“The usual,” Tod said. “Self-destructing in slow motion.”

I shot a frown at him. “Your guess is as good as mine,” I said to Sabine, staring out into the dark after her, just in case. But I found nothing out of place except for her car, which was parked on the wrong side of the street, in front of the neighbor’s mailbox.

“My guess is probably better.” She dropped her keys on the coffee table and headed for the hall, ignoring Tod when he called after her.

“He passed out, Sabine. You may as well let him sleep it off.”

“So, what?” I said when she’d disappeared around the corner. “They let Scott out—for no reason I can think of—and he heads straight for Nash’s house?”

“Or for yours,” Tod said. “We don’t know where Nash saw him.”

“Do you think he’s still possessed?”

“How much did he drink? He’s out cold,” Sabine said, rounding the corner into the living room again to eyeball the half-empty bottle of whiskey. “Who’s possessed?”

“It’s a long story.” I sank onto the couch next to Tod and folded my legs beneath me.

Sabine shrugged. “It’s not like anyone here’s missing out on sleep.” Maras only needed around four hours a night, and Sabine had already gotten nearly that much before I called and woke her up.

“Okay, but hold it down.” We were trying not to wake my father up, and I couldn’t mute her voice—much to my own frustration. “There’s this guy named Scott who used to go to our school—”

“Scott Carter?” Sabine interrupted. “The frost junkie?” When I could only stare at her in surprise, she rolled her eyes. “Nash’s my best friend, Kaylee. We talk.”

Good to know. I’d assumed they’d skipped straight to body language.

“How much do you know?” Tod asked.

“Nash and two friends got hooked on frost—breath from Avari, the hellion I met in the cafeteria.” The time she’d tried to sell me out so she could have Nash to herself. “Doug died, Scott went insane, and because Nash isn’t human, he got off with withdrawal and total abandonment from the one person who should have been there for him, no matter what.”

“I didn’t… That’s not…” I gave up trying to explain that I hadn’t abandoned Nash, and that frost wasn’t what broke us up. “What matters now is that Scott’s out, and Nash says he saw him tonight.”

“Okay, why are the two of you talking about a visit from an old friend like that’s worse than Nash being passed out in her bed. Which we’re going to discuss later, by the way.” Her dark-eyed glare narrowed on me. “You could have at least given him a shirt, Kaylee.”

“Like you’re an expert on when it’s appropriate to wear a shirt,” I snapped, thinking of the time she’dpulled hers off and jumped Nash, with me in the next room, and Sabine bristled.

“This seems headed into girl-fight territory,” Tod said. “Should I make popcorn?”

I elbowed him in the ribs and glared at the mara. “The point is that Scott shouldn’t be out of the hospital. He wasn’t just a little unbalanced, Sabine. He suffered permanent brain damage from the frost, and Avari sent him enough visual and auditory hallucinations to make sure there was no doubt about his mental instability.”

“So, how’d he get out?”

“We’re not sure,” I admitted. “But he was half packed when we saw him tonight, so it looks like he was actually released.”

Sabine frowned. “You saw Scott tonight?”

“Sort of. We went to see if he’d ask Avari some questions for us, but when we got there, he was possessed, so we wound up dealing with Avari directly.”

“Well, then, it sounds like you’ve answered your own question.”

Tod glanced at me in question. “Is it just me, or is she making even less sense than usual?”

Sabine rolled her eyes again. “You knew he was possessed because he wasn’t acting like himself, right?” she said, and we both nodded. “So couldn’t he have been possessed long enough to convince the doctors that he’s all cured off the crazy?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, and I was pleased to see that Tod looked no more convinced.

“He was bat shit when we saw him a couple of months ago,” he said.

“Yeah, but for all you know, Avari could have been playing all sane and healthy during his doctors’ appointments for a while, right?” Sabine said.

I was far from convinced, but I didn’t have any better explanation. “Either way, if Nash saw Scott tonight, chances are good that what he really saw was Avari, wearing a Scott-suit. And if he went after Nash, he could go after anyone else. We need to stick together when we’re not at home. Pairs, at the very least,” I said.

“I call Nash,” Sabine said, glaring at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t want your boyfriend. Not like that.” And assuming he remembered anything we’d said before he passed out, Nash and I may have just made major strides toward an actual, healthy friendship.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Sabine said, and the thin thread of pain in her voice drew my focus her way.

“But I thought… He said…”

Sabine turned to Tod. “How long does she have to be dead before the naivety wears off?” Before he could answer, she turned back to me. “Only a virgin thinks sex means that much, Kaylee,” she said, and Tod’s hand tightened around mine before I could argue with her. She was lying. Sex with Nash meant something to her, even if she wouldn’t admit it, but Tod didn’t want me to call her on it.