The Lost Saint(51)

I shook as I stumbled as far away from the sour-smelling mess as I could get. I steadied myself against the banister of the stairs that led to the upper level. My breathing came too fast. My stomach lurched. I was about to lose the contents of it when somebody grabbed me from behind. My feet left the ground before I could even react, and whoever had grabbed me flung me toward the couch. I landed half on, half off it, but I had no time to move before someone jumped on top of me. A woman. With pink-and-black hair, and sharp, pointy teeth. She grabbed me by the throat.

Where had she even come from?

She must have been the one who’d been upstairs, I realized, which meant Jude wasn’t here at all.

“Don’t look her in the eyes!” I heard Talbot shout.

But it was too late. The woman had locked eyes with me, and I couldn’t shake the gaze of her coal-black irises. Couldn’t will myself to look away or close my eyelids. I could hear the woman chanting something—some other language—but her lips weren’t moving. I’d experienced this before, but I suddenly couldn’t remember how or when.

“Use your stake, Grace!” Talbot shouted. But he sounded so far away. “Use it, Grace. Kill her!”

You want to give me your stake, the woman said without speaking. Hand it to me. You know that’s what you want to do.

I gripped the stake in my hand. I’d all but forgotten it was even there. A thick fog swirled in my brain, and all I could think was that I didn’t want this terrible weapon. I couldn’t kill someone. I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t a monster. If the woman wanted the stake, she could have it.

I slowly lifted my arm and handed it to her.

She clutched it in her talonlike fingers and laughed. I don’t know what Daniel sees in you, she said inside my head. You’re so weak-minded.

What? I tried to ask, but my lips wouldn’t move. How did she know Daniel’s name? How did she know who I was?

But maybe tonight he’ll be more fun to party with—she lifted the stake above my heart—now that you’re dead. She thrust the stake at my chest.

But then she froze as if shocked by something. Her eyes rolled back in her head, breaking the trance she’d held me in. The fog in my mind cleared a bit, and I realized I did know her.

“Mishka?”

“Little bitch,” she said, and disintegrated right on top of me.

All that was left of her was a pile of dust. A broken chair leg fell from her back as she disappeared. It rolled off the couch and across the floor, stopping when it hit one of Talbot’s sneakers.

“You okay, kid?” he asked, and held out his hand to help me up.

I cowered from his touch and scrambled as far away from him as I could on the couch while frantically brushing Mishka dust off my pants. “I … I … knew her,” I stammered. “And you killed her.” I turned my head from side to side, searching the room for life. It was empty except for two other piles of dust and a pool of acidic ooze that ate away at the carpet. My stomach lurched. I clutched at it with my hand. “You … You killed them all.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I do.” Talbot brushed his hand through his hair. He’d lost his baseball cap at some point during the fight. “What did you think, we were going to take them all out for ice cream and buy them puppies?”

“No. I thought … we’d deliver them to the police. But you killed them.” It didn’t make sense. I’d seen Talbot handle April’s silver bracelet without it burning his hand. I’d assumed he was just like me—an Urbat who had powers but who hadn’t fallen to the curse. A Hound of Heaven. But if this was the first time he’d killed somebody, shouldn’t he have changed into a wolf? Except … the way he’d handled that sword, this certainly wasn’t his first kill. There had been no hesitation there. “I don’t understand. A predatory act … if you kill a person, then …”

“These weren’t people, Grace. These were straight-up demons. The werewolf curse only affects you if you kill a human. The Urbat were created to kill demons. It’s what we do.”

“But you didn’t kill that one with the gun the other day.”

“I didn’t kill him in front of you because I didn’t know if you were ready for that. Apparently, you still aren’t. You’re far more green than I expected.”

“No. It’s just that I still don’t understand. My brother fell to the curse when he tried to kill Daniel—who was a werewolf at the time.…”

“Ah.” Talbot sat next to me on the couch. I scooted away from him, not sure if I knew who he was anymore. “You see, werewolves are still human. They still have a human heart that coexists with their demon one. That’s why killing a werewolf—with malicious intent—counts as a predatory act against a human. But true demons are different. Gelals just take on a human-looking appearance. They don’t actually have real bodies at all. And Akhs—a species of vampire—take up residence in dead human bodies. Think of them as a demon infestation of a dead human. That’s why they smell like rotting meat—at least to someone with a sensitive sense of smell.” He tapped the side of his nose. “It’s also why they turn to dust when they’re killed. The infestation rapidly speeds up the decomposition of the body, so they fall apart when the demon inside them dies.”