Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Where is this Hayward Scott?” he asked Angel.
“Moved into the compound with his people a couple of hours ago, soon as the authorities cleared it.”
Those authorities hadn’t been from Enforcement but from an arm of the Ruling Coalition set up to deal with the crimes of the powerful. Each member of the team was both strong on the psychic plane and—crucially—underwent regular sessions with empaths to ensure they remained uncorrupted and devoted to their task of justice.
But the team had to follow its own ethical rules.
The Scotts were about to learn that Remi’s ethics were those of a predator who understood honor as well as it understood violence.
* * *
• • •
HAVING something concrete to do gave him focus and energy. He left Rina with Auden when he went on the op with Angel.
Just the two of them, because this was about stealth.
He could’ve initiated legal proceedings, but that would take too long, and he wanted the Scotts to be afraid. From how they were acting, given the oncoming collapse of the PsyNet, they clearly thought they had an exit strategy figured. No need for fear.
That was about to change.
The Scotts were about to gain a close, private understanding of the emotion. He especially wanted them to be afraid of Auden so they’d stop treating her as a commodity they could use and discard.
Most of all, he wanted to punish them for making her afraid for so long.
Auden could make the final call about what she wanted to do when she woke, but he wasn’t about to let them steal that choice from her as they’d already stolen so many others. “Ready?” he said to Angel in the depths of the night.
He could only see his friend because of his night vision—they stood a significant distance from the security lights around the compound. While Remi was dressed in black, complete with a mask that covered all of his face but for his eyes, Angel wore the stripes of a tiger.
Now he rumbled a growl of acknowledgment, and they moved.
He and Angel, they’d pulled off plenty of ops when they’d been out on their own, barely needed to communicate to understand what the other wanted in the heat of a fight. But this, they’d discussed down to the minutest detail, because Angel wouldn’t otherwise be familiar with the layout of the compound.
As Remi watched, his best friend streaked into the lights, deliberately allowing himself to be seen by the guards who monitored the external feeds. He moved so fast that it appeared multiple tigers were prowling the compound.
Auden’s changelings on the attack.
The guards boiled out of the house, shouting orders and reaching for weapons.
He counted. Idiots. They were all outside. He knew that because Angel had organized a surveillance crew to keep an eye on the place since Auden was hurt. All of them understood that the Scotts were snakes, and snakes had to be watched.
For all her psychopathic faults, Charisma Wai would not have hired imbeciles like this.
As a result of their incompetence, Remi was able to run straight through to the house while every single guard was distracted hunting the tigers that appeared and vanished before they could get off a single shot. Angel growled several times right as Remi ran, once again capturing all their attention.
A heartbeat later and Remi was climbing up the outside of the house. Psy just didn’t think about changelings when they built. This house had so many hand- and footholds—and so many shadows of which a cat could take advantage.
All the security lights pointed outward, leaving the walls of the house itself dark.
Having aimed himself at the floor that held the family’s rooms, he now hauled himself in through an open window. He’d been prepared to break one if needed, would’ve just waited for the next burst of noise from the guards as Angel ran them ragged. But once again, the Psy sense of arrogance came to his rescue. They didn’t expect entry from such a high point.
He landed on the carpet with feline stealth before making his way down a hallway swathed in shadows. In his hand was a blocker that hid his progress from the cameras, because—if the Psy staved off their oncoming apocalypse—Remi wasn’t going to play into the desire of certain Psy families to start an interspecies war.
No one would ever have any proof of his presence here tonight.
Less than thirty seconds after he’d entered, he knocked on Hayward Scott’s door, the rap a firm one. “Sir.”
Rustling, as the man inside moved to unlock his door. “What is going—”
His words ended in a gasp as he came face-to-face with Remi—and the fast-acting sedative in the auto-injector in Remi’s hand. Psy didn’t do well with drugs, but he’d checked with Dr. Bashir about sedatives. The doctor, believing Remi was thinking about Auden’s possible future need for them, had given him a short list of fast-acting agents that would knock a Psy out almost at once.