Page 56 of Dead End

Ah, Cal knows what Baen’s beast is... very interesting. I’ll have Maddie tickle it out of him later just for shits and giggles.

This night was almost perfect, but I was missing my furry eight-legged familiar and my other furry Freddy. My heart hurt thinking about Jessica, wishing she’d send me some kind of note or something to tell me if she was mad at me. And Freddy… I could really use some of his wild warmth right now.

“Is this seat taken?” a raspy voice asked over my shoulder. Hearing Freddy’s voice had me whipping my head around to see him towering over me with dark circles under his eyes and a tired smile.

My heart soared. “For you? It’s always open.” I patted the cushion next to me and bounced a little as he plopped down with an exhausted huff.

He wasted no time laying sideways and setting his head in my lap, a very contented sigh humming through his pouty lips. I slid my hands through his sunkissed, soft hair and kissed his forehead as he closed his eyes with a small grin.

“Gonna put a ring on her…,” Even his mental voice sounded tired as it skittered through my head, and I hid my grin behind the curtain of my orange hair. I stared down at his fluttering lashes. He was asleep in seconds, and when I looked up, Norman was watching with us with his eyebrows scrunched together in concern.

“Hey,” I whispered, and his emerald eyes connected with mine. I reached my hand out to him and laced our fingers together. “He’ll be okay. We all will.”

Norman bent forward without a word and kissed me softly on the lips before wrapping a cool arm around my shoulder. I smiled, as my eyes wanted to fill with happy tears. This was what family meant. To be surrounded by the people you love the most, laughing while not knowing what the next day will bring.

Knocking woke me from a deep sleep. I blinked my eyes open groggily, and even after a little over a week and a half in this strange world, I still couldn’t get used to the fact that there was absolutely no sunlight streaming through my windows.

My body felt sore when I slid out of bed, but it was a good kind of sore, and it brought back every crisp memory of my time with Michael at the morgue, of all places. I smiled at the memory. If you had asked me only a couple weeks ago where I thought my first time with any of them would be, a morgue wouldn’t have even made it to the list. I laughed outright, and it filled my empty bedroom.

I couldn’t believe this was my life now. Raising the dead, magic, monsters... I felt like this was all some sort of fever dream I was bound to wake up from soon. But I didn’t want to wake up. The others actually seemed like they were fitting in pretty well, even though Maddie was trying to suppress magic that clearly came easy to her. I knew that the moment she decided to accept the fact that she was a witch, she’d become a force to be reckoned with. I just had this deep, gut feeling that Baen and Cal were going to help get her there.

I showered for the day and dressed in a black and purple plaid skirt, a black tank top tucked into my high waistband, and some heeled boots that laced up to my knees and zipped down the sides. Deciding to leave my orange hair loose and wavy today, I simply swiped on some winged eyeliner and my signature black lipstick and called it good. I grinned at my reflection, thinking about how much I’d changed since the accident.

Sometimes, it was hard to remember what the old October used to look like, with her blonde hair and tanned skin. I shivered just thinking about the cheer uniform. I felt much more like myself these days, and now that I’d heard from Jason’s own lips that the guys didn’t hate it as much as they made me think, I was feeling lighter than air.

The second I stepped out into the hall, I reared back, my eyes stinging immediately. Something smelled horrendous, and I could tell it was coming from downstairs. I heard footsteps down the hall and saw Freddy coming out of his own guest room. Our eyes met from across the short distance, and I saw the exact moment the smell registered. He pinned me with a look.

I scoffed. “Don’t blame that one on me. I’m pretty sure Pip’s cooking down there.” The horrified look on his handsome face made me grin. “You’re looking better,” I said, sweeping my eyes over him from head to toe.

His blond hair was freshly washed and hanging down to his shoulders, and I had my fingers twitching to slide through it. He wore a simple black shirt and dark pants that made me drool at how tight they were in all the right places. There were no dark circles beneath his eyes, and they shone like he’d just woken up from the best sleep known to man.

“I feel like a new man,” he said, coming closer. “Shedding all my skin and sprouting hair will do that to a guy.”

I sobered immediately. “Seriously, Fred, are you okay? That couldn’t have been easy, you know, wolfing out and all.”

He smiled softly—softer than I was used to lately. It was disarming. “All good, beautiful.”

My brows shot to my hairline. “We're laying it on a little thick this morning, are we, big guy?”

Freddy laughed, swooping a heavy arm around my shoulders as he guided me towards the staircase. “A little birdy told me we’ve got the green light to stop tormenting you now.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and smiled up at him. “And does this little birdy happen to have fangs?” Folding my arms over my chest, I shook my head at his mouthy twin. What else had they talked about behind my back?

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” he said, making a zipping motion over his grinning mouth.

It was literally impossible to be serious with Freddy. And besides, I wasn’t really angry at all. I knew the guys talked, and Jason had given me all that crap about not keeping secrets anymore. I agreed wholeheartedly, but it was still jarring to hear them just come right out with it.

I was about to respond when suddenly we heard a hollow knocking sound. We both froze, whipping around and searching the hallway. I heard it again and looked at Freddy, who just shrugged. “Maybe they have rats,” he suggested halfheartedly.

I shook my head. “I’ve been hearing that damn knocking since we got here.”

“It’s probably nothing,” he said. “Or maybe it’s one of the aunties’ witchy experiments... Why don’t we just ask?”

I suppose he was right. The knocking was bothering me. It seemed to happen sporadically and with no discernible pattern. I’d have to ask the aunties about that and set my mind at ease. We turned for the staircase, but Norman popped up, heading our way quickly with panic in his green eyes.

My heart stuttered at the sight of him. We hadn’t really had a chance to talk too much after what happened in the greenhouse. It felt like it had been years since that night. Norman pulled up short, just shy of the last step, and ran his hand through his glossy black hair. “You’re going to want to turn around and escape out the window,” he said.

“What’s going on?” I moved out from under Freddy’s heavy arm, suddenly concerned.

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