"Fear." Her voice was flat, tight.
"How strong is it?" G.o.d, he hated this. He could feel her hesitancy. her instinctive rejection of the emotions trying to bombard her.
"Probably mine," she answered with resignation. "I"d rather face the Coyotes and bullets than try this."
"Let"s move in closer. I can"t detect any hidden life signs. If they"re here, they"re below."
The Coyotes wouldn"t antic.i.p.ate their arrival from above. They would expect them to take the same course into the canyon that Megan would have taken on patrol.
"There"re several ways into the canyon from here." She kept her voice lowered as little by little she forced the mental blocks to recede.
It wasn"t easy for her. He could feel the struggle she was waging to drop them, to allow her sensitive brain to pick up whatever emotions leaked from the canyon below. They were there; he could feel them, just as he could feel the presence of the Coyotes.
"We"ll stay high for now." Bending low, they moved from the shelter of the thick trees, staying parallel to a ma.s.s of boulders that appeared to have been dropped like a child"s marbles along the top of the canyon.
Megan moved along the edge of the thick pine growth, thankful for the cover of brush as she moved closer to the area where she would have been most vulnerable during patrol.
She couldn"t feel the presence of the Coyotes. The dark malevolence that was so much a part of them, the thirst for a blood, was absent. She knew them now, knew the feel of them, the smell of them.
She was aware of Braden moving behind her. The sense of calm, the shield that normally reached out to her wasn"t there now. The absence of it sent her pulse racing; the knowledge that she was mentally on her own was almost frightening.
She couldn"t feel the Coyotes but the tendrils of violence that reached out from the canyon floor had her chest tightening. Rage. Fear.
She breathed in roughly, fighting to allow it in, to sift past the rage and anger for the core of the emotion. There was always a core. A driving reason behind the pain. But at this distance it would be next to impossible to detect.
"Mark and Aimee had been here. They knew the Coyotes were following them," she said, her voice rough as she felt him behind her.
He was tense as he covered her. The shields he had allowed her to use before weren"t available, but there was something else, a connection, a sense of energy pouring from him into her.
"Let"s move back, work our way to the canyon floor and see if there"s anything there. Maybe the distance between here and the entrance they used is still too much."
G.o.d, she could feel them already, distant though they were. The shadowy impressions of emotion clenched her chest as the overwhelming grief, the bottomless pit of rage and pain, sought her out. Why had those Breeds been here? What had they wanted from her?
They backtracked quietly. As they neared the upper edge of the cliffs, Megan pointed out the steep trail that led to the canyon floor. The weaving path led between boulders, scrub pine and a mult.i.tude of brush.
It wasn"t the safest route, but it was relatively secure.
"I"ll go ahead of you." Braden paused at the top of the path, glancing back at her, his gaze darker, filled with concern.
"Are you doing okay?"
She nodded stiffly. Dropping her barriers, ineffective though they were, was still hard. It wasn"t something she was used to doing and her mind was rioting at the vulnerable position she was placing herself in.
"How did you learn to use your shields?" she asked.
"Most of it is natural instinct. Animals have the ability to sense emotion, to sense danger, while remaining unaffected by it. They know it"s there. My abilities are stronger than many of the other Felines. I can drop my shields and sense emotion without feeling it, but I can"t pick up specifics. I can pick up the fact that there was death, pain, rage or danger. But I can"t sift through the emotions to reach the secrets."
"And what makes you think I can? She tried to regulate her breathing, to hold back the fear that reached out to her and weaved through her consciousness.
"Observation." He paused at a particularly steep stretch of the path before moving to the left several feet in search of surer footing. "And the fact that I can feel you drawing on my shields. It stands to reason that you could also draw on my abilities and pick up more."
"To increase them." She paused as she stared back at him. "You"re going to increase what"s already there."
Breathe. In. Out.
She could handle it. She would kill him later, but for now, she could handle it. Do the job; that was the important part. The rest she could tackle later.
"I"ll be here with you, Megan." He turned, his expression still, almost blank. "We"ll work on it together. We"ll balance each other. I promise."
Her lips flattened as she fought the bitterness that seemed to seep through her. Balance each other.
"You won"t feel what I feel, Braden." The betrayal still stung. The sense of being used seared her soul.
"That"s not balance."
"You"ll see." He turned and continued down the path. ""Explaining it would make no sense, but you"ll see what I mean."
The closer they moved to the floor of the canyon, the stronger the impressions came. At this point, it wasn"t the rage or the death. She felt determination, a sense of purpose.
She paused at the wide entrance, fighting to still the tremors that pa.s.sed through her body. One of the unfortunate side effects of her abilities was the fact that she felt not just the emotions of the event reaching out to her, but also the lives the victims had lived. Not clearly. Not enough to find answers or even completely understand the darkness that filled her mind - and would later fill her dreams. And the darkness within the two Breeds who had died here had been deep.
She paused just within the rising cliffs, closing her eyes and trying to focus. They hadn"t been frightened. They had stopped here, staring into the canyon for long moments, aware of something_ Danger.
"They were hunters." Braden"s voice was soft. "Mark and Aimee were paired in the Labs because their abilities complemented each other. Mark was a perfect shot; Aimee was more in tune with the weapons-what would work best where-than he was. She had a feel for them. She was an excellent tracker: he was a strategist. We suspect they were mates, but they never came forward to verify it."
Megan sensed that the two had been close, though they had fought to hide it. The small distance she felt between them wasn"t a result of that attempt to hide their bond. It was a result of betrayals. They had loved, but that love had been marred horribly.
"They were mates." She frowned as she sifted through the impressions. She could feel a bond, and it was strong.
Strange, the information that could be found on the outskirts of violence. As though everything that had been felt had been saved, impressed upon the area like information to a hard drive.
Braden. He stood just behind her, his primal DNA a magnet to the psychic impressions.
"Concentrate." His voice was almost mesmerizing. "I"m here, Megan. I know what"s here with us. Trust me to help you."
She moved slowly in to the canyon, one step at a time, feeling the presence of the two Breeds as she made her way between the sheer cliffs that rose above them.
Mark had been hard, fierce. He had believed irnplicitly in whatever they were there to do. Aimee had been less certain. She hadn"t been frightened, but rather wary. She could sense things easier than her partner, her mate.
Megan inhaled sharply as she stopped. She hated this. Her insides clenched with pain, a physical sensation to match the mental excesses as she felt the spirit of the woman reach out to her.
She felt death.
"I can"t" She whimpered then, desperation rising inside her as her hands went to her own stomach.
"You"re not a part of it, Megan." His voice was at her ear, his hands gripping her hips, holding her to her feet when she knew she would have fallen. "Feel around your mind, right now." His voice hardened.
"Keep your eyes closed, baby. Remember. You are separate. Separate yourself."
Separate.
Her hands clenched at her stomach as she felt the pain rising in her soul.
"She was pregnant." She wanted to curl into a ball, to find a hole that could hide her, that would let her grieve.
No. No. That was Aimee. Aimee had wanted to hide.
"She was pregnant." Braden"s voice was low, aching with sadness. "Why was she here, Megan? Why did she want you? Go beyond Aimee. There"s a place beyond the emotions, the pain, where the truth lies. What did she want?"
What did she want? There were so many emotions rolling over her, through her. Sift through them. Find the core. There was a core.
"Revenge."
Megan stiffened, gasping at the strength of the thought. Aimee wanted revenge.
"Keep your eyes closed." Braden growled as they flew open. "Close your eyes, Megan. Concentrate. Feel the strength I"m lending you, learn how to use it and keep looking. What is the core, baby?"
She was gasping for breath. She could feel the fine sheen of sweat that covered her face, her neck. It wasn"t the heat, it was the shaking cold inside her.
Revenge. The word whispered through her mind again. But first, they needed proof. Here lay the proof. They would move to the other side of the curve and wait. GPS on Mark and Aimee"s vehicle had been disabled, stealth had been enabled.
"Breed vehicles have stealth?" she asked, confused, thinking of the special electronics that blocked life signs by law enforcement vehicles.
He stiffened in surprise "Not normally." His voice was grim now.
"Sometimes, only when authorized."
She kept searching, desperate to find the answers here, now. She didn"t know if she could go further, if she could force herself to pull in the shattered emotions that lingered here. Already her mind was screaming, demanding to be allowed to hide from emotions that weren"t its own.
The emotions were stronger here than they had been in the gully where the couple had died. They had rested here within the shelter of this canyon. They had held each other, loved, and accepted that the battle they had taken on may not be successful.
Megan felt herself weakening. Her knees shook, her chest felt tight with a need for oxygen that should have been there. She was gasping for breath; surely she shouldn"t feel so deprived?
Behind her closed eyes, sparks of light exploded before her gaze, shifting colors, sizzling heat. She felt a premonition of death, a race to make a call. Another call. Had they been betrayed? Aimee had felt the betrayal beating at her brain, the sense of danger, of death.
Then, through the building emotions, the knowledge of another"s danger, another"s death, came a sense of impending doom stronger than the impressions lying in wait. Her eyes flew open as she realized they were closer to the sharp bend that led further into the canyon than she had realized.
"Stop." She hissed, digging in her heels, staring at the curve, her muscles freezing. her mind screaming.
He stopped. Time stood still as she fought to get some sort of control. to separate herself.
"Someone is there," She could feel it. Knew they weren"t alone.
"It"s the strength of your abilities." He began to soothe her.
She shook her head desperately. "I feel them. They"re there."
"I don"t feel it." His voice was cold, a.n.a.lyzing. "What do you feel, Megan?"
Her hand fell to her holster as she loosened the clip that held the Glock in place and allowed it to drop into her palm. She was aware of Braden doing the same.
"Do you feel it?" she asked him. Friend or foe? She couldn"t be certain. It wasn"t a Coyote, she knew that.
He jerked her to the side, moving to the base of the cliff, using the scrub and boulders that littered the area as a shield. Megan fought to slam the barriers in her mind back in place, almost whimpering in pain as they refused to lower.
As though once lifted, they would be forever out of reach.
"What is it?" she asked. She wanted to clasp her head in an attempt to hold back the sensations still rushing toward her. Whoever, whatever waited on the other side was cold, emotionless. She sensed nothing but their presence.
"Non-Breeds." Braden"s voice carried no farther than her ear. "At least two."
"Moving or still?"
"Waiting. The scent hasn"t changed. They know we"re here. What do you feel?"
She shook her head. "No emotion. Just presence."
She felt more than heard his curse.
"We move back above the canyon." He growled in her ear. "Back to the Raider."
Backing up, Megan kept her gaze on the curve that led around to the other side of the canyon. Why wait there?
What were they searching for? Her mind was alive with twisting emotions that made no sense, that she had no time to sift through. But she could feel the answers there, just out of reach. Both Mark and Aimee"s, as well as whoever lay in wait now.
They definitely weren"t Coyote, she thought as Braden pushed her back up the path to the head of the canyon. She kept low, moving between the sheltering boulders and brush as they rushed up the steep slope. Silence was imperative. She was aware of Braden"s silent demand, of how he braced her when needed, keeping her from stepping in the softer areas and leading her along firmer ground.
From below, she could feel patience, silent watchfulness. Whoever was there knew that she and Braden were also, or at least suspected they would be rounding that curve. They were waiting on them.
She wanted to whimper as pain seared her mind. It took every ounce of strength she possessed to flee back up the path, to concentrate on climbing rather than lying down and moaning at the pain.
As they neared the top of the cliff, Braden pulled her to an abrupt stop. She felt it then. Just above them, waiting.
"You stay." He pushed her behind the boulder they were using as a shield, turning to stare at her, his eyes blazing gold with fury. "I"ll be back for you."
She caught his arm, defiance filling her. She had come this far, she would be d.a.m.ned if she would let him shelter her now.
"I"ll be behind you," she told him, careful to keep her voice low. "From here, we can break off, shimmying along the side. We can move to the top of the cliff with the smaller boulders and brush covering the entrance. We"ll be hidden and on either side of them."
His lips flattened, an instant denial flashing in his eyes.
"It will work, Braden," she whispered. "We"re not that far from the Raider. You can smell them, right?"
He nodded briefly.
"You"ll know where they"re at once we get to the top. You can signal to me and we can take him out. It"s the only way." She could feel it. Her brain was a mora.s.s of sensations and information she couldn"t make sense of, but this made sense. Someone was waiting on them, possibly to stop them.
"We fight together or we don"t fight at all," she told him fiercely. "I won"t be coddled."