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)
“I can’t take you into the heart of my clan.” Adam kept his tone nonaggressive; if this man had acted as family to Eleri, then Adam fucking owed him. Bram Priest had been there for Eleri when she needed someone. “But you can contact Sophia Russo for confirmation that she’s in good hands.”
An unblinking gaze. “If you’ve done anything to harm her, I’ll make sure the consequences are deadly.” No anger, no threatening tone. A simple statement.
Adam liked him the better for it. “You can speak to her the instant she wakes up.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “She locked up the evidence in the trunk. Not sure if it’ll maintain chain of evidence, but no one but Eleri can open that case.”
“Pinpointing the Sandman is what matters.”
The serial killer, Adam understood at once, would never see the inside of a courtroom should the Js involved believe he would slither free. In that, they were very changeling in their thinking.
After the J had retrieved the case, Adam said, “You’re Eleri’s family. Clan.”
The man took time putting away the case. When he did speak, he said, “The J Corps looks after its own.” He met Adam’s gaze again. “I’ll crush your brain from the inside out if she has so much as a bruise on her.”
This man, Adam thought, wasn’t numb like Eleri, but rather the opposite. “Come to dinner once she’s better. Bring the other two.” No flicker in Bram’s expression at Adam’s awareness of there being four of them in the family. “I want to meet her family…and I want her to meet mine.”
Bram’s expression shifted at last, some unknown emotion cracking the glacial cold of his eyes. “You don’t know her.”
“I know all about the reconditionings.” Adam folded his arms. “I also know that Psy have defected out of the PsyNet and survived with changeling clans. Far as I’m aware, no J has attempted it. You know any different?”
For the first time, Bram seemed to actually look at him and see him as anything other than a threat. “No,” he said at last. “To my knowledge, the defectors from the PsyNet haven’t been like us. None were Sensitives.”
“And there were no active empaths until Sascha Duncan dropped out of the Net.” Adam was just getting started on this fight. “Someone has to be the first.”
“I think you truly believe you can fight this,” Bram said, an exhaustion on his face that was so deep, Adam couldn’t understand how he’d hidden it until now. “But the damage they did to us? It’s permanent. Our brains will never return to what they once were.”
The other man shook his head. “But, despite that, I’m glad Eleri has someone who’s willing to fight for her.” He held out his gloved hand. “If you can, give her good days, days devoid of evil.”
Adam shook the other man’s hand. “Oh, I will. But not because I’m about to lose her—because it’s going to be the start of a long and happy life.” Adam had the bit between his teeth, and he wasn’t letting go.
Bram gave him a long look. “I can’t decide if you’re delusional or not. But…I wish you luck, Adam Garrett. I’ll keep Saffron and Yúzé—the other two—from breaking down your door, but you should expect calls to the private line you gave me. We’ll want updates.”
“You’ll have them.”
Adam watched Bram leave in silence, the trees stirring around him as the sound of the vehicle quieted into emptiness. And he knew he would fight for Eleri again and again and again. As he should’ve fought for her after he’d found her. Because he hadn’t, because he’d been so angry at her, she’d been hurt over and over and over again.
The reconditionings? A life surrounded by evil?
His fucking fault.
He had abandoned his mate.
His eyes burned, his hands white-knuckled fists as he threw back his head and screamed.
Chapter 24
Flameout should be avoided unless there are exigent circumstances where your resulting psychic vulnerability will not be more dangerous than the alternate option. The general timeline of recovery runs from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, but may stretch into days in severe instances.
—Part of the mandatory Foundational Psychic Mechanics course taught in the final year of elementary Psy education
Eleri came awake to the sounds of quiet movement and the sense of a fog in her head that felt different from her usual numbness. When she went to scan her surroundings using her telepathic senses, her brain ached as if bruised.
Flameout.
She’d experienced it before, but never to this extent—until she was no longer a being of the Psy. She didn’t even know what it meant for her safety against others of her kind.
It was a good thing she was in a changeling den.
Warm, strong fingers around her own, a rough-skinned hand squeezing hers. “I know you’re awake.”