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money?”
    â€œStep back, Gage.”
    â€œNo.” Layla put a hand on Fox’s arm as he started to rise. “I don’t need to be rescued, or protected. Why don’t I leave? Because it would make me a coward, and up until now I’ve never been one. I don’t leave because what raped Hester Deale, what put its half-demon bastard in that girl, drove her mad, drove her to suicide, would like nothing better than for me to cut and run. I know better than anyone here what it did to her, because it made me experience it. Maybe that makes me more afraid than the rest of you; maybe that was part of the plan. I’m not going anywhere, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m afraid. Of what’s out there, and of what’s inside me. Inside all of us.”
    â€œIf you weren’t afraid you’d be stupid.” Gage lifted his glass in a half toast. “Smart and self-aware are harder to manipulate than stupid.”
    â€œEvery seven years good people in this town, ordinary people, smart, self-aware people hurt each other, and themselves. They do things they’d never consider doing at any other time.”
    â€œYou think you could be infected?” Fox asked her. “That you could turn, hurt someone? One of us?”
    â€œHow can we be sure I’m immune? That Cybil and Quinn are? Shouldn’t we consider that because of our line of descent we could be even more vulnerable?”
    â€œThat’s a good question. Disturbing,” Quinn added, “but good.”
    â€œDoesn’t fly.” Fox shifted so Layla met his eyes. “Things didn’t go the way Twisse planned or expected, because Giles Dent was ready for him. He stopped him from being around when Hester delivered, stopped him from potentially siring more offspring, so the line’s been diluted. You’re not what he was after, and in fact, according to what we know, what we can speculate, you are part of what’s going to give me, Cal, and Gage the advantage this time around. You’re afraid of him, of what’s in you? Consider Twisse is afraid of you, of what’s in you. Why else has he tried to scare you off?”
    â€œGood answer.” Quinn rubbed her hand over Cal’s.
    â€œPart two,” Fox continued. “It’s not just a matter of immunity to the power he has to cause people to commit violent, abnormal acts. It’s a matter of having some aspect of that power, however diluted, that when pooled together is going to end him, once and for all.”
    Layla studied Fox’s face. “You believe that?”
    He started to answer, then took her hand, tightening his grip when she started to pull it free. “You tell me.”
    She struggled—he could see it, and he could feel it, that initial and instinctive shying away from accepting the link with him. He had to resist the urge to push, and simply left himself open. And even when he felt the click, he waited.
    â€œYou believe it,” Layla said slowly. “You . . . you see us as six strands braided together into one rope.”
    â€œAnd we’re going to hang Twisse with it.”
    â€œYou love them so much. It’s—”
    â€œAh . . .” It was Fox who pulled away, flustered and embarrassed that she’d seen more, gone deeper than he’d expected. “So, now that we’ve got that settled, I want another beer.”
    He headed into the kitchen, and as he turned from the refrigerator with a beer in his hand, Layla stepped in.
    â€œI’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
    â€œIt’s nothing. No big.”
    â€œIt is . I just . . . It was like being inside your head, or your heart, and I saw—or felt—this wave of love, that connection you have to Gage and Cal. It wasn’t what you asked me to do, and it was so intrusive.”
    â€œOkay, look, it’s a tricky process. I was a little more open than I should’ve been