“Unless you can’t be away from your boyfriend for five seconds,” Sharla replied, glancing at Abel.
Abel looked to Carly. “I’ll help track down the others, and we’ll meet you there.”
“Cool, thanks,” Carly said, and then Abel and Jeremy were gone, and she was left arm-in-arm with Sharla, following Gabe and Katia back through the maze out into twilight.
“How exactly did a full blood shapeshifter manage to hurt her ankle?” Sharla challenged as they headed for Gabe’s Jetta.
Katia shot Sharla a death glare, but didn’t respond.
“It’s not like she knew her way around down there,” Gabe spoke as he opened the passenger door for Katia. “This was exactly why I wanted to play in teams.”
“I’m sure we’ll find some way to salvage the evening,” Katia determined, and gave him a generous kiss on the mouth. Her gaze drifted to Carly for a moment before she settled in the passenger seat.
Carly took the seat behind her, attempting to accept her new role in Gabe’s life—a role she’d chosen. Still, it was strange to sit back and watch Gabe give all his attention to someone else. Especially when that someone else had allegedly had a vision of Carly touching the skull.
She knows I’ve touched it, but she doesn’t know any more than that, Carly surmised as Gabe took off driving. He turned up Girl Talk, and she was thankful for the music to drown out her thoughts. She needed to figure out how exactly to keep her mind to herself, but that would have to wait. For now, all she could think about was Gabe’s mind, and how much control of it he had left.
“Can Carly and I make drinks?” Sharla asked as Gabe parked in his driveway.
Gabe let out a laugh. “Carly doesn’t drink, but you’re more than welcome to have at it. You know where my dad keeps his secret stash.”
Carly hopped out of the car and kept her distance as Gabe helped Katia into the living room. Sharla tugged at Carly’s arm, and Carly was happy to disappear with her down the hall.
“Well,” Sharla sighed as they spilled into Paul’s office, “that Katia’s a real bitch, huh?”
Carly didn’t mean to laugh, but there it was.
“If she annoys the hell out of me, you must really hate her,” Sharla said, marching across the room to the bookshelf behind the desk. She pulled out one of the books and the shelf fell away from the wall, revealing a narrow passage beyond.
“What’s in there?” Carly asked, hurrying across the room to join Sharla.
“Gabe hasn’t shown this to you?” Sharla replied, stepping into the passage. It housed several shelves of wine and liquor bottles, and also a small selection of books. “And here I thought you two shared everything. Well, almost everything.”
Carly gritted her teeth, wishing her friends didn’t know so many of her secrets.
“And I wish everyone didn’t know so many of mine, but we can’t help hearing what we hear,” Sharla countered, and stood on her tiptoes to grab a few bottles from the top shelf.
Carly leaned down to read book titles, one in particular catching her attention: Mind Control Over Matter. She yanked the paperback from the shelf, turning it over in her hands. The blurb on the back was short, but compelling enough to captivate her. What was once a matter of fiction is now a matter of controlled concentration.
“I wasn’t necessarily in the mood to hang out with Gabe and Katia tonight either,” Sharla admitted. “But my mom was having your dad over for dinner, and I did not want to get in the middle of that…”
“My dad’s at your mom’s place tonight?” Carly questioned, thumbing through the book.
“Are you really that surprised? Before I left the house, I overheard them talking about the M-word.”
Carly was halfway through the book when she found the folded yellow envelope nestled inside. My Dearest Gabriel was spelled out in neat script on the front. This is none of my business, she thought, but curiosity got the best of her, and she snuck the letter in the pocket of her dress to take a look at later. She had too many unanswered questions and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to dig away at the truth. “The M-word?”
“Marriage,” Sharla answered with disgust.
Carly hadn’t been expecting that at all, and flustered, the book fell from her hands. “W-wh…?” she started, stuffing the book back on the shelf. She met Sharla’s gaze, and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Considering everything else I’m dealing with right now, do you really think I’d joke about it?”
Carly frowned. “My mom hasn’t even been gone a year now…”
“Yeah, I… I know, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s… it’s his life; he’s free to live it.”
“And we’re free to live ours,” Sharla pointed out, grabbing one more bottle. “Let me make you a drink.”
Carly let out a sigh. It wasn’t that she was opposed to the idea—
“Then let me,” Sharla pleaded, skimming past her to slip out of the passage. “It might make hanging out with Katia more tolerable.”
That, Carly couldn’t argue with. She closed up the passage and walked with Sharla back into the kitchen. If their parents were really that serious about their relationship, maybe it was time for Carly to take Sharla more seriously, too.
“Are you going to get to see your dad at all tomorrow?” Carly questioned, leaning up against the counter as Sharla set to work.
“Don’t know,” Sharla answered. “We keep making dinner plans, and he keeps canceling. But now he’s going to be in town longer than he thought, so we’ll see…” She handed a red plastic cup to Carly, and started in on another.
Carly sniffed at the contents and took a drink. She’d expected to be opposed to the taste, but was pleasantly surprised. “Wow, this is good.”
Sharla grinned. “You’re welcome.”
“You could come over sometime and hang out,” Carly offered. “If you’d like.”
“Yeah? You think you could spare some time away from your boyfriend?”
“How’s it going in here?” Gabe asked as he stepped into the room. He eyed the cup in Carly’s hands as he headed for the fridge. “You taking it easy with that?”
“Why?” Carly replied, and took another drink. “Are you the only one who’s allowed to indulge?”
Gabe dug an ice pack from the fridge. “Sharla, do you mind making one for Katia? This isn’t quite the night she was expecting, and I’m hoping to make it up to her.”
“You know what?” Sharla answered, and took a gulp from the glass in her hands. “She’s your girlfriend—why don’t you make it for her?”
Gabe smirked, and dropped the ice pack on the counter, trading it for a glass.
“I didn’t know about the secret passage in your dad’s office,” Carly mentioned, watching his hands as Gabe threw the drink together. “It’s really cool.”
“Well, not as cool as the ones at your place,” he replied.
“The ones at my place don’t have Paul’s book collection. Have you read them?”
Gabe shrugged. “Aren’t most of them rare first edition westerns? Not necessarily my thing.”
Carly wasn’t sure if he was misremembering or if Paul had switched out his collection, but didn’t think it wise to ask. It was best to keep the conversation light, uncomplicated. “How’s Katia? Is she sure she doesn’t want to go to the ER?”
“I’m pretty sure she just wants a drink, but thanks for thinking of her.”
“It sounds like she might be around a while. Which has to be good for you, so you won’t have to deal with long distance. At least, for now.”
“Exactly how far away is Romania again?” Sharla asked. “Or have you and Katia already figured out that part of it?”
“I… guess I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Gabe admitted as the front door opened. He snatched up the ice pack and added, “That must be everyone else. I’ll let them know they get to make their own drinks.”
“You do that,” Sharla encouraged as he walked out of the roo
m.
“What was that about drinks?” Abel questioned, walking in with Crys and Kyle.
“You’re making your own,” Sharla said, nudging a plastic cup toward him. “Carly and I might need a refill soon, so you can make those, too.”
“Is that so?” he asked, glancing at the cup in Carly’s hands. “You handling that okay? Sharla’s a notoriously generous bartender.”
Carly brought the cup to her lips again, the room spinning just a bit along with the gesture. “It’s a party. I want to have fun.”
Abel broke into a grin and poured vodka into a glass. “In that case,” he said, and clinked his cup into hers before he took a drink.
* * *
Carly’s head pounded in quick, intentional succession. It gave her a break for a moment, almost long enough to fall back to unconsciousness, but then woke her again. Except, it was more than just her head ringing. Someone was knocking on the door.
“Dad, let me sleep!” she croaked out, her brain echoing in pain with each word.
“Not your dad,” Abel called back. “It’s almost noon. If you’re awake, I was hoping we could talk.”
Esther’s bedroom swam around her as Carly sat up. She tried to piece together the events that could have possibly led to her immense migraine, but could only recall snippets of her evening. That’s right, she’d had alcohol for the first time ever. A lot of alcohol. So much, in fact, that she couldn’t remember anything past her second drink. And Abel wanted to talk. This couldn’t be good.
Carly talked herself out of vomiting as she staggered to the door. She noted she was still wearing her dress from last night. That couldn’t be good either.
She cracked open the door to face a freshly showered Abel. “Hi.”
He flashed an amused grin. “I’ve got coffee brewing downstairs. Maybe you want to change into something more comfortable…?”
“Oh,” Carly stammered, “I, uh, yeah. Give me a minute and I’ll be right down.”
“Take your time. We’ve got the house to ourselves.”
She nodded, her head pounding all the while as she closed the door. She’d blacked out last night and couldn’t remember a thing. What had she said about the amethyst skull?
Carly dug through her messenger bag and came up with a change of clothes. She discarded the dress across the foot of the bed, and a yellow envelope slipped out of the pocket. Carly remembered that she’d confiscated the envelope from a book in Paul’s office passage on a whim. Not only had she spilled the secret about the skull, she was also a thief. You can only put out one fire at a time, she told herself, and shoved the envelope in the inside pocket of her messenger bag.
She ducked inside the bathroom to make herself at least somewhat presentable, and finally forced herself downstairs to the kitchen.
Abel had been sitting at the table, but jumped up to pour her a cup of coffee. “I assumed you’ll need some Tylenol, so I left two on the table. Esther picked up cinnamon rolls if you’d like one.”
“Coffee’s fine, thanks,” Carly replied, and sunk into a chair. “What did I say about the skull? Was it bad?”
Abel set a mug in front of her. “You didn’t say anything about the skull.”
She heaved out a sigh of relief, relaxing in her chair as she took a sip of coffee. “Here you had me thinking I said something stupid last night. I don’t remember much after we all got back to Gabe’s house, so it wouldn’t surprise me if I slipped up somehow.”
“You didn’t mention anything about the skull, but you definitely let some things slip.”
Carly’s spine snapped up straight. She couldn’t remember anything from last night, but from the look on Abel’s face, he wouldn’t soon be forgetting.
“Abel?” she urged in a whisper.
“I figured you still had a thing for Hutchinson, but oh, did you confirm it last night.”
Carly cursed. What could she have done? And why couldn’t she remember?
“You can’t remember because you were completely wasted,” Abel answered her thought. “It was one thing that you flirted with him all night, but it was something else altogether to watch the girl I thought was my girlfriend try to kiss some other guy on New Year’s Eve. Katia stopped you, by the way, before Gabe had any say in the matter. But I got the impression she wasn’t too cool with it either.”
Carly’s face went up in flames. She wanted to apologize, but was too mortified to get the words out. She’d been preparing to deal with the consequences of having spilled the secret of the skull, but she wasn’t at all prepared to deal with the disappointed look on Abel’s face.
“You’ve got to decide what you want, Carly,” he informed her. “No one else can do that for you.”
“I want you,” she assured him.
Abel shook his head. “Well, you could have fooled me.”
Carly reached across the table and rested her hand on top of his. She moved her fingers back and forth, sparks sizzling at her touch. “There isn’t a lot in my life that makes sense right now, Abel, but you make sense. Please. I can’t do any of this without you.”
That, at least, seemed to appease him. “And what about Hutchinson?”
Carly shrugged. “What about him?”
“You’ve been trying to reconcile with him—”
“There’s nothing to reconcile. He’s dating Katia, and I’m dating you, so…”
“So I won’t have to worry about the two of you—?”
“No,” Carly insisted, her entire face red now.
Abel frowned. “I really like you, Carly.”
“I really like you, too.”
“But I don’t like competing for your attention. Especially with him.”
Carly hated that she couldn’t remember her actions from last night. It would be a while before she’d have a drink again, and probably a while before she talked to Gabe.
“I don’t want to tell you who to hang out with,” Abel said.
She didn’t want to be told who to hang out with, but she also didn’t like that she was the cause of the hurt behind Abel’s eyes. Gabe wasn’t just his friend, he was Abel’s half-brother. And that was certainly a dynamic Carly had never intended to come between.
She took a drink of coffee. “I know it’s lame, but I was hoping to spend New Year’s reading those books we found in your attic. Is that something you’d like to do with your girlfriend, or would you rather have some time to yourself for a while?”
Abel eased into a smile. “There are plenty of things I’d like to do with my girlfriend, but admittedly, reading isn’t at the top of the list.”
Carly winked. “Could it be?”
He let out a laugh. “For you? Since it’s New Year’s? Sure, why the hell not?”
twenty
Carly spent the remainder of her Christmas break poring over books and spending time with Abel. She’d read Mind Control Over Matter now three times, and while she’d had high hopes that the text would reveal something important, it left her with only one small fact to ruminate. In theory, for an individual to both access and influence the mind of another, it’s advisable to establish a romantic connection. Katia certainly had that with Gabe, but did that mean some of her influence over him was supernatural?
You’re spending too much time thinking about this—about him, Carly told herself as she settled into her usual seat in homeroom. She noted Gabe and Katia walking into the room, holding hands, and focused on her textbook. She hadn’t seen either of them since Gabe’s party, since she’d tried to kiss him, and she certainly didn’t want to draw any attention now. She slunk down in her seat and kept to herself as the morning went by.
The bell rang for lunch, and Carly sprang for the lobby to meet Abel. They’d planned to head to his place, but maybe she could take him out for coffee instead. Four shots of espresso might make the afternoon bearable.
“You survived the morning, huh?” Abel greeted her with a smile, and took her hand in his.
“Survived being the operative w
ord,” she said, tugging at his fingers. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee? I need to get out of my head, and out of here.”
Legends: Bloodline Book 2 Page 19
