Visions of Heat

'I'm not so sure about that,' Sascha said. 'If it's aware of the DarkMind, then perhaps it's aware of everything its other half knows. You did say it's fooled the Council.'

'Yes.' Some of Faith's concern faded. 'But even if the twins function as a team, their separation has to have a consequence.'

Sascha's eyes met hers and there was such grief in them. 'Until the DarkMind and the NetMind are merged again, the Psy will continue to produce the most vicious serial killers on the planet.'

'Killers without an ounce of mercy.' Faith thought about what she'd seen. 'The DarkMind is using them to give itself a voice. Maybe it can't speak like the NetMind can, because it's been Silenced, but it can communicate with its acts of violence.'

'A child screaming its existence.' Sascha's words gave emotional force to the cold facts.

The image chilled Faith. So much death, so much rage, all because of a child's need for acceptance. 'Until Silence ends, the only thing we can do is try to stop the manifestations of darkness.'

'Killers.' Vaughn's beast prowled in the energy of his skin.

'Yes.'

'Why does it speak to you?' Sascha asked, after a small silence.

'Maybe because I speak to it and I'm a Psy who has emotion. I think it needs that contact, needs to know that such Psy are possible.'

Sascha's sadness softened into hope. 'Can I speak to it, do you think?'

'It adores what you are.' Faith felt her own lips tilt upward in the faintest of smiles. 'I think I might even be jealous.'

'Why?'

'How do you think you escaped detection in the Net as a child, before you were old enough to hide your rainbow mind?'

'The difference didn't appear until I was a teenager.'

'No, Sascha. It was always there. Think about it—our basic abilities are something we're born with.' Faith shook her head. 'It showed me a thousand hidden minds exactly like yours, protected by something other than their own shields.'

The look on Sascha's face was priceless. 'The NetMind knows about us?'

Us. The E-Psy. The designation Faith had barely begun to understand because they'd been slated for deletion from the Net. But they'd survived. Because, Faith now comprehended, they had to exist. If they didn't, the Psy would cease to be human, cease to be sentient. All sentient races had a conscience. Take that away and what you were left with was something horrifying.

'Yes. It's been protecting you for decades, ever since it started to understand what Silence was doing to you. Maybe that's when it started to think on its own. I don't know. All I know is that we're dealing with a life form that has a heart and that heart is made up of a thousand E-Psy. The NetMind will never be evil so long as those minds exist. In contrast, its twin will be absolute evil.'

'Your NetMind might be good, but it's not the only one who knows where you are,' Clay reminded them.

The conversation turned once again to the question of how to protect her from the Council. Someone brought up a recording—one that apparently showed the confession of a Psy killer.

Clay shook his head. 'We play that card, we have to be prepared for war.'

'None of our reasons for not going public with it have changed,' Lucas added. 'Let's save it for a last-case scenario. Vaughn?'

Vaughn grunted and it was agreement.

'They won't stop hunting her.' Dorian spoke for the first time, his voice so coldly angry that she wanted to hide from it. 'Murder is what they're good at.'

'Anybody dares touch her, I'll eviscerate them.' Vaughn's words held the calm confidence of a beast that knew it was the most dangerous of predators.

'Well, there is that,' Sascha said. 'If she keeps her mind heavily shielded, they'll have to get close to attack her. DarkRiver can take care of them before they reach her.'

'How long can I live like that?' Faith shook her head, frustrated that her earlier knowing had faded into mist. 'There must be some way to keep them from making an example out of me.'

Vaughn's hand was on her nape, a possessive grasp. 'They'll never get that close, Red.'

She believed him.

'We have a walk-through at the site with Nikita tomorrow,' Lucas said into the pensive silence. 'Let's see if they're open to a deal—Faith's too valuable for them to do something stupid and risk getting her killed.'

The meeting ended soon afterward.

Vaughn had driven to the meeting as far as he was able, then run the rest of the way with Faith riding his back. But as their feet touched the ground after leaving the aerie, she asked to be put down.

'Let's walk awhile.' Her eyes were more black than he was used to.

'I'm at your command, Red.' Taking her hand, he led her through the trees until they hit a pathway almost completely hidden from sight.

'What do you see?' she asked him. 'I could have never located this path.'

So he showed her the marks, the clawed parts of certain trees, the subtle positioning of rocks that appeared randomly strewn. 'It's a code, a way of speaking to each other that doesn't rely on words or on telepathy. We can read these signs in either human or cat form.'

She traced a pair of claw lines with utter gentleness. 'A language the Psy don't even know exists.'

'My Psy does.'

She let him lead her deeper into the forest. 'Lucas is right; if the Council comes for me, it won't be to kill me.'

'You're worth too much alive.' His gut burned. She was so much more than a moneymaking machine. She was a woman of spirit and courage with a gift that had the power to change the course of the future itself.

'I didn't say anything to the others, but I don't think Nikita is going to agree to a deal. There's nothing to deal with. We don't have proof that Marine's murder was a setup.'

'Like Lucas said, it's a last-case scenario, but we do have Enrique's confession on record.' He told her about the former Councilor's crimes and his punishment. Vaughn had been there that night, had taken vengeance on Lucas's behalf because his alpha had been locked in an attempt to save his mate's life. 'He gave us everything.' Before they'd ripped him into a thousand bloody shreds.

Face pale, Faith squeezed his arm with her free hand. 'You agreed with them that you couldn't use that.'

'We won't. Not unless we have no other choice.'

'No, Vaughn! Not ever. If you back the Council into a corner, they will come at you with everything they've got. And they'll kill your most vulnerable, the children, first.'

His vows as a sentinel slammed up against his unspoken vows to her. 'You're my mate.' A loyalty that overshadowed any other.

'That's why I'm asking you to never use that recording on my behalf.' Stopping, she looked up into his eyes. 'I need to know that I didn't bring death into this new family. I need to know I'm something good.'

'You're everything good.' He enfolded her in his arms. 'Don't worry. We have the capacity to take them on— we had to devise a countermeasure after Sascha's defection. The cubs will be safe.' Exposing them to danger had never been a possibility.

'But how many adults will die in the fight?'

'You're Pack.' And Pack stood together. He'd bled for them and they'd do the same for him.

'I can't have their blood on my conscience.' She hugged him hard. 'Promise me you'll never use that recording in a fight for me. Not even as a last-case scenario.'

'And if I don't?'