LUPE SANCHEZ bustled around the kitchen while Randy sat in an armchair beside the window gazing out into the side yard, which was in dire need of mowing since he didn’t yet own a lawnmower.

He would get one eventually. All things in their time.

Lupe poked her head into the living room. “You need me to get you anything?” Her long, black hair was swept back into a ponytail, and her brown eyes were bright, but Randy could still see the sorrow that lay behind them like a shadow. He knew that the guilt over her betrayal of him was eating her alive.

It was yet another obstacle they would work through together.

“A good, stiff drink sounds great about now,” he said.

“Like you need that with your painkillers. I’ll get you water instead.”

Lupe disappeared into the kitchen again, and he heard her filling a glass at the tap. She brought it out, set it on the small table beside him, and gave him a peck on the forehead. “Everything will be okay, you know.”

Randy knew she was right, though news of Graham’s condition had jarred him more than he thought it would, considering the terrible things Graham had done to him.

Yet Graham had taken him in all those years ago. Randy’s teenage years had been filled with more pain and emptiness than most people would ever know. His classmates would talk about things they’d done with their parents and siblings, trips taken and parties celebrated, and Randy would swallow back his pain like a bitter medicine and think about whatever family he’d been stuck with that month, hoping against hope that one would love him enough to adopt him.

But they didn’t.

He’d aged out of the system at eighteen—April Fool’s Day, 2007—and felt like a boat that had lost its anchor. Now he had no hope of finding a family because he was a grown man. Who in their right mind would adopt an adult?

He brought this up with an elderly coworker at the sporting goods store he’d worked at for two years, and she suggested that he join a church to see if he liked it.

“Because even if they aren’t of your blood,” she’d said, “sometimes new friends can become so close they feel like family.”

So for months Randy shopped around for a church he liked, trying out a nondenominational church a few times that was so huge he felt like a grain of sand on a beach. After that he tried a Baptist church and a Methodist church and finally settled on St. Paul’s since it was smaller than the rest and he didn’t feel overlooked amid the throng, and he was very glad he did.

He’d met Graham and Frankie at a church picnic that took place in a park across town. Later they introduced him to Phil, Roger, and Frank the First.

Phil took a peculiar interest in Randy and kept grilling him about his newfound faith.

Little had Randy known Phil’s reason behind it all.

In the present, Lupe said, “What are you thinking?”

“Who said I was thinking?”

She smirked. “You’re always thinking.”

Isn’t that the truth? “I feel awful about Graham.”

Lupe’s expression darkened. “Don’t think about that man. It’s over. We never have to worry about him again.”

Randy looked out at the sunshine so she wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes. In those final moments in the barn when Graham was about to kill him, Randy had seen something black and fluttering in the pupils of Graham’s eyes. Perhaps Randy had imagined it, but he didn’t think so.

“You’re thinking about him again,” Lupe scolded. She put her hands on either side of his head and swiveled his face around so their noses were barely an inch apart. Tears glistened on her eyelashes.

She planted her lips fully on his, and the tension left his muscles. Lupe let out a soft moan that set Randy’s nerves aflame.

Randy pulled his mouth away from hers to draw a decent breath. “You’re making it kind of difficult for me here.”

A wicked gleam shined in Lupe’s eyes. “Five years, Randy. For five years I’ve waited for you to find a replacement so we can get married.”

“This hasn’t been easy for me, either.”

Lupe stepped back and crossed her arms, letting out a frustrated sigh. “I know. It’s just…”

The sound of an approaching vehicle crunching in the gravel outside made Lupe turn.

“Who is it?” he asked.

Lupe squinted out the window. “It looks like Bobby.” Her eyes widened. “And Carly’s with him.”

Two car doors slammed, and Lupe pulled open the door to admit a pale-faced Carly, who was then followed by Bobby, whose wide blue eyes met Randy’s the instant he stepped over the threshold.

Great.

“Carly!” Lupe exclaimed as she threw her arms around her younger friend. “What happened to you?”

Bobby broke away from them and moved toward Randy. “We kind of have a problem,” he said in a low voice.

Randy brought his hands up and kneaded his eyelids. Might as well get this over with. “Okay, folks. Spill it.”

Carly stepped away from Lupe. “Bobby, you’re the one who saw it first. You tell him.”

Bobby cleared his throat and shuffled his feet. “Can a demon manifest itself as a human?”

The room became so quiet that Randy could hear his own heartbeat, its tempo ever increasing. “Yes.”

“You’ve seen one?”

“Before we go any further into this, may I ask what this is all about?”

“We saw something.” Bobby and Carly exchanged quick glances. “Independently of each other. And we wondered if that’s what it could have been.”

It seemed Bobby was being intentionally vague. “Listen,” Randy said. “If you want me to give you any kind of advice, you’re going to have to be completely clear with me. No beating around the bush, no dodging questions. Okay?”

Bobby sighed. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

Bobby went on to tell the tale of a man who had appeared in his house and later, his car; and Carly talked about how she saw what seemed to be the same man at her house and hallucinated that her bedroom was being trashed. When Carly finished, Bobby said, “So what was it? An angel, a ghost, or a demon?”

Randy leaned his head back and closed his eyes, wishing he could still hear the voice of the Spirit as loudly as he could before. “You said there wasn’t an aura.”

“I didn’t see one. It’s not like Carly could, anyway.”

“Let me think here.” Randy opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. What were they missing? In a human being, a gray, shadowy aura indicated that the individual lived in collusion with an evil spirit or spirits, and a black, writhing aura showed that the person was possessed and in need of cleansing.

When Randy had been in training under Phil, he’d asked why the auras he picked up inside his head weren’t the other way around. “Wouldn’t the darker aura tell me who’s evil?”

“No,” Phil replied in his usual stern tone. “The darker the aura, the greater the individual needs your help.”

If Randy guessed right, the presence of an actual demon minus a human host would cause Bobby to sense a shadow in his mind. Unless…

“Do you think the guy I talked to could have been an angel?” Bobby asked.

“Not if he tormented Carly.”

“But what if it was two different people who just happened to look alike?” Bobby shivered. “I mean, a demon might have known how an angel appeared to me and appeared to Carly the same way so I’d doubt the advice he gave me.”

“Which was what? To save your mother in any way possible?”

Bobby winced, and Randy couldn’t blame him. Bobby had been forced to provide some backstory when talking about the entity that called itself Thane, so now Randy knew about Bobby’s abandonment as an infant. “Do you think it’s possible?” Bobby asked, ignoring his question.

“Of course it’s possible. Just about everything is.” Randy frowned. “This is a trying time in your life, and I apologize for that because it’s partly my fault. I didn’t give you much of a choice back in the barn. I knew you weren’t ready for something like this, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

Instead of objecting, Bobby just nodded.

“But,” Randy continued, “we can’t undo what’s already been done. The powers of darkness will be trying to get at you in any way they can.”

“Really? I never would have guessed. So…how do I deal with this?”

“If either of you run into this Thane character again, I want you to do a little test in order to determine what he is.”

Bobby blanched. “Test?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not the bar exam.” Randy reached backward into his memory to draw forth what he’d learned from his predecessors long ago when he was as green as Bobby was now. “If Thane really is a demon, he’ll find certain things repulsive. Crucifixes. Bibles. Basically any reminder that he’s one of the fallen. You can even say a prayer to see what happens. If he’s an angel, he’ll probably want to pray with you.”

“And if he isn’t?”

“Then he might become violent. You’ll need to invoke the power of the Spirit in order to drive him away. Carly, you can do this too.”

Carly bit her lip and nodded. She said, “In the name of the Father, and Jesus Christ his son, and the Holy Spirit, depart from this place and torment God’s people no more.”

“Looks like your dad got a head start on me.”

Her cheeks flushed pink. “When I became part of the fold, he warned me I might be in for a bit of trouble for helping you.” She swallowed. “I guess I was pretty lucky until now.”

Boy, was she. As far as he knew, Carly had never previously been tormented with disembodied noises, apparitions, or objects thrown by invisible beings as others of their circle had in the past.

He’d always tried not to envy her for that.

Randy returned his attention to Bobby, who’d taken great interest in the floor. “Hey there, Roberto. Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?”

Bobby bowed his head. A serious look entered his eyes. Randy smiled. The kid was finally learning.