Eternal Service (9 page)

“I don’t feel guilty about the roses. They made her happy.” He paused a long time before continuing. He took a deep breath. “I wanted to be a good husband to her.” His eyes filled with tears.

“You were a good husband to her. She told me so herself.” She gently rubbed his shoulders and back.

He smiled back at her with that acknowledgment. After a short pause, he admitted, “I’m attracted to Captain Brennan, and I don’t want to be.” He shook his head. “I really don’t want to be attracted to her. I don’t want to dishonor Wilma. My memory of her is all I have.”

Sulie’s eyes lit up to the confession. “It’s healthy to see other women, Raymond. You’ve been alone a long time. You’re young. It's only natural to have an interest in the opposite …”

“I don’t need a shrink. I’m fine,” he said, cutting her off. He started to get up, but she pulled him back down onto the bench they shared.

“People who are fine don’t go around breaking vases.” Sulie allowed that to sink in. Then she continued, “You’ve been in mourning over Wilma for way too long. It's okay to move on.”

“Thanks Sulie. I know your heart is in the right place, but I don’t want to discuss … moving on.”

As he got up to leave, she quickly asked, “Are you afraid of replacing Wilma in your heart?”

Raymond stopped in his tracks.

“A heart can hold a great deal of love. You can have a relationship with someone else without the new feelings taking away from what you had with Wilma.”

He turned and looked at his sister. “It’s not that easy. Wilma meant the world to me. No one else could come close to what she means to me.”

“Yes. She meant a great deal to all of us.” Sulie stressed the word ‘meant’. “No one will ever mean the same to you as Wilma did. She was a special individual, and your relationship with her is unique. A relationship with someone else would be different. It could be just as nice, just as wonderful … but it will be different. A new relationship should be different because this person is different from Wilma. You’re a different person today than you were all those years ago.” She paused as she noticed Raymond had played with the rose so much that several petals had fallen off into his hand. “But I want to hear more about this woman. ‘Alex’, right? Tell me about her.”

He hesitated, but then broke the silence. “Alex is different. You’re right. She’s easy to talk to and I felt a connection with her the moment I laid eyes on her. It was the same feeling I had when I first saw Wilma. It’s hard to explain. Like a door opened and I have to walk through it.”

“That’s good Raymond. You are entitled to find love. You’ve been alone a long time and raised a child on your own. I don’t think a relationship with someone else could ever erase the memories and the joy you had with Wilma. Plus, you shouldn’t forbid yourself love just so you can preserve the love you had with her.”

He gazed down at the mostly destroyed rose in his bandaged hand and handed it to her. “Thanks for taking care of my hand.” That was all he said before he left her in the garden and headed back into the mansion.

Raymond inwardly laughed. Alex had suggested a picnic at a park for their next meeting, and had insisted on packing herself a lunch since Raymond wouldn’t be eating. Outdoors? Raymond needed to explain the dangers of the sun on his delicate vampire skin to her.

“Thanks for agreeing to meet me at the park.” Alex came up to him with her bagged lunch. He agreed to meet her at the park because it was his job, but he found himself eager to see her today. He wanted to spend time with her, and his talk with his sister last night had helped. He noticed the sunlight radiating off her auburn hair. The light made her appear almost angelic, and beautiful.

He led Alex to a remote area so they could talk in private. He spread the blanket under a large tree with plenty of shade. He suspected she chose the park because it was such a public place. He remained uncertain of what had spooked her yesterday.

“Next time I’m picking the place,” he said as he allowed her to sit down first.

“Oh, are you feeling weakened by the sun’s rays?” She almost sounded delighted.

“No.” He looked at her as he sat down. “Is that why you picked the park?” He wondered if she were testing some of the fake vampire lore the movies and TV shows were always spewing about. He hated the way the media depicted vampires, but he liked Alex’s spunk. He had not expected it.

“I read something about vampires growing weaker in sunlight. I wanted to test the theory.”

“You could have asked.” He knew what she was up to, and his smile showed it. He liked this playful side to her; he just didn’t like to sit in the hot sun and wondered what other lore she might test him on.

Alex took her sandwich out of her bag and fidgeted with the plastic wrap. Gaining her courage, she finally asked, “Are you dead?”

Boy, this was always the stupidest question people would ask.
“No. Do you see me here in front of you? Can you hear me talking to you? This animated state is called ‘being alive’. It says so in all the medical textbooks.”

He sensed her nervousness as she nibbled on her sandwich. “I don’t understand. Why vampires? What can you do better than humans who protect the White House and other agencies? I mean, I’m sure you can do more … I just want a list of what that is.”

OK, let’s bring on the list.
“We have better hearing and sight. We’re harder to kill. We have fast speed while running or hunting. Overall we have heightened abilities, like being able to see at night, hearing outside the normal human range, and such.”

“What about sense of smell?”

“Yes, that too.”

“Can you smell my blood type?”

He took an unnecessary deep breath for dramatic purposes, since he already knew her blood type, and had the second she walked into Dixon’s office yesterday. “Yes. It's A+”

Alex smiled as her eyes widened in surprise, “Well, wouldn’t that come in handy in a medical emergency?” She took another bite of her sandwich and a sip of water.

Raymond smiled at her. Just like yesterday at Starbucks, he found himself less lonely when she was nearby. He never would have guessed that talking to a woman would be so enjoyable and easy. She hadn’t yelled for help or run away from him as if he were a bloodthirsty monster. Of course, he did notice her play with the collar of her shirt and cover up her neck a bit at his last statement. He sensed she was comfortable talking with him, but still a bit overcautious.

“Do you prefer one blood type over another?” she asked.

“I prefer A+.” If he had to sit in the sun, she could take some friendly prodding herself, but it was obvious his comment didn’t sit well with her. She squirmed on the blanket, perspiration dripped from her temple, and it wasn’t that hot outside. Raymond felt bad for that one; maybe he shouldn’t have made his last comment.

“The government also employs us because there have been vampire attacks on the White House and the President in the past. Some congressmen and senators have been targeted as well,” Raymond said, bringing the conversation back to her last question. “We can sense when another vampire is nearby. It’s our predator instincts. You also need a vampire to catch a vampire usually since humans are too easy to compel.”

“Compel?”

Thought patterns shot out again in panic from her. He wanted to calm her down, and mentioning compelling was not going to do the trick, but he had already laid it on the table. “We can compel humans to do what we want.”

Her eyes narrowed as she took a good look at him, “Am I being compelled right now?”

Raymond was tempted to flirt with her, but he was out of practice. He decided to just answer her questions and ignore his interest in her. “Of course I’m not compelling you right now. I wouldn’t compel you.” Taking a good look at her, he added, “You need to lighten up. You’re tense. It’s understandable, I guess, but I’m not the enemy. We can’t compel you to do anything you normally wouldn’t do. If you were a criminal we could get you to talk, but we couldn’t have you step in front of a moving bus, for example, if you didn’t already have suicidal tendencies.”

She fidgeted with the buttons on her blouse. “Vampires in the movies compel women into their beds, against their will. Could you compel a woman to undress?”

The question embarrassed him – probably because he had never been asked such a question before. Maybe because the question came from Alex. He wasn’t sure.

He considered his answer. “Depends. If she were an exhibitionist? Yes. If she believed her shirt had toxic waste on it? Sure. If they were already inclined to go to bed with me? … Well, there would be no need to compel her in that case.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Women get undressed every day, Alex. It’s ordinary for them. If I wanted a woman’s shirt off, I see no reason why I wouldn’t succeed.” He realized his last statement sounded a bit off–putting, so he added, “Of course, it’s a moot point unless I wanted the shirt off to begin with. Personally, I’ve never compelled a woman in such a way.”

She appeared more nervous at his answer, so he smiled at her to look less menacing. Now he realized that all he could think of now was her shirt off¸ and the idea surprised him. Of course, she was a beautiful woman, and any man would want to see more of her incredible body, but he had not realized until this moment how much of an effect she had on him. He was actually aroused, and he had not felt that sensation in response to a woman in quite some time. He knew his eyes were pitching black in response, so he blinked several times and resisted his feelings.

“Something in your eyes?” she asked, as he continued to blink.

“It’s nothing.” He wiped his eyes and felt for his fangs with his tongue. No fangs produced themselves under his inspection; he was okay to look at her. “I’m fine,” he said as he gazed into her emerald eyes again.

He watched as a squirrel came up to her. She tore off a piece of bread from her sandwich and handed the food to the animal. He found it odd that she didn’t tear the bread and throw it onto the grass for the squirrel to pick up; she was hand–feeding it. “You should be careful, Alex. The squirrel could bite you.”

She looked at Raymond. “I’m guessing one of the points of this outing is to prove to me that not everything that can bite you will bite you.” She studied the vampire from head to toe, and then gazed into his eyes. “You don’t sound so sure of that though. Are you sure I’m safe around you?”

She toyed with him, or so he thought she did. Was she flirting with him? Maybe she was serious. He chose his next sentence carefully. “I’ll ask your permission before I bite you. I give you my word on that, Alex.” As if a ton of bricks fell on him, he realized saliva pooled in his mouth. He wanted to know the taste of her blood. He wanted to feed from her vein. He swallowed hard and tried to dismiss his feelings.

Alex took a look around the park. The place was filled with families enjoying the sunny day. “Just in theory, why not create a super army of our own. Why always be on the lookout for human and vampire threats alone, why not create a threat for our side? … In theory of course.”

“Because we’re living beings. We feed, breathe and have children. We’re not robots … and this isn’t Nazi Germany and we’re not a supreme race. Plus, the more vampires there are, the harder the secret of our existence is to keep. Eventually every rock star would want vamp bodyguards; hell, they’ll want to be vampires themselves. Where would it end? The Colony is a small group. Vampires are not federally registered or on government reservations, they are scattered and, at least with the civilian vampires, they are relatively unorganized just trying to live their lives among humans.”

“Don’t say that word again.” She appeared irked at his last statements.

Surprised by her tone, he asked, “What word?”

“‘Hell’. You’re in the presence of a lady.”

Raymond’s jaw slackened as he blinked a few times. “I apologize for offending …”

“It’s a joke Raymond. You need to lighten up.” She smiled at him.

Raymond smiled back. He wasn’t expecting her to make a joke. She had a softer side to her, he just knew it. Of course, there existed a tough exterior. She lived and breathed career military and now a top federal official. Putting vampirism on the table would cause anyone to be a bit edgy. But here she joked with him. Tit–for–tat. And wasn’t that sexy.

Alex nodded as the information sunk in. “Can you have children?”

“Yes. Of course we can. That’s how we get baby vampires.”

“I thought vampires were all sterile.”

He shook his head, “Only in the movies.” Raymond hated the way the movies portrayed vampires.

She asked the next question in a hushed tone. “Can vampires and humans have sex?”

Boy, she went straight for the hard questions.
“Yes.” He uttered the word slowly and lingered on the ’s’ as he looked deep into her eyes and spoke in the same hushed tone. OK, now all he could think about was having sex with her. Damn. The breeze caught her scent and blew it towards Raymond. His nostrils flared instantly; she smelled so good. The sandwich smelled God–awful nasty, but she smelled great. His attraction grew, as well as an erection. He looked away and forced himself to concentrate on the smell of the sandwich.

“So humans and vampires can have children together?”