I lifted my chin and squared my shoulders, turning toward Damien and Kellan.

“We’re going back. We have to.” My eyes went to Kellan. “What do you think?”

“We could use their help against your father.”

“Then it’s decided. We go back.”

“But—what?” Damien shook his head. “I can’t believe this. You’re going back to save two demons? Two demons that were planning to kill you?”

“What do you mean ‘you’re?’ You’re not coming?”

He snorted in disbelief. “Messengers don’t save demons. And I think you’re crazy for even thinking about it.”

“Well, then I’m not the typical messenger, am I?” I was a little hurt by his decision, but it didn’t matter. Kellan and I would handle it. We’d be fine. Then a different thought came to me. “Why did you even come here? You told us about Gus and Vespar. Did you think we wouldn’t go to save them?”

Damien shuffled his feet, from side to side before he responded, “I wanted to warn you about your dad. I never thought you’d go back. You should be going the other way—not headed into the lion’s den.”

“She’s made up her mind. We’re going,” Kellan spoke up and left the room. As he walked past, I met Damien’s eyes and saw concern for a moment. It shocked me, but then a blank mask fell back in place. It didn’t surprise me. I always knew the other messenger was guarded, controlled, but the concern did cause me to pause a moment. What would he be concerned about—about me? About Kellan? Did he think the humans were going to actually beat us?

Damien left right behind Kellan, and Aumae sat up beside me to rest a hand on my arm. She murmured, “He’s not used to being worried about anybody.”

When she got up and followed behind the other two, I sat back in more dismay.

What did that mean? Damien didn’t have anybody close?

“Shay!” Kellan yelled out. “Come on!”

“Coming!” I jumped up and hurried out to the car. We’d just got back from one mission and now we were leaving for another. I had a feeling that downtime would be sparse from here on out.

On the way back, we were in the back while Damien drove his own car. Aumae was next to him in the front passenger seat.

She let a window down and then rested her head against the corner of her seat and closed her eyes, fast asleep. A soft hum vibrated from inside of her, and her skin started to glisten and then roll over her, around her. When I jerked upright, alarmed, Kellan pulled me back and murmured, “She’s healing herself. You should rest, too.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to need all your strength.” He squeezed my hand and slipped his fingers through mine.

“Why don’t we whisk ourselves there? They’re human. They won’t know we’re coming.”

Damien glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “Because your father will know.”

“Oh.” Point taken. And from then on, I kept my mouth shut. Sometime not long after, I felt myself falling into Kellan’s side, and he moved to put his arm around me. After that, it was lights out as soon as I snuggled into him. When I woke later, we’d arrived, and I was surprised to see it had taken three hours.

I’d been asleep for three hours in the car, and after a peek, I saw the alertness in both Kellan and Damien. Aumae was still humming, but Damien touched her leg gently and it went away. The glistening, crawling skin stopped, and the soft white color that had surrounded her was gone, too. When she sat up, she looked back and gave me a clear smile.

“You look better,” I noted, sitting up from Kellan’s side.

“I should be fully healed.” She looked at him beside me. “What’s the plan?”

“Shay and I go inside. That’s it.”

“But—” she argued.

Kellan shot back, “That’s the plan. You stay. He stays. We go.” He jerked on my arm and I only had a second to glance at Damien, expecting an argument from him. There was none. As he sat back in his seat, I realized that he never had any intention of going inside with us. He wasn’t going to help at all. And for some reason, that pissed me off.

“What—huh? Why isn’t he helping?”

Kellan hissed under his breath, “Because this is our fight, not theirs. Come on.”

He murmured as we started toward the house, “He needs to be on watch. If your father comes, I want to know.”

“Oh.” That made a lot more sense, and then I looked up. The house looked like a typical two-story home, built in the suburbs. There were shrubs neatly trimmed in front of the patio and two wicker chairs on top. The sidewalk had been swept clean with a line of flowers beside it, free of weeds. It might’ve been a home I could’ve grown up in as a normal human child.

But when he opened the door, I was assaulted by the evil. It was dark inside, and I smelled sex, desire, fear, torture, sweat. So much more. I felt like I was being choked, burdened down by it all before Kellan touched my arm. Then it was all gone. Looking up, I was able to see inside the room.

“Your messenger side is too much now. It’s like a muzzle around you. You won’t go berserk.”

Shuddering, I glanced around and heard moans from a back room. Kellan stepped forward, and the same cloak from before came over him. He put it on me, too, and we were able to walk around without being felt or seen. And as we went into the back room first, I stopped in disgust. Leah and Matt were tangled together, naked, on a bed with no sheets or pillows. He was thrusting into her, hard. As we watched, she tipped her head back and screamed. Matt thrust harder, banging her head into the wall behind them.