by Zara Zenia
"Do you know anything about the questions and scanning?" I asked her.
"Laurie's been telling me what she thinks I should know. What she thinks I can handle really. I'm going to be honest with you guys, I'm still terrible shaken up by what I saw. I can't close my eyes without picturing her there ... how her body was ... oh I shouldn't talk about it. I feel even worse that I'm worrying about my own emotions when none of this has actually happened to me. Imagine how her friends and family must feel."
"It is natural to have your own feelings about a death," said Vlad. "Things like this are dealt with differently where I come from. You are allowed to think about death, to talk about it. Death is a natural part of life."
"I just don't want to keep having everyone worry about me. I'm fine. Are they going to question everyone?"
"They're only targeting students with psychic powers," I said. Since the topic was already out there, I figured I may as well just get it over with and tell her what she wanted to know. "One at a time, they're magically scanning them to find out if they could have been the person who used magic to control her mind, to make her burn herself up like that. Sorry to mention that."
"No, it's not your fault." She placed her hand on my leg, and I realized she had done the same to Vlad. "I haven't even been told if they're going to scan and interview me or not. I don't have any magic that could be linked to the, the murder. Laurie heard a rumor that they want to get around to all the witches and wizards eventually anyway, just to be on the safe side since we are still capable of using minor magic from areas outside our specialties."
"It'll be fine, don't worry about it," I told her, placing my hand on her leg to return the warm gesture.
"You need to take your mind off of this," Vlad said. The look on his face told me just what he was thinking. Checking her reaction, I was honestly shocked to see a look of passion cover over her. Those bedrooms eyes were unmistakable.
Someone knocked on the door. Oh well, maybe another time. I got up to answer it despite not wanting to give up my nice warm place beside Marina. It was Colin. "Hey, how goes it?" I greeted him in a friendly way and stood aside to that he could come in.
"Hi, Daniel. How'd your finals go?"
"Oh, you know, better than most of the guys on the team at least. I'm happy enough with that."
"Good news," he replied.
We got along well, which was probably largely due to the fact that both of us were vampires. There was just an unspoken bond when you spent your whole life being treated like an outcast, like a monster in some cases.
"Ah, Colin, how does it go?" Vlad said when he saw Colin.
"Oh, hey man, what's up?" he said.
They got along just fine but Colin acted slightly strange around Vlad sometimes. I didn't hold it against him since vampires were just that way around "normal" people a lot. Honestly, I didn't think Colin was one hundred percent down with this whole open relationship thing. That was understandable given the way his ex had taken his virginity and dumped him to go bed other virgins.
"Colin," said Marina. She didn't rise to greet him and seemed like she had something on her mind that she wanted to say to him. "What's up?" she asked shortly.
"Marina, I, look I was hoping to get a minute alone with you. That's why I've been waiting to visit. You haven't been checking your messages?"
"She doesn't want to look at all the shit posting and arguments going on," I told him to save her from having to go over it again.
"That's basically the sum of it, yeah. I wasn't expecting to hear from you again until you had some time to think things over."
"I told you I was willing to think of things from your perspective. I realize I was being a dick and it was unfair to you ... and to Thomas."
"Is that what you wanted to say to me?"
"And I'm really sorry, Marina." He looked like he's just found out his childhood puppy had been hit by a car.
I felt sorry for the guy. Colin was a good guy and this whole situation was honestly just awkward. I glanced at Vlad and the look on his face told me he was sharing the same feelings.
"Maybe we should give you two a little time to talk about this by yourselves," I said, beginning to head for the door again.
"No, please, don't worry about it. Anything I need to say to Marina I should be able to say in front of you guys, right?"
"I would hope there are some things you would spare us from hearing," said Vlad with a smirk.
He was obviously just trying to break the tension with a little joke. I forgot sometimes that other guys were used to sharing women around like this with their buddies. And it was a lot easier for Vlad and me given that we were already good friends before we started dating Marina.
Marina stood up. "Colin, thank you for coming to apologize. I know it must have been hard to do, especially in front of Daniel and Vlad. I forgive you. I know you were just trying to be protective of me. But Tom is not your enemy here. If you care about me, it means you care about other people I also care about, right?"
"Brotherly love and all that," said Vlad. He then let out a nervous laugh when he realized that the joke might not have been as well taken as he'd hoped. It was hard to adapt to hanging around people who weren't football players when you spent so much time around them.
"I've also come to suggest that we all put our heads together and try to do something to help Thomas. If he didn't do this, and I don't think it could have been him at all now. Well, someone needs to get to the bottom of things."
"His family has the best lawyers in the state," Vlad said with a slight hint of resentment. It was hard not to be jealous of a guy who had so much money and such a big head start in life. As far as I knew Vlad didn't dislike Tom, and neither did I for that matter. Colin, well, he clearly had some mixed-up thoughts about what dating a polyamorous girl actually involved.
"Sleepy Hollows is the rival of Tom's university. The campus police and staff aren't giving his parents or their lawyers anything," Colin said. "I've been doing a lot of research. That's another reason I didn't come over until now. I figure it's better to show that you're sorry instead of just saying it."
I had to admit that was admirable.
"Oh, that was nice of you," said Marina. "Alright then, are we all in this together?"
"Sure, why not," said Vlad.
"Count me in too," I replied.
"Okay! Let's find ourselves a killer," added Marina was enthusiasm.
8
Marina
I was so happy to be getting help from Daniel and Vlad, although I never expected that they would be anything but helpful. They're good boys, if not a lot more, well boyish than my other two men. On the other hand, a girl doesn't date two good looking college football players expecting them to be the overly sensitive types. I knew I could count on them, and they were eager even to help Tom when they didn't owe him anything.
We discussed it for a while and decided that the only way forward was to find out more details from Tom. "I should call him?" I said, not really expecting anyone to have an issue, especially after all the discussion about getting on the same team with this.
"Do you think that's a great idea?" said Colin. "Aren't you banned from seeing each other?"
"He's not allowed to step foot on Sleepy Hollow property. But talking to each other on the phone isn't exactly the same thing now, is it, Colin?" I couldn't believe I had to bring out my parental tone with him, but I wasn't in the mood for his negativity.
"The campus police are the ones handling this right now. It's a paranormal issue," Daniel added. It was a relief that he'd been keeping up to date with the rumors and filtering out the nonsense from the facts too. Having buried my head in the sand and let myself fall apart made me feel kind of silly, but the guys were supportive of my feelings.
"I say do it," said Daniel while Vlad nodded in agreement.
"The only way to get answers is to ask the questions," added Vlad. He could be very wise and stoic at times, which was probably one of
my favorite things about him, apart from his looks and obviously impressive size. Not to mention those green eyes.
"I'm going to do it then, okay?" With no more objections being voiced, I grabbed my phone and called Tom. He answered before the second ring could even finish sounding.
"Marina? Is everything okay? Are you okay?" came Tom's frantic voice. I felt so bad for him with the level of worry that was oozing through the phone line.
I replied in a reassuring voice, "Tom, baby, yes. Everything's just fine with me. I'm being very well looked after by Daniel, Vlad, and Colin. Are you doing alright?"
"Oh, are they there? Lucky guys," he said with a little bit of a forced laugh to show that he wasn't being sarcastic. "I wish I could see you again too. You could visit me again at the hotel?"
My eyes widened. So, I hadn't mentioned to the other three guys that Tom had picked me up the other night, had been spotted and needed to use his magic on a possible staff member, maybe even a campus police officer who wasn't in his uniform.
"Hey, Tom, my phone's speaker is kind of loud. Gimme a second." I walked over to the other side of the room and looked out the window. Facing the other way gave me a kind of mental wall so I could keep talking about this without being flustered. Before I started college, I hadn't even dated anyone before. Trying to have a phone conversation with one of my boys while the other three were right there was somehow a lot more exposing than talking them all in person.
"What's wrong?" he asked after a brief silence while I went to the window.
I was confident they wouldn't be able to hear me as long as I kept my voice lower. "It's just that the other guys could hear you, and I hadn't exactly told them about the other night."
"What, oh, shit. They're not upset that you came over, are they?"
"No, I don't think it would be that. But when you picked me up, probably not a good idea to discuss it with them until I get a chance to, okay?"
Tom's voice didn't change so he seemed fine with it. "That's a fair request. Sorry about blurting that out. I didn't know they were right beside the phone."
"It's okay, it's easy to forget that people around you can often hear what the person on the other end of the line is saying with new cellphones."
"Well, so you don't think it would be a good idea to meet?" He now did sound a little deflated at the prospect of not being able to see me until who-knew-when.
"Actually, now that you mention it. I called because the guys and I want to help clear your name! I need to find out every detail that you can give us. Doing that over the phone might not be the smartest idea though, right? Can I put you on speaker phone for a bit now? It might be a good idea to discuss our plan briefly in the open; set everyone's mind at ease, y'know?"
"Okay, that's fine."
Walking back over to three very concerned looking young men, I held out the phone as though I needed to use it as a prop to explain such a simple idea as turning it on loudspeaker. "How about I put Tom on loudspeaker so we can all discuss this?"
"You went to see him right after what happened?" asked Colin. "That's crazy..." He trailed off when it was painfully obvious that he wanted to add more. Maybe he genuinely was devoted to doing his best to stop the arguing.
"Fine with me," said Daniel.
"Me too," agreed Vlad.
"Okay, let's all have a chat," said Colin. And it was so difficult to read whether he was being totally sincere or not, but I put the phone on loudspeaker and decided to just ignore his negativity if there was really any there still.
"Hey guys, how are you?" said Tom. They all gave an amicable greeting and let Tom speak. "So, Marina tells me you want to help me out? I have to say, I'm honestly grateful. I know you probably have your own suspicions about me, considering our schools' history as being such big rivals. I know you don't have to trust me, but all I can do is give you my word that I had absolutely nothing to do with any of this."
"Do you think endangering Marina is a good idea though? What if someone sees you two together? What if they do somehow pin this on you, despite your innocence?" It was at least good to hear Colin admitted that Tom was in fact innocent here. I believed that as a fact.
"It's not smart to talk about all the details over the phone," Tom replied. “Yes, of course I miss her like crazy. You'd think out of anyone you would understand that."
"He's right," said Daniel. "How would you feel to have all this going on, plus not even be allowed to see your girl?"
Vlad was nodding, but not saying much. He did get a little tongue tied at times when a group was having a discussion. I chalked that up to him not being completely confident in his ability to articulate himself in English.
"I know ... you're right," acquiesced Colin. "I would be absolutely seething right now if put in your position. Sorry, man."
"It's okay. And yeah, don't worry, I am totally pissed off. I'm trying to keep my cool talking on the phone right now, but 'seething' is a good word for how I feel."
"That's awful," I said. Trying to steer the topic back onto the matter at hand, I added, "Can we meet somewhere more secret?"
"Well, what if we meet at night when it's easier to stay out of sight?" said Tom.
"What, don't you two meet in town?" said Daniel. "It's more out of the way, and that way no one's going to be watching for you there. Meeting at the hotel room would be a bad idea."
"Tell me about it," said Colin. He was right unfortunately.
"You can't come pick me up again though," said Marina. "That was way too dangerous last time—"
"What?" let out not only Colin, but Daniel and Vlad too.
I'd let myself forget they didn't know about that incident yet.
"Oh, ah..." I struggled for the right words to use; how to somehow stop this from leading to an argument.
Tom started talking before the silence was able to go on for too long, and I could have kissed him just for saving me from needing to continue. "I don't think all this needs to be discussed over the phone. You never know when someone might be listening it."
"How are you meant to decide on a meeting place then?" asked Colin. I could almost see his mind working to come up with an answer, to be the first one to solve the problem. At least I could count on him to help when things really mattered.
"Hey, baby," I said. “Do you remember where we shared our first kiss?”
"How could I ever forget that?" came back Tom with a playful tone in his voice. That had been one of the most romantic moments in my entire life. "Do you want to meet there?"
"Sounds like a great plan. And this way no one will know where we're going. Ha!"
"Also, if there is anyone listening to us talking, go fuck yourself," said Vlad.
We all laughed at that. Hey, if there was someone invading our privacy, there was nothing wrong with telling them off a little. And I was starting to seriously doubt just how much the campus police or the local paranormal community cared about the rights of paranormal students. It was scary to think that we weren't really part of the rest of the United States, despite being legal citizens who were even born here. We unfortunately had to live under a different set of rules, just because of the way we were born.
"Okay, I will see you tomorrow. Same time we met there that first time?"
"Perfect. Nice thinking, beautiful. Okay, I'll see you then. Bye guys, goodnight Marina."
"Goodnight, baby," I said back to him.
"Yeah, goodnight babe," added Vlad. Once he realized it was okay to start with a few quips, it was hard to make him stop. It helped to have some comic relief when the atmosphere was otherwise so somber though. After hanging up the phone, I knew they were going to want some answers. At least, I had expected them to be mad anyway.
"So, what happened when Tom came to pick you up the other night?" asked Daniel. Not Colin with his insecure mistrust and jealously— but Daniel.
"I ... Tom was meant to stay out on the street and text me so I could walk to his car. I didn't know he'd come in and get spotted."
"Are you serious?" asked Colin, now giving the reaction that I had expected from him the second I'd hung up the phone. "Wait, if someone saw him, why is he still free?"
"He didn't have any choice but to use just a tiny little memory wipe on the man. He didn't know who it was; older guy, probably a teacher or volunteer."
"Do the campus police ever patrol in their regular clothes? There doesn't seem like there would be any point in doing that, right?"
"Who knows?" I said, putting my hands up in the air then bringing them down to cross my arms over my lap.
"If they decide to do a full sweep for traces of recently used mind magic over the campus, this could be a big problem," said Colin.
"I'm also worried about you wanting to walk around campus at night by yourself when there might be a killer right among us," said Daniel. He'd been levelheaded about all this so far, but the moment he detected that I could have been in danger, his whole facade changed. "I don't want to be a dick or anything, but I really don't think you should be out by yourself at night like that. Even if the killer's long gone, or it was really an accident— there are students here at Sleepy Hollow who would love to get their hands on Tom."
"Well Tom's not here. I'm not Tom," I said feeling defensive now. I had not expected Daniel to get so serious all of a sudden.
"But everyone knows you two are dating. What if someone wants to get revenge on him by going after you?"
"You know, that is actually a good point, I am sorry to say, baby," said Vlad. He placed his hand on my knee and looked regretful about needing to join in on telling me off. "How about one of us drives you to meet Tom tomorrow, then picks you up after?"
"Why not just wait around in town while they meet? You could be there in case something happens, for back up, y'know?" said Colin. He was being a worrier, but that was actually a logical idea too.