by Susan Conley
Rounding into the south third floor wing, Adrian felt a stabbing pain in his chest and knew his lungs were caving in. They were stressed to the max and screaming to shut down. Drawing up, he bent over and gave into a spasm of hacking coughs. The coughs elicited a sharp twinge between his shoulder blades and he shot upright again, clutching his chest. Jesus, now the muscles on the right side of his ribcage were screaming for relief. He rubbed the sore spot vigorously, feeling his heartbeat thumping erratically in his chest. Suddenly remembering Janice, he glanced over his shoulder to see how she was faring.
She was sitting on a marble bench off to the left, her hands tugging at the neckline of her sweater. Even disheveled and out of breath, she was a knock-out. Her cheeks were scarlet from the climb and her hair was a tangled web etched around her head. Thanks to their frantic dash, her colorful hair clips had literally gone with the wind. She licked her lips and swallowed hard, and Adrian fought down an urge to cross the space and sweep her into his arms. He thrust the thought away, cursing himself. Why was he thinking of kissing Janice when he should be thinking of escape?
Escape! The word triggered his adrenalin and he came alive. Though they were both exhausted, he knew they couldn’t spare another moment to rest. Not now. They had only two flights left to hide in and he didn’t like the absolute silence that now surrounded them. Their stalker was up to a new trick. He could feel it along the edges of his mind.
Holding out his hand, Adrian summoned Janice with a wiggle of his fingers. She took one look at his hand and shook her head.
“Leave me. I can’t climb another step.”
Right, he was going to leave her. What kind of horse’s ass did she think he was? He saw her cradle her head with one trembling hand and wave him away with the other. Adrian strode to the bench.
“Get up, Janice. Get up or you’re going to die!” His words washed over her as if never spoken. She remained impassive, choosing to ignore the warning. Didn’t she care that they got away from the stalking cloud of lights? Labeling the thought absurd, Adrian bent over, stretched his arm across her shoulder and barked a more serious warning. “Get on your feet, Janice, or that precious daughter of yours will be an orphan by morning!” She bolted from the bench immediately, all signs of exhaustion submerged. She looked to him for directions and he managed a tight smile for her. “Don’t count us out yet. We have time on our side. We don’t have to transform matter to get where we’re going. It does.”
Grabbing her elbow, he steered her forward and they were on their way again, mind and bodies finally moving through the space together. Reaching the fifth floor columned arches, Adrian caught a whiff of a sharp, carbolic odor and drew up. The smell reminded him of sweat and piss, and he drew Janice into the protection of his arm. Ahead, through the arches, a barricade of sparkling lights stretched itself from wall to wall.
“Clever bastard!” He felt Janice’s shiver of unease and encouraged softly. “Relax. We’ll outsmart it.”
“I don’t see how,” she stuttered. Her fingers inched up his shirt and Adrian stilled them.
“I thought you wanted to face the ghosts one on one,” he stated. “Well, here we are.”
“I never thought we’d actually have to do it.”
“Now, you tell me,” Adrian quipped. He pushed Janice from his arms. “Let’s see how badly it wants to stop us. When I say go, pretend to head back to the stairs. The cloud should follow. That will open up the corridor ahead of us. The chapel’s beyond. Make for it.”
Spinning on her toes, Janice swung out of his arms. Immediately, the barricade of light dissipated as Adrian hoped it would. It wanted Janice, wanted her badly. Following his instructions, Janice whirled on her toes and shot past him. The corridor had been left open but Adrian didn’t discount the cloud’s intelligence. It would see their ruse and be back with a vengeance. Swiveling around, he dashed after Janice. In seconds, he was tailing her closely and protecting her back.
The last fifty yards to the chapel door were the longest thirty seconds of his life. At every step, Adrian expected to be showered with sparkling lights and knocked unconscious. Or worse, killed outright. When he reached the chapel doors unharmed, he thrust out his arms, slammed the door open and barreled inside. Janice sailed in on his heels, and as one, they spun and slammed the doors closed with a heavy swipe. The resounding clang echoed unbelievably loud in the silence of the sanctuary, causing Adrian to grind his bottom teeth into his lower lip. Next to him, Janice gave an involuntary shudder and collapsed against the door.
Following suit, Adrian leaned his forehead on the wooden frame, grateful for their good luck. Behind him, he could hear Janice’s sudden wracking coughs. They were winded but they were alive. At least for the moment. Hoisting himself around, he found Janice staring at him between coughs.
“Why the chapel?” she stammered.
Adrian flushed, wondering if he dared tell her the truth. Why not? He couldn’t appear any more foolish to her than he already did.
“Let’s just say, I foolishly believe that the devil won’t set foot in God’s house.”
To his amazement, she seemed impressed with that answer and nodded at him with complete understanding. She followed the nod with a flashing smile.
“If there’s a joke in all this, I sure would like to hear it,” he said.
He hands arced up and swept toward the pew, altar and crucifix.
“God’s house … marriage … vows … Lisette … the baron … you … me.” She began to laugh then and her laughter held a sharp edge. Adrian caught the irony immediately. They had exchanged one danger for another just as likely to take their lives. He didn’t find the irony amusing in any way. Her laughter changed abruptly into an unexpected sob and Adrian darted across the space and gathered her close to him. He shook her shoulders in a firm warning.
“Don’t fall apart on me now, Janice. I need you. It’s going to take both our minds to outwit the ghosts.”
She sobered at his warning and pushed herself from his arms. Her fingernails tapped his chest.
“I’m not going to crack. At least I think I’m not. I hope I’m not.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and there was a trace of laughter in her voice once more as she teased. “I hope you’re taking notes on the spirit’s performance. The illusion is simply spectacular. You could probably use parts of it in your act.”
“Bite your tongue.”
“No, I mean it. That barricade of light was simply smashing. Think of it under stage lights. The effect would be mesmerizing.”
“Thanks for the advice but my act already has a finale with laser lights.”
“Erotic and sexy, I’ll bet,” Janice added lightly.
“And all of it done with the use of satin sheets,” Adrian remarked. He let his glance become lazily seductive as it traveled up and down her long-legged, slender form. His scorching gaze brought a fresh flush of color to her cheeks and he saw her shiver at the husky tone of his voice. Had that been a trembling thrill he noticed? Was she hungry for his touch and unaware of it? He stilled an impulse to reach out and gather her in his arms again, this time to do more than calm her fraying nerves.
Turning his gaze to the avant-garde crucifix over the altar, he wondered if he found Janice so desirable because she was so unattainable. No. His need for her ran deeper than that.
It was more compelling than sexual fulfillment. It crossed more barriers than just the flesh. And because it did, it stabbed his heart to know that when this hell was over she would leave him. Carefully, he blocked his mind from the cutting edge of loneliness that thought brought and tried to concentrate on the Stations of the Cross along the chapel wall.
Janice’s laugh was like a whinny when it came, her smile singularly sweet.
“Muriel is right. Your jaded wit can be highly entertaining.” She left him then, sliding into the ba
ck pew closest to the door. Quickly, her fingers shot to her hair, attempting to restore the curls to some semblance of sanity. Working out the kinks, she shot Adrian a serious glance.
“What do we do now?”
He moved to the pew opposite her, dropping down with a groan. He offered her a wry smile and a shrug.
“We wait.”
Chapter 21
SATURDAY — 4:50 AM
Stroking his chin, Jasper carefully regarded the gold doorknob. Why he thought that the door would budge under his forceful prodding this time when it had refused to budge the last five times was a mystery to him. The door was firmly sealed from the outside and they were very cleverly trapped on the inside. No use lamenting, no use pushing or prodding it. The ghosts had tired of waiting on them. They now had every intention of ending the cat and mouse game currently underway. Janice’s prediction showed every sign of coming true. They would be shut down one by one in the next few minutes.
But why? Jasper couldn’t imagine — well, he could — but since only crazy dogs sat uselessly baying at the moon, he decided he wasn’t wasting his energy worrying when he might need that energy for something more important, like his and Muriel’s survival. Something was coming, something bad. Every nerve ending in his body told him so. What had happened to Adrian and Janice?
A tattoo along his right temple had him suddenly wincing. Drat, he had been concentrating so hard on piercing through the wood to find the couple that he had given himself a headache. And his precognition was blocked again, as if a shutter lens had suddenly closed to block out rays of glaring understanding. He didn’t know where Adrian or Janice were — couldn’t sense their life forces. But he did know one thing. His mind was being manipulated to keep the couple’s whereabouts a secret from him.
Raising his gaze to the ceiling, Jasper listened to the silence surrounding them. Was the invisible tension in the air part of his mind blockage? It had to be. Otherwise, he’d be able to sense Muriel probing his mind for answers. Quickly, he dropped his gaze and found her. Immediately, he saw the two deep lines of worry between her brows. Seated beside Ginger’s sleeping form, her head was slightly bowed as she remained in an attitude of frozen stillness. She looked tired and he wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before. He was usually so in tune with her life force that it was hard to tell where she ended and he began.
She sat staring at Ginger but Jasper knew she wasn’t really seeing the girl at all. She was working out their new predicament in her head. Her unseeing stare signified it. Whether mildly disturbed or severely rattled, Jasper knew she had the power to shut down, go inside herself and seek God’s solace and answer. He envied her that trait. For all his ministerial prowess, he was unable to connect with God’s solace by the same method. By the look on her face, he guessed she was worrying about Janice and Adrian’s disappearance. He had to admit she had reason. He was more than worried himself.
Unsettled by her intense concentration, Jasper had a sudden inexplicable feeling of emptiness. For a brief moment, his senses warned him he was going away from Muriel. Was his death imminent? Was that why his mind was blocked? To shut off the knowledge from him? He murmured a prayer of hope that his senses were wrong. He didn’t want to leave Muree. Not quite yet.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, he shelved his worry and crossed the small distance to the ottoman where Muriel sat. He wedged himself into the seat next to her. His touch on her elbow was light, yet protective.
“They’ll be all right,” he said, quietly.
Not to his surprise, she came out of her reverie, understanding his words without interpretation. She scanned his face, feature by feature.
“Can you sense them, Jasper?”
“No. I’m being blocked out. I can’t read any life force, not even yours.”
She must have sensed the hidden worry in his word because Jasper found his hand clutched tightly. Her voice was patient and encouraging.
“It’s not so surprising really. You pose the biggest danger to the spirit. With your ability to tell when it’s crossing over, it can’t use the element of surprise on us.” She leaned her forward, her voice turning overly serious. “You’ve changed a lot of people’s lives by pretending you can’t read their future, Jasper. And I love you for it. But this is not the time to be silent. You must force your mind past the blockage. I’m worried for Janice. If forced to, she will sacrifice herself to the spirits to save us. She may have already.”
Jasper dismissed the thought with an airy wave of his hand though his expression grew thoughtful.
“She’s with Adrian, and he will see to it she doesn’t do anything foolish.”
“I’m not so sure. Janice was going to convince him they must separate from the rest of us.”
“Yes, I heard.”
She directed a stare at him that spoke volumes about eavesdroppers.
“Then you already know Adrian said he wouldn’t agree, but what if he had no choice?” They’d both heard Janice’s frantic screaming through the wooden door earlier. Even now in his own head, he could hear the panicked shout followed by a desperate pounding on the doorframe. “You heard her voice, Jasper,” Muriel continued, “she was scared. Something was happening to them out there. If only we knew what it was.” She lifted her eyes, seeking his comfort and Jasper immediately caught her hand in his. He squeezed her fingers with more encouragement that he actually felt.
“Adrian’s not about to let anything happen to Janice. You’ve seen the way he looks at her. His eyes smolder with passion one minute, brim with tenderness the next. Unless I read him wrong, and I haven’t,” he stressed quietly. “Adrian will sacrifice his life for Janice if it comes to that.”
Muriel nodded dubiously.
“Janice can be quite persuasive. And quite stubborn.” Without warning, she lifted her fingers and caressed his cheekbone. “I love you, Jasper. Have I told you that today?”
Jasper’s pulse skittered in response and he drank in the comfort of her nearness.
“In every glance you gave me, Muree.” Unexpectedly, he found himself stilling her fingers, flipping her hand over and pressing a kiss in the center of her palm. “This isn’t exactly how I envisioned this trip would turn out,” he commented. “I was hoping we’d have some romantic moments together.”
Her gentle laugh rippled in the air.
“Why, Jasper, we’re literally surrounded by romance. Ghosts have traveled across time to rekindle a love that was lost and two young people we just met have fallen madly in love and don’t know it yet. And we’ve been locked in a room together with two bedrooms. Now, if that isn’t romantic, I don’t know what is.”
Jasper threw back his head and snorted good-naturedly. God, he did so love Muree’s Pollyanna sense of humor. In a flash, a busted laugh joined his and he cradled her into the circle of his arms. Spirits soaring, he kissed the tip of her nose, then her eyes, and finally, his lips descended and captured her mouth.
At first her lips were warm and pliant beneath his and then like a sudden blast of icy wind, her lips turned cold and she pulled away. She raised a hand to shelter her eyes from him and Jasper had the uncanny sensation of emptiness again. Something’s coming, something bad. The warning had him almost jumping out of his skin. He leaned forward, knotting his fingers with Muriel.
“What’s going on, Muree? Tell me.” Her gaze never left his face but Jasper sensed a slight withdrawal from her. “Are you ill?” he prodded again, this time more urgently.
She shook her head.
“Not ill, experiencing pain.”
Something’s coming, something bad. The words seemed to reverberate like an echo down a well. He let go her hands, his palms suddenly beginning to sweat.
“How long?” he quizzed. “What kind of pain?”
“I’m having difficulty concentrating,” she murmured as she raised h
er hand to her temple to massage the flesh. “I’m short of breath and I feel an odd draining of energy, as if someone’s trying to pull open a locked door.”
Offering his unspoken support, Jasper touched her elbow lightly. A sharp gasp burst from her throat at the touch. Her body twitched once, twice, and then stiffened with a taut jerk. In the next instance, she threw her hands up in front of her face as if to barricade herself from some unseen presence.
“Crossover.”
The word startled Jasper as she toppled forward, sinking into a sudden, total blackout.
Lightning-quick, Jasper made a dive for her slumping body. He absorbed the weight of her fall, and neatly hoisted her up and about, settling her into the deep green cushions of his vacated chair. Wrapping his fingers around her pulse point, he sought entrance to her thoughts.
He met fire. Angry fire. Waves of it. Reeling under the invisible heat, he pulled his mind back and frantically shouted toward the doorframe to his left.
“Lloyd!”
Waiting for no response, his gaze returned to Muriel, attempting to connect the mind link again. He had to know if she was all right. He shut his eyes, driving his mind deep into hers. A second later, his mind collided with two life forces instead of the one he expected.
Feeling the power of the presence, he tried to force the alien entity out of Muriel’s mind. Instead, he found himself taking the brunt of a savage fire bolt along his forehead. His physical body jerked backwards, as if stung. The entity wanted him out, would drive him out if he resisted.
Well, he wasn’t going. He wouldn’t leave Muriel to the mercy of such blind rage.
Steeling himself, Jasper pushed his energy into overdrive, fighting to keep his mind linked to Muriel’s. Shock. Anger. Fury. Hostility. Sensation after sensation of pure hate hit him, yet Jasper refused to drop his mental barriers. He intended to block the alien link with just as much force as it was blocking his.
