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"What about?" A flicker of guilt ran through her thoughts, and he wondered if she were already regretting their love

"About Tohts were suddenly chaotic "Why?"

"Jasper’s using your fear against you, Nikki He’s using past derind down your resistance" She tensed "What do you es in herlike scared rabbits "I o of the guilt" She was silent for a longto the beat of her heart, a rhyth to do with any of this," she h her cheeks as she looked away "You’ve no right to know, no right to ask"

And no right to care It was a thought that tasted bitter But one way or another, she had to face the guilt centered around that part of her past, or she would have very little hope of resisting Jasper’s final call In many ways, Jasper represented the darker side of huuilt was part of that darkness It drew her into Jasper’s sphere of influence, made it all that much easier for him to attack her

"Jasper wouldn’t use Tommy’s memory if he didn’t think it would help break your spirit, Nikki It’s time you told soled sheets beneath the the subject up again?"

"Yes" It was an easy thing to proht have the desire to stay, but desire was soave in to She stared at her feet "I met Tommy several months after my parents’ death I was pretty messed up at the time, and on the run The authorities wanted to place randparents, who I’d never ang I started running with" No wonder she’d empathized with Monica She’d been inand confused, with no one listening to what she wanted An easy target for evil Though why she thought Toue as Jasper, he couldn’t say Maybe it was merely a reaction to her memories, her fear

"How did youwas robbing One of the kids was bashing the old guy at the register, and I stopped him"

"Kinetically?"

She nodded "It was the first time it happened Up until then, I hadn’t really done es of her parents’ death flickered through her es not faded by time or acceptance She must have dreamed of their deaths "How old were you?"

"Fourteen"

Fourteen years old and no doubt going through puberty Most talents didn’t fully appear before then Add on top of that the fact she’d seen her parents die, once in her dreams and once in reality, and it was no wonder she’d been pretty ht not be able to stay here with her and share his dreaive her peace If he could keep her talking "What happened?" "Toazes ed "I know it sounds corny, but at the tiifted, like me, and seemed to know I needed help"

More than likely he’d seen the potential of her abilities and had known the power that one day would be hers And had wanted it, as Jasper wanted it Michael clenched his fist Nikki glanced at hi?"

She nodded "He was good to ht ht ifts"

Pain swirled around hiossae?" Though he could see the answer in her thoughts clearly enough, he wanted her to talk about it Maybe then she would see that Toht hie of a frightened young girl

"When I turned fifteen" She shuddered, and he had to resist the urge to hold her close and caress all the hurt away "Everything changed He becaht Sohts,as she seemed to think, then that was probably just what he’d been doing Fifteen years old and barely in control of her gifts, she would have had little resistance when it caain, then slowly straightened the he could do about the past--other than help her through the pain of it

"When did this extend to trying to control your gifts?" Her gaze jerked to his "How did you know?"

He griiven your reaction to our link" Her gaze skittered away, but her thoughts were clear enough She still wasn’t comfortable with the link, still wasn’t comfortable with him Maybe she’d never be Attraction or not, it was only the thought of Jasper invading herAt least he had so to thank Jasper for

"What happened?" he asked softly

Fear shi for my next birthday He told me he loved me" She hesitated and sed "What did I know of love? He was my world, all that I had left since my parents’ death But maybe he could see the doubts, because he asked me to prove what I felt for him"

"How?" The question came out more abruptly than he’d intended, and she looked up quickly He forced a s "What did he ask you to do?"

"Merge h I sometimes feared hi we’d been practicing for a while" She shuddered "Only this time it was deeper This time it was coifts, controlled by Tommy, had been used in violence No wonder she now feared any sort of mind-link

"What did you do?"

"What could I do?" Her question was almost a plea For an instant she was very er, not a twenty-five-year-old woman "I was sixteen years old and had no one I could turn to for help Not that Tohts, and he could stop s" She paused, and a tear ran down her cheek The first crack in the wall, Michael thought, resisting the urge to wipe the drop away It wasn’t over yet She had to face up to the destruction she’d unwillingly caused<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>