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that you’re back on your feet, we felt it was a good time to have a chat.” She faces me and smiles. “How have you been sleeping lately?
    Any bad dreams? Woken up with dirt under your finger-nails or —”
    “You know what she’s doing, don’t you, Grubbs?” Dervish asks.
    “Trying to freak me out,” I mutter edgily.
    “Correct. If they wanted to check up on you, they’d do it secretly. You’d never know they were there. She’s saying this to upset you, because I’ve upset her. So ignore it. And you,” he says to Prae. “Tell me the real reason you’re here, or get the hell out.”
    “Very well.” Prae stares at Dervish challengingly. “We want to run some test on Billy under laboratory conditions.”
    “You want to turn my nephew into a guinea pig?” Dervish laughs harshly. “You want me to sign him over, so you can prod and poke him and have him urinate into a cup at your command?”
    “It’s not like that. We —”
    “Get out!” Dervish shouts.
    “You’re being unreasonable,” Prae objects. “You haven’t let me finish.”
    “Oh, you’re finished,” Dervish laughs. “I’ve heard enough. Now march back out to your car and —”
    “Have you seen a child who’s turned?” Prae asks me, raising her voice. “You must have seen your brother, but only in the early stages of his transformation. It takes a few months for the disease to properly set in. They grow hair. Their features distort. Their spines twist. I have some photographs that —”
    “No!” I shout. “I don’t want to see any photos. I’ve seen them before.”
    “Children your own age,” Prae says quickly as Dervish stands and strides towards her. “Some even younger. We have an eight-year-old girl. Her parents didn’t know about the curse. She killed her mother. Chewed her throat open and —”
    “You’re so out of here,” Dervish snarls, reaching to grab Prae’s collar.
    “Wait.” I stop him, holding up a hand.
    “Grubbs, don’t listen to —”
    “Just wait a minute. Please?”
    Dervish breathes out heavily, then takes a step back.
    “We’re trying to help,” Prae says, speaking to me but looking at Dervish. “Your uncle is a man of old science — he calls it magic, but to us it’s science by a different name. We’re of the new school. Dervish fights one battle at a time. Your mother and father made that choice too. But we’re trying to attack the root of the disease. We want everyone to benefit, not just a few. To do that, we have to examine and explore.
    “Your brother is one of the very few victims to beat the curse. If we can study him, unlock the secrets behind his remarkable cure, perhaps we can replicate it and save others — without the need for demons or so-called magic.”
    “You can’t,” Dervish says wearily. “I’ve told you before, it’s
not
science. It’s not of this universe. You can’t understand it and you can’t mimic it. Do you think I’d stand in your way if I thought there was the slightest chance that you could?”
    “You can’t be sure,” Prae says.
    “I am.”
    Prae mutters something beneath her breath, then tries me again. “We wouldn’t hurt Billy. You and your uncle could come and observe. We just want to know more, to understand...to help.”
    I feel sorry for Prae Athim. Despite her scary appearance and manner, she only wants to do good. But the thought of her taking Bill-E away, locking him up, experimenting on him...I shake my head.
    “You should leave now,” Dervish says quietly. “We can’t help you.”
    “You’re condemning others to change, to die,” Prae says angrily.
    Dervish shrugs. “We’ve been condemned a long time. We’re used to it.”
    He lays a hand on Prae’s shoulder. She jerks away from him and stands. “My daughter changed,” she hisses. “I tried to cure her, but I couldn’t. She’s still alive. Because I hope and believe. By denying us, you deny her, and all the others like her. How will you sleep with that on