Midnight Squad: The Grim (31 page)

           
“Sergeant…Joseph…thank you. I really needed that.” Gina
smiled, “I’ve been feeling sorry for myself the whole day.”

           
“Gina, I don’t want to upset you again, but what’s so big
about October 20
^th
?” I measured my words as carefully as possible. Gina
sucked in a steadying breath, and then exhaled slowly. “My son was killed on
the 20
^th
. He was serving in a peacekeeping mission when his
transport unit ran over an explosive. They say he died instantly. I hope so.
I’d hate to think he suffered. When his father and I got the news, we didn’t
handle it well. Instead of leaning on one another, we both just crawled off to
suffer alone in silence. The pain was just too much. I buried myself in my
work, and his father just drifted aimlessly. I should have been a more
supportive wife, but all I could see was my own pain. It wasn’t until my
husband hung himself a year later to the day that I realized we should have
tried to rely on each other more.” I just stared in silence.

           
“Joseph, I lost my
husband,
and
my son on that day. You’d think I couldn’t possibly miss that day, but here I
am. It’s been over a week. I wouldn’t have ever known I missed it except for
the party tonight.” Gina slumped over. Her head rested on the table. I could
hear her crying softly. “Listen Doc…Gina, I’m sorry for your loss, but don’t
beat yourself up over it. Work has us swamped. I’m not saying you can’t be
upset, but punishing yourself won’t bring them back. I know we haven’t exactly
gotten along well, and we certainly don’t know each other very well. Even
still, I don’t think you sitting here alone drinking yourself numb is what
they’d want.” Gina stood, nodded and slowly stood up, but she’s about as sauced
as I ever saw anyone. The doctor wobbled towards her room. I put my arm around
her. The last thing I wanted to deal with tonight was a drunken doctor falling
over and breaking a hip.

           
I helped her into her bed. She slurred something about me
being a great guy, or maybe she said I had a great ass. Her words were so
slurry that she could have said anything. I tucked her in, and then I went back
to my room. I slipped into the security office. Penny was standing there
waiting on me. Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t happy. I started to move in
closer.
“Stop!”
She barked.

           
“Why?” I asked. She looked on edge. “Why can’t you leave
me alone?” She growled. I just stared back. “Things were so much easier before
you came here. I was happy. Now…now everything is wrong, and it’s your fault!”

           
“What did I do?” I asked nervously. She’d already
attacked me once. I really didn’t want to get into an argument with her. There
wouldn’t be anyone to save me. “You make me lose control. Do you know what kind
of problem that is for a vampire? Our whole lives, everything, is based on our
ability to maintain our composure. We can’t survive in the world if we can’t
keep control of our instincts. Now you’re here, and I’m acting like a newly
born vampire. I’m snapping at the other women. I’m threatening the others
whenever they get near you. Danika walked past once and I smelled your
aftershave, and I nearly attacked her. I would have killed that Jinn, and
what’s worse…I nearly killed you.” She hung her head in shame.

           
“Penny, it’s ok. Alhambra is fine, and I’m ok. It all
worked out. In fact I have to say that all things considered it was working out
really well for both of us until they barged back in.”

           
“That’s the problem. Vampires don’t act like this. We
don’t get jealous. We don’t let our emotions get the better of us. Most
importantly we don’t let some…human cattle bring these emotions out. I don’t
mean it as an insult. It’s just…we don’t see humans as our equals, and to have
a vampire chasing after a human is scandalous behavior. If others heard about
it, I’d be considered an embarrassment to my kind. My family might even disown
me if they knew.” She stared at me. I did my best not to be offended. I mean
nobody wants to be second-class, but that slight wasn’t the main point. I tried
to see it from her perspective.

           
“Penny, tomorrow we may be going our separate ways. My
job was just to train ya’ll. It’s likely that tonight is my last day, and that
means your problems will go with me. With that said, I just wanted to say that
I really enjoyed our time together. I’m sorry if I caused you any problems.
You’re an amazing woman, and…you know what? No! I’m not gonna just go out like
that.” I stormed up to her. She was moving into a defensive posture, but I
don’t think her defenses were prepared for a good old-fashioned ninja lip-lock.
Her body froze. I felt her hands start to crush me in her grip, and then the
kiss finally started registering. Penny just melted against me. When I finally
pulled away, she looked barely able to stand. “I’ve wanted to do that since I
first saw you. Penny…Penny are you ok?” She just looked up at me with a
dreamy-eyed expression.

           
I considered kissing her again, but I’m not a complete
bastard. It was likely that we’d really be going our separate ways tomorrow,
and as much as I wanted to see where tonight might go, I wasn’t going to take
advantage of her. She really is an amazing woman. So like a gentleman (or a
complete moron), I put an arm around Penny and walked her to the door. She
stepped outside and turned back toward me. “You’re not just going to kiss me
and send me on my way are you?”

           
“It wouldn’t be right. You deserve better than a one
night stand, and I don’t think that our circumstances will let me give you
anything more than that.”

           
“Maybe we could just cuddle?” Penny pouted. “I mean you
let Danika snuggle?” I shook my head, “Danika only snuggles so she can pretend
I’m my sister. It’s a lesbian werewolf thing.” Wow, I never thought I’d say
that. Penny’s bottom lip trembled, and of course, I caved in. I led her back to
the bedroom, and she curled up with me. She fell asleep nuzzling against my
shoulder, and I already knew I’d be spending the rest of the time staring at
the ceiling with the erection from hell. If she’d been anyone else, I think I
would have tried my luck with a good old-fashioned pants-off-dance-off, but
this was Penny. So I held her and stroked her hair. She looked so happy and
peaceful. Meanwhile I felt like my erection was ready to jump off of me and
kick my ass. It was going to be a long night, but I think she might just be
worth it.

           
I never thought I’d get to sleep with her pressed up
against me, but finally I drifted off. When I woke up, I was stiff from being
unable to move. It wasn’t the only place I was stiff. A soft, smooth arm curled
around me. Penny was still nuzzled into the crook of my arm, and it was a
little disturbing how she hadn’t moved at all. It was even more disturbing when
I realized she had stopped breathing. I started to panic, but quickly realized
that if she was asleep she wouldn’t be able to tell herself to breath. I had a
sudden appreciation for all the lengths Penny went to in order to appear
normal. After trying to get as comfortable as I could, I resigned myself to the
awkwardness of my situation. There were two main problems. The first problem
being that Penny was ice cold. It was still a little disturbing to me that I
never considered all she’d have to do to seem normal like keeping up her body
heat, breathing, or even moving a little throughout the night, but I suppose
that unless she was awake she couldn’t animate herself in any way. So
essentially, I was curled up next to a dead body. Looking down at how she’d
nuzzled into my embrace wasn’t helping though because she even looked like a
corpse, just a very cuddly corpse. It made me a little nauseous, and so I kept
reminding myself that when she woke up she’d be as alive as I was. In my head I
kept telling myself soon all the signs of death would magically leave her. It
helped a little on the creep out factor, but not much.

           
The second problem, and the one that was more pressing,
was that I needed to piss as if my life depended on it. All those drinks from
last night finally caught up to me. I tried to slide out from Penny, but I felt
her arm tighten around me like a vice. The color flushed through Penny’s body
for a moment. “No.” Penny mumbled into my chest. I could barely breathe, and
the added pressure was making it very hard not to wet the bed.

           
“Hey Grimmy, did someone have a visit from the hangover
fairy last night.” Janine slid through my door.
“Oh geez!”
Janine covered her mouth. She flickered a little in embarrassment, and started
quickly drifting away. She was just about to slip back out of the room when I
waved her to come back. I didn’t want to wake up Penny, but I really needed to
go to the bathroom I mouthed help me, and of course, Janine just started
laughing. I whispered, “Seriously, I need to piss!” I tried to flash the puppy
dog eyes, but it only made her laugh louder.

           
This must have disturbed Penny’s sleep because she
growled, “Mine
!“
She gripped even harder. I couldn’t
breathe, and I was holding my bladder back for all I was worth. Janine actually
became concerned and finally touched my foot. I phased through Penny, and as
soon as I got to my feet, I waddled to the bathroom. When I finished, I stepped
out. Janine waved and slipped back through the door leaving me alone with a
sleeping vampire. I guess you’d call it sleeping. I mean do they really sleep,
or do they just become dead until they decide to come back to life. Is it
really sleeping, or do they just…stop? Just one of the many questions I never
thought I’d have to ask in my life.

           
I needed to wake Penny up, so we could finish getting
ready. To be perfectly honest I was a little afraid how she’d react. Some
people you just don’t want to wake up because they look so cute sleeping, and
some you don’t want to wake up because when they get startled you might get a
black eye. I was afraid Penny would be the latter. What if I woke her up and
she was startled? She might lash out before she was really awake. I might get
slapped, or worse, and as strong as she is, Penny could accidentally kill me
without any real effort. Right before I went to the bathroom, she was
practically cuddling me to death. So what happens when I wake her up if she
lashes out?

           
Creepy as it was, looking down at her was still like
looking down at an angel, albeit a stiff and dead one. Penny snuggled around my
pillow like it was a teddy bear. She just had a smile of pure peaceful
contentment. I forgot how creepy the whole thing was and just smiled. She was
just so adorable. I actually wished that I could just keep her there in my bed
forever, but I had to get ready, so it was time to take the chance. I slipped
under the blanket and snuggled against her back. “Penny…Penny
wake
up.” I whispered just behind her ear.

           
“No.” But at least it was a response. Her voice sounded
sleepy, and very grumpy, but I continued, “Penny…
come
on…we have to get up. We have a long day ahead of us.” I waited for a response,
but all I got back was a stubbornly
irritated,
and
still very sleepy grunt. It would have been cute if I wasn’t so worried that
she’d hurt me. I leaned a little closer and started kissing her neck. It was
ice cold, and you just don’t really appreciate simple details like body warmth
until you experience the lack thereof. My stomach heaved a little, and I had to
remind myself that she wasn’t actually dead. “Please wake up Penny. I’m not
above offering bribes.” I whispered into the nape of her neck.

           
“Morning snack?”
Penny mumbled.
I froze. I think Penny realized how nervous I became because her eyes fluttered
open. “Not you Grimmy, I mean I wouldn’t turn you down, but I actually meant
you bring me breakfast, and then I’ll get up. I have some blood packs in a
freezer on my floor. If you‘ll bring one to me I‘d be very appreciative.” She
batted her eyes at me, and somehow that decided the whole discussion. I’m not
sure how that worked exactly, but I was already in the elevator before I
realized that I’d agreed to bring her breakfast in bed. To think I used to poke
fun at my dad when Mom suckered him into things like this.

           
It took me awhile to find her refrigerator. I’d never
really looked around her floor before. There was a bizarre approach to how she
decorated once you really took the time to examine it. A bedroom was the first
room that you entered, but just didn’t really seem...her. The bedroom was
everything you thought a vampire’s room should look like. It was equal parts
bondage, and seedy bordello. It was the only room you saw on the security
cameras. The only thing that hinted at something beyond vampire sex dungeon was
the Xbox and giant television. She’d destroyed all the other cameras past this
room much to DD’s irritation, and of course the shower camera much to my own
disappointment. So all I had ever seen was this room. Once you went past the
main room everything changed. Instead of leather, feathers, and everything
taken from the hell’s whorehouse collection, you now had things that were much
more…normal.

           
The first door opened into a library. Everything was in
order. I glanced around. There were bookcases filled with romance novels. They
weren’t the clothes ripping trashy romances that I had expected. Niki once told
me that there were two types of romance novels. The first kind was about love
and relationships. The second was “girl porn” as she liked to call it. All of
these were the first kind. I really expected something dirtier from a vampire.
Something else Niki said stuck with me. It was during the same conversation
about books. I’d asked what the difference between the two types was, and Niki
went all schoolteacher on me and gave me an hour lecture on books, a freaking
hour-long discussion! Somewhere at the twenty-minute point, I think I may have
started praying for a stroke, but I did learn something.