The next few days went fast as James focused on his other work and duties. Brynne had returned to her normal shift at the paramedic station and despite being busy, the ancient vampire found he missed her. She had given him a new perspective on his world. That was something that hadn’t happened for many years, longer than he could remember. He had shown her parts of his community and demonstrated how the Unusuals lived alongside and among the humans peacefully. The short internship had been productive for him as well. Brynne’s delivery of the Fae child was the talk of the community. Everyone was asking their friends if they would call the human paramedics, and the answers were usually a resounding ‘yes’. This had also raised his status among the community. As the overlord of Elk City’s Unusual community, they had always treated him with due respect. Now, however, it was different. They saw him not only as their governor and leader but also as a protector and caregiver. He laughed aloud at that thought. A vampire caregiver! That was certainly a new concept. And it was all because of the remarkable human girl, no the woman, who didn’t think he was anything that special at all.
“Penny for your thoughts, boss,” Celeste said from the hall as she entered his apartment. “What were you laughing at?”
“I was just thinking back to Brynne and how she just kept talking all the way to that diner and halfway through that enormous breakfast she ate,” James said. He looked up as his assistant came over to where he sat behind his desk. “She’s quite a remarkable young woman, for a human.”
“Yes, yes she is,” Celeste said.
James sensed a humorous response bubbling under the surface of her mind. “What is it, Celeste? You seem like you want to say something.”
“I’m just happy to see you this way,” she said. “You haven’t been in a mood like this for decades, maybe longer.”
“What mood is that?” He asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Celeste replied. “I guess you might call it infatuation, a crush, maybe love perhaps?”
James snorted. “I don’t fall in love. I’m a vampire. I’m the overlord of this whole city and region for God’s sake. I don’t have time for such things.”
“Whatever you say, James. But I’ve known you for over a century and a half, and I’ve never seen you quite this enamored of a human woman. You’ve had your infatuations over the years. This seems different. You’ve never been infatuated and impressed with a woman at the same time. That is what is new.”
James thought of what she said. Celeste had known him a long time and had been his companion, assistant, and even occasional lover over the years. She knew him better than any did these days. She had moved on in the romance department, letting him know that they were now friends and professional colleagues, but she remained interested in his personal life. She was his personal assistant after all. He guessed he was lucky that she hadn’t started hitting on Brynne herself. Short little brunettes seemed to be her type of late.
“Are you sure you aren’t just imprinting your own feelings and attraction to her on me?” James asked playfully.
“I don’t think she likes girls,” Celeste said regretfully. “No, she is more interested in you, definitely. She was positively bubbling over at you after that baby was born. You should call her.”
“What? Call her?” James said. “What would I say?”
“Ask her to dinner again,” Celeste suggested. “Find out when she’s off work and offer to show her the town again. You could take her to Sensations and go dancing.”
“I don’t dance,” James insisted.
“You used to.”
“Well, I don’t anymore. I stopped that when Studio 54 closed in the seventies,” James said.
“But you liked it then, and I suspect you’d still like it now, in the right company,” Celeste encouraged. “Look, I’ll check in with Elk City Fire Department and inquire about her schedule for another remote assignment here. Once you know when she’s off you can give her a call and see if she’d be interested in going out to dinner and experiencing another night out in the Unusual community.”
“But don’t you think she’ll know it’s a date?”
“Of course she will,” Celeste laughed. “You’re so cute when you’re like this. Yes, she’ll know. She’s a bright young lady. I also know she’ll say yes. Trust me. We women know these things.” Celeste headed back to her office down the hallway. “I’ll call and get her schedule for you. You can take care of the rest,” she called over her shoulder as she walked away.
———
James pulled up out front of Brynne’s apartment building, a low three-story garden apartment style with a courtyard in the center. He parked the silver Lexus in one of the marked visitor spaces under one of the streetlights. He was nervous. He could hardly believe after sixteen hundred years on this planet and all that had happened to him over that time that he was still nervous when courting a woman. He snorted. Get ahold of yourself man. This isn’t your first time at this rodeo. He opened the door and climbed out of the car. He keyed the lock on the fob and walked into the central courtyard of the apartment complex. He looked around to orient himself and then figured out which door was Brynne’s. Her apartment was on the ground floor with a small square concrete patio next to the door. There was a small glass topped table and two outdoor chairs there that formed a nice little sitting area. He rapped politely on the door a few times and took a step back to wait.
“Just a minute,” he heard Brynne say from inside. “I’ll be right there.”
James turned and looked around the courtyard. There was a central grassy area in the middle surrounded by an oval sidewalk with other walkways leading out to the corner entrances and the parking lot like spokes from a wheel. There were other residents out walking to and from their residences. It was still early, and some were clearly returning home from work in various professional outfits. He heard the door open behind him, and he turned around.
Brynne was standing in the doorway, her hair down out of its usual ponytail, draped across her shoulders. She had put more makeup on than she had worn on previous occasions, but still tastefully applied. He caught just a hint of floral perfume. Her short royal blue dress accentuated her curves, and the scooped neckline showed just a hint of cleavage and her silver cross pendant. His eyes rose to hers from there and she smiled.
“Do I meet your approval?” She asked in a playful tone.
“I think you’ll do just fine,” He replied. She blushed, and he gestured at the walkway to the parking lot. “Shall we go?”
James and Brynne walked beside each other to the car and he went to the passenger side to open it for her, unlocking the doors with the key fob in his pocket. She smiled at him as she climbed into the passenger side front seat.
“Aren’t you the gentleman,” Brynne said as she sat down. “Thank you.”
“I did live through the golden age of chivalry. I picked up a few things,” James said. He waited until she was settled and then pushed the door closed before crossing around to the driver’s side, climbing in. “I thought we’d catch dinner at Sabatani’s and then we can go to a night club Unusuals frequent called Sensations.”
“That sounds fun,” Brynne said. “I haven’t been dancing in a while.” She buckled her seatbelt and tugged it tight across her lap. “Let’s go.”
James nearly groaned. He was hoping to avoid the dancing part of the night, but clearly the lady had a few plans of her own. The vampire pulled the car out of the parking lot and headed downtown to the entertainment district. He hoped he didn’t need to know any new dance moves. Surely things hadn’t changed that much in forty years.
“I went back to the Barrens to check on little Ellie Brynne,” Brynne said. “She’s doing very well. Did you know those wings actually work? She was flitting around the inside of the trailer nonstop while I was there. Fairy babies certainly get mobile a lot faster than human babies do.”
“Of course the wings work,” James said. “What good would wings be if they didn’t. Only the female F
ae have them, though. As she gets older, she’ll only be able to cover short distances. Someone once explained it to me as having something to do with wing surface area to weight ratios.”
“Well, I don’t care what the scientific reason is for it. It’s still about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, except for the birth itself.”
“You act like you’ve never delivered a baby before,” James said in surprise.
“I haven’t,” Brynne replied. “I assisted in the hospital during my maternity rotation so I’ve seen it done, and I’ve had the training as part of my paramedic degree. But that was the first time I’ve delivered a baby on my own.”
James was impressed even more. “I had no idea,” he said. “You seemed so confident. Like you had it all under control.”
“I had an instructor once who told me that the fastest way to lose control of a difficult medical situation was to lose control of yourself,” Brynne said. “I was scared to death. You and Celeste were there looking over my shoulder, and Jenny was so young and inexperienced. I went through the steps I’d learned, took some calming breaths and just kept going.” She looked over at him as he drove. “I thought Celeste might take over. She’s been around long enough to have gained some knowledge of childbirth. Why didn’t she?”
James laughed. “Celeste? Help deliver a baby? I don’t think you understand how things work. Celeste never had children of her own before she was turned, and vampires don’t get invited to many births, even in the Unusual community. If you hadn’t been there, I would never have been invited to see that. We’re creatures of death, even to those who work alongside us.” He smiled and glanced over at Brynne as he drove. “It was pretty incredible to witness, though. I had never seen a baby born either. I’m glad you were there and that I was able to witness it and your part in it. You just took charge and barked orders like you knew exactly what you were doing. The fact that you were unsure and we didn’t know it makes it even more impressive.”
He continued driving during the lull in the conversation taking the exit to head downtown. He didn’t want to keep heaping compliments on her, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say. She was remarkable, and he wanted to tell her how special he thought she was, but he couldn’t yammer on about that all night.
“Hopefully, your actions there in the Barrens that night will encourage them to call you and your colleagues for help when they need it,” James suggested.
“Oh, they already have,” Brynne said. “We’ve been there several times since that night. They’ve been very receptive, and my friend Tammy said that they keep wanting to feed us when we show up like we’re due some sort of tribute or gift.”
“That’s common, Brynne,” James said. “The people of the Barrens are very old fashioned. When they recognized you as one of their own, your fellow paramedics got lumped into the same category, sort of like they were members of the same tribe. You are all family to them now, and family gets fed.”
“That explains a lot,” Brynne said. “Bill told us that he was sure they were trying to set him up with an older widow woman who lived next-door to the location of their last call in the Barrens. We all told him he was crazy but, given what you just said, I think he might have been telling the truth.” She chuckled to herself. “It’s kind of perfect. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women, so it’s good for him to be a little uncomfortable with some similar attention himself.”
James liked hearing her laugh. It lifted his own spirits to hear it, which he guessed was a good thing. He tended to brood and mull over his long unlife a lot. This was an unusual situation for him, feeling upbeat and positive. He hadn’t felt like this for decades, maybe centuries. This child of the world, this woman of barely thirty years had wrought this change in him, and she had done so in a remarkable time frame. For a creature of potentially unending time, the days and weeks since he had first met her at the accident had seemed a mere heartbeat. Could it last, would it last? He couldn’t be sure. He could make sure this evening would be everything he wanted it to be. This would be the first date by which all other first dates would be measured.
CHAPTER ELEVEN