Where Monsters Lie (The Monster Within 2)

I link my arm with hers and tell her about what happened. She nods, her eyes focused on her feet. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice before,” she mumbles.

“It’s not your fault,” Sawyer says beside me. He hasn’t let go of my hand. “Incubi are strong and good at hiding themselves.”

“I know,” Erin sighs in reply. “My dad must be strong if it’s taken this long to get him to this point. A weaker person would’ve been dead by now.” She bites her lip worriedly.

“I want to say I’m sorry,” I say quickly to Sawyer. “I don’t know what I was thinking earlier this year. I tortured you on purpose. I played with your emotions, thinking I was getting back at you for last year.”

“You talked to Dad a lot, right?” Erin asks with a frown. “It might have been the incubus. They feed on negative emotions. They’re famous for feeding on lust, but they also thrive off things like rage and revenge.”

I glance up at Sawyer. He said the same thing, back at the church. There wasn’t an incubus there—no, the incubus was much closer to home.

“Still, I was selfish.” I look at Sawyer, and we pause right outside the dining hall. “I’m sorry.”

Erin glances at us, then spots Luiza inside the hall and she melts into the crowd, giving me and Sawyer a private moment.

He smiles. “I’m sorry, too. What I did was fucked up.” He takes my hand and walks with me into the dining hall. “Oh, uh—the alp. I know how to get rid of it.”

“You do?” I ask.

“Next time you wake up, if you see him, ask him to have coffee with you. He’ll leave you alone after that,” he adds, grinning at me. Monsters are weird creatures.

It’s so good to see him smile at me again. I can’t help smiling back.

“Is that what my parents would’ve done?”

He laughs. “I’m sure of it.”

In the dining hall, staff are working to clear tables away from the center of the room. Sleeping bags are piled in towers near the walls. Headmaster Novac’s secretary is standing where the headmaster usually is when he gives announcements. She’s a thin old woman with watery eyes and gray hair. She watches as we file in, then taps the microphone with a loud thump.

“There’s an emergency in the village, and you’re all to stay confined to the dining hall. Someone in the village is possessed by an incubus, and many of your teachers—as well as other monster hunters—have gone to exorcise it.”

Silence follows her words. Everyone is stunned. She takes advantage of it to continue.

“Those teachers left behind are guarding the school with their lives so that you all won’t get hurt, so don’t do anything stupid. We’ll all be here until the hunters return. The staff will hand out sleeping bags and pillows.”

Piers, Owen, and Bennett join us as we go to get our sleeping bags from the staff members handing them out. We set up together in a little corner.

“Are you okay?” Bennett asks seriously as I unroll my bag.

“Yeah. I went to see Helsing last night. He’s the one who’s possessed.”

Piers, Owen, and Bennett glance at each other in alarm as Erin and Luiza appear to set up near us. Erin’s face is pinched and worried, and I don’t blame her. Her father is in incredible danger, and they were just starting to get along too.

Erin lays her sleeping bag next to mine, with Luiza on her other side. “We’re gonna be here for a while, huh?” I say to the others.

Luiza nods. “Exorcisms can take hours … or days even.”

“I hope Dad will be all right,” Erin mumbles. Luiza reaches out and pulls her into a hug.

I shift to sit nearer to the boys. “So the teachers are guarding us?” I ask them.

“They’ll be scared of the incubus coming here,” Sawyer says in a low voice, glancing over at Erin to make sure she can’t hear. “It’ll have access to Helsing’s memories.”

I look past the tables jammed against the walls to the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows that look out into the entrance hall. We’ve picked a good vantage point. We’ll be able t

o see if anyone enters the school itself.

If they use the front door, I think worriedly.