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Not only was he helping beings be protected against the Zavorians, but he had a badass job. A spy? Universe, how did she get so lucky?
“Thank you,” he said, gaze falling from hers for the briefest moment. It was endearing. This powerful alien hadn’t gotten too much praise in his life, had he? “There’s one skill I refuse to use, however. Never have, never will.”
Leah gulped. From what she sensed in his aura, she already had an inkling about it–the same inkling she’d felt when they’d first met and he told her about energies.
“Remember when you asked me about reading thoughts?” he said.
Leah nodded, a bit apprehensive.
“I’m not as adept at it as others, but I can register the faint traces of beings’ thoughts–if I want to,” he said.
“I thought Quillons couldn’t do that.”
“Quillons can’t.”
Her eyes bulged. Damn it, did the Zavorian might know no bounds? She vividly remembered wondering if Flint had some weird technology he could use to read her thoughts.
He probably didn’t. But he didn’t need it, because he was in cahoots with the Zavorians, whocouldread minds.
“Zavorians can read minds,” she muttered, as if to herself. This could cause a whole world of problems.
She knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Taryn hadn’t read her thoughts. Even if this process happened imperceptibly, she trusted him in this. For heaven’s sake, he had wanted to sleep inside the ship so she’d feel more comfortable. He understood boundaries and he respected them, and she respected him for that.
“Yes. They like to call themselves Mind Masters.”
“Shit.” Leah closed her eyes shut. One problem at a time. “Can they influence thoughts?”
“No. They can bend with the right words, like you and me, but they cannot enter thoughts and change them. No being in this universe can.”
As far as they knew. “So all those people working with them simply decided to betray Earth.”
Taryn tensed. His energy stopped caressing hers in a soothing pattern and froze. “Who are all those people?”
It was time. Leah had to tell him the truth and hope for the best.
22
LEAH
“Ionly know of one, for sure,” she began. But if Flint was obviously working with the Zavorians, then more had to be involved. His bodyguards, for starters. Most likely some of the liaisons, especially that hellish Christine. “The man who came to Nana’s hospital and told me I’d been Selected as part of the soulmate program. For you.”
She licked her lips. Taryn was waiting patiently, talons rubbing soothing circles on the back of her hands, urging her silently to go on.
Leah felt nothing but understanding tinged with curiosity coming off his energy. But she also sensed he was holding some of it back. He had every right to.
“He–” She inhaled a stuttered breath. This was it. No more hiding. No more secrets that ate away at her. Taryn had told her everything. It was time she repaid the favor. “He walked into that hospital room and told me that he could get the treatment Nana needed to survive, if…”
The memories of that day had been torturing Leah for the past few months. But saying them out loud felt like she was emotionally self-flailing herself.
“If–if I agreed to his terms,” she said, feeling smaller and weaker by the second.
“What terms?” Taryn rumbled.
“I had to give him information.” Tears crowded the corners of Leah’s eyes. She dropped her gaze from Taryn’s. She couldn’t do it, not while he was looking at her with such openness.
“On?” he asked when she didn’t say more for a few seconds.
Universe help her.
