Running Hot

could say it was a draw.”
    “The last thing I want is to see a rematch. Got that?”
    She shuddered. “Trust me, I’m not eager for one, either. Okay, you can start yelling again now.”
    There was another long silence.
    “You’re not yelling,” she pointed out.
    “Don’t get me wrong, I feel like yelling.”
    “But?”
    “But you saved the housekeeper’s life. That’s pretty much what a J&J agent is supposed to do in a situation like that.”
    She suddenly felt much better. “Thanks.”
    “Are you sure I can’t touch you?” Luther asked.
    She tensed. “It was a bad burn. It will probably take days, maybe weeks to heal.” Her brief moment of professional pride went out like a light. It was all she could do not to burst into tears. “It’s so maddening because I just got over the last burn.”
    “Can I talk you into running an experiment? You said yourself the fact that we’re both auras might have some protective effect.”
    She hesitated. “Okay.”
    “You do the touching. That way you’re in complete control.”
    For a few seconds she did not move. You’re a J&J agent. Take a risk.
    She walked slowly toward him and stopped when she was a couple of feet away. He held out one hand, palm up. Gingerly she touched it with her fingertips. There was no shock, no jolt of pain. Relief crashed through her. Deliberately she flattened her hand on his, palm to palm.
    “This is amazing,” she said, awed. “I’ve never been able to touch anyone so soon after an incident like the one today. Guess I was dating the wrong kind of men all these years.”
    He groaned, grabbed her hand, pulled her close and kissed her hard. When he released her she was a little breathless.
    “Don’t tease me like that,” he warned darkly. “I’m still getting over the shock I got when I read that text message you sent. Thought my heart would stop.”

    “They’re called Sirens, Mr. Jones,” Grace said into the phone. “The talent is extremely rare. That’s why you haven’t ever heard of them. They crop up so infrequently in the Society’s records that many of us in Genealogy have assumed that they’re more myth than reality.”
    She was perched on the sofa again, so exhausted she was amazed that she could make any sense at all out of the data on the computer screen in front of her, let alone deliver a coherent report to her boss. The after-shocks of adrenaline were still shivering through her. It would be a while before her nerves calmed down to the point where she might be able to sleep.
    But she could still touch Luther . The wonder of that buoyed her spirits as nothing else could have done.
    He was at the window, watching the hot afternoon sun spark and flash on the ocean while listening to her conversation with Fallon. He was back in what she was starting to think of as his professional mode—cold, hard and very focused.
    “What’s a Siren?” Fallon demanded. “Some kind of hypno talent?”
    “It’s related to hypnosis in that the psychic energy is transmitted via the voice but it requires extremely high, pure notes, the kind that very few people can sing. Also, although there have probably been a fair number of Siren talents in the population, very few of them would have had the power to actually project a killing wave of energy.”
    “So what happens with the others? Why haven’t we heard of non-lethal Sirens?”
    She smiled faintly. “You have, sir, you just didn’t know it. They’re called opera singers.”
    “Opera singers?” Fallon sounded thoroughly nonplussed.
    “Not all of them are Sirens, of course. I suspect just some of the major coloratura sopranos. And those who are Sirens probably aren’t even aware of their psychic natures. Wait, I take that back. Opera singers are known for their egos. Some of them probably do consider their talents to be paranormal.”
    “What the hell do you mean?”
    “How many times have you heard an opera singer described as ‘mesmerizing’? Historically various singers have been said to be able to transfix or enrapture their audiences.”
    “Huh.”
    She concentrated on the computer screen, reading quickly. “The high level of talent required to disrupt the human neurological system appears almost exclusively in females because it requires a true coloratura soprano to reach the high, killing notes. In addition to being linked to their voices, the talent is also connected to their sexuality, hence the Siren label.”
    “Opera singers are