Magic & Mayhem

by Susan Conley

  An unexpected touch on her shoulder startled her to the present. Clutching her chest, she looked up to find Adrian staring down at her. He patted her shoulder lightly.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare the hell out of you.” He drew up a chair to hers and straddled it. “I assume you’re trying to piece together Lisette’s life?”

  Before she could nod her assent, Jasper pulled a chair alongside Muriel and straddled it. His expression was grim as he cautioned.

  “We better come up with something soon. Our investigation of the chateau has been fruitless.” His gaze found Janice’s. “We are truly trapped. Our only option is to reason this whole nightmare out amongst ourselves.”

  Janice couldn’t agree more. The sooner they discovered Lisette’s murderer — and Janice was sure that being sealed in a tiny crawlspace whatever the reason did constitute murder — the better off they’d be. She leaned in, studying the men’s faces.

  “Do either of you feel we are living in an illusion created by our own minds?”

  “Impossible,” Jasper stated immediately. “We couldn’t maintain that type of illusion for any length of time.”

  “Maybe one of us could,” Lloyd interjected and Janice knew he was recalling their earlier discussion. Beside her, she felt Adrian stiffen. She turned to find his gaze boring into her own.

  “I assume Janice has been trying to convince you I’ve created this illusion somehow? A continuation of my Vegas performance, perhaps?”

  Janice didn’t miss the smoldering anger beneath his sarcasm. Lloyd came to her defense without hesitation.

  “She thinks nothing of the kind. If truth be told, Adrian, she finds you exceptionally gifted. Admires you tremendously for how you held us all together during the mind link.”

  Janice felt her cheeks flame under Adrian’s sudden scrutiny of her face. He was speechless in his surprise and so was she. Damn Lloyd’s runaway tongue! She had voiced no such opinion of Adrian. Out loud, that is. Damn and double damn! She hoped the semi-darkness of the room hid the flush in her cheeks adequately or there would be hell to pay. Obviously sensing her discomfort, Adrian turned his gaze from her and then studied each face in turn.

  “I’m going to say this once, and only once. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m as much in the dark as any of you.”

  “I believe you, Adrian.” Muriel’s voice was filled with a defiance that dared anyone to say differently, and Janice found her protective instincts endearing. “We all have to work through this together,” Muriel continued, “if we want to get out of here alive, that is.”

  “We’re all getting out of here alive,” Adrian countered. “Nothing else is acceptable. So, what’s our first move? Besides admitting the obvious bullshit that we’re trapped by a ghost who wants her soul freed.”

  “No.” Janice corrected. “She wants to be reunited with Aubert. To be one with Aubert, that’s what she said.”

  “Do we know anything about this Aubert?” Adrian asked Lloyd.

  “Death by mutilation.”

  “Horrible death,” Jasper muttered. “Is it possible his soul is trapped and needs release?”

  Janice’s eyes lit up at his words.

  “That makes sense. Lisette implied her destiny had been interfered with. Altered in some way. Is it possible that her soul is tied to Aubert’s and if we release his soul, we also release hers?”

  “How do normal people release a dead spirit’s soul?” Ginger asked with a shiver.

  “Good question, Ginger,” Adrian complimented. “Only one way I can think of is to backtrack and find Aubert’s murderer.”

  Lloyd gave a busted laugh.

  “Are you crazy? Do you know how long that would take? He died centuries ago. We don’t know a damn thing about his life or his enemies. There’s no way to backtrack, not fully enough.”

  “Oh yes, there is,” Janice piped up. “The old wing, Lloyd. You said it’s still intact. Rooms, treasures, everything intact.”

  She saw his thoughtful frown.

  “Yes, but … ”

  Muriel leaned forward, catching Janice’s excitement.

  “Is there a library in the old wing, Lloyd?” At his nod, Muriel clapped her hands once. “There’ll be records, hordes of them. They wrote everything down back in those days. Diaries … ”

  Adrian slapped his thigh, smiling with satisfaction.

  “We start there. We go through every book and if that doesn’t work, we split up in teams and search the chateau thoroughly, every room! Agreed?”

  Every head nodded in assent and Muriel added as a last thought.

  “With our second sight, we should be able to time slip, tap in and put ourselves back there. Experience the moment. Alone, we’d never do it, but together, we might get away with it.”

  “Can you really do that tap in thing?” Ginger asked with another nervous half-giggle. Lloyd reached over and patted her hand affectionately.

  “Only in mind, not in body.”

  Ginger’s face relaxed and Janice saw her give her first genuine smile since the dinner table.

  “Thank God. I suddenly had visions of you all exploding into fragments like the glass did. Or worse, beaming up like they do in a Star Trek transporter.”

  “Speaking of that glass, Adrian,” Lloyd said, turning back to the group. “I was telling Janice earlier that the shattering was a warning we failed to pick up on. Do you remember anything unusual at the time it happened? Janice says she recalls nothing.”

  Janice could hear her teeth grinding into her jawbone at the pronouncement. Damn Lloyd’s free-spirited tongue. Why was he revealing their conversation to Adrian? Didn’t they have enough trouble without adding more fuel to an already out-of-control fire? She stole a peek at Adrian’s countenance. Would he reveal their mind link to the group? He disliked her enough to. His gaze locked with hers and Janice felt the air in her lungs suddenly drain. To her surprise, a silent message passed between them. Adrian was the first to pull his gaze away.

  “I only know one thing,” he replied, flashing a grin at the group. “Things would be so much easier if ghosts came with a set of instructions.”

  The group laughed at his remark and Janice felt her muscles relax. It was a good ploy on Adrian’s part to make them laugh. After all, if they were busy laughing, there would be no time for screaming. She glanced at Lloyd, who gave her the “thumbs up” sign and then stood. He signaled for them all to follow. Uncurling her legs, Janice rose, only to find Adrian blocking her way.

  “Did you really say you admired me tremendously, Janice?”

  “Of course not,” she replied. “If I focused everyone’s attention on your tremendous talent and skills, I’d no longer be the center of attention, and God knows, it’s all about me and the limelight.”

  He had the sense to look embarrassed at her obvious reference to his earlier shredding of her character and for a moment, Janice almost felt sorry for him. Then she shook herself mentally. No, it was his fault they were enemies, not hers. She held his gaze, not about to be the first to look away this time. A niggling question surfaced as their glances remained locked in a silent battle of wills. Was Jasper right? Was he pretending to dislike her to cover up some irrational fear he had of her? No, that was ludicrous. She couldn’t see him wasting time with pretenses. Especially when he could use barbed insults so effectively.

  Seeing his glance falter, Janice steeled herself for the upcoming insult and dropped her gaze. When it didn’t come, her glance shot up to find him grinning at her.

  “Go ahead and say it, Miss Kelly.”

  “Say what?” she hedged.

  “That you find my humor provocative and extremely sexy.”

  Janice’s eyes widened at his audacious wit. He was teasing her again, damn him. Well, she was through battling with his jaded
wit. Squaring her shoulders, she met his gaze.

  “Do something for me, Adrian?”

  “What?”

  “Go to hell!”

  He bowed immediately.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m on my way.”

  With a springy bounce, he was gone, striding across the room to join the others. Once there, he took hold of Ginger’s shoulders and pushed her out into the corridor ahead of him. Laughter spilled back through the door and as it faded away, Janice knew she’d wasted her insult.

  With a reluctant sigh, she took the same path to the door. Must Adrian’s every movement remind her of his sexual attractiveness? She rounded the doorframe and caught sight of Lloyd waving from the hallway landing. Behind him, the others were already disappearing up the staircase. As she reached the stairwell, she offered her hand to Lloyd, who squeezed it affectionately. Hand in hand, they ascended the staircase and soon caught up with the waiting group. Two flights later, the group had worked their way into the unused section of the manor. By the time they reached the mammoth library and spotted the massive bookshelves surrounding them, their expressions clouded over with worry. Ginger was the first to speak.

  “How will we ever wade through all these books in such a short time?”

  Seeing the same perplexed expressions all around, Janice took up the reins of command and stepped forward.

  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” she quoted brightly.

  Crossing to a bookshelf, she took down two large volumes from the top shelf and placed them on the floor, then repeated the pattern. Beside her, Adrian did the same, starting his own stack alongside hers.

  “Spread out. Take a wall,” he urged.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Janice saw the others split in three directions. Soon, the floor was carpeted with stacks of books. Janice tried not to let the enormity of their task daunt her. Somewhere in these stacks was a bridge back through the strings of time. They’d find it and cross it. They’d relive that last horrendous day and somehow make sense of it.

  Pulling a gray wingback directly beneath the overhead chandelier, Janice dropped onto its plush cushions. Around her, the others did the same. Grabbing the top book of her stack, she ran her fingertips efficiently across the ragged book edge. Concentrating, she tried to tap in to its pages. Nothing. She closed the book, took another. Again, she ran her fingers across and along the bindings. Nothing. She took another, then a fourth. Soon, her first stack began to dwindle and soon, the only audible sound in the room was the careful, slow turning of book pages.

  Chapter 12

  FRIDAY — MIDNIGHT

  For the fifth time in as many minutes, Adrian found his gaze straying from the printed text to the white brocade sofa where the women sat. His gaze centered on brilliant colored hair then dropped to view high cheekbones tinged with a musk-rose flush. If only he could explain this tendency he had to stare at Janice. Even now, he couldn’t stop thinking how arresting her face was in the glow of the off-white lighting. How the blue of her angora sweater heightened the translucence of her neck and face. It was insane to go on this way, a slave to an unknown prickling along his scalp.

  Still, he couldn’t seem to budge his mind from thoughts of Janice. His gaze raked her face again, tracing the ridge of her Grecian nose, to the full lips rounded over even white teeth. Her eyes were hidden from him at the moment as she sat poring over the stack of books in her lap. Still, it didn’t matter. He didn’t need to see to recall their color. He had memorized those eyes the moment their glance had locked across the rim of the shattered glass in his hand. He would always remember their color, even when this hell they were currently experiencing was over. He would always remember her eyes, not because of her per se, but because they brought back the same stirring he felt as a child when he gazed at the sea-green water of Rocky Reef Cove.

  Adrian let his gaze drop to her fingers as they skimmed each book edge with the expertise of a Braille reader. She was scanning three books to his one and it was apparent by the growing stack at her feet that she possessed an extraordinary talent in her hands. With just the delicate touch of flesh to paper, she was tuning into some long ago memory of the book owner. He wondered if she knew how transparent her face was in relaying the emotions she sensed beneath her fingers.

  Adrian drew his gaze back to the book clasped in his own grip. Inwardly, he gave a sigh and willed his mind back to its task. His mind obeyed for a few moments, then it wandered off, choosing instead to drift into a vague, shadowy fugue of its own.

  In his mind’s eye, a picture formed. He stood on one side of a large chasm, Janice on the other. The chasm was steadily breaking apart, taking her from his sight and from his life. The vision made his stomach curl as if an army of snakes were slithering in its pit. He scowled, wondering how he came to be acting like a love-struck fool. He — a man recently crowned the darling of Las Vegas — brought so low as to moon over the beauty of a woman. He clenched his jaw tighter. Next, he’d be down on all fours, baying like a lonely hound dog.

  Taking himself to task again, more harshly this time, Adrian forced his mind into accepting reality. He had no woman to complicate his life. That was that. So what if for a few moments he had fantasized that Janice was his? A good fantasy never hurt a male ego. And what did it matter if he had allowed himself to hope that Janice’s abrupt arrival into his life meant an end to his empty, meaningless existence wowing crowds and indulging in wild parties? That didn’t mean a thing either. Hadn’t his life been empty and meaningless twice before? And hadn’t he come through both holocausts with the minutest of scars?

  Pensively, he looked out across the room. Was his life empty? Yes, at the moment it appeared to be. Was it meaningless? No. Somewhere there was a woman for him, and she would be his life preserver on his stormy sea. With a will of its own, his glance again found Janice’s shapely form. Was Janice that woman? He didn’t know and not knowing rattled him. His gut instinct told him she mustn’t be and that worried him. Why, he wasn’t sure. He only sensed that when she returned to her life in Colorado, he would feel an extraordinary void worse than his present one.

  Out of nowhere, Adrian felt a muscle spasm in the small of his back and grimaced. Damn the useless, wooded chair! He shifted on the padded cushion to release the kink. If only he could drown his aches and doubts in a good, stiff drink.

  Snapping the book in his hand closed, he slid it along the tabletop and reached for another from the stack to his right. Flipping it open, he wondered if the others were experiencing small fugues of their own. Did they feel as drained as he did? He gave a cursory glance at each of their faces. Yes, they appeared tired, and worse, on edge. Who would be the first to crack under the strain of their captivity?

  He slid his gaze right and studied the woman seated cross-legged on the floor, rubbing her back against the edge of the sofa. She was flipping through a stack of pages, and as she did so, her face collapsed into a complex set of wrinkles, her mouth puckered into a tiny rosette. Instantly, he realized Ginger was the one who would crack under the pressure. And soon. As he watched her begin to nibble at her lower lip, he once again felt that reptilian army marching in the pit of his stomach. Damn Lloyd for inviting him here and damn his own arrogant cowardice for coming. He hadn’t wanted to face the weekend reunion alone and in his self-absorption he hadn’t even given the briefest thought to what Ginger wanted.

  Adrian shifted in his seat again, trying to stem the shooting pain that had now traveled to the middle of his back. How many more hours could he endure reading these damnable pages? He’d like nothing better than to hurl the stack of books to the floor and indulge in a drink, a smoke, and a woman.

  As if conjured from his thoughts, a book sailed through his line of vision, hit the floor, skidded a few yards and then rammed the leg of the table where he sat. Adrian blinked in surprise, sure he was crossing over into some mind dementia where
inanimate objects came mysteriously to life.

  “I can’t do this anymore!” The whine was brimming with distaste. Around him, heads shot up, as startled as he by Ginger’s emotional outburst. She scrambled to her feet and stared at each one of them in turn, seeming to dare them to object to her words. “I want out!”

  Her words were said in a rush and Adrian realized she meant to storm from the room in a huff. Knowing it wasn’t safe for any of them to travel alone at the moment, he bolted from his chair, intercepting her as she came round his table.

  “You’re tired, Ginger. We all are. Use the couch over there. Get some rest.”

  Her eyes iced over immediately.

  “I want out of this house now, Adrian,” she declared, pursing her lips.

  “It’s not possible at the moment,” Adrian reminded. “You know that.” She made a move to shove past him but he threw out his arm. Her face paled in anger.

  “Let me by, Adrian.”

  Adrian stood his ground, not about to let her pass. The snakes in his stomach inched up and around his ribcage.

  “It’s not wise for any of us to split up, Ginger. Now, stay put.”

  Her eyes took on an even more ferocious glitter.

  “Get out of my way, Adrian, or I’ll hit you again, I swear it!”

  A chill, black silence descended as her words sank in. Rapidly, the group came out of their seats, intent on warding off another ugly confrontation. Adrian should’ve been pleased by their concern but felt angered instead. Their hovering made him lash out at Ginger, the last thing he intended to do.

  “Dammit, Ginger, you are not going out that door. I’ll tie you down if I have to!”

  The threat pushed her over the edge and she flew at him like a shrew. Using both hands, she shoved him hard. Adrian stumbled back, knocking his hip against the table edge and emitting a muffled “oof.” It was all the time Ginger needed. Rocket-like, she was past him and dashing out of the library.