After we both ate, we walked into the city and found ourselves sitting on the concourse around the Opera House, watching sleeping birds riding the currents of air coming from the Harbor Tunnel.
Bronwyn thoughtfully ate her ice cream, watching them. “I start university next week.”
“What are you going to enroll in?” I asked.
“I got into Arts Law,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the Arts part. Probably do mostly science subjects. I’m going to leave off physics. I hate physics.”
“I was never much for math or science when I was in school,” I said. “I much preferred English.”
“Yikes, how could you stand doing all that reading?” she asked with a grimace.
“I liked it when I was young,” I said, watching a flying fox swoop over our heads. “It also gave me a good sense of the world and the places I wanted to go when I got older.”
“Have you done much traveling?” she asked.
“Enough,” I said. “I haven’t traveled the entire world, and now it’s more difficult to do. I think I’d probably have to travel by sea, these days.”
“Do you want to go anywhere? There’s somewhere I’ve never seen but I really want to go.”
I sighed. “Now, with Rose gone, I’m not tied to Sydney anymore.
I think I’d like to move around a little.”
“Really? Would you go somewhere with me?”
“Where do you want to go, my mortal?”
“I want to see the States.”
I grinned. “I was there when I was young.” I schooled my features into impassivity. “When would you like to go and how do you propose to finance this little venture?”
She blushed, and I relented.
“All right,” I said. “I can finance things quite easily. When do you want to go for a visit to the States?”
“Are you going to come with me?”
“Yes, I’ll come with you, but you’re going to have to promise not to argue with my choice of conveyance,” I said.
Her eyes lit up with suspicion. “How do you propose to get to the U.S.?”
I laughed. “You’re either going to have to fly me over in a coffin, or we’re going to have to go by sea. I can’t be out in sunlight.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’re kidding me.”
“No,” I said. “Those are my only practical choices.”
She nodded. “Let me think about it.” She cocked her head and gazed at me. “You really mean it? You’d go with me?”
I brushed her cheek with my fingers. “I mean it. I’ll go with you.”
She leant into my caress. “Good. I don’t want to do this without you. I think you need it more than I do.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Because Rose’s passing has got me thinking. We may not have a tomorrow, and I don’t want to waste any today I have with you.” She paused, collecting her thoughts. “It’s the reason I’ve decided I’m going to accept my offer to uni but not go this year. I want to spend more time with you. I want to build up memories with you. If you die tomorrow then I want to be able to look back on my time with you and know that I have enough memories to last me until I can finally join you.”
I put an arm around her. “I’m not going to die.”
“Really? When I came back from my week off I saw the scar on your face. I know you won’t tell me what happened, but I know it was enough to stop you from going home for a few nights. You came close, I know that, and I half want to stay ignorant and half want to know how close. I don’t want you to die, my love.”
I remained silent.
“So,” she said. “What do you think about my taking the time off?”
“If it’s really what you want to do, I’m okay with it. But always remember, I’m not going anywhere. I won’t leave you.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I feel like I’ve found the perfect woman for me, and that you’re going to slip through my fingers, or that it’s going to just vanish before my eyes.”
I kissed the crown of her golden head. “I think I understand. You’re going to have to do the same thing you’re always telling me to do.
You’re going to have to just let go and live for the moment. In the end, it’s all you have.”
“I know,” she said. “But that’s just it. I don’t want this to be an isolated moment in time. I want every tomorrow you have.”
“But you’re afraid of immortality and love sunshine too much to give it up?” I asked. “Relax. Just let it go for a while. Enjoy it all while you can, lover.”
She was silent for a long moment. “Thank you, Crowley.”
“For what?”
“Being you.”
She slipped her arms around me and tightened them.
“When was the last time you were in The Rocks, angel?” she asked, peering up at me with a grin.
I smiled. “It’s been a while. You want to go for a walk?”
“Yes, please.” She slipped out from the railing and held out her hand. I took it, and we strolled past the other lovers on the concourse, headed toward The Rocks.
“Have you ever thought about marriage?” she asked as we walked past the buskers at Circular Quay.
I tripped over my own feet. “Not for a long time.”
“Geez, are you all right?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, I’m fine. Just stumbled. I do that on occasion.”
“Sure you do. You’re the most graceful woman I’ve ever seen. You just don’t want to marry me, do you?”
“Hey!” I said, pulling her to a halt. “Stop doing that, will you?”
“Doing what?” she asked, nibbling her lip.
“Assuming the worst,” I said, smoothing her chin. “Don’t just assume I’m going to say no to something like that.”
She blushed. “What does that mean?”
“It means you still seem to have lingering doubts about where my heart lies. It’s with you. No one else.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, blushing. “I can’t help it. It’s just that you’re criminally beautiful and people keep coming onto you.”
I shook my head. “It’s just something we both have to live with.
I’m not necessarily attractive because humans want to screw my socks off, I’m attractive because I draw them to me so I can feed more easily.”
Curiosity blazed in her eyes. “Are you calling them, somehow?”
“Something like that,” I said. “I’m a predator. A little bit like a pitcher plant but much taller.”
She gaped at me for a few seconds and burst out laughing.
I laughed with her.
“I didn’t answer your question,” I said when we both quieted. “I’d love to marry you, but there are two problems. First, I’m legally dead.
I can’t. Second, even if I wasn’t, there’s still the small problem of gay marriage being illegal.”
“I know both of those things. But couldn’t we have some kind of ceremony?”
“How about a compromise?” I asked. “Consider this an engagement. After all, you’ve proposed to me, and I’m accepting. My only request is that we wait a few years before doing the deed. Have some freedom and life first.”
“It won’t change the way I feel,” she said with some asperity.
“I know,” I said, knowing nothing at all. “But you told me that you need to feel like a whole person outside of me and us. I
want
you to do that. Marriage won’t give you that freedom.”
She studied me for a few moments, a question in her eyes. “I’d ask, but I know you won’t tell me.”
“I’d answer if I thought it was important,” I said. “It’s not. My past is my past and my future is yours, beloved mortal.”
“I’ll accept that for now,” she said. “But it won’t always be that way. Let’s keep walking.”
We spent the evening wandering around The Rocks. We went into all the tourist traps and looked at the souvenirs. I bought her a beautiful hologram of a heart with an arrow through it, and she bought me one of a knight astride a fierce eyed charger.
I took her home and made passionate love to her. We fell asleep at dawn, tangled together.
Things were quiet for us between Christmas and New Year. She wanted to see the fireworks in the city and we went, standing in the milling crowd, as transfixed as all the humans around us. I could feel we were being watched, but I could not see who was doing it. I felt an uneasiness I could not shake, so one night I took Bronwyn with me, and we arranged our overseas trip.
After we were finished, I took her to the fair that had arrived in our little suburb. It was not the same one that was there around the time of her birthday, it was another, and I liked the look of it more than the other one. The rides were cleaner, the carnival crew less leery.
We roamed through the crowd and saw some of her old friends, and she stopped to talk to them briefly. They were all headed to university, looking shell-shocked and somehow non-comprehending. They did not seem to want to go, they seemed to think they had to go.
I had my arm around her shoulders as we cut through the crowd.
I had my eye on the Ferris wheel. I knew it was much tamer than the rides she normally liked to go on, but I thought she would enjoy it.
Only those afraid of heights seemed not to.
“You ever been on a Ferris wheel before?” I asked.
“Huh?” she said, pulling her attention away from the crowd. “No, I haven’t. And yes, I’d love to try it with you.”
I smiled. “What gives, lover?”
She pulled me to a halt and looked around. “I feel like there’s someone watching me.” She shivered.
I frowned. “Hold on a moment.” I closed my eyes and focused on my senses. I could hear the crowd all around me, the catcalls, the conversations, the whisper of cloth from their clothes. Nothing was out of the ordinary, I thought as I scanned the crowd. My vision traveled over the teeming mass of hot and throbbing humanity, almost passing over the lone, young man at the edge of the trees bordering the carnival.
I narrowed my eyes.
“What?” Bronwyn asked, shaking me from my reverie.
“I see it. Wait for me here and don’t move,” I said, moving away from her.
“Crowley? What the—?”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said.
She threw up her hands and crossed her arms, looking miffed.
I hurried to the outsider who stood and watched me approach with malevolence in his eyes.
“Chris Carlton,” I said as I approached him.
“Are you so sure?” he asked in a cold voice.
“A minion,” I said, standing a foot from him and crossing my arms.
He said nothing, and the malice in his eyes washed over me in cold waves.
“What do you want?” I said, slowly and clearly.
“You. I want you. I’m coming for you.”
“Come to me and die,” I said coldly. “Leave me alone.”
I had already fed, but I wanted the hold on this young man broken.
I charged at him and sank my fangs into his neck before he knew what hit him. He pawed at me for a moment or so and then went limp in my arms as I took half of his blood.
I dragged him into the bushes to let him sleep it off. He would wake the following day, hopefully free of the mind that had seized him.
I went back to Bronwyn. She was leaning against the railing around a small roller coaster, watching the kids in it scream with delight.
“Bronwyn,” I said softly as I approached her.
She turned to gaze at me and smiled. “Where did you go?”
“Do you still feel like you’re being watched?” I asked.
“No. You took care of it, didn’t you?”
“Chris Carlton still seems to find you eternally interesting,” I said, giving her a crooked grin. “He won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“Um, no. Of course not. I don’t run around murdering humans, thanks.” I tilted my head. “Why is he so enamored of you?”
She blushed a deep and fiery red.
“Oh, Lord,” I breathed. “You slept with him? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“Well? So what if I did?”
“He’s got such cold eyes,” I said. “He’s probably not a very nice man.”
“I didn’t look into his eyes that much,” Bronwyn mumbled.
“Shit. I really don’t want to know, all right?” I said, wincing.
We got in the queue for the Ferris wheel.
“You can’t talk,” Bronwyn said, a spark building in her eyes. “You and that bloody waitress from the Test Tube Factory. That was visual overload, lover.”
I laughed. “I swear to you, I never touched her.”
“Just like I’d never admit to swallowing.”
I gaped at her, unable to speak.
She grinned and tapped my chest. “Gotcha, lover. Let’s just drop the conversation, shall we?”
I nodded and wordlessly followed her.
We got in the queue for the Ferris wheel, and after waiting long enough to almost get bored, found ourselves stationary on top of the world, gazing out at the milling people far below us.
Bronwyn took my hand and kissed the knuckles. “I want to get out of here. I want to see more of the world with you beside me.”
“We’re out of here in few days,” I said. “And I’ll be glad when we do. I need a break.”
She nodded. “So do I.”
We went home at around midnight and danced until the sun forced us back under the cover of darkness.
The following night was still and warm. The smell of her shampoo teased me, and the warmth of her body heated me as she restlessly traced the muscles of my back. She could not get enough of my body, and nightly I used it to take her to new heights of passion.
“Crowley.” Her voice was soft as she kissed the rosy skin of my throat. I fed earlier in the evening, and we had stopped back here just in time to pick up some luggage before taking off into the night.
That proved to be a fatal mistake.
My sharp hearing detected the sound of footsteps coming toward the house, and I disentangled myself from her, held her close and behind me as they sped up the path with unnatural speed and stealth.
Suddenly, they stopped.
My heart sank as my senses strained to catch more. Bronwyn stiffened beside me, senses on alert, deeply alarmed.
“Crowley.”
I silenced the soft question with a long finger to her lips.
There was silence for several more minutes, while I tried to use my senses to locate my visitor. Was it Allenby? If it were, I would kill him this time. No one invaded the sanctity of my home.
I saw a shadow flit past the window and whirled to face it, making sure Bronwyn was hidden by my back.
My bay window broke, and Bronwyn was torn screaming from behind me.