Round Robin Part X

Sorry a little quick and dirty here today. Last part here

A sea of sweet tasting death moved about Absolon as he leaned against an antiseptic wall. So impersonal now, these passings of men. No old women to wash the dead. No families holding their beloved’s hand as they sloughed off the world. Death surrounded by machines and strangers. So much better. His wary, hard eyes tracked the man who burst from one room almost taking a nurse to the floor as he careened around the corner. Such haste. Such fear. All over two mortals. How droll. How sweet. How wonderful. Waves of the doctor’s panic rolled over him. For a creature a century and a half old, Samuel wore his humanity like an unneeded but favored garment. Like a fine wine, age refined and developed his flavor. A pain that could be cultivated, savored for ages.

A cough at Absolon’s shoulder barely registered. Gregory’s voice, far more intrusive and irritating, did. “I did as you bid.”

Absolon barely turned his head. “I know.” The unwashed reek of a transient’s clothes and skin hit his senses. Far more subtle, the tang of loneliness…hopelessness swept over Absolon. He opened his mouth and breathed the desperation deep. The muted scent, dampened by Gregory’s own hollow wants, charged through Abolon’s frame.

“Let me go then.” The words of Gregory through another man’s mouth. His desires trapped in a sickened shell.

For a moment, Absolon toyed with leaving Gregory in the bum’s body. Unfortunately, he’d need him later and it would just call attention to Gregory. Still, he had no intention of freeing the spirit. “Why would I do such a thing?”

He whined. “But you promised.”

Absolon pushed away from the wall. A non-descript man in hospital scrubs, everything calculated to present as unremarkable. Except for his eyes. “You were a fool,” he snorted, “when you were mortal, you were a fool when you were undead, and you still are a fool.”

“You have the vampire.” Gregory plucked at his sleeve. The dead were such inveterate beggars. “You have others.”

“And I have you. Go until I call.” Absolon shrugged. "When I need you no more, then you shall have what I promised."

As he walked away, Gregory’s fading voice caught him. “What if I don’t come.”

“That…” He turned and for a moment the mask dropped away, “would be a mistake.”