Dancing in the Dark - 2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

“Oh come on Miri! Open up!” I’m at my best friend’s place. She won’t open the door for me, probably because she can still smell faint traces of blood on me. Damn her and her sensitive nose.

It’s been three days since that night, and even though I’ve showered every time I got up and every time I went to bed Miri will still be able to smell the blood on me. That’s because she’s a werehorse. And there’s nothing that makes a horse more nervous than blood.

Miri eventually opens the door for me, but doesn’t come near me. I don’t mind. I understand her nerves, even though I don’t know why she doesn’t just override them with her human instincts.

“I’m sorry Mark, you just smell so . . . gross,” she says. I give her a grin and head to the kitchen. I make myself at home there, pulling out ingredients from the bags I brought with me. I enjoy cooking, and after three hundred years or so of practice, I’m pretty good at it.

“Don’t worry about it Mir, I tried washing it all off, but I couldn’t wait any longer before coming to talk to you,” I usually waited at least two weeks between completing a job and visiting with Miri. But I really needed to talk to her, and a phone conversation was just not going to cut it this time.

Miri pulled a face at me, and then sat on one of the stools across the breakfast island.

“What’s going on then? You’re very . . . animated,” she's cautious with her choice of words. I’m always kind of hyper after a kill, but she doesn't really know this as I’ve usually settled down by the time I get around to visiting her.

“Yeah. So when I went to collect payment the other night,” she goes slightly pale at this, “it was dropped off by this guy and I can’t get him out of my head.” I pause while chopping up a carrot and absently swat at Miri’s hand as she steals some from the cutting board. She crunches on the stolen piece of carrot and tilts her head at me.

“So? I know you’re depressed like, all the time, but that never stops you from chasing tail,” she says.

I shake my head, “No, this is different Mir. First of all, I don’t want to fuck this guy. Well, I do, but I don’t just want that,” I think about the way the vampire looked. “He was not healthy. He was too thin and he was dressed in rags. I wanted to take him home and clean him up Miri. When do I ever want that?”

Miri’s head drew up a little in surprise. “Maybe you could just see potential or something,” she ventures cautiously. I resume my chopping, finishing the half cut up carrot and then reaching for a parsnip.

“No…maybe…I don’t know,” I want to tell Miri he’s a vampire, but she’ll freak out if she hears that. Miri hates vampires. I don’t blame her, she was being tortured by a couple I had been hired to kill, and I kind of rescued her by accident. That’s how she knows what my other job is.

We lapse into a comfortable silence while I finish preparing dinner and then set it in the oven to roast. It’s just a bunch of vegetables with various seasonings, because Miri’s a vegetarian. I personally love meat, but I love my vegetables too.

We move into the living room while dinner cooks, bringing some wine and glasses with us. We chat about other things for a while, catching up on various events. Miri tells me how she’s considering joining a herd that is based in the city.

“I wasn’t aware there was a herd in the city,” I observed.

“Yeah, they only came to my attention last week. It’s just a bunch of mares at the moment, but the alpha mare has put out the word for a stallion.” Werehorse herds functioned in exactly the same way a normal horse herd worked, an alpha mare leading the herd and keeping them safe, a stallion being a part of the group predominantly for breeding purposes.

“You want to join a herd with a stallion?” I asked skeptically. Miri blushed, but nodded.

“I’m ready for a child,” she said softly, looking down. I paused for a moment and then took both our wine glasses and placed them on the coffee table.

I gathered Miri up in a warm hug. “That’s wonderful news Miri. I’m so happy for you,” I drew back and looked in her eyes. They were sparkling with tears. The timer on the oven went off at that moment, and I got up to check on dinner. It needed a few more minutes, so I reset the timer and went back out to Miri.

“You should try and find this guy of yours Mark,” Miri said softly. I took a sip of my wine and looked at her.

“I think I really want to,” I agreed. “It’s so bizarre Miri, I saw him for all of three minutes, and I haven’t been able to get him out of my head. I don’t know how to find him though, I know nothing about him.”

“Can’t you contact the people who hired you?” I gave Miri a condescending look, and she punched me in the arm.

“Ow! Ok, I’m sorry, but no. People contact me Miri, not the other way around.”

“Oh. Well, you know why they hired you, maybe you can find out something from there,” she said.

“You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea . . .” the timer in the kitchen went off again and I shied away from Miri as she tried to punch me again.

“I have good ideas!” she shouted after me. I dished up our dinner and we spent the rest of the night talking and laughing, enjoying each other’s company. I eventually had to get going to work, and Miri admonished me on my way out.

“Mark, you need to find something to bring you back to life. You put on a good show for me, but I know you. You’re desperately unhappy, and you’re getting worse. Find this guy, explore these feelings you’re having. I don’t want to lose you,” she’s holding my face in her hands and looking me right in the eyes as she tells me this. I stare at her for a moment, and give her a small nod. She hugs me, I give her a kiss on the cheek and then I’m on my way to work.

***

“Mark!”

We’re about halfway through the night when Jake yells out to me and waves the phone in my direction. I give change to the person I’m in the middle of serving and then head over to take the phone call. I’m not sure who could be calling me, but I was happy to get a break from demanding drunken fools.

“Hello?”

“Is this Mark? Mark Atwood?” says a deep voice on the other end of the line.

“Yes it is, to whom am I speaking?”

“This is Dr. Pierson from Northside Hospital, we have a young man in here with no identification, the only thing we could find on him was a piece of paper with your name and this number on it.”

“Ok . . .” I wasn’t sure what Dr. Pierson wanted from me.

“Well, since he has your name and number we thought we’d give you a call and find out if you can assist us in identifying the young man?” the doctor says with a trace of impatience.

“Um . . . ” the chances of me knowing who this mystery person is pretty small. I hadn’t had sex with anyone since before my last job, so it probably wasn’t one of those. I never gave them my number anyway, let alone my work number. And honestly, I just don’t know that many other people.

“Please sir, the young man is in very poor shape, he’s very undernourished and is exhausted, we really just need some help in finding out who he is,” the doctor had a wheedling tone now.

“Uh, sure, I guess. I’ll swing by on my way home from work, I finish at 5,” I capitulated.

“Oh good, thank y-“ I hung up on the doctor and went back to work. I was a little annoyed, but honestly, it paid to help people out every now and then.

Work went by in a blur, and I was almost home before I remembered I was supposed to be going to the hospital. I turned around and drove back there. I hadn’t asked Dr. Pierson where I could find the mystery patient, so I just went to the ER and asked there. They directed me to wait a moment while they paged Dr. Pierson.

The doctor found me not five minutes later. “Ah, Mr. Atwood, thank you for coming down,” he smiled and held out a hand to me.

“Sure, no problem,” I answered and shook it.

“He’s just down here. I sure hope you know who he is, I’d hate to have to involve social services, although he might be of age, I’m not sure,” the doctor prattled on and I listened with half an ear. Dr. Pierson let us into a room with two beds. One bed was empty, but the other had a very thin, sick looking young man in it.

I recognized him immediately.