"So I'm left with the job of fucking my own kid."

Hank smiled. "And doing a damn fine job of it too."

Jeremy felt heat rush into his face as his hands curled into fists. "You son of a—"

"Easy now. You got the job done, didn't you? And as for boffing your own kid—first off, if she's eighteen she's not a kid; and second, it's not like you raised her or anything, or saw her even once when she was growing up. She was a complete stranger when you met her."

Jeremy felt himself relax a little. Hank had a point. Dawn could just as easily have been someone else's kid.

"That may be, but it didn't stop me from feeling weird and maybe even a little perverted the first few times."

"That's because in the everyday world it's a big taboo, and everyone's all uptight about it because if you do that sort of thing too much you can wind up with a bunch of FLKs."

"Eff-ell—?"

"Funny-looking kids. But because you two share the Bloodline, that changes all the rules. That means it's not only okay, it's necessary for you two to get together and have a kid."

"It also means that I had to do everything myself. / had to kidnap her, / had to get her pregnant, / had to keep her from getting an abortion, and / wound up getting sent up for life for it!"

Realizing he was shouting, he clammed up.

He remembered his confusion at the time. Hell, he was only nineteen when he'd tracked Moonglow to Atlanta. He tried to get in touch with Hank to tell him the good news, but Hank was nowhere to be found. They'd been meeting maybe every six months, talking about how to carry through Daddy's Plan, and now he seemed to have vanished—just like Daddy had.

But somehow he'd known Hank was still alive, somehow he'd sensed him out there.

Hank said, "I would have helped you if I could have, bro. You know that."

"But I didn't know it then. I knew you wasn't dead, so I thought you'd run out on me."

He later found out that Hank was in jail, but he'd been pretty shaken at the time.

Hank shook his head. "Never. But isn't it strange, this connection we have? I know you're around, and you know I'm around. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah. Weird. But that made it all the worse when I had to do everything myself."

"I wish I could've been there with you, bro. Things would have been different then, and they'd be different now."

Damn right, they'd be.

The Plan had been for Hank to charm his way into Moonglow's pants and get her pregnant. They'd marry and have the baby. If it wasn't a girl, they'd try again. When they finally had one and she grew old enough to have a baby of her own, Jeremy would move in. One way or another—by charm or by force—Hank's daughter would have Jeremy's child.

And that child would change the world.

But Jeremy had panicked when he couldn't find Hank. He had no confidence in his ability with girls. That was Hank's strong suit, not his. Or so he'd thought at the time. He now knew that he could turn on the charm just as well as his older brother.

Not knowing what else to do, afraid that Moonglow might get knocked up by some other guy, he'd chosen the only route he could think of—the most direct. And when she'd started looking for an abortionist, he'd done the same.

He'd never believed he'd get caught. When he did he'd thought the Others had deserted him.

But then, last year had come word of a special therapy that the high-ups at Creighton wanted to test. And the testing would require that Jeremy be freed into the world.

He'd known then that the Others hadn't deserted him. They'd only been waiting for the proper moment. They'd arranged for him to be released in time to help Hank do the final purification of the Bloodline by fathering the miracle child.

But Hank had balked. His Kickers were more important.

"I still can't believe how when it came to choosing between the Bloodline and these losers, you chose them."

"What I'm doing, I'm doing for the Bloodline. In my dream—"

"I don't want to hear about any stupid dreams."

"You keep saying that, but it's time you listened. I keep having this dream about a baby. It's in danger. It's screaming in fright. And then along comes the Kicker Man, and he takes it in his arms, and it stops crying. How do you interpret that, Jer?"

Jeremy felt a chill as he pictured the powerful image. If it really was a dream, he could see only one way to interpret it, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"I interpret that as your way of easing a guilty conscience, or, better yet, making excuses for yourself."

Hank took a step closer. "The dream is real, Jer. It's been coming to me off and on for the past year, and every night for the past two weeks. Every night."

"So?"

"So, how long has Dawn been pregnant?"

Jeremy got another chill, stronger this time, as he remembered the instructions on the testing kit's box saying it took a minimum of two weeks after the start of pregnancy to turn positive.

He hated giving him the answer. "Two weeks or so, I'd guess."

Hank grinned. "Doesn't that tell you something?"

"It tells me you're kidding yourself."

"It's a message from the Others and you know it. I couldn't be sure before, but it's clear as day now: They sent me the sign of the Kicker Man and inspired me to write my book, and now they're telling me why: Because the Kickers are going to pave the way for the return of the Others. But they have an even more important mission than that: They're gonna protect that baby from the enemies of the Bloodline."

Could Hank be right? Was all this Kicker shit part of the Plan to bring back the Others? Were they some sort of palace guards, or maybe the shock troops of the Others?

Was that Hank's job—captain of the guard? Then who was he—father of the Key?

Yeah. Father of the Key. That sounded pretty good. Maybe all this was going to work out right after all.

As long as no one got in their way.

"You think there really are Enemies out there like Daddy told us about?"

Hank's expression was grim. "I've given this a lot of thought. Daddy told us plenty of stuff that would sound crazy to other people, stuff that other people would laugh at. But we believe it. Why?"

"Because Daddy told us, and because it's the truth."

"Yeah, we believe it's the truth, but why do we believe these things that no one else believes? That no one else has even heard of?"

Jeremy was losing patience. "I'm sure you're gonna tell me."

"It's because the Bloodline is so strong in us. We heard these things and we believe them because our blood knows they're true. That's why, even though I've never seen an Enemy, I know they're out there. And so do you."

Jeremy found himself nodding. Yes, he did know. Daddy had talked about Enemies of the Others who had almost killed off the Bloodline in the past and would try again.

"You think that's what happened to Daddy? You think it wasn't an accident—that the Enemies got to him?"

"I don't know what else to think."

He'd known Hank was still alive when he couldn't find him back in Atlanta. He just didn't know where. He remembered having a feeling as a little kid that Daddy wouldn't be coming back because he wasn't… there anymore.

Hank said, "Those bastards have probably been looking for us ever since."

And then Jeremy had an unsettling thought. "This guy that's been dogging my trail, testing my DNA… do you think he could be one of the Enemies?"

Hank started pacing again. "Could be… could be…" He stopped and stared at him. "Shit!"

"What?"

"The guy who stole my book—I'll bet he was one. As a matter of fact I'm sure he was."

"What book?"

"It's a long story. Suffice it to say it was old and contained a drawing of the Kicker Man. Might even had contained information on where it came from—something I'd really like to know—but it's gone now, stolen away by a guy who pretended to be a reporter."