Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3) - Nalini Singh Page 0,88

much psychic energy that he’d fried his brain.

It could take up to a day to recover.

The only bright point in this entire clusterfuck was that his mind wouldn’t have flashed red on the PsyNet, alerting enemies and opportunists that his defenses were down. His silent and secret connection to Theodora meant his shields were now feeding off her psychic energy.

Would she have noticed? He wasn’t certain. The link that tied him to his twin wasn’t one that scientists had ever studied. He wasn’t sure anyone but those like him and Theo knew it even existed—and they preferred to keep it private. Under Silence, their bond would’ve seen them stigmatized.

Now . . .

Rising, his psychic senses blank, he turned back to the window and the city spread out below. All his new power, the violence of it enormous, was gone. What had he done in those lost hours? Where had he expended so much psychic energy?

His breath turned shallow, a breach of Silence, but that was nowhere near his biggest concern. The PsyNet was closed to him until his psychic energy regenerated, but he grabbed a datapad and began going through the news sites.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

He threw it down.

What had he done?

Chapter 33

Possible sighting of Erasmus David Renault by Fisherman’s Wharf. Followed up within fifteen minutes. No sign of target. Bystanders in the area didn’t recall anyone matching his description.

—DarkRiver Security Log

TWO HOURS AFTER the attack and Alexei pulled on his favorite black sweater. He was already wearing a black tee, hadn’t needed the extra layer until his body began to cool down. Riaz’s strong and striking partner in life and love, Adria, had remembered to bring him down a change of clothes after she got assigned to the compound’s security team.

Alexei and that team had worked together with the cats to clear away every last sign of violence. Two brawny leopards had turned up with shovels and literally buried the blood that had soaked into the ground. Alexei had been concerned the Es would refuse to remain near the scene of such vicious aggression, but those of Designation E were tougher than they looked. Now that the first shock had passed, they were gritting their teeth and getting on with it.

“We can’t insulate them from the real world,” Ivy Jane Zen had said when she and Sascha arrived to deal with the fallout, her mouth bracketed by white lines. “Es have to be able to function around pain, around death.”

The two senior empaths were staying the night and had already spoken to the trainees one by one. Memory alone wasn’t on their list. Sensing her emotional stability, they’d roped her into distracting those Es who’d appeared particularly shaky—she’d done so by showing her charges articles from the Wild Woman magazines she’d found on a bookshelf in her cabin.

Oddly, all the Es—his lioness included—had appeared fascinated by the articles, their heads huddled together as they discussed certain points in great detail. Now, at last, the rest of the Es were all settled in their cabins and Memory sat on her porch, a tough-as-a-wolf princess in an airy skirt and sparkling shoes.

Except her eyes held infinite darkness when he reached her. “Do you think it came here because of me?” she asked, her voice haunted.

Alexei told himself not to growl at her. “It wanted the Arrows, not you.” The growl really wanted to come out. “Have you eaten dinner?” It was nearly eight-thirty at night.

When she shook her head, he clenched his jaw. “Tell me I can go into your kitchen.” He would not enter her territory without her permission.

She shrugged and propped her chin on her hands, elbows braced on her thighs. “If you want.”

He returned after heating up one of the ready meals stocked in all the cabins. Then he scowled at her until she glared back and took a bite. After watching her take another bite, Alexei did what he’d been itching to do all night and pulled out the band corralling her curls.

They exploded around her head.

Shooting him another death glare, she pointed her fork at him. “Who said you had those skin privileges?”

“You did. We had a deal, remember?” He was no sly cat, but strategy was his middle name. “You reneging?”

A narrowing of her eyes. “Fine. But don’t think this’ll get you kisses.”

Despite his earlier thoughts, Alexei felt exactly like a damn cat as he tugged and released and generally amused himself with the wildness of her hair . . . and the ache inside him,