“What are you?”

I stopped in the kitchen’s doorway as he continued backward, closer to the front door, through the living room now. “What do you think I am?” But that wasn’t what I wanted him to know, so I asked instead, “Did your grandmother prepare you for beings that aren’t fully demonic? What did she teach you? What else do you know?”

Vespar and Gus weren’t full demons. They were only half. At least that’s what I thought, but she doesn’t act like one of them. She’s more or something else? What else could she be? Grandma didn’t teach me this stuff.

His inner voice was panicked, and he still hadn’t decided what to do. Then again, if he chose to fight, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do either. He was dark, and I felt the messenger in me rearing to attack, rip his head off, but another part held me back. The majority of him was still a human, a very sinister and sinful human, but one nonetheless. A protective emotion filled me at the same time.

“Shay, I—” he gasped, interrupted by his own thoughts. Where the hell did Matt and Leah go? Is Kellan here? What about—oh God. I can’t…

“What are you going to do, Dylan?” I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes. He had become part of the black and white backdrop that I saw through my messenger eyes. The little demonic part of him flared upward, like a small fire that had been given a burst of oxygen. The smoldering red and brown waved together in a furious motion. It wanted to take over more of him, but couldn’t. Not yet.

“What do you mean?” Dylan fought a shudder from coming over him.

“You can’t fight me. You can’t kill me. You don’t even know what I am or what I’m not. What are you going to do?”

He licked his lips in a nervous motion. “I think the question is what are you going to do to me?”

“What do you think I should do?”

The shudder broke over him, making his body tremble before my eyes. “I…I don’t know.”

“What were you going to do to us? To me? If you could, what were you planning?”

“I—it doesn’t matter. I can’t take it back, can I? You’re going to kill me. I can tell. It’s what—” I’d do if I were her.

“Where did your friends go?”

Hope flared in him as an idea came to him. “Leah wanted you dead more than I did. I wanted Kellan, but Leah wanted to hurt you. She asked me if she could be the one to torture you. She wanted you to watch her have sex with him.”

My, my, what a little whore she’s become. I added out loud, “And you were going to let her?”

“No! I wasn’t, I really wasn’t. I wanted her help. I knew that she’d been affected by you guys, too, and that…” Leah’s a fun screw. Why wouldn’t I want her? If Matt hadn’t taken over, things would’ve been fine.

“Let’s be honest. You wanted her with you because you wanted some sex on the side. Didn’t you, Dylan? I can hear your thoughts. I know I’m right.”

His eyes popped out in horror. “What? You can? I don’t—I mean. Holy shit.”

“Matt got in the way? She’s been with him when you were hoping that she’d be with you this whole time? That’s why you planned this, isn’t it?” I saw the wheels in his head turning. Each statement I made was true and with each word, the hope in him shrunk. “You didn’t even really care that Gus killed your entire family, did you? You liked the idea that you were alone, not held back by human morals. Then when Kellan brought them all back, when Kellan and I brought them all back, that’s what really pissed you off. You wanted to be done with them, but you couldn’t, not after all of that. And you wanted us out of the way. You want to be top dog around here, don’t you? You want to be big and bad and Leah will be all yours? Why didn’t you compel her? Use one of those handy magic spells your grandma taught you and make her yours?”

“It didn’t work,” he gasped out, blanching as he heard his words. “She’s too broken from whatever you guys did to her. Her mind can’t be controlled anymore, it’s in pieces.”

“Well, there you go. What were you going to do to Matt? If this had all worked and you’d been rid of the Braden Family, what then? She still would’ve wanted to be with him.”

I was going to kill him.

“How?” I spoke to him in his mind, and he winced from the intrusion.

“I was going to drug him one night and leave his body in the woods.”

I withdrew from his mind and moved backward, watching him in condescension.

“And you think we’re the demons? Before you know it, you’ll be one of us.”

“What?”

“You’re becoming a demon. I see it in you, and it’s thirsty. It wants more of you, and it’s going to make you do horrible things to grow. You planted a bad seed inside of yourself. All your pretty words are only going to hurt you.” Then I smirked. “You might want to watch what you teach others. It can all be used on you, too, now.”

Dylan’s face scrunched together, and he opened his mouth with an angry retort on the tip of his tongue, but a blood-curdling scream shrieked through the air.

“What the—” he cut himself off and sprinted for the basement door. I was right behind him. We braked at the top of the stairs. Matt was pointing a gun at Kellan. Leah stood in the middle while Vespar was straining against his chains. His skin was pale and sweaty, white around his mouth, but his eyes were alert, more focused with the sight of help in front of him.