My father or the monster inside him snarled while thick drool dripped from his sharpened teeth. At the sight of him advancing toward them, Vorack and his men fell over one another in their scramble to get out.

“Go,” Frank screamed, shoving past the others.

Glass crunched underneath their boots, and I watched, unable to tear my eyes away, as my father or the monster he’d become moved slowly toward the open door. He watched as Vorack and his men raced into the yard and across the driveway toward their car.

I took a slow step backward, terrified of whatever that thing was. Fur had sprouted in some places, obscuring the protruding bones. And his mouth was elongating into a kind of snout. He looked like a demon straight out of a horror movie.

Except this was real life.

What the hell had happened to my father? And how was I going to fix him?

“Dad?” I called tentatively.

The thing swung its red-eyed gaze toward me.

Fear sent me backing away. My father, the demon, didn't move.

That was a good sign.

Recognition flared in his glowing eyes. “Ash,” he said, the sound of his voice distorted.

Still, it was him. And he recognized me.

Maybe he wasn’t going to hurt me after all.

I took a step toward him.

A gunshot rang out, loud and sharp enough to make me jump.

I sucked in a breath and watched as my father, or the monster that had taken him over, flew backward into the wall. He hit hard enough to leave a hole the size of his broken body before sliding to the floor. Blood poured from a hole in his chest, and right before my eyes, the demon-form receded, and my father’s body and bones returned to their normal appearance.

He lay limp and still, in a growing puddle of his own blood.

“No!” I rushed forward, forgetting Vorack, forgetting the demon my father had just become. Forgetting it all.

Nothing else mattered except saving him.

“We’ll be back to collect,” Vorack yelled. “One way or another.”

Outside, the engine revved, and Vorack’s car spewed gravel as he hit reverse and drove off like a bat out of hell.

I didn’t even look up to make sure they’d all gone. Instead, I collapsed to my feet beside my father and pressed my palms to the gunshot wound on his chest. Already, his shirt was drenched in blood. This wasn’t good. I had to call for an ambulance.

“Dad,” I called, half-sobbing. “Dad, please hang on.”

My voice broke, and I started to climb to my feet, to find the phone. My father’s hand shot out and gripped mine, holding me in place. His eyes flew open, and he looked up at me, his gaze intent and not at all like that of a dying, drunk man.

It was the clearest I’d seen him in months.

“Ash, listen to me. Take the money in the freezer,” he said, his voice strained. “Take it and the car and go. Now, tonight. Don’t wait for Vorack to come back.”

“Not until you get to the hospital,” I said.

“A hospital can’t help me,” he said, wincing and then gritting his teeth.

Every time he spoke, the blood seemed to spill faster.

“Dad, please,” I said.

“Ash, listen to me. Go to Ridley Falls. Find Oscar, my brother. He’ll help keep you safe. Your mother ,”

He broke off, squeezing his eyes shut, and his head lolled to the side.

“Dad,” I sobbed, still pressing my hands to his wound, for all the good it did.

My dad took a ragged breath and looked at me again. I could see the pain reflected in his eyes. This was costing him.

“Dad, don’t say another word,” I told him. “I’m going to call for help. I’ll be right back. Stay with me.”

“Ash.” His hand gripped my wrist with not nearly the force needed to stop me. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t make myself walk away. In the back of my mind, I knew he wouldn’t be breathing by the time I returned from making that call.

A sob built in my throat at the thought.

“Ash, I love you. I’m so damn sorry. For all of it.” He sighed, and it was the saddest sound I’d ever heard. “Your mother thought it best, and I . . . all I ever wanted was to protect you. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough. For her. For you.”

“Forget Mom,” I nearly screamed. “I’m here. Do this for me. Survive for me.”

Stay sober for me.

It was everything I’d wanted to say for years. But I bit my lip and pleaded instead with my eyes.

With shaky fingers, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a familiar pendant. “Take it,” he rasped.

I started to shake my head.

“Ash, I’m not asking.”

“I told you I refuse to wear anything that came from her,” I spat. Even now, he was trying to bring my mother into this. To make it seem like she was still a part of this family. She wasn’t.

“Not for her,” he insisted, shoving it at me. “For me.”

I took the pendant, squeezing it inside my fist with one hand while still holding pressure to the gunshot wound on his chest with the other hand.

“It’s important,” he said, his eyes intent on mine now. “Put it on, and don’t take it off, okay? No matter what. Promise me.”

For once, I didn’t argue or roll my eyes at the one thing my mother had left when she abandoned us.

“Promise, Ash,” he repeated.

“I promise,” I said quickly.

He reached up with his free hand and cupped my cheek, calloused fingers brushing over the bruise I could still feel throbbing from where that asshole had punched me earlier.

“No matter what happens, don’t let them cage you,” he whispered roughly.

Then his hand fell, and his expression went slack.

A sob ripped from my throat, and this time, I didn’t bother holding it back. For a long time, I sat there, hands still pressed to a wound that couldn’t be healed. Blood pooled until I was covered in it. My face swelled until it pulsed with my own heartbeat. The only heart in this room is still beating.

Finally, the sky behind me began to lighten.

Something about the breaking of a new day snapped me from my grief, and I forced myself to accept what had happened and to get up. I moved like I was in a haze. Brain fog made my thoughts fuzzy, my movements methodical.

Vaguely, I supposed I was in shock. But what could I do about that? What could I do about any of it?

On autopilot, I grabbed the cash from the freezer and a bottle of water from the fridge. Then, I snagged the car keys from where I’d dropped them hours ago.

It felt more like days. Like last night had been a nasty nightmare. Not real. But then I saw my father’s body lying in the entryway, and I had to face the reality of what had happened all over again.

Pausing at the back door, I used our landline to dial emergency services and report my father’s body. He would have told me not to bother, but I couldn’t leave knowing he’d be lying here for who-knew-how-long before someone found him. When they asked my name, I hung up.

In the light of dawn, I stumbled my way to the aged sedan Dad had hustled from a desperate used car salesman back in Kansas City a few months ago. The air conditioning didn’t work, but the windows did. I slid into the driver’s seat, numb and lost.

After a long moment, I pulled out the pendant and fastened it around my neck a white crystal carved into the shape of a crescent moon. It sat cold and still against my chest, a weight I’d long refused to accept no matter how many times Dad had tried talking me into it before.

My mother couldn’t be bothered with raising me, so why should I let her off the hook by accepting her stupid necklace?

But it was different now. It was all different now.

Reeling and completely drained, I stowed the cash in the glove box and started the car. At the main road, I hesitated, trying to decide where to go. Dad’s instructions rang in my mind. Ridley Falls. His brother. Oscar. Whoever the hell that was. He’d never mentioned any family before. It had always just been us. Him and me against the world. And Mom. Until she decided not to include herself.

I opened the glove box and checked the map Dad kept there. A cell would have been easier but our minutes had run out two months ago and there hadn’t been money to afford more.

According to the map, Ridley Falls was nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Right smack in the middle of nowhere from the looks of it. More rural than even this town.

That’s where Dad wanted me to go?

Somewhere so remote I’d have zero chance of blending in? This from a guy who’d always insisted that I not let myself be seen for fear it would bring monsters to our doorstep.

I almost decided against it, but then I thought of Vorack and his parting promise to return. The monsters had already come to my door. They’d kicked it in and taken the one person I had in this world. If I didn’t get someplace safe, somewhere off that asshole’s radar, I was going to end up like my father.

And the one thing I refused to become was my parents.

With resignation and a heavy heart, I made the turn that would take me to Ridley Falls. To a family that couldn’t possibly be any more terrible than the one I’d left behind.