by Susan Conley
“I get it. You’re doing this to get back at me — for what I said to you in the library.”
Floored by such a ludicrous suggestion, Janice laughed.
“No, I’m not. The baron was here. You were him. He was you. Using you to talk to me … ” she corrected herself instantly, “to talk to Lisette.”
Adrian threw up a hand, cutting off her words. With his free hand, he fished into his shirt lining and came up with her compass. He held it out to her, offering an apology.
“All right, I admit I’m an insensitive jerk. I should’ve given it to you. I don’t know why I didn’t. Take it.”
Janice hesitated, seeing suddenly for the first time how much like a recalcitrant child he was. As if he had been caught with his hand in a cookie jar and now he needed to make excuses for being caught.
“You didn’t give it to me, Adrian, because you didn’t want me wandering the chateau alone,” Janice stated. “There’s danger ahead.” His shocked expression told her she had hit the mark. She pressed her point. “I’m not lying to you, Adrian. The baron was here. The baron was you. He’s seeking Lisette.”
Janice made him the victim of her stare and she could see her words took him beyond merely rattled to completely unnerved. Recovering quickly, he pushed the compass toward her and chided lightly.
“Take the god-dammed compass and let’s get the hell back to the others.”
Janice nodded, taking her prize. Immediately, she felt a thrumming in the middle of her palm and a wave of grayness washed over her. In her head, she heard a blood-curdling scream that rose severely in pitch and soon clamored in her throat to get out. Her body suddenly jerked as if struck by lightning.
“Janice!”
The call came from a distance but she couldn’t center on it. The voice was worried, asking if she was all right. No, she wasn’t all right. She was drowning. Someone was pushing her mind aside, pushing her consciousness down into a black vortex.
Disoriented, Janice threw her hands out, fumbling blindly to latch on to Adrian’s shirt front. She heard a dull clink and wondered what it was. Down, down. She was being swept away. Down to darkness. Down to emptiness. Down to nothingness.
Finally, she hit bottom and floated aimlessly.
Chapter 14
SATURDAY — 1:40 AM
For a second, no more, Adrian froze. He heard a dull clink as Janice’s compass hit the floor. Thinking fast, he reached out and caught her light frame as it slammed into his chest. For a second he thought they were both going down, but miraculously, his knees locked and held, allowing him to secure her weight. Quickly and carefully, he sank to one knee, using his raised thigh as a cushion for her back. He tapped her cheekbone.
“Janice!”
Her eyelids remained closed and Adrian felt a wrenching, jagged lurch in the pit of his stomach. She was out like a light. Now what? In his ears, he heard a thunderous pounding like horses’ hooves and realized the sound was his racing heart. Blood was sliding through his veins like cold needles and he was scared by Janice’s blank expression and seemingly non-existent breathing.
Pushing aside his fear, Adrian’s fingers darted to Janice’s nose to assure himself she was breathing. He felt a fan of air trail along his fingers but wasn’t encouraged. Somehow, Janice was literally being swept away from him and he didn’t know how to call her back. Think, Magus, think. She was probably only mesmerized by a marvelous ballet taking place in her head — her thoughts like gliding clouds, floating in and out of the heavens. When she woke … if she woke … the thought froze Adrian’s brain. His fingers shot to Janice’s neck artery, seeking a pulse point.
“Don’t you leave me, Janice Kelly,” he commanded. “We still have unfinished business, you and I.”
Adrian detected a distant movement beneath his fingers. Yes, there it was. He pressed the knobby ridge harder. Steady, strong and vibrant. He exhaled, euphoria replacing his panic. Janice wasn’t lost to him yet. She was alive physically. It was her mind that was in question. Where was it? What was happening to it? Remembering her earlier taunt about the baron, he had a sudden thought.
“Lisette?”
“Je suis ici.”
The words were an alluring whisper and for a second Adrian could only stare at Janice’s lips. Had they actually moved? A second later, his scalp prickled and he glanced over his shoulder. Above his head, the air stirred and he caught wind of a sickly, sweet fragrance. Jasmine. Lisette’s scent.
Adrian searched the crossbeams for any sign of her presence. Nothing. Instinctively, he gathered Janice closer. She’d have to go through him to get to Janice. He’d see to that. Almost at once, he was rewarded with another ripple along his scalp and knew she was nearby.
Willing his pulse to slow, Adrian peeked at Janice’s face, startled when he found her ice green eyes sweeping over his face with approval. She didn’t speak, but it didn’t matter. The pull of those eyes probed his soul and sucked him down. And then she reached up her hand and caressed his cheekbone.
“Je suis ici,” she repeated lyrically.
The soft touch on his cheek bespoke tenderness and Adrian’s skin tingled at the contact. Again, he caught a whiff of sweet jasmine. Lisette was purposely making him dizzy and light-headed. He had to stop her assault. She was shattering the hard shell he had built to keep Janice out. Janice! Sweet Jesus! He had to make Lisette send Janice back from wherever she had sent her. But how did he communicate when he found it almost impossible to breathe? He knew no French, yet he fought to translate Lisette’s words. Systematically, he tried to think them through. Je suis … je suis … I am. I am what? Ici … no, that was lost to him.
“I am here.”
She startled Adrian with her casual reading of his thoughts, then he sensed she wasn’t reading his thoughts at all. Rather, she was responding to the lure of an earlier lover’s call. Her caress skimmed his cheekbone, moved through his hair to the back of his head.
“I welcome thy kiss, mon ami. Je faim.” With a firm tug, she pulled Adrian’s head toward her own. Over and over, he heard her urge him sweetly. Je faim. I hunger for your kiss. Je faim.
Her lips hovered dangerously close before Adrian stayed his head. If he kissed Lisette, he’d violate Janice. He’d gain a kiss but would lose the thing he craved most from her — her respect. Adrian gripped the arm tugging at his head and pulled it away.
“No,” he murmured firmly.
At his denial, a keening wail tore from Janice’s lips and rose up into the shadows above his head. Its loud frequency plucked at the nerves in Adrian’s scalp. On and on the wail keened, until finally it dissipated into the very crossbeams around him.
Janice’s body gave a violent jerk in his arms and she came back to reality with a quick intake of breath, followed by a ragged, choking sound and a desperate gulp for air.
Adrian clutched her neck, hoping to anchor her to reality. The touch worked. She turned her head, hunched over and gripped his arm, squeezing the muscle to assure herself it was real flesh and blood.
Adrian exhaled. Thank God. She was back from whatever hell Lisette had sent her to. And it had to have been hell because she was shaking like a leaf and her fingernails were cutting a deep groove into his skin, right through the fabric of his shirt sleeve.
For a moment, no more, Janice clung to him, and then Adrian felt her body stiffen. She dropped her hands into her lap and Adrian knew she was ordering herself to get a grip on reality. He gripped her hands, stilling the fluttering fingers.
“You’re all right. You’re safe.”
She looked up at him then and Adrian heard a tearing sob leave her throat as she fully recognized him. She flopped onto his chest with a second busted sob and Adrian breathed a sigh of relief. Tears were a good sign. When you opened the floodgates, the torment had a chance to find its way out.
�
��So dark out there … so awful … so empty.”
Her sputtered words seemed to come from the depths of her soul and Adrian knew memories were crowding in like hidden currents. Once more, he patted her cheekbone and spoke softly, hoping to lull her into a relaxed mood.
“You’re back, safe and sound.”
She gave a small hiccup and Adrian heard wonder in her voice.
“Lisette?”
“Yes.”
“She sent me down to a gray nothingness. She wanted me to feel her emptiness. My mind just floated, went nowhere. I felt a great ache. Her ache.” She broke off and Adrian realized she didn’t want to remember the ache. He touched her cheek, this time with a wistful gesture.
“I don’t think she really meant to harm you. She was responding to the baron on some primitive, physical level.”
Both sat quietly digesting that thought and Adrian let her sit conquering her fears for a moment longer, then seeing her shudders subside, he pushed her head from his chest. Holding her close was proving dangerous to his frame of mind. Lisette’s sickly scent had departed with her wail, and now, in its wake, Janice’s fruity blend of perfume was making him heady in a different way. The smell of her hair tantalized him and he longed to lean down and nuzzle its texture. What would she do if he did?
As if sensing the question, she scooted along the floor away from him.
“Why didn’t you kiss Lisette?” she asked, swiping at her drenched cheeks.
Adrian grinned, brushing a stray tear forgotten by her fingers.
“How do you know I didn’t?”
“I would have remembered your kiss.”
Adrian turned his grin up a notch.
“You were out like a light, Janice. A herd of elephants could have stampeded in this room and you wouldn’t have heard them.”
“I would have remembered your kiss,” she repeated in a more composed voice. “I think women remember your kisses.”
“Careful, Miss Kelly. That sounds suspiciously like a compliment, perhaps even an invitation.”
Her hackles rose instantly, as Adrian hoped they would. They were treading on dangerous ground with their talk of kissing. He had to swing their thoughts to a safer subject. Her tears and anger he could handle. But her prying into his motives for not kissing Lisette? No, he wasn’t willing to discuss that with her yet.
She pushed a section of her hair back across her shoulders with an impatient flick and gave him a cool stare.
“Very clever, Adrian. You knew calling me Miss Kelly in that condescending way would divert my mind from Lisette. You don’t want to talk about what just happened, do you?” Adrian hedged, looking off into the shadows. “Do you?” She pushed him now, defiance written in her tone as well as a subtle challenge. Adrian wished he could pretend not to understand her look. Her mouth curved in faint amusement suddenly.
“My God, she rattled you. Big, strong Adrian rattled by a ghost. It’s priceless.”
Adrian’s lips puckered in annoyance at her obvious glee.
“Don’t gloat, it’s unbecoming.” He swung his hand out, groping for her shoulder. “How about helping me to my feet? My leg has one hell of a cramp in it.”
She scrambled up instantly, grabbing Adrian’s arm and hauling him up behind her. Adrian staggered once, caught his balance and then hobbled in a small circle to work out the kink.
“Thank you, Adrian.”
He looked up from his shuffle.
“For what? Not kissing you?”
“That and for not abandoning my mind to Lisette.”
Adrian flexed his knee.
“Don’t thank me yet. You may, before long, wish I had kissed you. We aren’t out of danger.”
“No. And now we’re facing a second spirit’s will as well. Any suggestions as to how we end this nightmare before it reaches the point of no return?”
Adrian eyed her suspiciously.
“We both have a pretty good idea where this entrapment is leading and where it will end. We both know, though we pretend to each other we don’t. Lisette’s intentions are getting clearer by the minute.”
“What we’re thinking is preposterous. A person can’t be forced to commit an act against their will. I’ve seen it proven time and time again with patients under hypnosis. You can’t make them do anything that is abhorrent to their basic, moral structure, no matter how hard you press.”
Her confident tone impressed Adrian.
“I hope that proves true in this case because I don’t remember a damn thing during those minutes you claim I was the baron. And as for you, I could have made love to you ten times over and you wouldn’t have known it. Your body was in my arms but your mind was gone.” Adrian saw her shudder at the remembrance.
“We have to talk to Lloyd immediately. He works with psychic minds all the time. He may know how to combat this. There has to be a way to keep our consciousness from being manipulated so easily.”
Adrian didn’t feel compelled to agree out loud, instead, he took Janice’s elbow and nudged her forward.
“Let’s go find the others. I don’t relish the thought of reliving the last five minutes, do you?”
Her grim expression was answer enough for him. Gripping her elbow more firmly, he pulled her along behind him. Six steps later, she yanked away from him and swung about.
“Wait, my compass.”
She back-tracked their steps and dropped to the floor in search of the fallen cylinder. Adrian gritted his teeth. She was actually delaying their departure over a dropped compass.
“Forget the compass, Janice,” he called sharply. Her hands swept in a wider arc, ignoring him.
“No. It means too much to me. It was a gift.”
From Anna. Adrian’s head finished the sentence, then danced on. Anna meant everything to Janice, and Anna was dead. It wasn’t the compass Janice feared losing. It was the memories the compass kept alive. Still, he couldn’t let her jeopardize their lives this way. Bending down, Adrian stopped Janice’s arm in mid-motion.
“Dammit, Janice, forget the compass. We’ll come back for it later with the others.”
“I’m not going without it.”
She jerked free of his grasp and skimmed the wood at a much more frantic pace. Watching her frenetic fingers, Adrian felt a glimmer of anger surface. Of all the stupid … no compass could be more important than her life. Hadn’t she just learned that lesson?
Losing patience, Adrian bent down and hauled Janice to her feet.
“I said, forget the god-dammed compass!”
She gave him an odd stare, and Adrian had the strangest feeling he had impressed her in some way. He had no time to quiz her on it before a vicious shove propelled him sideways and away from her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Adrian?”
Adrian stumbled back, stunned by Lloyd’s assault. What in the hell did he think Adrian was doing? He was protecting Janice, that’s what. He had no further time to speculate as the rest of the group spilled into the room and rushed their way. Ginger reached him first, slipping her arm into his and laying her cheek against his sleeve.
“Thank God we found you, Adrian. Jasper’s been acting like a crazed man for the last five minutes. He’s tapped into something — I don’t remember what he called it — but it’s made him, well, not at all Christian.”
She shivered and Adrian realized she had good reason to be scared. Jasper’s sudden touch on his sleeve derailed his thoughts.
“Time slip. Someone’s coming over.”
Adrian tensed at once.
“Lisette?”
Jasper gave a quick shake of his head.
“No. Someone else.”
Adrian pushed Ginger toward Muriel’s plump form.
“Go stand with Muriel. I don�
��t have time to explain.” Ginger left his arms into Muriel’s protective embrace and Adrian swung his gaze to Jasper. “I think you’re about to be introduced to the Baron Dumas,” he stated.
The air stirred briefly and each member of the group glanced overhead. Adrian’s glance dropped to Janice, who was staring at him with a look of pure horror on her face. He shook his head.
“Relax. It’s the baron.”
But if anything, she looked more alarmed by his words. Adrian turned to Jasper. He didn’t know how much time he had before the baron’s appearance. But he was sure that once he lost consciousness, he’d be of no help to anyone. He surveyed Jasper’s face as intently as Jasper was surveying the crossbeams around them.
“Anything?” he prodded.
Jasper’s gaze never wavered from the crossbeams.
“Thirty seconds. Maybe forty.”
Adrian’s stomach lurched.
“Whatever happens, keep me away from Janice. It’s in her best interest.”
Jasper held up a warning finger.
“It isn’t the baron,” he remarked.
“What!”
Adrian’s hand sliced through his hair with blurring speed. A raised finger silenced him again.
“Three, two, one … ”
His voice drifted off precisely the moment a series of purple sparkles drifted from the wood beam. The sparkles swirled erratically at first, no vague shape or discernible form, and then a hideous putrid stench assailed the room. The last of the sparkles shot from the beam with a burst and the cloud reshaped itself into one big scribble of pulsing lights.
A hand gripped Adrian’s shirtsleeve and he jumped, startled by the unexpected touch.
“Sorry,” Janice stated with a shiver. “I had to touch something real.”
Adrian knew what she meant. The room and stench now resembled something out of a late-night sci-fi movie.
A fiendish laugh suddenly swept from the cloud like rumbling phlegm. It shot over their heads and bounced off the walls, growing in pitch and intensity.