"How so?"

Zanita blushed.

Mills sat up straighten "You didn't!"

Zanita nonchalantly held one of her sweaters up to her in front of the mirror, trying to decide whether to take it with her.

"He did?"

Zanita looked at her friend through the mirror and raised her eyebrows.

Mills grinned slyly. "When can I meet him?"

"Mills! Behave yourself."

"That good, huh?"

Zanita fell on the couch in a mock swoon, draping a hand across her forehead. "Incredible."

"Hmm. So, are you two going away for an intimate little trip?" She gestured to the cartons piled haphazardly over the living room.

"Oh. No, I'm moving in with him."

Mills started choking.

Zanita patted her on the back.

"Are you nuts? What do you mean, you're moving in with him?"

"It's not what you think. Tyber has agreed to work with me on the LaLeche story. We both thought it would be more... expedient this way. Believe me, Tyber understands how I feel about getting involved again. It's strictly temporary. We'll only be together for the duration of the investigation. Think of it as a professional relationship with personal overtones."

Mills gave Zanita The Look. "Is that what he said?"

Zanita thought a minute. Tyber hadn't exactly said it that way, but the general gist had been along those lines. "In a manner of speaking."

"Whose manner of speaking?"

"Will you lighten up? It's not as if he-" The doorbell rang. "That must be him; he said he was going to stop by to help me with this stuff."

Mills raised an eyebrow but wisely refrained from making any comments. She would reserve her judgment of this Dr. Evans until she met him.

Zanita opened the door to let Tyber in. He was wearing washed-out jeans, boots, and a brown leather bomber jacket.

His hair hung loose about his shoulders. "Hi, Tyber."

"Hi, baby." He wrapped his arm around her neck, bringing her to him for a quick kiss.

Flustered as usual by his touch, Zanita turned to Mills, performing a one-way introduction. "This is my friend, Mills."

Tyber smiled to himself before greeting her friend and completing the introduction. "Hi." He jerked his thumb in Zanita's direction. "I'm her special aberration."

Mills did something Zanita had never seen her composed friend do in all the years she had known her. She gaped, momentarily speechless. When she found her voice, it was slightly shaky. "Nice to meet you, Tyber. Zanita has said a lot of-" here she faltered-"interesting things about you."

Tyber's glance flicked to Zanita. His eyes sparkled in amusement. "Mmm, did she?"

Zanita rushed in to stop this line of conversation from going anywhere else. "Um... I'm taking all this stuff here, okay?"

Tyber eyed the collection of cartons piled pell-mell with God-knew-what inside. Anyone else would have packed a suitcase, but not his Zanita. He couldn't help the brief smile that crossed his face.

"Okay." He bent to retrieve the first carton.

Zanita eyed him with some trepidation. She knew she had overpiled the cartons. They must weigh a ton. He didn't seem to be having any trouble, though.

Mills went to stand next to her. They both silently eyed Tyber as he knelt down, jeans pulling taut against his muscular thighs.

Mills spoke softly so her voice wouldn't carry. "I could kill you."

A dimple popped into Zanita's cheek. "Meow."

"Unfortunately, I'm your friend, so I'll have to sheath my claws. You must have had one hell of a horoscope this month."

They smiled identical smiles at Tyber as he passed them effortlessly carrying the box.

"I think you turn right here."

"I think you said that an hour ago."

"Do you think we'll be late?"

"Only if the truck doesn't make warp 10," Tyber responded wryly.

"Damn! If we enter the seminar late, we'll stand out too much."

Tyber glanced over at the yellow-and-turquoise polka-dot pant suit she was wearing and wisely held his tongue.

"Maybe we'll sneak in." Zanita fished in her bag for a nail file.

"Maybe we won't." She stopped rummaging around in her purse to look at him, surprised. "I think that action is just as likely to cause suspicion as to alleviate it. What are you looking for, the directions?"

"No, my nail file-I'm hungry and I thought I'd have an apple."

He took his eyes off the road for an instant to stare speechlessly at her. Non-linear.

"Ah, here it is!" She proceeded to bisect an apple she produced from the depths of the same bag by spearing it with a metal file. "Here you go." She handed him the sawed-off half.

Tyber eyed the gritty edge dubiously. "Ah, no thanks- maybe later."

"Aren't you hungry?" She blithely crunched away at the fruit. "Blooey said he'd leave some sandwiches on the table for us before he goes to bed, or as he put it, 'before I hit me bunk fer the night'."

"Zanita, do you have any idea where we're going?"

She paled, staring at him wide-eyed. "In-in what sense?"

He rolled his eyes. "In the sense of do you know where Kingston Hall is?"

"Oh." She fidgeted in her seat. "I do and I don't."

"It's a fixed point in space. I don't understand your statement."

"Well... I've been there once before, so I know where it is; only right now I don't really know where it is."

Tyber shook his head. "Somehow, there was an interesting quantum aspect to your answer."

"If you say so."

"Wait a minute; here's that corner again. This time I'm turning left."

"There it is! To think we've been going right by it for the past hour and fifteen minutes because you've been turning right all this time."

Tyber narrowed his eyes at her.

Totally unaware of his searing look, Zanita leaned toward him, whispering last-minute instructions as if they were about to heist a bank.

"Remember-act nonchalant, try to blend in, and whatever you do, don't call attention to yourself. We'll just observe him tonight to see if there is anything odd we can pick up on."

Tyber watched her remove a pair of strapless polka-dot heels from her bottomless bag, raising a silent eyebrow when she slipped them on.

"Ah, Zanita, about your clothes..." Her head snapped up, a worried expression marring her sweet face.

"What is it? Is something wrong with them?" She nervously smoothed the crease in her pants, staring at him anxiously.

He swallowed. "No. No, baby; I just wanted to tell you that I think your outfit is... is rather..." She gazed at him expectantly, her large violet eyes widening. He rubbed his jaw. "It suits you."

She beamed. "Thank you, Tyber; that was very sweet of you." She linked her arm through his as they walked inside. "Remember-lay low."

"Uh-huh."

They found two seats to the rear of the hall. Zanita was relieved to see they hadn't missed too much; apparently there were a few "opening acts." In fact, Xavier LaLeche was just coming onto the stage now.

In black suit and turtleneck, LaLeche was in his early forties. He had perfectly coiffed black hair that was silvered around the edges just so. Zanita thought him picture-book handsome in a way that was much too slick. When he introduced himself, he displayed a compellingly suave voice that would have been at home on any pulpit. He was exactly what she had expected.

"Now that's more like it," she whispered to Tyber. "I can't believe that when I first entered your classroom I actually thought you were a guru. It's really sort of silly now that I think of it."

"Really. Would you like to see how fast I can mesmerize you?" He poked one of her polka-dots.

"Very funny. Shh-let's hear what he has to say like good little sycophants."

Xavier LaLeche faced his audience with a serene yet compelling demeanor. "Good evening and welcome to the Healing Heart Seminar. It gladdens my spirit to see so many new souls reaching for a higher attunement." He paused dramatically. "I hope tonight that each and every one of you, if only for a moment, will experience a finer perception, a lifting, if you will, of your consciousness, an embracing of your higher self, and you'll allow the miracle of healing into your being." A hearty round of applause followed.

Zanita leaned into Tyber. "What did he just say?"

He patted her knee. "Nothing to be concerned about, dear."

LaLeche continued, "In order to understand about healing we must first understand about energy."

Tyber leaned forward in his seat. Here was a subject he was an expert on.

"Ancient esoteric knowledge holds that the body is contained in a field of energy. But how is it contained?"

Tyber started to raise his hand, thought better of it, and lowered it.

"The energy in our bodies is, shall we say, controlled by our consciousness. Indeed, our very life force is an emanating energy coming from each and every one of our cells. That is why we are all so very different from one another."

"Huh?" Zanita scratched her head.

"Even Chinese philosophy subscribes to the belief in an energy system, preferring to think of it as an actual electric current which runs throughout the body. You may have heard of this in connection with the technique known as acupuncture. The Sanskrits believe in centers of energy within the body. They call these centers of energy chakras."

"I don't believe this." Tyber spoke low in her ear. "He's taking bits and pieces from different respected traditions, then he's tossing them together to form"-he pointed to the handout they had been given at the door-"the LaLeche Method,'" he mouthed, causing her to giggle.

"Energy vibrations!" LaLeche's voice boomed throughout the room. "All living things have energy vibrations. All living things vibrate with their own special frequency. All living things vibrate at their own levels."

"It's called a discrete frequency, but he got it completely skewed. This is what I mean about knowing your physics, Zanita. If the man had more background knowledge on the principles of-" A man behind them shushed Tyber.

LaLeche was on a roll now. "Our bodies are always vibrating!"

"I know mine is," Tyber drawled in her ear. Zanita elbowed him in the side.

"... Our bodies are also instruments through which we experience spiritual as well as sexual ecstasy..."

"Ah, now we're getting to the good part." Tyber winked.

"... sexual and spiritual ecstasy are both experienced through the chakras, specifically, the same chakra. This is why we so often mistake spiritual awakening with sexual arousal..."

"I can't say that's ever happened to me. How 'bout you, Curls?"

"Shh!"

"When I'm aroused, I'm definitely sure it's sexual in origin." He tickled her arm.

"Sexual energy is focused; it seeks a release through intense activity..."

"Is it getting hot in here to you?"

"Tyber!"

He grinned.

"... whereas spiritual energy flows. It is everywhere, through you and me, rocks, trees, the stars-the body craves ecstasy..."