My breath was fast, and I looked at her hands as if they might show a mark from her ordeal. She was okay. Well, she wasn’t okay, but she was here and unhurt. At least physically. She had talked to Al all night so he wouldn’t come after me. God help her.

“Do you want some coffee?” she said brightly. “I just made some.” She looked at her empty mug, clearly clean and never used. Shock flickered over her, then disgust when she saw the percolator and realized the coffee had never gotten made.

“Let’s get you to bed,” I said. I wanted to ask her about my birth father, but she was scaring the crap out of me. I’d seen it before, but not like this. I had to call her doctor. Find her spells. “Come on, Mom,” I said, standing and trying to get her to rise. “It’s going to be okay.”

She refused to move, and when she started to cry, I got mad at Al. How dare he come into my mom’s house and stir her up like this. I should’ve had her spend the night at the church. I should have done something!

“I miss him so much,” she said, the tears in her voice making my throat tighten, and I sank back down. “He loved us all so very deeply.”

Reaching out, I held her, thinking life was cruel when the child had to comfort the parent. “It’s okay, Mom,” I whispered, and her narrow shoulders started to shake. “It’s over. The demon did it to hurt you is all. It’s over, and he won’t do it again. I promise. You can stay with me until they find a way to hold him.”

Fear wrapped around my soul and squeezed. I was going to take Al’s name to stop this. The other choice was not an option at this point.

“Look,” she said around a sniffle, pulling the album to her and opening it up. “Remember this vacation? You got so sunburned you couldn’t go on any of the rides. Robbie really didn’t mean to hurt your feelings by calling you a crab person.”

I tried to close the album, but she wouldn’t let me. “Mom, stop looking at these. It just hurts you,” I said, then stiffened at the sound of the front door opening.

“Alice?” came a strong, masculine voice, gravelly and resonant, and my heart jumped when I recognized it. “It wasn’t me,” he pleaded, coming closer. “God, Alice, I didn’t tell her. You’ve got to believe me. It was Trent. And he needs to get his ass out of your house so I can pound him into little pieces of green—”