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My eyes scanned the article It was Will There was a picture of hi rounds of treatard look

I couldn’t believe it Did Mom know this? I mean, cancer wasn’t a reason not to date soh with Dad? Could she go through soain if the cancer carew to like the dude, if he wasn’t an iain? I went back to the search page, unable to wrap rab a cup of cocoa, I returned to ers hovered over the keyboard while a sense of guilt flushed led Blake Saunders, telling , since he never did tell e athlete, but doard the bottoe, I saw a news report about his parents’on the link, I read the sad, sad write-up on the deaths of his parents and sister It was called a brutal break-in

There were a couplethe same, and then I found the obituary for his parents, which took me to a funeral home site in Santa Monica Sunny Acres Who in the hell na my head, I took a sip of my cocoa and clicked the pictures the website had of the faut clenched when I looked at the pictures of hi set The kid ay too young, and her death was probably horrific I blinked back hot tears, moved by soht Death usually was never those two things but this…this rong

I kept going through the pictures, stopping on an older one of Blake’s father I could see the resemblance in the easy smile and hazel eyes The man next to his father looked oddly familiar He shared some of the same features as Blake’s dad, but his face was rounder Some of the pictures had captions below, but this one didn’t I went through the next couple of pictures greedily, and then I stopped on one that looked like a fa closer, I set the cup down before I dropped it A sharp pang sliced uy who’d been in the picture with Blake’s father

The er Blake’s shoulder and was sht brown hn

Thoughts warred infor surviving fahn was listed as a stepbrother of the deceased--of Blake’s dad

My surprised laugh ca around the roo for Shock beat at er at bay

Blake was related to a DOD officer

How…coincidental

I started to pace the length of the living rooical part ofto convince myself that it was just a coincidence, that it was another Brian Vaughn who looked like the DOD officer But the harsh reality of being fooled…of allowing ht into the DOD’s hands beat at me

His relation to the DOD explained how Blake knew so much about the Luxen and mutated humans Why he’d asked so erous he’d grown in his training sessions I didn’t even knohere Blake lived

But I knehere Vaughn lived

I stopped myself before I reached for hn’s house What would I do? Bust up in there? That orse than Dae to talk to Dae with, I sat back and pulled my knees to my chest Could I have been fooled this badly? This entire tier and fear kept alternating, grippingthe other ehn hadn’t been home, and Blake clai family with his…uncle And this would be the perfect opportunity to see if I could find any undisputable evidence that would point to Blake working with the DOD

"Da, breathing entity inside ht Soet Blake had been in my house, talked to my mom, earned my trust, and kissed me That kind of betrayal ran so deep it left a permanent o to right now If Blake orking for the DOD, I needed to keep Daemon far away from this At least until I kneouldn’t fly off and do so even du, I snatchedmy keys and my cell phone, I left the house

I’d done an incredible a the baby opossu out in front of the MAC truck was another I’d even gotten pissy once about the pirating of books and had posted this h, probably topped the list

But as I hit the highway, hands clenching the steering wheel, I was a much different person now I could kick et aith this

I parked hn lived and stepped out into the frigid air that s the hood up over my head, I shoved hn’s house The irony of bitching out Daemon due to his lack of plans didn’t pass me by, but now I understood that soht-out stupidity

This was one of thehn’s house looked empty as I approached from the rear Luckily, the two houses closest to his were spaced out One had a foreclosure sign, and the other was just as dark Little flakes of snow started to fall as I crept around to the front My breath ca in the air like clouds

The driveas e that didn’t mean the house was completely devoid of people, I debated what to do I didn’t come all the way here to stare at the outside of the house I wanted in there I wanted to find evidence linking Blake to Vaughn, and I wanted to see if there was anything on the location of Dawson and Bethany

I went to the back of the house and tried the door It was locked as expected, but I re how easy locks were to manipulate It should be a piece of cake

An alarm system would be a whole different story