There used to be lots of colleges in the United States. Lots of choices and opportunity. After the war and the necessary restructuring, only a dozen or so remained. None of those were within a day’s drive of New Temperance, which meant the daughter was unlikely to come home and find her apartment occupied by teenage outlaws.

“And her mom?”

“Her mother’s name is Angela Reddy. Ms. Reddy is dead, as of two days ago.”

“What happened to her?”

“Maddock exorcised the demon. The host’s body died in the process,” he said. “Fortunately, her rent’s paid up until the end of the month, so…”

“So you killed her, then moved into her apartment.”

“She was a demon, and she doesn’t need this place anymore, but we do.” His brows rose in a very un-Reese-like challenge. “Have you ever slept in one of the ghost houses? Or in a tent in the badlands?”

My skin crawled at the thought. Rumor had it, some of the ghost houses still held the bones of the people who’d died there a century before. Many of the houses had become nests for degenerates. And a tent in the badlands? I couldn’t even wrap my mind around the danger that represented—nothing but a sheet of nylon between me and whatever monsters roamed the barren ruins of the Midwest. Tents may be waterproof, but they certainly weren’t degenerate-proof.

Still, the apartment…

“It wasn’t coincidence, was it? I mean, the first demon you ran across in New Temperance happened to have an absentee daughter and a paid-up apartment at the back of a complex near the town wall’s north gate?”

“There are no coincidences.” Finn set the photo on the end table and wedged his bottle of water into the crook of his bent leg. “There are more than a few demons in New Temperance, and we couldn’t take them all on, even if we wanted to. We’re here to get you out, which means we need to fly under the Church’s radar as much as possible, which means minimizing food and supply runs. The best way to do that is to set up camp in a furnished apartment. Of all the demons we saw during recon, the one who lived here had the most ideal setup.” He shrugged Reese’s broad shoulders. “So we sent her back to hell and moved into her apartment.”

I nodded, still trying to process all of it. It made a certain brutal sense. “How long do you think it’ll be before someone notices her missing from work?”

Another shrug. “A few more days, hopefully. Devi called in and said she had the flu. They practically begged her to stay home.”