. He could see many rows of neatly marked openings on the side.

  “There must be a hundred little rooms in there,” he said. “We can use one of them.”

  “Sam?” Virginia sounded uneasy again. “Are you thinking of hiding inside that particular building?”

  “Uh-huh. Is it trapped?”

  She went closer to examine the nearest entrance.

  “Yes,” she said.

  He frowned. “Well? Can you untangle it?”

  “Yes,” she said again very evenly.

  He waited for a few seconds, but he did not sense any psi energy. She was staring at the trapped entrance, but she wasn’t working.

  “What the hell’s wrong?” he asked. “It’s not like we’ve got all day here.”

  She turned slowly to face him. In the green twilight her eyes were more shadowed than the interior of the cubicle.

  “Not this one,” she said. “Let’s try another one.”

  He started to argue and then reminded himself that when it came to traps, she was the pro. “All right, pick another one, but hurry.”

  She was already moving down the narrow lane between two looming structures. He paced behind her, controlling his temper when she passed up three more trapped entrances. Silently he willed her to make her choice so that he could get on with the task of rigging up some sort of defense that would protect her while he slept off the afterburn.

  She turned at an intersection and went down another lane. Just when he was ready to take charge and make the choice for her, she came to a halt.

  “Here,” she said. She sounded relieved. “This one is okay. We can go inside.”

  “About time,” he growled. “Do what you have to do.”

  She glanced at him. “No problem. There’s no trap at this entrance.”

  “Damn.” He took a closer look. The doorway she had chosen looked more elaborate than the others. It was wider, more ornately carved. It was taller, too. He shook his head. If push came to shove, it would not be as easy to defend. He turned away, scanning the ranks of darkly glowing openings in the green walls.

  “No good,” he said brusquely. “Pick one with a trap that you can reset after we’re inside. It will give us an extra level of protection.”

  “This is the only one I’ve seen that feels okay.”

  He scowled. “What the hell do you mean, it feels okay?”

  “Just what I said. This one is okay.” Stubborn determination gleamed in her eyes. “This is my area of expertise, and I’m telling you that this will be a safer place to hide than any of the other possibilities that I’ve seen so far.”

  “But it’s not even trapped.”

  “There’s something wrong about those traps on the other entrances,” she said. “I could untangle them, but I don’t think that I should.”

  “You don’t think you should?” He wanted to shake her. Didn’t she realize he was trying to protect her? “What kind of a reason is that? If we get cornered in this chamber by a couple of hunters trying to protect an illegal excavation site, we’re going to need all the help we can get. I want a doorway that’s well-trapped.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself and looked at him with unshakable conviction. “We can’t go into any of those other rooms. Trust me on this, Sam. This is the only chamber I’ve seen yet that feels safe.”

  He hesitated. “Safe?”

  “Yes.” She unhugged herself and touched his cheek. She dropped her hand immediately when he flinched. “Sam, we’ve got to get you i
nside. You’re in bad shape. You’re scaring me.”

  “Just don’t touch me,” he warned. “Not until I’ve slept this off.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. How can it hurt if I touch you? Sam, you’re not yourself. If you’ve got an ounce of sense, you’ll admit that you’re in no condition to be in charge of the firm of Gage & Burch at the moment.”

  She was right, but he did not want to admit it. Another wave of shivering swept over him. “Find a trapped room.”

  “We don’t have time to keep looking. You need sleep.”

  “In a while. Not just yet.”

  “I’m officially declaring myself the boss of this partnership, at least for now. And I say you need sleep. Come with me.”

  She reached out without warning. Her hand closed around his arm, sending a tide of sensation screaming through his senses. This time he knew he was lost. The raging hunger roared past the last of his defenses. A great shudder of need wracked him. He no longer possessed the will to resist.

  When she tugged him gently toward the doorway, he lurched once and then stumbled after her. At that moment he would have followed her anywhere; straight into hell, if that was where she wished to lead him.

  She seemed oblivious to the storm that had him in its grip. She drew him through the untrapped doorway into a wide, softly lit room. He was vaguely aware of a tall piece of statuary in the center of the space. It soared toward the ceiling, delicately carved in the familiar airy, abstract designs the Harmonics had favored. There was a shallow pool beneath it. Emerald streams of sparkling energy poured gently from the top of the ornately designed quartz. The gentle waves bounced and splashed in the pool.

  “A fountain,” Virginia breathed in wonder. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Never even heard of anything like it. Maybe this place was some sort of park, or maybe it was a garden in some wealthy Harmonic home. But why all the little tiny rooms in that warren outside?”