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The leopards had closed ranks No one would tell her what the final steps of thethem She was their alpha’s chosen ive her the chance to slip away Even Vaughn had refused, though she’d tried to convince him it would save Lucas’s life Not one of theht

Chapter 20

"F-Psy," Lucas ht?"

She nodded "These days they’re usually hired by businesses to forecast market trends, but I’ve heard that in the past, they often worked for Enforceovernment in order to prevent murders and disasters"

If they hadn’t succu the human emotions behind death and loss, perhaps Lucas’s parents would still be alive How could he not hate her people? Hate her?

"But no E-Psy," Tamsyn said

"No" Sascha frowned "It makes no sense A specialty may be rare but it never disappears entirely"

"Did you check the classification system?" Lucas asked

She nodded and decided not to mention that she’d had to make a quick visit to the PsyNet to do so "It wasn’t hidden I guess they thought no one would ever care to look it up Until Silence, E was an accepted designation It disappeared soon after the Protocol went into effect and wasn’t replaced in the classification charts" She made a frustrated sound "But I don’t knohat it means!"

"What’s your classification?" Nate asked

It was the one question she didn’t want to answer, the one question that showed her how useless she was "I’m non-specialized"

"But I know you’re a telepath" Tamsyn frowned "The cubs told ht of Julian and Roman’s mischievous welcome "Telepathy is a base skill necessary for survival" Otherwise, the uplink to the Net couldn’t be created or maintained "All Psy have it to at least 10 on the Gradient However, I have telepathy to approximately 35 on the Gradient, telekinetic powers to around 22, and whispers of some of the other powers to no real level"

"You’re a cardinal" Lucas squeezed her tight, obviously seeing through the smile to the pain she’d tried to hide "That reat deal of power"

She shook her head "No, it reat deal of power Cardinals are uniformly over 100 on the Gradient in their particular specialty - no one’s been able to figure out a way to measure theure out whether someone is a cardinal" Her eyes had marked her from birth

"Innot to let the to Mother, it shouldn’t have stoppedto the Council ranks but I think she meant to help me" Help by icily controlledthat possibility We both knew I’d never be powerful enough to survive at that level"

Tamsyn pushed off Nate and started to pace across the carpet Her mate looked on, bemused "I’m no Psy, Sascha, but I can feel your power same as I can feel Lucas’s"

Sascha tipped her head to the side "I’m not sure"

"The Psy think we can’t read them but some of us can" Tamsyn dropped the bombshell with a feline s that sarowl but there was mischief in his eyes "Whenever you use Psy power, I know Not only that, I can read spikes in Psy activity And you, kitten, are no Gradient 3 in anything"

"I any Psy power since you’ve known me What I have used, like when I pushed you telekinetically, has been very low level You can’t be reading the spikes right"

Leaning forward, he nipped her lower lip "That was for the push"

She made a face "Watch out or I’ll use soh to turn your hair green" It was a bluff but she got to see Lucas’s eyes narroarning as he debated whether she was serious

"You have power," Ta therander allowed, so they categorize you as non-specialized and bang it into you that you have no power to speak of Tell soh and they’ll start to believe it, even to the extent of handicapping themselves"

Sascha’s eyes widened "When I was a child undergoing training, the instructors always told me I had so much potential, and that it was such a pity it was blocked"

Lucas suddenly rose in a startlingly fast ht

"What - " She found her feet as he set her down