by Jamie Davis
“You will not lose your job,” Brynne said. “I’m your preceptor, so it is on me to make sure that the proper paperwork gets filed. Let me deal with this. There has to be some explanation. I’ll get it and report it to headquarters. Okay?”
“If you say so, Boss,” Dean said. “If you say so.” He really didn’t know what else to say to her. She was in charge, and that was that. She could make the call. The problem was, he wasn’t sure she was making the right call. When he was in school, he was told that there would be occasions that he would not agree with other providers’ calls in the field, but he had always assumed that would be a medical issue. This was something else altogether. This was attempted murder, or maybe an assisted suicide. He was not sure. Either way, he couldn’t be a party to a cover up of something like that. Still, he guessed he owed her something in the way of thanks. She’d bailed him out of that Lydia situation, and she was his supervisor. He decided he would write up his own version of the night’s events and keep it on hand in case he needed to turn something in later on.
“Will she live?” Dean asked. He knew they had gotten a return of spontaneous circulation, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t die in a day or so from organ failure.
“I don’t know, Dean,” Brynne replied. “Maybe. She’s young, so she has that going for her. The intensive care unit at City is excellent for post-cardiac arrest care. They will have implemented therapeutic hypothermia as soon as she arrived. That gives her the best chance of getting out neurologically intact. I texted the nurse at the ER, Carol, of the dose of garlic extract we gave in the field and our suspicions. She’ll make sure that girl gets the care she needs.”
“If she doesn’t live, will she - change?” Dean asked. “I mean, she was bitten, we know that. Does the garlic extract work every time?”
“That may be something of a gray area,” she said. “Technically we brought her back, so she didn’t die from the bite itself. I’m sure they’ll give her whole blood at the hospital. That might hold off the change when coupled with the garlic dose. I’m just not sure. I’ll know more when I talk with James. He has a lot of questions to answer, and I’ll get a firm answer on that one, too.”
“I guess he has the tall, brooding type going for him?” Dean asked.
“Are you asking what I see in him?” Brynne challenged. “Why would I, dedicated to saving lives, see someone who is so opposite to that goal?”
“Look, Brynne …”
“He’s not a monster, Dean,” she said firmly. “He’s just a man. He’s older than usual, sure, but when you get to know him, he’s just like any other guy.”
“Except he’s a vampire,” Dean said. “And he might have almost killed that girl.”
“I’m not sure he sees it that way. If she had successfully changed, would she have been dead? To him, he was doing her a favor.”
“I’m sure drug dealers look at it the same way,” Dean said.
Brynne sighed. “I don’t think that’s fair. He was making her stronger, forever young. She’d never get sick or die in a normal way.”
“She’ll also never get to see the sun again,” Dean said. “She would be a predator, who could end up believing she could feed unchecked on humans without regard to their lives. You already said that James is, how did you put it, ‘old-fashioned?’ Maybe she was going to be an old-fashioned vampire, too.”
They were silent for a few minutes. Then Dean spoke very quietly. “You don’t want that type of life, too, do you?”
“I think that’s none of your business, Probie,” she replied. “I think we’ve talked enough about this subject. Why don’t you go out and check the inventory in the drug dispenser and make a list of what we’re likely to need soon? You can forward that list to the lieutenant since you feel like you have a need to talk to headquarters.”
Dean’s shoulders slumped. He felt like his partner was in trouble here, but he was at a loss to figure out a way around it. He’d agreed to give her some time to investigate the situation with the girl this evening. In the meantime, he was sure that he should have sent that email off to Mike a few weeks ago after Freddy warned him about James.
He got up and walked out towards the ambulance bay, grabbing the inventory clipboard off the hook by the door on his way. He decided to spend the rest of the shift doing some busy work so he didn’t have to be around Brynne. There was nothing else to say that hadn’t already been said. Anything else would just lead to an argument. One thing he didn’t want to do was shut down their avenue of communication over this. He still had a lot to learn from her and he hoped she would still feel comfortable talking to him about this situation in the future. In the meantime, he pulled out his smartphone and shot an email off to Mike asking to meet for breakfast after work that morning. Maybe he would have some insights.
Dean worked through the rest of the night doing odd chores around the station and avoiding talking with Brynne. There were no more ambulance calls. At 6 AM, James pulled up out front to pick up Brynne in his fancy car. He sat outside and beeped his horn. He could imagine the smirk of victory on James’ face. The idiot raced his engine as Brynne got in the car, then peeled out. Dean stood and watched them drive away, then he went back into the station talk to Lynne and Bill. Maybe they would have some insights. He was just about to enter when he heard the sound of the alert tones. Damn, they had a call. Well, maybe he could catch them later that evening by showing up a little early for the next shift.
He headed over to his truck. It was then he noticed the black SUV idling on the street at the end of the building. The windows were tinted dark so he couldn’t see inside. It seemed as if he had seen one like it some other times, both here and in his own neighborhood. Was it the same one? This whole thing from last night had him creeped out, and now he was getting paranoid. They could just be there for another of the businesses in the industrial park. Dean stood and stared at the vehicle for a while, and it pulled away from the curb and drove off. He hoped he was getting himself worked up for nothing.
Dean hadn’t heard from Mike about meeting for breakfast, but he was hungry so he decided to stop at Hank’s Place for a nice meal on the way home. He watched the sun starting to rise as he drove off from the station. Maybe a new day would bring answers to his questions about the situation with Brynne and James. Daisy was working and showed him to a booth. He was in the same back corner booth that he and Mike had met in. He was perusing the menu, trying to decide on how hungry he was when someone sat down across from him. He looked up and his blood froze in his veins.
“Hello, Dean,” James said in his southern drawl. “I think it’s time we had a little chat, don’t you?”
Chapter 17
Dean was startled when he looked up at James sitting in the booth across from him. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people that way,” Dean said with false bravado. He was freaking out on the inside and glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed the vampire suddenly appear. And how was he able to go out during the daytime?
“My apologies,” James said. “Call it a bad habit. I find that people who might avoid talking with me are less likely to be successful if I just show up.” He grinned without showing any teeth.
Daisy, the waitress walked up then. “What can I get you two?” she asked, holding up her pen and order pad.
“I’ll have a black coffee, and my friend here will have a …” James paused looking at Dean intently. “He’ll have a grilled cheese sandwich and a diet soda.”
Dean just stared at him, a little bit of terror creeping into his mind as he realized how apparently vulnerable he was right now. James had submitted his order for him like he’d read his mind.
“Okay,” Daisy said. “I’ll be right back with your drinks, guys.”
James held his gaze as the waitress left them alone again. “A little parlor trick, nothing more,” James said with a chuckle. “I can sometimes see the things on the top of someone’s mind, and you were just reading the menu. It’s nothing more t
han that I assure you. I can’t see deeper thoughts, which is why we have to have a chat.”
“I’m sure you know that it makes people uncomfortable when you do it, though,” Dean said defiantly. “I would think that etiquette would dictate you avoid reading someone’s mind without their permission.”
“It’s not really mind reading,” James said. “I just saw a few images is all. It comes with living so long among humans in this form.” He gestured to himself. He was dressed in black jeans, a black button-down shirt and a black sports coat. James was definitely playing up the look.
“Brynne told me you had some specific concerns about the incident you witnessed tonight. I decided to seek you out myself and have a little talk. I want to answer your questions if you have any.”
“I have a lot of questions, James,” Dean said. “But how do I know you won’t put some vampire mojo on me to make me forget. We saved that girl’s life, although I get the idea that you didn’t want us to.”
“I will not lay a charm on you, Dean,” James said. “In fact, I cannot. Not unless you let me feed on you. It is the blood, you see, that builds that particular connection.”
“So what’s to stop you from feeding on me to gain that ability?” Dean asked. “I can’t possibly stay here all day. Eventually, I’ll have to leave, go home or somewhere else where I’m vulnerable. You’ve already proven that you can do pretty much anything you’d like.”
James sighed. “Dean, I really am trying to fit into this new, civilized world of yours. Sometimes I am more successful than others, but in this case I assure you that you are completely safe. I am here to talk with you, answer your questions and ask a few of you. Fair enough?”
Dean stared at him. The tension was broken by Daisy’s arrival with James’ coffee and Dean’s soda. He waited until she left again, then looked at James and nodded. “Okay, fair enough.”
James took a sip of coffee and set the cup down, leaning back in the booth and putting one arm up on the back. “You first, Dean. I feel like you are fairly bursting at the seams with questions for me.”
“Well,” Dean didn’t know where to begin then decided to jump right in starting with the details of the cardiac arrest call. “What was up with that girl last night? Did you bite her, drain her?”
“Yes,” James said matter-of-factly. “She asked for the favor, had paid the proper tribute, and the community had agreed that she was an appropriate member to join our number. Unfortunately, when we thought she was incapacitated and on her way to death, she became disoriented and wandered away from where we were keeping her, awaiting her transformation. By the time we realized our mistake, she had already gotten outside and collapsed there. Bystanders called 911 and started CPR on her before we could get to her and carry her back upstairs.” He chuckled. “Kudos to you and Brynne by the way. I truly thought you were too late to revive her. Your quick thinking and the bystanders doing CPR saved her life, though that is not what she wanted.”
“If she lives to get out of the hospital and seeks you out,” Dean asked. “Will you do it again?”
“Eventually, yes,” James said. “It is what she wants. We will ask her again to be certain that her wishes have not changed. These things, however, are usually final decisions. I do not think she will change her mind.” He paused to sip at his coffee. “I will not be the one to do it this time. I’ve delegated that responsibility to another of our number following my discussion with Brynne. I was unaware of how strongly she felt about my involvement with these types of things.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just because you got caught?” Dean asked. “I’m sorry, but I can’t see you being all that conscientious about it, especially since you made a prior arrangement with Brynne not to do something like this.”
“Let us just say it was an unfortunate decision that I regret,” the vampire said. “It was necessary at the time due to some favors I owed another of my kind. I have advised that individual of the change in plans and they have accepted my explanation.”
James took another sip from his coffee and continued. “Dean, we Unusuals like to police ourselves without undue involvement from the humans around us. This particular situation got out of hand and risked exposing something about us that we would prefer be kept under wraps for the time being. We have reported it to the proper authorities along with providing all the documentation and affidavits concerning the woman. They verify that she was being turned of her own free will. They’ve accepted it. Unfortunately, you and Brynne are upset about my involvement with it and will probably not let it go. I am here to set the record straight with you. I’ll do the same with Brynne later.”
“Are you going to work some mojo on her memory?” Dean asked. “I know you’ve fed on her blood, so the connection you mentioned exists there.”
“I would regret having to do that, Dean,” the vampire said.
“I notice you didn’t say you wouldn’t do it,” Dean snapped. “Do you think that’s okay? Are you afraid she’ll break up with you or something?” Dean felt bolder. “You know James, you sit here and talk to me like you’re all civilized. You say that our superiors know about what happened, and everyone is okay with what was going on, but you still feel it might be necessary to charm your girlfriend over it. Pardon me, but that doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“What goes on between Brynne and I is our business, Dean,” James said curtly. “I will not change her memory unless I think it would be for her own good. I will not apologize to you for what I might do. It is between her and me.”
“That’s convenient,” Dean said. “You will answer my questions, but not about what concerns me the most, your potential control over my partner.”
“She is an adult, Dean. Let us just say that she entered the relationship with her eyes wide open. She knows of my powers and abilities. She has allowed our relationship to progress in certain directions. Sometimes we need to keep secrets from those we love because we don’t want to hurt them. Certainly you have kept things from those with whom you’ve been in a relationship?”
“But I didn’t charm them or mislead them after they had discovered the truth of something I’d done,” Dean said. “That’s just wrong, James. It’s wrong!”
“Well, you are a better man than I am, Dean,” James said with a wave of his hand. “I’ve lived a long life, hundreds of years in fact. I think that when you get some perspective you will discover that it is not all so black and white. There is, in fact, quite a bit of gray area in there.”
Daisy arrived with the food just then, and the tension broke a little again as she set down Dean’s grilled cheese sandwich with chips and a pickle wedge on the side. Dean thought for a bit while he took a bite and chewed. James just sipped his coffee and waited patiently. After a few bites of his sandwich and a sip from his soda, Dean looked up and met James’ eyes. The vampire stared back at him impassively.
“So you admit to nearly killing the girl in a botched vampire turning, or whatever you call it,” Dean began. “And you admit to the possibility of charming my partner to make her forget about it because she doesn’t like you biting other girls. Am I right so far?” James nodded. “What do you expect me to say to you or do after that kind of realization? I can’t let you hurt my partner, and I can’t let you go around assisting in the suicide of people who think they will have a better life as a member of the undead.”
“Let me address the second point first if you don’t mind,” James said. “The woman would not have died. She would have changed to be one of us. That is not assisted suicide. Call it … call it an alternative lifestyle choice.” Dean started to interject, but James forestalled him with a raised hand. “You are new to our culture, and the life that you never knew existed right alongside your happy little human existence. What happened there is legal and, as I have already said, has been reported to your superiors. Contact your chief directly if you don’t believe me.”
“And my first point?” Dean asked. “Do you think that Brynne
deserves to be treated this way?”
“As I’ve said,” James said. “That matter is between Brynne and me. I have admitted that I may have overstepped my bounds there. If I charm her, it will not be permanent, and she will eventually remember that I clouded her memory. When that happens, if it happens, I will have to deal with the repercussions. What I don’t want is for you to cause more trouble before then. Let us deal with it. As long as you and I come to that understanding, I think we will get along fine. If not, well …”
Dean just looked at him for a while meeting his gaze. His insides were roiling. He was at the same time terrified, angry and disgusted. It was strange, scary and a little exhilarating. Another thought occurred to him, and he decided to jump in since he was already in hot water.
“While we’re being honest with each other, James, can I ask you another question?”
James nodded.
“What happened to my predecessor, Zach? I’ve heard rumors that he crossed paths with you and that his departure was sudden and suspicious.”
James laughed aloud, throwing his head back. “Well, you are fearless, aren't you?”
“Answer the question,” Dean said.
“Okay,” James responded. “Zach and I had a similar discussion once upon a time. He also didn’t like the way I was treating his partner. After the discussion, he decided that this work was not for him, and he moved on to a more normal position in another town.”
“So you didn’t have him killed?” Dean asked. He figured he was in for a penny, in for a pound.
“No,” James said, suddenly dead serious. “I don’t operate that way, at least not anymore. There was a time I would have been more direct, but I really am trying to be civilized here, Dean. I’ll admit that I did encourage him to leave, but nothing more. As far as I know he is living happily ever after in a town on the other side of the state.”