Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

whom he’d formed a fertilization contract twenty-five years ago. They’d both had a say in her upbringing, though her childhood had been nothing anyone would ever label as such. At three years after birth, she’d been removed from their care, with their full cooperation, and placed in a controlled environment where her ability could be fully trained and utilized.
    And where the encroaching tendrils of madness could be kept at bay.
    “Faith, I have some unfortunate news concerning our family.”
    “Yes?” Her heart was suddenly a sledgehammer. She pushed all her strength toward containing the reaction. Not only was it unusual, it was the harbinger of a potential vision. And she couldn’t have a vision right now. Not the kind of vision she’d been having lately.
    “Your sibling, Marine, is deceased.”
    Her mind went blank. “Marine?” Marine was her younger sister, a sister she’d never really known, but had kept an eye on from afar. A cardinal telepath, Marine had already climbed high in the family’s interests. “How? Was it a physical abnormality?”
    “Fortunately not.”
    Fortunately, because it meant Faith was in no danger. Though having two of the rare cardinals had made NightStar a line of considerable power, it was indisputable that Faith was the biggest NightStar asset. She was the one who brought in enough income and work to place the entire PsyClan above the masses. Only Faith’s health was truly important—Marine’s death was a mere inconvenience. So cold, so brutally cold, Faith thought, though she knew she was as cold. It was a matter of survival. “An accident?”
    “She was murdered.”
    The blank that had been her mind buzzed with white noise, but she refused to listen. “Murder? A human or a changeling?” she asked, because the Psy had no killers, hadn’t had them for a hundred years, ever since the implementation of the Silence Protocol. Silence had wiped violence, hate, rage, anger, jealousy, and envy from the Psy. The side effect had been the loss of all their other emotions.
    “Of course, though we don’t know which. Enforcement is investigating. Get some rest.” He nodded in a sharp physical period.
    “Wait.”
    “Yes?”
    She forced herself to ask. “What was the mode of murder?”
    Anthony didn’t even blink as he said, “Manual strangulation.”

CHAPTER 2
    Vaughn jumped up onto the outer platform of the aerie Sascha shared with Lucas, having passed Mercy on her way down. He wasn’t pleased to see Sascha outside—the platform might be high off the ground, but it was well past midnight and the Psy Council would like nothing better than to see this particular cardinal dead.
    “Hello, Vaughn. Why don’t you shift and keep me company?”
    He let her know what he thought of that idea with a coughing roar unique to his species.
    “Yes, I’m aware that I should be sleeping, but I can’t.” She leaned back in the chair she’d apparently dragged outside. “Mercy played chess with me.” In the darkness, her night-sky eyes were lit with white pinpricks. Her fingers tapped constantly on the wooden arm of the chair.
    Responding with a growl, Vaughn walked into the house. He shifted in the bedroom, then grabbed a pair of jeans and an old black T-shirt from the trunk where all the sentinels kept a change of clothes. When he walked back out, Sascha waved at the empty chair across the small folding table from her. He raised an eyebrow and perched instead on the railing that ringed the platform, hooking his legs around the posts.
    “I’ll never get used to the way you cats do that.” Sascha shook her head and rubbed her bare feet on the wooden floor. “Do you realize you could fall and break every bone in your body?”
    “Cats always land on their feet.” Vaughn sniffed the night air and found everything as expected, but did a visual scan to confirm. Even in human form, his keen eyesight remained undiminished. “Are you always like this when Lucas is gone?” She seemed jumpy, agitated, though she was usually a calm pool in the midst of the predatory turbulence that was DarkRiver.
    “Yes.” She continued tapping her finger. “Were you running?”
    “Yes.” He looked at his alpha’s mate, able to understand Lucas’s fascination. Sascha was beautiful and utterly unique. It wasn’t the night-sky eyes or the face, but the essence of her. She glowed from the inside out and that was to be expected. After all, she was an E-Psy—an empath, able to sense and