The Devil's Got Your Number

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

Behind him he heard the collision and the cursing. There was another car in front, he jumped and took the brunt of the impact. He rolled and plunged hands and knees into water. Car doors slammed, there were raised voices, and he was up and running again.

He looked for signs. The rain came down thick and hard, it glistened in the sky and shimmered on the ground. His feet pounded the pavement and spashed through puddles. The bottom of his jeans were soaked. He crossed another road to the sound of angry honking horns. Faces whipped past and his eyes darted this way and that.

La Chi-Diner

Bold and brazen, the lights burned red through the watery haze. He dared a glance over his shoulder. The coast was clear. His hands sliced through the bitter evening air. He crashed through the diner door, heads surfaced curiously, and soft jazz filtered through the clatter of cups and cutlery. Long strides took him to the back of the diner. He fell into a booth occupied by a woman with brown hair. Two open menus were placed strategically upright against the steamed window. His head was low and he took a break away from menu reading to acknowledge the woman opposite.

"Alright, honey."

[Arabella Balfour]

She only just removed a little bag of Darjeeling from it's simmering confines, in the form of a porcelain cup, when her solitude was interrupted by a complete stranger plunking himself down without ceremony across from her. Arabella blinked for a moment, certain that he would realize that he'd opted for the wrong table and excuse himself.

While he perused the menu, showing no obvious signs of doing so, she wrapped the string around her teabag and applied pressure to the silver spoon to squeeze every last bit of the delightful Indian brew into her cup, then set the spoon down with a quizzical and searching gaze. The way he propped the menu's up gave her cause to regard him more closely, and when he did chance to look up, she knew she was done for.

This city was simply crawling with vampires, there was no way around it.

First her attack moments after arriving at the airport. Then the display of insanity that she had narrowly escaped while shopping, and now? Who knew what was going on? Best just to play along for the moment, she thought..

"Honey... is no good in Darjeeling, young man. You may call me Arabella, if you don't mind." Perhaps her haughty set down would make him realize she was not without intelligence..

"May I help you..?", she asked curiously, knowing full well what curiosity had done to the proverbial cat.

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

His arms were folded on the table and he leaned forward, his chin cradled on the back of his hand. Slowly, he peeled his eyes away from the menu and stared up at her with intent. His voice was low.

"Are yeh offerin'?"

[Arabella Balfour]

She mulled over the question, as if she had all the time in the world. Taking a leisurely sip of her tea, Arabella weighed the options. So far this one was playing nice, and it seemed like he was the one in trouble.

"It depends..", she finally said, setting down the cup, folding her hands over it to warm them. She hadn't realized how very cold she was, until the returning heat caused her to shudder involuntarily.

"Do I have a choice..?", her warm brown eyes locked on the man across from her.

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"Yeh always 'ave a choice,"

He shifted in the seat, keeping his head low, he glanced down the length of the diner. Water dripped from his soaking rust-coloured hair onto the table. He raised his hand to a waitress then turned his attention back to the stranger sat with him.

"O' course, it works both ways. Can I get yeh anythin'?"

[Arabella Balfour]

"No, thank you.", she smiled slighty at the offer.

The timer on her watch chose that moment to sound it's soft little alarm. She seemed surprised that the time had flown, but dutifully reached into the bag at her side to remove a prescription pill bottle and tap two little capsules into her waiting hand. As an after thought, she had brought along a scarf tucked into her coat, just incase it decided to open up and rain as it was doing now. She handed it across the table so that her newly acquired companion could soak up some of the torrent he was dripping across the table linen..

"Perhaps, if I knew what it was you needed help with..?" She discreetly popped the pills into her mouth and took a sip of water.

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"A bit o' company."

The waitress arrived with a notepad. He ordered a black coffee and made small talk with Sherry; she wore a name badge; they talked about the special and how business had been while the woman took her medication. His eyes never left her. When Sherry retreated to the kitchen, he thanked her for the scarf and dried his hair with it.

"I'm Paddy."

[Arabella Balfour]

She waited until the server had moved off before speaking again. Company, indeed? Well he'd found the right girl for that! She thought to herself, ever the cynic these days.

"Arabella Balfour..", she repeated her name. It would have drawn notice in London or Paris, but the beauty of being here in Chicago was that she was not widely known.

"The pleasure is mine, Paddy. Company..? Hmmm.. is that usually how you go about it, then? Find a suitable female and play lost boy coming in from the rain? I'll bet the accent does it everytime, am I right?", she teased..

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"Yeh took the words outta me mout'."

His face was still, his eyes were trained on her, and her smart mouth was smiling. They shared a moment of silence. He pulled the scarf from his shoulders and offered it to her. He spoke like a man accustomed to meeting strangers.

"Since we're bein' forward wit' each udder 'ere. Would yeh care to tell me whadda woman such as yerself is doin' in a dump like dis? Yeh don't strike me as de diner type."

[Arabella Balfour]

"Well, two reasons..", she smiled and picked her cup up from the little saucer and took another sip.

"They have excellent tea here for one.."

Her light mood was suddenly overcast a bit by a shadow of uncertainty and fear that passed over her features like a raincloud. The fact that she was sitting across from someone like Paddy didn't scare her, but reason number two did..

"It is also in proximity to the University hospital, where I make frequent visits. The music drew my attention, and I've since made the habbit of stopping in on the way home. I just happen to be here a little longer tonight, waiting out the rain.."

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"You're sick," he said, it wasn't a question.

The waitress returned and, as well as the coffee, she brought with her another moment of silence between the pale pair. She left them, muttering something about an exciting table. He gulped some coffee.

"Is it serious?"

[Arabella Balfour]

"It is, actually...but never fear I won't pop off at the table and deprive you of my company." Her words were joking, but nothing more than her trying to make light of the dreadful situation and cover up her own anxiety which was fairly eating at her.

Arabella looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "Blood disorder, or so they say.."

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"Great... food poisonin'."

Sherry returned to collect Arabella's empty teacup. She leaned across the table, two buttons on her blouse had been opened and Paddy was afforded a generous glimpse of her profound bossom. His eyes went wide with wonder but it wasn't her cleavage he was interested in. Nested comfortably against her bare skin was a beautiful diamond ring; it hung from a chain and sparkled majestically even in the miserable diner light. When she left them, his hungry eyes doted on her for a beat until he came to his senses. He scratched the thick growth of burnt copper hair on his cheek, his face twisted with intense satisfaction.

"Lemme ask yeh summin', honey...bella. Yer not much of a traveller, are yeh?"

[Arabella Balfour]

For a moment there she thought the poor waitress was about to be pounced and trounced. Arabella watched her companion, slightly more cautiously.

Food poisoning, indeed..

Her blood was not toxic, but she was not about to tell him that. It was just her cells had grown thin and weak from longetivity.

"No.. not really. I'm more of a home body, you could say. It's just that I've changed homes very recently. Why do you ask..?"

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"I can just tell dese tings," he said, a knowing glint in his eyes.

"Dat an' I'm new to Chicago meself. Funny we should end up sittin' togedder like a couple o' kindred spirits."

He drained the rest of his coffee in long successive gulps then called out to Sherry; he ordered a can of coke. Before returning his attention to Arabella, he peeked over the menus and scanned the street, the pavements were clear save for the odd unfortunate caught in the rain but the roads were still heaving with traffic.

"How long 'ave yeh been dis way?"

His green eyes fell upon her.

"An' I'm not talkin' about yer sickness."

[Arabella Balfour]

Blast! She winced in her mind.

One just did not ask a lady her age! It simply was not done! Of course.. reactions like that proved just how very old-fashioned Arabella really was.

So they were going to have that talk on the first date, were they? Fine.. Keeping her poker face in place, she picked up the wine listing as if it held some great interest for her and scanned the reds. After a long moment of deliberation she muttered quietly an answer..

"Eighteen-Nineteen.." Peeking up to gauge his reaction, she admitted it to herself, she was something of an oddity.

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"I take me 'at off to yeh, love. Yeh look smashin'."

His eyebrows had raised a fraction but he wasn't that surprised. He'd seen plenty of strange things in his relatively brief life. His can of coke arrived, he opened it promptly and glugged. He sighed and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his jumper.

"I'm a pup by comparison. I betcha it's an interestin' life yeh lead, Arabella."

[Arabella Balfour]

Another sad little smile..

"It has been, yes.." There was a note of resignation there, as if she knew the last chord of the song that was her life, was about to play.

Arabella glanced out the window, the rain had let up. She could walk now without getting soaked to the bone. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the fact that Paddy seemed to need the diversion of sitting here talking, and it was nice to converse with someone that knew her for what she was, even if he was a tad on the challenged side of life himself.

"So Paddy, walk a lady home..?" She was taking a risk, sure, but if he wanted to turn nasty on her he would do so anyways, better to keep things friendly.

[Paddy O'Sullivan]

"I walk a lady 'ome in return fer her 'elpin' me keep 'ed low? I like the sound o' dat."

He extended his hand across the table and for the first time, he smiled.

"Deal!"

[Arabella Balfour]

He was awfully eager to make an agreement over such a trifling matter. That sent off little warnings to Arabella, she was not quite that green after all. Hasty deals meant trouble..

Her fingers reached toward his, but stopped teasingly short of sealing the deal. Let him squirm, she thought..

"No deal." She grinned, sliding her fingers backward over the table.

"You've already gotten that out of me, haven't you? I could have gotten up and left when you, a stranger, elected to grace me with your most charming presence. So.. the way I see it.."

She grinned, quite pleased with herself. "You already owe me the walk. Although I am still open to negotiations.."