Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

unhuman one.
    At age eleven, he’d hungered for revenge on the creatures from the other dimension which had come within seconds of killing his entire family, and had haunted his nightmares for years afterward. A decade later, his goals had changed. Instead of a child’s nebulous dream of vengeance, he now had a solid plan. Learn. Understand. Destroy.
    Not that he would ever tell his family that. His father especially. Though he had a feeling his dad’s now-husband, Sam, suspected him of more than a simple interest in physics.
Realizing his mind had wandered off course, Adrian shook himself. He hated it when that happened. Usually he had better control.
“Focus,” he reminded himself in a stern voice. “You have another full day at Groome Castle tomorrow. You need to get as much done on your paper tonight as you can.”
Nodding to himself, Adrian clicked into the university library. He needed to hunt down the latest research on the practical applications of quantum entanglement.
He was deep in the midst of his work when the videochat alert on his Mac trilled.
For a second, he considered ignoring it. He was well and truly on a roll with this paper, and he hated to stop now.
Of course, quantum mechanics came as naturally to him as English Lit did to some other people. He could pick up where he left off without any trouble.
The alert sounded again. He glanced at the chat icon on the dock. Sean’s name flashed neon green over the top of it. Smiling, Adrian clicked over and accepted the chat invitation.
Sean’s beaming face popped up onscreen in front of the old Tokyo Police Club poster hanging in his dorm room. “Adrian! Why didn’t you call me back?”
“I thought you’d be out partying.” Adrian stretched, working some of the stiffness out of his spine. “Congratulations on beating the Bulldogs, by the way.”
“Thanks.” Sean bounced in place, hazel eyes shining. “Man, it was awesome. I wish you could’ve been here.”
“Yeah, me too. Mom called me earlier, she said she and Lee went to the game.”
“They did. Dad and Sam came too. And so did Dean and Sommer, and Danny and her husband. Hell, Andre even brought Lucy and Bella with him.”
The thought of Andre’s elegant wife and their rambunctious toddler at the football game brought a grin to Adrian’s face. “That’s awesome.”
“It totally was.” Sean chortled in obvious delight. “The whole Bay City Paranormal gang was here, except David and Cecile, and they called from the office. It was cool.”
Adrian laughed. “Dad and Sam are leading a Haunted Auburn tour this weekend, aren’t they?”
“Yep. You know Dad, never waste a trip on one thing when you can do something else at the same time.”
“Sean, come on, you know he’d never consider any of your college games a waste of time.”
“I know that. I was just joking.” Sean tilted his head sideways. “What the hell are you doing, anyway?”
“A paper.”
Sean’s mouth fell open. “On Saturday night? Are you nuts?”
“I like quantum mechanics.” Adrian tried not to sound defensive, but it didn’t work. It never worked with Sean. They knew each other too well.
“Quantum mechanics. You’re spending Saturday night alone with a bunch of quarks and shit.”
“Entangled particles, actually.”
“Hell, I don’t even know what that means.” Sighing, Sean shook his head. “Speaking of tangling your particles, when’s the last time you got laid?”
Even though he had no intention of answering that question, Adrian couldn’t help thinking back to the last time he and Christian had sex. God, had it really been a year and a half? “Um…”
Evidently Sean could read minds. He groaned. “Jesus, Adrian.”
“Give me a break. It’s hard for me to meet guys here.”
“Are you kidding? There’s almost thirty thousand students there! It’s the size of a town, for Christ’s sake. And I know damn well there’s a lot of gay dudes there. So how does a smart, good-looking guy like you have trouble getting a date?”
Adrian smiled. “I appreciate your faith in me, but you know I have a harder time talking to people than you do.”
“It doesn’t take that much. Just smile and say hi, is all.”
“Easy for you to say. Everyone likes you.”
The second he said it, Adrian wished he could take it back. A lifetime of jealousy lay behind those three words, and they both knew it.
The easy smile vanished from Sean’s face. He leaned forward on his elbows, staring at Adrian with an