The Lost Saint(88)

I didn’t care that Gabriel was unconscious at the end of the room, or that Talbot was outside the door. I didn’t care about the security camera in the corner. I kissed Daniel like it was the last time we’d ever kiss.

Because I knew it was.

In the morning, I would die to save the ones I loved.





LAST NIGHT




The next few hours stretched on into the longest night of my life—but it also felt like the shortest. It was the first time and last time Daniel and I would ever spend the night together, and we couldn’t even touch. The flickering fluorescent light burned out at some point, so Daniel and I just lay there side by side on the concrete in the dark, able to reach out to each other only with our voices. Sometimes we talked, and other times we fell completely silent, unsure if the other was sleeping until one of us asked a question.

We talked about everything. And nothing. From life’s burning questions to the most trivial sorts of things we could think of. At one point I asked Daniel about his portfolio for Trenton, which was due in only a couple of weeks. He described for me in detail how he’d sketched and mapped out a new design for headphones for one of his submissions.

I told him about how one of the Trenton essays had made me want to be a superhero. Daniel laughed. “You’d make a great superhero. Especially if you wore that outfit. What is it, Little Red Riding Hood meets Wonder Woman?”

I giggled. “That’s what April said. I’m sure I look ridiculous.” Someone had stripped off my boots before they shackled my ankles, but I was actually grateful for the cloak at the moment. It made a light blanket in this cold, dark room.

“You look amazing,” Daniel said.

“You can’t even see me.”

“I’ve got the memory of you emblazed in my head. It’s keeping me rather warm.”

I laughed uneasily and then fell silent for a while. I wondered how long that memory would last in Daniel’s head after I was gone.

Gabriel’s uneasy, sleeping breaths and moans interrupted the quiet of the room. At least that way I knew he was alive. I couldn’t help wondering why he’d come after me if he wasn’t going to fight. Why he even cared at all. He’d come to Rose Crest to find out if I was this Divine One who could cure Urbats of the werewolf curse. So why didn’t he go back home the moment he heard Daniel’s powers were coming back?

Then another thought hit me.

“Don’t you worry?” I asked Daniel quietly, not sure if he was asleep.

“Hmm,” he said groggily.

“Don’t you worry about turning into the wolf again? I mean, I’m wearing a moonstone, so that will at least help me stay balanced for a while. But this is all pretty psycho—aren’t you afraid you’re the one who’s going to change? Maybe you should take the necklace back.”

Daniel’s chains shifted. I could tell he’d rolled over on his side, facing me.

“That’s the thing, Grace. It’s totally different than before. I mean, I’ve got the ability to heal, and my strength and speed are coming back, along with the enhanced senses … but I’ve finally realized over the last few days that even though I’ve been totally freaked out … I don’t feel the wolf inside of me at all.”

I took in a quick breath. “Then maybe you have been cured.”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “I really don’t know.” He was quiet for a moment. “The fact that Caleb wasn’t able to recognize the smell of my blood didn’t surprise me. But it makes me wonder … makes me wonder if I’m turning into something completely different.”

“But what?”

“I wish I knew. I had my blood tested. That’s where I was the last few days. I know a guy who works at a research lab in Columbus. He owed me a favor, and I knew he’d be discreet. I drove all the way out there just to find out that he couldn’t tell me anything, either.”

“Is that what you were doing, all those times you wouldn’t tell me where you were? Just looking for answers? I wish you would have told me all along.”


“I know. I should have. It’s just that sometimes I had to go to some dark places to look for what I wanted.”

I swallowed hard. “Like where?”

“That night you saw my motorcycle outside that bar?”

“Yes.”

“I wasn’t at the bar. I was at the motel behind it … with Mishka.”

“What?” The wolf snarled terrible things in my head. I pressed my hand against my moonstone, forcing its calming power into my chest. “What do you mean?”

“I wanted her to get inside my head. She has a mind-control power she does with her eyes—steals her victim’s free will.”

“I know,” I said, remembering how she’d almost used it to kill me. And then I remembered what Mishka had said about partying with Daniel. The wolf growled—trying to make me embrace my jealousy. “Why would you want her in your head?”

“She can read thoughts, as well as manipulate them, if she’s got you in a deep enough trance. I wanted her to get inside my head to see if she could find the wolf in there. Tell me why I don’t hear it or feel it inside of me.”

I pictured Daniel lying on a motel bed, Mishka straddling him, staring deep into his eyes. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to tell me what he’d been doing that night. “What did she find?”