She was getting fairly good at screening her thoughts when she concentrated. Neither Lewis nor Gabriel seemed to have heard that.
Rob and Anna returned windblown and laughing, clutching paper bags to their chests.
"We splurged," Rob said. "Microwave hot dogs—they're still pretty hot—and Nachos and potato chips."
"And Oreos," Anna said, puffing back wisps of black hair that had blown in her face.
Lewis grinned as he unwrapped a hot dog. "Pure junk food. Joyce would die."
Kaitlyn glanced at him, and for a moment everyone stilled. We still can't really believe it, Kait thought. We all know Joyce betrayed us, but we can't accept it. How could anyone put on an act the way she did?
"She was so—alive," Anna said. "Effervescent. Energetic. I liked her from the minute I saw her."
"And she used that," Gabriel snarled. "She was recruiting us; making us like her was just a technique."
So tense, Kaitlyn thought. He's incredibly on edge. She watched Gabriel tearing into a hot dog almost savagely, and worry shifted in her stomach.
"Really hits the spot, doesn't it?" she said. Her eyes were on Gabriel, and she tried to keep her presence in the web completely neutral. She added casually, "But maybe it's not enough."
"We got two for everybody and a couple of extras," Anna said, following Kait's gaze to Gabriel. "You can have one of the extras, Gabriel."
He waved her off impatiently. His gray eyes, fixed on Kaitlyn, were full of angry warning.
"Just trying to be helpful," Kaitlyn said. She leaned close to Gabriel to fish a potato chip out of the bag and added in a low voice, "I wish you'd let me."
You can help by leaving me alone.
The thought was swift and brutal—and meant only for her. Kaitlyn could tell that none of the others had heard it. Trust Gabriel to have perfected the art of private communication.
So he wasn't going to come to her. He needed to, she was sure of that now. His face seemed even paler than usual, almost chalky, and there was a repressed violence to his movements. As if he were under some terrible internal pressure, and in danger of flying apart at any minute.
But he was stubborn, and that meant he wouldn't come. Gabriel didn't know how to ask for help, he only knew how to take.
Never mind, Kaitlyn thought, watching him surreptitiously. I'm stubborn, too. And I'm damned if I'm going to let you kill yourself—or anybody else.
Gabriel waited until they were all asleep.
Kaitlyn had been the last to succumb, fighting even the warmth they'd produced by running the van's heaters before they bedded down. He'd felt the red-gold shimmer of her thoughts running on when all the others were still and silent. She was trying to outwait him.
But it didn't work. Gabriel could be patient when he had to be.
When even Kaitlyn's thoughts had faded into a humming blank, Gabriel quietly sat up in the driver's seat and opened the door beside him. He slid out and had the door shut again almost before anyone could stir. Then he waited a moment, his senses focused on the inside of the van.
Still asleep. Good.
The wind out here was bitterly cold. Not the sort of night for any sensible person to be out wandering. That was a problem, and Gabriel thought about it as he trudged through the dry, loose sand above the high tide line.
Then he looked up. There were cottages and duplexes on the beach, as well as motel units. And some of them must be occupied.
He tried to dredge up a killing smile, but he couldn't quite manage. Breaking and entering was one crime he'd never committed before. Somehow it seemed different from picking a victim at random off the streets.
But the other choice was Kaitlyn.
This time the killing smile came easily. It was a smile for himself, and full of self-mockery. Because Kaitlyn was the obvious choice—the girl was warm and willing and definitely pleasant to link up with. Her life energy encased her in a scintillating ruby glow; her mind was a place of blue pools and blazing meteors. He'd been tempted all day by the aura that surrounded her like a charged field.
It had been all he could do not to plunge into that halo and drink it in gulps. Find a transfer point and fix on to it like a leech. He'd needed her desperately.
Only a complete fool would have turned down her help when it was freely offered.
Fighting his way through crumbling sand while the wind lashed around him like a lost spirit, Gabriel smiled.
Then he began to trudge toward one of the cottages that had a light in the window.
Kait woke up and cursed herself.
She'd been absolutely determined not to fall asleep. And now Gabriel was gone, of course. She could feel his absence.
How could she have been so stupid?
She'd had practice, now, in disentangling herself from Rob and slipping away soundlessly.
Kait almost yelped as she stepped away from the van and into the wind. She should have brought a jacket—but it was no use thinking about that now. Head bent, arms wrapped around herself, she cast her thoughts wide.
She'd had practice now in searching for Gabriel, too. He was good at concealing himself, but she knew what to look for. In only a moment she had found it—a faraway sense of glittering ice. Like a blue-white spark on the edge of her mind. Kait turned her body toward it and started walking.
It was rough going. The wind blew sheets of sand away from her. When the moon came out, it showed particles whisking through the air like ghosts. It also showed a gigantic rock shaped like a haystack rearing out of the ocean, where no rock had any business being.
A spooky place. Kaitlyn tried not to think about psychic attacks and Mr. Zetes. She was crazy to have come out here alone, of course—but what else could she do?
The wind smelled of saltwater. From her left came the soft-but-loud crashing of waves. Kait swerved to avoid driftwood and then turned sharply, heading for a cluster of cottages. There. Gabriel was very close; she could feel it.
The next moment she saw him; a dark silhouette against a lighted window. Alarm spurted through her. That window—she knew what he was doing loitering around a cottage. What if he'd already…
Gabriel!
The call was involuntary, wrung out of her by panic. Kaitlyn's heart thumped before she realized that Rob and the others were out of range.
Gabriel wasn't. His head whipped around.
What are you doing here?
What are you doing? she countered. What have you done, Gabriel?