"Give it a rest, you two. Brandy's condition's nothin' tae joke aboot. Wis bad enough when Alban kicked her oot, but this last go-around in the States, I think somethin' snapped in her pretty little heid."

"What do you mean?"

"When she first got back, I had her stayin' wi' me. One day I found blood a' ower her sheets. She claimed it wis her woman's time, but I found razors tucked inside the mattress. She'd been usin' the blades tae carve up her legs."

"Jesus …"

True helped himself to my breakfast. "Psychiatrist fella, he called it self-mutilation. Says it's part o' Brandy's whole fear o' abandonment thing. Her mood swings like a pendulum, calm one moment, a storm the next."

"So I've noticed."

"Doctors had her on pills, but God only knows if she's still takin' them. I worry aboot her, Zack. Last thing she needs now is another guy steppin' on her heart."

Angus pressed his face between the bars. "Trust me, True, ye dinnae need yer sister hangin' oot wi' the likes o' Zachary. The laddie's battlin' his ain childhood demons, an' he's still feart tae face them."

True looked confused. "Whit's he talkin' aboot?"

"Ignore him."

"Wish I could've ignored thae bloody screams," Angus said. "A' night, yellin' like a lunatic, jist like he did after the first accident. Head doctors had a fancy name for it… post-traumatic somethin' somethin', but I just called it what it was—bein' feart. Waste o' time, a' that analysis, I should've jist tossed him right back in the Loch the day after it happened. That wid have nicked it in the arse, right there an' then."

I shook my head. "Growing up with a father like you, it's a wonder they haven't locked me up in a mental ward by now."

"Boo-hoo. Jist remember, Gretchen, it's you who has tae live wi' these nightmares, an' ye're the only one who can stop them."

"How's that?" asked True, finishing off my breakfast.

"By findin' the monster, o' course. Zachary may be feart, but he kens how this monster thinks. That's how he brought the De'il tae the surface the first time."

"You're insane."

"At least my memory works, as does Nessie's, an' believe you me, now that the dragon's tasted human flesh again, it'll be comin' up tae feed a lot main"

True's eyes widened. "Nessie's a dragon?"

Angus nodded. "Maybe no' a dragon as we ken it, but these Guivres have got the blood o' a dragon in them."

"What did you call them?"