Chapter 15

 

Shite, was it Tuesday or Wednesday? The nights ran together so seamlessly he couldn’t quite be sure.

He had gone to the store. What day had that been? Monday? Sunday? No, it couldn’t be Sunday; stores were closed on Sunday.

No they weren’t.

Bloody hell.

The clock said four, so at least he could be sure of one thing—time to wake up.

He walked sleepily towards his bedroom door and paused.

Pants.

He needed pants.

Other details could be worked out later, but at that moment he needed food more than he needed a full set of clothes.

Alright, he was decent enough to fetch some breakfast. Or lunch, or dinner, or whatever the hell meal he should be eating now.

Talia was yet again on the couch laughing at something on the television and demolishing her latest round of snacks. Popcorn again? No—it looked like she had gotten into that box of Cheerios he had bought whenever it was he had been to the store.

“Morning, Sis.”

She threw some of the Cheerios at him in greeting. Ryan nodded to himself and dropped onto the couch next to her. Maybe he could rescue a little of it for himself before she inhaled the entire box. He snatched it from her and gave it an experimental shake.

“There’s a little left, if you want it,” Talia said.

He squinted into the empty depths of the cereal box, straining to see the last few Cheerios hiding at the bottom. Not worth it. He handed the box back to Talia.

“I just bought that yesterday,” he admonished.

“Nuh uh. Two days ago. You went to the store on Monday, remember?”

The last few crumbs disappeared into her mouth.

“Two…”

“You should probably put on a shirt,” she added. “We have to leave in twenty minutes.”

“Oh, hell.”

Evidently he did need clothes more than food.

Back to the bedroom. Shirt, shoes, and jacket joined his pants in something he supposed added up to acceptable street wear.

Now properly dressed, he returned to the kitchen in the hopes that he might scavenge something to eat. Fortunately, Talia had avoided the healthier food in favor of her beloved snacks. She had, however, introduced him to the concept of microwaveable frozen dinners, for which he was eternally grateful. They were not, perhaps, the most nutritious meals in the world… but at least they were meals.

And they were quick.

He fished a box out of the freezer that proclaimed itself to contain a Salisbury steak with assorted greens. Good enough for him. Out of the box and into the microwave with it. It would serve him well enough for supper.

Talia had apparently finished scouring the box for cereal. She walked into the kitchen with the empty box in her hand.

“Did you have any dinner?” Ryan asked.

Talia raised her eyebrows and shook the empty box at him.

"I meant an actual meal."

She shook her box more vigorously. Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Never mind.”

 “Do you really think there’s a feeder nest in Keeney?” he asked Talia when they were on the road. She shrugged.

“I don’t see why not,” she said. “Mike was talking about the nests splitting up the last time I talked to him. And I wouldn’t be surprised if a group of them claimed some territory in the area; it’s pretty wooded. No suckers. I don’t know about raptors, but I think I might settle down there if I were a feeder.”

“I can’t even imagine you living in the woods,” he commented.

“Then I guess it’s good I’m not a feeder demon, then.”

“You’re some kind of feeder,” Ryan mumbled under his breath. “Eat all the food in the apartment in a day.”

“Two days,” she said brightly. Ryan sighed.

Alejandro was waiting for them when they arrived.

“Ryan, Talia,” he greeted them, “Again, thank you for coming.”

“Sure thing, Alex,” Talia said. “You ready to go? We’ve got about six and a half hours before this big lug has to leave for work.”

“Yes, I am ready. That should be plenty of time to find the nest,” he replied. He picked up the coat that was lying across the couch and fished in the pockets.

“If there is a nest,” Ryan pointed out.

Alejandro paused in his search and looked at him. “There is a nest.”

Ryan glanced at Talia; she was giving him a look as well. If he remembered correctly, that particular look translated into some variation of ‘idiot’. He looked back at Alejandro. “Of course. Sorry.”

Alejandro found his keys and pulled on the coat. Talia followed him out the front door, shaking her head at Ryan on her way past.

The area that they would have to search wasn’t large, as far as such things went, but it was still a lot of ground that they would have to cover in one night. Fortunately, they could rule out the parts that were neighborhood—feeders were far more likely to nest in isolated or abandoned areas. Still, there were enough possible niches in the developed part of Keeney that they would have to walk down just about every street.

“So,” Talia said while they made their way to the main part of town, “Do you know what breed these feeders are?”

“Yes. The one I killed was a lupine. Aleda says it shifted before attacking. I do not know if it was a monthly or weekly feeder.”

“Monthly, probably,” she said. “Most of the feeders around here are. Well, the ones around Elkton are mostly monthly. It’s a hell of a time trying to hunt for the rest of the time. Do you have any idea how many there are in this nest?”

“No, I do not.”

“Any idea where the nest might be?”

“No.”

“…Do you have any kind of plan once we find them?”

“No.”

“Wonderful,” Ryan muttered.

“Ri-ight. Okay,” Talia said. “Well, I guess for now we should just focus on finding the feeder nest.”

“By the way,” Alejandro said. “I have been meaning to ask—why is it that you call the therions ‘feeders’?”

Talia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “That’s what Dad used to call them.”

“Ah.”

They walked down the streets a while longer. In such a suburban community, most people went home relatively early at night. Countless cars still drove past, but they only had to share the sidewalk with very few people. Thank goodness for that. Looking for feeder nests was somewhat tricky when people kept giving you odd looks for ducking in and out of abandoned buildings.

Alejandro had been silent for some time. Ryan couldn’t tell what he was thinking; places the nest might be? Finally even Ryan got tired of the silence.

“So, Alejandro… what kind of job do you have these days?” he asked.

“I work in an office, helping companies with technical problems. It is not an exciting job. Mostly, I sit and I stare at computer screens. And you?”

“I’ve got a security job again. I work nights at a bank in Elkton.” He paused. “…Mostly, I sit and stare at computer screens.”

Alejandro chuckled.

Ryan sighed.

“I miss the sixties,” he said.

“Well, we’ve covered about all the roads in Keeney,” Talia announced. “How much time do we have left?”

“It is eight forty-five,” Alejandro said, checking his watch. “We have another two hours and forty-five minutes.”

“What do you think? Woods?” Talia asked.

“Should have gone there first.”

“That is the only place we have not been.”

“Woods it is,” she declared, and started walking. “Wait. Which way are the woods?”

Alejandro pointed in the opposite direction.

“Ah. Right. I knew that.”

They found the woods fairly quickly. The trees extended for a few miles all along the southwest side of the town.

Ryan took to the woods immediately, stretching out his legs and strolling happily between the sparse underbrush. Now this is what he liked! Nice open spaces, dirt under his feet… it even smelled wonderful. No reek of greasy hamburgers here, thank you very much! He would be able to smell rotted meat a hundred feet away in a place like this.

His sister was having a bit more difficulty.

“Talia, dearest sister, do you think it might be easier to find this nest if you didn’t curse loudly every two seconds?”

“Oh, do shut up.”

Ryan shook his head. If he didn’t know better he would think she wasn’t even a hunter, the way she tripped over every twig on the ground. She stuck her tongue out at the disparaging look he gave her, her face a patchwork of fading red lines. He didn’t even know how she kept getting scratched; the trees were more than far enough apart to walk through without trouble. Alejandro, meanwhile, walked silently but purposefully a few feet away.

It was nearly eleven by the time they found it. They smelled it first—an invasive rotten stench that greeted them a hundred feet away. It took a few more minutes to locate the source, and Talia, true to her trade, spotted it first; it had been well concealed by a patch of evergreens.

The nest itself was a crude construction of branches, supplemented with a few things that might have come from a junkyard. The evergreen trees composed most of the ‘walls’, and the top was draped with a tarpaulin. The entire structure was about twenty feet in diameter and gave the impression of being a cross between a vagrant’s home and an animal’s den.

The smell increased as they got closer. All three of them could feel their hands tingling as they approached. It would seem that somebody was home.

Talia, the only current scout in the party, went first. Ryan watched her make her way to the nest, silent now that her hunter’s instincts had kicked in. She peeked cautiously through the walls of the nest, almost disappearing into a tree. After a moment she pulled back and returned to him and Alejandro, who waited a fair distance away.

“There are eight in the nest,” she said in a low voice. “Two sleeping, the rest just sitting around. None were shifted, but I’ll swap with a mortal right now if they’re not wolves.”

“Then we have found them,” Alejandro said. “Eight is nothing for the three of us.”

He started to move towards the nest, but Ryan’s arm stopped him.

“Wait,” Ryan said. “She said there’s only eight. With a nest that large, there must be more somewhere. Talia—how many could there be?”

“At least five more,” she said promptly. “They’re probably out somewhere.”

“Hunting?”

“Who knows what feeders do? But no, not hunting—they won’t be hungry again for another few weeks.”

“If we kill these eight, the others won’t come back,” Ryan said. “I’ve cleared enough nests to know that. They can tell, somehow, and we’ll have to hunt them down all over again. If you really want to clear this nest, we have to wait until we’re sure they’re all here.”

Alejandro finally relented.

“Fine,” he said, “But how will we know for certain?”

“We’ll have to watch them,” Talia said. “Keep an eye on the nest and figure out exactly how many there are, then come back to kill them some time when they’re likely to all be in the nest.”

“I cannot watch them often enough,” Alejandro protested. “I work all day during the week.”

“I know. I’ll come during the day when I don’t have to work. I can ask Diane for evening shifts. And Ryan…”

“I’ll come,” he said. “In the evenings until I have to work. Can you watch for a few hours in the morning before you leave?”

“Yes, I can do that,” Alejandro said. “And I can be here all night on the weekends.”

“Good. We have until the end of the month, so don’t try anything if you don’t have to. Understood?”

Alejandro ducked his head in acknowledgement. As much as he must want to kill these things, he had better wait until they could be sure they could wipe out all of them.

"I will watch."