I grabbed Daniel’s hand, lacing my fingers with his. “But he’s my fiancé,” I said. “I’ve read your visiting policies. That’s allowed.”
Daniel glanced at me, his eyes wide with surprise. Or perhaps shock. He looked away again, and I couldn’t get a read on his expression.
My heart sank a bit. So he really doesn’t remember what happened?
I squeezed his hand as if to say, Just play along with me. Daniel’s hand clasped mine a little tighter in response.
“Just happened,” Daniel said, rocking on his heels. “We came to tell her father the good news. Even if he’s unconscious, we wanted him to be the first to hear it. Besides you now, of course.” Daniel flashed her one of his most charming smiles, and even though the nurse had to be twenty years his senior, and clearly wasn’t buying the story, I could tell that she wasn’t going to be able to say no to him.
“Twenty minutes. That is all. You stay a minute longer, and I’ll call security. You don’t want to get barred from the ICU for the rest of your father’s stay.”
“Thank you,” I said as she handed me a couple of visitor badges. She glanced at my hand as I reached for them, no doubt searching for an engagement ring on my finger. I pulled Daniel along the hall as fast as I could without running before the nurse could change her mind about letting us in.
When we got to Dad’s room, I pulled the curtain partway closed over the sliding glass door the way Gabriel had. “We’re here to help you, Daddy,” I said, turning toward my still-unconscious father. Daniel stood quiet and still by his bedside, and I remembered that this was the first time he’d seen him in his injured state.
“I almost can’t recognize him,” he said with a catch in his voice. The swelling in Dad’s face had gone down considerably, but the bruising was much more pronounced. Like his whole face had been blotted with blackish-purple dye. “I’m glad you brought me to see him. But I don’t understand why we’re here, or what this has to do with me. How could I possibly help him?”
“We’re going to heal him.”
Daniel looked even more shocked now than he had when I announced our engagement. “How?”
I explained what we were about to do, using Gabriel’s almost exact wording so I wouldn’t get it wrong. Daniel still had that shocked but solemn look on his face, but he nodded along like he understood.
“You need to clear your head,” I said again after the explanation. “The first time I tried this with Gabriel, I wasn’t able to push away my negative thoughts, and I ended up hurting my father more. I was afraid to ever try it again, but I had to use a similar method to turn you back into a human, and that worked. Now that I have you to help me, I believe it will work for my father, too.”
“I’m not sure I’m the best person—”
“You’re the only person.” I looked deep into Daniel’s eyes. “I need you to accept who you are. You’re a Hound of Heaven, not a Dog of Death. Yes, part of your calling is to kill demons—only to protect the innocent—but this right here is what we were truly meant for. What the original Urbat were created for. Something only Urbat like you and I can do. Because we haven’t lost our capacity to love. That’s what we have to give the world.”
I could see the struggle in Daniel’s eyes. The fight to accept what I was telling him against what he’d come to believe about himself.
“You’re not a monster. Not anymore. You came back something different. And deep down, I think you know what that is.”
Like an angel.
I leaned in and kissed Daniel softly on the lips. When I pulled away, he closed his eyes for a moment so I could no longer see the battle in his head. Then he stood a little straighter and nodded. “I think you’re right,” he said, opening his eyes again. What I saw there was a solid look of determination.
“Are you ready to do this with me?”