His voice came out a low rumble and he never looked away from my reflection. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I don’t want you to go either,” I whispered.

He wrapped his arms around my waist, still holding my eyes with his. I turned and kissed his warm lips, then pulled away despite his reluctance to let go. I couldn’t keep him any longer.

I left Kaidan to shower and went downstairs to join the others.

My foot had just hit the bottom step when I heard a strange gargled sound from Patti, like she was being strangled.

Jay yelled her name. I’d never heard him sound so terrified.

Panic flared in my chest and my body roared into action. I bent at the waist, hiking up my pant leg and ripping the hilt from its case. I ran into the family room, barely feeling the zing of the sword against the palm of my hand.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Jay was swarmed by demons. They overlapped one another, but I was able to discern three whispering at him, and a fourth hovering in front of the couch a few feet away. Patti was nowhere. Jay stepped backward, moaning, clutching his hair and shaking his head. His guardian angel tried to fight them off, but was pushed aside repeatedly by the demons.

A current of power ran up my arm and blood rushed through my ears so fast I could hardly hear. I moved forward, ready to attack, but stopped at the sight of something writhing on the floor in front of the couch.

Patti.

The whisperer I’d seen was hovering above her, and another spirit was halfway inside her body. Her guardian angel was going ballistic, unable to stop the dark spirits. A gagging noise came from Patti’s throat as she fought, trying to sit up, then convulsing.

As my arm swung toward the demons, a brilliant golden light poured from the end of the hilt, hot and sharp, piercing the top half of the spirit that was trying to possess Patti. With a piercing crack, the dark spirit imploded and disappeared. Patti’s head fell to the carpet and she coughed. Her guardian angel immediately covered her as the dark spirit above them seemed frozen in shock and fear, its face ugly and contorted.

I lunged forward just as it spun to flee, but all it took was a slice from the tip of the sword as I swung it through the air, and the spirit arched in pain before imploding and vanishing. Maybe the sword returned the spirit to hell, or maybe it vanquished it—I didn’t know or care.

A commotion sounded from upstairs, and I realized Kaidan had heard and would be down any second, but I didn’t want the whisperers to know he was here.

“Don’t come down!” I screamed.

In a swift move I crossed the room, stabbing the other spirit that had left Jay to join the attack on Patti. With a loud snap, it was gone.

Jay jumped back, appearing terrified when his eyes landed on the sword. The two other whisperers finally looked up, like two oblivious birds of prey torn unwillingly from their fresh meal.

They wore twin expressions of realization, then shrieked inhuman sounds, high and grating, a shrill whistle that only demons and their children could hear.

I yelled, “Move!” to Jay, who obeyed without question as my arm began an arc through the air. The light sliced into the first spirit and narrowly missed the second as it dove backward through the wall to the backyard.

I could hear Kaidan running down the stairs now.

“Crap!” I sprinted for the back door and threw it open, racing outside. I glimpsed the demon whisperer as it flew into the trees, out of sight. Away.

No!

In the absence of danger, the sword’s light faded into nothing, leaving my hand and arm cold and numb.

I was in trouble now. Big trouble. Because that spirit was on its way to rat me out to all the Dukes and whispering Legionnaires. They’d know about the Sword of Righteousness. I wanted to freak out, but there was no time for that. Running on legs that were still buzzing with adrenaline, I found Jay and Kaidan crouched next to Patti, who had propped herself against the couch. Her face was pale and damp with sweat.

I fell on my knees next to Patti and took her in my arms. She held on to me, weakly.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

“I don’t know what happened. I felt so sick and scared . . . and . . .” She shuddered, and I held her tighter.

“Who was here?” Kaidan asked.

The sight of him crouched there with wild eyes made me realize how fast everything had taken place. His hair was soaking wet and he had water droplets on his chest and shoulders.

“I have no idea,” Jay said, thoroughly freaked out. “It was so weird, dude. And you should have seen Anna! What is that thing?” He pointed to the hilt, which I still clutched. “It was all lit up. She moved so fast. I’ve never seen anyone move like that!”

It hadn’t felt fast to me. It had felt horrifically slow, like a nightmare.

Kaidan crouched next to me, all coiled tension, taking my face in his hands. “What happened?”

“Three whisperers were on Jay. Two on Patti. One was trying to possess her.” Patti’s shaking hand flew to her mouth and she made a strangled sound of disgust. I kept going. “I killed four of them . . . but one got away.”

“One got away . . . ,” he whispered.

We stared hard at one another as the danger pressed down on us. Kaidan stood, shoving his hands through his hair, and paced to the wall. He leaned against it with both palms, whispering at first, “Shite. Shite, Anna . . . ,” then yelling and punching a hole through the wall.

Jay stood as if ready to calm Kaidan, but Patti grabbed his hand.