The Lost Saint

by Bree Despain

  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?”

  “Nothing. I didn’t go through with it. Her price was too high. I wasn’t willing to give her what she wanted in return.”

  “What did she want?”

  “Me.”

  I gritted my teeth as an angry wave of power passed through me. My eyes stung, and my night vision kicked in for a moment. When I saw Daniel’s mud-pie eyes rimmed with sorrow, a rush of reassuring love pushed the wolf away.

  “I left, and she was pissed,” Daniel said. “But then she texted me the next day and said that she’d changed her mind, that she’d take my bike as payment instead. We were supposed to meet up again—I was waiting for another text from her that night at dinner when I ran out. Only when I got to her place, some house on the outskirts of the city, I discovered the person who texted wasn’t Mishka. It was her friend, Veronica. They were in the same coven—like a family—and when Veronica had returned that evening, she’d found that Mishka and the rest of her friends were dead, and that someone had made off with about ten thousand dollars of stolen cash. Veronica wanted me to help her track down whoever killed her friends and get the money back. She said she’d help me if I did—get into my head for me. I tried. I wasn’t even with Katie on Sunday like I told you. I was trying to follow a lead that turned out to be nothing.” He groaned. “And I can’t believe I made up that lie about being with Katie at my place. It was the first plausible thing that popped into my head. But it was also the dumbest thing I could have said.”

  I almost laughed. “No, the alone-in-a-motel-room-with-Mishka thing tops it. But I did almost take Katie’s face off the other day. I’m just glad I didn’t act on the urge.”

  Daniel’s eyes went wide. He rolled over flat on his back, I guess deciding not to pursue that line of conversation. “The lead I followed was a total dead end. I never did figure out who attacked that coven.”

  “Um … Well, I’ve got good news and bad …,” I said, and then I told him the story about what happened at that house that day. How terrified I’d been the first time I saw Talbot cut off someone’s head, and then how he had staked Mishka with a chair leg just before she almost killed me. And then, in an effort to be truly honest, I told Daniel about how Talbot had taught me to heal the burns on my face.

  “I can see why you were attracted to him,” Daniel said. “You always go for the dangerous guys.”

  “Yes, but I only love you,” I said.

  And then we fell silent for a long, long while.

  I must have drifted off to sleep at some point, because my eyes popped open when I heard a shout and a scuffle outside the door. The first thought I had was that Jude must have come to his senses and was trying to rescue us. I sat bolt upright, but then I realized there was no noise at all.

  “Are you okay?” Daniel asked. His voice cracked a bit. If he was like me, he was probably getting parched. It had been several hours since I’d had anything to eat or drink.

  “Yeah, it must have just been a dream.”

  “I had one, too,” Daniel said. He was quiet for a minute. “Do you think after Trenton, we could get married and settle down in an apartment in New York City or somewhere? I could be an industrial designer, and you could fight crime like a part-time ninja assassin.”

  I almost laughed, but then I stopped myself, because I knew it would come out as a sob. I was quiet for a while as I composed myself. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, that would be awesome.”

  I heard Daniel’s chains rattle as he changed positions. I took a deep breath and concentrated some power into my eyes until my night vision returned. I found Daniel kneeling on the concrete in front of me. I didn’t know if he could see me in the dark, but he had one of his special smiles—the one that said he was truly happy—on his lips.

  “So you’ll do it?” he asked.

  “Do what?”

  Daniel shifted so he was on only one knee now.

  “Wha
t the hell are you doing?”

  “Grace Divine, when all this crap is over, and we’re out of college, and you take some time off from kicking bad-guy butt, will you marry me?”

  He might as well have just kicked me in the chest the way all my breath seeped out of me and my heart seemed to stop beating. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m as serious as I’ve ever been.”

  I laid my head against the concrete floor, unable to respond. What did he think he was doing? How could he ask me to make promises for a future we had no chance of having? Didn’t he know how this ripped my heart in two?

  “Yes,” I finally whispered, because even though I knew our getting married would never happen now, I wanted him to be happy—if only for a moment.

  I rolled over and closed my eyes. I willed myself not to fall asleep again. I didn’t want to dream about rescue again. No more fantasizing about my life beyond the next few hours. Instead, I pictured Daniel going off to Trenton, then moving into that apartment on his own and becoming a designer.

  I wasn’t leaving here, but if I could help it, Daniel would. Maybe I could create enough of a diversion to give Daniel a chance to escape. Maybe Caleb would be thrown off guard enough by my choice to die that Daniel could find a chance to get away. Maybe someone could be bribed to help us—if only we had something to bribe him with.

  I reached my hand out toward Daniel, still unable to touch him. “Will you promise me something? A real promise. Not the kind that gets broken.”

  “Okay,” Daniel said hesitantly.

  “Promise me that if you get a chance to escape, you’ll take it. No matter what.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’m going to leave you behind.”

  “But what if it’s too late for me—”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “But what if it does? If it’s too late for me, and you get a chance to run, promise me you’ll get away from here as fast as you can? You won’t hesitate, or look back? You’ll run to my family and take them someplace safe?”

  “Yes,” Daniel said. “But only—”

  A loud clanking noise cut him off, and the door slid open. Eight of Caleb’s boys entered the room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  In the Lion’s Den

  A MOMENT LATER

  They were all shirtless, Caleb’s pack. I didn’t know why. Maybe just to show off their impressive muscles or the SK tattoos on their shoulders or biceps. Three came to me, and another three went to Daniel. The last two yanked Gabriel up from where he lay.

  One unlocked my shackles while the others held me tight. I kicked and flailed, as did Daniel, but Gabriel didn’t resist as they dragged us out of the dungeonlike room. They walked us up a flight of stairs. I went limp and refused to move, hoping my resistance might create some type of distraction for the others, but one of my captors merely grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I could see the rippling muscles down his back, but I still knew where he was vulnerable. I was about to slam my fists into his kidneys when another guy grabbed my hands and held them in an iron-tight grip.

  Gelal, I thought, sizing him up. This one I could kill if I needed to. But the one holding me was most definitely Urbat. He stank like a rabid dog.

  My ride flipped me over when we got to the top of the stairs, and tossed me to the ground. I didn’t hesitate and scrambled to my feet, but then two of the guys were holding me again. Jude stood there watching the whole thing, unmoved. Caleb stepped out of his room and met us on the balcony overlooking the warehouse floor. An evil grin spread across his face.

  “I hope you two enjoyed your time together. I know we enjoyed watching it.”

  One of the guys holding me laughed.

  The security camera. Of course, they had been watching.

  “It was quite touching, watching you two blather on about true love and all that rot. Although perhaps we should have made your chains longer. Some of us were hoping for a little skin after that kiss.” He gave me a once-over with his eyes that made me want to vomit. His gaze lingered on my legs, making me wish my dress were about four feet longer. “Although I’ll have more time for exploring that later.”

  Three more of the guys laughed. They sounded like sick hyenas.

  Daniel thrashed in his captors’ hands. “Don’t you dare touch her!” he shouted at his father.

  “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be gentle—at first. It’s been a while since we’ve had a girl in our home.”

  “Probably because they don’t last long once you get your paws on them,” Talbot growled from the shadows just beyond Caleb. I noticed him there for the first time, his hands tied with cording and two of Caleb’s Akhs holding him. The last time I’d seen Talbot, he’d been the guard at our door. Why was he tied up now?

  “That’s why I wouldn’t bring her to you,” Talbot said. “You don’t deserve to have her.”

  Caleb snapped his long fingers, and one of Talbot’s captors punched him in the gut. Talbot doubled over and coughed.

  “Talbot was supposed to turn you during the last couple weeks. He usually has a talent for it. But apparently you have more influence over him than he had over you. That’s one of the reasons I decided to wait until this morning to turn you myself. Not only is anticipation one of the best parts of the game, but I also wanted to see who was still loyal to me. I expected one of them to try to free you last night, only I’d expected it to be your brother, not my own beta.”

  So that was why Talbot was tied up again. He’d tried to rescue us. Perhaps that commotion I’d heard at the door hadn’t been a dream after all. Yet my own brother stood by Caleb’s side, unrestrained, unwilling, unwanting to do anything. Maybe I’d been wrong about there still being good in him.

  “There is something special about you.” Caleb stepped close enough so I could smell his scent of alcohol and wolf. He ran one of his fingers down my cheek and then along the vein pulsing in my neck. “It’s like you inspire devotion in the most unlikely places. I was right to choose you. You’ll be an excellent alpha female when I make you my mate.”

  “That will never happen,” I said as if stating scientific fact. I wouldn’t give Caleb the satisfaction of my sounding angry or scared. I’d be dead before he could touch me again anyway. “And you are no true alpha. But Daniel is.”

  Or was: the realization dawned on me. Now it all made sense, the reason Caleb would go through all this trouble to find and destroy him before the challenging ceremony. It was the same reason Caleb had hated Daniel from the moment he was born. Daniel had been born with the essence of the true alpha. He was the person Gabriel had been talking about when he said he’d thought there had been another true alpha besides Sirhan—only he wasn’t so sure Daniel still had that potential now that he was cured … or, er, everything was confused. But Caleb wasn’t taking any chances. If Daniel was a true alpha, then he was the one person who could ruin Caleb’s opportunity to take over Sirhan’s pack.

  “Daniel’s got more potential for being an alpha in his little finger than you’ll ever have. That’s why you hate him, isn’t it? Because he’s everything you’re not.”

  Caleb shoved his face into mine, his nostrils flaring, his yellow eyes squinted. He spread out his fingers in front of my throat, like he wanted to strangle me with his bare hand. But then he grabbed my moonstone pendant and ripped it from my neck with such force it made my head jut forward and then snap back.

  He threw the pendant against the concrete wall, and I watched it burst into black bits of shattered hope. I tried to scramble for one of the pieces, but I couldn’t break free from the arms that held me. I’d been counting on the moonstone buying me a few minutes of balance.

  “It’s time to finish the game.” He snapped at the two guys holding me like they were trained mutts. “Throw her in the pit.”

  I didn’t kick or scream or thrash this time when the two guys picked me up. Without my moonstone necklace, I couldn’t risk getting worked up
at all.

  My time was over.

  I held perfectly still and let them carry me to the edge of the balcony. I looked at Daniel one last time. He was thrashing, with four guys holding him back. But he stopped for a moment, like he could feel my gaze on him. He looked up at me with tears flowing from his eyes.

  “I’ll love you always,” I said to him as the two guys pitched me headfirst over the side of the balcony.

  “No!” I heard Daniel shout.

  I’d wanted to fall. Just let my head crack against the concrete floor twenty feet below. But my instincts kicked in, and my body twisted midair. I landed with a head-over-heels roll and bounced back up on my feet. My left ankle faltered a bit under me, but I pretended not to notice.

  I stood alone on the warehouse floor.

  “You’re going to have to do better than that,” I shouted back at Caleb.

  He leaned out over the balcony railing. “Oh, we’re just getting started, girl.”

  The ground rumbled under my feet, sending a shooting pain through my tender ankle. A large garage-type door slowly opened on the far side of the warehouse. The rumbling groan of the door was accompanied by a chorus of growls.

  “You see, Grace Divine, the wolf has quite the instinct for self-preservation. Threaten it enough, and you won’t be able to stop it from breaking through.”

  The door continued to rise, revealing a line of six growling werewolves. Their eyes rolling and their teeth bared, they crouched, ready to pounce into action. They looked like the only thing holding them back was a signal from Caleb. He held his finger up, as if he had more to say before he sicced his Dogs of Death on me.

  “Do your worst,” I shouted at Caleb. “But this I promise you: I’ll die before I’ll fall.”

  “You’ll fall, girl,” Caleb snarled at me. “You’ll fall so hard and so far, I’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to see when you look up from the glorious hole you’ve made out of your life. And then you’ll belong to me.”