Freeks

by Amanda Hocking

  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.

  “I’m sure the dead have all sorts of interesting things to say,” Della Jane commented, her warm Southern drawl doing nothing to soften the venom in her voice. “But I thought you came here to talk about us and our little family secret.”

  Gabe leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I just feel like what’s happening out in the woods with that thing—it has to be related.”

  “Why on earth does it have to be related?” his mom asked. “Maybe it is a dog or just an honest-to-goodness coyote.”

  “No, I saw it. It’s…” Gabe’s forehead crinkled as he tried to find the words to describe it. “It’s like a wolf made out of a black hole and mixed with a dragon and the devil.”

  Della Jane offered up a shrug of her narrow shoulders. “That doesn’t sound like a werewolf at all.”

  “Yeah,” Selena agreed. “The only three wolves we know around here are me, you, and Mom, and you know that none of us would ever do that.”

  “I know it’s not you guys, and I’m not even saying it’s a werewolf,” Gabe explained. “When I was fighting it, I felt like it was draining my energy from me. But not in a human sort of way, like it was taking my powers. And with everyone in the carnival having extraordinary abilities, I’m worried it might be hunting them because of their powers.”

  “Gabe, don’t you think if I heard of something like that I would’ve told you about it?” Della Jane asked. Her tone had a sense of reasonability and civility to it, but there was a harsh undercurrent of patronization. “Warned you to stay away from it?”

  “But you have been warning him to stay away from the carnival, haven’t you?” Selena asked, turning her inquisitive gaze on her mother.

  “That’s just because I didn’t want him getting too attached to a girl who’s leaving, but I can see that’s already too late,” Della Jane explained with a sigh.

  “So you haven’t heard anything at all? Uncle Beau never said anything?” Gabe pressed.

  Della Jane held up her finger toward him and snapped, “Don’t bring your uncle Beau into this nonsense.”

  “But it hasn’t even been a year since he killed himself and now—” Gabe began.

  “He did not kill himself. It was an accident,” Della Jane insisted.

  “—is the time you used to come back for his parties,” he went on, ignoring his mother’s protests. “He always had his big parties in March, and you’d come to visit him, and leave me and Selena at home, because you said they were no place for kids.”

  “They weren’t any place for kids,” Julian interjected. “They weren’t even a good place for adults.”

  Throughout the exchange so far, Gabe’s father hadn’t said anything really. He’d mostly rubbed his chin and stared off into the yard, as if he wanted t
o stay out of all of this as much as possible.

  “Your uncle has nothing to do with this, so just leave it alone,” Della Jane warned him.

  “But Mom, why can’t we just talk about this?” Gabe asked, growing exasperated. “What if you know something and you don’t even realize it?”

  “You’re worried about your girlfriend?” Della Jane attempted a new approach and softened her voice. “How about this? She can stay with us tonight. I can make up one of the guest rooms and then you won’t have anything to worry about. We’ve never been attacked here, and we have three wolves to protect her if anything comes.”

  Gabe turned to look back at me, placing his hand on my knee exposed below the hem of my dress. “I know that doesn’t fix anything, but it would keep you safe.”

  “I…” I faltered. Everyone’s eyes were on me now, and I struggled to choose my words carefully. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t leave behind my family and friends. Unless they can all stay here, I can’t.”

  Della Jane held up her hands, like there was nothing more she could do. “I’m sorry, Gabe, but I can’t extend that offer to a group of traveling strangers.” Then, abruptly, she stood up. “And now I’ve said all that I can. This week has been long, and I think I’m going to lie down.”

  She offered me the thinnest of smiles before turning and walking back in the house. The screen door slammed behind her, making me jump.

  “Dad, can you talk to her?” Gabe implored him. “She knows the curse better than anyone.”

  Julian leaned forward, taking an otherwise untouched glass of soda from the table. “I think you need to let this one alone, Gabe, and it’s best if you ask your friend to leave.”

  53. crossed

  Gabe offered to give me a ride home, after apologizing profusely for his mom, but I insisted on walking. I needed time to clear my head and make sense of it all. But the long walk didn’t help much. I arrived back at my Winnebago with clothes and hair dampened by the mist, and just as confused as ever.

  We didn’t even bother opening up the sideshow part of the carnival. Doug Bennet stuck around, running a few games and rides on the midway, but even he’d lost a good chunk of his workers. Nobody wanted to work around here with an unknown creature stalking us.

  Most of the sideshow had left, except for those who literally didn’t have a cent to their name. Gideon worked on arming them, while my mom spent the afternoon with her head buried in books, trying to find incantations to protect us.

  I’d gotten out her book of demonology and sat on the bench across the table from her, hoping to see if I could figure out what exactly this monster was. Mom hadn’t been able to find anything useful, so she’d resorted to her old deck of tarot cards for answers.

  She flipped over a few cards, staring down at them furtively, and without looking up, she asked, “What is his secret?”

  “What?” I tried to look at her cards, but she’d already begun scooping them up and shuffling them again.

  “Gabriel. He’s hiding something. You know what it is?”

  I closed the book and set it down on the table, buying myself some time before I decided to answer truthfully. “Yes. He’s a werewolf.”

  Mom inhaled through her nose, then tossed her head from side to side, thinking. “Werewolves can be good people, but they make dangerous suitors. Their passion isn’t always easily controlled.”

  “You’ve known werewolves before?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Your grandma dated one briefly. He was prone to fits of violence, but he was also a drunk, so…”

  I leaned back, resting my head on the back of the couch. Through the front windshield, I could see that the sun had already set behind the woods. The sky had begun to darken, shifting from pale purples to navy.

  Night would be here soon, and then the creature would come, and we still had no idea how to stop it.

  “Here, qamari, let me do a reading for you,” Mom said suddenly, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Do you think we really have time for that?” I asked. “I mean, we only have a couple hours to figure out how to stop the creature.”

  “That is why I’m doing the reading,” Mom corrected me, and handed me the deck of cards. “Shuffle the deck while you think of your question.”

  As I shuffled the deck, I realized I had too many questions to ask. How do we stop the monster? What is Gabe’s mom hiding? Should I stay with Gabe?

  “Cut the deck,” Mom commanded, so I did as I was told. She had me cut the deck three times, taking a card each time I did, and I laid them out in a three-card spread. My mom set the deck of cards aside and began flipping my cards over.

  The first card she turned showed a nude couple in a passionate embrace underneath a large shining sun—the Lovers.

  The next card revealed a woman sitting on a throne, draped in fabric of red and gold. The background blazed behind her, as if it was on fire, and she held an ornate scepter in her hand. The card was upside down to me, so it was the Queen of Wands in reverse.

  The final card flipped showed a woman wearing a gown that looked as if it was made of the night sky. She was blindfolded, and in one hand she held the scales, and in the other she held a sword—Justice.

  “What are the cards telling you?” Mom asked.

  “You want me to read them for myself?”

  She nodded. “I would like you to try, qamari.”

  I took a deep breath and began, “The Lovers in my past shows the struggle between two choices, the pull between one path and the other. The Queen of Wands in my present shows something cruel and malicious is standing in my way. And Justice in my future means it will all be resolved soon.”

  “Do you have any sense of how it will be resolved?” Mom asked.

  Then, as clear as a bell, I heard Basima in my ear, saying, Your aim must be true!

  My eyes immediately went to the crossbow, still sitting on the counter in the kitchen where I had left it. Its dark wood seemed to glimmer in the dim light of our trailer, and I went over to pick it up, wanting to feel the weight of it in my hands.

  “Where did you say that came from?” I asked. “My great-grandma made it, right?”

  “I don’t know all the details, only what Basima told me, but yes, your great-grandma Elissar made that sixty-five years ago,” Mom explained. “Her first husband was a soothsayer with great power to read the future, and before they were even married, he told her to begin making that weapon.

  “Then, one night, a demon attacked her village,” Mom went on. “Her husband and her family were killed, but thanks to that crossbow, your grandma managed to save herself.”

  I had left the bolts in their satchel and hung them off the bench, and my mom reached over and picked them up. She pulled out the bolt, twisting its cold metal in her hands.

  “Basima claimed that these were forged from the sword of Henricus Institor, who prolifically hunted demons and witches in the fifteenth century, and then they were dipped into the venom of the black mamba that had been cursed by Elissar herself,” Mom expounded.

  “So Elissar was very powerful?” I asked.

  “Basima thought she was,” Mom clarified.

  “So…” I held up the crossbow. “If this has killed demons before, do you think it could kill one tonight?”

  My mom’s eyes were hopeful, but her lips were pursed in an uncertain line. There really would be only one way to find out.

  A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts, and I set the crossbow down to answer it, though I already knew who it was.

  Gabe stood outside, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His fitted New Order T-shirt pulled taut over his broad shoulders, and his chestnut hair was slicked back.

  “I know you told me that you have to be here tonight, with your family and friends,” Gabe said. “I understand that, but I want to be here with you. If you’re fighting tonight, I want to fight beside you.”

  54. omen

  “If you’re gonna be here, then we’re pu
tting you to work” was my mom’s response to Gabe’s offer, and she meant it.

  First she sent us with with herbs and powder to put circles around everything that needed to be protected. As we walked around the campsite, Gabe slipped his hand in mine, and I realized what a strange thing it was that, at this point in my life, preparing for a monster attack could double as a date.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I’m here,” Gabe said quietly. We were at the edge of the campsite, with the crescent moon lighting the sky above us, as I carefully sprinkled the white powder of ashes and gypsum.

  “I don’t mind.” I cinched up the pouch of powder so I could give Gabe my full attention. “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “I don’t want you getting hurt, either,” Gabe replied with a smile. “That’s part of the reason why I came here.”

  “What’s the other reason?”

  “Well, if this is your last night in Caudry, I want to spend it with you.” He bent down, kissing me gently on the mouth.

  “Mara!” Mom yelled from the other side of camp, destroying the moment. “Take Gabriel to Gideon’s trailer and get a weapon!”

  “There isn’t time for kissing now,” I said. “But when this is all over, we’ll finish this.”

  When we got in the trailer, Gideon was poring over the grimoire, trying to find something that my mom may have missed. Hutch sat beside him, polishing his sword, and offering up propositions about how to handle demons and monsters. Most of them seemed as if they were based on something he’d seen in movies or read in comic books.

  Gideon barely glanced up when Gabe and I came in, and he motioned at the open trunk and told us to have at it. I knelt beside the trunk first, carefully pulling out various weaponry and handing it to Gabe for further inspection.

  He took a sword from me, and the blade barely touched his skin before I heard a loud sizzle. Gabe winced and dropped the sword back into the box. A red line had been seared across his hand.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I’m fine.” Gabe rubbed his hand, then shrugged it off. “It must’ve been made of silver.”