Gift of Fire

“No, but I gather they don’t know too much, other than that the researchers confirmed your psychic abilities. That’s all that matters to Little Miss Sunshine, by the way. She wants to mate with a true psychic. Maybe she’s begun to have a few doubts about Preston. Her temple-priestess mentor thinks your genes might produce more impressive offspring.”
    “She’s crazy.”
    “Elyssa?” Verity gave him a wry glance. “I think Elyssa is just the overly enthusiastic type. Which is why I didn’t make a scene just now. I mean, after all, she’s basically harmless, and she is a client, and I…”
    “Forget it. I’ve got to get back to work. Warwick is paying me to make a thorough inspection of this joint, and time is running out. I’ll see you at dinner.”
    Verity sighed as he left the room. She sat staring at the grimy portrait on the wall, wondering why she hadn’t had the sense to make a scene over the issue of another woman setting her sights on Jonas.
    But how could she explain to Jonas that she didn’t see other women as a threat? Compared to the real dangers their relationship faced, other women were a piece of cake.
Jonas, my love,
she thought bleakly,
you don
’
t know what real fear and jealousy are. I
’
ve got them in spades
and they
’
ve got
nothing to
do
with other women.
    Real fear was the kind that woke her up in the middle of the night and made her wonder if the psychic link between her and Jonas was all that held him at her side. Real jealousy was torturing herself with visions of what might happen if that link ever dissolved, or if Jonas discovered that he no longer needed her to control his talent. And there was another fear she carried deep in her heart. There was a part of Jonas that reminded her of her father. It was the part of him that had an easy acquaintance with violence and adventuring. And every time she caught a glimpse of that part of his nature she found herself wondering how long he would be content to stick around her, and the baby, and Sequence Springs.
    Other women? No, Verity could laugh off that threat. There were too many other things in this relationship to panic over.
    But until now it had never occurred to her that Jonas might be panicking, too. It was clear for the first time that she wasn’t the only one who needed reassurance.
    She had been so wrapped up in her own uncertainties and fears that she hadn’t even realized that Jonas had a few of his own.
    After a few minutes of pondering that revelation, Verity remembered her new earrings. She got up and went to the dresser to put them on. When they were in place, she turned her head from side to side, examining the effect.
    Jonas was wrong—she didn’t need earrings the color of her eyes. These red crystals were perfect for her. The fire in them danced whenever she moved her head.
     
    “We are as one in our search for the higher levels of truth,” Preston Yarwood intoned. “Our combined psychic energy is a powerful force. Together we will project it into the crystal, where it will be tuned, amplified, and fed back to us. Together we will make the journey this evening to another plane. Together we will find a state of altered consciousness in which we can leap across the limitations of normal logic, and use our intuition to arrive at new answers. Together. We must work together.”
    Rain beat down in the dark courtyard. Verity could hear it slapping against the windows of the salon. Her left hand was gripped firmly by Jonas and her right hand was held loosely by Oliver Crump. She narrowed her eyes and risked a quick glance around the small circle seated on the Boor in front of the fireplace.
    The room was dark except for the glow from the fire. Yarwood had turned off the lights, saying that it was easier to harmonize a variety of psychic energies in darkness. In the center of their circle sat a large piece of pink crystal. The idea, Yarwood had explained, was to focus their psychic energy on the crystal. Theoretically the rock would channel and enhance that energy.
    Verity saw that Jonas’s eyes were open and he looked bored. He had joined the circle reluctantly, at Elyssa’s urging. Catching Verity peeking, he flashed her a sexy grin. She smiled back at him ruefully.
Talk about a waste of time,
she thought. But this sort of thing was part of humoring the client, as she had explained to Jonas earlier.
    “We must all focus together,” Yarwood said with a hint of rebuke.
    Verity realized that