"That incident"-Vasic's voice slicing through the nightmare of memory-"resulted from a catastrophic and sudden breach of your conditioning. The built-up pressure smashed it to pieces."

That's exactly what it had felt like, a violent explosion in her head.

"Most Es tend to awaken more slowly," he continued. "Small fractures that leach off tension rather than a catastrophic collapse."

Most . . .

"How many?" she asked, her voice hoa.r.s.e.

"Unknown, but E is a significant grouping." His gaze scanned her face with clinical precision. "You're in shock. Sit." When she did nothing, he went as if to touch her . . . and Rabbit lunged at him.

"No!" she screamed.

Rabbit never reached his target, was left swimming frantically in the air. Reaching down, she gathered her pet into her arms and sat down at the foot of the nearest tree, uncaring of the cold, the datapad forgotten on the ground. "I thought you were going to hurt him," she said to the Arrow, the telekinetic Arrow.

Vasic didn't defend himself. As an eight-year-old, he'd resisted using his abilities on living creatures, but an eight-year-old boy can't withstand torture of the kind used to burn all humanity out of Arrow trainees. He knew he held within himself the capacity to snap the neck or crush the spine of the small creature who was so attached to his mistress. That he'd never done such an act of his own free will meant nothing. Death was death. "Do you wish me to continue?"

Ivy looked at him, her jet-black pupils hugely dilated against the clear copper of her eyes. "Yes."

"In all probability, your already damaged pathways were further damaged during the reconditioning process." Needing to be aware of what he faced, Vasic had watched the recording Aden had referenced, witnessed the brutality with which her mind had been yanked back into line.

It was a miracle she'd survived without severe brain damage. The psychic trauma had been vicious regardless. That she was functional and whole and strong enough to stand firm against an Arrow was a testament to what must be an iron will.

"However," he added, "it's clear that your Silence has fractured again." No one who was Silent would have the capacity to care for a pet, or to look at Vasic with fear a staccato pulse in her throat. "The buildup is happening again inside you."

Ivy set her pet down on the snow, murmuring at the dog to hush when it began to growl at Vasic once more. "You're saying I could be in the same situation I was at sixteen?"

"Yes." He crouched down beside her, having realized she couldn't comfortably look at him if he remained standing. "The technician in charge of your reconditioning was incompetent." A point Vasic had already made to him in person-and a point the male would never, ever forget. "He simply smashed everything back down inside your mind and slammed a lock over it. That lock is apt to rupture soon, given the amateurish nature of it."

He saw he'd come too close to the truth when she avoided his eyes, her jawline delicate in his vision . . . easily breakable. "You risk nothing by telling me," he pointed out, "I'm already aware of both your problematic Silence and the nature of your ability."

Expression pensive, she rubbed a gloved hand over her face before nodding. "The nosebleeds have begun again, and yesterday, while I was getting supplies from the township, it was as if I was drowning under a wave of happiness and anger and excitement and curiosity and other emotions I couldn't separate out." Her fingers shook as she stroked her pet. "It only lasted a second or two, but it was enough."

Vasic held her gaze, noting that the rim of gold around her irises was more vivid than in the image he had of her. "You may learn how to manage your E abilities during the course of this contract. However, should you decide to turn down the proposal and continue to remain shielded against your abilities, I know a medic who can remove the broken shards of the malfunctioning lock and replace it with a far more subtle, complex construction."

She stared at him, this woman whose presence caused him physical pain the same way Sascha Duncan's had. But he wasn't going to ask for another a.s.signment if Ivy agreed to Krychek's proposal. Seeing her, speaking to her, had made him understand that aside from children, the empaths were the closest thing the Net had to innocents.

He'd spotted Ivy's weapon, noted her distaste in holding it, seen her get rid of it. Her features were so expressive it was as if she'd spoken aloud-he'd known she'd made the decision to use herself as a distraction in an effort to protect the others who lived here. Perhaps he was wrong, perhaps her face wasn't as devoid of deceit as it appeared, but he couldn't take the risk that he was right, that she was that vulnerable. Because he didn't trust Krychek to keep his word when it came to the safety of the empaths; the other man's priority was the Net as a whole, not the individuals within it.

Ivy and the others needed the protection he could provide. Unlike her, he'd have no compunction in using lethal force if someone meant her-or any other E-harm. Keeping them safe wouldn't earn him absolution, but perhaps it would give him peace for a splinter of time. "Whatever your choice," he told her, "it will be respected. I give you my word." His honor was close to worthless, but he'd never broken any of the rare promises he'd made.

a a a IVY stroked Rabbit's coat when he nudged at her hand with a worried nose. She felt as if her life had skewed sideways in the minutes since she'd first heard him bark. So many years she'd lived believing there was something fundamentally wrong with her. Now, this Arrow with his cold eyes and icy calm was telling her she had never been flawed.

Except she was terrified it was far too late. "I lost something in that reconditioning room"-perhaps the very thing for which he'd come to her-"and I don't think I can get it back. I broke."

"Do you wish to give up, then? Admit defeat?"

Anger uncurled inside her at that flat statement, though she knew his words hadn't been a judgment but a simple question. That anger was a raw, wild thing that had been growing and growing inside her since the day she'd become herself again. Vasic had inadvertently made himself a target.

Pushing up onto her knees, the snow a chilling dampness through her jeans, she fought to keep her shields from fracturing under the weight of her emotions. Kaleb Krychek might have declared the fall of Silence, but neither Ivy nor the others in the settlement were planning to expose themselves until they were dead certain the new regime would hold, that it wasn't just a trick to bring the fractured out of hiding.

"What do you know of emptiness?" she asked him, her body vibrating with the fury inside her. "What do you know of having your mind violated as if a steel brush is being sc.r.a.ped over your every nerve ending, every sense?"

He took so long to answer that the world was beyond silent when he said, "I am an Arrow. I was placed in training at four years of age. I know everything about having my mind torn open."

Four years old.

Anger shattering as if it had been hit with an anvil, the wreckage tearing holes through her, she rubbed a fisted hand over her heart. "I'm sorry."

"Why? You caused me no harm."

She saw from his expression that he meant that, as if the hurt of that small, vulnerable child was nothing. "Do you truly feel nothing?" she whispered. "Are you without fractures?"

"It's better this way." His eyes kissed her with frost. "The day I feel is the day I die."

Chapter 4.

I'd like to propose a cooperative venture.

Kaleb Krychek, in a conference call to DarkRiver alpha Lucas Hunter and SnowDancer alpha Hawke Snow ACROSS FROM SASCHA, Hawke shook his head, the silver-gold of his hair bright in the noon sunlight slanting through the skylight. "I'll say this for Krychek," the SnowDancer alpha muttered, "he has the b.a.l.l.s of an elephant."

Splurting coffee, Mercy coughed, eyes watering. "An elephant?" She stared at the SnowDancer alpha as her mate, Riley, rubbed her back. "Are you serious?"

Hawke shrugged. "What has bigger ones?"

"Man has a point," Lucas drawled from beside Sascha, the six of them seated around Mercy and Riley's dining table, the land beyond the windows a sprawl of tall green firs draped with snow that turned it into a winter postcard.

The snowfall was nothing like the heavy coating up in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada range, while farther down, there was no precipitation at all, the air cold but dry.

"Whatever the size of Krychek's b.a.l.l.s," Mercy said after catching her breath, "this is one h.e.l.l of a request."

Lucas ran his fingers absently over Sascha's nape as he looked toward the male who sat on Riley's other side. When Sascha had first met Judd Lauren, she couldn't have imagined that the distant and self-contained former Arrow would end up a SnowDancer lieutenant mated to another member of the wolf pack. And never in a million years would she have predicted that he'd become a favorite with the pups and cubs both.

"The information Krychek sent us," Lucas said to Judd now, "about the infection in the Net, were you able to corroborate it independently?"

Judd nodded, the fine dark gray wool of his pullover sitting easily on his shoulders. "Kaleb's been up-front."

"Too up-front." Sascha wanted to believe love had altered Kaleb Krychek for the better, that he'd found the same joy with Sahara that Sascha had with Lucas, but the fact of the matter was, he continued to be a deadly threat. There was a reason he'd become the youngest ever individual to hold a seat on the Council, a reason why his name caused men and women across the world to tremble in naked terror.

Biting down on her lower lip as her mate continued to stroke her nape with the tactile affection that was so natural to the cats, she said, "He has my unqualified grat.i.tude for putting his own life at risk to save countless people in San Francisco a month ago"-when the cardinal telekinetic had helped disarm a toxic weapon-"but I think it would be foolish to think we can predict anything when it comes to him." The other man remained as opaque as ever, an enigmatic figure who held near-total control of the PsyNet.

No one, Sascha thought, should have that much power, hold that many lives in the palm of his hand. Yet, if not Kaleb Krychek, then who? His staggering psychic and military strength was the only reason the Psy race hadn't collapsed into anarchy and death in the aftermath of the fall of Silence. It was as unavoidable a truth as the fact he'd risen to power with ruthless, blood-soaked determination.

Hawke narrowed his eyes. "The news about the infection." He glanced at Judd. "Is it a secret?"

"No. It's not headline news in the Net yet, but the knowledge is gathering steam."

Lucas shook his head. "So, Krychek isn't exactly giving up anything by offering us the data."

"And," Riley said in his quiet, direct way, "it's not as if we didn't already know about the existence of empaths."

Everyone looked at Sascha.

Hands cupped around the mug of hot chocolate Mercy had offered her in lieu of the aromatic coffee the others were drinking, Sascha leaned a little into Lucas. "I have no hesitation in helping other Es," she said, able to sense Lucas's panther rising to the surface to rub against the insides of his skin . . . against her.

It made her feel safe and protected even before her mate wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tucked her close. "There's nothing I want more than to stretch my psychic muscles with others of my designation," she said, making no attempt to hide the depth of her hunger.

She adored working with Judd's nephew, Toby, but while the young boy was a cardinal telepath who could blow her out of the water when it came to telepathy, the reverse was true when it came to their E abilities. "I want to learn from the others," she said, "even as I teach them what I know." Things she'd figured out through often frustrating trial and error. "But most of all," she whispered, "I want to help those of my designation accept that they're not broken"-her fingers tightened on the mug, her eyes wet-"that they aren't flawed."

Lucas pressed a kiss to her temple. Her strong, loving, protective mate had been with her when she'd understood the truth about herself, understood that she wasn't a defective cardinal as she'd been told all her life, but a woman with a gift meant to help the hurt and the lost.

It was Mercy who said, "Yet something's making you hesitate," the red of her hair vivid against her fitted blue shirt.

"I'm a mother as well as an E." Sascha's heart bloomed with love at the thought of her and Lucas's sweet baby. "And Naya is only one of the children in DarkRiver and SnowDancer." Pups and cubs who were painfully vulnerable. "We can't justify putting them at risk." Even to help men and women who were as bruised and as wounded as Sascha had once been.

The thought made her chest clench in agony, but she couldn't see a way around the threat posed by those coming in with the empaths.

"Kaleb won't harm anyone in either pack."

Lucas stirred at Judd's confident statement. "Exactly how much of an ex-Arrow are you?" he asked, panther-green eyes intent.

"It's been pointed out to me that an Arrow who has never broken faith with the squad continues to be considered an Arrow regardless of his location or belief otherwise." The lieutenant's lips curved up unexpectedly at the corners, the light reaching the deep brown of his eyes, the gold flecks in them bright.

It struck Sascha then that Judd existed on the same continuum as Kaleb. Not as ruthless-she didn't think anyone was as ruthless as Kaleb Krychek-but a man who had walked long and alone in the darkness. The critical difference, of course, was that Judd had always been anch.o.r.ed to the world through his family, while Kaleb had been trained by a psychopath who'd murdered countless women.

"I'm in direct contact with more than one member of the squad." The SnowDancer lieutenant paused, his gaze shifting to Hawke.

At his alpha's slight nod, Judd added, "I'm also in direct touch with Kaleb, have been since long before the San Francisco op."

"I thought we weren't keeping secrets?" Lucas locked eyes with Hawke, alpha to alpha, dominant to dominant, his voice holding the edge of a growl.

Hawke folded his arms as Sascha put down her hot chocolate and patted her mate's chest to get his attention, his dark green T-shirt soft under her palm. Left alone in this kind of an aggressive mood, two changeling alphas would stare at one another until it ended in violence. "No fighting," she said to Lucas when he turned to scowl at her. "You know how cranky Hawke gets when his mate is out to lunch with a certain future leopard alpha."

Lucas's grin was very feline as he relaxed.

"Yeah," Mercy murmured, shoulders shaking, "be kind to the poor wolfie." She squeaked as her own wolf mate did something to her the rest of them couldn't see.

Growling low in his throat, Hawke bared his teeth. "We pa.s.sed on the data," he said, "just not where it came from. Krychek's been Judd's connection for several operations-including the one that netted us Alice Eldridge."

Sascha sucked in a breath at the mention of the human scientist who'd completed what was possibly the most detailed sociological and anthropological study on E-Psy ever done. That research had been meticulously wiped after Silence, with only a rare few copies of Alice's seminal work-The Mysterious E Designation: Empathic Gifts & Shadows-surviving in the world of underground collectors. Alice herself had been put into a cryonic sleep, only to wake mere months ago with her memories in pieces.

"So," Sascha murmured, "Krychek wants easy access not only to me, but to Alice." Even with her problematic memory, the human scientist remained an invaluable resource. Alice's surviving published work might not have focused on how empaths did what they did, but no one knew what knowledge she held in her brain.

"Yes." Judd drank some of his coffee. "But he's aware of the state of her memories, so I think he's far more interested in you. Regardless, he won't harm a single individual in either pack."

Riley stretched his arm along the back of Mercy's chair. "Why do you sound so certain?" he asked, cutting to the heart of the matter as always.

"DarkRiver considers SnowDancer family, and Sahara considers DarkRiver family."

That much was inarguable. Not only had Kaleb's mate sought the protection of the pack for a time after she'd first been rescued from a h.e.l.lish captivity, but she had blood ties to another member of the pack, not to mention her growing friendship with Mercy.

"Kaleb is no different from any of the men in this room," Judd said. "Hurting the packs would hurt his mate, and he'd never consciously do anything to distress her. DarkRiver and SnowDancer are safe. I'd go so far as to say that, in all probability, he'd actively stand with us against an enemy should we ever make the request."

Sascha couldn't imagine Kaleb Krychek, cold and powerful, loving anyone enough to sheathe his psychic claws. "I need to meet him," she said into the somewhat dubious silence that followed Judd's words. "While he's with Sahara." Not only so they could gauge if he could be trusted in pack territory, but to check on Sahara's welfare; seeing the younger woman safe with their own eyes was a far different thing to hearing her say the same on the comm.

Lucas looked at Sascha, the panther prowling to life in his eyes. "Sahara is family," he said, his tone that of the alpha he was. "I don't like the fact I've never seen the two of them together." A grim line to his jaw. "I want to make sure she's still okay with him before we make any kind of a decision."

"Say we accept Krychek's bona fides"-Riley refilled Mercy's mug with milk rather than coffee, to her unimpressed snarl-"that still leaves the others who'll be in our territory if we say yes to his proposal."

"The Es should be no problem." Stretching out in his chair, Hawke grinned as Mercy gulped down the milk as if it was medicine. "Long as Sascha confirms they are Es. Your designation has a problem with violence."

"The pain of the victim rebounds back on us." Though there were more subtle, long-term ways an empath could attack another living being, things that had shocked Sascha the first time she'd read Empathic Gifts & Shadows.

"Don't, however, make the mistake of thinking all Es are trustworthy," Lucas said on the heels of Sascha's thoughts. "Kitten, tell them what it said in Alice's book."

Conscious that a lack of awareness as to the threat posed by Es could be as dangerous as placing blind trust in Kaleb Krychek, Sascha shared the repugnant truth. "In the past, a minority of empaths were known to have consciously manipulated the emotions of others." Her skin crawled at the act that went against everything she stood for as an E. "One E wanted everyone to be *good,' while others did it for money, revenge, power . . ."

Judd's mug hit the wood of the table with a dull sound. "A truly gifted and subtle empath wouldn't need mind control," he said, clearly seeing the weaponized potential of such an ability.

"There'd also be no painful rebound effect"-Hawke's hand curled into a fist on the tabletop-"because the victim wouldn't even know it was happening."

That was the most evil aspect of it; an empath could effectively take away an individual's right to choose. "The good news," Sascha said, fighting her nausea, "is that such manipulation apparently requires prolonged contact with the intended victim and a high level of skill." Newly awakened empaths would be stumbling in the dark in comparison.

Mercy tapped her fingers on the table. "So it's not a danger we have to worry about immediately, but it needs to be part of the briefing given to any member of either DarkRiver or SnowDancer who might come in contact with an E."

No one had any arguments with that suggestion.

"That leaves the guards." Riley angled his head toward Judd. "You have a line on who they're likely to be?"

"Arrows. I'll vouch for them, though I don't think that'll be necessary-Vasic's heading the security team."

Mercy's gaze sharpened. "He's the one who brought in the medic when Dorian was shot," she said, naming a fellow DarkRiver sentinel.

"Yes. He also helped Ashaya"-Dorian's mate-"escape the Net. He's not interested in picking a fight." Tone altering on those last words, Judd said, "He's a man I trust to the bone-if he says this is a straight-up op, then it is."

Hawke and Lucas both nodded, Judd having long ago earned the trust of both alphas.

"Location's going to be critical if we agree to this." Rising, Mercy found a map of the area and spread it out on the table, the slight outward curve of her belly the only sign of her pregnancy. "Anyone have suggestions?"

Hawke used his finger to circle a low-lying section. "This was the site of the hyena attack awhile back. It's on the edges of both our territories, bracketed by DarkRiver on one side, SnowDancer on the other."