The Rephaim: Burn Part 12

'Oh no you don't,' Maria says. 'Under no circ.u.mstances-'

'Mom, I've told you: I can only tell Gabe and Jude.'

'And I still don't understand. Why can't you tell me?'

Dani spreads her fingers on the table. Her nails are short and neat, painted a delicate shade of sh.e.l.l pink. 'Because it's too dangerous.'

'That doesn't rea.s.sure me, Daniella.' Maria glowers at me. 'What's to stop one of you kidnapping her?'

'If we wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h her, she'd be gone already,' I say, matter-of-fact.

'Again: not very rea.s.suring.'

'They're not going to kidnap me, Mom, I promise.'

Jason catches Dani's eye. 'Are you sure you're okay to do this?'

'You said I could trust them and I do.'

Jason squeezes her fingers, gives Jude and me a sharp look. 'Come on,' he says to Maria. 'We'll wait out back.'

Maria hesitates and then she kisses the top of Dani's head. 'We'll be right outside, baby. You remember what I told you: you are more important than what you see.'

Dani nods and then waits for them to grab their coats and leave through the back door. There's a strange flutter in my stomach. Dani wipes her hands on her jeans and pushes up the sleeves on her pink and grey jumper. Takes a deep breath.

'I had the vision for the first time a few weeks ago. Usually I only see them once, but this one kept coming back. Sometimes it happened when I was watching TV, other times I was outside playing. I had to stop riding my bike because I fell off and hurt my arm.' She holds up her wrist and shows us traces of a bad graze. 'I go into a kind of trance when it happens.'

'You're lucky you didn't hurt yourself worse,' Jude says. He sits forward. 'What did you see?'

Dani closes her eyes, and her face creases with concentration as she remembers. 'I see a man, taller than anyone I've ever seen, with huge wings. His eyes are like little fires, but the flames are blue. There are others with him, but I can't see their faces clearly.'

'Do you know who he is?' I ask.

Dani sucks in her bottom lip. Nods. 'Someone I can't see is called Orias. The one I can see is Semyaza.'

My heart stutters. Jude's eyes lock on mine for a good five seconds.

'How do you know their names?' Jude's voice is quiet.

'I hear them talking. Semyaza has his eyes closed and Orias is telling him to stop watching.'

'Watching what?'

'You and Gabe.'

'How can he do that?'

Dani shakes her head. 'I don't know, but he sees you.'

'Why us?' But I already know the answer. Why else would we be here?

Dani brings her knees up to her chest on the chair and wraps her thin arms around them.

'Because Semyaza is your father.'

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

Semyaza is our father. The leader of the Fallen. The instigator of the fall and the angel most despised by heaven.

And wherever he is, he's watching us.

The walls and the windows and the kitchen become a smear of beige. The house is too hot. My t-s.h.i.+rt is too tight against my throat. I stand up. My chair thuds on the carpet behind me and the table sways under my fingertips.

'Gabe...' Dani's voice is far away. Blood rushes in my ears. I need to move. My legs are shaky but they're still solid, propelling me forward. I pa.s.s carpeted stairs, an alcove with a computer, a painting of the sky. I keep walking until I reach the front door. I wrench it open and step onto the porch. Cold air hits me, nips at my bare arms. I suck in a deep breath and the air stings my nose, my throat, my lungs. The world sharpens. I stare out at a street lined with two-storey houses, neat lawns, American flags and oversized letterboxes. Vivid trees hug the road-splashes of reds and yellows-and dried leaves lie in deep piles in the gutters. An ugly orange face carved with jagged teeth and crazy eyes stares at me from the neighbour's porch. I blink, try to fit it into the storm of thoughts and fears gathering in my head. And then I remember it's nearly Halloween. I almost laugh at the irony.

Gooseb.u.mps crawl over my skin, snap me back into the moment. It's cold on the porch and there are no answers out here. I go back inside. Jude is still at the table, staring through the window at the cloudless afternoon sky. Jason and Maria are hugged into jackets, standing near the swing, deep in conversation, oblivious to the fact our world just tilted sideways. I pick up my chair and sit back down.

Jude looks stunned, disconnected. 'What does it mean?'

I don't have the words to answer him.

'Who gives you these visions?' he asks Dani.

'I don't know.'

Jude rolls his shoulders and cracks a joint in his neck. Dani flinches at the sound. 'Sorry,' he says, and takes a steadying breath. 'Do you know what Semyaza sees when he's watching us?' Jude asks.

I suppress a shudder. That sentence totally creeps me out.

Dani scratches the back of her hand. Her nails leave angry marks on her pale skin. 'I'm not sure, but every time I see Semyaza, the vision changes to show the three of us.'

'Doing what?' I ask.

'We're in a forest. You cut yourselves and I keep saying the same thing over and over again.'

'What do you say? Do you remember?'

She closes her eyes and wets her lips, and then speaks in a language I've never heard before. Guttural sounds, sounds that are barely human. But they reverberate in the marrow of my bones and my teeth itch. I clench my fingers into fists to still the trembling.

'Do you know what it means?' I ask and she shakes her head. I turn to Jude. 'Do you?'

He's staring at Dani, studying her as if she's the answer to a particularly challenging puzzle. 'No, but it has to be one of the tongues of angels. Why else would we not know it?'

Dani's fingers flutter to her lips.

'Does that mean an angel is sending her those visions?' I ask.

Dani isn't listening. She's still caught up in the idea she can speak an angelic language, her face filled with wonder. I don't feel wonder, I feel confused. And seriously freaked out. 'Why would they show you the Fallen?'

Dani finally registers I'm speaking to her. She stops touching her lips. 'There are things I don't see but that I sort of know when I come out of the trance. I think maybe Orias is my great-great-great-step grandpa, or whatever.' She looks from Jude to me. 'He's Jason's father,' she says, as if we didn't understand.

'Does Jason know that?' Jude asks.

She shakes her head vigorously. 'No. I don't think I'm meant to tell him.'

'But you're meant to tell us? Why?'

She crosses her legs under her on the chair and lengthens her spine. She looks older all of a sudden. 'The Fallen are stuck in another dimension. The Archangel Gabriel did it. He found them and put them there after they escaped, rather than sending them back to h.e.l.l.'

Dani talks about other dimensions, as if she's talking about countries she hasn't visited. I grew up knowing about other realms-s.h.i.+fting through at least one of them-and I still can't get my head around the idea.

'Why would Gabriel do that?' Jude asks.

'I don't know, but he used Semyaza's blood to bind the Fallen to wherever he trapped them. Now only Semyaza's blood-or Gabriel's-can break the seal and free them.'

'Why aren't they free already if Semyaza can do it?'

'The seal can only be broken from this side.'

Oh.

The full reality of that revelation dawns for Jude a second before I catch on. 'We're his blood,' Jude whispers. 'We can free them.'

f.u.c.k.

I swallow. 'That's what you see us doing...freeing them?'

Dani shrugs. 'All I know is that I say the words and you bleed in the dirt. I don't know what happens next, I haven't seen that part.'

'Holy s.h.i.+t,' Jude whispers. He sits back in his chair, dazed. 'Ho-ly s.h.i.+t.'

We sit in silence. No wonder Dani didn't want to tell anyone else. This is bigger than Jason's existence and the secret about our mothers. This is even bigger than Dani and her abilities. If Nathaniel's right, finding the Fallen is the one thing that can give our existence meaning-give us a future. Even if he's wrong, finding and freeing them will change everything.

They've stayed hidden-no, trapped-for a hundred and forty years. And now, in the s.p.a.ce of a short conversation with an eleven-year-old, we're the closest we've ever been to them.

'What are we supposed to do now?' I ask.

Jude drags both hands through his hair. 'Even if what Dani says is true, it means nothing if we don't know where the Fallen disappeared.'

He's right. It's the reason we've spent nearly a century and a half roaming the globe: trying to find the exact spot where the Fallen left the world. If we can do that, Nathaniel's always said he can track them.

Jude picks up a pencil from the table, absently taps it against his forehead.

'Maybe the exact spot isn't important,' Dani says.

Jude stops tapping.

'Maybe your blood is what's important, not the place.' She pushes a long blonde curl out of her eye. 'You need to not be fighting, I know that much.'

'That's why you said we had to spend time together before we met you?' I ask.

She nods.

'But we're definitely in a forest?' Jude presses.

'Uh huh.'

'So maybe we could try it in any forest.'

Frustration flares, scorching and sudden. 'Can we have a word in private, Jude?'

He catches the edge in my voice. Nods.

I head for the front door and then remember how cold it is outside. I go into the study alcove instead. Jude follows and I close the sliding door behind him.

'What is it you think we're going to try?' I demand. 'Have you come to a decision you haven't shared with me?' There's not much room in here, especially with the s.p.a.ce fizzing with my anger.

'I was thinking out loud,' Jude says carefully.

'That's what you want, though, isn't it: to see if we can release them.'

'I don't know yet. First I want to understand what Dani saw and then we can work out what to do about it. Together.'

'After you tell your crew.'

He stares at me, some of his calmness slipping. 'Are you planning on telling anyone at the Sanctuary?'

Am I? I find a spot on the wall behind him to study, a lighter patch where a picture once hung. I think about how that conversation would go-and its ramifications. Our century-old secret about Jason would be bad enough, but our link to the Fallen...it would complicate everything. Complicate life in ways that would never be unravelled.

'No,' I say. 'But if you tell the Outcasts, I'll have to tell the Five. If your crew knows, they should too.'

Jude nods. 'Fair enough. But I have no intention of telling my crew at this point.'

'Me either.' I exhale. 'So what now?'

He's already thought it through. 'We lie low here until we know more. Stay away from everyone else so we don't have to lie to them.'

I imagine facing Daisy or Micah-or worse, Nathaniel or Daniel-knowing what I know now. 'Agreed.'

Jude and I borrow Jason's rental car and follow his directions to Wholefoods. We bicker about music all the way there and back, trying to agree on a radio station. Back at Maria's, we crack a bottle of pinot noir and take over the kitchen.

Maria wasn't overjoyed at the prospect of us staying-especially when she realised we meant overnight. With Jason already in the spare room, she suggested we try a hotel in town but we insisted we were happy to sleep in the living room. It was Dani who wore Maria down.

Once that was settled, Jude phoned Rafa to tell him he'd be away a bit longer-I didn't hear Rafa's half of the conversation but it obviously wasn't flattering to me. I sent Daisy a similar message, and ignored her follow-up texts fis.h.i.+ng for more information.

Before everything turned to s.h.i.+t at the Sanctuary, Jude and I used to pester Brother Pietro to give us a corner of the kitchen to use. It wasn't that we didn't appreciate the meals he and his team served up-we did-it was that occasionally we wanted something less commissary, and less Italian, and we didn't always want to leave home for it.

We haven't cooked together for a decade, but Jude and I quickly find our rhythm. We're making rice-paper rolls, pad thai noodles and laksa. I chop herbs and Jude makes the pastes and dipping sauces. The kitchen soon smells of coriander, mint and fresh-roasted peanuts. I teach Dani how to soak the rice paper and roll up the mint, cuc.u.mber, carrot, and rice noodles. Her first two look like alien life forms-which she photographs on Maria's phone, giggling-but her third is near perfect. She lays them out in a neat circle around the sweet chilli sauce.