she changed
her mind? What if she canceled the MC? Stay focused, he told himself. This
will work. It had to work.
"Good night," he said as casually as he could manage. He forced himself to
take a step back. What he really wanted to do was pick her up and carry her
through the small living room, straight into her bedroom. "I'll see you in
the morning."
She hesitated. "Sam?"
"Yeah?" He realized that he had stopped breathing. She sighed. "Never mind.
It's not important. Good night."
Very gently, she closed the door in his face.
He reminded himself to breathe.
Two
He did not sleep well that night. It was not the noise from the crowds in
the street or the whispers of Dead City psi energy that kept him awake. It
was the realization that Virginia was getting ready to tell him that she did
not want to go through with the marriage. He knew it as surely as he knew
that when she called off the engagement, his world was going to become as
bleak and gray as the tide of fog that had boiled up out of the river. He
rolled out of bed at dawn, shaved, showered, and dressed for the meeting
with Ewert. He was still mulling over various means of convincing Virginia
that the MC was a terrific idea when he went downstairs to collect the
morning edition of the Cadence Star. He opened the front door and was
greeted by a wall of gray mist. The fog was so thick that it had blotted out
the early-morning sun, creating an artificial twilight that looked as if it
would last all day. Perfect Halloween weather.
He shrugged off the fog. It would not affect today's job. He and Virginia
would be working underground in the cata- BRIDAL JITTERS
19
combs. Down below in the endless miles of glowing green corridors, there was
no day or night. He saw the small package on the step just as he started to
reach for the newspaper. A faint hiss of all-too-familiar psi energy
whispered through his para senses in silent warning.
"Damn." Hell of a way to start the day. He crouched on his heels to get a
closer look at the square object wrapped in brown paper. It was addressed to
Gage & Burch Consulting. There was no return address. He did not pick it up.
"Something wrong, Sam?" Virginia called out from halfway down the stairs.
"An unscheduled delivery." He did not take his eyes off the package.
"What is it?"
"I think you'd better take a look at this. If I'm right, it falls into your
area of expertise, not mine."
She descended the rest of the stairs quickly and hurried across the wide
front hall to the door. She came to a halt beside him and looked at the
package. She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Uh-oh."
"I hate it when you use that professional jargon." He glanced at her. '
'What do you think?''
"The same thing you're thinking, I imagine. It's an illusion trap. I can
feel the energy pattern. Someone left us a nasty little trick. I'll bet it
was some idiot who had one too many bottles of Green Ruin to drink last
night. Probably thought it would be a great Halloween prank."
"I think he'll change his mind when I find him," Sam said softly. Virginia
glanced at him, frowning slightly. "Don't worry, it's just a small trap."
"Can you de-rez it?"
"Does amber resonate? Of course I can de-rez it. But I'mBRIDAL JITTERS
JAYNE CASTLE
o
ne
Harmony: Cadence City, two hundred years after the closing of the Curtain
"So, is it true what they say about ghost-hunters?" Adeline Delmore leaned
close and lowered her voice as she helped herself to another orange-frosted
cookie. "Are they really amazing in bed after they've zapped a ghost? I've
heard the sex is unbelievable right after a burn."
The question caught Virginia Burch just as she took