Bonds of justice psy cha.., p.1
Bonds of Justice (Psy/Changeling Novels), page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
EPILOGUE
Teaser chapter
“A completely unique and utterly mesmerizing series.”
—Simply Romance Reviews
Praise for
Branded by Fire
“An emotional masterpiece.”
—Romance Junkies
“Another superb entry in what is easily my favorite paranormal series in romance.”
—Romance Novel TV
“An amazingly talented writer . . . She grabs the reader and doesn’t let go until the very end and leaves them begging for more . . . I give Branded by Fire and Nalini an enthusiastic 5 hearts.”
—Night Owl Romance
“I don’t think there is a single paranormal series as well-planned, well-written, and downright fantabulous as Ms. Singh’s Psy-Changeling series.”
—All About Romance
Hostage to Pleasure
“Nalini Singh has penned another keeper . . . If you want a thrilling read with action, danger, passion, and drama, don’t miss Nalini Singh’s Hostage to Pleasure.”
—Romance Junkies
“I continue to be amazed by Singh’s ability to draw the reader into the Psy-Changeling world.”
—Book Binge
“An intriguing world that’s sure to keep readers coming back for more.”
—Darque Reviews
“This series just continues to get better and more vibrant as it goes.”
—Night Owl Romance
“Nalini Singh continues to dazzle and ensnare new readers with each addition to the Psy-Changeling series.”
—A Romance Review
Mine to Possess
“Singh has done it again. Mine to Possess grabs you and never lets you go. This may be the best book of an already outstanding series.”
—Fresh Fiction
“WOW! ‘Brilliant’ is the best description for Mine to Possess . . . It just doesn’t get better than the best!”
—ParaNormal Romance Reviews
“This book was fast paced and riveting. I can truthfully say that once you start reading it, you’ll find it impossible to put down!”
—Publishers Weekly’s Beyond Her Book
“Ms. Singh’s world-building is as fascinating as the characters with whom she populates it.”
—The Eternal Night
“Nalini Singh has done it again . . . [A] must read!”
—Fallen Angel Reviews (recommended read)
Caressed by Ice
“A sensual, dangerous adventure not to be missed.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh
“A compelling read with wonderfully developed characters and the strong world-building that has made Singh a star.”
—All About Romance
“With a truly inspired mix of passion and danger, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat. [It] will surely earn itself a place among your favorites.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“Paranormal romance at its best.”
—Publishers Weekly
Visions of Heat
“Breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal. I wished I lived in the world Singh has created. This is a keeper!”
—New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter
“This author just moved to the top of my auto-buy list.”
—All About Romance
“Brace yourselves because . . . [it] will set all your senses ablaze and leave your fingers singed with each turn of the page. Visions of Heat is that intense!”
—Romance Junkies
Slave to Sensation
“I LOVE this book! It’s a must read for all of my fans. Nalini Singh is a major new talent.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan
“An electrifying collision of logic and emotion . . . A volcanic start to a new series that’ll leave you craving for more.”
—Romance Junkies
“A purely mesmerizing book that surely stands out . . . A must-read for any paranormal fan!”
—Romance Reader at Heart
“Readers will enjoy Nalini Singh’s excellent futuristic thriller and demand more tales from this fascinating realm.”
—Midwest Book Review
“A sensual romance set in an alternate-reality America with just a bit of mystery to keep readers flipping pages.”
—Fresh Fiction
Berkley Titles by Nalini Singh
Psy-Changeling Series
SLAVE TO SENSATION
VISIONS OF HEAT
CARESSED BY ICE
MINE TO POSSESS
HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE
BRANDED BY FIRE
BLAZE OF MEMORY
BONDS OF JUSTICE
Guild Hunter Series
ANGELS’ BLOOD
ANGELS’ PAWN
(A Berkley Sensation eSpecial)
ARCHANGEL’S KISS
Anthologies
AN ENCHANTED SEASON
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BONDS OF JUSTICE
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / July 2010
All rights reserved.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-44223-4
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To Kayo, Cynthia, Loma, Emily & Akbar
Because you all rock. Thank you for being my “tomodachi”!
JUSTICE
When the Psy first chose Silence, first chose to bury their emotions and turn into ice-cold individuals who cared nothing for love or hate,
It was a logical thought.
However, it proved impossible in practice. Economics alone made isolation an unfeasible goal—Psy might have all been linked into the PsyNet, the sprawling psychic network that anchored their minds, but they were not all equal. Some were rich, some were poor, and some were just getting by.
They needed jobs, needed money, needed food. And the Psy Council, for all its brutal power, could not provide enough internal positions for millions. The Psy had to remain part of the world, a world filled with chaos on every side, bursting at the seams with the extremes of joy and sadness, fear and despair. Those Psy who fractured under the pressure were quietly “rehabilitated,” their minds wiped, their personalities erased. But others thrived.
The M-Psy, gifted with the ability to look inside the body and diagnose illnesses, had never really withdrawn from the world. Their skills were prized by all three races, and they brought in a good income.
The less-powerful members of the Psy populace returned to their ordinary, everyday jobs as accountants and engineers, shop owners and businessmen. Except that what they had once enjoyed, despised, or merely tolerated, they now simply did.
The most powerful, in contrast, were absorbed into the Council superstructure wherever possible. The Council did not want to chance losing its strongest.
Then there were the Js.
Telepaths born with a quirk that allowed them to slip into minds and retrieve memories, then share those memories with others, the Js had been part of the world’s justice system since the world first had one. There weren’t enough J-Psy to shed light on the guilt or innocence of every accused—they were brought in on only the most heinous cases: the kinds of cases that made veteran detectives throw up and long-jaded reporters take a horrified step backward.
Realizing how advantageous it would be to have an entrée into a system that processed both humans, and at times, the secretive and pack-natured changelings as well, the Council allowed the Js to not just continue, but expand their work. Now, in the dawn of the year 2081, the Js are so much a part of the Justice system that their presence raises no eyebrows, causes no ripples.
And, as for the unexpected mental consequences of long-term work as a J . . . well, the benefits outweigh the occasional murderous problem.
CHAPTER 1
Circumstance doesn’t make a man. If it did, I’d have committed my first burglary at twelve, my first robbery at fifteen, and my first murder at seventeen.
—From the private case notes of Detective Max Shannon
It was as she was sitting staring into the face of a sociopath that Sophia Russo realized three irrefutable truths.
One: In all likelihood, she had less than a year left before she was sentenced to comprehensive rehabilitation. Unlike normal rehabilitation, the process wouldn’t only wipe out her personality, leave her a drooling vegetable. Comprehensives had ninety-nine percent of their psychic senses fried as well. All for their own good of course.
Two: Not a single individual on this earth would remember her name after she disappeared from active duty.
Three: If she wasn’t careful, she would soon end up as empty and as inhuman as the man on the other side of the table . . . because the otherness in her wanted to squeeze his mind until he whimpered, until he bled, until he begged for mercy.
Evil is hard to define, but it’s sitting in that room.
The echo of Detective Max Shannon’s words pulled her back from the whispering temptation of the abyss. For some reason, the idea of being labeled evil by him was . . . not acceptable. He had looked at her in a different way from other human males, his eyes noting her scars, but only as part of the package that was her body. The response had been extraordinary enough to make her pause, meet his gaze, attempt to divine what he was thinking.
That had proved impossible. But she knew what Max Shannon wanted.
Bonner alone knows where he buried the bodies—we need that information.
Shutting the door on the darkness inside of her, she opened her psychic eye and, reaching out with her telepathic senses, began to walk the twisted pathways of Gerard Bonner’s mind. She had touched many, many depraved minds over the course of her career, but this one was utterly and absolutely unique. Many who committed crimes of this caliber had a mental illness of some kind. She understood how to work with their sometimes disjointed and fragmented memories.
Bonner’s mind, in contrast, was neat, organized, each memory in its proper place. Except those places and the memories they contained made no sense, having been filtered through the cold lens of his sociopathic desires. He saw things as he wished to see them, the reality distorted until it was impossible to pinpoint the truth among the spiderweb of lies.
Ending the telepathic sweep, she took three discreet seconds to center herself before opening her physical eyes to stare into the rich blue irises of the man the media found so compelling. According to them, he was handsome, intelligent, magnetic. What she knew for a fact was that he held an MBA from a highly regarded institution and came from one of the premier human families in Boston—there was a prevailing sense of disbelief that he was also the Butcher of Park Avenue, the moniker coined after the discovery of Carissa White’s body along one of the avenue’s famous wide “green” medians.
Covered with tulips and daffodils in spring, it had been a snowy wonderland of trees and fairy lights when Carissa was dumped there, her blood a harsh accent on the snow. She was the only one of Bonner’s victims to have ever been found, and the public nature of the dump site had turned her killer into an instant star. It had also almost gotten him caught—only the fact that the witness who’d seen him running from the scene had been too far away to give Enforcement any kind of a useful description had saved the monster.
“I got much more careful after that,” Bonner said, wearing the faint smile that made people think they were being invited to share a secret joke. “Everyone’s a little clumsy the first time.”
Sophia betrayed no reaction to the fact that the human across from her had just “read her mind,” having expected the trick. According to his file, Gerard Bonner was a master manipulator, able to read body language cues and minute facial expressions to genius-level accuracy. Even Silence, it seemed, was not protection enough against his abilities—having reviewed the visual transcripts of his trial, she’d seen him do the same thing to other Psy.
“That’s why we’re here, Mr. Bonner,” she said with a calm that was growing ever colder, ever more remote—a survival mechanism that would soon chill the few remaining splinters of her soul. “You agreed to give up the locations of your later victims’ bodies in return for more privileges during your incarceration.” Bonner’s sentence meant he’d be spending the rest of his natural life in D2, a maximum security facility located deep in the mountainous interior of Wyoming. Created under a special mandate, D2 housed the most vicious inmates from around the country, those deemed too high risk to remain in the normal prison system.
“I like your eyes,” Bonner said, his smile widening as he traced the network of fine lines on her face with a gaze the media had labeled “murderously sensual.” “They remind me of pansies.”
