Immortal Distraction by Elizabeth Finn

sure what you’re referring to?”
    “What! Mike… I just introduced you to Angus. You were going to polygraph him.” She was still pointing to her cool, blue-eyed tormentor.
    He glanced around perplexed, caught sight of Angus, and then gave her a quirky smile that suggested he thought she was far crazier than she thought he was. “I’m sorry, Brit, but I don’t know who this is or what you’re talking about. Are you okay?” She was starting to wonder…
    “Well hello, Brit. If you don’t mind, I’m in a bit of hurry, and I really do need to get going.” Angus had just reached them, and he was looking at her with his inappropriately seductive expression, ignoring Mike entirely.
    “Angus! You … and you… What the hell is going on?” She looked incredulously at them, and she felt like she was losing her mind. The men regarded each other, Mike still with his quirky look of confusion, and Angus with a cool, impassive expression. When Angus’ focus returned to her, he shrugged mildly, smirked at her and then winked as she gaped at him. Mike stood by slowly shaking his head as if he couldn’t quite figure out what to make of Brit’s behavior.
    “Mike, you were giving Angus a polygraph. I left to speak with the chief, and when I got back, he was leaving and you were too. Are you done already? Or…” She couldn’t stop shaking her head as her brain struggled to figure out what was happening.
    “Detective, I don’t know Angus or what you think I was doing here, but…” Then he stopped cold and started looking around, and for the first time, he looked like maybe he was going crazy and he was realizing it for the first time. Brit just kept staring at the poor man, and Angus stood by casually if not amused. “What am I doing here?” Mike looked scared.
    Angus reached a gentle hand to his arm and looked him dead in the eye with his cool, confident, blue gaze. “I’m sure you recall, Mike, you were going to polygraph me, but there was a problem…”
    Relief washed over Mike’s face as he looked at Angus and understanding returned. “Yes. That’s right.” He was staring at the wall behind Angus, and he took his time collecting his thoughts before turning back to Brit, shaking his head and speaking again. “I’m sorry, Detective. I just … I’m not sure what happened there … uh … but yes. The equipment appears to be working correctly, but the readings didn’t make sense. No perspiration readings, heart-rate sensor was showing odd results. I can’t explain it really, but there must be something off on the calibration or … perhaps the sensors… I’m not sure, but we’ll have to reschedule.”
    He quickly left them, still shaking his head. And when Mike was out of earshot, she glared at Angus. “What the hell did you do?” She was damn near yelling, and a number of bystanders stopped in their tracks and stared at her outburst.
    “Why, Brit, I have no idea what you’re suggesting.” He was smiling at her, and she was suddenly gasping for breath. She didn’t understand what she’d just witnessed, but it brought her up short. She was either going crazy or … or what? What the hell had she just seen?
    “You … did something to him. I know you did. What…?”
    “I really do need to go. You’ll let me know when they reschedule the test?” And then he was gone. She stayed rooted to her spot on the floor watching him walk away from her down the hall. She suddenly felt as though she was seeing something impossible in front of her. The other officers and detectives that were walking down the hall somehow seemed to bend and move around him as though he was his own universe. It wasn’t really happening of course, but he was not like them. He was not like her. There was something so very inhuman about him, and there was no amount of studying or watching that would allow her to wrap her brain around what she’d seen, or what it all meant.
    Her phone rang the moment she returned to her desk.