As Vicki hit the foot of Georgia the light was against her, and pony tail bouncing, she jogged in place as the cars spun past, the water cast into the air by their tires. Once she crossed the intersection, instead of heading hard to the right and taking the seawall towards Brockton Point she jogged down through the echoing concrete underpass.
On the other side she dug in her toes on the slippery wet grass as she climbed over the rise into the park proper to head up towards the Aquarium, passing first the bronze monument of Robert Burns and then, a few moments later, the imposing statue of the august Lord Stanley.
It was quiet in the park, there were very few people about and the air though fresh with the salt tang of the sea, had a hushed and quiet solitude about it. When Vicki came up onto the wide concrete walkway leading up towards the Zoo and the Aquarium she began to pick up a little speed.
She could feel the droplets of the mist hitting her face and as she moved more freely over the ground, her stresses began to dissolve in the pumping of her blood.
She passed an elderly woman in a tweed coat with rosy red cheeks and a large umbrella. She was walking two rather bedraggled looking Yorkies who swung wide away from Vicki as she came up alongside. "Good afternoon, dear," the woman said as Vicki raised a quick hand in greeting.
She could see the bulk of the Aquarium buildings ahead as she started briefly down slope. The Aquarium Gift shop was lit up and glowing against the rain, even though it wasn't yet four in the afternoon. Beyond the main pools and buildings of the Aquarium the older buildings of the Marine Mammal Rescue were visible.
Vicki's attention was drawn to a tan colored battered pickup truck parked with the headlights on against the over cast day. The truck was pulled up close to the edge of one of the rescue pools and the tailgate was lowered. Vicki could make out the blurry shapes of several men gathered around the bed of the truck.
Jogging in place she removed her glasses and dried them against the soft material of the inside of her T-shirt. When she replaced them the world was marginally clearer.
She realized what she was watching was a rescue in action, and decided to jog closer to get a better look at what was going on. She could see that there were two men who were winching a seal in a canvas sling up off the bed of the truck.
A third, dark haired man, in a deep blue fleece and jeans was soaked to the skin and bent with his head against the seal and his arm resting comfortingly over the seal's body.
She was close enough now that she could hear the sing-song nature of the dark haired man's voice as he appeared to be crooning soft words into the seal's neck.
She was no more than a few yards distant when the dark head came up and she caught a glimpse of deep dark brown eyes and the handsome face of Orion Gaelan. The same face that she had been studying for a week now in photographs.
"Orion Gaelan," she called out as she moved towards him. Gaelan looked up, shocked, into her face for a moment, and then pushed his body away from the truck bed. His feet slipping on the wet ground, he started to run in the opposite direction, away from her.
He slid, going down to one arm as he skidded around the corner of the building and then as she closed to within a few feet of him his longer legs began to pick up speed. Behind her she could hear the shouted inquiries of the other men and the discordant barking of the injured seal.
Vicki tore up the slope after him calling out in her best cop voice, "STOP."
He didn't even slow and she could see that he was faster than her as he ran straight down the parking lot that would take him to Third Beach.
He had opened a ten yard lead on her as he crossed Park Drive, the squeal of tires loud as a car narrowly avoided striking him. Vicky was forced to slow to skirt the car and its trembling driver and when she looked up Orion had scrambled down the rocks and was running full tilt across the sand towards the water.
Suddenly Vicki knew what he was going to do. "Orion," she shouted,"I just want to talk."
When she was at the bottom of the rocks she peered through the rain to the water. Orion Gaelan was up to his knees now.
Vicki tried hard to bring her eyes into focus as his silhouette, against the drizzle, blurred and then re-formed, as no more than a sleek spotted head and shoulders above the water's troubled surface. The whiskered head turned as selchie regarded her soulfully, and then slipped beneath the waves.
The rain had started to fall more heavily, as Vicki ran right up to the water's edge, bending over with her hands on her thighs to catch her breath.
She pushed her hair back from her face and blew out her cheeks. She scanned the choppy surface of the water until it disappeared in the mist, but the selchie never reappeared. When she looked down at her feet the blue fleece that Orion had been wearing was rolling in the incoming waves.
If she had not heard Linda Gaelan's voice as she told the story of watching her husband transform in the moonlight she might have doubted her own eyes. She looked up and down the beach; as far as she could see the sand was empty, as was the seawall and the road behind it.
I just saw a man transform into a seal, she said to herself, as she fished the jacket out of the water to check the pockets which were of course empty.
She laid the fleece on a rock and then started to make her way back across the beach to the rocks. Once she was back on a level surface she began to jog back up to the Aquarium.
Of course as she came over the rise to the rescue pool she saw that the pickup truck and the other men were gone. She had no way of knowing which one of the seals in the pool was the injured one that had been in the truck.
She checked her watch; it was now 4:45 PM and the rain was beginning to fall in earnest. Vicki was soaked and frustrated and she decided to head back to the Hotel.
A hot shower and some time to do some research on the internet and a couple of Advil were as far ahead as she wanted to think. She kept her attention focused on the ground as she made her way back to the Georgia Annex.
****
The rain was falling heavier now and twenty-five stories up the wind whipped the drops against the stainless shutters. They drops beat a staccato rhythm against the smooth surface, but they were denied access as was the deepening afternoon light.
Inside his sanctum, the air was still and moist. The orchid blooms hung suspended, still in the cool air, on their long tensile stems. Small drops of condensation formed, liquid on the spotted columns of the blossom's throats.
The vampire rested on his back, the deep blue sheets spread over his chest and legs. His muscular arms lay relaxed at his sides, his long fingered hands unfurled and open on the bed.
His chest did not rise or fall; neither did his eyes shift back and forth under his closed lids in the human half-life. Yet he had none of the waxen aspect of the dead, though that was what human kind would name him.
Attuned to the swing of the heavenly bodies, the Vampire waited out a turn of the celestial dance and when the sun quit the floor, he would take the hand of his partner the moon.
***
Coreen leaned forward across the table, her dark eyes excited and intent. "Tell me again what it looked like when he," she lowered her voice, glancing from side to side before continuing, "transformed!"
"I told you Coreen, I was a little ways away, and it was raining. He just sort of blurred around the edges and then there was a seal in the water instead." Vicki shook her head slightly as she saw again the sorrowful brown eyes of the selchie as he had looked back towards her.
"So at least we know Orion is still alive. Do you think we should call Linda Gaelan and let her know?" Coreen asked.
Vicki shook her head, "No, I will call them and give them a report in a couple of days; I need to know a bit more of what is going on first. I meant it when I said that I won't tell them where Gaelan is unless he allows me to divulge the information. As far as I am concerned, if he is not guilty of any crime, then Orion is the victim here."
The waiter laid the large platter of nachos on the table between them, and as he straightened Vicki tapped a finger against her empty margarita glass indicating that she wished to order another.
Coreen arched an eyebrow at her in a passable imitation of Henry's royal inquiry.
"What?" Vicki responded.
"Oh I don't know Vicki, it just seems like you need a little bit of liquid courage," Coreen drawled as she picked up a chip and dipped it in the guacamole.
It was after seven as they sat in the Mexican-style Cantina less than four blocks from Henry's address. Vicki watched the street visible through the windows. It was still raining heavily and to her eyes it was so overcast it looked almost dark.
Coreen had told her earlier that the sun would set at 8:38 tonight. "Yes, she had looked it up."
There had been some discussion as to whether or not Henry might conceivably rise earlier when it was so overcast, but in the end they had decided that if he 'slept' even though in a totally dark room, then the amount of light in his environment was not the determining factor.
This was one of the many details of Henry's existence that Vicki realized that she just didn't know. Coreen had been particularly pleased with this little piece of deductive reasoning. Vicki had resolved to ask Henry about it, that is if he was still talking to her.
"Are you calling me a Liar?" had been the last correspondence she had had from Henry. Admittedly he had called and she hadn't picked up, but it hadn't been the most 'auspicious' of endings to their last conversation. If she was honest with herself, she wasn't sure of the reception she was going to get when she and Coreen paid their surprise visit to Henry.
Coreen watched Vicki; she knew she was struggling, and she did feel a little sympathy for her, but mostly she just felt determined. I've made it this far, half way across the country. I am not going to let her off the hook now. What I wouldn't give to have Henry attracted to me the way he is to Vicki. Sometimes life is just SO not fair! Well, once I get them together let's hope that they can manage a bit better than by e-mail. My God, I have never seen two more stubborn…
As Vicki lifted a loaded nacho to her lips, Coreen smiled brightly across the table and said,
"So I have a great idea how we can get the security guard in Henry's building to let us upstairs…"
***
At eight thirty exactly Coreen and Vicky stood outside Henry's apartment building under a large umbrella. The rain fell endlessly from the night sky above them and the beach across the four lanes of traffic was lost in a rolling mist that muted the lights and sounds of the city behind them.
After having retraced their steps to a Café/Patisserie, Coreen had spotted a block before the Cantina, they had purchased a small but exquisite Birthday cake. Coreen had produced from her voluminous bag what was obviously a gaily wrapped bottle of champagne.
As they walked up the short low front steps of the building towards the brightly lit lobby, Vicki could make out the female guard behind the curved security desk.
Very swank, when the security desk sports a bouquet of two dozen black roses, she thought. This place is exactly to Henry's taste!
Vicki jumped a bit as the loud buzzer sounded, and balancing the cake on her hip, Coreen reached out to open the building's door. Show time, Vicki thought.
Coreen in all her enthusiastic, kohl-lined, Goth glory fairly skipped across to the security desk, while Vicky busied herself folding the umbrella before following at a more sedate pace.
The Gothette leaned forward on the security desk and began her full frontal assault.
"Hi, my name is Coreen Fitzroy, and you are?" Her eyes fell momentarily to the name tag at Tanya's chest. "Oh yes…Tanya. Hi Tanya! Wow I have always liked that name. I had a friend in high school who was named, oh well that doesn't matter right now, anyways. I'm Henry Fitzroy's sister."
Coreen struck a pose. "Can you see the resemblance, most people can't, but he is my brother, though I am know that he sometimes doesn't like to admit it. Do you have any brothers?"
Tanya nodded once, open-mouthed.
"Oh well then you know what I mean. We are as different as night and day." Here Coreen lowered her voice conspiratorially, "And we don't always get along, we had a bit of a fight last week, as a matter of fact. Henry really doesn't like Edge, that's my new boyfriend, says he has too many piercings, can you believe it! But that doesn't mean that I would miss his birthday that would just be too mean, right?"
Tanya raised her eyes imploringly in Vicki's direction.
I'm don't think that I have seen Coreen even take a breath yet, Vicki thought. For a novice she plays the game of good cop/bad cop pretty good. I'll give it a minute or two more so that Tanya gets really panicked before I step in and rescue her.
"So I got to thinking that what better way to apologize than to bring him a surprise birthday cake.
Did you know today was his birthday? No? Well, that doesn't surprise me; he always was a bit of a party pooper."
Coreen turned to Vicki and motioned her forward with a wave. She turned back to Tanya with a swing of her black hair.
"Show her the cake Vic," she said as Vicki started forward and laid the cake on the counter. Coreen's voice raised a notch; she was now in full swing and approaching the volume and pitch level of a squeal.
"Don't you just love it?" she asked Tanya, never pausing for a response.
"I wanted a black one but Vicki talked me out of it, she's good that way you know. Hey do you want to see a great picture of Henry and me? We took it about six months ago, right before he moved here," she said as she placed the "birthday" champagne bottle on the counter and pulled out her wallet to begin flipping through the photos.
Once again Tanya looked into Vicki's eyes. The plea in her gaze was plain and this time Vicki acted after allowing enough time for Tanya to see what was indeed a picture of Henry Fitzroy with his arm around his "sister" Coreen.
"Coreen," Vicki said in her most reasonable tone, "I'm sure that…Tanya, is very interested in all of this, but really we just want her to call up and let Henry know that we are here, don't we?"
Tanya looked rather fearfully at Coreen.
"Not really Vicki," Coreen replied, "I mean don't you think that the front desk calling ahead will kind of ruin the surprise?" She turned her dark eyes on Tanya, "You don't want to ruin the surprise do you?"
Tanya shook her head no.
"Good!" Coreen said, all bubbly good cheer. "Then we'll just go straight up."
She crossed to the elevator and pressed the button and then turned back as Vicky was carefully gathering up the cake.
"Did I tell you how much I love black roses? I really do and those are beautiful. Someone told me once that they mean that someone is sending you an apology, did someone do something that…"
Any thought that Tanya may have entertained of detaining them fled as Vicki snagged Coreen's sleeve and dragged her towards the elevator. As the door slid open, they entered the dark paneled cubicle and when the doors eased closed, Vicki cast Tanya a long suffering glance.
Tanya shook her head as she resumed her seat. Poor Mr. Fitzroy, she thought. They don't pay me enough for this kind of thing!
***
"Coreen, you deserve an Oscar," Vicki said laughing her voice full of admiration. The elevator started its slow ascent to the top floor.
"What?" Coreen said, but her smile gave her away.
The Gothette looked down at her watch, 8:38. The sun was just setting. This is the most critical part, Coreen thought.
She passed the champagne bottle to Vicki. "Here hold this a minute." She pushed her hair back from her face and straightened it over her shoulders and then took the cake box from Vicki.
Whoa, Vic is starting to look a little nervous, Coreen thought. She was watching the buttons on the panel light up as they passed the floors. Coreen saw Vicki's tongue dart out to moisten her lips.
Twenty-three…twenty-four…and…twenty-five, the elevator halted and settled. As the door swished open Vicki forced herself to put one foot in front of the other as she walked out of the elevator into a glassed in Atrium.
"Jeez," she said, "I don't know why I feel so nervous I mean it's not as if…"
Too late she heard the swish of the doors as they closed. She turned just in time to see Coreen through the narrow gap as the doors whispered closed, smiling sheepishly and leaning against the close button.
"Damn it Coreen!"
She just knew that Coreen would not allow the elevator to return to the top floor, even if she had to ride it all night.
Here she was, the great Victoria Nelson, stranded, bottle of champagne in hand, outside of Henry Fitzroy's door.