Read Online Mind Storm by K.M. Ruiz - Free Book Online Page A

follow.” His fingers stroked over a thin, familiar remote on his desk. “Remember that.”
    The burn at the back of her skull was a reminder that she didn’t really need. Ciari didn’t let her discomfort show as she turned to leave, the pain magnifying with every step she took until she couldn’t stand anymore. She almost made it to the door before she fell to her knees, fire ripping through her brain.
    â€œCiari.” Cool fingers gripped her neck, a startling counterpoint to the heat beneath her skin. “As much as I appreciate your concern for humanity’s continued survival, I think I liked it better when you knew how to hold your tongue. Your place in this world is to serve.”
    â€œSir,” she gritted out, feeling blood slide out of her nose and down the rigid line of her mouth.
    Over the roaring in her ears, she heard Erik sigh, the cluster of his tangled emotions battering against her shields. Ciari carefully kept her defenses passive until the pain receded to something more manageable as the World Court’s president took his finger off the remote and let her live.
    â€œYou make an excellent OIC, Ciari,” Erik said. “Learn how to be a better dog and I might not be so harsh in my punishments next time.”
    He wanted a reaction out of her, some hint that what he had put her through was as humiliating as he thought it should be. She could feel that. Except Ciari had spent approximately thirty-five years of her life as a government dog and six years before that surviving in the ruins of New York in America as a child before she was picked up by the Strykers. Psions, no matter the Class rank, held on to their memories longer than humans ever could. Ciari remembered what it took to survive in the sprawling mess of a city that made up Buffalo on the polluted banks of Lake Erie. Much more strength than it took to survive in the glass cages of the government’s prison, bound by the collar in her head.
    So when Ciari said, “Sir,” as if her life depended on it, she meant what she said.
    It was her duty as the OIC to take the punishment, after all. She bowed to Erik in order to protect the Strykers beneath her. She always would.
    He took his hand away and another helped her up. Keiko held Ciari with a firm grip as she escorted the older woman out of Erik’s chambers. The door slid shut behind them and both ignored the armed quad, a group of four soldiers, that still remained in the hallway. The humans always feared for their leaders when psions walked through the seat of government.
    â€œYour orders?” Keiko asked.
    Ciari lifted a hand to wipe the blood off her face. She ended up smearing it across her skin in a vivid crimson streak as she let her thoughts expand beyond her mental shields to the edge of her public mind in a pointed request to the person who she knew was telepathically listening in. We need to talk.
    To Keiko, she said, “Stay calm and walk with me.”
    Keiko followed where she went. Before they even made it down the hall, the two women were teleported out of the Peace Palace and into a shuttle that had yet to leave the government’s private airfield. The man who had initiated the teleport at Ciari’s request raised a glass of champagne to them, a cold smile their only welcome.
    Nathan Serca was a brand first, a man second, and made no apologies for his family’s place in history. At fifty-one, he was as long-lived as psions came, with the physique of someone who had grown up with access to clean water and food that wasn’t grown in poisoned ground. He kept his blond hair cut short and his eyes were that signature Serca dark blue. His life as psion masquerading as a human was the ultimate sleight of hand. That the Strykers helped ensure his family’s success was something no one in the government could ever know.
    â€œLadies,” Nathan drawled as he took a sip of champagne. “Have a