Shea couldn’t heal others like Grace could. She could only ease suffering for a little while. She could hear people’s thoughts. Talk to them in the same manner. What use was that to anyone?

And yet she was pursued ruthlessly. As was Grace. The two sisters had made a pact. As painful as it was to be away from each other, they’d gone in separate directions, hiding, not contacting each other.

If either sister were found, one would be used to draw the other out. Shea wouldn’t allow that to happen. She wouldn’t be responsible for Grace’s capture.

Grace was special. She was vulnerable and her gift was as much a curse as it was a true gift. She could not survive in the hands of people determined to use her gift with no regard for the cost to Grace. They’d kill her because they didn’t understand Grace’s abilities. They wouldn’t mean to. They wouldn’t want to. But they’d force her to use her skills, and the result would be Grace’s death.

“I won’t allow it to happen,” Shea murmured fiercely.

Grace was good. She was tenderhearted to her detriment. She couldn’t bear to see anyone suffer, and as a result, Grace often suffered pain beyond Shea’s imaginings. Shea’s temporary agony of tonight was nothing compared to the days when Grace would be gripped by the very illness she took from others.

Shea hastily tossed her toiletries into a large case and then stood in front of the sink, her hands braced on the surface, eyes closed as she battled the weariness that beat at her.

She’d hoped by reaching out to him that she might somehow gain relief. But now sorrow blanketed her. She couldn’t leave him to suffer alone. He was so very close to giving up all hope. She could sense his desire to die and slip away from his awful reality.

She shook her head in denial. She wasn’t going to let him go.

NATHAN Kelly sat quietly in the corner of his tiny cell and stared broodingly into the darkness. He had no idea if it was night or day. For all practical purposes, he was in a box. A tiny, airless box. How long had he been here?

For the first weeks, he kept meticulous count, sure that rescue would come at any moment. Not only did he have the U.S. Army to count on, but his brothers ran a top-notch military ops group. They were a private organization that took jobs nobody wanted or had the means to complete. They often contracted with the U.S. government, but they just as often took assignments from the private sector. No way they’d let him stay imprisoned in some hellhole. Not after what had happened to Rachel. They would question everything. They wouldn’t blindly accept his death, no matter what they were told.

He closed his eyes and thought about his fragile sister-in-law, Rachel, who was married to his older brother Ethan. Then he shook his head. She wasn’t fragile. A fragile person wouldn’t survive an entire year imprisoned in hell.

Nathan couldn’t have been here for more than a month and already he was losing his grip on reality—and his sanity.

He moved again, waiting for the fresh resurgence of pain. But it remained at bay. It wasn’t that he was numb or that he’d finally gone beyond the parameters of pain. He was aware—hyperaware—of his surroundings. He could feel each bead of sweat that rolled down his chest. The pain was simply gone.

After he’d lived with agony for so long, having every waking moment be one of intense suffering, it was unsettling to suddenly feel nothing.

How had it happened? Was she an angel? The voice in his mind could only be a hallucination. Sweet. Warm. So soothing that he wanted to drown in the sensation.

For one brief moment he knew peace. His mind was empty, and calm had descended, wrapped around him like a warm, fuzzy blanket.

It was absurd to think that there was any peace in hell. It wouldn’t last, but he was grateful for even a moment’s respite.

He eased down onto the rough floor and curled into as tight a ball as he could muster. He was nearly lost in the corner, a mere shadow in darkness.

Fatigue held him in its relentless grasp. But then he felt the faint touch of another. It was as though someone stroked a hand over his hair. Whispers, like a gentle summer breeze, drifted through his ears.

I’m here.

He closed his eyes, determined to rest, to regain his strength. Whatever had happened today, whether he’d finally broken from reality or not, he felt a renewed determination to live. To fight.

He focused on his family. He’d live for them. This would pass. He would survive it.

Yes. You’ll live. I won’t let you give up.

The angel whispered, and he felt some of the horror in his mind recede. If he could, he would grab on and wrap the angel around him.

He felt her smile. It was like a burst of sunshine in his shattered mind. And then he felt her arms surround him and hold him close. Just as he’d imagined her doing.

Sleep now, she gently urged.

“Stay with me,” he said even as he drifted into healing sleep.

CHAPTER 2

SHEA stepped into the crisp morning air and inhaled deeply in an effort to clear her mind. Flashes of her encounter the night before and the weight of emotion still haunted her. She’d tried to go back to sleep after she’d reached out to the man being kept prisoner, but she’d been too on edge to relax.

She pulled her jacket tighter around her body and stared down the street as the sky lightened around her. It was still relatively quiet, but in an hour or so, the hustle and bustle of early-morning rush hour would replace the calm. She only had one house to clean today and it wouldn’t take her long. She had never dared to find a job where she was required to give any personal information. She took what jobs she could find that would pay her cash and she moved on after short periods of time. Staying too long in one spot made her nervous, and she was determined to stay ahead of those who pursued her.

Already her gut was screaming that she’d remained too long here. It was time to go.

She bent as if tying her shoe and casually looked left and right, as if simply preparing for her exercise regimen.

 In truth, she hated jogging. She was in shape out of necessity, not out of any love for exercise. She used the routine to carefully scout her surroundings, always looking for any change, anything out of the ordinary. She watched for those who hunted her.

 You’re pensive this morning, Shea.

 Shea frowned as she rose and began to stretch.

 You can’t ignore me. I know you hear me. Talk to me, Grace begged softly.

 Shea sighed. You know we shouldn’t communicate, Grace. It isn’t safe. I don’t want to know anything that could be used against you. You don’t need to know anything about me. If I know nothing, I can hardly be forced to tell what I don’t know.

 It isn’t your job to protect me, Grace reprimanded.

 The hell it isn’t. You have a gift, Grace. I won’t allow those bastards to use it or you. I want you safe. Are you all right? Do you need something?

 Shea could feel her sister’s exasperated sigh.

 I felt your pain and your fear. I worried for you. I…I miss talking to you.

 Shea’s heart twisted and sadness welled in her throat. .I miss you too. Now go away before I see more than I should.

 Grace went silent for a moment. You have a gift too, Shea. You sell yourself short. What you give to people is priceless. What you give to me is priceless.

 I love you, Shea said fiercely. We’ll be together again. I swear it.

 Shea felt Grace’s sadness and she slowed in her run so that she could mentally wrap her arms around her older sister just as she’d done the night before to the soldier who so desperately needed comfort.

 The sensation of her sister returning her hug was so warm and powerful that Shea closed her eyes to savor it.

 I love you too, Shea. Be careful.

 Always.

 As always when she communicated with her sister, when they broke contact, Shea was left with an emptiness so keen that it ached. Her sister was her best friend in the world, and she hadn’t seen her for a year.

 Tears blurred her vision as she pushed herself on, lengthening her stride until the muscles in her legs began to tremble and protest.

 A year ago, she and her family were living a normal life. As normal as any family could live when she and Grace shared remarkable abilities. They lived with their parents mainly because her father and mother had feared for the two women to live out on their own.

 Shea and Grace had complied good-naturedly, although they’d always believed their parents too paranoid. Their abilities were secret. No one knew what they could do. Their parents were adamant that they never used them. It was as if they wanted to eliminate them by ignoring them.

 And then one night their home had been broken into despite their state-of-the-art security system. Their parents had been gunned down, and the only reason Shea and Grace had escaped capture was because of the safe room their father had meticulously constructed, complete with an escape route that led into the dense woods surrounding their house.

 Their father had shoved them into the safe room, set the locks, and the two girls stood there in frozen horror as they listened to their parents being murdered just feet away.

 Their parents hadn’t been paranoid. They’d known the very real danger their daughters faced. Maybe if Shea and Grace had taken their fears more seriously, their mom and dad would be alive today.