Breathless Ch. 02

"Actually, that isn't a bad idea. I could raise money for the precinct that way and --"

*You ARE going to the fund raiser! (click)* Grom was trying to sound authoritarian, but Sadie could tell he was holding his laughter just on the other side of his teeth.

"So, no community outreach programs that have free massages and 'happy endings' then?"

She heard silence on the other end of the line.

"This keeps happening to me," Sadie said, staring at the device. "These things always stop working. Okay Grommie, I'll behave. But I think I should get a g-string budget for this job. Over and out." She turned off the device and then looked at Devlin, her expression becoming more serious. "Okay, I get it. You don't like the way I do things. But unless I'm actually breaking the law, you deal with me first before you go crying home to momma. That clear?"

Devlin physically shrank in his seat. Sadie shook her head and pulled out of the parking lot. 'Even if I Turned people, it wouldn't be him. Too many ways that could go wrong.'

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Shortly before sunrise . . .

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Sadie hopped into the shower shortly before sunrise after hurrying home from the station. Word of her unusual mingling style had gotten around and she had found a basketball on her desk with "For a good time call" written on it. She'd gotten a laugh out of it and decided to take it home. Devlin didn't seem as amused, but she kept catching him staring at her. She was concerned about that relationship, but she'd deal with it another time. She'd given Vladimir the message from his nephew, which had been received with a monosyllabic grunt and a sigh, but no explanation. And Melissa had left her a note saying that she was supposed to meet her parents for breakfast and so wouldn't be able to rendezvous after all. She did, however, promise a rain check.

"I smell like crud," she muttered as she wiped the stink of basketball and young male sweat away before changing into some sweat-pants and one of her few long-sleeved, non-cleavage-revealing shirts. She figured she might as well continue getting to know the community while she was on a roll. So she was heading down to New Plymouth. Population . . . one. New Plymouth was a wraith town.

Sadie wasn't sure why she was more comfortable with wraiths than other people, but she was. It generally wasn't easy to find someone willing to go talk to a creature whose basic mission in the afterlife was exact revenge. Wraiths were the physical embodiments of creatures who had died in unpleasant ways and couldn't sleep without vengeance. Once their own vengeance was satisfied, they sought it out for others. Some relished the work, others moved away so as not to be tempted. This wraith seemed to be in the latter category.

She jumped in her truck and started down a winding set of roads to get to New Plymouth. The wraith had apparently moved in sixty years earlier, and the town had been mostly dead by then anyway. So the roads out that way weren't maintained that well, but Sadie wasn't worried: her truck could take anything these woods threw at it.

But even for an Arbiter and vampire, there was something about a wraith town that just set you in a state of unease. Whatever light came into it, whether directly from the sun or reflected from the moon, seemed cooler . . . taking on tinges of cyan as it made its presence known. And there were no cars on the street, no movement, no talking and certainly no laughing. Nobody had ever even bothered to board up the abandoned buildings in the small town square. No one would come to New Plymouth to vandalize anything. No one with sense would go there for any reason.

She drove around for a few minutes, using the unusual chill in the air to provide some kind of guidance. Then she saw it . . . a faint light flickering in front of a large, double-story house just behind the courthouse. It was an eerie bluish-white light that clearly had no place in this world. Wraith put the pixie-flames out in front of the houses so that people who sought their service could find them.

"Turn . . . left," her GPS system said unnecessarily.

"Thanks Scarlett," she responded. She wondered if Scarlett's maps were even current for this town. She pulled her truck up to the curb, not sure if it constituted bad luck to park in a vengeance spirit's driveway. 'It's not like he or she is going to use it. Wraith's don't drive.' But she decided to play it safe.

The house was surprisingly intact compared to those around it, making her wonder if there was something about the mystical energy of a wraith that helped preserve their surroundings. While she had dealt with wraiths before, she'd never actually been to the home of one. 'How does one knock?' she wondered. There was a pretty wrought iron fence surrounding the property that had been painted white, and just inside the fence all along the perimeter were beds of annual flowers. Sadie pushed open the gate and walked the small cobblestone trail leading to the front porch steps, and it was during this journey that she saw that the front door was open. No, not open . . . gone. There weren't even hinges for a door. All the windows were open as well, though through more conventional means.

She had been expected the boards of the stairs and porch to creak when she walked on them, but they had that heavy and hearty "thump" to them of a solidly built structure. The wood actually seemed kind of new. She drug her eyes up from the floor and back to the door. She apparently didn't need to knock: the wraith knew she was there. Without noise or even enough motion to activate a vampire's peripheral vision, the wraith had appeared in the door.

The wraith was a female, and a beautiful female at that. Not "erotic and sexy" beautiful like Sadie, but rather a noble and classical beauty. She was slim and had features that could only be describe as elegant. If it hadn't been for those eyes, this creature could have gotten a job on any modeling runway in the world. But those eyes . . . pure white. There were no eyeballs to speak of, just glowing white light. She stood easily six feet tall and was dressed in the flowing blue and black robes so typical of her kind. Except for the fact that she reflected visible light, Sadie could detect nothing about her. She had no smell, her clothes didn't rustle in the chilly northwestern breeze: a painting of person left more of a record on the senses than a wraith did. Those eyes could see things that no mortal or vampiric eyes ever could, and they were looking at Arbiter Sadie Hewitt.

"Yes?" came a voice, clearly emanating from the wraith though her lips didn't actually move.

'That's so very creepy,' Sadie thought. "Hello," Sadie said, calling on all of her cheerfulness, "my name's Sadie Hewitt. I live up the hill from New Plymouth and just wanted to drop by and say hello. You're actually my closest neighbor I think."

The wraith just stared. No one came by a wraith to "say hello." It was like dropping by a dragon's cave to borrow a cup of sugar: it just wasn't done. The wraith seemed to breathe in through her nose. "I do not smell the hunger on you," the wraith continued. "Why are you here?"

Sadie smiled. "Again, just saying hello. By the way, I love your landscaping. Sorry, I just never figured wraiths for being into the hole 'home and garden' scene. You did all this yourself?"

The wraith was confused, and that didn't happen to wraiths very often. Most people thought wraiths were simply apparitions who only appeared when called upon. This was not really correct. They existed in the world in some form or fashion at all times.

"Yes," the wraith replied at last. No one sought out wraiths and yet this woman seemed only mildly concerned.

"Cool. I'm pretty much going for the natural look up around the trailer. I probably couldn't keep a cactus alive.

"These flowers are actually quite easy to maintain," the wraith said, almost as if she forgot that she was supposed to be intimidating. "There is sufficient rainfall so that --" She stopped. 'Why am I talking to her?' the entity thought.

"I didn't catch your name by the way," Said said, offering the wraith a handshake.

The wraith stared at that hand. No one was supposed to act this way, not even vampires. "Mary," she murmured softly, shaking the woman's hand.

Sadie was surprised that she wasn't more creeped out than she was. A wraith's touch was always cool, regardless of the outside temperature, and there was just enough pressure to realize that you were being touched but not enough to guage her strength.

The two stood on opposite sides of the door in complete silence. Sadie was just smiling, and the wraith was looking on blankly. If the woman didn't want vengeance, then -- "Would you . . . like to come in?" Mary asked.

"Love to!" the intruder responded.

Mary moved aside and waved the girl inside. Sadie entered a small hallway complete with coat closet leading back into a very tastefully decorated living room. It wasn't warm and flowery like living rooms so often were, but might better be described as "proper." The furniture was black leather and was actually nicer than Sadie's. The floor was well cared-for hardwood, and even the black curtains seem to have a soft elegance to them. There was, however, one thing more interesting than the fact that this wraith seemed to have exceptional taste in decoration, and that was the cats.

There were so many felines wandering around the living area and kitchen that Sadie couldn't keep track. There was at least one on each windowsill and multiple on every piece of furniture. Yet none of the furniture looked like it had been clawed.

"Pardon me," Mary said, gently picking up a short-haired tabby and placing it in another comfortable-looking location. The cat looked at its new surroundings, glanced up at the wraith as if to say "I find this acceptable" and then went back to sleep. Sadie took the offered chair.

"Actually," Mary started, "I had heard of your coming, though never expected you to be gracing my doorstep."

"You heard of me? Some kind of prophecy or --" Sadie stopped. Was it her imagination or had Mary almost cracked a smile.

"No," the wraith replied, pointing to a corner of the room, "Internet."

Sadie hadn't even seen the laptop over their in the shadows of the room. "Wraiths have internet? That seems awfully . . . mundane."

Mary now looked vexed. It was strange watching her face move, almost as if it had simply not practiced making expressions in a while. "In some ways, it is our only outlet. It is the one place where all are equal."

"I'd never thought of that." Sadie found herself with a cat in her lap. It was a small motley-colored thing that was looking for a warm place to nap. "Does this one have a name?"

Mary looked over. "They all have names, but they have not bothered telling me what they are. They live with me because they choose to. And they help keep the mice population down."

Sadie wondered why a wraith would worry about mice, but dismissed the question. She attempted to put the cat back on the ground, but it turned around and jumped back up, looking at Sadie as if to ask what she thought she was doing.

"She has chosen you," Mary said, a bit of humor in her voice. "And once a cat has chosen you, you might as well get used to it.

Sadie allowed the cat to make itself comfortable, turning around several times, clawing at her legs through the sweat-pants and then curling itself into a ball. Then it started to purr, and Sadie instantly felt more relaxed. "So you never named him?"

"Her," Mary corrected. "That's a calico. A tortoise-shell calico, to be more specific. Calicoes are always female." Mary stood up suddenly. "Would you like some tea? Or coffee? I don't have any plasma. I'm sorry, but I wasn't expecting company . . . ever."

"Coffee? You have electricity?"

"Yes. And I've even discovered the wheel and fire as well," Mary said, the projection of her voice becoming slightly acidic.

"Sorry," Sadie said, still smiling. "I just didn't see any power on in town, so I wasn't sure the lines still worked out here."

"My apologies," Mary said, turning on a coffee pot. "I have solar panels on the roof, two windmills just up the valley, and a generator in case of emergencies. I keep forgetting that most people don't understand that for a wraith, life doesn't end when you die. At least not the first time."

"You'd think I would understand that, being a vampire."

Mary openly smiled. "I was a vampire once," she said.

"Hunh. So you've died twice as much as the ordinary darkworlder. Trying to set a record?"

"I think that I'm quite through with the process, thank you very much. Cream or sugar?"

It wound up being a surreal afternoon, but Sadie would have been quite happy to continue the conversation except that she needed to get some sleep before going shopping with Melissa. Mary was an interesting character, that was for sure. Sadie believed that she had at one point been nobility or at least in the upper crust of society at some point. She sat properly, sipped tea with her finger extended, and just generally carried herself with grace and class. Mary never mentioned exactly who she had been or how she had come to be a wraith, and Sadie was polite enough not to ask. But Mary was also charming, quite intelligent and, apparently, had become an accomplished handyman. Getting anyone else to come out and work on the house was not going to happen, so she had done what needed to be done, rolling up her sleeves and working. One thing that Mary did let slip was that her family had money, and she was in fact living off of the family trust and the investments she had made. Sadie pegged her as having died within the last hundred and fifty years or so, but it was impolite to ask a girl's age.

"Well, I really have to be going," Sadie said, noticing instantly that Mary's face fell a bit. Sadie was convince that wraiths didn't so much die as simply fade away sometimes, particularly the ones who intentionally distanced themselves from the other races. They didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable, but it appeared to make them desperately lonely. "Listen, I have to attend this event on Saturday, but was wondering if you'd like to come by for dinner afterward."

Mary again was stunned. You didn't invite a vengeance spirit over for dinner . . . ever. "When?"

"About six a.m.?"

The wraith pondered it. "Yes, I would like that."

"Great! It's that little trailer up on the hill. 1408 Forest Creek Lane. If you like, bring a salad."

"Very well." Mary then wondered exactly how she was supposed to get a salad.

Sadie put the calico on the floor and allowed Mary to escort her to the door. The little feline managed to wind her way between Sadie's feet on every step.

"I told you," Mary said, leaning over to scratch the cat behind the ears, "she chose you."

The vampire realized just how true this was when she opened the door to her truck. The cat jumped inside before she could stop it and curled up in a ball in the passenger side. Sadie looked up to complain to Mary, but the wraith had vanished. Sadie looked back at the cat. "You presumptuous little bitch!"

The cat purred and gave Sadie a half-eyed stare.

Sadie grinned. "Okay, I think we're going to get along just fine."

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Saturday night . . .

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Sadie took great delight in pulling her pickup truck around the drive of the mayor's house and parking it. She knew that there would be valet parking, but no one drove her truck but her. End of story.

"I can't believe you actually named your GPS unit 'Scarlett'," Melissa said, climbing out of the passenger side of the truck. "Though she does sound like a Scarlett."

"Told you. And have I told you that you look ravishing tonight?" she said, taking Mel's hand and spinning her around. Melissa had gone with simple and black, and it fit her well. It was a snug dress with sleeves that went from her neck all the way to her calves, hugging her lithe frame. She also wore a choker necklace, which was to let any vamps in the crowd know that she wasn't on the market. She hadn't quite figure out what she wanted, but she had eliminated being a broodling.

"Like anyone would even notice me with you around," Mel replied. Even though she'd seen Sadie trying the dress on, it seemed to take her breath away. The vampire had gone with a glittery white gown with slits cut in the sides up to the mid thigh, a neckline that plunged below the breast line, exposing tanned flesh every inch of the way. The dress also dipped dangerously low in the back, stopping its descent just above the woman's ass. Sadie was certainly not wearing a bra, so the only thing between her chest and the eyes of the world were the soft wide straps coming down from her neck. On most attractive women, the dress would have looked good. On Sadie, it would make people's blood boil out of desire or jealousy. Mel fell into the former category.

Sadie took Melissa's arm and they walked in the door, almost giving the doorman a heart attack. They were met by one of the mayor's cronies who informed them, much to Sadie's annoyance, that they had been placed at the mayor's table for dinner, along with Lord Frost, a few other councilmen as well as officer Koloff and his wife. Vladimir was already sitting at the table, but Sadie didn't see the infamous "bitch" that everyone seemed to hold in so little regard.

The two women worked there way through the crowd, with most of the eyes of nearby revelers on the Arbiter. Her hair was up in some delightfully wild looking bun, leaving her neck exposed. She was a wet dream for almost everyone in the room. She sat down next to Vladimir with Mel on her other side.

The werewolf looked about as happy as a patient in a dentist's waiting room. He already had a glass of something that reeked of vodka and was just staring off into space. When he heard Sadie sit, he turned to look at her. And even the grizzled police veteran couldn't help but take Sadie's image in without a hint of desire in his eye. Much to his credit, he was able to pull his eyes up to hers quickly.

"Nice outfit," he grumbled. I didn't know there was going to be a basketball game."

She grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "You are so funny!" she said. 'Damn, he actually smells good.' "You look as happy to be here as I am."

He looked her over more puposefully this time. "I think that you're still better suited to this than I am."

"So where's your wife?" she asked.

He froze for a second, then relaxed. He pointed his goatee-laden chin towards a group of people standing next to the bar. "That's Teresa in the green."

Sadie was impressed. The slight elfish woman was a legitimate looker with short blond hair and a build even slimmer than Melissa, and she looked perfectly at home chatting it up with the tux and tie crowd. The way she placed her hands on their arms, laughed at every joke, and sent coy looks at all the gentleman told the tale.

"Score one for the wolfman," Sadie said. Melissa gripped the vampire's hand while Vladimir's face fell. "Sorry," she said, looking confused.

Vladimir gave her a tired smile. "It's okay. I know what people say about her. I was just assuming the worst."

Sadie badly wanted to know this story, but she decided right then and there who she wanted to hear it from. "Vladimir," she started, "I promise you this. I'll judge you for who you are and, if she and I talk, I'll judge her for who she is. I won't ask questions. I won't dislike her for for other peoples' sake, but I won't like her for yours. That's the best I can do. Okay?"

Vladimir actually looked somewhat relieved, though he tried not to show it. He just nodded and returned to his drink.