Deception Cove h-10

by Jayne Castle

  The glowing ultraviolet eyes moved toward them with the quick, sharp movements typical of a creature with a jointed exoskeleton. It hesitated, probably because it didn’t like the fire, Drake thought. Then, as if it had come to some decision regarding prey, the monster skittered forward swiftly.

  Houdini hissed.

  Drake waited until the giant insect was within range. He aimed the fire-starter at one of the compound eyes and released the device at full power. The narrow blowtorch beam struck one of the insect’s eyes. There was a loud crackling noise and then a pop when the creature’s exoskeleton exploded under the fiery impact.

  The smell of torched insect drifted through the fog.

  Houdini chortled exultantly.

  There was a short silence. Drake could feel Alice’s tension.

  “You know,” Alice said, “in my experience, whenever you come across one insect, you can usually expect to find more in the vicinity.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing.”

  The second set of glittering eyes appeared from the far end of the cove. Drake waited until it got within range and ignited the fire-starter again. The big insect exploded in a flash of black smoke that quickly faded. Houdini chortled again, getting into the game now.

  “Did you say you had a second fire-starter?” Alice asked.

  “I did say that.” He pulled it out of the pack and gave it to her. “Just press this button. Maximum range is only about twenty feet, so you have to wait until the target gets as close as that pile of rocks over there.”

  She examined the fire-starter in her hand. “Got it.”

  “We’ll sit back-to-back on this log,” Drake said. “That way we’ll still have physical contact, but I’ll be able to keep watch in one direction while you keep an eye out for anything coming up from the opposite end of the beach.”

  “Works for me.”

  She put one jean-clad leg over the log, sitting astride. He did the same. They pressed their backs together, and energy shivered around them as they both jacked up their talents.

  For a time the strange night was silent except for the muffled lapping of the waves in the cove. Drake savored the feel of Alice’s sleek back. She was warm and smelled good. It was ridiculous under the circumstances but it felt right to be here like this together.

  Houdini made an eager, chittering sound.

  Alice stiffened. “My three-o’clock position. Here goes.”

  Drake turned his head and saw a monstrous beetle. “Aim for the biggest part of the thing.”

  Alice rezzed the fire-starter. The beetle disintegrated into a smoky ruin.

  Houdini went wild and did a victory lap around the fire.

  Alice sighed. “Maybe he thinks we’re in the middle of some kind of game.”

  Drake zapped another insect.

  “I do realize that, as honeymoons go, this one is probably not going to make any woman’s top-ten list,” he said.

  “Now, see, there’s where you’re wrong,” Alice said. “It’s all a matter of perspective. I can promise you that this honeymoon is a lot more fun than my last one.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Hey, this time my husband isn’t trying to murder me. He’s saving me from giant cockroaches.”

  “I like your glass-half-full attitude.”

  Chapter 12

  THE TERRIBLE FOG BEGAN TO RETREAT A COUPLE OF hours later. Alice could not be sure of the time because her watch and Drake’s had both stopped, victims of the heavy psi in the area.

  The war with the oversized insects ended shortly thereafter as the surviving monsters retreated back through the fence into the Preserve. The first faint light of dawn appeared.

  Drake swung one leg back over the log so that he was no longer sitting astride and took his mirrored sunglasses out of his jacket.

  “They’re gone,” he said as he put on his glasses. “I was right, they can’t live outside the Preserve during the day. They need the fog to survive.”

  “Thank goodness,” Alice said. “The thought of hiking to Shadow Bay and zapping mutant insects along the way was a little daunting.”

  Houdini chortled a cheerful greeting and looked hopefully at the remaining camp meals.

  “Hungry?” Drake asked. He got to his feet, reached down, and opened the pack. “So am I. Let’s see what we’ve got for breakfast.”

  Alice rose slowly from the driftwood log, stretching to work out some stiff muscles. She watched Drake open the pack, intensely aware that, in spite of everything, she missed the feel of his warm, strong back pressed up against her. She missed the psychic connection that had bound them so intimately through the long, dangerous night. Nothing like surviving an attack of monster insects together to forge a bond between two people, she thought. Don’t read too much into this.

  She studied the scene on the beach in the low light of a sullen gray dawn. There were a handful of charred insect carcasses scattered about on the sand. One of them was way too close for comfort.

  “Yuck,” Alice said. She turned away from the sight of the dead monster, shuddering.

  Drake held up three meal packets. “Looks like stew and pear crisp for breakfast or stew and pear crisp.”

  “Choices, choices,” Alice said. “I think I’ll have stew and pear crisp.”

  “Excellent decision.”

  Drake rezzed three meals. Alice dropped down on the log again to eat her breakfast. Drake sat beside her. They watched Houdini go through the same dithering process that he had gone through the night before, eventually choosing to eat the pear crisp first.

  Alice realized that Drake was smiling a little, not so much in amusement but more like satisfaction, she decided.

  “What?” she asked around a mouthful of stew.

  “Just thinking that we made a good team last night, you, me, and the dust bunny.”

  She thought about that. “Yes, we did, didn’t we?”

  “That said, we need to get to Shadow Bay today. I don’t think we want to spend another night out in the open.”

  Alice froze as a horrible thought struck her. “You said you hadn’t heard from your brother in several days. What if—?”

  “Shadow Bay has been overrun by giant insects?” Drake shook his head. “I don’t think that’s very likely, not on that sector of the island.”

  “Why not?”

  “The town is located a few miles from the fence in a region of Rainshadow that has historically experienced a much lower level of paranormal activity.” Drake angled his head toward the nearby woods. “This sector around Deception Cove, on the other hand, has always been a real hot spot, even before the recent problems. It’s noted on all the old charts. That’s why the fence comes so close to the shoreline around here.”

  “You’re assuming that the mutations would start first in a place like Deception Cove?” Alice thought about it. “Makes sense.”

  “That’s my best guess.” Drake finished his meal and got to his feet. “Let’s move out.”

  It did not take long to pack up the camp, mostly because Drake did all the work, Alice thought. She didn’t even know how to fold the tent.

  “I feel more than a little useless,” she said. “Please don’t hesitate to give instructions.”

  “I won’t.” Drake gave her a coolly approving smile. “And you sure as hell weren’t useless last night.”

  She decided that comment made her feel a lot better.

  Drake handed her the smaller of the two packs. “Here you go.”

  She struggled into the pack and followed him down the beach. Houdini scampered along at their feet, pausing here and there to investigate an interesting rock or log.

  “Everything’s a game to you, isn’t it?” Alice asked him, smiling.

  Drake glanced at Houdini. “Life is simple for a dust bunny. Deciding whether to eat the pear crisp before the stew is probably about as difficult as decision-making gets.”

  The beach ended in a tumble of rocks. Drake wove a path through them and
started into the tree line. Alice followed, concentrating on her footing so intently that she blundered into Drake before she realized that he had stopped and was standing very still.

  She opened her mouth to ask a question, but he silenced her with a small motion of his hand. Houdini, too, had gone silent. He was still fully fluffed and was looking at the woods up ahead as intently as Drake.

  Alice watched Drake take out the fire-starter.

  Oh, crap, she thought. More mutant insects.

  Drake closed his hand around her arm and drew her into the shadows cast by a pile of boulders. They hunkered down and waited.

  Alice heard the crackle of dead branches and pine needles. Small pebbles skittered. Next came the muffled thud of footsteps and the sound of heavy, labored breathing.

  Not insects, she thought. She did not know if that was going to be good news or bad news.

  A moment later a woman appeared, making her way awkwardly through the trees. She was young, probably not more than eighteen or nineteen, thin, and haggard looking, as if she hadn’t eaten or slept well in some time. Her long brown hair straggled around her shoulders. She was dressed in dark green trousers, a matching shirt with a logo on the breast pocket, and heavy boots. A uniform, Alice realized.

  As she and Drake watched, the woman trudged forward, slipping and sliding on the leaves and pebbles.

  Drake straightened and moved out from behind the boulder.

  “Hello,” he said quietly.

  The woman froze. Stark panic etched her features. She looked back over her shoulder and then, evidently deciding she could not retreat that way, took stock of the sheer granite drop into the sea. Seeing no escape via that route, she bolted for the thick woods.

  “No, damn it,” Drake shouted. “Stop. We won’t hurt you.”

  Alice emerged from behind the boulder. “It’s okay. Please, come back.”

  But the fleeing woman did not stop. She disappeared into the heavy undergrowth. Her high-pitched screams echoed in the woods for a moment and then abruptly ceased.

  “Son of a ghost,” Drake said. “She would have to go through the fence.”

  “We can’t leave her there,” Alice said. “We have to find her. She’ll never survive the night inside this part of the Preserve.”

  “I know.” Drake looked grimly resigned to the inevitable. “Okay, let’s go. Stick close.”

  “Don’t worry, I will.”

  The invisible energy of the paranormal fence line made its presence felt within a few steps. The force field was unpleasant and unnerving at first, lifting the hair on the nape of Alice’s neck. She gritted her teeth against the effects and followed Drake deeper into the psi-barrier.

  The hallucinations—auditory and visual—struck hard. Strange figures materialized out of the shadows, beckoning her to her doom. Specters warned her to go back before it was too late. And always, always, there were the bloodcurdling chills that wracked all of her senses. She jacked up her talent to counter some of the effects. She knew that Drake had done the same thing.

  He reached back and held out his hand. She grabbed it. The shock waves of the fence diminished somewhat. Just like last night, she thought. Physical contact helped to ward off the worst of the psychic disturbances.

  Houdini dashed along at their heels, unaffected by the forces.

  And then, between one step and the next, they were through the fence and inside the Preserve. The hallucinations ceased only to be replaced by the strange atmosphere of the Preserve.

  Energy stirred all around Alice—some of it from the botanical world, some from the animal and insect kingdoms. All of it felt overheated. Here and there flashes of psi-light sparked in the shadows. Patches of vegetation glowed. Mushrooms fluoresced. The thick tree canopy overhead blocked out what little daylight there was. An ominous wind stirred the leaves of the trees, causing them to shiver and glitter with malevolent light. The whole place was infused with the dark energy of a building storm front.

  Drake came to a halt. Alice stopped beside him. There was no sign of the woman, but Houdini made urgent little noises and fluttered through a small forest of giant iridescent ferns.

  Alice and Drake followed.

  The screams started again.

  Chapter 13

  THE HEAVY ENERGY OF THE PRESERVE DISTORTED SOUND. Alice could not be sure of the direction of the screams. But she could tell that Drake and Houdini were able to track the desperate cries.

  “This way,” Drake said. “Whatever you do, don’t get lost on me.”

  “I won’t,” Alice vowed. “I’ve been lost in here before, remember?”

  They pushed their way through a maze of massive, phosphorescing palm fronds, Houdini in the lead. Brushing up against the hot greenery sent little sparks of energy across Alice’s senses. The sensation was not painful, but the strangeness of it all made her deeply wary.

  The crying was louder now. The sobbing woman was not far away, but the energy inside the Preserve was so disorienting she might as well have been a hundred miles off.

  Houdini, however, had no problem navigating the strange forest. He scampered through a veil of weird blue orchids and promptly vanished.

  “Wait,” Alice called.

  Houdini reappeared, bounced up and down a few times, and made more excited noises. When they caught up with him, he scampered forward again, heading toward a forest of giant glowing mushrooms.

  It was not just the ferns and the mushrooms that seemed outsized, Alice realized. Much of the vegetation appeared unnaturally large. A waterfall of flowers—each bloom as large as a dinner plate—tumbled from a creeping vine.

  It had been a year since she had last been inside the Preserve, and at that time she had been on a different part of the island. She had seen many strange and unnerving sights on that occasion, but she did not recall anything quite like the huge ferns and the towering mushrooms. A year ago the forbidden territory had been an eerie wonderland, disturbing in some ways but also enthrallingly beautiful. Today she felt as though she was walking through a demon’s garden lit by garish paranormal energy.

  The screams stopped. That was probably not a good sign, Alice thought. Drake was moving faster through the heavy foliage, and Alice hurried to keep up with him.

  They broke out into a small clearing and saw the woman. She was no longer running. She had come to a halt between two large trees. She was still trying to scream but her cries were hoarse and breathless now. She flailed wildly but her movements were severely restricted and becoming more subdued by the second.

  “Son of a ghost,” Drake muttered, raising the fire-starter.

  Alice finally saw what had brought the fleeing woman to a halt. She was trapped in the glistening strands of a giant spiderweb.

  Houdini stopped, hissing. Dread chilled the back of Alice’s neck. She looked up and saw a large, dark, bloated shape. Faceted eyes glittered like ice-cold jewels. There was something both terrifying and compelling about the unblinking gaze. Eight long limbs shifted in the shadows.

  “Spider,” Alice whispered, horrified.

  “Here we go again,” Drake said.

  The spider started toward its prey. The woman was no longer shrieking. She was shivering violently and was so deeply entangled in the sticky strands of glistening silk she could not move her arms and legs.

  Houdini growled. He was not treating this encounter like a game. But Alice knew there was nothing he could do. If he tried to attack the spider, he would become enmeshed in the web.

  “Houdini, no,” Alice said quietly.

  “Keep him out of the way,” Drake ordered.

  Alice scooped up Houdini and tucked him under her arm.

  The spider was closing in on the almost motionless woman.

  Drake rezzed the ignition button on the fire-starter. The narrow flame flashed, striking the spider. It jerked spasmodically and then its eight legs collapsed like matchsticks. The thing plummeted to the ground and didn’t move.

  “You’re okay now,
” Drake told the woman. “I’ll have you free in a few minutes.”

  He used the fire-starter like a small cutting torch and sliced through the web. Alice worried that the silk would burst into flames, but instead it shriveled and melted. The remnants flapped like the spectral cloak of a faded ghost.

  The woman tumbled to the ground. She was covered with strands of spider silk but she was breathing.

  Houdini was still growling, signaling that the danger was not over.

  “We need to get her out of here,” Drake said. “The commotion and the smell of the dead spider will probably attract other things that I’d rather we did not have to deal with. I’ll keep watch while you get her free of the web.”

  Alice went to her knees beside the woman and started scraping off the sticky strands.

  “Can you move?” she said to the blonde.

  “Yes, I-I think so,” the woman gasped.

  She struggled to her knees, swiping at the strands of silk that clung to her face. She stared at Drake.

  “Who are you?” she whispered.

  “Drake Sebastian,” Drake said. “This is my wife, Alice. We can talk this out later. We need to get out of here.”

  The woman flinched, frowned in confusion, and then pulled herself together with visible effort. “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither do I,” Drake said. “We’ll deal with it later.”

  Alice heard something stir in the shadows. Houdini growled again.

  Drake grasped one of the woman’s arms. Alice took the other. They ran back toward the fence line. Houdini dashed after them.

  They plunged through the psi-barrier. When they were on the far side, Alice allowed herself a small sigh of relief. Drake stopped and turned to look at the woman.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “Karen,” the woman said. “Karen Rosser.” She swallowed hard. “Are you going to arrest me?”

  “Why would I do that?” Drake asked.

  “We were told that any member of the staff who violated the terms of the contract would be subject to arrest.”