The Rogue Hunter

"I take it you couldn't find the breaker panel?" Mortimer asked as they passed the still-dark cottage.

"I did," Bricker countered. "I flipped every single switch, but nothing happened. That storm this afternoon must have knocked out the power."

"Storm?" Mortimer asked as they continued on to the SUV.

"Yeah. I checked the Weather Channel this morning before lying down for the day and they were predicting a storm up this way," the younger immortal explained. "It must have taken out the power."

Mortimer grunted an agreement as they opened the back of the SUV and peered at the supplies inside. It was an Argeneau vehicle. Sometimes they had to make do with rentals, but usually when they were on an assignment they had special vehicles supplied by Argeneau Enterprises or one of its subsidiaries... like this SUV. It was all tricked out with special features, a state-of-the-art GPS system, specially treated glass to block the sun's UV rays, souped-up engines to give them more power, special racks and storage compartments built in all over the vehicle to hold weapons they would need, and a unique resting spot and hookup in the back for a specially designed cooler to store blood.

That was something new, actually. The SUV's cooler was the same size and shape as a large picnic cooler, but it was really a refrigerator that could be plugged into a special power source installed in the SUV or a normal plug inside a building. When without power, it ran on a battery that recharged every time it was plugged into a power source. One of the Argeneau scientists had come up with the design and this was a prototype, the first time they'd used it in the field. Mortimer thought it would definitely come in handy.

Bricker leaned in and grabbed two long rectangular leather cases by their handles. They were full of weapons and were heavy. A mortal would have been struggling under the weight of one, but Bricker lifted out the pair as if they were feather-light.

Once he was out of the way, Mortimer snagged the cooler and tugged it closer to the edge of the vehicle.

"Will the blood be okay in the cooler until the power's back on?"

Mortimer nodded as he lifted it out. "It should be fine for tonight, but come morning we might need to hit a store for ice."

"When is Decker going to show up?"

"Actually, he was supposed to be up here already," Mortimer admitted with a slight frown as he started toward the steps to the cottage.

"He was?" Bricker asked with surprise. "Well, I've been through the whole cottage, and he isn't here."

Mortimer shrugged. "Perhaps he had to go out for something."

Where a mortal would have been shocked at the idea of the man's needing to go out for anything at this hour, Bricker merely nodded. This was their daytime, when they usually performed their chores and what daily tasks could be done. All he said was a disgruntled "You'd think he'd have stuck around and waited for us. He knew we were coming."

"True," Mortimer agreed and then added heavily, "But then we were expected to arrive here by midnight and it's now after two a.m."

Bricker grinned and said innocently, "You make it sound like that's my fault."

Mortimer laughed at his feigned innocence and said, "Oh please. I waited an hour and a half for you to finish your packing, and then you insisted on stopping at absolutely every damned roadside stop there was, whether it was McDonald's or a greasy spoon diner. Honestly, if you weren't an immortal, I wouldn't bet on you living more than another five years with all the grease you consume. I swear you're starting to smell like a French fry."

"I am not!" Bricker protested, and then frowned and asked, "Am I?"

Mortimer just shook his head and moved in front of the other man to mount the steps. At the door to the cottage, he shifted the cooler to his hip again and opened the door for Bricker to precede him inside.

"I don't know why Lucian insisted on us bringing so much in the way of weapons," Bricker commented as he led the way inside. "For that matter, I don't know why he thinks we need three hunters up here. From the sounds of it we're only chasing after a lone rogue vamp, and all he's doing is biting the occasional mortal. It's not like he's a dangerous character or anything."

"Yeah." Mortimer said as he followed and set the cooler on the table. "But Decker is kind of an add-on. He's really supposed to be on vacation but his cottage was handy. Besides, while it may look like a lone neck biter, for all we know that may just be the tip of the iceberg, and it's better to be safe than sorry. That's Lucian's motto."

Bricker didn't comment as he set down what he'd brought in.

"I'm going to go lock up the SUV," Mortimer said, turning back toward the door. "I'll just be a minute."

Mortimer had closed the back of the SUV and was headed to the stairs when a startled shriek made him freeze. His head immediately jerked toward the trees between the cottages. After a hesitation, he turned in that direction, walking quickly down to the shore to make sure all was well.

"What is it?" one of the women asked in anxious tones as he neared the shoreline.

"Something bumped up against me in the water," came the answer, and Mortimer thought it was the girl with the ponytail who spoke. Jo.

"It's probably just a fish," Sam's reassuring voice said.

That reassurance was ruined when the one with the bob, Alex, said, "Of course, we do have snapping turtles here."

There was a moment of silence as the three women stared at one another, and then they suddenly turned as one and made a swift exodus from the water. Mortimer stood completely still and watched, finding his gaze repeatedly drawn to the clumsy Sam. For some reason he found himself fascinated by the sight of her pale skin painted with water and moonlight.

"Nice view."

Mortimer turned his head sharply at that whisper to find Bricker standing at his side again. Shrugging, he explained, "I heard one of the girls scream and thought I'd make sure everything was all right."

Bricker nodded. "I heard it from inside the cottage. The girl has a healthy set of lungs."

Mortimer nodded, his glance returning to the women as they slipped inside the cottage next door. He saw the flashlight beam bounce around, sliding past the windows and moving over the room as candles were lit to ward off the darkness. Then the flashlight was shut off and the candles moved out of sight of the windows at the front of the cottage. The women were going to bed, each taking a candle with her to her room.

"I'll go see if we have candles." Bricker turned away to head back toward their cottage.

"I'll help," Mortimer murmured, but didn't follow right away. A faint glow had appeared inside the very last window on this side of the neighboring cottage, and Mortimer found himself watching as light and shadow danced behind the glass. For some reason he was absolutely positive it was the window to Sam's bedroom, and he found himself standing there, silently watching until the candlelight went out.

It was only then he noted the flicker of light to his side. Turning, he saw that Bricker had found a candle and it now shone from the window.

Mortimer glanced one last time toward the cottage next door, wondering if the girls would be a problem. He didn't think so or Decker would have said so to Lucian, but it was something to consider. He turned and made his way back across the yard.

"Only an Argeneau would think this was a cottage," Bricker said dryly as Mortimer entered.

Pausing inside the door, Mortimer let his gaze slide over the large open kitchen/dining/living area with its high, cathedral ceiling and huge, old-fashioned fan hanging in the center. The kitchen was on his right, sectioned off by a large, L-shaped, marble-topped counter. The floors and cupboards were pine, the appliances stainless steel, and included a microwave and dishwasher along with the standard stove and refrigerator. A large island filled the center of the kitchen, with glasses and copper pots and pans hanging overhead.

The dining area on his left ran along the glass wall overlooking the lake. The hardwood continued there, and a large, long table and twelve chairs of light wood filled the space.

The living room took up the other half of the open space and held white leather furniture and stone-topped tables, as well as a huge sixty-two-inch television.

All the comforts of home, Mortimer thought with amusement. This was a rich man's idea of a cottage, but then Decker was a rich man.

"It doesn't belong to an Argeneau," Mortimer reminded Bricker as he finally turned back to push the door closed. "It's Decker's cottage, remember."

"Yeah, but he's Martine's son and she's an Argeneau by birth," Bricker pointed out.

Mortimer didn't argue the point. Martine had been born an Argeneau. In fact, she was the eldest Argeneau daughter, and while she'd taken on her husband's last name when she married Aloysius Pimms, they switched off between Argeneau and Pimms each century in an effort to avoid their failure to age from being detected. This century, Decker was a Pimms, but an Argeneau by any other name was still an Argeneau.

"I never would have taken Decker for a cottage-country-type guy," Bricker commented, interrupting Mortimer's thoughts. "He always seemed to have too much class."

"Yes, well, as you said, this place isn't exactly your average cottage," Mortimer said dryly as he turned from closing the door and glanced around again. The windows were all open now, when he was sure they hadn't been the first time he'd entered. Bricker, he assumed, had opened them to let the night air circulate.

"There are three bedrooms up here and another two downstairs, as well as a rec room and laundry room," Bricker announced, waving back toward the door they'd entered through.

Mortimer followed the gesture, surprised to realize that there were stairs right next to the entrance.

"Every outer wall on this level of the cottage seems to be full of windows," Bricker said. "There's no way of knowing how good the window coverings in the upstairs rooms are, but the bedrooms downstairs have no windows so I took our stuff down there. I put my stuff in the room closest to the stairs and yours in the far room."

"Thanks," Mortimer murmured, walking past the table into the unlit living room. While he was surprised one of their kind would own a home with so many windows to allow damaging sunlight in, it did come in handy at that moment. The windows allowed what little light the stars were shedding to seep inside. Like any good night predator, Mortimer had incredible night vision, and even without electricity, that bit of light was enough for him to see by as he moved toward the door leading into a hall.

"There's a bathroom up here and one downstairs," Bricker announced as Mortimer crossed the hall to peer through an open door into a three-piece bathroom.

Mortimer noted the standard services and then wandered up the hall to the right, glancing in one bedroom before continuing on to a second at the end of the hall. He walked back to find the last bedroom at the opposite end of the hall before turning back into the living room.

"So," Bricker said as Mortimer joined him by the sliding glass doors overlooking the deck. "What do we do until Decker gets back?"

Mortimer grimaced at the question. They should be unpacking; unloading the blood bags in the cooler and shifting them into the refrigerator, and then unpacking their bags, as well as unpacking and prepping their weapons. Once that was done, he would have pulled out the maps of the area and the information they had about where bitten mortals had been seen. The two of them would have pored over those while making up some sort of plan to hunt down and find the rogue that was biting mortals in the area.

However, not having power rather buggered up all of that.

"There's nothing much we can do at the moment," he admitted finally.

"Are you hungry?" Bricker asked suddenly.

Mortimer glanced at the younger immortal with amusement. He hadn't been hungry for a couple hundred years. The younger man couldn't know that, though, since Mortimer ate on the odd occasion just to keep him company. Mind you, eating was an ambitious description, since he really mostly picked at the food and pushed it around his plate to be polite.

"We don't have anything besides blood in that cooler, do we?" Bricker asked when Mortimer didn't respond at once and then complained, "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Mortimer said dryly, and then turned away from the window saying, "Come on then, we'll go find an all-night diner or coffee shop with food and lights and look over the information and maps Lucian gave us."