“Oh Jesus.” Edmund looked away and gagged, feeling as though he was going to throw up again.

“No,” he heard Amber say, and he clung on to one last hope that she would stop this. But she said, “You don’t do this alone. We do it together.”

Tim nodded.

“Are you kidding?” Edmund said. “Have you all lost your minds? Who is this girl? We don’t know her. What the hell is going on?”

But by the time Edmund looked around, all he saw was them disappearing through the doorway.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Three years ago...

They went down the staircase, Tim first, Amber second. Hand in hand. The mass, the body, was still there in front of the fire. Her eyes were closed. She looked dead. The blood from her forehead had clotted, mostly in her hair, the spindly fibers matting and creating a sort of gauze. It was hard to imagine that she was still alive. At this point, they were hoping against it. But as they looked, a finger twitched.

“Maybe a reflex action,” Amber said. “Dead bodies do that.”

But then the woman gave a long and incredibly labored breath.

“Shit,” Tim said. “What do we do?”

“We kill her,” Amber said. “It’s as simple as that.”

“What do you mean, simple?” Tim said.

“Do you remember the cat I told you to kill? My cat,” Amber said, rolling up her sleeves. “Piece of shit yowled all night, you remember? Basically woke up the whole street. The vets’ said he was in heat or something stupid like that. And my bitch of a mother wouldn’t take him to get his balls chopped off.”

“I remember,” Tim said. “I remember that day.”

“So do I. Luring that cat out there like some stupid horny piece of shit. Remember when it came to it?” Amber said, looking at him.

Tim looked away, at the crackling fire.

“You couldn’t do it,” Amber said.

“You didn’t have to skin it,” Tim barked, so loud that he paused to make sure no one upstairs heard him. After a creaking from above them, there was nothing.

“No, I didn’t,” Amber said. “I just got a little carried away. Shoot me. Then, as I recall, you got a little carried away with me in the bushes. Some may say that you got carried away a little prematurely.” She beamed. “I became something else that day. Something new. Maybe today’s the day you become new too.”

Tim sighed, went to her. “I brought you in on this because I know you’re good with this kind of stuff.”

“Hence the cat.” Amber laughed.

“Hence the cat,” Tim agreed, with far less aplomb. “Look, are you going to help or not?”

“Of course,” Amber said, her eyes on fire with possibility. “What’s the plan, Mr. Claypath?”