Caressed By Ice by Nalini Singh Read Free Book Online Page A

hand tightened on his. “Judd—”
    Something brushed the edge of the telepathic scan he’d continued to run. “Quiet.” He was conscious of Brenna’s eyes on him as she stood close enough that her body heat reached him even through the enhanced insulation of his jacket. Consigning that knowledge to a dark corner of his mind, he refocused the scan. There were two soldiers walking in this direction, likely returning from a watch on the outer perimeter.
    They wouldn’t stop him, but he didn’t intend to have his whereabouts tracked. That was why he’d worked out several discreet ways to ensure his frequent trips in and out of SnowDancer territory were never logged. However, if they saw Brenna, they would certainly try to hold her until they received instructions from either Andrew or Riley.
    â€œCan you smudge their minds?” Brenna asked in a low whisper, pressing even closer to his body. “Make them look the other way?”
    â€œChangeling minds are harder for us to influence than human.” Strong Psy could kill changelings with a blast of sheer power but manipulating them was a different proposition. “There may be another option.”
    Sending out his senses again, he found six unshielded minds. Taking control was easy—young black bears didn’t have much of a defense, especially this deep into hibernation. “Can you stay here by yourself for a few minutes?”
    Skin pulled taut over her cheekbones as she nodded. “Go.” Releasing his hand with notable reluctance, she backed up and moved behind a tree.
    â€œI won’t be long.” He could see how close she was to panic, but to her credit, she only nodded when he gave the next order. “When you hear the guards begin to move, run southeast. No hesitation.”
    He headed toward the two men, making sure he was out of Brenna’s line of sight before he blurred himself. Not even the other men in his highly specialized Arrow unit had possessed this ability. Most blurring, or “smudging” as Brenna had put it, occurred on the mental plane, with the Psy casting telepathic interference across the viewer’s mind.
    Judd was different. He could alter his own physical form. The skill was telekinetic rather than telepathic. Because Judd wasn’t simply a strong telepath, nor was Tp his main ability, as was widely believed—as he’d gone to great lengths to make people believe. What would Brenna say if she realized he was an extremely powerful telekinetic—a Tk, the same designation as the killer who had tortured her in that blood-soaked room?
    It was a question he’d never have answered, as he had no intention of telling Brenna the truth of what he was. Shifting his cells a fraction more out of sync with the world, he moved out past the two other men—when he blurred, changelings couldn’t see him except as a shadow out of the corner of their eye. More importantly, they couldn’t scent him either, a fact that supported his personal theory of how his ability worked.
    A minute later, he sent the bears crashing through the forest on the right-hand side, and downwind, of the soldiers. The creatures made enough noise to distract them into changing direction. Settling his molecules back into sync, Judd deliberately crossed paths with the men—as if he were on his way back to the den.
    â€œAnyone come past you?” Elias stopped, while his partner, Dieter, kept going.
    â€œNo.”
    Nodding, Elias took off after Dieter. Judd used the opportunity to lay a false trail all the way back to the den. Then, taking the time to hide Brenna’s trail even as he hid his own, he headed southeast. He thrust some Tk through the air as he ran, muddying up and dispersing their scents so they couldn’t be tracked that way either.
    Brenna was fast. When he found her, she was well out of the White Zone, and in the central core of the inner