Page 73 of Twisted

“Oh.I…I honestly don’t know the right thing to say here.Sorry?”

“I didn’t even drink all the blood.I just watched him die because I didn’t know what else to do.I hid the body in a closet for three days until it started to smell.Then I told Zek and he cleaned it all up.”

“I’m sure there’s a learning curve to drinking blood.”

“Yeah.That’s pretty much what I was told, but I never wanted to do that again.That’s why I only drink blood that’s already been spilled.”

“The tea cups make sense now.”I give her a half smile, thinking about how confusing it has to all be.She didn’t want to become a vampire and yet she is one against her will and she has to drink blood.

“I don’t ask where the blood comes from,” she goes on.“Zeke brings it to me.I don’t want to hurt anyone.That was the one thing I had him promise me.”

“Zeke?”

“Yes.Before Xavier turned me.I told him never to let me hurt anyone.I saw a lot of it.Not all that I can remember.My children that remained human wouldn’t want anything to do with me if I was a killer.”

“This whole thing is so messed up.”

She laughs and makes a face.“I know, right?But you’re okay?”

“I mean…no.This is a lot to take in.None of it makes sense and yet it does and the spell wouldn’t have worked if my parents weren’t there.”

“I don’t know how magic works.Maybe try again?”

“Yeah.Maybe.”I shake my head.“I don’t know much about how magic works either.”

She gets her phone out again.“Blackwood?”

“Yeah.”I lean in, watching her put different things into the search bar.“Blackwood murder” brings up a few different crimes, and searching the specific names gives us nothing.If the Order was behind this, then they would have scrubbed the internet of everything.

“Things rarely turn out how you expect,” Mabel tells me.“I’ve seen that enough just in the hundred or so years I’ve been here.”She logs back onto Instagram.“I can say with certainty that plans change at the last minute more times than not, even for people like Xavier.”

“That’s true,” I agree.“What’s that phrase that’s something likemake plans and God laughsor something like that?”

“We have to be adaptable.”

“Yeah, we do.”I lay down and let out a heavy sigh.“At what point are we fooling ourselves though?Adapt, be willing to change, blah, blah, blah.It’s just crap we tell ourselves so we don’t feel disappointed.”

“That’s probably true, too.But what’s the alternative?Hate that life took a turn we didn’t want it to take and be miserable?”

“That is a choice.”

She lets out a snort of laughter and lays back next to me.“I wanted to leave the Order.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.Back then, women weren’t allowed to hunt.I hated being told I wasn’t enough.I was good at a lot of other things.”

“You are.”

“I did leave the Order, not on my own terms, but I left.”

I turn my head, looking at her.“You came here.”

“Not herehere.But the main house.”

“Main house?”

She nods.“The one in Long Island.”