“I’m good at tracking people, remember?”
“I know. You found me when no one else could. But it’s different inside the Dead City. The energy in there is extremely disorienting even during the daytime. After dark, it’s wild. You know that. You went into the ruins after dark to find me two months ago.”
“I walked into the Dead City after dark and walked back out with you, remember?”
He had walked back out with her in his arms and afterward nothing had been the same.
“Yes,” she said. “And I’m very grateful, believe me.”
“Forget the gratitude. I was just doing my job.”
“Right.”
Just doing his job.
“The point,” Gabriel said, “is that I’m good at what I do.”
She tightened her grip on the clutch purse in her lap, trying to decide what she wanted. It was so tempting to take him up on his offer to conduct a search. Maybe he would notice something she hadn’t. But what if he found nothing at all? That was the most likely scenario, and a failed search would convince him once and for all that she had hallucinated the kidnapping.
She hadn’t hallucinated it, damn it.
She sat very straight in the seat. “All right.”
Gabriel didn’t wait for her to have second thoughts. He raised his voice slightly. “Change of plan, Joe. Take us to the Storm Zone district.”
Joe glanced into the rearview mirror. “You want to go there at night, Boss? I’ve heard it’s not a good place to visit after dark. They say the energy in that zone gets pretty intense.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a guide who knows her way around the zone.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The ominous yellow light that was the hallmark of the Storm Zone during the day was now infused into the glary paranormal fog. The mist shrouded the Colonial-era buildings right up to the great Wall that had once protected the Dead City.
The paranormal radiation of the zone was stopped cold by the acid-green energy of the quartz that had been used to construct the Wall and protect the towers inside. Unlike the Storm Zone fog, the quartz light inside the ancient city was clear and powerful at night. The vast complex of the ruins outshone all of the casinos in Illusion Town.
A lot of erratic, unpredictable paranormal energy ebbed and flowed in the neighborhoods outside the eight walls that framed the ruins, but the territory on six sides was inhabitable. The Storm Zone and the Fire Zone were the exceptions.
Although the Storm Zone was accessible by day and had become a tourist attraction, it and the Fire Zone were considered off-limits after dark. Only the most desperate criminals, crazy thrill-seekers, and a few idiots high on drugs dared to venture into the Dead City itself at night. Some were never seen again. Many of those who were rescued or managed to find their way out suffered varying degrees of psychic stress for days, weeks, months, or even years afterward.
The exceptions to the rules, as usual, were high-rez talents who could handle the violent paranormal energy. Even they were careful not to stay inside the walls for extended periods of time.
Joe brought the limo to a halt in the parking lot that served Storm Zone Adventure Tours.
“Is this close enough, Boss?” he asked.
“Yes,” Gabriel said. “We’ll walk from here.” He glanced at Lucy. “Ready to do this?”
“Yes, but it’s probably going to be a waste of time.”
“You never know. I’m good, especially after dark.”
A deep shiver of sensual awareness stirred her senses. She flashed on the searing kiss Gabriel had given her when he had carried her out of the chamber of hallucinations two months earlier. She thought about that kiss every night when she was alone in bed and sleepless because she knew there would be nightmares when she finally did fall asleep.
Did he ever think about that kiss? Probably not. He had told her at the time he had used it as a means of distracting her so that he could get her through the psychic barrier at the entrance. But was he subtly hinting at it now? Was he teasing her?
She was overthinking things. She opened her door and climbed out before Joe could extract himself from the front seat.
Excited by the promise of a new venture, Otis tumbled out of the car after her, waving his sequined dust bunny. His second set of eyes popped open. It was night; the energy in the area was hot. He was ready to hunt.
Gabriel opened his own door and got out. He walked around the big vehicle to join her. “Show me where you entered the ruins.”
“I used the first opening I could find. It’s not far from here.”