“It doesn’t have it now.”

“It’s stronger. You felt that. You know that. Fox, it nearly made me kill myself. If it’s strong enough to do that, if we’re not immune-Quinn, Cybil, and I-it could make us hurt you. It could make me kill you.”

“No.”

“Damn it, what if he had made me go into the kitchen, get a knife, and stab it into your heart? If it can take us over when we sleep then-”

“If it could have infected you that way, to kill me, it would have. Offing me or Cal or Gage, that’s its number one. You come from it and Hester, so it used Hester against you. Otherwise, I’d be dead with a knife in my heart, and you’d be going under for the third time in the pond. You’ve got a logical mind, Layla. That’s logical.”

She nodded, and though she struggled, the first tears escaped. “It raped me. I know it wasn’t me, I know it wasn’t real, but I felt it. Clawing at me. Ramming inside me. Fox.”

As she broke, he gathered her in, gathered her up. There was no hell dark enough, he thought, cradling her in his lap, rocking her as she sobbed.

“I couldn’t scream,” she managed, and pressed her face to the plane of his shoulder. “I couldn’t stop it. Then I didn’t care, or couldn’t. It was Hester. She just wanted to end it.”

“Do you want me to call Quinn and Cybil? Would you rather-”

“No. No.”

“It used that. The shock, the trauma, to push your will down.” He brushed at her hair. “We won’t let it happen again. I won’t let him touch you again.” He lifted her face, brushed at her tears with his thumbs. “I swear to you, Layla, whatever has to be done, he won’t touch you again.”

“You found me, before I found myself.” She laid her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes. “We won’t let it happen again.”

“In a few days, we’ll take the next step. We’re not going through this to lose. And when we end this thing, you’ll be part of that. You’ll be part of what ends it.”

“I want it to hurt.” On that realization, her voice strengthened. “I want it to scream, the way I was screaming in my head.” When she opened her eyes again, they were clear. “I wish there was a way we could lock him out of our heads. Like garlic with vampires. That sounds stupid.”

“It sounds good to me. Maybe our research ace can come up with something.”

“Maybe. I need to take a shower. That sounds stupid, too, but-”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Will you talk to me while I do? Just talk?”

“Sure.”

She left the door open, and he stood leaning against the jamb. “Pretty close to morning,” he commented. “I’ve got some farm fresh eggs, courtesy of my mother.” Switch to normal, he told himself. That’s what they both needed. “I can scramble some up. I haven’t cooked for you yet.”

“I think you opened a couple of soup cans during the blizzard when we stayed at Cal’s.”

“Oh, well, then I have cooked. I’ll still scramble some eggs. Bonus feature.”

“When we went to the Pagan Stone before, it wasn’t as strong as it is now.”

“No.”

“It’ll get stronger.”

“So will we. I can’t love you this much-scrambling eggs much-and not get stronger than I was before you.”

Under the hot spray, she closed her eyes. It wasn’t the soap and water making her feel clean. It was Fox. “No one’s ever loved me scrambling eggs much. I like it.”

“Play your cards right, and that might bump up one day to my regionally famous BLT.”

She turned off the water, stepped out for a towel. “I’m not sure I’m worthy.”

“Oh.” He grinned as he trailed his gaze over her. “Believe me. I can also toast a bagel, if I have the incentive.”

She stopped in the doorway. “Got a bagel?”

"Not at the moment, but the bakery’ll be open in about an hour.”

She laughed-God what a relief to laugh-and moved by him to get the robe she stashed in his closet.

“Lots of excellent bakeries in New York,” he commented. “The city of bagels. So, I’ve been thinking, as I like a good bakery, and a good bagel, after this summer I could look into taking the bar up there.”

She turned back as she belted the robe. “The bar?”

“Most law firms are fussy about hiring on associates unless they pass their particular bar. The sublet on your apartment runs through August. Maybe you’d want to hang here until after Cal and Quinn get married in September anyway. Or you might want to find a new place up there. Plenty of time to decide.”

She stood where she was, studying his face. “You’re talking about moving to New York.”

“I’m talking about being with you. It doesn’t matter where.”

“This is your home. Your practice is here.”

“I love you. We covered that, didn’t we?” He stepped to her. “We covered the part about you loving me back, right?”

“Yes.”

“People in love generally want to be together. You want to be with me, Layla?”

“Yes. Yes, I want to be with you.”

“Okay then.” He kissed her lightly. “I’ll go break some eggs.”

LATER THAT MORNING, FOX SAT IN CAL’S OFFICE, rubbing a foot over Lump’s hindquarters. Gage paced. He hated being here, Fox knew, but it couldn’t be helped. It was private, and it was convenient. Most of all, Fox had taken a personal vow to stay within hailing distance of Layla until the full moon.

“There has to be a reason it targets her, specifically, for this. Fucking rapist.”

“And if we knew the reason, we could stop it.” Cal nodded. “It could be that she’s the loosest link. Meaning, the three of us go back all the way. Quinn and Cybil since college. None of us knew Layla until February.”

“Or the evil bastard could’ve just rolled the dice.” Gage stopped by the window, saw nothing of interest, moved on. “None of the others have shown any signs of infection.”

“It’s different. It’s not like what happens to people during the Seven. It’s only happened, the rape, when she’s asleep. And it was a kind of sleepwalking after. Following the same pattern as Hester Deale. Lots of ways to kill yourself, and we’ve seen plenty. But it was going to be drowning, in an outdoor body of water. Same as Hester. Maybe it had to be.”

“One of us stays at the house at night until this is over,” Cal decided. “Even if Layla’s at your place, Fox, none of them are left alone at night from here on.”

“That’s where I was heading. Once we’ve done our full-moon dance, we should look into this angle more. We need to find a way to stop this, to protect her-all of them.”

“Day after tomorrow,” Gage muttered. “Thank Christ. Has anybody been able to squeeze more details out of Madam Voltar?”

Cal’s lips twitched. “Not really. If Quinn knows, she’s got it zipped, too. All she’ll say is Cybil’s fine-tuning. Then, she distracts me with her body, which isn’t hard to do.”

“She writes the script.” Fox lifted his hands at Gage’s snort. “Look, we tried it our way, various ways, and managed dick. Let the lady have a shot at it.”

“The lady’s worried we’re all going to die. Or five out of six of us.”

“Better worried than too cocky,” Fox decided. “She’ll cross all her t’s. That’s one smart skirt. Added to, she loves Quinn. Layla, too, but she and Quinn are as tight as it gets.”

Fox pushed to his feet. “I’ve got to get back to the office. Speaking of which, I’m thinking I’ll probably be moving to New York after you and Quinn get married.”

“God, another with a hook in his mouth.” Gage shook his head. “Or maybe it’s a ring through the nose.”

“Bite me. I haven’t said anything to my family yet. I’m going to ease into that by degrees.” Fox studied Cal’s face as he spoke. “But I thought I’d give you a heads-up. I’m figuring I’ll wait until after the Seven to put the building on the market. I’ve got some decent equity in it, and the market’s pretty stable, so-”

“Eternally the optimist. Brother, for all you know that place’ll be rubble come July fourteenth.”

This time Fox simply shot Gage his middle finger. “Anyway. I thought you or your father might be interested in it. If you are, we’ll kick around some figures at some point.”