He took advantage of the chance to hunt, and sleep. What he planned was best done after sundown. Night was the natural element of both vampires and thieves, after all.

He awoke at sunset. He was still tired, one short nap and one slightly longer one over four days wasn't enough, but with the coming of night he felt more awake, more energized. He rose from the sheltered hollow where he'd slept out the day and walked out into an open space amid the trees. With a leap and a flurry of wings he was aloft. He soared through the darkening sky to where the lights of Balford glowed dimly. Soon he was over the town. He found the right street quickly, but he had to dip down to street level to make sure he had the right building. Several in that area were nearly identical unadorned brick boxes. He wondered why anybody would build something like that. Though I suppose Ive seen worse. Earth probably still wins the prize for having more ugly architecture.

Having found the correct building he circled down to land gently on the roof. He could hear quite a lot of people inside, all of whom seemed to be asleep. Nearly all of them were on the second floor. He got the feeling that if he only knew how to interpret what he was hearing he could have found Damien simply by listening, but he wasn't quite sure how to tell what age and gender a child was when all he had to go by was a heartbeat and the sound of breathing. So instead he leaned over, keeping his legs on the roof but leaning as much of the rest of him as he could over the edge, and was just able to see in the windows of the upper rooms. The first one he found was full of cribs. Definitely not the right room. The next room seemed to have children about the right age, but they were girls. The third room though... Bingo!

The window was the next challenge. It was fairly large, and had two halves, one of which could slide aside, presumably to let in air during hot summer days. But that was on the inside. On the outside a kind of metal grill covered it. A bit nicer looking, perhaps, but it might as well have been iron bars. I feel sorry for the other kids here, he thought.

Needing a better look at it, he got up, and then lowered himself down from the edge of the roof feet first, hanging on by his fingers.. He tested the grill and found it strong enough to support his weight, so he worked his fingers into it and hung there. He looked at the edges. It was held in place with bolts all around. And how lovely! The nuts were on the outside, where he could get at them. Of course if he could find something else to brace himself against, he could have just ripped the whole thing off, but that would be very noisy, and he didn't want to wake anyone. Especially not the adults here. Though even waking the other children would be awkward.

He did need something to hang on to other than the grill though, since he was going to have to remove it. He looked down. He smiled. Well, I guess it's not quite "unadorned' after all. Just not particularly artistic, that's all. There was a narrow ledge where a row of bricks had been set sideways rather than lengthwise, right between the upper and lower floors. It was only about four inches wide, but that would do. First, however...

He clung to the grill with one hand, and with the other started unscrewing the nuts up at the top. He wouldn't be able to reach them from the ledge. Once he had the whole upper row done, and a few of the ones along the sides, he lowered himself down until he felt the ledge under his feet. Keeping his balance on that tiny perch while unscrewing the rest of the nuts was a bit of a job, but he managed it. He dropped all the nuts to the ground below, and then, with infinite care, he pulled the grill off of the window. He had a bad moment where he very nearly unbalanced himself trying to pull, but he managed to get a tenuous finger-hold on the edge of the window itself, and that was enough. He looked down, just to be sure nobody was below him, and dropped the grill. It landed in the dirt behind the house with a thud.

After that it took only seconds to work a knife blade into the crack between window and sill and pry it open. It was a bit of a squeeze, but he fit in. He let out the breath that he had been holding the entire time and took a better look around the room.