She ate some stew. There wasn’t much flavor but it wasn’t terrible, and best of all it was pleasantly warm. Houdini made his decision. He went for the pear crisp.
“Good choice,” she said. “Always eat dessert first. You never know when one of Ethel’s creeps will show up.” She paused and then smiled a little as a thought struck her. “I have to say that is definitely one bright spot about returning to Rainshadow. It’s highly unlikely that Ethel Whitcomb’s people will come after me here, not now with this fog and all communications down.”
Drake ate some of the stew. “If they do manage to follow you, they’ll have to go through me to get to you. That’s not going to happen.”
The mag-steel edge on the words was so lethally honed she was pretty sure that it could have drawn blood.
She managed a breezy, flippant smile. “Oh, wow, I’ve got a bodyguard now as part of our deal?”
“Yes,” he said, very seriously.
Some of the survival-mode tension that had been churning inside her for the past year eased a little.
“I believe you,” she said.
Chapter 11
DRAKE KNEW THE EXACT INSTANT WHEN ALICE CAME awake on a rush of nightmare-fueled adrenaline. He crouched in front of the tent.
“Take it easy,” he said. “Everything’s okay.”
She sat up so quickly she bumped her head against the roof of the small tent. Her eyes widened in horror as she looked past him into the fog.
“What?” she whispered.
He knew what she was seeing. The hallucinations had been growing stronger for the past hour. Like primal monsters of the night, they hovered just beyond the glow cast by the fire.
“They’re not real,” Drake said.
She ignored him, still caught between the dream world and the waking state.
“Houdini,” she gasped. “Houdini.”
The dust bunny hopped off the driftwood log where he had been sitting earlier, keeping Drake company, and raced into the tent. Alice clutched him close and took several deep breaths.
“What in the world is going on?” she finally asked.
Her voice was remarkably steady given the disorienting and disturbing circumstances, he thought.
“The energy in the fog is creating hallucinations,” he said. “It’s similar to the kind of thing that happens when you go through the psi-fence.”
She pulled herself together with visible effort. “You took off your glasses.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the amber lantern?”
“The firelight seemed to be more effective against the fog, so I decided to conserve the lantern energy,” he said. He did not add that he thought it best to save the lantern in the event that they wound up spending another night out in the open.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“So far,” he said. “I wondered how long you were going to be able to sleep through the effects of this fog. An hour ago the energy levels started to get really hot. It’s turning into a paranormal storm that affects the senses, generating audio and visual hallucinations.”
“Oh, that’s just great.” Alice groaned. “And here I thought we weren’t going to have to worry about that kind of stuff until we went into the Preserve.”
“Whatever is going on inside has spilled out through the fence, at least in this sector. It’s nearly midnight now. It’s a good bet that things are going to become more unstable and more intense for the next few hours. You know how it is with paranormal energy.”
“Always stronger after dark.”
“And especially after midnight,” he said. “The psi-heat will probably ease up as we get closer to dawn.”
“Well, one thing’s for sure: I certainly won’t be getting any more sleep tonight,” she said.
“Come out and sit by the fire,” he said.
“Sounds like a plan.”
He straightened and backed away from the front of the tent. She released Houdini and scrambled out of the confined space. She stretched and dropped down onto the driftwood log.
Drake lowered himself beside her. Their shoulders brushed. Drake felt something spark between them. Talk about your imagination, Sebastian. Now you really are dreaming.
“Huh,” Alice said. “That’s interesting.”
“What?”
She leaned closer so that their shoulders touched again. Drake got another deep jolt of awareness when they made contact. This time Alice did not pull away. The flash of connection steadied and seemed to grow stronger and more intimate.
“When we have physical contact, I can see deeper into the fog,” Alice said.
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m picking up some of the currents of your aura,” she said. “It’s like I’m tapping into your talent a little.”
“I can feel your energy field, too.”
There was a subtle shift in the atmosphere, and he knew that she had jacked up her talent. After a moment some of the tension seeped out of her shoulders.
They sat quietly, shoulders pressed together. Houdini perched on the end of the log and gazed fixedly toward the dark woods.
“What if we go looking for those two missing crystals and come across something a lot more dangerous than those sea monsters your brother and his fiancée discovered,” Alice asked after a while. “Maybe something humans can’t handle.”
“It’s possible,” Drake said. “But it’s not like we’ve got a choice. We need answers.”
“And if you don’t like the answers?”
He never got around to responding because at that moment a cold frisson of alarm crackled across his senses. On the end of the log, Houdini sleeked out and uttered a low, warning growl.
Drake looked toward the fence line. A pair of faceted eyes the size of basketballs stared back at him from the darkness. They glowed with icy-cold ultraviolet psi-light. The creature’s mouth was festooned with two pincer-like mandibles. Its body was swollen and bulbous in shape and was supported by six spindly, jointed legs. The damned thing was as large as a dog.
“We’ve got a visitor,” Drake said quietly. He reached for the fire-starter, moving very slowly. “Behind you, near the psi-fence boundary.”
Alice turned, keeping her shoulder pressed against his. She gave a sharp, horrified gasp.
“Good grief,” she whispered. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Some kind of insect,” Drake said. His hand closed around the fire-starter. “But not like anything I’ve ever seen inside the Preserve.”
“Looks like your brother was right. Whatever is going on in there is starting to affect the wildlife.”
“Insects evolve rapidly. It makes sense that they would be among the first creatures to respond to the changes in the environment.”
“But that monster is outside the fence,” Alice said. “I thought nothing inside the Preserve could get out.”
“Humans and dust bunnies come and go through the fence all the time.”
“Yes, but we’re different. That . . . That thing evolved inside the Preserve in a very hot environment. How can it live out here on the beach?”
“Just taking a wild guess here—I’m no biologist—but I think it’s safe to say that the energy of the fog provides enough psi for it to come outside the fence at night to hunt.”
The glowing ultraviolet eyes moved toward them with the quick, sharp movements typical of a creature with a jointed exoskeleton. It hesitated, probably because it didn’t like the fire, Drake thought. Then, as if it had come to some decision regarding prey, the monster skittered forward swiftly.
Houdini hissed.
Drake waited until the giant insect was within range. He aimed the fire-starter at one of the compound eyes and released the device at full power. The narrow blowtorch beam struck one of the insect’s eyes. There was a loud crackling noise and then a pop when the creature’s exoskeleton exploded under the fiery impact.
The smell of torched insect drifted through the fog.