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

by T. M. Franklin

  It felt good to laugh. It made her forget, even for a brief bit of time how much her life had sucked the last six months. Her only salivation was in finding those responsible for murdering her parents. It was a heavy burden for a seventeen-year-old girl to take on by herself, but she was determined to bring those guilty to justice.

  Hence, breaking into the Chinese herbal shop. After some research, Calli claimed she had found a spell to help Fallon’s with memories. All she needed was an herb called Huperzia, which helped stimulate memory and thoughts. The only shop in Hallowridge that routinely stocked enough of the herb for the spell was the one right in front of them.

  They’d both tried to buy the herb, but they’d been denied. Herbs as powerful as Huperzia came with warnings of death and grave consequences if used inappropriately. So, because they were still minors, they weren’t allowed to purchase it.

  So, they came up with plan B.

  Steal it.

  They dressed for their parts. All black, nothing shiny. Although Calli’s hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Her braided long, bright red hair lay against her back counteracting the black, skintight cat suit she wore—a homage to Fallon’s tiger. In contrast, Fallon wore a pair of skinny black jeans—the knees worn to threads, a pair of all black Chucks and a black Foo Fighters t-shirt. Her long black hair was tied back in a hap hazard bun fastened into place with black chop sticks.

  “So, what’s the game plan?”

  Fallon cringed. The other girl didn’t have a clue of the meaning of stealth, or how speaking loudly could cause unwarranted attention. “You’ve got look out, while I jimmy the lock.” She reached down and pulled hook pick kit she bought off E-Bay out of her bag.

  “Do you even know how to use those?” Calli gestured to the tools in her hand.

  “Yes.”

  Calli cocked her to head to the side. “Other than watching a couple YouTube videos and practicing on your own bedroom door?”

  “Then the answer would be no.” Fallon pulled out the picks she thought might work and glanced at her friend. “I already scoped out the back door. It’s a simple lock. Should be easy peasy.”

  “Till the Five-O roll up and arrest us for B&E.”

  She hung her head, chuckling. “Seriously, you need to ease up on the TV. FYI, no one talks like that. B&E? Where did you learn about that?”

  “TV. I’m a loose cannon, Fallon. You should know this,” Calli countered.

  Gotta love a girl who admits to her crazy. It was one of the reasons they had become friends so quickly. Fallon cupped Calli’s cheeks with both hands, forcing their eyes to meet. “Be silent. Wait.” They both knew, Calli couldn’t be silent to save her life. However, right now, she couldn’t utter a peep. “Do your loud whistle if you see or hear something. Promise me, you’ll run like the crazy person you are if the Five-O appear.”

  Calli smiled.

  “Promise me, Calli. Otherwise, I’m going to call this off, and we’re both going home,” she demanded.

  Calli huffed, her warm breath brushed across her face. “I promise.”

  Fallon released her hold and nodded. She stood, then silently padded across the distance to the back door. Fallon kept checking the area to make sure no one saw them or spotted Calli. The last thing they needed was to get caught.

  After selecting the tools she needed, Fallon knelt and set to work. It was nothing like she’d seen. Nothing like her bedroom door. She bit her bottom lip, growing frustrated when the lock didn’t automatically give. Several long minutes passed before she heard the slick of the lock giving. With a quick turn of the cold brass knob, the door opened.

  Success. Heck yeah! She’d done it.

  No alarm sounded.

  Another positive.

  She slipped the tools into her back pocket as she stood, then retrieved the small pocket flashlight from her other pocket. She gave Calli a thumbs up before she slipped into the storage room of the shop.

  The cloying scent of all the herbs disturbed her tiger. Fallon wrinkled her nose and sneezed several times. It would take her days to clear her senses, but it’d be worth it if the powder helped recover her memories of that night.

  Fallon peeked through the silky, red curtain into the main floor of the shop. The huperzia was kept behind the counter, so she moved through the tight walkways and made her way to the front of store. She stepped behind the counter and scanned the file drawers. The owner had a hinky coding system. It didn’t match the most conventional methods of keeping things in order. She flipped through several different dividers before finding what she’d been looking for in the last cabinet. The small, plastic packet held all her hopes within the fine granules.

  After grabbing the packet, she pushed the door closed. Trying to find what she needed took longer than she expected, so she hurried through the store and stepped out the back door, remembering to lock it on the way out. The warm humid air greeted her, and a bolt of relief suffused with elation shot through her.

  At least she could breathe now.

  “Freeze, don’t move,” a man’s voice reverberated through the quiet night, shocking her. “Drop the bag!”

  She hesitated for a second as a wave of fear rushed through her body. Where did Calli go? Had they gotten her too, or had she ran to safety.

  “Do it now,” the man yelled, moving closer to Fallon. Out of her peripheral vision she saw a massive shadow moving toward her. “Hands up and on your knees. Now.”

  Dropping to her knees, she ignored the pain of the concrete slapping against her knees. She’d feel that in the morning, that was for sure. Her tiger surged within her, demanding she shift and attempt to flee, but the punishment would be worse, and she’d still be without the herb she needed.

  The big guy rushed her, kicking the bag to the side and pushing her down to her stomach. Rough hands swept over her body, stopping only to pull the lock pick set and flashlight from her back pockets. Enforcers. Two of whom she hadn’t the pleasure of meeting yet.

  Another officer approached, as the other one cuffed her hands tightly behind her back and pulled her up into a standing position.

  “She’s just a kid,” the other officer announced.

  Not exactly a kid, more like a young adult. It didn’t behoove her to correct them. Nope, instead she kept her mouth firmly shut.

  “A stupid kid, if you ask me,” the enforcer corrected.

  They didn’t read her her rights. Didn’t have to. Hallowridge and the Estates were patrolled and taken care of by KISS Security and Enforcers. They shoved her into the back of a squad car, drove her to the main KISS building located within the Estates. When they arrived, they led her to one of the small, gray interrogation rooms, attaching her handcuffs to the center of the table.

  She laid her head on the cold metal table and waited. Hadn’t been the first time she’d been in one of these rooms. In the last year since she moved to Hallowridge with her brother, she’d become familiar with the whole operation. For some reason, the people around there didn’t like egged house or toilet papered trees. Or graffiti. Oh well, not my fault they don’t have a sense of humor.

  The door opened what felt like an eternity later, and the guy who arrested her stepped into the room. He sat down across from her and tossed a manila folder onto the table.

  Calli would say he was hot, and she’d have to agree. She’d never say it out loud though. He had long wavy black hair, cut short on the sides, accenting his moss green eyes that had flecks of yellow near the pupils. He had a strong jawline, and the set of his mouth said he didn’t take crap from anyone.

  Without saying a word, he flicked open the file on the desk. Last year’s school picture had been paper clipped to her fingerprints. The form listed her current address and driving record, which consisted of one parking ticket she received because her meter had run out.

  “Fú zé Wu, we meet again.” Though she’d never met this man before, she was a regular around KISS. “You want to tell me why you were stealing an herb that cost
s all of about twenty bucks.”

  “Not especially,” she answered with a shrug.

  He leaned forward, seemingly reading her file. It was an act. His eyes never moved. She’d bet he had memorized the whole thing before he set foot into the room. “You’re pretty new to the area. In the six months you’ve been here, you’ve been caught egging a house, toilet papering another. Writing on the side of the high school wall. Now, you’ve broken into Miss Chen’s herbal shop. Why’d you, do it?” He leaned back in his chair in a relaxed pose.

  “It was a dare,” she lied. Her heart hammered. She couldn’t allow this human to find out why she’d been there or who had been with her. “I went for it. You know how peer pressure can be.” She glanced down at her nails in faux indifference.

  “A dare?” he huffed out. “Your dare is going to cost you fifteen years when this goes to trial.”

  “I haven’t been read my rights,” she came back at him. “It’s illegal to hold me because I’m a minor.”

  He sneered at her. “Which can be rectified, like that.” The snap of his fingers echoed around the room, causing her to jump slightly in her seat. “You’re seventeen. Old enough to know better.”

  Shame washed over her. If her parents were still alive, she would have never done what she did tonight. She bowed her head, refusing to meet his hardened stare. After her parents had been brutally murdered, leaving her and her younger brother Ji as orphans, Ji reverted inside of himself and no longer resembled the brother she remembered. She, on the other hand, acted out. She had no way of expressing her sadness.

  Her parents had always been too trusting. Too forgiving with humans. They believed integration of shifters and humans could make society a better place. Too bad those who lured them to their deaths didn’t believe so. The only thing she remembered from that night had been celebrating with her family. The rest had become a blur of images and sounds. It was why she needed the herb to remember.

  “Got nothing to say?”

  “Not really,” she answered truthfully. “As you said, you caught me red handed.”

  He reached into his pocket, and removed a small silver key. He unlocked the cuffs circling her wrist. “Fú zé—”

  “Fallon. I go by Fallon,” she stressed, suddenly irritated at him for using her formal name. That honor was for her parents and occasionally Ji when he felt like calling her by it.

  “I have yet to introduce myself. I’m Detective Damian Michaels,” he proclaimed, offering up his hand.

  She stared at his hand. “Okay.”

  “You never work alone,” he stated, retracting his hand when she didn’t take it. “Yet, you were alone tonight. Why?”

  She swallowed hard, grateful Calli had gotten away before she’d been caught. Fallon rolled her shoulders. “Didn’t need company. It was an easy snatch and grab.”

  “I’d say your best friend Calliope Cockcraft was there, but she ghosted the minute she detected trouble. Leaving you to deal with this on your own. Not much of a friend if you think about it.”

  “Calli wasn’t there,” she snarled, allow the edge of her tiger to show.

  The big detective pushed out of his chair and began to pace. “Calli was there. I’ve got video from the bank down the street. It clearly shows you both heading to the herb store less than ten minutes before the alarm was triggered. I suspect she was doing what you asked of her.”

  “I plead the fifth.”

  He snorted. “Might as well say you’re guilty as Hades, if you’re going to enact that. You’ve been making waves in Hallowridge. Why don’t you tell me why you broke into the shop and stole the huperzia?”

  “I already told you, it was a dare.”

  He slammed his hand down on the metal desk, hard. “You’re lying. We both know it. Tell me the truth.”

  Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she let it out slowly. “Calli and I found a book in the library full of spells she wanted to try. You know, get proficient. Anyway, we thought it would be cool to give it a go. We needed the Huperzia to finish it, so I went — by myself — to grab it.”

  “Ok.” Detective Michaels held up his hand. “As amusing as this all is, let me stop you right there before you dig yourself into a hole you just can’t get out. Stop lying to me. I already told you, I know she was with you.”

  “I’ll deny it.”

  “Kid, you’re not in the position to deny anything. As it stands, you’re on your third strike here. You should be concerned what happens next.” He placed his hand on her shoulder. “What would your aunt think if we have to tell her you’ve been thrown out of the community?”

  “What?” She didn’t believe him.

  “This isn’t like the human world, kid. KISS and the elders won’t put up with your crap. You should be lucky they haven’t put you out before now,” he said.

  “They can’t.” Fear gripped her, closing off her throat and making it almost impossible to swallow. Where would she go? Who would she turn to?

  “They can. You’re disturbing the peace here. No one has to deal with it, human rules and laws don’t apply here.”

  Fallon slumped into her seat.

  “I’m all for kicking you out of here,” he snapped. “You’re a pain in all of our rears, but you’ve been given a reprieve.”

  She jolted in her seat, surprised by his statement. “What?”

  “It’s in your wheelhouse. Someone is selling paranormal objects and relics on the black market. We need you to get in there, find out who it is, and take them down.”

  She sat up. “Work with you?”

  “Yes, and in return, you’ll be able to stay in Hallowridge.”

  Which meant, if she didn’t do what he wanted her to, she’d be sent back to the human world where she didn’t know anyone. “Since it looks like I don’t really have much of a choice, I guess my answer is yes.”

  He snorted. “I figured you’d make me work for it.” He walked over to the door and opened it. He left her alone for a moment then returned. “You’ll have a team. If you step out on them, they’ll tell us. If you do anything out of the way, they’ll tell us. Consider yourself in jail, with work release.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Oh, and we’re going to have to tell your aunt about what happened tonight as well.” Damian grinned. “We’ll need her permission, after all.”

  2

  Infuriating, insubordinate, terrorizing brat. Gainger shook his head as he listened to Damian interrogate the girl, Fú zé “Fallon” Wu. The girl had been caught outside Sú Che Wen’s shop. The kindly woman didn’t deserve to have her place pilfered.

  He watched the scene unfold in front of him as Damian questioned Fú. There’d not been an ounce of remorse in her body language. The only thing she felt bad about was getting caught.

  “She’s cute,” Warren stated, coming up beside him. “Too bad she’s not your type.”

  Grainger cocked a brow. “My type?”

  “Prissy,” Abraham added, standing beside his blood partner and boyfriend.

  “Not an ounce of good-girl there,” Warren snarled.

  Warren, Abraham and Grainger had been friends since childhood, and when it came time for Abraham to go through the transition, the incubus stepped forward. They’d always been close and their parents encouraged their budding relationship. Grainger, however, chose a family friend to help with his. The Cordova family were known for their generosity in the vampire community, and had helped his family for generations. Before things got bad, his mother had enjoyed reminding him of the fact. Secretly, he supposed she hoped he’d find his mate within the Cordova family.

  “Do we enjoy good girls?” Abraham quipped, pulling him from his musings.

  “Not. At. All,” Warren replied.

  “You’re both idiots.”

  He stepped away from the guys. Between the three of them, they worked the best together. Adding Fallon to their group would tear them apart. She had no sense of morals. No sense of self. She didn’t even re
spect her family.

  “You like her?” Abraham lifted his chin in the direction of the glass separating the rooms.

  “No.” He shook his head, opening the file in his hand. “She’s trouble.”

  “She seems like she enjoys life. Has fun.” Warren shrugged.

  “Fun?” He gazed at the stocky lesser demon. Warren’s hazel-green eyes glowed with a hint of mischief. “Not at all.”

  “He likes her.” He chuckled, catching Abraham’s eye.

  “Yep. This should be fun.” The vampire joined his demon boyfriend in a quick laugh.

  He shook his head. “She’s been in trouble the whole time she’s been here. Egging the Carmine house. Toilet papering the park trees for Samhain. She scribbled a horrible message under Mr. Hitchenson’s classroom window.”

  “And?” Warren cocked a brow.

  He blew out a breath and slammed the file closed. “Both of you are enforcers. You should be worried about her activity escalating.”

  Grainger hoped to join the Hallowridge Enforcer team within the next year. As a member of Arrowfire, he took his job seriously. Protecting Hallowridge’s anonymity was first and foremost. Having someone like Fallon there would expose them. There were no ifs or buts about it. It was all a matter of time.

  “Have you read her folder in its entirety?” Abraham took file from him and flipped to the part about her parents. “She’s acting out man. Her parents are dead.”

  He understood. “So, she gets a pass?”

  Abraham shook his head. “Not in the least, but it sounds like what she was doing tonight wasn’t just for some incantation her friend could do.”

  “It’s for memories,” Warren added. “My mom used to use it on my grandmother before she passed.”

  Grainger frowned. Human afflictions were rare for supernatural beings. When Warren’s grandmother started forgetting small things, no one thought anything of it. A demon of over a thousand years old could have a faulty memory a time or two without worry. Obviously, they’d seen so much, lived so many lifetimes. Unfortunately, the small lapses in memory had become full-fledged episodes of complete loss. Warren’s mother would give her the potion to help her through the daily turmoil, but it became too much and in a small family ceremony, she met her end.