Caressed by Ice

had studied under Ming, then later under a human teacher, spending an entire year in the freezing chill of Old Sapporo. The abandoned Japanese city was so inhospitable, it was populated only by those who wanted to push their bodies to the limit, such as the disciples of katana. Though the highly offensive martial art—developed during the Japan-Korea war over half a century ago—could be used to kill, its worth to the Psy lay in the extreme mental and physical discipline it taught.

But even katana only went so far with a Tk on the edge of a flameout. Expanding his senses, he began to collect data. He wasn’t changeling so it could’ve been difficult for him to identify the exact species, but some of the hyenas had shifted to their animal forms. There were twenty in the scan radius and many registered as carrying weapons. He needed a closer look at those weapons.

Making a quick decision, he moved closer, using what he’d learned in Old Sapporo to check the creeping shroud of exhaustion and keep his brain functioning. Once he’d positioned himself in the direct path of one of the hyenas in human form, he leaned against another tree and did the thing that only his subdesignation could. He blurred his body, becoming effectively invisible. It had been postulated that this aspect of his ability sprang from the same core as that of the F-Psy, that he was actually bending time.

Concentrate.

Wandering thought patterns were a sign of oncoming flameout. He managed to drag his mind back under control in the nick of time. A hyena male walked past, a weapon strapped to his back and another in his arms. Pinpoint migraines began to spark behind Judd’s eyelids, but he maintained the “invisibility” until the invader was well out of range. Then he focused on getting out of the hot zone without leaving a trail.

The explosion came half an hour later.

Brenna heard the bang before she saw the smoke spiral up into the sky. The urge to head in that direction was so overwhelming that she had to grit her teeth to restrain it. Her family had not raised a stupid wolf. With the snow, the blaze wouldn’t accelerate. Furthermore, the wood was treated to be flame-retardant and she had neither the firepower nor the backup to take on a whole pack of those damn scavengers.

But her frustration at being so helpless wasn’t the worst of it—she was scared to death that they had gotten to Judd. Then he walked out of the forest. Racing to him, she put a hand on his arm. “What happened?” She took a second look. “Judd, your eyes!” They were pure black, no whites, no irises.

“They blew up part of the cabin,” he said, ignoring her cry. “Given the noise, SnowDancer patrols are probably already heading this way.”

“I know that!” Shock submerging under worry, she scanned his ashen face. “I want to know what happened to you!”

“I used too much power.” Clipped words.

“When you got me out.” It wasn’t a question. All those weeks of healing with Sascha had taught her a few things about how Psy gifts functioned. “Because I wouldn’t let you into my mind. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“That’s not an issue we have time to discuss.” He jerked his head in the direction of the cabin, his eyes beginning to fade back to normal. “My tactical knowledge says the hyenas are long gone by now. We should head back there to meet whoever responds.” He began moving.

She ran to catch up. “Are you going to be able to cope? Your eyes…”

He gave her a sideways glance so full of male arrogance, the wolf in her wanted to snarl. “Psy eyes do that when a large power expenditure is involved—I’m fully capable of making the necessary report.”

“I should learn to keep my worry to myself where you’re concerned,” she muttered.

“That would be wise.”

Scowling at his back, she decided to concentrate on something that didn’t make her want to go clawed. “How did you get me out?”

“Teleportation.”

Utter silence in her mind, the cold emptiness of angry fear.

If he could teleport, that meant he was a telekinetic. A very strong Tk. Like him. The butcher. “When were you going to tell me?” Her heart felt like a block of ice.

“Never,” he answered in a clipped tone. “You’re not rational about Tk-Psy and your prejudice bleeds onto others.”

She didn’t quite understand what he was getting at, but she knew it wasn’t complimentary. “This is between you and me, no one else.”

He stopped and faced her, perfect Psy beauty and ruthless control. “No, Brenna. It’s about you, your family, the entire den. You start hissing at me and they’ll follow.”

“Since when do you care what anyone thinks?”

“Since I realized that Marlee is beginning to exhibit signs of having at least some Tk in her skill set. It didn’t show up in her initial tests but that occasionally happens with children who are very strong in another ability. But now it’s rising to the surface.”

Anger flashed to guilt, then back again. “She’s a baby. No one in the den would go after a pup!” Her face burned at the idea, but at the same time, something else was trying to rise, information she couldn’t quite grasp. All she knew was that it had something to do with the connection between Judd and Santano Enrique.

He folded his arms. “She’s not going to stay a baby. If you poison the den against telekinetics, where’s that going to leave her when she grows up?”

Her claws threatened to release and the rage washed away that ethereal piece of knowledge floating in her brain. “That’s what you think of me? Well, fuck you!” Spinning away, she sprinted the rest of the way to the cabin fueled by red fury. It didn’t improve her mood to realize that Judd kept pace. He was Psy—he shouldn’t have been able to keep pace. But damn if she was going to ask him what he was doing to make himself changeling-fast. “The bottom-feeders are gone.” Fragments of wood and glass lay scattered on the snow, the air thick with the astringent scent of explosive chemicals. But curiously, the cabin wasn’t too badly damaged—the blast had only taken out one discrete section.

Going down on his haunches, Judd held out a hand. “Do you have a handkerchief?”

“Do I look like I have a handkerchief?”

“Any clean cloth will do.”

“Wait.” Skirting the debris, she went to a window.

“Don’t enter,” Judd warned. “We haven’t checked it for explosives.”

She gave him an evil look and, pushing up the window from the outside—after ensuring that it wasn’t rigged to blow—reached in to pull open a drawer. The small kitchen towel was in her hand a second later. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Using the soft cloth, he picked up something she couldn’t see.

“What is it?” she snapped more than said.

“A trigger. Unfortunately very generic.”

“Maybe the techs can get something off it.” SnowDancers made it their business to keep on top of new technology so they could beat the Psy at their own game. She used to help with the technical stuff…before.

“Oh,” Judd murmured, “I think there’s no maybe about it.” He rose, the trigger in hand.

“You think it was planted?” She caught the scent of Pack in the wind. “Packmates incoming—they must’ve been in the area, to get here so fast.”

“I sent Hawke a message this morning stating I’d detected signs of unauthorized access and suggesting it might be wise to inspect the border sections adjoining my watch.”

Wolves began pouring out of the forest. She recognized Riley and Andrew. Shit.

CHAPTER 16

Brenna averted her eyes as her brothers shifted, having no desire to see them in the raw.

“I’m going to kill you” were the first words out of Andrew’s mouth. “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my sister?”

“Later.” Hawke’s authoritative voice.