VISIONS OF HEAT

She paused. The organizer could handle a massive amount of data, but even it couldn’t cope with twenty-four years. “To my sixteenth birthday.” The age at which her abilities had become relatively stable.

“That’s the period I would’ve recommended,” Xi Yun said. “Prior to that, you continued to be somewhat erratic.”

Sixteen was the unofficial end of conditioning, the two years till eighteen a safeguard against any “mistakes.” Had Silence helped her discipline her foresight, or had it stunted her mind until it produced patterns deemed acceptable instead of erratic? The memory reminded her of something else. “How is Juniper doing?”

“Well for an eight-year-old. Her skills fall short of what yours were at that age, but in comparison to others in her age bracket, she’s advancing through the Protocol at considerable speed.”

Meaning that the young Gradient 8.2 foreseer was becoming a machine faster than others. “Would I be able to see her records as well? I’m considering offering her some training.” A perfectly legitimate thing for a cardinal to do for a younger member of the family.

Such help was especially important in the restricted field of foresight and for that abandonment, too, Faith felt guilt. But she had every intention of trying to find a way to help Juniper and others like her from the outside.

“I’ll clear it with her guardian, but I don’t anticipate a problem. You’re the foreseer they study during training.”

“When can you have everything to me?” It was a few minutes past four now.

“Within the hour.”

More than enough time to download the files before Vaughn hunted her down.





Vaughn neared the fence around Faith’s compound hours later than he’d intended. He’d been halfway to her when an alert had gone out over the Web—Sascha sending emotion for Dorian. Changing direction, he’d responded, aware that the others were all tied up. Because he couldn’t hear words over the Web, he’d had to go to the nearest packmate’s house and call for the location, another small delay.

When he’d arrived at the site, it was to find Dorian up to his neck in angry male juveniles. The sentinel had had them under control, but it was clear he’d had to bust a few heads to do so. Kit was bleeding from a split lip and Cory looked like he had a broken jaw. Several of the others wore bruises and everyone but Dorian was naked—a sure indicator that they’d been in leopard form.

“What happened?” he asked, shifting from jaguar to man.

Dorian thrust a hand through his hair. “Kit here decided to romance Nicki and Cory thought he had exclusive rights.”

“This is about a girl?” Vaughn couldn’t believe that, not with the way juvenile females were known to put their freedom above anything and anyone else.

“What it’s about is these two boneheads using the excuse to call out their ‘packs’ on each other to settle who’s more alpha.” Dorian caught Vaughn’s eye. Both of them knew it was Kit who had the smell of a future alpha. The kid was just faster, harder to hurt, and more aggressive than the others. But until he’d proven his alpha status, he was simply another juvenile.

“Kit.” Vaughn dragged him up by the scruff of his neck. “What the hell is this about your own pack?”

The boy wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “It’s just a bunch of us who are friends.”

Vaughn didn’t speak, didn’t break eye contact.

The kid shrugged, but the anger remained in his eyes. That was why young alphas needed careful guidance, and if they stepped out of line, harsh discipline. They could go bad very easily. “So what if we call ourselves a pack?” His hands fisted into balls. “It means nothing.”

“Cory?” Vaughn looked to the lanky kid propped up against a tree. “You think the same?”

The boy spit out blood. “Yeah.”

Dorian slapped down a couple of others who tried to rise in renewed rage. “Stay the hell down or I swear I’ll break all of your jaws.”

Nobody protested. Dorian might be latent, but he was also a sentinel—he could snap these kids in two without thinking.

Vaughn returned his attention to Kit. No matter what Cory thought, it was Kit the juveniles looked up to. “If you’re the alpha of your pack, you won’t mind me challenging you for authority.”

Some of the arrogance seeped out of Kit’s eyes. “What?”

“You want to lead your own pack? Fine. But if you’re the alpha of another pack, you give up your right to be part of DarkRiver.” Harsh but true. “We have no treaties with you, which means you’re in violation of Law. I have the right to kill you for trespass.”

Kit wiped away another trickle of blood. “We don’t want to separate from DarkRiver.” He was beginning to look a little green around the gills.