Eye of the Beholder

drag it through her snarled hair. "Ouch."
    Trask studied the results. "Want me to do that?"
    "No, no, I'm fine. Thank you." She gave up the attempt to put her hair into some semblance of order and glanced at her watch instead. It appeared to have survived the soaking in the fountain. "It's getting late. I have a busy day tomorrow."
    "Yeah. Me, too."
    The odd edge in his voice brought her head up sharply. His gaze, dark and brooding, trapped hers.
    "Trask, I—" She broke off, floundering.
    "Wondering if you've just made a serious mistake?" he asked much too evenly.
    Anger shot through her, mercifully vaporizing some of the awkwardness and the uncertainty.
    "I thought maybe you were asking yourself the same question," she said.
    "I'll guess we'll both have to wait and find out, won't we?"

    Alexa came awake so suddenly and with such a surge of adrenaline that for an instant she was certain there was an intruder in her bedroom.
    Panic froze her. She lay motionless, listening with preternatural intensity for the slightest scrape of a foot or the sound of an indrawn breath. Pretend you're still asleep.
    The phone rang again.
    A shudder of relief went through her. Not an intruder, after all.
    "Okay, I can deal with this."
    She glanced at the glowing numbers on the clock as she reached for the bedside phone. Two-fifteen in the morning. No one called with glad tidings at this hour.
    She thought of Vivien and Lloyd in Maui . If something had happened to one or both of them...
    Obscene phone calls also came in the middle of the night, she thought, trying for a note of optimism. At that moment there was nothing she wanted to hear more than a heavy breather on the other end of the line. Anything would be better than bad news from Maui .
    She tightened her grip on the phone, raised it to her ear. "Hello?"
    "Trask has aroused the vortices of dark energy. Stay away from him."
    The voice was low and muffled, as though the caller was holding a wad of fabric over the mouthpiece.
    "Who is this?" Alexa sat up against the pillows. "If this is some kind of weird joke, I can tell you right now, it's not appreciated."
    "The vortices will not grow calm again until he is gone. There is great danger."
    "Who are you?" She listened closely, straining to detect a familiar note in the oddly flat voice. She thought she heard a car's engine start up. Other voices in the background. Laughter. Teenagers?
    "You have been warned. Stay away from Trask or you will be caught up in the dark storm."
    "Listen, you little creep, there are laws against—"
    There was a click. The line went dead.
    Alexa slowly replaced the receiver. She switched on the light and sat up on the edge of the bed.
    Opening the drawer of the bedside table, she pulled out the phone book. She flipped swiftly through the pages of helpful information on voice messaging services, long distance calling instructions, area codes, and time zones.
    She found the instructions she wanted and followed directions for returning the last call.
    The phone rang on the other end. She waited tensely for someone to respond. She had read somewhere that most victims of obscene phone calls knew the caller.
    On the other hand, threats about dark vortices didn't sound exactly obscene.
    "Yeah?"
    The voice was young. The accent was pure teenager.
    "Who is this?" Alexa asked.
    "Duh. Me Tarzan. You Jane?"
    Muffled giggles sounded. A car's engine revved.
    Another voice spoke in the background. "Damn it, you kids stop fooling around with that phone or, so help me, I'll have the phone company take it out."
    A seriously annoyed adult, Alexa realized.
    "If you're callin ' someone to come down and buy booze for you, you can forget it."
    There was more teenage laughter.
    "Let me have that phone." A new voice came on the line, gruff and aggressive. "Who the hell is this?"
    "I'm sorry to disturb you," Alexa said in her plummiest antique gallery tones. "Someone called me from this number a moment ago and hung up. I was trying to find out who it was."
    "Probably one of the punks hangin ' around out front here." The irritation leaked out of the voice. "There was a dance after the game tonight. Some of the kids are still out cruising. You know how it is. They all oughta be home in bed, but parents these days just don't seem to care where their kids are."
    "Excuse me, out in front of where?" "You got the pay phone outside Avalon Quick Stop. I'm the night manager."
    "I see. Thanks for explaining things. You know how it is with