Her face set in stubborn lines and he felt his predator's heart stop. "You get one scratch," she said, "one single scratch, on your body and you'll be sleeping in the living room for the next month." Her lips trembled. "Do I make myself clear?"
He smiled at the threat neither of them believed she'd carry through. "Yes, ma'am."
Talin walked back into Tamsyn's by now familiar home late that night. "I'm going to head to the lair with Clay when he returns," she told the healer, already worrying for him.
"I know." Tamsyn smiled. "Want a glass of wine?"
"It's late." She unclenched her fingers, told herself he'd be fine. He would come back to her, he'd promised. He wouldn't leave her alone again.
"I don't think you'll be sleeping. Neither will Sascha."
"Sascha's here, too?" Having come straight into the kitchen after Clay dropped her off, she hadn't seen the other woman. She swallowed her fear, not wanting the cardinal to sense the depth of her scars. She knew Clay wouldn't leave her by choice. He never had. But in some hidden part of her, she was still a shocked and bloodied eight-year-old, and that child knew that, sometimes, you weren't given a choice. "Where is she?"
"Upstairs. Julian woke up and demanded she come cuddle him - I swear the twins can scent her a mile away." She shook her head. "They have the most enormous crushes on her. I think they'd fight Lucas for her if he wasn't so much bigger."
Talin forced her mind to the present. "I can guess why." The two women might not see it but they were very similar, both of them with the warm hearts of healers. And yet there was a strength in them that promised protection. "Jon and Noor?"
"Noor's asleep and Jon's keeping Kit company while he studies." She pointed upstairs. "Second door on the left."
Talin shook her head. "I think I've used up all my fuss points for the next month."
Tammy grinned. "He'll be okay with Kit."
"You always seem to have people around," Talin began, eager to know more about Clay's world. She never wanted to hurt him as Isla had done by not acknowledging his beast, by not accepting that he was different - in a beautiful, unique way. "Do you mind?"
"Lord, no. It makes me content to care for the pack. Part of the healing gift, I suppose." The other woman pushed a flute of pale gold wine across the counter. "That's why the pack healer always has a big house. Somehow, their home inevitably becomes the social center of the pack." She picked up a bag of coffee beans.
"Are you making coffee, too?"
"Faith and Sascha don't drink wine - Psy have an odd reaction to alcohol."
Right then, someone knocked on the front door. "I'll get it," Talin offered.
When she opened it, it was to find Faith on the other side. "Oh, hi."
"Hi." The F-Psy smiled before turning to wave at the seemingly empty space behind her. "Vaughn," she said in response to Talin's bemused expression. "He and Mercy are running outside border watch tonight. Nate's doing the inner region."
Something clicked in Talin's brain. "Is that why we're all here?" She stepped aside to let Faith walk in. Everyone knew that Psy didn't like to be touched and Faith wasn't exactly her best friend.
"Yes." The F-Psy put a large shopping bag on the floor beside the hall closet. "It's easier for them to cover us this way, since they're three short." She hung up her coat and, leaving the bag on the floor, began to head toward the kitchen. Talin fell in beside her. It took incredible force of will not to ask the question she so desperately wanted to ask - had Faith had another vision of Clay's future? What had she seen?
Faith stopped halfway down the hall and turned. "I owe you an apology."
"Why?"
"Emotion is still new to me." She shoved her hands into the pockets of her black slacks. "Sometimes I find it hard to handle."
"Everyone gets that way." Talin wondered what it was like to grow up without emotion. She couldn't imagine ever not loving Clay.
Faith's night-sky eyes seemed to turn darker. "Clay scared me when I first came into DarkRiver, but then he became my friend. So when you - "
"It's okay," Talin interrupted. "You were worried I was bad for him, so you went overprotective. The truth is," she admitted, "now that I'm not blinded by stupid jealousy, I'm glad for the tenderness you tried to give him. That's nothing to apologize for."
"Yes, there is." Faith's expression was resolute. "Sascha and Tammy were so nice to me when I entered DarkRiver. I should've remembered their example and treated you with the same warmth and respect."
"I figure we're even." Talin filled her voice with sincerity - so that Faith didn't have to guess at nuances of emotion. "I called you all sorts of names in my head."
Faith gave a small smile. "We're okay?"
And the words came out. "You tell me."
"Sometimes," Faith said, her voice holding a crystal clarity that was almost painful in its beauty, "it's better not to know what the future brings. If I had known about Vaughn, I might've run and missed out on the best thing in my life."
"I doubt you would've gotten very far." DarkRiver men were nothing if not determined.
"Some things are set in stone." Faith's smile grew. "Like you and Clay."
Talin felt her stomach fill with butterflies. "You sound very certain of that."
"We, all of us who are mated, we're learning and growing into our bond, but you and Clay - it's like the bond's been there forever, it's so solid, so true." The foreseer shook her head and pushed through into the kitchen. "You have the bond of a couple that's already been together for decades."