It was like a punch to her already roiling stomach. Kate wrapped her arms around a squirming Buttons. What was Nikki talking about?

“How could she have done anything if she wasn’t even conscious? Tell me that?” Andrew was shouting now, his shoulders heaving.

“I don’t fucking know! But I do know that whatever they have between them must work both ways.” Nikki wasn’t backing down. In fact, she inched even closer. They were practically nose to nose.

“What is everyone talking about?” Kate said. “What’s a part of me? How…how could I possibly have killed Ryker? Or stopped it? Please, somebody tell me.”

If she had been on the edge of madness before, she felt she was dangerously close to stepping right into the maelstrom and never coming back. How could Nikki blame her for Ryker’s death? It was insane. Impossible! No one loved him more than Kate. Not even Nikki.

“Tell her,” Nikki said, her voice eerily calm. “Go on, Andy.”

He turned to her, looking more worried and exhausted than any human being had ever been. It was a wonder he even had the strength to argue with her.

“Please,” Kate said, unsuccessfully trying to hold back her tears.

Andrew sank to his knees beside the mattress, reaching out for her good hand.

“Your shoulder,” he said in a rasp.

She glanced at the white sling and the odd angle of her shoulder.

“Did I break it when I fell?”

“No.” He looked to be on the verge of tears. “It happened when your brother attacked the monster. He…he hit it in the shoulder with the ax handle. You and it screamed at the same time, and then your shoulder was…was caved in.”

Kate’s skin started to crawl. “But…how?”

“We don’t know. Before that happened, you grabbed your chest. That’s when the creature stopped as well and doubled over. It’s what allowed Ryker the chance to hit it and for me to get away. He was going to smash it in the head when I stopped him. The handle only grazed it. And…and at that moment, a wound opened up on your head.”

Nikki grabbed a dining room chair and sat. “Ryker could have killed it then. He could be with us right now.”

Andrew didn’t take his eyes off Kate. “Ryker was sick. When that thing tore him up, it infected him. There was nothing we could have done to save him. Ryker knew it too. But if I’d allowed him to finish what he started, you’d both be gone now.” He held up his hand, shushing her. “I know how inconceivable it sounds, but in my heart, I know it’s true.”

Kate didn’t know how to process this. It was hard enough thinking straight through the thickening fog of pain. This…this was just too much.