Andrew grabbed ahold of his jeans, stopping him short from being able to pluck the handle from the ground. “You don’t understand. I think it’s connected to Kate.”

“You’re out of your mind. Stop being a pussy and shoot it so we can all get the hell out of here.”

“Look!”

He pointed at the blood on the creature’s face, pattering the crisp leaves beneath it. He then turned Ryker toward the porch. Kate was no longer moving, but they could see the blood on her own face.

Ryker pulled away from him and tried to wrest the rifle from his hands. “So? She fell and she’s bleeding. Jesus Christ, have you lost your mind?”

“No. Come with me.”

It was too easy to pull Ryker along. He could feel the man’s strength ebbing away. The only thing keeping him alive was his hatred of the beast and his anger at Andrew for stopping him.

Nikki ran down the steps, enveloping Ryker, her blood smearing his shoulder as she held him up.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” she sobbed.

Andrew ran up the steps and knelt beside his wife. His relief almost made him black out when he saw she was still breathing. When he touched her shoulder, he recoiled. There was nothing there. At least nothing whole.

“You hit it in the shoulder with the bat,” he said.

More and more of the whites of Ryker’s eyes were beginning to show. He swayed next to Nikki. “What are you talking about?”

“You bashed its shoulder. Now look at Kate’s.”

He tugged the collar of her shirt down, confident she was beyond feeling anything at the moment. What lay beneath was a purple, ruined mess. Buttons saw it and barked, frightened by the damage to his best friend and mother.

Nikki gasped.

Ryker huffed, “No.”

“It stopped right when Kate grabbed her chest. When you hit it the first time, both she and it screamed in pain. The second time, they both bled from the same spot.”

He looked at the beagle, who hadn’t once taken his rheumy eyes off Kate. As far as Buttons was concerned, the demon in their yard wasn’t even there.

“I think that’s why Buttons wasn’t reacting to it like he should. He knows. He’s not afraid of it. He might not understand what it’s doing, but he hasn’t feared it, not once.”

As if to tell him that his assumptions were correct, Buttons nudged Andrew’s hand, wanting to be petted.

Grabbing the rail for extra support, Ryker said, “But that’s not possible. How?”

Andrew shook his head, lost for words.

It wasn’t possible, yet the evidence was right before their eyes, daring them to accept it.

“I can’t fucking believe it,” Nikki said. “How can Kate have anything to do with that…that monster?”