CARESSED BY ICE

Brenna checked that the generator was sitting in the correct place in the built-in fireplace before flicking it on. Flames burst into golden life, immediately lightening her mood. However, she didn’t stay in front of the fire, going to stand at the window instead. Judd needed to know that he wasn’t alone, that she was waiting for him.

Maybe he thought she was being disingenuous or that she didn’t understand what he was trying to tell her. She understood. She just didn’t accept it. Judd wasn’t lost to Silence, no matter how much he wanted to be. She knew dominant males, had grown up around them, so she could guess what it must have cost him to stifle his pride and submit to his low rank in the SnowDancer hierarchy. But he’d taken the hit—to protect Marlee and Toby, and even Sienna.

He might think he was beyond redemption, but she knew otherwise.

His body appeared from the trees at that instant, her pack slung over one shoulder. Strong and confident, there was an arrogance to him that said he knew he was too dangerous for any of the forest inhabitants to mess with.

Smiling, she went to open the door. “Hey.”

He dropped the pack inside the doorway. “I’m going to run a circuit. Close the door and stay inside until I get back.”

She was about to tell him exactly what she thought of the way he was giving her orders when he turned and headed out.

She blinked.

The man was fast. Too fast for a Psy. Then again, she had a feeling Judd Lauren was no ordinary Psy. Kicking the door shut, she opened the pack to retrieve a small piece of malfunctioning comm equipment she’d promised to fix for Drew. Her brother might be infuriatingly overprotective, but he respected her tech skills.

It felt good to pick up her tools again, to feel the rush of mental stimulation as she began doing her kind of surgery.





Judd returned to the cabin after dark to find Brenna sitting on the floor by the laz-fire, tools and computronic parts set out neatly in front of her. She glanced up when he entered, but her smile was absentminded. “Gimme a few minutes, baby.”

Baby?

Putting the use of the term of affection down to her preoccupied state, he hung up his jacket and took off his boots before going into the kitchen area. As he’d thought. She hadn’t eaten. Pulling out two of the prepacked meals from the cooler, he put them in the cooking unit. He was trained to go without food for days if necessary, but Brenna needed to get some calories in her. Changelings burned energy faster than Psy. Added to that, she was still recovering from the damage Enrique had done to her body.

That done, he went to sit near the fire and watch her work. Two things became immediately clear. One, that Brenna loved what she did, and two, that she was very, very good at it. Not that that was anything unexpected. She was a qualified computronic tech and had been engaged in further study before a sociopath changed the course of her life.

The images came again—of her, bruised and battered, the blood on the walls, the sounds of tearing flesh. Enrique’s screams. Everyone screamed at the end. Everyone.

Judd had watched the former Councilor being torn to shreds by claws and teeth and felt no sense of racial allegiance. Blood for blood. Eye for eye. Life for life. It was changeling justice and Santano Enrique had deserved nothing less.

Brenna suddenly smiled and it was a flash of light cutting through the grim darkness of memory. “Finished.”

“Are you charging for that?” he asked, aware of the value of her work.

“Oh, it’s for Drew.”

“And what does your brother think of you being here?” Color flooded her cheeks. “Um, he sort of might think that I’m with Sascha.”

“Ashamed to be seen with a Psy?”

“You know,” she said, scowl gathering, “I think Indigo’s right about the size of men’s brains.”

Judd decided not to ask for clarification. “You need to eat.” He fetched the meals.

For once, she didn’t argue. Dinner passed in silence but one unlike any he’d ever before known. It was . . . easy. After they’d cleared away the plates, she pulled him back to the fire. “Sit.” He obeyed, the sofa at his back. Following, she proceeded to tell him what Indigo had discovered about the murder victim.

“Rush is used primarily by changelings?” he asked, not familiar with the substance.

“Humans, too, but less so. Their bodies process things differently from ours.” She stretched out her legs, the movement more like that of a cat than a wolf. “Ruby Crush was developed specifically for changelings, like Jax was for Psy.”

“Jax isn’t a recreational drug.”

Brenna half turned to face his profile. “You mean it has a medicinal use?”

Medicinal. That was one way to put it. “In minute doses calibrated to precisely match the patient’s weight and metabolism, it has the effect of both intensifying the strength and enhancing the endurance of natural Psy abilities.”

She braced one elbow on the sofa. “Like an upper for the psychic mind?”

“Yes. But without the physical consequences suffered by street users. The effect fades over a set period and then you’re back to a normal level of strength. No crash.”