ShiftingHeat (26 page)

“No laboratory,” Ann told her. “The Cardross family sold
Talents for years. They passed on the skill from generation to generation. Your
parents weren’t the first ones they sold, nor were they the last. Serena was
just carrying on the family tradition.”

Faye gaped.

Ann muted the TV. “You didn’t hear? I’m sorry. I thought
Daria had told you.”

Faye found her voice. “Serena was a Cardross?”

“Yes, my dear, I’m afraid she was.”

She couldn’t doubt Ann. Already she’d learned that Ann
didn’t state a fact without being totally sure of it first. “I thought I’d
walked away from that.” Her head spun but slowly details returned to her. The
antique weapon that Nordheim had used, the way he noticed her from her first
appearance at the university. He’d worked with Serena and done her a favor when
she’d asked. To draw Faye closer. If Ann was right and she was the real target
that day in Nordheim’s office, it made even more sense.

She sighed. “As long as you have that killing on your conscience,
they will be after you and you will have that vulnerability. I want you to make
a full confession to our FBI friend. He’ll file it and you might have to go to
court. There is no statute of limitations on murder, but in your state, there
is a limit on manslaughter and self-defense and those have long passed. The
only way you can suffer is if the judge decides to go ahead with a murder
prosecution. That or nothing. That won’t happen in your case.”

“But I—”

Ann wouldn’t let her finish. “Self-defense. He drew his
weapon first. We will provide all the legal help you need and they will run
around the question until it becomes a financial burden on the state. That’s
the worst-case scenario. Now we’re uncovering the truth about the Cardrosses,
it wouldn’t be a good idea for them to prosecute the person who killed a mass
murderer. Because that is what the Cardross family did. The authorities are
more likely to thank you.”

She sat numbly, clutching a hand that couldn’t grip back. He
heard, he knew. “Serena was really a Sorcerer, wasn’t she? How could she be a
Cardross?”

“She’s the result of a union between a Cardross woman and
one of the prisoners they took. Tracing her background made the last piece of
the puzzle fall into place. She was brought up as a Cardross and they nurtured her
Talent. They used her as a weapon.”

“The bitch dies.” She would do it herself, if she had to.

“Oh there’s no doubt about that.” Ann paused. “I believe
Andros was identified when he linked with you publicly.”

“Are you sure about Daria? Is she that good?” Faye couldn’t
help her doubts now. Ann had just pulled the proverbial rug from under her feet
and Faye wasn’t sure of anything anymore. No, scratch that. She squeezed Andros’
hand. She was sure of one thing.

“Daria doesn’t come into the city often. She fights to
maintain her sanity, sleeps in one of the iso rooms. She’s massively Talented,
even for a virgin Sorcerer, and I don’t ask for her personal services too much
because I know how much she suffers when she comes into the city. But we need
her now. And when she discovered the existence of the Cardrosses, she insisted
on coming because one of her kind was involved. It’s thanks to Daria we have
discovered all of this so quickly. I know what you’re thinking.”

Ann didn’t need psi, only her own native shrewdness. She
stood perfectly still, framed in the open doorway, all her attention on Faye. “It
wasn’t all your fault, there are other factors. I think there’s a connection
between Serena and Andros. She wants him, but she can’t admit it. So she took
him. She didn’t pass him on, she kept him. We waited at the hotel she took him
to, hoping to pick up the next connection, the person who would take him, but
all we found was someone turning up with a rented car in her name. She was
taking him somewhere on her own. Maybe she planned to keep him as a kind of
pet. That’s what we plan to work on, it’s what Daria is insinuating into
Serena’s mind. She’s slowly stripping Serena, but there’s a danger that Serena
will decide to self-combust before Daria can get near her core. So Daria is
feeding her images of Andros, reminding her that Andros is here and he needs
her, that only she can unlock him from this stasis. We won’t appeal to her
better nature. I don’t think she has one. But slight hints, suggestions that
she might see him again or even have him for her own might keep her going. We
need to move Andros now. Take him down to see her.”

Faye held her breath. The risk was immense, but no worse
than keeping Andros in this form for the rest of his life or risk destroying
him. She knew what Andros would want. He wouldn’t want to live this way. Far
worse than anything that had gone before. He’d go insane.

He’d seen Faye’s shock when she first set eyes on him and he
agreed with it. He wouldn’t live like this. He’d refuse to eat or drink if they
couldn’t save him. While they heaved him out of bed, dressed him in sweats and
loaded him into his wheelchair, he had time to think. It wasn’t desperation or
self-pity. He’d already tried to control his blinks or even his breathing to
try to communicate in a rudimentary way, but Serena had left him with only involuntary
actions, the kind that kept him alive. That was cruel in itself. To do that was
to turn him into the living opposite of a zombie—his mind intact, but not his
body.

If this proved his fate, he’d die. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t
thought about it before. He even knew his preferred way and since he could
still swallow, it remained his favorite. Drift away with the right drugs. Faye
said she loved him. He believed her, but if he lived, she’d never move on.
She’d care for him, maybe hoping for something she couldn’t have. He wouldn’t
do that to her. Better to make the break and let her go on with her life.

Having made the decision, Andros felt better, as if a weight
had been lifted away from him. He could face death although he didn’t seek it,
and he had little else to fear. He’d even found love.

He wouldn’t give up yet. He had to give Daria a chance.

They wheeled him down to the iso rooms. With his fingers on
the rests, the feel of the raised spots where he’d put stickers of the moon and
stars and the rough patch he used to pick at reminded him of times he never
wanted to see again. This was a state-of-the-art wheelchair. It reclined at a
touch, moved via the joystick affixed to the control panel by his hand. Not
that any of it would help him now. The last time he’d used this had been the
afternoon he’d been abducted, just before his conversion. Thinking of that time
reminded him of the stoicism he’d possessed, the humor he wielded like a
weapon, as if death was the worst thing that could happen to him. Now he knew
better.

A familiar black cloud descended on him, hovering around his
head. He could feel it, sense it. But he refused to let it in. Used to
rejecting it, used to pushing it away, it still came much harder this time. He
couldn’t fight it much longer before he’d descend into the pit of despond.
Rather than that— Shit, he was doing it again.

At least they didn’t encounter many people on their way to
iso room three. With such a powerful and hostile being around, Ann had probably
had the floor cleared, if not the building. Necessary security staff only.

Ann paused before she opened the door and he knew she was
checking with Daria before she entered, although he couldn’t contact anyone
that way. If he concentrated, he could persuade himself he was back in his
room, trying to meditate. Deliberately cutting the world off instead of having
it forced on him.

Two heads turned at their entrance, brunette and blonde.
Power throbbed in the air, combative and menacing. It prickled his skin, made
the small hairs stand on end. He almost welcomed it.

Then came a voice in his head.
Hello, Andros. Have you
found a way out yet?

He was so glad to hear someone he could communicate with he
nearly welcomed her in.
Serena. Can you fix this?

Oh yes, I can fix it. But you have to give me a good
reason to do it.

Ann bent down and murmured in his ear. “Keep going.”

Shocked that she realized what was happening, Andros almost
lost it. But he had Serena now, and he concentrated on keeping her. Not that
she couldn’t leave as soon as she wanted to. But he had to talk to her, not
appear desperate or she’d pounce on that and use it.

I can teach you what I promised
,
he reminded
her.

I might enjoy that. To take you somewhere quiet, just the
two of us. They’d let me do that.

No, no they wouldn’t. Not after what she had done.

He felt something stir, deep inside. Was it something Serena
was doing, or something that was happening despite her? It felt like cells
coming to life after a long sleep.

Serena turned away from him but kept her presence inside
him.

Then he realized what was happening. Every programmer left a
backdoor or two into a program so they could get in and alter things, monitor
things. Serena probably had one. That was how she’d gotten in without
disturbing the layers of protection she’d put around him. Please God that was
Daria he felt as an extra, lurking presence, not his own imagination.

I can cope like this. I’ve been crippled before. But I’d
rather not have to.

A pet.
Her musings sickened him.
I’d like a pet.

He controlled his revulsion, barely. A hand on his shoulder.
He didn’t have to look, he knew it was Faye. Warmth and desire blossomed within
him and he sensed the moment when Serena sharpened, her attention honed. Shit,
she was going for Faye. If she did, he’d kill her. Somehow he’d make sure she
died.

But someone else got in the way, threw up a ring and then
blocked. He couldn’t feel Serena anymore and when he tried, he couldn’t
converse with her.

Daria leaned back in her hard chair and covered her face
with her hands. “You did well, Andros. If you try, you can move now.”

He tried. It hurt, so bad, but he rejoiced that he could feel
the pain. Like a masochist reveling in his suffering, he pressed his hands
against the arms of the chair, flexed his feet. He got up from the wheelchair
and took Faye in his arms. They could lock him away there if they liked.

* * * * *

They behaved themselves, right until he closed the door to
his apartment. Then Andros slammed Faye against it, taking her breath, and she
panted a laugh as he dragged up her T-shirt and bent to her breasts, drawing
one into his mouth with ravenous hunger. He fumbled with her pants and she
reached for his, dragging his sweats down as he tugged her panties away. She
heard the rip as fabric tore, kicked her pants aside when he’d pulled them down
enough for her to finish the job with her feet. Thank fuck she’d worn shoes she
could toe off, otherwise she’d be completely hampered. And she wanted to get as
close to him as she could.

He touched her, roughly inserted a finger inside her pussy.
“God, you’re so wet!” He thrust a couple of times but then pulled away. “I
can’t wait. I need you.”

“I need you too. God, I really thought I’d lost you!” She’d
never forget the despair she’d hidden from him when she realized he couldn’t
move, might never move again. But Daria had worked her magic and now Serena had
the problem, not Andros. He still wasn’t sure what magic she’d performed, but
he didn’t care, not right now.

He thrust and drove his hard, wet cock into her. She lifted
her legs, sandwiched between Andros and the door, loving this imprisonment.
Adoring him. The door rattled when he shoved her against it, banged in rhythm
to his thrusts. The sweetest music she’d ever heard. She cried out, craving his
ownership of her, knowing she shouldn’t.

“Just let go. Do it. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks or
what they want. We’ll do what we want and we’ll love it. You want it harder,
don’t you?”

“Yes! Oh God, yes!” She was almost sobbing now, and if he
stopped she’d beg him not to.

But he didn’t stop. He grunted as he thrust, a gloriously
male sound of possession. Her breath escaped in tiny pants, a yelp escaping her
involuntarily with the deepest part of each thrust. He touched her sweetest
spot every time, drove her higher but caressed her with his mind, curled his
thoughts around her and refused to let go.

“Let me come.”

“Together.”

Without warning, he released her mind, changed his rhythm
and gave a series of sharp, hard stabs that drove her mindless. Fireworks burst
in her body, bathing her with heat, but she shivered with her orgasm. She came
and came until she was barely conscious.

He carried her to the bedroom and laid her down.

She smiled up at him. “Shouldn’t we bathe?”

“In a little while.” He drew a finger down her body, still
half clothed and wet with her sweat and his. “Maybe I want dirty sex. Would you
like that?”

“If you would, so would I.” She sat, stripped off her
T-shirt and reached for the back fastening of her bra. He came back to tug her
into his arms.

“I shouldn’t feel this exhausted.”

“Stress. And you haven’t changed yet to fully heal.” She
slid her hands up his chest, dotted a kiss on each pectoral, tasting the
saltiness of his desire for her. “We don’t have any reason to hurry now.”

“What about your job?”

“They can suck it up. It’s time I changed, anyway. I was
getting into a rut. I’ll think about it another time.” She didn’t care. She
knew she’d have to do something, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do yet.
Except stay here and fuck Andros senseless, of course. “What will they do with
Serena?”

He gave a short sound that sounded a bit like a laugh but
not quite. “In the past they’d have taken her quietly away and executed her. She’s
broken the only two laws Talents used to have in the old days.”