The Vampire and The Paramedic (10 page)

“… Of course, we can prepare anything you’d
like us to make but I’d like to bring you a small plate of our
excellent fresh fried calamari. It is our specialty but only when
we can get the squid in fresh from the boat. A shipment came in
tonight, and it promises to be spectacular,” Kristof said.

“That would be fine, Kristof,” Brynne said.
“Thank you.”

She smiled at James as she sat down and the
Djinn left to place the order. “He seems very excited tonight. Did
you go and plan something special?”

“Perhaps,” James said. “I hope you like
surprises.”

“It depends,” She said. “What did you have in
mind? Is there anything I should do to prepare for this
evening?”

“If you were prepared, it would hardly be a
surprise,” James said laughing. “I told you on the phone a night of
dinner and clubbing, and that is what we will have. I want this
evening to be perfect.”

“Sounds like you’re putting a little pressure
on yourself, James. Perhaps you should fill me in and take some of
the pressure off. I promise to be suitably impressed.”

“I assure you, it’s just dinner and
clubbing,” James said. “Any surprises will be limited by that
description, I promise.” He looked away to a waitress as she
approached the table.

“I’m Kathryn. I’ll be your server this
evening. Can I get either of you anything from the bar or a soft
drink?” Her slight hint of a Scottish accent showed. She looked to
Brynne first.

“I’ll have a glass of Shiraz. Do you have Cat
Amongst the Pigeons?” Brynne asked.

“I believe we do. One glass of Shiraz, and
you, sir?” She turned to James.

He decided to take a chance on ordering
something for himself of the Unusual side of things. It was a test
of Brynne’s acceptance of him. This waitress was a Seelie, a
Scottish fairy type. “What blood type do you have on tap?”

Without missing a beat, she answered, “O
negative, B positive, and we just got in a rare AB negative.”

“I’ll take that then. The AB negative,” James
said. He watched her walk away to fetch their drinks, waiting for
the question he could feel bubbling on the edges of Brynne’s
mind.

“Uh, by ‘on tap’ do they mean …?” Brynne
asked in a whisper.

“Yes, it’s freshly drawn blood. It’s nothing
sinister I assure you. There are a few volunteers on the staff who
are willing to donate a small amount of blood for the patrons,”
James explained. “They change periodically so no one gives more
than is healthy, and they are paid quite a gratuity when they are
selected. I don’t know who they are, but the AB negative donor here
is exceptional. They must be a health nut. The blood is very clean
of toxins and low in cholesterol.”

He watched Brynne’s face for signs of
distaste, shock or disapproval, but she seemed merely curious. “You
have a question?” He asked. “Please, I want you to ask me. How else
are we to get to know each other?”

“I don’t know,” She stammered a bit before
continuing. “Uh, you talked as if you were an expert wine taster.
Can you truly detect differences in the blood of different people,
their cholesterol, and other things?”

“Oh certainly,” James answered. “Everyone is
very different. It’s one of the pleasures of being a vampire. The
blood types, the nationality, the age of the person, even their
diet in recent weeks, all these things lend to the flavor of their
blood. If you’d like, I’m sure we could get a tasting sample in
some shot glasses out here, and I could coach you to detect some of
the differences.”

“I don’t think so,” She said with a laugh,
holding up her hands in protest. “I was just curious, that’s all.
I’m surprised that so many humans seem to know of your existence
when I had never heard anything about you and the other Unusuals
before I was transferred into the Station U program at work.”

“Even in a population of millions, there are
always a small percentage who are aware or who become aware of us
either through a chance encounter, or perhaps because of a
relationship with an Unusual. In some cases, the lore is passed
down in families like a religion. That is mostly in the old country
where families have been serving Unusual communities for centuries
in secret.”

“But it all seems so open,” Brynne said,
amazed. “I mean, I’ve eaten here before I knew of Unusuals, and I
never had any inkling.”

“People see what they want to see within
their own belief system and knowledge,” James said. “While you knew
of mythical creatures before, you thought of them as just that,
myths. When you came here before and looked around at other
patrons, what would you have seen? What do people who look at us
see?”

“I guess people at a restaurant, eating
dinner,” She answered. She looked up at him across the table, “On a
date.”

“Exactly,” he said. “They will see me
drinking from a cup and talking with my date. As long as I do
nothing to draw attention to my powers and abilities, I’m just
another hot guy on a date.”

“Hot guy, huh,” she said with a laugh.

“You disagree?” He asked, smiling as he tried
to get a glimpse at the edges of her mind of her true response.

“We’ll see, James,” she said, returning his
smile. “I’ll let you know at the end of the evening. ‘Hot guy’ has
a much more complicated definition for a woman than a man.”

“Fair enough,” He said. “But you get my
point, right?”

She nodded. Kathryn returned to their table
with a wine glass filled with her choice of the Shiraz and a plain
white ceramic mug she set down in front of James.

“Are you ready to place your order? I know
from Kristof that you want the calamari. It will be right out for
you.”

“I think I’ll have the cannelloni di mare,
the pasta stuffed with shrimp, scallops and crab meat?”

“Excellent choice,” Kathryn said. “House
vinaigrette on your salad ok?” Brynne nodded.

“And you, sir?” She asked James.

He took a sip of his mug of fresh blood,
closing his eyes as he tasted the rich fluid. “I think I’ll have
another serving of this when you bring her entree,” James said.

“Ok, that's cannelloni di mare for the lady,
and another cup of the AB negative brought with the meal,” Kathryn
repeated. “I’ll put that order in, and I’ll be right back with some
fresh rolls and your calamari.” She left the table at a brisk walk,
leaving the pair alone again.

“How does it stay fresh,” Brynne asked.

“What?” James asked for clarification.

“The blood,” she asked, nodding to the cup.
“How does it stay fresh to drink? Usually, blood starts to clot as
soon as it's out of the body and stops moving. How does it stay
fresh?”

“They add a few drops of anticoagulant,
similar to what’s in the bottom of some of your blood draw tubes
that you use on the ambulance,” James said. He looked at his mug as
he held it up. “The blood stays liquid, and the mug is heated in
hot water before they fill it. That helps keep it warm. The
additive adds a bit of an aftertaste but not too bad. It’s not the
same as drinking it fresh but it’s surprisingly good.”

“Fresh?” Brynne asked him, leaning forward,
towards him and whispering. “Fresh from a person?”

James sensed a tinge of horror at the surface
of her mind. “I’m not a monster, Brynne.” At least not anymore, he
thought. “I only drink from a willing, well-paid donor. And I never
take more than is safe in one sitting.”

“From women, or men?”

“Only women,” He clarified. “I think you know
that I prefer women, but there is nothing romantic about it. It is
merely a meal.” Most of the time, he added to himself.

She was silent for a while, taking a sip of
her wine and staring into the depths of the liquid as she swirled
it around. He waited patiently for her to process her thoughts. It
was important for her to come to grips with this or their
possibility of a relationship would never work. He was a blood
drinker. He could drink blood, or he could die. There was no
alternative. After a few minutes of silence, during which Kathryn
came and left with the fried calamari, Brynne looked over at him
again.

“I’m not sure how I feel about that, James,”
She said. “I know you have to drink blood to survive, but I hadn’t
really matched that to you still feeding directly from other
people, women. It seems so intimate despite what you say.”

“I won’t lie to you, Brynne,” He said. “It
can be quite intimate between willing participants but in the case
of most individuals, it is just a source of food.”

“I suppose that it is good that you don’t
make a big deal of that part of what you do, even to those of us
who know about you,” Brynne said. “People could get very upset
about it. I mean, if they don’t understand it.”

“Brynne, you have no idea,” James said. “You
remember how I said that there are families out there who pass down
the knowledge of us to their children like a religion.” He waited
for her to nod in the affirmative. “Some of those are families who
have dedicated themselves to eradicating the Unusuals living among
humans. They have been responsible for enormous purges over the
years and some of the most infamous events in history. The Salem
Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, the Armenian Genocide, all
of those were historical covers for attacks on our communities in
those areas.”

“But,” she said, pausing. “Those things don’t
happen anymore. Not now.”

“Humans have a huge capacity for two things,
Brynne. They can love almost endlessly. But, they can also harbor
deep hatred that defies all rational explanation. It is both your
greatest strength and your deepest weakness.” James waited for that
to sink in for a moment. “There are still communities here in
America, mostly underground fringe elements, who work to rid their
free, God-given society, of the satanic monsters among them.”

“What, groups like the KKK?” Brynne asked

“Exactly like the KKK,” James said. “They
were formed to get rid of the powerful African shamans and spirits
who led the ex-slaves to freedom in their new lives. They were sold
into slavery right alongside the African humans, and they worked
within that community to get their human and Unusual brethren
freed. The white Ku Klux Klan groups hunted the leaders of these
communities because they were usually Unusuals.”

“But that was a long time ago,” She said. “It
happens still today?”

“You watch the news, Brynne,” James said. “Of
course it does. The FBI and other human agencies work to control it
and break up hate groups when they can. We have people in those
agencies working right alongside them to stop it. They know that we
are integrated and valuable members of their communities, but hate
crimes against us can and do still happen.”

“I had no idea,” Brynne said. “I’m sorry that
we’re like that.”

“It’s not your fault,” James said. “For every
person who knows about us and hates us there are a hundred who
don’t and who like having us living among humans. It’s much better
now than it used to be, even a few hundred years ago, we were much
more secretive and far fewer humans knew of us outside of myth and
legend. We had to hide and live apart completely lest we were
discovered and eradicated from a community.”

He looked at her deep brown eyes. “Let’s
change the subject to a more pleasant one,” He said. “Tell me
something I don’t know about you. Why did you agree to go out this
evening with me if you knew so little about me and the rest of
us?”

She smiled and took another sip of her wine,
popping a piece of the fried calamari into her mouth and chewing
slowly. He could tell she was mulling over her answer in light of
his recent revelations about Unusual-Human history.

“I suppose I was flattered, first of all,”
She answered. “You’ve always treated me with respect. You've never
shown me any sign that you’re dangerous in any way, so I suppose
when you asked me out for tonight I was just happy you wanted to
take me out. I’m pretty ordinary after all.”

“Oh, Brynne,” James interrupted her. “You are
anything but ordinary. In fact, you are unlike any woman I’ve ever
had the pleasure of taking on a date like this. You’re strong,
independent, and possess a self-assurance and confidence that few
men or women have. I’m not sure you’re my type at all based on my
past experiences, except that you intrigue me in a way that no
woman has before.”

“Well,” Brynne said. “I’m not sure what to
say to that. If you’re trying to flatter me, you succeeded.” She
looked around the restaurant. “Am I blushing?”

“Not much,” James said, smiling at her. “I’m
serious, though. What drew you to go out with me this evening? You
knew it wasn’t a professional outing as our other travels have
been.”

“Well,” She said after a few more moments. “I
haven’t been out on a date in a while. You’re easy on the eyes,
rich, and well respected. A girl could do worse for a night out on
the town.”

“Yes, I suppose so.” He took a sip of his
drink, savoring the life-giving fluid as he swallowed. “What about
your co-workers? Did you tell them you were going out with a
vampire?”

“I told Tammy, my partner on the ambulance.
And I told my supervisor, Mike,” Brynne said. “Mike didn’t say
much, just to be careful. He’s the one who gave me this pendant,
though, so I wasn’t surprised. He almost seemed a little
disappointed in me. Tammy was a little excited. I think she would
love to have a forbidden boyfriend of her own, if she weren’t
already married. She said she’d just have to live vicariously
through me.”

“I hope you have something positive to share
with her,” James chuckled. He looked past her shoulder and saw
Kathryn coming with a plate in one hand and a fresh mug in the
other. “I think our dinner is here.”

Brynne looked over her shoulder and sat up
straight to make room for the waitress to put the plate down in
front of her. Kathryn leaned across the table, setting down a fresh
mug of the AB negative blood and taking the nearly empty and now
cool mug from in front of him. Brynne started eating her pasta and
sauce, and he took the opportunity to look around the room at the
other patrons. All were deeply involved in their meals and
conversations except for one tall gentleman with short blonde hair.
He was sitting at the bar along the far wall but had turned on his
stool to face the restaurant seating area. He met James’ eyes, and
when James reached out with his mind, he pulled back after sensing
a sudden burst of anger and hatred. There was also something else
that James noticed before he had pulled back from his probe - an
image of Brynne’s face in the man’s mind. James held the man’s gaze
until he looked away. The man quickly pulled a few bills from his
pocket, leaving them on the bar. He got up and, without looking
their way again, left the restaurant. James watched him go,
wondering who he was, but then Brynne distracted him back to their
table and date.