Haze

by Paula Weston

  Footsteps in the hallway remind us we’re not alone.

  I swing my legs back around so my feet are on the floor. Rafa takes a deep breath, still watching me. Jude clears his throat before he steps into the doorway. If he notices the charged air between us he doesn’t mention it.

  ‘So you’re going to hang around?’ Rafa says. I reach down, pretend to retie my boot lace to hide the heat in my neck.

  ‘Yeah.’ Jude rubs his shoulder, the one he landed on. ‘I need to understand who we are and figure out what happened last year. It’s the only way we can stay safe. Until then we’re running blind.’

  ‘I thought none of that mattered?’

  Jude acknowledges the dig with a dry smile.

  ‘If that’s the plan then, buddy, you’re going to need help. You need to choose who to trust: the Outcasts or Nathaniel’s crew.’

  ‘Why do I have to choose either? You’ll do.’

  Rafa blinks and then laughs. ‘All I’ve been worried about is finding you. I don’t have much of a plan beyond that. You were always the one for strategy.’

  Jude picks up the chair, straightens the bent leg. ‘Give me time, I’ll come up with something.’

  Rafa shakes his head, his smile the same as Jude’s.

  ‘What?’ Jude tests his weight on the chair before sitting down.

  ‘You. You haven’t changed. No drama. No bullshit. You’re rolling with all this so much quicker than Gaby did.’

  He looks at me quickly and I feel the heat in my neck again, the kiss. I push it away. I can’t be offended: he’s right. In fact, it’s a little disconcerting how easily Jude is slipping into this new life.

  Jude seems to weigh up something. ‘All this…it almost makes sense. Ever since I woke up in the hospital, I’ve felt…wrong. Not only because you were gone,’ he says to me. ‘It’s like there’s something I should be doing, but I can’t quite remember what it is. And the dreams, they’ve always felt more like memories.’ He shrugs, apologetic. ‘The only way I’ve coped is being on the water. Out in the strait the sky’s so big, the ocean so demanding, the rest of the world falls away.’

  My phone rings in my back pocket and Jude recognises the Foo Fighters tune and smiles.

  It’s Maggie.

  ‘Are you still at Rafa’s?’ she says before I can speak.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘We’re coming there now.’

  ‘What’s going on?’

  A pause. ‘Jason has heard from Dani. She wants to talk to you.’

  FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

  Maggie and Jason arrive before we’re back in the kitchen.

  ‘This place smells like a brewery,’ Maggie says.

  The remnants of Rafa’s bottle are in the sink, the dishcloth rinsed and drying over the tap. I join Maggie at the table.

  ‘Well?’ I say to Jason. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘I don’t know. She’s ringing back in a minute.’

  ‘For fuck’s sake,’ Rafa says. ‘Why can’t she tell us where she is and we’ll go there? We’re not going to hurt her.’

  Jason sets his phone on the table between us. ‘We’re not putting her at risk.’

  I pick the glass from the sink, take it to the bin. Why now? Has she suddenly remembered something? And do I want to know right this minute?

  I’ve got Jude back. All I want is a bit of time with him without all the other bullshit. Is that too much to ask?

  ‘What did she say?’ I ask.

  ‘She’s had a vision. She didn’t say what it was, only that she needed to talk to you and Rafa. And she knows we found Jude…’

  Jude sits across from Maggie and me. ‘This is our, what—distant cousin? The girl who sees angels and demons, and…us?’

  ‘She doesn’t see the Fallen—except for Nathaniel,’ I say. ‘And she hasn’t been able to see either of us for a year.’

  ‘But she was there when we were hurt?’

  ‘If she was she doesn’t remember it. But it was her vision that led to us doing whatever it was we did.’

  Jason’s phone rings and he puts it straight to speaker.

  ‘Dani?’

  ‘Are you with them?’ She’s on speaker too. Her voice is soft with a hint of a New York accent. It’s hard to believe it belongs to a seer gifted enough to be a threat to the Rephaim. She sounds even younger than twelve. ‘Gabe and Jude, are they there?’

  ‘We’re here.’ I nod for Jude to say something.

  ‘Hey, kid.’

  For a few seconds, nothing. And then a sob. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Dani’s voice breaks up. ‘I wish I knew what happened but I can’t remember. I can’t see it, no matter how hard I try. I don’t know what I did wrong—’

  ‘Dani, Dani,’ Jason says. ‘It’s okay. Isn’t it, Gaby?’ He looks at me, pleading.

  ‘Yeah, don’t beat yourself up. We don’t remember it either.’ And please stop crying.

  Dani sniffles, hiccoughs. We give her a moment.

  ‘I still can’t see you unless you’re with other Rephaim,’ she says. ‘I don’t know what that means. Maybe if I could—’

  ‘Do you remember visiting two hospitals in Melbourne last year?’

  ‘Rafa.’ Jason catches his eye. ‘Not now.’

  ‘When would be the time, given she and her mother never talk to you?’ Rafa leans over the phone. ‘We know what you and your mother did.’

  Another sniffle. ‘What did we do?’

  ‘You visited Gabe and Jude when they were in hospital. You left messages to reinforce that bullshit story planted in their heads.’

  ‘That’s a lie.’ A new voice, older. Angry. ‘Jason, what’s this about?’

  ‘Maria…’ Jason pauses. ‘One of Gaby’s nurses told us a woman and girl visited the ward and left a message that Jude was dead. She described you and Dani. Jude got the same story about Gaby.’

  ‘When?’ Maria asks.

  Jason looks at me.

  ‘A couple of days after I was admitted.’

  The phone goes quiet again.

  ‘Maria?’ Jason says. ‘Dani?’

  There’s a crackling noise at the other end, possibly a hand covering the mouthpiece. We wait.

  The crackling stops. ‘I don’t know if it was us or not,’ Maria finally says. ‘It’s possible.’

  ‘Meaning?’ Rafa asks.

  ‘Meaning, I don’t know. Dani disappeared with Gabe and Jude and then somehow came back to me safe. They didn’t. We knew that whatever had happened to them wasn’t good, and Dani was connected to it. As soon as Jason left the house we packed the car and took off. We drove for a day and booked into a motel. We only meant to stay overnight, but it ended up being for a few days.’

  ‘And?’ Rafa pushes her.

  ‘And, we lost a day. I mean, literally lost it. We went to bed and when we woke up, it was the next night. Neither of us could remember what we did, but we weren’t asleep for twenty-four hours. We had on different clothes for a start, and we didn’t wake up starving. It shook us. We didn’t know what to do so we kept moving. We keep moving. And we’ve cut ties with anyone who knows what Dani can do, including our own family…including Jason.’

  ‘Where were you when this happened?’ I ask.

  ‘A few hours out of New York.’

  ‘You lost just that one day?’

  ‘Yes.’

  I do the maths and my mouth dries out. ‘But that’s not enough time to fly to Melbourne and back.’

  I meet Rafa’s eyes. Whoever brought Maria and Dani to Australia did so by shifting. And then erased the memory of it.

  ‘What about a way to trap Rephaim? Do you know anything about that, Dani?’ Rafa asks.

  She comes back on the phone. ‘Only what I saw on Friday, when you and Gaby were in that room.’

  ‘You saw that?’ I ask.

  ‘Bits of it. Where were you?’

  ‘In a farmhouse in Iowa. Did you know Zarael took control of it yesterday?’

  A small gasp on the other end o
f the phone. Obviously not. ‘Jason, you need to be very careful. You all do.’

  Jason repositions the phone on the table. ‘What did you want to tell us, Dani?’

  ‘Oh.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘I had a vision. It was awful. I was meditating—trying to find you actually. I do that a lot when I miss you. But I got glimpses of something else. I don’t often see the white-haired demons, but it was definitely them and they were in Pandanus Beach.’

  Maggie covers her mouth with her hand.

  ‘What were they doing?’ Jason asks.

  Dani pauses. ‘Killing people.’

  THE HIGH ROAD

  ‘I think it was in a forest, a campsite maybe? The demons were everywhere. They were attacking men I didn’t know, chopping them up with swords. It was…horrible. I threw up afterwards.’

  I stare at the phone. Coldness is creeping over me. ‘Did these men have tattoos and guns?’

  ‘Umm…tattoos, yes. I’m not sure about guns. Zarael was there.’

  ‘Zarael?’ Rafa breaks in. ‘How do you know it was him—have you seen him before?’

  ‘He had black hair. All the others have white, don’t they?’

  ‘Fuck.’

  ‘Rafa.’ Maggie points to the phone.

  ‘Shit, sorry.’ He goes to the sink, leans against the bench.

  ‘How do you know it was Pan Beach?’ Jason asks.

  ‘I just do. Sometimes it’s like that. I don’t know how the visions work—I don’t get that many.’

  ‘But did you see something that has happened or something that will happen?’ I ask.

  ‘I only got bits and pieces but I’m fairly sure it hasn’t happened yet,’ Dani says.

  ‘How can you tell?’

  There’s a pause and I imagine her shrugging. ‘I just know.’

  ‘Okay…So is it definitely going to happen, or is it just a possibility? I mean, if we get them off the mountain—’

  ‘I don’t know, Gabe.’ Dani sounds upset again. ‘I wish I did. Sorry.’

  ‘You don’t have to apologise, baby,’ Maria says. ‘And you’ve told them what you needed to, so say goodbye now.’

  ‘Wait.’ Jason picks up the phone, cradles it close to his mouth, but doesn’t turn the speaker function off. ‘When can I see you?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Maria says.

  ‘I miss you both.’

  ‘We miss you too.’ It’s Dani, closer to the phone.

  ‘Will you at least take my calls? We’ll have more of a chance of figuring out what happened to Gaby and Jude if we stay in contact.’

  ‘Dani’s not CNN, Jason. She’s not a constant source of news.’

  ‘I know, but—’

  ‘We’ll tell you if she sees something you need to know about.’

  ‘I know. Just…look after yourselves.’

  ‘You too,’ Dani says. ‘Bye-bye, Jason.’

  ‘Bye, blossom.’

  The call disconnects and Jason looks up, self-conscious. Maggie laces her fingers through his.

  Shit. This is bad—and it’s our fault. I look to Rafa. ‘We have to warn the Butlers.’

  ‘Those morons deserve everything they get.’

  ‘They don’t deserve to get torn apart by demons. We at least owe them the truth so they know what’s coming.’

  ‘If they’d stayed out of it, like they were told, this wouldn’t be a problem.’

  ‘You’d let them die to make a point?’

  He gives me a level look. ‘No. But don’t expect me to be happy about having to save their sorry arses. I’d rather be getting you two well away from here. Did you not hear the part about Zarael coming?’

  Jude pushes his chair back from the table and rests his boot on his knee. ‘Who are the Butlers?’

  I give him a quick run-down.

  ‘Do you know where they’ve set up camp?’

  God, he’s straight down to business. Rafa’s right: he’s so much quicker than I was in coming to grips with the reality that demons and hellions are real. Of course, he hasn’t seen them in the flesh yet. Maybe we can still avoid that.

  ‘There’s a guy, Simon. He’s a friend of’—I catch myself—‘Maggie’s. He can contact them, get directions.’

  Rafa clicks his tongue. ‘The barman? Seriously?’

  ‘Rusty asked him to join them.’

  ‘What about his babysitter? You want to invite her too?’

  ‘We don’t even know if Taya’s back in town. If she is, we’ll deal with it.’

  ‘And who’s this “we” you keep talking about?’

  What’s he so prickly about now? ‘You, me and Jude. Maybe Ez and Zak if they’re free.’

  Maggie gets up from the table and fills the kettle. Her hands aren’t steady.

  ‘Do you remember how to fight?’ Rafa asks Jude.

  He shrugs. ‘I can hold my own.’

  ‘When was the last time you got your knuckles bloody?’

  ‘There was a brawl at my local bar about a month ago. Hobby sailors over from the mainland who couldn’t handle their piss. It got out of control. I ended up cornered and one of them pulled a knife.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I took him down.’

  Rafa raises his eyebrows. ‘One guy?’

  Jude glances at me. ‘No. Six.’

  ‘Have you picked up a sword yet?’

  ‘Not much use for one on a yacht. But’—another quick glance in my direction—‘I was thinking about getting my hands on a katana. It feels like I should know how to use one.’

  And again he’s ahead of me. I didn’t even know what they were called until after I’d used one to kill a hellion.

  ‘You know how to use a katana, buddy, don’t worry about that,’ Rafa says. ‘You’re not as good as Gabe when she’s firing, but very few are.’

  Jude looks at me, a crease between his eyebrows.

  The kettle boils. Maggie flicks it off, sets out five cups.

  ‘Right then,’ Rafa says, his mood greatly improved. ‘You’d better call the barman.’

  ‘Me?’ I catch Maggie’s eye, give her a pleading look.

  ‘Fine,’ she says. ‘I’ll do it. And I know you need to warn them, but do you really think Mick’s going to be happy to see you after what happened on Friday?’

  ‘He’ll get over it,’ Rafa says.

  Steam billows from the cups as she finishes pouring.

  ‘Remember how your last conversation with him ended.’ She puts the kettle down, steadier now. ‘And this time, he’ll have guns.’

  ROUGH SEAS

  We walk along the esplanade so Jude can see the surf. There’s not much action so late in the day, but a few guys are paddling out to tackle what’s left of the swell. The sun slips through patchy cloud cover, casting long shadows across the water.

  I shouldn’t feel happy. Our lives are a lie. Demons are coming to Pan Beach. The Rephaim will come for Jude. And yet…I am. I feel strangely settled with Rafa on one side of me and Jude on the other. This is the brother I remember—or close to it. He’s more protective, more serious. But maybe that’s come from a year of grief. I glance at him. Am I the way he remembers?

  ‘Tomorrow, I’m getting a board.’ Jude’s eyes are on the water; the AC/DC t-shirt he’s wearing is faded, close to threadbare.

  ‘How long has it been?’ I ask.

  ‘A year.’

  This from the guy who could barely go a week without catching a wave.

  ‘A punctured lung kept me out of the water for the first month and then I was in Hobart—not a lot of surf down there and I was too rusty to tackle Shipstern Bluff.’ Jude turns to Rafa. ‘I did surf, right?’

  ‘Every chance you got. Even when there was good beer to be drunk.’

  Jude smiles, relieved. We leave the boardwalk and head along the sand. He stops to pull off his combat boots, digs his toes into the sand.

  We’re on our way to Rick’s. Simon agreed to help—but only because it was Maggie asking. She and Jason a
re back in Melbourne again. It’s more important they’re safe, and they’re safer there than here right now. Maggie doesn’t need any more nightmares. Which reminds me…

  ‘Did you say you have dreams, plural?’ I ask Jude. ‘Not just the nightclub fight?’

  Jude nods. ‘There’s one with a giant dude and a gorgeous woman with scars on her face. You’re there too,’ he says to Rafa, ‘and a smoking-hot blonde who yells at me a lot.’

  ‘What happens?’

  ‘I save the blonde from a hell-beast.’

  Rafa puts out a hand and we stop. ‘Did it have her pinned against a wall in the cabin of a ship?’

  Jude’s eyes brighten. ‘A ship, that makes sense.’

  ‘Is he talking about Mya?’

  ‘Who else would be reckless enough to get trapped in a cabin with a hell-turd?’ Rafa says.

  ‘What were you doing on a ship?’ I ask.

  ‘A job—what else. We’d heard rumours of weird shit happening off the coast of Oman—huge water spouts, boats disappearing, crazy storms. We were on our way to check it out but Zarael beat us to it. He hijacked a food aid ship headed for Kenya. He took some of his horde and a hellion along for the ride, thought it’d be fun to torture the crew and aid workers.’

  A cloud passes over the sun. I can’t help it—I shiver.

  ‘At least we knew they were there before we went in,’ Rafa says, more to Jude than me. ‘If the Rhythm Palace was our biggest cock-up—which it was—then the take-down of that ship was one of our finer moments. Precision shifting in the middle of the ocean, no human casualties, and we took out a Gatekeeper as well.’

  ‘They can die?’ I ask.

  ‘The same as us.’ He demonstrates a slicing action across his throat. ‘Tough though, because the sneaky bastards don’t like to stay put. I got lucky on the ship—’

  ‘You killed one of them?’

  ‘Don’t sound so surprised.’ He grins, turns back to Jude. ‘It was a big win for us. Something we could throw in Nathaniel’s face. If I’m right, and you were involved in changing your memories, it stands to reason you’d have more dreams about the past than Gaby. And it makes sense you’d remember those two jobs if nothing else.’