Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh Extract With Cover

SLAVES_GO_1STPROOF.indd 3 14/01/2010 17:16

Copyright Nalini Singh 2006Extract from Visions of Heat Copyright Nalini Singh 2007

All rights reserved

The right of Nalini Singh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2010 byGollancz

An imprint of the Orion Publishing GroupOrion House, 5 Upper St Martins Lane, London WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK Company

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

A CIP catalogue record for this book is availablefrom the British Library

ISBN 978 0 575 09566 3

Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

www.nalinisingh.com

www.orionbooks.co.uk

The Orion Publishing Groups policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing

processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.


This one is for my wonderful editor, Cindy Hwang, and

my awesome agent, Nephele Tempest, for being so

enthusiastic about this book from the start, and as

always for my family, for being there no matter what.


P R O LO G U E

Silence

In an effort to reduce the overwhelming incidence of in-sanity and serial killing in the Psy population, the PsyCouncil decided, in the year 1969, to instigate a rigorousprogram called Silence. The aim of Silence was to condi-tion young Psy from birth. The aim of the conditioning wasto teach them not to feel rage.

However, the Council soon discovered that it was im-possible to isolate that one emotion. In 1979, after a ten-year debate over the millions of minds in the PsyNet, itwas decided to change the aim of Silence. Its new missionwas to condition young Psy to feel nothing. Not rage, notjealousy, not envy, not happiness, and certainly not love.

Silence was a resounding success.By the year 2079, when the fth or sixth generation of

Psy are being conditioned, everyone has forgotten that theyhad ever been any other way. The Psy are known to be icilycontrolled, inhumanly practical, and impossible to push toviolence.

They are the leaders of government and business,

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eclipsing both humans and changelings, races that allowtheir animal natures to rule them. With mental capabilitiesrunning from telepathy to foresight, telekinesis to psy-chometry, the Psy consider themselves a step up the evolu-tionary ladder.

In keeping with their nature, they base all their deci-sions on logic and efciency. According to the PsyNet,their mistake rate is close to nil.

The Psy are perfect in their Silence.

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CHA P T E R 1

Sascha Duncan couldnt read a single line of the re-port ickering across the screen of her handheld organizer.A haze of fear clouded her vision, insulating her from thecold efciency of her mothers ofce. Even the sound ofNikita wrapping up a call barely penetrated her numbedmind.

She was terried.This morning, shed woken to nd herself curled up in

bed, whimpering. Normal Psy did not whimper, did notshow any emotion, did not feel. But Sascha had knownsince childhood that she wasnt normal. Shed successfullyhidden her aw for twenty-six years but now things weregoing wrong. Very, very wrong.

Her mind was deteriorating at such an accelerating ratethat shed begun experiencing physical side effectsmuscle spasms, tremors, an abnormal heart rhythm, andthose ragged tears after dreams she never recalled. It wouldsoon become impossible to conceal her fractured psyche.

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The result of exposure would be incarceration at the Cen-ter. Of course no one called it a prison. Termed a rehabil-itation facility, it provided a brutally efcient way for thePsy to cull the weak from the herd.

After they were through with her, if she was lucky shedend up a drooling mess with no mind to speak of. If shewasnt so fortunate, shed retain enough of her thinkingprocesses to become a drone in the vast business networksof the Psy, a robot with just enough neurons functioning tole the mail or sweep the oors.

The feel of her hand tightening on the organizer joltedher back to reality. If there was one place she couldntbreak down, it was here, sitting across from her mother.Nikita Duncan might be her blood but she was also a mem-ber of the Psy Council. Sascha wasnt sure that if it camedown to it, Nikita wouldnt sacrice her daughter to keepher place on the most powerful body in the world.

With grim determination, she began to reinforce thepsychic shields that protected the secret corridors of hermind. It was the one thing she excelled at and by the timeher mother nished her call, Sascha exhibited as muchemotion as a sculpture carved from arctic ice.

We have a meeting with Lucas Hunter in ten minutes.Are you ready? Nikitas almond-shaped eyes held nothingbut cool interest.

Of course, Mother. She forced herself to meet that di-rect gaze without inching, trying not to wonder if her ownwas as unrevealing. It helped that, unlike Nikita, she hadthe night-sky eyes of a cardinal Psyan endless eld ofblack scattered with pinpricks of cold white re.

Hunter is an alpha changeling so dont underestimatehim. He thinks like a Psy. Nikita turned to bring up hercomputer screen, a at panel that slid up and out from thesurface of her desk.

Sascha called up the relevant data on her organizer. The

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miniature computer held all the notes she could possiblyneed for the meeting and was compact enough to slip intoher pocket. If Lucas Hunter stuck true to type, hed turn upwith paper hard copies of everything.

According to her information, Hunter had become theonly ruling alpha in the DarkRiver leopard pack at twenty-three years of age. In the ten years since, DarkRiver hadconsolidated its hold over San Francisco and surroundingregions to the extent that they were now the dominant pred-ators in the area. Outside changelings who wanted to work,live, or play in DarkRiver territory had to receive their per-mission. If they didnt, changeling territorial law went intoforce and the outcome was savage.

What had made Saschas eyes open wide in her rst read-ing of this material was that DarkRiver had negotiated a mu-tual nonaggression pact with the SnowDancers, the wolfpack that controlled the rest of California. Since the Snow-Dancers were known to be vicious and unforgiving to anyonewho dared rise to power in their territory, it made her wonderat DarkRivers civilized image. No one survived the wolvesby playing nice.

A soft chime sounded.Shall we go, Mother? Nothing about Nikitas rela-

tionship to Sascha was, or had ever been, maternal, butprotocol stated she was to be addressed by her family des-ignation.

Nikita nodded and stood to her full height, a gracefulve eight. Dressed in a black pantsuit teamed with a whiteshirt, she looked every inch the successful woman she was,her hair cut to just below her ears in a blunt style that suitedher. She was beautiful. And she was lethal.

Sascha knew that when they walked side by sideas they were doing now, no one would place them formother and daughter. They were the same height but theresemblance ended there. Nikita had inherited her Asiatic

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eyes, arrow-straight hair, and porcelain skin from herhalf-Japanese mother. By the time the genes had beenpassed on to Sascha, all that had survived was the slight-est tilt to the eyes.

Instead of Nikitas sheet of shimmering blue-black,she had rich ebony hair that absorbed light like ink andcurled so wildly she was forced to pull it back into asevere plait every morning. Her skin was a dark honeyrather than ivory, evidence of her unknown fathers genes.Saschas birth records had listed him as being of Anglo-Indian descent.

She dropped back a little as the door to the meetingroom drew closer. She hated encounters with changelingsand not because of the general Psy revulsion to their openemotionalism. It seemed to her that they knew. Somehowthey could sense that she wasnt like the others, that shewas awed.

Mr. Hunter.She looked up at the sound of her mothers voice. And

found herself within touching distance of the most danger-ous male shed ever seen. There was no other word to de-scribe him. Well over six feet tall, he was built like theghting machine he was in the wild, pure lean muscle andtensile strength.

His black hair brushed his shoulders but there was noth-ing soft about it. Instead, it hinted at unrestrained passionand the dark hunger of the leopard below the skin. She hadno doubt she was in the presence of a predator.

Then he turned his head and she saw the right side ofhis face. Four jagged lines, reminiscent of the claw marksof some great beast, scored the muted gold of his skin. Hiseyes were a hypnotic green but it was those slashing mark-ings that grabbed her attention. Shed never been this closeto one of the changeling Hunters before.

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Ms. Duncan. His voice was low and a little rough, asif caught on the edge of a growl.

This is my daughter, Sascha. Shell be the liaison forthis project.

A pleasure, Sascha. He tipped his head toward her,eyes lingering for a second longer than necessary.

Likewise. Could he hear the jagged beat of her pulse?Was it true that changeling senses were far superior tothose of any other race?

Please. He gestured for them to take seats at the glass-topped table and remained standing until theyd done so.Then he chose a chair exactly opposite Sascha.

She forced herself to return his gaze, not fooled by thechivalry into dropping her guard. Hunters were trained tosniff out vulnerable prey. Weve looked at your offer, shebegan.

What do you think? His eyes were remarkably clear,as calm as the deepest ocean. But there was nothing cold orpractical about him, nothing that belied her rst impressionof him as something wild barely leashed.

You must know that Psy-changeling business alliancesrarely work. Competing priorities. Nikitas voice soundedutterly toneless in comparison to Lucass.

His responsive smile was so wicked, Sascha couldntlook away. In this case, I think we have the same ones.You need help to plan and execute housing thatll appeal tochangelings. I want an inside track on new Psy projects.

Sascha knew that that couldnt be all of it. They neededhim but he didnt need them, not when DarkRivers busi-ness interests were extensive enough to rival their own. Theworld was changing under the noses of the Psy, the humanand changeling races no longer content to be second best.It was a measure of their arrogance that most of her peoplecontinued to ignore the slow shift in power.


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Sitting so close to the contained fury that was LucasHunter, she wondered at the blindness of her brethren. Ifwe deal with you, well expect the same level of reliabilitythat wed get if we went with a Psy construction and de-sign rm.

Lucas looked across at the icy perfection of SaschaDuncan and wished he knew what it was about her that wasbugging the hell out of him. His beast was snarling andpacing the cage of his mind, ready to pounce out and sniffat her sedate dark gray pantsuit. Of course, he said, fasci-nated by the tiny ickers of white light that came and wentin the darkness of her eyes.

Hed seldom been this close to a cardinal Psy. Theywere rare enough that they didnt mingle with the masses,being given high posts in the Psy Council as soon as theyreached any kind of mature age. Sascha was young butthere was nothing untried about her. She looked as ruthlessas the rest of her race, as unfeeling and as cold.

She could be abetting killer.Any one of them could be. It was why DarkRiver had

been stalking high-level Psy for months, looking for a wayto penetrate their defenses. The Duncan project was an un-believable chance. Not only was Nikita powerful in herown right, she was a member of the innermost circlethePsy Council. Once Lucas was in, it would be his job to ndout the identity of the sadistic Psy whod stolen the life ofone of DarkRivers women . . . and execute him.

No mercy. No forgiveness.In front of him, Sascha glanced at the slim organizer

she held. Were willing to offer seven million.Hed take a penny if it would get him inside the secre-

tive corridors of the Psy world but he couldnt afford tomake them suspicious. Ladies. He lled the single wordwith the sensuality that was as much a part of him as hisbeast.

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Most changelings and humans wouldve reacted to thepromise of pleasure implicit in his tones, but these two re-mained unmoved. We both know the contract is worthnothing less than ten million. Lets not waste time. Hecouldve sworn a light sparked in Saschas night-sky eyes,a light that spoke of a challenge accepted. The panther in-side him growled softly in response.

Eight. And we want rights to approve each stage of thework from concept to construction.

Ten. He kept his tone silky smooth. Your request willcause considerable delay. I cant work efciently if I haveto traipse up here every time I want to make a minorchange. Perhaps multiple visits might allow him to gleansome information on the murderers cold trail, but it wasdoubtful. Nikita was hardly likely to leave sensitive Coun-cil documents lying around.

Give us a moment. The older woman looked at theyounger.

The tiny hairs on the back of his neck rose. They alwaysdid that in the presence of Psy who were actively usingtheir powers. Telepathy was just one of their many talentsand one that he admitted came in very handy during busi-ness negotiations. But their abilities also blinded them.Changelings had long ago learned to take advantage of thePsy sense of superiority.

Almost a minute later, Sascha spoke to him. Its impor-tant for us to have control at every stage.

Your money, your time. He put his hands on the tableand steepled his ngers, noting how her eyes went tothem. Interesting. In his experience, the Psy never dis-played any awareness of body language. It was as if theywere completely cerebral, shut into the world of theirminds. But if you insist on that much involvement, I cantpromise well hold to the timetable. In fact Ill guaranteewe wont.


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We have a proposal to counter that. Night-sky eyesmet his.

He raised a brow. Im listening. And so was thepanther inside him. Both man and beast found SaschaDuncan captivating in a way that neither could under-stand. Part of him wanted to stroke her . . . and part ofhim wanted to bite.

Wed like to work side by side with DarkRiver. To fa-cilitate this, I request that you provide me with an ofce atyour building.

Every nerve he had went taut. Hed just been grantedaccess to a cardinal Psy almost twenty-four seven. Youwant to be joined at the hip with me, darling? Thats ne.His senses picked up a change in the atmosphere, but it wasso subtle that it was gone before he could identify it. Doyou have authority to sign off on changes?

Yes. Even if I have to consult with Mother, I wont needto leave the site. It was a reminder that she was Psy, amember of a race that had sacriced its humanity long ago.

How far can a cardinal send?Far enough. She pressed at something on her tiny

screen. So well settle at eight?He grinned at her attempt to catch him unawares,

amused at the almost feline cunning. Ten, or I walk outand you get something lower quality.

Youre not the only expert on changeling likes and dis-likes out there. She leaned forward a fraction.

Yes. Intrigued by this Psy who appeared to use herbody as much as her mind, he deliberately echoed themovement. But Im the best.

Nine.He couldnt afford to let the Psy think of him as weak

they respected only the coldest, cruelest kind of strength.Nine and a promise of another million if all the homes arepresold by the time of the opening.

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Another silence. The hairs on his nape lifted again. In-side his mind the beast batted at the air as if trying to catchthe sparks of energy. Most changelings couldnt feel theelectrical storms generated by the Psy, but it was a talentthat had its uses.

We agree, Sascha said. I assume you have hard-copycontracts?

Of course. He ipped open a binder and slid acrosscopies of the same document they undoubtedly had ontheir screens.

Sascha picked them up and passed one to her mother.Electronic would be much more convenient.

Hed heard it a hundred times from a hundred differentPsy. Part of the reason changelings hadnt followed thetechnological wave was sheer stubbornness; the other partwas securityhis race had been hacking into Psy data-bases for decades. I like something I can hold, touch, andsmell, something that pleases all my senses.

It was an innuendo he had no doubt she understood, butit was her reaction he was looking for. Nothing. SaschaDuncan was as cold a Psy as hed ever methed have tothaw her out enough to gain information about whether thePsy were harboring a serial killer.

He found himself oddly attracted by the thought of tan-gling with this particular Psy, though until that moment,hed considered them nothing but unfeeling machines.Then she looked up to meet his gaze and the panther in himopened its mouth in a wordless growl.

The hunt had begun. And Sascha Duncan was the prey.

Two hours later, Sascha closed the door to her apart-ment and did a mental sweep of the premises. Nothing. Lo-cated in the same building as her ofce, the apartment hadexcellent security, but shed used her skills at shielding to


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ring the rooms with another level of protection. It took alot of her meager psychic strength but she needed to feelsafe somewhere.

Satised that the apartment hadnt been breached, shesystematically checked every one of her inner locksagainst the vastness of the PsyNet. Functioning. No onecould get into her mind without her knowing about it.

Only then did she allow herself to collapse into a heapon the ice-blue carpet, the cool color making her shiver.Computer. Raise temperature ve degrees.

Complying. The voice was without inection butthat was to be expected. It was nothing more than the me-chanical response of the powerful computer that ran thisbuilding. The houses shed be building with Lucas Hunterwould have no such computer systems.

Lucas.Her breath came out in a gasp as she allowed her mind

to cascade with all the emotions shed had to bury duringthe meeting.

Fear.Amusement.Hunger.Lust.Desire.Need.Unclipping the barrette at the end of her plait, she

shoved her hands into the unfurling curls before tuggingoff her jacket and throwing it aside. Her breasts ached,straining against the cups of her bra. She wanted nothingmore than to strip herself naked and rub up against some-thing hot, hard, and male.

A whimper escaped her throat as she closed her eyesand rocked back and forth, trying to control the imagespounding at her. This shouldnt be happening. No matterhow far out of control shed gone before, it had never been

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this bad, this sexual. The second she admitted it, the ava-lanche seemed to slow and she found enough strength topush her way out of the clawing grip of hunger.

Getting up off the oor, she walked to the kitchenetteand poured herself a glass of water. As she swallowed,she caught her reection in the ornamental mirror thathung beside her built-in cooler. It had been a gift from achangeling advisor on another project and shed kept it de-spite her mothers raised brow. Her excuse had been thatshe was trying to understand the other race. In truth, shedjust liked the wildly colorful frame.

However, right now she wished she hadnt held on to it.It showed too clearly what she didnt want to see. The tan-gle of darkness that was her hair spoke of animal passionand desire, things no Psy should know about. Her face wasushed as if with fever, her cheeks streaked red, and hereyes . . . Lord have mercy, her eyes were pure midnight.

She put down the glass and pushed back her hair, search-ing. But she hadnt made a mistake. There was no light inthe darkness of her pupils. This was only supposed to hap-pen when a Psy was expending a large amount of psychicpower.

It had never happened to her.Her eyes mightve marked her as a cardinal but her ac-

cessible powers were humiliatingly weak. So weak that shestill hadnt been co-opted into the ranks of those whoworked directly for the Council.

Her lack of any real psychic power had mystied the in-structors whod trained her. Everyone had always said thatthere was incredible raw potential inside her mindmorethan enough for a cardinalbut that it had never mani-fested.

Until now.She shook her head. No. She hadnt expended any psy-

chic energy so it had to be something else that had caused


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the darkness, something other Psy didnt know about be-cause they didnt feel. Her eyes drifted to the communica-tion console set into the wall beside the kitchenette. Onething was clearshe couldnt go out looking like this.Anyone who saw her would have her sent in for rehabilita-tion in a heartbeat.

Fear gripped her tight.As long as she was on the outside, she might one day

gure out a way to escape, a way to cut her link to thePsyNet without throwing her body into paralysis and death.Or she might even discover a way to x the aw thatmarked her. But the second she was admitted into the Cen-ter, her world would become darkness. Endless, silentdarkness.

With careful hands, she pulled off the cover of the com-munication console and ddled with the circuits. Only af-ter shed replaced the cover did she press in Nikitas code.Her mother lived in the penthouse several oors above.

The answer came seconds later. Sascha, your screen isturned off.

I didnt realize, Sascha lied. Hold on. Pausing foreffect, she took a careful breath. I think its a malfunction.Ill have a technician check it out.

Why did you call?Im afraid Ill have to cancel our dinner. Ive received

some documents from Lucas Hunter that Id like to startgoing through before I meet with him again.

Prompt for a changeling. Ill see you tomorrow after-noon for a brieng. Good night.

Good night, Mother. She was talking to dead air. Re-gardless of the fact that Nikita had been no more a motherto her than the computer that controlled this apartment, ithurt. But tonight that hurt was buried under far more dan-gerous emotions.

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Shed barely started to relax when the console chimedan incoming call. Since the caller identication functionhad been disabled along with the screen, she had no way ofknowing who it was. Sascha Duncan, she said, trying notto panic that Nikita had changed her mind.

Hello, Sascha.Her knees almost buckled at the sound of that honey-

smooth voice, more purr than growl now. Mr. Hunter.Lucas. Were colleagues, after all.Why are you calling? Harsh practicality was the only

way she could deal with her roller-coaster emotions.I cant see you, Sascha.Its a screen malfunction.Not very efcient. Was that amusement she could

hear?I assume you didnt call to chat.I wanted to invite you to a breakfast meeting with the

design team tomorrow. His tone was pure silk.Sascha didnt know if Lucas always sounded like an in-

vitation to sin or whether he was doing it to unsettle her.That thought unsettled her. If he even suspected that therewas something not quite right about her, then she might aswell sign her death warrant. Internment at the Center wasnothing less than a living death anyway.

Time? She wrapped her arms tight around her ribsand forced her voice to even out. The Psy were very, verycareful that the world never saw their mistakes, their awedones. No one had ever successfully fought the Council af-ter being slated for rehabilitation.

Seven thirty. Is that good for you?How could he make the most businesslike of invitations

sound like purest temptation? Maybe it was all in hermindshe was nally cracking. Location?

My ofce. You know where that is?


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Of course. DarkRiver had set up business camp nearthe chaotic bustle of Chinatown, taking over a medium-sized ofce building. Ill be there.

Ill be waiting.To her heightened senses, that sounded more like a

threat than a promise.

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Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh Extract With Cover