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A dog barked, shattering the lanced up briefly, his psychic senses alert Then he went back to breaking into the house

In a ave way to his lockpick The door swung open

Gabriel smiled

There were four people awake in the house One of theold hair A pity he ht have to destroy her-but he was her enemy from now on He couldn’t afford weakness

He orking for Mr Zetes now And Mr Zetes needed so-a shard from the last perfect crystal in the world Kaitlyn had it Gabriel was going to take it

As simple as that

If anyone tried to stop hi to have to hurt them Even Kaitlyn

For just an instant there was a tightening in his chest Then his face hardened and he moved stealthily into the dark house

"Give up, Kaitlyn"

Kaitlyn looked into Gabriel’s dark gray eyes

"How did you get in here?" she said

Gabriel s is one of my new talents"

"This is Marisol’s house," Rob said from behind him "You can’t just-"

"But I have just Don’t expect help; I’ve put everybody outside to sleep I’m here, and I think you knohy"

They all stared at hiees, runaways from the Zetes Institute for Psychic Research, and Marisol’s family had taken them in Marisol herself was absent; once a research assistant at the Institute, she’d found out too much and ended up in a coht ht The four of the up in the roo and trying to figure out what to do next And then the door had opened to reveal Gabriel

Kaitlyn, as standing directly in front of the handsoany desk by Marisol’s bed, made her face utterly blank She tried to make heron the bed, were looking just as blank, and Rob’sfor Gabriel to grab onto

It didn’t matter He looked past Kaitlyn, at the desk, and his serous

"Give up," he said again "I want it, and I’et it"

"We don’t knohat you’re talking about," Rob said flatly, taking a step toward hi to look at Rob He was still s but his eyes were dark "A shard of the last perfect crystal," he said "Do you want to play hot and cold-or should I just take it?" He looked at the desk again

"If we did have it, ouldn’t be giving it to you," Rob said "We’d use it to destroy your boss-he is your boss now, isn’t he?"

Gabriel’s shtly, and Kaitlyn could see darkness rilling the "Sure, he’s my boss And you’d better stay away froet hurt"

Kaitlyn could feel a stinging behind her eyes She didn’t believe this was happening, she didn’t Gabriel was standing here like a stranger, warning them away from Mr Zetes From Mr Zetes, the man who’d tried to hest bidder, who’d tried to kill them when they rebelled Who’d hounded them all the way up to Canada when they ran away from him, and as clearly still after theht him They’d hoped Marisol’s house would be a safe place to hide fro

"How can you, Gabriel?" Anna said in her low, clear voice, and Kaitlyn knew she was feeling the sa Anna Eva Whiteraven’s face-usually serene between its dark braids of hair-was now clouded

"How can you join hi he’s done-"

"-and everything he’s going to do," Lewis put in Lewis Chao was normally as cheerful as Anna was serene, but now his almond-shaped eyes were bleak "He’s bad, Gabriel; he’s bad, and you know it,"

Reb said, closing in from behind Rob Kessler wasn’t built for menace either, but just noith his tousled blond hair and blazing golden eyes he looked like an avenging angel

"And he’ll turn on you in the end," Kaitlyn said, adding her voice to the chorus against Gabriel In her roup: Kaitlyn Fair-child, not as gentle as Anna and Lewis or as good as Rob, a girl with fiery hair and a temper And eyes that people called witchy, sht now, Kait fixed these eyeshihed As always, it almost took Kaitlyn’s breath away Gabriel was so handso His pale skin made his dark hair look even darker, like the silky pelt of some animal-like his na and toying with his prey

Of course he’s bad, Gabriel said Kaitlyn heard the words in her head, rather than with her ears, and the tone was a I’m bad, too-or hadn’t you noticed?

Tiny needles of pain jabbed into Kaitlyn’s teasp, but she could sense Anna’s alarer Kaitlyn could feel it through the psychic web that connected the five of them, the web that Gabriel had created The web that would link them until one of the five died They were all psychics: Rob was a healer and Kaitlyn saw the future, Leas psychokinetic and Anna controlled animals-but Gabriel was a telepath He fused minds He’d fused their minds, the five of them, by accident, and now they were like the ar

Gabriel’s power had always been strongest, but now it rocked Kaitlyn with its force His mental voice had been a the words directly into her brain

By contrast, Lewis’s thought sounded weak and distant I’lanced at him quickly and saw that he hadn’t meant it to be heard That was the problem with telepathy, with the web that connected them, held the their private thoughts into the public foru them totally exposed, naked to one another

Unable to hide anything

Realization flashed through her, and she looked back at Gabriel

"That’s it, isn’t it?" she said "Why you left It was tooso close It was too intimate-"

"No"

"Gabriel, we all feel the sa up on Kaitlyn’s theme "We’d all like some privacy But we’re your friends-"

Gabriel’s se "I don’t need friends"

"Well, you’ve got them, boy," Rob said softly He moved in another step and his hand closed on Gabriel’s shoulder With a gesture that made it look easy, he turned Gabriel around

Kaitlyn could feel Gabriel’s startled outrage in the web Rob ignored it, speaking quietly and seriously, looking Gabriel straight in the face His anger was gone, and so was the usual defensiveness that flared between hi for position Rob was struggling with his pride, his internal honesty conquering it Forcing himself to be vulnerable with Gabriel

"We’re more than friends," he said "We’re part of each other, all of us You ether to save our lives-and now you’re telling us you’ve defected to the bad guys? That you’re our enemy?" He shook his head "I don’t believe it"

"That’s because you’re an idealistic idiot," Gabriel hissed, his voice as soft as Rob’s, but feral and rip "Believe it, country boy-because if youto be sorry"

Rob shook his head He had a look in his eyes that Kaitlyn kneell, and his jaas at his most stubborn "You can’t fool uy but you’re not, you’re smart One of the s of yourself-"

"I aentle and relentless

"You act like you don’t care about people, but that’s not true either You saved us all fro to kill us with it You saved us again when they trapped us at the Institute You helped Kaitlyn save us from that psychic attack in the van"

And then Rob did so that astonished Kaitlyn He actually shook Gabriel Once again, startled outrage washed through the web, but before Gabriel could say anything Rob was speaking again, fierce and insistent "I don’t knohat you’re trying to prove, but it’s no good It’s no good You care about us; you can’t change that Why don’t you just give in and adht now?"

Kaitlyn’s breath was caught in her throat She didn’t dare breathe, didn’t dare htrope above razors and knives He was insane-but it orking

Gabriel’s body had relaxed slightly, soh Kaitlyn couldn’t see his eyes, she guessed that they were lightening, a war, too; Kaitlyn no longer got i heat of Rob’s golden eyes, Gabriel’s icebergs were cracking up

"We all care about you," Rob said, never letting up the intensity "And your place is right here Coet rid of Mr Z, okay? Okay, Gabriel?"

And then hevehe his words into Gabriel’s face, and Gabriel had been listening as if he couldn’t help it Almost as if he were hypnotized But now Rob switched to nonverbal coe directly into Gabriel’s mind Kaitlyn knehy he did it- telepathy was forceful and inti was lost as Gabriel snapped