FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, OUTSIDE THE PARISH
I stood in the cold, dead grass in the churchyard near the willow tree where Daniel and I used to share occasional picnics after Sunday service. Dad and Gabriel sat on the parish steps. The five boys stood behind me—they’d insisted on coming along, which was good since I was going to need all the help I could get. No doubt they were all wondering why I’d been staring up at the roof of the parish for the last few minutes like a total loon. Only one member of our little group was still missing, and I was taking advantage of what time I had left to gather my thoughts before I shared my revelation with the others.
I heard the screech of brakes in the parking lot. I could smell April’s pear-scented perfume as soon as she got out of the car—along with another mixture of scents, like maple, donuts, and … bacon?
“What’s the big emergency?” she asked as she came up to me. Her voice sounded oddly chipper for six thirty a.m. on a Saturday.
I took my eyes off the parish’s roof for a second to glance at her. I’d given the others only a ten-minute warning to meet me. Dad had creases on his face like he’d fallen asleep at his desk in the parish’s office with only a book for a pillow. Gabriel was just as bleary-eyed, but April looked like she was headed out to the Megaplex in Apple Valley on a Friday night with perfectly placed curls, jewelry, makeup, and an outfit that looked like it was straight off a mannequin at the Gap. I, on the other hand, was still clad in my red pajama pants and shirt under my jacket.
I gave her one more quick glance and noticed the paper bag from the Day’s Market Bakery sticking out of her large pink purse. The mixture of smells suddenly made sense, and if I had only one guess, I’d bet ten bucks that bag contained a couple of bacon-maple donuts—Jude’s favorite.
I frowned. no wonder she looked so good. April had spent almost every waking moment in the past week outside Jude’s makeshift cage.
I ignored April’s question. She must have been headed over here already before she got my text because she’d gotten here a lot faster than I’d expected, and I still wasn’t quite ready to share my idea.
I’d spent almost a year repressing my memories of what happened that fateful night on the parish’s roof, and now it took most of my concentration to force myself to recall every last detail.
“Grace has proposed the hypothesis that we need a moonstone in order to help change Daniel back into his human form,” Brent said, as if he could sense my reluctance to speak.
“What makes you think this?” Gabriel asked me. “I’ve been exploring that possibility myself.”
“She thinks he’s been trying to psychically communicate it to her,” Brent answered for me, “in her dreams.”
Gabriel stood. “Interesting. Perhaps it has something to do with your being his alpha mate.” He stared into my eyes for a moment. “Or something else…”
Dad started grumbling about the word mate. I held my hand up to silence him before he could launch into another lecture and break my concentration.
“Of course, the issue would be where to procure another moonstone,” Dad said, instead of getting all preachy.
“Can’t we just buy a moon rock off the Internet?” April said. “I’ve been doing some looking around for Jude, and I found a dude on eBay who says he’s got a moon rock from the actual moon mission back in the sixties. We can buy it now for only three thousand dollars. I’ve got some college savings—”