Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

Young and Stupid

DeWayne and Carol rolled off in her car. Seems she is his driver now. Must be a Vampire thing: Morgan and Jessica do most of our family driving.

Helen looked at Denise askance once they were gone. "You know that is OUR shower?"

"I'm family now. I had to get my own tea the other day." Denise pointed out.

Helen gave me a very dark look. "Does the family rule mean we have to share YOU now?"

"I do not think that was exactly what my parents had in mind when they set it up, although they also designed that shower, so ... Maybe?" I teased.

"You know Carol would pound you if you moved in on her beautiful boy." Anne pointed out to Denise.

"I can take her." Denise said. "But yes: I would ask nicely, not take. I am not that kind of Vampire. Same thing with Adrian. Married man and all, you know."

"I am aware, yes." Anne said.

"Just because I am family does not mean I can just help myself to my favorite things." Denise finished.

"Very civilized of you." Anne told her.

"Besides all that, YOU are family too." Denise added as an afterthought.

"Before THIS family, I have been your Crew family for over two hundred and thirty years, Denise, and you have helped yourself to ME plenty." Anne said.

"You complaining? I asked every time." Denise pointed out. "After the thing at the Lake when we were stalking the HPA: when I was Adrian's fake girlfriend? We had a LOT of fun."

"True. Those kids from the fraternity never knew what they got themselves into. Being a fake girlfriend makes you horny." Anne then looked me over in an evaluating way. "Hmmm...."

Morgan took out our next list and laid it on the table. "If we are done figuring out the timeshare on my husband and each other, back over on the OTHER subject: I think for another triage we should ignore properties with dogs for now."

"Fine." Denise said. "We'll ask nicely about the other thing later. Why skip dogs? Other than the obvious they are a pain in the ass I mean. They are still guarding something..."

"My reasoning on that is that if there are dogs, Tommy is less likely to have gone there. Case one: The house I was at. The owner brought in all four dogs. They were hers, and they knew her. They were untrained as guard animals, however, they were very territorial and Tommy would have needed to fight them to get into that house. Tommy is the laziest person I have ever met. He would look for a lower energy way in. Not to mention that while Adrian or I are fast enough to compensate for our lack of physical strength, Tommy is not, and he is not yet even up to full male Vampire strength. Case Two: The two Dobermans were brought in by the security company that designed the entire defensive perimeter. The dogs at Adrian's property were very well trained. The end result is the same: They would attack Tommy on sight and even with his berserker rage, he would not likely be able to fight off such dogs. At the very least, they would get very large portions of him into their mouths. We would more than likely hear about such a conflict via the normal police channels. DeWayne would be on top of that so fast..."

Rachel agreed. "Well reasoned, Morgan."

I pointed out "The problem is that the lists we have do not detail if there are dogs guarding the place or not. That is not a thing the courthouse keeps track of."

"Let's make a nightly list with extra targets. We see dogs, we move on to next target, and we mark that house for followup." Anne suggested.

"Done". Morgan typed for a while on her laptop, and the printer upstairs whirred out our new target lists for this evening.

"I wonder what Carol tells DeWayne about why she stays out all night sometimes." I asked.

"DeWayne understands she is a security professional. He will never even think to ask." Morgan said. "I told him numerous times over the years I could not make an assignation because a new case landed on Sam and my desk. The life of being a cop means you have a lot of makeup sex where and when you can fit it in."

"If I were looking forward to an assignation with you, and it was waved off because someone was inconsiderate enough to kill someone else and get the case assigned to you, I would have been unhappy." I said.

"I think it is better I met you later in my life. You are higher maintenance than DeWayne was." Morgan commented.

"Ouch. Nice one." Helen praised her.

"It was not a burn, Helen." Morgan told her. "An observation only. I am more than willing to maintain our relationship now. Back then on the Force and as an upwardly mobile professional, I was not. I was young and stupid, not older and in love. There is also that I am more willing to spend the time and energy fulfilling my personal carnal requirements, which have only increased since turning. I am also higher maintenance. Good thing there are three of you."

"You just took all the fun out of that for me." Helen complained.

"Carol, on the other hand, is clearly willing to maintain that relationship." Denise observed.

Morgan nodded. "I am glad. DeWayne deserves someone good in his life. It could have been me if I was the person then that I am now, but I am taken."

Jessica looked at the clock. "I guess we should try to take a nap before this evenings running around breaking and entering."

"You are going to go maintain the relationship, aren't you?" Denise asked.

"I'm not young and stupid. I'm old and stupid." Jessica told her.

We headed off to bed. Denise and Anne headed upstairs crash for a few hours. Rachel said "I guess that work I was going to do can wait till later" and followed us.