"Bright and early." He waited until she was safely in her room before going downstairs and using the main communications panel to put through a call.
Vaughn's face wore a scowl when he answered, his hair sleep-tangled. "What? Something wrong?"
"I need to talk to Faith."
The other sentinel's scowl deepened. "You got me out of bed because you want to talk to my mate? There are laws against that sort of thing." A slender hand touched his bare shoulder and then Faith's face appeared on-screen beside Vaughn.
"Clay? What's the matter?"
"The matter is that I want you to leave Talin be." Tally could look after herself but that didn't mean she should have to. She'd spent too long doing exactly that. It was time for someone else to look after her.
Concern instead of insult dawned in Faith's eyes. "I'm your friend." She seemed to wrestle with her thoughts before adding, "I care."
"Vaughn," Clay growled.
Vaughn pressed a kiss to his mate's temple. "Come on, Red. I'll explain the facts of life to you."
"Wait - Faith, you talked to the NetMind recently?" The NetMind was a neosentience that lived in the PsyNet - it was the Net, to some extent - and it liked Faith. It might prove the perfect source of information about any Psy involvement in the kidnappings.
Faith shook her head. "I get the feeling it's being careful not to contact me. It may be because Councilor Krychek is too good at tracking its movements and it doesn't want to give away the fact that it can talk to Psy outside the Net."
Clay shrugged off the loss. Even if Faith had been able to contact it, communication with the neosentience was difficult. "Thanks."
"Clay," Faith said, her face tormented, "I want you to be happy."
"Tally makes me happy." He turned off the screen, a feeling of rightness in his gut. It was true - Tally might infuriate, anger, and frustrate him, but she also made him happy in a way no one else ever had. He wanted to do the same for her.
That thought in mind, he decided to bed down on the second level in case she needed him. They hadn't spoken much about her episode from the previous night - she seemed to be trying to ignore it - but the fact was, whatever it was that was wrong with her, it was getting worse. And unlike when he'd been fourteen, Clay couldn't slay the monster for her.
His claws sprang out. To hell with that! He'd kidnap an M-Psy if that was what it took to help Tally. He had no limits when it came to her. None.
The dream was one Talin had been having for years. Unlike the other things that haunted her, this one wasn't a nightmare. It was almost peaceful.
She floated in a field of black, her body insubstantial. Occasional stars flickered in greeting, but it was the strands of living rainbow weaving through the darkness that truly captured her attention. They seemed almost alive, full of sparkling mischief.
As always, she halted, reached out, touched a strand. And as always, that was the moment when the peace disappeared. Need raced through her body, such deep, aching, incomprehensible need that it rocked her to the core of her soul, had her jerking awake, grasping the night air for...something, something important.
But there was nothing but emptiness there, nothing but stillness.
Heart thudding, she glanced at the small bedside clock. Four a.m. Her personal witching hour. She should stay here, she told herself. If she went downstairs, she'd disturb Clay - his hearing was too keen to allow her to move about undetected. A branch shifted against the window, throwing shadows into the room.
They didn't frighten her. The forest was Clay's home. It spoke of safety and strength. Just like him. Admitting that she didn't want to stay up here, much less alone, she got out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants to go with her tank top and panties. Usually, she slept in clothes she'd be ready to run in, but two nights with Clay nearby and she felt secure enough to indulge. Ready, she opened the trapdoor and began to head down.
"Tally?"
Startled by the sleepy murmur, she squinted into the darkness. Night-glow eyes looked at her from below the window, distracting her enough that she forgot to be afraid of the dark. "Clay?"
"Hmm." Those eyes closed, but their position told her he'd made up a bed on the floor.
Totally unprepared for his presence, she hesitated midway down the ladder.
"Can't sleep?" His eyes opened again.
She shook her head, realizing he could see her perfectly well.
"Come here." It was a lazy masculine invitation.
Chapter 25
That voice. Deep. Husky with sleep...and an oh-so-seductive hint of bad.
She shivered, her ni**les tightening against the soft cotton of the tank top. She'd asked him to be her friend but at that moment, friendship wasn't what her body wanted. Panicking, she gripped the ladder with desperate hands. "I shouldn't."
"Come on, Tally."
He sounded so drowsy, so persuasive, that she hesitated. What harm would it do to sit with him for a while? And he had promised to behave. She told herself that that wasn't disappointment biting into the most sensitive parts of her body. "I can hardly see." With small, careful steps, she made her way to the foot of his mattress.
"Very little ambient light," he murmured. "Lights on, night setting."
A soft glow lit up the kitchen area. She adored him for the thought but decided she could handle this. "Lights off. I'm okay. Just don't close your eyes."
The tempting sound of sheets sliding over skin. "Made you a space by the wall."
She hadn't expected anything else - Clay would never allow her to be on the vulnerable open side of the mattress. Dropping down to her knees, she felt her way around and on to what seemed to be a very well made futon. "It's so comfortable," she said, fitting herself between the wall and Clay. The bottom part of the mattress was firm, but he'd thrown some kind of thick feather duvet over the sheet. "Like being on a cloud."