“This is the water you’ve been drinking?” he said.
“I didn’t have any other option. Turns out you get really thirsty when you eat a lot of pizza. Otis drank out of that fountain, so I figured it was safe.” Lucy got a queasy feeling. “Why?”
“There’s a moderate level of paranormal radiation in it. Otis is probably immune because he’s a dust bunny. They are native to Harmony and evolved to handle the energy down here. But there’s enough of a vibe in this water to cause serious problems for humans.”
Lucy sighed. “In other words, I’ve been poisoning myself? That’s why I’m still dealing with the hallucinations?”
“Probably. But I’m sure the effects will wear off once we get you back to the surface. In the meantime, you’d better have some of the water I brought with me.”
Gabriel took a canteen out of his pack and handed it to her. She un-capped it and took a long, healthy swallow. A weird jolt of awareness flashed through her. Drinking out of his canteen was a disconcertingly intimate experience. It wasn’t the first time she had shared a canteen with a colleague in the Underworld, but this time was … different. Very different.
Startled by her reaction, she hastily capped the canteen and handed it back to him.
“Thanks,” she said. She steeled herself to face the doorway. “Let’s go. I can’t wait to get out of here. My dad and my friends must be worried sick.”
“I’m sure they are.” Gabriel looked at Otis. “You lucked out when Otis found you.”
“And then he found you. Not everyone would have paid attention to a dust bunny.”
“I’m not so sure about that. A dust bunny carrying a pizza box and wearing a necklace is not a common sight.”
“How did you know the necklace Otis was wearing belonged to me?”
“I studied the photos that were taken the night of the wedding reception. You were a bridesmaid, so there were a lot of pictures of you. I recognized the necklace.”
Otis chortled and scampered through the doorway.
“I charted the route when I followed Otis down here,” Gabriel said. “We’ll take the same way out.”
He switched on an amber-powered locator. The screen glowed, indicating the path.
Lucy made herself walk toward the entrance, bracing for the nightmares. If a ghost hunter can get through it, I can get through it.
The nightmares seared her senses between one step and the next.
She froze, shivering with raw dread. “I can’t.”
“Here, hold the locator,” Gabriel ordered.
She took the locator and looked at it, dazed and disoriented and really, really pissed off.
“Okay,” she said, “but I don’t think it’s going to help. You’ll have to go back to the surface and get medication that will knock me out.”
“I carry some emergency meds that would do the job, but it would be a bad idea to use them on top of whatever hallucinogenic substances you’ve been ingesting. No telling what the side effects might be. I don’t think such drastic steps will be necessary. Let’s try it one more time.”
Before she understood what he planned to do, she was in his arms and his mouth was on hers in a fierce kiss that shocked and overwhelmed her senses. The sensation of sensual intimacy was a million times stronger than what she had experienced when she had sipped water from his canteen. Lightning.
The hallucinations flickered. An instant later they were vaporized. Gone.
Gabriel raised his head. She came out of the trance and discovered that she was outside the chamber looking back at the quartz throne and the fountain.
Gabriel had carried her through the doorway on a rush of heat that was stronger than the psychic barrier.
He set her on her feet and watched as if waiting to see if she was going to lose it altogether. As far as she could tell, he was completely unaffected by the kiss. He had delivered it as a form of shock therapy. Nothing personal. Just doing his job.
She took a couple of deep breaths, found her balance, and managed to dredge up some attitude.
“Thanks,” she said. “Obviously I needed that.”
“Sometimes distraction works in these situations.”
“Right. Distraction.” She frowned at the doorway. “Do you think I could have escaped if I’d been strong enough to force myself to crash through the barrier?”
Am I that weak now? she wondered. It was an unnerving thought.
Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t think you could have made it through as long as you were drinking that water. There’s a good chance you would have ended up unconscious in the doorway. If that happened, the forces that were being generated would have hit you every time you started to awaken. Eventually you might have gone insane or died.”