Talbot smelled the blood and shook his head. “I don’t understand, Father. I can’t tell what it smells like. What do you think this means?”

Caleb wiped the blood on Talbot’s flannel shirt. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. His voice sounded like he was trying to cover up his confusion. “Daniel was always going to die, either way. He won’t be around to mess up the ceremony. The girl will make the perfect weapon, if she’s as strong as you claim.”

Talbot’s eyes flicked in my direction. But then he nodded and stepped back to where he’d stood before.

Caleb came back over to me. He wrapped a hand around one of my wrists. Every instinct told me to hit him and run, but I was still held by two guys.

“The only problem with killing one’s wife is that it gets lonely without a mate,” Caleb said. “I think you’ll do nicely once we’ve turned you into a werewolf.”

“Don’t you touch her!” Daniel shouted. “I’m the one you hate. Kill me and let her go!”

“Oh, I’ll let her go all right. Once she turns into a wolf, she won’t be able to control herself. Then I’ll let her go in a room with you. And then when she’s done tearing you apart, I’ll let her go back home. Send a message to her precious pastor father for me.”

My heart slammed against my chest. That was Caleb’s plan? Turn me into a wolf and then get me to kill everyone I loved?

“What?” Jude suddenly stepped forward from beside the bedpost. “Father, you said Grace was just bait. You said—”

“And what do you think happens to bait, boy?” Caleb snarled. “It gets swallowed. And in this case, your sister is going to get swallowed by the wolf. And then she’ll be one of us.”

Jude looked at me and then at Caleb. I couldn’t read the expression on his face.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Caleb asked. “I can always let her at you along with Daniel.”

“No. Your plan is perfect.” Jude ducked away like a dog anticipating being struck by his master.

I turned my gaze away from Jude. Just when I thought he was still my brother, he proved to be Caleb’s lapdog.

“I will never turn,” I said. My voice shook too much for it to be convincing, but I tried to hold my head high.

Yes, you will, the wolf whispered inside my head. There’s no escape from me.

“You will see in the morning, Grace Divine. My methods are quite persuasive. How do you think I came by so many of my boys? Jude and Talbot were rare finds: werewolves already.”

My heart suddenly sank for the boys in this warehouse. In this family. Some of them were obviously Gelals and Akhs, but most of them had probably been hapless teens, down on their luck—until Talbot and Caleb got their hands … or teeth … on them.

But my heart also sank for myself, and for Daniel, and for all of my family back home. If so many people had fallen to Caleb’s methods, how did I stand a chance?

Caleb made a gesture, and two of his boys picked up Gabriel’s limp body and headed for the door. Then Daniel and I were led toward the exit by our captors.

“Why don’t you just do it now?” Daniel asked.

“Because anticipation is the best part of the game. Feels just like Christmas Eve, don’t you think?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Abide with Me

DOWNSTAIRS

I couldn’t even bring myself to struggle as we were hauled off to a new prison. It seemed completely pointless, and listening to Daniel holler and curse as he tried to break free only made every ounce of hope inside of me vanish. Daniel might be slowly getting his powers back, but superhuman strength wasn’t fully developed yet.

They brought us to a dank, cold, windowless room. A storage room of some sort on the lower level of the warehouse. A single, dim fluorescent light buzzed and flickered above us. Caleb, or probably one of his boys, had made a couple of slight adjustments to the room—shackles attached to the walls by long, thick steel chains and heavy metal bolts in the concrete, and a security camera in the corner. The boys carrying Gabriel dumped his unconscious body at the far end of the room. They bound his legs and feet with the same kind of cording they’d used before on me. The shackles were apparently designed for Daniel and me, seeing as how our captors chained us by our wrists and ankles on opposite sides of the room.

“I’ll take the first watch outside the door,” Talbot said as he leaned through the doorway.

“I’ll stay with you,” one of the boys said, sounding eager to impress Talbot.

“Very well.”

Talbot gestured the boys out of the room. I looked up at him, but he closed the thick metal door behind them without even glancing at me. I’d noticed a keypad outside the door like the one at The Depot, and now I heard three distinct thumping noises as three heavy bolts locked into place. There was no doorknob. This door had been specifically designed to be impossible to break through.

I sank to the ground, shuddered, and let out a sob. My wrists felt almost too heavy to lift as I brought my shackled hands up to cover my face.

“Don’t.” Daniel tried to rush over to me, but the lead on his chains wasn’t long enough. He could make it only halfway across the room. He leaned forward as far as he could. “Don’t cry, Gracie. Don’t give up. We’ll find a way out of here. We’re going to escape. Even if we have to fight every last one of them.”

“But we’re nothing, Daniel. That’s like twenty against two. Gabriel won’t fight, and you’re just getting your powers back. We’re no match for them. They’ll turn me, and then I’ll kill you. And then if they send me home, what will stop me from destroying Baby James and everyone else?”

And the more selfish thought that I didn’t voice was that if everyone I loved was gone, there would be no one left to cure me—if the cure even existed. I’d be a monster for all eternity. A Death Dog at the beck and call of a madman.

“You just have to have faith, Grace. Believe in yourself. Don’t give up now.”

“But I have no more faith, Daniel. No more faith in myself. No more faith in God. He doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about us. It’s over. This is the end. Tomorrow I become a monster, and the rest of you die. And God doesn’t give a damn.”

“I don’t believe that. You think you’ve lost your faith, but I know you well enough to know that isn’t true. Deep down, you know you still believe. And I believe in you.”