Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Emergency teleport request received from RainFire. Nerida handled first 'port, but they need two teleporters for the second transport.

—Message to Vasic Zen, second-in-command of the Arrow Squad (11 November 2083)

REMI YELLED, "GO!" into the open line as soon as Finn had the child in his arms, and suddenly, there were two Arrow teleporters in the room.

Remi had already grabbed Auden's bloody body, the sheet Finn had placed over her thighs crumpled between her limbs and his arm.

A pulse of disorientation later, and they all stood inside Finn's infirmary. The healer raced to place the child in an incubator designed to protect its fragile life, while his nurses, Hugo and Saskia, as well as the Psy doctor—Dr.Edgard Bashir—whom Nerida had brought in after she dropped Finn off, worked to save Auden's life.

She'd lost blood, far too much of it.

Remi made himself release her hand, give the medical staff room to move. The teleporters had already left, but a tired Vasic reappeared soon afterward with an equally tired-looking Aden, the three of them meeting in the hallway outside the large infirmary suite that was the biggest of the three cubes.

"Is she safe on the PsyNet?" he asked one of the deadliest men in the PsyNet.

Aden nodded, the slick and straight black of his hair gleaming in the artificial lighting; he wore it short, no fuss. "Her shields are airtight. No one knows she's given birth. Zaira handled the initial response and I took over when I finished up in Europe. I added a secondary shield to protect her privacy from me, too."

Remi knew a lot of fucked up shit was going on in the PsyNet, could see that both men were worn to the bone. And still they—all of the squad—had responded to his call for help. "Thank you."

"No thanks between us, Remi, you know that." His friend's dark eyes held Remi's gaze, the olive tone of his skin too pale—as if he hadn't had much chance to get out into the sunlight. "I didn't even know Auden Scott was pregnant."

"Not security related." Remi kept his tone even, because these men didn't deserve his anger. "None of anyone's damn business."

"Agreed," Aden said without hesitation, and that was when Remi remembered that his friend had trained as a medic. Not only that, but Aden wasn't just an Arrow—he was a good man, a good mate to Zaira, a good friend.

"Status?" Aden asked.

"Critical. Both of them." Remi had to fight every instinct in his body not to push back into the room. "Does Dr.Bashir have any idea why she began to hemorrhage?" He knew they had to be in telepathic communication with the man.

"No, not yet. But he's a neurosurgeon who's also trained in trauma-related injuries because of the squad, not an obstetric specialist—we'd have to go outside the squad to get you one of those, and we haven't yet zeroed in on a trustworthy candidate," Aden said. "Do you want to take the risk?"

Remi thought rapidly, and came up against an unexpected solution: Tamsyn Ryder .

DarkRiver's healer had assisted with Psy births. He had the feeling she had more training than any other changeling healer when it came to the Psy—and he knew she had infinitely more experience with women and childbirth than Dr.Bashir.

"I'll make a call," he said to the Arrows, then walked away to do so.

"I need Tamsyn," he said the instant Lucas answered. "Don't ask me how, but I have a Psy with me who's just given birth and she's hemorrhaging. Finn can't work on her and the cub both—though he's trying—and the Psy doctor we have has no experience with births."

"I'll organize it," Lucas said, offering him the respect of not asking questions that'd delay things. "One of your Arrow friends available for teleport?"

"Vasic."

It was arranged in a matter of minutes, tall and elegant Tamsyn "Tammy" Ryder soon in the infirmary with Bashir and Finn—who yelled out a heartfelt, "I thought you'd never get here, Tams!"

Then, as the medical people worked, Aden and Remi spoke in the hallway, with Vasic teleporting out to handle "a glitch in Eastern Europe."

Remi frowned. "You need to go back, too, Aden? I know it's hell on the Net right now."

"No, I'm close to flameout. Kaleb's taken over, with two other cardinals assisting—add Vasic to that, and that situation is under control."

Undoing his jacket, Aden put his hands on his hips above the waistline of his black combat pants. "I understand why you had to bring her here," Aden said, nodding toward the closed door that held Auden and her child. "But you know the room is compromised the instant she wakes and gets an image she could give to a teleporter?"

Folding his arms, Remi set his feet apart. "She'd never betray us." He'd stake his life on that. "She'd die for that cub of hers."

"Scotts are masters of deception." Aden's voice was even, his eyes unflinching.

"I know her." Remi thumped a fist against his bare chest. "All she cares about is her baby." He held Aden's eyes. "I know the same way I knew you and Zaira wouldn't hurt us." Even as he spoke, he remembered the other Auden, the one who repelled his leopard and who had cold-bloodedly negotiated with the man who was the baby's biological father.

That woman he didn't know or trust.

Splinters.

Multiple personalities.

Bleedover.

"Be careful, Remi." Aden's voice was quiet with warning. "The Scott family…they're a lineage of power, but power gained through a kind of ruthlessness that's extreme even for the Psy."

"She's worried about them taking her cub. How high is the possibility she's right?"

"High," Aden said at once. "The big families are militant about controlling their bloodlines." He looked to the closed door. "The child is innocent. We can hide her in the Valley, inside our shields. No one will ever find her."

Remi's heart expanded—because he hadn't even had to ask the question before the offer was made; RainFire and the Arrows, their friendship was a thing of blood and loyalty. "I might have to take you up on that if the shit hits the fan. It won't be permanent—cub is one of mine now." Born into RainFire under Remi's rule, she was under his protection, and in his heart just like Jojo and Asher and all the others.

Aden nodded. "Even if you're right and Auden Scott isn't a threat, she could still betray you without meaning to."

"Are you saying her own family would rape her mind, just take the information?" He knew the answer even as he asked the question, his fingers tingling with the tactile echo of that small, telling scar on her temple.

"The Scotts don't have any lines they won't cross."

"Fuck." Remi locked his fingers behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Right, what can we do to protect the pack while also protecting Auden and her cub?" Because he'd made two promises and he'd damn well keep both of them.

Dropping his hands to his hips, he got ready to listen.

"Keep her isolated to the infirmary—which shouldn't be difficult given her current state." Aden held up a hand when Remi would've spoken. "Right now, her mind is safe because I'm protecting it—when I need to pull my energy, Zaira will take over. No one will ever be able to get to her.

"But PsyNet shields are different from the ones she has against telepathic powers—which means she'll be vulnerable once she returns to her household."

It's not my home. It's my mother's house.

Auden's words vibrated inside Remi's mind.

"The instant she leaves," the Arrow leader continued, "you need to alter the room in a way that no one can use it as a teleport lock. Easiest way would be to clear the equipment or cover it, and splash the room with a different color paint.

"A messy solution, but in combination with the shifting of equipment, it'll distort the teleport lock—unless she has an image point that's hyper-specific, unique, and can't be changed. A chipped tile in a distinctive pattern, for example."

"No, the room is all but new. Smooth lines, clean walls, only necessary equipment in there."

"Good. That'll help." Aden's eyes went to the room where the healers fought for the lives of a woman and a child who deserved to feel safe, feel protected. "I know you hate the idea of caging anyone, but every other part of your aerie community is unique in many ways. Teleporters who can lock onto faces are rare, but a specific enough location lock ameliorates that—the enemy could teleport into the center of the pack with ill intent."

"I understand." His alpha's heart pulsed at the idea of any such harm coming to RainFire—and it raged against trapping Auden and her cub. She'd already been wounded over and over again by the people who were supposed to care for her—and now he was being backed into a corner, forced to stifle what little freedom she'd managed to claw for herself.

Never before had he so totally hated himself for the decision he had to make.