Logan flipped off the overhead and both lamps, leaving only the rectangle of light from the bathroom doorway.
"Better?" Drake asked, looking at Helen. He was doing that gentle fingertip caress thing along the inside of her wrist that made it hard for her to think about anything else but the feel of his bare skin gliding over hers. A little shiver rode along her spine and settled low in her abdomen.
She swallowed, which didn't loosen up her voice, then cleared her throat. "Yeah. Thanks."
Drake gave her a nod and a wink. "Let's have it, Logan. What do we need to do?"
Logan propped his perfect butt on the edge of her dresser and crossed his lean arms over his chest. "I think it's the way you broke contact last time that was the problem."
"What do you mean?" asked Drake.
"Helen was afraid. Frantic. She was fighting to get away and you were fighting not to let that happen. I think that it was the violence of the separation, or maybe the fact that you didn't both want it, that was the problem."
"So what do we do?" asked Helen.
"Take it slower. Ease the two of you apart. Make sure it's what you both want."
"It is," she told them. "I mean, I'm sorry that I hurt you last time, but we really have to fix this." Before either one of them had to use the bathroom. Wouldn't that be fun?
"She's right. We've been here fifteen minutes already. Zach will only be able to hold them off for so long."
Helen felt her shoulders tense. "Hold who off? What are you talking about?"
Drake's mouth flattened and he looked away as though he wished he had just kept it shut.
"You may as well tell her," said Logan.
Drake sounded angry, but Helen had no idea why. "The less she knows, the easier the mind wipe will be on her."
Mind wipe? That didn't sound good. In fact, it sounded distinctly not good. "What is that?"
"Can you feel her starting to panic?" asked Logan. "If we don't explain what's going on, she's going to go over the edge and that won't be good for any of us. We have to tell her."
Helen was pretty sure she wasn't going to like what she heard, but she was also sure that not knowing had to be worse than knowing, even if it was terrible.
Drake spat out a single, violent word and scrubbed a hand over his face in frustration. "Fine. We'll tell her, but I swear to God that if you aren't careful with her memories, I'll make sure you remember it for a long, long time."
Logan smiled at Drake as if he were two years old and he'd just done something cute. "I'll be gentle with her. I swear it."
O-kay. This was sounding worse by the second. Exactly what were they going to do to her memories and why was Drake so worried Logan wouldn't be gentle? Even worse, what would happen to her if he wasn't? This whole situation was way too messed up to be real.
"She's panicking," said Logan.
"I realize that," said Drake from between clenched teeth.
"I can put her to sleep for you, if you like."
"No!" shouted Helen, trying not to freak out. Drake was stroking her wrist as if to calm her, but it wasn't working. Not even those tingling streamers flowing into her were doing any good right now. "No one is doing anything else to me until you tell me what's going on."
"Okay," agreed Drake a little too quickly. "I'll tell you. Just relax, okay?"
Relax? Not freaking likely. "Spit it out. Apparently we don't have a lot of time before they get here. Whoever they are."
Drake pulled in a deep breath that stretched the fabric of his shirt, showing off more muscle than Helen had realized he had. Oh, man, she was so far in over her head she was never going to get out of this.
"Our friend Kevin was killed a few days ago. We're going after his killers."
As revelations went, that was a doozy. He'd lost a friend and she was too wrapped up in her own problems to even think about the ones he was dealing with. Some of the tension drained out of her. "Are you sure that's wise? I mean, shouldn't the police be the ones to do that?"
"Not in this case."
"Why not?"
He took another deep breath and paused as though he really didn't want to tell her more. "Because those killers aren't human. They're monsters called the Synestryn."
He was serious. Helen sat there, waiting for the punch line, but it didn't come. She looked from Drake to Logan and both of them wore deadly serious expressions. This wasn't a joke. "Monsters?"
"Demons, if you prefer the term."
"Yeah. Not so much," she said, still trying to absorb what he was saying.
"These monsters killed Kevin and took something from him—something we must get back. That's why we're following them."
"I thought they were following you."
"Only when Zach started bleeding."
"What?" she asked, frowning in confusion.
Drake's wide jaw bunched up under the pressure of his clenched teeth. He looked at Logan like he was hoping to find an escape. "I'm really making a mess of this. She doesn't need to know this part."
"Yes, she does," said Helen before Logan could answer for her. She turned Drake's face back to her so she was sure she had his attention. "Why are the, um, monsters following you?"
He stared at her for a long second and she could feel his hesitation, see regret glowing in his golden brown eyes. "They followed us once Zach started bleeding because they like to . . . eat us."
Oh God. That was too disgusting to even contemplate. This had to be some sort of sick joke. But no one was laughing. "You're telling me that you are being chased by man-eating monsters and you brought them to my house?" How could they? Miss Mabel was a defenseless old woman who wouldn't even be able to run away if she had to.
"They're not man-eating," said Drake in a tone that was supposed to be reassuring.
As if she could possibly be reassured by anything after that kind of news. "What?"
"They don't eat humans."
"But you just said—"
"I said they eat us. As in Thomas and Logan and Zach. And me."
The line of logic he left for her to follow was a short one. "You're not human?"
Drake shook his head slowly.
She had to get out of here. Had to get away from all this insanity. She'd left Miss Mabel out there alone with Thomas. Who wasn't human.
Helen suffered through the first rush of fear and forced herself to remain calm because she knew it wouldn't be the last. She had to stay calm. Miss Mabel needed her. She tried to pull her wrist away, jerking it hard, but Drake's grip held.
"Don't do this, Helen," he said in a calm tone. "Don't fight me again. I won't hurt you."
She didn't stop to figure out whether or not he was telling the truth. Not while he held her captive. She felt herself panicking. Her breathing sped, then faltered. Her heart pumped hard and fast, one beat crammed on top of the next. Sweat broke out on her skin and her mind funneled down to one single goal. Escape. She'd freaked out enough times before to know what it felt like. Every time things got bad and it was vital for her to stay calm, she panicked. Every time the vision hit her, she panicked. Every time she saw so much as a candle flame, she panicked.
Now Drake was trying to prevent her escape and she didn't care if she hurt him again. She needed to get away. Right now.