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"I can," Kaitlyn gasped She was thinking of what Mr Zetes's crystal had done to him, what it had y frohost of teeth in her spine, just at the base of the neck As if a single sharp tooth were piercing the skin there
The ht a certain fear, but no revulsion And anxious as she was to get to Rob and help him, she wanted to help Gabriel, too
"It's not your fault, Gabriel," she whispered "You think you're evil because of what you can do with your mind, because of what the crystal made you do But it's not your fault You didn't ask for it And you're not evil"
"That's where you're wrong" Gabriel had turned to face her, and she saw that he was calmer But the ice was back in his eyes, the cold, lucid e When he soose-flesh broke out on Kait's arms
"I've knohat I a tie me, it just enhanced my abilities And it made me accept myself" His smile widened, and Kaitlyn had a priot the darkness in your nature, you "
"To Mr Zetes," Anna whispered, her lovely, high-cheekboned face draith disgust
Gabriel shrugged "He has a vision He thinks psychics like me have a place in the world-on top I'er, better I deserve to rule And I' to let any of you stop me"
Kaitlyn shook her head, struggling ords "Gabriel-I don't believe that You're not- "
"I aoing to prove it to you"
He was looking at the desk again Kaitlyn drew herself up a little Rob was still lying helpless on the floor; Lewis and Anna seemed frozen There was nobody but her to stop him
"You can't have it," she said
"Get out of the way"
"I said, you can't have it" To her amazement, her voice was fairly steady
Heher field of vision, filling the world Don't make me do it, Kaitlyn I'm not your friend anymore I'm your hunter Go hoet hurt
Kaitlyn looked into his handsome pale face If you want the shard, you'll have to take it by force
"Whatever you say," Gabriel murmured His eyes were the color of a spiderweb Kaitlyn felt the touch of hiscaress and then the world exploded in pain
Kaitlyn!"
Diet to his feet Then, when he couldn't, beginning to crawl She could barely sense hi pain in her head
Anna and Leere closer and she could hear the, too
"Let go of her!"
"What are you doing to her?"
Gabriel brushed the it The pain increased-like fire Kaitlyn had only oneconnected to the crystal The big crystal, the i psychic powers-and for torture
Waves of red-streaked agony that peaked very quickly and died away just as another as co
Kaitlyn's ownaway, kept her fro It wasn't heroism She didn't have the air
Stop it, damn you! Stop it!
Rob had gotten to her, soy flooded up to co her
"Leave her alone," Rob said hoarsely, and pulled Kaitlyn away from Gabriel, toward the bed
Gabriel regarded the cleared path in front of hihtfully "That was all I wanted," he murmured
He opened the any desk and took out the crystal shard
Kaitlyn was gasping for breath Rob put her down on the bed, one arm still around her protectively Kait could sense his treer, and the shocked fury of Lewis and Anna-and she was surprised to find that she herself felt very little resentment toward Gabriel There had been a look in his eyes just before he blasted her-as if he'd had to turn himself off to do it To squelch his own emotions
Now he turned to face theht of Marisol's halogen lamp It was the size and shape of a slittered not like crystal, but like diamond
"It's not yours," Anna said in a low voice She and Lewis had flanked Rob and Kaitlyn, the four of theave it to Kait"
"The Fellowship," Gabriel sneered "Those gutless do-gooders If I'd lived in the old days, I'd have joined a Dark Lodge and hunted theht Gabriel's words brought the faces of the Fellowship to her ; LeShan, lynx-eyed and impatient They were the last survivors of an ancient race, the race that had used the crystals They didn't interfere with the affairs of huroup They'd given up their oer to give Kaitlyn a weapon against Mr Zetes
"And now Mr Z is for at Gabriel steadily
"You could call it that A psychic strike teaently, stroking the crystal That was dangerous, as Kait could have told hier and he frowned at the drop of blood absently He seeer from the others; he didn't even bother to look at them
"This would have been useless to you anyway," he said "You were planning to take it to the crystal, right? Put theether and set up a resonance that would shatter both"
Kaitlyn didn't knohat the scientific theory was LeShan had told them that this shard would destroy Mr Z's crystal, that was all She watched a drop of Gabriel's blood fall onto the hardwood floor
"But to do that, you'd have to get to the crystal," Gabriel continued "And you can't The old man has it under a combination lock-and PK won't help with that, will it, Lewis? Eight randouess?"
He sounded alht, Kaitlyn kneis couldpsychokinesis, but that wouldn't help hiure out a combination
Lewis had flushed slightly, but he didn't answer
Gabriel's question Instead he said, "Is Lydia still in this with you?"
"Your little sweetheart?" Gabriel grinned nastily "Better give up on her, too She's back under her father's thumb She never liked you, anyway"
Pity, Kaitlyn thought Lydia Zetes was a spy and a traitor, sent by her father to snoop on them as they traveled to Canada to find the Fellowship-but Kaitlyn felt vaguely sorry for her Being under Mr Z's thumb was a fate she wouldn't wish on anybody
"It's like I told Kaitlyn," Gabriel said calet at the crystal
The police wouldn't believe you-the oldcare of the ones Anna's parents contacted, too, by the way And the Fellowship can't even help the Why don't you go hoain?"
Rob had been silent so far-too angry with Gabriel to find words Now he found theain Kaitlyn didn't need the web to sense his rage-it ritten in every line of his body, in the burning of his golden eyes
"You're a traitor," he told Gabriel siht you With everything we've got"
His voice was quiet, but it shook Not just rage, Kaitlyn thought suddenly Rob was hurt-he felt personally betrayed He hadn't believed Gabriel would hurt Kait-and Gabriel had proved hi It had becoroup who had always fought onism for each other, taken the positions farthest apart
And who kne to push each other's buttons Rob was going on, his voice not quiet now but rushed and reckless
"You knohat I think? I think Kait rong- it's not the web you can't stand It's not the intimacy
It's the freedo to make your own choices, be responsible for yourself That's what you can't take You'd rather be a slave to the crystal than deal with freedom"
Gabriel lowered the shard, his eyes darkening Kaitlyn grabbed for Rob's arm, but he seemed oblivious to her
"I'h, as if delighted to have hurt Gabriel It was so vicious and contemptuous it didn't sound like Rob "Mr Z tells you what to do-and you like that It's what you're used to, after all those years locked up in CHAD Hell, you probablyin jail-"
Gabriel hite and hit him
Not ry for that He hit with his fist, catching Rob square in the mouth Rob's head jerked back and he went down
With the fluid, easy ain Kaitlyn found herself on her feet and between them
"No!" She fu to restrain hi the crystal It was cold and hard She held onto it and Gabriel, still trying to get to Rob, let go
Lewis and Anna were around Gabriel now, seizing any part of hied to detach herself froroup and back
away, clutching the crystal to her chest Gabriel didn't seem to care; his eyes were fixed on Rob