Psy (Alien Castaways #3) - Cara Bristol Page 0,46

Meadow! Why, why would she do that? Why? Why?

Because, unable to find a genmate, Mentira wouldn’t be able to have children, Psy realized. The explanation did not excuse the crime. As an adult, a Verital, viewing a three-year-old child’s memories, he’d picked up on far more than she had. He’d heard the nuances of tone, had seen the covetous expressions. Mentira had hated Rachel, had been intensely jealous of her.

She locked me in the trunk! She made it so I couldn’t even cry out.

From Cassie’s memories—he couldn’t help but think of her as Cassie—he estimated she had been trapped for hours while Mentira fed lies to the police. “That’s how you became claustrophobic,” he said.

She’s the reason I couldn’t speak. I used to talk! She did something to me!

Yes. She convinced you that you would stop breathing and die if you tried to speak. After the abduction, she’d continued to brainwash her.

She couldn’t erase your memories because too much of your development was tied to your real mother, so she built a wall around those memories and associations. She feared you might remember your real mother and would tell somebody what she had done, he surmised.

Cassie shuddered and clutched at his shirt, damp from her tears. That’s why I liked the bear cookie jar. My real mother had one! And her perfume I smelled one time on a stranger! She wore the same fragrance as my real mother.

Your visions were memories breaking through the wall, he explained. They’d escaped through the tiny pinpricks.

She lifted her head. Tears streaked her face, but she set her jaw in a resolute line. Can you undo what Mentira did, fix it so I can speak again?

“Easily,” he said confidently, familiar now with Mentira’s handiwork.

Please do it.

His consciousness flowed through her mind and isolated the false construct that she couldn’t speak and would suffocate if she attempted to, and erased it, obliterating all traces. “Done,” he said aloud. “Try speaking now.”

Cassie wet her lips. “Thhaank yyyou.” The words came out rusty, raw, but beautiful, and the joy in her eyes caused Psy’s throat to thicken. “I caaan spppeak. I caaan spppeak!”

“Yes, you can.” He smiled from ear to ear.

“Stilll haaard.” But there’s no pain. I can breathe, she telepathed and pressed a hand to her throat.

“You’ll have to relearn the mouth movements. It will get easier, and the speech therapist will help you.”

She nodded. “I lovvve yyyou. Nowww I caaan say it.” Satisfaction glinted in her eyes.

“I love you, too.” He pressed his lips to hers. For a long time there was only silence, except for her sweet sighs. He stroked her face, drawing his finger gently down her temple and cheek.

“Yyyou gaaave me back my v-voice, my lifffe.”

“Despite a huge handicap inflicted upon you, you were making a life for yourself. You went against her wishes and got a job. You were planning to move out, planning to sever the guardianship.” Her spirit was indomitable. Despite everything Mentira had done to her, Cassie’s will had survived.

She permitted the job because the money benefitted her, but she wouldn’t have allowed me to leave her.

Although her desire to talk was great, disuse hampered her voice, and her thoughts flew faster than she could speak. But one day soon, speaking would become as easy as thinking, and he would do everything he could to help her get there.

She manipulated me. Controlled me. She didn’t want a child, she desired a puppet.

“Sh-she stole her fffriend’s child—” Rachel. My mother’s name is Rachel. Mentira keeps in contact with a high school friend named Rachel! After stealing me, she kept in touch with my mother! What kind of person does that?

A kidnapper who would want to know if authorities would be closing in, he surmised. From what he’d gleaned of Mentira’s personality from Cassie’s memories, she would keep tabs on her victim, probably to draw satisfaction from Rachel’s grief.

“I waaant to f-find my m-m-motther.” Mentira has emails. She has her address.

Would Mentira give up the information? He doubted it, but Shadow could locate Rachel. “We’ll find your mother,” he promised.

“I waaant M-mentira arrested for k-k-kidnapping.”

“That…could be a problem,” he said.

Cassie’s head snapped back, and her eyes flashed. You don’t think she should pay for her crime?

“Of course I do. But Mentira is a Verital. What she did to you, she’ll do to others. She would wipe the memory of anyone who tried to arrest her. Earth authorities are not equipped to handle someone like her.”

Cassie’s shoulders slumped. So she’ll get