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The latter suspicion was one it had taken Kaleb a year to confirm.
“You’re ready to trust the changelings with Sahara’s life?” The only reason he was willing to consider the proposal was because of Sahara’s response to the mention of her cousin—and because he knew Anthony was right about the prospect of any bounty hunter venturing onto DarkRiver land.
“If they accept her as family, the leopards will close ranks. With Faith certain to vouch for her, as well as Sahara’s broken Silence, there is no reason to assume they won’t treat her as one of their own. ” Anthony’s next words were directed at Sahara. “You’ll be safe within their borders, and you’ll have the forested part of their territory to roam. ”
That territory is vast, Kaleb added, sending Sahara a number of telepathic images. You’ll be as free as any leopard changeling, so long as you don’t go into a city.
Deep blue eyes met his before moving to Anthony. “Yes. ”
“I’ll clear it with the DarkRiver alpha. ” Anthony glanced at Kaleb. “You seem to be treating my territory as your own. ” It was a warning.
Kaleb slid his hands into the pockets of his pants. “Would you rather I let her die?” he said aloud, even as he spoke to Sahara along their private telepathic channel. Why didn’t you call me?
I had it under control. I am a grown woman.
Anthony’s stare bore into him on the heels of Sahara’s tart reply, but Kaleb hadn’t been intimidated by anyone for a long time. “I can transfer Sahara to leopard territory. ”
“Thank you but that won’t be necessary. ”
“Very well. ” He looked to Sahara. The knife was a nice touch.
Her scowl faded into a frown. Someone once told me I must always be prepared. I don’t remember who it was, but it was sound advice.
If only, Kaleb thought, she’d followed it when she was sixteen. But then, Santano had been a cardinal Tk, an adult male who found pleasure in the pain of young women who couldn’t fight back.
Sahara had never stood a chance.
Chapter 24
SAHARA KNEW THE black-garbed man who stood beside her as the clock ticked over four a. m.
was an Arrow. She also knew he was a teleporter, one with cold gray eyes and a computronic gauntlet on his left forearm. Yet regardless of the single silver star on the shoulder of his combat uniform that said he was aligned to Kaleb, Anthony trusted the male to transport her to DarkRiver territory.
“I’ve been sent the image for the transfer. ” The Arrow looked up from the small screen built into the gauntlet. “Are you ready?”
Sahara had never once hesitated with Kaleb, but she had to take a deep breath before nodding when it came to this Arrow with his steely eyes that seemed as distant as light on a storm-dark horizon. If Kaleb was at times encased in black ice, this man was as chill as frost, his Silence metallic in its perfection.
He was, however, as fast as Kaleb—and since he wasn’t a cardinal, he had to be one of the extremely rare true teleporters, designation Tk, subdesignation V. While those of subdesignation V were telekinetics, with the attendant abilities depending on their level of power, it was said they came out of the womb with the ability to ’port, no practice or study necessary, the talent independent of their standing on the Gradient.
As a girl, she’d once heard that Tk-V children were GPS chipped as babies. Sahara didn’t know if that was true, or only a story made up by young Psy who had never met anyone from the near-mythical subdesignation V, but it made sense. Like all telekinetics capable of teleportation, they had to have steel-trap geographic memories. So a baby or a toddler could conceivably teleport himself to a random location he’d glimpsed from a car, for example, then become too distressed to teleport back home.
Now the teleporter, a man she simply couldn’t imagine as a child, glanced around the pine-needle- carpeted clearing made distinctive by two royal blue scarves hung from thick branches. He inclined his head at the woman with hair of scarlet silk who ran toward Sahara, then was gone.
“Sahara. It’s really you!” Cheeks stained with tears, the lovely woman cupped Sahara’s face, her smile luminous through the wet. “I thought I’d never see you again. ”
“Faith. ” It was a whisper as she took in the woman her remote, composed cousin had become.
Alive and stunningly vibrant. “You’re so beautiful. ”
A startled light in the cardinal starlight of Faith’s eyes before she gave a small cry and removed her hands. “Forgive me. I didn’t—”
“It’s all right. ” Sahara took the slender hands that had touched her with an unhidden affection that made her throat thicken, brought them back to her cheeks. “My Silence is far more than broken. ”
Wrapping her arms tight around Sahara, her cousin whispered, “I never forgot you,” into a quiet filled with the music of a thousand leaves rustling in a passing wind. “Father . . . it wasn’t until after my defection that he told me about your abduction, and that the family had never stopped searching for you. ”
Returning Faith’s embrace, emotion burning her eyes, Sahara said, “I know you tried to find me, too, through your visions. ” It was something her own father had shared with her that first day they’d spent together.
A shaky breath as Faith drew back. “I’m so sorry about Leon. He was kind to me whenever our paths crossed. ”
“He’s strong, he’ll be okay. ” Sahara refused to believe in any other outcome. “He didn’t give up on me, and I won’t give up on him. ” A future without her father’s big, solid presence in her life was incomprehensible.
“If it helps,” Faith said, “when I look into the future with Leon as a focus, I constantly see him in his clinic, talking to a patient, or at his desk. I feel no sadness, no sense of loss. ”
Sahara squeezed her cousin’s hand. “Thank you. ” To hear that from the most gifted F-Psy in the world was no small thing, the glimmer of hope one she held on to with both hands. “I’m sorry, too,” she said softly, “about Marine. ” Faith’s younger sister had been a cardinal telepath, her studies rarely crossing with Sahara’s, but they’d been cousins all the same.
Sadness in Faith’s eyes, her fingers brushing Sahara’s cheek. “Marine lived an extraordinary life, did things I only found out about after I was no longer in the PsyNet. She left her mark. ” Unhidden pride, a waterlogged smile. “I like to think she would’ve cheered and said ‘Finally!’ when her toe- the-line sister rebelled at last. ”
Sahara’s responding smile was just as shaky. “I’m so happy you made it out, Faith, that you have a life full of joy. Thank you for inviting me into it. ”
“You can stay forever as far as I’m concerned. ” Tender warmth in every word. “We can finally be friends as we always wanted to be. ”
Sahara wanted nothing more than to accept the offer of sanctuary and just be, but she couldn’t do it under false pretenses. “I may be dangerous to your pack. Kaleb Krychek can find me at any time. ”
The warm welcome in Faith’s expression didn’t falter. “We’ve already thought of that. Fact is, if Father is right and Kaleb is a teleporter who can lock on to people rather than simply places, he can find any of us. ” Smoothing Sahara’s hair, she continued. “Still, he’s never shown any aggression toward the pack, and you’re family. If he does turn hostile, we’ll handle it. ”
Even as Sahara’s heart warmed at Faith’s protectiveness, another part of her whispered that Kaleb had no family, no one to call his own, no one who would welcome him with the unconditional love with which Faith had welcomed her. “But,” she said through a deep sense of desolation mixed with anger at the parents who had given up a defenseless boy to a monster, “you will put me away from your vulnerable?” Kaleb might not harm her, but she couldn’t promise the same when it came to others.
“Yes. ” Faith’s eyes were gentle as she said, “Don’t worry, Sahara. We’ve been playing these
games a long time. ” It was the firm reassurance of an older sister. “Your aerie is close to our place, but far enough away to afford you your privacy. ”
“I have my own aerie?” The idea of a house in the treetops made the damaged girl inside her gasp in wonder.
“Yes, but only if you prefer it that way,” Faith assured her.
“I think I’d like my own place. ” It felt disloyal to say that when Kaleb had built her a graceful, light-drenched home that sang to her soul—but that home wasn’t what she needed at this moment, wasn’t a place where she could stretch her long-stunted wings.
Kaleb was too protective . . . too much an addiction.
Her breasts ached at the memory of how he’d touched her, his eyes an obsidian storm. Every time he came near her, she wanted to dance in the storm. Even now, so far from him, the pine in the air reminded her of him with every breath she took. “Did your mate come with you?” she asked Faith, making the conscious decision to turn her concentration away from the cardinal who’d kissed her under a wolf moon.
Faith’s face glowed. “Vaughn. ”
A tall man with amber hair caught neatly in a queue at the nape of his neck and eyes of near gold appeared out of the shadows. “It’s good to meet you at last, Sahara. ” Quiet and deep, his voice was honey over her skin.
“I’m so happy to meet you, too,” she said, fascinated by the way he moved as he pulled down the scarves that had acted as markers for the teleport; she’d never mistake him for either Psy or human.
“He’s magnificent, isn’t he?” Faith whispered, lips to her ear.
“Yes. ” But no matter his golden beauty, he didn’t make her skin burn, her heart beat out of rhythm, and her soul hurt.
“Let’s get you home,” her cousin’s mate said, throwing one of the scarves around Faith’s neck, the other around Sahara’s.