I still needed to tell him about the fetus being half his, but I was too much of a coward. I wasn’t sure if I wasworriedhewouldshirk away from responsibility like I’d seen him do formost of his life, or if he woulddo what he promised last night. Stick the baby bottles by the throwing knives and make it work. That was insane. I wasn’t even sureweworked. Not really. I didn’t have time to sort through myfucked-upfeelings right now. I needed to understand how the hell thatmagic bunny namedMerlinhad gotten to the Highlands.
Noahsquared his stance off as if preparingfora fight.“We followed you to the alley and we came and saved you. Well, Ikept watchwhile Sophieand Merlinsavedyou,but we are a team.Then we didn’t want to get in trouble for beingout,so we went back.”
“How the hell did you get over there in the first place?” I asked. TheHighlandswasafifteen-minutedrive, but on foot it wouldhave takenfive times longer than that andthroughsomeratherdangerous neighborhoods.
Noah shrugged.“Wegot an uber.”
Travis slapped the side of his leg with his free hand.“I knew it.”
I held my hand outto Noah. “Seriously, we had a way to contact your parents this whole time and you hid it from us?”
Noah pulled his phone out from his back pocket but was hesitant to hand it over.
Sophie had stuck her head under Travis’s chin, her lip in full on pout mode. “We were helping you,” she insisted again in a warbling whine.
I wiggled my fingers impatiently until Noah dropped the phone in my hand.
“You can’t contact our parents,” Noah said.
I easily opened hissmartphone;the kid didn’t even have a password on it for cripes sake. I pulled up contacts,surelytheywould be under mom or dad. Or maybe most recent calls would be better.
“Because they are dead,” said Noah.
My thumb missed the screen andmy body went cold. I studied him to see if he was lying then looked over at Sophie who was now sucking her thumb under Travis’s chin. Both kids gaveme hard, sad expressions that didn’t let off evenahint of a joke.Travis looked stricken.He set Sophie on the ground and crouched down in front of her.
She rubbed herbruised tiredeyeswith a chubby fist. “We came to find the man with the magic powers to help find the demons. Becausemaybehe could help bring back our mom and dad.But since he’s dead too, we thought we could help kill the bad things with you.”
My already brittle heart broke right there. At that, we shuffled them into the living room. Noah sat in the upholstered chair, his hands playing with one another while Travis sat on the couch with Sophie in his lap.I preferred to stand in the middle of the room.
“It wasone of those demon dog things,” Noah said, his gaze steadfastly on his hands.
I was familiar. They were one of the first things to leap through the gate. Like dogs on steroids but the skin of their faces had been flayed away to offer an unobstructed view of their fangs. They had three rows of milky white eyes, spikes instead of fur, and incredible hunger for flesh.
“One got into the house andwe woke up to our parents yelling.” Noah stopped and swallowed hard. I knew that look. He was locking up memories before they could fully come out and control him. He could talk about the horroras long asit was contained.
Something creaked in the kitchen. Probably the ice maker.
“It’s okay,” I said. WhenNoahlooked up at me, I silently conveyed that he didn’t have to bring out all his pain and lay it on the table. He could keep it in that safe spot inside himself for now. “What happened next?”
He looked relieved. “I grabbed Sophie and we hid in my room. I locked thedoor,but the demon dog cameanyway. He rammed his head into the door until it broke.”
“It came through and scaredme,” Sophie said, making the ears of her bunny dance.“But I remembered the man with the magic,soMerlin and Isaved us.”I presumed that meant she helped them get out a window or something.
“After that, we went looking for the guy with magic and that got us here,” Noah finished.
“How did you do that?” Travis asked.
Something buzzed in my ear. I stuck a finger in it to try and clear outthe irritating sound. Maybe I had some water stuck in there, or maybe someone was doing construction outside.
Noah shrugged. “There were a bunch ofposts onlineabout the end of the world anda picture of the man with the magic, thenwe found your name.” He pointed to me. “You had the ad for killing people’s monsters so we looked up the business address and figured you could help us find him.Sowe used the internet to figure out how to ride a bus and usedourparents’credit card.”
Their resourcefulness floored me.But if I wasakidandmy parents just got murdered and I thought someone could come back and save them,I would probably getpretty resourcefultoo.
I dropped down to Noah’s side. “Jesus, I’m so sorry. No kid should have to go through that.”
Noah looked at me with the steely gaze of a kid who couldonly rely on himself. “Sophie and I still haveeach other,and we can fight the monsters. You need to let us fight the monsters.”
Noah and I were more alike than I had thought.My gran died, the only thing I could think about was finding what did it and killing it. Fighting all the evil shit in the world until there was nothing left. The fire in his eyes was the same as my own. I laid a hand on his shoulder.
