The Lost Saint (33 page)
Authors: Bree Despain
How had Talbot lasted so long without falling to the wolf while using his methods? Especially without a moonstone of his own?
Was Talbot really that much stronger than I was?
Or had Daniel been right about him—that he wasn’t who he claimed to be?
As much as I didn’t care for Gabriel’s company, I have to admit that I looked forward to our tai chi sessions together. It was one of the few quiet moments in my day, when I could let go of my moonstone and not battle the wolf for free rein over my thoughts. Part of me wished I’d swallowed my pride and let him teach me sooner.
By our Thursday session, I finally broke my vow of silence concerning Gabriel and asked if he knew anything about Daniel’s absence. He stood in a T-stance, his arms parallel in front of him. Then he slid into a parting-the-horse’s-mane position and said that Daniel was “looking for answers.”
“Answers to what?” I asked.
“You know very well to what,” Gabriel stated, and then wouldn’t say any more. His voice was laced with so much disappointment it made me feel like I was at the bottom of a pit, staring up at an impossible climb.
I turned away, fighting the sudden urge to sweep Gabriel’s legs out from under him and send him sprawling across the social hall floor.
I guess he and I weren’t going to be friends anytime soon.
By Friday afternoon, Daniel still hadn’t shown up
for school, and I learned he apparently wasn’t at his apartment, either, when Sheriff Ford and Deputy Marsh showed up on our doorstep asking if I knew where he was.
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him since Monday.”
“Do you know where he was Sunday night?” Marsh asked.
“Why?”
“We’re looking into possible leads in the Peter Bradshaw attack. We think it’s connected to what happened to Tyler, so we’re requestioning people.”
“I talked to him on the phone that night. He was definitely home,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Hell, for all I knew these days, I could have been the one who attacked Pete. I could have done it under the influence of the wolf and not even remembered it. Like how Jude had attacked Maryanne’s body and didn’t even know he was the one who did it.
“Are you sure?” the sheriff asked.
“Yes.”
Sheriff Ford asked me a few more questions and then left me with a business card in case I thought of anything else.
But all I could think of was that I wanted Daniel to come home. Gabriel said Daniel was looking for answers, but what if he’d left because of me?
And what if he didn’t plan on coming back?
The rest of Friday passed with no word from Daniel, and I would have spent all of Saturday curled up in my bed if it hadn’t been for the Halloween festival that evening. It was the last thing in the world I felt like going to, but Mom didn’t even blink when I told her I wasn’t feeling well.
“Grab that basket of caramel apples and put it in the Corolla,” she said. “I’m going over now to supervise the decorating committee. Find a costume, and then I need you to bring over the refreshments for the booth.”
“A costume? Seriously, I have to wear a costume?”
“Everybody is dressing up. You’ll look silly if you
don’t.
” Mom was in a kimono that Grandpa Kramer had brought back from their trip to Japan two summers ago. She even had her hair swept up in a perfect Japanese-style bun. She picked up Baby James, who was already dressed in his Max’s wolf-suit costume from the
Where the Wild Things Are
book. It was made of white fleece with a bushy brown tail and a hood with long pointed ears. He clapped his hands and crooned, “Wet the Wild Wumpus stawt!”
I laughed, feeling a hint of happiness for the first time in days. It was pretty much the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
“I taught him that,” Charity said as she passed me
with a box of orange-and-black tablecloths. She wore an angel costume with glittery wings and a white toga. The whole family dressing up for Halloween had always been kind of a Divine family tradition. One I had apparently been left out of the loop on this year.
“But I don’t
have
a costume,” I said as they walked out the door.
“Find something,” Mom said. “And don’t be late with those refreshments.”
After she was gone, I tried to find our costumes, but then I remembered that all of the Halloween boxes had been sent to Katie Summers for the festival. After about twenty minutes of digging through the storage room, I gave up and called April for help.
“I am so glad you called,” April said when she walked into my bedroom a little while later, with her makeup bag, a small duffel, and a jewelry box. “This is exactly why you need me.”
My dad was down in his study working on who knew what, and I figured he couldn’t protest my having a friend over if it was technically to help Mom out with the festival.
“I’m at a loss,” I said. “I’m thinking of just safety pinning a couple pairs of socks to my sweats and going as ‘static cling.’ ”
April rolled her eyes. She put one hand on her vinyl-clad hip. Her sequined tank sparkled under the light in my room, and her blonde locks were twisted into some
weird sort of hair sculpture à la Lady Gaga. I couldn’t imagine how many cans of hairspray she’d used to make it stay that way. “Halloween is about releasing your inner she-wolf,” she pronounced.
I cringed at her terrible word choice. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Then at least a little bit of a sex kitten.” She unzipped her duffel. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.” She pulled out a bundle of red-and-blue fabric. “I’ve been working on this design for the last few days, but when you said you weren’t going to do the superhero thing anymore, I thought I’d never get a chance to see you wear it.” She handed me the bundle and then went to her bag for something else.
I held the clothes out in front of me: a tiny blue gingham sheath dress and a solid red hooded cloak. I’d seen these clothes before. In a picture on April’s dresser from a daddy-daughter costume party at her elementary school. It was the only picture of her dad in her entire house.
“I’d planned on bedazzling your superhero initials on the back of the cloak, but we hadn’t decided on anything, so I left it blank.”
“Is this your Little Red Riding Hood costume?” I asked. “And weren’t you like ten years old when you wore this? Don’t you think it’s going to be way too small?”
“Exactly,” April said, and grinned like the Cheshire cat.
Seriously, I don’t know how April gets me to do these things. I mean, in the picture I’d seen of her wearing this dress, it had hit her midcalf. But as I pulled it over my shoulders, the fabric clung to my chest and hips and barely reached my midthighs. The red hooded cloak that went with it skimmed just above the small of my back. If it weren’t for the flesh-colored tights I insisted on wearing with the outfit, I would have felt practically naked.
April pulled a curling iron out of her duffel bag and gave my already naturally curly hair a little more “pow,” as she called it. Then she coated all my nails in bright blue polish to match the dress. But the things that almost put the outfit over the top were the tall red-leather high-heeled boots she pulled out of her bag of supplies. The ones I had barely been able to walk in at the club.
I stood in front of the mirror in utter disbelief. “I so can’t leave the house in this.”
“Yes, you can,” April said, standing next to me at the mirror while applying an insane amount of liner around her eyes. “You totally rock that outfit.” She flitted over to my desk and dropped her eye pencil in her makeup bag and then picked up two bracelets from her jewelry box. “Do you think Gaga would wear white or yellow gold?” She held up the two bracelets of different colors. One was a gold-beaded bangle, and the other I recognized as the bracelet she’d lost at the club. The image of Talbot holding it out to me in his hand flashed through my mind.
“I thought that bracelet was silver.”
“Oh, the ones I sell on my website are silver. But I had the original one made out of white gold just for me. One of the perks of being the designer.” She dug into her large jewelry box and pulled out a silver cuff that was almost identical to her bracelet. “You should wear this. It’s perfect for your ensemble. But be sure to tell anyone who asks about it that it’s one of my fall designs.” She flitted back over to me and slipped it on my wrist.
“That’s perfect!” she squealed. “Exactly the look I was going for. So innocent, yet so kick-A at the same time. Like Little Red Riding Hood meets Wonder Woman.”
“Huh.” I stared at myself in the mirror for a second—tiny blue gingham dress, red cloak, long curly hair, high-heeled boots, and silver cuff bracelet. “Well, this is probably the last time I’ll be allowed out of my house, so I might as well go out with a bang.”
Wow. I have to say that Daniel and Katie outdid themselves with the designs for the posters and decorations for the Halloween festival. It was like Tim Burton had swept into Rose Crest and transformed Main Street into the set of one of his movies. All the booths were swathed in bright-colored fabrics, and the posters had
been printed with a spidery style of writing that had to be Daniel’s doing. I hoped Katie had a whole committee helping her with the actual setup, since Daniel was still nowhere to be found.
Cars, each decorated with a different theme, lined the street for trunk-or-treating. And by the looks of the costume-clad crowd already filling the sidewalks, checking out the concession booths and games, the whole town was probably going to turn out for the event.
Mr. Day stood in front of the market, dressed like an old-timey shopkeeper, passing out coupons in honor of the grand reopening. He beamed at April and me as we walked by with our baskets of refreshments. The store was already packed with customers.
Mom was so busy ordering everyone around that she didn’t even notice my costume at first, and by the time she did, April and I were already manning the caramel-apple booth. I could tell by the look on her face that if I hadn’t been surrounded at the time by half of the ladies from the Sunday school board, she probably would have thrown a massive fit and sent me home. Luckily, Mrs. Ellsworth, bouncing her fairy-princess baby on her hip, smiled and said, “Don’t you look adorable?”
But then again, that comment was probably directed at Baby James in his wolf suit as he pulled on the hem of my dress while begging me to take him through the trunk-or-treat to get some candy.
I scooped him up in one arm and then grabbed a
basket of caramel apples in the other. “I’m going to take James trick-or-treating and try to sell some of these along the way.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. She patted her forehead with her long kimono sleeve and then counted out change for Amber Clark and her boyfriend. “But don’t let him get too much candy.”
Baby James and I set out along the street. “Just me and my big bad wolf,” I said, and set him down with his trick-or-treat bag. James made a little growling noise and then took off running for the first car in the trunk-or-treat. I followed after him with my basket. We stopped at each car, and everyone fawned over James and his cuteness, and I sold a caramel apple for every third piece of candy he collected. I had only about half a dozen left when we made it to the end of Main Street. We were about to cross and go up the other side when Charity and a couple of her friends came bounding up to me to buy apples.
I handed out three and was counting their money while James pulled on my dress, trying to force me to cross the street toward more candy, when I heard another customer ask, “How much?” from behind me.
“Two dollars each,” I said, and handed Angela Leonard three dollars back.
“Thanks,” she said.
“But what if I want the whole basket of goodies?” the customer behind me said.
I looked over my shoulder and almost dropped my basket. “Talbot?”
He stood there in a yellow-and-blue flannel shirt and faded blue jeans, but he was without his customary baseball cap. He had a slight smile on his face, but his green eyes seemed serious and concerned.