Ghost Hunter

Chapter 15

AFTER DINNER COOPER AND EMMETT WENT INSIDE THE house to put together a detailed plan for dealing with the blue freak.

Elly and Lydia stood at the edge of the deck and watched the men walk away, talking in low tones.

"Guild business," Lydia intoned darkly.

"Don't remind me," Elly said.

For a while they stood silently together, looked out over the mist-shrouded park. At the far end of the railing, Rose, Ginger, and Fuzz sat munching quietly on pretzels.

"Did you see the look on Cooper's face when I told him that I could get him into The Road?" Elly asked after a while.

Lydia laughed. "Priceless. Typical Guild-boss-caught-flatfooted expression."

"Doesn't happen often."

"Enjoy the moment."

"Thanks, I will."

Lydia tipped her head a little to one side. "Do you really know someone who can get you a pass into that club?"

"I have a couple of friends who have been members for quite a while. They own a very successful antiques business on Ruin Lane. I blend special tisanes for both of them, and in return they've invited me to go with them to The Road a couple of times. I'm sure they'll let me borrow their pass tonight."

"Under other circumstances, it sounds like it would be a fun evening."

"Yes." Elly leaned her forearms on the railing and linked her fingers, absorbing the night. "I get the impression that Cooper is sort of stuck having to take care of this problem for the Cadence Guild."

"Emmett told me earlier that blue freaks don't come along very often. Neither do the unique kind of dissonance-energy para-rezzes who can handle them."

"When you think about it, it's my fault Cooper got involved in the first place. If I hadn't asked him to help me find my friend in the tunnels last night, he would never have known about that blue vortex."

"Was it really as scary as Emmett and Cooper implied?" Lydia asked.

"I've never seen anything like it, that's for sure, and I've been into the catacombs on several occasions with my family. It looked spooky and very powerful, although I don't think I took it as seriously as I should have because Cooper was able to de-rez it so quickly."

"Emmett says he's good."

"I must admit, even though I was raised in a Guild family, I've always assumed that blues and enforcers were mostly hunter legends."

"Well, you're way ahead of me. I'd never even heard of blues or enforcers until today."

"Goes to show what a good job the Guilds have done keeping their secrets down the years."

"I know it isn't any of my business," Lydia said, "but Emmett told me earlier that you and Cooper had been engaged for a while. He said you called off the wedding."

"Yes."

"Let me guess, the job got in the way?"

Elly smiled sadly. "You're very astute."

"Not really. It's just that I've been there and done that. There was a time when I was worried sick that Emmett was going to become the permanent head of the Cadence City Guild. I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Luckily, it turned out that he didn't want the job."

"Unfortunately, Cooper does want the job," Elly said. "He's made it clear that being the head of the Aurora Springs Guild is very, very important to him."

"And you've decided you can't deal with being Mrs. Guild Boss?"

"When we first met I didn't know that he was even a candidate for the job." She unlinked her fingers and spread her hands. "I thought he was a librarian, for heaven's sake."

"A librarian?"

"He was brought in from out of town to organize the Aurora Springs Guild Archives. Or, at least, that's what everyone claimed. He has all kinds of degrees in history and archival research and information retrieval. But it turned out that the academic background, although genuine, was just cover for his real position as an enforcer."

"Ah."

There was a world of understanding in the simple exclamation.

Elly sighed. "Right after I started dating him, the old Guild boss, Haggerty, disappeared, and the next thing I knew the Council had appointed Cooper as the new chief. He asked me to marry him before I had a chance to adjust to the change in the situation."

"Got to watch out for those librarians," Lydia said.

"You can say that again. Well, to make a short story even shorter, I soon found out how important the job was to him. Cooper started showing up late for dates or even breaking them altogether at the last minute. He evaded any discussion that involved Guild business. It dawned on me that maybe the only reason he wanted to marry me was because of my family connections."

"Connections?"

"He doesn't have any of his own," Elly explained. "His people are all non-Guild. Very distinguished academic types for the most part. They don't even live in Aurora Springs."

"I see."

"I think Cooper also liked the fact that I was an instructor at Aurora Springs College. He wanted a wife who could give him some good contacts with respectable, mainstream institutions in the community."

"You're sure those are the only reasons he wanted to marry you?" Lydia asked.

Elly winced. "Yesterday he admitted that almost every move he's ever made in his life since the age of nine was aimed at establishing himself as the head of the Aurora Springs Guild."

"Why?"

Elly hesitated. "You know, I haven't asked him that question. I've been too busy being offended by the glaring possibility that he saw me as just another step to his ultimate goal."

"Well, I can't blame you for not wanting to be a stepping-stone."

"For a while, after I found out he was going to be made the head of the Guild, I was able to convince myself that we could still have a good marriage. Dad kept going on and on about how Cooper was the new, younger face of the Guild, a leader who would guide the organization into the future. I certainly believe that mainstreaming is a worthy goal. I told myself that I could be a partner in the effort, blah, blah, blah."

"Blah, blah, blah." Lydia nodded. "I know exactly what you mean."

"Give me a break, I was falling in love with the man, and you know how it is. You can talk yourself into just about anything when you think you're in love."

"True," Lydia said. "Been there and done that, too. So, what happened? Why did you decide it wasn't going to work after all?"

"I found out Cooper had engaged in a hunter duel."

Lydia groaned. "You've got my full sympathy on that issue. I can't believe that in this day and age supposedly smart, intelligent, well-educated Guild men still conduct occasional duels. It's such a stupid, immature way to settle matters."

"I couldn't agree more."

Lydia looked at her curiously. "What was the duel about?"

"Cooper challenged a member of the Aurora Springs Guild Council named Palmer Frazier. Palmer and I had dated for a while before Cooper and I got serious. According to the Aurora Springs tabloids and the rumors on the campus where I worked, I was the reason the duel was conducted."

"Two men fought a for real duel over you?" Lydia whipped around to face her, eyes wide and fascinated. "Oh, my gosh, that is so incredibly romantic."

"Not exactly."

"Okay, okay, so we agree that dueling is totally immature, retrograde, and outdated masculine behavior. But I gotta tell you, Elly, I've never before met any woman who actually had two men fight a full-blown ghost fire duel over her."

"Yes, well-"

"Come on, you have to admit it's just like something out of one of those old films in which the hunky hunter hero goes down into the catacombs to fry the bad guys and save the lady."

"Not quite," Elly said.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to tell you something I haven't told anyone else," Elly said. "Call me shallow, but I admit that when I first heard the rumor that Cooper had fought a duel because of me, I got a little thrill."

"Hah." Lydia smiled widely. "I knew it. You wouldn't be a real woman if you didn't get a thrill from something like that."

"It was reassuring in a way." Elly clasped her hands and concentrated on the view. "You see, up until that point Cooper hadn't been what you would call demonstrative."

Lydia pursed her lips. "Hmm. From the way he was watching you tonight, I got the impression that the two of you had definitely been demonstrative."

Elly felt herself turn hot. "There was one incident, but it doesn't count because it was, uh, fueled by the aftereffects of Cooper's big psychic burn last night."

"Ah, yes, that sort of incident," Lydia nodded sagely. "I know what you're talking about. Such incidents may be fun, but they are, shall we say, inconclusive."

"Exactly. Anyhow, as I was saying, when Cooper and I were officially dating back in Aurora Springs, I had begun to wonder if maybe he didn't find me physically attractive, if you know what I mean."

"I know."

"His lack of interest in that department reinforced my fear that maybe he only wanted to marry me because of my qualifications for the position of Guild boss wife."

Lydia made a tut-tutting sound. "And then you discover that he fought a duel over you. Woohoo. Talk about injecting some real passion into the equation."

"I told myself that, although there was no getting around the fact that dueling was totally unacceptable behavior, in this case there were mitigating circumstances."

"Guild traditions," Lydia said solemnly.

"Yes. They are still very strong back in Aurora Springs."

"Still way too powerful here in Cadence, too, if you ask me."

"The thing is," Elly continued, "I thought that maybe the duel indicated that Cooper did have some intense feelings for me, after all."

"I can certainly see how you could leap to such a conclusion."

"I felt I could work with that." Elly cleared her throat. "I was going to insist that he get counseling, of course."

"Of course."

"And even though I thought there might be a bright side to the dueling incident, I was absolutely furious."

"Rightfully so," Lydia said.

"They say that hunter duels don't usually result in a death, but I've heard enough stories to know that there can be disastrous psychic trauma to both of the people involved, especially if one of them loses control."

Lydia shuddered. "So I've heard."

"In addition, being the subject of a duel made me the talk of the campus. I knew the tabloids were going to have a field day. I was afraid I might lose my job at the college before it was all over."

"Serious stuff. You did, indeed, have every right to be mad as green hell."

"I was. Still, I kept telling myself that the incident offered some indication that our personal relationship was not doomed. I confronted Cooper in his office and demanded to know why he had fought the duel."

"And?"

Elly heaved a deep sigh. "He made it clear that he hadn't fought the duel for reasons of passion or love or my feminine honor."

Lydia frowned. "Why did he fight it?"

"Are you ready for this? To protect the balance of power on the Aurora Springs Guild Council."

Lydia's mouth opened in horror. "Oh, no."

"It's true. He told me so, himself. He was afraid Palmer Frazier might lure me into marriage and that, in turn, would lead to a family alliance between Frazier and my father, which would affect the Council."

Lydia groaned. "He fought the duel because of Guild politics?"

"Yes."

"Not because of you?"

Elly shook her head sadly. "You see now why I had to give him back his ring?"

"Of course I do." Impulsively, Lydia put her arms around Elly and gave her a quick hug. "Under the circumstances, it was the only thing you could do. Coming on top of all your other concerns about the relationship, you had no choice."

Before Elly could thank her for her understanding, she noticed movement in the doorway. Two dark shadows loomed in the opening. Cooper and Emmett stood silhouetted against the light behind them, their faces unreadable in the darkness.

"I believe I may have mentioned earlier that I stepped into some serious quicksand a while back," Cooper said neutrally.

"Yes, you did," Emmett said. "Hell of a sucking sound."