“Tally, you tried to run from me and look where you ended up.” He bit down on her lip again, released it, licked at the sensual hurt. “I’ll always be there if you need me.”
That didn’t answer her question, but before she could say anything, he closed his hand over her breast. “Clay!” It was a half-shocked, half-exhilarated shout.
He held her in place with the arm he had around her waist as he bent to watch his fingers move on her thinly covered flesh. “Take off your top.”
She was having real trouble thinking. “No. Slow down.”
His answer was to press a kiss to the hollow at the bottom of her neck. Then he licked at that spot, shooting arrows of sensation straight through to the need between her thighs. As if that wasn’t enough, he kept massaging her breast with firm, masculine approval. She didn’t need his rough, “Mine,” to understand the possession in his touch.
Her body shuddered under the impact of what he was making her feel, the sensations crashing endlessly in her mind. Driven to the edge, she put her hand over his. “I’m not ready.” Pleasure wasn’t enough, not when he kept a part of himself shut off from her. “I’m sorry.” For the past she’d put between them. For the future she couldn’t promise
He kissed his way up her neck. “Don’t be.” He took her lips again before she could be certain what he was referring to. “I’m only playing. Tamsyn’s on her way over.”
She was too delighted by the boyish mischief in those green eyes to get mad at the way he’d been leading her on. “Kiss me one more time, then.” Make me forget the disease killing me from the inside out. But most of all, make me forget that you don’t trust me anymore.
CHAPTER 26
The first day Ashaya came up from the underground lab and into the light, she was stopped as she exited the elevator hidden within the old farmhouse.
“Ma’am, you don’t have the authorization to be outside.” The security officer wore the standard black uniform of Security but with Ming’s emblem on one shoulder-two snakes locked in combat.
“No,” she agreed. “But, on the other hand, unless I attempt an escape, you have no authority to take any action against my person. I need to think and I do it better outside.”
“Surveillance-”
“-has been blocked from the sky, all but our own satellites nudged in other directions. And there is no one out here to see me.” Just corn, endless rows of spring-green corn. “You can accompany me.”
A military nod. “After you.”
She was under no illusion that she’d won the battle. He was simply buying time while telepathing Ming for further instructions. The expected mental touch came mere seconds after she stepped onto the deceptively decrepit-looking porch.
Councilor, she said.
Ashaya, you’re disobeying a direct order. Ming’s mental voice came through with crystal clarity. Either he was still in the country or his telepathic powers were stronger than she’d previously believed.
You should have known the rules would never hold. She walked down the steps and into the rows of corn, conscious of the guard shadowing her every move. I have a psychological flaw that has never been subject to rehabilitation. Because she was too valuable an asset to chance to the sometimes fatal side effects. However, that shield wouldn’t last forever.
Your tendency toward claustrophobia was taken into account when designing the lab. It’s wide open.
And underground. She had been buried underground once. It had left a permanent mark. The flaw is not debilitating in any sense, she said, knowing she had to be careful, but it does make clear thinking difficult after an extended period of time below.
Then it’s our design that is flawed, he accepted with cool Psy logic. The psych consult was of the opinion that your abilities would remain unaffected by the location given the layout and your mental strength.
The consult was correct-my abilities have not been adversely affected. Conceding weakness would get her killed. It’s more a case of efficiency. All I need is an hour or two upside on a regular basis to maintain peak productivity.
Ming paused as if thinking. There’s no security risk. I’ll allow it.
Thank you. I would also prefer that the guard not follow me. His presence is distracting. I do a considerable amount of my work in my head. That much was true and would be borne out by the records Ming was undoubtedly accessing as they talked.
Another small pause. Agreed. We have the whole area secured.
The most subtle of threats. Excellent.
Be careful, Ashaya. So much hinges on your work.
It was a hidden reference to Keenan. But it wasn’t an emotional threat-nothing so easy as that. Maternal love was for humans and changelings. Other things drove Ashaya. Ming knew that far too well.
But she was outside now. One minute step at a time. She was an M-Psy with the capacity to sequence DNA inside her mind. Patience was her strong suit.
Deep in the PsyNet, the psychic network that connected millions of Psy across the globe, the Ghost came across a piece of information that made little sense-whispers about the kidnapping of human children. Nothing said in the PsyNet ever left it, but the fact that this whisper hadn’t yet fragmented and begun to be absorbed into the fabric of the Net meant it was recent. That knowledge gave him pause.
He was a renegade, determined to oust the Psy Council from power and free his people from a Silence that was false. He had killed in the name of that freedom, would do so many more times before this was all over. But he was still Psy. He felt nothing, not love, not care, not hate. Nothing.
So when he considered this unexpected speck of data, it was with the ice-cold mind of a man reared on logic and reason alone. Touch was something he barely understood, affection nothing he had ever known. In the end, it was the very lack of reason in what he’d found that decided him.
He filed away the discovery, to be passed on to the sole human he trusted. Father Xavier Perez might be a man of God, but he was also a soldier. And for reasons of his own, he was the Ghost’s ally in the fight to stop Ashaya Aleine and the Council from bringing Protocol I into force.
Decision made, the Ghost banished the kidnappings from his mind, his focus on something far bigger, something that had the potential to disrupt the entire PsyNet-the assassination of a Councilor.
CHAPTER 27
Tamsyn put away the last of her instruments and leaned back in the chair beside Talin. Both Clay and Nate-talking quietly out of earshot-moved closer.
“I can’t find anything wrong with you.” Tamsyn thrust a hand through her hair. “The allergy tests are all negative and I have the best damn equipment on the market.”
“You can tell immediately?”
“Yes. Which leaves two possibilities. One, whatever you’re allergic to is so rare as to not be in the computer’s analysis program-”
Talin shook her head, sighing in relief when Clay’s hand landed on her shoulder. It felt so right, so what she needed. “I can’t think of anything-”
“What about a forest organism?” Clay interrupted. “It’s a new environment as far as Tally’s body is concerned.”
Tamsyn was the one who shook her head this time. “It should’ve still come up as an unknown. That’s the problem-I’m picking up nothing.”