Maximus stiffened, his eyes downcast. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. A thousand suspicions from thousands of moments clouded my head.
She continued, calmly staring at me, knowing she held all the cards. “And why of course you’re the exception.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I chewed on my lips, wondering if I should take the bait or if this was going to end up being a colossal waste of my time. There was nothing that Maryse could know about me, certainly nothing about the two of us. “An exception to what?”
She sat back in her chair and pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette and matches from underneath the table. “Do you mind if I smoke?” she asked, even though I knew she’d do it regardless. I shrugged. She lit the match on the table and took a long hard drag. Suddenly I wanted one too, more than anything. I was sick of seeing it around me lately, tired of trying to be so good. She must have noticed my pitiful eyes because she handed me the cigarette and pulled out another one for herself. “You’ll probably need that anyway.”
I inhaled and was met with the comfortable arms of an old friend. My eyes closed, rolling back, and I let out a delicious exhale. It was so wrong to fall back into it after quitting, after trying to be a better man, but Dex 1.0 was somewhere still inside me.
Maryse cleared her throat and I opened my eyes, my nerves and endorphins buzzing pleasantly. I had forgotten what was really going on. The smoke we blew out curled around our heads in silky patterns. Maximus was silent, still tense, still waiting for whatever Maryse was going to say.
“An exception to what?” I asked her again, not wanting to get too sidetracked.
She exhaled slowly. “I’m a somewhat ordinary human being. My story isn’t so different from anyone else’s. I was never born with the ability to see ghosts like you, Dex. It isn’t in my blood. What is in my blood is this connection to the occult, to things that lie beyond what we can see. I’ve always been open to it, always been curious, always wanted answers. My mother was a Mambo herself and she taught me well, taught me skills that I would have never picked up on my own. I don’t possess any real supernatural talent, although I can predict the future on occasion. Not because I can see it, but because I can feel others telling me. I am nobody special unfortunately, just an old woman with a lot of practice and a lot of knowledge in how to harness the magic, the energy, that’s around us. That is who I am.
“Over the years, my work has brought me into many people’s lives. I’ve met dead loved ones at séances, have done readings for rock stars that made deals with the devil. I cleanse houses of evil entities and I practice healing Reiki on poppets. I’ve made loves spells for couples who ended up being married until death did them apart. I’ve brought luck to people who have paid me for it. I’ve gone to Senegal to learn how to make a proper gris-gris, or mojo hand.
“Along the way I’ve been introduced to the lives of people who are much more…gifted…than I am. My eyes have been opened to worlds within our own, worlds I never knew existed, beings who were beyond my scope of the St. Michael the Archangel or Yon Sue. Beings like your friend beside you, Maximus Jacobs.”
I swallowed, my throat feeling thick, and eyed the familiar ginger next to me. He stared at the table, expression frozen.
She had called him a being.
Maryse went on matter-of-factly. “Maximus is not his real name, he chose that himself. His name is Jacob and he is a descendant of all the Jacobs. Now, what is a Jacob? Well, I didn’t quite know either. The closest thing I knew to them would be the spirit guides and guardians from Haitian Voodoo. But I suppose every culture has their own version of the truth.”
She looked up at Maximus. “Are you sure you don’t want to explain this all yourself?”
He met her eyes, his voice hard. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because it’s time, don’t you think? The three of you are here and there are no coincidences. If you want to warn Dex here about what could happen, you will have to come clean as well. You can tell half the truth, even if you fear he wouldn’t believe you. Even if you fear that you’ve been lying to him this whole time.”
My mouth was so dry, but I was able to say, “Warn me about what?”
He glanced at me, shaking his head. “I already tried.”
“Did you?” Maryse asked. “Then why does he look so confused?” She sighed and stubbed out her cigarette on a small green candle next to her. “Dex, I’m going to tell you a few things and I want you to follow me, to not discount it. Each thing will have its own weight to it, a blow to the reality you think you know. I’m not trying to lay out a bunch of bombs to make your head explode. But there’s really no other way.”
I took in one last deep drag of the cigarette for strength then steadied myself for the verbal assault.
“The first is that Maximus, as a Jacob, was immortal. It doesn’t mean he’s been around forever, but at least his body has been. His job, like all Jacobs, was to act either as managers, guides, or gatekeepers between this world and the ones beyond it. The Thin Veil, the World Beyond, or whatever you want to call it. Maximus was assigned to you as a guide, and you in particular. You have a gift, Dex, and those with gifts must have someone there to show them how to manage it. To contain it. Sometimes gifts, like power for a priestess, can end up in the wrong hands.”
I blinked. There was nothing to say.
“Maximus was supposed to open your eyes to your abilities back then. It didn’t work out so well, for several reasons. One, is that Maximus became compromised.”
I looked at him.
“He lost sight of the goal and became obsessed with you and your life.”
Maximus glared at her. She shrugged. “It’s all in the open now, boy. You lost your way, and eventually you gave up. It happens. The job was difficult, more so because of you, Dex. You were a lot more than he had bargained for. So pushing aside his alliance to you as a friend and not his actual job, you were far too much for him to handle, for most Jacobs to handle. There’s a part of you, Dex, and I’m sure if you really look inside yourself, you’ll see it, that is more than normal. More than…this world.”
Finally, I had to say something. Everything was going over my head, but not that last part.
“I’m not of this world?” I asked.
“You are. You were born here, I can see that. But there’s more to it than that. What, I don’t know. Maybe it’s your lineage. But there is something in you, in your blood, that poses a challenge to someone as weak as Maximus.”