Chapter 6

To earn the trust of not just the humans and changelings but of our own battered people, we can no longer act as a closed system. We must welcome others in, as observers, as advisors, and quite simply, as sets of fresh eyes who will see the mistakes to which we’ve become blind because those mistakes are our reality.

—Ivy Jane Zen (president of the Empathic Collective) to fellow members of the Ruling Coalition (7 June 2082)

“FUCKERS.” YAKOV SPAT out the word. “Monsters, one and all.”

Silver didn’t disagree. “Marshall Hyde’s family has never been one my grandmother liked—but we know very little about Pax’s personal ethics. It does speak well for him that he came to the Coalition with the information about the widespread nature of his family’s holdings in Centers as soon as he had the information in hand.”

“Seems fishy it took him this long.” Yakov narrowed his eyes at the black-and-white house cat that had the temerity to pad up alongside Silver and give him the gimlet eye. Cats. Thought they owned everyone.

Lifting its nose and tail into the air, the cat looked away like Yakov wasn’t there and continued to walk with Silver.

“No, I understand that part.” Silver’s words had him glancing at her in surprise. “Psy family businesses of that magnitude are incredibly complex, and Marshall Hyde was assassinated when Pax was only twenty-four.

“While he was raised as his grandfather’s eventual successor, everyone assumed Hyde would be around for another two or three decades at the very least. There are rumors Pax was taking over more and more from his grandfather up to a year before Hyde’s death, but I don’t believe it.”

Silver shook her head. “No matter how old he was getting or if he might’ve offloaded certain duties onto Pax, he wouldn’t have laid all his cards on the table. There is no way Pax would’ve been given access to or told of all of his family’s holdings at once—first, he’d have had to prove himself with smaller and less sensitive operations.”

Yakov pushed himself to look beyond his instinctive revulsion at the entire “business” of the Centers. “I can see that,” he admitted grudgingly. “Like proving yourself as a junior soldier before taking on more senior duties. So do I have it right? He’s asked the Coalition to give him unbiased observers as he starts to audit these Centers?”

“Basically,” Silver said. “In most cases, the Coalition has sourced medical personnel, human and changeling, to go in as impartial observers and consultants. However, this one situation is different—which is why Pax reached out to StoneWater.”

Yakov ignored the house cat, which had come over to twine around his ankles now that they’d stopped walking. Everyone knew felines were contrary. He’d probably get clawed if he dared pet the slinky creature. “I’ve got basic medic training like all of Valya’s seconds, but my studies were in chemistry, with a minor in pharmacological compounds.”

Every one of Valentin’s senior people had multiple skill sets—Yakov’s knowledge as a chemist was more esoteric than most, but it was part of why he handled anything to do with the clan’s natural resources.

He also had a brain that thrived on patterns and order; that was why he’d volunteered to handle all logistics when it came to shifts, training, and general organizing. Yakov was the reason StoneWater always had backup security equipment, and why their juniors never missed out on external training courses. Valya called him the “quiet engine” at the clan’s heart, and Yakov wasn’t mad about it. He liked being the reason things ran like clockwork.

“I don’t want you on this for the medical side of things,” Silver said. “Your partner has the necessary medical expertise.” Her frown was faint, but Yakov had been around his alpha’s mate long enough now that he could pick up on her micro facial expressions.

“My motivation for pulling you in,” she continued as he gave in to the damn cat and crouched down to risk life and limb in petting its sleek pelt, “is protection and your knowledge of how a major organization runs from the top down—you know every nook and cranny, see every option, and can be counted on to think of things another person wouldn’t.”

“Got it. You want brawn with brain,” Yakov said as the cat purred and pretended it liked him.

Hah! He wasn’t falling for that. Next thing you know the beast would be expecting fresh tuna from the local fishmonger.

Silver’s lips curved a fraction. “And a little slyness.”

Insulted, he said, “I’m a bear, not a cat.”

“But you can be subtle for a bear,” Silver pointed out. “And you’ll need to be with the Marshalls—even my grandmother isn’t sure of Pax’s overall motives. But as she says herself, she never liked the family when it was under Hyde’s rule, so she could be biased against his successor.”

“I trust your grandmother’s instincts.” He’d keep his guard up, make sure he wasn’t taken for a fool by a Psy who thought him a stupid lumbering bear. Though he might well put on the act to ensure that the Marshall involved underestimated him. “So what’s the deal with this particular Center?”

“It was hidden,” Silver told him as he rose from his crouch and they began to walk again.

The cat padded beside him.

“The only reason Pax unearthed it was that he noticed a subtle but constant drain on the family’s finances. Given the size of their coffers, it would’ve been easy to dismiss it as an accounting error—but Pax is too smart for that. He dug. And he discovered a Center that wasn’t on the list of Centers he’d already found, and one that was being funded by the family rather than turning a profit.”

Yakov fought off his instinctive revulsion at the idea of making money from torturing and maiming people. “They still do that? Make a profit, I mean?”

“They are now care facilities.” Silver’s jaw worked. “The people already rehabilitated . . . the vast majority of their families continue to reject them, would rather pay a fee for their long-term maintenance.

“The only good thing is that now, with empaths in charge of oversight, the care is the best—with enrichment a compulsory part of the service. Many human and changeling specialists with expertise in dealing with those like the rehabilitated work in the Centers these days. They’re . . . gentle in a way my race has forgotten how to be.”

“Not all of you, Siva.” He nudged her with his shoulder.

Silver didn’t soften, but neither did she put distance between them.

“None of the rehabilitated will ever come back, not when part of their neural structure was purposefully destroyed, but they can have far more fulfilling lives with an enrichment program than when they were left to vegetate.”

Yakov’s stomach clenched against the urge to throw up. “Your Council was flat-out evil.”

“Yes. Each and every one on the road to what we eventually became.” A pause. “Yet I won’t be a hypocrite. I wonder what path I would’ve walked had I not had Grandmother to guide me. What path she would’ve walked without the guidance she received. We all begin as children, pliable and defenseless.”

Neither one of them spoke again for several minutes.

Because Silver was right. Who would Yakov be had he not been raised by his parents and grandparents, his childhood awash in love and mischief? What if he’d been raised by a psychopath like Marshall Hyde?

The thought made his skin crawl. “Right,” he said, telling himself to shake it off, “so it’s Pax Marshall’s sister who’s coming to investigate the hidden Center on the outskirts of Moscow?”

Silver nodded. “Theodora Marshall has close to no footprint on the PsyNet. So much so that I’m sure it was done on purpose—especially given that she’s listed as a Gradient 2.7 Tk on the records I did manage to find; Marshall Hyde wouldn’t have wanted news of such a weak member of the family to get out. Quite frankly, I’m astonished he let her live.”

Yakov bared his teeth; he hated how the Psy ranked their family members. Especially when it didn’t have to be that way—he saw that with the Mercants. While they were a generally psychically powerful family, he’d met two of Silver’s relatives who were lower-Gradient—but who held high positions in the family due to their non-psychic skills.

And no one would ever say the Mercants were anything but a powerhouse.

Still, he couldn’t feel too sorry for this Theodora. She’d been raised in the same snake pit that had spawned Pax, was apt to be as ruthless. “Interesting that Pax is sending her for such a big job if she’s that low down in the pecking order.”

“Yes, that intrigued me, too. I assumed at first it was because of her medical training—apparently, she’s a fully qualified nurse with a specialization in the manufacturing side of medicine, and previously worked in a part of the family’s operations that makes medical-grade equipment. She used her telekinesis to move tiny components.”

“I hear a ‘but’ in there.”

“I reached out through my various connections and got an interesting response from Ivan.”

“You know,” Yakov said, diverted, “if you’d asked me the name of a person least likely to mate with a changeling, I’d have picked him.” Ivan Mercant was cool and sophisticated and clearly thought bears were lunatics who’d escaped the asylum—but then again, the latter was the default conclusion of many people.

“I think being in a pack of cats suits him just fine,” Silver said with another one of those slight smiles.

“Hmm.” Yakov rubbed his jaw. “I see it. Mercants are as slinky as cats. Is he up for visitors of the bearish variety?”

Silver’s smile deepened the slightest fraction at his grin. “Leave Ivan in peace, Yasha. At least for the moment. Arwen is hovering over him as it is.”

“Oh well, then, job done.” No one hovered better than an empath. “So, what does Ivan have to say about this Theodora?”

“He mentioned Theodora to a DarkRiver sentinel after I told him she was coming here. You know Ivan—given his skills and power, the cats are treating him as a shadow sentinel even as he focuses on handling the situation with the Island.”

“I figured.” Ivan was too strong to be left outside a changeling pack’s hierarchy; it’d have messed with everyone’s heads. “So he’s trusted, has access to senior-level data?”

Silver nodded. “His sentinel friend shared that the cats have some dealings with Pax—as part of that, they unearthed the fact that Theodora was actually born on the same day and year as him.”

Yakov’s eyes widened. “Twins?” He whistled as the house cat pounced off to go about the rest of her important business. “That puts a whole new slant on things. No wonder Pax is sending her.” Yakov would die for Pavel and vice versa.

Their bond was a thing of granite over titanium.

But Silver made a negative sound. “From all I know of the Marshalls, Pax and Theodora weren’t raised together. I didn’t even know about her until recently. Neither did my grandmother. They might be twins, Yasha, but don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re like you and Pasha.”

Yakov nodded, but though he tended to bow to Silver’s advice and knowledge when it came to the Psy, he wasn’t sure she was right this time around. Because Pax Marshall could’ve sent anyone to investigate this sensitive and hidden part of their operations.

He’d chosen to send his twin.

“I’ll do it,” he said.

“I’ve got her ID photo for you back at the office.”

Only after they got back and he looked at the image did he realize that he’d been braced to come face-to-face with his dream woman. Despite everything he’d said to his brother, some small part of him had begun to believe that the reason he was dreaming about her all over again was because he was about to meet her.

But while his dream woman had blond hair and blue eyes, that was where the similarity with Theodora Marshall began and ended. Yakov’s dream woman was vibrant, sparkled with life. This woman’s expression was flat. Her hair was pulled severely off her face, and her eyes, while technically blue, were so dull as to be dishwater.

To be fair, his own ID shot was only passable because Pavel had made him laugh right beforehand, so his eyes were still bright with it, and there was color in his face. Otherwise, ID images washed everyone out. But Theodora Marshall was beyond washed-out—it was as if she had no life to her at all, no kind of personality.

Another android.

Fun. So much fun.

His bear groaned inwardly and slumped down to have a good grump.