Running for our lives. Again. Was this how he lived? “Fine. I’m a little busy relearning how to walk, but I assume you can talk and pack at the same time?”

He smiled, and I tried not to notice how green his eyes were in the light from the lantern. “I’m a proficient multitasker, yes.”

“Good. How long was I out?”

“Almost seven hours.”

“Seven hours!” I glanced up at the windows near the ceiling, searching for any sign of daylight while I did the math. “So it’s, what, three in the morning?”

“Just after.”

“Why am I so weak?”

“You’ll be fine in a few minutes.” Finn backed away from me, and when I didn’t fall over, he grabbed a duffel I hadn’t noticed before, then sank to his knees in front of the box of utensils. “Your body did most of the hard work while you were passed out.” He dropped a small box of plastic utensils into his bag, then followed those with the can opener and a large box of matches. “Most exorcists start coming into their abilities around the time they turn seventeen. I’m not sure why that is, but Reese thinks, evolutionarily speaking, the exorcists whose abilities matured before their bodies did were hunted and killed by degenerates.”

Reese! That was the other name mentioned on the news. Reese and Devi. Reese was the big guy, and Devi was…I wasn’t sure what Devi was.

“He thinks those who matured later were better able to defend themselves, so they lived to pass on their genes. Either way, seventeen seems to be the magic number, give or take a few months.”

“And because I’ll be seventeen next week my abilities have matured, so the degenerates can, what? Smell me?”

Weird.

“Or sense you. Or something like that.” Finn disconnected a small propane tank from the camping stove, then folded in the sides and closed the lid, so that the stove looked like a small metal suitcase. The dented outside said it was well used, but the shiny inside and lack of burnt-on crud said it was also well cared for. “But they can only sense you during that transitional period, between the time your abilities start to manifest and the time you gain full control over them all. Which can’t happen until you’re ‘triggered.’ ”

“Wait, abilities? Plural? I can do something other than fry demons with my bare hands?” Because, honestly, that one was both awesome and scary enough on its own.

He slid the camp stove into the bottom of his duffel, then tightened the seal on the propane tank and slid that in after it. “That’s the big one, but yes, you’ll develop a few other advantages that help you hunt both degenerates and demons in their prime.”

“Like what?”