Dark Visions

by L. J. Smith

  Rob, we're in Mr. Zetes's house. You've got to find out somehow where that is-and fast. Kaitlyn told them about the study, and the panel. It might be closed again, but Lewis can open it. But you have to hurry, Rob-come quick.

  If you want to find us alive, Gabriel added. Kaitlyn was amazed that he was even speaking coherently.

  She knew that he was taking the worst of the pain himself. She felt a surge of admiration for him.

  Keep it to yourself, witch, he told her.

  It was an endearment, she realized. Witch. She supposed she'd better learn to like it.

  You could have told Mr. Zetes you'd think about killing me. You could have bought yourself time, she said.

  I don't bargain with people like him.

  Kaitlyn, through the waves of pain that were starting to be tinged with crimson and carmine, felt an intense pride and triumph. You see? she thought to Rob. Mr. Zetes was wrong about all of us. You see how wrong?

  But Rob wasn't there anymore. The connection had been too fragile-or now the pain was wiping everything out.

  She leaned against the metal cage, dimly feeling its coolness. Hang on, she thought. Hang on. Hang on.

  He's coming.

  She didn't know if she was saying it to Gabriel or to herself, but he answered. You believe that?

  It roused her a little. Of course, she said. I know he is. And so do you.

  It's dangerous. He's risking his own neck by coming here, Gabriel said.

  You know he's coming, Kaitlyn said, able to say it with perfect assurance because she could feel it, directly.

  "Rob the Virtuous," Gabriel said, aloud. He made a contemptuous sound like a snort-which was marred because he almost immediately gasped in pain.

  Kaitlyn could never really remember the time that passed after that. It wasn't time to her, so much as a series of terrible, endless waves that eventually turned brilliant, bursting red and white like molten rock.

  She had no means of keeping track of them, and no consciousness of anything but them. She was alone with the waves of colored agony, thrown about by them like a swimmer caught in a riptide.

  Alone-except for Gabriel. He was there, always connected. They were both being thrown around by the pain, dimly aware of each other. Kaitlyn didn't think it did Gabriel much good to know she was there, but she was glad of his presence.

  It seemed a very long time, centuries maybe, but at last she sensed another presence in the maelstrom that was her world.

  Kaitlyn-Gabriel. Can you hear us now? Kaitlyn! Gabriel!

  Rob. Her own response was so weak and faltering, so small in the huge waves, that she didn't think he would hear it.

  Thank God! Kait, we're here. We're in the house. Everything is going to be all right-Joyce is with us.

  She's on our side. She didn't know anything about what he was doing. We're coming to help you, Kait.

  There was a near frenzy to Rob's words. Emotion- an emotion Kait had never sensed from him before.

  But she couldn't think now. Too much pain.

  She lost awareness until she felt a presence very close.

  Rob. She dragged herself up. The room was both too bright and strangely gray and dim. Alternating, like lightning. Rob was there, golden as an avenging

  angel, somehow coming between her and the pain. And Lewis was there, and Anna, both crying. And Joyce, her sleek blond hair all ruffled like a dandelion. They were running toward the crystal, although Kaitlyn saw their movements as discontinuous, as if under a strobe lamp.

  And then-like a light switch being turned off-the pain was gone.

  It left echoes, of course, and normally Kaitlyn would have found even the echoes unbearable. But it was so different from the actual pain that she felt wonderful. Able to think again, able to breathe. Able to see.

  She saw that Joyce had pulled the terminal of the crystal away from Gabriel. His forehead was bleeding freely, the skin torn. He must have moved his head somehow, in spite of the metal restraints. The blood ran down his face in streams, as if he were crying.

  He'd hate that, Kaitlyn thought. But Gabriel wasn't awake to be hating it. She realized now that it was some time since she'd felt any sort of communication from him, even a scream. He was unconscious.

  The door of the Faraday cage was opening. Rob was beside her. Rob was holding her.

  Are you all right? Oh, God, Kait, I thought I might lose you.

  There it was again. The new emotion. The one that felt almost like pain, but was different.

  Kaitlyn looked up into Rob's eyes.

  I didn't know, he said. I didn't realize how much I had to lose.

  It was like being transported back to the afternoon when he'd looked at her with awe and wonder, on the brink of a discovery that would change both their lives. Except that now he wasn't just on the brink.

  The full discovery was in those golden eyes, shining with terrible clarity. A pure light that was almost impossible to look at.

  It would have been like losing me, like losing my own soul, Rob said, but it wasn't really like him saying it to her, it was as if he were simply realizing these things himself. And now it's like finding my soul again.

  The other half of me.

  Kaitlyn felt it again, the universe around her hushed and waiting, enclosing the two of them. This time, though, there was a trembling joy to the hush, a certainty. They weren't on the threshold anymore. They were passing through. Everything being said between them, without spoken words or even words of the mind. It was simply as if their souls were mingling, joining in an embrace that wasn't quite the web and wasn't quite Rob's healing power, although it had elements of both.

  It was beyond all that. It was a union, a togetherness, that Kaitlyn had never dreamed of.

  I'm with you. I belong to you.

  I'm a part of you. I will be forever.

  Kaitlyn didn't even know which of them was speaking. The feelings were in both of them.

  We were born for this.

  He was holding her hands, she was holding his. She could feel the power flowing between them, the energy like millions of sparkling lights, like fresh, cleansing water, like music, like stars. But she felt she was healing him as much as he was healing her. Giving him back what the accident had taken from him, the part of him that had been missing.

  And then it was all so simple and natural. As if they both knew what to do without thinking-as if they'd always known what to do.

  She tilted her face up, he bent down.

  His lips touched hers.

  In a minute they were exchanging the softest, most innocent kisses imaginable.

  Kait had never thought that kissing a boy would be like this.

  Not even Rob. She'd thought that kissing Rob would be wonderful. But this wasn't like something physical at all. It was simply like falling into the color of Rob's eyes. It was like falling endlessly into sunlight and gold.

  Born for each other. For this.

  A long sunlit wave, a wave of gold, came and carried them away.

  Dimly, gradually, Kaitlyn was aware of a loud sound. A loud vocal sound.

  "I said, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but really. Rob, there's something to do here!"

  It was Joyce, sounding sadly unmusical after the lovely voices Kaitlyn had been hearing. Joyce was looking at them, impatient and worried, and the tears on Anna's face were still wet. It had only been a minute or so since they'd all come in.

  Impossible, of course. Kaitlyn in her heart knew it had been hours, but that was real time, soul time, and not the time that was ticking away on this dreary

  planet. She and Rob had been floating around for hours, but it had only taken a minute here.

  Rob disengaged himself, letting go of Kaitlyn's hands. A small parting, but a hard one. Kaitlyn's fingers curled, empty.

  "I'm sorry. I think I can help Gabriel," Rob said. He got up, took a step, then turned back to Kait. He knelt down by her again. I forgot to say, I love you.

  Kaitlyn gave a half-gaspin
g laugh. As if that needed to be said. "You go help Gabriel," she whispered.

  "No, I need both of you," Joyce was saying. "And quickly. You can't solve this with energy channeling, Rob-he needs to be brought back from wherever he is. I need all four of you to get in contact with the crystal."

  That broke through the lingering gold haze in Kaitlyn's vision. "What?" she said, standing up. She noticed dimly that she felt good, physically. Strong. Healing power had flowed between her and Rob.

  "I need you all to get in contact with the crystal," Joyce said patiently. "And Gabriel, too-"

  "No!"

  "It's the only way, Kaitlyn."

  "You saw what it did!"

  "This time it will only be for a moment. But I need all of you to touch the crystal, everyone who's in the link. Now, for God's sake, hurry. Don't you realize that Mr. Zetes may be back at any minute?"

  Kaitlyn staggered as she made her way out of the cage. To let the crystal touch Gabriel again-impossible. It couldn't be done, it was too cruel. And the crystal was evil; Kaitlyn knew that. . . .

  But Joyce said it was the only way.

  Kaitlyn looked at Joyce, who looked back with clear aquamarine eyes. Eyes that looked anguished but earnest.

  "Don't you want to save him, Kait?"

  Kaitlyn's hand began to itch and cramp.

  She needed to draw-but there wasn't any time. No time. And nothing to draw with. Not a pen or paper in this entire sterile lab.

  "Please trust me, everyone. Come on, Lewis. Just get your hand ready to touch it. When I say now, grab a terminal."

  Lewis took a deep breath and then nodded. He held his hand ready.

  "Anna? Good. Thank you. Rob?"

  Rob looked at Kaitlyn.

  If she could draw. . . But she couldn't. Looking back at Rob, Kaitlyn made a helpless motion that ended with a nod.

  "We'd better do it," she whispered.

  Joyce shut her eyes and sighed in relief. "Good. Now, I'll get behind Gabriel. When I say now, I'll move him in contact. Each of you grab a terminal and hold on, right?"

  Kaitlyn could vaguely sense the others agreeing. She herself was moving to stand in front of the crystal, one hand outstretched. But her mind was whirring with frantic speed.

  I can't draw . . . not with my hands. But the power's not in my hands. It's in my head, in my mind. If I could draw in my mind . . .

  CHAPTER 16

  Even as Kaitlyn thought it, she was doing it. Desperately visualizing oil pastels, her favorite, sweeps of color. First I'd take lemon yellow, fluffy sweeps, with dashes of palest ocher. Then curves of flesh tint-and two small pools of light blue and Veronese green, dotted together.

  All right! What is it? Step back! Step back and look.

  In her mind, she stepped back, and the sweeps and dots made a picture. Joyce. Unmistakably Joyce.

  Then gray. Curves and lines of gray. A shape-a glass. With flesh tones holding it-Joyce holding a glass.

  "Everyone ready?" Joyce said.

  Kaitlyn didn't move, didn't open her eyes. She was concentrating on the next part of the picture. Rich olive-hued flesh, with a mass of burnt umber and deep madder for hair. The brown and red went together to make mahogany.

  Marisol. A picture of Joyce and Marisol. And Joyce was holding out to Marisol a glass-

  "I've got his head," Joyce said. "And-now-"

  Kaitlyn's scream, both mental and verbal, cut through the words. '-'Don't do it! Don't do it! She's with him-Mr. Zetes!"

  In the split second that followed, she wondered if she might be wrong. Joyce might have given Marisol something unknowingly-but the picture hadn't said that. It might not even be a picture of a real event, but for once, the meaning was clear to Kaitlyn. And the meaning was one of menace and danger. It felt to her the way the picture of the old witch giving Snow White a poisoned apple had felt to Kaitlyn the child.

  And, even as Kaitlyn opened her eyes, she saw that she hadn't been wrong. Joyce had thrust Gabriel's head against the crystal and was holding it, and her face had an expression that Kaitlyn had never seen before. A look of twisted, bestial fury.

  She knew all the time. She was in on everything, Kaitlyn thought, sickened. She could feel the shock and pain of the others-especially Rob. But her shout had reached them in time. Not one of them had touched the crystal.

  Except Gabriel-Gabriel, who was now being roused from unconsciousness by the white-hot lightning bolts of pain.

  Kaitlyn started to move-to tear Joyce away from Gabriel. Rob started at the same moment she did. But before they could get there, the doors burst open and chaos exploded on them.

  It was Mr. Zetes-and the dogs. Something knocked into Kaitlyn with the force of a speeding truck and she fell. A dog was ripping at her. Mr. Zetes had the gun.

  Still holding Gabriel against the crystal, Joyce was shouting. "I'll break the link! I'll break it!"

  Rob was fighting the other dog. Anna was trying to pull the animal off him, her own calls to it lost in the clamor.

  "There's an easier way to break it! Only one of them needs to die!" Mr. Zetes shouted. He was aiming the gun at Lewis.

  And this is how it ends, a part of Kaitlyn's mind thought, curiously detached. None of them could help Lewis. None of them could do anything before Mr. Zetes could shoot.

  She seemed to sense the old man's finger tightening on the trigger. At the same time she saw the room as one large picture, every detail etching itself into her mind as if with the burst of a flashbulb. Rob and Anna tangled with the rottweiller, Lewis standing in almost comical horror, Joyce's twisted face over the face of Gabriel, whose cheeks were masked in blood and who was just opening his eyes . . .

  She felt Gabriel's awakening at the same instant, felt his pain-and his fury. Someone was hurting him.

  Someone was threatening a member of his web.

  Gabriel lashed out.

  Mr Zetes had said that a telepath in a stable link couldn't reach outside that link-but Gabriel was now connected to a source of unthinkable power. His mind blazed out like the flare of a supernova-in four directions. With absolute precision and deadly force,

  he sent a torrent of fire through Mr. Zetes and Joyce and the two dogs.

  Kaitlyn felt the dim shadows of it through the web, the reverberations of what Gabriel had unleashed on them. It knocked her flat.

  Mr. Zetes fell without firing a shot. Behind Gabriel, Joyce hit the wall. The dog tearing Kaitlyn's arm spasmed as if it had been electrocuted and was still.

  Then Gabriel stopped it. He had sagged back from the crystal, collapsing. The entire room was silent and motionless.

  Let's get out of here, Rob gasped.

  Kaitlyn was never sure how they got out of the house. Rob was the main force in moving them. He practically carried Gabriel. She and Anna and Lewis helped each other. There was a long time of stumbling and dragging and finally they were on grass.

  Grass cool with dew. It felt wonderful. Kaitlyn rested against it gratefully, as if she'd just staggered out of a fire.

  At last Lewis whispered thickly, "Are they dead?"

  The dogs are, I think, Anna said. Kaitlyn agreed, but didn't mention that she'd seen blood coming out the eyes and nose and ears of the one on top of her.

  But Mr. Zetes and Joyce-I don't know, Anna finished. I think they might be alive.

  "And so Joyce didn't want to save Gabriel," Lewis said.

  "She wanted to break the web somehow," Kaitlyn said, not surprised to find her voice hoarse. "Even if it killed us. Gabriel wasn't any good to them linked to us. ... Don't ask why. I'll explain everything later."

  "But Joyce was bad," Lewis said sadly. The simple innocence of the statement caught Kait-and did something to her.

  Joyce was bad. She'd been against them, ready to use them, the whole time. Marisol had been wrong; Joyce had clearly known everything. She'd known about the big crystal and had had no hesitation about using it. She must have known all about the hidden room, too.

  "God," Kaitly
n whispered. "How could I have been so dumb? It was probably her room-everything was copies, remember, Rob? Duplicates. Mr. Zetes had his stuff here, and she had hers in the Institute."

  "Kaitlyn," Rob whispered, and there was both pain and tenderness in his voice, although he couldn't reach her since he was cradling Gabriel. "Don't. It's not worth it."

  Kaitlyn looked at him in surprise-and realized she was crying. Thick streams of tears. She put a hand to her cheek and touched the wetness. As soon as she did, she felt something swell up in her chest.

  And then she was sobbing, huge sobs, the kind she hadn't cried since she was eight years old.

  Anna held her. Leave her alone, she told Rob. She deserves to cry. We all do.

  The shaking sobs passed quickly, and Kaitlyn began to feel better.

  Gabriel was stirring.

  "This time," Rob told him, "you don't have any choice. You're half-dead-and we can't stay here. You have to take help." He added, silently, where it would mean more, You saved my life a little while ago.

  There's only one way I can repay that.

  Gabriel blinked. He looked terrible-the blood and the pain had distorted his handsome face. But he managed a trace of the old arrogance as he whispered, "Only because I can't stop you."

  Kaitlyn stopped sniffling and smiled. It's not much good to talk like that when all your walls are down, she told him. Then she added, I like you this way. Walls can be very bad things.

  Gabriel ignored her, which was all he could do at the moment.

  Now Rob was touching Gabriel with gentle, irresistible fingers, and Kaitlyn could feel strength flowing into Gabriel. Through Rob's healing points, through the telepathic web. She put her hand on Rob's and added her own strength, letting Rob take her energy and channel it into Gabriel. Lewis and Anna crowded close and touched Rob's hand, too, adding their contribution. All four of them, linked tightly, willing life and energy into Gabriel.

  Kaitlyn could sense his need and his fear-which rapidly turned into astonishment. He'd never felt energy freely given before, she realized. Now she knew what he was feeling and she could feel it with him- the sparkling lights, the pure water, the refreshment. The awakening from half-sleep into real, vivid life.