The Vampire and The Paramedic (6 page)

“I’m sorry,” Brynne said, casting her eyes to
her plate, away from his. “I am just surprised at what I’m seeing
right here in front of me, that’s all.” She looked back up and met
James’ gaze. “Please, continue. I’m eager to learn.”

“Excellent!” James said, gesturing to an
older, gray-haired gentleman across the restaurant. He was walking
towards their table. “Let me introduce you to Kristof Algar, the
owner of Sabatani’s, then we’ll order our dinner.”

“James, my old friend, how are you?” The
gentleman said as he approached. He was short, only slightly taller
than Brynne’s five feet four inches. He was rotund and red-faced as
he approached.

“I am very well indeed,” James responded from
the booth. “Kristof, I’d like you to meet my companion for the
evening, Miss Brynne Garvey. She’s a paramedic with the Elk City
Fire Department and part of that little project I’ve been telling
you about. She’s the one that saved Rudy’s life a few weeks ago
following our car accident.”

“Miss Garvey, it is a pleasure and honor to
meet you,” Kristof said, leaning across the table to shake her
hand. “Thank you for your service to Elk City and to our little
community within it. I hope you will come back when you are on duty
some time. We offer discounted meals to public safety personnel
like police and fire department members.”

“I’m well aware of your discount policy, Mr.
Algar,” Brynne said. “My co-workers and I have eaten here many
times. We have always enjoyed the food here.”

“Well the next time you come in, I’m going to
make sure we make something extra nice for you and your
colleagues.” Kristof looked over his shoulder as more diners
entered and were seated. “I have other patrons to greet, but I will
stop by later in the meal to check in with you both. Enjoy your
dinner.”

“Thank, you Kristof, we will,” James said. He
turned to Brynne after the restauranteur walked away. “Any thoughts
on Kristoff?”

“There’s something about him, but I wonder if
that’s just because you told me already he was an Unusual before we
came inside,” Brynne answered. She continued her train of thought.
“It’s like he’s bigger than he looks in real life. You know, even
though he’s shorter than me? I don’t know. That doesn’t make any
sense, either.” She shook her head.

“You’re on the right track,” James said. “He
is both bigger and smaller than he seems. It has to do with his
unique nature. Kristof is a Djinn.” He watched her for a reaction
and when he got none, he continued, clarifying. “He’s a genie as
you would say, like from the story of Aladdin and the Lamp.”

“So what, he grants wishes or something?”
Brynne asked.

“Yes, he has the power to grant some limited
wishes,” James explained. “He is limited by the imagination and the
literal meaning in the language of the person asking for the wish.
There are no take-backs, and his magic is unpredictable. Usually,
he and other Djinns discourage people from using their wish because
it never ends up the way they expect it to. Sometimes the true
effects of the wishes are horrible, and people blame the Djinn.
It’s not their fault, though. They are merely a conduit for wild
magic. The interpretation comes from that magic’s interaction with
the person making the wish.”

“So the adage ‘be careful what you wish for’
really applies here,” Brynne said. “Should I watch what I say
around him, then?”

“First of all, yes, it is quite literally the
source of that cliché but the true meaning has been lost over time.
But you don’t have to watch your words that carefully,” James said.
“To engage the magic, the Djinn must be approached formally, and
there must be an exchange of some nominal treasure, usually a small
amount of gold, before the Djinn will activate the wish magic. It
is something only for the truly desperate.”

“So if I were to say randomly ‘I wish I had a
nickel for every time I lost my keys,’ there would not be a sudden
pile of change in front of me?” Brynne asked.

“Exactly so,” James clarified. “Let’s order.
Then we’ll try our little game of ‘Guess the Unusual’ while we wait
for our food.”

“Sounds good to me,” Brynne said as she
looked around the room at the patrons and staff of the
restaurant.

The two of them spent four hours total in
Sabatani’s restaurant that evening. Aside from getting an excellent
meal, James thought it would be a good opportunity to show Unusuals
in an everyday setting, living and working alongside humans. He was
pleased to see that it worked as he had planned. Brynne learned
about and observed many different types of Unusual community
members. She saw three Lycans of different varieties, two other
vampires, a Sybalim or singing angel and a few others. He taught
her that all Unusuals manifested their human forms despite their
mythical descriptions, which usually just reflected some aspect of
the race’s personality rather than a physical attribute. In all,
the evening was nearly perfect for what he had intended.

The two of them left the restaurant at about
midnight with Brynne assuring Kristof that she would return soon in
uniform with her partner. James held the door as they left and
walked silently beside her as they headed back to the parking lot
and his car. Brynne was walking in silence again, idly fiddling
with her cross pendant.

“Penny for your thoughts,” James offered.

“I’m just thinking about all of that back
there,” She said. “It’s a lot to take in all at once. I’m wondering
how I am supposed to know which type of Unusual I’m dealing with on
a call? One of my greatest fears, probably most paramedic’s fears,
is to make a mistake treating a patient. It’s not a question of
whether or not you’ll someday make a mistake treating a patient.
It’s a matter of when.” She looked back over her shoulder at the
restaurant briefly. “Those people we saw and met back there deserve
from me the best I can be. The problem is, I don’t even know the
basics of who they are, let alone what illnesses they might likely
have.”

“Most Unusuals are just humans with another
aspect to themselves,” James said. “They get the same illnesses
that you get and require much the same treatments. If there is
something else involved, it’s their job to notify you of their
history, just as any patient would. Isn’t this what you expect of
your human patients?”

“It is,” Brynne admitted. “But what about the
patient who’s unconscious or can’t speak for themselves. How will I
know if what I’m doing is the right thing or the wrong thing?
There’s just so much I don’t know.”

“You do the best you can with what you know,”
James answered. “Don’t worry, Unusuals don’t sue in human courts
for things like malpractice without consulting with their
leadership first. That’s me, and I don’t intend to blame anyone
who’s doing the best they can with limited information. Does that
ease your concerns at all?”

“I guess so. Like I said, it’s a lot to take
in at one time, even knowing that Unusuals exist. It’s just a lot
to internalize, that’s all.” They had arrived back at the Lexus and
James keyed the unlock button on the key fob and opened her door
for her. He felt her stiffen slightly when he placed his hand
between her shoulder blades to guide her into the car, and he
quickly removed his hand. He shut her door and walked to the other
side of the car. This woman was perplexing to him. Her dedication
was admirable, and he had not met such an open-minded and curious
human in many years. But, she was not automatically deferential to
him as he expected from those around him. In some ways, it was
annoying and in others it was refreshing. Perhaps it was that lack
of automatic respect to him that intrigued him about her. He
climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Shall I take you home or would you like to
stay at the apartment I’ve arranged for you at my building?” James
asked as they pulled out of the parking lot onto Main Street.

“I think I’ll stay at home tonight. I can
pick up my things in the afternoon when I come back,” Brynne said.
“I have a lot to process. Is it all right that I leave my car in
the garage overnight? I’ll catch the bus back tomorrow.”

“That is not a worry. I’ll send a car for you
to come back in the afternoon, say around 3:30?”

“That will be fine if it’s not an
inconvenience.”

“No inconvenience at all,” James replied. “I
just pay the driver to sit around most days. He’ll probably look
forward to having something to do.”

They rode the rest of the way to Brynne’s
apartment building in silence. When they arrived, she offered a
quick good night and exited the vehicle. James watched her walk
through the courtyard to her apartment’s door, insert her key in
the lock and go inside with a brief wave over her shoulder. He sat
there for some time staring at the empty entryway after she had
gone inside before he sighed, put the Lexus in gear and drove on
home.

James returned home to his penthouse
apartment satisfied that he had begun to show the paramedic
something of the Unusual community she wouldn’t have seen before.
He sensed that Brynne was a voracious student when it came to
learning about her job as a paramedic and that included gaining
insights into her patients. If she could take that knowledge back
to her colleagues at Station U, and eventually the rest of the
department, it could go a long way to improving the services they
provided. He was sure she would try to do that. No, that wasn’t
true. He was sure she would accomplish that eventually. Brynne
Garvey was a remarkable and strong woman. She was unlike any human
he had met in a long time.

He sat at his desk and turned in his padded
leather desk chair to look out over the nighttime skyline of Elk
City. He was still sitting there sometime later when Celeste
interrupted his thoughts.

“How did it go tonight, James?” His secretary
and personal assistant asked.

“It went very well, very well indeed,” James
replied turning around. “You did a good job with her outfit.”

“I thought you would like it,” She said
smiling. She knew her boss liked to look good and that included his
accessories and companions. “Honestly, she has good taste. The
clothes were hers. I merely made a few suggestions.”

“You did well as always, Celeste. I don’t
know what I’d do without you.”

“I don’t know either. That’s why I have to
make sure I stick around for the next one hundred fifty years. I
need to keep you on track in the future just as I have in the
past,” Celeste responded. “Do you have plans for what you’d like to
show Brynne tomorrow evening? I can email her what to expect and
how to dress before she arrives if you would like.”

“I think that we should show her the
Barrens,” James said after a moment’s thought. “She needs to see
the neediest among us and understand why her team’s services are
needed so dearly here in Elk City.”

“The Barrens might scare her away, James,”
Celeste warned.

“Somehow, I don’t think she scares that
easily.” James stood. “Make the arrangements so they’re expecting
us. Also, ask Rudy to join us tomorrow and make sure Brynne wears
something appropriate.”

Celeste jotted a few notes down on her
notepad. “Ok, got it.”

James patted his stomach as it audibly
growled. “Goodness, I’m famished. I just had some soup and a few
glasses of wine with dinner. Who do we have in the pantry?”

Celeste pulled out her smartphone from under
her notepad. “Willow is up in the rotation. She just returned
yesterday. Her anemia is cleared up, and she has been released by
her doctors to ‘return to work.’ Shall I send down for her or are
you in the mood for something different?”

James smiled. “No, Willow will be fine. I’m
going to check the news,” he said crossing the room to the large
seating area in front of an enormous flat screen TV. “Send her up.
I’ll be waiting over here.”

Celeste dialed a number on her phone and
walked away talking to someone on the other end of the line, back
to her office down the hall. James heard the murmur of her voice in
the background ordering his dinner as he listened to CNN’s
overnight news team fill him in on the day’s world events. He
cleared a spot on the large white leather sofa for his dinner to
sit so he could still see the TV while he ate.

Brynne
arrived promptly at eight o’clock the next evening as her email
from Celeste had instructed. She arrived on the penthouse floor of
the apartment building wearing black jeans, a navy blue t-shirt
with a white emergency medical services star of life on the left
breast. The letters ECFD above the star of life and Paramedic below
it were screen printed on the shirt. She also wore a light, navy
blue windbreaker jacket and sturdy hiking boots. Her long brown
hair was pulled back into a ponytail as it had been when James
first met her at Rudy’s accident.
He approved. She looked ready to work, ready for
just about anything.

“Good,” James said as she stepped out of the
elevator. “Right on time. I like it when people are punctual. Shall
we go?” He blocked the elevator door to remain open as she climbed
back in then pressed the button for the parking garage.

“Where are we off to so quickly?” Brynne
asked.

“We are headed to the Barrens tonight,” James
answered. “It’s going to give you a different look at our society
and maybe give you some insights as to why your paramedic team’s
services are so dearly needed for the Unusuals here in Elk
City.”

“The Barrens? I don’t think I’ve ever heard
of an area called that before.”

“It is an area that is almost exclusively
inhabited by our kind. Humans are, uh, discouraged from living
there.” He noticed that Brynne shot him a concerned glance. “It’s
for their own good. There are things that happen there that would
be better if the public didn’t see it. I think it would cause a
mass panic and rioting if they did.”