Page 21 of Twisted
“Xavier and Theo are brothers," Mabel tells me.“My Zeke is technically Xavier’s grandson.”There’s tension in the air and I’m guessing Mabel likes to tell everyone her life story and then whoever is just held spellbound to forget.
“What about you?”I ask.
“I don’t remember how I got here.Sometimes I dreamed I chased a white rabbit but then I remember that was Alice, not me.”
“I chased a gray rabbit into the woods once,” I tell her.“It wasn’t really a rabbit though.”
“What was it?”
“A rakshasas.”I take another bite of food and look up, feeling Mabel’s eyes on me.“It’s a type of monster,” I go on.
“Did you kill it?”
“I did.”
Mabel pushes her cup out of the way and leans forward, elbows on the table with her head in her hands.“Tell me everything!”
“Another time, my love,” Zeke tells her.“We have business to attend to.”
“Wedding planning!I’ll make sure you have something blue!”
“Thank you,” I say to Mabel and force a smile, so damn curious about how she ended up here.I finish my meal in relative silence, and then quickly excuse myself, taking my plate into the kitchen.
“We have staff to do that,” Devon tells me, and I try to play it off as if I’m being helpful.Really, I need to take a look at what herbs are in the kitchen.At the very least, I need a bay leaf or two so I can appear in Antonio’s dream and tell him to get me the fuck out of here.
I can trust him…I think?
Vivian and Marco betrayed me.I don’t want to believe my brothers knew this whole time.But there’s a big part of me that’s terrified that even if they didn’t know, they do now.And they would rather I be her than their actual sister.
The kitchen has been cleaned by the staff in the time it took us to eat dinner.I put my plate in the sink, startling the chef who comes out of the pantry, carrying ingredients to make some sort of pastry.
“Oh, thank you, but that’s not necessary,” he tells me.
“It’s no problem,” I say.“I wouldn’t mind washing dishes in a kitchen like this."
He laughs and sets the ingredients on the counter.“It’s one of the nicest kitchens I’ve worked in.”His eyes light up when he smiles, looking around excitedly.He’s probably about my age and a good half a foot shorter than me.“Do you like brownies?Or would you prefer something else?”
“Homemade brownies?”
“Yeah.You will never eat anything that comes out of a box here.”
“Or a blood bag,” I add in a loud whisper and the chef laughs.
“It’s nice having someone else to cook for.”
“I bet.”
“Let me know some of your favorite dishes, and I’ll make sure to prepare them for you, Miss.”
“Call me Wren.”I give him a polite smile.
“Wren,” he repeats and takes a step forward, holding out his hand for me to shake.“I’m Alan.You are different from the others.In a good way, I promise.Which is why I don’t understand why you’d get yourself tangled up in this—” All of a sudden, he’s cut off as he’s thrust across the room, moving so fast it’s just a blur.
Xavier has him pinned up against the wall, hand on his throat.
“Don’t!”I yell, but it doesn’t matter.Xavier flashes his fangs and sinks them down on Alan’s neck.
CHAPTER10
