The Haunted - Jessica Verday [102]
“Yes.”
“What did he look like to you?” Nikolas asked.
“Black hair, blue eyes, expensive clothes, and a snotty attitude.” A sour taste filled my mouth. “There was always something about him that got on my nerves. Even from the first time I met him, last year at my uncle’s store.”
“Did he have a particular scent? Or a beautiful voice?” Nikolas said, finally turning away from the window to face me.
“No, he…” My voice died, and Caspian gave me a questioning look. I was suddenly flooded with an overload of images. Melodic voices, and the taste of ash on my tongue. It was like I was remembering things I didn’t even know I’d forgotten. “Wait. It’s like…” I struggled for the words. “I’m remembering these strange people I’ve met. Twice, this guy and girl talked to me, and they had beautiful voices that sounded like music. And clear eyes. It was almost like looking into glass. I think the girl had blond hair. The guy had his dyed black. Before they left the first time, I smelled something burning. Like leaves. The second time, I tasted ash on my tongue.”
I looked at Nikolas, confused as to why these memories were surfacing.
Nikolas returned to the table. “Is there anything else you can remember? This is very important, Abigail.”
For some reason the slip of my proper name bothered me. It struck a serious chord, and I frowned. “There were these two people that came over for dinner the other night. They said they were real estate agents, new in town. The woman had red hair that I kept thinking was originally blond. And when she walked by me, she had on this strange perfume that smelled like ash. I thought dinner was burned or something, because I kept smelling it.” I glanced at Caspian. “The man had a strange name.”
“Kame?” Nikolas asked.
“Yes, how did you know that?”
Nikolas and Katy exchanged another worried glance, and I gripped the table edge as fear washed over me. “Guys, what’s going on?”
“You are very certain that the first two strangers and the second two strangers you met were different people?” Katy asked.
I thought about it for a minute then said, “I’m sure. The first two, Cacey and Uri, were my age, and the other two, Kame and Sophie, were closer to my parents’ age. And then there’s Vincent Drake. He’s the one who told me he was a Revenant.” I looked back and forth between them. “Are they all… the same thing?”
Katy nodded, and Nikolas’s eyes looked worried.
Leaning forward, I said to Nikolas, “Please tell me. What is a Revenant?” He locked eyes with Katy. “A Revenant is sent to help the living half cross over to the Shade half. Caspian is dead, yet he’s here, because he is a Shade. A shadow caught between two worlds. The black stripe is the brand that marks him as this. Did you have a near-death experience?” he asked Caspian. “Before your actual death.” Caspian nodded.
“That is when the mark came. You were destined to be one of us. I had a near-death experience of my own.” He turned to look at me. “You are his other half, his living half. His partner and companion. Attuned to his frequency, in a sense, and destined to fill the missing piece of his soul.” Nikolas rested his hand on top of Katy’s, smiling lovingly at her. “A soul mate.”
I gulped and peeked over at Caspian. He had his hands spread wide on the tabletop and was staring down at them.
Nikolas resumed talking. “Katy and I have been completed. We call it, in the Dutch language, een koppeling. A coupling. That is why we are here at this place. What happens when you and Caspian are completed… I cannot say.”
Thoughts were slowing arranging themselves in my brain, and I started to put them together. “So all this living half and dead half, and crossing-over stuff… Are you saying… ?” Katy looked at me and nodded. “You are going to die soon, Abbey.” The room grew very still, and everyone waited, all eyes on