27. Camryn

TWENTY-SEVEN

CAMRYN

The following day, we gather in the library. Gwen lent me a set of crutches she had used after she broke her ankle the previous year. My injured leg throbs, but I was lucky to get away in one piece.

Aron sits at one of the tables and digs his laptop out of his backpack while Lily scours the old library records.

Gwen looks pale as she sits down beside Aron with a stack of books. The last week has taken its toll on us all. The horror of the situation is finally starting to sink in. Unless we do something, one of us could be next.

"How long are you staying at Gwen's?" Lily asks, scrolling through news articles. "Will your mom not suspect something is wrong soon?"

Dominic is watching me like a hawk. I wish he wouldn't treat me like porcelain. I'm fine. It was just a graze. At least, that's what I tell myself, but I still wince when I sit down.

He walks past me to peruse the shelves, and I lean the crutches against the table before sliding my bag from my shoulder. When my laptop is firing up, I shrug. "Mom is busy with her new job at the hospital. I should get away with a few nights before she grows suspicious."

"Long enough for you to put weight on your leg again without pulling a face."

"I don't understand why you don't just tell her," Lily says, pausing to peer at us over her shoulder. "Why the secrecy?"

Gwen rolls her eyes. "A man is dead, Lily. They broke into his house."

"But they didn't hurt him."

"Her mom will ground her for all of eternity if she finds out she broke into Wilfred's house. Not to mention, the police will get involved. At least now, it looks like a suicide."

"Really? Are you sure about that? He shot Camryn in the leg, and she crawled to the bedroom. Besides, you think her mom won't notice that her daughter has a gunshot wound?"

Gwen levels her with a glare. "It was a graze. Besides, I think we have bigger problems to solve. Let's just focus on finding out more information for now, okay?"

My eyes flit to Dominic's broad back while he reads the spines. He's wearing a backward black cap today, and tufts of dark hair peek out around his ears. Despite the burning throb in my calf, I still eye him up. Now that I know how he feels inside me, I can't stop myself from checking out his ass in those dark jeans.

His muscles shift enticingly when he pulls out a book. I'm going to hell. Sex should be the last thing on my mind, but maybe the gunshot damaged my brain more than my leg.

His gaze drifts over his shoulder as if he can feel my eyes on him. I quickly look away and open the search engine on my laptop, but it's too late. I'm hyperaware of his every breath, and when he walks past, his intoxicating scent drifts around me. I gulp, staring at the screen. He takes a seat on the chair beside mine and turns the first page.

"What are we looking for, exactly? Aron asks, typing away on his laptop.

"I don't know," Gwen replies, then looks at Dominic. "What book did you get?"

Dominic shows her the title. "Mythology throughout the ages."

"The house was built in 1923," Aron says, a look of concentration covering his eyes. "Mr. and Mrs. Kriger bought the house in 2000."

Dominic's leg brushes up against mine. I struggle to focus on my screen when my heart thuds this hard. Gwen turns another page and tucks a green lock of hair behind her ear. Silence settles while we do our research, interrupted only by the tapping of keyboards. Aron pops the lid on a soda can and takes a swig before he slowly lowers the bottle to the table and frowns. "Guys, I found something."

I stop scrolling and look up from my screen. Dominic shifts beside me and stretches his arm out on the back of my chair.

"What did you find?" Gwen asks, curious.

"Mrs. Kriger and their three children went missing in the summer of 2002."

"We know they went missing," Dominic drawls.

Aron shoots him a glare. "But now we know the month." He peers over at Lily. "Look for articles around that time. August of 2002."

"Behave," I whisper to Dominic, and he stiffens beside me. The darkening of his eyes tells me I'm in trouble, and for some disturbing reason, it thrills me.

He snakes his fingers underneath my hair and wraps them around my neck. My breath catches at the dominance in his touch, and I squeeze my thighs together beneath the table. But then he releases me and turns another page in the book.

His eyebrows knit together. "Check this." He taps the page. "The Nebri'hak travels on the wind and consumes the souls of its victims through strong emotions."

"Nebri'hak?" Aron asks, looking skeptical.

"It's the name of a demonic spirit trapped on our plane."

"Surely, we would know if there were demonic spirits amongst us," Lily says.

Dominic turns the page. "Not necessarily. They're unseen, for one. Displaced demons without a host. They need to feed to grow stronger. With every soul they consume, they become more powerful, harnessing it to stay in a human body longer."

"Is that what they want? To possess a human?" I ask.

"We are their food source. Demons are born from evil. They exist with the sole purpose of inflicting pain and suffering," Dominic replies, turning the page. "It says here that they sometimes fixate on certain souls, and this fixation can…"

"Can what?" I ask when he drifts off.

Dominic swallows and eases back. "It can last forever." His eyes meet mine. "What did Brittany say? Everything that's happened so far has been designed to bring you here?"

"Why here?" Gwen asks, pulling another book from the stack. "And why her?"

Aron sits back and drums his fingers on the desk in thought. "Maybe this backward little town and her house is its nest. "

Dominic snorts, but Aron slams his laptop lid shut and swings his gaze between us. "Hear me out. This thing entered our plane, fuck knows when. They're curious creatures, right? They like to cause chaos and destruction, and they're attracted to strong emotions. Mr. Kriger was a greedy asshole who dabbled in the occult. Knowingly or unknowingly, he invited our demon here, and it has stuck around. There must be a reason for that. What's so special about our little town and her house? Our demon is fixated on something or someone." He looks at me pointedly.

Gwen grumbles, scrubbing her face. "What are you saying?"

Aron throws his arms out. "I don't fucking know, okay? But from what we do know so far, we can assume a few things." He ticks them off his fingers. "One, we opened ourselves up for possession when we did the séance. Two, our demon needs to torture and kill humans to grow stronger, and we are now what's on the menu. Three, it wants her." He points at me. "Don't ask me why. But it wants her. Four, this town is where it nests, and it has returned here, like frogs return to the same pond every summer to mate. It even went to great lengths to bring Camryn here. We don't know why or what's so special about this place, but we know it wants her here. She is its fixation. Whatever is going on here is about her."

Resting my elbows on the table, I rub my temples.

"Maybe it's bored?" Dominic suggests.

Now it's Aron's turn to snort. "It has been stuck here for a long time. Of course, it's fucking bored."

"How do we defeat it? How do we stop it from murdering us? We're sitting ducks," I say, straightening up. "What if someone opens a window… What then?"

"Well, you're safe," Aron grumbles.

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow, which he ignores as he opens his laptop back up.

Gwen gives me a pleading look. "C'mon, you guys. Let's not argue."

"Fine." I blow a strand of hair away from my eyes.

"It says here," Dominic says, turning a page in the book, "that a Nebri'hak can only be destroyed with a weapon infused with magic."

Aron rolls his eyes. "Yeah, because we can easily buy those at Walmart."

"Magic?" I ask. "But surely… We can't…"

"What makes a weapon magical?" Gwen asks, ignoring Aron's sarcasm. "We know it's not going to be sparks and thunder."

Dominic picks up the book and drags his finger down the text until he finds what he wants and taps the page. "Nebri'hak can only be destroyed with their own magic. A weapon used on one of these demons infuses it with their magic, like a fingerprint or residual energy. Remember Chernobyl? Ever heard of the Elephant's foot?"

"The nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine?"

Dominic shuts the book and puts it back on the table. "The Elephant's foot is considered one of the most radioactive objects in history."

"What's your point?" Aron sounds bored.

"My point," Dominic bites out, "is that such powerful radioactive energy lasts a long fucking time. Where the Elephant's foot is concerned, the danger has decreased over time because of the decay of its radioactive components."

"Are you suggesting the demon is radioactive?"

Dominic scoffs, shaking his head. "No, that's not what I'm saying, but it feeds on humans like we're Pop-Tarts to sustain its own energy on our plane. When it bleeds, it leaves a fingerprint, which could be used to kill it if a binding symbol is carved into the weapon ahead of time to lock in the demon's magic.

"So we can kill it with a weapon if it has the binding symbol carved into it?"

"In theory, yes, but the demon has to be trapped for it to work," Dominic says, rubbing his eyes. "Then there's also the problem that we can't hurt it when it's outside of a human form. It's only weak when it's possessing a human body."

"I do not volunteer to get shot or stabbed." Aron holds his hands up.

I roll my eyes. "Let's just keep looking for clues, like how to trap it. We can't kill it if we don't figure out how to trap it first."

While Dominic plays with my hair, turning page after page in his stack of books, I google the familiar binding symbol and the Kriger family mystery. Every article details the same information, but I keep hunting for something new. There must be something we have missed. Dominic leaves our corner of the library and returns minutes later with snacks and drinks. I'm halfway through a packet of salt and vinegar chips when I straighten in my seat. I smack Dominic's chest, causing him to frown. "Check this."

"What?" he asks, leaning in to read the screen.

"Not all of Mr. Kriger's children disappeared. One of them, eighteen-year-old Magdalene Kriger, was found a week later, wandering aimlessly and muttering to herself in the woods."

He angles the laptop screen toward him, reading over the article, his eyebrows pulling low in concentration. I scan his side profile and the dark hair peeking out from beneath his backward cap. My chest tightens uncomfortably when I think back on how close I was to losing him. It should scare me how attached I've become to him in such a short time, but the truth remains—Dominic makes me feel safe. In fact, he's probably my only safe place in this world.

His broad shoulders shift as he leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. I'm playing with the dark hair at his nape, when I feel eyes on me, and I meet Aron's gaze. Looking away, he focuses on his screen.

"She was at Cross Hills Asylum," Dominic says, easing back and resting his arm on the back of my chair.

My eyes widen. "Shouldn't there be some records or something from her time there?"

Tucking a strand of hair away behind my ear, he says, "You'd make a good detective."

The tips of my ears burn, and when I lift my gaze, Gwen smirks at me from across the table.

"Uh, guys," Lily says, her big, tear-filled eyes flicking up from the phone in her trembling hand. "It's Brittany."

Heart racing, I glance at Dominic, then shift in my seat to face Lily.

"She's dead."