I was surprised Daniel was the one arguing on Talbot’s behalf. He knew what Talbot had tried to do to keep him from coming back. Talbot owed Daniel big-time for what he did. How could Daniel be so forgiving?
I thought about what Gabriel had said to me about forgiving people their debts. Could I really move on and let Talbot back into my inner circle again?
“I don’t know.”
Talbot pulled off his eye mask and stared at me. “Please, Gracie? Forgive me.”
I’d always been too trusting. Always tried to see the good in people. Was that a fault or a blessing? A weakness, answered the wolf. I didn’t know if I could trust myself to make the right choice at this moment.…
“It’s up to you,” I said to Daniel. “You’re the one he really crossed.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Truce, then.” Daniel offered the sword to Talbot again. “I gotta get me one of these.”
“Take it,” Talbot said, still staring at me. Why was he looking at me like that? Was he angry that I hadn’t been the one to forgive him? “I’ve got more than one.”
Daniel nodded in acceptance. He grabbed his now hole-ridden black coat and used it to wipe traces of Gelal acid from the blade, with a loving look on his face.
Talbot finally broke his gaze with me, but I could still feel the tension between us.
“Well, hey, how come you never gave me a sword?” I asked, trying to lighten things up. “I get stuck with a lousy stick with sparkles, and the boys get the fancy swords?” I held up the gooey nubbin, all that was left of my BeDazzled wooden stake. “Not. Fair.”
“I can get you one, too, kid.” Talbot smirked. “I just always thought you preferred the feel of wood in your hand.”
Daniel slammed his fist into Talbot’s stomach. Talbot doubled over, coughing.
“Just ’cause we have a truce doesn’t mean you can talk to my girlfriend that way,” Daniel said, but he had one of his devious smiles on his face.
I dropped my stake and took Daniel’s free hand in mine. I walked him to the exit before the two of them could get into a pissing contest or something—because I wouldn’t put it past either of them at the moment.
Daniel turned back to Talbot, who still rubbed at his abs. “Come by the house tomorrow. I want to know everything you know about Caleb and the Shadow Kings.”
Talbot nodded. That strange look passed over his eyes again. Perhaps it was just gratitude at the idea of being included in my life again?
OUTSIDE THE MAZE
Daniel and I made our way back to the farmhouse. To my surprise, the party had all but emptied out. Just a few dazed and confused teens milling about, experiencing the effects of coming out of a trance.
“Are the rest of the Akhs gone?” I asked.
“They must have smelled the dust in the air. That’s as good as yelling ‘police’ at a normal rave.”
“Good,” I said. I wouldn’t have felt like I could leave, knowing people like Katie were still being fed off of by demons. “I’m worried about Zach and Ryan. Do you think we should have gone after them?”
“No, I doubt they’re doing much more than running around that maze, swinging their stakes. Let them have some fun.”
I gave Daniel a wry smile.
“What?” he asked.
“I feel like we’re their parents or something.” I laughed. “I guess in a way we are. Us being their alphas and all. Just our boys are headed off to kill demons instead of their first day of school.”
“Hmm. That’s kind of the problem, isn’t it?” Daniel said under his breath, and looked down at the sword he’d tucked into his belt. A solemn quiet I didn’t expect after all that excitement seemed to fill the air around him. We walked in silence until we reached the Corolla. “I was impressed by the way you handled yourself out there,” Daniel said as he opened the passenger door for me. “You seemed so balanced. I didn’t have to worry once about you losing control.”
“Huh,” I said, brushing the moonstone pendant with my fingers as I took it off and handed it back to Daniel. “You know, I didn’t hear the wolf’s voice once during the fight.” The only time I had heard it was when I couldn’t decide what to do about Talbot’s truce. Keeping the wolf’s voice away seemed to be getting easier since I’d prayed for help at the hospital. I’d been hearing it less and less.
Daniel shut my door and got in on his side.
“What about you? Are you okay?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“You were amazing in there. Like seriously, freaking amazing.” I poked him in the side. “Even with a bad arm! And you’re always going on about not being a hero? Whatever, that was awesome.”
“I don’t feel like a hero.” He gripped the steering wheel hard as he pulled out of the parking lot. “No matter what, I still feel like a monster.”
“You. Are. Not. A. Monster. We saved a lot of lives tonight. You saved them. That seems like the definition of a hero to me.”
“But how did I save them?” The muscles in Daniel’s throat tensed. I could see the pulse of his veins. “By killing. I hate that. Even though I’ve changed, transformed into whatever I am now, I’m still just a Death Dog. That’s what I do: I deal death.”
I sat back in my seat. Quiet. Not sure how to counter his words. Words he’d said with so much despair and disdain it made me ache.
I stared far out the window as we drove along the old country road away from Frightmare Farms. I hoped to never see that place again. Daniel stopped the car when we came to a red light at the intersection for the main highway. He flipped on the blinker to go left. A sign at the T-shaped intersection pointed one way toward Rose Crest, and the other way to Apple Valley and then on to the city. I couldn’t help thinking of my dad at City Hospital. I’d been so wrapped up in Daniel’s return and learning about Pete’s undeath, I hadn’t been there to see him yet today. But the thought of watching him lying there in that hospital bed again was almost too much to bear.…
Until an idea hit me and I sprang forward in my seat.
“Death is not the only thing you have to give. I’ll prove it to you.” I pointed at the intersection. “Turn right.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going to the hospital.”
Daniel glanced at me with confusion, but he took the right turn anyway.
“I’m going to show you what you can really do. Who you really are.”
It was time. I may have failed before, but I knew that, hand in hand with Daniel, we could do what needed to be done. What we were meant to do together.
Chapter Twenty-four
GIFTS OF THE HEART
AT THE HOSPITAL, AROUND TWO THIRTY A.M.
I pulled the clothes we’d changed out of at April’s house from the trunk of the Corolla. Daniel and I took turns changing in the backseat while the other stood outside the car. Getting past the nurses’ desk at the ICU was going to be hard enough this time of night without our parading in there looking like a couple of emo-bandits. Plus, if my plan worked, I didn’t want my outfit to put my dad into cardiac arrest. I’d had enough of this hospital for a lifetime.
Getting past the nurses’ desk posed even more of a problem than I’d thought it would—even in my nice-girl ensemble. The ICU allowed visitors at night, but that didn’t change the fact that I was minor and not allowed there after dark without a chaperone—as the nurse at the front desk reminded me.
“But he’s over eighteen,” I said about Daniel. “Can’t he be my chaperone? We’re not staying overnight. Just give us twenty minutes. That’s all I need.” I made the saddest face I could possibly muster, wishing I had the talent to cry on demand. “I just need to see my dad. Pleeeease?”
The nurse didn’t seem amused. “Your friend may be over eighteen, but only family is allowed.”
“Maybe we should come back in the morning?” Daniel whispered, so soft only I could hear it.
I shook my head. I didn’t know if I??
?d be able to work up this much courage again. If we were going to do this, it had to be tonight.
I grabbed Daniel’s hand, lacing my fingers with his. “But he’s my fiancé,” I said. “I’ve read your visiting policies. That’s allowed.”
Daniel glanced at me, his eyes wide with surprise. Or perhaps shock. He looked away again, and I couldn’t get a read on his expression.
My heart sank a bit. So he really doesn’t remember what happened?
I squeezed his hand as if to say, Just play along with me. Daniel’s hand clasped mine a little tighter in response.
“Just happened,” Daniel said, rocking on his heels. “We came to tell her father the good news. Even if he’s unconscious, we wanted him to be the first to hear it. Besides you now, of course.” Daniel flashed her one of his most charming smiles, and even though the nurse had to be twenty years his senior, and clearly wasn’t buying the story, I could tell that she wasn’t going to be able to say no to him.
“Twenty minutes. That is all. You stay a minute longer, and I’ll call security. You don’t want to get barred from the ICU for the rest of your father’s stay.”
“Thank you,” I said as she handed me a couple of visitor badges. She glanced at my hand as I reached for them, no doubt searching for an engagement ring on my finger. I pulled Daniel along the hall as fast as I could without running before the nurse could change her mind about letting us in.
When we got to Dad’s room, I pulled the curtain partway closed over the sliding glass door the way Gabriel had. “We’re here to help you, Daddy,” I said, turning toward my still-unconscious father. Daniel stood quiet and still by his bedside, and I remembered that this was the first time he’d seen him in his injured state.
“I almost can’t recognize him,” he said with a catch in his voice. The swelling in Dad’s face had gone down considerably, but the bruising was much more pronounced. Like his whole face had been blotted with blackish-purple dye. “I’m glad you brought me to see him. But I don’t understand why we’re here, or what this has to do with me. How could I possibly help him?”
“We’re going to heal him.”
Daniel looked even more shocked now than he had when I announced our engagement. “How?”
I explained what we were about to do, using Gabriel’s almost exact wording so I wouldn’t get it wrong. Daniel still had that shocked but solemn look on his face, but he nodded along like he understood.
“You need to clear your head,” I said again after the explanation. “The first time I tried this with Gabriel, I wasn’t able to push away my negative thoughts, and I ended up hurting my father more. I was afraid to ever try it again, but I had to use a similar method to turn you back into a human, and that worked. Now that I have you to help me, I believe it will work for my father, too.”
“I’m not sure I’m the best person—”
“You’re the only person.” I looked deep into Daniel’s eyes. “I need you to accept who you are. You’re a Hound of Heaven, not a Dog of Death. Yes, part of your calling is to kill demons—only to protect the innocent—but this right here is what we were truly meant for. What the original Urbat were created for. Something only Urbat like you and I can do. Because we haven’t lost our capacity to love. That’s what we have to give the world.”
I could see the struggle in Daniel’s eyes. The fight to accept what I was telling him against what he’d come to believe about himself.
“You’re not a monster. Not anymore. You came back something different. And deep down, I think you know what that is.”
Like an angel.
I leaned in and kissed Daniel softly on the lips. When I pulled away, he closed his eyes for a moment so I could no longer see the battle in his head. Then he stood a little straighter and nodded. “I think you’re right,” he said, opening his eyes again. What I saw there was a solid look of determination.
“Are you ready to do this with me?”
“Yes. Anything for you.” He glanced at my father. “For him.”
Daniel held his hands out to me. We stood side by side next to the hospital bed, and I placed Daniel’s hands on my father’s chest. “Concentrate on the positive. You need to channel all your good energy and love.”
Daniel closed his eyes, and so did I. I found myself digging deep down into my memory, pulling up every positive recollection of my father, and focused those thoughts into my hands. Only a few seconds passed before I could feel the energy buzzing between my hands and Daniel’s. It swelled and pulsed, growing in intensity. One of my memories of my father suddenly shifted to an image I didn’t remember at all—one of Daniel sitting in a chair across from my father at his desk in his office. They were alone, and I realized this wasn’t one of my memories at all. It was one of Daniel’s. We were connected once again. The images were murky, but I watched as my father told Daniel that he was going to help him find the cure to the werewolf curse, and I felt the gratitude Daniel experienced in that moment. The connection continued, and I saw little clips of Daniel’s life. And then I saw myself in one of his memories. Saw who I was to him from his mind’s eye, and I wondered how I could have ever doubted the way he felt about me.
My heart swelled with love, and a great burst of power ricocheted through every cell in my body, engulfing me until I didn’t know if I could hold it in any longer. With a great surge, all of that energy rushed through me, into Daniel’s hands, and then into my father. And then I felt myself let go of Daniel’s hands, and then I was falling. Collapsing next to the bed—only to be caught in Daniel’s arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked, cradling me against him. “That was intense.”
“Yes,” I tried to say, but my voice barely made a noise. I didn’t even have the strength to open my eyes.
A shrill chorus of beeping noises filled my ears. At first I didn’t know where they came from, but then with a shock of horror I realized it was the sound of every single one of my father’s monitor alarms. Indicating something was terribly wrong.
“Holy shit,” Daniel whispered.
I’d been so sure I could do this. So sure it would work this time like it had for Daniel. What have I done?
“Holy shit,” Daniel practically shouted. I felt the shift of his body as he turned me toward my father. “Look, Grace.”
I forced my eyes open, even though they wanted to stay clamped shut—afraid to see what damage I must have caused to send all those monitors into such a frenzy. But then I saw what it was, and I understood.
Dad was sitting there. Sitting up in his bed, and he’d pulled the oxygen mask from his face—both of which actions would have set off multiple alarms.
“Gracie?” he asked. “What happened? Where am I?”
I couldn’t believe it. He was awake. He was speaking. All the dark purple bruises on his face and arms had faded away.
“We did it.” Tears streamed from my eyes. “We actually did it.”
Daniel tried to set me on my feet, but I was too weak to stand, so he lifted me onto the bed, and I threw my arms around Dad’s neck. “You’re alive,” I said between happy sobs. “You’re alive, and you’re okay.”
Dad hugged me back. “Of course I’m alive. But what happened? Why am I here?”
Before I could answer his question, I heard the woosh of the sliding-glass door and an army of nurses swarmed into the room. “What’s going on here?” one of them shouted at me.
“Get away from him,” another nurse shouted, but then she stopped suddenly, staring at my father sitting up in his bed, looking perfectly healthy and uninjured.
She whispered something in what sounded like Spanish and made the sign of the cross in front of her chest and forehead. She went on in the language I didn’t quite understand, but I did catch something.
“A miracle,” she said. “It’s a miracle.”
Chapter Twenty-five
WORLDS COLLIDED
THURSDAY MORNING
You’d think a miracle would be cause for rejoicing in the
ICU. Instead, it brought on a barrage of questions for me and several not-pleasant-looking tests and scans for my father. The successful power transfer had left me completely drained of all energy, and Daniel and I spent the next several hours curled up in one of the waiting room sofas, drifting in and out of sleep.
I guess the nurse at the front desk decided to let us stay longer than twenty minutes, considering the circumstances, because it was just after seven in the morning when my father announced that he wanted to go home.
“I’d prefer to keep you here for observation,” the doctor, who had been pouring over lab results for the last hour, said to Dad. “Perhaps run a few more tests.”
“No more tests.” Dad groaned. “I feel like a pincushion.”
The doctor looked at the chart one more time. “We can’t find anything wrong with you, which means we can’t keep you here if you want to go. But I don’t advise it.…”
Dad pulled the heart-rate monitor from his finger. “You heard the woman, Grace. They can’t keep me here.”
Under normal circumstances, I would have protested Dad doing anything against his doctor’s advice, but in this case I knew more about his condition than anyone else in the hospital would be able to determine.
Daniel steadied me in his arms as I stood—my body was still a bit unstable and weak from the power transfer—and I took my father’s hand. “Let’s go home,” I said, feeling more joy at that moment than I’d thought possible a few days ago.
“There’s one more thing I want you to do before we leave,” Dad said as we approached the elevators. He reached out and pushed the Up button instead of the Down. I knew immediately what it was that he wanted.
“Dad?” I looked up at him. “I don’t know if I can.”
“You can do it, Gracie. You and Daniel healed me, so why can’t you do the same for your mother?”
“I don’t even know if my powers would work on someone like Mom.” So far, I’d only known the power to work on physical injuries. I had no idea if it had any effect on mental illness. For some reason, that just felt different. “And, I mean, what if Mom is the way she is because that’s God’s will for her?”