Sui Generis – 20

 

Antton showed up at what Brand considered the crack of dawn. He was driving an older model Ford SUV with tinted windows and Colorado plates. Once the two young men got in—Brand in the front seat, Mag in the back one—they took off.

"I did some more searching when I got home," Antton told them, "narrowing it down to six possible places."

"Based on their being away from other houses in their neighborhoods?" Mag asked.

"Exactly. It's a logical presumption. If we're wrong, then we're back to square one, which given the potential size of the area, will make this one hell of a long job."

"Oh great," Brand grumbled. 

When they got to the area in question, Antton drove to the first house on his list. It took all of two minutes to decide it wasn't the one. As Mag put it, "I doubt he's running a day-care center," pointing to the fenced-in area visible from the street that held a large swing-set, a sandbox, and enough toys and tricycles to satisfy a small army of children.

The next house, while set well back from the road and surrounded by tall trees, was obviously occupied by a family with teens since two of them, carrying heavily-loaded backpacks, were leaving the house just as Antton drove by.

Antton had thought the third house was a possibility as it was surrounded by a tall, brick wall with an iron gate at the street end of the driveway. Brand disagreed. "When I ran, I didn't have to climb a wall or go over a fence."

"Okay, that eliminates the next house on the list," Antton replied, "leaving us two more before we have to start going door-to-door.

Mag's response to that was to cross his fingers.

When they slowly drove by the last house on Antton's list, Brand studied it as he had the others. Almost afraid to say anything out loud in case they were wrong about Fedor having moved on, he whispered, "Look at the back side window."

"Broken," Mag said gleefully. "This has to be the place."

"There's definitely no sign anyone's living there, if the state of the grass is any indication," Antton agreed. "It doesn't look like it's seen a lawnmower in a long time."

Brand frowned then nodded. "When I ran, I don't remember long grass. I wasn't really paying attention to things like that but…"

"We may have found the right house." Antton glanced at Brand. "Do you sense any vampires?"

"No. Of course, if Fedor is still in there I wouldn't feel him, but he did have his minions and as far as I can tell from here, they're not there."

"Let's go take a look," Antton said.

The house sat on a wide expanse of land, bracketed on three sides by trees, separating it from its neighbors. Antton drove to the next block, which was filled with suburban homes cheek-by-jowl to each other, and parked in front of one of them. Then the trio walked back to the house, stopping at the edge of the trees on one side.

"Still nothing?" Antton asked Brand.

After a brief pause, Brand shook his head.

"All right. You two wait here. I'm going to do a bit of recon before we chance going inside." With that said, Antton moved onto the lot, staying in the shade of the trees. Brand saw him pause, then seconds later a large, dark wolf crept through the grass to the side of the house and vanished around the back corner.

"That really freaks me out," Mag muttered.

Brand chuckled. "Me too, and I can do it. Not like he does, but then I've only shifted once."

"Why just once?"

"It hurt like hell, to put it mildly. He said it gets better but…" Brand shuddered. "I guess your body gets used to doing it."

"Not my body," Mag said adamantly. "I'll stick with being strictly human."

"And a very wonderful human at that," Brand told him softly.

Mag dropped his gaze, mumbling, "Thanks."

"It's true, and your body…" Brand stopped when he saw the front door to the house open, tensing in anticipation of trouble, even though the sun was well up by now. He was more than relieved to see Antton standing there, beckoning for them to join him.

The first thing Antton asked when Brand stepped inside was, "Is this the place?"

Without replying, Brand headed from the entrance foyer down the hall toward the rear of the house. Pushing open the door at the far end, he found himself in the kitchen. A door to the left lead to an empty room he remembered well.