Beginnings ➣ Monroe [1]

33 | TARANTELLA PT. 3

"I don't think that.." Isabelle starts when her phone begins ringing. "Hold on. It's your boyfriend. Hello, Nicholas!"

"Nicholas? Let guess — Juliette is with you." Nick muses and Isabelle can clearly picture Nick rolling his eyes.

"She sure is." Isabelle smirks as Juliette laughs and bites into her pastry.

"Well, finish up and meet me." Nick urges. "I think that it's about time we chat with Monroe about our spidery problem."

✯ ✯ ✯

"You called to tell him we're coming, right?" Isabelle inquires as she gets out of her car.

"Of course." Nick replies before knocking on Monroe's front door.

"Isabelle, Nick, hey. Come on in. I'm in the middle of making Badenwurst." Monroe greets opening the door before leading them inside. "I was feeling sort of homesick. My mom used to make this stuff all the time. You guys want some?"

"Who's in it?" Nick questions jokingly.

"Okay. When my nana used to make it she stuffed it with, you know, whatever, whoever was around." Monroe tells them.

"That's okay. I already ate." Isabelle reassures him.

"No, but mine's vegetarian." Monroe presses showing them his bowl of Badenwurst.

"No, we're good. Thank you." Nick grimaces.

"So, what's the topic of discussion for today?" Monroe asks.

"Spider poison." Isabelle responds.

"A spider wesen, actually." Nick corrects. "Wesen — is that right?"

"Yeah." Monroe nods as he walks over to the fridge and takes out a drink. "I don't really consider them part of the phylum. Personally, not a spider fan per se. I catch one, I wash it down the drain, watch it squirm — but only if I catch them in the house. If they're outside live and let live, you know?"

"I get it. I'm the same about bees." Isabelle retorts. "Especially after the whole Mellifer thing."

"Look, we found a book. There were some photos in it, but it was mostly written in Japanese." Nick informs him.

"Japanese? That's interesting." Monroe comments as he walks over to his meat grinder. "Don't expect me to translate it, though. 'Ich sprechen' some Deutch, but that's about it."

"Do you know anything about the spiders?" Isabelle inquires.

"You'll have to be more specific." Monroe says. "There's a whole bunch of different kinds of spiders, you know? Some molt, some eat their young — which I consider the height of bad parenting. But as far as we're concerned they're pretty harmless to us."

"Well, what about the kind that suck the insides out of their victims?" Nick questions showing Monroe a picture he took of the book on his phone.

"Oh, that kind of spider." Monroe sighs.

"You know what this is?" Isabelle asks.