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Kyle.’
    A long moment of silence followed Helena’s words. Eve didn’t want to risk breaking the quiet so instead she had an eye-conversation with Jess. Eve’s eyes: And he was just asking me out for coffee . Jess’s eyes: I’m glad she doesn’t know he didn’t feel the same way about her .
    Bradley Rakoff, Kyle’s older brother, stood up. ‘Kyle used to follow me around all the time when he was little. It’s like he wanted to be me. He’d knock on the doors of my friends’ houses and ask if they could play, even though he was, like, five, and we were thirteen.’ Bradley shook his head. ‘It was as annoying as hell.’ He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. ‘But how many times are you loved that way?’ He looked like he might say something else, but he sat down instead and buried his face against his mother’s shoulder.
    Eve decided not to speak. It felt like what Bradley had said should be the last statement. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way. Reverend Thompson announced the number of the closing hymn.
    After they sang, Kyle’s pall-bearers slowly carried his coffin out of the church. Pew by pew, everyone followed them. Eve blinked as she stepped out into the sunshine of the church courtyard. Somehow it seemed as if it should be dark out – or at least cloudy.
    Luke walked over to her and Jess. ‘Intense.’
    They both nodded. What else was there to add?
    ‘Did you hear anything more? With your dad being with Kyle’s family,’ Jess asked. ‘I’m not asking for a gossip exchange,’ she added, blushing.
    ‘I know that,’ Luke told her. ‘You’re worried. We’re all worried.’
    Eve put her arm around Jess’s shoulders to comfort her.
    ‘I haven’t really heard much,’ Luke went on. ‘But the reason Kyle’s casket was closed was because his wounds were too severe for the mortician to do much with them. I also saw in the paper this morning – and this is freaky – that his body had been totally drained of blood.’
    ‘That’s what I heard that day in the principal’s office,’ Jess said.
    ‘The even weirder part was that there apparently wasn’t much blood on the ground or anything. His blood was just … gone.’
    ‘And they still don’t know what did it,’ Eve said. ‘On the news this morning they had an animal expert. She said there was no known animal that could have caused the bites and claw marks on Kyle’s body.’ Jess wrapped her arms tightly around herself at Eve’s words.
    ‘Kyle’s parents were pretty convinced it was wild dogs, so the bites would have been from at least a couple of different animals,’ Luke said. ‘But they talked to that same expert, and she ruled out any type of dog bite. None of the experts – the medical examiner, that animal woman, the cops – have come up with something that really fits.’
    ‘You thought the police and animal control would be able to figure it out,’ Eve reminded Luke, ‘but they haven’t. Do we still think nothing extreme was involved?’
    ‘I saw that woman on TV too. She said there was no known animal on Earth that could have caused Kyle’s injuries,’ Jess said. ‘Not on Earth .’
    ‘And the police didn’t come up with another theory– like some kind of weapon that could have caused the wounds,’ Luke added.
    They looked at each other. ‘So not an animal, not a human weapon … but there is another possibility.’ Eve didn’t want to say it aloud, but she knew they were all thinking the same thing. ‘Kyle could have been killed by …’
    They all finished together. ‘A demon.’

Chapter Four
    ‘OK, now we can talk talk,’ Eve said. She, Jess and Luke had gotten some coffee from the pot that had been set out on a table in the church courtyard, then found a secluded spot over in a nook by the rectory.
    ‘Maybe we’re jumping to conclusions,’ Jess said. ‘I mean, someone can have Tori Burch shoes but still carry a purse from the American Signature collection.’
    Luke’s brow furrowed