Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Under his feet, the plascrete was smooth and unmarred.
Frowning, he wondered if he was just on edge and did another intensive search. Still nothing. “Let’s head back up,” he said at last, because doing the same ineffectual thing over and over again wouldn’t give him any new intel to explain the nagging sensation in his gut.
Auden, who’d stayed halfway down the stairs, didn’t ask him any questions. He didn’t know if that was because she had no questions, or if she was holding her tongue in case of spyware.
What a nightmare of a place to live, where she couldn’t even speak in freedom.
Claws pricking at his skin and those hairs on his nape yet prickling, he stopped close to the top of the stairs and scanned the area one final time. The shadows fell differently when looked at from that position, and his eyesight wasn’t that of a human or a Psy.
His hand tightened on the banister.
“Is everything satisfactory?” Auden’s voice grated on his nerves—because that wasn’t her voice, not the voice of the Auden he knew.
Her scent, he told himself, focus on her scent. The metal was the finest of threads, Auden using it to bolster her mask to anyone who might be listening. Hundred percent chance the place was bugged, especially given what he’d just discovered.
“Yes,” he said, tone calm and professional. “I’d also like to walk outside, check for possible ingress and egress points.”
“If you don’t need me, I’d like to do a walk-through the house in leopard form,” Rina said.
Remi smiled, and knew it held teeth. “Excellent idea.” Let this Psy house feel fear at the presence of a predator unlike any they’d ever before seen up close and personal. “We’ll meet up afterward.” He had no need to tell Rina to take care; the sentinel knew about threats unique to Psy opponents, and she was no green soldier.
“Sir,” Rina said, and turned to head upstairs to get out of her clothes before she shifted.
Neither he nor Auden said a word until they were outside and far enough from the house that they had no chance of being overheard.
Auden exhaled. “What is it? What did you see?”
His hackles flattened at once. Because this was her. His Auden. Even the thread of metal was gone. “You do one hell of a good cold face,” he said.
“I always had trouble before.” A painful tightness to her jaw, she turned and stared down the trees that lined the drive like stiff-backed soldiers. “There’s a risk of the bleedover becoming a permanent part of my psyche.”
Remi’s claws threatened to shove out of his fingertips, but he forced himself to look at the facts with hard-eyed clarity. “How much do you love Liberty?”
“I’d burn down the world for her.” No hesitation, no avoidance.
Man and leopard both settled. “If the bleedover elements make you tougher to defeat, more dangerous to this family? Use them.”
“You’re not afraid it’ll change me on a fundamental level?”
“No,” he said. “You might gain new aspects, but as far as I can tell, my Auden is still standing—not only that, she’s in control. You’re taking pieces from the second Auden, not the other way around.”
Silence for a long minute. “I never thought about it that way. She’s colder, harder, more dangerous—I can sense that through the bleedover, like the blurry outline of a person I’ll never see. I also sense evil…it’s a malevolent taste in the back of my throat, a hovering darkness.”
She folded her arms. “But I’m not evil. And I am in control. I haven’t had any blank spots in my memory since before Liberty’s birth.”
He wanted to kiss her fierce, beautiful mouth.
A nod from her, as if she’d come to a decision. “What did you find in the basement?”
“It’s the floor,” he said, adding another fantasy to his collection of what he planned to do with Auden—this one involved her lush mouth and a kiss while she was riding him. “Beautifully constructed, but they couldn’t quite get rid of a very slight shadow along the lines of what I’m sure is an access hatch.”
He looked back toward the house. “If there’s a cavity below the basement, it has no obvious external access unless we’re talking tunnels.”
“Or teleport-capable Tks,” Auden pointed out, a vein at her temple pulsing. “We have one bonded into the family—literally contracted for life on a high income, with the unspoken caveat that any disloyalty will mean death.”
“How powerful?” Remi asked.
“Gradient 5.7,” Auden said. “My parents had access to stronger ones, of course, due to their positions, but even they couldn’t get away with bonding anyone stronger. The teleporters just wouldn’t do it—they know their value. And neither the Jackson nor Scott line is known for Tks, so there’s no internal supply.”
“So most access is probably through the hatch, with teleports only used when absolutely necessary. You wouldn’t want to burn out a Tk with such basic work when there was another way to get to the same spot.”