The Lost Saint (36 page)

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.”

“Oh, you always were a bossy little brat,” that eerie
voice said. “I never could stand you and that obnoxious little dog of yours. Do you have any idea how much I enjoyed watching your face when you found her dead on your porch? Almost as much fun as ripping out her throat.”

The man laughed and stepped out of the shadows. He had hair so blond it was practically white, a large cleft in his chin, and a crooked, evil smile. He looked almost exactly the same as the few times I’d seen him when I was a kid.

“You,” Daniel said under his breath, like he was cursing.

I shot a look at him. His face was so pale I thought he was in danger of passing out. My stomach clenched into a knot.

“Caleb Kalbi,” Gabriel said, “what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Finishing what should have been done the moment Daniel was born.” Caleb turned his murderous eyes on his son. “I should have smothered you before you took your first breath.” He stepped toward Daniel, his hand outstretched like he wanted to snap his neck.

“Don’t you touch him!” I shouted, and pulled against the guys holding my arms.

Caleb laughed. “Oh, you are a tasty treat. I can see why Talbot might hesitate bringing you in. I can imagine that he wanted you for himself.”

“Father,” Talbot said, “I told you, I was bringing her to you all along.”

“I am joking, my son,” Caleb said. “Only joking.”

My eyes flitted from Talbot to Caleb. Didn’t Gabriel tell me that Caleb was the one who was behind the attack on Talbot’s parents? Wouldn’t Talbot know this? How could he call Caleb Father? Why would he even be helping him? Then again, for all I knew now, Talbot’s entire story could have been fabricated. His being the last Saint Moon could be a total lie. Except the way Gabriel stared at him, as if looking at a ghost, made me wonder otherwise.

But before I could say anything, Caleb snapped his fingers, and the guys who held me let go of my arms and pushed me toward Caleb. I stumbled forward. Caleb grabbed my face with one of his hands, cupping my chin with his long fingers. His fingernails jabbed into my skin. I could barely hear Daniel shouting at his father over the pounding of my pulse in my ears. My muscles seared with a burning pain more intense than I’d ever endured before.

“It was nice of you to dress the part. Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.” He looked me over from head to toe. He trailed the fingers of his free hand down my arm, making my skin crawl under his touch. He leaned in, his mouth close to my ear. “My, what nice assets you have, my dear.”

“Better to burn you with,” I said, and swung my arm up with a flash of power and smashed my silver bracelet against the side of his cheek.

Caleb screamed. He let go of my face and slammed my arm away from him. A large angry burn blistered up along his cheekbone.

My arms went up in a defensive position, but before I could act, three of Caleb’s boys were on top of me, binding my arms and legs. I kicked and screamed and tried to flail as they forced me to my knees. Caleb glared down at me, rage burning in his eyes.

“Who let her wear silver in here?” Caleb shouted. “Tell me!”

He scanned the boys in the room. I could hear them all take in a breath. They all feared Caleb—their
father
, so to speak.

Jude stepped forward from beside Talbot, his head still bowed submissively. “I am sorry, Father. I did not realize her bracelet was a danger. I thought it was just a trinket with her costume.”

“Well, take it off her now!” Caleb roared.

Jude shot him a look, then ducked his head even lower and approached me. One of my captors held out my arm to him. I stopped struggling and tried to meet my brother’s eyes as he stooped in front of me. But he wouldn’t look at my face.

“I know there’s still good in you, Jude,” I whispered.
“You were always such a saint … and now you’re lost. But you’re still my brother. You wouldn’t have called to warn me if you didn’t still care.”

“I am
not
your brother,” Jude whispered angrily. “You betrayed me. This is my family now.” Jude’s hands hesitated over my bracelet, anticipating the burns.

“What kind of father would force you to hurt yourself?”

“
You
hurt me worse than any burn.” He snatched my bracelet off my wrist and cast it aside. He shook his hand as little blisters bubbled up on his fingertips.

“I love you,” I whispered. “I’m your sister. I want to take you home.”

Jude finally looked me in the eyes. His flashed with silver at first, but then softened into the violet eyes that were a mirror image of mine. My brother was in there somewhere. “Just don’t pull a stunt like that again, and you’ll be fine,” he whispered. “It’s Daniel he wants.”

“I can hear you,” Caleb said. “Superhearing, remember?”

“Sorry, Father.” Jude lowered his head and stepped aside as Caleb approached.

The welt across Caleb’s cheekbone had lessened some, but it was still a bright pink. He sneered in my direction, but then walked past me to Gabriel, who was held by only one guard now.

“I’m impressed,” Caleb said. “I set a trap for one
nuisance and ended up with two. It’s fitting that you’ll see what I’m going to do here. Since ultimately, this all comes down to you and your pack.”

“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked.

Caleb’s crooked smile danced on his lips. “We both know Sirhan is dying. And when he does, I’ll be there for the challenging ceremony.”

“You’re not wolf enough to show up there alone,” Gabriel said. I could practically hear the bluff in his voice. “You weren’t even wolf enough to try to kill Sirhan yourself. You made your little friends do it, and they ended up killing Rachel in the process. The pack doesn’t forgive easily.”

“I’m more wolf than you,” Caleb said. “You sit up on your mountain, teaching werewolves to go against their nature, to be peaceful. Thanks to you, they won’t be ready for the fight I’m bringing their way. As you’ve seen, I’ve been recruiting my own pack. And my boys and me, we’re coming to that challenging ceremony, and we’re taking over. We’ve collected enough money to buy off the other challengers, and we’re strong enough to fight anyone else. I’ll spit on Sirhan’s corpse before they lower it into the ground. I’ll have everything that should have been mine years ago. And the best part is that you’ll just stand by and watch it all happen, won’t you?”

Gabriel didn’t answer. He just stared at Caleb, as if unmoved by his admission.

So my fear had been right? Caleb wanted to take over Sirhan’s pack, and Gabriel was going to do nothing to stop him? If Caleb was capable of practically overrunning the city with fear as the leader of the Shadow Kings, what would happen if he became the alpha of the strongest pack in the country?

It would be Gevaudon all over again
.

Caleb’s eyes seemed to flash with satisfaction at Gabriel’s blank response. “Coward,” he said, and cuffed Gabriel across the forehead with his fist.

Gabriel grunted. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he went limp. His captor let go of him, and he crumpled to the ground. The Shadow Kings were apparently good at knocking people out with a single blow. I wondered if that was how they had pulled off so many crimes without eyewitnesses.

“Now, I just have one last thing to take care of.” Caleb turned around, smiling like a jackal, and approached Daniel. “I thought you were gone for good until Jude told me where to find you,” Caleb said to Daniel. “I was surprised you’d come back. Last I’d heard, you’d split town when I left with your mother. And then you just dropped off the map. I was hoping you were dead. I told your mother you were.”

Daniel almost flinched at the mention of his mother. It had been almost four years since she chose Caleb over him. “And where is she? I’m sure you have her on a leash around here somewhere.”

“I killed her.” Caleb pulled a short knife from a sheath on his belt. “With this.”

“What?” Daniel struggled to break free. He always said he didn’t have a real mother, but I knew he still cared about her.

“She kept bitching about wanting to come back for you. So I told her you were dead. But that only made her angrier. She wouldn’t shut up, so I stabbed her. I guess you can say it’s your fault she died.”

Daniel’s nostrils flared. “So if you didn’t want to find me then, why do you want me now? I assume this trap was set for me?”

“Quite right,” Caleb said. “I’m glad your friend told us where to find you. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself before the challenging ceremony. Thing is, I thought Jude looked familiar when Talbot brought him home to us. He’d been living on the streets like a stray. Most of my boys were. That’s the nice thing about desperate teenagers—they’re easy to dominate. You tell them they belong, and they’ll do pretty much anything you ask. But I didn’t realize who Jude was until one night he decided to entertain us with the story of how he became a werewolf. Seems his sister Grace and her boyfriend, Daniel, had something to do with it. You can imagine how much I enjoyed listening to his story from the balcony, and how badly I wanted to know more.

“He tried to run when he realized who I was and what
I wanted. But then I helped him see we had something in common. We’d both been betrayed by our families. Sirhan would rather leave his pack in the hands of a coward like Gabriel than let me lead it the way it
should
be led. And Jude’s family chose the mutt next door over their own son. Once we saw eye to eye, it was only a matter of time before we set our trap.”

Caleb’s explanation still didn’t make sense. Why would he set such an elaborate trap just to see Daniel again? Why did he even care? He’d already replaced Daniel twenty times over with the boys in his pack. Why would he send Talbot to become friends with me, only to kidnap me later and leave a trail for Daniel? I didn’t know if these were the workings of a madman, or some genius plot I couldn’t comprehend.

“The thing about your friend’s story that baffled me,” Caleb said, standing right in front of Daniel, “is that he claims you’ve been cured. I didn’t think that was possible. I still don’t.”

In a lighting-quick movement, Caleb thrust the knife at Daniel. I screamed. The knife plunged into Daniel’s upper arm. Caleb pulled it out, and blood spurted from the wound. It slithered down Daniel’s arm.

Caleb dabbed at the cut with his fingers. Daniel winced. Caleb brought his bloodstained fingers to his nose and sniffed. I assumed he was testing it to see if it smelled like wolf’s blood or like a human’s—like Daniel
had tested Jude’s blood when he found it on our porch, and that was how he knew Jude had been infected. Caleb’s eyes squinted with confusion. He tasted the blood with the tip of his tongue. I tried not to gag. His forehead creased, and he seemed even more confused. Then he beckoned Talbot to his side.

Talbot smelled the blood and shook his head. “I don’t understand, Father. I can’t tell what it smells like. What do you think this means?”

Caleb wiped the blood on Talbot’s flannel shirt. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. His voice sounded like he was trying to cover up his confusion. “Daniel was always going to die, either way. He won’t be around to mess up the ceremony. The girl will make the perfect weapon, if she’s as strong as you claim.”

Talbot’s eyes flicked in my direction. But then he nodded and stepped back to where he’d stood before.

Caleb came back over to me. He wrapped a hand around one of my wrists. Every instinct told me to hit him and run, but I was still held by two guys.

“The only problem with killing one’s wife is that it gets lonely without a mate,” Caleb said. “I think you’ll do nicely once we’ve turned you into a werewolf.”

“Don’t you touch her!” Daniel shouted. “I’m the one you hate. Kill me and let her go!”

“Oh, I’ll let her go all right. Once she turns into a wolf, she won’t be able to control herself. Then I’ll let her go in a room with you. And then when she’s done
tearing you apart, I’ll let her go back home. Send a message to her precious pastor father for me.”

My heart slammed against my chest. That was Caleb’s plan? Turn me into a wolf and then get me to kill everyone I loved?

“What?” Jude suddenly stepped forward from beside the bedpost. “Father, you said Grace was just bait. You said—”

“And what do you think happens to bait, boy?” Caleb snarled. “It gets swallowed. And in this case, your sister is going to get swallowed by the wolf. And then she’ll be one of us.”

Jude looked at me and then at Caleb. I couldn’t read the expression on his face.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Caleb asked. “I can always let her at you along with Daniel.”

“No. Your plan is perfect.” Jude ducked away like a dog anticipating being struck by his master.

I turned my gaze away from Jude. Just when I thought he was still my brother, he proved to be Caleb’s lapdog.

“I will never turn,” I said. My voice shook too much for it to be convincing, but I tried to hold my head high.

Yes, you will
, the wolf whispered inside my head.
There’s no escape from me
.

“You will see in the morning, Grace Divine. My methods are quite persuasive. How do you think I came by so many of my boys? Jude and Talbot were rare finds: werewolves already.”