Visions of Heat

CHAPTER 27

"It seems that Henry's assertion is incorrect," Kaleb stated. "They could conceivably take out a squadron."

"Faith NightStar isn't worth the loss of so many highly trained men, especially as she's agreed to provide her services through her family group." Ming's glacial mental voice again. "These men are worth millions, both in terms of their training and the work they do for us. Added to the income we'll lose if the businesses implement their tax strike, it's an easy equation."

"We can't allow the changelings to keep getting the better of us." Shoshanna clearly had no intention of conceding defeat. "How does it look if we lose two Psy within months and the most recent was a candidate? The populace is starting to talk."

Kaleb cut into the small pause. "We say she ran when it became clear I had no intention of leaving a rival alive."

"Perfect," Nikita agreed. "F-Psy are known to be mentally weak. A few well-placed rumors will shred her credibility."

"We need to know how the leopards are keeping the two women alive," Tatiana said. "I've heard of no unexplained changeling deaths since Sascha's defection and if she were feeding off them, there would've been at least two by now."

Nikita conceded the other Councilor had a point. "They must have discovered a way to skirt the biofeedback issue."

"I don't think it's that big a problem." Marshall's razor-blade mind. "If they had a foolproof method, we'd have lost more than two."

"I'll put some of our people on it nonetheless," Tatiana said in response. "If we break the connection keeping Sascha and Faith alive, we wipe the issue off the slate."

No one was in opposition.

"Then it's agreed, we don't move on Faith NightStar," Kaleb stated with Tk arrogance, turning against the very Councilor who'd supported his initial nomination. "Any member who moves unilaterally will face eviction from their post."

"You have no right to make that call." Shoshanna's psychic presence was icy with control.

"But we do as a unit. You and Henry appear to be the only ones who disagree; therefore you're in the minority." Marshall, the voice of experience, a Councilor who'd survived many others.

"He's correct." Tatiana. "Faith NightStar cannot be touched."

"I agree." Nikita added her vote.

"Then we have no choice. We concede to the majority." Shoshanna spoke for both Scotts and if there was something a fraction eerie in the way she and her husband moved as one to leave the Council chambers, the Councilors were not close enough to their instinctive core to understand.

"We need to increase security for Councilor Duncan," Kaleb said to the remaining minds.

"There is no need." Nikita had no desire to be seen as weak by any member of this Council. Especially not the newest recruit.

"Then this session is closed."

Several weeks and a hundred new experiences later, Faith found herself sitting in on a meeting at the aerie. As a member of the Web of Stars and Vaughn's mate, she'd gained entrance into a very tightly knit group.

"So, what's next? Nate, you had something." Lucas looked to the oldest sentinel.

"I've got a couple of contenders to take over from me when I step down."

"Which isn't going to be for a while." It was an order from the alpha.

Nate grinned. "Don't worry, I'm not in any hurry. I have a few more years left in me."

"More than a few, darling." Tamsyn blew him a kiss from the cushion beside him.

"But I wanted to put the names forward and see what you thought. The first is Jamie. He's one of the best soldiers we've got and he's proven himself." Nate paused and when no one spoke, he continued, "Then there's Desiree. Girl's got a mind like a razor blade and a tongue as sharp, but she's good and she's loyal."

Something flickered in Faith's consciousness, a quiet limb stretching awake. Curious, she followed it. And when it showed her pain and death, she didn't flinch.

"Any other possibles?" Lucas asked.

"We've got a few who've got some growing to do," Tamsyn muttered. "I swear the juveniles are giving me gray hairs."

"How's Jase?" Dorian asked, and his voice was a distorted rumble in Faith's mind.

"Healed. Until the next..." Tamsyn's voice faded.

Faith gripped her cup tighter, attempting to understand what it was that she was seeing. There was pain, things breaking, such terrible loss, but it wasn't yet set in stone, it wasn't yet done. It was a foretelling and it had nothing to do with business. "Seven children are going to die."

Vaughn went motionless as those words left his mate's mouth. He brushed back her hair so he could see her face—eyes closed, lines of concentration carving sharp grooves in creamy skin. "Faith?"

"Seven children. Not cats. Wolves. Seven wolf children." She was in his arms, but her gift had taken her somewhere, somewhen else. "A part of a tunnel is going to collapse. Tonight. Or early tomorrow morning."

Everyone was listening. Sascha had already passed Lucas his phone. Vaughn stroked Faith's back, relieved at the pulse of love that came down the mating bond. She was traveling to places he couldn't go, but she knew how to come home. "Where, baby? Which part of the tunnels?"

Her eyes scrunched as if she were squinting to make something out. "There's a painting on the stone of a wolf pup sleeping under a tree. Oh, there's another one creeping up on it through the bushes and a third on the branches."

"Jesus," Clay whispered. "It's the nursery where the littlest ones are."

Vaughn, too, remembered the nursery. When DarkRiver had first infiltrated the SnowDancer den to leave their message, "Don't hurt us and we won't hurt you," they'd made sure to place their scent near the nursery, to show that they'd been close to the wolves' most vulnerable and done no harm. There was no greater indication of friendly intent.

Vaughn watched Lucas punch in the SnowDancer alpha's code. The conversation was short, but Hawke apparently took the warning seriously. Lucas was hanging up when Faith shook her head and blinked awake.

"You okay, Red?"

"Yes. I'm fine." She pushed her hand up under his T-shirt to lie against his skin. The jaguar was delighted to be her anchor.

Leaning down, he kissed her, bringing her completely home. "No cascade?"

"No. The new shields are working." Her face grew pensive. "Why the wolves? I don't know them."

"We're bonded to the SnowDancers," Vaughn said, realizing he hadn't explained that aspect of the pack to her. "The blood pact was physically completed soon after Sascha joined us, though we were business allies long before that."

"Oh. I—"

Lucas's phone beeped.

The alpha checked the readout and flipped it open. "Hawke?" A pause. "Pups safe?"

Vaughn could hear the other end of the conversation, but waited until Lucas had hung up to tell Faith. "Hawke said they found a huge crack in one of the walls supporting that area, hidden behind some wall hangings. They're shoring it up as we speak." He nuzzled her neck. "He also said thank you for the warning."

"What about the last part?" Lucas raised an eyebrow.

Vaughn growled. "That wolf likes living dangerously."

"What did he say?" Faith asked, intrigued by the smile on Sascha's face. The other Psy looked like she already knew what Hawke might've said.

"Nothing." Vaughn bit lightly at the shell of her ear, the gesture so possessive that she could feel color attempting to fill her skin. It was at times like this that Psy training came in very useful.

"Tell me." She scratched her nails on the skin of his chest. "What did he say?"

"The damn wolf asked if our F-Psy was pretty. And bloody Lucas said yes." He sounded less human with every word. "So Hawke said he'd kiss your pretty mouth in thanks the next time he saw you."

Everyone except Vaughn was grinning. Even Clay had a small smile on his face. After her initial wariness and in spite of the knowing she'd had about him, Faith had discovered she liked the intense sentinel. She'd invited him to dinner a week ago and, much to Vaughn's surprise, he'd come. And he'd touched her. A slight brush of knuckles against her cheek, it had told her she was accepted. Was Pack.

"Well, he can't," Faith said, not hesitant in front of these cats who lived and loved with wild fury. "Because I only want to be kissed by you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I think I like the wolf if he makes you say things like that."

Laughing, she let him kiss her, allowing it because Vaughn needed her to allow it. He was more openly possessive and dominant than the other males she'd seen with their mates. But that was fine with her. She could bear being thought of as utterly his.

"I used to worry that the dark side of my ability was evil, a materialization of the twinning of the Net," she said to Vaughn as they sat outside near their home. Stars peeked through the thick canopy and the denizens of the forest went about their business, safe in the knowledge that the resident predator was otherwise occupied. "But now I know that though what it shows me can be either good or bad, it in itself isn't evil."

Vaughn, sitting behind her with his arms and legs cradling her, rested his chin on her hair but didn't interrupt. Her cat knew how to listen. It was getting him to talk that was sometimes a problem.

"I haven't come to terms with it completely, but I'm starting to understand what it is I was meant to see, what anyone with my ability is meant to see."

"Your gift, Faith. It's a precious gift."

"Yes." She smiled, liking the word. "What I feel like right now—I'd compare it to waking from a dream and seeing the real world. It's a beautiful place, but it also has darkness. If you try to eradicate that darkness, you also destroy the light." Pain for the future of her people tightened her heart.

"There's hope. Your NetMind is fighting back."

She had to believe that. "And others, too, are starting to wake from the dream." A dream of Silence. "It might take years for the ripples to chase across the Net, but they're there now." Putting her hand on his bare arms, she anchored herself in touch, the very thing that had once threatened to shatter her. "I'm so glad I found you."

His chuckle was a rumble that vibrated in her bones. "Sorry, Red. But I found you first."

"No, you didn't." She scowled—he liked getting his own way far too much. "I walked out into the forest."

"Yeah, but I was waiting for you to walk out." He nuzzled the side of her neck. "I was drawn to your place like an addiction. If you hadn't walked out when you had, I would've come looking."

Her eyes went wide. "Some things can't be changed." It was a thought that might've scared her once.

"What?"

"The future isn't always mutable." And what did that mean? "I've never before considered that. The ramifications are enormous. What is, what isn't changeable—who chooses? What sets some things in stone and others in clay?" Excitement whispered through her. Finally she was in charge of her gift, able to chase things that fired up her imagination.

"Some things are meant to be." Vaughn bit her neck, forcefully bringing her attention back to him. "You were never going to be anyone's but mine."

"You're very possessive." She tilted her head to meet his gaze. "So am I."

The jaguar in his eyes was pleased. "I like your claws."

She stretched to brush her lips over his unshaven jaw. "Do you think you can teach me to purr?"

"Baby, you purr every time I stroke you into orgasm."

Lightning swept over her and everything seemed to become sharper, more in focus. She pushed away and rearranged her body until she straddled him. Face-to-face. It was fast becoming her favorite position, though she did have to bargain with Vaughn for it—her changeling's preferred mode of sex was far more raw. Her flesh heated at the memory of his driving thrusts as she put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in to kiss him. But the expression on his face made her pause. "What?"

"I love watching the lightning in your eyes."

She smiled. It seemed right that her eyes now reflected her mind.

???

"Is it talking to you again?" Vaughn asked, having learned to read the shift in their bond that signaled a visit.

She nodded. "It's curious about you."

"What does it want to know?"

"Everything. It's thirsty for life, for hope, for sunshine." She spread her fingers over his skin. "Like me. Make me purr, Vaughn."

"Inside or outside?"

Her eyes went wide and she looked up at the night sky, a blanket of beauty and darkness, light and shadow, black and white, as it should be. "Here."

"What about your curious friend?" He slid his hands under her shirt.

Sensation skittered along her nerve endings. "It's gone." The NetMind came and went throughout the day, touching her mind as a child would touch its mother's, looking for reassurance that she was still there. It would be back. And it would teach her more about itself, learn more about her and their world.

"Good. I don't like an audience." His hands came up to close over her unfettered breasts. "You're mine to see, to touch, to pleasure." His fingers squeezed her nipples.

She knew she should protest his possessiveness, but the thing was, she liked her jaguar like this in bed. She liked being his. Liked belonging to a male who'd never let her go, never give her up, Council be damned.

Those fingers were driving her mad and when his mouth followed, she fell into insanity. But what sweet insanity it was.

In the Web of Stars, a hundred rainbow sparks crept into Faith's mind without her conscious knowledge. These were the sparks born of an empath, the single functioning empath in the world, the only one who'd escaped the torture of Silence. It was the lack of working empaths in the PsyNet that had sentenced the F-Psy to certain madness. Yes, to be born a foreseer was to be born with a higher chance of madness, but before Silence, it had been a tiny percentage of the minority who succumbed, not the majority.

The Council didn't understand that in its attempt to purge the E designation from the Net, it had also destroyed the F designation and so many others. Because everything was connected. Everything had a purpose.

The PsyNet was no longer fully functional.

But the Web of Stars was. It was different from the PsyNet and always would be. Because this Web had rainbows and sunshine, emotion and heart, predatory hunger and utter loyalty. Now those sparks healed the broken pieces of Faith and she never even knew that she'd been fractured.