I got in the car and waited for Milo to get in the passenger side. I’d offered to let all of my kids join me on my business trip, but Milo was the only one who took me up on the offer – probably because he could get out of a few days of school, mostly.
Milo buckled in and then slouched down in the seat, looking at his phone. I flashed him an amused smile and then headed out.
The conference was in Willen Cove, about two and a half hours down the coast from Port Fylin. Willen Cove had a business sector that was fairly separate from the more residential beach part of the town, which made it feel more like a larger city and a small town instead of all one place. I’d visited a few times, but Port Fylin was bigger, which helped with my career options when I’d decided where to settle down.
We didn’t talk much during the drive, Milo staying on his phone for the most part apart from asking about our lodging arrangements. We could have stayed in the hotel where the conference was being held, but I’d opted instead to stay at a hotel a little closer to the beach in case Milo wanted to hang out there. He was more into technology, but the beach here was nicer than in Port Fylin so I wanted to give him the opportunity if he wanted it.
When we got to the hotel, Milo flopped down onto one of the queen beds and started flipped through TV channels – feeding, it looked like. I, meanwhile, had to eat more traditional food so I went out and got some before joining Milo in watching some TV. We talked some about his school, about the conference, and about his plans for the future, which mostly involved working with electronics somehow. I’d tried to look into potential careers – only if he wanted one – and I was aware that techno vampires sometimes helped out police agencies or government agencies or worked for private individuals, but I also was fine with Milo not working if he wanted. He didn’t need to provide for himself, but if he wanted to pursue a career, I’d support him with that.
The next morning I got ready, dressing in uniform for the first day of the conference. I left Milo to do whatever as I headed out to the hotel where the conference was being held, meeting with some of my friends there and talking over our respective cities before our first meeting started.
Most of the morning was spent with greetings and a rundown on the activities over the course of the 4-day conference. My presentation wasn’t until tomorrow, so I could relax and enjoy the meetings that were being held before meeting up with Milo for lunch.
As I went outside, I looked up at the blue sky, appreciating the spring weather, then glanced around at the other attendees who were leaving, the people walking along the sidewalk on my side of the street and the other side, watching for Milo –
Wait. I jerked my eyes back to the other side of the street, frozen in place. Because there was something – someone – that was impossible.
I spent almost every day regretting what had happened with her, but there she was, across the street, talking with a man I didn’t recognize. Or – it looked like her. Like I imagined she’d be as an adult, not just a teenager. But that couldn’t be, because…she should be in her early 80s, like me. But she looked like an adult – like me, falling within the ageless category that most supernaturals achieved as we reached adulthood.
That should be impossible, though. She was human. She would age like humans did. Her father was a witch, I thought, and her mother a human. The man she was with now, whom she appeared to be meeting for lunch, wasn’t her father whom I had met a few times, but he seemed to be some sort of supernatural. I wasn’t sure what kind, but it wasn’t the one who had given her her current protection mark – that was an oceanid’s mark, which I was pretty familiar with from living in another coastal city with its own merfolk population.
But it couldn’t be her, could it? It had to just be someone who looked like her. Because…because…because this was still a human woman, but she wasn’t in her 80s like she should be. So…it had to just be a coincidence. It had to be.
Without thinking it through, I found myself walking down my side of the sidewalk in the same direction she was going, then crossing the street at the crosswalk. I was vaguely aware of Milo chasing after me, but I was too intent on trying to find out if it was really her to pay much attention.
As I fell into step a few yards behind them, I caught a whiff of a scent that reminded me of her. That…could that really just be coincidence?
And then I heard the man’s voice.
“Of course I want him to, Gwen, but I’m not taking anything for granted! I don’t know if he’ll want to stay on permanently. He’s not going to want to move here, not when his family is in Avenglade. I’ll give him the option but I’ve determined I won’t be upset if he decides not to take it.”
Hearing that name, on top of everything else, and I couldn’t resist anymore. I sped up and lightly touched her arm, making her and the man turn around in surprise to look at me.
“Gwen?” I asked tentatively. “Is that really you?”
Her face went whiter by at least three shades and her fingers on her purse tightened. “Tony.” She responded without enthusiasm. “How…nice…to see you again.”
The man with her was looking a little tense, but when he heard my name he frowned a bit. “Tony as in…back in high school?”
She nodded once, her eyes not leaving me. “Yes, that Tony.”
“Dad!” Milo caught up to me, looking pissed off. “What’s that all about? What happened to lunch?”
“Give me a minute,” I told him, then turned back to face the girl who got away. “Gwen, I – can I talk to you, please? Not now, if it’s not a good time. I’m here for a few days for a conference.”
Her eyes dropped briefly to my uniform, then over at the hotel across the street which had a big sign out front welcoming the police. “Of course you are.” She sounded a little sour.
“Gwen?” Her companion asked. “Do you want me to – ”
“No, no, it’s okay,” she brushed him off, her eyes still on me. She was frowning, clearly not as happy to see me as I was to see her, nor as stunned about it, but then she shook her head slightly. “Running into you of all people. This really isn’t my day.”
“Hey, be nice to Dad!” Milo spouted defensively. “He’s not a bad guy.”
“Not now, Milo, please,” I begged him. He didn’t know the full story – and in that story, I really was the bad guy.
Instead, I turned back to Gwen. “I’d really like to apologize. And – straighten some things out, if we can.” I paused, also wanting to add that I’d really like to understand why she didn’t look as old as she was, but I didn’t know if I was entitled to ask that question. Not after what I’d done. “If you could just give me a little time, please.”
Gwen sighed, looked at her companion, who shrugged a bit, then made a reluctant noise. “Fine. How long does your thing go till tonight?”
“Six,” I answered. “But I can skip the later sessions if you want me to.”
“No, no,” she waved her hand dismissively, “that’s not necessary. Stop by my place at seven, okay?” She scribbled something on a slip of paper and handed it to me. “I’m fairly certain this is going to be a conversation we need to have in private,” she muttered. “Don’t be late, okay?” Then she spun around, grabbing the man’s elbow as she did and pulling him along with her, leaving me standing in the sidewalk with a confused Milo and – and a chance to apologize.
“Dad?” Milo asked. “What’s going on?”
I forced myself back to the present and started in the other direction, back towards the restaurant we’d chosen last night. “You remember once I told you that I made a terrible mistake with a girl? That was her.”
He looked back over his shoulder at the two of them, making me look as well. They seemed to be involved in a heated discussion as they faded in amongst the other pedestrians.
“She’s human, though.” Milo’s brows furrowed. “Or…she looks like she is. Is she not? I mean, she can’t be if she is your age and looks like that.”
That was the question, wasn’t it? But if so, why did she read human? And why hadn’t she told me?
Those questions haunted me the entire time Milo and I ate together and then the entire afternoon sessions. To be honest, I couldn’t really even say what was being said during the sessions, because I was too wrapped up in just trying to understand what had just happened.
I had seen Gwen again. But she didn’t look the age she should. I didn’t know what to make of that.
She hadn’t been happy to see me. But she’d agreed to give me a chance to apologize. In her home. Again, I didn’t know what that meant.
But what I could understand was that somehow I had found Gwen again and I had a chance to make things right. I would not waste that chance.
I got back to my hotel immediately after the last session ended and changed into regular clothes, surprised to discover Milo planned to go with me.
He crossed his arms and gave me a defiant look. “I’m coming, okay? I don’t know what’s going on with her but if you need backup, you have me. I’m not letting you handle this alone.”
I felt warmth at my son’s insistence. It wasn’t like he was any good in a fight – while I had training for that, and well, I wasn’t anticipating a fight actually happening – but he was insisting on coming to be there for me emotionally. And I appreciated that.
“All right.” I gave him a soft smile. “Thank you.”
He kind of grunted and fell into step with me, his aura very protective as we got closer to our destination.
Gwen lived in the beachside residential part of town, close enough to hear and smell the ocean but not quite close enough to see it. The residences here were older, on a cobblestone street, and her house had a tiny courtyard out front with a few plants growing in it. My heart thumping so loud I was afraid Milo would hear it, I knocked on the door and waited.
She opened the door and invited us in immediately, not seeming terribly surprised to see Milo with me. I greeted her awkwardly, suddenly wondering if I should have brought flowers or something, and glanced around the front room in an effort to hide my discomfort.
The room was simple, but comfortable. The front part had a couple of couches next to a large aquarium while the back part of the room appeared to be the dining room, with a door leading to the kitchen on the right. There were a couple of large pictures on the wall, one of an orca and one of a seahorse, on the far wall across from the door, while I noticed another set of pictures on the wall to the left – one with Gwen and the man I’d seen earlier today and one with her and a younger man.
Before I got a chance to ask, the younger man from the picture appeared from the kitchen, munching on a bagel. Like Gwen, he had dark brown hair and he wore his longer than hers, and like her, he was human. Or…at least, he looked human.
“All right, I’m off to meet up with Alex,” he told her, kissing her cheek before he noticed us. “Oh, hey! You friends of Mom’s?”
“This is Tony,” Gwen said coolly. “We’re not exactly friends, but we were once. And this is his son.”
“Milo,” I provided, trying to ignore the sting at the confirmation that Gwen was, indeed, married. Of course she was – I had blown my chance with her terribly, and it had been 65 years, give or take, since then? Of course she’d have gotten married and had kids – or a kid, at least. The guy she was with earlier was probably her husband. Or the oceanid who protected her was. One of them, at least. I tried not to feel jealous about that – I had no right to be.
“Tony? Oh – oh!” Gwen’s son’s eyes widened. “As in the dragon dude? Wow, I’m almost tempted to call off my date with Alex, this should be interesting! I’m Sterling,” he volunteered to both of us before I could respond to his question or wonder why he wanted to watch our likely painfully awkward conversation.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sterling,” I responded promptly. “I apologize for interrupting your evening unexpectedly, but I ran into your mom and had some things I wanted to speak with her about.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.” He grinned happily. “I wasn’t even going to be here anyway, got a date with my girl. Have fun and be nice to Mom, okay? Or I’ll, uh, hmm, what’s a good threat for a dragon,” he murmured to himself.
“Actually,” Gwen interrupted, “can you take Milo here with you? I think Tony and I need to have this conversation alone. He’ll be safe,” she added to me and Milo, “Sterling’s just going to the wildlife rehab center. He works there. His girlfriend is an oceanid, they tend to spend a lot of time at the beach.”
“Sure, sure,” Sterling agreed. Milo looked like he didn’t want to agree, but Sterling started to drag him towards the door before he could object.
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