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

by T. M. Franklin

  “Yes, I am outside right now. Glance around the room and look for somewhere that I can be close but not seen.”

  There is a room off the living room. It’s towards the back of the house. The opening has walls on either side; it is dark. I can’t see what else is there. You should able to get into that room and not be seen. Is it safe for you to do that? You told me that vampires have super hearing.

  “Elizabeth we are also very good at being very quiet when another vampire is around.”

  I could hear the smile that he had on his face. It made me relax a little, that he could joke like that with five other vampires so close. I had no idea how this worked, or what was going to happen, but at that moment I was very glad that he was my father. I turned back towards Victor.

  “Now, Elizabeth, I know that you’re half-vampire, half-human. What some would call a gloglave, or vampirdzii.” He paused here, and looked at the other vampires. “She pretends that she is just another human girl. Do you see her neck, gentlemen?” He reached towards me. I backed up quickly, not wanting Victor to touch me. I noticed that the other vampires were sitting forward in their seats.

  “Vampires don’t exist, Victor. How could you believe that? They are just another myth, like the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy.”

  Jeremiah! Are you still there? What am I going to do? I could see that the other vampires were trying to look at my neck.

  “I’m here. Keep up what you’re doing. I’m inside that room now. The four vampires that are with Victor, they’re new ones. From what I’m picking up, they are only about seventy-five to one hundred years old. They will be no problem for me to deal with if needed. Victor is much younger, too, just as I thought. But he is much older than the others. He will be more difficult for me.”

  Victor threw his head back, and started laughing. “Oh, Elizabeth, did your father tell you to say that? You’ve been researching our kind for a while now.”

  “Oh!” I hoped my face was showing amused surprise. “You mean the research for my term paper that I was doing this past summer?” I giggled. “It was for my English class. I don’t believe in all that stuff.” I turned towards Jason. “Is that what this is all about, my English paper? I told you before that is why I was researching vampires.”

  Jason looked at me, veins standing out in his neck, his eyes narrowed, “You know what you are, and you know what I am,” he yelled.

  I could feel the tension amongst the vampires. They all turned toward Victor. He smiled at me and took a step forward, grabbing my chin and jerking my head to the side. “See the kiss of the vampire on her neck?” he said, loudly.

  I could feel Jeremiah tense up. I’m fine, the others are just watching me. What do I say?

  “Laugh and tell them that mark is your birthmark, that there is no such thing as a vampire.”

  I looked up at Victor and laughed. “Oh, my birthmark! My mother has always joked with me that it was my vampire kiss. I know that vampires are a myth, they don’t exist. This is a joke right?” I put my hand over my mouth, a gesture that I hoped would make them think I was covering up giggles.

  Victor stepped back. A look of anger spread over his face, a smirk drawing across his lips. He drew his hand back. I tensed for the blow I could see was coming. The others leaned forward in their seats, eager to see what the blow would do to me. I kept my head up not wanting to show fear or defeat.

  Everything suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion. I was determined to keep my eyes open, and watch his face. Just before his hand should have connected with my cheek there was a rush of wind, and I was moved backwards away from the blow. There, standing between Victor and I, was Jeremiah.

  “Victor,” he said, his look boring into the man's eyes. “Why were you going to hit this defenseless child?” His voice was dripping venom. He looked over at the other men, his eyes narrowed and piercing. “And you, gentlemen, were going to sit there and allow that?”

  When I looked over at the others they had fear in their eyes. They dropped their heads quickly and they each made a small bow toward Jeremiah. “My Lord,” they said in unison.

  Jeremiah turned again towards Victor. “Care to explain yourself to me now?”

  “I’m sorry, My Lord, I heard that she was the product of a human and a vampire. I was simply trying to find out who the vampire was that spawned such a disgrace.” He bowed even lower than the others.

  “Who told you this child is the product of such a union?” His eyes were full of hatred as he asked the question.

  “Jason did, My Lord. He has been watching her for the last few months. She has been doing research on vampires since the summer. She has the kiss of the vampire on her neck! Look.” He started towards me.

  Jeremiah was instantly on him. I heard the other vampires hiss, and saw them lower their eyes. I couldn’t understand what was happening here. “You will go nowhere near this child again. DO. YOU. HEAR. ME?” His voice was not raised, but it seemed to fill the room. “If you go near her again you will answer to me. Now, I must take care of her so she doesn’t remember any of this.” He looked straight at Victor. “I may or may not keep him from knowing what you have done here tonight.” He turned and took my hand. “Come with me, child.” We walked out of the room and into the night.

  13

  My heart was beating so hard I thought it would come through my chest. I said nothing as he led me out the door. Waiting at the curb was a black limo. He walked me to the car and opened the back door. As we pulled away from Victor’s house I leaned back against the seat and started crying. “What just happened?”

  “We will talk when we get to my house, Elizabeth. Please, just rest for now. I have much to think about.”

  The ride seemed to last forever. I played over and over in my mind the scene in the living room. Why did those men call my father “My Lord?” Why had they looked afraid of him? Even Victor, who acted like he was so important, seemed to be fearful of him.

  When I felt the car slowing down I opened my eyes. We were pulling into the back of the house. I looked over at him, his face seemed drawn, his mouth was set in a straight line. Sitting up straight, I said, “What is wrong? Why do you look so scared?”

  He motioned for me not to speak as we stepped out of the car, He spoke quietly to the driver.

  “Hurry, come with me quickly.” He took my hand, and we were suddenly inside of the house. He turned towards me. “Elizabeth, listen to me carefully please. I need you to understand. What I have to do now, I do not do lightly. I only hope and pray that it will keep you safe, and you will remember enough to not get yourself into any type of trouble.

  “I am the Vampire Lord of this part of our world, and I answer to only one vampire above me. He is the one that Victor is trying to impress by finding out who your real father is. If he had succeeded, I would have been destroyed. They would have killed you just because of your existence. I must protect you, myself, and the other vampires that serve me in this part of my realm. Can you understand that?” He was looking at me with such sorrow in his eyes.

  “What does that mean? I don’t understand.” He was holding both of my hands now. “Can we talk about this some more?” I asked, terrified of what was going to happen, and not knowing why. “I don’t know what you are saying.” I could feel the tears rolling down my face. I felt that something really bad was going to happen.

  “Elizabeth, I wish there was another way that we could do this. But since Victor has taken you to his house, and tried questioning you twice now, I’m afraid that he will eventually get information out of you in any manner that he can. So, I think that the best thing I can do is to erase your memory of me, and of everything that we have talked about. That is the only way that I can think of to keep you safe.”

  “No! I don’t want you to do that,” I screamed at him, backing away. “I want to know you. I want to remember! Please, we have to figure something else out.”

  “I don’t know how else to protect you,” he replied his
shoulders drooping. “Damn whoever did this to you. When I find out who they are, they will answer for it.” Anger flared in his eyes. He was pacing the room, his long dark hair flying out around him.

  “Listen, I understand that you want to protect me, but if you take away my memories of you, and everything that happened, I will be in worse danger. Think about this for a minute, Jeremiah. If I don’t remember and Victor comes after me again, which you think he will do, I won’t know to be afraid of him. I won’t know what he is,” I pleaded with my father. “You have to see that I’m right.”

  Jeremiah turned towards me and suddenly seemed to deflate. His shoulders sagged and he fell down onto the sofa, looking defeated. He looked at me with sadness in his eyes. “You are so like your mother. She would have said the same thing. Let me think about this for a few minutes, Elizabeth.”

  He closed his eyes and sat still. I leaned towards him, trying to see if he was even breathing. I waited and waited, the minutes ticking by. Suddenly his eyes flew open. “I told Victor that I was going to erase your memory. Do you think that you can pretend to not know him if you see him again?” I could see hope in his eyes.

  “I think so. I never told him about you, did I? Do you think that he could tell that I knew you? I don’t think he could. I really think that I can do a better job if I remember everything. It will keep us safer. Please don’t erase my memories of you,” I pleaded with him, tears falling down my face.

  “Don’t cry! We will try it your way for now. But if I see that you are in any danger from him, I will erase your memories,” Jeremiah said.

  I threw my arms around him. “Thank you! You won’t regret this.” I gave him a huge hug.

  He looked at me, startled, and I smiled up at him. “I want this, if for nothing more than my mother’s love for you.” I whispered to him.

  He smiled at me. “Now we have to talk, and make a plan. After that, I will take you home.”

  We talked for what seemed like hours, going over and over what I was to say and how I was to act if Victor got a chance to question me again. By the time we were done I was exhausted, and could tell he was too. “Thank you for not erasing my memories of you. I’m sorry if hugging you earlier was out of line.”

  “Elizabeth, you were not out of line; it just took me by surprise. It was nice.” He smiled at me. “You really are a lot like your mother. I wish she had lived to see what a beautiful young lady you have become.”

  Later, as he drove me home, I thought how lucky I was to have the chance to know him. I also thought about everything I had read about vampires. Nowhere in any of the legends did it tell of any good vampires. I was so glad to know that at least one existed. I wished that I could find information on others like me. I wanted to find out what was going to happen to me when I got older. I wanted to know if I was going to get older. “Jeremiah, is there really no other person like me? Am I still a person?”

  He smiled over at me. “Why wouldn’t you still be a person? And, like I told you before, I know of no other like you.”

  “So we don’t know what is going to happen as I get older? Will I get older? What do you think I will be like?” I asked, knowing I was asking him questions that he couldn’t answer.

  “I don’t know. We will just take things one day at a time. I didn’t know that you were going to be able to read my mind, or others’ minds. You weren’t able to read any of the other vampire’s minds tonight, were you?”

  “No I was only able to read the human’s mind the other day. Were there other vampires there? I don’t remember.” I winked at him.

  “That is good, you don’t remember.” He winked back. “We don’t have to worry that I’m giving you any information that Victor can use. I want Victor to be 100 percent convinced that you do not know anything. I have to keep you safe.” He took my hand, and held it to his chest. “You are my life. Until I am able to talk with John and let him know what Victor has done here, I fear that Victor will still be a threat.”

  * * *

  That night I had trouble falling asleep. Everything that my father and I had talked about this evening was running over and over in my mind. I tried to close my mind off, to just shut down, but it wouldn’t stop. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Victor taking my parents.

  Finally, I got out of bed and walked out into the living room. I turned on the lamp next to my father’s chair. I sat down, and thought of him sitting here, watching the TV and smiling at us as we went in and out of the house to play with our friends.

  I made a promise to God right then that I would find a way to keep everyone I loved safe. I would do whatever it took. But I would not let Victor win.

  14

  The next morning, the sun was streaming through my window. I opened my eyes, knowing that my sister had deliberately opened the curtains so she could wake me. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s Saturday! Are you going to sleep all day? I need to talk to you.” She was whispering. “Do you know what happened last night?”

  I sat up quickly. “What are you talking about?” Fear gripped me.

  “Samuel came to Stacy’s house!” She looked at me frowning. “I think they’re getting back together. Isaiah brought him over. I really was hoping she didn’t like him, you know. Oh, he was looking for you.” She looked at me and tilted her head to the side. “Why do you look so tired?”

  “I had trouble sleeping last night Bess. Is he still over at Stacy’s?”

  She shook her head. “No, he left when Mom told him you were still sleeping. I wonder why he brought Samuel over so early?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll give him a call in a bit. I’m really sorry about Stacy and Samuel.” I felt relief when I realized that she didn’t know anything about Jason taking me.

  After I changed into my clothes and helped Mom with breakfast, I called Stacy. She sounded so excited that Samuel had come over.

  “He has been calling me for about a week! He had Isaiah bring him to my house this morning, and we’re getting back together. Isaiah is coming back to get him at five.” She sounded so happy.

  “That’s great! I’m sure that he will stop here before he picks up Samuel.” I didn’t know if I was trying to convince Stacy or myself. I hung up the phone, and walked back to my room. Should I continue to go on with my life like nothing had happened? Do I break up with Isaiah to protect him and his family?

  Father, can you hear me?

  “Yes, Elizabeth, Is everything okay? You sound worried this morning. Have you changed your mind?”

  What do I do about Isaiah? Do I break up with him, or continue on with my life as normal? What one of these decisions will make it look like you erased my memories of what happened? What are we goijng to do about Isaiah knowing everything?

  “Yes, since we have to make Victor think you don’t know anything, we can’t have Isaiah knowing about me. I think you need to go on with your life as normal. We don’t want you doing anything that will make it look suspicious to Victor. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

  YES! We have talked all about this. You erased his memories after our talk the other night, didn’t you?

  “I went by early this morning and caught up with him before he took his brother to your friends house. I left most of his memories there, but I did have to erase some of them to keep us both safe.”

  Do you have any thoughts about what may happen to me next? I know that there’s no one else to go by, but so far, since I can read your mind and communicate with you . . .

  “I wish I did. There is one thing I have noticed, Elizabeth; you’re becoming more beautiful every day.”

  Maybe you just think that because I am your daughter. I could tell that my calling him father was still something he wasn’t used to yet, since there was a pause in our communication. Are you still there?

  “Yes I am, and no, it’s not because you are my daughter. I think that it’s the vampire part of you starting to come out more. We will have to keep watching for any c
hanges that could alert Victor, or anyone else. Please be careful Elizabeth.”

  I will. I need you to promise me you will be, too. Thanks for everything. I’m so happy that you didn’t erase my memory.

  “You are welcome. I will be close by to keep you safe. I promise you.”

  I smiled to myself glad that I didn’t have to break things off with Isaiah. Now, I just had to be careful about steering him away from doing any more vampire research. That should be easy enough, if I just told him I was done researching vampires, and have moved onto other things with my next book.

  I sat out front, waiting for him to come over, rehearsing what I would say. When his car pulled up into the drive, I stood up, smiling. When he got out of the car I called, “Hey. Sorry I wasn’t home when you came by earlier”

  He walked up the drive, smiling. “That’s okay. I hope you got some sleep. Did you read anymore in that book of yours?”

  “Oh, I found a new book that is so good. I just started reading it, but I think it’s going to be fun.”

  He looked at me. “What about the vampire research? I thought we were still looking into that.”

  “Oh, I’m done with that. I think that book was just made up. Vampires don’t exist. I think I’ll have to do something else for my term paper,” I said, hoping to sound convincing if anyone was listening to us.

  “But we did all that research this summer,” he replied. “I thought you really wanted to do a paper about it. I don’t understand, Elizabeth.”

  “I know. One thing you’re going to learn about me, is that when I get something in my head I beat it to death.” I laughed grabbing his hand.

  “Elizabeth, you never cease to surprise me.” I was so relieved that he was going to let it drop. I snuggled in as close to him as I could.

  “Let’s go for a walk. What time do you and Samuel have to head home?” I knew that I wouldn’t be able to tell him anything that had happened last night. He could never know, in order to keep him safe.