“Maybe, but not as much fun as the other vision.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
Alice shot him another quick, concerned glance. “Are you seeing things again?”
“No. Sadly.”
She started to say something but apparently changed her mind because they had reached the door that covered the hole-in-the-wall.
“It’s still locked,” she announced, sounding relieved. “I hope that means Sykes’s crew didn’t find the sled.”
Owen watched her use his lockpick to open the door.
“Good job,” he said. “You’ve got a natural talent for B and E work.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Psi-green energy glowed in the rip in the ancient wall. Currents of paranormal energy wafted out. Sebastian made encouraging noises and bounced a little.
“Amber check,” Alice said briskly.
He managed to summon enough concentration to make sure he could pick up the vibe of his tuned amber.
“I’m good,” he said. His voice sounded sleepy.
He let Alice draw him through the crack in the wall and into the heavy energy that flooded the Underworld.
The hallucination struck again, this time overwhelming his senses. He was back in the suite at the Amber Palace, following Alice toward the rumpled bed. She was once again in her pajamas, but he knew that soon she would take them off and they would be in bed together.
He needed to be naked with her, skin to skin, settled between her thighs. He needed to be deep inside her. Needed to feel her tighten around him. Needed to make her come so hard she would never be able to forget him…
“Owen. Snap out of it. I could use a little help here.”
A ripple of jarring energy pulsed through him, dragging him partway out of the fantasy. The scene of the rumpled bed grew semitransparent but it did not completely dissolve. Instead, he was left teetering on the precarious edge between the waking state and the dreamstate.
Priorities, March.
He was getting bored with the stern self-lectures. They all sounded the same.
He rallied his senses, blinked several times in an attempt to stay in the real world, and tried to take in his surroundings.
He was half sitting, half sprawled on the passenger side of the sled’s front bench seat. Alice’s fingers were no longer threaded through his. She had both hands clamped around the steering wheel of the sled.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his murky vision. “What’s the problem?”
“I’ve never driven one of these things. The coordinates for the hotel are set in the locator, but I need some instruction on how to operate the sled.”
He forced himself to focus. “Simple,” he mumbled. He realized he was slurring his words again. “Just rez that button on the right side of the control panel and step on the accelerator. Drives like a golf cart.”
“I’ve never driven a golf cart, either,” Alice said. “There were no golf courses near the Ballantine Academy.”
She rezzed the button and floored the accelerator.
The little sled lurched forward and took off at full speed. Owen was jolted against the back of the seat. That produced another splash of adrenaline. For a couple of beats he was almost wide awake.
Sebastian was tossed off the dashboard by the sudden acceleration. He landed on the bench beside Owen. His sunglasses ended up on the floor of the sled. He chortled gleefully.
