Shadow Land

Hunting Secrets and Secret Huntings

                When DJ heard the door to the apartment open, he quickly hid the book he had been editing. Most authors who wanted to write about English History would ask DJ to edit them. He was considered the foremost authority on the subject, what most did not know is that he had actually lived through most of it. He obviously did not meet up with the authors, but had them mail him their manuscripts since most history professors would not be happy about an eighteen-year-old correcting their work. The idea of becoming a famous historian was a topic he and Alexander argued about a lot. Usually, it ended with DJ promising never to bring it up again but never promising that he would not do it again.

Instead, he pulled out a book on necromancy. Maybe Alexander would take it as a hint that it was possible for the ‘dead’ to come back. Maybe not. He had been dropping hints about Miranda for the past week, while still making sure they weren’t obvious enough for Alycia to see. Alexander had not shown any signs of picking up on them.

“There are my two best students!” DJ teased when Alexander and Alycia walked through the door with two full backpacks they had brought on the way to school.

Alexander grunted in response and dropped his bag on the floor. It fell with a loud ‘bang.’

Alycia quickly held back a laugh, “Was it really that heavy?”

Alexander glared at her, “Does every subject really need a 900 page textbook?”

“It’s what they teach in the year,” She shrugged, gently putting her bag on the couch.

“I refuse to believe that they can teach 900 pages of math! What is there other than add, subtract, multiply, and divide?”

Alycia laughed and went to the refrigerator to get a snack (the day after she had arrived she had gone shopping for food. The vampires may not need to eat, but she had to), “When was the last time you did math?”

DJ laughed, “He invented the quadratic equation and then got bored of it.”

“You did that?” Alycia accused, turning around.

Alexander closed his eyes and fell onto the couch, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t make it that complicated. Where did the equation come from anyway? I just added the little 2 at the top of the X. What do you call it now? Expo-ant?”

“Exponent,” Alycia corrected as she poured a glass of milk for herself, “If your bag was really that heavy then why didn’t you just let me carry it for you? I did offer.”

“I refuse to let a woman carry my belongings for me!” Alexander stated formally, not even looking up.

“Hang on, what the heck’s going on?” DJ demanded, dropping his book on the living room table in front of Alexander.

“I thought it was obvious. Your old fashioned friend was too stupidly backwards to let me help him and now he’s complaining,” Alycia shrugged, moving to the coffee maker. It was the ‘Best in Its Class with Cutting Edge Frothing Technology’ and she had insisted it got brought even though she rarely drank coffee.

“Alex…” DJ demanded. Since when was Alexander too weak to carry a few textbooks? DJ had seen the boy lift a car.

Alexander covered his eyes with his arm, and pointed to Alycia with his other one, “That witch took away my vampire abilities.”

Alycia stopped what she was doing to glare at Alexander and stamp her foot, “If it wasn’t for me and my witchiness, this town would be hunting you down for eating someone alive! You should thank me!”

“Okay, now I’m really confused,” DJ stated, throwing his hands into the air.

Alycia sighed and turned back to the coffee maker, “Alexander there realized that he couldn’t take it. Being around all those living people made him go crazy. So, I gave him a pill. It takes away supernatural abilities and desires for fifteen hours and then he’s back to normal. Just enough to get through school.”