Shit. He halted and waited. Gary slapped him on the back. “I wondered how you made out with the pretty lady.”
He forced a smile. “I just dropped her off after having dinner. So far, so good.”
“Great! You can tell me all about her at break time.”
“Yeah, that’d be great. I’ll catch up with you then.”
Gary gazed around the empty spaces of the lot. “Aren’t you headed in now?”
Any excuse would sound lame so Ned didn’t try to make one. “I am in just a minute.”
“Whatever. See you after a while.”
As they’d talked, Ned spotted a lone woman on the far edge of the gambler’s area. She walked with a list so he figured she’d had a bit much to drink. He hurried across the pavement and caught up with her. “Can I help you find your car?” he asked, with all the charm he could muster.
“Oh, I think I can manage,” she said with a little giggle. “But thanks.”
“It’s no trouble,” Ned said. He moved in swift and put his hands on her shoulders. “Do you see the cat over there?”
When she turned to look for the non-existent feline, Ned latched his fangs into the side of her throat with savagery. He drank long and deep, the way a thirsty man might take water after a desert walk. She turned around with eyes wide and he met her gaze square on. Although he didn’t possess many of the mythical powers vampires were rumored to have, Ned had learned he could hypnotize on a minor level so he stared into her eyes. He willed her to forget the encounter, then saw her to her Ford. By the time he reached the time clock, he’d begun to feel better but he punched in late. Ned rushed to his table and saw Mindy sigh with relief.
“I thought you weren’t going to show up.”
“Aw, I ran late,” Ned told her.
“I’m outta here,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”
Sunday nights were usually light but this one wasn’t. Lots of soldiers from Fort Sill, easy to spot with their military haircuts and bearing, came and stayed late. Working from eleven to seven put his meal break around two-thirty so he met Gary. Ned feared his buddy might be a little peeved but Gary wasn’t. Instead, he wanted to know all about Anne. When Ned revealed she taught history at the college, Gary whistled. “I’m impressed. That’s awesome. So when are you seeing her again?”
Ned shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe I shouldn’t even bother.”
“Are you crazy? She’s hot. I’d give it a try. You might even get to sleep with her.”
He didn’t mention he already had. “Oh, I’ll see what happens.”
At five after seven, as Ned headed to clock out, his name was paged. Phone call at the courtesy desk for Ned Big Eagle. Phone call at the courtesy desk for Ned Big Eagle. Ned figured it must be Anne. He headed over to take the call. “Hello?”
“Ned?” Anne said. “Hi, I just wanted to see how you’re feeling.”
So she cared. He understood and he liked it. But her concern made what he had to do more difficult. “I’m all right now,” Ned told her. “I took what I needed and started feeling better right away. I’m just a little tired so I’m getting ready to head home.”
Relief made her voice huskier than ever. “Oh, that’s good. Could you come by for a minute, please?”
Refusing Anne wasn’t something Ned wanted to do. “Why?” he asked, tone level.
Her light laugh swayed him. “I couldn’t sleep, wondering how you felt. I’d just like to see you before I head off to class … so will you?”
If he weren’t dead, he’d die now as he yielded to temptation. “All right, I’ll stop by.”
“Thank you,” she told him. “Coffee’s made.”
In the morning sunlight, Ned scolded himself for his decision. He’d be pale––maybe not so bad this early––but he’d promised, so he presented himself at her door. Anne, power dressed in a gray pinstriped skirt suit, let him in. Once Ned was inside, she hugged him. “Thanks again for indulging me,” she told him. “You probably think I’m silly to worry. I’ve only known you a few days but there’s this intense connection between us. I think you feel it too.”
“I do.” Ned couldn’t deny it. If he lied, she’d be aware.
Anne flashed him a smile and exhaled the breath she must’ve been holding. “I thought so,” she said. “I can’t explain it but it’s there. I feel like I’ve known you forever, Ned. I thought you looked a little haggard when I let you in but you look pretty good now. Do you have time for coffee?”
“I can drink a cup, then I’ll get out of your way.” He shouldn’t have come, he should be halfway home by now, but here he was, right where he wanted to be. Once seated at her tiny table with a mug in his hand, Ned relaxed. He might as well enjoy every moment he could squeeze in with Anne because soon there wouldn’t be any. He needed to figure out a way to untangle himself from her despite the connection they both felt, but he’d save coming up with a solution for later. He sipped her coffee, found it almost as strong as what he brewed.
“It’s good,” he said.
Anne’s fragrance wafted across the table, stronger than ever. “Thanks,” she said. “I know you’re tired and probably just want to go home, get some sleep … but I really am glad you stopped. I suppose you work tonight, too.”
“Yeah,” Ned replied. The new schedules were up and he was dealing more than doing security so his hours changed. “I’m working 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every night except Thursday and Friday this week, then I work 6:00 p.m. until midnight on Saturday and Sunday.”
She scribbled his schedule on a scrap of paper as he watched with mixed feelings. He’d never allowed himself to become close to any woman except his long-dead wife. Their marriage and relationship reflected the culture and time with no resemblance to how he’d watched men and women interact in the modern world. As a warrior, he’d often remained celibate to bank his strength for war, not love. Although he liked to consider himself a Comanche warrior, Ned admitted he’d grown tame over the years he’d been a vampire. He hadn’t ridden out as part of a war party since before he followed the rest of the Quohada to surrender at Fort Sill. Nor had he killed or raided with the wild blood lust of his past since before 1900. If he did so now, he’d end up in jail, the one thing he imagined would be worse than his meager existence. He wasn’t a man, not really, but Anne brought out the male essence left in his soul.
Anne studied a pocket calendar before she said, “So, would you like to do something Friday after my last class? I could have you over for dinner if you want. I can fry chicken like nobody’s business, or I’ve got a recipe for maple glazed pork chops I’ve wanted to try.”
His mind told him to refuse but his heart yearned to accept and his body betrayed him with rising desire. One more time, he thought, I’ll be with her one more time but it needs to be on my terms, not hers. “I don’t eat chicken,” Ned said. “How about you come out to my place and I’ll get some buffalo steaks? I’ve got a lodge out behind the house and I’ll cook them, old fashioned Comanche style, on a fire.”
“I’ve never had buffalo. Is it good?”
“Better than beef,” Ned assured her. “It’s lean and tender. What do you say?”
“I’d love to,” Anne said. “I’ll just drive out after my last class of the day if that’s okay. It’ll be after four or so.”
“Sure.” He stood up and walked into the small kitchen to put his cup in the sink. “I’ll look forward to it and I’ll see you then.”
She nodded. “It’s a date.” The words sounded so foreign to him. Ned didn’t expect a good-bye kiss, not with her lips painted and make-up in place but Anne rose and walked him to the door. She grabbed his shirt with both hands and pulled him closer, then stood on tiptoe to press her lips against his mouth. Anne tasted sweeter than honey and it took willpower to break free but Ned did. If he didn’t, he’d strip off her professor clothing, and take her on the living room carpet. He figured she knew what he wanted because the smile playing around her lips managed to be both wanton and poig
nant.
Ned spent Thursday with the horses, pleased to be outdoors, where it didn’t matter if anyone saw his extreme pallor. After dark fell, he headed into Lawton and bought several buffalo steaks. A local rancher sold them at a store tucked away into one of the many strip malls. Although expensive, Ned found them worth the price. He preferred buffalo to beef and hoped Anne would like it.
While in town, he hung around some of the worst dive bars, rough places most people with any sense avoided. With the stealth he’d used to hunt and the ruthlessness he’d relied on in raids, Ned took blood, plenty of it, so he’d be sated.
On Friday he prepared the lodge. He brought out some of the hides he’d tanned himself long ago, soft as cashmere, and made a bed inside. Ned laid the fire in front so it’d be ready and set up his cooking gear. Most of it was modern but came as close as possible to the way Comanches once cooked. In the villages, the women had performed the task but out on the prairie during a hunting trip or other travels, warriors could prepare basics.
Ned, with time to practice, had become a master at it.
Mid-afternoon he sauntered down and lit the fire so it had time to burn down to the coals. He carried several potatoes along to slow roast in the ashes. They weren’t the same as some of the wild tubers he’d eaten long ago but close enough. I’ll give her a traditional evening meal, which I hope she likes. Unless Anne thought otherwise, Ned planned to spend the night in the lodge. He still believed they must part, but the more time he spent with her, the less he wanted to end their relationship. But he saw no other option. If they continued, sooner or later, she’d realize something was terribly askew and ask questions. Anne’s too smart not to notice I’m strange and keep weird ways. She’ll figure it out or come close.
Ned refused to imagine her shock, hurt, anger and fear if she learned the truth. If she didn’t believe it, she’d think he must be insane.
Down along Medicine Creek the afternoon shadows shaded the lodge and fire. Ned’s camp lay behind a hill and by four, most of the sunlight shifted away from the spot. Although it wouldn’t be full dark for hours, it’d be dim enough he wouldn’t look ghoulish or sick. He smoked two cigarettes while waiting, ears tuned to hear Anne’s car the moment she turned off the blacktop.
Ned opened his senses to everything around him. He relished the wind’s quiet caress against his face, heard the whisper of the breeze as it ruffled through the tall grasses. Ned caught the cry of a red-tailed hawk as it soared high above and gazed upward until he caught sight of it in flight. He followed it with his eyes until it passed out of sight. Then he watched the clouds drift across the late summer sky. Somewhere not far away he heard quail and Ned listened to the horses blow and stamp in the corral. A deep relaxation poured over him as he became one with the natural world surrounding him. Ned’s mind drifted easy and aimless until he heard Anne’s car. Then he came to his feet and ambled down the trail to meet her.
“Anne,” he called and then added a screech he’d once used on raids into Mexico. On a whim, he’d dressed the way he once had, in deerskin leggings with a colorful breechclout. He’d braided his hair in tandem and put the scalp feathers from the powwow in his hair. He wore knee-high leather moccasins. Ned even donned his bear claw necklace, authentic and Pea’hocso’s from his distant past. Although he seldom did, he put simple silver wires with one blue, one red bead, earrings, in both ears. After so long, he didn’t have much of the little he’d owned when he became a vampire but what he did, he wore or displayed. His war shield and lance stood outside the lodge, too.
She came around the side of his house almost running. “Ned, where are you?” she called. He stepped forward so she’d see him and watched her eyes widen. Today, he wasn’t the modern Native American man she knew but a wild Comanche, a page out of the past. Anne stared and he wondered if he’d gone too far but then she smiled and walked to him.
“Wow,” she said, her gaze scanning him from his toes to his feathers. “You look amazing and authentic. On you, it looks so real and natural.”
It should, Ned thought, although he’d become as comfortable in his blue jeans and Western shirts. He liked the feel of the deerskin leggings against his flesh, the wind against his chest. He’d made the knife stuck in his belt. It, along with his shield and lance, were museum pieces. “Thanks,” he said. “Come on back to the lodge.”
Anne accepted his offered hand and walked with him to the secluded spot, already deep in shadow. Ned crouched down on his haunches to gauge the fire and decided the gray-white coals were ready to cook the meat. He snuck glances at Anne, dressed in khaki pants and a tank top. She’d brushed her hair into a high ponytail and after a moment’s hesitation she sank to the ground and sat cross legged beside him. Anne craned her head back to gaze at the lodge. “Those are real, right?” she asked, pointing to his shield and lance.
“Yeah, family heirlooms,” Ned replied.
“What about the tipi?”
“It’s authentic but I made it. Took me a long time to get enough hides but I did.”
She came to her feet and inspected the lodge. “Are they all buffalo?”
“Yeah.” He’d been on some managed hunts at various lodges and places throughout the Southwest and West, something he didn’t enjoy as much as the genuine thing. To finish it, though, he’d taken a couple more from the protected herds, the ones grazing the preserve but he wasn’t admitting poaching to Anne or anyone else.
“And you did the work, all of it? Scraped the hides, tanned them, and sewed them together?”
Ned joined her beside his lodge. “I sure did and it was a helluva lot of work. Took me years to finish but it’s something I wanted.”
“It’s awesome. Do you ever sleep here?”
“Often. I thought we could tonight if you want.”
Pink flushed her skin, subtle but noticeable. “I’d like that,” Anne said. “Can I go in?”
“Sure,” he said as he pulled aside the flap. “After you.”
Anne ducked her head and came into the conical interior. Ned tried to imagine how it must look to her modern eyes. Although he doubted it’d be cold enough, he’d laid a fire in the middle below the smoke hole and the bedding, a couple of buffalo robes and other skins, appeared inviting. His bow and quiver of arrows rested against one wall. The cooler he’d carried down with the steaks was the sole anomaly.
“It’s cozy,” Anne said. “And except for the ice chest, I feel like I’ve stepped back in time.”
“That’s the idea.” Ned pulled the meat out and carried it outside. He’d brought plates too, big paper platters they could toss. “I’m hungry, what about you?”
“I’m starving.” The way she said it made him think she craved sex as much as he did. There’d be time for that later, he thought, and headed back outside to throw the steaks into the flat iron pot. He’d put the potatoes into the ashes earlier and with any luck, they’d be done to a tasty turn about the same time as the steaks. Ned put the pan over the coals and let the steaks slow cook, searing first one side then the other. He added no seasoning until he removed them and then sprinkled a small amount of salt on each.
As he’d cooked, Anne shared her day with him. She told tales from the classroom and described the student who got hooted down after he’d informed the others Custer massacred the Indians at the Little Big Horn. She talked about her American Indian students and told Ned one of them planned to do his thesis on Quanah Parker’s surrender. “I told him I knew a descendent of Pea’hocso,” she said. “He seemed impressed. Actually, I mentioned it to the class and they were awed. They’d be even more if they saw you out here, like this. Maybe you could talk to my students about your ancestor sometime. It’d be great.”
Maybe so, but it’d be risky as well as a little scary. “I’m no man of letters,” Ned said. “I don’t know, Anne.”
“Just say you’ll think about it.”
Ned nodded. “Okay, I will.”
They ate the steaks and baked potatoes outsi
de. Anne raved about the tenderness of the meat and the intense flavor of the grass fed and locally raised buffalo. Her delight made Ned happy. They ate the steaks, devoured the potatoes with nothing but a bit of salt. It was the best meal he’d had in ages, made better with Anne’s company. After the meal they sat out beneath the stars, talking. Ned kept Anne within the curve of his arm, her body leaned against his. The delicious taste of the meat lingered on his tongue and he smoked a cigarette, somnolent and lazy. The smoke lifted toward the heavens in slow spirals. He’d taken blood in sufficient quantity the night prior and all Ned’s wants were sated but one and he’d meet it soon.
He savored the anticipation, enjoyed the sweet torture of waiting to make his body and hers into one. Time stretched into momentary infinity as Ned willed these moments to continue. If he could stop time, he would and remain in this now forever. If only this could be his eternity, he wouldn’t mind being immortal so much. Ned stared upward at the star filled sky and the truth came to him. It struck with force and hugeness strong enough to rob his breath for some seconds. He tried to deny it, blame it on the moonlight but he couldn’t. Certain she’d never understand but possessed of need to speak it, Ned stroked back Anne’s hair and whispered words he’d never said to any woman but one, “U kamkuto nu.”
No one much spoke Comanche any longer so he figured she wouldn’t understand but he’d made a mistake. Her body stiffened as she twisted her head to look into his eyes. “Kee!” she exclaimed, ‘no’ in his first tongue but in a way he took to mean ‘yes’.
“Haa,” Ned said to affirm it. He hadn’t spoken the words in so long, not since before any living person on the earth had been born, but he meant them. Speaking them moved him and brought thick tears into his throat until he doubted he could say more now.
Joy lit Anne’s features with a soft beauty. Her hand cupped his cheek and she smiled at him. “I’m glad, Ned,” she whispered. “I love you too.”
Chapter Six
Like a man living a fantasy, Ned kissed her, heart brimming too full for further speech. His lips caressed hers with quiet yearning and paid tribute. Desire flowed between them with the power of a river, the heat of a somnolent summer afternoon, without the quick flare and flash of uncontrolled fire. Love tempered passion with tenderness and he pleasured them both with a gentle hand. He made the kiss last, something he’d never done under any circumstances. Ned drowned in her sweetness and basked in the love she returned.
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