The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

bed. The horribly beaten body…of a light-haired boy a few years younger than the half-demon I’d met.
    “You said Dr. Banks left this house to your group. What happened to the kids?”
    “They went to live with another relative. A grandparent, I think.”
    Both boys were dead, and I knew it. The question was, did Andrew? Or was this a story he’d been told?
    Were the boys part of the Genesis project? It seemed like it. Yet the kid I’d seen had been older than me. Even if he’d survived his uncle, he had to have died a couple of years ago, given his age in the photo. That meant if he was alive today, he’d be a few years older than Derek, who was supposed to be one of the first subjects.
    “Was there a woman living here with them?” Simon asked.
    “Hmm?” Andrew said as he waved us from the room.
    “Chloe heard a woman’s voice last night, and we thought it might be a ghost. Was there a woman living with them?”
    “Not as far as I know. I could be mistaken, though. Now, I should get dinner going. I know you’re supposed to eat at regular times, Simon. And I know you two have something special planned afterward.” He winked at me and I’m sure I blushed.
    As Andrew headed for the kitchen, Derek snuck up from the basement. The three of us went upstairs, ducked into the guys’ bedroom, and closed the door.
    “It’s storage,” Derek said. “Two big rooms full of stuff and one locked room.”
    “Locked?” Simon perked up.
    “I busted it open. It’s a workshop. Nothing but tools.”
    “So why would it be locked?” I asked.
    “I’d love to say it’s suspicious,” Simon said. “But if this Banks guy had kids around, then I’m not surprised. My dad isn’t exactly Mr. Handyman, but he kept a lock on his tool-box. You know parents. Paranoid.”
    “Yeah,” Derek said. “Especially after their son flattens his finger trying to nail a drawing to the wall.”
    “Hey, I’m not the genius who suggested it.” Simon glanced at me. “Tape wouldn’t hold it, and Science Guy explained that the paper was too heavy for the adhesive. So I got some nails.”
    Derek rolled his eyes.
    “So that’s it?” I said. “Storage and a tool room? No clues at all?”
    “Didn’t say that. There are labeled boxes of clothes and stuff. Three names: Todd, Austin, and Royce. Todd’s stuff is adult.”
    “Dr. Banks,” Simon said. “The guy who owned this place. And let me guess, the other boxes were for teenage boys.”
    When I explained what Andrew said, Derek nodded. “Royce is your half-demon’s name, then. His clothes arebigger. So Andrew said he moved away after Banks died? Maybe he was killed later and came back.”
    “I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure it was Austin’s body I saw last night.”
    A family, dead. Including two teenagers. All with connections to the Edison Group, maybe to the Genesis project. And we were taking refuge in the same house.
    “We can’t go anywhere,” Derek said.
    That’s what we were all thinking, of course. Run. But where? None of us thought Andrew was secretly aligned with the Edison Group, holding us here while going through this elaborate ruse of plotting an attack on them. But what had happened to Dr. Banks and Royce and Austin? Did it have anything to do with us?
    “I’ll keep looking,” Derek said. “Maybe ask Andrew a few things. You guys—”
    “We’ll be gone for a while after dinner,” Simon said.
    “Oh. Yeah. That’s right.” Derek’s gaze flicked my way, but before I could meet it, he’d turned to Simon. “So, uh, Andrew was good with that?”
    “Yep. You lose that bet, bro. Sure, he gave me a whole bunch of warnings—gotta walk through the woods, not on the road, Chloe can’t go into the store, blah-blah. But we can go.”
    “Huh.” Derek looked over his shoulder, like he’d been hoping Andrew would say it wasn’t safe. After a moment, he nodded and said, “Okay, then.”
    “We’ve got some time to kill before dinner,” Simon said.