Bridal Jitters by Jayne Castle Page A

those traps.”
    The hideous wails continued to rise and fall in the unnatural night.
    “Sounds like a reunion of lost souls,” Virginia whispered. “I can’t even hear Chaz and Drake now. Wonder what’s happened to them?”
    “Maybe we don’t want to know.”
    “Maybe you’re right.”
    Virginia huddled close, but Sam noticed that she was careful not to impede his gun hand. Not that the mag-rez would be effective against whatever was out there, he thought. If one of the things changed course and drifted through the window, their only hope would be his psi-talent.
    More lightning sparked violently. Again and again it shattered the night. But there was no accompanying roll of thunder, Sam noticed. For some reason that only made the energy flashes seem all the more bizarre.
    “It’s like there’s a storm going on out there,” Virginia muttered.
    “Maybe that’s exactly what it is,” Sam said, thinking about it. “An energy storm triggered by the untangling of the first trap.”
    “But to what purpose?”
    “Who knows? We’re talking about the Harmonics here. No one has a clue about why they did anything. If the place was a zoo or a prison, it’s possible those in charge installed some unusual security measures. Maybe we’re witnessing some kind of system meant to round up the escapees.”
    “Sam.”
Virginia touched his arm, her eyes fixed on the window. “Look.”
    “I see it.”
    One of the phantoms had halted in front of the opening. Sam told himself that it was just a mindless UDEM, but it was all too easy to imagine that it was peering into this room as if it sensed prey.
    He readied himself, not wanting to use psi energy unless there was no alternative, because he could not be sure that his talent would work against this stuff.
    The ghost hovered. The brightest portion of it was at least three feet in length, but its aura flared out in a much wider band of acid green.
    It drifted through the window.
    “Damn.”
    Beside him, Virginia sucked in a deep breath, but she said nothing.
    Decision time, Sam thought. He could either try to prod it back out the window or he could attempt to clobber it. He opted for the gentle nudge.
    He sent out a pulse of psi-talent, gently summoning energy from the quartz walls, ceiling, and floor. A small ball of glowing green fire took shape in the center of the room. He propelled it gently toward the intruder.
    The strange UDEM that had drifted through the window paused as though confused. Then, to Sam’s enormous relief, it retreated from the smaller ghost.
    It wafted back out through the window and disappeared in the wake of the school of phantoms roaming through the streets of the zoo.
    Virginia exhaled on a long, soft sigh. “Nice. Very nice.”
    He could almost taste his own relief. For the first time, he realized that his shirt was stuck to his back. “Don’t ever say I don’t know how to show a lady a fun time on Halloween.”
    “A lot of hunters would have tried to blast it to smithereens,” she said very seriously. “For some reason, I don’t think that tactic would have worked.”
    “No,” he said, “I don’t think it would have.”
    The storm crackled and blazed. An endless parade of desolate-sounding specters and phantoms flitted past the window.
    The tempest seemed to rage for hours, but when at last it began to abate, Sam looked at his watch. He was startled to see that only twenty-three minutes had passed.
    “I think it’s ending,” Virginia said.
    Gradually, the unholy wails receded. The flashes of lightning grew pale, then ceased altogether. As if some invisible hand had flipped a switch, the familiar green glow seeped back into the atmosphere. The strange darkness retreated into the pooling shadows from which it had come.
    “Must have seemed like an eternity to Chaz and Drake,” Virginia whispered.
    “It may have turned out to be just that.”
    “Are you saying you don’t think they survived it?”
    “I don’t know what was going