Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

but I wasn’t repulsed or horrified. This is who you are. And I love you.”
    The simple declaration brought him figuratively to his knees. Enclosing her in his arms, he let the tension seep out of him. This was who he was. And she loved him. It was all he’d ever wanted.
     
    Faith followed Dorian along the path back to the alpha pair’s lair, glancing over her shoulder to try to catch a last glimpse of Vaughn. But he was already gone, a blur in the forest. Five leopards and one jaguar. So much power. So much fury. For her.
    “I could run with you,” Dorian offered after ten minutes. “I’m latent, but I have the strength of a changeling.”
    “I’m sorry.” Faith made her tone very polite, conscious that Dorian didn’t like her. “I don’t know what latent means in your world.”
    “I can’t shift into leopard form.” Said without any hint of self-pity.
    She looked at him. With his sky-blue eyes and blond hair, he looked more like a college student than the merciless predator he was. “Thank you, but no. I’m not comfortable being that close to anyone but Vaughn.”
    He nodded and they kept going. She thought over his words, wondered if that was why he had such anger in his eyes. But that anger was directed at her and she’d had nothing to do with his latency. After almost half an hour of silence, she decided that the only way to know was to ask. He was family now.
    “Why don’t you like me?”
    He didn’t answer for several long minutes. “I don’t know you, so I have no reason to dislike you as a person.”
    It didn’t take her long. “My ability. That’s it, isn’t it? You think I could’ve prevented something.”
    “Not you. Foreseers as a whole.”
    “You’re right. Maybe we could have.” That they hadn’t, was a tragedy. “But I don’t think foreseers ever saw everything. If they had, then nobody would’ve ever been murdered, no great disaster would’ve ever killed millions.” It was something she’d been thinking over. “So maybe we could’ve prevented whatever it was that happened to you, but maybe we couldn’t.”
    “At least you could’ve tried if you’d been on the outside.”
    “Yes.” That was an irrefutable truth. “Yes.”
    He didn’t say another word for five more minutes. She spent the time thinking over her own statement. It was what she believed, but it was also a guess. She didn’t know what past F-Psy had seen. Those records had been purged from the PsyNet, lost in the mysteries of time.
    The knowing, when it came, was quiet, silent, like the male beside her. Dorian. Broken, shattered Dorian would one day be whole. And in a way not even he could imagine. She saw him clearly in her mind’s eye, a beautiful leopard with dark facial markings and, in this form, eyes more green than blue.
    The knowing drifted away and she wondered whether to share it with him. It hadn’t been a true vision as such, had told her no specifics. But he’d been older. Not old, but at least two or three years older than he was now. What if she told him and then the future changed because of some act of his or another’s? A false hope. She made the hard decision to keep the knowing to herself. Sometimes, Silence was the right choice. It was only when it wasn’t a choice that it turned into a cage.
    “I heard you lost your sister.”
    She’d gotten so used to his quietness that she was surprised into a soft gasp. “Marine. Her name was Marine.”
    “My sister’s name was Kylie.”
    Their eyes met and she understood. He’d try to forgive her for being what she was, if she’d try to never let another sister die. “Yes.”
     
    Vaughn returned to Faith about three hours before dawn. From the coffee on the table and the alert expressions on their faces, he could see that neither she nor Sascha had slept. When he appeared, Faith stood and came to him. Nobody said a word as he took her hand and they exited the lair for the second time that night, leaving Lucas with his mate.
    They covered the distance to the car in silence. It had been cleaned of explosives by Dorian, but Vaughn did another check before opening the passenger door for Faith. The cat continued to monitor the area for threats—he wouldn’t breathe easy until they were back in his personal territory.
    The drive took almost another hour, but neither of them was in any mood for sleep at the end of it. Faith didn’t ask any questions, didn’t demand any answers, just watched as he showered, then