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And her shoes fit alner shoes Diana slipped her feet into a pair of fleece-lined slippers

"All I have to do to get rid of you, Bug, is to tell Caine your powers are increasing I’ll tell hi a four bar How do you think he’ll react to having a four bar sharing this island with hi faded slowly into view He was a snotty little brat of a kid He’d just turned ten

For awas a daed, messed-up little creep Like all of them, he was scared and lonely and s he’d done

Or not Bug had never shown any evidence of a conscience

"If you want to see naked girls, Bug, why don’t you creep up on Penny?"

"She’s not pretty," Bug said "Her legs are all" He twisted his fingers around to de better, like Diana But she was getting worse She had fallen from one hundred feet onto water and rocks Caine had levitated her back up the cliff But her legs were broken in a dozen places

Diana had done what she could to set the breaks, made splints out of duct tape and boards, but Penny was in constant agony She would never walk again Her legs would never heal

She lived now in one of the bathroo herself to the toilet when she needed to Diana brought her food twice a day Books A TV with a DVD player

There was still electricity in the house on San Francisco de Sales Island The generator supplied a weak and faltering current When Sanjit had lived here, he’d been worried that fuel for the generator was running out But Caine could do things Sanjit couldn’t Like levitate barrels of fuel fro at the bottoood for Diana and Caine and Bug But life would never be good for Penny Her power--the ability tovisions ofinsects and death--was of no help to her now

"She scares you, doesn’t she, Bug?" Diana asked She laughed "You tried, didn’t you? You snuck in on her and she caught you"

She saw the answer on Bug’s face The shadow of a terrifying memory

"Best not to make Pennyon his freckled cheek "Best not toI can’t ain, I’ll tell Caine it’s either me or you And you knoho he’ll choose"

Diana left the room

She’d resolved to be a better person And she would be Unless Bug kept bothering her