“What do you mean you didn’t know what they were? You’re here.” Jared’s hand flexed toward me but dropped before it closed the small distance.

“I… I was having trouble with my… with the… with her memory. I didn’t understand… I couldn’t access everything. There were walls. That’s why the Seeker was assigned to me, waiting for me to unlock the rest.” Too much, too much. I bit my tongue.

Ian and Jared exchanged a look. They’d never heard anything like this before. They didn’t trust me, but they wanted so desperately to believe it was possible. They wanted it too much. That made them fear.

Jared’s voice whipped out with a sudden harshness. “Were you able to access my cabin?”

“Not for a long time.”

“And then you told the Seeker.”

“No.”

“No? Why not?”

“Because… by the time I could remember it… I didn’t want to tell her.”

Ian’s eyes were frozen wide.

Jared’s voice changed, became low, almost tender. So much more dangerous than the shouting. “Why didn’t you want to tell her?”

My jaw locked hard. It was not the secret, but still, it was a secret he would have to beat out of me. In this moment, my determination to hold my tongue had less to do with self-preservation than it did with a stupid, grudging kind of pride. I would not tell this man who despised me that I loved him.

He watched the defiance flash in my eyes, and he seemed to understand what it would take to get this answer. He decided to skip it-or maybe to come back to it later, save it for last, in case I wouldn’t be able to answer any more questions when he was done with me.

“Why weren’t you able to access everything? Is that… normal?”

This question was very dangerous, too. For the first time so far, I told an outright lie.

“She fell a long way. The body was damaged.”

Lying did not come easily to me; this lie fell flat. Jared and Ian both reacted to the false note. Jared’s head cocked to the side; one of Ian’s ink black eyebrows rose.

“Why isn’t this Seeker giving up like the rest?” Ian asked.

I was abruptly exhausted. I knew they could keep this up all night, would keep this up all night if I continued to answer, and eventually I would make a mistake. I slumped against the wall and closed my eyes.

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “She’s not like other souls. She’s… annoying.”

Ian laughed once-a startled sound.

“And you-are you like other… souls?” Jared asked.

I opened my eyes and stared at him wearily for a long moment. What a stupid question, I thought. Then I shut my eyes tight, buried my face against my knees, and wrapped my arms around my head.

Either Jared understood that I was done speaking or his body was complaining too loudly to be ignored. He grunted a few times as he squeezed himself out of the opening of my cave, taking the lamp with him, and then groaned quietly as he stretched.

“That was unexpected,” Ian whispered.

“Lies, of course,” Jared whispered back. I could just barely make out their words. They probably didn’t realize how the sound echoed back to me in here. “Only… I can’t quite figure out what it wants us to believe-where it’s trying to lead us.”

“I don’t think it’s lying. Well, except the one time. Did you notice?”

“Part of the act.”

“Jared, when have you ever met a parasite who could lie about anything? Except a Seeker, of course.”

“Which it must be.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s the best explanation.”

“She-it is the furthest thing from a Seeker I’ve ever seen. If a Seeker had any idea how to find us, it would have brought an army.”

“And they wouldn’t have found anything. But she-it got in, didn’t it?”

“It’s almost been killed half a dozen -”

“Yet it’s still breathing, isn’t it?”

They were quiet for a long time. So long that I started to think about moving out of the cramped ball I was curled in, but I didn’t want to make any noise by lying down. I wished Ian would leave so I could sleep. The adrenaline left me so worn out when it drained from my system.

“I think I’m going to go talk to Jeb,” Ian eventually whispered.

“Oh, that’s a great idea.” Jared’s voice was thick with sarcasm.

“Do you remember that first night? When it jumped between you and Kyle? That was bizarre.”

“It was just trying to find a way to stay alive, to escape…”

“By giving Kyle the go-ahead to kill her-it? Good plan.”

“It worked.”

“Jeb’s gun worked. Did she know he was on his way?”

“You’re overthinking this, Ian. That’s what it wants.”

“I don’t think you’re right. I don’t know why… but I don’t think she wants us to think about her at all.” I heard Ian get to his feet. “You know what’s really twisted?” he muttered, his voice no longer a whisper.

“What’s that?”

“I felt guilty-guilty as hell-watching her flinch away from us. Seeing the black marks on her neck.”

“You can’t let it get to you like that.” Jared was suddenly disturbed. “It’s not human. Don’t forget that.”

“Just because she isn’t human, do you think that means she doesn’t feel pain?” Ian asked as his voice faded into the distance. “That she doesn’t feel just like a girl who’s been beaten-beaten by us?”

“Get a hold of yourself,” Jared hissed after him.

“See you around, Jared.”

Jared didn’t relax for a long time after Ian left; he paced for a while, back and forth in front of the cave, and then sat on the mat, blocking my light, and muttered incomprehensibly to himself. I gave up waiting for him to fall asleep, and stretched out as well as I could on the bowl-like floor. He jumped when my movement made noise, and then started muttering to himself again.

“Guilty,” he grumbled in scathing tones. “Letting it get to him. Just like Jeb, like Jamie. Can’t let this go on. Stupid to let it live.”

Goose bumps rose on my arms, but I tried to ignore them. If I panicked every time he thought about killing me, I’d never have a moment’s peace. I turned onto my stomach to bend my spine in the other direction, and he jerked again and then lapsed into silence. I was sure he was still brooding when I finally drifted to sleep.

When I woke up, Jared was sitting on the mat where I could see him, elbows on knees, his head leaning against one fist.

I didn’t feel as if I’d slept more than an hour or two, but I was too sore to try to go back to sleep right away. Instead, I fretted about Ian’s visit, worrying that Jared would work even harder to keep me secluded after Ian’s strange reaction. Why couldn’t Ian have kept his mouth shut about feeling guilty? If he knew he was capable of guilt, why did he go around strangling people in the first place? Melanie was irritated with Ian, too, and nervous about the outcome of his qualms.

Our worries were interrupted after just a few minutes.

“’S just me,” I heard Jeb call. “Don’t get worked up.”

Jared cocked the gun.

“Go ahead and shoot me, kid. Go ahead.” The sound of Jeb’s voice got closer with every word.

Jared sighed and put the gun down. “Please leave.”

“Need to talk to you,” Jeb said, huffing as he sat down across from Jared. “Hey, there,” he said in my direction, nodding.

“You know how much I hate that,” Jared muttered.

“Yep.”

“Ian already told me about the Seekers -”

“I know. I was just talkin’ with him about it.”

“Great. Then what do you want?”

“Not so much what I want. It’s what everybody needs. We’re running low on just about everything. We need a real comprehensive supply run.”

“Oh,” Jared muttered; this topic was not what he’d been tensed for. After a short pause he said, “Send Kyle.”

“Okay,” Jeb said easily, bracing himself against the wall to rise again.

Jared sighed. It seemed his suggestion had been a bluff. He folded as soon as Jeb took him up on it. “No. Not Kyle. He’s too…”