Mystical Love

by Rachel James

  He gave the pair no chance to cast any further slurs on his character and strode back the way they had come. Now, if only Janice would be as kind to him when he finally found her.

  Chapter 13

  SATURDAY — 1:35 AM

  Staring down the expanse of a dimly lit assembly hall, Janice held back a childish desire to stamp her foot. Curse her rotten luck! She was right back where she had started from and more lost than ever. The swords and crossbows hanging like vultures on the crossbeams above her head were the same ones she had passed only minutes ago. Sighing, she finally admitted she had no idea where she was or how far she had come from the library. One thing was for certain though, she was traveling in circles and each minute that passed had her more unsure as to which corridor she should take. Damn her stupid pride! And damn Adrian Magus for not giving her the compass!

  Janice swiped at an angry tear forming. He had her compass, the lying swine! She’d stake six months’ royalty checks on it. Why hadn’t she challenged him in the library to return it to her instead of fleeing like a stupid thief in the night? And why was he refusing to give the compass to her in the first place? He knew she couldn’t find her way alone without it. Why was he being such a donkey’s ass?

  Janice did stamp her foot then, wishing the worst tortures of hell on him. And also on herself. She had let his barbed tongue goad her into leaving the library and it was a childish, foolish thing to do. What had she gained by it? Nothing. He was safe. She was lost.

  “He wanted to keep you from wandering the chateau alone. He senses the danger coming.”

  Janice stiffened, hearing the voice in her head as clearly as if someone had spoken it aloud. Damn it all to hell, go away, she commanded the voice. It drifted away at once, leaving her to notice a tangy aroma permeating the air.

  “Raspberries,” she muttered beneath her breath. The word sent a sudden suspicious chill up her spine and tossing her head, she ventured a tentative question to the air. “Lisette?”

  No response came and Janice stifled a chuckle. If her sense of humor hadn’t suddenly skipped town, her penchant for talking to ghosts that weren’t there would be hysterically funny. After all, hadn’t she promised Captain Bowers only this afternoon she wouldn’t spook any ghosts while here? So much for keeping that promise.

  She cast a hasty glance left and right, swallowing the thick knot that was suddenly forming in her throat. She had to get out of here any way she could. Any door she could. Her gaze scoured the massive white pillars nearby and she shivered. Should she go back that way? Yes, she had to find Lloyd, Adrian, anybody real. If she didn’t, she’d run into an insane panic.

  Squaring her shoulders, she stepped forward, treading the wood floor as if walking on eggshells. With each step, she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. Breathe in, breathe out.

  Reaching the pillars, a new chill seized Janice, a frozen, frightened thing in her heart and, unnerved, she whirled. In the distance, she heard footsteps drumming on wood. Her hand fluttered to her heart as it began to thump wildly against her ribcage. Dear God, could ghosts produce human footsteps? No way, she cautioned, ghosts were spirit, nothing more. It was Adrian or the Grisombs coming to fetch her.

  A single tear formed in the corner of her right eye as she peered through the shadows of the room toward its farthest end. Please be someone I know, she prayed fervently. She closed her eyes and listened, catching her breath as the footsteps paused, then suddenly resumed, moving away from her. They were leaving her!

  Panicking, Janice tore down the hall toward the receding footsteps and a blot of minuscule light emanating beyond the doorway. Halfway there, she skidded to a halt as a shadow loomed up in the doorway. Adrian. It was Adrian. Bless him. He really didn’t hate her as much as he implied.

  Janice picked up her pace again, clamping her lips to imprison a sob of relief. She didn’t care how much he insulted her from here on out. She had never been so glad to see anyone in her life.

  He stepped into the room, spying her speeding figure and Janice slowed her steps, realizing how stupid she must look to him. No need to rush, she berated herself, you’re safe at last. Her heart slowed its wild thumping, calmed by her confident words. She could see Adrian’s face clearly as he neared and it cheered her. In a few steps, she would be touching him, touching his ruffled shirt to prove he was real, not just a hysterical delusion her panicked mind manufactured.

  Halting inches from him, Janice lifted her gaze to his face. She thought she saw a pensive shimmer in the shadow of his eyes and had an unexpected, disturbing desire all at once to flee back the way she had come. In the next instant, he greeted her, his voice thick and unsteady.

  “Hallo, Izzy, ma petite fleur.” Janice froze, stunned by the greeting. Izzy? Who was Izzy! A hand came out to stroke her hair and she drew back from the touch. “Non, cherie, do not shrink from the touch of my hand on your hair. Vous êtes toujours avec moi quoi que nous avons toujours partie.” The dark eyes clung to hers and Janice’s breath caught in her throat. Was that tenderness in Adrian’s expression and voice? And why the devil was he calling her Izzy and speaking French? And then it hit her. Izzy — Lisette! This wasn’t Adrian at all. In a suffocated whisper, she quizzed.

  “Aubert?”

  “Oui, mon amie.”

  He spoke again, his voice almost a caress. He reached out and this time Janice let his hand brush a stray tendril of hair from her neck. “Do you know what a prized beauty you are? Your hair a tribute to rubies? For three centuries, I have hungered to see you, to feel the melting softness of your body.” His hand smoothed her hair, moved on to her cheekbone.

  Janice held her breath, hypnotized by the invisible warmth of his touch. His knuckles caressed the line of her cheekbone and he was looking at her face as if he were photographing it for all time. Janice’s heart suddenly swelled with a feeling she thought long dead. Not since Jimmy had she felt so consumed by naked desire.

  Before her stood, not Adrian, but Baron Aubert Dumas. And he believed her to be Lisette, was seeking Lisette.

  “Never touched, always touching.” His husky murmur cut into Janice’s thoughts, accelerating her pulse. His hand slipped to the nape of her neck and pulled her toward him. “For three centuries I have hungered to feel your lips on mine.” He was going to kiss her, Janice sensed, unlock his heart and soul to her. The idea sent her spirits soaring, her knees trembling, and the blood pounding in her ears. “Embrassez moi. Come kiss me, Izzy.” His voice was sensually seductive as he lowered his head and his uneven breathing teased her cheek. She felt tears smarting behind her eyes and he saw them. His own gleamed more fiercely. “You have nothing to fear from me, cherie. I am your salvation.” His head dipped lower, his lips hovering inches from hers. Janice’s pulse skittered in alarm as his head blocked out all light.

  “Adrian!” she called, scarcely aware she had called his name.

  As if struck by a spasm, the lips halted their journey. Janice watched the eyes darken in pain, reflect glimmers of light, adjust, then regard her with a speculative stare.

  “Was I about to kiss you?”

  The question was crisp and clear, with a hint of sarcasm, and Janice knew the baron had vanished, letting Adrian’s consciousness take over again. Suddenly tongue-tied, Janice managed a suffocated whisper.

  “No, you weren’t. Baron Dumas was.”

  Adrian’s eyes narrowed suspiciously and he lifted his head away from her. Taking a step back, he stared at her in waiting silence. Janice could see her answer had rattled him and for a long moment, they merely looked at one another curiously. And then his eyes grew openly amused.

  “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. Usin
g 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.”