“How is that even possible? What does that mean?” I said, frightened.

Jared looked away.

Bex tugged lightly on my shirt. “Same dream?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I was angry…so angry that I took the book from them. It was in my hands.”

“You’ve tried that before and your hands went right through it.” Jared said, his eyes on the floor.

“Not this time. I was so damn mad that I screamed at them, and then grabbed the book. And then Gabe…he looked at me.”

Jared knelt beside me, then. I touched his face. He was desperate for guidance from his father. “It wasn’t him,” I warned. “His eyes were solid black. Like Shax’s.”

Bex shook his head. “How can that be? If it were d— them I would have known. The whole time you were stretched out…suspended…there were none.

“Bex,” Jared warned.

“Not a single one,” Bex continued, lost in thought. “They crowd Mom’s house more than that.”

“None?” Jared asked. Bex nodded and Jared stood up again, and then began to pace. Finally, he spoke, “Something’s wrong.”

“But you can feel them, too,” I said to Jared. His question to Bex puzzled me.

“I can. Bex is more tuned-in to their presence—more so than any hybrid. His sensitivity to them rivals Samuel’s.”

“Sometimes I can tell when they’re even thinking about coming around,” Bex added.

Bex’s frown instantly alarmed me. My mind raced over every second of the dream, trying to think of something that might help. I wasn’t sure why they were so disturbed, but for Bex in particular, uncertainty was not something they handled well.

“Ars Notes something,” I said.

Jared’s face transformed from worry to anger. “What?”

I searched my memories again. “Gabe said ‘Ars Notary’ or ‘Ars Notes’…something like that.”

Bex looked to his older brother. “Ars Notoria.”

“That’s it!” I said. “What does it mean?”

Jared sat on the edge of the bed and tenderly touched the sides of my jaw, looking into my eyes. “It means we’re going to have to get a Naissance de Demoniac. And not just any bible. Shax’s. My father is trying to tell us something.”

My brows pushed together. “What are you saying?”

“It’s not demons doing this to you,” Bex said, seeming vexed.

“That leaves one thing,” Jared said.

“You think it’s Gabe,” I said, horrified.

Jared pulled me closer, and then leaned his cheek against my hair. “We need that book.”

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Exhaustion

Coffee shop meetings stopped. Attending ball games ceased. My chair at study group had been filled due to my persistent absences. The only friend from school that I kept in contact with was Beth, and that was only because she was my assistant at Titan.