Thomas’s pulse roared between his ears. “What does Vivienne need a sedative for?”
But Reed didn’t answer. His focus had swung back to Colton. “They still talk about you sometimes, you know. In the forums.”
Colton’s mouth thinned. “So, you do know me.”
“I knowofyou,” Reed admitted. “I know you drowned. I know you dug yourself out of hell. I know your bones are soldered together with demon parts, and that makes you beholden, body and soul, to whoever—”
“That’s enough,” said Delaney, cutting him off.
“The guys won’t believe I met you,” Reed added. “Most of the pledges wouldkillto have a supernatural encounter.”
“Don’t call him supernatural,” said Eric. “It’ll go to his head.”
Colton ignored him. “Tell us more about the House of Hades.”
“You were right before,” said Reed. “Itisa club, although it started off as a forum online. I wasn’t around back then, but at its origin it was just a few users posting random clickbait articles. Tabloid shit, you know. Some kid in Maine claws his way out of the grave every time they put him in it. A boy in Salem, Massachusetts, is hospitalized after aquarium plants grow in his lungs. A little girl is on a family trip to Red Rock, Nevada, when she wanders off and falls into a gorge. It’s hours before the rescue team finds her. By the time they pull her out, she’s packed to the teeth with poison. Anyone who hears her speak suffers a slow, painful death.”
It felt as though Thomas’s breathing had gone voluntary. Spots scudded across his vision.
“Eventually,” Reed went on, “the forum expanded. I’m not exactly sure how it all went down, but I know some man with deep pockets and a vested interest in the occult came along and offered to fund an annual retreat.”
“What’s the investor’s name?” asked Eric.
“I don’t know,” admitted Reed. “I’ve only ever heard people call him the chairman.”
Colton frowned. “You’ve never met him?”
“He doesn’t bother with the low-level pledges. It isn’t some open forum on the internet anymore—anyone interested in joining has to tithe for years before they’re allowed to ascend.”
Thomas didn’t like where this was going. “What does the club want with Vivienne?”
“You’ve got it backward,” said Reed. “Vivienne found us, not the other way around.”
“Why?”
“There’s some real academics in the House. It’s not all occult hobbyists and demon fanboys. There’s a surgical resident who’s just a few months away from ascension. He’s spent years feeding the House whatever it asks.”
Delaney’s nose scrunched. “Feedingit?”
“Don’t like that,” said Eric.
“He’s a total prick,” Reed added, “but he’s brilliant as hell. He wrote a dissertation on the concept of a demonic presence as a removable parasite. Something you can cut out like a cancer. He calls it a clinical exorcism.”
“No way,” Hudson said. “That’s not scientifically possible.”
Colton looked unconvinced. “And how many successfulexorcismshas this brilliant friend of yours performed?”
“None,” Reed admitted. “It was just meant to be theoretical. But he’s got a God complex a mile wide and he can’t function without praise, so he went ahead and published his writings to the forum. Vivienne found the abstract. And then she found him. When he turned out to be too deeply entrenched in the House for her to reach on her own, she found me.”
“A low-level pledge with no money for tuition,” said Colton. “I’m guessing you were a lot easier to manipulate.”
“She used you to get close to the doctor,” said Eric. “That’s cold.”
“That’s Viv.” Reed’s swollen eyes met Thomas’s. “As Walsh can tell you, she can be incredibly convincing when she wants to be. She makes you believe what she wants you to believe, and then she pulls the rug out from under your feet.”
“When?” That was all Thomas asked. One word, his insides in tatters.
Reed tsked. “She’ll gut me if she finds out I told you.”
