Lost Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy #2) (11 page)

“Never mind all that. I wanna see the tat,” she answers, cleverly redirecting our conversation.

Hesitantly, I turn around and point at the star tattoo on my neck. Gia runs her fingers over it. Shivers shoot through me and my body shudders. I can see her smiling through her reflection in the mirror in front of me.

“What is that thing?”

She inhales sharply and says, “The Fallen’s mark.”

“The what?” I turn back to face her.

“The mark of the imperfect man. A symbol of the lost soul. Bernael’s servants.” She tucks her bottom lip and hugs her shoulders. “Caleb, what happened these past few days? Don’t be jerking around with the facts, either. This is serious.”

“Tell me about it. I think I dreamed about the Bernael dude. Actually, I think it was more like a memory or something.” I turn around and face her, a million questions rushing through my head.

“Describe the man in your dream.”

“Basketball player tall, blonde, and really good at using his fingers as a cigarette lighter.”

“Yep. That’s Bernael all right,” she answers.

“So, uh, what does this mean? I seriously doubt it’s a V.I.P. pass to see a first run Naruto show.”

Acting silly is so not working. A ton of crazy freaking visions are rushing through my head. Bits and pieces of insane images like dudes getting impaled and other things; the kind of stuff you hear about happening to people when their souls are condemned. Man, I hope that’s not what I’m headed for.

“I need to tell Mabry about this. He can protect you. This dream has something to do with the Wanderer. I can feel it.”

“You’d think my mom would’ve told me something,” I say, feeling hurt I could be discovering yet another secret between my mom and me.

“Your mother did what she needed to do in order to save you. Bernael tricked her into giving him power over your life. Any good mom would’ve done the same thing.” She massages her chin as she glances off into space. She always does this when she’s caught up in her thoughts. Her gaze drifts back toward my face and then she studies my hair.

“We need to fix your new, um, hairdo. I’ll cut it for you.” She snaps out of her thinking mode as she spins me around and runs her fingers through the hair on the back of my head. “You look like you lost a fight with Sweeny Todd.” We both share a laugh, a much needed one, too.

I turn back around and face her. I cannot believe I’m about to let a girl cut my hair. No one besides my barber has gotten a hold of these locks over the past twelve years. Well, except for the time when Kyle and I took that test drive of Darren’s clippers.

“A deal then. I let you fix Sweeny’s mess, if you can pull off a Mohawk.”

“A Mohawk? Your mom’s going to think you’ve lost your mind and I’ll be just as insane for doing it,” she answers, wrapping her arms around my waist.

“I don’t care.”

“I do.”

“I don’t have to go bald on the sides. Just shorter hair will work, I think.” I move my arms around her and poke out my lips, pouting the way I used to do when I was a kid and needed to charm a teacher into shortening my detention days.

“Goo goo, eyes and pouty lips won’t work.” Yet she’s already reaching around me and picking up the clippers on the sink. “I’ll do this, but you have to finish telling me about the Erica dream.”

I’m tired of talking. A beautiful girl is standing in my bathroom and lately it seems all we ever manage to do is discuss our supernatural problems. I gently turn her body to face me.

“There’s only one thing we need to talk about right now.” I ease the clippers out of her hand and set them back on the countertop.

“And what’s that?”

I move my mouth down to hers, parting her lips, taking her full bottom lip in between my own and feeling the tension from the crazy nightmare I just had ease out of my body. Thoughts of dreams about bad angels without wings and long-faced witches with fins huddled together outside my window completely disappear.

Caleb

I’m still riding on my Gia high when I step outside and head toward my car. I have English and Trig tests I haven’t studied for and I’m not really sure how this day’s going to turn out. Thoughts of Gia even help me feel better about all that.

For some reason my girlfriend claims she needed to go back home, muttering something about forgetting her Chemistry notes. She didn’t want me to be late, too, so I will be braving the stormy ride to class by myself.

I can’t lie; the weirdo mark etched into the back of my neck threatens to ruin my mood, even though I’m trying really hard to focus on my girl’s gorgeous face. Just like the strange, never ending dream, the reason the angel I now know is Bernael gave me the tattoo comes down to the man who’s my real father, the one not even my mother knows all that much about.

I hit my car alarm, unlocking the doors, however as soon as I reach for the handle, something shuffles in the bushes along the side of the house.

“She’s weak, Caleb. Her life essence is fading,” a female’s familiar voice says from behind me. My heart leaps up into my throat as I swirl around, my chest thumping from my heavy breathing. Erica stands behind me, but the girl facing me seems different in some way.

I mean, she has the same big hair, although it’s longer. Plus, her little body doesn’t seem as scrawny as it was the last time I saw her. She has filled out. The dark jeans she wears along with the black tee shirt give her skin an unnatural glow, making her seem paler than anything. If it weren’t for the pink ring she always wears, then I might think this girl was someone new.

“Long time no see,” she says and strolls toward me.

“Erica. You look, um… different,” I manage to get out. What the freak do you say to a girl you haven’t seen in almost four months? Oh yeah, the same girl who just happens to be some kind of dark queen who’ll bring about the end of the world with my help, let me add. My head’s all screwed up. Part of it wants to believe what Gia says about Erica, but the second half tells me Erica’s just a girl caught up in a screwed up situation like me.

“You look hot, too. Love the new haircut.” She moves over to where I’m still holding onto the car door and runs her fingers through the long hair on top my head. A strange wave of dizziness rushes over me. I close my eyes for a short moment, grounding myself.

“Hey, there’s only one girl who’s allowed to do that.” I take her wrists and ease her hands away from my head.

The cocky smile of confidence never once leaves her face. The hair she usually wears secured in either a bun like a ballerina or a braid blows loose in the wind. It’s long. Like seriously, I think it almost touches the back of her knees.

“You look pretty good for a stressed out chick. I mean, that is why you’ve been gone, right? To take some time to get well.” I have no idea how to begin this conversation. I do know that it’s one I need to have, though.

“Caleb, my dear, sweet, gray-eyed one. You’re no fool. Neither am I. We both know why I had to leave,” she purrs with her head cocked to the side, a strange gleam inside her jade green eyes.

“No, really. I don’t have a clue,” I answer truthfully. An uneasy chill creeps up my backside. I want to glance at my watch, but I’m too scared to even do that. Mom should be returning from her early morning Trader Joes run soon.

“Are you ready for us?” she asks and steps toward me.

I back up away from my car and begin easing toward the front door’s stairway. Somehow, I don’t think running will help me out much and come on, you don’t really think I’d run from a girl, do you?

I make a nervous, light laugh. She hasn’t tried to slice me up or turn me into a frog or better, she hasn’t sent those creepy crabs that have human feet after me yet. Maybe Erica isn’t as bad as people think. I try to think of something to keep the conversation light. I don’t think this is the right time to bring up what I recently learned about her, so I pick something everybody’s talking about.

“So, will you be back in time for graduation in a couple months?”

“Do you miss me, Caleb? Is that why you’re asking me these questions?” She takes another step forward and I take another one back. “You are wearing the mark that binds us, I do believe.” She lifts her left hand up in a cupping motion with the inside of her palm aimed toward me.

A stinging sensation, the same one I felt in the dream where the angel touched the back of my neck—branding me with his mark of the imperfect man—or whatever, sizzles across my skin. I take in a sharp breath through my teeth and rub the back of my neck.

“What? You did this?” I ask, massaging my neck.

“Not exactly, but would you like me to show you what it does?” The grin on her lips together with the crazy gleam in her eyes, even on a cloudy day like this one, tells me I don’t even want to know.

“Maybe another time. You probably wanna catch up with your friends. Hey, I think I heard Amy Peterson took your place as lead cheer—” My sentence gets cut off by a stronger sting this time, a paralyzing wave that brings tears to my eyes.

I double over and then stumble backward in an effort to get to my front door. Will I be safe inside my house? Probably not. Unlike Gia, this girl can walk through doors. Still, there’s just something warm, comfy and safe about getting inside your parents’ house when you feel threatened this way.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Caleb,” she says to me. A strange, heated wind begins whipping around us.

“That right? Wow, Erica, I find that a little hard to believe right now.” The sting increases. I fall to the ground this time and sit there grasping my neck with both hands now. “What the hell are you doing to me?”

“It’s not me. I swear it isn’t,” she cries out, her hair whipping around her face, clouding her in a veil of strands. I might be a fool, but something tells me that she’s not lying.

Then, they ease out of the woods, surrounding the house like slithers of black ink. About twenty-five or so Walkers. I’ve renamed them the Dark Agents because now I know these spirits or lost souls or whatever are controlled by the Angel of Chaos. Any notion I had that Gia could’ve been mistaken about our girl here goes flying right down the street along with the strange wind my uninvited guests are making. I hope my mom stays away. I don’t want her getting caught up in all this.

“Stop this! You’re hurting him!” Erica rushes over to my side, bends down beside me, places her hands over mine and pulls my head up against her chest. I’m in too much pain to do anything right now.

I lower my hands and glance around my front yard. The Agents I’m seeing today aren’t like the ones I’ve seen before. Usually they have blurry faces, kinda like they belong in a dream. These people, though—men, women and children alike—stand before me in true life realism. All ages, sizes, races and all dressed in black. I’m afraid to look at them for too long because I’m scared I might see someone I recognize. Now that would really freak me out.

“You are not supposed to touch him! Wait until the master hears about this,” Erica says to the Walkers. The stinging eases up a little.

“Get your dirty girl hands off my charge,” a familiar voice says from beside us.
Unbe-freakin-lievable!
“Looks like you could use a little help, love.” She stands beside my car, red hair the color of a new penny flying in the wind, a black shawl sitting on her shoulders, which flaps in the wind like bat wings. I’m thinking somebody signed me up for a horror movie and forgot to tell me about it before they started filming. It’s Paige!

This is the girl who tried to kill me during Gia’s skateboarding competition last year. She also happens to be a Melusine sea witch, one who has a crazy sister named Mel. That would be the girl who has pet crabs with human feet, let me remind you.

Gia had come to my rescue that night, using her starlight power to do some kind of insanely-cool mojo magic or something on Paige. Both of us assumed she was dead. Whoa!

Can this morning get any crazier?

I don’t even think I wanna know the answer to my own question. The scene before me now—the one with my kinda ex-girlfriend’s Walker crew stinging the crap out of me, while the girl who tried to strangle me to death last year is threatening to kick her ass if she doesn’t stop—is creating enough of a mind trip to keep me right on the edge of insane.

Erica releases me and I fall back on the ground, hoping the rest of the bee sting like pain from hell eases up some more.

“Who are you?” Erica asks in measured words, her fists clenched and her shoulders hunched.

“No matter to you,” Paige answers and lifts her right hand up. “You and your soulless watchdogs will be skipping along now, little pretty.” A silver sphere the size of a grapefruit forms just above her palm. A collective hiss flows through the Walkers. Even Erica takes a couple steps back. The burn fades and I manage to hop to my feet.

“Where did you get that?” Erica asks, her gaze glued to the ball that’s now glowing and making a sound similar to a hum, reminding me of those Gregorian chants mother sometimes listens to while she’s meditating.

“I wouldn’t so much worry about the
wherea
s I would the what-the-hell-is-she-about-to-do-to-me part,” Paige answers, a crooked smile plastered across her ruby lips. The glow surrounding the ball widens. The Walkers standing around the area begin to darken, turning back into the strange shadows I’m used to seeing and then they disappear into the trees, leaving Erica alone.

“Uh oh, looks like your little crew left ya behind. Time to move along. I got this under control now, little doll.” Paige beams a smile.

“And I say it’s going to take more than a glowing golf ball to scare me off, Rose Red,” Erica takes a step forward, heading straight toward the outer edge of the sphere’s glow that has covered both my body and Paige’s. At once, she’s knocked backward, a slapping noise sounding out around her. She straightens up and turns a stunned face toward Paige and me as she massages her cheeks.

“Would you like to try that again, sweetie?” Paige asks in a mockingly sweet voice.

“Caleb, she’s come here to hurt you. Can’t you see?” Erica says to me.

“Lies. Time is precious. I have none to waste. If I wanted to hurt you, I would’ve done so by now,” Paige says to me.

“You’ll regret trusting her over me. Just remember what I said about your girlfriend.” Erica takes a few more steps backward until there’s nothing except for shadows and silence in the spot where she last stood. I turn to Paige, hoping I’m not being an idiot.

Stunned doesn’t come close to the way my insides are all twisted up. The last time I saw Paige, she was trying to strangle me. Now it seems like she’s defending me, but why? This whole scene is nuts. “You know, I could be wrong, but weren’t you the girl who tried to kill me last time we met?”

“That was before I knew you weren’t just another pretty face, love,” she begins. “I’ve been granted a second chance to come back as your Protector. Little Gia imprisoned me, Caleb. She doesn’t have the spunk to kill anyone. Sorry to disappoint. I was put into a hydra ball and sent back to the Seraphine Inquisition to face judgment. But daddy Trident had a change of heart about some things. Said I could go home if I managed to keep you out of trouble until you turn the magical age of eighteen. Gia has also been given back her ability to use starlight.”

“Is that what it’s called?” I ask, wondering why Gia never told me the official name.

She nods and then says, “We draw on the power of the stars. That’s why on a cloudy night we don’t try to use it. Doesn’t work so well, and then irritating things happen when you try to fight the daughter of the sea king. Crappy things like getting stuffed into an itty bitty little ball made of water touched by a goddess.”

“Wait. Like a genie?”

She scoffs. “Would’ve been great if it was that much fun. Are you kidding me?”

“How do they know you won’t just break bail? Say to hell with it and finish what you tried to do a couple months ago?” I ask.

She smirks and rolls her eyes. “Can we say, somebody hangs out in anime land too much?”

“What do you know about that? Whatever. Just answer the question,” I urge. “I’m kinda thinking your sea witch of a sister might stop hitting us with all those tornados if she finds out you’re alive.”

“It’s forbidden. I—I can’t ever contact my people again. That is, not until I make sure you stay in one piece over the next few weeks. Something about making it through the upcoming solstice, and then, the Inquisition might let me see some of my family. If they’ll even want to see me.”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“You simple humans just don’t get it, do you? I can’t just storm up to my door and say, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad. I’m back’. It doesn’t work that way in our world. I’m a traitor. I accepted the Seraphine Council’s cure, and, in case you haven’t heard, the Melusine hate the waters the Seraphine swim in. I’ll have to prove my worth to them as well as fulfill my duty to the king.”

“Now that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it doesn’t in your human eyes. To survive, baby wanderer, you’d better lose the rest of that innocence you wallow in. The world as you know it is about to change. The fallen are rising and Poseidon’s world under the sea is lost without its prince or princess to sit on the throne. Whatever thing it is that Bernael wants you to do affects all of us. Not just the sea dwellers, but the lands of humans and celestials will suffer, too. Did you just hear all those things I said?”