Harper completely empathized with her red-haired heroine, twitching while she turned her character in circles. She herself had been in the same situation. Though her attackers weren’t slobbering zombies with staves.

She quickly activated her character’s inventory to see what, if anything, she could use against her threatening enemies. A box flashed across the screen, showing her everything she’d found, bought, or stolen while on her journey. What did she have that could get her out of the potentially fatal circumstances?

The zombies closed in on her waiting warrior. Harper noticed that she possessed a magical spell that would raze the zombies for good. Well, it sounded cool. She’d do it.

Casting the spell, Harper watched her simulated warrior sheathe her sword and raise her hand as a sparkling silver hue encased the character.

A gleaming energy wave burst from the outstretched hand like a shimmering bubble. In flashes of computerized smoke, the hostile zombies vanished one by one as the wave swept through them, clearing the way to the castle for her digital warrior.

A muted thud drew Harper’s attention away from the television screen. Glancing down, she saw the controller on the carpeted floor and her empty trembling hands. Realization swamped her senses. She actually had those powers.

But instead of obliterating simulated zombies, she’d killed real people. Actual human beings had died at her hands. Because of her inadvertent power. The inadvertent power she had purposefully used.

Harper felt sick. Her stomach churned like it was folding into itself. She wrapped her shaking arms around her roiling torso, trying to ease the shocking pain.

She was a murderer. She’d killed in real life. Not in some video game.

Yet, the reason was the same. To survive. She had to make sure she remembered that.

Survival. She needed to keep going in order to get revenge for Bobby.

With effort, Harper uncoiled her body and sat up straight, sucking in several deep breaths and blowing them out slowly. On screen her character was ready and waiting for Harper to put her into action. Instead she reached to shut the game off.

Okay. Okay, Harper. She couldn’t change the past. But she could shape the future she wanted. Relax. She wanted revenge. Focus. She began to take easy, measured breaths, just as she did before a race.

Yesterday she had been able to summon the power and control it. Well, not quite control, but she’d directed it. Though the brutes she’d been up against had somehow met it head-on with a power similar to hers, she’d been able to have a shred of command over her mind’s energy.

But not inside the facility itself. Harper leaned against the back of her chair, deep in thought. No, it hadn’t worked inside.

The trigger seemed to be related to her emotions. It had come unbidden the times she’d been in extreme pain from thinking about Bobby and her unthinkable situation. The first time she’d been able to temper it was at Rome’s. She’d been upset but hadn’t wanted to hurt him.

But in the facility, she’d wanted to get out, not caring who or what she might hurt. Yet her mind hadn’t cooperated. The energy hadn’t been there for her, no matter how much pain she’d endured.

Taking a deep, controlled breath, she focused on the stack of game boxes on the table and attempted to summon the energy in her mind and direct it toward the innocuous pile. Nothing. Okay, so what was different? Inside versus outside? No, that couldn’t be it. She’d been inside Bobby’s lab and the power had come without command, from an overload of grief.

Shaking her head in frustration, she stood and walked out of the room. Heading to the refrigerator, she pulled out a bottle of water and twisted off the cap. Taking a long sip, she relished the cool liquid as it refreshed her body and settled her mind.

Rome had told her to stay inside, but she decided she needed fresh air. Suffocation was clutching at her.

She had changed into her own clothes now that they were clean, but she stopped by the bedroom to pick up one of Rome’s well-worn gray sweatshirts. Smiling at the cozy oversized fit and the big maroon and gold M on the chest, Harper pushed the long cotton arms up past her wrists and walked to the front area of the warehouse.

Only the one sliding door faced her. The entrance was just large enough for the Bug to creep through. Walking across the empty space, she glanced toward the security box on the wall. Red lights warned her that some sort of alarm was activated. She smiled. Was he trying to keep her in or everyone else out? Most likely out, given that she’d told him she was a programmer, and surely he’d figured she’d be able to deactivate it.

Programmer. Right. Hacker was more like it. Her part-time job at the video-game company included programming, but was essentially hacking into the games to see how much code she could dismantle and how imaginatively she could mess with the so-called security measures. Then she would create hidden layered logic routines to keep other hackers out.

So as she stepped in front of the alarm panel she was pretty confident she could easily disarm it. Snapping the plastic cover off the mechanism, she peered at the exposed wires. Rome had obviously rigged the thing himself, given the concealed plate that hid a tiny keyboard and screen and the level of complication. Data streamed across the minute display, as Harper watched the shuffling code sequences for patterns.

There. She found a common string and studied it closely for a few minutes. She was able to identify figures that appeared to represent the broadcasting of the alarm signal without actually disarming the alarm.

Hmm. Close enough. Harper placed her fingers on the Blackberry-sized keyboard and entered a command to disrupt the data flow. Without hesitation, she hit the Enter key. The constant stream came to a slight pause and then flowed again, with an ever-so-minor modification. She doubted that Rome would even be aware of it. Besides, she’d change it back once she returned.

Smiling, she replaced the plastic covering and walked to the sliding door. She grabbed the handle and pulled. No sound. A long breath escaped her lips, one she didn’t even know she was holding.

The autumn sunlight was sluggishly waning, but still coating every surface in its path. She took several deep breaths of crisp air and began to pace around outside the warehouse to the area that faced the dense forest, stretching her muscles as best she could.

Harper rolled up the sleeves of Rome’s sweatshirt a little more and rubbed her bare arms. The sun’s warmth invigorated her, as did the fresh air, sending light pulses of energy through her veins.

Strange. She experienced the same revitalizing sensation as soon as she stepped outside the facility right before she escaped. Harper peered at her arm, running her fingers gently over the tingling skin.

She swept her gaze around the area, looking for something she could practice with. She wanted to try to harness this power. Control it. If she could, revenge would be a lot easier. Quicker.

Shielding her eyes from the sunlight, she squinted to see a bunch of empty milk crates stacked against the wall of the adjacent warehouse to her right. Recalling the image of the warrior in her game, she raised her hand and focused on the crates.

The ice-cold sensation that preceded the scorching heat was now becoming familiar. Even welcome. Fiery power blazed through her blood, filling her mind and surging down along her outstretched arm. A small wave of nearly invisible energy rippled toward the crates, originating from her prickling hand.

Harper kept her gaze locked on the stacks, watching in amazement, and a little satisfaction, as they began to vibrate under her power.

A distant rumbling broke into her focus. Uh-oh. Rome ’s Bug.