Timeless Moon by C. T. Adams, Cathy Clamp Read Free Book Online Page B

everyone began to understand just how powerful Rick's gift of empathy had become, and just how hard it had become to control. "Rick, you weren't just suffering from burnout when you left Wolven, were you?"
    He struggled against the pull of emotions like a swimmer fighting a riptide. His voice sounded breathy when he replied, and dizziness overtook him.
    "No. I needed to get far, far away from everyone — human and Sazi—until I could get control over my gift . " He turned to Lucas with panic probably plain on his face. "Do you have any idea what it was like? To know exactly how the victims of my questioning felt, because I was feeling it with them? You're asking me to test my hard-won control out among the humans and possibly confront a woman I deserted when she needed me. What happens if I fail? What happens to everyone if the emotions overwhelm me or if I start projecting my own emotions outward? Do you have any idea of the panic I could cause in a major city? The riots I could start without even realizing it?"
    Rick shuddered at the flash of a memory that brought him such pain, such shame. He slammed his shields down, cutting the flow of emotion to the others off an instant too late. The room was awash in pain and guilt, rage and fear.
    "This," Rick snarled back, "is why I live in the middle of godforsaken nowhere, and why I left Wolven. It's also why you should probably find somebody else to run your little errand."
    Lucas glared at him, his massive hands clenched into fists. But it was Charles who spoke, the words hissed through his clenched teeth from emotions that he recognized weren't his. "There isn't anybody else."
    Rick scented the lie in the air between them, and gave the other man a look of utter disdain before snorting his disbelief.
    "Fine." Charles took a slow, deep breath. He very deliberately sat down, leaned back in the seat, and sighed. "There isn't anybody else I'd expect to survive."
    That, at least, was the truth. But there was more going on here than anybody was saying.
    "You do realize that Josette —" Rick stopped to correct himself, "That is, Aspen … may have disappeared by choice? What if she saw all this and realized that she was a danger to the rest of the seers? Or that she needed to get here to be with the others? What if she's on her way to us?"
    Lucas nodded. "We've considered that. It's why we need to send someone to her that she trusts. I'm not certain that the ways things are right now, she'll trust any of the rest of us."
    Rick picked up his cup and took a long pull of the nearly cold coffee before setting it back onto the end table. "If I agree to do this, and I'm not saying I will, I'd need to know everything she's liable to be seeing that would spook her enough to make her take off."
    Lucas was bleeding suspicion and raised his own shields until Rick couldn't feel him anymore. He'd been careful to put on the Wolven cologne when he went outside earlier to check the SUV with Bruce, so his scent didn't give away his mood, but he'd forgotten just how easy it was for Rick to read him. The old wolf's expression grew flat and impersonal. "You'll be told everything you need to know."
    Rick shook his head. "Not good enough."
    The two men stared at each other across the room. The silence thickened and magic filled the air. The temperature rose until sweat beaded each man's brow. Rick knew Lucas could beat him. Hell, anyone in the room probably could. But he didn't care. He wouldn't back down. This was too important. Josie was too important. If they were going to use his relationship with her as a tool to get her to cooperate, he wanted to be damned sure it was for a good cause. He'd seen too much, done too much to simply trust anyone —especially those in the Sazi hierarchy.
    "Mon Dieu!" Amber spat the words out and the air crackled around her. A French accent filled her voice, the same thing that used to happen to Josette when she was too stressed. "Time iz too short for theez. Just tell