“I don’t,” Kenzie said. “I want you to be safe.”

“We’re unsure. Trying to figure it out,” Sveta said. “It’s why we’re asking about the Crowleys.”

“Where were you originally?” I asked. I put the question out there in part to not make this too abrupt or intense for Rain. “Were you Crowley?”

“McVeay, kind of. My aunt and uncle were more into it than my parents, I think. We had irregular visits to or—or by some intense, religious people that everyone listened to. A lot changed as we moved around, sometimes we camped, sometimes it was trailers, but a few things were constant, like religious services, extended family being there, and those intense, scary people. Then I was sent to the Mathers, along with my aunt and uncle. A bunch of the original people I know from childhood were already there—or here. Are still here.”

“The community part of it sounds nice, at least,” Kenzie offered.

“It really wasn’t,” Rain said.

“Oh.”

“Sorry,” he said. He sighed. “Crowleys… we’ve been seeing them like I used to see the McVeay leaders when we’d go visit their compounds or when they checked on us. The rest of the family never respected them. That branch started because some university kids wanted attention, and then a bunch of brothers with powers jumped in, played along, and took over. They almost got killed by the other families before they figured out how to play the politics.”

“And somewhere along the way, they started buying what they were selling to keep the group together?” I asked.

Rain shook his head. “I don’t know. It never felt like they took this seriously, everyone says they capitalize on the reputation of the other families. But they had the guns today, didn’t they? They were for real.”

“Yeah,” Byron said.

“You don’t have a good sense of them, then?” I asked.

“I have a bit of a sense. The low level guys, there are some that call themselves jackasses. It’s a badge of honor. They vandalize, they do the stunts you might hear about on the news, interrupting serious events, getting people offended.”

“The people most people think about when they think of Fallen,” Byron said.

“Yeah,” Rain said. “Thing is, when we’d all get together so every family had enough people nearby to be an army in case something happened, we’d see the jackasses and they’d be some of the scariest people around.”

Chris leaned forward, “Stay away from those Jackass kids, Junior, they’re up to no good, I hear one of them was crazy enough to trim his pubes with a weed whacker. Be back before eight, because we’re decapitating a baby for the ritual tonight and we need you to hold it down.”

“Not the baby,” Kenzie gasped.