Clay's leopard didn't trust the Shine director's sudden bluntness. "You're very cooperative today."
"You could say there's been a coup in management." His jaw firmed to granite. "I showed the old ones pictures of what they're doing to the kids - kids we promised to protect. Two of them had heart attacks. The rest handed over control to me." Santos's tone was cool, but his eyes betrayed the cost of the choice he'd had to make. "I'll cooperate with the devil if it means stopping the murders."
"Do you know where Jon is?" Talin asked.
"No," Santos grit out. "We're almost certain the Psy Council is behind the kidnappings, but we don't know why they're taking the children after so long. We're all of mixed blood now, hardly a threat to their power. Our organs are as mixed as the rest of us - of no use to pure-bred Psy."
"Focus on locating the mole in Shine," Clay said. "We'll find Jon."
The other man's eyes met his. "He's not your child." Unasked was the question - will you fight as hard for him?
"He's Talin's." That meant the boy was his, too, was DarkRiver's.
"I'll find the son of a bitch, don't worry about that. Every Shine kid - official and unofficial - has now been warned and offered protection. Those who won't cooperate are being detained until things clear up."
"You're keeping them prisoner?" Talin asked, then added, "Good."
Ending the call on Dev's surprised face, Talin relaxed into Clay, finding her strength from his. He pressed a kiss into the curve of her neck and her body hummed, remembering the hard promise of the kiss he'd given her earlier.
"Home?"
"Yes," she said, home.
"Where I can teach you not to mess with me," he growled. "My reputation is in shreds."
She wondered if he'd brought up their earlier play on purpose, her leopard's way of giving her a moment's respite from the agony of knowing Jon was out there, being hurt, being brutalized. "I'm not scared of you."
"You should be. I bite."
The warning tore a smile from her. "You'd never hurt me." He'd killed for her, let himself be imprisoned for her, taken her back despite her betrayal in running from him, and, even now, when she might leave him again in the most final way, he stood with her.
Her world rocked on its axis, a hidden door in her mind slamming wide open. All these years she'd told herself she was staying away from him because of the scars of violence, because she didn't want to hurt him, because of so many things. But in this one moment, this instant of absolute clarity, she knew the truth.
She hadn't run because she'd been afraid of Clay.
She'd run because she'd been afraid of being loved that much, terrified that she would lose the precious gift of it when Clay finally saw the reality of who she was - a used-up, discarded bit of trash, what Orrin had made her, good for only one thing.
So she had left him first.
Chapter 31
Ashaya checked through the records and found well over a hundred names. It was far more than she had expected, far more than could be explained by even the most convoluted idea of research. Why had Ming let this continue? Larsen's research theories made no rational sense, and, its murderous tendencies aside, the Council did not waste time on useless endeavors.
She began to examine the list with a closer eye. It was the first time she had seen it.
Just like the meeting with Jonquil Duchslaya had been the first time she had spoken to one of the children. Larsen had been very, very careful - at least at the start. As far as she could figure, the majority of the children had been experimented on at one of the Council's covert northern labs.
However, the base of operations had been moved to this lab after it went fully functional - without her agreement or knowledge. Not only had the parties responsible shown a flagrant disregard for her status as the lab's head scientist, once here, they had made less than a token effort to hide their actions. They must have thought her oblivious to what was going on because she spent so much time in her private research areas.
They hadn't been far off the mark, but for the wrong reasons. It didn't matter. Because of her delay in realizing the truth, several children had died, in her lab. Two more remained - the boy, Jonquil Duchslaya, and the girl, Noor Hassan. Ashaya stared at the files and knew that they would meet the same fate if she didn't prevent it.
She didn't feel pity for them. She was Psy. She didn't feel anything. However, the fact that one of her putative research assistants was doing this without her authorization made this about who held the reins of power. Which was why she wasn't going to go to Ming and complain. Nor was she going to take Larsen to task.
This was the opportunity she'd been waiting for. If her strategy worked, then not only would these children survive, the Psy Council would no longer have anything with which to coerce her cooperation.
That thought in mind, she began the journey that would lead her upstairs and to the cornfields outside. The guards were becoming accustomed to her daily walks, exactly as she'd planned. Of course, her plan of misdirection was hampered by the fact that she had a very short period in which to lay the groundwork. But the haste couldn't be helped, not if Jonquil and Noor were to walk out alive.
Some might have said she didn't want the children to die because she'd somehow retained a conscience, even in the depths of Silence. Ashaya would have disagreed. She had no conscience, no heart - like her own son, Jonquil and Noor were nothing more than bargaining chips.