Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3) - Nalini Singh Page 0,95
the hospital room and saw Vashti’s small body in the middle of the bed, tubes and wires going from the girl to various machines. Tamsyn had reassured her that Vashti would make a full recovery, but seeing the little girl this way, knowing it was her fault, it had Memory bleeding inside.
She’d locked her guilt and pain behind solid shields for hours, not about to allow them to leak around this very young empath. If Vashti was anything like Cordelia and the others, it’d make her feel bad when Memory was the one at fault. “Hi,” she said from near the doorway.
The little E’s forehead scrunched up. “You don’t taste bad anymore.”
Exhaling, Memory dared walk closer to the bed. “I’m sorry about that. I had to connect with the man who took you to track him. It temporarily altered my psychic scent.”
Expression clearing, Vashti lifted up a small hand. “Are you Memory?”
Nodding as she closed her fingers around the girl’s with gentle care, Memory said, “I’m sorry the bad man took you.”
“It’s not your fault—he has a hole inside him. He’s empty.” Warm, delicate life in every breath. “He said he wanted to lock you up so you could never escape.”
And this hurt and scared child had remembered and thought to warn her. “Thank you for telling me,” Memory whispered, her throat raw. “I have no intention of being caught.” She looked at Vashti’s father. “You know you have to alter your living area so he can no longer get a teleport lock?”
“Yes. DarkRiver has moved us into one of their apartments while the changes are made.” His voice was cool, but the hand he placed on his daughter’s forehead gentle. “She needs to rest now.”
Releasing Vashti’s hand, the girl’s eyelids already fluttering, Memory rose. Vashti’s father wasn’t Silent. Emotions seethed beneath the intense calm of his surface. Memory felt his cold fury at what had been done to his child, knew he blamed her. But she knocked on his mind nonetheless.
His eyes were hard when they met hers. Yes?
She’s an empath, Memory reminded this man who loved his daughter so very much. You need to learn to control your emotions beyond the surface.
His pupils dilated. I’ll be far calmer once you’re out of the room.
Memory left at once, guilt clawing at her with vicious strength. After pulling the door shut behind her, she walked toward Clay. The DarkRiver male frowned. “Better you don’t wander around while a psychopath’s hunting you.”
Nausea lurched in Memory’s stomach. Vashti was simply the first victim. Renault wouldn’t stop. He’d keep spilling innocent blood to get to her. “Toilet,” she muttered.
Piercing green eyes took her in before he pointed down and to the right. “Alexei’ll be back soon—wolf is right, you need to eat.” A pause. “Don’t worry about the little kitten’s father. Man’s still in shock.”
Not replying, Memory headed the way he’d indicated, but when she reached the facilities, she glanced back to see that Clay had just turned to answer a question from Tamsyn. Memory kept walking. Around the corner, down a flight of stairs, and all the way out of the hospital.
Though it was well after the midnight hour, the streets still buzzed with festivalgoers heading home. A couple walked ahead, the woman carrying a paper lantern she must’ve bought from one of the stalls.
The red of it glowed from the light within.
On the other side of the street stood a knot of young males, all dressed to the nines, with their black hair slicked back; they laughed and talked as they shared a packet of sweets. A group of women around Memory’s age wearing matching cheongsams—maybe a performance group of some kind—smiled coyly at the youths as they passed.
A quick-thinking boy offered them a sweet, and the women’s bright laughter sparkled in the night air.
Memory moved on. She didn’t know where she was going. It wasn’t as if she could outrun her own disgust with herself. She’d never been like those laughing young women, never walked hand-in-hand with a man through the city streets, never been clean and shiny and new.
How foolish to have imagined that she could have Alexei for her own.
He was a creature of this world, of light. Memory was a nightmare.
When the couple ahead of her turned off on a side street, she didn’t follow them. Their happiness made her feel even more hollow inside. Tonight, however, she couldn’t avoid the happy couples and the smiling groups out for a joyous night. They were everywhere.