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Marcus turned around and faced the rest of us in the room. He studied all of us but then zeroed in on Dante.
"What kind of mess did you make now?" Marcus asked.
Before Dante could even think of answering, Celia stepped out from behind him and pushed him back. I was impressed by her strength because I knew that was no easy task.
Then, she raised her finger and pointed it right in Marcus's face.
"Do not talk to him like that. I don't care what kind of screwed up thought process you are having right now, or if you think that you saved us and deserve our eternal gratitude, I'm not going to let you talk to him like that. Not anymore."
Marcus looked surprised. No one spoke to him like that because he was a police officer. I'm not sure that he realized that Celia was even present.
Then I saw how Celia was trembling with anger and frustration and felt bad for her. They had guns trained on the remaining of her family and easily could have put her down, along with everyone else here.
"I am sick of your attitude and don't think that I will hesitate to shut you up, however I see fit," she went on.
Marcus’s face flushed red, but instead of replying, he rolled his eyes and stepped away.
He looked over to me and saw Artie right behind me. "Are you involved in this too?" He asked.
"Involved in what?" I asked innocently enough, I thought.
Marcus gestured to the Ortegas and my mom. "In the werewolves and witches and vampires and whatever else has happened to pop up this week."
Before I could answer he let out a huff and went to the kitchen.
I looked over at my mom and Celia, confused.
"You knew?" Dante asked, following him inside the kitchen.
Marcus opened the door to the fridge. "Of course I knew. After mom died, I kind of wondered a few things. I asked dad about it but he always brushed me off, saying it was my imagination. That I should stop watching scary movies. Then, he married Maricel and I couldn't help but notice a few other things. Eventually, I figured it out. Then dad died and Maricel was all I had left."
Maricel pushed him aside from the fridge and scolded him under her breath.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Dante asked.
"Because we were supposed to keep it a secret. It was all supposed to remain a secret, from the few humans that were left in this town but I guess the cat is out of the bag now," he said and took a heavy pot from Maricel's hands and set it on the stove. She nudged him out of the way again and lit the burner underneath the pot, as high as it would go.
"Dating Celia also gave a few things away. Then I joined the police force and we had to face the truth. That there were some people that weren’t just hopped up on some new drug and had a lot of strength. That there were things that went bump in the night that we had to face. And," he paused and shook his head. "My first partner was a vampire. You couldn't really hide that from someone you worked eight to twelve hours with."
"Oh," Dante said and nodded.
It was hard to take in so much information, I knew, so Dante was probably just letting it all roll over him like he did most things.
"Is that why you always hated us? Because you knew there was something wrong and we didn't?" I asked.
Marcus met my eyes for a brief moment and there was so much resentment there that I almost flinched away.
I heard the plates and the bowls rattle in the cabinets. Then I felt Artie's hand on my shoulder blades just above my tattoo.
"Calm down. He doesn't understand everything yet," Eli murmured next to me.
"I didn't hate you guys. But, I guess I was a little angry at you because you guys got to have this wonderful childhood, while I was always looking around the corner for the next monster," Marcus said.
Celia passed us by, heading into the kitchen. "Right. Monsters," she snarled.
"That's not what I meant," Marcus said and for the first time looked regretful at the choice of his words.
"That is certainly what you said though, isn't it?" Celia said.
From the warmth of Artie's hand, I could feel a calmness spreading throughout me. I wanted to know what he was doing and turned to ask him when Marcus said, "I don't know how else to classify all of you."
Celia had a spoon in her hand and threw it at the wooden table right in front of Marcus where it embedded itself deep into the wood. My mom turned and saw what she did and smacked her hand.
"Sorry," Celia muttered to Miss Maricel and rubbed the back of her own hand.
"You could listen to us, for once. You could take our side for once and hear us out," Eli said.
I got a good look at him for the first time that night. And even though I had been taken by him from the first day of my college class with him, somehow I was now noticing things that were different about him.
For one, he seemed to be broader tonight. His canvas jacket was stretched tightly over his shoulders and he was stomping heavily as he took Celia’s side.
I studied him even closer and it seemed like I could see wisps of red rising from his shoulders and hands and legs. I had to wonder if this magic was really screwing up my mind.
And I looked over to Dante and saw the same wisps rising from his shoulders and hands too. Instead of red, they were darker green and I was now convinced that I was officially losing my mind.
I turned to Artie and whispered, "I think I'm seeing things."
"What are you seeing?" Artie asked.
"Colors. They are coming off of Dante and Eli."
"What colors?"
"Eli is red and Dante is green."
Artie contemplated my reply for a moment before he said, "That is the color of their wolves. A lot of people would say it was an aura, but since you can see deeper than most people, I'm fairly certain you are seeing the wolf that resides deep inside them."
"Can you see them?" I asked.
"No."
"What are you doing? With your hand? Is that why I'm so calm?" I asked.
"Yes. And I am just taking the worst of the magic off of you. It's like the foam at the top of a soda that was poured out too quickly, it won't hurt you and it just gives me a little bit more," Artie said.
"I didn't know you could do that?"
"Neither did I, not until tonight," Artie said.
I turned around to face him and he met my eyes and shrugged. "Sometimes, with magic, you have to guess and hope for the best."
"So you can do this calming thing with your brother and sister and Dante?" I asked.
"Do you want to get any closer to them?"
I looked over at them and I could almost see the tension in the air as much as I could see Eli and Dante's wolf colors rising from them. I studied Celia for a minute and shook my head. "I'm not going in there. But why can't I see Celia's colors?"
"Alphas are harder to see, I guess. And Celia isn’t just an alpha. Remember, she's a guardian as well," Artie said.
I nodded. “I am going to need to start writing all of this down."
"Don't worry about it. Azolata is already working on a new grimoire for you."
"What's that?" I asked.
Artie looked up at me like I was the most clueless puppy in all the world. When he saw that I was serious, he laughed and shook his head. "It's a book, specially made for a witch, warlock, or mage. Everyone has their own and they can keep their notes or spells or whatever else is important to them. It is the greatest privilege to be given one, or to see another's."
I still had so much to learn. They even had special names for their notebooks. I wondered what it would look like and I thought of those spiral-bound notebooks that I used to use in school. I wondered if this one would come with a puppy on the cover as well.
When I focused back on the kitchen, my mom met my eyes. "Come eat."
Even if I might be the most powerful witch or warlock or mage or whatever the term was, I could not ignore that order in my own mother's voice. I looked to Artie and tipped my head towards the kitchen. He nodded and we both sat down across from Marcus. I reached forward and jerked the spoon out of the table and traced my finger over the indentation where it had landed.
I looked over to Eli. "I think you guys oh my mom a new table."