Sui Generis – 27

 

"So what do you suggest?" Antton asked.

"That's what I trying to figure out." Randulf rapped his fingers on the end table beside his chair. "What's around the coffee shop, Mag?"

"It's on a corner. Next door on one side is a parking lot, then an apartment building. On the other side are small businesses. There's a convenience store across the street opposite the parking lot and more small businesses across the other street."

"When do you get there, and leave, and do you take breaks away from the place?"

"Eight, four-thirty, and breaks are usually around ten, for fifteen minutes, and at two for half an hour for lunch." Mag added, before they could ask, "Most of the time I bring my lunch and sit outside in back where there's a picnic table."

"What do you think?" Randulf asked, looking at Ulrik and Antton. "Is it doable?"

"We should scout it out, but I suspect so. I've seen the place, so we can do that now." Antton stood, holding out his hand to Ulrik who took it. Instantly they were gone.

"Whoa up," Mag exclaimed. Then he grinned. "One myth that's for real."

Randulf chuckled. "Yep. Now I guess we should figure out how to put Brand out there and track him, just on the off chance we're wrong about who Fedor will go after."

"I'd appreciate that," Brand said sardonically.

Smiling slightly, Randulf continued. "Since I gather you've been out hunting him at night, you should keep that up. He's used to that pattern from you."

"You think it's possible he's just going to go straight for me, despite the idea he'd want Mag just to add another layer of torture to what he's been doing do far?" Brand asked.

Dante nodded. "As has already been pointed out, he might like to lure at least some of us into following him when he does make his move. And have no doubts, he will move."

"So," Mag said, "it sort of comes down to who he'd rather catch—Antton and Ulrik because he hates werewolves, or you and Vesper to show he's superior to any vampire who might try to catch him, especially if they're Enforcers."

"Precisely," Dante replied.

"What about Randulf?"

Randulf smiled wickedly. "I'm the secret weapon."

Brand looked up at him, all six foot six or more of solid muscle sheathed in a tight T-shirt and leather pants. "You're about as 'secret' as… as the Sphinx in the desert."

Laughter ensued before Randulf said, "I'm an alpha, as are Antton and Ulrik, but I've been around a lot longer than them and have some interesting abilities as a result. There is no way a vampire can sense me or control me, not even one as old as Fedor. I can also shift so that my human form is different from what you see now."

"And I thought Ulrik was good at undercover work," Brand said.

Randulf nodded. "He's very good, but more the way a cop would be. Mine is purely physical." 

"Could you be me?"

"No. I have several forms I can take, but they're all individual to me alone. I can't 'become' another person, in the sense you're asking."

Brand nodded. "So you could be around and Fedor wouldn't know it."

"Exactly, and I will be—both with Mag and with you."

"Don't you have to sleep occasionally?" Mag asked.

Randulf chuckled. "Occasionally. I take, you should excuse the expression, catnaps."

"Bad one," Mag muttered, just as Antton and Ulrik reappeared.

"There's plenty of places we can use," Antton told them without preamble.

"Question," Mag said, holding up his hand before realizing what he'd done. "Okay, this isn't class," he muttered. "Anyway, won't he sense you're around?"

"That is the idea," Ulrik pointed out.

"Right. Sorry. Nerves talking, not common sense."

"Quite understandable," Antton said. "Now, if there are no more questions, we should get you home."

            "And hope he hasn't left us another 'present' while we've been gone," Brand said.