Freeks(83)

“What do you mean?”

Instead of answering, Gabe tilted his head and looked toward the door. “Wait.”

“What?” I asked.

But then I heard it—the front door opening, followed by Della Jane’s heels clicking on the floor. Gabe reached down, taking my hand in his, and led me toward the entry, toward his family, and I felt the ice in my chest growing.

“Those mimosas were strong,” Selena was saying.

“You had three,” Della Jane chastised her, but then she saw me with Gabe.

That panicked primal look flashed in her eyes, but she managed a smile, while Selena and Julian gave much more genuine-looking grins.

“So that’s why you couldn’t make brunch this morning,” his dad teased cordially in his thick accent.

“We need to talk to you,” Gabe said, and the gravity in his voice made the smiles fall away from everyone’s faces. “We need you to tell us everything you know about werewolves.”





52. legacy

“Gabriel Bardou Alvarado!” Della Jane gasped. Her blue eyes widened, flashing with anger. “How dare you divulge a secret that isn’t yours to share?”

“Mom, listen—” Gabe moved forward, shielding me from his mother’s wrath, even though so far, it did seem to be entirely directed at him.

“No, you know better, Gabe!” she snapped.

“Della,” Julian said calmly, putting his large hand on his wife’s shoulder. “The cat’s already out of the bag, so to speak, and anger won’t fix anything.”

Della Jane took a deep breath. “I suppose you’re right.”

“It’s so unfair that Gabe gets to tell his girlfriend, and I can’t tell Logan anything,” Selena said. Her lips were stained with bright pink lipstick, and she stuck them out in a childish pout.

“Selena, honey, Logan is an idiot and an asshole, that’s why you can’t tell him,” Della Jane told her daughter coolly. “Now, why don’t you get us all something to drink? I think we’ll all head out to the veranda and have a conversation.”

Without saying anything more, Della Jane took off the blazer she wore over her flowered sundress and slipped out of her pastel stilettos. She turned and walked down the hall toward the back of the house.

Julian gave us both an uneasy smile before following her. Gabe squeezed my hand—for his comfort or mine, I’m not sure—and then he led me through his house to the covered porch in the impeccably groomed garden. Bushes and greenery created mazes within their yard, and a large statue of a wolf sat in the center of it all.

Several weeping willows filled the sprawling backyard, their sinewy branches all reaching toward the pillars that surrounded the veranda. Spanish moss hung from the branches and a small gazebo to the back of the yard, giving it all an otherworldly feel.

The sun had hidden behind gray skies, and a soft mist made the air hazy, though it did nothing to alleviate the heat. A ceiling fan whirred lazily above us, and a muggy breeze blew through the open porch.

Like in the house, the patio furniture was very art deco. Boxy shapes of solid black and bright white with chrome accents. I sat on the small, firm sofa with Gabe, across from his parents, with a glass coffee table between us.

No one said anything, not until Selena brought several glasses of Pepsi. She set them on the table before perching on the elegant white bannister that ran around the veranda, and though Della Jane asked her daughter to get refreshments, she made no move toward them.

“You should’ve talked to me first, before telling anyone,” Della Jane said finally.

“I had no choice,” Gabe said. “I hadn’t meant to tell Mara, but I already told you about the monster that has been attacking her and everyone else in the carnival. I was trying to find out what it was when the monster nearly killed her, and I transformed to protect her.”

Della Jane appeared unmoved, playing absently with her dangling earrings. “That may be how you felt, but revealing the curse doesn’t just affect you. You put your whole family in danger.”

“Mara’s no danger,” Gabe insisted. “She has her own secrets, like ours.”

“I’m a necromancer,” I said.

While Selena reacted noticeably—her eyes widened and she mouthed the word wow—and even Julian raised his eyebrows, Della Jane didn’t react at all. It was almost as if this wasn’t news to her at all.

Then I remembered the invitation for us to come to Caudry in the first place had actually come from Della Jane, through Leonid Murphy. Between his sketchy history and his recent suicide, I wondered what he’d told Della Jane about us that had made her so excited to invite us here.

My stomach began to sour—the painful acid that seemed to accompany danger, like the monster in the woods. Della Jane’s eyes settled on me—her blue eyes as hard and cold as ice—and I realized that she knew. Leonid must’ve told her exactly what we really were in the carnival.

But that didn’t explain why she’d invited us here, or what that had to do with the monster in the woods, or why she was afraid of anyone finding out they were werewolves.

“Mara?” Selena asked, and by the expectant look on her face, I guessed that she’d been asking me something.

“A necromancer means she can talk to the dead,” Gabe answered for me.