Psy & Changelings 09 - Play of Passion

sentinel, mated to Riley
    Ming LeBon Psy Councilor
    Nikita Duncan Psy Councilor, mother of Sascha
    Riaz SD lieutenant
    Riley Kincaid SD lieutenant, mated to Mercy, brother of Andrew and Brenna
    Sascha Duncan Psy member of DR, cardinal empath, mated to Lucas, daughter of Nikita
    Shoshanna Scott Psy Councilor, wife of Henry
    Sienna Lauren Psy member of SD, sister of Toby, niece of Judd and Walker
    Silvia SD juvenile
    Sophia Russo J-Psy, works for Nikita, married to Max
    Tai SD, novice soldier
    Tarah Riviere SD, mother of Indigo and Evangeline
    Tatiana Rika-Smythe Psy Councilor
    Teijan Rat alpha
    Walker Lauren Psy member of SD, father of Marlee, uncle of Sienna and Toby
    Xavier Perez Human priest

PURITY
    The Psy have been pure, have been Silent for over a hundred years, their emotions conditioned out of them until a wall of ice separates them from the world. Passion and love, hate and sorrow are no longer things they know, except as weaknesses of the emotional human and changeling races.
    But as winter thaws into spring in the year 2081, change is more than a whisper on the horizon. Too many powerful Psy have defected, too many are breaking conditioning, and too many fractures riddle the Net.
    Some say it is inevitable that Silence will fall.
    And some will kill to hold it.

CHAPTER 1
    Indigo wiped the rain off her face, clearing it for a split second, if that. The torrential downpour continued with relentless fury, slamming ice-cold bullets against her skin and turning the night-dark of the forest impenetrable. Ducking her head, she spoke into the waterproof microphone attached to the sodden collar of her black T-shirt. “Do you have him in your sights?”
    The voice that came back was deep, familiar, and, at that instant, lethally focused. “Northwest, half a mile. I’m coming your way.”
    “Northwest, half a mile,” she repeated to ensure they were both on the same page. Changeling hearing was incredibly acute, but the rain was savage, drumming against her skull until even the high-tech receiver she’d tucked into her ear buzzed with noise.
    “Indy, be careful. He’s functioning on the level of a feral wolf.”
    Under normal circumstances, she’d have snarled at him for using that ridiculous nickname. Tonight, she was too worried. “That goes double for you. He hurt you in that first tangle.”
    “It’s only a flesh wound. I’m going quiet now.”
    Slicking back her hair, she took a deep breath of the watery air and began to stalk toward their prey. Her fellow hunter was right—a pincer maneuver was their best bet of taking Joshua down without damage. Indigo’s gut clenched, pain blooming in her heart. She didn’t want to have to hurt him. Neither did the tracker on the boy’s trail—the reason why the bigger, stronger wolf had been injured in the earlier clash.
    But he’d have to if they couldn’t bring Joshua back from the edge; the boy was so lost in anguish and torment that he’d given in to his wolf. And the wolf, young and out of control, had taken those emotions and turned them into rage. Joshua was now a threat to the pack. But he was also their own. They’d bleed, they’d drown in this endless rain, but they would not execute him until they’d exhausted every other option.
    A branch raked across her cheek when she didn’t move fast enough in the stormy weather.
    Sharp. Iron. Blood.
    Indigo swore low under her breath. Joshua would catch her scent if she wasn’t careful. Turning her face up to the rain, she let it wash away the blood from the cut. But it was still too bright, too unmistakable a scent. Wincing—their healer would strip her hide for this—she went to the earth and slathered mud over the superficial injury. The scent dulled, became sodden with earth.
    It would do. Joshua was so far gone that he wouldn’t detect the subtle undertone that remained.
    “Where are you?” It was a soundless whisper as she stalked through the rain-lashed night. Joshua hadn’t taken a life yet, hadn’t killed or maimed. He could be brought back—if his pain, the vivid, overwhelming pain of a young male on the cusp of adulthood, allowed him to return.
    A slashing wind . . . bringing with it the scent of her prey. Indigo stepped up her pace, trusting the eyes of the wolf that was her other half, its vision stronger in the dark. She was gaining on the scent when a wolf’s enraged howl split the air.
    Growls, the sickening clash of teeth, more iron in the air.
    “No!” Pushing her speed