Canyons of Night Page 19

“Why?”

  “Because you’re going to crash soon. It’s one thing to push yourself to the limit. The worst that can happen is that you exhaust your senses for a while. But this is about controlling your talent.”

  Control. That was the critical thing, he thought. Above all he had to stay in control.

  Reluctantly, he lowered his talent. The thunderstorm of energy dissipated quickly. He shut down his psychic senses altogether and sank back into his normal senses. But the intoxicating mix of soaring exhilaration, relief, and euphoria was still sweeping through him. He was in the grip of the biggest post-burn buzz he had ever experienced in his life. He was also more physically aroused than he had been since last night. He would crash soon but not yet.

  He looked at Charlotte.

  “Down, Big Boy,” she said firmly.

  “What?” He could not take his eyes off her. It was all he could do not to sweep her up in his arms and race down the short hall to the bedroom. No, forget the bedroom; he wanted to take her right here on the floor or up against the wall.

  “There’s no reason to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said. “Just so you know, your eyes are still hot. I’m not naïve. I get panic attacks if I run flat-out for a while but most folks, most men, get a different reaction.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’ve heard the jokes. I know about the paraphysiology involved. The bio-cocktail created by a heavy burn results in a big surge of testosterone and adrenaline and other related hormones related to physical arousal. Forget it. We’re trying to conduct a scientific experiment here.”

  A tide of urgent need swelled through him.

  “I said, forget it,” she added for good measure.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “Okay,” he said again. But he could not look away.

  “Let’s talk about what just happened,” Charlotte said.

  She spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact way that was no doubt meant to de-escalate the prowling tension in the atmosphere but it had no impact on his arousal. Control, he reminded himself.

  “What just happened,” he made himself say, “was that I found out that I’m not going psi-blind. What just happened is that I have a whole new level of talent.”

  “I understand. But what can you do with it that you couldn’t do before?”

  “I have no idea in hell what I have become,” he said quietly.

  “Don’t talk as if you’ve developed a new talent. You’re just stronger now.”

  “Maybe. Whatever it is, I know that I can handle it. That’s what I learned tonight.”

  “I see.” She drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. Her brows crinkled together above the frames of her glasses. “I suppose it may take a while to understand intuitively how to focus all that energy in a useful way.”

  “I’ll figure it out some other time.” The deep hunger was eating him alive. He got to his feet and went to the window.

  “Are you okay?” Charlotte asked quietly.

  “Sure. I just need to work off this edge,” he said. “I’m going to take a run.”

  “All right but please be careful. It won’t be long before you need to sleep. Be sure you make it home to your own bed before you go down. People might get the wrong impression of the town’s new police chief if you’re found sleeping on the side of the road.”

  He ignored her attempt at humor. He was not in a humorous mood. “I’ve got time.”

  He had to get out of here, he thought. He pivoted and went to the door, careful not to look at her. He got the door open.

  “Slade,” Charlotte said softly.

  That was all she said but it was enough. He turned and looked at her. She was on her feet. He saw that she had replaced the pendant around her neck. The mirror no longer glowed. The yearning inside him became a howl of need. He gripped the doorknob so tightly it was a wonder that he did not crush the knob.

  “I have to go,” he said.

  “No. I want you to stay here with me tonight.”

  “You’re sure?”

  She smiled and walked toward him through the shadows. When she was directly in front of him she put her arms around his neck.

  “I’m sure,” she said.

  The door closed with a solid and very final-sounding chunk. Slade stopped trying to suppress the all-consuming fire inside him. He locked his hands around Charlotte and lifted her into the air. She clung to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “Oh, my,” she whispered.

  He did not try to speak because he knew that he was incapable of being coherent. He kissed her instead, letting her feel all of the lightning-hot passion that was flooding his veins.

  And then he carried her down the hall to the bedroom.

  Chapter 23

  SHE OPENED HER EYES A LONG TIME LATER, VAGUELY aware that it was still dark outside and that some faint sound had awakened her. Her pulse beat a little faster.

  It took a few seconds for her to orient herself. The unfamiliar weight beside her was Slade. He had fallen asleep almost immediately after the fast, hot sex. It could take a strong talent a few hours to recover from a heavy burn, she thought. If there was something wrong, she would have to deal with it.

  The sound came again, a faint, muffled chortle. Rex.

  Reluctantly she shoved aside the covers and got out of bed. Slade stirred but he did not awaken. She pulled on a robe and went down the cold hall. When she reached the living room she paused to twitch the curtain aside and peer out the window.

  Rex was sitting on the porch staring intently at the door as if trying to will it open. She dropped the curtain and unlocked the door.

  Rex sauntered across the threshold, chortling a greeting. He still had the clutch purse but it did not look as full as it had earlier.

  “You gave away the paperclips, didn’t you?” she asked softly. “Trying to impress some new friends in the Preserve?”

  Rex chattered happily and headed for the kitchen.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” she said.

  She followed him into the kitchen and flipped on the light. Rex was sitting on the floor, his gaze fixed on another door, the one that opened the refrigerator.

  “What? You expect me to feed you again? You just came back from a hunting expedition, didn’t you?”

  Rex did not take his attention off the refrigerator door. She gave up and opened it. Together they both studied the glowing interior.

  “Oh, look,” she said. “You’re in luck. There’s some leftover zucchini bread.”

  Rex bounced a little and chortled.

  She took the foil-wrapped bread out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. She found a knife in a drawer and cut off a hefty slice of the bread. She put the slice on a plate and set the plate on top of the refrigerator. Rex bounded up to the top of the appliance and fell to his late-night snack with his usual enthusiasm.

  Charlotte rewrapped the remaining loaf of zucchini bread and put it back in the refrigerator. She was about to close the door when she realized that she was hungry, too. She took out a wedge of cheddar cheese and cut off a hunk for herself.

  She leaned back against the counter and studied Rex while she ate her cheese.

  “What’s going on with you and the guy in my bed?” she asked softly. “You’ve bonded with him somehow, we know that much. Is it because you’re both hunters at heart?”

  Rex concentrated on his bread.

  “Now that he has his talent back, Slade will probably return to his old job at the Bureau. Or maybe he’ll decide to go ahead with his new security business. Either way, he’ll be leaving in a few months.”

  Rex finished his snack and bounded down to the floor. He fluttered out of the kitchen and disappeared.

  “I’m going to miss you both,” she said softly to the empty kitchen. “I’m really not much good at this rez-with-the-frequency thing.”

  She finished her cheese an
d went back out into the shadowed living room. She moved cautiously through the dark space, afraid of tripping over Rex but there was no sign of him.

  She made her way down the hall to the doorway of the bedroom. A pair of glowing blue eyes watched her from the vicinity of her pillow. Rex was not asleep in the living room. He was curled up on her side of the bed.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” she hissed softly. She made shooing motions with her hand. “Off you go. There isn’t room for three of us.”

  Rex did not stir. His second pair of eyes opened, revealing amber coals. She hesitated, not sure how to proceed. This was no ordinary animal. Regardless of his strange attachment to Slade, Rex was a feral creature. She had read somewhere that truly wild animals could never be successfully tamed. She could try moving him forcefully off the bed but she was not sure how he would react. He might decide to defend his position. She knew enough about dust bunnies to know that they could be dangerous if cornered. And even if she was successful there would probably be dust bunny fur all over her pillow.

  The only other option was to try to wake Slade and ask him to get Rex off the bed. But that was probably not doable, not unless she managed to trigger his survival instincts. In a heavy post-burn sleep that was the only thing strong enough to bring a person back to a wakeful state. The problem was that Slade was a hunter-talent of some kind, a very powerful one. If his core instincts kicked in he would no doubt slam to the surface prepared to do battle. He might accidentally hurt her before he realized who she was.

  She was doomed to spend the night on the couch.

  “You win,” she said to Rex. “But the three of us will have a long talk in the morning. This sleeping arrangement is not going to become a regular habit.”

  She could have sworn that Slade stirred a little at the sound of her voice but he did not awaken. Rex closed all four eyes.

  She left the two hunters sleeping in her bed and stalked back down the hall to the closet. She found a spare sheet, blanket, and pillow and hauled the lot into the front room. The couch was not going to be comfortable but she wouldn’t have to endure it for long. Dawn was not that far off.

  A short time later she settled down on the cushions. When she pulled the blanket up over her shoulders moonlight glinted on her pendant. She touched the silvery metal and thought about what she had seen earlier when Slade had pushed into the higher regions of his talent.

  During that time the room had been awash in waves of energy, Slade’s energy. The hot, dangerous currents had stirred her senses and heated her blood. She’d had to concentrate hard to read the ultralight rainbow cast by her pendant. Her objective had been to make certain that the reflecting bands of energy created by his aura were strong and steady.

  The colors and the clarity had been right, she thought. The dark rainbow had been fierce and brilliant. It had also been extremely powerful and quite unlike any rainbow she had ever viewed before.

  Slade said he did not yet know what he could do with the new aspect of his talent, but one thing was certain. Whatever the nature of his ability, it would be based on his core talent. He was a hunter.

  He had been dangerous before he had been hit with the mysterious vapors from the exploding gas canisters during his last assignment. He was even more lethal now.

  Chapter 24

  SLADE AWOKE TO THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN AND THE realization that he was not alone in the bed. That was the good news, he decided. The bad news was that there was something very wrong about the size and shape of the other occupant. He put out a hand and touched a warm body covered in fur.

  “Rex,” he said into the pillow. “What did you do with Charlotte?”

  Rex nuzzled his arm, rumbled a greeting, and then jumped briskly down to the floor. Slade opened his eyes in time to watch him flutter through the bedroom doorway. A moment later the front door opened.

  Charlotte’s voice floated down the hall. “Take your time. No need to hurry back. I’m about out of zucchini bread, anyway.”

  Slade groaned and sat up on the side of the bed. Charlotte appeared in the doorway. She wore a pink terrycloth robe and a pair of matching slippers. Her hair stood out in a variety of interesting angles. She looked like she had spent a less than restful night.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi, yourself. How do you feel?”

  He thought about the question. “Good. Real good.”

  “Lucky you. I’m stiff and sore from sleeping a goodly portion of the night on the couch.”

  He winced. “Rex?”

  “He came back late, made me feed him, and then took over my side of the bed.”

  “You should have shoved him out.”

  “Easy for you to say. Personally, I try not to get into arguments with anything that has more teeth and sharper claws than I do.”

  “Rex wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “Are you sure of that? I saw his hunting eyes. They tell me that is not a good sign when it comes to dust bunnies.”

  He looked down and was reassured to notice that he was wearing his briefs. He got to his feet.

  “Pretty sure,” he said.

  “He’s a feral animal, Slade. He appears to have formed some kind of psychic bond with you but I don’t think you or anyone else can predict how he’d react if someone else tried to push him around.”

  She had a point, he realized. He rubbed his jaw. He needed a shave.

  “I apologize for Rex’s behavior,” he said. “Would you mind if I took a shower before we finish this conversation?”

  “You can have the bathroom after me. I’m the one who had to sleep on the couch.”

  “You know, we could shower at the same time. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about running out of hot water.”

  She gave him one of her radiant smiles and for a couple of seconds his hopes soared.

  “It’s a very small shower and I’m not worried about using up all the hot water because I’m going first,” she said sweetly. “By the way, would you mind stripping the bed while I’m in the shower? I want to wash the sheets.”

  For some obscure reason, that hurt. He reminded himself that the sex had been hot and wet. The sheets probably did need washing.

  “Sure,” he said.

  “There will be dust bunny hair on my side of the bed,” she explained. “And on my pillow.”

  He relaxed. It was Rex she wanted to wash out of her sheets, not him. Rex could take care of himself.

  “No problem,” he said. “I’ll get right on it.”

  She turned on her heel, went halfway down the short hall, and vanished into the bathroom. A moment later he heard the shower running.

  He looked at Charlotte’s pillow. There were a few scruffy gray hairs but the damage didn’t look all that bad to him. Still, he knew enough about women to know that they could be picky about that sort of thing.

  He bundled up the quilt, tossed it onto a chair and went to work stripping the sheets off the bed.

  THE ENERGIZING AROMA OF BREWING COFFEE GREETED him when he emerged from the bathroom sometime later. He followed it into the kitchen and found Charlotte at the stove. She drew a long-handled spatula slowly through a large pan of creamy-looking scrambled eggs.

  For a moment Slade stood in the doorway, allowing himself the luxury of watching Charlotte make breakfast for the two of them. She was dressed in black trousers and a deep blue pullover that skimmed her gently rounded breasts. Her hair, still damp from the shower, was tucked behind her ears and secured with a thin black headband.

  It felt good just being here with her, he thought. She probably didn’t feel the same way about him, though. He’d seen his face in the steamed-up mirror a few minutes ago. He looked like he had just walked out of a disaster movie. True, he had showered but he’d had no way to shave and the clothes he had on were the ones he’d worn last night.

  He made a note to bring a fresh shirt, a change of underwear, and a razor the next time he came to dinner at Charlotte’s. The fact that he hadn’t remembered
to bring a few necessities last night only went to show how long he had been out of the dating world.

  Charlotte raised the spatula in greeting and smiled. “Ready for breakfast?”

  “Sure,” he said. He looked around. “Did Rex come back?”

  “Not yet. Just as well. There aren’t enough eggs for all three of us.”

  He glanced at the small table. It was neatly set with two green placemats, silverware, and mugs. Butter and a jar of marmalade were arranged in the center.

  “Can I do something?” he asked.

  “You can pour the orange juice and the coffee.”

  “I should be able to handle that.” He opened the refrigerator and took out the bottled juice. “We need to talk.”

  “I thought you wanted to rez with the frequency,” she said lightly.

  He tried not to let the touch of frost in her voice bother him.

  “Not about us,” he said. He closed the refrigerator door and looked at her. “About my talent.”

  “Oh, right, your talent.” She hefted the pan off the stove and spooned the eggs onto two plates. “Well? What about it?”

  “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t say anything about it to anyone else, especially the members of your family.”

  She glanced at him, brows lifted. “Why not?”

  “Because your family is well-connected with Arcane and I don’t want J&J or anyone else getting curious about the effects that gas had on me.”

  “Got it.” She set the pan down. “I understand and I agree.”

  “You do?”

  “My family may be well-connected within the Society but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know how things work in the organization. I’m well aware that rare and unusual talents make some members of the Society uneasy. That goes double if those talents are powerful. I don’t think there’s any doubt but that you are now off the charts. Level Ten with a very large asterisk.”

  “Off the charts with an unknown talent,” he added quietly.

  “A heretofore unknown aspect of your core talent,” she corrected.

  “Doesn’t matter.” He poured the juice into two glasses. “Arcane gets nervous when the words unknown and off the charts appear in the same sentence. The same is true in the Guilds and at the Bureau.”