Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Slinging the scanner over one shoulder by the attached strap, while Theo took the sample kit, he closed the vehicle’s trunk, then grabbed both shovels. And though the air was pervasive with the scent of old evil, he refused to surrender to it, refused to burrow into the past rather than live in today.
For himself. And for his Theo.
“You know, it’s funny,” he said. “I would’ve expected Stasya to mention Pasha’s mating. It’ll be the biggest news in the den today.”
“It was early when she dropped by.” A few fewer lines on Theo’s face at the remembrance of joy. “She might’ve missed it.”
“Maaaan, she’ll be majorly pissed off if she’s the last to know.” He took a quick glance at his phone after realizing he hadn’t checked it since his conversation with his grandmother. “Okay, this is just weird. No messages when the clan should be blowing up my phone. Half of them are in a betting pool about when the mating would happen.”
“Perhaps your alpha only informed your family?”
“No, mating’s a private matter. Valya wouldn’t share it with anyone except Silver; he’d wait for the couple to do the sharing. And you know, that’s another thing—my parents haven’t called, either.” He froze. “Oh. My. God.”
“What?”
“Babulya Quyen is Denu’s child.” His grandmother had never shared what she’d inherited from her Psy parent, but she clearly had a few tricks up her sleeve. “That’s why she called me! She knew I’d already know so she wouldn’t be spilling a secret.” Chuckling, he shook his head. “And she calls us mischief bears.”
Theo’s smile held impish delight. “She’s my favorite,” she whispered. “Other than you.”
Yakov leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Acceptable. My babushka is pretty cute.” Having reached the area Elbek and Moon had pinpointed, a desolate patch of grass with noticeable yellow patches and evidence of subsidence, he put down the shovels. “Ready?”
A reawakened grimness to her expression, Theo nodded. As the drizzle collected in glittering strands on the fine silk of her hair, she placed the sample kit next to the shovels, then stood silent watch over his bleak task.
“Nothing,” he said after completing the scan of the first depression.
No give in her expression, no end to the knots in his gut.
He felt no surprise when the scanner lit up on the second scan. A faint scent on the breeze tickled his brain as he showed Theo the glowing green outline. “Confirmation of buried organic material. No way to tell what at this resolution.” He’d been wrong about the depth of the burial. “Could be rubbish, could be a body.”
Theo stared at the outline. “We should call Enforcement. They can bring in the heavy-duty scanners,” she said as Yakov began to turn in the direction of the scent that was irritating his senses. “This has now gone far beyond my family. These patients deserve—Yasha!”
Theo thrust her body toward his even as she screamed.
Chapter 61
The latest scans picked up a significant increase in Subject V-1’s neural activity. Too much to be explained by a sudden natural regeneration. It’s possible she’s been avoiding her meds or feigning her apparent state.
I’ve put her in a locked single room for the time being, but it’s imperative we do a full medical. If she is functional and off her meds, it’s possible she has full access to the PsyNet.
I won’t, of course, act without your authoriz—
—Dr. Upashna Leslie to Councilor Marshall Hyde (unsent)
DESPITE HER IMMEDIATE action, Theo couldn’t move fast enough to catch Yakov as he collapsed without warning, the side of his face hitting the earth as the scanner fell to one side in a spasm of cracked green. Dropping to her knees, she placed a desperate hand on his back . . . and felt it. The residual heat of a blast from a weapon designed to deliver a jolt of energy that scrambled the nervous system.
Most targets twitched erratically as their bodies refused to obey their commands, but remained conscious.
Yakov hadn’t twitched, was dead silent and motionless.
Breath short and shallow and chest feeling as if it had been crushed inward, Theo couldn’t think rationally, had no room in her brain to consider who’d shot him in this lonely place filled only with the dead. She just needed to know if he was alive! She went to press her fingers to his neck, to where she should feel a strong, steady pulse.
“He’s not dead,” said a husky female voice. “Sorry about the hard fall, but I had no choice. He was about to scent me even though I stayed upwind.”
Spinning around, Theo went for the stunner in her boot, but Yakov’s assailant already had a weapon trained on her. “Hand it over or I take another shot. Even a bear can’t survive two hits at max output.”
Theo’s pulse wanted to skitter, her mouth to go dry, but panic would get her nowhere. So she pulled on the skin of the fearless girl who’d survived a psychopathic Councilor—and became a being of ice-cold resolve. “Can I check his pulse first?”