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“I feel real.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “You’re real, too, aren’t you?”

“I think so.”

A fierce excitement flashed through her.

“The first time I saw you I thought you were a hallucination,” she said.

“Did you?”

“But you’re not. You’re my very own Lord of the Underworld.”

“Uh, Lucy—”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the energy flooding her body. He went very still.

“Damn it,” he said against her lips. “Wrong time. Wrong place.”

But he kissed her back, hard and fierce, and there was so much energy in the physical connection that she knew they were both flying. They stood in the eye of the magnificent storm that whirled around them.

Gabriel abruptly set her aside. “Lucy. Stop. Now.”

She took a deep breath. He was right. Wrong time, wrong place. Reluctantly she lowered her senses.

The otherworldly gale dissipated almost immediately.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “Things got a little out of control.”

“I’ll say.” Gabriel studied her. “I’ve never known a weather channeler who could pull a storm like that. There was lightning. The real deal.”

“Yeah, well, there aren’t many of us who can do the lightning thing. Those of us who have the ability usually keep quiet about it. It’s not good for business. Clients get nervous if they think you can turn that kind of energy against them.” She cleared her throat. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“My nerves will survive.” He looked surprisingly satisfied, as if she had just confirmed something he had suspected all along. “You’re not just a strong talent, you’re an off-the-charts talent. No wonder finding out that I’m a dual talent didn’t worry you.”

He turned and walked toward the men sprawled on the ground. She watched him pat them down, removing flamers, knives, and other assorted gear. Otis joined him, watching the process with deep interest.

Ponytail and Sweat-Stink did not move. From where Lucy stood they did not appear to be breathing. A tide of dread descended on her, sluicing away the last of the euphoria.

She cleared her throat. “Are they—?”

“Alive?” Gabriel removed an energy bar from Ponytail’s cargo pocket and gave it to Otis. “Yes. Amazing, really, considering they were struck by paranormal lightning.”

Otis got very excited—his usual response to anything he considered a treat. He ripped open the wrapping of the energy bar. Gabriel continued with the pat-down.

Lucy took a deep breath. Okay, the good news was that she hadn’t actually killed anyone. Ponytail and Sweat-Stink were not nice guys, butshe did not want to have the weight of their deaths on her conscience for the rest of her life. Punishing them was the job of the judicial system.

The bad news was that Gabriel now knew what she could do, given an intense paranormal environment. Most clients would be alarmed by the wild side of her talent. Anyone who wanted to employ a weather channelerbecauseof her ability to generate a potentially lethal storm was probably not someone she wanted to work for. Generally speaking, there were no legal uses for killer storms.

“Sometimes I get a little carried away,” she ventured.

“I noticed.” Gabriel stood, removed his camera, and started taking photos. “I’d really like to talk to these two, but obviously they are not in a chatty frame of mind at the moment, and we don’t have time to hang around down here. One of them must have a portal key. As soon as I find it, I’ll cuff them and haul them into one of these chambers. With a little luck, they’ll still be here when the Coppersmith security team comes down to collect Croston’s body.”

Lucy became aware of a warm sensation between her breasts. She had felt it earlier, but she had been so busy channeling storm energy that she hadn’t paid any attention. The entire Underworld had seemed hot for a few minutes.

Alarmed, she hauled the chain out from under her shirt and stared at the amber pendant.

“Gabriel, look.”

She held up the pendant. The amber was no longer gray. It was glowing a deep, eerie blue.