Naked Came the Vampire (Hypernaturals 1)

Breaking and Entering

The burner phone of the day rang. "Hello?"

Helen's voice, still business-like. "You are on fledgling. He just drove by me on his quite standard route to the boat."

I tried to sound calmer than I felt. "OK. Call me when you see him again, headed this way. I am going in. Parked a couple of blocks away now."

Helen hung up without comment, which I was happy about. I did not need her snark at the moment. More of her snark. Fledgling? Really?

The street I parked on is a dead-end with a black-and-white striped barricade right before the concrete abruptly turns to grass, then trees: No circle. There must have been a change in urban road plans because this has been like this for decades judging by the trees and how decrepit the barricade is. I headed on foot up to the dead end of the street into the woods. I didn't lock my car. I wanted nothing to make anyone even glance my way, like a short beep of the alarm engaging.

The foliage under the trees was thick enough that I disappeared out of sight from the street almost immediately. It was a little rough, but there were winding paths cut by decades of kids hiding here.

Arnold lived a few blocks over on one of the many a cul-de-sac's in this middle-class subdivision. Nondescript, cookie-cutter houses built in the 1970s and 1980s.

Arnold's place backed up onto woods. The same woods I am in now. Old trees, with lots of bends in their trunks. The foliage is twice as tall as the houses they abutted. According to Helen, and also some satellite photos I looked at, the woods hid an unlined and twisting drainage ditch. It looked like the arroyo was here long before the area grew up around it, and they took advantage of its existence for flood control. A wooded and wet place where deer can live in the middle of the city.

The tree's and greenery are so thick along the edge of the gully that even with my brand new Vampire eyes I cannot see any houses. It is going to be easy to come and go unseen. Harder to know where to enter and exit the mini-forest. 

Changing which sense I was paying attention to and listening closely I could not hear anyone else out here on a nature walk or having a romantic liaison. Lots of little critters dashing about. I went back to paying attention normally and moved on.

I came to the arroyo and its picture from orbit had not done it justice. The limestone rocks here thinned the trees and made a clearcut path. I turned left at the clearing provided by the natural gully and started to walk, counting my steps to estimate when I had gone far enough.

My goal is to look like a man out for a walk in the woods. I stopped to pick up a rock and look it over as if it was interesting. Maybe it even is, in some other circumstance. For all I know, parents wired the woods with cameras so they could be sure their kids did not come out here to explore one another. It could happen. It's what I would have done as a kid, assuming there had been a willing girl my age. Even before I had hormonal reasons to be interested in girls, I had been fascinated by them. Once I was a teen? Forget about it. I assume I am not unique. I am not taking any chances.

I saw evidence as I walked that I am in fact not unique. Old beer cans, crushed snuff cans, food wrappers from fast-food places, cellophane packaging from convenience store deserts, candy bar wrappers, empty cigarette packages, a used condom, and similar detritus. Probably from more nocturnal visit's to the woods as there is no one here now. At least they are using condoms. Good for them. Smarter than I had been at that age.

Arnold's house sat on the arc of the cul-de-sac directly up against the woods. It is perfect cover even in broad daylight. A burglar's dream.

I stopped at the edge of the woods, listened. Inhaled. Scanned. I am still trying to get used these new Vampire senses. I could not use them all at once without getting a headache. I had to listen. Or smell. Use my eyes in their various sensoriums. Trying to absorb it all at once is too much. It sandpapers my already raw nerves. Once I was assured I am most likely unobserved, I pulled on some surgical gloves Jessica gave me. I then waited, listened and looked some more. As good as these new senses are, I kept wishing they were better. How a human burglar does things like this without my sensorial advantages is a testament to something. Sheer stupidity perhaps. Thrill-seeking. Maybe even desperation such as what is driving me to be here.