“That’s perfect!” she squealed. “Exactly the look I was going for. So innocent, yet so kick-A at the same time. Like Little Red Riding Hood meets Wonder Woman.”
“Huh.” I stared at myself in the mirror for a second—tiny blue gingham dress, red cloak, long curly hair, high-heeled boots, and silver cuff bracelet. “Well, this is probably the last time I’ll be allowed out of my house, so I might as well go out with a bang.”
AT THE FESTIVAL, JUST BEFORE SUNSET
Wow. I have to say that Daniel and Katie outdid themselves with the designs for the posters and decorations for the Halloween festival. It was like Tim Burton had swept into Rose Crest and transformed Main Street into the set of one of his movies. All the booths were swathed in bright-colored fabrics, and the posters had been printed with a spidery style of writing that had to be Daniel’s doing. I hoped Katie had a whole committee helping her with the actual setup, since Daniel was still nowhere to be found.
Cars, each decorated with a different theme, lined the street for trunk-or-treating. And by the looks of the costume-clad crowd already filling the sidewalks, checking out the concession booths and games, the whole town was probably going to turn out for the event.
Mr. Day stood in front of the market, dressed like an old-timey shopkeeper, passing out coupons in honor of the grand reopening. He beamed at April and me as we walked by with our baskets of refreshments. The store was already packed with customers.
Mom was so busy ordering everyone around that she didn’t even notice my costume at first, and by the time she did, April and I were already manning the caramel-apple booth. I could tell by the look on her face that if I hadn’t been surrounded at the time by half of the ladies from the Sunday school board, she probably would have thrown a massive fit and sent me home. Luckily, Mrs. Ellsworth, bouncing her fairy-princess baby on her hip, smiled and said, “Don’t you look adorable?”
But then again, that comment was probably directed at Baby James in his wolf suit as he pulled on the hem of my dress while begging me to take him through the trunk-or-treat to get some candy.
I scooped him up in one arm and then grabbed a basket of caramel apples in the other. “I’m going to take James trick-or-treating and try to sell some of these along the way.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. She patted her forehead with her long kimono sleeve and then counted out change for Amber Clark and her boyfriend. “But don’t let him get too much candy.”
Baby James and I set out along the street. “Just me and my big bad wolf,” I said, and set him down with his trick-or-treat bag. James made a little growling noise and then took off running for the first car in the trunk-or-treat. I followed after him with my basket. We stopped at each car, and everyone fawned over James and his cuteness, and I sold a caramel apple for every third piece of candy he collected. I had only about half a dozen left when we made it to the end of Main Street. We were about to cross and go up the other side when Charity and a couple of her friends came bounding up to me to buy apples.
I handed out three and was counting their money while James pulled on my dress, trying to force me to cross the street toward more candy, when I heard another customer ask, “How much?” from behind me.
“Two dollars each,” I said, and handed Angela Leonard three dollars back.
“Thanks,” she said.
“But what if I want the whole basket of goodies?” the customer behind me said.
I looked over my shoulder and almost dropped my basket. “Talbot?”
He stood there in a yellow-and-blue flannel shirt and faded blue jeans, but he was without his customary baseball cap. He had a slight smile on his face, but his green eyes seemed serious and concerned.
“What are you doing here?”
“Just checking out the festival,” he said, and winked at Charity and her friends. Then he leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “I need you to come with me, Grace. Right now.”
“What? I can’t. I’ve got my brother.”
James pulled on my hand and pointed in the direction of more candy, making his little growling noise.
“Oh. My. Gosh,” Mimi Dutton said. “You guys are so cute. Look, Angela, they’re Little Red, the wolf, and the woodsman.” She pointed at Talbot last.
Talbot cracked a smile, then cocked his head like he was pointing in the direction that he wanted me to go. Come now, he mouthed.
Charity gave me a funny look. “Where’s Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
Talbot put his hand on my arm. “Excuse us, little ladies,” he said to Charity and her friends. “Grace, I need your help with something.”
James wailed and started to dart for the street. I bolted forward and caught him by the hood of his wolf suit.
“Whoa,” Charity said. “That was fast.”
I gave myself a little shake—I hadn’t meant to use my powers. I picked up James, and he kicked my legs and whined for candy.
“Charity, will you take him?”
“But Mom said I could hang with my friends. I’m not the one who’s grounded.”
“Just for a few minutes, okay?” I looked up at Talbot. “We’ll be right back, right?”
“Sure,” he said, and nodded to Charity. “I just need your sis for a minute.”
“Whatever.” Charity grabbed James out of my arms and let him drag her across the street toward Gabriel—dressed like a monk—who was handing out Snickers bars from a plastic cauldron.
I slipped around the corner with Talbot before Gabriel could see me with him. “What’s going on?”
Talbot grabbed my arm. “We have to get out of here,” he said. “You and me. Right now.”
“What? Why?”
“There’s no time to explain. We just need to go.” He grabbed my arm, his hand like a vise over my elbow, and led me into the parking lot behind Lyman’s Hardware. The lot was packed with cars, but we were the only people there. “We need to get out of here before they find you.”
Talbot pulled me toward his old blue truck, double-parked under a lamppost that shone in the dusky dimness of the evening. I could see from here that the back of his truck was loaded up with what looked like camping gear. I stopped dead, digging the heels of my boots into the asphalt, and pulled my arm out of his grasp. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”
“They’re coming for you, Grace,” he said. His words sounded just like Jude when he called with his warning. “You’re in danger. The Shadow Kings are coming here. Right now. And I can’t stop them. They’ll tear this town apart until they find you. But maybe we can run. Drive as far away from here as we can get and then maybe hide out in the woods. I don’t know. We just need to go.”
“They’re coming here? Right here? I have to warn my family.”
“There’s no time!”
“My sister’s out there with my baby brother, and my parents. Not to mention the whole town. If the Shadow Kings are coming here, then I need to warn them. I need to find Gabriel or my dad.” I turned and was about to bolt out of the parking lot.
“Don’t!”
Talbot lunged at me. He grabbed my cloak and jerked me back toward him. I yelped and dropped my basket. Caramel apples spilled out around our feet.
“I don’t care about them,” he said. “You’re the only thing that matters.”
“They’re my family!” How can he not want me to warn them? And there was no way I was going to leave Baby James unprotected. I’d promised him that. “I’m not going to leave them in danger.”
“Just get in the damn truck,” Talbot said, and clamped his hand over my wrist, making my silver bracelet dig into my skin. He started to yank me toward his car, but before he could finish the movement, he yelped and let go of my arm.
I looked at his hand. A red welt the width of my bracelet blistered up on his open palm. The silver had burned him.
“Talbot?” I backed away. I’d thought all along that he was like me. An Urbat who hadn’t change
d yet. Now it was clear that wasn’t true.
Talbot looked at his hand and then back at me. His eyes glinted with light from the streetlamp. A low growl escaped his lips. “Just get in the truck, Grace. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
I took another step back. The heel of my boot slipped a bit on the gravel under my feet. “What’s going on? Who are you?”
“Someone who can’t be trusted,” said a familiar voice from somewhere nearby.
I whirled around and watched with disbelief as a tall, broad-shouldered guy stepped out from between two vans in the parking lot. He looked so different, yet so similar at the same time. His once short hair had grown out past his chin, and he had at least three days’ worth of stubble on his normally clean-cut face. It gave him the look of a house pet gone feral.
“Jude?”
Talbot let out a sudden curse and clamped his uninjured hand around my elbow. “We have to go, now!”
“Move away from him, Grace.” Jude held his hand out to me. “Get as far away from Talbot as you can.”
“You know each other?” I looked up at Talbot, who was crouched a bit, with his lips curled back from his teeth in a snarl. He looked like a wolf trying to ward off an intruder from encroaching on his prey. “You said you didn’t know him.”
“Don’t listen to a thing he says,” Talbot growled.
Jude laughed. “Talbot lies, Grace. That’s his thing. He makes you think you can trust him, but you can’t.”
Talbot’s the one Jude was trying to warn me about when he called? How was that even possible?
“He’s a real grifter,” Jude said.
My memory flashed to what that Gelal had said just before … just before Talbot had burst into the room and interrupted him: If you want to find the pack, then why don’t you ask their Keeper? He’s a real grifter, don’t you think?
Grifter? Didn’t that mean con artist? And Keeper? I’d heard that word before, too. Gabriel had said it. A Keeper was a beta of a werewolf pack.
My stomach felt like I’d dropped a hundred feet on a roller coaster. “You’re one of them,” I said to Talbot. “You’re one of the Shadow Kings.” I tried to pull away from his grasp, but he wouldn’t let go of my arm.
“Get in the truck!” He slammed me against the passenger’s-side door. “We need to go now, before the rest of them—”
A loud howl ripped through the night—several howls, actually. Talbot looked around frantically for the source of the sound. His grip loosened on my arm.
“Gracie, come here!” Jude shouted.
I kicked Talbot in the shin with my pointed heel, pulled out of his grasp, and ran toward my brother. Jude grabbed me in a quick embrace, then slid open the door to one of the nearby vans and pushed me inside. “You’ll be safe in here,” he said, and slammed the door closed behind me.
There were two guys in the front seat of the van. I ignored them and crawled to the back so I could see through the rear window. I peeked out just as four guys appeared seemingly out of nowhere and rushed at Talbot. He took a swing at one of them, but then he disappeared from my view as the four guys converged on him at once. I heard him shout with pain. I fell back from the window. A few seconds later the van door slid open. Jude climbed in. Two other guys followed, dragging Talbot’s limp body in with them. They dumped him on the floor. His eyes were closed. Blood oozed from a gash in his forehead. I knew I was supposed to be afraid of him, but I still couldn’t help being concerned by his shallow breathing.
“What are you doing with him?” I asked Jude. “What’s going on?”
“We’re delivering him to the alpha.” Jude kicked Talbot’s prostrate body with his booted foot. Then he looked back at me, his eyes glowing bright. “Along with you, little sis.”
“What?”
One of the guys who’d carried Talbot in lunged at me. I tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go. He grabbed me by the throat, and the last thing I remembered seeing were the letters S and K tattooed on his knuckles right before his fist slammed into my forehead and everything went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Were-House
IN A DARK, DARK HALLWAY
I woke up with a splitting headache and the sensation of being carried by someone—cradled in his arms like a puppy. Which I imagined was preferable to the way the two burly guys beside me dragged Talbot by his arms along the concrete floor.
I could tell by the faint moaning noise that emanated from his mouth that he was somewhat conscious. But not conscious enough to help heal his wounds, since blood still oozed from the gash in his forehead, matted in his eyebrows, and dripped into his eyes. For some reason it really bothered me that no one wiped the blood from his face.
I was still woozy, and I tried to lift my arms to brush my hair out of my face—and that was when I realized my hands were bound behind my back with some kind of cording. I tried to move my legs, but they were bound, too. I started to struggle against the arms that held me, but they only squeezed me tighter—I wasn’t being cradled; I was being held captive.
Faint music vibrated from somewhere nearby—voices, too. I tried to shout, but my tongue felt thick and heavy. I tasted blood in my mouth. I must have bitten my tongue when that Gelal knocked me out. But I could still taste the sourness of Gelal, the distinct smell of dog, and the bile-inducing stench of Akh. The mixture was so foul I almost contemplated biting my tongue harder.
Instead, I mustered up what little human strength I had and screamed, as loud and as long as I could. When I was done, the only reaction I heard was one of the guys next to me laughing.
“They won’t hear you over the music,” Jude said. I realized now he was the one carrying me. “And even if they did, no one would care. The Shadow Kings own this place.”
“Where are we?”
Jude didn’t answer. But we were underground—that much I could tell from the weight of the air and the utter lack of natural light. Just a few bare bulbs hung from the ceiling, casting sinister shadows along the corridor. We turned a corner, and the music died away. Then we went through a doorway and into what seemed to be a freight elevator.
Are we in a warehouse?
The elevator jostled to a start and traveled in an upward motion. The gatelike door opened, and Jude carried me out of the elevator. The air felt lighter here but smelled much worse. I blinked at the harsh fluorescent lights, taking in the sounds and sights around me. There was a staircase above us, and as Jude carried me around it, I looked up and saw that the stairs led to a balcony and an upper office with darkened windows.
In front of me was an expansive room that appeared to be part warehouse, part frat house. The center of the room was empty, but a plasma TV about the size of a truck stood in the corner. It was surrounded by sofas and beanbag chairs. Nearby was a pool table, and along the opposite wall was a tall row of warehouse shelving. Four shelves high, and five shelves wide. Each was covered in a thin mattress and blanket—like someone had made bunk beds out of them.
But what startled me most were the fourteen or so teenage guys who filled those sofas and beanbags, lounged on the bunk beds, and played pool. I recognized one of the guys at the pool table as the rough-looking gamer who had gotten into a fight with that Tyler kid over a video game at The Depot. The one who had probably killed him.
Jude shouted something that sounded like a command, and suddenly all the guys in the room dropped what they were doing and jumped up. They stood at attention like soldiers whose captain had just entered their barracks.
My wolfy senses were already tingling, but my whole body shuddered with foreboding as I surveyed the pack of guys. At least four of them were Akhs—I could tell from their talonlike fingernails—and based on the smell, at least five of them were Gelals. I guessed that made the remaining six Urbats.
This was it. I’d found the gang—just not in the way I had intended.
I was a prisoner in the den of the Shadow Kings.
Most of the guys stood stiff l
ike large, tattooed boards, with their heads bowed. Others looked somewhat alarmed at the sight of Talbot and the way the Gelal dragged him to the center of the room. The smallest of the boys, who had been playing a video game on a giant TV, looked like he was barely fourteen. He locked eyes with me for a moment, curiosity painting his expression, but then he turned away when Jude growled at him.
Jude carried me to the center of the warehouse floor and dumped me unceremoniously on the ground. I landed hard, unable to brace myself, next to Talbot, who knelt with his head bowed so low it almost touched the floor.
“We’ve returned, Father,” Jude shouted in the direction of the balcony that overlooked the warehouse floor. “And it was just as I thought. Talbot was trying to help her escape.”
I glanced sideways at Talbot, not wanting to take my full sight off the shadowed balcony above us. Had he really been trying to help me?
Talbot’s shoulders sagged, but then he lifted his chin and looked up to the balcony. The cut on his forehead had finally started to heal. “Jude was wrong,” he called to whomever was up there. “I was bringing the girl to you. It was Jude’s interference that almost helped her get away.” He pushed himself up as tall as he could on his knees. “I would never fail you, Father. I have served you faithfully for many months. I watched the girl for weeks, as you commanded. Set up this whole charade. Got rid of her original teacher when he started to ask too many questions. Disposed of the van driver she was supposed to work with and took his place. She trusted me, and I had her right where we wanted her.” He lifted his chin with pride. “I am your Keeper—your most devoted. How could some worthless girl change that? She is nothing to me.”
Talbot’s words burned. This situation was horrid enough, but hearing what he really thought about me—realizing all he’d done—felt like pouring acid on a fresh cut. Talbot was probably the one who had tried to kill Pete Bradshaw. But for what purpose, I didn’t know. And what had he done with my real driver and poor Mr. Shumway?