Gift of Fire

by Jayne Ann Krentz

  “Don’t you like Oliver?”

  “He’s all right, I guess. Just another weirdo.”

  Verity giggled. “You’re loaded with strange psychic talent, and you’ve got the nerve to call him weird!”

  Jonas was quiet for a moment. “The thing is, I don’t think of my talent as weird. It’s a part of me, just like being able to see, or hear, or touch is a part of me. It’s like having a sixth sense. It’s given me trouble for a good portion of my adult life, and there have been times when I thought it would drive me insane, but it’s never seemed alien or strange. It’s just part of me.” He hesitated again, then added, “It’s like you, in a way.”

  “Me!”

  “Yeah, you.” He smiled. “You give me a lot of trouble, and there are times when I think you’ll drive me insane, but I’m stuck with you. You’re a part of me. Here.” He juggled the sacks and duffel bag until he could fish a small white package out of his jacket pocket. “This is for you.”

  “A present? For me?” Verity was startled. She managed to take the package from him. It carried the logo of the shop where she had seen the fire-colored earrings. She knew instantly what was in the package. “Jonas, how sweet. Thank you.” She tore the package open and peered eagerly inside. Crystal flames winked at her. “They’re beautiful! Absolutely beautiful.”

  “They weren’t very expensive,” Jonas said uneasily. “Are you sure those are the ones you liked?” His gaze was very intent as he watched her delighted expression.

  “Definitely. I love them. Thank you, Jonas.” Verity stood on tiptoe and managed to brush his cheek with her lips even though the sacks they were carrying got in the way.

  “I’m touched, really touched. It was so sweet of you to remember them this morning.”

  “I don’t know about the color of those earrings,” Jonas remarked as they resumed walking toward the marina. “I still think you’d look better with something that matched your eyes.”

  “These are the ones I want.” She stowed the package safely in her pocket. She couldn’t wait to put them on. “They’re just right.”

  “In that case,” Jonas said softly, “consider them an engagement gift.”

  Verity snapped her head around to stare at his rock-hard profile. “You can’t do that.”

  “Can’t do what?” he asked innocently.

  “You can’t give a gift with…with strings like that attached.”

  “Verity,” he said wearily, “you’re old enough to know there are strings attached to everything in life. And you’re smart enough to realize that I’ll put strings on you any way I can. You want the earrings?”

  “You know I want the earrings,” she muttered, clutching the small box. She wanted them very badly, more than she had realized when she’d first spotted them in the window. The earrings were hers, they belonged to her. She was certain of it.

  “Then you keep them and the strings that come with them.”

  “I don’t have to accept them on your terms.”

  “You don’t have any choice. And I’d appreciate it if you’d stop whining. Whining women are extremely annoying.”

  “I’ll whine as much as I like. Pregnant women are entitled to whine.” As a snappy come-back, that lacked something, but Verity was unable to think of anything else. She definitely did not intend to return the earrings. Jonas could put all the imaginary strings he liked on his gift. She didn’t have to accept them along with the jewelry.

  “That’s one of the things I like about you, sweetheart. You always go down fighting.”

  “Don’t push your luck, Quarrel.”

  “It’s not luck I’m pushing. It’s you.”

  Forty minutes after leaving the marina, Jonas docked the launch in the cove below the villa. The squall line from the approaching storm dogged their heels as he and Verity climbed the path to the old fortress. Doug Warwick met them at the door.

  “Glad you made it in ahead of the storm,” he said as he took the packages out of Verity’s arms. “Otherwise you would have been stranded in town until tomorrow. I’d rather not lose any more time than necessary this week. Find out anything interesting from your contacts?”

  Much to Verity’s relief, Jonas did not take noticeable offense at Doug’s comment about wasting time. “Just straightened out a few details,” he replied easily, his eyes on Verity. “How are things going here?”

  “I think acute boredom is setting in.” Doug grimaced. “I wish to hell Elyssa hadn’t invited Crump, Spencer, and Yarwood. We’ve all been stuck inside since yesterday because of the rain, and I think we’re starting to get on each other’s nerves. Spencer keeps trying to bait Yarwood, and Yarwood and Elyssa seem to be feuding. Crump just reads articles about herbal remedies or wanders around the halls. I think that guy’s a little strange, if you want to know the truth. He makes me nervous. I’ll be glad when this week is over. What’s the next phase of the big treasure hunt?”

  “The west wing, I think,” Jonas said, slipping into his academic voice as he discoursed on Leonardo da Vinci’s influence on Milanese architecture and described how traces of it could be seen in the west wing of the villa.

  “I didn’t know that Leonardo da Vinci actually built anything,” Verity interrupted in surprise.

  Jonas glared at her with fine academic condescension. “As far as we know, he didn’t. But he did a series of theoretical drawings that influenced Bramante and others.”

  “Oh, I see.” Chastened by his authoritative tone, Verity started toward the stairs. When she glanced back over her shoulder she saw a suspicious glint of amused satisfaction in Jonas’s eyes. The man was not above using the academic put-down when he wanted to dominate a situation, Verity discovered.

  The upstairs bedroom was chilly, like every other room in the drafty old villa, but at least it had an adjacent bathroom. Verity fiddled with the small heater, dried her damp hair, and changed her clothes. She was thinking about going downstairs to give Maggie Frampton a hand with dinner when someone knocked on the door.

  She opened the door and found Elyssa Warwick smiling serenely. Verity forced herself to smile back. “Hello, Elyssa. What can I do for you?”

  “Jonas and Doug and the others have gone off to explore the west wing. I thought it might be a good time for the two of us to have a little talk. Something very important has happened.”

  Verity stifled a pang of uneasiness. “What do you want to talk about, Elyssa?”

  “May I come in?” Elyssa walked into the bedroom without waiting for an invitation. She was wearing a pair of white wool slacks and a white sweater. Her silvery blond hair shone in the light, and the small bells on her ankles tinkled merrily. Verity felt like a slob in her jeans and plaid shirt.

  “Please sit down.” Verity couldn’t think of anything else to say under the circumstances. Elyssa was the client, after all. “Now then, what can I do for you?”

  Elyssa sat near the window. She put her palms together and held them just below her breasts, giving Verity a look of deep understanding. “This is going to be difficult for you, Verity, but I feel you will understand. I would like to talk to you about Jonas.”

  Verity’s sense of uneasiness grew. “What about him?”

  Elyssa looked out the window, apparently gathering her thoughts. When she looked back at Verity, her eyes were very large and full of either a deep, ageless wisdom or fake confidence. The two expressions looked a lot alike.

  “I have explained to you that I am becoming a channeler for an ancient temple priestess named Saranantha.”

  “Right.” Verity tried to keep an upbeat, positive tone.

  “My contact with Saranantha has grown stronger lately. Today she appeared to me in a vision and told me exactly what she wishes me to do. I am to fulfill a great destiny, Verity. I am to be the mother of a brilliant, psychically talented child.”

  In spite o
f her feelings toward the woman, Verity felt a burst of sisterly kinship. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Not yet.”

  “I see.” Her sense of sisterly kinship died a quick death. Verity tried another tactic. “Just exactly what sort of work did this Saranantha do? What are the duties of a temple priestess? I’ve heard some pretty risqué stories about ancient temple ladies.”

  “Saranantha was a priestess of love.”

  “Somehow I had a feeling that might have been her, uh, calling.”

  Elyssa explained gently, “She was an exalted priestess who served a very important goddess. It was Saranantha’s task to receive the love offerings of men who came to beg favors from the goddess...”

  “In other words, she slept with every Tom, Dick, or Harry who showed up at the temple with the right amount of cash?” Verity interpreted.

  “You mock me. But I am prepared for that. It is the fate of a channeler to deal with skepticism and mockery. But today Saranantha revealed the deep truth about my relationship with her. It will change my entire life, Verity.”

  “What is this deep truth?”

  “I am her, and she is me.” Elyssa’s eyes brimmed with emotion. “You see, I was Saranantha in a past life. And now she has come to tell me that I must fulfill the same destiny in this lifetime that I fulfilled in my previous life in Utilan.”

  “She wants you to become a prostitute? I’ve got news for you, Elyssa. That may have been a viable career option twenty thousand years ago, but today it’s considered a dead-end job. No pension plan, no sick leave, and extremely limited opportunities for advancement.”

  “Verity, try to understand. This is not a matter of prostitution or lust. It is a matter of boundless love; love that is not restricted by circumstance or petty twentieth-century morality. I am fated to fulfill my potential by mating with the man who is my true partner. I will be frank, Verity. I speak to you as one woman to another. Saranantha has revealed that it is Jonas Quarrel who is my true mate. It is his seed which must be planted in my womb; his seed which must be sowed and cultivated in me.”

  “Jonas? You want Jonas’s, uh, seed?” Verity’s voice sounded half-strangled. The woman’s effrontery was unbelievable. “I think I ought to warn you that Jonas has already taken on all the gardening work he can handle.”

  Elyssa ignored that. “I am here to ask you to loan him to me.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Elyssa,” Verity said carefully, struggling to remember that she was a client, “I hate to break this to you, but times have changed. I’m afraid Jonas is not available for love offerings or guru-approved matings.”

  “I realize this has come as a shock to you,” Elyssa said gently. “But I sense that you are a very wise and understanding woman. I think of you as a sister, an enlightened sister. Once you’ve had a chance to think about it, you’ll see that a union between Jonas and myself is predestined. I am merely obeying the summons of my astral energy force. To resist would be bad for all of us.”

  “Jonas has told you he doesn’t consider himself a psychic,” Verity said quickly.

  Elyssa shook her head, smiling. “I know for a fact that he is a very powerful one, although he chooses to deny it. Preston told me all about him.”

  Verity sat forward tensely. “Really? What exactly does Preston Yarwood know about Jonas?”

  “He told me that Jonas was once tested at Vincent College, and that it was no secret in the lab that Jonas had great powers,” Elyssa confided easily. “Preston hasn’t said anything to Jonas or any of the others because it’s obvious that Jonas prefers to keep his abilities a secret. One can hardly blame him. The public can be a nuisance to a true psychic. Preston respects his desire for anonymity.”

  “Wait a second,” Verity said, trying to get to the bottom of Preston Yarwood’s involvement. “Preston claimed he located Jonas by contacting the editor of the Journal of Renaissance Studies.”

  Elyssa nodded with slight impatience. “That’s right. But when the editor mentioned several qualified men in the field, including Jonas, Preston recognized Jonas’s name and picked him. He and I agreed we should ask Doug to hire the Renaissance expert who also happened to be psychic. Doug didn’t care about the psychic part, as long as he got his history expert. But Preston and I wanted the help of a true psychic. Jonas is perfect for all of us. And when Saranantha saw him she recognized him instantly as my proper mate. You see how it all comes together to form a complete whole? The harmony of life is breathtaking when the natural forces are allowed to take their proper path, isn’t it?”

  “I find the nerve of some people just as breathtaking.”

  “You are offended that I have approached you in this way? I only want to be honest with you, my sister. I believe I can make you understand my situation. You have an open mind, and you seek the truth in your own way. I assure you that I am no threat to your long-term relationship with Jonas.”

  “You just want to borrow him for a little while, is that it?”

  “Precisely.” Elyssa’s smile was almost beatific. “Jonas and I will create a beautiful child together, a child of enormous potential. You would not want to deny the world such a human being, would you?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. The world has gotten along without such a human being so far.” Verity sat back and stretched out her legs. “Tell me what happened when Preston was tested at the Vincent College lab.”

  Elyssa’s smooth brow acquired a tiny furrow. “The lab research equipment was not sophisticated enough to define his particular psychic talent.”

  “Then what makes you think the equipment was sophisticated enough to properly identify Jonas’s abilities? Maybe the research people were wrong, just as they were wrong about Preston. Jonas claims he’s not a psychic. It could be that he knows himself best.”

  “I’m sure Preston could not have made a mistake about Jonas. Preston has developed his intuitive talents through several lifetimes. They are very acute.”

  “I see.” Verity put her hands on the arms of the chair and pushed herself to her feet. “Elyssa, I hate to disappoint you, but I’m afraid Jonas would not make a good stud for you. He’s not what you think he is, and furthermore I can’t possibly allow you to borrow him. Jonas is very old-fashioned in some ways, you know. I wouldn’t dream of embarrassing him by sending him off to your bed. Furthermore…” She was warming to her topic. “Furthermore, in all good conscience, I feel I must warn you that if you attempt to seduce him—”

  She broke off as the bedroom door opened and Jonas strolled blithely into the room. “I was wondering where you were, Verity. What did you do with the flashlight? It’s not in the duffel bag, and we need it in the west wing. Oh, hello, Elyssa. You two having a nice visit?”

  Elyssa rose to her feet. She gave Jonas one of her temple-priestess smiles. “Hello, Jonas. Verity and I were having a woman-to-woman chat. But we’re finished now. I can see there is no more to be said. Goodbye, Verity. Please try to open your mind and allow yourself to be guided by your inner light. It is the only way to achieve lasting happiness and satisfaction.” She walked out of the room with one last smile for Jonas.

  “What the hell was that all about?” Jonas demanded as he closed the door behind Elyssa. “What’s a woman-to-woman chat?”

  “We were discussing your potential as a stud.”

  “The hell you were.” He looked astounded.

  “Elyssa would like to borrow your services for a short while. Until she gets pregnant.” Verity hid her grin. She had never seen Jonas look so outraged. She thinks you would make an ideal mate. She ought to know. Apparently she’s already spent one previous lifetime fooling around with anything in pants, and intends to spend this one the same way. She wants you, but being the noble, sincere, honest little hussy that she is, she thought she would clear it with me first.”

  “Let me get this straight. She asked you for pe
rmission to screw me?” A dull redness was staining Jonas’s high cheekbones. “I don’t believe it!”

  “I guess it’s the New Age approach to the man shortage.”

  “Verity, do you mean to tell me that you sat here and calmly discussed this with that blond kook?”

  Verity smiled sedately. “Of course. We women communicate very well with each other.”

  “Jesus, I just can’t believe it.” Jonas slammed his hand against the wall. He stared at Verity from beneath hooded lashes. “Well?”

  “Well, what?” she asked innocently.

  “What did you tell her when she asked to borrow me?”

  “I told her you weren’t that kind of man.”

  Jonas stalked over to Verity. His expression was only one step short of rage. “You think this is all very funny, don’t you?”

  “It had its moments.” Verity could no longer repress a giggle. Her eyes were brimming with laughter when she looked up into his thunderous glare. “I thought about telling her you’d already given your procreative all to me and that I doubted if there was anything left over, but I figured you might be insulted.”

  “I ought to turn you over my knee. Dammit, Verity, one of these days you’re going to go too far.”

  “Promises, promises,” she said, mimicking him.

  “A joke. That’s all it is to you, isn’t it? A stupid joke. Some other woman tells you she wants to hop into the sack with me and make a baby, and you just laugh it off. Where’s the goddamned flashlight?”

  It finally dawned on Verity that Jonas was not seeing the humor in the situation. He was disgruntled and aggrieved, as if her lack of jealousy hurt him.

  She opened her mouth to explain to him that it wasn’t other women she feared. When it came to their relationship, her fears focused on the unknown factors in Jonas himself, not anything as straightforward and simple as another female making a pass at him. The truth was, she trusted him implicitly in some matters. Jonas would never have an affair behind her back. But it was clear that he was not in the mood for another relationship discussion.