Psy & Changelings 09 - Play of Passion

city,” Judd said, asking the most important question, “do you know anything about it?”
    “No,” the Ghost murmured. “I’ve been busy with other matters. What has occurred?”
    Judd had an inkling about the nature of the Ghost’s “other matters”—and if he was right, then the most dangerous rebel in the Net was about to become even more lethal. “I’ve got nothing but rumors at present.”
    “If I discover anything, I’ll share it with you.” The Ghost moved deeper into the shadows as the clouds parted to expose the moon’s pearly light. “But San Francisco doesn’t hold much interest for me at present.”
    Judd heard something in that statement, something that made his instincts snap to wakefulness. “What are you planning?”
    “The three of us came together because we believe the Council is destroying the Psy race and taking the rest of the world along,” the Ghost said. “The Councilors now have their knives out for each other. Any resulting war will devastate the Net, kill millions—Psy, human, and changeling.”
    Judd agreed . . . and he also understood. “You’re planning to kill them all.”
    “If necessary,” the Ghost said. “There can be no war if there is no Council.”
    And, Judd thought, it would leave the Net entirely in the Ghost’s grasp.

CHAPTER 15
    Metal. Intruder.
    Indigo was at full alert when her eyes snapped open. She felt Drew come to life at almost the same instant. Glancing at him, she saw his eyes had gone night-glow, the wolf at the forefront.
    “Psy,” he mouthed more than said.
    She gave a decisive nod. Nothing else would account for that scent. It was as distinctive as blood on snow, and it cut against changeling senses with the jagged brutality of twisted metal. Not all Psy carried that metallic taint, and the current theory was that it clung only to those who had given in irrevocably to Silence . . . lost their soul to the emotionless chill of the PsyNet. Whatever the truth, there was no reason for it to be here, deep in the heart of SnowDancer territory.
    Glancing at the kids—all asleep—Indigo made a snap decision. “Go.”
    Drew shifted and flowed away from the campsite as she walked to Harley’s tent and reached in to squeeze his shoulder.
    The boy woke at once. Putting a finger to her lips, Indigo bent down. “I need you to keep watch. Sound the alarm if you sense an intruder.”
    To his credit, the boy extricated himself from his tent without waking his tentmate, his eyes already watchful. “I’ll use the wolf’s call.”
    Confident he was up to the task, she shifted without bothering to strip off her T-shirt and streaked off after Drew. The metallic scent was strong, fresh, and not difficult to track, even if Drew hadn’t gone ahead. Reaching the end of the trail, she found herself in a small moonlit glade bearing the faintest traces of boot prints.
    Putting her nose to the earth, she attempted to find the intruders’ exit route and came up blank. Teleportation. Which most likely meant the Council—or a Councilor, at least—was involved in this somewhere. Teleport-capable telekinetics were a scarce resource, and they were almost always pulled into the Council ranks, according to Judd. Frustrated, she looked up as Drew appeared from the other side of the glade, having apparently circled the area.
    Coming over until their muzzles almost touched, he shook his head.
    Damn.
    She shifted. They needed to talk and better it be here than back at the campsite. It was no use scaring the kids when there was nothing to be done at this moment. “No hint of a trail?” She fisted her hand in his fur as she asked for confirmation of his nonverbal report, his coat incredibly soft beneath the protective roughness of the guard hairs.
    Another shake of his head before he tugged away and shifted to crouch across from her, a sleekly muscled man with lake blue eyes that held the slightest night-glow edge—the wolf looking out from behind the human skin. “Tk’s.” His voice was low, deep, wolf.
    “That’s what I thought.” Attempting to ignore the way that rough tone raised every tiny hair on her body, she spread her fingers on the stubby grass. “Why here?”
    “Isolated—or it should’ve been.” Drew angled his head in a way that had nothing to do with the human half of him.
    “Maybe they were using it as a meeting place, realized we were up here, and poofed.”
    There was some merit to that, Indigo thought, her own wolf prowling