Visions of Heat (39 page)

“How certain is that?” Henry asked.

“The man was a Council candidate soon after my ascension.” Marshall’s statement was news to Nikita, but she had no doubts as to its veracity. “He turned it down, not because he didn’t have the strength, but because he preferred running the NightStar Group. Anthony doesn’t like bowing down to anyone.”

“If he was a candidate, then he’s aware of the realities of Council. Surely he can be talked around,” Henry insisted.

“No, he can’t.” Male, cold, cutting, Kaleb Krychek was the newest member of the Council. “The Scotts’ move against his daughter without his prior authorization put him into a situation where his power was questioned. He’s reasserting it and will continue to do so. We’ve lost any goodwill we might’ve had with the NightStar Group.”

A silence as everyone considered the implications of that.

Tatiana was the first to speak. “That is indeed unfortunate. NightStar is one of the leading families. As well as the favors they’ve done us, the income they control with their various alliances gives us a large portion of our tax revenue.”

“Is it possible to remove Anthony NightStar from the equation?”

“Not without attracting the unwelcome attention of several other top-tier families.” Nikita usually preferred the clean approach, but it would only cause more problems at this point. “I’m sure everyone understands why we don’t want any additional scrutiny right now. We’ve had two recent incidents.” First Enrique and then the Gradient 9 telepath who’d escaped his handlers before being found near a college campus in Napa, his mind permanently compromised.

“Would you care to explain yourself, Shoshanna.” Marshall’s words weren’t a question.

“Someone had to make a move. We should’ve acted against Faith the second she dropped out of the Net. There was no reason to wait.”

“There was every reason.” Nikita closed her mental file on the NightStar Group. “She was deep in DarkRiver territory when she cut the link. Have you forgotten that piece of Enrique you got on your pillow only months ago?” The leopards and wolves had announced the former Councilor’s death by sending flesh and blood souvenirs to the rest of them.

“If they were going to use what they know, they would’ve done so by now,” was Shoshanna’s answer.

“Or they could be sitting on it until it provides the biggest impact.” Kaleb sounded nothing like a newcomer, the very reason he was Council. “They were right in this case—they had no need to tip their hand. None of us can argue that their point wasn’t made.”

“They might’ve taken out six men, but they won’t be able to destroy a squadron,” Henry responded. “We go in full force, pull her out, and destroy anyone who attempts a retrieval.”

“Dental imprinting showed that a single cat executed all six soldiers.” Ming broke his silence. “It was confirmed by three different M-Psy. Only one had fired a weapon. We were unable to check for the use of offensive psychic weapons—their brains were too badly crushed.”

“It seems that
Henry’s assertion is incorrect,” Kaleb stated. “They could conceivably take out a squadron.”

“Faith NightStar isn’t worth the loss of so many highly trained men, especially as she’s agreed to provide her services through her family group.” Ming’s glacial mental voice again. “These men are worth millions, both in terms of their training and the work they do for us. Added to the income we’ll lose if the businesses implement their tax strike, it’s an easy equation.”

“We can’t allow the changelings to keep getting the better of us.” Shoshanna clearly had no intention of conceding defeat. “How does it look if we lose two Psy within months and the most recent was a candidate? The populace is starting to talk.”

Kaleb cut into the small pause. “We say she ran when it became clear I had no intention of leaving a rival alive.”

“Perfect,” Nikita agreed. “F-Psy are known to be mentally weak. A few well-placed rumors will shred her credibility.”

“We need to know how the leopards are keeping the two women alive,” Tatiana said. “I’ve heard of no unexplained changeling deaths since Sascha’s defection and if she were feeding off them, there would’ve been at least two by now.”

Nikita conceded the other Councilor had a point. “They must have discovered a way to skirt the biofeedback issue.”

“I don’t think it’s that big a problem.” Marshall’s razor-blade mind. “If they had a foolproof method, we’d have lost more than two.”

“I’ll put some of our people on it nonetheless,” Tatiana said in response. “If we break the connection keeping Sascha and Faith alive, we wipe the issue off the slate.”

No one was in opposition.

“Then it’s agreed, we don’t move on Faith NightStar,” Kaleb stated with Tk arrogance, turning against the very Councilor who’d supported his initial nomination. “Any member who moves unilaterally will face eviction from their post.”

“You have no right to make that call.” Shoshanna’s psychic presence was icy with control.

“But we do as a unit. You and Henry appear to be the only ones who disagree; therefore you’re in the minority.” Marshall, the voice of experience, a Councilor who’d survived many others.

“He’s correct.” Tatiana. “Faith NightStar cannot be touched.”

“I agree.” Nikita added her vote.

“Then we have no choice. We concede to the majority.” Shoshanna spoke for both Scotts and if there was something a fraction eerie in the way she and her husband moved as one to leave the Council chambers, the Councilors were not close enough to their instinctive core to understand.

“We need to increase security for Councilor Duncan,” Kaleb said to the remaining minds.

“There is no need.” Nikita had no desire to be seen as weak by any member of this Council. Especially not the newest recruit.

“Then this session is closed.”

 

Several weeks
and a hundred new experiences later, Faith found herself sitting in on a meeting at the aerie. As a member of the Web of Stars and Vaughn’s mate, she’d gained entrance into a very tightly knit group.

“So, what’s next? Nate, you had something.” Lucas looked to the oldest sentinel.

“I’ve got a couple of contenders to take over from me when I step down.”

“Which isn’t going to be for a while.” It was an order from the alpha.

Nate grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m not in any hurry. I have a few more years left in me.”

“More than a few, darling.” Tamsyn blew him a kiss from the cushion beside him.

“But I wanted to put the names forward and see what you thought. The first is Jamie. He’s one of the best soldiers we’ve got and he’s proven himself.” Nate paused and when no one spoke, he continued, “Then there’s Desiree. Girl’s got a mind like a razor blade and a tongue as sharp, but she’s good and she’s loyal.”

Something flickered in Faith’s consciousness, a quiet limb stretching awake. Curious, she followed it. And when it showed her pain and death, she didn’t flinch.

“Any other possibles?” Lucas asked.

“We’ve got a few who’ve got some growing to do,” Tamsyn muttered. “I swear the juveniles are giving me gray hairs.”

“How’s Jase?” Dorian asked, and his voice was a distorted rumble in Faith’s mind.

“Healed. Until the next . . .” Tamsyn’s voice faded.

Faith gripped her cup tighter, attempting to understand what it was that she was seeing. There was pain, things breaking, such terrible loss, but it wasn’t yet set in stone, it wasn’t yet done. It was a foretelling and it had nothing to do with business. “Seven children are going to die.”

Vaughn went motionless as those words left his mate’s mouth. He brushed back her hair so he could see her face—eyes closed, lines of concentration carving sharp grooves in creamy skin. “Faith?”

“Seven children. Not cats. Wolves. Seven wolf children.” She was in his arms, but her gift had taken her somewhere, some
when
else. “A part of a tunnel is going to collapse. Tonight. Or early tomorrow morning.”

Everyone was listening. Sascha had already passed Lucas his phone. Vaughn stroked Faith’s back, relieved at the pulse of love that came down the mating bond. She was traveling to places he couldn’t go, but she knew how to come home. “Where, baby? Which part of the tunnels?”

Her eyes scrunched as if she were squinting to make something out. “There’s a painting on the stone of a wolf pup sleeping under a tree. Oh, there’s another one creeping up on it through the bushes and a third on the branches.”

“Jesus,” Clay whispered. “It’s the nursery where the littlest ones are.”

Vaughn, too, remembered the nursery. When DarkRiver had first infiltrated the SnowDancer den to leave their message, “Don’t hurt us and we won’t hurt you,” they’d made sure to place their scent near the nursery, to show that they’d been close to the wolves’ most vulnerable and done no harm. There was no greater indication of friendly intent.

Vaughn watched Lucas punch in the SnowDancer alpha’s code. The conversation was short, but Hawke apparently took the warning seriously. Lucas was hanging up when Faith shook her head and blinked awake.

“You okay, Red?”

“Yes. I’m fine.” She pushed her hand up under his T-shirt to lie against his skin. The jaguar was delighted to be her anchor.

Leaning down, he kissed her, bringing her completely home. “No cascade?”

“No. The new shields are working.” Her face grew pensive. “Why the wolves? I don’t know them.”

“We’re bonded to the SnowDancers,” Vaughn said, realizing he hadn’t explained that aspect of the pack to her. “The blood pact was physically completed soon after Sascha joined us, though we were business allies long before that.”

“Oh. I—”

Lucas’s phone beeped.

The alpha checked the readout and flipped it open. “Hawke?” A pause. “Pups safe?”

Vaughn could hear the other end of the conversation, but waited until Lucas had hung up to tell Faith. “Hawke said they found a huge crack in one of the walls supporting that area, hidden behind some wall hangings. They’re shoring it up as we speak.” He nuzzled her neck. “He also said thank you for the warning.”

“What about the last part?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

Vaughn growled. “That wolf likes living dangerously.”

“What did he say?” Faith asked, intrigued by the smile on Sascha’s face. The other Psy looked like she already knew what Hawke might’ve said.

“Nothing.” Vaughn bit lightly at the shell of her ear, the gesture so possessive that she could feel color attempting to fill her skin. It was at times like this that Psy training came in very useful.

“Tell me.” She scratched her nails on the skin of his chest. “What did he say?”

“The damn wolf asked if our F-Psy was pretty. And bloody Lucas said yes.” He sounded less human with every word. “So Hawke said he’d kiss your pretty mouth in thanks the next time he saw you.”

Everyone except Vaughn was grinning. Even Clay had a small smile on his face. After her initial wariness and in spite of the knowing she’d had about him, Faith had discovered she liked the intense sentinel. She’d invited him to dinner a week ago and, much to Vaughn’s surprise, he’d come. And he’d touched her. A slight brush of knuckles against her cheek, it had told her she was accepted. Was Pack.

“Well, he can’t,” Faith said, not hesitant in front of these cats who lived and loved with wild fury. “Because I only want to be kissed by you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I think I like the wolf if he makes you say things like that.”

Laughing, she let him kiss her, allowing it because Vaughn needed her to allow it. He was more openly possessive and dominant than the other males she’d seen with their mates. But that was fine with her. She could bear being thought of as utterly his.

 

“I used
to worry that the dark side of my ability was evil, a materialization of the twinning of the Net,” she said to Vaughn as they sat outside near their home. Stars peeked through the thick canopy and the denizens of the forest went about their business, safe in the knowledge that the resident predator was otherwise occupied. “But now I know that though what it shows me can be either good or bad, it in itself isn’t evil.”

Vaughn, sitting behind her with his arms and legs cradling her, rested his chin on her hair but didn’t interrupt. Her cat knew how to listen. It was getting him to talk that was sometimes a problem.

“I haven’t come to terms with it completely, but I’m starting to understand what it is I was meant to see, what anyone with my ability is meant to see.”

“Your gift, Faith. It’s a precious gift.”

“Yes.” She smiled, liking the word. “What I feel like right now—I’d compare it to waking from a dream and seeing the real world. It’s a beautiful place, but it also has darkness. If you try to eradicate that darkness, you also destroy the light.” Pain for the future of her people tightened her heart.

“There’s hope. Your NetMind is fighting back.”

She had to believe that. “And others, too, are starting to wake from the dream.” A dream of Silence. “It might take years for the ripples to chase across the Net, but they’re there now.” Putting her hand on his bare arms, she anchored herself in touch, the very thing that had once threatened to shatter her. “I’m so glad I found you.”

His chuckle was a rumble that vibrated in her bones. “Sorry, Red. But I found you first.”

“No, you didn’t.” She scowled—he liked getting his own way far too much. “I walked out into the forest.”

“Yeah, but I was waiting for you to walk out.” He nuzzled the side of her neck. “I was drawn to your place like an addiction. If you hadn’t walked out when you had, I would’ve come looking.”

Her eyes went wide. “Some things can’t be changed.” It was a thought that might’ve scared her once.

“What?”

“The future isn’t always mutable.” And what did that mean? “I’ve never before considered that. The ramifications are enormous. What is, what isn’t changeable—who chooses? What sets some things in stone and others in clay?” Excitement whispered through her. Finally she was in charge of her gift, able to chase things that fired up her imagination.