The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel (23 page)

“That’s me,” Lisa said as she stood. “I better go.”

“You’re an Elder now?” Daniel asked.

“Duh,” she said, swishing the fabric of her green robes. “Methuselah passed away from old age a few months ago. Sirhan wanted some young blood on the council—so I got the nod. Marrock”—she pointed at a large man in a blue robe with blond dreadlocks and a beard—“was super pissed off, as you can imagine.”

Daniel nodded.

Lisa hurried off to join the half circle of Elders. One of them, a man with skin as rich and dark as espresso handed her the spear he must have been holding for her.

Daniel looked at me. “Um, does our pack have Elders?”

I shrugged.

Daniel motioned to my dad, Jude, and Talbot to follow us. I would have vetoed his last choice, but I figured he had his reasons. We made our own semicircle facing Sirhan.

“Let us get to the heart of the matter.” Sirhan pointed one of his long, clawed fingers at me and beckoned me closer. “The Child Divine claims she can cure me. But what exactly does she want in return?”

I took a few steps in his direction. “Sanctuary. For Gabriel, Daniel, my family, and the rest of my pack. For this town, too. No one in Rose Crest is to be hurt by you or your people. Is that clear?”

“Lofty demands from one so young and small.”

“I pack a pretty big punch.” I waved my hand around the room. “Tell me, do you know anyone else who’s ever cured an Urbat before? Do you know any other Divine Ones? I cured Daniel, and now I can provide the same for you. But only if you grant us sanctuary.”

Sirhan narrowed his eyes. “Bring the Kalbi boy here,” Sirhan demanded. “If he’s been cured as you and Gabriel claim, then why does he still possess the true alpha nature?”

Two spearmen took Daniel by the arms, even though he didn’t protest being brought only inches from Sirhan’s monstrous face. Sirhan pulled the oxygen tube from his nostrils and scrunched up his snoutlike nose. After several wheezing breaths, taking in Daniel’s scent, he curled his lips in a growl. “You are not Urbat,” he said to Daniel. “What are you?”

“I wish I knew,” Daniel said.

“But you do,” I said. “You’re a Hound of Heaven. A true one. With all the powers of the Urbat, but without the curse that’s been passed from one generation to the next. From one infection to another. He’s what God intended all of you to be.”

It made so much sense when I said it, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought to explain it in those exact terms before now. Gabriel nodded at my words like he agreed with my conclusion—and for half a second, I thought I caught a look of recognition in Daniel’s eyes when he glanced back at me. Like he finally understood—and accepted—it, too.

The Elders murmured among themselves. One of them leaned over and whispered something in Sirhan’s pointed ear. The alpha nodded.

“All the power without the curse?” he asked. Something gleamed in his yellow eyes. He waved at the guards, and they took Daniel to the side of the room next to Gabriel.

“So tell me Child Divine,” Sirhan said. “How does this wondrous cure work?”

“It’s simple really.” I took another step closer to him. “You die.”

ONE SECOND FLAT

Every razor-sharp spear in the room pointed in my direction.

“Whoa.” I raised my hands. “What I mean is, the cure is death. Gabriel himself can tell you. It was his theory that I put to the test when I cured Daniel.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said. “The cure to the Urbat curse is to be killed by the one who loves you most—in an act of true love. Grace has proved that it works. Alas, there is no guarantee that you would survive the cure as Daniel did, but it would free your soul before you died. So you are not doomed to be a demon for all eternity.”

That look in Sirhan’s eyes faded, as if the hope that he could become perfect like Daniel faded along with it, but it was the freeing of his soul that he’d come here for in the first place. “Then how can
you
cure me, child? You don’t even know me.”

“I never said I could actually cure you.”

Sirhan snarled. “You dared to lie to me, child!”

Five blue-robed men closed in on me, their spears only centimeters from my face. “No!” I shouted. “I didn’t lie. I said I would provide the cure for you, but
I
can’t do it. You’re right, I don’t know you. I pity you. I have compassion for you. But only someone who loves you most can cure you.”

Sirhan’s lips dropped back over his pointed teeth. He pursed them tight for a moment. “Then it is hopeless. My Rachel is gone.”

“Here’s a whole room of people who love you—” I started to say.

“They are loyal; that is not the same as love,” Sirhan said. “My true alpha essence keeps them devoted to me. But I have been far too cruel over the last year. No one in this room could possibly love me now. Love is against the nature of most Urbats, anyway. We are sad creatures, really. We hate to be alone. Our greatest drive is to be a part of a pack. Yet it is also part of who we are to never truly be close to anyone. We’re too selfish for love.”

“But there are exceptions to that. You and your Rachel? Daniel and I before he was cured?”

“True,” Sirhan said.

“And I believe there is someone in this room who still loves you greatly. Despite the way you’ve treated him. He’s loved you as his brother for nearly eight hundred years. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”

“Does she mean you, Gabriel?”

Gabriel nodded. “I am still your faithful brother, Sirhan. No matter what betrayal you think I have committed. I came to this town, and I stayed here, because I wanted to learn more about the cure—for you. For me. For all of us. I am your beta, and I will be until the end.”

“But can you kill me?” Sirhan asked Gabriel. “You, who hasn’t raised his hand against another man for centuries?”

“What life I have I owe to you, my brother. I would have gone mad hundreds of years ago if you had not convinced your pack to let me in.” Gabriel swallowed hard. “For you, I would do anything.” He wrung his hands. I noticed they were trembling.

Sirhan sighed, looking even more weak and frail than before. Like he’d somehow aged another couple of decades in only a few seconds. He reached one of his beastly hands toward Gabriel. “Then do it now, brother. End my suffering.… Before it’s too late and I pass from this world on my own.”

“Not here. Not now. Alas, Sirhan, I will need time to prepare. Meditate. I want to ensure I am in the right state of mind for it to work. What I do for you must be an act of pure love.” He paused for a moment. “There is also the issue of the Challenging Ceremony that should be considered.”

“Yes. Tomorrow is the first day of the full moon, is it not?”

“It is.”

Sirhan coughed. It sounded like a mixture of a growl and an asthma attack. “I do not know if I can hold on that long.” He rolled forward awkwardly in his chair, as if trying to reach for Gabriel, but instead he slumped over his knees, his outstretched hand now pointing at the floor.

Gabriel knelt at his alpha’s side and helped push him up. The guards held him steady. “You must. Two days is not enough to prepare for the ceremony. We need more time.”

“What’s this about two days?” I asked. “And what does the full moon have to do with anything?”

“Pack laws are stringent when it comes to the Challenging Ceremony,” Gabriel said. “Not only in location, but also in timing. The ceremony would have to take place within a hundred paces of the location where the death of the alpha occurred. Pack laws also dictate that the Challenging Ceremony must happen at midnight on the second night of the full moon directly after the death of the alpha. If Sirhan were to pass either today or tomorrow—the ceremony must be held this Saturday evening. When the moon is at its fullest.”

“It would be glorious, though, wouldn’t it?” Sirhan mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. “A Challenging Ceremony on the night of the bloodred moon. So poetic. And all that p-p-p-power…”

I wondered for a second if Sirhan was rambling incoherently with some sort of rapid-aging-induced dementia, but then I knew what he was referring to. “The night of the bloodred moon? Does he mean a lunar eclipse?” I looked at Daniel. “There’s a total lunar eclipse this Saturday. We’re supposed to observe it for our astronomy class. Dr. Richards said that the moon would turn bright red during it.” I looked back at Gabriel and Sirhan. “Does a lunar eclipse do something to the Urbat?”

“So much power,” Sirhan said. “It would be so glorious.”

“No, Sirhan. It would be far too dangerous.” Gabriel looked back at us. “The way the sun, moon, and Earth align during a total lunar eclipse, something about it increases the power of the wolf tenfold. The draw of the wolf,” he glanced at me, “would be overwhelming. And if an Urbat can channel the power of the bloodred moon, it would make him immensely powerful. A Challenging Ceremony held during the eclipse would be far too dangerous.” He held Sirhan’s hand, not seeming to notice the grotesqueness of it. “Alas, you must hold on longer, my brother. Two days is not enough for time for us to prepare.”

“Very well. I’ve been alive for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. What is two more days?” He let out a low, raspy laugh. The he straightened up in his chair. With a labored swing of one of his leathery, withered arms he pointed at Daniel. “In the meantime, kill the Kalbi boy.”

“What!” I screamed.

The five spears that had been pointed at my face were now positioned by their holders at Daniel, who stood tall and unflinching.

“This wasn’t part of the deal, Sirhan!” I said. “Daniel is to get sanctuary.”

Lisa stepped forward from the pack Elders and rushed to Sirhan’s side. “Be reasonable,” she begged.

“Keep your end of the bargain,” Gabriel said.

Sirhan grabbed both Lisa’s and Gabriel’s hands with a fierceness I didn’t think him capable of. Lisa’s face twisted with pain. Sirhan’s face resembled that of a rabid, deranged beast. “No!” he roared. “A true alpha who possesses all the power but without the curse. No son of Caleb Kalbi should be allowed to have that. No son of Caleb should be allowed to
live
.”

“That’s the wolf speaking, Sirhan,” Gabriel said. “Come to your senses. The boy has done nothing to you.”

“He has the blood of Caleb Kalbi, the most selfish and treacherous Urbat I have ever known. That is offense enough.”

“Daniel and I are a matched set,” I said. “If you kill him, then you’ll have to take me, too. Then you’ll have no more Divine One.”

“That’s no longer an issue.” Sirhan clapped his mangy hands, and one of the spearmen turned toward me, the sharp blade ready to stab into my neck. “You already told us what we needed to know about the cure.”

Crap, he did have a point.

“Sirhan,” Gabriel said, “the girl still has so much more to give. And the boy may be our only hope—”

“Silence,” Sirhan barked.

“Wait,” I said. “Yes, Daniel has the blood of Caleb inside of him, but he also has yours. He’s your grandson, for heaven’s sake. But he’s so much more than that. He’s proved it time and time again. And he did once more when he freely gave himself over to you. Would Caleb have ever done that?”

“Tricks,” Sirhan hissed between his wolf teeth. “How do I know it was not part of his plan to win my favor?”

“Daniel helped heal me,” my father said from behind us. “He helped heal my wife, too. He’s saved my daughter’s life and my youngest son, also. Where Caleb is selfish, Daniel is selfless.”

“Caleb is coming to the Challenging Ceremony,” Jude suddenly spoke up from our semicircle of Elders. I’d all but forgotten that he and Talbot were here.

“It’s true. He’s amassing an army,” Talbot added. “I used to be one of his generals, until my loyalties changed. The others have seen how dangerous his forces are with their very own eyes.”

“I can also confirm this,” Gabriel said.

Daniel, Jude, and I nodded in agreement.

“He’s planning on tearing the ceremony apart and claiming the position of alpha of
your
pack, no matter the cost. Is that what you want?”

Rage burned in Sirhan’s eyes. “Never.”

“You kill Daniel now, and that’s exactly what you’ll be asking for,” Talbot said. I felt a sudden pang of appreciation toward him.

“He is right, Sirhan,” Gabriel said. “Daniel, as a true alpha, is our best shot at stopping Caleb from winning.”

“No. You are to be my chosen successor, Gabriel, not the Kalbi boy. You are my beta…”

“I am your beta, yes. I am the caretaker of the pack. Alas, I am not the leader you are. I am not a fighter. I don’t stand a chance against Caleb and his demon hoards. But Daniel has been chosen by a higher power. He is a true Hound of Heaven and a true alpha. It is his calling to take your place. Only he can lead us out of this dark time and defeat Caleb. I believe he and his alpha mate, the Divine One, have been chosen to take the Urbat to a new level. Imagine it. This pack led by a true alpha and the Divine One. A warrior and a healer. The Etlu and the A-zu. Together—”

“No! No! No!” Sirhan roared. “No son of Caleb will rule this pack.”

“Sirhan,” Daniel said. Every head in the room snapped in his direction. The true alpha essence radiated off his body like waves of pure power. The spearmen pulled their weapons back, ever so slightly. “The difference between Caleb and me is that I don’t want to be alpha. I’ve never wanted to be a ruler, or a leader, or even powerful. All I’ve ever wanted to be is an artist. I embraced my true alpha nature only to save the ones I love. And now, if that means my calling is to do it again at the Challenging Ceremony in order to defeat Caleb—then I will do it. If there was any other option, I’d let this responsibility pass to someone else. But once you die, I will be the only true alpha left. Let me be your successor instead of Gabriel. Give me your blessing,
grandfather
.” Daniel’s voice wrapped around that word like he’d never addressed anyone with that title before. “I will make you proud.”

Sirhan slumped in his chair, clutching his clawed hands to his head. Again, he looked as if he’d aged another ten years in a blink of an eye. “I cannot think,” he said. “The boy has confounded my mind. His words ring true, but the wolf inside of me screams something else.”