“She spent a lot of time with you too,” I pointed out as I stroked Adam’s soft cheek with my thumb. “And Grayson spent most of her time with Reese, yet she’s evidently infected and he’s not.” The baby stared up at me, and when I slid my pinkie finger against the tiny palm that had escaped the T-shirt blanket, his fingers curled around mine.
“So, what’s the connection between you three Kanes and Grayson?” Anabelle asked, kneeling on the front bucket seat so she could see the baby over the headrest. “Grayson’s the outlier. You three are all genetically related, and she’s not. You’re from New Temperance—even Adam was conceived there—and she’s not.”
“Grayson is from Constance, right?” Eli asked with a glance at the baby.
“Yeah. She and her brother, Carey, were bred as hosts there, just like…”Just like Melanie and I were.“That’s it!” I sat up straight with the revelation, startling Adam, who began to fuss. “Grayson, Melanie, and I were all born to demons.” I stared through the window at the darkened SUV, where my sister’s body still lay. “And so was Adam.”
Melanie hadn’t passed the virus on to her son.Mesharahad done that. “Growing inside a possessed body must do something to us genetically. Or at least physically. Something that enables us to carry the virus. And the Church would have known that about Melanie. The second our mother was exposed, they’d have known Mellie was an ideal carrier for their plague. But my guess is that they didn’t expect Kastor to take so long to get his hands on us. And they probably didn’t expect Melanie to get possessed.”
“Their Trojan horse isn’t going to make it to the gates.” Anabelle sank back into her chair with a defeated sigh and stared at the SUV. “It’s not that I’m rooting for the Church to win, and Ihatethat they used Melanie as their weapon. But Kastor is our enemy too, and since Mellie’s not going to make it to Pandemonia, it kind of feels like she died for nothing.”
I closed my eyes, stunned. Meshara had stoleneverythingfrom my sister—even the chance for her death to have meaning.
Icouldn’tlet her death mean nothing.
“Melanie wasn’t their only Trojan horse.” I’d caught the virus from my sister, which meant that whether they’d meant to or not, the Church had turned me into a walking contagion, capable of spreading their virus to any demon I came into contact with without ever even having to expose myself as a threat. “Kastor wants me?” I glanced from Anabelle to Eli as they twisted to look at me from the front seat. “He can have me. But he’s going to get ahellof a lot more than he bargained for.”
It only took them a second to catch on. “Wait, Nina, let’s think about this,” Anabelle insisted, and Adam began to fuss in my arms as if he knew exactly what was going on. “If they’ve got Grayson, the city’s already infected. You don’t need to go.”
“With any luck, Reese and the others caught up with Grayson before Kastor’s people could get her to the city. If that’s the case, the demons who took her are dead, which means neither they nor Grayson will be infecting Pandemonia. And if Graysonisin the city, the others will need help getting her out. Either way, I have to go.”
“But what about Adam?” Ana looked horrified. “You can’t just abandon Melanie’s baby to…what? Go spread disease in the most dangerous city on earth?”
“I’m not abandoning him. You two are going to watch him for me.” I tried to hand the baby to Anabelle, but she frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
“You’re all the family he has left, Nina!”
“And the most important thing I can do for my nephew”—now that he didn’t need my soul—“is make sure Kastor will never, ever get his hands on this little guy. Ihaveto go to Pandemonia, Anabelle.”
Ana turned to Eli, desperation shining in her wide eyes. “Say something! Talk some sense into her.”
Eli opened his mouth, his forehead furrowed, and I held up one finger to stop him. “Don’t even start.Yousaid the Lord gave me an exorcist’s gifts for a reason.” I was far from sure I believed in Eli’s warrior religion, but Ididbelieve in purpose, and the Unified Church had unwittingly given me a hell of a one. They’d given me a way to avenge Melanie and protect Adam.
They’d given me the ability to bring all of demonkind to its knees.
Eli nodded, then turned to Anabelle. “She’s right. Nina’s been given two gifts—exorcism and contagion. And they both seem destined for Pandemonia.”
“But…what about the baby?”
I looked down to find him sleeping in my arms, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to stay there, holding him, looking for signs of Mellie in his tiny features. “With any luck, I’ll make it out and come back for Adam, but the odds aren’t in my favor. Anabelle, I need to know that if I die, you’ll do everything you can to protect him and give him a good life.”
“Nina…”
“Please, Ana. For Mellie.”
“Yes. Of course.” She exhaled heavily and stared at the baby with tears in her eyes. “You know I will. I just don’t want to lose you too.”
“And will you help her?” I turned to Eli. “Can Ana and Adam stay with you and your people?”
“Of course they can. But we get raided too, Nina. Ours isn’t an easy life, or a secure one.”
“I know.” But those both applied to my life too, ever since the moment I’d discovered that I was an exorcist. “Just do your best for Adam, and I’ll do my best to come back for him. That’s all any of us can ever promise.”
We buried Melanie on the side of old Interstate 70 as the sun rose over the badlands. Eli and I took turns digging with our only shovel while Adam napped and Anabelle wrapped my sister’s body in the nicest blanket we had, to cover up the smoking hole in her chest. Though I could hardly see it anyway through the tears steadily blurring my vision.
Eli closed the grave with shovelful after shovelful of dirt while I clutched the baby to my chest. In the hundreds of times I’d pictured Melanie’s labor and delivery, I’d never once pictured my sister lying in the hole I’d known would have to be dug afterward.
We marked Melanie’s grave with a cross Eli made from scraps of wood and the nylon cord from my bindings. He’d carved her name on the short length of the cross with surprising aptitude. But as the crimson morning sun shone down on my grief, I realized I would probably never again see either the cross or my sister’s grave.
