Copper Beach

moved into the light slanting through the windows, she saw that he was barefoot but still partially dressed in his trousers and a black T–shirt that molded to his sleek, strong shoulders. She felt very vulnerable, not to mention seriously underdressed. She was aware of another sensation as well, an excitement that was decidedly sensual in origin. Just the fallout from all the energy that you were using a minute ago, she assured herself.

    A heavy dose of adrenaline and psi often had a stirring effect on all the senses, although she could not recall feeling sexually aroused when she had gone into the zone on previous occasions. Usually, she just felt jittery and agitated afterward.

    It was Sam’s fault, she decided. All that powerful masculine energy emanating from him was messing with the natural wavelengths of her own aura. It was annoying. It was also unaccountably exciting.

    Sam came to a halt and looked at the open box. She was intensely aware of him and the heat coming off him. He was so close now. It took an enormous amount of willpower not to touch him.

    “You did something to the book, didn’t you?” Sam said. “I can sense some of the residue of the energy. You’re still jacked, too. What the hell were you doing?”

    She abandoned the attempt to kick him out of the bedroom. The man was very focused.

    “The book was a little hot, yes,” she admitted. She cleared her throat. “But it has gone cold now, as you can tell.”

    Sam glanced at her, his eyes still burning a little with psi. His ring continued to heat with a fiery light.

    “What triggered the energy in the book?” he asked.

    “You know how it is with old objects that are infused with a lot of encryption energy,” she said smoothly. “It doesn’t take much to kick up a little heat.”

    “This thing didn’t switch on all by itself. You got it hot, didn’t you?”

    “That’s not exactly what happened.”

    “What the hell were you doing? Running an experiment? Trying to break the code? You should know better than that. You’re the expert on para-books. Tests on objects known to be infused with unknown energy should be done under carefully controlled conditions, and never at night.”

    He was right, she thought ruefully. As a rule, paranormal energy was usually more powerful after dark. It could also be a lot more unpredictable at night, something to do with the absence of normal daylight energy waves. But the fact that Sam was quoting one of the laws of para-physics to her while she was engaged in putting out a fire was infuriating. She was so not in the mood for this.

    “You are correct, I’m the expert here,” she said, in her coldest voice. “You have absolutely no right to lecture me on the care and handling of old books.”

    “So you figured you were qualified to conduct a night experiment on a highly encrypted book?”

    “I was not running an experiment.” She angled her chin. “For your information, I did not deliberately trigger the energy in that thing. I was sound asleep. I woke up and saw that it was giving off some psi-light, so I got up and shut it down.”

    “If you expect me to believe that book ignited all on its own, you can forget it. Tell me what the hell is going on here.”

    “It’s complicated…”

    Sam clamped his hand across her mouth. Furious, she glared at him. But he was not looking at her. He was watching the bedroom doorway.

    The room was suddenly much, much colder. Sam’s energy, Abby thought. He was running very hot, but the bedroom was deathly cold. Something sparked at the corner of her eye. Sam’s ring.

    She realized Newton had gone very still, very alert. He, too, was gazing fixedly at the doorway, looking down the short hall and into the living room.

    Sam put his mouth very close to her ear. “Keep Newton quiet.”

    She nodded once to show that she understood.

    He took his hand off her mouth and gripped her shoulder. He squeezed gently, silently warning her to stay put. She nodded again to show she had got the message. When he took his hand off her shoulder, she was once again aware of the icy chill in the atmosphere.

    She crouched beside Newton, wrapped one arm around him and put her hand over his muzzle. Newton shivered, not with fear, she thought. The energy crackling through him was the tension of the hunter.

    Sam crossed the room and disappeared through the shadowed doorway.

12

    IT WAS THE FAINT CLINK OF METAL OUT ON THE CONCRETE balcony that had