Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series by Alexandrea Weis Page B

everyone thinks
I’m not here as an assistant, but as something else.”
    “ What else?” he questioned
with a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.
    “ You know what else,
Nathan.” She turned away, but he held her arm.
    “ What else,
Melinda?”
    Melinda analyzed his magnetic eyes and
then she knew. The images she had seen earlier of them together
were his. She could feel it as sure as she could feel the warmth of
his hand.
    Nathan let her go. “I hired you to be
my psychic, that’s all. If others read more into the relationship
than that, it’s their problem.”
    Despite what he told her, Melinda
sensed Nathan wanted her, but something was holding him back,
something she could not see. In her mind’s eye, she searched for an
answer, but only foggy images came through.
    “ I’m very happy you’re
here,” he said, and then he kissed her cheek.
    Melinda almost grabbed for the
doorframe to keep from falling to her knees. The unexpected wave of
electricity from the caress of his lips was
catastrophic.
    “ Get some rest,” he told
her. “We have a big week ahead, and you have your work cut out for
you.”
    Confused, Melinda watched him make his
way back to his penthouse. Perhaps he hadn’t sent those images to
her.
    Was it me?
    Melinda quickly shut the door and
threw her body against it. “Oh, I’m in trouble.”
    Right after Melinda spoke the words, a
wave of fear enveloped her. She turned to her living room, and as
quickly as it had come, the feeling departed. She gazed about the
room, reaching out with her mind to whatever entity had called to
her, but nothing came.
    Shaking it off, Melinda picked up a
box and carried it to her bedroom. When she stepped into the hall,
the doorway to the storage room was wide open and the light inside
was on. Setting the box on the floor, she went to the room and
looked around. Nothing appeared to her, and there were no moans or
rattling of chains. But as she stood in the square room, the hairs
on her arms stood up. In her mouth, there was the acrid taste of
dread. Melinda fought her instinct to flee, and instead opened her
mind.
    “ I feel your fear,” she
pronounced.
    Then a woman’s soft voice whispered in
her ear, “Run.”
    Melinda’s eyes flew open. She backed
out of the room, flipped off the lights, and shut the door. She
stood in the hall staring at the handle on the door as her
trepidation faded. There was no lock on the door, no way to secure
it. She had a sudden urge to make sure this door stayed closed,
because what was inside that room scared her.
    “ What the hell happened in
this building?”
    She closed her eyes and centered
herself. Imagining a white cloud of protection around her, Melinda
pushed away all the negative impressions hovering in the air. As
she blew out her frustration in a long breath, Melinda opened her
eyes. Once again, she was at ease and the dark forces on the other
side of the door had been silenced. Heading back into the living
room, she went to the kitchen and picked up the champagne bottle
from the breakfast bar.
    “ Just in case that doesn’t
work.” She gulped down the alcohol. “This is the second best way I
know to shut out the voices in my head.”

Chapter 7

    Melinda waited
outside the glass entrance to the mall on Canal Street. All about,
people were carrying maps and cameras as they took in the sights of
downtown New Orleans. In the distance, Melinda spotted a round
woman with dazzling pink hair tossing in the brisk spring breeze
from the nearby Mississippi River. Wearing her usual loose-fitting
cotton dress—this time in yellow—Ellie exhibited one of her warm
smiles.
    “ Are you ready to spend some of your man’s money?” Ellie gave
a raspy chuckle.
    Melinda hugged
her friend. “He’s not my man. He’s my boss,” she clarified, pulling
away.
    “ Honey, if he gave you a credit card, he’s your
man.”
    “ He
gave me the credit card because he wants me to look
professional.”
    “ Professional is my specialty.