Shield of Winter (Nalini Singh) (48 page)

“No,” Vasic interrupted. “You need to return to your territory.”

Scowling at his mate when she parted her lips to speak, Lucas Hunter put a nutrition drink in her hand and waited until she’d started drinking before turning to Vasic. “You want Sascha to train other cardinals?”

“Yes.” He finished off his fourth nutrition bar. “We need cardinals ready and able to effect the terminal field, and we need them now. Everything else can come later.”

Sascha put down the empty glass. “You’re talking about cardinals who’ve been told they’re flawed and of no use their entire lives,” she said with such passionate force, Vasic knew she’d been told the same. “It’ll take time for them to come to grips with the betrayal of it all.”

“Ivy almost killed herself today,” he pointed out, his jaw tense. “You’ve lost a fifth of your body weight, and Jaya is still at the hospital.”

Lucas completed Vasic’s train of thought, the DarkRiver alpha’s eyes nightglow in the muted living room light. “An empath’s instincts will always win out.”

Of that Vasic had no doubt. “Will you do it?”

“Of course.” Sascha closed her hand over Lucas’s thigh, her eyes bruised from the anguish and terror that no doubt blanketed the city. “But that’ll leave you with only Jaya, and she’s a medical empath. Ivy risks brain damage or death if she goes out.”

Vasic couldn’t trust himself to even think about losing Ivy. “We have to think long-term. If you die here, your knowledge dies with you.” He had to be ruthless, consider not the hundreds Sascha might save in the city, but the hundreds of thousands who’d die across the world. “I’m guessing using the terminal field will require a foundation of basic skills. No one else is qualified to assess and teach that.”

Lucas ran his knuckles over his mate’s cheek. “I know your instincts tell you to stay, but Vasic’s right,” the alpha said. “I’ve seen how hard you’ve fought to figure out each tiny crumb of practical knowledge. You know more than you think.”

“And,” Vasic pointed out, “you’re the most stable and well-known E in the world.” The psychological impact of that couldn’t be underestimated. “The other cardinals might struggle with feelings of betrayal when it comes to everyone else, but they’ll trust you to tell them the truth.”

“All right,” Sascha said into the quiet. “I’ll contact Chang first, since he already has the basic training.”

Nodding, Vasic waited only long enough for his psychic batteries to recharge a certain percentage before bringing in Aden to watch over Ivy while he ’ported the alpha couple and Alice Eldridge back to DarkRiver territory. Lucas and Sascha needed to talk to the wolves about turning the compound into a permanent training ground for empaths, and that discussion needed to happen as fast as possible.

Rabbit jumped off the bed and padded over to him when Vasic returned, a low whine in the back of the dog’s throat. Bending down, Vasic stroked the anxious animal with a firm touch. “Ivy will be all right,” he said. “I’m here to take care of her.”

Bumping his head against Vasic’s hand, the whine gone—as if their pet had understood Vasic’s reassurance—Rabbit scampered up to the bed to settle by Ivy’s side once more. Vasic checked her skin, found it warm, her lips curving at the press of his fingers against her pulse. “Vasic.”

Releasing a breath at that drowsy mumble, he said, “Sleep.”

But she struggled to lift her eyelids. “The others, did they . . .”

“No,” he answered, almost able to read her thoughts. “It appears Brigitte is another medical empath, but Isaiah, Chang, and the others are in the same position as you.” He’d just received a report that Isaiah had suffered a brain bleed, was in intensive care, but Ivy didn’t need to know that right now.

Bleakness in her eyes, her hand curling on the blanket.

He knelt down beside the bed, cradling her cheek and jaw with one hand, his other arm on the pillow above her head. “Sleep. Then rise strong to fight again.” That was what motivated her, and he’d use it without pity to help her heal. Even when he had no intention whatsoever of permitting her to cause herself such harm again.

Lids heavy, she closed her fingers over his wrist. “I love you.”

The words reverberated in him long after she fell asleep. Forcing himself to leave her some time later, he stepped out to the living area where Aden waited.

“The incoming cardinals will need Arrow shields,” he said to the other man. “Sascha’s organs would’ve shut down today if Lucas hadn’t realized how much energy she was burning and grabbed energy drinks from the medics.” The DarkRiver alpha had known because of the mating bond that tied him to Sascha on a psychic level.

Vasic didn’t understand how that bond worked. Neither did he comprehend the intricacies of the tie Kaleb Krychek shared with Sahara Kyriakus, but he knew he wanted the same with Ivy. “The Arrows,” he said, “will have to be trained to force the Es to stop and refuel.”

“We’re going to be spread thin.” Aden leaned against a wall. “We could request Krychek’s men take over.”

“No. Not until there are no more Arrows who can step in.”

When Aden raised an eyebrow at that flat response, Vasic said, “Abbot’s not the only one who’s more stable since the day he began working with his empath.”

“Yes,” Aden said. “Regardless of the development or not of an emotional connection—though the most stable are the ones who’ve formed a friendship with their Es at least.” His gaze was steady in the dim glow coming from the streetlamps outside, the room otherwise dark. “You’ve stabilized the most of all.”

Vasic thought of Ivy’s anger as she fought for him, her sweet sensual generosity, her smile, her courage. She was his anchor and his hope. It was as simple and as powerful as that. “We need to give others in the squad the same chance.”

“I’ll organize it. Silver Mercant’s network is now functional worldwide, and everyone—Psy, human, changeling—who can send help in an outbreak is doing so. The squad shouldn’t be as necessary on the front line as we’ve been thus far.”

Vasic looked out into the heavy dark of the night beyond the windows. Arrows might be able to step back for the moment, but these outbreaks were the first stones to fall. When the avalanche came, every man and woman in the squad would be needed to stand against it. And the empaths, he knew, would stand right beside them.

His Ivy would be at his side to the end . . . because the truth was, he couldn’t cage her, couldn’t take her choices from her, no matter his fury and his fear. It would break her. “The ones who attacked Ivy today.” His blood iced. “Did you track them down?”

“It’s been taken care of.”

“You can’t protect my sanity by destroying yours.” His partner had already done far more than anyone could’ve ever expected in managing to keep Vasic alive this long. “It’s not necessary any longer.”

Aden didn’t answer directly. “The breakaway Venice group,” he said instead. “They’re asking to be placed on active duty.”

“They’ve always been on active duty.” Having defected from the PsyNet using great care to hide their tracks, the Venetian element of the squad had been feeding information to other Arrows and running operations as long as they’d been in existence.

“They want to respond to outbreaks,” Aden clarified. “If I don’t give the order, you know Zaira will simply make that decision on her own.”

“Yes.” Her independence of thought was why the other Arrow had been given charge of the Venice operation. “Zaira also knows they can’t risk being recognized.” Each and every Arrow in the Venice compound was officially dead.

“She’s put forward a proposal that they be called in on night outbreaks in Europe, where her men and women can work with only a minimal disguise.” Aden rubbed his forehead in an unusual sign of strain. “Venice also holds some of our most broken.”

Vasic thought of Alejandro, the male’s brain reset by an overdose of Jax so that he couldn’t deviate from a command—but only if that command came from Zaira. Alejandro couldn’t be helped, the damage done to his organic brain, but what of some of the others? “A civilian won’t have any reason to ask whether or not an Arrow is supposed to exist,” he said. “We can slowly pair up the Venetians with their own Es.”

Aden continued to look out the window. “That’ll require they rejoin the Net. That can be done covertly, and Zaira’s team is ready to do so, even with the current problems . . . but they will stay in exile as long as necessary.”

Until, Vasic thought, the squad no longer needed the escape hatch. That, however, might no longer be an option. “Is their network clean?”

“No signs of the infection, but a network populated only with Arrows was never going to be balanced,” Aden responded. “Zaira suspects it’s starting to show hairline fractures. There’s no urgency yet, and it’ll become a moot point if they rejoin the Net. For now, they continue to act as our eyes and ears in the wider world.”

Calling in a teleport from another Arrow, Aden left only minutes later to speak to Kaleb about making up a list of dormant cardinal Es. It left Vasic free to concentrate on Ivy. She lay silent in a deep sleep. Rabbit was settled against her back, his small body rising and falling in quiet huffs.

Scanning her using the gauntlet, Vasic noted that the damaged and torn blood vessels the emergency medics had treated—with Aden having double-checked the work—were already healing. Her mental state however . . .

Vasic couldn’t forget how defeated she’d looked when he’d found her in the ambulance. His Ivy, who had fought for him, who never gave up, had appeared in splinters during her single, bittersweet moment of consciousness as he lifted her in his arms.

Eyes dulled and bloody, she’d said,
Why can’t I do this? What if what they did to me in the rehabilitation center broke me permanently?

“You are not broken,” he said in a harsh murmur as he got into bed and gathered her close. “You’re the strongest woman I know.” A woman who refused to surrender, regardless of the near impossible odds.

A woman who had beaten the numbness that had been swallowing him alive.

A woman for whom he’d fight death itself.

Chapter 49

GLASS SMASHING, GRUNTS
of pain, a dog’s frantic barking.

Ivy jerked awake to find the bedroom door shut, the slits in the blinds on the window telling her it was bright daylight outside.

Another grunt, followed by a loud thud.

Shoving off the blanket as she realized the sounds weren’t echoes of a nightmare but coming from mere feet away, she forced herself to take the small weapon Vasic must’ve left on the bedside table, and made her way to the door.
Vasic?

Stay inside
.

She cracked the door a minute sliver to get a look at the living area beyond. Her fingers clenched on the slick black plas of the weapon. Dressed only in jeans and his boots, Vasic was fighting against three men, and it looked like all three were telekinetics. The furniture lay embedded in the walls, plaster dust in the air and window glass on the carpet. Vasic was bleeding but holding his own, while Rabbit lay whimpering against the wall, his small body crumpled.

Rage bloomed in her.

Waiting until all three attackers were facing Vasic, she darted out on silent feet to lift Rabbit into her arms and duck back into the bedroom. “Shh,” she said to their injured pet, his side rising and falling in pained breaths. “You’ll be okay, I promise.” Placing him gently on the bed, she went back to the door to see her Arrow take a crushing physical blow to the ribs at the same time that he took multiple telekinetic hits.

The rage darker and molten hot, she switched off the safety on the weapon.
Jaya!
she telepathed, as it became obvious the weapons capability of Vasic’s gauntlet wasn’t functioning.
Where’s Abbot?!

When there was no response, she realized the other woman must be at the hospital, Abbot by her side. Which left Ivy as Vasic’s sole backup. Going down on one knee to brace herself and using both hands as her father had taught her, she aimed the weapon through the gap in the door, but the men were moving so fast, she couldn’t be certain she wouldn’t accidentally hit Vasic.

Jerking back as he sent one attacker slamming into the wall beside the bedroom door, she saw the man was dazed but already pushing up on one arm. Not letting herself think too much, she shot him, the laser beam set to stun. As he went down, she sucked in a breath, expecting an empathic backlash of pain, but none came.

Maybe because all she’d done was put him to sleep. And maybe because Vasic was the biggest, most important piece of her heart.
No one
was allowed to hurt him.

Turning back to the fight, she saw one of the attackers pull a pressure syringe from his boot. Vasic had his back turned to the man as he fought off the other assailant.
Watch out!
she screamed telepathically and shot again.

The laser fire went wide this time, hitting the wall and attracting the enemy Tk’s attention her way. Reacting on instinct, she shot a third time, but he dived out of the way, his hand coming up as if to slam her with telekinetic power. Ivy rolled behind the door to deprive him of a visible target, just as that door slammed open to hit her side in a bruising blow. Breath lost but bones unbroken, she kept her grip on the weapon and crawled quickly to the side of the bed so she’d have a direct line of sight to the door, while being protected by the bulk of the bed.