“Our little girl will be gifted?” Eva asked.
“Yes. There is more to this, but it needs to be said with Stella and Tessa in the room. Let’s have this chat before it gets too late for Eva.”
CHAPTER 37
Eva walked into the living room with Zoe by her side. She wasn’t as unsteady as Zoe had feared when she refused to use the wheelchair. Zoe wasn’t going to argue with Eva, not after the day’s events. She knew Eva’s pride was also in play. Her mother was present, and so were her aunt and Saint Theresa. Eva wanted to walk into the living room on her own, albeit with Zoe there just in case.
Tessa came up to Eva and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Eva smiled. “Yes, and this time it’s not my drugs.”
“We would all have to be taking those,” Stella said as she also came up to Eva and gave her a kiss, quickly followed a kiss to Zoe. Stella took Tessa’s hand and they sat down.
Theresa and Daphne were talking quietly. Zoe watched Theresa intently and noted her relaxed posture against the fireplace, but also saw a slight fidget of her left foot. A saint who fidgets. What are you nervous about, Mama Saint?
“What’s wrong?” Eva whispered.
“My mama used to tuck her hair behind her ear whenever she got nervous. Papa used to say that was how he knew Mama was worried.”
Eva smiled. “You do the same thing, and I think that’s adorable. I like touching you.”
Zoe took Eva’s hand and kissed it. She chuckled at Eva’s playful banter. “You like touching me, including my hair,” she whispered back and got a giggle from Eva.
Eva was due for her medication and Zoe was aware she was trying to hide the headache that was brewing. Eva fidgeted, which was one of her tells. “How bad is your headache right now?”
Eva waggled her hand a little and smiled. “It’s a four.”
“Can you hold out for about half an hour?”
“I can hold out for two days,” Eva quipped. “That’s my record in Larissa.”
“You won’t be beating that record,” Zoe replied and patted Eva on the knee. “Mama Saint is nervous.”
“How do you know?”
Zoe looked up at Eva. “She’s tapping her foot. You do the same when you are nervous.”
“Alright,” Theresa said aloud, and they all turned their attention to her. “Eva and Tessa can see Daphne, and the two non-gifted souls cannot unless you touch Eva’s or Tessa’s hand.”
Zoe watched Theresa and realized the humor that was evident earlier was not going to be on display—she was very serious. Zoe took Eva’s hand and held it.
“I know this is a highly unusual meeting. There has never been a meeting between Angels and gifted before in a group. There is a reason why it’s never happened before.”
“What’s the reason?” Zoe asked.
“I think it’s best to start off with the why, and then we work on the how to fix it.”
“Fix what?” Zoe continued.
“Give Saint Theresa a chance to explain, love,” Eva whispered. Zoe sighed.
Daphne came forward and took a deep breath. “This story begins in Greece when I discovered I was gifted. My great aunt Erika told me how special I was and that the gifts were from God. I wasn’t convinced of that. I found myself resenting these so called gifts.” She focused on Eva. “Even when my sister was going through the awakening of her powers, I kept silent.”
“I don’t blame you, Dee,” Tessa quietly responded.
“I know you don’t, but if that had been the only problem I caused, it wouldn’t be an issue.”
Zoe refrained from asking the most obvious question. She glanced up at Eva, whose furrowed brow was an indication she was getting confused. “Are you following this alright?”
“Uh huh.” Eva nodded.
“I think this wasn’t right, but at the time all I could think about was that I didn’t want the gifts. There was one gift in particular that scared me because I couldn’t comprehend it. I didn’t know that it wasn’t an option.” Daphne glanced at Theresa before she turned to Eva. “I was going through my rebellious phase. My life got complicated when I fell in love and later found out I was pregnant. I was in so much trouble.”
“We can’t blame the gifts for that,” Theresa quipped, and put a hand on Daphne’s shoulder.
Zoe watched the interaction with a great deal of interest and tried to guess what Daphne was going to say. She looked up at Eva, who was now clearly struggling but was not going to admit it to anyone. Zoe leaned in and whispered, “I’m going to call Tommy…”
“No.” Eva gently squeezed Zoe’s hand. Zoe scowled and turned her attention to Daphne.
“I found myself in Germany and married, with a beautiful baby girl who I simply fell in love with.” Daphne’s voice wavered. She blew a kiss to Eva. “I prayed that the gifts were not going to be passed to her, and for two years of Eva’s life, I thought my prayers had been answered.”
“Oh, dear,” Zoe muttered.
“One morning I walked into the kitchen and there was Eva trying to get onto the table that was near the kitchen sink. She had spotted some chocolate cookies and she wanted them.”
“Some things never change,” Zoe said, making everyone laugh. Eva smiled.
“Well, my little girl was resourceful. I was standing just inside the doorway and Eva had pushed a chair near the table and had managed to get up onto the chair. She was in the process of climbing the table when Hans came in.”
Zoe resisted the urge to voice her thoughts on the mention of Eva’s stepfather. The only indication from Eva was a slight twitch of her left eyebrow and nothing else.
Daphne continued. “Hans picked her up and put her down on the other side of the kitchen, and then he left the room laughing at her antics. Eva was very upset that her goal of getting the cookies had been thwarted. I turned to get myself a drink. I turned again to ask Eva if she wanted some milk when I realized my wish for a child that wasn’t gifted had evaporated.”
“What did she do?” Zoe asked, unable to wait for Daphne.
“I saw the cookies fly through the air and into her hand,” Daphne revealed. There was a collective sharp gasp and Zoe found Eva’s hand squeezing her own so hard that she hoped Eva wouldn’t break any bones. Eva’s hand was shaking and Zoe clasped it tightly.
“She had the gift of telekinesis?” Tessa asked, her voice breaking a little.
“Yes,” Daphne replied. “I was frantic and I tried to keep my rising panic at bay. I asked her how she did that and she said ‘I wanted to, Mutti’.”
“You didn’t have the power of telekinesis?” Zoe asked.
“No, but I remembered that Aunt Erika said that each generation of gifted ones were more powerful than the previous one. As you can guess, Eva was going to have powers I did possess and others that I did not.”
“What did you do?” Stella spoke for the first time since Daphne had started her story.
“I panicked because the powers I possessed were overwhelming for an adult, but they would be impossible for a child. I yelled at Eva to never do that again, and she just looked at me with those big blue eyes and cried. She thought she had done something wrong.” Daphne sighed deeply. “I couldn’t talk to Aunt Erika because she had passed away, and I didn’t know what else to do but go to church and pray.”
Zoe glanced at Theresa for a moment before turning her attention back to Daphne. “You found a nun who wanted to help you?”
Daphne shook her head. “No,” she said and slowly shook her head. “I lost my nerve. How could I explain that my child was moving objects with her mind? They were going to take her away and I would never see her again.”
“Wow,” Zoe whispered.
“What did you do?” Tessa asked.
“I walked around the city trying to understand what had happened. The more I walked, the angrier I became. It was unfair. God was unfair. The usual rant someone who has lost their faith in God wou
ld say. It was getting late so I thought I would head home. My driver was following me while I walked. I’m not sure what the poor man was thinking, but we didn’t say anything to each other.” Daphne stopped for a moment and gazed at Eva. “I went home and the look on my baby girl’s face when she saw me just melted my heart. Eva liked to follow conversations even though she didn’t understand them. She would sit there and watch us talk. To my utter amazement, her nanny, an Italian woman, came in and greeted me in Italian. Eva put her hands around my neck and said ‘Buona sera, Mama’ so clearly I was just dumbstruck.”
“She had a gift for languages,” Zoe said. Eva was looking less uncomfortable. “I love it when she speaks Italian; it sounds so beautiful,” Zoe added. Eva looked down at her and smiled.
“Yes, she did, and I was running out of time. I didn’t know what gifts she did possess other than the languages and the telekinesis. I was afraid that the other gifts would surface too and someone would notice.”
“That someone whose name I don’t ever want to utter in this house?”
“No, not really. I was afraid that they would take my baby away and put her in an asylum or do something to her. I went to bed with the idea that I was going to leave Germany with Eva. I didn’t know where I was going to go, but I couldn’t stay there.”
“You were going to flee?”
“Yes. The next morning was Sunday and I found out that Hans and the family were going to church. It was going to be impossible to leave, so I resigned myself that it wasn’t going to happen that day. We went to church and I was out in the gardens when I was approached by a woman who said I really looked like I needed a friend.”
“Mama Saint?” Zoe asked.
“No. It was Sister Abigail,” Daphne replied and smiled at Theresa.
“What is it about that name you like so much?” Zoe couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer.
“I will tell you another time, Zoe. We have to be mindful of Eva’s ability to follow us,” Theresa gently admonished her. Zoe didn’t feel chastised, especially when she turned to look at Eva and found her wife just barely hanging on.
“After Sister Abigail transformed herself back to Saint Theresa, she told me more about the gifts and so forth.” Daphne paused for a moment. “I had been asking the same question since I was a child. I wanted the gifts gone. I wanted them stopped, and I asked if that was possible.”
“Can you do that?” Zoe asked.
“It’s not a case of ‘can I do it,’ but more of a case of ‘am I allowed to do it.’”
“Are you allowed to do it?”
“No,” Theresa said with a slight shake of the head.
Zoe stared at her for a long moment. “Did you do it?”
Theresa gazed back at Zoe and then looked at Eva. “Yes. I did it.”
CHAPTER 38
Zoe couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She glanced briefly at Eva, who she knew was now feeling the effects of her headache.
“Let me get this straight. You wanted the gifts your daughter inherited to be gone? You somehow found the one person who can make that happen? Out of an entire universe, you actually found this one person in Berlin?” Zoe asked incredulously. She wanted to get up, but she would lose sight of Daphne if she did.
“Saint Theresa was watching me and stepped in when I needed someone to talk to.”
“I find that extraordinary. Why would you,” Zoe turned to Theresa and addressed her, “Why would you help her? I’m quite sure many of your other descendants would have prayed that these gifts, or curse, be lifted from them. Why didn’t you just step in then?”
“I had my reasons.”
“Really? You had your reasons? I find that puzzling. Now the two of you didn’t stop in just talking about Eva’s emerging gifts. You did something about it to make them stop.”
“Yes.”
Zoe was getting more than a little annoyed at the matter-of-fact way it was being presented. “Didn’t you stop for a moment and think what would happen to Eva when these gifts were stopped?”
“Zoe, you have to understand, as a mother I didn’t want to see my child suffer. When you become a mother, you too will want to do whatever you can to protect your child.”
Zoe looked at Daphne for a long moment. “Yes, as a mother I think I would want to protect my child, but I don’t act on everything that gets stuck in my head. As much as I would like to agree with you, even I could see this was a bad idea.”
“At the time we thought we were doing the right thing.”
“It’s pretty obvious that Eva’s gifts were not stopped. She has them.”
“Yes, she does, and they started to manifest themselves again in—”
Zoe groaned and gently smacked herself on the side of the head. She got up, momentarily losing sight of Daphne until Eva captured her hand again. “Aiden. This has to do with Aiden!”
“Yes, it does.”
“Alright, I’m confused.” Zoe put her hand up. “Evy, let go of my hand, love. I need to pace.” Eva acquiesced and let go of Zoe’s hand. Zoe went to the back of the sofa and began to pace in order to make sense of what she was hearing. “When Evy and I were in Berlin, Marlene said you used to play a game with Eva, and it had something to do with tea cups and tea leaves?”
“Daphne says yes,” Theresa said.
“What was that about?” Zoe put her hand on Eva’s shoulder and Daphne materialized again.
“I wanted to know if my daughter’s gifts had returned.”
“Had they?”
“No, not really. She had a gift for languages, but it wasn’t as strong as mine. It was there but easily explained.”
“So with this game you were trying to figure out if the gifts had disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Zoe nodded. “What happened in Aiden? Other than what we know actually happened.”
Theresa looked at Daphne and Daphne looked at Eva. “We have to tell you what we did before we tell you how it was affected.”
“Well, I hate to hurry you along, gifted souls, but Evy can’t hold out much longer.” Theresa and Daphne looked surprised at her forthright suggestion, but Zoe didn’t care—one look at Eva was enough to tell them that Eva was struggling. Zoe sat back down and clasped Eva’s hand. She looked up at Eva, who was sweating a little.
Zoe glanced up at Daphne to find Theresa had put her arm around her shoulders and was speaking quietly to her. She then came over to where Eva was sitting and dropped to her knees. “Hello,” she said, and took Eva’s hands into her own. “I know you’re in pain and I know you’re trying to hold out. You’re trying to really listen to what your mama is talking about, and this is all a bit of a shock. Zoe is going…”
Zoe didn’t need to be told. She let go of Eva’s hand and quickly left the living room. She went into the kitchen and to where Tommy kept Eva’s medications, and selected two tablets. She filled a glass with water and went back to the living room.
Eva didn’t fight her. She didn’t say a word. She just accepted the tablets and brought the glass up to drink. Zoe noticed Eva’s hands were shaking when she held the glass. She took the glass and put it next to her on the floor before she resumed her seat. Eva reached out and clasped her hand, and then rested her head back against sofa’s pillow and closed her eyes.
“As I said, I’m not allowed to interfere in human affairs.”
Zoe stared at Theresa for a long moment and then laughed sarcastically. “Wow, you really broke that rule. Not just broke it—you shattered it into a million pieces.”
“I have on many occasions and for different reasons. There are no excuses other than I love my descendants,” Theresa replied. “To cut a long story short, because Eva can’t stay focused, it was decided to put a mental block to stop Eva’s gifts.”
Eva raised her head and opened her eyes. “A what?”
“A mental block.”
“What the heck is that?” Zoe exclaimed after she got over the shock. “I know what a block is, and
I know what mental is…but what is a mental block?”
“It blocked Eva’s gifts from surfacing.”
“Well, that was useless. It doesn’t work!” Zoe exclaimed and waved her hands in the air and then to Eva. “We know it doesn’t work! Eva is gifted and she has had visions, she’s empathic—”
“It did work, Zoe,” Daphne said quietly. “It worked until my baby girl was sent to Aiden.”
“What happened…oh... Oh, no, no, no, no…”
“What happened?” Eva turned to Zoe.
Zoe tried to get her anger under control. It was taking a great deal of effort not to start yelling. She turned to Eva, who appeared to be quickly losing the ability to focus on anything. “When the bastards shocked you, the block fell away.”
“It didn’t fall away,” Daphne corrected her.
“Did or didn’t? Which is it? She still has a block? I’m confused.”
“Yes, she still has it, but her gifts are becoming stronger because the block is weaker. At some point the block will fall away.”
“Um…I have the power to move things with my mind?” Eva asked. Zoe glanced at her and knew it had taken Eva quite some time to process that idea before she asked it.
“You could before they put the block on.”
“I can do that now,” Eva responded.
Zoe was surprised at Eva’s matter-of-fact announcement. “You can?”
“Yes. I saw books flying…”
Zoe was speechless, and to anyone that knew her, this was the big surprise—rendering Zoe speechless required a great deal of effort. She looked at Theresa and realization set. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, that can’t be, Evy.”
Eva gazed at her and nodded. “Yes, it can.”
“God Almighty!” Zoe put her hands over her head and sighed deeply.
“Zoe, darling, what are you talking about?” Tessa asked as she came forward and stood beside her.
“Oh, Aunty Tessa, this is bad. This is very, very bad.”
“I know it is shocking news, darling, but it’s not all bad.”
“You don’t understand. When Evy was in the hospital, do you remember when I came to you and we talked about the notebook?”
[Intertwined Souls 05.0] No Good Deed Page 27
