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)
You set a bot to monitor the PsyNet for news from Moscow, didn’t you? Of course he had; he’d been taking care of her for so long that he didn’t know how to stop. I’m fine, she replied before he could answer, knowing that his powerful mind would pick up on her much weaker voice. There’s a possible serial killer roaming the streets, but I’m with a bear anytime I’m out.
What’s the word on the facility? Did you have a chance to visit yesterday?
She wasn’t surprised at the lack of any emotional response from her brother. She and Pax, they’d both been damaged in different and equally terrible ways by their upbringing. It’s abandoned, she said, not ready to talk about the rest of it; it would only hurt him. We’re going back there today for a more in-depth look. I’ll send back anything I discover.
Abandoned? I should stop the financial drain on our accounts. It has to be fraudulent.
Theo frowned. No, she found herself saying. I don’t want to risk alerting the person behind the financial draw—they might be our only hope of discovering what was going on there. I need to know.
Yes, I understand, said the twin who hadn’t been allowed to be her twin for most of her life.
Pax? Are you stable? Theo’s headaches had stopped since Memory Aven-Rose began to work with Pax, but that meant she couldn’t always tell when Scarab Syndrome was starting to go rampant inside Pax’s brain.
Yes. No change.
She didn’t tell him that he was to draw from her psychic energy whenever he needed it; he knew that, and he’d also go to the wire in an attempt not to do it—because it weakened her, and Pax didn’t want her weak in a sea of predators.
There is one thing, he added. Those telepathic pings I mentioned? I checked my filter today and they’ve increased in volume so I’m now getting multiple such contacts per hour.
Theo looked into the Net, toward his mind, but saw no obvious disturbances or incursions. Sounds like it might be more than a childish prank. Have you responded to any?
Not yet. I’ve been busy handling the current bloodbath in the family. I’ll let you know when I get around to dealing with it.
He then gave her an update about the power struggle going on in the family, but there was no concern in his tone. It was more, she knew, an annoyance than an actual threat. For better or worse, Pax had been trained for the CEO position by the Marshall. He was also a 9, multitudes more powerful than any other member of their line.
He could crush them like ants.
Why are you letting this continue? Theo usually left all the maneuvering up to him, but today she could hear the tiredness in his tone.
I’m hopeful that the situation will reveal someone who might prove suitable to take over from me should the need arise.
Theo swallowed hard. There’s no one as good as you. Marshall might’ve molded Pax, but their grandfather’d had brilliant material with which to work.
There are children in the line. Maybe, before I go, I can put a CEO in place who’ll ensure their lives aren’t blighted as ours were—our entire family can’t be poison. There has to be at least one person with both empathy and the cutthroat ruthlessness required to survive at the top.
Theo dropped her head against the seat, her hands clenching on the steering wheel. Because the only person in the line who matched that description was Pax. And yet . . . there were children. Innocents. Is there anything I can do? Emotion clogged up her throat, burned her eyes.
At times, she wanted to scream at fate until she had no more voice, and then she wanted to burn down the world, the rage in her an inferno. Forcing herself to breathe, she rubbed compulsively at the metal of her bracelet.
You do everything by just being there, Pax replied. You’re the one person in this world I know will never stab me in the back. A pause. Theo? Will you ever tell me the secret I sense in the shadows of your mind?
She squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers tight on the bracelet, and then told the truth. I don’t know. I’ve kept my own counsel for a long time.
Grandfather taught us well, didn’t he? That tiredness again, so heavy and dark. I have to go. Meeting. His telepathic presence vanished from her mind.
That was one thing they’d done forever. Never said good-bye. Because it was never good-bye, that two percent bond functional even when everything else was gone. Theo would shatter if it ever disappeared . . . and her brother was dying. Being devoured by Scarab Syndrome, piece by brilliant piece.
Her internal scream grew ever louder, the rage within a feral beast.