Alice Eldridge lay curled up asleep on the other sofa. The scientist’s physical stamina was still low as a result of her time in stasis, but no one could say she hadn’t pulled her weight today.
Vasic grabbed a chair and sat down. He had no desire to eat, but he consumed nutrition bar after nutrition bar with methodical precision—he’d be useless to Ivy otherwise.
“I thought I’d discovered a solution to the pressure on the brain,” Sascha said, face drawn, “but the method I use to create a terminal field doesn’t work to encourage calm.” She thrust a hand through her hair. “There’s so much we just don’t know, don’t understand.” Eating the bite of pizza her mate held up to her lips, she chewed and swallowed. “I’ll stay, help. I couldn’t bear to go home knowing—”
“No,” Vasic interrupted. “You need to return to your territory.”
Scowling at his mate when she parted her lips to speak, Lucas Hunter put a nutrition drink in her hand and waited until she’d started drinking before turning to Vasic. “You want Sascha to train other cardinals?”
“Yes.” He finished off his fourth nutrition bar. “We need cardinals ready and able to effect the terminal field, and we need them now. Everything else can come later.”
Sascha put down the empty glass. “You’re talking about cardinals who’ve been told they’re flawed and of no use their entire lives,” she said with such passionate force, Vasic knew she’d been told the same. “It’ll take time for them to come to grips with the betrayal of it all.”
“Ivy almost killed herself today,” he pointed out, his jaw tense. “You’ve lost a fifth of your body weight, and Jaya is still at the hospital.”
Lucas completed Vasic’s train of thought, the DarkRiver alpha’s eyes nightglow in the muted living room light. “An empath’s instincts will always win out.”
Of that Vasic had no doubt. “Will you do it?”
“Of course.” Sascha closed her hand over Lucas’s thigh, her eyes bruised from the anguish and terror that no doubt blanketed the city. “But that’ll leave you with only Jaya, and she’s a medical empath. Ivy risks brain damage or death if she goes out.”
Vasic couldn’t trust himself to even think about losing Ivy. “We have to think long-term. If you die here, your knowledge dies with you.” He had to be ruthless, consider not the hundreds Sascha might save in the city, but the hundreds of thousands who’d die across the world. “I’m guessing using the terminal field will require a foundation of basic skills. No one else is qualified to assess and teach that.”
Lucas ran his knuckles over his mate’s cheek. “I know your instincts tell you to stay, but Vasic’s right,” the alpha said. “I’ve seen how hard you’ve fought to figure out each tiny crumb of practical knowledge. You know more than you think.”
“And,” Vasic pointed out, “you’re the most stable and well-known E in the world.” The psychological impact of that couldn’t be underestimated. “The other cardinals might struggle with feelings of betrayal when it comes to everyone else, but they’ll trust you to tell them the truth.”
“All right,” Sascha said into the quiet. “I’ll contact Chang first, since he already has the basic training.”
Nodding, Vasic waited only long enough for his psychic batteries to recharge a certain percentage before bringing in Aden to watch over Ivy while he ’ported the alpha couple and Alice Eldridge back to DarkRiver territory. Lucas and Sascha needed to talk to the wolves about turning the compound into a permanent training ground for empaths, and that discussion needed to happen as fast as possible.
Rabbit jumped off the bed and padded over to him when Vasic returned, a low whine in the back of the dog’s throat. Bending down, Vasic stroked the anxious animal with a firm touch. “Ivy will be all right,” he said. “I’m here to take care of her.”
Bumping his head against Vasic’s hand, the whine gone—as if their pet had understood Vasic’s reassurance—Rabbit scampered up to the bed to settle by Ivy’s side once more. Vasic checked her skin, found it warm, her lips curving at the press of his fingers against her pulse. “Vasic.”
Releasing a breath at that drowsy mumble, he said, “Sleep.”
But she struggled to lift her eyelids. “The others, did they . . .”
“No,” he answered, almost able to read her thoughts. “It appears Brigitte is another medical empath, but Isaiah, Chang, and the others are in the same position as you.” He’d just received a report that Isaiah had suffered a brain bleed, was in intensive care, but Ivy didn’t need to know that right now.
Bleakness in her eyes, her hand curling on the blanket.
He knelt down beside the bed, cradling her cheek and jaw with one hand, his other arm on the pillow above her head. “Sleep. Then rise strong to fight again.” That was what motivated her, and he’d use it without pity to help her heal. Even when he had no intention whatsoever of permitting her to cause herself such harm again.
Lids heavy, she closed her fingers over his wrist. “I love you.”
The words reverberated in him long after she fell asleep. Forcing himself to leave her some time later, he stepped out to the living area where Aden waited.
“The incoming cardinals will need Arrow shields,” he said to the other man. “Sascha’s organs would’ve shut down today if Lucas hadn’t realized how much energy she was burning and grabbed energy drinks from the medics.” The DarkRiver alpha had known because of the mating bond that tied him to Sascha on a psychic level.
Vasic didn’t understand how that bond worked. Neither did he comprehend the intricacies of the tie Kaleb Krychek shared with Sahara Kyriakus, but he knew he wanted the same with Ivy. “The Arrows,” he said, “will have to be trained to force the Es to stop and refuel.”
“We’re going to be spread thin.” Aden leaned against a wall. “We could request Krychek’s men take over.”
“No. Not until there are no more Arrows who can step in.”
When Aden raised an eyebrow at that flat response, Vasic said, “Abbot’s not the only one who’s more stable since the day he began working with his empath.”
“Yes,” Aden said. “Regardless of the development or not of an emotional connection—though the most stable are the ones who’ve formed a friendship with their Es at least.” His gaze was steady in the dim glow coming from the streetlamps outside, the room otherwise dark. “You’ve stabilized the most of all.”
Vasic thought of Ivy’s anger as she fought for him, her sweet sensual generosity, her smile, her courage. She was his anchor and his hope. It was as simple and as powerful as that. “We need to give others in the squad the same chance.”
“I’ll organize it. Silver Mercant’s network is now functional worldwide, and everyone—Psy, human, changeling—who can send help in an outbreak is doing so. The squad shouldn’t be as necessary on the front line as we’ve been thus far.”
Vasic looked out into the heavy dark of the night beyond the windows. Arrows might be able to step back for the moment, but these outbreaks were the first stones to fall. When the avalanche came, every man and woman in the squad would be needed to stand against it. And the empaths, he knew, would stand right beside them.
His Ivy would be at his side to the end . . . because the truth was, he couldn’t cage her, couldn’t take her choices from her, no matter his fury and his fear. It would break her. “The ones who attacked Ivy today.” His blood iced. “Did you track them down?”
“It’s been taken care of.”
“You can’t protect my sanity by destroying yours.” His partner had already done far more than anyone could’ve ever expected in managing to keep Vasic alive this long. “It’s not necessary any longer.”
Aden didn’t answer directly. “The breakaway Venice group,” he said instead. “They’re asking to be placed on active duty.”
“They’ve always been on active duty.” Having defected from the PsyNet using great care to hide their tracks, the Venetian element of the squad had been feeding information to other Arrows and running operations as long as they’d been in existence.