“Carey…” Grayson sobbed as more tears fell from her eyes. “Please don’t—”
“Carey’s dead,” Kastor snapped. “But I have access to all his memories. I know how much he loved his baby sister. You were the last thing on his mind before he died.”
“Carey…” Shocked, I sank onto the edge of the bed. Kastor had Grayson’s brown curls and her chocolate-colored eyes. They had the same skin tone. Hell, he even had her freckles.
How had I not seen it?
“I’m so sorry, Grayson.” I took her hands in both of mine and had to close my eyes to keep them from watering again. “They got Mellie too.” I wanted to tell her the rest—about Adam—but I didn’t want Kastor to know my nephew existed.
He shrugged. “The only surprising part of this is that you two are surprised. The best way to defeat one’s enemy is to get to know him, and the best way to know him is by stealing the memories of those closest to him. Or her, in your case. Your sister was the obvious choice.”
“Finn wants us to exorcise him,” Grayson said softly, and Kastor stood straighter. Stiffer.
“Finn is here? Now?” He glanced around the room as if his incorporeal son might suddenly become visible. “How do you know?”
“Grayson’s always been able to hear him.” And I’d always been jealous of her gift.
“He wants us to exorcise you. But I can’t do it.” She turned back to me, frowning. “I mean, Ican.I exorcised the demon from Serah, so I’ve been triggered, but Ican’t.It’sCarey.”
Kastor shook his head slowly. “Sentimentality truly was the downfall of your species. I am not Carey James. He’s been dead for quite a while now.”
“Don’t worry,” I said to Grayson, mentally fitting together the beginnings of a new plan. “We don’t need to exorcise him. How long has she been here, exactly?” I said, standing to meet Kastor’s gaze. “How many hours?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, his brows arched, as if my question piqued his curiosity. “Okay, I’ll play along. It’s been about twenty hours. Since shortly before you arrived. But she’s been unconscious most of that time, sleeping off her body’s physical transition to exorcist. What does that have to do with Finn?”
“Has she been here the whole time?” I asked, instead of answering. “Have you touched her?”
“I’m not sure what you’re implying, Nina, but—”
“Have you had any physical contact with her at all?” I demanded. “Are you the one who tied her up? Did you put the gag on her?”
“Yes,” Grayson answered for him. “When I woke up. We had the same discussion you two just had. But that was hours ago.”
“Good,” I said, my gaze glued to the demon. “Kastor, you’re about to be a very sick man.”
His laughter was loud and hearty. “I’m all ears,” he said, and I realized he still thoughthewas playing withus.
“Do any of your possessed Church scientists have memories of working on a virus?”
“I don’t know.” Kastor looked intrigued, but not truly threatened. “None that have been reported. They haven’t all been possessed yet, though. We’re saving some for after we have Finn in custody, so we don’t wear the host bodies out before they can be of use.”
“Then here’s what you’ve been missing.” I could hardly resist a smile. “While you were here playing monarch, the Unified Church was developing a virus that only affects possessed human hosts. They injected my sister Melanie with their virus, and then they let us escape with her, knowing that you’d try to capture us if you knew we were in the badlands.” I shrugged at Kastor. “Looks like they were right.”
Grayson’s eyes were huge. I could tell she wanted to ask if I was serious, but she was exercising self-control.
“Very clever, Nina,” Kastor said. “But you’re lying. There is no such virus.”
“There is, and Grayson and I are both contagious. We don’t have any symptoms because we’re not possessed, but because we were each born to a possessed mother—as was my sister, Melanie—we make ideal carriers. I spit and bled in your drink while you were in the bathroom, so you’re definitely infected,” I said with a pointed glance at his empty glass on a table in the next room. “But if you had direct physical contact with Grayson when she first arrived, chances are good that you were actually infected then, which means you’re farther along the time line than I knew. You should start to exhibit symptoms sometime tomorrow.”
“Bullshit!” Kastor roared. He was no longer amused.
“I can prove it.” I turned to face the wall. “Grayson, will you lift the back of my shirt?”
“Okay.” Grayson hesitated for a moment, then lifted the cotton with her cuffed hands to expose my spine. She gasped. “What is that?”
“The discoloration along my spine? That is the only visible sign we’ve found so far in the human carriers. Melanie had it too.”
When Kastor’s footsteps stomped toward me for a closer look, I turned, pulling my shirt from Grayson’s grip in the process. I held my hands out and let flames burst from my left palm.
