Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

We had Dobermans

"Dogs and walls. A common theme of the evening." Morgan said.

The sun is up, and food set out on the table. Angel and Vera joined us for breakfast.

"I thought your tree limb to limb acrobatics were very impressive." Carol assured Morgan.

"You got to go above the dogs in the trees?" I complained.

"It did seem to be a better idea than trying to convince four German Shepherds to let me get by unmolested." Morgan said.

"We had Dobermans." Jessica said.

"Two" Denise added unnecessarily.

"Shoes" Denise then demanded, wiggling her fingers palm up my way. When I balked, out of a moment's confusion she added "Don't make me undress you. I won't stop at the shoes."

"Been a few minutes since you had some love?" Jessica inquired.

"That and being around here is like Barry White took all his inspiration from you all:  fresh hot love and sex twenty-four seven." Denise said.

"Nice reach back. True too. 'Can't Get Enough'" Morgan said.

"Just saying the musician's name does not get you music points." Anne told Denise. "Or naming a song." Anne added to Morgan. "Now if you SING that in a Barry White voice? Extra credit."

"We do try." Jessica said, then told me "Give her your shoes, Adrian. She'd wear you down to nothing. I already can't get enough of your love, baby."

As I was already unlacing them, I said "I am WORKING on it!"

"You have to SING it, Jessica." Anne told her. "No points."

If anyone tries to match to shoe polish on the top of that fence to anything, it won't be my shoes. When Denise is done they will not exist anymore. You can't help leaving trace evidence sometimes, but there will be nothing to trace it TO now.

Denise regarded my evening wear now in her hand with a dour expression. "Damn it! Too fast. Guess I am not going to put me in your mix. This time."

"You have to SING it, Denise! Basso! Like Barry. No points." Anne said. I clearly do not know all of Barry White's songs. Anne shifted the conversation away from music, points, and pillage. "We'll have Luciana or someone check through the police overnights. See how much trouble we caused."

"I'm on camera for sure." I said. "Lapping coverage. I could not do anything about it. All to find out the lady was alone in her own house, and now will see a recording of a dark figure running across her lawn at night. I bet she upgrades her stuff even more, and it is pretty impressive already. Laser turrets next."

"Your security setup was worse to deal with than my fences and dogs. They seemed to compensate for poor design with animals. Easy to scale fence. Easy to reach structures and trees. Easy to avoid most cameras. All compensated for by having four barking dogs the entire way to and from the house. If I fell out of the trees as I hopped from branch to branch, I would have literally been dog meat." Morgan said.

"You are a hypertime enabled Vampire." I told her. "Even four Shepherds could not deal with you."

Morgan sighed. "I know. I would have hated to hurt animals doing their job, however."

Angel laid out the next, much larger target list on the table. This one is men and women with no children living in the same housing situations that we just dealt with. Isolated houses because of large properties. Poor sightlines into the neighbors' house. Morgan picked it up morosely and flipped through it.

"We need a different approach." Morgan said. "We already caused a major commotion at two different houses in high-end neighborhoods. Authorities and security companies are going to be on a higher alert. Not to mention that this is not scaling well. Two hypersensitives covering this much ground will take, to be very technical, forever."

Angel flipped open a newspaper. "You can eliminate some of the houses with this. Society page. If a couple has been seen at a fundraiser in say, the last three days, they do not have an unwanted house guest."

Anne nodded. "We can cross-check all the travel agencies and the TSA. Find out who is out of the country. Who is at the fat farm or in rehab. Who is doing secret plastic surgery in India or Israel. Not only that: We can look at the business section. If any of the people are speaking at conferences or attending board meetings, they are also eliminated. Especially men, since we think Tommy would target males. We can do drive by's during the day, and see if we observe both members of the family coming and going in cars. It will take a few days to work it all through, but this is something the other Crew members can be working on. Save this team for the absolutely must be done close-in items."

Vera flipped through the paper. "Accident reports? Speeding tickets? Court appearances? You guys have any swing with the official police stuff? Beside Dewayne I mean."

"Oh yes." Anne said. "Several people in various places in the legal system. Federal, state, county, and local."

"People that own local stores, businesses,  and such: If they are having a grand opening. If they are hands-on people that go to their business to talk to their staff..." Helen thought out loud.

I stood up. "Ok. Sounds like we have a NEW plan. My plan is to take a shower, and hit the rack for at least four hours of sleep.

Chairs were pushed back, and Angel said "I'll go to the office and cover that. See if anything is on fire there."

"I'll go with you, at least until it's time to go to the bar." Vera said.

"I'm going to sleep at DeWayne's." Carol said off-handly.

"Are you two getting serious?" Vera asked.

Angel told Vera. "Yes. Carol is very infatuated right now. Current course and speed, we have another Vampire / Human romance in the near future."

That earned a sour look and no comment from Carol.

Denise and Anne exchanged a glance that I read as worried. It is not forbidden to have a long term human lover, but it is discouraged because of the difference in life span. It is a sure heartbreak. Jessica almost broke that 'rule' with me.

Carol saw the look between them. "I'll be OK, you two. I'm a big girl."

"We know." Denise said.

"They are concerned about you. That is a good thing." Rachel said.

"Up to a point: Sure." Carol drew a line right back.

I watched Morgan very closely out of my peripheral vision during this exchange. I know if I looked at her in this moment, she is going to give me crap about being concerned about HER heart. DeWayne is her former lover. 'Ex' does not quite fit when they were never exclusive.

My Ex left with Angel, and I am not sure 'Ex' fits for her either. We only ever played at being exclusive.

The shower ended up being everyone other than Carol, Angel, and Vera. I am glad we have a big shower. It's fun when it's a social event.

Denise even washed my back. My front being too well guarded.

"You three know I can reach around from here, right?" Denise asked.

"Not concerned about your hands." Helen said. "It would be the bloody tongue bath in your favorite geographies." Helen said.

"Yeah. Ok. That's fair." Denise agreed. "I could give YOU that same bath though..." Denise pointed out.

"Oh... Now that is tempting." Helen agreed.

"Low blow" Jessica commented.

Morgan lightly thwacked Jessica's arm with an open palm wetly.

"It wasn't that bad." I told Morgan.

"She does not need to be encouraged, Adrian." Morgan told me sternly.

"Denise? Or Jessica?" I asked

"Either of them." Morgan answered.