The Dark Divine(43)

Daniel winced and pulled away. He clutched the black necklace tighter and mumbled something I couldn’t understand between sharp breaths.

“Are you okay?” I stretched out my hand to him.

“Please, don’t.” He shrugged off my touch and backed up against the side of the house. He pulled his legs to his chest, as if creating a barrier between us. His body quaked. He closed his eyes, panting. His trembling stopped, but he still clenched his pendant in a rigid fist.

“Is that what gives you your … abilities? The necklace?”

Daniel kept his eyes closed. “No.”

“Then how? What?”

He let air out between his teeth. “I should leave you.”

“But I want to know everything.”

“I’m sorry, Gracie. I really should go.”

I folded my arms. “You’re not getting off that easy. A promise is a promise, remember,” I said in my bossy Grace voice.

Daniel stopped and his mouth edged into a grin. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

I blushed, but I wasn’t going to let him distract me. “Is this why you left town? Or did this happen to you while you were gone? How did you become what you are? Tell me, please.”

“Nothing happened to me. Not exactly. I guess you could say I was born this way.”

“I don’t remember you being like … this.” But then I remembered all those times as a child that he seemed to have bruises in the morning that were gone by the afternoon, or limps that mysteriously disappeared. I remembered how baffled Daniel’s doctor had been when his skull fracture healed in a matter of weeks rather than months.

“It develops with age … and experiences.”

“Superpowers are a little more intense than armpit hair and zits,” I said.

Daniel laughed. “It’s kind of a family thing.” He lowered his voice. “You know what your father says in his sermons about how the devil works—among other things—through flattery, jealousy, and complacency?”

I nodded. That was one of Dad’s favorite subjects.

“Well, the devil wasn’t always so subtle. In the beginning, he used demons, vampires, and other evil spirits to do his bidding. Real things-that-go-bump-in-the-night monsters.” Daniel looked at me for my reaction.

I didn’t know what to say—or even think. Was he being serious? Did he really want me to believe that monsters existed? But then again, up until today, I thought people with superstrength and the ability to heal themselves were just characters from comic books.

When I didn’t respond, Daniel went on. “With demons running loose on the earth, God decided he needed to ‘fight fire with fire,’ so to speak. My family—the Kalbi family—dates back before written language. Back before real civilization even existed. My family was part of a tribe of warriors. They were strong defenders of their land, but they were also stalwart in their belief in God and followed his teachings. He decided to reward them—bless them with special abilities. He infused them with the essence of the most powerful animal in their highland forests, giving them enhanced speed, agility, strength, cunning, and tracking.” He rubbed his hand across his cheekbone. “I’m not sure where the healing ability came from—must have been part of the benefits package.”

“So God made the ultimate soldier in His fight against evil?” My question sounded so logical, even though I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Exactly. He even marked them with white-blond hair like the angels.” He fingered his shaggy, sandy-brown hair. “Hounds of Heaven. That’s what He called them. Or something like that—the actual word has been lost. The closest I know of is the Sumerian word Urbat. It was their job to track down demons. Keep mortals safe from the wrath of the devil.”

“These … Urbat … what became of them? Why haven’t I ever heard of them before?”

Daniel shrugged. “They overstayed their welcome in the mortal world. There are only a relative handful of them today. They prefer to live in groups—packs, actually. Many of them are artists like me. It must be that animal connection to nature. There’s a group out west. They live in a sort of artists’ colony. I went there for a while. That’s where I met Gabriel.”

“The angel from the garden? You said he gave you that necklace. What is it?”

Daniel touched the black stone. “A piece of the moon.”

“What?” I don’t know why that seemed more impossible to believe than his story.

Daniel smiled at my inquisitive look. He wrapped his arm around my back and let me hold the flat black stone as it hung from his neck. It was surprisingly warm and wasn’t as smooth as it looked. It was slightly porous, like lava rock. I pressed my fingertip into the small crescent carved in the middle.

“It helps me control the things I do.” He stroked his fingers over mine.

I leaned my head against his chest and was surprised I could hear his heart thumping through his coat. His breaths were deep and steady, but his heartbeat seemed erratic. Too fast, but too slow at the same time—almost as if two hearts pounded inside of him. Both telling me to believe his words.

Daniel pulled me closer in his embrace. He traced his hand along the collar of my robe, his fingers grazing my skin. One of his heartbeats quickened, fluttering as it pulsed.