Haze by Paula Weston Read Free Book Online Page B

Gatekeepers. They hoped the demons would find the Fallen and drag them and Nathaniel back to hell and take their offspring with them.’
    Rafa is perfectly still. ‘And what did you tell them?’
    ‘Nothing. I didn’t tell them my mother survived and had another child, or about her descendants and their visions. They left and I never saw those two again. But about fifteen years later another two women visited me, again in New York. They were daughters of the first two, younger—maybe early thirties. They somehow knew I’d never been to the Sanctuary. They said I’d proven I could be trusted, so they took me to meet the rest of the family. In Iowa.’
    ‘So you weren’t searching for Dani and Maria this morning?’ Rafa says.
    ‘I’m always looking for them.’ There’s sadness in his voice, loss. I feel it, but I can’t overlook the fact he didn’t tell Maggie and me the truth.
    ‘You lied to us?’ I ask.
    ‘I wanted to know if the women could help me before I put them in danger. And I did call Dani and Maria again. I asked if they’d ever heard of an object that could protect humans from Rephaim. They didn’t return my call.’ Jason doesn’t add that apart from the phone call where Dani told him I was in Pan Beach, they haven’t taken his calls for a year.
    Rafa shakes his head. ‘So, there’s a cult of women who know about us, and they live among the fucking corn in Iowa?’
    Jason looks to me, needing me to understand. ‘My mother was long gone, none of the girls in the family were having visions at that point…I was curious.’ He pauses. ‘We travelled by bus—I didn’t know I could shift with humans back then. I met three generations of the family. All women. They asked me questions about my abilities—’
    ‘Did you tell them about me and Jude?’ I ask.
    ‘No, I lied about how I learned to shift.’
    ‘And you’re still in contact with them?’
    He nods. ‘The current generation knows more about the Rephaim than any before them.’
    ‘How? Who are they?’
    Jason sits at the table, runs his fingers along the edge. ‘There’s a strong religious tradition in the family but I haven’t been able to pin down what, if any, denomination they follow. There are rules about what they will and won’t tell me. The standard response is that I can’t know too much in case I fall under Nathaniel’s influence.’
    ‘You’re a smart guy,’ Rafa says. It’s not a compliment. ‘Why didn’t you do your own research?’
    ‘I didn’t know how seriously to take the whole “revelation of God” thing. I didn’t know if they would find out.’
    ‘Are you shitting me?’
    ‘They knew things, Rafa. I don’t know how. I didn’t want to risk losing contact with them.’ He drums his fingers on the laminate. ‘But they’ve never seemed like farmers. The current matriarch, Virginia, walks and talks like a corporate CEO and her eldest daughter Debra is an architect. They don’t come across as religious zealots—until they start talking about the Fallen and the Rephaim.’
    ‘And it’s always women you meet?’ I ask.
    He nods.
    ‘How can they help Mags?’
    Jason’s eyes stray to a mark on the table. An old candle burn. He doesn’t look up. He’s really uncomfortable talking to Rafa about this.
    ‘None of them have ever been scared of me. Nervous yes, but not frightened. They knew about shifting—don’t ask me how—so they should be more on edge in my company.’ A pause. ‘I’ve had a theory for a while now. I think they wear some kind of trinket that would prevent them from being forced to shift.’
    Rafa lets his breath out. ‘Not possible.’
    ‘What sort of something?’ I ask.
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Then how—’
    ‘Hear me out. They all wear a chain around their neck, which they tuck inside their clothes. These women spend a lot of money on jewellery. They flaunt it—they don’t hide it.’
    ‘Is that where you went this morning?’ I ask. ‘Iowa?’
    He nods.