the table a bit. Smart man.
Kayden’s jaw tightened, but his self-preservation switch must be
malfunctioning because he didn’t back down under the Colonel’s stare. “In an attempt to retrieve more accurate information regarding Kelsey’s attack, I
piggybacked on Cyn’s ability to boost the energy signatures.” He paused before
adding, “Sir.”
Her eyebrows disappeared under her neat hair. “You attempted to combine
psychic abilities unmonitored?”
Why was it, when she asked it that way, it sounded like a really bad idea?
Disapproval colored her face, but Kayden held his ground remarkably well,
considering. “It worked.” His answer emerged a little tight and defensive.
“And you considered the possible repercussions worth the risk of
disregarding one of the few rules you agreed to when you signed up for this team?”
Oh shit! Something more serious was at play here, and I started to worry for Kayden. Hell, I started to worry for me. Maybe I should have asked him a few
more questions, but it was a little hard to ask the right ones, if you don’t know
what you’re doing in the first place.
He held her gaze without flinching. “I did, yes.”
Breaking their silent staring contest wasn’t something I really wanted to do,
but I waded in bravely. “What kind of repercussions are we talking about here?”
For a few heartbeats, Delacourt continued to watch Kayden. Then she turned
all that disconcerting regard to me. “When two sympathetic abilities, such as a Tracker and a Watcher—”
“Watcher?”
“Someone who views the past or present, but can’t actively change it,” Tag,
the ever helpful, clarified.
Delacourt nodded. “When similar talents combine their energies, strange
changes take place.”
“Define strange,” I prompted.
“When discussing psychic abilities, it depends on the individuals involved.
Combining two talents has three outcomes.” She began to tick them off with her
fingers. “One, one ability will cancel out the other. Two, one ability will become dominant, or three, the two will combine into something unique to the pairing.”
“There’s a fourth,” Kayden added.
For a moment, something peeked from behind her controlled expression, but
I didn’t know her well enough to understand it. She turned back to him. “Yes, there is, but it comes only if you merge two talents continually over an extended
period of time. Unless there’s something neither of you shared, I think we can consider that off the table.”
What the hell were they talking about?
Before I could ask, Delacourt continued, “What were your results?”
When Kayden played statue, I answered. “All it did was amp things up.” Her
attention swung back to me, so I fumbled along. “For both of us.”
Since Kayden didn’t refute my statement, I kept going. “The first time,
before Kayden came crashing in, I couldn’t hear a thing.” I managed the small
white lie as memories rose to replay in vivid detail. “The images…memories,”—
