“What happens now? Will they leave you alone?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know. Apparently finding orphans is a big deal to them and I’m a lot older than the other orphans they bring in. They want me to join them but I won’t let them force me into anything I don’t want.”

Roland swiped at an insect near his ear. “Why are you older than the other orphans?”

I bit my lip. I’d deliberately left out certain details about the Mohiri because I wanted to see how my friends reacted before I laid the whole thing on them. “What do you guys know about the Mohiri – other than that they are vampire hunters?”

Peter lifted his shoulders. “Not much. Like Dad said the other night, they are like some kind of secret society. They’re super fast and strong and –” he grabbed my arm. “Hey that means you can move like them.”

I shook my head. “Nikolas said I am suppressing that side of me. In order to be fast like him I’d have to stop holding it back.”

“Then let it out. What’s stopping you?” Roland said.

I tugged at a tuff of grass, unable to look at them. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

There was never going to be an easy way to say it so I blurted it out. “It’s a demon.”

Roland let out a choked laugh. “What?”

“The Mohiri are half demon.” I looked up, waiting for the realization to sink in, waiting to see the same revulsion I’d lived with for a week. The only sound was the crashing of waves against the rocks. I looked away from the shock and disbelief in their faces and waited for the inevitable reactions.

“Half demon? How is that possible?” Roland’s voice sounded dubious instead of repulsed but I still couldn’t look at him.

“It’s called a Mori demon. The Mohiri were created specifically to kill vampires and each one of them is born with a Mori inside. They have to learn to live with the demon side and control it and it makes them able to fight like they do. Orphans have to be found really young so they can learn to control their Mori. If not, the demon drives them insane. Nikolas says my Mori is practically dormant and he has no idea how I’m doing it. Otherwise I’d probably be locked up in a mental ward right now.”

Peter let out a long low whistle. “That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” He immediately ducked his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad by that. It’s just that I never heard of a demon living inside a human like that.”

“Actually you have. Did you know that vampires have demon parasites inside them?”

They stared at me with similar expressions of shock. Roland found his voice first. “Nikolas told you all this?”

“Yes.”

“That must have been some conversation.”

“You could say that.”

He ran a hand through his hair causing it to stick out in places. “I can’t believe you’ve been carrying this around since last week. No wonder you seemed so out of it.”

“I was afraid you guys would think I was some kind of freak. You have to admit it’s pretty messed up.”

Roland barked a laugh. “We turn into giant mutant wolves. You don’t think there is anything strange about that?”

“You can’t compare yourselves to demons.” My voice rose. “Demons are evil. They come from a hell dimension.”

His eyes widened and his smile faded. “You think you’re evil?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. In my heart I didn’t believe I was a bad person but I had glimpsed my dark side before. I didn’t know what I was capable of. What if I lost control of the demon in me? What if I hurt someone even worse that I had hurt Scott?

“There is no way you are evil,” Peter stated unwaveringly.

I wanted so much to believe him. “How can you be so sure?”

“I’m sure because I know you. You’re a good person and you never hurt people – well except for Scott but some exceptions are okay. You hate bullies and you always watch out for Jeffrey at school. I seriously doubt an evil person would care about him. I know you love Nate and it’s easy to see how much you loved your father. I don’t think an evil person can love like that. And you are so good with animals. Uncle Brendan says animals can sense when someone is bad so there is no way they’d let you near them if you were evil.”

Roland reached over to take my hand. “You can’t possibly be evil no matter what you are. I think evil is a choice and you choose to be good. In fact, your demon is probably dormant because you are too good for it.”

I sniffed. “You mean that?”

“Yes,” Roland replied with conviction. “Do you think Nikolas is evil?”

“No.” Evil was the last word I’d use to describe Nikolas. Hard and direct, maybe a little overbearing. But also strong and courageous. He had put his own life at risk to save mine and he’d displayed kindness on the wharf.

“Me either,” he said to my surprise. “The Mohiri are arrogant bastards and I don’t like them but they do kill vampires. That Mori demon might be bad news on its own but they keep it under control and use it to make them better hunters.” He pointed at himself and then at Peter. “We had to learn to control our wolf side so it didn’t take over. There is a reason for the scary werewolf stories. Not all weres are good and sometimes even good ones lose control.”