“You’re both here. I know that. Why weren’t you here before? Why weren’t you here in time to—to do something?”

“Man plans,” Bishop said, “and the universe laughs. We should have been here hours ago. But the wind had taken down a huge tree, and there was no other way. Not even a place for a chopper to land. We had to wait for a road crew to clear it away.”

Robbie’s arms were crossed over her stomach, and her eyes were shiny. “I don’t know if I believe you. I want you to know that.”

“We do,” Bishop said.

“What am I? Can you tell me that? What am I now?”

“You’re a telepath, Robbie. You know that.”

She drew a breath. “I know it wasn’t just Jonah’s bullet that took that monster’s head off. I know it was mostly me. What I did. What did I do?”

Miranda glanced at her husband, then said steadily, “You wanted to save your partner. And that was enough to focus the energy inside you.”

“And turn it into a weapon.”

Bishop said, “All of our abilities can be used as weapons one way or another. If we need them to be badly enough. It’s why we learn control, Robbie. It’s why we test our limits.”

Hardly louder than a whisper, Robbie said, “I should have read the fine print.”

Sarah glanced at them, and then went to Robbie and took her arm. “I have a bottle of wine and a boyfriend I can kick out for the night,” she said. “Come on.”

It seemed that Robbie would resist for a moment, but then she allowed herself to be turned and guided, and Sarah took her out of the makeshift command center.

Miranda looked at Jonah, who was sitting at the conference table with his big gun lying on it, gazing at nothing.

“Jonah, there are always monsters,” she said. She waited until he looked at her, then said, “Always. You didn’t make Bast Gettys a monster any more than we made any one of our many enemies monsters. The world makes them. Fate makes them. Life makes them. All we can do is fight the ones in our paths.”

“Do you really believe that?” he asked finally.

“I have to. There have been . . . a lot of monsters in my life. Personally and professionally. Battles I won, and battles I lost. Unbearable prices I had to pay. But I keep fighting, just like Noah fights, like our teams fight, because when we’re done, there’s usually one less monster in the world. And I can live with that.”

“Teach me that, will you?” Jonah requested with a ghost of a smile.

“We were hoping you’d ask,” Bishop said.

And Jonah had one of those feelings he’d had before, that everything was going to change.

This time, for the better.

SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT AGENT BIOS

(in order of appearance)

NOAH BISHOP—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Unit chief, profiler, pilot, sharpshooter, and trained in martial arts.

Adept: An exceptionally powerful touch-telepath, he also shares with his wife a strong precognitive ability, the deep emotional link between them making them, together, far exceed the limits of the scale developed by the FBI to measure psychic talents. Also possesses an “ancillary” ability of enhanced senses (hearing, sight, scent), which he has trained other agents to use as well. Whether present in the flesh or not, Bishop always knows what’s going on with his agents in the field. Always.

Appearances:Stealing Shadows, Hiding in the Shadows, Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Sleeping with Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage, Haunted, Fear the Dark

LUCAS JORDAN—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Special Agent, profiler, weapons expert.

Adept: Neither fully telepathic nor empathic, Luke nevertheless possesses a combination of both abilities, the sum of which enables him to quite often find people who are lost. Lost by accident, the victims of crimes, even sometimes abducted and taken far away. And yet when he is able to use his abilities, Luke can feel the pain and fear of someone in trouble, even home in on their location. It’s an ability he’s worked very hard to master, and his control has improved steadily since joining the SCU—and since Samantha came back into his life.

Appearances:Hunting Fear, Fear the Dark

SAMANTHA JORDAN—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Special Agent, profiler—and excels at a number of esoteric skills picked up in her life growing up in a carnival.

Adept: Seer, clairvoyant. Precognition is not an ability she controls, but she is able, with astonishing power and accuracy, to pick up information by touching objects. And sometimes by touching people. She is also linked in a very real way to her husband, that contact helping him to focus his abilities—and enabling him to pull his wife from whatever distant place or time her abilities take her; each is in a very real sense the anchor for the other.

Appearances:Hunting Fear, Fear the Dark

MIRANDA BISHOP—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Special Agent, investigator, profiler, black belt in karate, and a sharpshooter.

Adept: Touch-telepath, seer, remarkably powerful, and possesses unusual control, particularly in a highly developed shield capable of protecting herself psychically, a shield she’s able to extend beyond herself to protect others. Shares abilities with her husband, due to their intense emotional connection, and together they far exceed the scale developed by the SCU to measure psychic abilities.

Appearances:Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Hostage, Haunted, Fear the Dark

ROBBIE HODGE—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Special Agent, profiler-in-training, proficient with most firearms, and possesses a black belt in judo.

Adept: A born telepath, she’s able to read roughly half the people she encounters, and possesses the added ability to telepathically coax some memories from a willing subject. Is also, possibly because of the strength of her shield, the rare psychic able to wear a watch.

Appearances: Fear the Dark

DANTE SWANN—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT

Job: Special Agent, profiler-in-training, and has expert computer skills.

Adept: Reluctant medium, very strong shields. Dante is still coming to terms with his abilities, though he’s had them for a number of years. He enjoys the puzzles of investigative work, and though he is not dependent on his own abilities, he deeply appreciates the abilities of the psychics with whom he works.

Appearances: Fear the Dark