My hands fell to my knees and I gasped for air, only to choke on the acid fumes wafting up from what was left of the demon. I stumbled backward, dizzy, and was about to collapse when warm hands grasped my shoulders.
Talbot turned me around so I was facing him. “You did it, kid! You did it! Come on, we need to celebrate!”
“Celebrate what? I didn’t get any information out of him.… He’s dead.… I failed.”
“I don’t care about information. We’ll find the other guy who was supposed to be here and get him to talk. What you should be celebrating is that you killed your first demon. You are a true Hound of Heaven now!”
“I am?”
“You are.” Talbot squeezed my shoulders. He beamed at me with his dimpled smile. “How does it feel? Wonderful, right?”
Beyond the pain in my bleeding arm, I still felt dizzy and warm and tingly all over—how I could only imagine getting high would feel. I couldn’t believe that I’d staked that demon before he could kill me—with my own two hands. “Yeah, it does.” I took in a deep breath, and as the shock of what I’d done washed out of me, I realized I was positively trembling from the sheer thrill of it all. I’d never felt so in control. So much exquisite power rushing through my veins.
“I knew you could do it, kid.” Talbot squeezed my shoulders again.
If he really thought I could do it all on my own, then why did he come bursting in here? Probably because he’d really thought I couldn’t handle it on my own. At least I’d proven him wrong. I was stronger than even he could imagine.
I raised the stake in my shaking hand. “Call me kid one more time, and I’m gonna shove this where it really counts.”
Talbot laughed and wrapped his strong arms around me. “You’re right. You’re hardly a kid.” He held me in a tight embrace and stared down at me with his bright, glinting eyes. “You’re truly amazing, Grace,” he said in a low voice.
The next thing I knew, his hand cradled my cheek, his callused fingers stroking my skin. He tilted my face toward his. His lips hovered only a fingertip’s distance away from mine. They vibrated with his breath, as if asking me to be the one to meet him the rest of the way.
I couldn’t move.
“Can I?” Talbot whispered.
I gave my head a tiny shake, my lips almost grazing his with the movement.
“Please?” The warmth of his breath made me shudder in his embrace.
“No,” I whispered, but I couldn’t bring myself to back away. “I already have someone.”
“Just once … Please. I have to know what it feels like.”
I half closed my eyes, imagining getting lost in the intoxicating idea of Talbot’s touch, but all that flashed in my mind was the look on Daniel’s face if he ever learned I’d kissed someone else. I turned my head as Talbot tried to press his mouth over mine. His lips lightly brushed my cheek instead.
He dropped his hand from my face.
I stepped away from him and crossed to the open doorway. “I need to leave,” I said, my voice barely working.
“Why?” Talbot asked. “You want this. I can feel it. Stop denying yourself what you want.”
Heat flashed through my body. “I just can’t.”
Talbot’s nostrils flared, but then he dropped his gaze. “I’m sorry. I got caught up in the excitement. I’ll never do it again.” He took a step toward me.
I held my hand up to stop him and shook my head again. “It’s okay. We both got caught up. I need to get back to the bus now.”
Talbot reached into his pocket for the van keys. “Let’s go, then.”
I left the apartment and headed for the van in the parking lot. I could hear Talbot following after me, but I didn’t look back.
BACK AT THE REC CENTER
We both knew I was pretending to be in a hurry to get back to the bus—it was a whole hour earlier than I needed to be there—but neither of us said anything about it. I stared out the window at the side-view mirror, concentrating on healing the burns on my hands and the claw marks on my shoulder. I replayed killing that horrible Gelal in my head, embracing the feeling of exhilarating power—the rush of it all—in order to heal my wounds.
We both stayed silent until we parked under the oak tree where he’d picked me up. I pulled on my jacket to cover up the bloody rip in my shirtsleeve and grabbed my backpack, which I’d left in the van during my little escapade. I slung it over my shoulder and was about to get out without saying good-bye when Talbot grabbed my newly healed hand.
“Just tell me one thing, Grace,” he said. “Is the idea of you and me being together that terrible to you?”
“I can’t do this.” I pulled my hand away, my fingers slipping out of his. “You’re my mentor.…”
“Not anymore. Training’s over. We can be together now.”
“Please try to understand. We’re friends, Tal. And that’s all we’ll ever be.”
He half closed his eyes and sighed. “Don’t call me Tal, then,” he said. “It sounds too good coming from your lips.”
“I’m sorry.”
Talbot gave himself a little shake. “Let’s forget this ever happened.” He found his baseball cap between our seats. He plopped it on his head and gave me a dimpled smile from under its bill. “Friends. That’s all.”
“Okay,” I said, and smiled weakly back at him.
“Hey, don’t let this ruin the day for you. You should be proud of what you did back there. Your training’s over. You’ve made it. I’d take you out to celebrate if you’d let me—in a strictly just-friends sort of way, of course.”
I gave a slight laugh.
“That’s more like it,” he said. “You’d better be ready for crackin’ some heads tomorrow. We’re going to find us a new lead—even if it kills him.”
I knew he meant that last part to be a joke—but at the same time I knew it wasn’t.
I laughed uneasily and got out of the van. I said good-bye to Talbot and crossed the back parking lot. I went through the building and figured I’d linger at the front entrance of the rec center until it was time to meet the bus, but what I saw out the glass doors in the front parking lot made me stop cold in my tracks.
The bus was there already, and so were all seven of the other Rock Canyon vans—accompanied by a cop car with flashing lights. Students from my religion class sat huddled on the steps to the front entrance, surrounded by people in Good Samaritan polo shirts. A man in a business suit talked to a girl who looked like she was crying. And that girl was April.
I pushed open a glass door and jogged out into the parking lot. As I approached the huddle of students, Claire stood up and pointed at me.
“She’s here! Grace is here!” she shouted. The rest of the students shot up on the stairs, all staring at me. April came running.
She threw her arms around me. “Oh, my gosh! You’re okay. I was so scared.” She squeezed me so hard I could barely breathe.
“Whoa! Of course I’m okay.” I pried myself out of April’s death grip. Her face was splotched with red, and her eyes shone like she was about to burst into tears again. “What’s happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” she asked incredulously. “What happened to you? Everyone’s been looking for you! First Pete, and then you not showing up at that karate studio, and then neither you nor Talbot answering your phones. And then I remembered Jude’s text, and started thinking you’d been kidnapped. Or worse. Your dad is on his way, and Pastor Saint Moon is totally freaking.”