“If those guys were really demons, then why did they need a gun?”
Talbot shrugged. “I don’t know, Grace, but it worries me. Gelals don’t even usually come out until well after midnight. They’re completely nocturnal, you know? And the fact that they were even here in the city is a mystery. That’s the third pair of them I’ve come across in the last two months, but before that I hadn’t even encountered one since I was last on the West Coast.” He shook his head. “There’s something going down around here. Used to be I had to go looking for demons, track them for months before one came out of hiding, but now the city seems to be crawling with them. And I keep hearing rumors that someone’s gathering werewolves, Gelals, Akhs, and all kinds of other paranormal teens into some sort of gang. They supposedly call themselves the Shadow Kings.”
“A gang of paranormals?”
“You know those ‘invisible bandits’ they keep talking about on the news?”
I nodded.
“You don’t think humans are behind all that?”
“No. Not at all,” I said. “They hit a grocery store in my town. Ransacked the entire place in less than five minutes. My … boyfriend and I were saying that a gang of superpowered teens had to be behind it all. And I think my brother may be mixed up with them. He said something to April about finding a new family.”
Talbot’s eyebrows arched up. “Your brother is like you?”
“Kind of.” I didn’t know what I should say to Talbot. I mean, we’d known each other only for a total of a few hours—yet in those few hours he’d saved my life twice. And he was the only person I knew like me. Someone who had powers and actually wanted to use them for good. At least from what I could tell. You can trust him, that voice whispered in my head. “Jude’s turned into a full werewolf. I haven’t. He bit me when he first turned, and then he tried to kill his best friend—my, um, boyfriend. I think that’s why Jude left home.” I breathed out a sigh. It felt good to tell the truth to someone who could really understand.
Talbot nodded. “So who’s this boyfriend you keep mentioning? Sounds like your brother dislikes him just as much as I do.”
I cocked my head and looked at Talbot. What did he mean by that?
“Sorry.” Talbot flashed me a smile. “Just thinking that this boyfriend must be pretty special to warrant having a girl like you. But what’d he do to tick off your bro?”
“Oh. Daniel—my boyfriend …” Ugh. It was like this conversation couldn’t go ten seconds now without one of us dropping the B word. Daniel and I didn’t even like to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. It just sounded so trite compared to how we felt about each other. “Daniel, my boy—” I cleared my throat. “He used to be a werewolf. He’s the one who infected my brother a few years ago. My brother kind of hates his guts now.”
Talbot gave me a quizzical, yet amused look. He shook his head. “What do you mean Daniel used to be a werewolf? I was under the impression that being an Urbat is a permanent condition.”
“I cured him.”
Talbot’s eyes widened. He slammed on the breaks just before almost running a red light. “How did you do that?”
Unfortunately, I was too tired to tell that much of the story. “True love’s first kill”—I waved my hand in the air—“yada, yada, yada … It’s really a story for another day.”
Talbot blinked. He let out a short laugh and then gazed into my eyes. “I do believe, Miss Grace Divine, that you get more and more interesting by the minute.”
The tone of his voice when he said the words Miss Grace sent another flutter of warm familiarity through my body. What is it about him?
The light turned green, and we drove through the intersection. I turned my head and stared out the passenger’s-side window. “You should talk. I mean, I assume this is something you do a lot. Track down demons and investigate gangs of paranormal thieves? Is this Good Samaritan job just a front for your vigilante superhero quest?”