Bound to Night by Nina Croft

the smile slide away. Suspicion flickered across his face. “Are you reading me?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “Could you?”
    “I don’t know,” she said. “I can’t read Jack, unless he lets me.”
    “Jack’s a vamp. Nobody can read vamps.” He studied her for a moment. “Can you control how far you go in? Top level only?”
    She nodded.
    “Okay, try then.”
    Tasha looked at him in surprise. “You want me to read you?”
    “I want you to try.” He stared at her, the challenge clear in his voice. “What am I thinking, Tasha?”
    She reached out with her mind’s eye, sensed the flavor of him, the wolf so close to the surface. She focused on his thoughts and took a step back as intense heat flooded her body. The picture in her head was so graphic, so carnal.
    He laughed, but he didn’t sound amused. “I guess that answers my question.”
    He walked away a few paces, giving Tasha a moment to compose herself. When he turned back, his expression was grim. “The pack isn’t happy about having a telepath among us.”
    Despair washed over her; she would never belong. People would always see her as different—a freak as Johnson had enjoyed calling her. “I won’t use it. I told you—I don’t like to.”
    He shrugged off her concerns. “Don’t worry. I’ll sort it out, but it will be better once you’ve committed to the pack. Once you’ve run with us, they’ll trust you. But for now, we need to decide what to do with you.”
    “I want to go home,” she said.
    “That may not be so simple.” Sebastian turned away from her. “Jack?”
    Tasha swung around as Jack glided out of the shadows at the edge of the room. She didn’t try to hide her delight, and Sebastian shook his head in disgust.
    Jack was dressed all in black with a holster strapped at his shoulder and a knife strapped to his thigh. His black, silky hair was pulled back in a ponytail, emphasizing the pale beauty of his face, his sharp cheekbones, the long line of his jaw.
    He looked dangerous and familiar, and she couldn’t prevent herself from taking an involuntary step toward him. He didn’t smile at her. He just looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her throat, then lower, over the soft peaks of her breasts. With a shiver of excitement, her nipples hardened against the thin silk top she wore. Her heart rate increased, and the blood throbbed in her veins.
    “Come.” Jack smiled. “Sit down.”
    “I don’t need to sit down.” She glanced into his face. “Do I?”
    “You might as well be comfortable.”
    She sank into the chair he indicated. “So, why can’t I go home?”
    Jack sat in the chair opposite, and Sebastian took the seat beside him. “Let me explain a little first,” Jack said. “Do you know what The Facility was?”
    Tasha frowned. “They told me it was a government organization, research into the paranormal.”
    Jack shook his head. “They weren’t government.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because we were sent in by the government to find out what was going on there.”
    “You work for the government, both of you?”
    “Let’s just say we’re sub-contractors.” He sat back, searching her face. “Tasha, what do you know of your father’s work?”
    “Not a lot. I was only thirteen,” she said. “I know he was a scientist. He worked for some sort of government organization, but he never spoke about it.” She forced herself to concentrate, to think back to the time before she was attacked.
    “I did pick up bits and pieces out of his mind, nothing that made any sense.” She paused and glanced at Sebastian. “I couldn’t control it at first,” she explained. “The mind-reading. I’d go up to people and I’d be there, in their heads.” She shuddered. “It was horrible. In the end, I told Dad. He said he knew someone who could help me.”
    “Did he tell you who?” Jack asked. “Or mention any names at all?”
    Tasha shook her head. “No, but I suppose he might have worked in the same