As the midday sun shone in through the bedroom curtains, Sawyer went to shower, leaving Naomi in bed. She stretched out on the sheets, a content smile on her face as she listened to him turn on the water.

In a matter of one night, she had learned more about what kind of a man Sawyer was than she had with guys she had dated for months. There was no pretense with him – what you saw was what you got.

There was no putting your best foot forward or creating an image you wanted to project, like there was with dating. They had already seen each other in the most pressure-filled, stressful situations one could imagine.

And there was no doubt in Naomi’s mind she could count on Sawyer completely.

Yet, she was still hesitant to tell him exactly why she took stopping Verin from completing whatever plan the demon was cooking up so personally. Now that Sawyer had been so honest about his past, and what had happened to Ted, she was beginning to feel even worse about it.

But how could she just come out with that kind of bombshell now? And she was still convinced Verin showing up in Tempe had just been a coincidence. With that thought niggling in the back of her head, Naomi reluctantly got up, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.

With the memory of her parents’ murder now more relevant than ever, and knowing Verin had a pattern of using violence to get what he wanted…

What did that creature want with my dad?

One therapist after another had told her to stop obsessing over the ravings of a madman. Because that was what people had believed Verin to be – a random, insane killer that broke in, probably looking for something to steal, and getting caught in the act by her mom.

And while Naomi could agree Verin had to be unhinged, he was definitely no random robber. There had to be a reason he came into their house that night… Had the demon been after another artifact of some sort?

Naomi tried to think back, if there was an item in her childhood home that could have been valuable. An heirloom of some sort? She was pretty sure the most ancient thing in that place had been a Howe sewing machine, passed on to her mother from her grandmother and so on for generations.

But unless Verin was into tailoring his own clothes, that didn’t seem like a likely target. And the demon had been insistent about a snake… Naomi tried her hardest, but couldn’t recall a single snake-shaped object in her former house.

Against her better judgment, she snuck into the guest bedroom, grabbed her laptop from one of the bags, and took it into the living room. It had been years since she had looked at anything regarding her parents’ murder. But with its recent relevance, she couldn’t help herself.

This never ends well, she thought, biting her lip as she sat down at the kitchen table, opening up her laptop.

The computer quickly came to life, and she typed in her password, her leg jiggling under the table. It took a moment for her to be able to type in her father’s name, as she braced herself for the search results.

There were so many things her father had accomplished in his life. He had a great career, was loved by his students, and was an excellent husband and father. But his murder overshadowed all of it. Now, his name was associated with violence and horror, at least online.

Skipping over the sensationalized articles about murder in suburbia, Naomi focused on what her dad had accomplished before his life had been taken. There were old syllabuses and some of his lectures still floating around, and a piece or two published by the college newspaper about him and his classes.

With a knot in her gut, Naomi clicked over to the staff page of the college where her dad had worked, wondering if his name was still on the list. Would they have an In Memoriam page up for him? Would it have a picture of him?

Scrolling through the list, her heart started to race when she found a J. Moore on there. She had tried to keep her parents in her memory as they had been, before Verin ripped them away from her. Still, it was difficult not to think of the pool of blood beneath her mother’s head, or the fear on her dad’s face when he had told her to run.

Clicking on her father’s name, Naomi took in a deep breath. But when the introductory page popped up, her brows creased together in confusion. The picture in the top left-hand corner was definitely not of her dad.

Jakob Moore? What the…

The silver-haired man that shared her last name didn’t seem to have any connection to her family whatsoever. Looking through the short biography provided for the man, Naomi could feel herself tensing up.

Professor of Anthropology…

Her heart now beating twice as fast, Naomi started looking up anything and everything that pertained to Jakob Moore. As far as she could tell, the man was still alive. So he probably hadn’t gotten a visit from Verin, because those usually ended in someone’s death.

But it couldn’t be a coincidence that a man with a very similar name, working at the same college as her dad, and in a field that gave him access to different artifacts wasn’t somehow involved in it all.

Could it be that… Verin came for the wrong Moore that night?

That raised another question that Naomi didn’t want to particularly ponder – had her father died for nothing? Burying her face in her hands, Naomi tried to keep her mind from reeling.

It all made sense now. Verin was collecting artifacts for whatever reason, and he didn’t care what he had to do to get them. The demon had killed David to find out where that weird statue was. And he had come for her father, thinking he was an anthropology professor, and looking for some snake-like object.

With his family in danger, Jack Moore would have told Verin everything he knew. But there had been nothing to tell. Verin had thought her dad was holding out on him, and that just wouldn’t do.

Naomi was stunned, unable to even process how she should react. Hysterical laughter bubbled up in her chest, at the thought of a powerful shapeshifting demon killing her family over a case of mistaken identity.

She barely heard the water stop in the bathroom, but she reacted nonetheless, quickly closing all the tabs she had opened. Sawyer already didn’t want her involved in anything dangerous. If he learned that Verin actually had a connection to her…

He’d never let me keep working on finding Verin.

Sawyer had shown a strong protective streak already, and if he thought that Verin had some beef with her in particular, she was almost sure he would bring up her leaving town again. And this time, she might not be able to talk him out of it.

Now that they had the statue, he definitely didn’t need her help to get around the university. But there was no way Naomi could let this go. Verin killed her parents. Somehow, someway, she would have her revenge.

You have gotten away with it for far too long, Verin. Time for you to suffer for once.