I felt like I should’ve thrown up, but there were no more emotions. The disgust was short-lived, and now I was unemotional, just there to gather information. Glancing at Kellan, I wondered if he had done that, too, taken away my emotions. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve been grateful or angry. It didn’t matter. We turned and went upstairs. When we approached another room at the top of the stairs, I knew I was clearheaded this way. Nothing was going to filter my judgment.

Then we saw Gus. She was naked, strapped to a bed, and bleeding all over. Her head jerked up, but it fell back down in pain with a rag between her lips.

Dylan was shirtless, and he turned with one hand on a fire poker. “What? Did you sense something?”

He clambered off the bed and snapped his pants shut in the same motion, going to the opened door. “Leah? Matt? You two still fucking?”

Leah screamed in response. Her voice was thick with desire.

Dylan looked back and perused Gus for a moment. “What’s that mean? You haven’t done that since…” Then he turned again, slower this time, and searched the room. His eyes passed over us and kept moving without pausing. I felt Kellan’s anger beside me and wondered if I could turn his emotions off, too.

Gus moaned and turned her head to the side, away from us.

“Out there? Who’s out there?” Dylan walked to the window and lifted up a corner of the curtain. As he continued to inspect outside, Kellan touched my wrist again before he was moving once more.

The remaining three bedrooms were bare upstairs. Only one had furniture with an empty bed mattress thrown in a corner. All the rooms remained dark from drawn curtains.

Of course, they wouldn’t want anyone looking inside. They’d see… My thought trailed off, not wanting to envision the torture of people I once considered my brother and sister.

“Shay,” Kellan called to me, and I hurried, finding him on the main floor again. We moved past as Matt let out a guttural groan, arching above Leah. She moaned, satisfied. We were at the stairs to the basement, and when we went down, the floors creaked beneath us.

I felt Vespar’s alertness like I’d been whipped in the backside. It was quick, alarmed, and vicious.

“Who’s there? You want to go again?” he growled from a corner.

As we stepped onto the cold pavement and turned toward his corner, all the lights snapped on. He was crouched in the corner, held in place by chains, but still able to stand and move an inch. The links were nailed into the walls and I wondered what magic held them intact. Vespar’s fury was Goliath-like strong, but he was still a captive.

“Who are you?” he roared this time, surging forward. The chains snapped in place, and he flew backward, hitting the wall. “Who?”

“What the—” Feet sped across the floor above us, and the door was thrown open soon after. Leah and Matt hurried down, pulling on clothes. They stopped, seeing no one, and gazed in confusion.

“What?” Leah’s hand dropped from her shirt’s strap, and it fell back down to her elbow. “Are you going crazy now?”

Matt grunted, fastening his pants. “He was saying a bunch of crazy shit last night, too.”

“What’s going on?” Dylan came down the stairs at a slower pace, still shirtless and barefoot.

“Nothing. Demon boy is just trying to make us antsy.” Matt shouldered past him, headed upstairs.

“I don’t know…” Dylan gazed around, peering into every corner how he had upstairs. “She sensed something, too. Then she tried to hide it, like nothing was there.”

Leah sucked in her breath. “You think someone’s here?”

“Someone or somethings?” Matt stopped on the stairs.

“I dunno.” Dylan narrowed his eyes and started to chant under his breath. He kept looking around, as the words got louder and clearer. Leah joined in, her voice raised with each passing word until she was shouting, stretched upward on her toes.

“It’s not working. It’s not them.”

Dylan stopped and then started a different chant.

Leah looked at the stairs. “I don’t know that one.”

“It’s not them!” Matt was disgusted as he walked down again. “And even if it was, they’re strong, Dylan. You’re not hearing me on this. They’re stronger than you think.”

“Then what are we going to do when they do come?” Dylan shouted back. “That’s all I got.”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t your grandmother have other tricks or something? The stuff you dipped his chains in, what was that?”

“Saint’s blood? It doesn’t come cheap. What do you think we’d do with it? Throw it at ’em?”

“I don’t know. Put it in squirt guns?”

“What?” Leah laughed. “Are you stupid?”

“I’m trying here! All I know is that Kellan and Shay won’t be harmed by some stupid words. They’re stronger than that, stronger than these two.”

I was starting to be amused by their conversation before Kellan touched my wrist and indicated the stairs. Nodding, I moved to follow, but he took hold of my elbow instead and whisked upstairs. We never touched one step. I opened my eyes, and we were in Gus’ room again. Her face was turned toward us, straining against the rags around her mouth and neck.

“You can untie her.” Kellan moved to the door, watching out. “I can’t.”

Gus’ eyes popped out, straining even more. I felt her desperation and a flare of hope when she heard his voice. Then, as I knelt and untied all of her restraints, Gus flew upward and wrapped both of her arms around me. She gurgled into my neck, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so sorry, Shay. I didn’t know—” She gasped and fell limp in my arms.