After Dark

Chapter 28

ALICE MARTINEZ TOSSED a file down onto her desk with a tight, angry movement. "You should have filed a missing persons report."

"My nephew was eighteen, and there was no indication of foul play." Emmett lounged against the wall of Martinez's office. "I didn't think the cops would take the case very seriously."

Alice gave him a disgusted look. "With your Guild connections? Give me a break. We'd have been all over the Transverse Wave Youth Shelter."

"That kind of high-profile investigation could easily have convinced Vickers and Matthews to get rid of Quinn. They would have killed him and dumped his body in an unexplored tunnel. As it was, they only kept him alive to use as a hostage in case anyone from the Resonance Guild came looking before they finished excavating the dreamstone."

Martinez was not happy, but Emmett knew there was very little she could do about it. As far as he was concerned, she had no grounds for serious complaint. He and Lydia had, after all, dumped the whole thing in her lap. Thanks to them, the detective had tied up the loose ends of two murders, made several arrests, and exposed the illegal excavation of legendary dreamstone. Talk about a career-making case, Emmett thought. But some people just couldn't look on the bright side.

It was easy enough to dismiss Martinez's irritation, but Lydia's cool withdrawal had him worried. He watched her as she answered Alice's questions with clipped responses. She sat stiffly in the chair, her face angled so that she did not have to meet his eyes. She had retreated behind a veneer of icy reserve. Something was simmering under the surface, but he did not understand it. She had been like this since they had emerged from the catacombs last night. He was starting to wonder if going back underground had triggered some kind of delayed psychic trauma for her after all.

Alice opened the report on her desk. "According to this, your investigator in Resonance City discovered that Helen Vickers was a strong tangler."

"She was also an opportunist," Emmett said. "She went to work for Anderson Ames two years ago and quickly made herself indispensable to him. Read, took advantage of him. He was getting senile, apparently. In any event, she managed to get herself into his will. But when he died—a death, by the way, that probably warrants further investigation—she suddenly discovered that there was no money after all."

Lydia took up the tale. "She went to the shelter to see if there were any assets she could sell off before she closed the place down. Quinn overheard her mention that she found the old illusion trap guarding the hole in the wall. She de-rezzed it and started exploring the catacombs. She discovered the first piece of dreamstone sitting in the tunnel next to the skeleton of the last ruin rat who had tried to excavate. She realized there might be more. She decided to keep the shelter open as a cover, but she called an old lover and offered to make him a partner."

Alice arched one brow. "Bob Matthews."

"Right. The two of them had worked together in the past. But there was a problem," Emmett said. "Not only was the site filled with ghosts and traps but the dreamstone pieces were all individually trapped. Apparently they both had a couple of close calls. They needed cheap, expendable labor."

Alice's face hardened. "Young, untrained hunters and tanglers from the shelter."

Emmett nodded. "Quinn's friend Sylvia heard about the jobs here in Cadence. Quinn got worried after she phoned him, and he went after her. I followed Quinn."

"Straight to Chester Brady's shop in the Old Quarter," Lydia said. "Chester bought the cabinet from Quinn. But he must have gotten curious and followed him around while he asked questions about Sylvia. Vickers got nervous and had Quinn kidnapped. At the time, she probably didn't know he had Guild connections. Afterward it was too late."

"We figure Brady must have witnessed the kidnapping," Emmett said, "and followed Quinn and the kidnappers into the catacombs. That's probably when he stole the piece of dreamstone."

Thanks to Matthews, who had talked freely after his arrest, they all knew the rest of the story, Emmett thought. Matthews had been in favor of killing Quinn out of hand. It was Vickers who reasoned that they might need him for insurance. In the meantime they could use him to help with the excavating.

But then they found the claim check in Quinn's pocket and realized he had sold a valuable object to Chester Brady. That left a trail, and they knew it. Matthews and one of the hunters followed Chester. When he went to Shrimpton's, they assumed he had gone there to steal an artifact. It looked like a golden opportunity to get rid of him so, they seized it.

But while they were about the business of killing Chester, Helen Vickers discovered that one of the pieces of dreamstone was missing. She knew enough about Chester's shady dealings and his tangler abilities to realize that he might be the thief. But it was too late to question him. He was dead. She sent Matthews to search Chester's shop and his apartment, but he found nothing.

Vickers and Matthews had no idea that Chester had left a clue to the cache of dreamstone in Lydia's office.

When they learned that Emmett was in town and that Lydia was asking questions about the cabinet, they panicked. They sent one of the hunters to her apartment to try to scare her off. When that didn't work, they decided to get her tangled up in a murder investigation. Hence the search of Lydia's apartment. It had been made to look like a routine burglary, but the hunter had gone there to find something that could be used to tie her to a crime scene. He had grabbed one of her personalized amber bracelets.

Martinez looked at Lydia. "They assumed that you and probably London too would, if not actually arrested for Greeley's murder, at least be kept very busy trying to talk yourselves out of charges."

"At that point they were just trying to buy enough time to get the rest of the dreamstone and get out of Cadence," Emmett said.

"When their plan bombed, they made one more attempt to find out what we knew by dragging a colleague of mine into the situation," Lydia explained. "And then they tried to murder Emmett."

"They only needed a few more days," Emmett said quietly.

At six o'clock that evening someone pounded forcefully on Lydia's front door. It was not Zane's distinctive knock, so she chose to ignore the summons.

She finished pouring herself a glass of wine and reached for the lid of the pretzel jar.

The knock sounded again. She paid no attention.

"At the rate you're going through these," she said, feeding a pretzel to Fuzz, "I'd better buy stock in the company that makes them."

Fuzz rumbled happily from her shoulder and started to crunch with his usual enthusiasm.

"Help yourself, pal." Lydia reached up to pat him. "You deserve it. Don't know what I'd do without you."

She picked up the wineglass and started toward the balcony. En route she paused to listen. The knocking appeared to have stopped. She told herself she was relieved, but deep inside she knew she was lying.

The evening was warm. She opened the balcony slider and left it that way. She had just settled down onto one of the loungers when she heard someone open the supposedly locked living room door behind her.

Fuzz continued to munch, placidly content. Lydia did not look back over her shoulder. She was pretty sure she knew who had just entered her apartment.

"I don't know what the hell is going on here," Emmett said as he came out onto the balcony. "But if you think I'm going to let you pretend I no longer exist, you can think again."

"Believe me, I know you exist." She took a sip of wine, hoping it would calm her. "You're pretty hard to ignore, London."

"So I've been told." He sat down on the opposite lounger. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Was it going back underground? Did it bring back some bad memories? Lydia, if you need to see a shrink, I know a good one in Resonance. A friend of the family."

"A friend of the family." She slammed the glass down so hard that wine splattered on the table. "You mean a shrink with a Guild connection, don't you?"

"Well, yes, he has treated dissonance-energy para-rezes who work for the Resonance Guild, but that doesn't mean he can't handle an ephemeral-energy para-rez. He's very well qualified."

"Oh, I'm sure he is," she said through her teeth. "I'm sure he's first-rate. But as it happens, I don't need a shrink."

"Are you sure? You've been acting very strangely ever since we came out of the catacombs. Maybe going back underground so soon after your bad experience six months ago wasn't good for you."

She leveled a finger at him. "Don't start. If you tell me that you've finally joined the ranks of folks who think I've lost my para-rez pitch, I swear I'll throw you off this balcony."

"I know you haven't lost your pitch," he said calmly. "The way you handled the traps in the tunnels proved that. But there are other things that can go wrong."

"Yes." She picked up her glass. "There certainly are other things that can go wrong."

He was beginning to look wary instead of concerned. "I think I'm missing something here."

"You? Nah." She took another sip of wine. "How could you miss anything? You're a Guild boss—"

"Ex-Guild boss. And I've told you, I prefer the term 'CEO. "

She sniffed. "Pardon me. You're the ex-CEO of the Resonance Guild. How could anything escape your all-knowing gaze?"

"Lydia, I'm here because I'm worried about you. You haven't been acting normal for the past two days."

"There's nothing wrong with me," she said very evenly.

"Is that so? Then why won't you take my calls? Why won't you answer the door when you know I'm standing out there in the damned hall? I'm not leaving until I get an answer."

She looked at him, anger bubbling inside, hot and painful, seeking release. "You want an answer? I'll give you one. The only thing wrong is that I'm mad."

"Mad?" He hesitated. "At me?"

"No. At myself."

He relaxed, but only slightly. "Why?"

"For trusting you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What have I done to make you stop trusting me?"

"Let's start with the way you called in those two guys from the Resonance Guild and posted them as guards outside the shelter."

"Harry and Ray? I know it didn't work out the way I planned because of the trap Vickers left at the door, but it seemed a reasonable move. We didn't know if anyone in the Cadence Guild was involved in the excavation work, so I didn't want to risk using someone local."

"You don't get it, do you? Why didn't you tell me that you'd called in two Guild men from out of town?"

He shrugged. "For the same reason I didn't mention it to Detective Martinez. Because I hadn't cleared it with Mercer Wyatt. I didn't want anyone to know I'd imported some extra muscle without getting Wyatt's approval. Guild politics are a little tricky at times."

"Guild politics." She wanted to scream with frustration. "That's what it was all about, wasn't it? Guild politics were more important than keeping your partner informed."

He was suddenly very watchful. "You're pissed just because I didn't mention the fact that I brought in some out-of-town help?"

"I'm pissed because I'm wondering how many other things you didn't bother to tell me because Guild politics come first."

"Lydia—"

"We were supposed to be partners, remember? Partners treat each other as equals. Partners keep each other informed."

"I kept you informed, damn it."

"You lied to me right from the start, London. First you tracked me down because you' thought I'd stolen your lousy cabinet. Then you hired me to help you find it, but you neglected to mention that you were not only a ghost-hunter but a Guild boss."

"Ex-Guild boss."

"Once a guildman, always a guildman."

Without warning, icy anger enveloped him. "Once a tangler, always a tangler. I wasn't the only one who didn't lay all the cards on the table right at the start."

"What are you talking about?"

"You had two objectives in this affair. You wanted to see Chester Brady's killer caught, and you wanted to prove to yourself and everyone else that you could handle going back into the catacombs. You needed me to help you get the job done. You used me."

She was so outraged, she could hardly catch her breath. "You came to me, remember? You claimed you wanted to hire me, but all along you thought I'd stolen your stupid family heirloom. And then you had the gall to seduce me."

He was on his feet, reaching for her before she realized what was happening. His hands clamped around her arms. He hauled her up off the lounger as though she were weightless. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed little bursts of wild ghost energy. Flickers.

Fuzz tumbled discreetly off her shoulder and vanished into the apartment.

"There seems to be a misunderstanding here," Emmett said, his voice dangerously soft. "I could have sworn that you were the one who seduced me."

"How dare you imply that I—"

"That you used sex to manipulate me?"

"That's not true and you know it."

"Yeah? Then why did you seduce me?"

"I did not seduce you," she stormed.

"What would you call it?"

"We had sex, okay? It happens sometimes between two people who—" She broke off, unable to finish.

"Between two people who are attracted to each other?" he suggested. "Is that what you were trying to say?"

She seized on the only facesaving way out of what had become an extremely hazardous quagmire. "Yes. Yes. It was just sex."

"Not a deliberate seduction."

"No." She wondered if there was a difference, but decided that this was not the time to go into the issue. "It just happened."

He lowered his mouth until it was only an inch above hers. "It was pretty good sex, though, wasn't it?"

Her mouth went dry. "That is beside the point."

"I don't think this argument has a point. Not one that's worth pursuing, at any rate. Let's get back to the sex."

"Just like a man, to try to use lust to avoid having to discuss a relationship—I mean, to avoid having to talk about a business association."

"Uh-uh." He did not sound particularly interested. His attention seemed to be focused entirely on her mouth. "To be perfectly honest, I don't want to talk about anything right now."

The telltale flickers had disappeared, but she could still feel energy crackling in the air. She was afraid that some of it was emanating from her. She swallowed.

"Emmett?" He was so close she could feel the heat in him. She tried to ignore it. "Sex is not enough."

"You may not trust me completely, but we made a damn good team down there in the catacombs. That counts for something."

He kissed her before she could summon a response. For a moment she hesitated, trying in vain to marshal further arguments. But it was too late. Much too late.

"You're right," she said against his mouth. "That counts for something."

He scooped her up and carried her indoors. She closed her eyes and did not open them until he lowered her onto the bed.

He jerked at the buttons of his shirt, flinging the garment aside. Then his hands went to his belt buckle. She watched him undress, aware of the shimmering excitement coiling deep inside her.

He was big, sleek and fully aroused. The heat in his eyes was hotter than melted amber. When he came down onto the bed and gathered her into his arms, she knew that she was very likely stepping into an illusion trap, possibly the most dangerous one she had ever encountered.

But this was no alien nightmare. This was a dream of another kind. She had made her decision. She would revel in it as long as possible.

And then his hands were on her and she stopped thinking about anything except the sensations that caressed her entire body. Sensual energy swirled through her as his fingers moved on her. She felt herself become hot and damp. She turned her head into his chest and kissed him, inhaling the scent of him.

And then he was on top of her, his weight crushing her into the depths of the bed. He reached down to draw her knees up alongside his thighs, making a place for himself between her legs.

He forged into her slowly, giving her time to adjust to him but allowing no room for retreat. Not that she wanted to pull back, she thought. She had never craved anything in her life the way she craved Emmett tonight.

She sank her nails into the muscles of his back and tightened her knees around him. He made a husky, unintelligible sound and pushed himself deeper inside, filling her completely.

He kissed her again, his mouth at once demanding and desperate. She understood the strange combination because she was experiencing the same driving need. She had to have him, had to find the release that only he could provide. She clutched at him, drawing him closer.

He moved deliberately within her, withdrawing until he was almost free and then sliding heavily back inside. The pressure became more than she could bear. She knew that his control was close to shattering. His back was slick with perspiration.

"Yes," she whispered, clenching him tightly. "Yes, now." She lifted herself against him.

"Lydia."

He plunged back into her one more time. Her climax swept through her with shattering intensity. She was vaguely aware of the great, wracking shudders rippling through Emmett. She parted her lips on a small scream, felt his mouth cover hers, and then spun away into a darkness made brilliant with sparkling dreamstone.

He opened his eyes a long time later and looked up at the ceiling. Lydia was curled snugly against him. She felt very good. He was intensely aware of her warmth and softness. She did not speak, but he knew she was awake.

"You were right," he said. "I didn't tell you everything."

"No kidding." But there was no anger left in her voice, only a wry resignation.

"There were reasons," he said slowly. "The Guilds are changing, but it's going to take time. Old habits die hard."

"I know." She groaned and stretched languidly. "I can't blame you for keeping secrets. You had to protect Quinn, and you were right when you said that I had my own agenda in this thing. We used each other."

He felt his jaw tighten. "It was a partnership. Maybe we didn't tell each other everything right up front, but that doesn't mean we weren't partners."

"I vote we don't argue about it anymore, Emmett. I don't think either of us can win. Besides, it's over."

"Not quite," he said.

She went very still. After a moment she raised her head and looked down at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He hesitated. This was Guild business, after all. Very serious Guild business. But he knew he had already made the decision. She had a right to be in on the finish.

"There's one other loose end to tie up," he said.