I PULLED MY CAR to the curb, trying to slow the galloping pace of my heart enough to hit a few buttons on my phone.

Malachi answered immediately. “Where are you?” His voice was knife-edged, sharp and deadly.

I inhaled a shaky breath. “At Diane’s. You?”

“The house. Jim and Henry are here. I have information.”

Needing to postpone the moment I had to tell him how much trouble I was in, I asked him for a report.

“Ian admitted he saw you and Jim on Friday. He said he tried to get the others to go back to the car afterward, but he was overruled. They were in that neighborhood near the homeless shelter and saw someone running on all fours. So they chased it. Aden was fastest.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t want to think about what had happened to him. How scared he must have been as they tied him to their altar. How badly it must have hurt. I’d seen the Mazikin possess a guy once. It had twisted him up like a pretzel and made him scream for endless, wrenching minutes as the Mazikin spirit—Juri, as it turned out—tore the guy’s soul loose from his body and sent it to hell.

“They looked for Aden on foot and tried calling him,” Malachi continued. “He didn’t answer at first, but just as they were going to drive back to Warwick without him, he called Ian and asked to be picked up. One guess where.”

“That nest.”

“Ian thought it was a drug house. He said there were a few suspicious characters hanging out on the porch, and Aden was with them. Aden wanted the boys to join him in the house, but they refused. Ian was very angry, because all of them must submit to drug testing, and Aden was acting very out of character. Probably because he was inhabited by Ibram at that point.”

Poor Aden. And Ian. “Did the Mazikin try to force them?”

Malachi sighed. “No. Aden went back into the house, probably got his marching orders from Sil, and then came back out and went home with his teammates. They dropped him off at his house. Ian said he was sure Aden had been smoking something.”

“Because of the smell.”

“Yes. But I can confirm that none of the other boys who went with him that night are Mazikin. I believe their determination to avoid getting kicked off the baseball team saved them.”

“Thank God they take it so seriously.”

“I acquired the phone numbers of most of the baseball team.” He cleared his throat. “Cheerleaders as well. They were all gathered in the cafeteria.”

“Good, good …” My voice trailed off as Diane poked her head out the front door and looked up the street, right at my car. “Malachi … I have to go.”

“What’s wrong?” He must have heard the hitch in my voice.