Fired Up

since I was outed a few years ago. If I don’t do the show tonight the rumors will really start flying.”
    “What rumors?” Jack asked.
    “The ones that claim I’m actually dead. They’ve been floating around for years.” Drake stretched out his legs. He studied Jack with a speculative expression. “How the hell did you get the drop on those two this afternoon and who were those guys from L.A. who took the lamp?”
    “It’s complicated,” Jack said.
    Drake nodded. “I thought it might be.”
    “Would you believe me if I told you that the bikers who invaded your home today were working for a secret criminal organization that uses an illicit drug that gives their agents psychic powers?”
    Drake raised his eyes to the awning. “I knew it. You’re with the government. What is this, really? Some kind of drug sting? Casino fraud?”
    “No,” Chloe said quickly. “We aren’t government agents. Honest.”
    “Forget it.” Drake held up a hand to silence her. “I don’t want to know anything more about the investigation. This is Vegas after all. Around here, ignorance is, if not exactly blissful, usually a hell of a lot safer.”
    “Mind if I ask you a few questions?” Jack said.
    Drake raised his brows. “You want to know about my visitor last night, don’t you?”
    “You didn’t make up that story just to get us out here today, did you?” Jack asked.
    “No. The irony here is that I really was planning to call you and tell you about the woman who came to see me. But I don’t have any more information than what I’ve already told you. I just can’t remember the details. Ever have a dream you can’t quite recall?”
    “Yes,” Jack said. He looked at Chloe. “I have.”
    She tried to ignore him. She knew that he had a lot of questions, and it was clear that he was not in a good mood. She couldn’t blame him. He had awakened thinking that he was no longer a double-talent only to discover the hard way that he could still project nightmares. As far as he was concerned he was still a psychic freak.
    In addition his senses had to be close to exhausted after the way he had used them to take down Sandy and Ike. You couldn’t use that much psi without paying a price. Energy was energy. When you pulled a lot of it you had to give yourself time to recover. She was feeling drained, herself. She had drawn heavily on her own talent to put the hunter to sleep.
    She still had some reserves left, however.
    She concentrated on Drake and opened her senses. For the most part his dreamlight looked normal, or at least as normal as ultralight could look. But there was something wrong with the hues on a few of the wavelengths. The colors were murky, and the pattern was out of sync. She’d seen that kind of trouble before.
    “I think there is a possibility that whoever came to see you last night gave you a hypnotic suggestion,” she said.
    Drake raised his brows. “There’s more than one hypnotist in this town. I know all the headliners who are any good at that kind of thing. But they’re all men. And why would anyone want to put me under unless it was to rob me? Nothing was missing this morning.”
    “No guarantees, but I might be able to help you recall some of the details of your visitor.”
    “How?”
    “Think of it as a relaxation technique,” she said. “I promise you’ll be wide awake and aware the whole time. You’ll remember everything I say and do and you’ll have full control of what you are telling me.”
    Drake contemplated her for a long moment, and then he nodded once. “I’ll admit the blank spot in my memory is bothering me. If I can forget that I had a visitor last night, the next thing you know I’ll start forgetting the words to ‘Blue Champagne.’ That would be a career killer. Let’s do this.”
    Jack said nothing. He drank his coffee and waited.
    “Stop trying to pull up the memory,” Chloe said to Drake. “Let it go. You don’t care about it anymore. Find the calm place inside yourself and relax.”
    She kept up the soothing patter while she pulsed a little dream energy at the static, murky waves. What she said was not important. The words had nothing to do with projecting energy, but she knew that if she remained silent, Drake would wonder what was happening.
    She used the lightest of touches to tweak and clear the murky dream static. Within seconds the colors pulsed normally once more.
    “Dark hair,” Drake said. He snapped his fingers, looking very pleased.