The Connected

Chapter 17

*Throws chapter out and hides*

*Sang*

Whatever I was expecting Gabriel's reaction to be, it was not this. The look that came over his face just then was one part amusement and another part abject terror.

"Uh...Meanie?"

Nothing. Not even a twitch.

I wave my hand in front of his face and he doesn't even blink.

"Hello, anybody home?" I joke, starting to worry as this is officially the longest amount of time he's ever been silent save for when he's asleep. Even then he usually hums Elvis songs to himself.

"Gabriel!"

He jolts, blinking owlishly at me for a moment before cursing. "Fucking hell, Trouble do you have any idea what you've done?"

Shocked, I lean back to get a good look at his increasingly panicky face. "Me? What did I do?"

"You invited the demon spawn to our fudging house! To the place where we sleep!" He turns and strides out of the room, cursing and muttering to himself, and it takes me a second to get with the program. I follow the sound of alternative cuss words down the stairs towards the living room.

If I weren't so confused, and now a little worried, I would've teased him for officially replacing his favorite F-word with Ollie friendly fudging. "Gabriel Joseph Coleman, will you tell me what the ever loving heck you're talking about. What are you freaking out about? Who did I invite here?"

"I believe he is worried about me, malen'kaya ptitsa (little bird)," a startlingly deep, semi-familiar voice says as we reach the living room.

"Mommy!" Ollie's screech warns prepares me for his full body weight to slam into my legs, hugging me like it's been days rather than hours since he's last seen me.

"Fudge that, I'm not worried," Gabriel responds, practically pouting.

I glance up to find a massive, tattooed bear of a man wearing a spongebob squarepants backpack and holding the hand of a freaking adorable boy Ollie's age.

"You must be Raven," I say with a smile, reaching out to shake his hand, ignoring the grunts and grumbles from my connections that are scattered around the room.

"Da, it is nice to meet your face. Thank you for having Hawk over tonight, he's very excited," he tells me, smirking at the wary looks the others are shooting his way.

"Of course, Ollie is too. Thanks for letting him stay. Like I told Kayli on the phone, I'm grateful he and Ollie have taken to each other so quickly." I'd met the beautiful, slightly frazzled woman the first day I'd picked the boys up from school. She had seemed so excited, and a little relieved, when our boys had come out of the school joined at the hip. We'd exchanged numbers and arranged this little sleepover soon thereafter.

Turning my attention to the little boy standing proudly next to Raven like a perfect miniature version of his father minus the tattoos and piercings, I smile at him as well. "Hi Hawk, it's nice to see you again. Are you ready to hang out with us tonight?"

A wolfish smile fills his tiny face, filling me with a sense of foreboding for the night ahead. It's too mischievous a look for a child his age to have perfected, and I'm beginning to understand Gabriel's earlier reaction.

"Hi Ms. Sang. I'm always excited to be with you," he tells me, puffing out his chest and I swear I hear choked laughter come from several of the others.

"Uh...well okay then," I mumble, before reaching down to run my fingers through Ollie's hair, very uncertain now that I made the right choice to bring these two tiny terrors together for an entire night. I wonder if Solex has homeowner's insurance.