CARESSED BY ICE

She’d never seen him like this, his icy control morphing into what her animal senses told her was the most finely honed rage, so pure it dyed the air crimson. “Then what?” she dared to ask, walking until she stood only a few small footsteps away. “What has such a hold over you that you’re willing to walk away from us?” From something more powerful and more real than anything she’d ever before felt “I’m not anything like Faith,” he said, a wall of stone in front of her. “My ability is nothing good.” He thrust his hand into her hair with not the slightest warning, tugging back her head and exposing her throat. “My subdesignation doesn’t exist on any chart but the one kept by the Arrow Squad.”


Fear coated her tongue as she realized she had somehow succeeded in shattering a crucial part of his defensive shields—the question was, could she handle what she’d unleashed? “Tell me, Judd. I need to know.” Because he was hers. Even here and now, her body hungered for him, his very darkness an aphrodisiac—because she was convinced he’d never harm her. Then he spoke and shattered every one of her cozy preconceptions.

“I could kill you during sex,” he said, letting her straighten her head but not releasing her. “Stop your heartbeat, crush your windpipe, cut off the blood flow to your brain.” The cold words hit her like gunshots at close range. “If not that, then perhaps I’d crack open your skull or your chest cavity. There are so many ways to kill with even a stray thought—of course it’d be less refined than when I’ve planned it out, but the end result would be the same. You in a body bag.”

Everything chilled inside her. At that moment, she was almost ready to run. This man wasn’t the Judd she knew. This man terrified her. “You can’t manipulate changeling minds that way,” she whispered, desperate to find a way out.

“You’re not listening.” His lips brushed her ear, but it was nothing erotic. “I don’t have to influence your mind to kill. No telekinetic does. And I’m a very, very specialized Tk, subdesignation Cell. I can influence the physical structures of human, Psy, and changeling bodies,” he said in her ear, the frost of death in his tone. “My control is fine enough that I can rearrange skin cells if I want to. You could say I’m the scalpel to Enrique’s blunt object.”

She would not cry—he had used the word scalpel on purpose. That had been Enrique’s favorite weapon, the one he’d used to carve up his victims. The thought of Enrique nudged at a deeply hidden piece of knowledge in her brain, but she was concentrating too hard on Judd to pay attention.

“It’s why you don’t have scars,” she blurted out, searching for something with which to ground herself. All soldiers had scars. But from the glimpses she’d had of Judd’s body, she’d seen not the smallest mark, not counting the new injuries he’d suffered the previous night.

He drew back, his eyes going to her lower lip, which she’d caught between her teeth. It felt like he’d touched her . . . stroked her. Suddenly the fear transformed—into a passion that was so strong, it made her tremble. “The scars,” she prompted, breathless.

“Getting rid of them was a training exercise to help foster control.” His tone hadn’t warmed up, but there was an inferno in his eyes. “Over time, my body seemed to learn the trick and now they disappear without conscious effort on my part.” Releasing her as precipitously as he’d grabbed her, he put several feet of distance between them.

She had so many questions buzzing around in her head but only one was important. “There has to be a way out.” She wasn’t going to lose him, her recent shock of terror be damned. “Stop trying to scare me and tell me how we get past this.”

The gold flecks disappeared from Judd’s eyes, the irises going pure black and merging into the pupils. She sucked in a breath but held her ground.

“When I was ten and not yet fully conditioned,” he told her, “I had a spike of temper. It was directed at a boy who had taken the ball I was using to practice my Tk skills. He was dead before he hit the ground. The autopsy found that his brain had exploded from the inside out. His name was Paul, his ability was Medical, and he was eight years old.”

“Oh, God, Judd.” She went to embrace him, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“Your proximity tests my control and right now, it wouldn’t take much to push me over the edge. One mistake and they’ll be burying you tomorrow.” A stark warning.

She could feel the unacknowledged pain in him as if it was her own. “You were a child, with a child’s lack of control.”

“And now I’m an adult with total control, but Silence is at the core of that control.” The pure black of his eyes met hers, wouldn’t let her look away. “I will never choose to fully breach it.”

“I won’t accept that.” The trapped wolf in her bared its teeth at the very idea. “What did your subdesignation do before Silence?” Hope took root in her heart.

“They were either hermits, in jail, or dead.” His blunt statement held the destructive force of hard truth, stifling all hope. “I’ve done my homework, Brenna.” A cold Psy reprimand but those eyes . . . they spoke of passion and need. “Those who realized what they were early enough separated themselves from society and spent their lives ensuring they never came into contact with other sentient beings.”