Livy waited until the hybrid had lured the guards away from the building. He was smart about it, too, luring them away with noises and possible sightings of something moving in the trees.

Once they were far enough away, Livy climbed her way up the brick of the bungalow’s chimney and inside. She worked quickly, easing her way down the flue until she was right over the fireplace. Thankfully it was summer and nothing was lit, because that would be damn uncomfortable.

Livy listened carefully and she heard nothing but humming. She smiled when she realized that the song being hummed was from the Dead Kennedys. A little trick Toni had taught Freddy. “Anytime you get nervous, hum ‘Man with the Dogs,’ instead of picking up a lighter.”

“Man with the Dogs” was one of Paul’s favorite Dead Kennedy songs from back in the day, so Livy now knew she was right where she needed to be.

Livy put her hands out and, shimmying down a little farther, rested them on the empty wood grate. She lifted her head and looked around the one-room bungalow. Although she scented the few people who’d been in and out of this room, she didn’t see or hear anything else, so she brought the rest of her body out of the chimney and slowly used her hands to crawl out of the fireplace and onto the hardwood floor.

Once she was completely out, she stood up and began to walk toward Freddy. He was busy with a coloring book. Although he wasn’t really coloring as much as blacking out, the black crayon he held no more than a stump as he blacked out each page of the book and continued to hum his father’s favorite song.

The poor kid was completely freaked out, completely panicked, and very close to losing it. In fact, the cult was lucky they didn’t have a fire going in the fireplace or the kid would have brought the entire farm down to the ground by now.

Livy, not wanting to say anything and possibly alert anyone outside the building, softly clicked her tongue against her teeth.

Freddy looked up at Livy and began to smile. But when it faded and his eyes suddenly looked past her, Livy knew someone was behind her.

A strong arm went around her shoulder, and before Livy could fight, a needle was jammed into the side of her throat and poison was forced into her veins. The effect was immediate, her body convulsing, her lungs stopping, her heart seizing. She only had a second to think, “Shit,” before whatever they’d given her, killed her.

The sisters rolled into the middle of the road, Toni stopping to shift back to human so she could punch Delilah in the face. It was so satisfying punching the little bitch.

By now, most of the cult members had run out to see what was going on, then stopped to watch, shocked and horrified. Unable to move.

Del shifted back, too. She punched Toni in the face, the stomach. Then they shifted to jackal once more and dug into each other’s throats with their fangs.

Freddy was still humming whenthat man named John walked away from Livy. She was lying on the floor, no longer moving, her body frozen. It looked like one of those shows Freddy saw his parents watch at night that had lots of cops staring at people on the ground and saying important things before tracking down the one who “did it.”

John stopped a bit away from Freddy and stared down at him.

“He says you’re the one to bring the ultimate darkness,” John said, although Freddy didn’t know what he meant. From what Freddy knew, Delilah jut wanted him to write out the contents of Miki’s very cool notebook. Something Freddy would not do. “He says you’re to be protected. So we’ll protect you. You’ll be safe here.”

Freddy would only be safe with his mom and dad and with Toni. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home.

But the way John was staring at him, Freddy was just starting to think that he might never go home. That he might be stuck here with these too-nice people that terrified him.

Then, behind John, he saw Livy twitch. First her hands, then her feet. Then she sat up straight, her eyes blinking open. Freddy’s heart began to race, but he tried not to show it.

Livy looked around a moment until her gaze locked on the back of John’s head. She abruptly hopped up, completely silent, until she was crouching on the balls of her feet. She looked at Freddy and with her forefinger, made a circling motion. Livy had done that before when she’d snuck into the window of his parents’ home back in Washington. Between them, it had always meant, “I don’t want you to see this so you have nothing to testify to in a court of law.” It was their little joke, but Freddy knew it was serious now.

So, without getting up, he turned his body around until he faced the wall and, when the screaming started, he began humming his daddy’s favorite song . . . “Man with the Dogs.”

Because that would keep him calm. Calm was important for him; otherwise he did things, like set fires and steal.

And, let’s be honest, it was stealing that had gotten him into all this.

Del, fed up with all this bullshit, shifted back to human and shoved her sister off her. By the time Toni landed a few feet away, she’d also turned back to her human form.

Bloody and bruised, the sisters got to their feet.

“You’ll regret what you did,” Del told her. “No one—”

“Shut up.” Toni looked at something over her shoulder. “Your Messiah’s here,” she whispered.

Barely able to not roll her eyes, Delilah slowly turned until she was face to face with Chris.

He gawked at her as if she sported horns and a tail. Then again, of course he would. Not because of what she was, but because he now understood she was what he wasn’t. Special. Different.