Psy & Changelings 02 - Visions of Heat

same time?”
    Sascha bit her lower lip. “I think there’s enough biofeedback.” Feedback no Psy could live without, the reason why dropping out of the PsyNet usually equaled suicide. “Two Psy minds should, in theory, augment the multiplication effect.”
    “Should?” Lucas shifted around to scowl at her.
    Vaughn watched Sascha scowl back. “It’s pure guesswork. DarkRiver’s Web isn’t supposed to exist in the first place. I don’t know how it’ll work, but we have to try. There’s no other choice.”
    Lucas turned to him. “Shit, Vaughn. You had to go and mate with another damn Psy.” Dragging his mate closer, he bit her lightly on the neck. “Okay, so we have to utilize the Web. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
    “It could kill all four of us if we get it wrong and there’s not enough feedback,” Vaughn said, fists clenched.
    “Then I’ll just have to blood-oath some new sentinels if that’s what it takes to strengthen the Web.” Lucas’s promise held the determination of a friendship forged in the darkest of fires. “But first, we need to get Faith out. Any ideas?”
    “Use the disc?” Sascha was referring to the incriminating recording they’d created when they’d taken down the serial killer who’d butchered Kylie and mind-raped the SnowDancer, Brenna.
    Vaughn wanted to grab at the idea, but he was a sentinel, sworn to protect DarkRiver. “The reasons why we didn’t originally release the recording still apply. We can’t take the risk of the Council feeling backed into a corner.” An animal in that position had nothing to lose by trying to go for the kill.
    “He’s right,” Lucas said. “They can’t know how many more times we might blackmail them.”
    “Talk to me, Sascha.” Vaughn folded his arms and tried to contain the urge to simply take what he wanted and damn the consequences. “Is there anything else you can think of?”
    “Faith’s isolated lifestyle is one thing in our favor.” Sascha leaned against Lucas’s side. “People know her name, but very few have actually seen her. Her dropping out won’t cause as big a ripple as my defection did. But on the other hand, losing her will rob the Council of millions.”
    “How?”
    “Taxes in the most basic sense,” Sascha answered. “F-Psy create enormous amounts of money and it flows up. I know from my mother that in certain cases, the Council uses foreseers to increase its wealth in a much more direct fashion. They get the service free or at a generous discount.”
    “Let me guess,” Vaughn interrupted, enraged at the idea of his mate doing anything to assist that group of cold-blooded monsters. “Nobody wants to piss off the big, bad Council by asking for payment.”
    Sascha nodded. “People who get paid have a habit of disappearing and leaving their money to the Council.”
    “So they’ll fight hard to keep her. They can’t pretend she’s defective like they did with Sascha.” Lucas’s facial markings stood out in sharp relief as anger pulled his skin taut. “And she’s a cardinal, too. Those eyes mean she can’t be hidden effectively.”
    “No one’s going to be hiding Faith.” Vaughn knew his voice had dropped several octaves, but he was beyond caring.
    “What about Faith?” Sascha asked softly.
    “What about her?” Vaughn put the now empty bottle on the window ledge.
    “Have you asked her whether she wants to leave the Net?”
    “She’s my mate.” Of course she’d leave the Net. “I’ll try to give her some time to get used to the idea, but in the end, she has no choice.”
    “I think she does.”
    Vaughn’s beast prowled to the surface of his self. “How?” Mating was a compulsion with changelings. Even the most independent females, the ones who fought the hardest, found it difficult to spend long periods apart from the males who were meant to be their mates.
    “She’s not changeling, so it doesn’t affect her the same way it does you, not unless she opens herself up to it like I did with Lucas. It might be uncomfortable for her, but she can probably block you.”
    “Are you sure?” Vaughn’s claws were so close to his human skin that he felt the hard prick of the tips waiting to break through.
    “No. She’s different from me. Being an empath meant I couldn’t ignore what I felt for Lucas. I don’t know if Faith is as bound to you.”
    “So I could be mated to someone who could choose not to be my mate?” A nightmare idea. Mating was a one-shot deal.