MINE TO POSSESS

“They’re coming.” Dorian’s voice. “Unable to confirm if male is the one described by Jon. Female is blonde, possible match to description of Ashaya’s assistant.”


Clay buried his emotions, knowing he had to act as a man tonight, not a ravaging beast. A second later, he felt his nostrils flare as the night air brought him the sharp metallic stink of Psy. Not all of the race had that scent—Vaughn’s theory was that it only marked those who had accepted Silence on the most fundamental level. The ones who retained some spark of humanity, they smelled human, normal.

Clay could smell the female, too, but couldn’t tell if the sharp metallic scent was her own or an overwhelming echo of the male’s. The leopard didn’t particularly like hurting women, but he had been in this cold war with the Psy long enough to know that female hearts and minds could carry as much evil as male—Nikita Duncan, Sascha’s mother, would’ve had no compunction in ordering the extermination of her own daughter if she’d thought she could get away with it. But knowing that didn’t make him any less uncomfortable with the idea.

“I can see them in Tally’s room. No lights.” Dorian again.

Clay frowned. “That’s Talin to you, Boy Genius.”

Dorian’s growl was low. “Ice-fucking-cold water.”

They went silent as their earpieces picked up the sound of floorboards squeaking. Neither intruder had spoken yet. If they remained silent, interrogation might have to give way to a simple execution, Clay thought with cold logic. Once his identity was confirmed, Larsen had to die, no ifs, no buts.

“Should I pull the curtains over this window?” a female voice asked.

Damn! Clay could’ve kicked himself for leaving those curtains up there. One pull and Dorian’s line of sight was gone.

“Leave it,” the male said. “We can’t risk some nosy neighbor catching the movement and becoming suspicious.”

“As you say. What should I look for?”

“Do you have no initiative?” The man’s voice was pure Psy, but there was an ugly undertone to it the animal in Clay understood all too well. Safe behind the shield of Silence, this monster enjoyed abusing and bullying those weaker than himself. “Look for any signs of where Talin McKade might have gone after she left this apartment. She was here a few hours ago—there should be some evidence of her presence.”

“This seems an illogical endeavor,” the woman persisted. “Have you checked the detective’s records?”

“Why do you think we wasted our time going to that motel in Sacramento? He had it listed as her place of residence.”

Good on Max, Clay thought with a savage grin.

Something crunched and he realized one of the two Psy had stepped on the broken holo-frames scattered in Tally’s living room.

“Careful,” the male hissed. “We don’t want someone calling Enforcement.”

“I thought you had Councilor LeBon’s support. Surely he can stifle any Enforcement action.”

A pause. “It seems Ashaya has used my absence to convince him that my results are worthless. I need Jonquil Duchslaya to prove her wrong—and Talin McKade is certain to know his present whereabouts. The human will serve the dual purpose of providing me with a new access point into Shine’s databases.”

“You think Councilor LeBon will allow you to continue your experiments?”

“Yes, of course, once I’m able to return and show him the real results.”

“Why continue?”

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

“Your findings indicate beyond any doubt that the brains of the Forgotten are different from ours. They can’t be utilized as test subjects.”

“It’s not about using them as test subjects.” The man’s voice held a superior tone, as if he was deigning to share a secret. “It’s about finding out what they’ve become, eliminating the possible threat to the Psy.”

“That’s an illogical presumption,” the female said. “They are no threat, their powers have mutated, weakened—”

“Mutated but not necessarily weakened.” Shuffling, rustling sounds that Clay identified as that of paper. “Where is she hiding? According to our research, she hasn’t returned to her adopted family and she has no close friends.”

“Your approach makes little sense.” The woman stood her ground, a point in her favor—if she really was loyal to Ashaya, she’d walk out of this alive. “Talin McKade isn’t high enough up in Shine to give us the information we need.”

“She has access to their computers. That’s all we need. Once we break open her natural shields and implant a control link, we can direct her to search for what we want. The situation will be more draining on your powers than if she was a cooperative subject, but it’ll work.”

“My powers?”

“I need to be fully functional for the experiments.”

Silence and then the sounds of the female finally moving about. Ten minutes later, the pair left the apartment.

“Dorian?”