“Agreed.”
I turned to follow Jason. Robert and Declan headed in the opposite direction to do whatever it was they’d returned to the Compound for. Jason flashed me an arrogant smile and I had a feeling my already shitty day was about to get a whole lot worse.
An hour and a half later, my muscles screamed in protest and my head throbbed with a deep mental ache. Jason had given me no quarter. If anything, he’d taken advantage of my distracted mind to mentally pummel me even harder. I’d complain, but I could already sense that my grasp on my telekinesis was stronger.
Not that I’d admit it out loud.
“You’re improving.”
I nodded, hiding my smile. Praise from Jason was rare.
“But you still have a long way to go.” And there was that backhanded compliment I’d been expecting.
He tossed me a bottle of water, which I gratefully accepted.
“How’s Inarus holding up?”
I shrugged my shoulders and took a drink. “Fine, I guess.”
Jason scowled at me from his seated position on the practice mats. “You guess?”
I worried my lower lip. “He’s awake. The healers see to his needs and Dia is with him. So yeah, I guess he’s doing fine.”
Jason’s scowl deepened. “I thought you two were friends. Your relationship is one of the reasons we took a chance approaching you in the first place.” Approached was too tame a word. Jason and another pysker—Emerson Suede—had hired a couple of thugs to bring me to them.
Supposedly, they’d already tried the more appropriate forms of communication like phone calls and drop-ins at my office to no avail. In the end, they’d decided kidnapping was worth the risk.
I couldn’t say it hadn’t been effective. I’d gotten the message and here we were.
Jason worked for the H.A.C.
Under normal circumstances that would make him my enemy, but Jason wanted out. The problem was that there were fifty-two psykers under the H.A.C.’s thumb and Jason refused to leave a single one behind unless he had no other alternative.
One well-trained psyker was a powerhouse. Fifty-two was an army. My mother and the H.A.C. had been recruiting psykers for the past five years with a good amount of success. But their prejudice was getting the better of them.
They’d started experimenting on their own in an attempt to take out the part that made psykers what we were—our abilities—and make us strictly human.
I had a feeling I was the reason for the recent experiments. Regardless, several had died. Jason and Emerson knew what was going on, but a lot of the psykers within the Human Alliance Corporation either didn’t know or refused to believe what their fellow peers were telling them.
Jason needed time to sway his people and when he managed that, he then needed the Pack to offer them a safe haven.
“We are. Things are just … complicated.” Much like everything else in my life these days.
Jason leaned back on his hands and waited.
I sighed and then let the word vomit pour out of me. “He was in a coma.”
He nodded. Inarus’s condition after our most recent confrontation with the H.A.C. wasn’t a secret. It was also one of many reasons we hadn’t responded to my mother’s most recent attack and why we hadn’t tried pulling Jason’s people out of the clutches of the H.A.C. yet.
“His mind was awake but his body couldn’t bring him to consciousness. I had to communicate with him on the mental plane and anchor myself to him to bring him out of it.”
Understanding dawned on Jason’s face. “You’re experiencing his memories and emotions where you’re concerned.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded my head anyway. “I imagine that makes things awkward, to say the least. It’s no secret he has feelings for you.”
“We’re friends.” I countered.
He snorted. “He loves you. I know it. He knows it. I’m sure Declan knows it too.”
It was that last bit that bothered me. I didn’t want Declan to feel threatened by Inarus. We were in a good place. I didn’t want to jeopardize that, but I didn’t know how to find a balance between the loyalties I had to my mate and the loyalties I had to my friend.
“I’m sure he does too.” The words were little more than a whisper and the bond connecting me to Declan clenched as though he’d heard my spoken words.
“So, what are you planning to do?”
I shrugged. If I knew the answer to that question, I wouldn’t be avoiding Inarus the way I had been.
“Whatever it is, I suggest you figure it out soon. We have too much going on to contend with your personal problems. Avoidance isn’t the answer and a distracted mind will find you hurt or worse, dead.”
I agreed. That didn’t make what I needed to do next any easier.
Climbing to my feet, I tossed my half-empty water bottle to Jason. “Thanks for the workout. I’m sure I’ll see you around soon.”
He inclined his head. “Next time, put up more of a challenge.”
I snorted. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
Jason teleported from the room. Something I’d only ever accomplished once and while under duress. It was definitely one of the telekinetic abilities I looked forward to taking advantage of in the future.
11
I strode into Inarus’ room with a confidence I didn’t feel. He stood by the lone window in the room, a somber expression on his face. My boots thudded across the stone floor as I walked further into the room. Inarus turned around and his blue-grey eyes widened in surprise for a fraction of a second before he schooled his features into a mask of indifference.
“Hey.”
