The Lost Saint (19 page)

“I guess I gotta go,” I said. “Thanks for the … um … adventure?”

“I’m glad you were up to it.” He grinned at me, all dimply and warm. “Actually, I’m glad you got partnered with me. I’m not sure what I would have done if any other student from your school had been with me today. It kind of feels like fate, don’t you think?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

I pulled on the door handle and pushed on the door. I was about to jump out when Talbot said, “Grace?”

“Yeah?” I looked back at him.

He held something silver and sparkly in his hand. At first I thought he was giving me a present—which would have been weird, but sweet—but then he said, “April’s bracelet. She dropped it at the club.”

“Oh.” I took the bracelet from his warm fingers. A narrow slip of paper was wrapped around it.

I looked up into Talbot’s glinting emerald eyes.

“That’s for you,” he said. “Call me if you need anything. Anything at all.”

“Okay,” I said, and got out of the van.

“Tell April I said hi,” Talbot said before I shut the door.

I shoved the slip of paper in my pocket and trucked toward the bus in the dark, wondering how best to explain my lateness when another person fell in right beside me.

“Dude, took you long enough to get back here,” Chris said. He had half a sub sandwich in his hand,
and his pockets jangled with what sounded like coins as he walked.

“Where have you two been?” Principal Conway asked when he saw us approaching. “We were scheduled to leave twenty minutes ago. I was beginning to worry that you weren’t out in one of the vans at all.”

“Sorry, Tom,” Chris said to his dad. “I got all hypoglycemic, so I made our driver pull over so I could get something to eat. I don’t think this volunteer stuff is good for my health.”

“Nice try,” Principal Conway said, and led his son up the steps of the bus. “Next time, answer your phone when I call.”

I stopped on the top step of the bus and looked back at the parking lot. Talbot flashed the lights of his van and then drove away.

ON THE BUS

“Holy crap!” April slid her silver cuff bracelet onto her wrist. “Number one: I can’t believe Talbot found my bracelet at the club—it’s supposed to be the feature item in my new fall collection, but there’s no way I was going to go back there looking for it. Number two: I cannot believe he’s your driver. Number three: I can’t believe you guys stopped a freaking mugging together. And number four: The fact that he’s an Ur—”

“Shhh!” I tried to throw my hands over her mouth. We sat alone at the back of the bus, but her voice had risen in volume with each number on her list of things she couldn’t believe. I suddenly wondered if I’d done the right thing by telling her the truth.

April squealed and wriggled away from my hands. “Number four,” she loudly whispered, “the fact that Talbot is a freaking Urbat demon hunter is, like,
blowing my mind!” Her voice rose on the last word so it was almost a shout. I pounced on her again, practically knocking her flat on the bus bench, and tried to cover her mouth. She giggled and pushed me off her. “Okay, okay. I’ll try to be quiet. But this is, like, too awesome. You have to let me be all girly about your secret rendezvous with Talbot for a moment.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But if Principal Conway or Gabriel … Pastor Saint Moon, I mean, find out that I went out with Talbot alone, don’t you think they’ll have a problem with that? I don’t want them to find out I was working with him one-on-one—let alone what we were doing.”

April waggled her eyebrows at me.

“It’s not like that …,” I said. “Besides, I don’t want Chris to get into trouble for ditching out.”

“You’re a terrible liar. I can see those splotch marks on your neck.”

I rubbed my neck. “I’m just hot.”

“I’ll
bet
you are.”

“April, seriously. It’s not like that. Talbot’s just a new friend. You know how I feel about Daniel.” I meant what I said, but my neck still felt all hot and itchy. I pulled a water bottle out of my backpack and took a sip.

“Yeah, but how is
Daniel
going to feel about this? Any boy is going to have a problem with his girlfriend being all
one-on-one
with a hot guy—especially if you’re getting all hot and sweaty. Don’t you think Daniel will be
jealous that he’s not the one doing it with you?”

I choked and almost spat water at her.

“I meant
doing it
as in Daniel wanting to kick bad-guy butt with you … not … you know … not you two ‘getting it on.’ ” She made a weird gesture with her hands that I assumed had something to do with “getting it on.” “Unless, you and Daniel are. You know … Um, you’re not, right? Because I heard—”

I coughed and cleared my throat. “No, Daniel and I aren’t ‘getting it on.’ No matter what anyone says.”

Thanks to my superhearing and all those lovely rumors Lynn Bishop spread last school year, I knew there were plenty of people who thought Daniel and I were “getting it on.” But we most definitely weren’t. Not that we didn’t think about it or want to—just the sight of Daniel most days made my heart race and my legs ache with anticipation.

It was just that, to me, sex was a
big deal
.

I mean, it was a running joke at HTA that if my dad substitute taught one of the religion classes, it was no doubt going to be a lesson on chastity. And let me tell you, having to sit through your dad’s lecturing all of your friends about abstinence—not the funfest you’d think it would be. But even though Dad’s spiels always made me want to bang my head on my desk, I couldn’t help believing the things he was telling us about waiting for marriage. It just seemed to go with the whole package, you know? That if I believed in Jesus, and believed
in all those parables he taught, and believed in forgiving people, then what the Bible had to say about sex being sacred and special had to be right, too.

And as much as I wanted
it
—and I knew Daniel was the one I wanted it with—I also wanted to wait. Even if it was one of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make.

I’d worried my decision would be a problem for Daniel. We’d lived very different lives during the three years he’d been gone, and he’d, um,
gotten it on
, so to speak, more than once. But one of the things I loved about Daniel was that he’d completely understood.

“You’re different from those other girls,” Daniel once told me. “We’re different. I love you. And I want things to be right with us.”

But now with all the lying and fighting and secrets that were suddenly happening between Daniel and me—it almost felt like
nothing
was quite right with us anymore.

“So are you going to tell him?” April asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Tell who what?”

“Are you going to tell Daniel about Talbot and you?”

“I told you, there is no
Talbot and me.
”

“But there could be,” she crooned.

“Okay, I’m not telling you anything anymore.”

“Oh, come on, you know I’m just teasing. I meant, are you going to tell Daniel about Talbot being your driver? You know he’s going to be all jealous that he
was stuck doing inventory at Day’s with Katie Summers instead of being out there fighting side by side with you in the city.”

I might have told April way too much lately, but I still hadn’t told her the reason I’d been avoiding Daniel all day. As far as she knew, Daniel was just as gung ho about training me to become a superhero. She didn’t know how he’d turned his back on me and on the plan that
he’d
come up with in the first place.

“Yeah. I think I will tell him.”

My body tingled with the hope of a new idea: when Daniel heard how I took that guy down in the alley, he’d realize that I really could take care of myself out there. He’d change his mind about agreeing with Gabriel. When he heard how I helped save that woman, he’d have to believe in me again.

And then maybe he’d finally tell me whatever secret he was keeping from me.

BACK AT THE SCHOOL

I didn’t have to wait long to see Daniel. He was hanging out in the school parking lot when I got off the bus. He leaned against the seat of his red-and-black motorcycle, his hands tucked in the pockets of his hoodie.

“Gotta go,” I said to April, and practically skipped over to Daniel through the mostly deserted lot. I was about to throw my arms around his neck and tell him
all about what had happened in the alley with the Gelal and Talbot, until I saw the stony look on his face.

It reminded me of Jude. All stoic and cold.

“Hey,” I said, stopping short of hugging him. “What’re you doing here?”

“Your dad wanted to make sure you had a ride home. I thought you guys were going to be back a while ago, though. I was starting to get concerned.”

“Sorry.” I gave him an apologetic smile.

Daniel picked up his helmet from the back of the bike and handed it to me. I always thought it was funny that he insisted I be the one who wore it—considering that I had superhuman healing abilities and he didn’t. Then again, according to my reading, it seemed like a catastrophic head injury was one of the few things that could kill an Urbat—besides silver and certain demon venom (including werewolf)—if not healed quickly enough. That was probably why when Daniel’s monster of a father attacked him when he was only thirteen, he’d tried to smash Daniel’s head open with a broken easel.

His father had wanted Daniel dead.

Daniel got on the bike, and I climbed on behind him. He was so quiet and distant I didn’t know how he’d feel if I wrapped my arms around his waist like I usually did. I placed my hands lightly on his sides instead. Daniel started the bike, and we pulled out onto Crescent Street. He didn’t glance back at me at all while he drove; he just stared straight ahead.

The night air felt so cold and heavy between us, filled with all the things I wanted to tell him but suddenly felt like I couldn’t. I shifted back on my seat and let go of his sides, letting my supernatural balance keep me steady on the bike. How could it be that I’d felt perfectly comfortable driving back to the bus alone with Talbot, but now I didn’t even know where to put my hands while riding with Daniel?

We pulled up in front of my house. Daniel put his feet down and shifted into neutral, but left the bike idling. He wasn’t planning on staying long. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I pulled off the helmet and handed it to him. He didn’t touch my fingers as he took it from my hands. I stepped back, ready to walk away.

But I couldn’t.

I couldn’t run off again without answers. I shouldn’t have done that last time—even if that experience had helped me break through the barrier and fully tap into my powers for the first time.

“What on earth is wrong?” I asked Daniel. “Why are you acting like you’re so pissed off at me?”

Daniel blinked. He let out a small sigh and then pressed his lips together.

“I’m sorry I ran off yesterday. And I’m sorry I gave you the silent treatment all day today. It’s just that I know you’re lying about where you were the other night. And on top of that, I couldn’t believe how you
didn’t back me up with Gabriel. But I’m over being angry now. I was done in religion class, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to you because of the service project.”
And then I spent the next two hours alone with another guy
—but I didn’t think now was the best time to tell him about Talbot anymore. “I just want to understand
why
you’re acting this way. And I don’t want you to be mad at me. I can’t handle it anymore.”

“I told you already. I’m not mad at you, Gracie. I’m worried.”

His words startled me. Hadn’t Jude said almost the exact same thing to me once? Back when Daniel first returned to town and Jude had wanted me to stay away from him.

“Worried about what? Tell me, please?”

Daniel gripped the handlebars of his bike. The engine rumbled between us. He leaned his head back and stared up at the crescent moon hanging in the sky, his deep, dark, mud-pie eyes unblinking. The walnut tree—illuminated by the porch light—just beyond him made the perfect background for his silhouette. If this had been any other moment, I would’ve pulled out my sketch pad to capture the beauty of the image. But now, seeing Daniel this way only made my heart ache for him.