Predatory Game (GhostWalkers #6)(12)
Author: Christine Feehan

Saber rubbed her temples, trying to soothe the awful pounding. She had fallen asleep at six in the morning and, unusual for her, had slept all day. The sore throat and headache had been with her from the moment she’d opened her eyes.

“Jesse spent the day doing incantations,” she muttered resentfully. He had looked the epitome of health as she went off to work, but he had been distant. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Jesse was never distant, but she felt he was closed off to her, and he was never that. She sighed and laid her head down on the desk, using her arms for a pillow. She was too sick to figure anything out.

Brian Hutton, her soundman, waved to her from the other side of the glass, indicating the telephone. When he mouthed Larry’s name, Saber wrinkled her nose in distaste and shook her head. Just the idea of the louse increased the awful pounding in her temples. She was going to have to go home, crawl in bed, and hope she could fall asleep with the lights on.

She flicked a switch. “Brian, I’m not going to make it tonight,” she said with genuine regret. She had never missed a day of work, had never even been late. It meant something to her to be able to go to work, however brief her stay always was. She liked having a clean record, knew they would think well of her after she left.

“You look like hell,” Brian informed her.

“Oh, thanks. I needed to hear that. Would you cover for me so I could go home and get some sleep?”

“Sure, Saber,” he agreed sympathetically. “It’s just as well, the crazies are calling in tonight.”

Her fingers wrapped around the microphone, and everything inside of her stilled. “What crazies, Brian?” She had waited too long. She should have left weeks earlier.

“Don’t worry about it,” he reassured. “We get them all the time, that’s why I’m here, to weed them out. I always make sure I clue you in on the death threats. The nut tonight was very persistent, but he wasn’t out to gun you down or save your soul. He was just another weirdo, probably looking for a date with the owner of that sexy voice.”

Saber forced a laugh, forced her tense muscles to relax. “If they could only see me now.” But she would have to be more careful than usual. She’d grown too comfortable here. Too comfortable with Jess.

Brian pulled one of her tapes and found the entrance he wanted. They did a silent countdown and her voice feathered out into the studio.

Saber breathed a soft sigh of relief, dropping her head into her hands. All she wanted was to crawl into a hole and hide.

Brian entered the sound booth and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. “You’re burning up. You okay to drive? Or do you want me to call you a cab?”

She patted his hand, shifting out from under him on the pretense of gathering her things together. “I’ll be fine, Brian, thanks. Rest, orange juice, chicken soup, I’ll be here tomorrow night with bells on.” She held up her car keys. “I didn’t lose them this time.”

He grinned at her. “That’s a shock. Wait for the security guard. You know how Jess is about you wandering around in the parking lot alone this time of night. He’d have my job first, then my head, if I let you.”

“Poor Jesse.” Saber smiled at the thought of him in spite of the fact that even her teeth hurt. “He really thinks I’m a pack of trouble, doesn’t he?”

Brian grinned at her. “He’s right too. Come on, I’ll walk you down.”

“Thanks, I’m fine, really, but next time you want to take a day off, do it on someone else’s shift. The day sound guy, whatever his name is…”

“Les.”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s a grump and a bore. Last night was no fun at all working with him.”

He grinned at her. “I’ll be sure to plan all my future days off around your schedule.”

She thumped his shoulder, knowing sarcasm when she heard it. “The phones are lighting up all over the place.”

He shrugged, uncaring. “Probably that nut. He’s called six times already tonight. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Might be,” Saber agreed. “But on the other hand it could be our mighty boss. Ever think of that?”

Brian’s smile faded instantly. He was halfway down the hall by the time Saber lifted a heavy hand to wave before matching her short strides to the security guard’s longer ones.

The ride home seemed longer than usual. Saber was so sick she could barely keep her head up. She never got sick. She was so used to her body’s natural immunity to illness, it was rather alarming to find she had a high fever. If she wasn’t so afraid of calling attention to herself-and Jess-she might have considered seeing a doctor.

Saber parked her small Volkswagen bug beside Jess’s large, custom-made van. Her car looked incongruous next to the huge bulk of the van. She glared at the pair of cars, thinking of how many times Jess had teased her about how small she was. She kicked the tire in a spurt of resentment. So like the two of them. Mutt and Jeff. She didn’t belong here. She could never belong here and she had to get the backbone to leave-and soon.

The large house seemed unusually dark and spooky as she entered it. Saber resisted the urge to flood the room with light, not wanting to disturb Jess. She did enough of that on the nights she didn’t work, keeping him awake with her phobias.

There was no sound to warn her, yet suddenly Saber couldn’t breathe, adrenaline pumping into her body, freezing her halfway through the foyer. There was no scent, no breath, no stirring of the air, but she knew, an eternity too late, she wasn’t alone.

Something snagged her ankles and she sprawled facedown on the hardwood floor, the breath knocked from her body. Before she could roll or retaliate, she felt the cold, deadly kiss of a gun barrel pressed against the nape of her neck.

It all happened in seconds, yet time slowed down so that everything was crystal clear for Saber. The faint lemon in the polish on the wood floor, the beating of her heart, the pain in her lungs, the deadly feel of metal against her skin. Everything stilled as if she’d been waiting.

They were here. They had hunted her, stalked her, and now they were here. Jesse. Oh God, she thought wildly. Jess was alone, asleep, vulnerable-what if they had hurt Jesse? Her vision tunneled, everything inside her coiling, ready to strike. She would have to kill the intruder in order to protect Jesse. Even if her assailant killed her, she would have to take him with her.

The moment she put her hands palms down to push up off the floor, he shoved harder with the gun. “Don’t do it.”