by Nalini Singh
"Of course."
"Nikita's targets either die or become incapacitated to the extent that they can't care for themselves—similar effects to certain kinds of accidental brain damage. Unfortunate for the individual but nothing organic or genetic, nothing that reflects on the extended family group."
It was very unlike her father to dance around a subject. "Why is Krychek different?"
"His targets go clinically insane."
CHAPTER 20
Faith was very, very glad she'd fallen a step behind Anthony, because at that moment, she couldn't have hidden her terror. "Insane?"
"As far as anyone has been able to determine, his targets begin to exhibit highly erratic behavior approximately two days after infection. By the fifth day, they're no longer sane in any sense, though the actual psych diagnosis varies from individual to individual."
She shoved down her panic and horror and attempted a semblance of calm. "That makes the decision considerably easier—I have no desire to go insane before my time. Perhaps you should inform the Council as the head of the household. It may prove unhealthy for me to venture out into the PsyNet. At least until Krychek knows I'm out of the running."
"I'll do it en route to the city."
They turned to make their way back. "Thank you." Faith ached for even the smallest indication of care, something Anthony would never be able to give her. But he was her father. How could she not hunger for his approval if nothing else?
"Faith."
"Yes, Father?"
"Be careful. Krychek may attempt to get to you some other way. Don't trust anyone until I've ensured he knows you've conceded the race."
Since she trusted no one who was connected to the Net, that wasn't going to be a problem. "What if he decides to eliminate me anyway? I might become a rival in the future."
"I've thought of a way to counter that possibility. I'll make it known that you're being put under lockdown because of aberrant mental patterns."
A cage. Her father was going to put her in a cage. Faith told herself not to care but she did. And it hurt. "How long will I have to maintain this fiction? I assume it means I have to stay out of the PsyNet?"
"I'd suggest a year. Krychek needs to forget you were ever a threat."
A year cut off from the only freedom she'd ever known. "Isn't that extreme?" No matter what else he'd done, she'd always believed that Anthony had tried to keep her safe. But this . .. this was an attempt to put her in chains and disguise it as protection.
"It's a question of your life. One year isn't much in the greater scheme of things."
A year was everything if you had decades of madness to look forward to. Though if she left the PsyNet, perhaps Vaughn could somehow heal the broken pieces in her mind. Even as she thought that, she knew it to be an impossible dream. But no matter—she'd still have more years of sanity than she would have under lockdown, a lockdown she suspected would never be reversed, reasons being found to keep her isolated and performing like the machine they'd almost turned her into.
"I'll accede to three months. Let's reconsider the situation after that." She couldn't give in, not when her recent behavior had made Anthony expect more from her.
"Agreed. Stay out of the Net."
"Yes." In a day, perhaps even in as little as a few hours, she'd be gone from the PsyNet forever. And if Vaughn didn't catch her as she fell, she'd be gone from this world as well. She wondered if her jaguar knew the extremity of her trust in him.
"Good-bye, Faith."
"Good-bye, Father."
Faith forced herself to return to the house, though she was half-afraid she'd never be allowed out again. The door closed behind her with a soft snick that felt as loud as a deadbolt. Taking a deep breath, she thrust her incipient panic into a tiny box in her psyche and walked to the communication console.
Xi Yun responded to her page in seconds. "What can I do for you, Faith?"
"Could you send me some of the earlier reports of my mental processes during visions? I'd like to compare them against the current scans." Not now, but one day.
"How far back would you like to go?"
She paused. The organizer could handle a massive amount of data, but even it couldn't cope with twenty-four years. "To my sixteenth birthday." The age at which her abilities had become relatively stable.
"That's the period I would've recommended," Xi Yun said. "Prior to that, you continued to be somewhat erratic."
Sixteen was the unofficial end of conditioning, the two years till eighteen a safeguard against any "mistakes." Had Silence helped her discipline her foresight, or had it stunted her mind until it produced patterns deemed acceptable instead of erratic? The memory reminded her of something else. "How is Juniper doing?"
"Well for an eight-year-old. Her skills fall short of what yours were at that age, but in comparison to others in her age bracket, she's advancing through the Protocol at considerable speed."
Meaning that the young Gradient 8.2 foreseer was becoming a machine faster than others. "Would I be able to see her records as well? I'm considering offering her some training." A perfectly legitimate thing for a cardinal to do for a younger member of the family.
Such help was especially important in the restricted field of foresight and for that abandonment, too, Faith felt guilt. But she had every intention of trying to find a way to help Juniper and others like her from the outside.
"I'll clear it with her guardian, but I don't anticipate a problem. You're the foreseer they study during training."
"When can you have everything to me?" It was a few minutes past four now.
"Within the hour."
More than enough time to download the files before Vaughn hunted her down.
Vaughn neared the fence around Faith's compound hours later than he'd intended. He'd been halfway to her when an alert had gone out over the Web—Sascha sending emotion for Dorian. Changing direction, he'd responded, aware that the others were all tied up. Because he couldn't hear words over the Web, he'd had to go to the nearest packmate's house and call for the location, another small delay.
When he'd arrived at the site, it was to find Dorian up to his neck in angry male juveniles. The sentinel had had them under control, but it was clear he'd had to bust a few heads to do so. Kit was bleeding from a split lip and Cory looked like he had a broken jaw. Several of the others wore bruises and everyone but Dorian was naked—a sure indicator that they'd been in leopard form.
"What happened?" he asked, shifting from jaguar to man.
Dorian thrust a hand through his hair. "Kit here decided to romance Nicki and Cory thought he had exclusive rights."
"This is about a girl?" Vaughn couldn't believe that, not with the way juvenile females were known to put their freedom above anything and anyone else.
"What it's about is these two boneheads using the excuse to call out their 'packs' on each other to settle who's more alpha." Dorian caught Vaughn's eye. Both of them knew it was Kit who had the smell of a future alpha. The kid was just faster, harder to hurt, and more aggressive than the others. But until he'd proven his alpha status, he was simply another juvenile.
"Kit." Vaughn dragged him up by the scruff of his neck. "What the hell is this about your own pack?"
The boy wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's just a bunch of us who are friends."
Vaughn didn't speak, didn't break eye contact.
The kid shrugged, but the anger remained in his eyes. That was why young alphas needed careful guidance, and if they stepped out of line, harsh discipline. They could go bad very easily. "So what if we call ourselves a pack?" His hands fisted into balls. "It means nothing."
"Cory?" Vaughn looked to the lanky kid propped up against a tree. "You think the same?"
The boy spit out blood. "Yeah."
Dorian slapped down a couple of others who tried to rise in renewed rage. "Stay the hell down or I swear I'll break all of your jaws."
Nobody protested. Dorian might be late
nt, but he was also a sentinel—he could snap these kids in two without thinking.
Vaughn returned his attention to Kit. No matter what Cory thought, it was Kit the juveniles looked up to. "If you're the alpha of your pack, you won't mind me challenging you for authority."
Some of the arrogance seeped out of Kit's eyes. "What?"
"You want to lead your own pack? Fine. But if you're the alpha of another pack, you give up your right to be part of DarkRiver." Harsh but true. "We have no treaties with you, which means you're in violation of Law. I have the right to kill you for trespass."
Kit wiped away another trickle of blood. "We don't want to separate from DarkRiver." He was beginning to look a little green around the gills.
"There is only one Pack. And none of you is alpha." Vaughn made sure he met the eyes of every juvenile in the clearing. Several heads dropped. "If and when you can challenge Lucas for the title, I'll respect you. Until then, you're a bunch of whiny brats who've fucked up the defense grid by pulling two sentinels from their duties."
Wounded pride showed on the face of more than one boy, but predictably, it was Kit who spoke. "We didn't ask for interference."
Vaughn actually liked the kid for his spine, but not enough to cut him any slack. Not after what he'd glimpsed in his quick reconnaissance before entering the scene. He glanced at Dorian. The younger sentinel dragged an unconscious juvenile out from behind a tree and dropped him at Kit's feet. "You did this."
The injured male had had his chest sliced open. If he'd been human, he'd have been dead by now. And that was before you added in the head wound. "Were you going to be able to stop without Dorian's 'interference'?" Vaughn made his question a whip.
Kit swallowed. "Oh, shit. Oh, man—I didn't realize—is Jase going to be okay?" Suddenly he was a child again, no trace of the alpha he'd one day become.
Vaughn let go of the boy.
Dorian was the one who answered. "Tamsyn's on her way back from the wolf den. Can you get Jase to her without killing him in the process?"
Kit nodded. "Yeah."
"I'll help you." Cory stood, one hand on his jaw.
The two boys looked at each other and then at the sentinels. "We can deal with it from here."
"You no longer have the right to my trust," Dorian responded, tone flat.
Vaughn saw the effect it had on Kit—the kid worshipped the blond sentinel, looking up to him like an older brother. But to his credit, he only nodded. "We'll get him to Tammy's, I swear."
"I want every single one of you in the Pack Circle tomorrow. The women can decide your punishment," Vaughn ordered, and it was no kindness. Leopard females were merciless about breaches of Pack law, because they knew that without Law, their children would start to die one by one at each other's hands.
Pack was One.
That was the ultimate rule.
Cleaning up the mess the juveniles had made, including tracking down and notifying Jase's roaming parents as well as the maternal females in charge of discipline, swallowed up several hours. It was almost five by the time he reached Faith's compound and he was feeling so violently possessive that he probably shouldn't have gone to her. But no way in hell was he waiting any longer.
He was about to scale a tree from which he intended to jump the outer fence when he smelled his prey on the perimeter of the compound. Surprised, he flattened down into a cautious stance. Her scent came nearer, until he could hear the flutter of her heartbeat, the sound of her breath. She stopped inches from him and when he appeared out of the tree shadows, she nodded. "I'm ready."
Her unexpected surrender calmed the beast, but only a fraction. He led her farther into the woods and toward one of his caches before moving out of her sight to shift into human form and pull on a pair of jeans—this was not a time to push Faith any more than she'd already pushed herself. Yet when he returned to her, her face went immediately wary.
"Your eyes are more cat than man."
"I know."
She walked to him. "I'm coming home with you."
"For how long?" He was keeping her. That was nonnegotiable. He just wanted to know how much persuasion it would take.
Her hand rose to lie over his heartbeat. A tentative touch that made the cat snarl for more. "For always."
It was the one answer he hadn't expected, but instinct told him what to do. Closing his fingers over her hand, he raised it to his mouth and kissed her fingertips. Her pulse shuddered, but she didn't pull away. The cat was pleased. Dropping that slender hand, he turned his back to her. "Jump on."
A beat of hesitation and then her hands were on his shoulders. He slid his palms up the back of her thighs and felt her fear, her confusion, her need. But when he pushed upward, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held on.
Exhilaration lacing his bloodstream, Vaughn ran through a forest slowly fading from day brightness—night fell quicker under the canopy. Faith's weight, even given her small pack and the long distance, was nothing. The jaguar gloried in having her in his territory, in his world, though he knew they still had to extract her safely from the Net. But that could be done anytime she was ready. First, he needed to claim her on a much more primal level.
He took her deep into DarkRiver territory and then even deeper into his own, not stopping until she was in the bedroom of his lair, the only woman he'd ever brought there. Lowering her to her feet, he let her stretch and explore, able to wait now that she was in his home.
Her face tried to maintain that cool Psy look, but wonder broke through in sporadic patches. "Your home is amazing. Like we're part of the forest."
He let out a jagged breath. "Do you want me to shower?"
She froze, eyes flicking to the waterfall behind him. "What?"
"The run made me sweaty." The falling night had been cold, the wind crisp, but a fine layer of perspiration covered his skin.
"Oh." The answer was soft, breathy. "No, that's okay."
He watched her mouth as she spoke, surprised to realize he'd closed the distance between them without being aware of it. Raising his hand, he rubbed a finger over her lips. "I want to eat you up."
Even as her eyes widened, the beast began to haze his brain with unforgiving sexual need. He wanted. And he was through with waiting. Faith was his mate. It was his right to take her. He'd angled his head to claim a savage kiss when out of nowhere, something else kicked in—the protective instincts that would never allow him to harm her. And if he took her now, he might even break her.
Shaken into civilized thought by that unforgiving truth, he forced himself to do the hardest thing he'd ever done. He took a step back. "I might hurt you if we do this." He was too much on edge, too hungry, too damn strong to chance a loss of control while in the grip of passion.
He watched her swallow and the cat wanted to lick at her neck, to hold her pulse in its mouth and feel the power of her heartbeat. It was about sex, not pain. The thought of abusing her was abhorrent to him, but he was afraid of caving in to the violent need of the beast and losing his capacity for rational thought. And when he rose from the animal hunger, he might find that his claws had permanently marred Faith's skin, that he'd bitten and cut. The possibility terrified him as nothing else had ever terrified him.
"Vaughn," she said, "it's okay. I know you won't hurt me. It's my conditioning and the impact it might have that we have to worry about."
"I could rip you to pieces if the cat takes over. I won't think I'm hurting you, but I will be." His voice held the thickness of a growl—his beast might have saved his life as a child, but the payment it demanded was being a greater part of his consciousness. "I want you too much, so much that I might damage you without meaning to."
Faith didn't move any closer. Instead, she stood watching him, studying him with those night-sky eyes that seemed to shimmer in the dim light of this cavern he called home, which seemed to soothe her. It had surprised him when he'd picked up the signs of relaxation, but now he was glad. At least she could feel safe in this place. His
place. He'd never steal that feeling from her by using it as a trap to maul her.
"The longer we wait," she said, her voice that of the most practical Psy, but her eyes holding the first flicker of lightning, "the worse it's going to get. It's become clear to me that you need touch and I haven't been giving it to you."
He knew that. "If I'm not tied down, I can't trust myself." It was an offhand comment that hid his very real frustration. To be close enough to touch, but be barred from doing so, caused excruciating pain.
"Then let's tie you down."
Cat and man both went absolutely motionless. "What?"
Her cheeks held the faintest hints of pink. "Maybe it would help me, too, if I knew I could walk away at any time. The backlash from the conditioning might not be as bad."
"Tie me down?" he asked again.
"It was only a suggestion. I'm sorry if I offended you."
He scowled. "I'm not offended. But I don't want to be powerless to defend you if something happens."
"Your reflexes are much faster than those of any other creature I've ever seen. I'll put a knife or knives within reach. You could grab them and cut the bindings free if necessary."
"I tell you I'm dangerous and you want to put knives near me?"
"Vaughn, you're scared you'll hurt me because you want me so much." Psy logic combined with enticing hints of feminine temper. "Unless you've been hiding something, using knives on me is hardly likely to arouse you."
She was right. He wasn't afraid of harming her on purpose, but doing so in the midst of claiming her, tasting her, sliding into the tight sheath of her body.
"Stop that," she whispered, "if you're not going to... play--“
He caught the use of the changeling word, caught the rich musk of female desire. And remembered that he wouldn't be helpless to seduce her even if he was tied down. Moving to the side of the room, he pulled out an old shirt from a trunk and used his claws to slice the material into strips. "I'm in your hands, Red." Claws retracted, he passed her the strips.
She blushed, eyes tracking him as he placed several weapons in easily reachable positions around the bed. "Tie my legs down, too," he ordered, blindingly aware of the ways he could harm her with the strong muscles that made him one of the predators.
