Page 89 of Guild Boss

Professionally, she was in a good position to rebuild her business, thanks to Gabriel. Her personal life, however, was looking extremely vague. Gabriel showed no signs of moving back to his own apartment, but that was not reassuring.

“I am not running a bed-and-breakfast for a Guild boss who can’t be bothered to get his own apartment properly furnished,” she announced to Otis.

His furry head popped up over the top of a broken pillar. He chortled agreement and disappeared.

She continued walking, dodging the ruins of the quartz towers that long ago had risen gracefully into the skies.

She was buffeted by small rivulets and occasional waves of energy as she made her way toward the crack in the Wall that opened into the Dark Zone. Some of the paranormal vibes tickled her senses; others felt like invisible shadows or the remnants of dreams and nightmares she could not quite recall.

She dodged the worst of the energy and went back to the question ofGabriel. What was she going to do about him? The time had come to take bold action. She would not let him drift into the relationship just because it was convenient. He needed to recognize that what they had between them was special and important.

There was no doubt that the attraction between them was real. She had always known that she could trust him with her life. Literally. She wasn’t so sure about trusting him with her heart, however. He appeared to be slowly but surely adjusting to the notion that he was in a position to settle down, but he would always be the mission-driven Guild man.

He had closed one very big case, and now his focus would shift back to the job of establishing the new Illusion Town Guild. He had a vision of restoring the honor and dignity of the organization he loved. He was going to be a busy man for a long time to come.

She respected his ambition and his fierce determination to rebrand the Guild image, but she was not about to become the Guild boss’s lady. He might be interested in continuing the affair or even in a Marriage of Convenience, but she was not.

She wanted nothing less than a full commitment from him. If he could not give her that, she would have to end things—the sooner, the better. The longer she let the current situation continue, the harder it would be to protect herself from serious heartbreak when the end finally came.

And the end would come, because Guild bosses were expected to enter into a formal Covenant Marriage. It was tradition, even though the men at the top of the organization were notorious womanizers and rarely gave up the habit after entering a CM. Sooner or later, they got married. The two-hundred-year-old laws and conventions established by the First Generation still had enormous power throughout society. Tradition was important to Gabriel, and long-established Guild tradition held that Guild married Guild.

She was ready to get serious. If Gabriel was determined to be marriedto the Guild, that was his problem, not hers. She would have to move on. It was a truly depressing thought.

The bleak vision of a future without Gabriel while living in the same town and taking contracts with his precious Guild caused her to lower her guard. The psychic barrier she used to close off the most disturbing vibes of energy gave way. The shadowy fragments of dreams and nightmares crawled through the breach in her mental wall.

For a moment she was in the grip of the drug-induced visions she had experienced on the night she was kidnapped. This time, though, the images came into sharper focus. Figures in dark clothes chasing her into the ruins. The sting of the injection. Glimpses of blue amber pendants burning hot in the night. Panic, fear. The horror of knowing that she might be losing her mind...

Otis chortled, breaking the spell cast by the memories. She gave herself a mental shake and clamped down her psychic wall. Her mind cleared. Her senses returned to normal—or, at least, what passed for normal these days.

But in the wake of her brief lapse of control came other memories. Sharper and more focused. She recalled waking up over and over again in the chamber where she had taken refuge. Her inability to get through the doorway. Otis. Pizza. The Lord of the Underworld showing up to rescue her.

Because that’s what Gabriel did. He rescued people. He protected them. And as the director of the Illusion Town Guild, he would go on rescuing and protecting people. It was his calling. His mission. She was okay with that. Theoretically. But he needed to understand that, in the end, even the most distinguished career would not be enough to extinguish the loneliness.

A thought struck her. What if he was holding back because he was afraid to let himself fall in love with a woman who felt she owed him her life and her sanity? A man like Gabriel would not want to trust a lovebased solely on gratitude. Maybe he was being cautious because he wasn’t sure ofherfeelings.

If that was the problem, she could solve it. Gabriel had saved her once. She would try to return the favor. He was worth saving from himself. She would find a way to seize the future for both of them.

Otis reappeared just as she was about to exit the Dead City through the hole-in-the-wall on the Dark Zone side. She picked him up and plopped him on her shoulder.

“The first thing I’m going to do when the Guild pays its bill is put a down payment on a car,” she said. “No offense, but you get a little heavy after a while.”

Otis chortled and waved his toy.

“No,” she said, “it’s not your dust bunny, pal. It’s you. I know, I know, it’s probably all muscle.”

Otis murmured agreement.

She was only a few feet away from the front walk of the apartment house when an empty cab cruised past. The logo on the side read,dark zone cabs. we can find any address in the zone.

The driver looked out the window.

“Cab, lady?” he asked.

“No, thanks,” she said. “I’m home now.”

The cab drove down the street and vanished into a narrow, winding lane.

Lucy stopped and turned to look at the corner where the cab had disappeared.

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