Stone impatiently held up a hand to signal Xena to stop talking.

“Then right at the moment when Danny … got her pregnant…”

“Orgasmed. Ejaculated,” said Laurette. “Come on, we all had sex education.”

Pat shuddered, as she had when Nicki told her. “The thing left her body and went into his. Then it used his voice to talk to her. But no, I’m telling it out of order. Just before the … transfer … it used her mouth to say to him, ‘You want me inside you.’”

“And he said yes,” whispered Stone. His face looked like a portrait of despair.

“Yes,” said Pat. “Only she told me it made no sense, because she wasn’t inside him, it was the other way around. It only makes sense if you think of it as the Belgod asking Danny to let him in. To invite him.”

“And he did,” said Stone.

“So this is true?” asked Hal. “Because I was thinking it was all just a lie Nicki told to explain being pregnant.”

“It might be exactly that,” said Stone, “but then she certainly knows a lot of details that she shouldn’t know.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Pat. “That’s why I thought this was important. Because ever since that night, Danny’s been different. Not himself.”

“In what way?” asked Stone. He was asking Pat, but looking at each of the other kids in turn, as if for confirmation.

“He came on to me,” said Pat. “Which would have been fine, only he was weird about it. Came up behind me and cupped my butt with his hand. Right by my locker, with people around.”

“Who cares?” said Xena. “I thought you two were in love.”

“We are,” said Pat. “Were, anyway. But he knows I don’t like people to just … touch me. Out of the blue. He knows that. And the way he talked. He called me ‘baby girl.’ Guys who talk like that make me sick.”

“Me too,” said Wheeler.

Stone was nodding, though. “Not Danny’s style.”

“Danny knows better than to treat me like that, talk to me like that. He was crude. Like the only thing on his mind was sex. Like he thought he owned me. Like I see other guys act with girls, and they get all fluttery, but not me, and Danny knows that. Knew that.”

“What did you do?” asked Stone.

“Pulled away from him,” said Pat. “And told him it wasn’t happening. He kept trying for a minute, and then he gives me a little shove and a tiny slap on the cheek and says, ‘Your loss, baby girl,’ and that was it. Walked away.”

Laurette sighed. “You told him no? What else is he going to do?”

“Danny wouldn’t have asked. Not that way. Not like he had the right. It wasn’t Danny, and you all know it.”

“What’s your name?” Stone asked Pat. She told him.