She indicated to my right, giving me a few instructions. After several seconds, a space in the traffic appeared. I cut across the highway and headed south, driving past the intermediate school, a small set of shops, along Stockade Road, its hill, and into Kiwoh. Agnaru’s neighbouring town was stunning, much prettier than Agnaru. A panoramic backdrop of sand, sea, and sky spread out behind the village. I could even see Star of the Sea school off in the distance, the Spanish-styled structure standing proud on its own hill.
Catherine broke the silence as we passed Star of the Sea’s church, the stone structure much older than Saint Dominic’s. “Do you think Sister Cecile could’ve done the same with my sister?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” I replied.
“Trained her with the hope of killing your grandfather?”
“I’d say so, because it’d be one hell of a coincidence if she didn’t.”
Catherine’s face twisted in anger. “I knew it! She claimed that she only saw my sister in passing the day Vesna died, basically lied to my face.” She paused for a moment, then grunted. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
I glanced at her. “What doesn’t make sense?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You said your grandfather wasn’t in the country when Vesna died. Why would Sister Cecile train her to kill him if he wasn’t even here? Or maybe he was, and you’re lying about him not killing her.”
“No!” I retorted, annoyed she was back to accusing me. “That witch probably knew he would eventually return. And stop blaming my grandfather, demons can sniff angel Merges out without even trying.”
“Quit assuming it’s a demon. A normal Merge could’ve killed her just as easily.”
“Angelic Merges can’t sniff us out like those demon dogs.”
She smacked my arm. “Stop saying that!”
I slowed down. “I’m driving, so keep your hands to yourself.”
“Only if you quit saying it’s a demon and driving like a grandma. I want to get to Buckland’s Reserve today, thanks very much.”
I threw her a scowl. “I don’t drive like a grandma, thank you very much, jerk.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just keep driving, James.”
“My name’s Christopher, and you know it.”
“Not while you’re driving for me.” She flicked her hand. “So, onwards, James.”
I grunted at her and picked up speed. After about ten minutes of her obnoxious directions, the girl constantly making fun of my driving, I pulled into a long gravelly road that led directly into scenic bush. The bumpy road was framed by an array of native trees, the regal pohutukawa amongst them. I drove for a couple more minutes before emerging into an opening. I brought my car to a halt and climbed out, waiting for Catherine to reach my side. We slipped through a small pathway surrounded by manuka bushes and ferns, eventually emerging into a bright green field. I scanned the open space, checking to see if I recognised anything from my dream. I spotted a cluster of trees on the far side of the field that looked familiar, the large totara tree in the middle hard to miss.
I pointed at it. “Your sister was lying near that tree.”
Her gaze moved to it, a touch of fear clouding her expression. Or maybe it was grief, her eyes shiny once more.
“If you want, I can go check it out while you stay here,” I said.
“No, I need to do this.” She kicked into gear, power walking past me as though her sister was waiting on the other side of the field.
I followed her. “We’ll be more likely to feel a soul if I conjure up a shielding spell. Where humans disappear, souls sometimes appear.”
She turned to face me, slowing down considerably. “How come, Mr. Rhyme-a-dime?” she asked, walking backwards. Although her words sounded light-hearted, her expression was far from it. So serious, so sad. I wondered whether she was walking backwards so she didn’t have to see where her sister had died.
I answered her question, “Because we’ll be transferred to a plane that’s closer to Heaven, where only creatures with strong souls can dwell. Humans have weak souls in comparison to us. They’re weighted down to Earth since its their home, while we’re heavenly beings. Even the demon’s ancestors used to live in Heaven, just got kicked out for being nasty stronzi.”
“What are stronzi?”
“Arseholes.”
She snorted out a laugh, her serious expression cracking for a moment. “So, does that mean we’ll be able to see my sister once the shield is up?”
“Probably not.”
“But you said she might appear.”
“I meant sensing her. It’ll be stronger when the shielding spell’s up. Though, if we happen across other souls, be careful. If you suddenly feel hot, like really hot, run, it won’t be a friendly soul. Intense heat usually indicates a Seraph demon’s soul. But if you only feel warm, it’ll be a Seraph angel. Demons are more extreme.”
Her eyes darted about as though she was expecting a demon to jump out at us. “I didn’t think they’d be able to hurt us. Are they sort of like poltergeists?”
“They are poltergeists. That’s what humans call them. Be extra careful of the stronzi, they can possess you. Not usually fully, but enough for you to lose chunks of time. They can also affect your mind, making you think you’re going nuts. Possession is often mistaken for mental illness.” I reached out, stopping her from banging into the totara tree. “Careful.”
She turned around to look at it. While she was distracted, I dug into my pocket for my rosary and murmured the shielding spell. The air went still, no sounds, the seagulls in the distance going silent. I let go and pulled out the Halo rosary from my other pocket.
She turned back to me, her sad eyes instantly lighting up. “Whoa! Is that a Halo rosary?”
“You know about them?” I asked, surprised she did.
She nodded. “Since I’ve been off school, I’ve been reading up about the legendary rosaries. I got the books from Sister—” she stopped talking, the nun’s name not needing to be said.
“Yeah, it’s a Halo rosary.”
“Is it active?”
Nodding, I grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled it over my head, leaving it on, but my chest bare.
Catherine’s eyebrows shot up. “What are you doing?”
Not answering her, I slipped the Halo rosary over my head, hoping that its light would draw good souls to us. As soon as the beads touched my flesh, a bright halo lit up, circling my head.
Catherine’s mouth dropped open, her expression filled with awe. I looked around, my senses on high alert for souls. Catherine said something, but I ignored her, not wanting her distracting me. But I felt nothing, not even a slight breeze that could’ve indicated a Halo soul was around. No heat, no cold, no breeze, nothing.
“Chris! Answer me!” Catherine snapped.
“There’s nothing to answer, there aren’t any souls here.” I removed the rosary and slipped it back into my pocket, then went to pull my shirt back over my head, stopping as she placed a hand on my chest.
“I have something to show you too,” she said.
I dropped my hands to my sides, leaving my shirt as is. “What?”
Walking around me, she backed up a few steps, then took hold of her rosary and pressed down on the loadstone. I instantly went to grab my own rosary out of my pocket, but it was too late, a sudden pull enveloping my body.
“What are you doing?” I yelled, straining against the pull as she drew me closer to her, the smile on her lips almost evil. “Let me go!”
She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have trusted me, Chris.”
My eyes widened in disbelief. “I saved you!” I yelled, realising I’d walked right into her trap. My grandfather had warned me against her, but I’d stupidly ignored him, thinking I knew better, that Catherine was harmless. But, like with Levy, I’d been suckered in, letting my dick, and in Catherine’s case, my heart take control over my head.
She brought me to within an inch of her, so close that I c
ould feel her breath on my chest. Unable to break free from her hold, I yelled out in frustration, the rosaries in my pocket for some reason not repelling her loadstone. Although it was better to hold them, they still should’ve resisted her pull. I just hadn’t felt a pull this strong since the Maris demon. Fear crawled up my back at the thought, sending tingles over the wing scars carved into my flesh.
“Not so easy to get free from a loadstone, is it?” she said.
“I don’t care, let me go!” I yelled, wild panic starting to set in. I wondered whether she was the one who would hurt me or if she was toying with me until a demon arrived, ready to skin me alive or claw my heart out, demons beyond sadistic.
Smiling, she placed a hand on my bare chest, slowly trailing her fingers down my torso, stopping just above my belt.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped.
“Just proving a point,” she said, biting her bottom lip.
“I don’t care what the point is,” I growled, still trying to fight against the bonds that held me in place. “Just let me go, you pervert.”
She laughed, her eyes sparkling under the sunlight. “You’re sexy when you get mad.”
I growled in response, only caring about her letting me go.
“Hmmm, you even sound sexy.” She flicked my belt with her finger.
I swore at her in both English and Italian.
“Sheesh, talk about oversensitive. Do you need a tampon? Because you’re acting worse than me on my period.”
“Let. Me. Go!”
She winced. “Okay, okay, just keep it down, you big baby.”
She let go of the loadstone, causing the hold to drop. Now free, I launched myself at her, knocking her down. She cried out, clearly taken by surprise. Before she could fight back, I grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the ground.
I glared at her. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!”
“It was just a joke!” she snapped back, trying to get free. “So get off me!”
“Why should I? You wouldn’t let go of me when I asked. More than once!”
She stopped struggling against me. “Oh, stop packing a sad. I was just making a point about the loadstone.”
“I thought you’d betrayed me!”
“It’s not my fault you took it too seriously. It was obvious that I was teasing.”
“Not to me!”
I pushed off her and stormed towards a grassy knoll, slumping down on it. I rested my elbows on my knees and placed my head in my hands, shuddering at the memory of what had happened the last time I was held against my will. As though in response, the scars on my back started to itch, so bad that I wanted to scratch them raw.
Muddied sneakers came into view. I looked up at Catherine, the sun lighting up her white hair, giving her Mother Nature’s own halo.
“I’m sorry,” she said, kneeling down in front of me. “I didn’t mean to upset you.” She placed a tentative hand on my leg. “You made fun of me for not being able to break the loadstone pull. It was payback.”
“I trusted you.”
She grimaced. “I said I was sorry, and it proves that I was right. If you couldn’t break the hold, then there was no way I could’ve. You shouldn’t have made fun of me, I didn’t even have my rosary on me at the time.”
“Then I guess we’re both sorry,” I muttered, me more so than her. I’d gotten lax in New Zealand, feeling safer than I should, something that wasn’t going to happen again. I removed my rosary from my pocket and slipped it on, drawing my shirt back over my head.
“Honestly, I didn’t mean any harm by it,” she said. “I also wanted to show you what I’ve learned.”
“By feeling me up?”
Her eyes went round. “No! I was teasing. Okay, more like flirting, so get over it. Not like you haven’t flirted with me before.”
“I’ve never felt you up while holding you against your will.”
“Oh, God! Don’t say it like that. I know I suck at flirting, but that ... that ... just sounds so horrible.”
“It was horrible.”
Looking mortified, she placed both hands on her cheeks, finally realising how serious it was. “I’m so, so sorry. I really didn’t think. I was trying to prove something as well as distract myself. It’s so hard being here. Please forgive me.”
I shrugged.
“Please, Chris,” she said, her eyes pleading with me. “I really didn’t mean to overstep the mark.”
I exhaled. “Just don’t do it again. I hate being held against my will.”
“I didn’t exactly appreciate it when your granddad did it to me, so quit making me feel so bad.”
“My nonno didn’t hold you down and carve wings into your back, while you screamed in agony for him to stop.”
Her face dropped. “Holy shit, I didn’t realise that’s how it happened.” She crawled around me.
I quickly turned to face her. “What are you doing?”
“I want to see your scars.”
“You’ve already seen them.”
“Briefly.”
“That’s more than enough.”
“Don’t worry, you have nothing to be embarrassed of. Despite how you got them, they’re beautiful.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You have got to be kidding me? They’re ugly as hell.”
“Is that why you didn’t take your shirt off fully? You think your back is ugly?”
I nodded.
She placed her hand over mine. “Well, it isn’t, so stop hiding it. Those scars are a part of you, something you got through, which has no doubt made you stronger. And honestly, people won’t think they’re ugly. Nothing about you is ugly, you’re beautiful both inside and out.”
I blinked at her, not expecting to hear that, especially after everything she’d said about me.
“I mean it, Chris. Even though I’ve been a right cow to you, and your family hates me, you have been nothing but lovely to me, okay, minus a few instances, but you’re still lovely.”
I didn’t reply, what she was saying stunning me into silence.
She smiled sadly at me. “So, don’t let what that stronzi did to you make you feel ashamed. Stand proud.”
“Stronzo.”
She frowned. “What?”
“It’s stronzo. Stronzi is plural.”
She blinked at me, probably not expecting me to be pedantic about grammar after what she’d said.
I pushed to my feet. “And that is why you’re not seeing my scars again. You may say the words but you don’t understand their meaning.”
She peered up at me with a look of disbelief. “You won’t let me see your scars because I don’t understand Italian?”
I shook my head. “I was using it as a metaphor. You didn’t experience what I did, therefore you can’t understand what those scars mean to me.”
She rose to her feet. “Okay, I won’t push again. You can show me when you’re ready.”
I didn’t reply, not sure I would ever be ready. Showing her that brief flash of my scars the other day was probably all she would get.
“If you hate your scars so much,” she said, brushing grass off her jeans. “How come you didn’t use the Halo rosary to heal them?”
“It can’t. The demon cast a spell over the scars so they won’t fade.”
“Then why do you have the Halo rosary? It should be with a Halo Merge, right?”
“I found it in one of my mother’s books,” I said, glad the subject had changed. “I took the book to find out more about your kind.”
“My kind, as in Marises?” she asked, looking like she was expecting some bigoted remark.
“I already told you that you’re not a Maris. They only have blue eyes, which can’t be hidden by contact lenses. You’re a Stella, meaning star. You’re a closer descendant to the angels than I am. Apparently, your blood is purer, allowing you to use all of the legendary rosaries.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I can use your beads?”
“You can, but won�
��t. I’m not letting you touch my rosary. It’s too personal.” I removed the Halo rosary instead and held it out for her to take. “But you can try this on.”
“Later.” She spun around and walked off.
I ran after her. “Why are you getting mad at me? The Halo rosary is better than my Seraphim one. It can control air and—”
She cut me off, “I’m not mad, it’s going to rain and I read that Seraphim hate rain. So, if you don’t want to get wet, we should get back.”
I stopped in the middle of the field and looked up at the sky, not seeing any signs of rain, other than some fluffy white clouds. I couldn’t even smell any dampness in the air.
“Are you playing with me?” I asked.
She turned to face me and shook her head. “You should drop the shielding spell and run to the car before it starts pouring down.”
I indicated to the sky. “But the weather looks fine.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip, a Mona Lisa smile pulling at her lips. “Okay, let’s stand here and see how well your weather forecasting skills are. I reckon you’re going to get a zero out of ten. So, you better say hasta la vista to that shielding spell, because it’s going to come down in buckets.”
I muttered the words to break the spell just as a drop of water hit my cheek. My gaze flicked to the sky in surprise. A few more clouds had joined the others, these ones darker. Several more drops fell, then the giant tap in the sky turned off.
I looked back at Catherine with a self-satisfied smirk. “Looks like I get ten out of ten.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “I’m so going to enjoy this.”
“Enjoy what?”
As soon as the words left my mouth the skies opened up, descending upon me like it was out to teach me a lesson. Taken by surprise, I sprinted for the car to avoid the sudden onslaught of rain, getting there in no time. I jumped into the driver’s side and looked out the window, watching Catherine walking casually to the car, the rain obviously not bothering her. She climbed into the passenger seat, much wetter than I was. My gaze dropped to her shirt, which was clinging to her chest, the outline of her bra and nipples noticeable. Outside, the rain picked up, bouncing off the car like bullets.
A hand brushed my cheek, Catherine drawing my attention back to her. She was staring at my face, drinking in every feature.
Stella Maris (The Legendary Rosaries) Page 22
