“Jude?” I called into the dark cell. “Jude!”
I heard a moan. Something shifted deep inside the storage cage.
“Grace?”
I blinked several times and focused my powers into my eyes until I felt that familiar popping sensation behind my pupils. My night vision sharpened in the dark, and I was able to see Jude as he sat up on the narrow cot in the far corner of the cage. His long hair was disheveled, and he rubbed his eyes like he’d been in a deep sleep before I came crashing in on his slumber. “I thought you might finally come today.” He blinked and scrubbed his hand down the side of his face. “What time is it?”
He was here! Asleep. Jude had come back. That had to mean something.
He’s just covering his tracks, hissed the wolf. Tricking you into thinking he’s innocent.
“Did you do it?” I asked. “Did you kill that nurse at the hospital?”
Jude squinted at me. “What are you talking about? What nurse? I’ve been here in this place,” he indicated the cage bars, “since you decided I needed to be locked up.”
“Don’t lie to me. April told me she let you out last night. I know you went to the hospital. And now there’s a dead nurse. She was killed by a wild animal just after midnight.”
Jude shot up from the cot and stormed over to the gate. He clutched the bars, his hands just above mine.
“And that’s your first thought? That I did it?”
He slammed his hand against the iron bars. The gate rattled in my face. I realized then that the padlock was just a formality. He could tear this gate off its hinges if he wanted.
I didn’t back away, but I couldn’t look him in the eyes. I was too afraid of what I might see. “Answer my question. Did. You. Do. It?”
“Would I have come back here if I did?”
“You tell me. What happened last night?”
“I went straight to the city, looked in on Dad, and then came right back here. I didn’t talk to anyone—and certainly didn’t kill anyone—while I was gone. I was back here by eleven.” He jabbed his finger at the little TV Dad had set up in the cell for him. “I can reenact the late Show for you if you want. That actor April is always going on about did a tap dance on the host’s desk and accidentally kicked a coffee mug onto a supermodel. It was a real riot,” he said with a bitter bite in his voice.
I let go of the bars. “I just needed to know.”
“Nice, Grace. I’ve been back for over a week, and the first time you come to see me, you accuse me of murder. When Daniel was back for that same amount of time, you were trying to kiss him. I’m glad to know where I stand with you.”
His words were so true they stung like a fresh slap. I stepped back from the gate. “Jude, I’m—”
“Get out,” he snarled.
“Jude, please.”
“Get out of here!” he screamed, and slammed both of his hands against the gate. The hinges groaned. “Don’t come back here again. If you think I’m such a wild animal, then you’d better keep the hell away from me.”
“Jude—”
“Out!” he roared, looking like he was about to tear down the gate.
I stumbled back toward the stairs and scrambled my way back up to the foyer.
JUST AFTER SUNRISE
I sat on the steps outside the parish, watching the sun silently change the sky above the hills of Rose Crest from a purple-gray into a crisp bright yellow that contrasted starkly with my black mood. I hated myself for jumping to such a terrible conclusion about Jude.
So much for trying to make peace.
Only I knew that I would be immensely stupid for not suspecting him right off—especially if he really did turn out to be the killer.…
Gah! There I went again.
It had to mean something that he’d come back after being let out last night.
Perfect alibi, whispered the wolf.
And what did it mean that all this time he could have ripped off the gate and escaped—yet he allowed himself to be locked up?
He’s fooling you.
Urgh. I clasped the moonstone pendant in my fingers and pushed the wolf’s voice from my mind.
If it hadn’t been for that terrible dream last night—reliving the night Jude fell to the werewolf curse—making me so paranoid in the first place, I might have been able to be more rational before storming in on him with my accusations.
What was the point of that dream anyway?
Why would my subconscious—or Daniel, or whoever or whatever was trying to communicate with me through my REM cycle—want me to relive what happened that night on the roof of the parish?
Maybe god really is punishing me.…
Or perhaps Daniel was still desperately trying to tell me to look for the moonstone in the parish yard. He didn’t know that I already had it. That it hung from my neck now.
But it was clear I wasn’t ready to use it.
The anger I’d felt last night—the way I’d wanted to lash out at my own mother, and the damage I’d wanted to inflict on Talbot when I learned of his deceit—scared me. It was consuming me the way Gabriel said it would—and I’d unleashed it once again on my own brother just now.
I was driving everyone away from me.
I pressed the moonstone pendant tight in my palm. I might even still lose Daniel before I was able to change him back.
Perhaps I really would end up all alone with the just the wolf inside my head.
Chapter Fourteen
WANDERER
LATER
I didn’t know what to do with myself now. It was a school day, but I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through classes or talking with friends who felt more like strangers with each passing moment. Instead, I spent the next few hours wandering from place to place like a stray pup looking for shelter. I remember going home to shower and change. Then somehow I was in the driveway of Maryanne Duke’s old house. Then I was standing in the concrete stairwell that led to the basement apartment where Daniel had lived until he’d taken to the forest. I must have stood there long enough to look lost, because Zach poked his head out one of the main floor windows, almost scaring me half to death, and asked if I was okay.
“Yeah,” I said. “Will a couple of you go sit with Jude? We had a run-in, and I don’t think he should be alone.”
“Sure thing,” Zach said. He almost looked happy to have an order, reminding me that his former alpha had treated him like a soldier instead of a boy.