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  Nice. Dr. Maddy was full of cool tricks apparently if she could keep their consciousnesses and their bodies protected while the war raged.

  Leaving the others – and God only knew who all was here – to protect the children, Shay thinned her energy even further. Within seconds she'd become little more than mist in the room, a fragrance, a mere sensation.

  Surrounding her attacker. Above, behind, on her attacker – the vibrating dark purple-black ball at the side of the room.

  Shay closed in on the person so bent on destruction that they didn’t care who was destroyed. Anger, frustration and a horrible madness poured from this person's energy – this person, bent on maximum destruction. Emotions, thoughts, words fired from this person in an endless vent. Shay couldn't help but hear the refrain that poured through the night.

  She struggled to make the words clear.

  Then she heard the disembodied voice.

  Hurt them all.

  Make them suffer.

  Make them pay.

  ***

  Ronin grabbed his phone and dialed Stefan.

  No answer. Damn it. He tried again, then again. Switching tactics, he tried to call Shay. And it rang and rang. Shit. Someone needed to answer, damn it.

  "Hello." A deep, dangerous voice growled into the phone.

  Ronin reared back. "Roman? Is that you?"

  "Yes. What the fuck is going on?"

  With stomach churning, Ronin asked, "Why? What's the matter?"

  "Shay has collapsed in bed like a coma victim, and there's a weird buzz going on in the air. I've tried calling everyone I know, and no one answers. Hell, Stefan's not answering telepathically either."

  Telepathically? "Roman, can you talk that way too?" Jesus, if only. It would make life so much easier for him. The concept blew him away.

  "No, but Stefan can talk to me that way. In theory that means I can learn, too. But these people have skills I'd never imagined. I want to know what the hell is going on," Roman roared.

  "I'm trying to get a hold of Stefan and Shay. Wait, did you say she was in a coma?" Ronin tried, but couldn't stop his voice from rising at the end. He closed his eyes and took a calming breath. Damn this case was weird and getting weirder.

  "A psychic coma or some damn thing. I can't touch her. Can only sit here and watch over her. Helpless. I fucking hate that." Roman’s voice calmed somewhat. "Why are you calling?"

  "Darren had another sibling. Younger by several years. Apparently she adored her brothers and they adored her." Ronin stared at the screen in front of him. "I have a photo. It's fuzzy but I thought maybe they'd recognize her. I don't know her."

  "Send me the picture. Maybe I will be able to."

  "Sending..." Ronin zapped the image to his brother's cell phone. "You should have it now." He waited. And waited.

  "Roman? Are you there?"

  "Hell. Yes," His brother snapped in fury. "And I know exactly who this is."

  ***

  No.

  Anger screamed through her mind, blackening her thoughts into molten rage.

  How could these people do this? She'd come here for an outlet and found a fight. Well if they wanted a fight, they could have one.

  There was a lot of anger to get rid of. A lot of payback to deliver. "And damn it, I refuse to be cheated. I need my vengeance. I deserve justice." The anger soared outward, blackening all thoughts into molten rage.

  How could there be so many people here? And how could so many understand energy?

  Until now, she'd believed her and her siblings were special. Above the others. Believed they'd been the only ones with such skills. That the world was their playground – to do with as they wished.

  What a rush that had been.

  She'd loved that sense of uniqueness. That sense of superiority over the rest of the world. That power to play God. And boy, had they played. Together and apart they'd done what they wanted with who they'd wanted, believing it was their right as superior beings. That no one would ever know.

  How wrong could they have been?

  They weren't the only ones who could do this. The only ones that played in both realities.

  Disbelief fired the rage all over again and she blasted off more grenades. Barely satisfied she realized now how Shay had beaten her brothers. Not just one, but both of them.

  Shay and her helper. Or many helpers. She'd known Shay couldn't have done this alone.

  Then, Darren had Danny to help him. That Shay most likely had never even known about Danny's existence, hurt. Darren rarely told anyone about his twin. And he'd never tell a mark like Shay. It was private. Danny had been the other half of Darren. The two of them were identical in so many ways. But when Darren had hesitated to kill Shay, it had been Danny that had stepped in and made sure it happened.

  Made sure Darren didn't change his mind.

  Only something had gone wrong. She remembered their panicked cries for help as she raced toward them. Their agonized screams as they died. Both of them – at the same time. When the energy had taken one brother, it had also taken the second. Connected as always.

  She'd come to their aid, entering the fight at the end – just that one instant too late. She'd seen the two energies, Shay’s and this asshole’s here in the children's ward. She recognized him here. He'd die tonight as well.

  But there'd also been something else there at the end. Or someone else. A blue energy. Even now, she couldn't place it. It had jumped into the battle just ahead of her attempt.

  And when combined with the other energies, had blown a hole through her siblings' heart chakras.

  If only she'd been earlier. She could have saved her brothers. She could have killed Shay. Only she'd been too late.

  Now, a year later, she would get her revenge.

  Or was trying to.

  No! she screamed to the ethers. You won't beat me. I am too strong. I'm stronger than my brothers ever were.

  Her brothers had always said she was the strongest person they’d ever seen. Often snapped the words out in a jealous rage. She'd have grinned if she were in her physical form. Laughed out loud if she could have. She was the damn strongest. No one could beat her.

  No one. And no group could either.

  She closed her eyes and focused on pulling in as much energy as she could handle. She'd see this place blow, and herself with it, before she'd let these bastards win.

  More. Pull more. Using techniques she'd learned a long time ago, she opened up her energy chakras and pulled at the atmosphere.

  She'd show them.

  Chapter 26

  Pain whipped through Shay. Followed by heat and anger in a steady one-two punch as energy rattled through her, separating her misty form even further.

  Whoever this person was, they had some serious power behind them. And they were seriously demented.

  Shay struggled amongst the blasts, the energy that she was both assimilating and blending with.

  Stay strong, Shay, Stefan's voice whispered through to her.

  I am. I'm trying to envelop the energy. Wrap it up so it can't get any bigger.

  No! Don't. It could blow you up. You have to jump inside and power it down.

  I am so not able to do that.

  Yes, you can. Blend with the energy, find the source, become a part of it then shut down the chakra from the inside.

  That will kill the person.

  An awkward silence ensued as she realized how foolish her comment was. Then Stefan's gentle voice filtered through her consciousness. I know. But if you don't, we're all going to die. We can't keep this up.

  Damn. She shuddered. I'm on it.

  Go quietly. Hide your tracks.

  Hide her tracks? That made her pause. It meant technically no longer existing as herself, but becoming one with everything around her. She'd heard about it. Hadn't tried it yet. Supposedly it came with a dangerous hook – becoming permanently lost on the ethers. She'd have to have help to return. More help than Stefan would likely be able to provide.


  Becoming one with everything, meant losing her individuality, her identity. That's where the problem lay. If she did what Stefan asked, she'd cease to exist.

  Still, she had to try. If it was a one-way trip, then so be it. Better that than to have this asshole take out dozens of lives. These were her friends. And the children were innocent victims. Someone needed to stop this. To save them.

  If she was the only one that could – so be it.

  With a last loving regret for Roman and what they might have had together, knowing that taking the next step was the riskiest thing she'd ever done, she took a deep breath and dropped her consciousness another level.

  She became one with the broken floor. One with the destroyed furniture. She became one with the very air. The very essence that made her who she was, melded and blended to become one with the black power that was filling the room. Her fragments, so tiny, so light, could attach to the attacker in such a way the person wouldn't know what she'd done. She'd feel familiar to the person's energy. She'd feel like she was one particle of the many.

  That's because she was. She'd become one with everything.

  And there was the danger.

  If she destroyed this other person, there was a good chance she would destroy herself.

  And yet there was no choice.

  She separated herself further from life, from the physical reality as she knew it. With another breath of air, she slipped further away, yet again. Becoming one with the universe. One with her past.

  And she became one with all.

  The emotions of her attacker poured through her, filling her, hooking her, sucking her into its existence.

  Memories overwhelmed her. Of children laughing. Adults crying. A barrage of images flew past, of cars. Schools. Classes. Men. Old. Young. Lovers. Haters. And then one face that made Shay gasp as hurt and betrayal threatened to swamp her.

  Darren.

  This person was connected to Darren. To the man who'd tried to kill her.

  Tidbits of conversation streamed through her new awareness with emotions attached. Another face. A similar face. Twins? Darren and his brother. But still he was not this person she'd joined. This threat was another of Darren's sibling. A third sibling connected to the twin brothers. Another brother? No. A sister. A sister Shay had never known about. A sister that Darren had never wanted her to know about.

  Because, in the end, Darren hadn't intended for Shay to survive to meet her.

  But Shay had. And now, as part of everything, she understood it all. Most of all, the hate Darren’s sister felt for her.

  And that's why Shay had been targeted. That's why her projects had been hit. Why suspicion had been thrown on her. Why the children's hospital – her special project that even Darren had been jealous of – had been targeted. And it explained why no one had recognized the energy. As Darren had been able to hide his energy, his true person, so too had his sister hid hers.

  Like Darren, his sister could mask what she was doing, keeping a completely false front in place for others to view. Yet inside, she'd been scheming and planning to destroy Shay and all Shay held dear.

  To avenge her brothers' deaths by murdering innocent people…

  Like Bernice. Like David. Like Robert. Like Tabitha, Marie, that elderly lady beside Pappy's room.

  Shay's heart cracked, causing pain like she'd never felt before. So many victims. So many unnecessary deaths. So many families destroyed.

  Stay focused. Stay in the light. Stefan's voice whispered through her essence. We have to stop her.

  She couldn't speak. She was too full of this other person's agenda that tried to take her over. To control her. To keep her and contain her.

  Careful, Stefan warned.

  Shay swallowed hard. I'm trying.

  Don't try. Do.

  ***

  Roman raced to the address his brother had given him over the phone – after he identified the woman in the photo. His brother and a team met him there.

  Such a small unassuming townhouse on the edge of town. Made of unassuming bricks and mortar…and filled with evil. He swore he could almost see the oozing clouds of wrongness coming off the front of the building. A couple of neighbors sat on their porches reaching for the cool night air.

  The cop cars arrived with screeching brakes but no sirens. If anything, the lack of sirens sent out a stronger message that scared the hell out of those enjoying the peace and quiet of the night.

  Roman motioned for the old guy sitting next to the townhouse to come down to the street level. The man scrambled in his direction. The others, realizing something was wrong, joined him. Motioning everyone to silence, the cops emptied the homes on either side of the one they needed to access.

  With Ronin in the lead, they snuck up to the front door.

  ***

  Yes. Shay understood. She had to go inside the blackness. Beneath the memories and the emotions. She had to go deeper into the physical being. Wherever that person was. The woman wasn't here physically at the hospital. Like Stefan and Shay, she was out of her body – fighting in astral form. Now Shay had to find this person's body. Find her physical form.

  And shut her down.

  Struggling to keep her thoughts pure, her energy golden and warming, she allowed her own consciousness to join with her attacker’s. And she sank deeper into the woman's psyche to hunt for and find the woman's silver cord. There was so much pulsing and surging energy around her that she couldn't see it. She searched the light, the dark, the nonexistent…and then she saw it. Relief washed through her. At least this person had a cord. Shay admitted to herself that she'd been worried about what specific abilities this person had and whether they truly were earthbound.

  With the silver grey cord winking in and out of the blackness, she slid along the lit pathway, racing faster and faster, hating the panic threatening to overwhelm her. She didn't dare stop now. She couldn't fail. This was too important. Too necessary for these kids. For Stefan. And all the other souls that had come to help.

  And Roman. If her attacker beat her and survived this would destroy him. They'd just found each other. To lose him now…

  And just like that, she came to the end of the cord and fell into the body of Darren's sister.

  And realized who this person was. With access to all her thoughts, memories, motivations. Shay stood in silence, filled with more pain than she thought possible, a greater sense of betrayal than she'd have thought there could be, and evidence of more damage than any trio of siblings had a right to inflict.

  This was Jordan. Her assistant. With access to all of Shay's files. With inner knowledge of all of Shay's projects. With a connection to, and information about, Shay's personal life through her brother Darren.

  Who had access to Bernice. To Bernice's emails. And even to the Foundation function that night.

  Even though Ronin had run a check on her, she'd managed to hide who she truly was.

  Jordan who was aware of her relationship with Roman. Had commented on it. Was he her next target? And then there was Pappy, Tabitha, her cousin Marie…

  Her assistant knew all the pain and fear Shay had been through this last year. And all the while she'd been twisting the screw tighter and tighter. Had she been the one who sent those threatening letters to Bernice? Those horrible emails? She'd had access to all Shay's contacts as well as her computer.

  And she'd been a blackmailer who went after payouts from Bernice, before she’d agree to just go away. Greedy like Darren. Wanting more and more. Only Bernice, though she’d agreed to pay, hadn't agreed to an amount. Jordan had considered her offers too low to be bothered backing down.

  So this then was Bernice's deal with the devil. She'd been scared by the threats and the promise of the evil behind those letters. She'd offered to pay to make it all go away. Only her offer was too low and the devil and so Jordan had only twisted the knife harder. Demanding more and more. Why? To torment Bernice, and thus torment Shay. Jordan had known how close the two of
them were.

  There'd been no way out for Bernice.

  Shay now knew why there'd been no stopping the emails – because money wasn't the only object of the game. Just a nice side benefit.