Chasing Shadows

by Rebbeca Stoddard

  Aphrodite’s smile fell and she cocked her head to one side. “Oh. Well then, what is it, child? Surely it cannot be anything that Clamora couldn’t tell you.” Her voice was gentle and soft, the epitome of feminism and motherly care.

  “It’s about Luke, the u da yv la dv and her son.”

  Her face immediately went hard. She looked fierce yet still extraordinarily beautiful. “What is it you need to know about the abomination?”

  “Why is he helping us? And why do I get the feeling he is not completely on our side?” Sebastian kept his voice calm and even.

  She sighed and shook her head. “I am sorry to tell you this, Sebastian, but there is not much about him that I do know. Since I am not that important in this battle AubrieAnna is about to face, I cannot tell you a whole lot. What I do know is that he is supposed to betray his mothers. Yes, I know that sounds strange. But he has Clamora, his biological mother, the one who gave real life to him. Then he has his creator, or his second mother, as well. Athena and Apollo have talked to me about him some. They wanted to know who he was supposed to love in this lifetime. He will love two different females. One is Willow, the earth nymph. However she will not realize she loves him until you and AubrieAnna are re-created as one. He will also come to love AubrieAnna. No, it will not be the kind of love you have for her—it will be one of an adopted sister. So please, hero, do not fret about it.” I nodded at her and listened intently as she continued. “Clamora knows what will happen when he betrays her. We have already explained it. It is something that I cannot tell you. Either of you. For that, I am sorry. But Clamora will train you and teach you to the best of her abilities.

  “I must go, children. Do not forget to love each other until you are passed; even then, love each other still.” And with that, she was gone. The chairs remained, along with a small ring that was two hearts combined into one.

  I got up and picked up the ring. It was white gold, and one diamond held the hearts together. Curious, I asked, “What is this for?”

  “It’s for when we become re-created as one.” Sebastian’s voice was soft as spoke.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that our souls will intertwine. I will feel what you feel, and you will feel what I feel. It is almost like being in each other’s bodies, but in our own at the same time.” He got up and grabbed my hand. My heart jumped when he touched me, and I had to look down to hide my flushed cheeks.

  “How do we do that?” I stared down at my feet as I asked the question.

  “We get married in the supernatural way. And then we . . . well, we, uh . . . we consummate our love and marriage.” His voice shook as he tried to get the words out. His otherwise pale cheeks were pink with discomfort.

  “Oh!” Suddenly feeling shy, I looked around the room, everywhere else but at Sebastian. My treacherous heart hammered against my chest, begging to dance with his. His soft fingers still held my hand, and he traced the lines on my palm. At each stroke of his fingers, my stomach flipped, my skin tingled, chills scampered down my spine, and goose bumps attacked my body. In that moment, I knew there was no way we were leaving that shack until he kissed me and apologized for saying no to me. As I began to think about his lips, one of his hands reached around to the nape of my neck. His fingers tangled in my hair, and he jerked my head up and kissed me with a passion that I had never felt before—not even the first time he kissed me. I tried to be as still as possible to let him take the lead. But it was harder than I had ever imagined. He licked at my lips, begging for me to open my mouth for him. Smiling against his lips, I decided to tease him. A tortured Sebastian tickled my sides, and I laughed. When I looked at him again, his eyes were soft and so full of love that I thought my heart was going to melt out of my chest. I chewed on my lip as I smiled at him and he smiled back with a dark gleam in his eyes.

  I touched my lips. They were still pretty swollen from Sebastian kissing me so much. He squeezed my hand lightly as we drove back to my house. As the city limits of Woodburn passed by, I thought about meeting Aphrodite. She was purely magnificent, and terribly kind. To my surprise, she was nothing like the Greeks made her out to be, yet at the same time, she was. Her beauty was exactly as I’d imagined it, but her personality was tender and loving, which I didn’t expect at all.

  Sebastian wanted to ask my parents if he could take me to homecoming, and he was going to do that when we got back. After fifteen minutes we pulled into my driveway. A police car sat there with its lights on. Not knowing what was wrong, I jumped out of Sebastian’s vehicle and ran to the house. My mom was crying as my dad rubbed her shoulder. Melly and Mickey were nowhere to be seen, and the cop was walking around the rooms. Without thinking, I grabbed my mom’s hand and held it. I begged my light to enter her, to calm her down, and a soft silver glow emanated from my fingers and flowed into her body. Within seconds she stopped crying and stared blankly at the wall. Sighing, my dad mouthed a thank you to me and searched for the police officer.

  “Mom, what happened?” I knew my magic would keep her calm for a while, so I figured it was okay to ask.

  “Someone broke in. I don’t think they took anything, but we can’t be sure. The police officer wants to look around, take some photos, and check for fingerprints. We already gave him ours and Melly and Mickey’s, so he will need yours. The only person we don’t have prints for is Zandy. And we explained what happened. Well, what we know about anyway. He’ll probably want to ask you questions too.” My mom’s voice was distant, and her eyes were cloudy. My heart broke at seeing her so upset. Sebastian walked in and stopped short when he saw my mom’s face.

  “Hi, Mrs. Lukenson, how are you?” Sebastian’s voice was calm and soothing.

  “Oh, you know. I am a little scattered. And, well, I don’t know.” She flung her hands out as if to wave away bad feelings.

  “May I steal your daughter for a moment?” He smiled softly at her.

  “Oh, of course. Don’t go too far. The police officer will need to talk to her.” She turned and walked away a little unsteadily.

  Sebastian grabbed my arm and pulled me outside. He shut the front door behind him and turned to face me. “U da yv la dv were the ones that did this. By the smell of it, there were more than one. Maybe two or three—I can’t be certain. They probably didn’t take anything. I bet they were just looking for your weaknesses. I will have Clamora come and do an enchantment to keep them out. You will have to choose what supernaturals you want to be able to cross the barriers. Humans will automatically be able to cross. If a u da yv la dv tries to cross, they will be injured if not killed. Unless you get their blood into the enchantment—Clamora will most likely put in Luke’s. I promise you, there is nothing to be afraid of. I will not let anything happen to you, my love.” He kissed my forehead and guided us back into the house.

  Sebastian left shortly after the police officer asked us a few questions. Thankful that I had Sunday off from school and training, I sighed. I leaned against the counter while my hot pocket heated up in the microwave. My mom was in a better mood after the officer left, and I had a feeling it was partially because I used my magic on her. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my food and bag then went up to my room. After I set my things down, I closed the door and sat on my bed. My room was ransacked the worst by the u da yv la dv. Books littered the floor, clothes were thrown everywhere, and my bed had been tipped over. Even after Sebastian had helped me right my furniture and hang up some of the pictures that had been torn down, I still needed a whole day to fix the rest of my terrorized room.

  Chapter 7

  Beeping noises from my alarm woke me up. Grumbling, I reached over and slapped the snooze button. Within seconds I fell back to sleep. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Seven minutes later, more obnoxious beeps blared through my room. After I yawned and stretched, I turned off the noisemaker and went to change my clothes. Surveying my room, I felt content with its cleanliness. It had taken me hours to clean up the mess the u da yv la dv left behind.
My mom felt much better after everything was straightened up and put in the proper places. Once I was in my closet, I sighed and looked through my clothes. Even though it was early September, it was surprisingly dark and chilly outside. Dressed in a black cardigan, black-and-white striped leggings, and a blue tank top, I went to the bathroom to do my makeup and hair. When I finished getting ready, I went downstairs and was greeted by Sebastian and a brown bag. He smiled and handed me the bag. I sniffed cautiously and grinned. Inside was a breakfast burrito with a side of gravy. In a very gentlemanly move, he opened the door for me and we left.

  I put my book bag in my locker and took my breakfast to a small bench outside. Sebastian walked with me, his arm slung over my shoulder. As we walked past him, Langdon glared at us and Sebastian let loose a low growl. Not used to protection from a guy who wasn’t my brother, I looked down at the ground and blushed furiously. There was a feeling in the pit of my stomach as Sebastian demanded respect for me. It was warm and tingly, almost like butterflies breaking out of their cocoons. The feeling was none other than pride. Smiling to myself, I sat down on the bench and started eating my burrito. Not long after we sat down, the nymphs found us. Fiora was beaming and chattering excitedly to Willow about someone she had officially met over the weekend. Willow looked at me, sighed, rolled her eyes, and shook her head at her silly sister. Just as I finished my breakfast, the bell rang and we went our separate ways to first period.

  The day passed without any incidents or any warnings of the u da yv la dv. Fiora rode with Sebastian and I to Clamora’s for training. We were still working on my fire abilities. It was the hardest lesson I had to learn so far. There were some things I could get down easily, like lighting myself on fire or accidentally letting flames jump away from me. But I needed to learn how to control it, which was the hard part. Fire was the trickiest element. If it wanted to grow quickly, it would; same if it wanted to die down. And there was nothing I could do about it until I controlled it like I could control nature. I was excited about today’s training because Sebastian would be in the room with me. I hoped that his presence would help me focus and learn control over the feisty element. Sebastian pulled into the parking lot, and we jumped out of the car. A light sprinkle had begun an hour before school ended, which made the day cooler than it should have been. Small gusts of wind blew my hair out of control, and I ran inside to escape the cold.

  “Luke will be training with you today instead of me,” Clamora said, her voice lifeless and cold.

  “Why—”

  “I have paperwork that I need to do, and phone calls to make. It is very important. I will see you tomorrow.” Clamora cut me off with a tone that held a ring of finality.

  An awkward silence fell over Fiora, Sebastian, and me. We walked toward the fireproof training room. Luke sat in a chair behind the fireproof glass. He stood up as we entered the room and smiled widely at us. I felt Sebastian tense up next to me, his dislike for Luke apparent. Fiora ran to the bathroom to change into her old burnt clothes. Even though she was a fire nymph, she had to learn to control the element like I did. It made the difficult task seem less unfriendly. Sebastian looked at the fireproof outfit laid out for him and shook his head to dismiss it. Then he quickly changed his mind when he noticed the black marks around the room. The outfit looked incredibly sexy on him, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself as inappropriate thoughts ran through my mind. A deep blush flooded my cheeks as Fiora walked back in. She winked at me and then whistled at Sebastian. Figuring it was time to start my practice, I stood in my usual spot and started my exercises.

  First I tried getting a small flame to light on my fingertips, which was a fairly difficult task. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I focused on not letting the flames get out of control. When I finished with that, I made a ball of fire between my palms, and that was a lot easier, considering I practiced that more than anything else. As soon as I was finished, Fiora gave me instructions for my lesson of the day. She told me to create a fireball but to keep it in one hand and slowly release it so it would float in midair. I made the fireball, held it in one hand for a moment, focusing on its energy, and then released it to float about in the air. However the little ball of fire had a completely different idea. It shot straight up and bounced around the room, almost hitting Luke in the shoulder. Fiora jumped up and took control of the flames before anything catastrophic could happen. With a soft exhale of breath, she let the fire float above her hand. A soft smile spread across her face as she made the ball dance and spin around her. Watching her control it so easily made me focus harder. Flicking my fingers softly, I got a small ball of flame going in my hand; I felt its mood as well as its undisturbed energy. Using the speed of a turtle, I let the ball float up. Red flames flicked out hungrily, wanting to bounce around the room, but I forced it to stay where it was. It listened. Unhappy, the little ball grew brighter, and I knew I had to help it release energy. Very carefully, I ordered it to spin in circles and dance, much like Fiora had done. A burst of joy spread through my body, but I kept the ball under control. Taking a deep breath, I called the flames back to my palm and pulled the energy inward, making the flames fade away.

  Fiora had an idea to show me how to control fire. She would help me master particular tasks, for example throw fire at a target, light a candle with just my finger, or to stop a fire completely. One by one, I nailed them all. Sebastian looked at me with pride and joy while Luke stared at me in utter shock. I felt proud of myself, and tired by the end of the day. It was hard for me to stand on my feet without help. Using my energy to learn how to control my abilities was exhausting. My eyelids fluttered as Sebastian helped me into his car. The seat was cool and felt extremely comfortable on my back. Closing my eyes completely, I sank into the seat and quickly fell asleep.

  ***

  My bed was cold and empty when I woke up. Drool spots covered my pillow and my cheeks. At first I was confused and thought that I was still in Sebastian’s car. I sat up and looked around with blurry eyes. It was around midnight according to my alarm clock, and the moon was shining brightly through my windows. Wiping the drool off my face, I walked to my bathroom. The mirror hanging above my sink reflected my face. There were thick, heavy blue bags under my eyes, and my face was far too pale. As I continued to stand there, staring at my reflection, I started to get dizzy. Black spots filtered into my line of sight, and I clutched the sink with a deadly grasp as my legs started to give out. Each of my knuckles ached as I hung onto the edges. With shaky hands, I turned the faucet on and splashed cold water on my face. After a few more minutes, I made my way back to my bed on unsteady legs. I collapsed the second my shins hit the metal frame. Everything went black.

  The sun was burning my skin. It was too hot; I kicked my blankets off and fell to the floor with a loud thud. My head smacked the bedside table on the way down, and I groaned in pain. With my hand on my head, I sat up and looked at my alarm clock. The big red letters told me it was noon. I scrambled up off the floor and ran into the bathroom. As I brushed my hair and teeth, my mom peeked into the room. She smiled softly and asked how I was feeling. Her question startled me a bit, and I remembered how I had felt the night before. A wave of dizziness attacked me, and I had to hold onto the sink to balance myself. Her big blue eyes were full of worry as they watched me, and she quickly disappeared. Minutes later, when I was back in bed, my mom popped in to give me some homemade chicken potpie soup. While I ate, she checked my temperature. Once I was done eating, she took the tray and left me to fall back into peaceful slumber.

  Creaking floorboards woke me up. My heart rate accelerated when I thought about who might be lurking in the shadows of my room. Terrified, I opened one eye and looked around cautiously. A dark figure sat in my chair, watching the sun set over the horizon. Screams clogged my throat, and I choked. The figure jerked around to look at me. I jumped under the covers and prepared myself to call upon fire in order to protect myself. Hands grasped the blankets and pulled them down. In that exact mo
ment I called fire and my entire hand was ablaze. Words poured out of the figure’s mouth, and I quickly realized it was Sebastian. Without even thinking about it, I pulled the fire’s energy back into my body so it died out. He sat on the edge of the bed when he was sure I wouldn't try to burn him again, and grabbed my hand. Smiling softly, he carefully kissed my knuckles and continued to watch the sunset. We sat there quietly, unmoving, until the sun had said its goodbyes and opened space for the night skies.

  “I brought homework for you.” Sebastian pointed to my schoolbooks on the floor.

  “Thanks. What about training?” I was curious if Clamora was going to push my strength and abilities until I couldn’t move at all.

  “We won’t be doing any, at least not for a while. Clamora wants me to teach you some stuff about supernaturals and the u da yv la dv.” He smiled at me as he spoke.

  “How come we won’t train? I mean, it’s not like I wouldn’t enjoy a break from it, because I would. It’s just surprising that Clamora wants me to learn about other stuff.” I wrinkled my forehead and chewed on my lip.

  “She wants to figure out what caused you to become so ill. It wasn’t a spell or anything. We know that. It’s something else. We just don’t know what it could be yet. So Clamora is going to go see some people and try to figure it out. She said that you need to stay out of school for at least a week.” Sebastian shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

  “This just means we get to spend some time together.” I smiled at the thought of being alone with him.

  “Yes, it does. But, for now, my love, you must rest. I will be back tomorrow morning. That is when we will start your lessons on the supernatural.” He winked at me, then kissed my forehead and departed.

  My heart fluttered around in my chest while I lay there and stared at the ceiling. As I tried to calm my heart, I thought about all that had happened in the past month, how everything in my life that I believed in or thought were myths and legends had come true and changed me. Part of me was like Sebastian, a vampire. The rest of me was fairy or witch. It was scary at first, especially when I was going through my change. But after it happened, I felt like I had finally fallen into place with my mind, body, and soul. For a lot of people, it would be terrifying, but for me it was natural. I was where and who I was meant to be. At that moment, I was content with it all. With one last deep breath, I fell back into the deep slumber of the dead.