“He’d better be doing what I told him. Heads will roll if he doesn’t.” Harold worked on a couple of things he’d been putting off. There was an order that had come down just last week stating that he needed to be more in line with the rest of the departments. He was to hire two women on his team. Like that was going to happen. Women were too useless for any department, much less his. And he wasn’t going to be able to handle being held to a standard if he had to either.
After he was alone in his office, he pulled out the file that he’d been keeping for himself. If he was found with it, he knew that he’d be talked to again. And while he probably deserved it, to him it had been a complete waste of his time. He knew better than most what sorts of things this woman could do for the country.
The woman’s pictures, about a dozen of them now, were his ticket to fame. She’d had someone help her to figure out how to beat death. Not to mention, how to look like she’d not aged a day since she’d turned twenty-five.
He wasn’t sure yet, but he planned to find out how she’d done it. Then when he was finished with all the tests he could do on her, he was going to put her in a cell and keep her there for others to see his creation. He wasn’t really into the rich and famous, but to have people coming to him, congratulating him on his find, would be the best thing ever.
“Well, not my creation, but she will be my find.” He laid the pictures out in a neat row and looked at them. “Damn, but she’s a fine-looking woman. Fuckable, that’s what she is. Just plain fuckable.”
It wasn’t a word that he used often. He had seen some fine women in his time, but they had never appealed to him on a sexual level. Harold knew that he might be considered to be a homosexual, as he did occasionally indulge in a little male/male sex, but he wasn’t. He was as normal as the next man. And he’d kill anyone that said differently.
Nor did it occur to him that she might have done this all on her own. She’d had help, for Christ’s sake. She wasn’t anything but a pretty woman, and everyone knew they were as dumb as rocks. He looked at the woman in each picture and couldn’t believe that no one else had gotten it. That no one had noticed that she’d been hanging around this here good earth for longer than she should have been. And his bosses hadn’t either. Nor had they cared when he’d brought them more evidence. The conversation he’d had with Agent Lindsey still burned him a little bit.
“Why do we care if some woman looks exactly like her relatives? And in the event you are going to answer that, we don’t care. It’s just a woman with good genes. Why are you even wasting tax payer’s money on this?” He told his boss that it was the same woman, through all the years. “Impossible. There is no fountain of youth, no one never ages, and as far as I know, there isn’t a pill you can take that will make you live forever, Bates. So, knowing this and my feelings on it, get your head out of your ass and do some real work. There are any number of bad guys out there that haven’t been caught yet. That is what you’re being paid to do.”
Harold had gone back to his office and taken most of the seventeen men he had on the case off the woman and put them onto finding others…the top ten criminals in the country, as a matter of fact. And then, when pressure had come down on him again, he’d put his newest employee on it all alone. And put him in an office in the sub levels, to work someplace that he’d never be questioned. Fat lot of good it had done him when he’d found nothing more than that she was someplace in…. Harold looked at his notes.
“Ohio. The fucker went there to find the girl on his own.” He stood up then sat down. What to do? He had to talk to Nash, and today if he could. But he knew less about where he was now than he had before his bitch of a wife had called him. Harold wondered if there had really been any kind of heart troubles, or if Nash was covering his ass. Standing again, his exit was interrupted by none other than his boss, Patrick Lindsey.
“I just got a call from the wife of one of your men. Agent James Nash, as a matter of fact. Also, his doctor called me. Did you actually tell her that you thought that he didn’t actually have a heart attack, but was faking it?” Lindsey sat down with a note in his hand. In the other was a file. “Christ, Harold. The woman is six months pregnant, and you not only called her a liar, but you told her that her husband was as well. What the fuck is wrong with you lately? Please tell me that you aren’t still working on that woman case. That’s what this is all about? You’re still going against company policy and looking for a woman you think is immortal?”
The pictures were still on his desk. Lindsey stood up and fingered the pictures before sitting back down. For a reason that he couldn’t put his finger on, that frightened Bates more than being screamed at about her. The envelope was put on top of them, then the file was opened. He cut him off before he could read whatever was in the file.
“He is where she was last seen. Right there in the state with her. He went there to claim her. Nash is no sicker than I am. And he’s going to take all the glory for this. You watch and see.” Lindsey asked what he was talking about. “Nash. I’m telling you, that woman has done something to herself, I just know it, to make herself never die. And if you’d get your head out of your ass for one minute, you’d see I was right.”
He knew the moment that the words spilled from his mouth that he’d made a major mistake. Not only that, but he’d managed to piss off Lindsey more than he had been before entering his office. Harold was trying to think of how to get himself out of this when Lindsey stood up.
“You’ve left me no choice in the matter, Harold. I’ve told you, several times now, to leave that case alone. And you’ve been written up…a man with as many years as you have in this department has been written up twice concerning this matter. I’m sorry, but I’m putting you on unpaid leave until we figure out what to do with you.” Harold stood up…this wasn’t a way to treat him. As he’d said, he had a great many years of service in. “You will be escorted out, and your badge has already been disabled. I’m sorry about this, but this is all on you.”
“You can’t do this to me, Lindsey. This is my life’s work. I’m the best there is, and you know it. I’ve been here since before you were out of diapers.” Lindsey said again how he’d left him no choice. “Of course I have. There is always room for choices. I made a mistake in telling Nash’s wife that, I’ll admit to that. I was stressed out as well. I’ve been on edge for some time now. Ask my men, they’ll tell you. I’ve been snapping at everyone.
“Yes, and you seem to be snapping at a lot of people, Harold. Not just the people that work for you, but even people in your neighborhood. You actually told one of your men that babies are shit out all the time. You can’t say that sort of thing to people. It’s not right. Not to mention, it’s against the law. You’re leaving.” No more than a second passed before the room was filled with agents. Not in suits as the men who worked for him were, but flak jackets and guns out in the open. “These men will escort you out. And so you know, I’ve sent men to your home as well. They’re gathering up any information they can find there. No working, Harold. You’re under unpaid administrative leave as of right now.”
Harold was taken out. He thought about fighting them, but they were not only bigger than him, but also younger. In his day he might have been able to take them on, but at sixty-one, he didn’t even try.
His badge to get him in and out of the building was removed from his jacket and his gun was taken, as well as his badge that stated that he was an agent. The wallet that carried it was older than the jackass that had taken it from him. They even had the nerve to take his keys, all of them, as he was informed that he no longer had a car to call his own. While he was offered a ride by the police to a hotel until they were done at his home, he was given cash to eat on as well as to buy any necessaries he might need at the hotel. The envelope had only two hundred-dollar bills in it. This wasn’t right, it was no way to treat him. What he needed was his job and office back. Harold flipped the man off and turned away from them all.
This was
bullshit. More than that, it wasn’t fair. What had he really done wrong but said what was on his mind? As he did every day of his life. People were much too sensitive anymore.
As soon as he got to the hotel, he pulled out his credit card. After trying four times, the man asked if he had cash. They’d pulled his credit cards as well? This was bordering on harassment, this was. As he paid for the room with his only cash, he stomped his way to the elevator and waited for it to come to him.
“Someone is going to pay for this shit. I am not to be treated like a subhuman. I’m a fucking agent, by God.” He looked at the woman next to him, who huffed. “Like you’ve never heard anyone curse before. Grow up, bitch.”
Harold entered the elevator and pushed the button to his floor. When the doors shut, he was alone in the little cubical and he loved it. Fuckers were going to regret this, just watch and see, he thought.
~~~
Jamie felt like he was waking from a thick soup. He had difficultly even making his eyes focus, not to mention making his tongue work. When he was able to make out the person in front of him, he still wasn’t sure what had happened, or where he was.
“University Hospital, Coronary Care Unit.” Jamie made his mouth work to ask why. “They’re saying that you had a massive heart attack. But you’re on the mend now and they expect a full recovery. And before you get concerned, your wife is with mine in the cafeteria having lunch. She was hard pressed to get to leave you.”
Jamie felt slightly sick. But before he could move up more in the bed, the man was there helping him, telling him over and over to be careful of the needles in his arms, as well as the monitor on his chest.
“I know you. I’m sorry, but I can’t place where I know you from.” He told him who he was. “That’s right. We were to have lunch today.”
“That was five days ago, I’m afraid. Your boss has been called; your wife did it.” He had a moment to worry when Chase laughed. “She’s all right, that wife of yours. Put your boss right in his place. Apparently he mentioned that you might well be faking this, and she told him off. Then she called his boss. I don’t think that went over well either. However, not toward her this time, but Bates.”
“I’m fired for sure.” He didn’t even feel badly about that. Not like he might have a few days ago. “What happened? I know you were there. And that I saw your wife too. I might have been a little rude to her. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be all right now. But before I answer anything else, I have a few questions of my own.” Jamie nodded, feeling less sick by the minute, but still tired. “What do you know of the paranormal? Not just things you might have seen on television, but in general.”
“I don’t know what you mean. If you mean do I believe in ghosts, then no. I mean, they’re not real. If you meant other creatures, such as werewolves or vampires, then I guess I’d have to say no to that as well. My boss has it in his head that they’re real. Or that people can live forever. I don’t believe that either, just so you know.” Jamie gave a small laugh before continuing. “You don’t believe in them, do you?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m one of them. The vampire, not the werewolf. Though I will tell you that I know quite a few of the others as well. A pack of them lives near our home.” Jamie laughed again, and Chase smiled. He could see his fangs now, and was sure that he was supposed to. “Had I not been there, when you had your heart failure, you’d be dead. There wasn’t any saving you by medical means, so I stepped in. So did my wife.”
“No, no that’s not right. You said it was a massive heart attack.” Chase nodded and stood up. He was close enough now that not only could he see his fangs, but how long and sharp they were. “Is this a joke? I’m not finding it very funny, I’m afraid. I have been under a great deal of stress. Mostly from my boss, Bates. But I don’t believe in this sort of thing. Please, tell me that you’re having fun at my expense.”
“You have been under more stress than a man like you should be under. And over a job. But you’re going to be fine now. And it’s not a joke. I’m a real vampire. My father is, as well as my brothers. All of us are.” Jamie let him adjust the wires that were on his chest when the beeping started to go faster. “You’ll have to calm yourself, Jamie, or the nurses will come in and think I’m trying to harm you. I’m trying to make this easier on you, but you’re not helping me.”
“I don’t understand what is going on here. Is this Harold’s doing? Did he pay you to come here and get me going again? I am working on the case, but there isn’t any way that the woman in the pictures is the same person.” Chase sat back down but didn’t speak. “What is going on? Really this time, don’t tease me. Tell me what is going on with all this.”
“I’m trying to tell you calmly and without upsetting you again what is going on, Jamie. You had heart failure and I gave you some of my blood—quite a bit of it, actually—to save your life. My wife, she gave a little of herself as well to keep your heart working without damage to it, nor your brain. You’re alive because of the very beings that you don’t believe in.” Jamie nodded, then shook his head. “I can show you, if you’d like. Bite you again. But I don’t think you’ll like that any better than me telling you straight out.”
“You’re a vampire.” Chase nodded. “And your brothers and dad are too. And your wife, what is she, a faerie or something?”
“Ice dragon. Not that she’s a dragon, but she is the queen of ice dragons. I will admit to you, I had no idea they were still around until she showed up one day. She was injured and had to spend a few days in my freezer to heal.” Jamie was beginning to feel like he was on one of those rides that made you dizzy, and it wasn’t stopping to let him off. “You’re doing well so far, I think. I’ve taken the liberty of keeping the nurses out. But you’re doing great. That could be because I’m calm. You’re not really calm, but you’re not freaking out either. Your wife took it much better than you did, by the way. She’s a hoot. We told her, not showed her, what we are, and she acted like it was an everyday thing to her. Which, perhaps it might have been.”
“She’s pregnant and has gotten in the habit of saying whatever crosses her mind. I think its hormones, but I’m not sure. You’re a vampire.” Chase nodded again. “I’m feeling like I’ve been drugged or something, and that this is all a wild dream.”
Chase stood up and pinched him, hard, on the arm. When he asked him what that was for, Chase sat back down and told him he was awake. Jamie laid his head back on the pillow and stared at the man.
“You’re doing much better now, aren’t you, honey?” He heard his wife’s voice and realized that at some point he’d fallen sleep. Or, and he was set on believing this, he’d never woken at all and had been dreaming all along. “Jamie, are you all right?”
Something occurred to him when he thought about what he’d dreamed about. The sun had been shining. It wasn’t now…it was dark out according to the window that he could see out of. But the man, Chase, had told him that his entire family was vampires.
“It was daylight. He was here, and it was daylight.” Kristie laughed and told him that Chase had gone home, but he’d be back. “Don’t you see? He was here, and the sun was out. He’s not a vampire. Christ, he had me going there. Did you see his mistake too?”
“Jamie, he told me that you didn’t believe him, but he really is a vampire. He’s very old. And one day, when he and his family were out, a house caught fire and the queen of faeries was injured. The Crosbys, all men by the way, went into the burning house and saved as many as they could. They even brought out the dead for her. And in return, she gifted them with the ability to be in the sunlight.” Kristie spoke like she truly believed what she was saying. “I’ve met them all, honey. Well, most of them. The faerie queen was busy, I guess, as were her helpers. You’ll just love all the Crosbys too. And they’ve been so kind to me. Making sure I have enough to eat and am resting. I told Chase why we were here, and his wife…she is that woman you’ve been told to l
ook for, by the way. And we’re not going to turn her over to Harold. I promised them.”
Too much information right now, but she was telling him what she thought he should know. But his mind seemed to be stuck on that one thing. That Chase was a vampire. And he knew, deep in his heart, that he was telling him the truth. He didn’t want to believe it, but he knew it was going to be right.
“He’s not really a vampire, is he, love?” She nodded at him and told him to calm down. “How can I calm down when you’re talking crazy?”
“You will not use that tone with me, James Robert Nash. I’m your wife. When have I ever lied to you? Not once in all the time we’ve been together. Now that man, Chase, is a vampire. He saved your life and you will be nice to him, understand?” He nodded, sort of afraid of his wife in that moment. “Good. And as for Emerald—what a pretty name I think—anyway, she’s promised to show me her dragons. Not all of them, but a couple. They’re as real as you and I are. And they’re very strong too, she told me. I’ve met Spud as well.”
“A potato.” She told him not to be obtuse. “Sorry. I just thought, you know, spud was a potato.”
“No, he is a watcher, for Princess Fairaday.” He nodded, thinking that he really was dead, and this was his punishment for something he’d done. “You should see her, Jamie, she’s so pretty. Not Spud, but the princess. A real princess lives in the woods with the other creatures. Can you believe it?”
“Yes, I’m sure she is. I need to take a nap now, honey. Can you tell the nurse I’d also like something for pain?” Kristie nodded and left him. “I’m out of my ever-loving mind.”
Closing his eyes, he let the conversations roll over him. Everything was not right in his head. Jamie knew that if he was dead, he wasn’t going to enjoy the afterlife much if he had to deal with this kind of talk. And if he was only dreaming, then he wasn’t sure about waking up either. Also, he didn’t want to eat whatever he’d had to give him such dreams as this again.
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