Deception Cove

Chapter 3

DRAKE WAS A LITTLE SORRY TO SEE THE SIGN ABOVE THE entrance of the Green Gate Tavern. He realized that he had been savoring the combination of the psi-rezzed night and the woman at his side. He could have walked with Alice through the Quarter until dawn.

Viewed through his mirrored-quartz lenses, the light of the illuminated sign was a sharp, bright green. He knew it was also the wrong shade of green, or, at least, not the same shade that Alice saw. He no longer saw colors the way other people did. There were limits to the technology of his lenses.

He was fine with the psi-lit atmosphere of the Quarter. The energy that emanated from the Dead City Wall was mostly in the paranormal range, the part of the spectrum that he could see clearly. True, the glow of the ruins looked different to him than it did to most other people—he could detect a much broader spectrum of colors in the wavelengths generated by the ancient green quartz, for one thing—but it wasn’t painful to look at.

A simple tavern sign, on the other hand, like the light over the stage door, would have temporarily blinded him if he had attempted to view it without his glasses. When it came to sunlight, he might as well have been a vampire. True, the light of day wouldn’t kill him but it literally dazzled his senses, rendering him blind.

Alice stopped in front of the door. “This is the place I told you about. We can talk inside.”

He studied the entrance. “Inside where you have friends.”

She gave him what he was pretty sure was a fake smile. But it looked good. He would take any smile he could get from Alice North.

“Exactly,” she said.

“I have no problem with that. Doesn’t matter where we talk.”

He really needed to keep reminding himself that he had a goal here in Crystal City and that time mattered. Normally he had no difficulty maintaining his focus on whatever objective he had set for himself. Various members of his family, including his mother, claimed he did that to a fault. But something about Alice was proving to be distracting.

He was well aware that she did not trust him. He was almost certain she was not just wary of him but flat-out scared, although she hid it well. She had every right to be nervous. He knew from what little he had found during the course of a hasty background check that she had been on her own ever since leaving an orphanage at seventeen. She had managed to survive and make her way without family ties in a world where family was the most important building block in the social structure. Among the descendants of the colonists, family was everything.

Life could be very hard for those unfortunate enough to find themselves utterly alone. For the past year life had been especially harsh for Alice. It was bad enough to be stranded in the world without any family connections. To be alone and on the run from the wrath of a powerful woman like Ethel Whitcomb would have been a thousand times worse. A lot of people, male or female, would have been crushed by the experience.

He opened the door. The deep, throbbing rumble of a heavy rez-rock tune playing on a cheap sound system spilled out into the otherwise silent street. Houdini chortled, clearly excited.

“He’s a fan of rez-rock,” Alice said. “He also loves the bar snacks and pizza here.”

Drake heightened his senses a little as Alice slipped past him into the shadowy tavern. She was so close that she brushed against him. She seemed unaware of the brief physical contact but he got a hot, heady thrill that left him on edge.

He told himself that he was still gathering information about Alice, still analyzing the situation and evaluating possible strategies. Maybe, on some level, that was even true. But he knew that in reality he’d been fascinated from the moment he had seen her illuminated in a thousand shades of paranormal light, hauling a suitcase through an alley while she out-maneuvered two knife-wielding assailants.

In that moment he’d seen everything he needed to know about her—she was the kind of woman who would never give up, regardless of the obstacles. No matter what life threw at her, she would just keep going.

That inner fire marked her in subtle ways. There was a fierce, vibrant energy about her that called to his senses. She was striking rather than beautiful; intriguing rather than glamorous; strong-willed rather than flirtatious. She radiated an interesting mix of innocence, irrepressible optimism, and savvy, street-smart intelligence. Her dark brown hair was caught in a ponytail. Dressed in a sleek, long-sleeved black turtleneck, black jeans, and black sneakers, she looked like a cat burglar heading out for an evening’s work.

He followed her into the moderately crowded tavern. The khaki-and-leather gear worn by several of the men occupying barstools identified them as members of the local Ghost Hunters Guild. They were drinking beer and Green Ruin whiskey. A man and a woman sat in a nearby booth. The man looked as if he was trying to convince the blonde to go home with him. The blonde looked bored.

Another booth was filled with a gaggle of young women dressed in flirty little dresses—expensive flirty little dresses—and stilettos. Definitely not from around this neighborhood, Drake thought. The women were drinking colorful drinks and trying to look as if they weren’t aware of the ghost hunters at the bar who were eyeing them in turn. It was a familiar ritual in the Old Quarters. Taverns like the Green Gate were popular destinations for bachelorette parties, coeds out for a little fun, and ladies from the more affluent suburbs who wanted to party.

The large, middle-aged woman working behind the bar was busy filling a beer glass. She looked up when Alice walked in.

“Hey there, Alice, you’re early tonight,” the bartender called in a hearty voice. “What happened?”

“The act closed, Maud.” Alice plunked her tote down on a seat in an empty booth and slid in beside it. “The owner of the theater cancelled me. Houdini and I are now unemployed. Again.”

There was a low chorus of commiserating responses from the crowd at the bar.

“Ah, now that’s just too damn bad,” one of the hunters said.

“Real sorry to hear that,” another added. “You gonna be okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine,” Alice said. “This is the way it goes in show business.”

“Maybe you could get a job at that new magic show that opened up a few blocks from here,” someone offered. “Catacombs of Mystery.”

“Maybe,” Alice said. She did not sound optimistic.

Houdini was the only one who appeared unconcerned by the sudden reversal of fortune. He chortled and bounced down to the floor. He scampered across the room, bounded up onto an empty stool, and from there hopped onto the bar. Several of the hunters greeted him.

“Lookin’ good, Houdini,” one said. “Nice tie.”

A hunter pushed a bowl of bar snacks toward Houdini, who made happy sounds. He surveyed the offering, made a careful selection, and munched with enthusiasm.

Maud set the glass of beer in front of one of the patrons and wiped her hands on a towel. She looked at Alice with concern. “The usual for you and Houdini?”

“Yes, please,” Alice said. “I’m really hungry tonight. And Houdini is always hungry.”

Maud turned toward the open door at the far end of the bar and raised her voice to call to someone in the small kitchen. “Alice’s usual.”

A man garbed in a dingy apron and a yellowed cook’s hat peered back through the opening.

“Coming right up,” he promised.

Maud scrutinized Drake with a vaguely suspicious air. “Who’s your friend, Alice?”

“He’s not exactly a friend,” Alice said. “More like a new acquaintance. We met outside the stage door a few minutes ago.”

Maud raised her brows.

“The name is Drake Sebastian,” Drake said.

“You’re not from ’round here, are you?” Maud said.

“No. Just visiting.”

“They wear sunglasses after dark where you come from?” Maud asked.

“I do.”

“Huh.” Maud did not look impressed. “What can I get you?”

Drake sat down across from Alice. “I’ll have a beer.”

Maud looked at Alice, awaiting direction. The ghost hunters followed suit. A distinct hush fell over the small crowd. Everyone was suddenly watching the booth where Drake and Alice were seated. There was a little hum of energy in the atmosphere. Drake wondered if he was going to find himself in the middle of a barroom brawl. He, too, looked at Alice, politely waiting for her to decide if there would be a fight.

“He’s okay,” Alice said. She wrinkled her nose. “At least for now. He helped me deal with a couple of lowlifes who were waiting for me in the alley behind the theater tonight.”

“Damn,” Maud said. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Alice assured her. “But we left a couple of unconscious thugs back there, thanks to my new friend.”

There were murmurs of approval from the hunters.

“Huh.” Maud looked satisfied. She turned back to Drake. “What kind of beer?”

“Whatever you have on draft is fine,” he said.

Maud selected a glass. The ghost hunters at the bar went back to leering at the giggling young women. The energy level in the room went down.

Drake looked at Alice. “Thanks for the character reference.”

“You’ve got five minutes to convince me you are not going to be a problem for me,” she said.

“The thing is, I probably am going to be a problem. But on the positive side, I may be able to help you with your current unemployment situation.”

She sat back and watched him warily. “You need a box-jumper?”

He thought about it and then smiled. “That’s as good a description as any. A couple of very important items have disappeared. We need to find them, and fast.”

“We?”

“Let’s start at the beginning.”

“Where is that, exactly?”

“The last time you were on Rainshadow Island.”

Alice went very still. She got a little blurry around the edges. It was suddenly hard to focus on her. Drake was pretty sure it was not deliberate. Her instinct to disappear when she felt threatened was a natural aspect of her talent. He jacked up his senses a bit so that he could see her clearly once more and waited.

She took a sharp breath and snapped back into focus. Her expression gave nothing away, but it didn’t take any psychic talent to know that her anxiety level had spiked.

“What does this have to do with Rainshadow?” she asked, her voice unnaturally even.

Before he could answer, Maud bustled around the end of the bar with two glasses in her hands. She set the beer in front of Drake and the white wine in front of Alice.

“Eggs and pizza will be out in a minute,” she said to Alice.

“Thanks.” Alice gave her a grateful smile.

Drake waited until Maud was out of earshot.

“Eggs and pizza?” he asked.

“The eggs are for me. The pizza is for Houdini.”

“Got it,” he said. “All right, to get back to our business. You do know about the Sebastian-North legend, I assume.”

“I do now.” Alice took a small swallow of the wine and lowered the glass. “But I had never heard about it until a year ago.”

“A year ago?”

“That’s when I found out that I was descended from a certain Nicholas North.”

That stopped him for a few beats. “I know you grew up in an orphanage, but didn’t you know anything about your family history?”

“Nope.” She drank some more wine. “The most that anyone at the orphanage could recall was that I arrived there at about age three after my mother was killed in a car accident.”

“What do you mean, that was all anyone could recall? There must have been some records when you were taken in.”

Alice shrugged. “There was a fire in the records office at the orphanage when I was four. What little information there was relating to my family history was lost.”

“What about your father’s people?”

Alice gave him a cold smile. “Nothing. The general theory at the orphanage was that I was the product of a one-night stand or a short-term affair in which neither party had kept current with their anti-pregnancy shots.”

Drake said nothing.

Alice raised her brows. “They do happen, you know.”

“What happens?”

“One-night stands between two people who don’t take precautions.”

He realized he was flushing a little. “I’m aware of that.”

“Society and the legal system do everything possible to make sure no one grows up without a family, but kids still get orphaned.” She paused. “I realize that sort of thing doesn’t happen in the Sebastian family world, though.”

“No,” he said, refusing to let her sarcasm get to him. “It doesn’t. We take care of our own.”

Alice gave him a cool smile. “How very traditional.”

“Moving right along, how did you find out about the connection to Nicholas North?”

“Long story. Involves my dead husband.” Alice drank more wine. “I don’t like to talk about him.”

“We’re going to have to discuss him at some point because I think he’s linked to this thing.”

Alice eyed him coldly. “What thing would that be?”

“The treasure that North and Sebastian buried on Rainshadow. It’s gone missing.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You think I stole it, don’t you?”

He watched her closely. “Did you?”

“No.” She held up one hand, palm out. “And before you ask, no I can’t prove it.”

“Do you know who did steal it?”

“Uh-huh.” She studied him over the rim of the glass. “Fulton Whitcomb.”

“Your husband.”

“Dead husband. And it was just a Marriage of Convenience so it doesn’t really count. Death results in an automatic dissolution of the marriage. The surviving spouse does not inherit any property. She has no legal or financial obligations pertaining to her husband’s estate. It’s like the marriage never happened.”

“Unless there are children from the union,” Drake said softly.

Children changed everything. The birth of a child into an MC automatically converted what was otherwise a dressed-up romantic affair into a full-blown Covenant Marriage. Dissolving a Covenant Marriage was a legal, financial, and social nightmare. His brother, Harry, had discovered that the hard way.

“Yes, well, there were no children,” Alice said coolly.

“Because both of you kept current with your vaccinations?”

“I certainly kept mine up-to-date. Not that it mattered.”

Drake heard a tiny mental ping warning him that this was important. “Why didn’t the shots matter?”

“Because getting pregnant would have been biologically impossible under the circumstances.” Alice drank the last of her wine and set the glass back on the table. “Fulton and I never had sex.”

Maud came out of the kitchen carrying two plates. She set the pizza down on the bar. Houdini waved ecstatically and chortled.

Maud chuckled and carried the platter of eggs, toast, and potatoes to the booth where Alice and Drake sat. Alice looked at the repast as though it were a diamond necklace.

“Thanks, Maud,” she said. “This is just what I need.”

Maud went back to her work behind the counter. Drake folded his arms on the table and watched Alice dive into the eggs. It occurred to him that she was hungry because she had used up a lot of energy that evening with the magic act and then defending herself in the alley. She was probably exhausted.

She swallowed a bite of eggs and began munching on a slice of toast. She paused mid-munch, glaring at him.

“What?” she said around a mouthful of toast.

“Nothing,” he said. “I know you’re hungry. I’ve been there. Go ahead. You can tell me your side of the story when you’ve finished. I’ll tell you mine while you eat.”

She nodded and went back to her eggs.

“Here’s where things stand on Rainshadow,” Drake said. “The treasure, which consisted of three dangerous Old World crystals of unknown properties, was stolen sometime during the past eighteen months. Recently one of the crystals was recovered deep inside the Preserve on the island.”

Alice ate some of the potatoes. “Just one?”

“The other two crystals are still missing. We believe they are also on Rainshadow.”

“We?”

“My family.”

Alice frowned. “Well, that’s weird. I wonder why someone took them back to Rainshadow after going to the trouble of killing Fulton and stealing the stones.”

“Is that what happened?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Not to get too personal, but why would you enter into an MC with Whitcomb if you didn’t intend to sleep with him?”

Alice raised her brows. “Because I was an idiot.”

“I’m guessing there was another reason.”

“Nope, I’m pretty sure that was the actual reason. I told myself that I was falling in love with him. He was so charming, so much fun. I thought that eventually I would want to sleep with him. I explained that I was attracted to him but that the relationship was moving too quickly. I said I needed some time to be sure of my feelings for him and his for me. Believe it or not, he claimed he wanted a full Covenant Marriage.”

“Fulton asked you to enter into a CM?”

Alice grimaced. “Hard to believe, isn’t it? You know, I think it was his insistence on a CM that made me uneasy. It all seemed a little too good to be true. A fairy tale in which the handsome, charming, wealthy prince whisks the little clerk from the museum gift shop off her feet and asks her to marry him.”

“You don’t believe in fairy-tale endings?”

Alice shrugged again. “I grew up in an orphanage, remember? You learn a lot about real life in an orphanage. Deep down, I sensed that there was something wrong with the perfect picture that Fulton painted. Regardless, I admit I had a few hopes and dreams. But I wouldn’t go for the CM. I did, however, let him push me into an MC.”

“Even though you weren’t ready to sleep with him.”

Alice frowned. “You’re really fixated on that aspect of the thing, aren’t you?”

“Just curious,” he lied. He was fixated, damn it.

“Fulton said he wanted some kind of commitment between us while I got to know him better. I’m pretty sure he figured that he’d talk me into bed fairly quickly. He was probably right. After all, he had dazzled me with a gift that no one else had ever given me.”

“An expensive piece of jewelry? A car?”

She smiled wistfully. “None of the above. Fulton Whitcomb gave me something far more precious—a piece of my family history.”

Drake experienced the sharp, edgy whisper of understanding. “He was the one who told you that you were Nick North’s descendant.”

“Yes. He was really into the antiquities market. He said he had a line on Nick North’s diary. He promised to find it for me—” Alice broke off abruptly, as if she was not sure how much more she ought to say. “Along with a couple of other interesting North family documents,” she finished a little too smoothly. “My turn to ask some questions. How did you find me?”

“You could call it a form of reverse engineering. There is a lot of information about Nick North in the Sebastian family archives. I worked downstream from the past to the present, piecing together the evidence. You were at a disadvantage because you were trying to work upstream toward your past but you had no solid starting point.”

Alice nodded. “Yes, that’s how Fulton figured it out. He traced Nick North’s ancestry and eventually got to me. I had no clue that what he really wanted were the crystals. It was a setup from the start. By the time I figured it out, it was too late.”

Drake nodded. “In addition to the diary, Whitcomb had North’s psi-code map, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“He had a map that would lead him to the crystals, but there was one really big catch. A psi-code map can only be deciphered by someone from the same bloodline as the person who created it—specifically someone with a similar kind of talent. That was another advantage that Whitcomb and I both had when we set out to find you, by the way. We knew we were looking for a North descendant who possessed his brand of talent—light-talent. That limited the search pool because, as you said earlier, there aren’t a lot of strong light-talents around.”

“There you have it,” Alice said. “The reason I agreed to an MC with Fulton Whitcomb. I was an idiot.”

He winced. “Been there, done that.”

Alice looked at him, startled. “You were an idiot in the romance department?”

“Oh, yeah. Someday maybe I’ll tell you the whole story. But right now we need to stick to your tale.”

“There’s not much more to tell. I was thrilled when I realized I could read my great-grandfather’s psi-code map. It gave me such a strong connection to my family history. I can’t explain it, but somehow it made me feel less alone in the world.”

“I understand.”

“I got even more excited when Fulton suggested that we go straight to Rainshadow and search for the North treasure.”

Drake smiled faintly. “In my family we refer to it as the Sebastian treasure.”

“Yes, well, at the time all I had was a treasure map created by my great-grandfather. As far as I was concerned, it was the North treasure.”

“What happened on Rainshadow?”

“We went to the island and immediately started treasure-hunting. It didn’t take long to find the cave where the strongbox was hidden. It was just inside the psi-fence.”

“You were able to go through the fence into the Preserve?”

“Yes. Fulton and I both got through it fairly easily.”

“You were both talents,” Drake said. “That explains why you could get past the paranormal forces of the fence. It’s a wonder you both didn’t get lost, though.”

“We had the map and we were careful to maintain visual contact with a landmark outside the fence at all times so we weren’t in danger of getting disoriented.”

“You found the strongbox that contained the three crystals. What happened next?”

“I got a bad feeling when I realized that Fulton was way too excited about the crystals. I mean, they were just three murky-looking stones. But he acted like we’d found a box of rare, hot amber. Then I saw the document inside the strongbox. It made it clear that the crystals were the property of the Rainshadow Preserve Foundation. In other words, they belonged to the Sebastian family. And suddenly I understood that Fulton had used me.”

“What did you say?”

“I told him that I was going to contact the Sebastian family to find out more about my history and my rights to the treasure. Fulton was furious. Then he showed me another document, one he had concealed from me. It was signed by both my great-grandfather and yours. It guaranteed that any North descendant would receive half of all profits made on anything of value that was ever discovered inside the Preserve.”

“Son of a ghost,” Drake said very softly. “Fulton planned to seduce you into a full Covenant Marriage so that afterward he would be able to claim half of whatever came out of the Preserve.”

“Yep.” Alice ate the last of her breakfast and put down the fork. “Between you and me, I got the distinct impression that I wasn’t expected to live long after Fulton finally got me into a CM. In fact, I have reason to think that he intended to force the issue by getting me pregnant.”

“But you said you got the shots.”

Alice smiled grimly. “I learned later that Fulton had gotten a prescription for the antidote. He intended to sneak it into my food after he had seduced me. After a baby was born, the MC would automatically convert to a CM. I think both the baby and I would have suffered a fatal accident.

“And after you conveniently died, he would inherit whatever there was of value inside the Preserve.” Drake stopped, mentally fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. “That implies that he thought there was something very important inside the fence, something worth marrying and murdering you for. Did he think the crystals were of such great value?”

“Not exactly,” Alice said. “He called the crystals the Keys. He said they would unlock the real treasure inside the Preserve.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Not much because about that time I told him that I intended to get a divorce. He reacted by trying to kill me. I pulled my invisibility trick and escaped from the cave. I was running for my life. I blundered through some kind of dark energy field and became thoroughly disoriented. It took me a couple of days to find my way back out of the Preserve. When I returned to Resonance City, the news of Fulton’s death was the headline story in the media and I discovered that I was the chief suspect.”

“What about the crystals?”

Alice shook her head. “I have no idea what happened to them. I assumed that Fulton got out of the Preserve with them and that he was killed by a partner in crime who didn’t like the way things had gone down on Rainshadow. After all, Fulton had really screwed up by failing to sucker me into a CM. What makes you think the crystals are on the island?”

“Because Rainshadow is getting dangerously hot.”

She raised her brows. “I assume you’re talking about heat in the paranormal sense?”

“Right. The crystals are mostly a mystery, but one thing we do know about them is that under certain circumstances they resonate with the natural paranormal forces of the planet. That effect is enhanced in hot zones like Rainshadow. We’re certain the two missing crystals are on the island and that they are overheating the place.”

“Define overheating,” Alice said.

“They are having a dangerously destabilizing effect on the local geothermal and atmospheric forces. The ocean currents and tides were always strong and treacherous in the area, but now they’ve become bizarre and unpredictable. The last time I was able to get through to my brother, Harry, was three days ago. He said the weather is following an equally unstable pattern. A heavy fog that seems to be infused with a lot of paranormal energy has been rolling in over the town every night. He said the island had just lost power and that he was organizing an evacuation. The problem is that a lot of folks on the island won’t leave.”

“You haven’t talked to Harry in the past three days?”

“Communications are down. I can’t get through on the phone or computer. No one is sure what’s happening in the Preserve, but Harry said there is growing concern that the unstable forces may be affecting plant and animal life as well as the weather.”

“And all because of those two crystals,” Alice said. “Damn. I knew they were going to be trouble.”

“You’re sure you don’t know where they are?”

“I’m positive. Trust me, if I had two really powerful crystals like that I would be trying to sell them to some outfit like Sebastian, Inc.”

He smiled. “And we would pay any price you asked.”

She sighed. “Well, I don’t have them to sell or give to you. What happens now?”

“We need to find the two missing crystals.”

“Be my guest. I’m not stopping you.”

“I’m going to need your help and I’m willing to pay for it.”

She went still again. “How much?”

“Name your price.”

“That offer is never a good sign. It means you’re desperate.”

“I am desperate.”

She looked skeptical. “I can’t see you as desperate, but it’s obvious those crystals are important to you. What I don’t understand is how you think I can help you locate them.”

“I’m not sure, either. But from what I can tell, you’re the last person who saw them before they disappeared.”

“No,” Alice said. “Whoever killed Fulton Whitcomb is the last person who saw those crystals.”

“Then there’s a very good chance that person is the one who took them back to Rainshadow. You’re the key to this thing, Alice.”

“I was afraid you were going to say something like that.”