Sui Generis – 26

 

"I told you…" Randulf started to say.

"I don't give a damn what you told us, I'm not letting you put Mag in danger." Angry now, with no way to release it without throwing a temper tantrum, Brand jumped to his feet, grabbing Mag's wrist, pulling him up beside him. "We're leaving. We've done fine on our own so far. If he shows his damned face, I'll take his head. I am capable of doing that. It's why I… Why I exist. Right?" He sighed suddenly, his anger abating when he realized it was driven by fear.

"Brand," Mag said quietly, "they're trying to help us."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm just…"

"Scared out of your mind, just like me." Mag hugged him hard, urging him to sit again.   

Brand resisted, saying, "I'm better standing, pacing, so I can work off some of my tension."

Vesper smirked, looking at the two young men. "Might I suggest you…?"

"Enough," Antton said firmly. "This is getting us nowhere. The question before us is how to put Mag in the right place so that Fedor thinks he has a chance of kidnapping him."

Mag took a deep breath. "Let him. Then follow him to wherever he's hiding. That way you can get him where he least expects it."

"And where he's most protected, so that's not an option," Ulrik told him.

"Besides which, following him would probably be impossible," Dante added. "He's not going to jump in his car and drive there."

Brand stopped his pacing when an idea occurred to him. "He knows Antton, Vesper, and possibly Ulrik are here. Vesper, because he saw him, Antton if he's been paying attention, since he came by the house and took us out to Fedor's old hideout." He pointed to Ulrik. "And you, because we ran into each other on the Fourth. The way he feels about werewolves, he has to have picked up on what you are."

"True," Ulrik agreed. "So?"

"The three of you play on that. Be more visible, more obvious about protecting Mag. Fedor's ego should demand that he draw you into following him back to—wherever—so he can show the world, or at least our world, how powerful he's become by capturing or killing you. Meanwhile, Randulf and Dante stay well in the background, just in case I'm wrong." He looked at the others questioningly. "Does that make sense?"

Most of the Enforcers nodded slowly, obviously thinking about it. Dante was a bit less circumspect. "Out of the mouths of babes, as they say."

"I'm not a babe," Brand grumbled.

"You're a lot younger than the rest of us," Ulrik replied, "so yeah, you are."

At the same time, Mag murmured softly under his breath, "I disagree. You're a real babe. Umm… whatever the masculine equivalent of that is." He turned red when everyone laughed and he obviously remembered they were all graced with extremely keen hearing. "Shoot me. He is."

Brand dropped down beside him, smiling. "Thanks for that. Saying it and—" he chuckled, "—giving everyone a laugh. It helped me relax a bit."

"Then my job here is done. Can I leave now?"

"No, I need you beside me and… we'd better get back to what we were doing."

"Which was plotting how to covertly, overtly, watch the two of you," Antton said.

"What do you do on a daily basis?" Ulrik asked.

"Normally, up until a couple of days ago, I work," Mag replied. "Then in the evenings we go to college, and if things really were normal, we'd go back home, study, and get some sleep."

"You don't have a job, Brand?"

"No. I've been sleeping days so I could spend the nights searching for Fedor."

"Okay. It's a fair bet Fedor knows all this. If I were him, if I thought as deviously as he does, I'd grab Mag from his job."

"Definitely from his job, Ulrik, since Fedor would figure no vampires could be involved during the day. Of course, being ancient, he can tolerate sunlight to some degree." Dante said. "Where do you work, Mag?"

Mag smiled wryly. "Where else could an ex-street kid get a job? At a coffee shop that has food as well."

"Good. That gives Ulrik and Antton a reason to be hanging around."

 Randulf shook his head. "Too obvious."

"But that's what we're going for," Dante protested.

            "But if they're blatantly out there for him to see them, he's going to smell a setup."