Free A Monster and a Gentleman by Lila Dubois

Oren was able to nod. “Got it. If you’re a banshee, does that mean that you can change into something, like the guys?”
    “Yes and no. I change when I See, but it is not two separate physical beings.”
    “See what?”
    “When I See.” She waved her hands in the air in front of herself.
    “I still don’t get it,” Oren admitted reluctantly.
    “Hmm, yes. Let me begin at the beginning.”
    “And don’t stop until you reach the end.”
    “ Alice in Wonderland .”  
    “You know Alice in Wonderland ?”
    “I love children’s books.”
    “That makes as much sense as anything else that’s happened today.” Meaning it made no sense at all, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.
    “How much do you know about particle physics and quantum mechanics?”
    “What?” Oren almost missed the freeway on ramp. He got a hold of himself. “How much do you know about it?”
    “More than the humans who study it, though I don’t have the terms for it that they do.”
    “You know...that’s just too good.” Oren laughed. Now that he wasn’t so freaked out, he realized that he was in a situation he’d never be in again. He was meeting a creature that until now he would have said was nothing but a myth. Unlike when he’d met the other monsters, he wasn’t getting this information filtered through another human. He was finding it out all by himself. He wanted nothing more than to get a particle physics lecture from a banshee.  
    “There is an energy that connects everything in this world.” Her voice was sweet and husky. Though Oren kept his eyes on the road, he could feel her watching him.
    “I’m with you so far…only because I’m going to assume you’re talking about the Force.”
    She giggled. “From Luke’s favorite movie, yes. But it is a real thing, and your scientists have a name for it—the Higgs boson.”
    “Whoa. You weren’t kidding when you said you know physics.”
    “That energy goes in all directions, not only in the present, but into the past and the future. It connects and binds all possible pasts and all possible futures. My ancestors called it the Everafter.”
    Oren was thinking hard. He nodded as he worked out what she was saying. “So because of this energy that’s connected to the future, you can somehow tell if someone is going to die.”
    “It’s more than that. I can touch the Everafter. That is what I do when I See. I look into the Everafter, the energy, as it flows in and out of a person.”
    “So when you touched me.” Oren blew out a breath. He felt like Alice eating the cake; suddenly everything seemed tiny. “Wait, just wait until we get there.”
    They rode the next ten minutes in silence, until Oren pulled up outside his townhouse. He’d gone home out of instinct. When Maeve climbed out of the car too, he hesitantly led her into the building. He had a nice place, a two-story apartment with hardwood floors and a fireplace. This far north, nice places were easier to find and cost the same as a dive in Hollywood or K-Town.
    Maeve followed him in the front door, looking around curiously. She kicked off the cheap flip-flops she wore, and he watched as her cute toes curled into the living room rug. Had he really just thought of her toes as cute?
    “This is nice.”
    “Uh, thanks.” Oren scrubbed his hands on his jeans. It was clean enough, mostly because he didn’t spend any time here now that they were filming, but it felt weird having someone else in his home. “Do you want something to drink?” He checked the fridge. “I have...water.”
    “I like water.”
    He brought them both a glass, then led her into the living room. He took a seat on the couch, but Maeve sat cross-legged on the floor, her hair pooling in her lap.  
    “We may talk now?”  
    “Yes. I just didn’t want to talk this all out in the car.”  
    “I’m sorry. I forget that this is hard for those who don’t know to understand.”
    “I think I understand, but if what I’m thinking