The other man took a second to reply. “She’s fine. Her mind is intact.”
Relief was a punch to Hawke’s gut. “I’m going to strip her hide when she wakes up.” Shutting the passenger door, he jogged around to the driver’s side and switched the phone to the hands-free comm mode before beginning the drive back.
“It sounds,” Judd said when Hawke finished relaying what had led to Sienna’s collapse, “like she overloaded her psychic pathways.”
Hawke frowned. “So she does have a safety switch.” He’d gotten the impression that conscious control was so necessary to Sienna because she had no built-in off switch.
Judd didn’t reply long enough that Hawke’s blood went cold. “What aren’t you saying?”
“I think we need to have this discussion after you return.”
Hawke’s patience was nonexistent when it came to Sienna’s well-being, but he saw the lieutenant’s point. “We’ll be there soon.”
Judd met them at the infirmary, where Lara ran a high-tech medical scanner over Sienna and pronounced her in perfect health. Only then did Hawke nod at Judd to follow him out into the corridor. “Tell me.”
“She’s accelerating at an exponential rate,” Judd said, pulling up a chart on the tiny datapad he carried in his pocket. “After she confirmed she’d been purging her power more often of late, I spoke to Walker to see if we could pinpoint any specific times or dates. It took me until just before the South American operation to realize it was Toby we needed to speak to—she allows him closer than anyone else.”
White lines bracketed the former Arrow’s mouth. “He knew before all of us. He’s been making a note in his diary each time he feels she’s about to go critical. Since she hasn’t had any incidents, the logical conclusion is that she instituted a purge in each case.” Judd turned the datapad so Hawke could see the screen.
The pattern was impossible to miss. It had been almost a year between Sienna’s arrival and the first time she earthed herself. The next came after eight months. Then six. The last few had been mere weeks apart. Hawke’s wolf rose to the fore, helping the man think with clear-eyed purpose. “Can it be stopped?”
“No.” An absolute statement. “That’s what makes her an X.”
“Silence”—he forced himself to say that word, to consider that option—“kept her under some kind of containment.”
“Only to an extent. She’s the sole cardinal X ever born, according to our records. Even Ming was playing a game of Russian roulette with her. No one had any idea what would happen as her power matured.”
“Does she know?”
“I think she doesn’t want to know.” Black erased the gold-flecked brown of Judd’s eyes, a rare indication of strong emotion. “The only way she can survive is to believe that she can change the inevitable.”
“Then we leave it at that.” He could see Sienna growing deeper into her skin day by day. No way in hell was he going to cut her off at the knees. “You sound certain that it can’t be stopped, but is there any way to slow the progression?”
Judd shoved a hand through his hair. “I’ve been searching for the manuscript I mentioned to you once.”
“The dissertation on X-Psy?”
The other man nodded. “I’ve found no evidence to confirm its existence, but I’m waiting to hear back from one final contact.”
Hawke’s wolf caught the minute change in Judd’s expression. “The Ghost. You don’t trust him.”
“Not in this. She’s a weapon of infinite potential.”
And the Ghost, Hawke knew, had an agenda that had nothing to do with peace.
EIGHT hours later, with the mountains kissed white-gold by the morning sun, Hawke stood staring at the door that had just been slammed in his face. “Sienna,” he growled.
Silence from the other side.
He slammed his hands palms down on the flat surface hard enough that she couldn’t miss it. Waited. Still nothing. Part of him—the part that made him alpha—wanted to rip the door off its hinges, throw her onto the bed, and teach her what happened to a woman who dared defy him. He wouldn’t hurt her. But he would bite her. Hard.
Strangling the primitive urge, he decided to walk it off but changed his mind midway and headed to the garage instead. The drive gave him enough time to settle so that he wasn’t feeling completely feral when he arrived at his destination—after having made a small detour to pick up something.
Sascha laughed when he handed her the stuffed toy wolf. “How did you talk your way past the sentinels?”
“Natural charm.” He thought about kissing her on the cheek but decided to cut Lucas a break.
“What’re you doing here?” the leopard demanded, his hands on Sascha’s hips as they stood in the doorway of the cabin.
“I’ve come to meet my new girl,” Hawke said, doing his best to look harmless. “Where is she?”