Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Councilor Scott was very clear in her instructions: we must run the listed battery of scans, and have her answer the questions the Councilor left behind.

However, I'm not certain we can do that without first incapacitating Auden—and the two feral guards she's brought into the residence. It's the latter that makes me question the success of the procedure.

—Charisma Wai to Dr.Verhoeven (now)

AUDEN SHOWED THE two of them the entirety of the house, including all entry and exit routes. They also stepped outside to take in the external area.

Cloudy gray light bathed Remi's face.

He shrugged his shoulders, settling his skin back into place. Being trapped inside that house hadn't been his favorite thing in the world. There was a reason he lived in the forest, in an aerie. But he knew this reprieve was temporary. "Does this place have an attic or a basement?"

"A small basement," Auden said. "It's used for storage."

"We should look at it regardless." If her family was hiding a secret, it was possible some component of it was physical.

Nodding, Auden led them to a door that came off the kitchen—which wasn't like any kitchen he'd ever seen. "No one cooks here?" he asked, motioning at the gleaming counters and lack of anything resembling a device to actually cook food.

"Until recently, we stuck to the regime of nutrient drinks prescribed during Silence," Auden told him. "We're branching out now, but only in limited ways." Nothing in her face or voice gave away the memory that throbbed between them of her devouring the pastries he'd brought her.

Next time, he promised himself, he'd feed her the damn pastries—while she sat naked in his lap.

The idea was so enticing that his cock threatened to react, but private fantasies aside, this place was dangerous for her, and both parts of Remi knew it wasn't playtime. When Auden went to open the door to the basement, he shook his head, then took over. There was no lock or code, and the handle turned easily in his hand.

Beyond was a set of simple plascrete steps bathed in a clean white light that had come on automatically when the door opened.

"Stay up here," he told Rina. "Watch our backs."

She gave a curt nod and took a neutral stance with her back to the door.

Walking down, very conscious of Auden behind him, Remi found himself in a space used for storage. Everything was stacked neatly on metal shelving, each bin or storage box labeled with a black marker. Boxes of nutrient packets, flat packs of furniture, items used for household maintenance; there was nothing unusual about the goods.

And yet…

The hairs on his nape prickled, his leopard at the surface of his mind as he used all of the animal's senses to try and understand his reaction. Slowly walking the perimeter of the room, he checked the walls, but sensed no hollows, and the basement area was the right size for the footprint of the house.

Under his feet, the plascrete was smooth and unmarred.

Frowning, he wondered if he was just on edge and did another intensive search. Still nothing. "Let's head back up," he said at last, because doing the same ineffectual thing over and over again wouldn't give him any new intel to explain the nagging sensation in his gut.

Auden, who'd stayed halfway down the stairs, didn't ask him any questions. He didn't know if that was because she had no questions, or if she was holding her tongue in case of spyware.

What a nightmare of a place to live, where she couldn't even speak in freedom.

Claws pricking at his skin and those hairs on his nape yet prickling, he stopped close to the top of the stairs and scanned the area one final time. The shadows fell differently when looked at from that position, and his eyesight wasn't that of a human or a Psy.

His hand tightened on the banister.

"Is everything satisfactory?" Auden's voice grated on his nerves—because that wasn't her voice, not the voice of the Auden he knew.

Her scent, he told himself, focus on her scent. The metal was the finest of threads, Auden using it to bolster her mask to anyone who might be listening. Hundred percent chance the place was bugged, especially given what he'd just discovered.

"Yes," he said, tone calm and professional. "I'd also like to walk outside, check for possible ingress and egress points."

"If you don't need me, I'd like to do a walk-through the house in leopard form," Rina said.

Remi smiled, and knew it held teeth. "Excellent idea." Let this Psy house feel fear at the presence of a predator unlike any they'd ever before seen up close and personal. "We'll meet up afterward." He had no need to tell Rina to take care; the sentinel knew about threats unique to Psy opponents, and she was no green soldier.

"Sir," Rina said, and turned to head upstairs to get out of her clothes before she shifted.

Neither he nor Auden said a word until they were outside and far enough from the house that they had no chance of being overheard.

Auden exhaled. "What is it? What did you see?"

His hackles flattened at once. Because this was her. His Auden. Even the thread of metal was gone. "You do one hell of a good cold face," he said.

"I always had trouble before." A painful tightness to her jaw, she turned and stared down the trees that lined the drive like stiff-backed soldiers. "There's a risk of the bleedover becoming a permanent part of my psyche."

Remi's claws threatened to shove out of his fingertips, but he forced himself to look at the facts with hard-eyed clarity. "How much do you love Liberty?"

"I'd burn down the world for her." No hesitation, no avoidance.

Man and leopard both settled. "If the bleedover elements make you tougher to defeat, more dangerous to this family? Use them."

"You're not afraid it'll change me on a fundamental level?"

"No," he said. "You might gain new aspects, but as far as I can tell, my Auden is still standing—not only that, she's in control. You're taking pieces from the second Auden, not the other way around."

Silence for a long minute. "I never thought about it that way. She's colder, harder, more dangerous—I can sense that through the bleedover, like the blurry outline of a person I'll never see. I also sense evil…it's a malevolent taste in the back of my throat, a hovering darkness."

She folded her arms. "But I'm not evil. And I am in control. I haven't had any blank spots in my memory since before Liberty's birth."

He wanted to kiss her fierce, beautiful mouth.

A nod from her, as if she'd come to a decision. "What did you find in the basement?"

"It's the floor," he said, adding another fantasy to his collection of what he planned to do with Auden—this one involved her lush mouth and a kiss while she was riding him. "Beautifully constructed, but they couldn't quite get rid of a very slight shadow along the lines of what I'm sure is an access hatch."

He looked back toward the house. "If there's a cavity below the basement, it has no obvious external access unless we're talking tunnels."

"Or teleport-capable Tks," Auden pointed out, a vein at her temple pulsing. "We have one bonded into the family—literally contracted for life on a high income, with the unspoken caveat that any disloyalty will mean death."

"How powerful?" Remi asked.

"Gradient 5.7," Auden said. "My parents had access to stronger ones, of course, due to their positions, but even they couldn't get away with bonding anyone stronger. The teleporters just wouldn't do it—they know their value. And neither the Jackson nor Scott line is known for Tks, so there's no internal supply."

"So most access is probably through the hatch, with teleports only used when absolutely necessary. You wouldn't want to burn out a Tk with such basic work when there was another way to get to the same spot."

Auden nodded. "It's most probably the actual security center for all the covert monitoring. The one I showed you in the house isn't that big."

Remi glanced around, making eye contact with the two guards on the fence line who were attempting to keep unobtrusive watch on them. Both gave small nods before continuing on their way.

His leopard smiled.

"Makes sense," he said in response to Auden's suggestion. "Easy to keep a subterranean area temperature controlled. Especially if the people working down there barely come in and out."

"We find out tonight." Auden's voice was even, but a fine tremor ran through her body. "If it's not important, we strike it off the list and carry on."

Remi didn't have to ask to know the reason for her rush. Her pain was a scent in the air, her love for her daughter altering the chemistry of her body. "Tonight," he promised. "We're not going to drag this out any longer than necessary."

"It's as if a part of me has been cut off, and I'm bleeding out in the open." She looked at her family home. "How can they not see? How can they not know?"

"Because they have no idea what it is to love like you do. Their fucking loss." He wished he could touch her, pet her, comfort her with skin privileges that had nothing to do with sex.

Then, and though she knew all this already, he told her again—because right now, Auden needed to hear it. "Finn will have set up a rotation of carers the instant we left. The cubs will also be allowed to come in and talk to her because Finn says cubs react happily to other cubs."

He could already imagine Jojo regaling Liberty with stories of her day, convinced that the baby could understand her even if Liberty couldn't talk yet. "The bigger ones will probably tell Liberty all about how Liberty got ‘borned' early and that's how come she can't come outside to play yet."

No softening in her expression, but her eyes, those stunning, expressive eyes that no longer reminded him of anyone but Auden, went fuzzy with love. And his heart, it kicked with brutal force.

Auden Scott was it for Remi Denier.

Even if the metal never left her scent, even if she absorbed that colder aspect into her nature.

What if it goes the other way? A chilling whisper from the most primal part of his psyche, the one from times primeval when monsters stalked the dark. What if this is a false dawn, and the other Auden is waiting in the wings to launch a final assault…an assault so deadly it forever erases your Auden?