Then I groaned and called my sister. When she answered, I asked, “Has Leah been at school this week?”

There was silence and then, “No. I didn’t even notice.”

“He’s probably there. Don’t you think?”

“Are you going over there?”

“I guess. I mean, I have to, right?”

“It’d be good if you talked to him soon.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll go over there.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded curt, as if she had been interrupted.

I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly and hung up.

And that meant she was doing something. I shook my head and left again for my car. I could only handle one of my siblings at a time. As I went outside, Vespar was walking toward me. His eyebrows shot up. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.” I threw that over my shoulder as I passed him swiftly. He turned to ask again, but I shut my car’s door and quickly reversed to drive away. Vespar still stood there as I turned onto the road. I could feel his confusion.

As I drove to Leah’s, I tried to remember the way. I’d only been there once to pick up Kellan. I never asked questions, and he never offered any answers. He’d reeked of sex, though, and a part of me didn’t want to find him in the same manner. As I pulled up to her house, I tried to sense Kellan from my car. I sensed him good and plenty. His presence wrapped around me like a blanket. It was powerful, so powerful that when I went to the door, I half expected him to answer it himself. He didn’t. Leah did, looking pale and gaunt. Her eyes had a scattered look in them, like she was in the middle of a stampede and didn’t know where to go for safety.

“Is my brother here?”

Before she could answer, Kellan asked from a back room, “What’s wrong?”

Leah vanished into a back room, and I turned to scrutinize my brother. He looked tired. Why did he look tired? I asked as much, but he clenched his jaw and countered with, “Why did you come here?”

“Because Gus asked me to find you.”

“Why?” He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his jaw, but glanced toward the room Leah had gone into.

I looked, too, and wondered what had happened between them. Why was he here? What was wrong with Leah? “Is this about her stepfather?” Then I looked around again and saw how sparse it seemed. It was as if only Leah lived there. I couldn’t feel anyone else. “Where’s her mother? Her real father?”

Kellan grimaced. “Our siblings got too excited last week.”

I waited for more of an explanation, but he didn’t offer any. “That’s it? What does that mean?”

“It means…” He weighed his words. “It means that when they came here, Leah’s stepfather wasn’t alone. Her mother and real father were also here. They’d all been having an argument, but Vespar didn’t care. Neither did our sister.”

I reeled from what he said. That meant…no wonder the blood had affected me so much. I’d tried to become numb this past week because of that night. I didn’t know what to do, or if I should do something. I asked, shaken, “So…what are you doing here?”

“I’m trying to make her better.” Kellan still watched the door, as if he could see her through it. “She asked me for help, to stop her stepfather from hurting her. She didn’t ask for this. She’s hurting even more.”

“Wipe her memories. You do it all the time.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. After what we did to Matt, I can’t do more magic. It’d alert too many things we don’t want to come here.”

Things.

Messengers.

I swallowed hard—what I had painted. Then I closed my eyes. “What are you going to do to Vespar and Gus?”

“Nothing.”

I looked at him and saw he was frowning at me. “What? Nothing?”

“Why would I do something?”

“Because this is wrong! What they did was wrong.”

Kellan tilted his head to the side in wonderment. “Shay, we’re demons. That’s what we do. We do bad things. I do bad things, too.”

“But…” I didn’t.

He nodded. “You do, too.”

“I don’t try to hurt people. And I don’t have demon blood, remember? You won’t tell me what I am.”

He gripped the back of my head in the next instant. It happened so fast, I only had time to jump in shock before Kellan pushed me against the wall. He leaned forward as his hand had a tight grip on the back of my skull, keeping me in place. “Even if you don’t share the same blood, you’re one of mine. No matter what anyone might say, you’re mine. Understand?”

Mesmerized by the ferocity in his eyes, I nodded. I couldn’t say anything. His words seemed to penetrate inside of me and squeeze hard. It was like my entire body was under his control. Then, something shifted inside of me, and I gasped, arching my back and thrusting Kellan away from me. I was angry. It was anger and hatred boiled up in me. My hand shot up, and energy burst out of me. It slammed Kellan across the room, then I said, heated, in a stranger’s voice, “Get away, demon! Die.”

Kellan’s face snapped up, and his eyes showed his demon. The pupils were diluted, and the entire orb was black and red. He hissed back, “Do not interfere!” Then his eyes changed, and my brother took control again. He spoke more calmly, “Shay, take control. Shay, stop it. Take over. Put it to sleep.”