Page 43 of Dozer

And this was why I’d come to Brain. No judgment, just solid advice.

But the Massachusetts deal was only part of the issue. “They seem certain they can get into the neighborhood and into my home to retrieve Daisy.”

“Before cameras, vampires could stand outside someone’s home and have them walk outside to them. Only the most powerful vampires had flocks, back when most people lived in towns and villages. They have ways of entering homes we aren’t aware of, and they aren’t sharing.”

I shook my head. “Like you said, they went into a human’s head and had them open the door and let them in. Daisy doesn’t have access to unlock the doors. She can’t let anyone in.”

“He can fly, so getting into the neighborhood isn’t a problem. He’s been in your head. That means he knows how you get into your house.”

Fuck me.

He wouldn’t be able to get into my downstairs room safe because it took both my palmprint and retina-with-a-beating-heart to get past the multiple doors, but getting into my house only needed either the key or the combination.

“That why you don’t have electronic locks on your doors? Just the old-fashioned key variety?”

“One of many reasons. Your security system can only be hacked by the very best, but he has two local people capable of doing so that I’m aware of. This is him showing off. I’m going to put some cams in that don’t broadcast. When you get back, we can pull the microSD card from them and see what shows up. Vampires can vibrate at frequencies a regular camera won’t pick up, but if he does so, we’ll see which doors open and how they transport your Daisy, at least.”

* * * *

Dozer

Two hours with the female vampire, an hour and a half of which were pure hell. Her version of CBT involves beating your dick and balls to a horrible pulp, and then peeling the skin from your dick before coating the raw wound in ground-up hot peppers. And only then did she drink me down. She put a bracelet on me that kept me fromchanging, and she didn’t remove it until my heart started to stutter, so near death I could see the damned light at the end of the motherfucking tunnel.

The wolf wasn’t in great shape when I changed, and he was put into a dog crate that must’ve been magicked to keep me from returning to human, because I have no memories of how I got back to the jet — only leaving the crate once inside of it, ejected into an empty room. The door closed behind me, and I assume whoever deposited me left with the crate, since I didn’t see it again.

Most of a freshly killed pig was available on a large tarp, and I ate my fill and slept as the wolf. I needed to let the food digest before I tried to turn back to human.

The wolf woke when the plane began the process of beginning to land, and Ichangedto human and looked out a window. It was still night, and I could see the lights of a city out the window. I was naked, and the wolf had left a mess when he’d had his fill of pig. A box of large garbage bags was off to the side, and I folded the edges of the tarp up and deposited the whole thing into one of them, put that bag top-first into another, and then repeated the process a few times. Not my first time bagging up the remains of a body.

I left the room and took a seat in one of the fancy seats, still naked, but we were losing altitude pretty fast and it seemed wise to get belted in for now and look for clothes once we were on the ground. It would take anotherchangeto completely heal, but my dick had skin on it again, even if it was still swollen, discolored, and misshapen.

Vampires seem to always have spare clothes handy in case something goes amiss with a feeding, but finding something in my size usually presented a problem.

Once we were on the ground and taxiing, I went to some cabinets and opened them. Snack food. I grabbed three protein bars and ate them while I searched the plane. A wall cabinet near the bathroom had stacks of blue jeans and black t-shirts. I rifled through the jeans and found a pair probably meant for Julian, which meant the waist was too big and the length was two inches too short, but they were better than being naked. I went to the bottom of the pile of shirts and grabbed the 5X without looking to see what else might be available. I had no idea what had happened to the burner phone, but the only fingerprints the vampires would find on it were mine, and the numbers in the contacts weren’t going to give them any information, either.

I put black socks on and looked through the black sneakers. Again, there were some likely stocked for Julian, but they were three sizes too small, so I put them back. I’d be fine with the socks.

I grabbed an orange juice to wash the protein bars down, walked back to the main passenger area, and took a seat, though I didn’t bother with my seatbelt this time.

Three minutes later the plane came to a stop, and the pilot came through a door to greet me.

“Back in Chattanooga, safe and sound. I see you found the clothes stash. If you’ll wait just a moment, the limo will come to the base of the steps. You’ll find a dozen burgers in a bag from your favorite fast-food restaurant in the limo. Marco sends you his best wishes, and says to tell you your little flower was delivered as per your agreement. She’s settled in and meeting all expectations.”

I nodded, and the pilot walked to the exit door and opened it. “Please wait until the limo has come to a stop before you exit the plane.”

He walked back through the door I assumed would lead to the cockpit, and I stepped to the door and watched the limo drive towards us.

The burgers hit the spot, and I had the limo drop me off at the gates to the clubhouse. I went straight downstairs to my room, changed into my own clothes, folded the borrowed clothes, and put them in the closet of spare clothes we keep. I’d worn them fifteen minutes, and I come back from wolf completely clean, so they were as good as clean, right?

Brain met me at my house, and we looked through the SD cards of the seven cameras he’d placed. I assumed Marco would send a vampire flunky to get my Daisy, but he landed on my deck, punched the code into the back door, entered, walked through every room of my home without stopping to look in closets, cabinets, or drawers, made his way downstairs, opened the jail cell, threw a compliant Daisy over his shoulder, and left the same way he came.

“None of this showed up on our security systems?” I asked.

“No alarms went off to let me know a door had been opened. The motion sensors didn’t trigger, either.”

The only online cameras inside my house were downstairs, aimed so I could see Daisy anywhere her chain could reach. None of them record, though, and I hadn’t been watching when Marco was in the house, so I didn’t know what they’d shown. I should probably have them record to a hard drive on the premises, but I’d talk to Brain about that later.

“So this was, what? A show of power? A threat that he can get to us in our homes?” I asked.

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