“He probably should have told you earlier,” Grayson said. “And you should definitely take it slow. But—”
Someone knocked on the bathroom door, and I opened it to find Devi standing in the tiny rectangle of hallway, long, dark, still-damp hair twisted over her shoulder in some thick, complicated braid I’d never be able to master. Maddock and Reese were visible behind her on the couch, staring at a television I couldn’t see from the bathroom.
I expected Devi to start yelling, or doing whatever Devi does when she’s mad, other than break things, but she actually looked kind of…worried. “They just announced a special report from New Temperance coming up on the morning news. Nina, I think you’re about to be on television.”
“New Temperance made the national news?” My hometown was among the smallest of the cities and towns that survived the war, and little of interest ever happened inside our walls. In my entire life, New Temperance had made the national news only once—the day school officials burned Clare Parker.
I followed Grayson and Devi into the small living room, where the guys moved over to make room for their girlfriends. I sat alone in the only armchair, angled to face both the couch and the screen.
Angela Reddy’s television was bigger than the one I’d sold, but still smaller than many I’d seen, and its resolution was very clear, like the bigger monitors mounted in most public buildings.
“Where’s Finn?” I said while the international headlines scrolled across the screen accompanied by “peaceful” music I’d heard a million times. I was already glancing around the room for him before I realized that even if he were there, I probably wouldn’t see him.
Could he be seen when he wasn’t in someone’s body? Could he be heard? Could he see and hear us?
Grayson took Reese’s hand. “Not back yet.” She looked certain, and I wondered how she could possibly know that for sure.
“What do you care?” Devi’s brows rose in challenge. “You’ve already called him evil and rejected him. He may not have a body, but he has a heart, you know.”
“I know.” My cheeks burned. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Leave her alone, Dev,” Maddock said. “Don’t you remember how weirded out you were when you first met Finn?”
Devi scowled, and even with her dark eyes narrowed, her nose all scrunched up, and her face bare of makeup after her shower, she was still fiercely beautiful. “Why are you taking her side? I’m the one who’s going to have to share my boyfriend if Demon Spawn and Invisi-Boy ever make up.”
“Oh, I doubt you’ll be the only one shouldering that burden….” Reese smiled.
“So, you guys don’t mind him just…hijacking your bodies?”
“He’s supposed to ask first,” Reese said with a shrug. “And he’s pretty good about that. He spends most of his corporeal time in Maddy’s body because that’s where he’s most comfortable, but I don’t mind pitching in when he wants to interact with the world and Maddock’s unavailable. Or while they’re…occupied.” He waved one thick hand at Devi and Maddock.
That sentence insinuated several things I didn’t want to truly contemplate. But I couldn’t run from Finn and his situation forever.
“So, when he’s not…in one of you, where is he?”
“Wherever he wants to be,” Maddock said. “He’s not limited by physical barriers, like doors and walls, but he seems to be ruled by time and space just like we are.”
“Wait, what?”
“Maddock keeps trying to apply science to a situation where it clearly doesn’t belong,” Devi said thinly.
“Of course it belongs,” he insisted. “Finn can’t just wish himself across town. He actually has to go there, just like the rest of us. Only, we can’t see or hear him walking unless he borrows someone’s body.”
“Wait, how can he walk without—”
A familiar three-note fanfare from the television stole the words from my tongue and the thought from my head. My heart started pounding the minute the national news anchor, Brother Jonathan Sayers, took his position behind the news desk, shuffling the papers in front of him so we could all see the gold embroidery on his purple cassock sleeve and the sacred flames branded on his right hand. Sayers was a national icon. I’d seen him nearly every day of my life.
My foot tapped nervously on the carpet as he said his usual “good morning” to the nation, and then I sat up straight, my pulse racing at his next words. “And now we go live to Sister Pamela Williams, who is on location for us today in New Temperance, where I understand there was a bit of trouble overnight?”
“That’s right, Brother Jonathan.” The anchorman disappeared from the screen, and I gasped when Sister Pamela came into focus in her purple robe, holding a microphone in her branded right hand. I recognized the building behind her. It was the administration building for the New Temperance Day School.
My school.
“Overnight, the citizens of New Temperance slept peacefully in their homes, unaware that the biggest threat to their safety lay not outside the town walls, in the badlands, but within the town itself. Within, in fact, one of their own children.”
“Oh, the melodrama!” Devi rolled her eyes, but her jaw was tense and her forehead furrowed. She was almost as nervous as I was.
“Last night, police and other Church officials responding to an emergency on the east side of New Temperance found sixteen-year-old Nina Kane—a local high school senior—strangling her own mother with her bare hands.”
“Oh no…,” I whispered.
My junior-year school picture appeared on the screen, in front of a national audience of millions, and though I was safe and hidden—at least temporarily—I suddenly felt more exposed and vulnerable than I ever had in my life.
As I stared at my own image, my heart pounding against my sternum, I wondered how it was possible that I’d looked so young less than a year before.
“Responding officers report that Kane seemed—quote—‘gleeful and remorseless’ as she stood over her mother’s body. She refused to surrender to the authorities, and when they tried to arrest her, Kane produced a handgun and shot the lead officer in the chest. He was pronounced dead upon arrival at New Temperance General Hospital.”
“They weren’t police, they were exorcists!” I snapped at the television. “Fake exorcists, who were pointing guns at me! And I’ve never even held a gun!”
“They can’t tell the truth,” Grayson whispered, still staring at the screen. “I think they’re allergic.”
“They’re scripting the news. That’s what the Church does.” Reese shrugged as if it were no big deal, but he looked just as angry as I was. “My dad said they recruit their reporters from college theater programs.”
Devi huffed. “Well, that would certainly explain the melodrama.”
I heard them, but none of it truly sank in. After years of hiding my home life from all forms of authority, I was wanted by the Church. Millions of people thought I’d strangled my mother and killed a cop, and now they all knew exactly what I looked like.
I couldn’t turn away from the screen until my picture disappeared and Sister Pamela was back.
“Officers returned fire, but Kane fled the scene, and now the Church is asking for your help finding her.”
My picture appeared again, this time in a little window next to Sister Pamela’s head.
“Nina Elizabeth Kane has brown hair and light blue eyes. She is five feet six, approximately one hundred and twenty pounds.” Which they knew from my latest physical. “Kane was last seen fleeing her east New Temperance neighborhood on foot, but police believe she is still in the area. If you see or hear from her, please call the number at the bottom of your screen, but do not attempt to contact her. Nina Kane is considered armed and dangerous, and Church officials have confirmed that she is, in fact, a victim of demonic possession.”
I groaned, and the camera zoomed in on Sister Pamela’s serious expression. “She may look and act like the girl many of you in New Temp
erance knew before yesterday, but the truth is that Nina Kane is dead, and the demon in control of her body will not hesitate to kill anyone in her path.”
“Bullshit!” I stood, outraged, and Grayson shushed me with one finger over her lips, pointing at the wall our apartment shared with the neighbor. I sat again, but anger buzzed beneath my skin, setting me on edge.
“But there’s more.” Sister Pamela’s faux confidential tone and the excitement in her eyes promised more juicy details about my public scandal. “Kane is suspected to have made contact with a group of teen fugitives known to be in the area, and Church officials believe she may, in fact, be the reason for their presence in and around New Temperance.”
“Well, at least they got that right,” Grayson said.
“While details about this itinerant group of young malefactors remain sketchy, the entire group is suspected of possession and was just this morning declared anathema by the Church.”
“Oh shit….” Maddock stared intently at the television.
“What’s that?” Grayson’s brown eyes were wide. “What does that mean?”
“We’ve been denounced by the Church.” Reese took her hand.
Devi laughed. “ ’Bout time!”
“It means we’re public enemy number one,” Maddock explained. “The Church’s top priority until we’re caught or someone pisses them off worse.”
Devi grinned. “It means they’re scared of us. I say we own it.”
“Own it?” Grayson frowned.
“Yeah. The Church says we’re anathema? I say we’re Anathema. With a capital A. We’ll make it ours.”
“I like it!” Reese declared. “We are Anathema.”
The rest of them nodded, and it was official. Their gang of outlaws had a name.
I couldn’t help wondering where I fit into that.
On television, Sister Pamela was still talking, and with every word she said, things got worse for us. “As the facts trickle in, the picture before us comes into sharper focus, and it is a grim picture indeed, Brother Jonathan. It’s beginning to look like the demon known as Nina Kane could, in fact, be the founder of a subculture of possession and corruption here in New Temperance, running deeper than anyone knew, and that’s why I’m on location today.”
“What does that mean?” I said. “Why is she here?” But no one had an answer for me.
“When police began investigating the Nina Kane case last night, they discovered that Kane’s fifteen-year-old sister, Melanie—who reportedly suffered a sudden breakdown at school yesterday—is, in fact, pregnant.”
Sister Pamela paused for the inevitable shocked gasp from her viewing audience, and I could almost hear it, though none of us was surprised by the revelation.
“Church authorities are not yet ready to confirm demonic possession in the younger Ms. Kane. Because of her condition, they’re forced to examine her slowly and carefully.” The very thought of which dumped fuel over the infant flames of fury simmering inside me. “But less than an hour ago, we got word that authorities have uncovered at least one other case of possession among the Kanes’ known friends and neighbors.”
“What?” I gaped at the reporter in shock. Who?
It could have been anyone. Demons were a much bigger presence in my hometown than the Church had any way of knowing. But one of my friends? Or neighbors?
“There’s been no word yet on the identity of this second confirmed case of possession, but I’m told that we’ll have a live update this afternoon, just in time for the evening news. Make sure you all tune in then for the latest on this resurgence of the Unclean in the quiet town of New Temperance.”
“I’m sure we all will, Sister Pamela,” the national anchor said as his image replaced hers on-screen. When he moved on with the rest of the headlines, Grayson turned off the TV and dropped the remote onto the coffee table next to her glass of water.
“I’m wanted for murder and possession.” My voice sounded hollow with shock. Nothing felt real. “The whole damn country is looking for me.”
“Welcome to the club.” Grayson clinked her water glass against my bottle.
“Like you know anything about the most-wanted club.” Devi rolled her eyes at Grayson, then stood and stomped into the kitchen. “They don’t have your picture. They don’t even know you’re with us.”
“That doesn’t put Grayson and me in any less danger, Dev,” Maddock said.
“They haven’t identified Grace and Maddy yet,” Reese explained. “I don’t think they even know for sure how many of us there are, but my picture and Devi’s are out there too, if it makes you feel any better.”
“Yeah, I saw them on the news.” A lifetime ago, back when I’d thought my biggest problems were Melanie’s pregnancy and coming up with something for dinner. My entire existence had shifted since then. The world had changed. “Why would they mention us but not the degenerates we killed?”
Reese shrugged, then let go of Grayson’s hand and headed into the kitchen. “Because only the Church is allowed to save the day.” He took a carton of eggs from the fridge and set a skillet on the stove. “If word got out that we were better at ridding the world of demons than the Unified Church is, people might start to realize they don’t need the Church. The good brothers and sisters in charge aren’t willing to let that happen, so they paint us as the bad guys in order to mobilize private citizens against us. Everyone knows bad guys don’t kill monsters.” He took a chopping knife from a drawer and gestured with it. “Bad guys are the monsters.”
“Okay, I get that, but why are they leaving out the parts that don’t make us look good? Why don’t they report on demons breeding their own hosts, or degenerates in New Temperance?”
“Because that makes them look like they can’t protect the people,” Maddock said. “It’s a two-part propaganda technique. Make us look bad while making them look good. Make sense?”
I nodded reluctantly.
“Who wants an omelet?” Reese pulled vegetables from a drawer in the fridge and set them on a cutting board.
Everyone else called out requests for tomatoes and onions and cheese, the very prospect of which would have made my mouth water a day earlier. But now…
“Nina?” Reese called, and I looked up to see him holding a small block of cheddar.
“No thanks. I’m not really—”
“Shhh!” He cut me off and spun to face the door, knife wielded like a weapon. “Footsteps.”
I couldn’t hear them, and based on the wary but unsure expressions all around me, neither could any of the others.
Someone knocked, and we all froze. Then suddenly everyone was moving at once, silently and eerily fast.
Maddock stood and pulled a handgun from the end table drawer while Devi crossed into the kitchen and plucked two knives from the block. As she and Maddock headed for the front door, Devi pressed one of the knives into Grayson’s hand and motioned her toward the bedroom. It took me a second to realize she was hiding because she wasn’t yet an exorcist, which meant she had no enhanced speed or strength to use against a demon.
“There’s only one,” Reese whispered from the kitchen, where he held a meat mallet in one hand and his chopping knife in the other. His gaze was focused on the front door.
“Not a degenerate,” Grayson added as she backed through the doorway into one of the bedrooms, and I wondered how on earth she knew that. Then I realized she was right. I felt no urge to either flee or fight.
But degenerates weren’t the only thing we had to fear.
I stood, my fists opening and closing at my sides, unsure what to do when no one offered me a weapon.
“It’s me,” someone called from outside.
Devi and Maddock frowned at each other from opposite sides of the front door. They obviously didn’t recognize the voice.
“Look through the damn peephole!” the voice said.
They both hesitated. Then Devi started to step forward, but Maddock slid in front of her, shielding her from what
ever stood beyond the door while he closed one eye and peered through the peephole with his other.
Maddock groaned and fumbled with first the deadbolt, then the chain, ignoring Devi’s whispered demands to know what he’d seen. She backpedaled when he opened the door, then Maddock pulled the boy on the sidewalk into the apartment and slammed the door behind him.
Devi took one look at him and lowered her knife. “What the hell are you doing?”
Reese dropped his mallet into a kitchen drawer with a huff of exasperation.
“Relax. I come bearing gifts.” The boy turned, lifting a brown bag with twisted-paper handles, and with a jolt of shock that resonated through my entire body, I realized I knew him. Jacob Gilbert was a senior at my school. I’d known him since we were five.
But how did he know Maddock and Devi and the rest?
It was unnerving to see him in our secret apartment surrounded by my new exorcist outlaw friends, when all my memories of him involved either school uniforms, teachers, and textbooks or…bare flesh, muffled sounds, and awkward touches disembodied by a dark room.
“Jacob?” Confusion echoed in my voice.
“Not exactly.” He grinned at me, and I blinked. I’d never seen Jacob grin. Not even as he’d helped lower me from his bedroom window in the middle of the night, ending a single late-night encounter we hadn’t so much as acknowledged since.
Then I noticed that his eyes were green, when they should have been brown.
They were Finn-green.
“What…? What are you…?” My tongue felt almost as sluggish as my thoughts. “Why are you in Jacob Gilbert?”
“Is that his name?” Finn looked down at his borrowed body. “I found him on his way to school and thought it might be easier for you to talk to me if I looked like someone you know.”
“So you kidnapped one of my classmates?” That thought was too bizarre to truly comprehend.
Finn shrugged. “Then I took him shopping.” He held out the bag, and I accepted it before I realized what I was doing, and once I held the bag, I opened it for the same reason.