Telepath Read online

  “He did all those things to make you spend time in that park, Amber. The target must have been trying to activate your imprint. Whatever he’d planned obviously didn’t work. We can’t afford to sit passively waiting for him to make another, possibly successful, attempt. If we find the key to removing your imprint, it would change everything, so it’s worth taking risks.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” I said. “I could make a recording saying I want to stay in this Hive. Then if I ask for a transfer, you could show it to people.”

  Lucas shook his head. “Recordings can be faked. We’d have to get a deputation from Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement to come here and witness you saying it yourself. Even then, you could claim later that you’d been pressured into saying it or had simply changed your mind. Worse still, it would give away our only advantage, by telling the target that we know about your imprint.”

  “And even if we convinced Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement, we still don’t know which Hive did this,” I said. “They’d escape without penalty, and they could do it again, here or at other Hives.”

  “Exactly,” said Lucas.

  “If the worst happens, Lucas. If my imprint triggers, and there’s no other way to stop me being transferred to the target’s Hive, promise me you’ll reset me.”

  He groaned.

  “Please, Lucas, I’d rather be free with the mind of a child in an adult’s body, and have to grow up again, than be the target’s slave.”

  “If that’s what you want, then I promise.”

  We lay there in silence for a while longer. Finally, Lucas took something from his pocket.

  “Time to blindfold you.” He sounded amused. “You’re wearing your body armour and crystal unit in case of emergency, but you’ve got the ear crystal turned off?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I don’t want you worrying about other people hearing anything you say, so we’ll both keep our ear crystals turned off during this. Adika and the Strike team will be on guard nearby when we’re Outside, but they should stay out of earshot.”

  He paused. “Read my thoughts if you like, Amber, but don’t read those of anyone else. The Strike team have just been told about you being kidnapped as a child, which made them very angry. Now they’re making their first trip Outside, which means most of them are also scared. You mustn’t be hit by their emotions on top of your own. I want you to focus on me and trust me. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  Lucas covered my eyes. I was tense, braced for what would happen next.

  “We’ll wait here a while longer,” said Lucas.

  “Why?”

  “Because your body language is screaming in terror at me. Relax. I got bitten by a rabbit once.”

  “What? How?”

  “I was four years old,” said Lucas. “I wanted to take the rabbit home with me. It wanted to stay in the park. It won. I’m still nervous of rabbits. If we meet one, you’ll have to protect me.”

  I managed a giggle.

  “That’s better.”

  I felt myself being lifted into his arms. “I can walk.”

  “Not for this.”

  I was being carried. I couldn’t see anything, but Lucas was holding me close. “I might bite.”

  “Query?”

  “Like the rabbit.”

  He laughed.

  I was used to having my eyes closed and being carried round like a doll by the Strike team. It was oddly different, intimate, being carried by Lucas. I hugged the warmth of him, tried to concentrate on his reassuring presence, but part of me was worrying about where we were going, automatically noting when we went through doors, took a quick lift ride, and travelled on the belt. I had a feeling there were other people not far away, perhaps even standing next to us. Adika. The Strike team.

  “Shouldn’t the Strike team carry me?”

  “I resent that suggestion,” said Lucas. “The Strike team may have a few more muscles than me, but I’m not a complete wet lettuce.”

  I heard a smothered laugh from someone close by. Was that Adika? There was another short lift journey next. Heading upwards this time. I could feel my heart rate speeding up.

  “Trust me, Amber,” said Lucas, his voice soft, comforting, hypnotic. “You can trust me. You’ll feel a little cooler. There’ll be a breeze, like in the park, but much more varied. Sometimes gentle, sometimes strong, and the direction may change.”

  I was carried up some steps, I could hear Lucas breathing harder from the effort, and then there was the sound of a door opening. I felt the breeze. Lucas was right. This was different from the constant air movement in a park.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Fine,” I said shakily.

  We stayed there for a few minutes, and then I felt Lucas walking again. We were Outside, and he was carrying me away from the Hive. I reminded myself that it was night. There was no need to panic. The Truesun was turned off and couldn’t burn me.

  Lucas stumbled, and I held on tighter.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I caught my foot on a savage tree root. It’s very dark out here, and there isn’t much of a path.”

  We moved on a little further before he stopped. “This is where I put you down. The grass isn’t up to park standards, so I left rugs here earlier.”

  Lucas lowered me onto my own two feet, and I cautiously sat down. I felt something warm being wrapped round my shoulders, and Lucas’s hand took mine.

  “I can tell you’re nervous, so my next move is to distract you from your surroundings and help you relax. Read me.”

  I checked his thoughts. “Lucas!”

  “I’m just considering possible ways to distract you while we’re alone in a dark wood.”

  “Alone except for the Strike team watching us.”

  “I don’t mind them watching us if you don’t. You wouldn’t want to shock your Strike team though. You care deeply about them.”

  “They care about me, and risk their lives for me every day. I naturally care about them too. That doesn’t worry you, does it?”

  “Not in general. It’s natural for a telepath to develop intense emotional bonds with their Strike team members. It’s only the situation with Forge that worries me. You seemed to be having a very nice time with him at the beach. Cuddling up together.”

  I frowned. “I gave Forge a sympathetic hug, that’s all. We were talking about Shanna.”

  “Really? Forge looked as if his mind was totally occupied with you.”

  “Well, it wasn’t.”

  “I need some reassurance. A few sympathetic hugs would be nice, but I’m willing to consider most types of reassurance within reason.”

  “I hope the Strike team can’t hear any of this conversation.” I risked looking at the images in Lucas’s head again. “You’re being outrageous.”

  “I enjoy being outrageous,” said Lucas happily. “Ready for me to take the blindfold off?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “I could be even more outrageous, but I don’t want to risk upsetting you. Well, obviously you know that.”

  Of course I did. Lucas’s teasing images were always heavily intermingled with thoughts analyzing my reactions. At the slightest hint I wasn’t amused by his game, he would immediately stop.

  “Actually,” I said, “your mental images are nothing like as bad as the ones I see in the Strike team’s minds. Eli has especially inventive ideas.”

  Lucas laughed. I felt his fingers touching my blindfold, and hastily closed my eyes before he removed it.

  “The Strike team is made up of eighteen-year-old males, bubbling with excess testosterone,” he said. “I suppose the fantasies are bound to get a little extreme sometimes. Do they bother you?”

  I was safe inside the protective darkness of my own eyelids. “They startled me to begin with, but it’s not really personal even when the fantasies centre on me. I’m a girl they’re guarding, so they think about me a lot. The Strike team try not to daydream during runs, but things occasionally
sneak through.”

  “Ready to open your eyes?” asked Lucas.

  “Yes.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at Outside. It was almost disappointing. At first sight, it really was just like the view in the park. At second sight, it was clear that this was a very untidy park, but …

  “Not such a nightmare as you expected?” asked Lucas.

  I pulled a face at him. “Stop reading my body language.”

  He seemed amused. “Why shouldn’t I read your body language? You read my mind all the time. We’ll stay here a while, see if you’re ready to see the night sky or if we just go to bed. We could even combine the two.”

  I glanced at the graphic image in his head. “What would you do if I said yes to any of these suggestions?”

  “Probably have a major argument with Adika. I must admit I’d rather not have the Strike team watching our intimate moments.”

  “Where are the Strike team anyway?” I looked round at trees and bushes.

  “I think Adika is behind that fallen tree,” said Lucas. “I could throw something at it if you like and find out.”

  “You mustn’t throw things at Adika.”

  “How are you feeling now?”

  “Like a bit of a fraud. After all the fuss I made, it’s not too bad out here.”

  “Don’t get over confident. You’ve only looked at a few trees so far. All your fears are centred on the Truesun, so the daytime sky is the real issue. Even looking at the night sky may cause you severe problems.”

  I felt a surge of nerves at the mention of the sky. I stood up. “Let’s try it.”

  Lucas stood up too, and waved at the fallen tree. “We can play at spotting the shaking bushes as the Strike team follow us.”

  I was much too tense to laugh at the joke. I took tight hold of Lucas’s hand as we walked through the closely packed trees. We were going to see the sky. Not the ceiling in a park, but the real sky. We had to walk very slowly because the ground underfoot was a mess.

  “You were right about there not being much of a path,” I said.

  “There are nice, smooth, gravel paths in the country parks, but there’d be a risk of meeting other people there so I brought us to a wilderness area.” Lucas stopped. “I get to carry you again now. Do you want the blindfold, or would you rather just close your eyes?”

  “I’ll close my eyes.”

  He lifted me up. “We’re coming out of the trees now. There’s a clear area where you’ll see the sky. I want you sitting down for this, so I’ve got another rug waiting for us.”

  “You’ve put a lot of thought and planning into this.”

  “Thought, planning, and also a heavy investment in rugs. Have I earned a reward?” He lowered me to the ground.

  “Possibly. I’ll think about it.”

  “I’ll sit down next to you now, and put my arms round you,” said Lucas. “This is a necessary reassuring measure. My enjoyment of it is purely coincidental.”

  I gave a shaky laugh.

  His arms went round me. “Sky time.”

  I opened my eyes. The sky was deep, and black, and endless. I grabbed hold of Lucas. “It feels like I’m falling up into the sky.”

  “I won’t let you fall,” said Lucas.

  “It’s bigger than a beach. That must sound stupid.”

  “It’s not stupid at all.”

  “The stars look nothing like the ones in a park,” I said. “There’s so many of them, they aren’t evenly spaced out, and some are a lot brighter than others.”

  “Read me.”

  Lucas wasn’t playing with suggestive images this time, just thinking about the beauty of the stars. I sheltered in his feelings, and the dark threatening sky above me changed. I couldn’t fall down into it. I couldn’t fall up into it. It seemed safer now.

  I didn’t speak for several minutes. “Where’s the moon?”

  “There are a few clouds in the sky tonight. Those are composed of water vapour. The moon is currently hidden by that cloud over there.” Lucas pointed upwards. “See that whiter, brighter area? The moon will come out from behind the cloud in a few minutes.”

  I watched the moon slowly appear from behind the cloud. It was much bigger than I’d expected, but it didn’t feel as if it was burning me. “The moon has dark bits on it.”

  Lucas nodded. “That’s because it has craters. Perhaps another time I’ll bring a telescope, and …”

  His voice was drowned out by a wild scream from among the trees, followed by the sound of someone crashing through bushes. I instinctively reached out telepathically to find the threat. There was a scattering of sharp, tiny minds of birds and small animals in that direction, all disturbed by the scream. I searched further and found a huddle of four human minds.

  Adika was sprawled across someone’s chest, his hand gagging their mouth.

  Rothan was pinning down the man’s flailing legs.

  Forge was sitting beside them, gasping in air after being kicked in the stomach.

  Kaden was lying face down in the dirt, his thoughts filled with childhood memories of Halloween tales. All the stories told how the hunter of souls and his pack of demonic creatures patrolled the darkness Outside, entrapping anyone unwary enough to venture there. They’d be out there right now, watching us from among the unnaturally tall trees, and choosing their moment to attack. Once they’d tasted our blood, we’d become like them, cursed to always walk the darkness of Outside and …

  I gasped in terror, but I knew this was Kaden’s terror not mine. Stories of the hunter of souls roaming the darkness Outside with his train of monsters had never scared me as a child. All my fears of Outside were focused on the blindingly bright Truesun.

  I fought my way free of Kaden’s mind, and became aware of Lucas’s arms holding me. His voice was murmuring reassurance in my ear.

  “You’re safe, Amber. You’re safe. You’re safe.”

  I gradually relaxed. “I’m all right.”

  Lucas ended his litany of comfort, reached a hand to adjust his ear crystal, and spoke in a hard voice that I’d never heard him use before. “Would someone like to explain what happened there?”

  Adika’s voice answered, coldly furious. “A small animal ran over Kaden’s foot and he panicked.”

  “Do you think you could keep the Strike team from screaming and running away in terror while I get Amber back inside the Hive?” Lucas’s voice was bitterly sarcastic now.

  “Nobody is going to scream again.” Adika’s voice carried a threat of hideous consequences for anyone who did.

  I opened my mouth to say that there was no need for me to go back inside the Hive yet, but decided there was no point in arguing. Lucas would say that it was time to go back anyway. He’d say we’d achieved the purpose of this trip. He’d say that I was getting cold and tired. He’d be right.

  Lucas released me while he stood up, then reached to lift me up again, but I shook my head. “I can walk this time.”

  We walked back along the path, moving carefully to avoid tripping over tree roots, and reached a hatch-like, open door in the ground. We went through it, down a flight of steps, and I saw half the Strike team waiting outside a lift. I didn’t know what lecture Adika had been giving them over their ear crystals, but they were grimly silent.

  A minute or two later, Adika and some more of the Strike team came down the flight of steps behind us. Rothan, Forge, and Kaden were still missing, and it seemed a bad idea to ask where they were. Adika ushered us all into the lift and started it moving. It was a very short lift ride, and then we moved to ride a belt.

  “Listen carefully to me, Amber,” said Lucas. “This is very important. You’ll have a reaction after doing this. Going out again will probably be harder than this time. I want you to go out at least once more at night before you even think about trying it in daylight.”

  When we arrived back at the unit, Megan was waiting by the lifts. She looked me over anxiously before glaring at Lucas.

  “Amber’s
shaking.”

  I looked down at my hands. Megan was right. I hadn’t realized it, but they were trembling. In fact, all of me was trembling.

  “The trip went very well,” said Lucas, “but it was a strain. Amber needs to rest now.”

  He ushered me off to my apartment, and we went inside. “I’m staying the night,” he stated flatly. “Adika is in a foul mood about Kaden’s panic attack. He needs some exciting gossip to distract him.”

  I looked down at my quivering hands. “I hope Adika isn’t too hard on Kaden. The scream didn’t really make things more difficult for me.”

  “Leave Adika to worry about Kaden,” said Lucas. “Would you like food, drink, or sleep?”

  “A hot drink would be good.”

  We both had hot drinks, and the warmth of the liquid seemed to ease my shaking. Lucas escorted me to my bedroom, and paused in the doorway.

  “I’ll be in one of your spare rooms. Just call me if you need me. I can leave a sound link open if you like.”

  “An open sound link might be nice.”

  He adjusted the apartment sound system controls. “There you are. Sleep well.”

  Lucas headed off into the far reaches of my apartment, and I stripped off my clothes and dumped them on the floor. My body armour and crystal unit got better treatment, being hung up and put away respectively. I set the lights down to low, turned on the sleep field, and let its warm air engulf me.

  “Goodnight, Lucas.”

  “Goodnight,” said his voice.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  I woke, confused and disoriented from a dream, then snapped back to reality. “Lucas!” I yelled.

  His voice answered me, blurred and sleepy. “Amber?”

  “I think I need you.” I rolled out of the sleep field.

  “Are we wearing clothes?”

  “We’re wearing clothes.” I was already pulling on a robe. “I was dreaming.”

  “Tell me.” As I heard the words over the sound system, Lucas entered the room. “Get back in the sleep field, relax, and try to remember everything you can.”

  I did what he said, closing my eyes, and trying to recapture the dream. “I was Outside in the darkness. I was walking along the same path as last night, holding someone’s hand, but it wasn’t you. There was a balloon, big, golden and burning, bouncing among the tree branches. It was hunting me.”