“It’s late.” She unclenched her fingers, told herself he’d be fine. He would come back to her, he’d promised. He wouldn’t leave her alone again.
“I don’t think you’ll be sleeping. Neither will Sascha.”
“Sascha’s here, too?” Having come straight into the kitchen after Clay dropped her off, she hadn’t seen the other woman. She swallowed her fear, not wanting the cardinal to sense the depth of her scars. She
“Upstairs. Julian woke up and demanded she come cuddle him—I swear the twins can scent her a mile away.” She shook her head. “They have the most enormous crushes on her. I think they’d fight Lucas for her if he wasn’t so much bigger.”
Talin forced her mind to the present. “I can guess why.” The two women might not see it but they were very similar, both of them with the warm hearts of healers. And yet there was a strength in them that promised protection. “Jon and Noor?”
“Noor’s asleep and Jon’s keeping Kit company while he studies.” She pointed upstairs. “Second door on the left.”
Talin shook her head. “I think I’ve used up all my fuss points for the next month.”
Tammy grinned. “He’ll be okay with Kit.”
“You always seem to have people around,” Talin began, eager to know more about Clay’s world. She never wanted to hurt him as Isla had done by not acknowledging his beast, by not accepting that he was different—in a beautiful, unique way. “Do you mind?”
“Lord, no. It makes me content to care for the pack. Part of the healing gift, I suppose.” The other woman pushed a flute of pale gold wine across the counter. “That’s why the pack healer always has a big house. Somehow, their home inevitably becomes the social center of the pack.” She picked up a bag of coffee beans.
“Are you making coffee, too?”
“Faith and Sascha don’t drink wine—Psy have an odd reaction to alcohol.”
Right then, someone knocked on the front door. “I’ll get it,” Talin offered.
When she opened it, it was to find Faith on the other side. “Oh, hi.”
“Hi.” The F-Psy smiled before turning to wave at the seemingly empty space behind her. “Vaughn,” she said in response to Talin’s bemused expression. “He and Mercy are running outside border watch tonight. Nate’s doing the inner region.”
Something clicked in Talin’s brain. “Is that why we’re all here?” She stepped aside to let Faith walk in. Everyone knew that Psy didn’t like to be touched and Faith wasn’t exactly her best friend.
“Yes.” The F-Psy put a large shopping bag on the floor beside the hall closet. “It’s easier for them to cover us this way, since they’re three short.” She hung up her coat and, leaving the bag on the floor, began to head toward the kitchen. Talin fell in beside her. It took incredible force of will not to ask the question she so desperately wanted to ask—had Faith had another vision of Clay’s future? What had she seen?
Faith stopped halfway down the hall and turned. “I owe you an apology.”
“Why?”
“Emotion is still new to me.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her black slacks. “Sometimes I find it hard to handle.”
“Everyone gets that way.” Talin wondered what it was like to grow up without emotion. She couldn’t imagine ever not loving Clay.
Faith’s night-sky eyes seemed to turn darker. “Clay scared me when I first came into DarkRiver, but then he became my friend. So when you—”
“It’s okay,” Talin interrupted. “You were worried I was bad for him, so you went overprotective. The truth is,” she admitted, “now that I’m not blinded by stupid jealousy, I’m glad for the tenderness you tried to give him. That’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Yes, there is.” Faith’s expression was resolute. “Sascha and Tammy were so nice to me when I entered DarkRiver. I should’ve remembered their example and treated you with the same warmth and respect.”
“I figure we’re even.” Talin filled her voice with sincerity—so that Faith didn’t have to guess at nuances of emotion. “I called you all sorts of names in my head.”
Faith gave a small smile. “We’re okay?”
And the words came out. “You tell me.”
“Sometimes,” Faith said, her voice holding a crystal clarity that was almost painful in its beauty, “it’s better not to know what the future brings. If I had known about Vaughn, I might’ve run and missed out on the best thing in my life.”
“I doubt you would’ve gotten very far.” DarkRiver men were nothing if not determined.
“Some things are set in stone.” Faith’s smile grew. “Like you and Clay.”
Talin felt her stomach fill with butterflies. “You sound very certain of that.”
“We, all of us who are mated, we’re learning and growing into our bond, but you and Clay—it’s like the bond’s been there forever, it’s so solid, so true.” The foreseer shook her head and pushed through into the kitchen. “You have the bond of a couple that’s already been together for decades.”
A pungent mix of shock and panic dried out Talin’s mouth. The way Faith was speaking, it was as if she could see the bond—if true, that meant Talin and Clay had truly mated. But that was a question she would ask only Clay. “So,” she said, forcing down her disquiet, “what are we going to do tonight?” She had to do something or she’d go insane.
Tammy shot her a mischievous look. “Well, we know you had to clear out of your apartment in a hurry and that you probably didn’t take much time to pack, so we did some shopping for you.”
“Except,” Faith added with a smile, “Sascha got lost in the lingerie department.”
Tammy laughed. “Don’t worry. We got you at least two non-X-rated pieces. Including this.” She held up a beautiful green sweater, the one she’d begun knitting the night Talin had first traded barbed remarks with Faith. “It was always for you.”
Talin felt off center, lost. “Why?” She didn’t have friends, didn’t know how to give that much of herself to anyone but Clay.
“Because,” Sascha said from behind her, “you’re one of us. And DarkRiver looks after its own.”
Clay figured that if this Larsen bastard planned to hit Talin, he’d start off at either the last spot where she’d been seen or Max’s hospital room. He and Dorian eliminated the latter option by getting Max discharged.
The cop thanked them for it. “I thought I’d never get out,” he said as they helped him to the car. He wasn’t so pleased when they took him to a small and very private changeling hospital, used only by wolves and, now, the cats. “What the fuck?”
“Tally likes you,” Clay told him. “Shut the hell up and get better so she doesn’t worry.”
Max grimaced. “How long am I going to be stuck here?”
“Doc said you’ll be out end of the week if you do what you’re supposed to.”
That made Max happier. “I’ll be a boy scout. Happy hunting.”
Clay didn’t ask how the man knew they were hunting. “Thanks. We’ll give you an update afterward.”
“At least I got one of the fuckers.” Yawning, Max dropped off.
That done, they got into the car and checked in with Lucas, who was keeping an eye on Talin’s apartment.
“No movement,” Lucas told them. “Rina’s come and gone. Did a pretty good impression of Talin. Went in, turned the lights on and off, opened and closed the closets, played the recording you made of Talin muttering, then snuck out the back. Oh, yeah, she took the initiative and faked having a shower, too.”
Clay hoped that that would be enough to draw out the kidnappers—earlier today, while Tally had been busy with Jon and Noor, he’d come in and confirmed that the apartment was being monitored. There were at least ten bugs inside.
He and Dorian arrived at the meeting spot across from the apartment building as the clock was ticking one in the morning. They weren’t the only ones. “You really think this’ll work?” Judd asked from the shadows. “Correct me
