Instinct and the self-defense tenets of meta-zen-syn took over. She stopped trying to resist. Instead, she sent more of her own power out onto the psychic plane. Swiftly she manipulated the facets of the prism, altering the focus until the energy waves scattered. It was as if they were refracted through a thousand glittering mirrors. Power ricocheted aimlessly across the psychic plane.
"What the hell?" Rafe's stunned surprise came through on both the physical and metaphysical planes. "What are you doing?"
"What do you think you're doing?" she retorted.
"Damn. I'm sorry." Rafe's reflexes on the metaphysical plane were even faster than they were in the physical world. He cut the flow of talent with devastating suddenness. "I'm sorry. Oh, shit, I never meant—"
Orchid quickly dissolved the prism. She watched warily as Rafe slowly sat up beside her. She did not know what to expect from him. He did not look angry or baffled or shocked.
He looked deeply mortified. A dull red stained his high cheekbones. Chagrin, embarrassment, and humiliation blazed in his eyes. There was something else there, too, she realized. Fear?
Why should Rafe be afraid?
"I'm sorry," he said again. He put out a hand as if to touch her and then withdrew it. "That was very . . . primitive of me, wasn't it?"
Relief flooded through Orchid. She suddenly understood the fear she had glimpsed in his eyes. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm used to that kind of thing."
He blinked. "You are?"
"Sure. I write about psychic vampires all the time, remember?"
"I am not a vampire."
The tightly leashed fury in him brought her up short. She sat up slowly. "No, of course you're not. It's okay. I was only making a joke."
"I fail to see any humor in the situation."
"It might not be the funniest thing that's ever happened to me, but it certainly isn't the end of the world, either."
"Orchid, listen to me. I swear I never meant to do what I did."
"Lighten up, Stonebraker." She patted his knee. "You got a little carried away with the first prism who could focus your full range of power. No big deal. Next time you'll know what to expect. You won't go off the deep end a second time. You've got too much control for that."
His jaw was rigid. "I did not get carried away because of the focus link."
"No?"
"I got carried away because I didn't want to lose—" He broke off. "Forget it."
"I will," she assured him. And knew that she was lying through her teeth. She would never forget that kiss as long as she lived. "It was just a kiss that got a little out of hand. Probably happens all the time, right?"
He watched her closely. Dark curiosity lit his gaze first. It was followed by a flash of satisfaction.
He knew that she was lying.
Impossible. He couldn't be reading her mind. Strat-talents were not human lie-detectors, she reminded herself.
"You're wrong, you know," he said quietly. "That kind of thing does not happen very much to me. What about you?"
"Uh, no." She cleared her throat. "No, it doesn't happen much to me, either."
She held her breath, afraid he would pursue the point with the sort of single-minded intensity he applied to his investigation work.
But to her euphoric relief, he changed the topic.
"I knew you could create a near-perfect focus," Rafe said. "But I didn't realize you could manipulate it in a negative as well as a positive way. Before tonight, I would have said that what you just did was impossible."
Chapter 6
Orchid was suddenly mildly embarrassed. "It's not that weird, you know. I have a friend named Zinnia who can manipulate the prism she projects to some extent. She can twist it. When that happens any power flowing through it is also twisted in a way that's painful for the talent"
"You did a hell of a lot more than twist the focus. You manipulated each individual facet of the prism."
"Yes."
"It's incredible."
"I'm glad you're impressed," she muttered.
Rafe shoved his fingers through his hair. His eyes were wary. "I didn't mean to jump your prism the way I did."
"I know."
"I didn't even realize I could jump a prism in that way," he admitted. "Didn't think it was possible."
"Happens all the time in psychic vampire romance novels."
He smiled ruefully. "Is that a fact? Maybe I'd better read one." He drew a breath. "Five hells. No wonder the folks at ParaSyn wanted to run a few experiments on you."
Orchid fussed with her T-shirt while she collected herself. Then she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I'll let you in on a little secret."
"What's that?"
"The ParaSyn researchers knew that I was an ice-prism, of course, but I never let them see how much I could do with my prism construct."
Rafe's gaze sharpened. "What do you mean?"
"I allowed myself to get talked into doing the study for the sake of science. But once I started I realized I didn't want to demonstrate the full range of my abilities. Some instinct made me limit what I showed the researchers."
"You don't have to explain. You're talking to an off-the-chart strat-talent, remember? I don't go around telling people how strong I am, either."
She smiled wryly. "No, I can understand that."
Rafe reached out to catch her chin on the edge of his hand. He turned her head so that her eyes met his. "The last thing I wanted to do was scare you so badly you had to resort to using your secrets."
Annoyed, she lifted her chin away from his hand. "Will you please stop apologizing? You didn't frighten me. You made me angry. Big difference."
"Right. Big difference. I'm sorry that I made you angry."
She raised her eyes to the ceiling. "If you say you're sorry one more time, I'll get really mad. I think you're only apologizing because you don't want to admit what really happened."
"What do you think really happened?"
"You lost control for a few seconds. Losing control bugs the heck out of you, doesn't it?"
His mouth thinned, but he said nothing.
She patted his knee again. "Don't fret about it. I'm sure it won't happen again."
His eyes gleamed. "It might if you continue to pat me as if I were a cat-dog."
She paused in mid-pat and hastily retrieved her hand. "Sorry."
He got to his feet with languid grace and stood looking down at her with a thoughtful expression. "You know, psychically, I'd say we're fairly well matched."
She rose, ignoring his outstretched hand. "I suppose this means that we do have something in common besides the fact that we can't get a date. Well, it's been an interesting evening, but it's getting late. I'd better be on my way."
She scooped up her jacket from the high back of the old Later Expansion period sofa and started toward the door.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.
"Home. Are you going to drive me or shall I call a cab?"
"What about Theo Willis?"
She stepped out into the hall and paused to look back at him. "I've decided that you're right."
"About what?"
"Working with you will be the most efficient way of proving that Theo didn't steal the missing relic."
"Willis is dead," Rafe said evenly. "He won't care whether or not you clear his name. From what I learned today, he doesn't even have any close family who will give a damn if he was guilty or innocent."
"I care. He was an ice-prism. There aren't very many of us. This sort of thing gives my kind a bad rap. Makes us look even more weird than we are. For the sake of ice-prisms everywhere, past and future, I'm going to prove that he was innocent."