Page 36 (1/2)

Her eyes were catlike in their sness "Look at the heads of the family trees"

He finally released her hair so he could spread out the charts "I’ obvious"

"That’s because it’s not" She picked up one particular sheet "This is Jon’s record I was staring at it thiswhen it struck me that I’d heard - read - the name Duchslaya Yurev before He’s at the top of this tree I did a search" She pointed to the computer built into the side of the desk "Yurev was one of his generation’s greatest minds He’s half the reason we know as enetics"

"Kid’s full na at the chart "Okay, it’s an ancestral nauess what" She traced a line on the chart "Jonquil is Yurev’s only reut "Was Yurev human?"

"No" Her next words were a whisper "He was a cardinal telepath"

"Damn"

"Yeah"

For a minute, they just stared at each other "What about the other na It’s like they’ve been erased from the system - I only realized about Yurev because he was mentioned in an out-of-print textbook I read when I was fifteen I was bored and it was the last physical book in the library I hadn’t read"

"Geek"

She stuck out her tongue at hiuess Yurev was too fah you know, he’s not in any of the electronic textbooks, hasn’t been for over half a century Even the Internet databases have very little on him If he was that hard to trace, I have no clue how Shine did the others"

"Maybe," he murmured, "they had a head start, a list to a certain point"

"Hold on" Tally liberated a small notebook from the confusion of paper on the table "See on the family trees, they also have locations listed next to the naenerations back, sometimes three, they start to scatter"

"A diaspora" Clay blew out a breath "Yurev wasn’t the only Psy"

"No," she said "I can’t prove it but it fits The ifted in a way that was almost Psy" Her mouth fell open at the echo of Dev’s words "Dev was telling us without telling us"

"So him, but I don’t think he’s happy about it"

"You don’t think we could be juh his hair "My instincts say we’re right, but one nao on"

"And," Talin pointed out, "once, the Psy were like us I s It wasn’t anything weird" Her tone became less certain "A lot of us probably have Psy blood in our past"

"I know for certain that Lucas does" Turning, he leaned back against the table and wrapped an arhted when she automatically put her hands on his shoulders "We need a Psy perspective"

He felt her body go stiff, but her response was a nod "You’re right Here or - "

"Sascha’s likely to be around" He wasTally with Faith The cat preened in the heat of her possessiveness "We’ve got a new develop with a Psy corporation"

"Psy?" Curiosity had her leaning into hiht they liked to keep to their own businesses I’ve heard ru, you compete with the Psy, you die"

He couldn’t resist reaching out to trace the curve of her lip She pretended to snap her teeth at him His cock was suddenly taut with need but he resisted the urge to lay her on the table and satisfy his hunger "DarkRiver ran a project for Nikita’sshift," Talin ertips but her scent edged with the exquisite bite of arousal Her ht not have made the decision yet, but her body craved his "I wonder if you guys even realize it"

"Oh, we realize it" Clay relaxed at the clear signs that she wasn’t suffering any ill effects fro off the enemy"

"You make it sound like a war"

"It damn well is And these children" - he pointed to the files - "are so there’son here than I know" But she wouldn’t ask He either trusted her or he didn’t

He drew her between the vee of his thighs, one hand sliding down to press over her lower back "Are you trying to pretend to be stoic?" he asked "It doesn’t work if you tap your toe in telanced down and blushed "That wasn’t nice"

A warning graze along her neck with sharp leopard teeth "I’ll tell you anything you want to know" His unshaven jaw rasped over the skin exposed by her V-necked sweater "But right noe have to focus on this We’ll talk about the other stuff later" He pressed a row of kisses along that sale of flesh "Freckles I want to count them"

"You’ll lose count after the first million" Her heart felt like it would burst from inside her chest Did he have any idea what he et the others" It would give her tiether "Call Faith, too" She made a face and pulled the short hairs at his nape "I’m not a baby I can handle her"

He shot her an amused look "Very mature"

"Shuddup Go"

"I can call them from here" He proceeded to do exactly that "Sascha will be here in about an hour Faith’s tied up with so, so you don’t have to be an to sit back down at the table

Clay grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door "First, we eat"