Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances

by T. M. Franklin

  “Good. And what does that have to do with wave-particle duality?”

  Ava’s brow creased as she thought back over what she’d read. “Those four properties point to light being a wave, but Einstein suggested that light existed in a particle-like state as photons. The photoelectric effect demonstrates a dualism to the nature of light, a concept in modern physics that light has both a wave and particle state, although not at the same time.” She took a deep breath, daring to glance at Caleb. Who was staring at her as if she’d grown a third head. “Or something like that,” she grumbled after a while.

  “That’s . . .” Caleb shook his head in wonder. “That’s absolutely right.”

  “It is?”

  “Well, don’t sound so surprised.” Caleb laughed. “You have an excellent tutor. Something was bound to rub off.”

  Ava snorted and crumpled up a scrap of paper to throw at his head.

  Caleb dodged it easily. “Now read the rest of chapter three and we’ll discuss the practice questions.” He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses, and pulled his phone from his pocket, tapping away to check his messages. After a moment, he slipped in his ear buds and leaned back, breathing deeply.

  “Don’t you have any homework?” Ava asked grumpily, turning a page.

  Caleb smirked, his eyes closed. “Nope. Part of being a genius and all.”

  “You so suck.”

  Caleb chuckled and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, the only sounds the occasional turning of a page and the slightly tinny tinkle of the music through Caleb’s ear buds.

  “So,” he said after a while, still lounging back but tugging one of the ear buds out and tucking it into his collar, muffling the sound. “Big plans for Halloween?”

  Ava glanced up absently. “Oh. No. I’ll probably be studying. Not as much fun since it’s on a Sunday night.”

  Caleb laughed. “Don’t think that’ll stop many people around here from celebrating.”

  “No, probably not.” She turned back to her book.

  “Did you grow up around here?”

  Ava glanced up absently. “No. Oregon.”

  “Ah,” he said. “Family still there?”

  “Mmm-hmmm . . .”

  “Brothers and sisters?”

  “Nope. Only me.” Ava looked up at him, curious. “Why do you ask?”

  He shrugged. “Just wondering.”

  Ava went back to her text, contemplating red and blue shifts in the light spectrum. She could feel Caleb watching her, though, and after a few minutes she huffed in irritation.

  “What?” she asked. “How am I supposed to concentrate on this stuff with you staring at me?”

  “I’m not staring.”

  “Did you need something, Caleb?”

  He sighed, fishing his ear bud out of his shirt and tucking it back into his ear. “No. Nothing.”

  Ava shook her head, mystified and more than a little annoyed. She liked Caleb. He was nice, funny, and definitely a good tutor, but sometimes he was just plain . . . strange.

  Caleb forced his expression to a complacent mask as the boom boom boom rhythm from his mp3 player pounded through his body. He’d thought getting information from Ava would be simple, that he could ask a few questions, and she’d open up to him like a long lost friend, spilling all her secrets.

  What an idiot.

  Katherine’s warning echoed in his mind, mingling with the vibrating bass of the music, and he hazarded a glance Ava’s direction from under his lowered eyelids. Her brow creased as she focused on the physics text, a finger following along as she read, and jotted down notes with her other hand.

  He sighed. He was running out of time and unsure how to proceed. He knew if he couldn’t get the answers the Council sought, within an increasingly dwindling amount of time, Ava’s fate would be out of his hands, no longer his concern. The thought bothered him more than he cared to admit.

  He reached out to her mentally, probing and poking along the edges of her psyche and seeking for some clue how to proceed, how to lead her down the trail of thought that would give him something—anything—he could use for her defense.

  Nothing.

  He needed to get her talking about her background, her childhood. Something personal that he could latch on to, to prove she was . . .

  Well, what she believed she was, and not what the Council feared she might be.

  But Caleb was quickly learning that it wasn’t quite as easy as he’d thought it would be. Ava was irritatingly tight-lipped about herself, and he had a feeling she only opened up to those very close to her. Probably not completely, even to them.

  The friend, he thought. The roommate. She could be the key. If he couldn’t get what he needed from Ava, perhaps Lucy Matthews might be more forthcoming. He’d observed the two of them together enough to see they were close, and Lucy was definitely the more talkative of the two.

  An idea began to form. In his time watching Ava, he’d heard Lucy encourage her numerous times to have more fun, often followed by a suggestion to hit that—usually accompanied by a leering wiggle of her eyebrows in the direction of a man nearby. Perhaps a few subtle hints sent Lucy’s way might get her matchmaking juices flowing, and a few drinks might loosen her tongue enough for Caleb to gain the information he needed.

  If not, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

  “Done!” Ava said brightly, looking up from her textbook. “Want to talk Kirchhoff’s Laws?”

  Caleb sat up, tugging out his ear buds and leaning forward on the table. “Sounds like a plan,” he said.

  3

  “You sure you won’t come?” Lucy whined. Caleb could see the top of her head through the window as she bounced on her toes. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

  “I can’t,” Ava said. “I have to study.”

  “But it’s Friday night!”

  “And I’m working tomorrow night and all day Sunday, and I have a physics quiz on Monday that I need to ace,” Ava said patiently. “I need all the study time I can get. Just go. Have fun for both of us.”

  Lucy huffed, and Caleb imagined her pouting, even though he couldn’t see her face from his position outside. After a moment, she relented. “Okay. Call me if you change your mind. Even if you only come for one drink?”

  “Okay.” Ava laughed. “If I change my mind—which I won’t—but if I do, I’ll call you.”

  Caleb waited in the shadows, leaning against the wall around the corner until Lucy came out the front door of the dorm, her coat drawn tightly around her. He didn’t like leaving Ava alone, but didn’t really see a way around it at that point. He needed a chance to probe Lucy for information, and this was a rare opportunity to see her apart from Ava. He just had to hope Ava would stay put, safe and pocketed in her dorm room—well, safer, at least, than if she were running around who-knows-where—and that the Council wouldn’t pick that night to finally take action.

  Maybe he’d get lucky. Maybe he could actually do what he needed to do.

  Or maybe he’d fail miserably, and Ava’s life as she knew it would be over.

  Caleb inhaled sharply and pushed off the wall, following Lucy from the shadows. The heels of her pumps clicked on the concrete, and Caleb smirked slightly at the impracticality of the shoes. She quickly made her way across campus, turning on to the town’s main street and down a few blocks to the Palace, a bar and restaurant popular among the college crowd. She flashed a winning smile along with her I.D.—fake, Caleb knew, since she was only nineteen—and the bouncer gave it only a brief glance before waving her through the door. Caleb followed her inside, working his way through the crowd to stand unobserved in a dark corner after nabbing a beer from the bar.

  The room glowed from the flashing orange twinkle lights strung on every surface, intermingled with fake spider webs, a few glow-in-the-dark skeletons, and even a life-sized witch on a broom hanging from the ceiling. The employees, and a few of the patrons, were in costume, but most—including Lucy—were dressed in their usual Sa
turday night attire, most likely saving their costumes for the following night.

  Lucy hurried to a small table near the stage, smiling and hugging a group of girls waiting for her. Above the din of laughter and flirting conversations, Caleb could hear Lucy and her friends chatting about classes . . . guys . . . work . . . guys . . . professors . . . guys, guys, and guys. They sipped their drinks and slammed some shots purchased by a table of football players who hooted when they raised the glasses in thanks.

  Caleb bided his time, looking for the right opportunity, which presented itself when Lucy got up to go to the bathroom. The football players moved in, pulling her friends to the dance floor, and instead of joining them when she returned, Lucy waved and walked over to the bar. Caleb drained his bottle and moved to join her.

  “Can I get a Heineken?” he shouted to the bartender, purposely bumping Lucy’s arm with his own. He smiled at her. “Sorry about that.”

  She shrugged, smiling back. “It’s okay,” she said. “It’s crowded tonight.”

  “Is it always like this?” Caleb asked. He thought that was better than Do you come here often?

  Lucy sipped her drink. “Yeah, on weekends. They usually have pretty good live music.”

  Caleb nodded, turning to watch the band for a minute, head nodding to the beat, playing it cool. He lifted the Veil, just a little, just enough to get her attention.

  “I’m Lucy,” she said after a moment, and he fought not to smile in victory as he turned back to her.

  “Caleb,” he replied. “Caleb Foster.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she said, toying with the cherry in her drink. “Wait a second,” she said, eyes widening in recognition. “Caleb Foster? I think you know my roommate.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Ava Michaels? You’re tutoring her, right?”

  “Oh, sure,” he said, as if it were a great coincidence and he hadn’t planned this conversation out in his mind a hundred times. “I know Ava. She’s your roommate?” He sipped his beer, glancing around the room. “Is she here with you tonight?” Lucy shook her head and drained her glass. Caleb signaled the bartender to bring her another, and she smiled her thanks.

  “She’s studying,” Lucy said, her words slurring slightly. “She’s always studying.”

  “All work and no play, huh?” he said, trying to keep her talking.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” she said, popping the cherry into her mouth. “Ava’s awesome. I love her. She’s just so serious, you know?”

  “Well, some people need to study more than others.” He was grasping at straws. He knew it. Her problem with physics aside, Ava was a stellar student, and he’d seen firsthand her intelligence.

  “Ava’s really smart,” Lucy said reproachfully, almost as if she read his thoughts. “She just has to work to help put herself through school, and there aren’t enough hours in the day.”

  Caleb made a mental note. “I thought she was here on scholarship,” he said. “Her parents don’t help with the rest?”

  Lucy turned around on the stool, watching the people on the dance floor unseeingly. “Ava’s parents don’t have much,” she said. “And her dad’s been sick.”

  Not the father. He knew that from her file already. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Wait a second.” Lucy turned suddenly sharp eyes on him. “You’re asking a lot of questions about Ava.”

  He shrugged, his lips lifting in what he hoped approximated an embarrassed smile. “Am I?”

  “Do you . . .” She pointed a wagging finger toward his nose. “Do you like Ava?”

  When he said nothing, she squealed. “You do! Oh, that’s so awesome. Ava is amazing.”

  Caleb ducked his head and took a sip of his beer. “So you’ve known her a long time?”

  Lucy shook her head. “Only since school started. We both say we lucked out in the roommate pool, you know? So many girls got someone they can’t stand, and we both got our best friend.”

  “That’s great.” Caleb said, a genuine smile on his face. It was obvious the girl cared about Ava. “So, what can you tell me about her?” he asked, grinning conspiratorially.

  Lucy giggled. “Everything.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Wait a second. You’re not like some kind of creepy stalker or something, are you?”

  Caleb choked on his beer. “What?”

  “Because I love Ava like a sister, and she doesn’t need any weirdness in her life,” she said firmly.

  Weirdness? If she only knew.

  Lucy studied him for a moment. “You seem okay, but I will be watching you, buddy.”

  Caleb forced a casual smile, holding up a hand. “I swear. I’m just a grad student studying physics.”

  Lucy bit a lip, eying him warily.

  “I can produce references if it would help,” he offered.

  Lucy’s face brightened in a blinding smile. “Well, I guess you were recommended by a professor, after all,” she said, leaning on the bar and propping her chin on her fist. “So, what do you want to know?”

  “Like you said.” Caleb grinned. “Everything.”

  An hour later, Caleb left Lucy at the bar with her friends, promising three things: First, that Ava would never know that Lucy had told him so much about her. (She would kill me, then die of embarrassment. Then revive me so she could kill me again!) Second, that he would ask her out on a proper date, soon. And third, that he would always—always—treat her right.

  He sighed, feeling more than a little guilty for misleading Lucy. She was a nice girl, and even though he knew the ends justified the means, it still left a bad taste in his mouth. Not to mention the fact that, because of his meddling, she had developed high hopes for a grand romance between Caleb and her best friend.

  He slumped against a tree outside the bar, knowing what he had to do next, but hating it as he always did. Caleb couldn’t have said how long he waited for Lucy to step out. Patience, above all things, was an integral part of his job—of his life, really. So he’d become good at waiting, able to let his mind drift while his body all but shut down.

  Eventually, Lucy stepped through the door, laughing with her friends and hugging each of them tightly before turning to head home. Caleb slipped into the shadows, tailing her unnoticed.

  He could have done what he needed to do in the bar, or even here on the street, but the reaction was never ensured. Lucy could continue on as if nothing had happened, or she could get dizzy and lost. Once, a subject even fell into a dead sleep, which would have been difficult to explain at the bar—and obviously would have been even more difficult to deal with outside, leaving Caleb to explain why he was carrying an unconscious co-ed back to her room. So, he had to wait—again—until she arrived at her dorm.

  He listened from the street as she casually mentioned running into him at the bar, not letting on that they’d talked as much as they had, but rather unsubtly suggesting that Caleb was a decent prospect for Ava’s romantic intentions.

  “He’s cuter than you said,” Lucy said as she got into bed, flipping off the bedside lamp.

  “He’s my tutor,” Ava replied.

  And Caleb waited—again—until he was sure they were asleep, then pulled a set of lock picks from his pocket and circled around to the back door, hidden by the darkness. The lock was a simple one, and with Caleb’s years of experience, not a challenge at all. He slipped through the door, standing quietly on the other side for a moment, listening for any sounds of life.

  Hearing none, he quickly and quietly made his way to Ava’s room, once again employing his picks and sliding silently inside. Only deep breaths and the occasional quiet rustle of sheets drifted to him as he walked in, past the small living room and kitchenette and into the sleeping area the two girls shared, each on an opposite side of the room. Spotting Lucy’s pale head, he stepped wraith-like to the side of her bed, glancing once over his shoulder to ensure Ava was sleeping before lifting his hand and placing his palm on Lucy’s forehead.

  It took only a momen
t, only a few focused thoughts to blur the memories of the evening. Lucy would still remember seeing him at the bar, but not specifically what they spoke about. It would be a vague recollection, a thought on the tip of her tongue. And she’d chalk it all up to having had a little too much to drink.

  Caleb stepped back, and Lucy sighed, rolling over to face the wall. He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling dirty and invasive for what he’d done. It wasn’t the first time, though, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last.

  He started for the door, then hesitated and turned toward Ava, standing by the side of her bed before he even realized he was heading that direction. He looked down at her, soft with sleep, her light brown hair—darker in the room’s dim light—spread over the pillow. Caleb reached down, carefully brushing aside a strand caught across her mouth. He searched her features—the sweep of brows arched even in sleep, the spray of long lashes on her sleep-pink cheeks, full lips on a mouth some might find a little too wide, but when she smiled, it was really just perfect.

  Caleb shook his head. She was pretty—beautiful even—but he didn’t see anything that would support the Council’s claims. She looked normal. She looked human. Of course, that really didn’t mean much.

  Ava stirred, her eyelids fluttering slightly, and Caleb was out the door before her next breath.

  He heard her mumble, “Who’s there?” as he raced down the stairs.

  The next morning was . . . well, weird, for lack of a better word. Ava had the frightening dream again and woke in the middle of the night with a gasp, the terror of the dream fading to a rather disconcerting feeling that someone had been in her room. She’d slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Lucy, and checked the doors and windows, but there was no sign of any disturbance. Still, she remained vaguely unsettled and the rest of the night slept in fits and starts, only sliding into REM sleep as the first light of dawn filtered through the windows.