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…and what do I do if they aren't mine.

Am I going to turn them over to the sheriff, explain it all and dump the problem on her lap? Bri sent them to me to keep them out of the hands of her family as well as her in law’s, maybe because they aren't safe with either side of the family or just to keep the two sides from going after each other.

Either way it doesn't some like a safe situation for three kids, and the sheriff would have no legal reason to stop someone related to them from picking them up.

Of course if someone comes looking to claim them from me, even they are related to them as well, the sheriff being a werewolf would most likely be able to tell by smell who family with who, so , she wouldn't have much in the way of a good reason to make me hand them over to anyone but their parents.

And if someone does something to me, well, who cares about me, no bad blood between the two families if I get hurt.

Rambling here, what if their not my grandchildren, do I boot them to the curb, sorry kids, we aren't related, good luck on your own.

The kids did nothing wrong, they seemed to as surprised at the idea that I’m their grandfather as I was, so I don’t think the’re in on it, plus Sara doesn’t seem like that good of a actress, Ami would panic if she had to lie, and Aran wouldn't remember whats going on.

So what if I keep them for the moment?

Feeding and housing them doesn't cost me much, well I do have to replace the TV, but I got money. And if Bri is the one who arranged for me to get that money, I can’t say I’m not being well paid for my trouble.

And if trouble does come looking for me, unless it’s packing a silver bullet, and silver does do something to me, I think I should be able to handle it, and considering my daughter in law told Sara that werewolves and other supernatural critters don’t exist, trouble may not be expecting me.

Worst comes to worst, I can always say, “I can’t stop you, and I don’t want to risk the kids getting hurt, take them.” Ending up in the hands of their own families shouldn’t be all that bad.

So...I guess they stay for now, and I wait to see who shows up next to decide what I’ll do next, and who they are to me.

For now, laundry.

I toss the kid's stuff into the laundry basket from my closet with my own clothes and head down to the laundry room in the basement, stopping to pick up a cheap notebook and a mechanical pencil along the way.

I jotted down the kid’s sizes as I tossed their clothes in as well as listing a child’s seat and a new TV, then dumped in the last of the discount store detergent and set the machine to hot.

Back upstairs to my office and I typed up the list before sending it to James’s office email.

Now onto other matters.

I snagged the card I had tossed into the wooden “In” box and headed to the panic room where I opened up a still sealed package from the store, and followed the instructions to activate the pay as you go phone.

Then I made the call to Doser’s anonymous.

“Earl, how can I help you.”

“Good evening Mr. Coventry, sorry to calling so late, but I figured you would be up. This is the guy you spoke to at your store, you gave me a card.”

“Of course, I would say it was good to hear from you, but I’m guessing there’s a problem.’

I nodded, to myself I guess. “You bet ya, seems like people are looking for me by passing around a copy of your store’s security camera showing me walking in, and are offering cash for anyone who can identify me.”

There was a pause. “...dam it Nicole.”

I waited.

“I can only offer my apologies sir, and my assurance that I will do everything I can on my end to deal with the matter, what you do to the people looking for you is entirely up to you, but there will be no consequences from us.”

Well…good to know. “I think I need you to spell out what I’m dealing with here.’

There was another pause. “The blood of your kind can be additive to mine, but those that go looking for your kind are easy for you to spot, or rather, sniff, and end up in shallow graves, so human hunters get offered a bounty, and once they got one of your kind, they end up trying to keep them captive to keep tapping them for fresh blood.”

“My employer, Mr Redd has made it clear he will not tolerate anything of that sort in the areas under his influence, he wants allies or at worst, indifferent neighbors, not a war of retaliation, we will do everything in our power to deal with this as it is our responsibility, but taking down the hunters before they hurt anyone is the priority regardless of who does so.”

Huh...”Sounds good Earl, but I think I’ll just pass the word and hole up myself, they’re all yours.”

“Of course, the hunt is on. Good evening sir, and feel free to call anytime.” Earl sounded pleased.

“I’ll keep you updated if I hear anything else, bye now.” I hit the button to end the call.

Well, talk about the most dangerous prey, and I guess that explains the silver plated bear trap, that they put it on the edge of my property.

Where a werewolf kid got caught, and hurt. A child.

Guess I got another call to make tonight.

I took the battery out of the burner, and then took a look at the other card I’d been given, before punching in the number on my main line.

“Sheriff Karras”

“Evening Sheriff, sorry to call so late, did Darius catch up with you?”

“Yes Mr. Lathe, officially I can only tell you it’s being looked into to, but off the record I can tell you I just left’s Vernon’s and I have pictures of the three guys, and a copy of the plate of their car, a rusty old black Ford Thunderbird, but the plates are likely to be stolen unless they're complete idiots.

I guess she works fast. “Well, glad to hear you’re on top of it, the photo they were passing around of me came from a Redd’Smart I was shopping at a few day ago, one of the...people there named Earl Coventry gave me a card for something called Doser’s anonymous, I gave him a call, sorry if I overstepped, and he figures a gal named Nicole with a taste for our kind of blood is involved, but they want to deal with her on their own, you might want to give him a call.’

There was a pause. “I wish you had talked to me first John, but I’ll talk to the head guy there myself, for right now maybe you should just hole up in your house and let me do my job.”

Yeah, feeling a bit of a chill.

“Sorry, I’ll keep my nose out of it unless something else happens, then I’ll just call you.”

That cut the chill a little as she promised to “keep me informed.” and ended the call.

Guess it’s all out of my hands until the next thing happened.

Time to move the laundry to the dryer and hit the sack.