The Siren (24 page)

I walked to the table and placed my purse on the floor. “He had some things he wanted to do today, and he thought it would be best for us to spend some time alone.”

She nodded. “Well, that was very thoughtful of him. We do have a lot to catch up on.” She motioned to the table. “Shall we?”

I pulled out a chair and sat down. “Thank you. I know you’re really busy, so I appreciate you taking the time to see me.”
 

Abigail laughed and waved her hand in my direction. “Are you joking? I’ve been dreaming of this day for twenty-seven years.”

I had too, but the fruition of the dream lacked the fireworks I’d always expected.

“I hope deli turkey is all right,” she said. “I also have wine if you would like some.”

I nodded to the full water glass to the right of my sandwich and kettle-cooked chips. “Water is fine.”
 

She sat down across from me and stared for a moment. Her eyes were brown, but outside of that, I didn’t see much semblance in our faces.
 

She smiled. “You’re very beautiful, Sloan.”

“Thank you,” I said again.

“Have you enjoyed your time here in Texas?” she asked.

“We just got in yesterday. Last night we went on a ghost tour through the city, but it was pretty lame. My boyfriend has the ability to find dead bodies, so he kinda squelched the mystery of it all,” I said.

She laughed. “I’m sure he did.”

“Are ghosts real?” I asked, thinking of my mother.

She shook her head. “No. Human spirits do not come back across the spirit line.” She must have noticed when my face fell. “Why do you ask?”

“My mother died last week,” I said. “The day after I met you.”

Abigail put her hands down on the table. “Oh, I am terribly sorry to hear that. Was she ill?”

I stared at my plate. “Not when I left to come here, but she got really sick while I was gone. The doctors found a brain tumor, and it was growing out of control. She was dead before I got home.”

She reached over and took my hand. “I’m terribly sorry.”

“I feel like it was my fault. That maybe if I hadn’t left, she wouldn’t have gotten so bad so quickly,” I admitted.

“It’s true you probably kept the cancer at bay. You would have inherited life and health promoting gifts from me. However, that doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Cancer destroyed her body. Not you.” She smiled and squeezed my hand.

I sighed and crunched on a potato chip, still unconvinced of my responsibility in the matter. I blinked back tears. “I’m sorry. Can we talk about something else?”

She picked up her sandwich. “Of course we can. I’m sure you have a ton of questions for me. Where would you like to begin?”

I thought about it for a moment. There were so many questions floating around in my mind, and I was having trouble picking a starting point. Warren was right. I should have made a list. Finally, I blurted out the question that had been bugging me the most. “Did you know you were my mother when I was here the last time?”

She swallowed the bite in her mouth and slowly nodded her head. “Yes.”

My jaw went slack. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t the right time. You wouldn’t have believed it.”

With that, I really couldn’t argue.

I inhaled a quick breath. “Did you summon me here?”

Her face was unreadable. “I planted the seed long ago for you to find me, but I didn’t directly summon you here.”

“I don’t understand.”

Abigail was thoughtful for a moment. “I have much more control over my summoning power than you do. I can use it in different ways. So yes, I summoned you many years ago, but in a way that was very gradual and natural.”

I looked up at the ceiling.
Nothing about any of this is natural.

She continued talking. “I created you for a purpose, Sloan. And as much as I hated having to leave you as a child, I knew someday the pieces would fall into place for you to find me again. In the meantime, I knew you would be well loved by whoever took you in. You would have inherited that from me as well. It’s part of who we are.”

“So, people liking me is part of this gift or whatever?” I asked. “I’ve always wondered about that.”

She nodded. “People are attracted to the life power inside you. It can be a blessing and a curse at times.”

I sighed. “That’s the truth.” I thought of Nathan. His attraction to me was cosmic coercion, after all.

“Would you like to know more about your gifts?” she asked.

My eyes widened. “Absolutely.”

She straightened in her chair. “First, you must understand your powers are not as strong as mine because you are also human.”

“Like with genetics, I only inherited part of your gifts?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Oh no. You inherited all of my gifts. Your humanity, though, limits what you can do with them.”

“OK. So what can you do?” I asked.

She leaned toward me. “I am an Angel of Life. All angels of the second choir—”

I raised my hand. “Choir?” In my head, I envisioned the singing variety.

“It’s a division of angels. There are seven different choirs, all with different jobs, if you will,” she clarified.

I nodded.

“All angels of the second choir have the power to influence the human spirit. The human spirit—or what you call a soul—is like the powerhouse of the human body. Without the spirit, the body doesn’t function.”

The vision of my mother’s body lying on the hospital bed came to mind. “The body is just a shell.”

“Correct,” she said. “In addition to being able to summon and heal, I can also prolong the lives of humans past their normal life expectancy.”

“Is that why your body hasn’t aged?” I asked.
 

She shook her head. “Aging happens as cell death begins to outpace cell reproduction. My body was created with a similar genetic makeup to yours, but my cells are programmed to continually reproduce. Therefore, I do not age.”

I examined her face. “How old are you?”

A small smile played across her lips. “I’m twenty-nine and holding.” She pointed to my empty glass. “Would you like some more water?”
 

I hadn’t even realized that I had finished all of it. “Please.”
 

She picked up the glass and walked to the refrigerator.

I leaned on my elbow. “So, the summoning thing…How does it work, exactly?”

She thought for a moment. “Close your eyes.”

I hesitated.

Abigail laughed and put my water down in front of me. “Trust me.”

Obediently, I closed my eyes.

“Picture that handsome boyfriend of yours,” she said, settling in her seat.

I smiled. “That’s easy.”

“Now, imagine there is a string connecting you to him.”
 

My eyebrow peaked with skepticism. “OK.”

“Pull the string.”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed. My eyes popped open. “You want me to pull Warren’s string?”

Frowning, she rolled her eyes and pointed at me. “This is exactly why you have a hard time controlling your gift.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “And you can do this at will?”

She nodded. “Absolutely. If I wanted your boyfriend to return right now, all I would have to do is call out to him, and he would be here as quickly as possible. I could summon him here from across the world if I so desired.”

I shook my head. “My gift doesn’t work that well. It’s getting stronger, but most of the time it still feels a lot like coincidence.”

She smiled. “It’s certainly not coincidence.”

“Warren thinks I’m getting better at using my power because I’m exercising it more. Is that true?”

“Yes, and just your exposure to him strengthens your ability to access your gifts. It’s also a matter of discipline, and I can teach you.”

That was an interesting prospect, but I doubted we would get to it over lunch. “Can you just summon humans?” I asked. “Or can you summon angels too?”

She shook her head. “Only human spirits.”

I picked at a stray sliver of turkey. “Have you created anyone else? Do I have any brothers or sisters?”

She settled back in her seat. “No. We do not have the ability to create more than one offspring.”

That settled the debate over whether or not Warren and I were related.
 

I sipped my water. “What about my father? Who is he?”

Abigail thought for a moment and closed her eyes like she was trying to remember. I found it offensive that she had to think about it, but I didn’t say so. Her eyes fluttered beneath her eyelids. Finally, she looked at me. “He was a remarkable man. One of the most intelligent and resourceful humans I’ve ever encountered. I chose him because I wanted you to have the best genetic makeup possible from your human line.”

Anticipation was compounding inside me by the second. “Who was he?”

She pressed her lips together and searched my face carefully. After a moment, she shook her head. “I don’t believe you’re ready to know.”

I folded my arms across my chest and sat back hard in my seat. “Excuse me?”

She folded her hands in front of her. “Someday I’ll tell you, perhaps. But not today.”

My jaw went slack. “You’re kidding, right?”

Her expression didn’t change. “Sloan, there are many things about my world you can’t comprehend. This is one of them.”

I tossed my hands up in the air. “Does he know about me?”

She shook her head. “No. I doubt it would even be possible for him to remember the act of your conception.”

Surely, I misheard her. “What?”

“I have full control over my summoning powers, Sloan. When I summon someone for a purpose, they often don’t remember it.”

“You raped him?”

She laughed and squeezed my arms from across the table. “Stop being so dramatic. It wasn’t rape.”

“How do you possibly arrive at that conclusion?” I started counting on my fingers. “You coerced him against his will, and he has no memory of it. Here in America, that’s a felony!”

“I apologize if you’re offended. You must understand, it’s simply different in our world. Copulation is a means to an end, not an act of love.” She forced a smile. “Let’s change the subject. Tell me about your boyfriend.”

It was hard to change the subject. I was confused and pissed off. Her rationalization of her actions baffled me. She could have just as casually been telling me why she chose turkey for our lunch.
 

I stared at her for a moment before deciding to let the issue of my birth father rest till later. “What do you want to know about Warren?”

She shrugged. “How did you meet? How long have you been together?”

“He saw me on the news rescuing a little girl out of a drug house. He couldn’t see my soul, so he came to Asheville to find me and figure out why. It was only a couple of months ago,” I said.

She leaned forward on her elbow. “I wish you knew how unique your relationship is with him.” She took a sip of water. “Are the two of you pretty serious, then?”

“Yeah. Certainly as serious as two people can become in such a short amount of time. He moved in with me a few weeks ago when his job ended out on the coast,” I told her.

“What does he do?” she asked.

“He was a mercenary, and he’s a sniper for the Marines,” I said. “He’s being deployed next week.”

Abigail laughed and covered her mouth with a napkin. “Being an Angel of Death and being a sniper is a little heavy-handed, isn’t it?”

My face broke a smile. “I think the same thing all the time.”

“Where are they sending him?” she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and pushed my half-eaten sandwich away from me. “They haven’t told him yet.”

“Well, I hope it works out for the best.” With a long fingernail, she was drawing circles around the rim of her glass. “You should know, Sloan, there could be serious repercussions if you are committed to another Seramorta.”

I frowned. “Another angel hinted at the same thing recently.”

She stopped drawing circles. “Another angel?” Her eyes were wide and questioning.

“When my mother died, I met an angel named Samael. He warned me and Warren that we should be very careful,” I said.

“Samael?” She sat forward on her chair. “Really? He doesn’t come to this side of the spirit line very often.”

“That reminds me, he didn’t know who you were. What is your real name?” I asked.

She stared at me for a moment. Then, she relaxed. “My name is Kasyade.”

“Kahh-See-Ahh-Day,” I repeated. “That’s very pretty.”
 

“It means The Siren,” she said.
 

My brow lifted. “Like the sirens in Greek mythology?”

She smiled. “Exactly.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Would you like to know the name I gave you?”

My eyes widened. “I have a different name?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

I straightened in my seat. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Praea,” she answered.

The name fell flat. “Pray-yah,” I echoed slowly.

She leaned close as if to tell me a great secret. “In my language, it means a gift.”

“A gift? Really?”
 

“That’s what you are, Sloan.”

I turned my palms up in question. “What’s the big deal about me and Warren? Why is everyone so fascinated by us being together?”

She hesitated for a moment. “Because there are billions of people on this planet and very few Seramorta. It’s improbable that two of you would find each other in the time of a human lifespan. It’s only ever happened a couple of times in history. Neither of those pairings combined the powers of life and death.”

I giggled. “We’ll be a power couple like Brad and Angelina.”

Her eyes were serious, and when she gripped my arm, my skin began to crawl. “This no laughing matter, Praea.”

I recoiled from her grasp, suddenly feeling hot and dizzy. “I’m sorry. Can I use your restroom?”

She nodded, still watching me carefully. “Certainly. I need to check in at the office anyway. The bathroom is down the hall, the third door on the left. Take all the time you need.”

Forcing a smile, I stood up. “Thank you.”

I picked up my purse and carried it down the hallway on the other side of the living room to the bathroom. The bathroom was painted a deep red, and it had elaborate golden fixtures. It felt like the walls were closing in as I braced myself against the sink. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and brought up a text message to Warren.
I think I’m ready to go. I know I’m cutting this terribly short, but it’s too much for me, and I have a bad feeling I can’t shake. Starting to feel sick.