The Dark Divine

"Don't be sorry. None of this was ever your fault." Daniel clasped his hand over mine. "I'll be fine soon anyway."

He closed his eyes and pressed my bandaged hand against his cheekbone. His skin grew warmer under my touch. My palm started to sweat. His skin flared hot. Just as it felt like it was going to burn me, the heat tingled away. Daniel dropped his hand, and I pulled mine back.

His skin was bare. No bruises or marks of any kind.

"You really are a superhero," I whispered.

Daniel leaned against the house. His feet dangled over the side of the roof. "I'm nothing of the sort."

"How can you say that? I've seen the things you can do. You could totally help people. And you saved James." I scratched at my bandage. My hand and feet throbbed, and I ached all over. The power to heal myself would come quite in handy right about now. "I wish I could do some of those things."

He clasped his fingers around his smooth stone necklace. "You wouldn't like the side effects."

"Are you kidding? I'd do anything to be like you."

"No, you wouldn't." Daniel glanced at me. His eyes flashed with that hungry glint. "That's what makes you so special."

A frightened shiver rushed through my body. Part of me wanted to climb back into my room and lock the window. But most of me wanted him to take me in his arms and run away from everything and everyone.

"You are special, you know," Daniel said, and brushed my arm.

"Daniel, I..."

Daniel winced and pulled away. He clutched the black necklace tighter and mumbled something I couldn't understand between sharp breaths.

"Are you okay?" I stretched out my hand to him.

"Please, don't." He shrugged off my touch and backed up against the side of the house. He pulled his legs to his chest, as if creating a barrier between us. His body quaked. He closed his eyes, panting. His trembling stopped, but he still clenched his pendant in a rigid fist.

"Is that what gives you your ... abilities? The necklace?"

Daniel kept his eyes closed. "No." "Then how? What?"

He let air out between his teeth. "I should leave you."

"But I want to know everything."

"I'm sorry, Gracie. i really should go."

I folded my arms. "You're not getting off that easy. A promise is a promise, remember," I said in my bossy Grace voice.

Daniel stopped and his mouth edged into a grin. "You have no idea what you do to me."

I blushed, but I wasn't going to let him distract me. "Is this why you left town? Or did this happen to you while you were gone? How did you become what you are? Tell me, please."

"Nothing happened to me. Not exactly. I guess you could say I was born this way."

"I don't remember you being like ... this." But then I remembered all those times as a child that he seemed to have bruises in the morning that were gone by the afternoon, or limps that mysteriously disappeared. I remembered how baffled Daniel's doctor had been when his skull fracture healed in a matter of weeks rather than months.

"It develops with age ... and experiences."

"Superpowers are a little more intense than armpit hair and zits," I said.

Daniel laughed. "It's kind of a family thing," He lowered his voice. "You know what your father says in his sermons about how the devil works--among other things--

through flattery, jealousy, and complacency?"

I nodded. That was one of Dad's favorite subjects.

"Well, the devil wasn't always so subtle. In the begi

I didn't know what to say--or even think. Was he being serious? Did he really want me to believe that monsters existed? Rut then again, up until today, I thought people with super strength and the ability to heal themselves were just characters from comic books.

When I didn't respond, Daniel went on. "With demons ru

"So God made the ultimate soldier in His fight against evil?" My question sounded so logical, even though I still couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Exactly. He even marked them with white-blond hair like the angels." He fingered his shaggy, sandy-brown hair. "Hounds of Heaven. That's what He called them. Or something like that--the actual word has been lost. The closest I know of is the Sumerian word Urbat. It was their job to track down demons. Keep mortals safe from the wrath of the devil."

"These ... Urbat ... what became of them? Why haven't I ever heard of them before?"

Daniel shrugged. "They overstayed their welcome in the mortal world. There are only a relative handful of them today. They prefer to live in groups--packs, actually.

Many of them are artists like me. It must be that animal co

That's where I met Gabriel."

"The angel from the garden? You said he gave you that necklace. What is it?"

Daniel touched the black stone. "A piece of the moon."

"What?" I don't know why that seemed more impossible to believe than his story.

Daniel smiled at my inquisitive look. He wrapped his arm around my back and let me hold the flat black stone as it hung from his neck. It was surprisingly warm and wasn't as smooth as it looked. It was slightly porous, like lava rock. I pressed my fingertip into the small crescent carved in the middle.

"It helps me control the things I do." He stroked his fingers over mine.

I leaned my head against his chest and was surprised I could hear his heart thumping through his coat. His breaths were deep and steady, but his heartbeat seemed erratic. Too fast, but too slow at the same time--almost as if two hearts pounded inside of him. Both telling me to believe his words.

Daniel pulled me closer in his embrace. He traced his hand along the collar of my robe, his fingers grazing my skin. One of his heartbeats quickened, fluttering as it pulsed.

I dropped the stone pendant. It bounced slightly against his chest. "Daniel? If people like you--these Urbat--still exist, does that mean monsters do, too?"

Daniel turned his head away. "I should go now." He pulled me up with him as he stood.

My feet felt uneven on the slope of the roof. Daniel steadied me. I didn't want him to leave. I would have kept him with me all night if I could. But I knew he wouldn't stay.

He wouldn't answer any more questions tonight.

He helped me through the window and popped the screen back in place. "Good night, Grace."

"Will I see you again?" I placed my hand on the screen that separated us. "You're not going to disappear now that your secret identity is blown?"