Midnight Crystal (37 page)

“You’re talking about the nightmares and hallucinations?” Adam asked.

“Right,” she said. “It takes a lot of extremely powerful energy from the dark end of the spectrum to produce severe nightmares and visions for weeks on end.”

“Makes sense,” Vickie agreed. “But humans can’t project psychic energy much beyond a radius of fifteen or twenty feet.”

Sam grew very thoughtful. “That doesn’t mean the psi currents don’t keep going.”

Marlowe sat forward again in her chair. There was another squeak. Gibson chortled, struggling to keep his balance.

“Exactly,” Marlowe said. “Psychic energy waves obey the laws of physics just like radio waves or light waves or sound waves. They come from a different end of the spectrum, that’s all. We can’t hear sound or see light beyond a certain range, but various kinds of instruments and machines can pick up that kind of energy at great distances. They can also transmit it.”

Her father nodded. “Radios, cell phones, and rezscreens do it all the time.”

“When you think about it,” Marlowe said, “the Burning Lamp is just a machine that generates dreamlight. I think that it was originally tuned to detect a very unique frequency of psi, the precise frequency produced by the Winters male who inherited Nicholas’s type of talent. The powerful energy of the nightmares and hallucinations activate the device, even over long distances.”

Vickie looked intrigued. “Once activated, the machine responds by sending out a signal to any dreamlight reader who is strong enough to sense it unconsciously.”

“Meanwhile, the Winters male who is going through the change wisely starts looking for said dreamlight reader,” Adam said. “I’d identified half a dozen in the Arcane computer files, but none of them were strong enough. Marlowe, of course, was not listed.” He smiled politely. “Being a Jones and all.”

“But I had begun to sense the lamp’s pull,” Marlowe said. “There was no giant red psychic sign, just a general sense of restlessness. I was searching for something, but I didn’t know what. I assumed that what I was experiencing was nothing more than the normal reaction anyone would have after taking over a legendary firm with the kind of history that J&J has.”

“And the self-doubts that plagued you after you discovered that you had been deceived by Tucker Deene didn’t help,” Elizabeth added gently.

“No,” Marlowe said. “But here’s the really interesting part. I don’t think that I was the only one who sensed the lamp’s energy unconsciously. I think Charlotte Deene picked up some of the vibes, as well.”

They all looked a bit startled.

“Really?” Vickie asked.

“Yes,” Marlowe continued. “Like I said, the lamp is a machine. The signal it sends out is designed to attract a powerful dreamlight talent, any powerful talent. Charlotte wasn’t quite strong enough to locate the lamp or to work it, even if she had found it, but because she was looking for a way to save her brother, she focused on the artifact much sooner than I did.”

“That resulted in the theft of the fake,” Zeke said. “Which, in turn, caused you to focus on the lamp. Once that happened, you and Adam found each other almost immediately.”

Marlowe tapped the end of her pen on the desk. “I’m certain that Adam and I would have connected sooner or later, because his search for the lamp had created rumors among the antiquities dealers in the Quarter. Some of those rumors had reached this office, and I was intrigued by them. I was planning to investigate. But, yes, I think it’s safe to say that Charlotte’s search and the theft of the lamp speeded up the process.”

Diana looked at Adam. “In other words, you and Marlowe would have been drawn together one way or another, regardless of the triggering incident.”

Adam smiled at Marlowe, energy shimmering in the atmosphere around him. “No question about it.”

Mischief sparkled in Vickie’s eyes. “In other words, any powerful dreamlight reader could have done the job?”

“No,” Adam said. Absolute certainty rang in the single word. “Only Marlowe.”

Marlowe pursed her lips, “Well, as long as there was a strong bond between—”

He stopped her with a look. “Only you.”

She smiled. “Okay.”

Sam’s brows bunched together. “Something else I’ve been wondering about. How did those early notes of Nicholas Winters fall into Keith Deene’s hands?”

“I found a journal in Fortner’s office,” Adam said. “He had kept an eye on the triplets over the years because he was curious to see if any of them would inherit his Cerberus talent. He was well aware that Keith was a strong crystal talent. He arranged for his son to find the notes, guessing that Keith would be unable to resist the challenge of trying to forge the enhancing crystals.”

Ben looked at Marlowe. “But how did Fortner come across Nicholas’s notes in the first place?”

“He inherited them,” Marlowe said.

“How, for heaven’s sake?” Elizabeth asked.

“The usual way,” Marlowe said. “They came down through his family. When I discovered that Fortner was the Deenes’ father, I did a little more research and found out that Fortner is a descendant of Samuel Lodge.”

“That name rings a bell,” Zeke said. He snapped his fingers. “Now I remember. Lodge figured in a very old case that involved the lamp and a nineteenth-century crime lord, Griffin Winters.”

“Lodge had some of Nicholas’s notes,” Adam said. “They descended down through his family.”

“Amazing how difficult it is to keep secrets in the Society,” Zeke mused.

Diana looked at Marlowe. “Are you going to tell the Deenes the truth about their father?”

“I did that last night after we got out of the tunnels,” Marlowe said quietly. “I felt they had a right to know the truth. They were shocked but not totally surprised. Charlotte told me that she and her brothers had suspected for years that the ghost hunter named as their father in the Society’s files was probably not their real father.”

Zeke looked thoughtful. “Think they’ll show up here to talk about becoming J&J agents?”

“Yes,” Marlowe said. “I think they will.”

Vickie frowned. “Why would they do that?”

“Because I made it clear that as far as Arcane is concerned, they are full-fledged members of the Society,” Marlowe said. “The Deenes have never had a family. Arcane can provide them with a sense of connection.”

Elizabeth smiled. “You may be right.”

“At the very least, J&J will be able to keep an eye on them,” Zeke said.

Marlowe smiled. “That thought did occur to me.” She got to her feet and crossed the room to pick up the coffeepot. “Being the head of J&J, I don’t believe in coincidence, of course. But at times like this, I do sort of wonder about karma.” She poured coffee into a cup. “The old reap-what-you-sow thing.”

Vickie understood. “What goes around, comes around,” she said softly.

Diana frowned. “What are you two talking about?”

Marlowe put the pot back down on the burner. “In the end, it was using the crystals that pushed Fortner to the crisis point. Even though he was a true Cerberus, he probably would have lived several more years if he hadn’t started using the crystals.”

Adam’s eyes got very cold. “And the reason those crystals existed in the first place was because Fortner made certain that his son, Keith, got hold of Nicholas Winters’s notes.”

“Elliott Fortner wielded three talents, but he was insatiable,” Marlowe said. “He wanted more power. He became obsessed by the possibility of enhancing his abilities with the crystals.”

“In other words,” Elizabeth said, “the children that Elliott Fortner abandoned all those years ago had their revenge, although they didn’t know it at the time. They forged the very crystals that accelerated his psychical deterioration. And it was Fortner himself who gave them the key.”

“Karma,” Zeke said. He smiled, satisfied. “Like I said, no such thing as coincidence.”

“But you’re okay with karma?” Marlowe asked.

“If you look hard enough, far enough, and deep enough, you will find that there is always some kind of balance in the universe,” Zeke said. “For want of a better word, I like karma.”

ADAM PICKED UP THE BOTTLE OF AMBER DEW AND followed Marlowe out onto the balcony of her condo. The balmy, psi-lit night stirred his senses. So did Marlowe. She was still wearing the sexy little dark violet dress that she had worn to dinner earlier. Her hair was pinned up in a sleek knot.

She went to lean against the railing and looked out at the glowing ruins. Gibson fluttered through the open doors and bounded up to perch nearby. He had an energy bar clutched in one paw.

“Been a fast week,” Adam said. He set the glasses down on the small table. “Not a lot of time for us to talk.”

She smiled at him from the shadows.

“No,” she said. “Not a lot of time at all.”

He filled the glasses and handed one to Marlowe. Energy and intimacy shimmered in the atmosphere around them. He touched his glass to hers.

“Here’s to our first real date,” he said. “I thought it went well. No one tried to kill us. We didn’t run into any stray Cerberus talents. I don’t recall any odd artifacts infused with hypnotic commands.”

“I hope you weren’t bored.”

“Not for a second.” He brushed his mouth against hers. “You?”

“No,” she said. “Never. Not with you.”

She sipped some of the Amber Dew. He swallowed some, too. Gibson chortled and munched his energy bar.

Adam touched Marlowe’s cheek. “I love you. The first time I saw you, I knew that you were the woman I’d been waiting for.”

“I love
you
, Adam. I had given up. I thought there would never be anyone for me. When I first met you, I was afraid to hope, afraid to believe that you might really be the one.”

“But you’re not afraid anymore, are you? After all, you’re the head of Jones & Jones. Takes more than the thought of a Covenant Marriage to scare the daylights out of you.”

“Is that what we’re talking about?” she asked. “A Covenant Marriage?”

“When it comes to marriage, the Winters family holds the same traditional views as the Jones family. We consider Marriages of Convenience tacky.”

“Well, that settles it, then,” she said. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think that the man who was handpicked to clean up the Guild would get involved in a tacky MC.”

He took the glass from her fingers and set it down beside his. “The Winters family has a couple of other traditions in common with the Jones family.” He drew her into his arms. “When we fall in love, we fall all the way and forever.”

“Yes.” She put her arms around his neck. Her eyes were deep and filled with dreams. “All the way. Forever.”

He kissed her for a long time. After a while, he picked her up and carried her inside, all the way to the bedroom.

 

 

OUT ON THE BALCONY GIBSON WAITED UNTIL THE bedroom went dark. Then he dashed through the small door and headed for the kitchen.

He hopped up onto the counter. The new cookie jar was filled with High-Rez Energy Bars, and there was no lock yet. He got the lid off and reached inside with his two front paws.

By the time he got the first load out to the balcony, half a dozen guests had already arrived. They helped him carry out the rest of the hors d’oeuvres. By then there were nearly a dozen dust bunnies present.

The night was young, the energy was good, and it was safe to go back into the rain forest again. Time to party.