Darkest Day (8 page)

She leaned in closer to me. “Doing here?” A laugh followed. “Studying, Winn. I have a month of classes to make up and have been given two weeks to do it.”

“Really—”
That came out so wrong.
“Anything I can help with?”

“Nope.”

Awkward silence stretched before us as if we hadn’t made out on my bed or spent every waking moment together over the last six months.

“So … I gotta go.” Mac pointed to the door. “I … Maybe we could meet next week—once I get this stuff done … and work on the presentation?” She meant the last of our Senior research project that we had to turn in before graduation. “I talked to Mr. C, and he agreed to put us at the end, what with all the ‘illness’ we’ve experienced between the two of us.”

Wow. Initiative? Mac? School? Focused?
“Uh … yeah, anytime next week. I’ll take it off. I’ll come to your—”

“No. We can meet here. So … see you later.”

“Yeah … okay.” My disbelief at her interest in school, faked or otherwise, evidently stunted my ability to speak.

I finished my work with confusion and wonder swirling through my head. The Mac I knew cared nothing about education, except to reach the end and finish out. Though I’d seen her shift in the last few months, more than I had in the last thirteen years, I didn’t completely believe it.

Why the change?

8

Mac

Wasting time playing the relationship game of life like some hungry puppy seemed stupid and pointless, but Caroline insisted that running back to Winn without showing him I could be different would only make me look desperate and childish. Besides that, I did have a month of homework to do, and she promised to keep me focused. An hour at the library—more if Pete showed up. Pete, who Caroline claimed she had no relationship with, but who she touched and snuggled up against. Pete, who eyed her like he wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her, and who peeked up from his book across the table every once in a while.

As my ‘new normal’ progressed toward July fourth, I had to find time to both do what she suggested, what my teachers requested, and continue my search for answers—or keep bugging Suze to search, rather.

Back at Caroline’s, I snuck into her paisley-blue bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub. “Mayday, Suze.”

He materialized with a blast, rattling the counter, lights and mirror.

“What the helpmates?” Caroline said from the other side of the door. “Mac? You okay in there?”

“Yeah.” I held my finger up to my lips.

“What was all that?”

“Wind, I think.”

“Oh. ‘Kay. Weirdness,” Caroline said.

Outside the window, the trees didn’t even bend, though a huge thunderstorm had passed through two hours before.

“Strong spring storms, I guess.” The rattling had been loud enough that I wondered if the gods had descended. Since no one sent me away or came to find me, I figured it had been a natural Suze-thing.

“She bought that?” the demon himself asked in a super-low whisper.

“She’s focused on her homework, so she’s ninety-percent oblivious.” I kept my voice air-soft so our conversation wouldn’t breeze beyond the bathroom door.

Suze chuckled in silent laughter, his great bulk bouncing in his skin-tight, red and blue outfit.

Not outfit … he’s wearing a cape.
“Uh, Suze?”

He jutted his chin toward me.

I traced his form in the air with a finger.

“Superman!” He separated his feet, placed his hands on his hips, and turned his head as if posing for a movie poster photo.

“Okey-dokey. I need an update.”

A clipboard, pen and cell phone materialized in his hands.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “No, first, I need to know why this?” One hand traced his form from bottom to top.

“Man of steel. Remember?” He tapped the pencil to my temple. “I told you if I was gonna go find out information about a Council member, I had to be bulletproof.” As soon as he stood upright, he beat his chest like a gorilla.

“But you
are
bulletproof. You’re a demon.”

He smiled impeccably white teeth. “Yeah. And now I’m Superman.”

“Okay, okay. Whatever. Carry on … Superman. Tell me what you found.”

“Well,” his voice dropped even lower, “the boy was right. Moira does have a daughter, and her name is Maddie, and she does go to your school, and she is in your class, and—”

“What about her dad?”

“That nice doctor at the hospital is him. Yup. Same person; he’s the one who saved your life.”

“So, there’s a goblin as a doc, and Maddie’s a goblin—”

“Noooooooooooo,” Suze said, stretching the ‘O’ sound for an overextended period of time.

“Well, what then?”

“That doc’s a human.”

I jerked back on the edge of the tub and slipped straight to the inner center. Feet hanging over the ledge, I said, “Oh, my god. Maddie’s a what? Halfling? And how is that relationship allowed? I thought—” I stopped at Suze’s massive headshaking. “I don’t understand. Halflings aren’t … allowed.” He shook harder. “She’s not part human, part goblin?”

“I got no idea. All I can confirm is Moira is a goblin, as we know. That man who is listed as blondie’s dad is human and one heck of a doctor. And blondie herself is … well … just a pretty smart blonde human.”

I waved both hands at him, my butt still in the tub. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Well, that’s what I found out, and that was in talking with a few people I shouldn’t have been asking those questions of. They’re gonna get back to Moira. I know it.” He bit at his nails in an anxiety-driven fervor if I ever saw one.

“Okay, enough about Maddie. I’ll ask Mom about that. Or Zoe. Or someone. Maddie has no real connection to this, except that she’s …”
a boyfriend poacher and needs to be watched
“… connected to Moira. Anything new on Ridge? He’s who I really want to know about.”

Suze pursed his lips, eyes darting toward the window, to the floor and back to me.

“So, nothing?” I pushed out of the tub. “Dagnabbit.”

He chuckled. “That’s a new one.”

“I get ‘em from Caroline.” With a thumb, I motioned toward the bathroom door. “And I better get back in there before she wonders what’s taking so long.”

“Or thinks she’ll need a big can of Lysol in here.” He waved his hand under his nose as I laughed.

“Get out, Suze.”

He poofed away just as fast as he’d come but far quieter.

I walked back out, grabbed my cell from my pile on the bed and waved it at Caroline. Back in the hallway, I dialed Zoe, whom I’d tagged as my partner in crime.

“No, Mom has not made an appearance today.” She’d answered on the first ring.

“Zoe, Zoe, Zoe. What do you think? I’m using you to talk to Mom?” I chuckled even as I mentally chided myself. Had I been? “Tell me how your day was.”

She snorted. “You really want to know how Matt Hauser popped Megan Moriarty’s bra in Geometry, and how—”

Whatever she said I let pass right on through. Freshmen had no tact. No, I didn’t care, but I could pretend to listen. “Unh-huh,” I said.

“—And blue pigs went flying right past the window.”

“Unh-huh.”
Shit! I did it again.

“Totally got you, Mac.”

“I heard you.”

“Tell me what I said.”

“Yadda, yadda, yadda, blue pigs went flying … yadda yadda.” Having a kid sister after eighteen years of single-childhood had not prepared me well. “I’m sorry, Zoe. I really don’t mean to bug you just about Mom.”

“Yeah, you do. It’s okay. You know … Winn’s in his room. As usual. He’s in there all the time in fact. No idea what he does in there unless it’s something smart, or gross.”

“Don’t go there, Zoe,” I said. “I don’t want to know.”

She giggled. “’Kay. But he’s here. By himself. All alone. Probably missing you, you know. You could always sneak in and just …”

I peeked back in on Caroline. Her serious-face hovered over the textbook, so I took that as the all clear to keep jabbering in a low whisper. “Can’t yet.”

“What do you really want, Mac?”

“Just to talk to you.”

She busted out a laugh. “No. Really. Tell me.”

“Will you ask Mom how there can be halflings, if human and non-humans aren’t supposed to couple up? I mean, I know they exist, I’m one of them and so are you, but I’m not really. I’m a special case. And you’re …”

“What am I?”

With a palm to my head, I said, “I don’t know. I need to talk to Winn.”

“Thought you had a … plan.” Zoe used a sing-song voice.

“Dammit.” I cringed at my volume.

“That’s a dollar, Mac!” Caroline said from within her room.

“Dammit,” I said on a whisper.

Zoe chuckled. “She’s totally got you with that, you know.”

I dug through my pocket for the stash of ones I kept there for when we crashed at her house. “Just ask Mom for me, okay? Obviously this ‘rule’ isn’t really a friggin’, rule and that’s just gonna pis—
tachio
me off.”

“You’re getting better at making up words,” Zoe said.

“So you’ll ask?”

“Of course. Just remember, I can’t call to her. I have to wait until she shows up, so no bugging me for answers.”

“Fine.”

We hung up, and I went back into Caroline’s room, stuffed my dollar in her jar and bounced on the bed.

“What was that all about? Zoe still willing to help?”

In so many ways.
“Yeah. Winn’s just home alone. Again. You know … I need to ask him a couple—”

The glare aimed my way would have pinned me to the wall had I been a fly. “You promised you’d follow my rules. Are you backing out? Are you too chicken to take the long road?” One eyebrow tweaked itself up.

“Of course not.”

Before I could say ‘But’, she said, “Good. You don’t have to like it, but you came to me, so you have to listen to me.” She gasped and fake-strangled herself.

“What’s that for?”

With a pencil pointing in my direction, she said, “I sound like some middle-aged Mom saying that. Gads, why do adults think we should listen to them all the time? You know how many of them screw up their kids in the name of … man, I don’t even know what.”

“Or they just lie to lie.”

“That, too. Makes me glad I have the ones I do. I couldn’t imagine life without my mom or dad.”

I’d lived my entire life without my official one, and once I met her, I had to give her up. “So, why should I listen to you if you think you’re just like them?”

Caroline grinned. “Because I know I’m actually right.”

Winn

Mac’s new studying habit, which I could only conclude had come about because of Caroline, had me wondering if perhaps I’d slipped into another dimension of life upon my return from the in-between.

Her complete focus on school had stunned me silent for the first fifteen minutes of our Monday meeting, and we’d parted with a plan to get together, once again, the following Monday.

I couldn’t wait.

• • •

The five school days dragged, and brought with it a torrential downpour and yet another empty Friday night. With Zoe asleep in the other room, and no sound of any ghostly appearances by her mom—who seemed to be popping in for more frequent visits—I settled on my bed with my laptop, prepared to re-read the notes I’d taken about Mac’s life—past, present and future. If our relationship had moved on, the least I could do would be give her all the answers I’d acquired.

Or, all the answers given to me.

I opened a new document and, with my notes on one half of the screen and the blank page on the other, started reading and re-jotting. In every interview I conducted with the Council members, I walked away with one answer and ten more questions. I hadn’t actually finished meeting with them all, but something told me it no longer mattered.

My interest in the paranormal, though, hadn’t waned. Like my grandpa, I’d always been fascinated, and having a girlfriend, or friend-friend, as a key member of the otherworldly fulfilled one of my many human desires to be ‘in the know’, as my dad liked to say. At least for another two months.

With Mac’s notes up again, I scanned through.

First important point: the Council wanted me to teach Mac using their method. I’d agreed. I shouldn’t have. Tradition and pre-designed paths have their place, but Mac followed none of the rules the Council wanted to enforce. Every once in a while, someone would even use the old cliché that rules were made to be broken. Why hadn’t I?

Second important point: two previous Changelings never took their place on the Council, instead choosing human. Mac, though, would never do that. I’d once thought she’d prefer to hurl than go into a library, too, and she’d showed up every day in the past two weeks.
Maybe I’m wrong?
For a moment, I pondered that one. Did she show up at the library where I worked, every day, for another reason?
Is she becoming one of us—human?

With a giant smile on my face, I returned to my notes and point three: no one knew where Mac’s book,
The Carriage
, the start of our connection, had gone. From library to my hands to ‘poof’, gone.

My fourth note said: Mac’s mom turned out to be a goddess. That information had changed Mac’s entire perspective on life, since most Changelings came from a human female and a non-human male. Mac’s parentage had been the exact opposite.

Moving right to note number five: If halflings aren’t allowed, why even accept a Changeling?

Because rules are made to be broken.

Hadn’t Josie said that?

Scrolling through the pages of notes I’d written when I interviewed her, I found the words: ‘
There aren’t any laws that prevent it.
’

In the human world, when no law existed, people had freedom to do whatever.

Is it just a guideline and not a law?

Why can’t they just make this simple?

Scanning, I searched for my interview with Moira. She wanted Mac and me to be together in an almost too-good-to-be-true way. She’d even said, ‘Mac loves to
hate
rules, but they define her’. I’d disagreed, but as I thought more about it, I wondered if she had a point. ‘Once she stops fighting it and rolls with it a little, she’ll see she has the power to change them.’