The Hot Zone by Jayne Castle

Author:Jayne Castle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2014-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

He rezzed his talent still higher and carried Sedona through the eerie silence of the ghost zone that he created around them. He held his locater in one hand and the flamer in the other. He struggled to read the nav screen as he cradled Sedona and kept the sphere in place. Lyle rode his shoulder.

Everything that entered the spectral dimension created by his talent, including the storm psi, flatlined until he had passed out of range.

“You’re good,” Sedona whispered. “Very good.”

“I can’t maintain the zone for long,” he said. “I’m using too much energy.”

“Because you’re protecting all three of us. I understand. We’re aiming for the cave, I assume?”

“Yes.”

In spite of the dire circumstances, or perhaps because of them, the realization that she didn’t fear him lifted his spirits as nothing else except the reopening of the gate could have done. He glanced at the compass and changed direction slightly.

“Give me the locater and the flamer,” she said. She plucked both from his fingers. “I may be psi-burned but I can still read an amber compass and rez a flamer.” She hesitated. “Assuming both will work if I’m the one who’s holding them?”

“They’ll work as long as you’re in physical contact with me.”

“Okay, I’ll keep us on course while you concentrate on maintaining this ghost world thing you’ve got going.”

He did not argue. She was right. They needed each other if there was any hope of surviving the storm and the night to come.

With the blazing energy quiescent within the dead zone he could see clearly inside the radius of the energy field that he was generating. When he drew close, the eerie blue trees with their sapphire leaves lost their inner psi-glow as if they had been turned into clear glass. The gemstone pebbles beneath his boots became a dull, lifeless gray.

If the forest had been a living ecosystem, all of the plant life would have wilted. Any creatures—human or otherwise—that fell within the zone would slide into an unconscious state. If he kept up the pressure for too long, everything he touched with his talent would die.

But he was moving quickly through the crystal forest. As soon as he was out of range the inner light returned to the world. The blue glow once again infused the trees and the leaves and the stones. The silently howling winds of the psi-storm returned as well.

“Left one degree,” Sedona said. “We’re less than twenty yards away now.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Of course, I’m sure.”

“Okay, okay, just checking.”

She concentrated on the compass, reading off directions as if they were driving down an ordinary highway. For some inexplicable reason he smiled, even as his spectral touch drained the colors out of another stand of trees.

Sedona squinted up at him. “Something funny that I should know about?”

“Road trip,” he said.

She got it immediately, flashing him a weak but real smile. “And we all know men have a problem when it comes to following directions.”

“That’s just a myth.”

“Good to know. Right one degree.

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