The Lost Saint(83)

The man in the hooded robe riffled through the drawers in the counter. He pulled out a serrated knife and approached us. He pushed the hood of his robe off his head and handed the knife to Daniel.

“Gabriel?” I looked at Daniel as he went to work cutting the ropes from the chair. “What the heck is he doing here?” Not that I was ungrateful for his assistance—just surprised, considering our history.

“Gabriel is the one who followed you here.”

“Your mother got concerned when she couldn’t find you at the festival,” Gabriel said as he worked on unwinding the cording that bound my ankles. “Then your sister said she saw you leave Main Street with a boy. I found your basket in the parking lot behind the hardware store and then followed the trail here. I called Daniel as soon as I could.”

“Luckily, I was already on my way home,” Daniel said. “I wasn’t too far from the city.” He cut through the last rope and pulled me out of the chair.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” I asked.

“No.” He brushed a curling strand of my hair off my face. “But I’ve found what I need.”

I got lost in his deep, dark eyes for a moment.

“We should go,” Gabriel said.

“Right.” Daniel pulled the cording from my wrists and then locked hands with me. “Stay as close to me as you can. We came in through an entrance in The Depot. There’s an underground corridor linking these two buildings together.”

“So this is the warehouse next to the club?”

Daniel nodded. “You ready? We’re going to make a run for it.”

I stretched out my arms and legs, happy for some relief. “They’re probably waiting for us.”

“We’ll just have to see.”

Gabriel went out of the break-room door first. Daniel and I followed, hand in hand. We stayed close to the wall, surveying the warehouse. All seemed quiet. The barracks were empty. I looked up at the balcony and the darkened windows of the upper office next to it. There was no sign of whomever had been up there before.

Daniel tightened his grip on my hand. “There’s another exit over there. It looks like it’s padlocked, but with the three of us working together, I bet we can break it loose. I don’t want to risk the corridor. It’s too boxed in.”


“Sounds good,” Gabriel said.

“Ready? Run.”

Daniel bolted for the door, and I ran with him. Gabriel followed close behind. We made it to the door, and the warehouse still seemed as empty as before. Were we really going to make it out? Daniel tried yanking on the lock. The metal loop stretched a bit. He shook his head. “Grace, can you do it?”

I felt a rumbling under the heels of my boots. Something was happening inside the building somewhere. I let a small burst of power into my arm as I grabbed the lock and yanked on it. It broke free in my hand. Then I heard a clanking noise from behind us. Daniel went for the doorknob, but I swung around and looked back as the gate of the freight elevator lifted and a pack of boys came rushing in our direction. The door must have still been locked from the outside. It wouldn’t open. Daniel put all his energy into kicking at it, over and over again. Then we both kicked together, and I heard the dead bolt crunch through the wood frame. Moonlight flooded in through the crack in the door. But before we could get out, someone was on top of Daniel, pulling him back. I heard Gabriel shout, but I knew he wouldn’t fight back. Someone else grabbed me.

I remember screaming. I remember fighting. I remember watching Daniel try to grapple with the person who’d grabbed him. But before I knew what was happening, I’d been seized by three guys who pulled me away from the open door. Another three had Daniel.

Jude led the pack as Daniel, Gabriel, and I were dragged up the stairs and then into the dark upper-level room. It looked like it had once been a large office, but it was now decked out like a luxury hotel room from the Victorian era. Thick, plush curtains covered the windows that would normally look down on the warehouse floor. A large wardrobe was tucked away in one corner, and the only light in the room came from the flickering of a dozen candles on an ornately carved table. A large four-poster bed filled the middle of the room, covered with a lush velvet bedspread and pillows. While the boys downstairs slept on warehouse shelves, whoever occupied this room obviously cared much more for his own comfort.

Talbot stood by one of the bedposts, and I assumed this was his room until he directed our attention to a dark, recessed alcove. With a bowed head, Jude went to stand beside Talbot.

“Now that you’re all finally here,” Talbot said, “our father wishes to see you.”

The boys who held my arms stiffened and exchanged a half-horrified, half-delighted look. Almost as if this was the first time they’d even seen their “father.”

“You made it too easy,” a voice snarled from the shadows of the alcove. Something body-shaped shifted, and then two yellow glowing eyes appeared in the dark. “It almost ruined the fun.”

That voice. What is it about that voice? Something about it makes me feel like I’ve been ripped open.

Daniel’s face went ashy white. He took a step back, but one of his captors pushed him forward. Did the voice sound familiar to him also?

“This is a game to you?” I asked. “Who are you? Tell us what you want with us.”