Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

hands under her shirt.
    Sensation skittered along her nerve endings. “It’s gone.” The NetMind came and went throughout the day, touching her mind as a child would touch its mother’s, looking for reassurance that she was still there. It would be back. And it would teach her more about itself, learn more about her and their world.
    “Good. I don’t like an audience.” His hands came up to close over her unfettered breasts. “You’re mine to see, to touch, to pleasure.” His fingers squeezed her nipples.
    She knew she should protest his possessiveness, but the thing was, she liked her jaguar like this in bed. She liked being his. Liked belonging to a male who’d never let her go, never give her up, Council be damned.
    Those fingers were driving her mad and when his mouth followed, she fell into insanity. But what sweet insanity it was.
    In the Web of Stars, a hundred rainbow sparks crept into Faith’s mind without her conscious knowledge. These were the sparks born of an empath, the single functioning empath in the world, the only one who’d escaped the torture of Silence. It was the lack of working empaths in the PsyNet that had sentenced the F-Psy to certain madness. Yes, to be born a foreseer was to be born with a higher chance of madness, but before Silence, it had been a tiny percentage of the minority who succumbed, not the majority.
    The Council didn’t understand that in its attempt to purge the E designation from the Net, it had also destroyed the F designation and so many others. Because everything was connected. Everything had a purpose.
    The PsyNet was no longer fully functional.
    But the Web of Stars was. It was different from the PsyNet and always would be. Because this Web had rainbows and sunshine, emotion and heart, predatory hunger and utter loyalty. Now those sparks healed the broken pieces of Faith and she never even knew that she’d been fractured.

Turn the page for a preview of the next paranormal romance by Nalini Singh
    Caressed by Ice
    Coming soon from Berkley Sensation!
    A fist crashed into Judd’s cheekbone. Focused on eliminating his opponent from the field, he barely noticed the impact, his own fist already swinging out. Tai tried to evade the blow at the last second but it was too late—the young wolf’s jaw slammed together with a thick sound that spoke of damage on the inside.
    But he wasn’t down.
    Baring teeth stained red from a cut on his top lip, he rushed at Judd, clearly aiming to use his heavier build as a battering ram to smash his adversary into the hard stone wall. Instead it was Tai who ended up with his back slammed against the stone, his mouth falling open as air whooshed out of his lungs in an uncontrollable blast.
    Judd gripped the other male by the throat. “Killing you would mean nothing to me,” he said, tightening his hold until Tai had to be having trouble breathing. “Would you like to die?” His tone was calm, his breathing modulated. It was a state of being that had nothing to do with feeling, because unlike the changeling across from him, Judd Lauren did not feel.
    Tai’s lips shaped into a curse but all that materialized was an incomprehensible wheezing sound. To a casual observer it would have seemed that Judd had gained the advantage, but he didn’t make the mistake of lowering his guard—so long as Tai hadn’t conceded defeat, he remained dangerous. The other male proved that a second later by slicing upward with hands turned to claws.
    Those sharp talons cut through leather-synth and flesh without effort but Judd didn’t give the boy a chance to cause him any real injury. Pressing down on a very specific pressure point in Tai’s neck, he slammed his erstwhile opponent into unconsciousness. Only when the changeling was completely out did he release his hold. Tai slumped down into a seated position, head hanging over his chest.
    “You’re not supposed to use Psy powers,” a husky female voice said from the doorway.
    He had no need to turn to identify her but did so anyway. Extraordinary eyes in a fine-boned face topped by a choppily cut cap of blonde hair. Those eyes had been normal and that hair hadn’t been short before Brenna had been abducted. By a killer. By a Psy.
    “I don’t need to use my abilities to deal with little boys.”
    Brenna walked to stand beside him, her head just reaching his breastbone. He’d never realized how small she was until he’d seen her after the rescue. Lying in that bed, barely breathing,