Hostage to Pleasure (Psy-Changeling 5)

And still he couldn't make himself move. Fuck.

Vaughn's voice broke into his razor-edged thoughts. "Anthony said she's been given details of a new identity, complete with bank accounts and a path to follow, so, could be, she wakes up and goes. If she doesn't, we might as well take advantage of what she knows - trade-off is we help her."

"True." Mercy frowned. "Plus we do have the woman's son. She won't leave without him, not after everything she risked to set him free."

"And he can't be disconnected from the Web," Vaughn reminded them. "We all know it doesn't hold any of us back from traveling, but I had a talk with Sascha and she's not sure what would happen to a Psy member who tried to go too far. Wouldn't want to test it on a kid."

Dorian glanced at Ashaya and wondered if Mercy was right. Had Ashaya fought for her son? Or had she simply removed him from the equation so she could focus on her own twisted goals? Cat and man both brooded over the answer, because one thing was certain - if she was a spy, she'd have to be broken.

Seated at a table in his home deep in another section of DarkRiver's territory, Clay Bennett stopped what he was doing to check a message that had set his phone to flashing. "It's from Teijan," he said to Tally, handing over some sticky tape at the same time.

Taking it, she blew him a kiss and continued to wrap Noor's birthday present. The little girl was so active during the day, it was hard to keep a secret. "What does he want?"

"I asked for some intel." He pressed in Teijan's code and waited.

The Rat alpha sounded surprised when he answered. "What are you doing awake at midnight?"

"None of your business." He smiled at Tally's admonishing frown. She kept trying to get him to be nice to people. "You got something for me?"

"Yes." Teijan paused. "Hold on, Aneca's sleeping."

Clay waited until Teijan had moved away from the girl. The six-year-old was the first changeling rat to be born in the city in the past decade. It was a measure of the growing trust between the Rats and DarkRiver that Teijan had shared that information. "What are you doing with her?" he asked.

"Babysitting. It's date night."

Clay grinned at the thought of the small, feral fighter of a rat playing babysitter. "Late date."

"They mentioned a hotel room. Bet they'll be back in a couple of hours, though." Laughter in his voice. "Can't stay away from her."

"Wait till you have a kid," Clay warned. "They get their tiny little claws into you when you're not looking, and that's it." Lips curving at the thought of how Noor had suckered him into reading her four bedtime stories tonight, he reached over to hold down an edge as Tally taped it. Her fingers brushed his in thanks and his gut clenched. "So, you hear anything?"

"About the scientist who escaped? Bits and pieces. What do you want to know?"

Clay had no idea how the Rats knew most of what they did. He was just damn glad they'd allied with DarkRiver and not the Psy. "Any word on pursuit?"

"Heard nothing that specific yet - only some whispers of a high-level escape. Did hear something else interesting, though."

"Yeah?"

"Word from Vegas and out Los Angeles way is that Jax junkies are disappearing off the streets."

Jax addicts were Psy as a rule. The drug mutated changeling bodies, a surefire way to keep any of them from trying it. It apparently didn't have much of an effect on humans at all, leaving it a strictly Psy scourge. "Council cleanup?"

"Hard to say. There's something weird about it - with the Council, one day there'd be ten, the next day zero. Right now, it's like they take one or two, come back later for another couple."

Clay didn't have a high opinion of junkies - of any race - but if this was another case of a Psy crazy loose on the streets, they needed to know so they could protect those under their care. "Call me if you hear anything concrete, or if there's any sign of humans or changelings being targeted." If it was contained to the Psy, the Council would take care of it. Say what you would about them, the Council was efficient at cleaning up its messes-except, of course, when it was one of its sanctioned killers that had escaped.

After hanging up, he told Tally what Teijan had shared. "Looks like Aleine is safe for now."

"I want to see her." Her lips set in a familiar line as she repeated the demand she'd already made three times this past hour alone. "We might not have saved Jon and Noor without her. I need to say thank you, offer her my help."

God, she was stubborn, but he was a protective, possessive cat. "She's a threat right now." He growled when she began to argue. "When we're sure she's clean, then you can have a tea party with her for all I care. And you are helping her - through Pack."

"What about Keenan?"

"Kid's probably fast asleep."

"Not funny. I meant later."

"If Sascha okays a visit, fine. Happy?"

"No." She got up, came around the table, and slid into his lap. "You're such a bully."

He felt his lips twitch. "And you're still a brat."

Ashaya came to consciousness in a single heartbeat. Her telepathic senses flared out at the same instant, an automatic reaction honed from years of living a double life. Her Tp status was weak, but it was enough to tell her she wasn't alone.

"You're awake." A familiar masculine voice. "I can hear the change in your heartbeat."

She turned her head toward him. "You're lying."

A raised eyebrow from the lethally beautiful male who sat in a chair in front of the unlit fireplace, playing a pocketknife over and through his fingers. "Are you sure?"