Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Because it turned out that she wasn’t done. If all she could have from Adam were kisses stolen in a breath, then she would take every single kiss he’d give her. “I’m not ready to go yet, Adam.”
She took herself back under before the voices could rip her apart.
Chapter 41
…there are millions of humans who…wake up knowing that today might be the day an invisible hand reaches in and rapes their mind.”
—Bowen Knight, security chief of the Human Alliance (circa January 2083)
Adam felt Eleri go limp under him; not wanting to break contact, wanting to just hold on, he nonetheless laid her gently back down on the bed. He’d lifted her off it at some stage without realizing, pressing her body to his own.
Your wings are already under enormous strain.
How extraordinary that she’d seen his attempt to protect as shielding her with his wings. And how devastating to know that she’d been right. Because he’d felt them break, too, felt the clan’s energy pour back into him as either her mind repudiated it, or it reached a critical point where it had nowhere else to go.
A rustle at his back, a nurse walking in. “Her vitals spiked,” she said.
“Eleri was awake for a minute or two,” he said and made sure the blanket he’d brought her from his bed at the den was warm and cozy around her. The falcon sense of smell might not be their greatest asset, but like humans, they could tell when they were wrapped in the scent of a person they loved and were loved by in turn.
“Fully conscious and coherent,” he told the nurse. “But she couldn’t hold on to a shield.”
The nurse’s mouth tightened. “Did she exhibit signs of acute distress?”
His mind flashed back to Eleri’s fingers clenching possessively in his hair, her lips parting with eagerness under his, her leg rising as if she wanted to make space for him between her thighs. “No,” he said. “A hint right at the start before I threw clan energy at her.”
The medical staff here knew that Eleri was blood-bonded to him, that changeling “psychic” ability no longer a secret after they’d blood-bonded so many Psy children into their packs and clans.
“How long was she able to maintain with your assistance?”
“A minute. Ninety seconds at most.” A lifetime.
The nurse made a notation on the chart, and though her manner remained crisp, she had a softness to her eyes as she said, “It’s more than anyone expected.”
Adam barely heard her, his falcon clutching fiercely at the last words Eleri had said: I’m not ready to go yet, Adam.
As far as he was concerned, she’d just torn up her good-bye letter and given him permission to go full throttle on attempting to save her life. Because if she could wake once, then she could wake again. Next time around, they’d talk solutions. Because Adam wasn’t done with kissing his mate.
• • •
Lucas’s call came the next morning, an hour after Adam landed back at the Canyon.
For now, his nights were Eleri’s, his days WindHaven’s.
“I’m sorry, Adam,” the leopard alpha said. “Consensus is that while you might be able to help Eleri maintain a shield for a short period, you can’t project one over her mind, not even if she mates with you. The shield she’s lost is a fundamentally Psy thing, to be created from the inside out.”
“I know.” Adam told the alpha about Eleri’s short waking.
“Shit, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Adam paced the plateau, letting the sunlight fill him with energy. “Your group came up with the right answer, which means they must have other answers. How about an artificial shield?”
“We’ve never attempted to create one for a Psy,” Lucas said, “but Ashaya’s been involved in attempting to build a shield to protect human minds against Psy interference.”
All attempts at artificial shields so far have failed.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Adam said, “I’ve heard those attempts have failed,” and he wanted Lucas to tell him that his intel was wrong, that someone had succeeded.
When Lucas confirmed the bleak truth, he opened his eyes to the beauty of his clan, the sky awash in reds and yellows, three falcons circling lazily against the horizon as the hungry cries of the littlest birds woke their parents.
Eleri would love this.
“My sister’s attempting a shield, too,” he said, determined that he’d stand here with his mate one day soon. “Working in isolation from all other ideas. One of Eleri’s colleagues suggested we leave it that way.”
If Lucas was startled that an aeronautical engineer was leading this task, he didn’t reveal it. “It’s good advice,” he said. “Ashaya’s asking the same of any scientists who come onboard—her take is that if they feed off each other, they risk making the same errors, or risk becoming locked in a singular loop of thought. She’s even scratched her own previous concept and started again from an entirely new angle.”