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. They feel.It s the Psy who are perfect.Enrique s energy whirled cold and menacing around her as she started to inch back toward the hiddendoorway into her mind.She had to get inside before she dropped out of the PsyNet.If Enriquesucceeded in infiltrating her defenses, he d destroy Lucas along with her.No, she thought, furious.Hermate would not die.A whisper of the forest in her mind.The panther hidden deep within her was pleased by her thoughtsbut its attention was fixed on Enrique, on the threat to its mate.Claws slid out and she felt herfingertips tingle. Psy have to suppress emotion in order to survive, but changelings thrive without breaking under thepressure.I d say that makes them the stronger species. He paused and she froze her creepingprogress. Are you almost done? Yes, sir. She made her voice hold the faintest thread of fear, let him pick up the emotion.The walls of his mind went blue like the deepest oceanic ice.It was frighteningly beautiful. Sascha,Sascha, he whispered. You re truly extraordinary.She didn t respond, every ounce of concentration focused on getting back into her mind.Hiscomments had her convinced he was the killer one second and confused the next.How could he be theserial? How? Those women had been torn part, annihilated from the mind out.Enrique was a man whodidn t feel any negative emotion.Not rage.Not anger.Not hatred.Was he simply out for her because she was flawed? Had he driven away the real murderer, the onewho d infected the Net with traces of violence? Disappointment tightened her gut.She couldn t fail,couldn t let the need for revenge plunge DarkRiver and the SnowDancers into war.They were herpeople now. You re even more perfect than the changeling women. Who were these women? she asked, nearly to the doorway. I d like to speak to them as well.Theleopards tell me nothing. I m afraid the experiments were a little taxing.They don t like to let Psy into their minds.I had todamage them in order to gain an in-depth understanding.Horror stopped her in midstep. You killed them?Lucas lunged at the walls of her mind, wanting to go for Enrique s throat. Lab animals often die.If she d been in her physical body, she would ve thrown up then and there.It was crystal clear thatEnrique was happy to tell her everything his only audience because he thought he had her trapped.He was closing around her like a giant pincer. There s pressure on my mind. She could start to feel it but it wasn t dangerous, not yet. I m at the end of my patience.Either you speak to me or I execute you.I assure you, the Councilwould back me fully for dealing with a defective Psy.It was the word  defective that got her moving again.She wasn t defective and the changelingsweren t lab animals.They were the most beautiful, most alive, most passionate beings she d ever met.But before she broke away, she had to make sure she had the right evil, the right killer. Why seventy-nine? she asked softly. Nineteen seventy-nine, Sascha, 1979.It s my little way of celebrating what I see as the true birth ofour race. He paused. How did you know about that? The crushing walls of his mind came to astandstill.She used that moment to push through the hidden door and lock it behind her.Something slammedinto it a second later Enrique s mind trying to shove into hers, destroy hers.Cracks appeared in thealready fragmented shields around the doorway. Very clever, Sascha, he said. How long have you been hiding out here?She didn t answer, trying to patch up the door enough that she could run into the second layer of hershields.Even so close to him, her senses picked up nothing of the deep-seated rage she d expectedfrom the murderer.Enrique didn t feel.And yet he killed.You re a race of psychopaths!Dorian s accusation ripped open from some forgotten pocket of memory.No conscience, no heart, no feelings! How else do you define psychopath?The true horror of Silence hit her so hard, her inner walls shook.But there was no time to think.Enrique was close to breaking through.Slamming a temporary block on the door to her mind, she ranthrough the second layer of shields just as the block on the outer shields shattered.He was inside her mind.His power crashed into her, shocking pain into every synapse.Shaking, she threw everything she hadinto her inner shields and went even deeper, until she was behind a third layer.Enrique couldn tviolate these so easily.They were the natural walls of the mind the walls he d ripped open in thechangeling women he d taken.She had no doubt he d tear her apart, too, if she gave him the time.Fed by adrenaline, she found her mental link to the PsyNet.Even Enrique s trap couldn t cut that link.It went too deep, was too instinctive.She touched the lifeline for the last time and whispered,  Good-bye.Enrique hit her with another Shockwave of pain and at that exact instant, she sliced the link into two.Everything stopped for her.Her mind was silent.Alone.There were no stars in the darkness, nothingbut emptiness.Death opened its arms.She screamed awake in Lucas s hold [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]