Visions of Heat

Everyone but her seemed to understand. Sascha shook her head, a small smile on her lips. 'Are they okay?'

Clay nodded.

Feeling out of the loop, she leaned her back against Vaughn's chest. White fire licked up her fingertips where they touched his jeans. He seemed to freeze and then reawaken, his hand never ceasing its soothing strokes down her arm. 'You all know why we're here.'

'To locate the man who murdered Faith's sister,' Sascha said. 'But I thought you didn't know enough.'

'Red?'

'At first,' she began, 'all I saw was her, the intended victim—very pale skin, white-blonde hair, blue eyes. Unusual looks for a Psy, but not a practical way to track her.' She forced herself to go back into the evil of the visions. 'Then I started to get more—'

'Because he's stalking her?' Sascha interrupted.

'At the time, it was because he was going to stalk her.'

Everyone went silent as they digested the reality of her life. Lucas was the first to shake himself out of it. 'How far gone is he?'

'In the final stages. The visions I'm seeing now are of blood.' Vaughn's arms came around her though she'd betrayed nothing by either gesture or tone—being unemotionally Psy was a form of protection against these predators, not all of whom were in her comer. 'We have to stop him at the kidnapping because I know the location and I even know the time.'

'How?' It was the dark-skinned male called Clay.

She had to force herself not to press closer into Vaughn. 'There were time markers in the last series of images, things that let me place a vision in the correct time frame. Some markers are hard to spot, like seasonal changes or the color of the sky, but these were unmistakable.'

No one spoke so she continued, grounding herself in the muscled heat of the body surrounding hers. The embrace was a silent statement of his loyalty, she knew that much. 'I saw a datebook open on her desk as well as the face of an electronic clock. Both the same.' Time markers didn't get much clearer than that.

Then she revealed something she'd told Vaughn in the car after unraveling all the other markers. 'We have one day.' Too close for comfort, far too close. 'If we don't get him... it's likely we won't save her. He feels'—she searched for the right words—'full, full of anticipation, of need. He doesn't keep and torture his victims, either. While stalking his intended victim excites him, his biggest thrill comes from the actual kill.' Like when he'd killed Marine. Once again, her heart clenched and now she knew what to call it: a mixture of pain and grief, sorrow and loss.

'Where?' Judd asked, his voice utterly toneless.

'You're Psy.' She was suddenly positive beyond any reasonable doubt. 'Only Sascha is supposed to be outside the Net.'

He didn't answer her implied question. 'Where?'

She decided to ask Vaughn later. 'The small private university that went up a few years ago on the edge of Napa. It specializes in viticulture.'

'Most students and staff are human or changeling,' Lucas pointed out. 'What would a Psy be doing there? They're not much into organic assets.'

'I think she's some kind of technician. Don't wineries have sophisticated temperature monitoring and cooling systems?'

'It could be that.' Vaughn's hands dropped to rest on her hips—an act of male ownership, one she didn't have any desire to fight. 'Not that it matters if she's going to be there on that date and at that time. We'll pick him off before he gets to her.'

'Why are we cleaning up a Psy mess again?' Clay's deep voice. 'Faith's not in any danger. The killer and possible victim are both Psy. Shouldn't the Council be taking care of this?'

'Clay!' Sascha looked shocked. 'We're speaking about a woman's life.'

'I'm not saying we forget about it, just that we let those responsible tidy it up.'

'And what if they don't?' Faith asked softly, staring into that harshly masculine face that was so without mercy. Clay was different from Vaughn, no matter that Vaughn's animal roamed nearer to the skin. There was something very dark in the leopard, something that walked a fine line between good and evil.

She had a knowing almost on top of that thought—Clay's time was coming. One day soon he'd have to decide which side of that line he wanted to be on. 'What if she simply disappears like the others I heard about on the Net? Will you be able to sleep at night, your conscience clear?' Because he wasn't quite gone yet, was still on the good side of the line. By a bare fraction.

Clay raised an eyebrow. 'So we take this guy out. Great. What about the next and the next and the next?'

Faith didn't know where her answer came from. 'Some futures we can't see, some lives we can't save, but this one we can. Let's discuss the rest later.'

'There's a bigger problem.' Lucas rocked back in his chair, propping his feet up on the railing. 'If neither victim nor killer is changeling, it falls within Enforcement jurisdiction. We don't have the right to enforce Law.'

Faith had forgotten that. 'We could let the authorities know.'

'Same as telling the Council.' Clay snorted. 'Unless you're ready to hand over the whole fucking mess to your psychopathic race?'

Vaughn went utterly still around her. 'Watch it, cat.'

Faith didn't understand all of what was going on, but she could read the aggression in the air. She shifted to wrap an arm around Vaughn's waist. He didn't take his eyes off Clay.

After a tense moment, the other male gave a slow nod. 'I was out of line.' A pause. 'She reminds me of someone.'

Faith worked through the statement, startled at the belated realization that Vaughn had turned hostile toward Clay because of his rudeness to her. Warmth spread in her secret heart. But notwithstanding that, she didn't want to be the cause of Vaughn fighting with his pack.

'About Enforcement,' she said, sliding her hand under his T-shirt to lie palm down on his back. Her cat responded to the stroking, looking away from Clay at last.

'I know a couple of cops we can trust,' Clay replied, surprising her. 'If they make the arrest, it'll be legal.'

'And the killer will be out by nightfall, sprung by the Council. He'll disappear into the Net, never to be seen again.' Sascha's voice was grim. 'They'll either kill him to ensure no one learns of the breakdown in the Protocol, or if he's one of theirs gone rogue, attempt to reinstate control.'

Lucas dropped his feet to the porch and leaned over to kiss his mate. Softening, she curled her fingers around his biceps, but Lucas's eyes were narrowed when he turned back to them. 'Sascha's right. We saw what happened last time.'

Anger was suddenly alive in the air. Faith happened to be looking at Sascha and saw the other cardinal breathe deeply several times, eyes going the pure black of a Psy expending large amounts of power. The anger level dropped.

'I can take care of him.' Judd sounded like he was talking about the weather. 'Even from a distance.'

Faith's stomach curdled. 'No. We can't commit one murder to stop another.' She'd thought to do precisely that, but that had been in the red-hot heat of anger. She was no stone-cold killer.

'You have a better idea?' Judd asked, something very much like insolence in his otherwise icy tone.

'Back off,' Vaughn said, in a very quiet voice. She could hear a difference from his reaction to Clay—he was dangerous this time, where before he'd been issuing a warning. 'You're here because you helped save Sascha's life, but that only goes so far.'

The other male's smile was humorless. 'It doesn't go far at all.'

Faith was a babe at understanding emotion, but it seemed to her that the Psy wanted a physical fight. What could possibly inspire that kind of death wish? Even if Judd was an Arrow, Vaughn was a jaguar.

'Wait, I do have an idea.'

Everyone looked at her.

'Incapacitate him.' She stared at Judd. 'Tie his mind up in mental ropes he'll never be able to break.'