He sensed energy shifting in the atmosphere and realized that she had rezzed her talent. She looked straight at him with luminous eyes.
“You can see me,” he said.
“A little. You’re drenched in deep shadows.”
“Just a big shadow, huh? Doesn’t sound too interesting.”
She put out a hand and touched his bare shoulder. “You’re wrong. You look incredibly interesting.”
Her fingers burned on his skin, thrilling his senses.
“Is that a polite way of saying I look better in the dark?” he asked.
“No,” she said, very serious now. “You are the most interesting man I have ever seen in the dark or in daylight. “You are . . . amazing, Drake. Last night was amazing. I will never forget it or you. I just wanted you to know that.”
He stopped breathing for a beat. His pulse thudded in his veins. His whole body felt tight and hard and heavy with desire. He reached under the covers and put a hand on her thigh.
“Alice?” he said.
His voice sounded thick and harsh to his ears.
But she levered herself up on her elbow, leaned forward, and kissed him. His talent spiked and the night was ablaze in dark light.
The kiss ignited his senses, but he made himself hold back. Last night had been fast and hot. His intuition told him that tonight she wanted to explore him, learn him, discover more about what was happening between them.
She moved her lips to his throat, his shoulder, and then his chest. Her soft, warm hand glided over him as if she were trying to memorize him with her sense of touch.
He wanted to give her time and for a while he succeeded in his goal. He gripped her carefully, as if she were made of delicate porcelain. He flattened his palms on the contours of her sleek, elegant back. She was warm to the touch. Then he went lower, seeking the cleft between her legs.
He found her melting and hot. He caught the scent of her arousal and it took him over the edge. He eased her onto her back and came down on top of her, making a place for himself between her legs. She welcomed him, lifting her hips to meet him.
He entered her slowly, deliberately, intensely aware of the tight little muscles that guarded her core. She gasped, cried out softly, and sank her nails into his shoulders.
“Drake.
He went deep and the night blazed around them.
Chapter 29
WHEN HE EMERGED FROM THE BATHROOM FOR THE second time that night, he automatically looked out the window. The unnatural darkness still cloaked the town.
He started to turn away and go back to the bed but a flicker of light at the far end of the street made him pause. He took a closer look. The golden glow of an amber lantern appeared briefly again in the distance.
“What’s wrong?” Alice asked.
“Looks like someone is wandering around outside in the fog with an amber lantern,” he said.
“That’s strange.” Alice got out of bed and made her way to the window. “I can’t see anything.”
He draped an arm around her bare shoulders and rezzed a little of his talent. “How’s that?”
“Much better. Okay, now I see the light bobbing around at the end of the street. It’s a lantern, all right. Whoever is out there must be terribly disoriented. Probably scared out of his wits.”
“I’d better go see what’s going on.”
“I’ll bet that accounts for the ghost,” Alice said.
He turned away from the window and grabbed his pants. “What ghost?”
“Today I heard a couple of the kids talking about the ghost that haunts Shadow Bay. I assumed they were just telling stories to scare each other as a means of dealing with their fears. But maybe one or two of them happened to see someone walking around at night with a lantern.”
“I’ll check out our ghost,” Drake said.
He dressed swiftly, took one of the fire-starters out of the pack, put on his glasses, and opened the room door.
“Drake,” Alice said urgently.
He paused in the doorway. “What?”
“Be careful.”
“I will,” he promised.
He let himself out into the lantern-lit hall, descended the stairs to the lobby, unlocked the door, and went outside into the foggy night. Eerie, menacing visions swirled in the atmosphere. Fragments of his dream of the endless hallway lined with doors that opened onto blinding sunlight as well as Zara’s laughter whispered to his senses.
He removed his glasses, put them in his shirt pocket, and jacked up his talent to suppress the hallucinations. He started toward the spot where he had last seen the lantern.
But there was no sign of the flickering light now. Whoever had dared the night with a lantern had disappeared.
He walked the length of the street through the senses-chilling fog and turned the corner. In the dark light of night he could make out two stone pillars that formed an entryway.
The words engraved in the sign above the gate read: SHADOW BAY CEMETERY.
Chapter 30
ALICE EMERGED FROM THE TAVERN IN MID-AFTERNOON after the lunch rush. The laughter at the end of the street drew her attention. She looked around and saw Houdini and Darwina playing yet another game of hide- and-seek with the kids. The dust bunnies were chortling happily and the children’s laughter rang true. She smiled. It wasn’t just the mood of the youngsters that seemed elevated today. The adults she had served at lunch were also in a more positive, optimistic frame of mind.
Somehow Drake had managed to convince everyone that the situation on the island was under control and that progress was being made.
Drake did his own kind of magic, Alice thought.
She spotted Egan when she turned to walk toward the Marina Inn. He stood in front of the window of the Kane Gallery, gripping his Glorious Dawn sign. He was transfixed by whatever he saw in the darkened window.
Curious, she walked toward him.
“Hello, Egan,” she said when she got close.
He did not turn toward her or acknowledge her existence. The picture on the other side of the window held his complete attention. She stopped beside him and studied the painting propped on an easel. The gallery lights were off but there was enough weak, gray daylight left to make out the landscape.
The focal point of the picture was what appeared to be a frozen waterfall. The hot, seething brushstrokes and the surreal aspect of the image somehow conveyed the impression that the scene could only exist inside the Preserve.
“It’s a very interesting picture, isn’t it?” Alice ventured after a while.
