Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3)(111)

MEMORY’S HEART POUNDED a rapid beat, feeling somehow more powerful than it ever before had. As if she had a wolf’s heart now. Sweat dripped from her temples and her head throbbed from the constant use of her minor telekinetic gift . . . but the bond around her right wrist suddenly came undone.

She had no time for surprise or elation; she worked with desperate speed to untie her left wrist, then bent to release her feet—it was where Renault had knotted the long piece of rope he’d wrapped around her. Her fingers slipped, a nail broke, but she managed to undo the tie around her ankles. The rope tangled around her body was now the only thing that stood between her and freedom.

The door to the warehouse creaked open, letting in a shaft of streetlamp-yellow illumination. It shut with a bang. A bright ceiling light came on soon afterward.

Memory gritted her teeth and kept on working with angry calm. She was not going to let Renault win. Breath shallow but pulse rapid, she tugged off the last of the rope as she sensed Renault’s twisted presence coming closer and closer.

There!

Stepping out of the pool of ropes, she padded softly away from the chair despite the heat in her blood that urged her to run toward the monster, take him down. She had to think like Alexei, like a wolf.

A good hunter stalked her prey, took him from a position of power.

She slipped behind a shelf just as Renault appeared from the other side. She examined him through the shelving, noting his slightly unsteady walk, the glittering brightness of his face. Whatever he was on, it had him hyped—it might be one of the new drug formulations aimed at Psy that had recently hit the streets.

The Beacon had reported on it last week.

Whatever it was, it had messed with his senses, because it took him several seconds of staring at the empty chair surrounded by ropes to realize she wasn’t there. His face contorted, his mouth opening. His scream of rage echoed throughout the warehouse—she took advantage of the noise to duck around another corner, putting more distance between them while ensuring she could keep an eye on him through the breaks in the boxes stacked on the shelves around her.

Protein supplement.

Nutrient mix.

Her foot hit something.

She glanced down and had to slap a hand over her mouth to control her reflexive scream. A dead man in a security guard’s uniform lay on the floor, blood oozing out of his nostrils and ears. She sensed nothing from him, no indication of a living presence, but she bent down to check his pulse. Clammy skin, nothing but death.

So this warehouse wasn’t one of Renault’s that he’d somehow accessed. He’d broken in—and murdered in the process. Either the place had no alarms, or he’d forced the guard to give him the codes. She was betting on the latter.

Her resolve to end him hardened. Renault would keep on killing if he wasn’t stopped here and now; he’d spread pain like a cancer across the families of his victims.

No more.

“You bitch! You think I won’t find you!”

Memory braced herself for a telepathic sweep—she was the only other mind in the vicinity, couldn’t escape it, but Renault wasn’t going to attempt to kill her with telepathy, not unless he’d completely lost it. If she kept moving, he couldn’t use his Tp to zero in on her location so he could then freeze her in place using his telekinesis.

And if she managed to incite him into coming after her, she might be able to get him in a position where she could push one of the heavy shelves on top of him before he could use his abilities to block it.

She had Alexei, too.

Her mate was coming for her, his wolf a prowling wildness inside her.

Renault screamed again and Memory realized she hadn’t felt a telepathic sweep. Oh, of course. She was inside Renault’s own shields; he couldn’t attempt to find her mind without first releasing her.

It had to be the same reason her attempts at swamping him with negative emotion weren’t having any impact—her energy was being trapped inside the shell he’d placed over her mind. The next thing she felt was a slam of power against her mind that had her gritting her teeth, her eyes watering.

“Run! Run! I’ll smash your shields open!” He kicked over the chair so it fell to the floor with a clatter, all the while battering at her mind.

He was a stronger telepath than her, and he’d had decades longer to learn aggressive tactics than she’d had to learn defensive ones. In a blunt-force fight, she’d lose. So she had to be cleverer, had to outthink him. Aware from past experience that she could telepath him while locked inside his shields, she said, Shatter my mind and you kill the part of me you want. No lie. This kind of savage and violent breaching often led to severe brain damage.

She watched through the shelves as he paused, the muscles in his jaw and neck bulging. Come out and I won’t hurt you. His eyes moved in jittering sweeps.

Damn it, she’d made a strategic error. Now he knew for certain that she was nearby. I want an agreement, she said, stalling while she looked for anything that would work as a weapon.

An agreement?

I’m not a child any longer. I’m an independent contractor.

An incredulous look on his face. An independent contractor?

Yes. Memory crept toward the door. If Renault stayed where he was and didn’t pursue her into the shelves, then she’d slip out and wait for Alexei, and they’d take down the monster together.

One way or another, this ended here, tonight.