Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,155

had spent a lifetime trying to toughen up. “I’d like to remember a time when you and I . . . were just us. No Silence. No rules.”

“It was never that way,” Nikita said curtly. “I was born in Silence.” And she’d been forged in a bloody battle for her child’s survival.

But her grandchild would grow up in freedom, and her daughter no longer had to worry that someone would try to exterminate her for simply being herself. It was a victory. “Here,” she said, and opened the telepathic channel that existed between mother and child, a channel no one else could access.

It didn’t surprise her in the least that it was wide open on Sascha’s end.

Foolish, emotional child.

Bringing up memories of the times she and Sascha had spent in Nikita’s bedroom when Sascha was still young enough that Nikita could enclose her in her own shields and hide Sascha’s distinctive mental signature, she sent those memories to her daughter.

Sascha gasped, one hand rising to her mouth as tears filled her eyes, the white pinpricks disappearing to leave her eyes pure obsidian . . . but no, there were midnight-blue depths in Sascha’s eyes now, as if the color that lived in an E’s head was changing the very nature of her gaze.

“Mother,” she whispered, the single word holding so much emotion that Nikita wondered how her daughter could bear it.

Then she remembered that Sascha was born to bear emotion.

Distressed by her mother’s emotional state, Nadiya whimpered and, abandoning her game, began to crawl toward Sascha. Nikita released her grandchild’s small, warm weight, watched as Sascha picked her up, nuzzled her, saying, “It’s okay, Naya. Mama’s okay.”

Kisses followed, more touches and soft words, while Nadiya patted her mother’s face as if to ensure there were no further signs of tears.

When Sascha put the child on the bed again, she crawled immediately back to Nikita. “Gram!”

“Yes, I’m your grandmother.” Nikita allowed herself to take one small fist in her own hand, feel the vital life of this child who was of her blood.

“Nadiya will be at risk for years to come,” she told her daughter. “It doesn’t matter how many mixed-race children are born, whether they’re Psy and human or Psy and changeling. She’s the first. A symbol for those who want a new world order—and a target for those who’d rather go back to the old.”

“I know.” The resolute strength in Sascha’s tone reminded Nikita that her softhearted child had annihilated an entire mercenary team. “We’ll make sure she’s protected but we won’t cage her. She has to have the freedom to live her own life.” She lifted her gaze from Nadiya to Nikita. “A parent can only do so much.”

Nikita saw forgiveness in those eyes of midnight, saw understanding, saw an emotion she knew was love. Breaking the connection because she had to stay strong, had to remain the ice-cold bitch no one dared cross, she allowed Nadiya to “bite” at her knuckles. The child wasn’t actually biting down, was more working her milk teeth gently over the bone, as if Nikita were a teething toy.

“I am . . . glad to meet my grandchild.”

It was the closest she could come to betraying the emotions that lived so deep inside her that nothing might ever reach them again. It was the closest she could come to telling her daughter that she would murder and torture and die for her. As she would for the child of her child. The world might think she’d rejected Sascha, but Nikita had always played a chess game a hundred moves ahead.

“I’m happy she got to meet you, too.” Sascha smiled. “We’ll do this again.”

Nikita inclined her head. “I’m surprised your mate let you in here alone.” She knew Lucas Hunter was just outside the door, could feel his wild psychic energy.

“He says you’d liquefy the brains of anyone who threatened either me or Naya.”

The DarkRiver alpha had always been a dangerous opponent. “Perceptive.” She watched Nadiya wander off to the other side of the bed, saw Sascha restrain her instinctive protective urge in order to allow her child freedom to explore.

Then the child was no longer a child but a scatter of light . . . and a small panther cub was jumping off the bed. Nadiya turned to give her mother and grandmother a proudly satisfied look once she was on the floor.

Chapter 46

“CLEVER CHILD.” NIKITA was impressed the toddler had figured out that to get to the ground, she’d be better