Geoffrey took a deep breath through his nose, trying for what felt like the hundredth time to manifest the claws on his hands. When he opened his eyes and looked down at his fingers though, nothing had changed. There was tension in the joints but nothing else. He swore, wanting to punch something, why wasn't this working? There were the briefest flashes of red-hot rage that flowed through his frame, anger that didn't feel entirely his own and then it was gone. That was enough to give him pause. He swallowed, tried to ignore the coppery taste that clung to the back of his throat and push the thoughts out of his mind. The damned snake's thoughts invading his own was concerning, he had no idea how long he could ignore them for, how long it would be before those thoughts actually started manipulating him, forcing his hand…

"Dammit. Focus." he growled to himself, shaking his head. There had to be some trick to this, just like focusing one's faith to repel vampires. A trick he'd never excelled at to be sure but he had been able to figure it out under the guidance of the priests that Priwen kept in their employ. He had no teacher this time but it couldn't be that much harder. Besides, he'd done it once already. The hunter tried to think of what he'd been feeling when he'd been fighting that Sewer Beast… his stomach clenched in hunger and he felt his lips pull back from his teeth almost unconsciously as a strange crawling sensation pulsed through his sluggishly beating veins. He'd just killed that beast after awakening for the evening, why was he still hungry?

"Fuck…" he growled, opening his eyes that he didn't quite remember closing. When he looked down though, the dark bloody claws had actually appeared on his fingers. As he pushed the hunger to the back of his focus however there was that strange crawling sensation once more, the claws disappearing just as they had earlier that evening, this time though he was able to pay better attention to how it happened. So… the ability to manifest them was at least partly tied to his hunger, or at least it seemed that way. Geoffrey shook his head, took a deep breath and tried again.

It took several attempts but not nearly as long as the first time he'd tried before the claws manifested again. He paused, breathing a bit heavier than he had been before. McCullum didn't know how long that would stick around, he'd seen many older leeches that didn't seem to breathe at all other than to speak, it was damned eerie and he couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before he forgot to do that himself. It didn't matter, he thought to himself, he wouldn't be around long enough to find out. He just needed to kill the damned doctor and then he'd surrender himself to his men. Again, he told himself, looking back down at his hands. He kept at it until the slight tremor in his fingers and the way he could feel his pulse in his teeth forced him to stop. It was a lot more tiring than he thought it would be and looking at the window he could tell it was a much deeper night than it had been when he'd started. It wasn't much different from when he practiced with his blade or crossbow however, practice and repetition made the motions easier and second nature.

Geoffrey considered his options. He needed to get back to headquarters tomorrow and despite having fed earlier in the evening he could still feel the hunger gnawing at the pits of his stomach. The hunter wanted to head out as soon as dusk struck tomorrow and didn't want to be fighting the desire to feed on his own men. He sighed, that pretty much forced the matter didn't it? He looked at the sky through the window, there was still plenty of time before dawn and it certainly wouldn't hurt to get more monsters off the streets. The fledgling strapped his sword to his waist and opened the door once more to head out into the night to find trouble.

As he walked through the cold night he considered what he already knew; that the higher the body count that a leech had, the more powerful they were. Though that seemed to be partly dependent on their bloodline as well. He'd already done research on who the doctor had been before he'd died, he knew that the man hadn't been a leech for very long, a newborn in terms of a vampire. There was no way he should have been as powerful as he was. That was what had caused them to suspect that he was the progeny of Marshal in the first place. No leech should be able to rise from the grave and do what that monster had done just days after awakening. Geoffrey didn't know if the fact that all the power of that bloodline being passed onto him was a relief or a curse. It may help him in taking down the monster that had forced this onto him, but it was frustrating to know that even if they'd brought the whole Guard in, it still wouldn't have been enough to take the leech doctor down. They were horribly outclassed in this fight. McCullum was used to being the underdog, that was just how it went when fighting the blood-sucking monsters but this was in a world all of its own.

The screech of a skal drew his attention and he started off in its direction, pulling his sword from its sheath tightening his grip on the hilt. He wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that he felt his fangs lengthening in anticipation of the fight or that his jump into range of the creature had him instinctually yanking on the shadows to assist him. He tried to fight as a human would. He needed to practice doing it if he was going to be alongside his men long enough to take down his maker. It wasn't a thought he wanted to dwell too long on, the idea of tricking his men, of not turning himself over right away. No. He needed to give them all the assistance he could in getting rid of the monster that had taken his life. Having virtually beaten the monster already he struck forward, biting down hard in the direction of the things' throat. It wasn't a good strike, and the way the Skal was struggling had caused him to miss the main artery in its throat, causing the trickle of blood to be much slower and the whole process to take a lot longer than it should've. Irritated with the whole process, Geoffrey released the monster, letting the body fall to the ground loudly, trying to suppress the ecstasy flowing like fire over his nerves.

"Fuck…" he grumbled, limbs trembling even as he lifted his sword to chop the poor creatures head off for good measure. It had been harder than he expected not to rely on his new enhanced strength or his ability to pull on the shadows. This had only been for the past night and half, why was it so easy to fall onto those new abilities? He swallowed, trying to ignore the way the Skal's blood clung to the inside of his mouth. He needed to get cleaned up as best he could before the trial that the following night was sure to present…

-Twisted Fate-

The following night was just as cold and dreary as when he'd headed out to face down the doctor leech. The similarities alone were enough to set him on edge, let alone having dreams filled with the anger and the damned doctor's icy cold thirst settling on top of his own. Geoffrey grumbled to himself, used his hands to comb his hair into something less like a mess and turned his collar up against the cold. His scarf was stuffed into one of his many pockets, too bloodstained for him to deal with in the limited facilities of the safehouse but he couldn't bring himself to part with it just yet. Not that there was really anything special about it, it was just a woolen red scarf that he'd liked the look of a few years back and decided to splurge on.

Walking back to headquarters didn't take quite as long as he had originally expected, perhaps it was the briskness the cold added to his step. It was too bad that becoming a leech hadn't made the cold bite any less. Oh he was certain that it wouldn't hurt him like it had when he was… before, but it still stung his face and had him squinting his watering eyes. The hunter had to fight to not keep reaching into the shadows to move faster through the cold night, all the same he arrived back at headquarters in record time, slamming the door behind himself and marching right over to the fire that had already been lit in the small, sturdy wood stove in the corner. He shoved his hands in front of it and sighed as the tingling sensation crept through the frozen joints. Lloyd looked up from whatever he was working long enough to give him a smile and a nod, the other captains hovering around, asking after his health and what had happened during the fight and dozens of other smaller anecdotes.

"Lemme get in the door and some warmth in my bones." he grumbled, they all fell quiet and McCullum was just waiting for one of them to notice, to call him out and for all of them to descend on him and take his head. One breath, two, it didn't happen, none of them could tell. How could none of them notice? Many of them went back to what they were doing, Murphy headed out to lead a patrol on the streets, his face set in a grim mask. Someone set a cup of tea on a table near him. It all went straight back to what a normal evening looked like for all of them, even with the extra workload that the pandemic had hefted onto all of them and it made Geoffrey want to crawl out of his own skin.

When he was starting to feel a bit thawed he grabbed the mug of tea, granted he knew better than to drink it but it felt comforting to hold. His captains took that as a sign that he was ready to be bombarded with questions. Most of them wanted to know what had happened after he'd gone off to fight the leech doctor. They knew that the leech had survived, he'd attacked their temporary setup in the theater, clearly going after Swansea. Although those who survived the attack on the theater said that he'd drained Swansea, killed him where they'd been interrogating him. Had he had enough of the Brotherhood pansy? Had Swansea's usefulness run up? Or was it something else? Geoffrey put visiting the theater high up on his mental to-do list, he may be able to find some clues as to where the snake had slithered off to.

After his captains had finally seemed to run out of questions and updates to fill him in on Geoffrey was able to get a few moments to himself, filing the report that he'd promised Lloyd about his fight with the leech doctor, he kept the details as accurate as he felt comfortable, leaving it up for debate why on earth the leech hadn't just killed him outright. He checked over the rotation lists that the other captains had left with him for his seal of approval. Most were fine, though there were a few that he updated and shifted some names around, balancing the teams better. Finally feeling more himself and more on top of things Geoffrey tracked down Lloyd. There were some documents he needed to get his hands on. He found his captain in the largest closet in the small building, taking stock of their inventory. It was a job that no one wanted to do, for certain but at the very least it was out of the cold night.

"Lloyd." he said, surprised when the other man started, whipping around to face him, his hand reaching for a weapon that was sitting on a table outside the closet.

"Jesus Geoffrey, don't scare me like that." the older man said, taking a deep breath and putting a hand on his chest. Geoffrey could hear Lloyd's heart start to settle and swallowed against the sudden flood of saliva in his mouth. His vision had started to tinge into the monochrome for a second before he forced himself to take visual stock of what Lloyd had been counting up.

"Not my fault your hearing's going." the hunter said, hoping that the light teasing would distract his right hand man from noticing how intensely he had been staring at him just a moment ago.

"Har har." Lloyd said, stepping out of the closet and settling into one of the chairs in the room. "What can I do for you?" he asked "Now that the rest of the captains are done pestering you half to death."

"I'm looking for the documents we have on Dragons." McCullum said "And any we might have on the bond between leech and their progeny." he continued. Lloyd gave him a strange look

"What on earth do you need to look into that for?" he asked, but he was already making a note on the back of one of the inventory sheets that he had set aside.

"If the doctor really was sired by Marshall we may be able to lure the old bat out of hiding. But I need to check our notes regarding the topic first. No point in introducing extra risk to ourselves if we don't need to." Geoffrey said quickly, hoping that his friend bought his lie. He hated lying to the man but… it needed to be done, he needed to know how much the damned snake was going to be able to manipulate him.

"I'll dig up what I can but I think most of our books were lost in our last move. Most of the men are here to fight, not to take records. We're not the Brotherhood." Lloyd said, rising to his feet with a tired grunt.

"Never thought we were but know thy enemy and all that…" the fledgling waved a hand. Lloyd chuckled

"I hear you, I'll see what I can find but I need to finish this inventory first. I think we're awfully low on fuel for the flamethrowers, and it's gotten harder to get more." the older man said, glancing at his sheets. Geoffrey nodded

"I'll see what I can do about… scrounging up some more." Geoffrey said. He hated the idea of stealing any but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Besides they never took anything from anyone who couldn't spare it.

"I appreciate it McCullum." Lloyd said to his retreating back.

-Twisted Fate-

It felt good to sleep in his own bed. If sleep was what he could call it. He still dreamt but he didn't wake between dawn and dusk, waking in the exact same position in which he'd finally succumbed to the weight of the drowsiness that the sun brought. He knew, had searched out leeches in the past in the midst of the day when they were most vulnerable and they had barely been able to rouse themselves before they met their ends on the business side of his sword. However it still made him uncomfortable to consider that he bore the same weakness now. He rose slowly, stretching and yawning, the fangs felt heavy and far too large in his mouth, the hunger snarling in his belly like a rabid beast. He knew that he'd have to hunt tonight, there was no putting it off, not if he wanted to be in the presence of his men.

There was a small pile on his desk that hadn't been there when he'd fallen asleep. A collection of papers and a few books in addition to a plate of food. It smelled just as good as he remembered Joan's cooking smelling but he knew better than to eat any of it. He felt terrible wasting any of the food when they were all struggling to scrounge up enough of what they needed but it wouldn't do for any of his men to find out about his fate just yet so he scraped most of it into the trash regretfully. There was a note on the top of the books and papers and Geoffrey looked at it after taking care of the food.

Here are all the things that you mentioned yesterday that I could find. You were out hard when I stopped by but I managed to scrape together something to eat for ya too. I'll be with Johnson's patrol tonight.

-Lloyd

Reading it just made Geoffrey feel worse about the food he'd just tossed but there was nothing to be done for it. He set the books and notes at his bedside table, he'd look into them later, first he needed to hunt…

McCullum didn't like the fact that it was getting easier to control his newfound abilities, to only use them when he wanted to and to be able to fight like the man he had so recently been. But just because he didn't like it didn't mean that it was progress in the right direction. He knew that leeches gained power through blood and if he was going to fight the damned doctor and take him out for good he was going to need to get more powerful. He wiped the blood from his face, it seemed that practice didn't keep him from making a mess… He refused to take a human life, he wouldn't, no matter how much he could smell the blood pounding beneath the skin of his men, no matter how much the smell appealed… But in order to rid the world of Marshall's progeny he needed power… Geoffrey sighed, splashing some water from a flask onto his hands and then to his face to get rid of the remainder of the mess. This was a bit of a sticking point. How did he gain power without taking human life? Killing Skals, while worthwhile and satisfying, wouldn't get him very far. Would going after more powerful vampires get him any farther? The hunter scoffed to himself, at the very least it'd be a few less leeches in the world. Not really any downsides there. That didn't even go into the fact that he had nothing to lose now…

He slowly made his way back to headquarters, stopping first in the bathroom to be sure that the most damning of the mess he'd made of himself had been washed away. Looking into the mirror he still wasn't sure how none of his men had noticed, it seemed so obvious to himself. The waxen sheen to his skin, the more prominent veins around his eyes. There had to be some reason that they didn't notice… He looked back up to dry his face and was startled to see the red and black eyes of the dragon before they faded away. He jolted slightly, it must've been the bit of the leech doctor that was still haunting his mind. That was probably the most concerning thing that the doctor was still lingering within his mind… The hunter sighed, he desperately needed to go through the documents that Lloyd had given him.

He paused in the postage stamp sized meeting room, spoke with a few of the squad leaders that were passing back through the headquarters, took a cup of tea, pretended to drink it, and then headed back to his room to take a look at the pile of papers still sitting on his desk. McCullum sighed, dumped the tea out the window and sat down in the least creaky chair that he'd managed to hide away up in his room and set about reading what was in front of him.

After approximately an hour and a half all the hunter felt he'd accomplished was making himself irritable, hungry and given himself a headache. He let the most recent journal fall back onto the desk with a flop that was loud enough to almost make him jump. Damned sensitive hearing… The journals that Lloyd had dug up were old and worn and the handwriting within was painful to decipher. If he hadn't thought that whomever he assigned to it would leave on the spot, he'd have some of the rookies type these out on the typewriter that broke as often as it functioned. The contents that he could make out wasn't telling him much more than he already knew; Dragons were Ekons that took lives at an almost astounding pace, gleefully glutting themselves on the humanity that they killed. There were mentions of other types of vampires, even a few that Geoffrey hadn't heard of, and a couple that the writer hadn't heard of themselves and speculated that they may be different names for the ones already discovered. That made sense, most of this information wasn't well known and while many Ekons kept in touch with one another, or used each other like some warped game of chess, they were still few and far between, there were probably names for Ekons that most Ekons hadn't heard of. Geoffrey groaned, he was starting to sound like those Stole bastards… He needed to get up and do something so he stood and made his way down to the small kitchen, giving a grateful rookie a hand with some of the dishes that had piled up there. The kid thanked him with a barely squeaked out word before fleeing to whomever he'd been assigned to this week. One of the captains filed in after the kid and scoffed.

"What'd ya do now McCullum?" Johnson asked, leaning against the doorway. Geoffrey rolled his eyes as he slowly began putting the mismatched mugs and cups into the cupboard.

"Nothing, kid's damned starstruck is what he is." the leader said, glancing between his captain and the remaining dishes until the other man got the hint and assisted in the cleaning process "That or the pipsqueak's scared of a bit of authority."

"Or he knows mean spirited when he sees it." Johnson joked casually.

"I'd take my chances in here wit' me than running past you then." McCullum shot back. Johnson just chuckled and they continued on with the menial chores that came with running the covert group.

As the evening wore on, the hunter was certain he was going to drive himself mad. He had started to notice whenever one of his men came through the door, whether he was in the room or not, many of them arriving back injured and he had to clench his jaw and try his damndest to ignore the scent of copper as it tinged the air, as it made his fangs itch and throb. His charade must've been decent as the worst he received was an odd look from one of his captains before they shrugged it off and moved along. Lloyd wandered up as everyone was dispersing in the early hours of the morning, offering the flask that he usually kept tucked at his hip. Geoffrey waved off the silent offer, Lloyd raised a brow but tossed the flask back regardless.

"Suit yourself," he grumbled "did you see the files I left for you?"

"Yeah, tried to parse them 'till I started gettin' stir-crazy." McCullum nodded, glancing at the short report the last arriving squad had left. It wasn't good, talk about Skals on nearly every street they checked. They had taken out a few of the stragglers but hadn't felt equipped to take on some of the larger groups. He certainly preferred that they take the route of caution, come back to fight another day rather than lose their lives to the beasts on the streets.

"Are you planning on joining a patrol tomorrow?" Lloyd asked suddenly, snapping the fledgling from his musings.

"Ah," was his first response, he paused, tried to collect his thoughts and then continued "maybe, I was considering staking out some of the snootier leeches, see if I can't learn anything."

"Recover from our last attack against Ascalon, watch while they're still reeling." Lloyd nodded and Geoffrey couldn't help but mentally pat himself on the back for the quick thinking. Bringing Ascalon to mind also brought up a red hot flash of anger. They should've done more to prepare, McCullum wasn't too big of a man to admit that, but it didn't do anything to diminish the rage that burned when he thought of the damned leeches tearing down his men like it was just a walk in the park. He quickly found himself trying to suppress the growl that wanted to reverberate in his chest. The involuntary reaction was just a cause to be more pissed off. Thankfully Lloyd didn't seem to notice or react as McCullum cleared his throat instead.

"Are you going to assemble a team for it?" his captain asked, looking over one of the reports himself.

"No," Geoffrey shook his head "the fewer the men the better. I want to be discreet, just one man might tip them off, especially when they're still on edge from our last raid."

"Geoffrey," Lloyd said, the hunter looked to his captain, hoping that the older man wasn't about to tell him that he couldn't do it, that he wouldn't be allowed to "be careful. Please. The world won't end if you take a couple more days to recover."

"Try telling that to those whose lives get torn apart by leeches." McCullum scoffed, turning to the lists of the known bastards of the Ascalon club that they still had. One of their lists had gone missing, likely with the group that had raided the club. Lloyd gave a long suffering sigh and bade him a good evening before disappearing out the door.

Geoffrey spent the rest of his night picking out a target for his test, searching for any information that he could find on them. He settled on one Lord Humphrey. Not a man who had a large amount of power in the club but they had more information on him than on some of the other members. Humphrey didn't seem to have come from a powerful bloodline but he was still an Ekon, which would allow Geoffrey to test his theory on whether he'd be able to gain more power himself through the blood of a more powerful vampire. Satisfied with the knowledge he'd gathered he checked through a few more reports and then lay down to rest when he couldn't resist the drowsiness of the sun any longer…

-Twisted Fate-

The stakeout portion of any mission was always the most boring, after an hour or so the anticipating excitement wore off and then you were just trying to not fall asleep on your feet. Geoffrey stifled a yawn and kept his eyes glued on the home in front of him. It was small… for a mansion, so still far larger than any one man really needed, in the hunter's opinion. He had taken the first part of the evening to take out a few Skals, drinking his fill as he did. The pure euphoria that accompanied every single one of the kills hadn't diminished from the first time he'd sunk desperate teeth into flesh and that concerned him. The power that flashed through his limbs when the luke-warm blood was flooding his mouth was addicting and he wondered, not for the first time, whether he'd be able to resist long enough to confront his maker or if his men would find him with his teeth latched in some poor innocent.

Motion at the door of the house pulled the fledgling from his thoughts and he focused in on it. Humphrey was stepping outside, placing an absolutely gaudy hat on top of his head before looking around and heading down the street at a brisk pace. Geoffrey stood from his hiding place when he was sure that the man could no longer sense him and followed after. The enhanced senses were definitely proving their worth now as he was able to follow from a much further distance than he would've had he still been human. He watched from a far distance as the man went to a couple shops, made some likely very boring purchases and went on his way, the perfect mask of an ordinary gentleman. The hunter knew better however as he peered down from above on one of the rooftops that he'd jumped up to to avoid walking straight down the street. He knew that someone of his standing would stick out like a sore thumb here and his ability to follow Humphrey would fall apart immediately. The ease of travelling by the rooftops surprised him though, and while he tailed the man he tried to think of a subtle way to encourage his men to look up, he couldn't be the first leech to take to the building tops to travel out of view of the public. Humphrey started making his way toward the docks, and Geoffrey raised an eyebrow, where was he going? The hunter followed up above as long as he could before dropping down to the ground and continuing his pursuit. Humphrey turned down an alleyway that came to a deadend and stopped.

"I didn't live this long without being able to tell when I'm being followed." he said, in what Geoffrey was sure the leech considered an imposing voice. Instead it just came out whiny and nasally. McCullum stepped out from where he'd been hiding to face his foe.

"I think you and I have different definitions of 'living.'" Geoffrey said as the lamplight that leaked into the alleyway illuminated his form.

"That may be so." Humphrey said with an inclination of his head. "I'll give you one chance to take your leave boy, run back to those dogs that you call hunters and we can let this blow over." the Ekon sneered and McCullum was surprised to realize he could feel the other leech pulling on the magic in his blood before there were any outward signs that it was happening. He wasn't going to let me go, the hunter mused to himself as he stepped to the side and the spear of blood and shadows darted past him. It was clumsy and Geoffrey was sure that it wouldn't have surprised him even before his change.

"Right, you see there's a few problems with that," he started moving toward the leech "first of all, you had no intention of letting me leave, and second, I've got a bit of a problem with letting leeches like yourself just roam the streets." the hunter swung his sword as he finished the last word and Humphrey dodged backward, swirls of shadow following him, and laughed.

"You think that you have any hope of taking me down? Alone?" the Ekon tossed another blood spear that Geoffrey wasn't sure would've hit even if he hadn't moved forward. He darted this time, pulling on the shadows himself, feeling the blood coalesce around his fingers as he slashed upward, claws digging directly into the other leech's flesh and squelched in such a way that made the hunter's stomach clench with want. The presence of his fangs were suddenly heavy and prominent in his mouth.

"What?!" Humphrey said, flinching and trying to pull away, the claws in his guts clenching tighter as Geoffrey tried to keep him there with a growl.

"What are you?" the Ekon gasped through the pain.

"I…" McCullum grinned at him, enjoying the shock on the Ekon's face at his fangs "am a hunter." He wrapped the fingers of his other hand in Humphrey's hair and wrenched his head to the side before sinking his fangs into the leech. He thought that he'd experienced joy before, when drinking from Skals or the Sewer Beast that he'd taken down but oh, how wrong he'd been… pure, unadulterated euphoria spread over his limbs at the taste, his hands clenching, eyes falling shut without his permission. Why had he not done this sooner…? The body in his arms bucked, so he just bit harder, ignoring the pinpricks of pain until they faded, instead relishing in the wondrous flavor as it flowed down his throat.

The blood had long stopped flowing by the time he opened his eyes and let go of Humphrey's body. Even longer to feel like his breathing had settled into a more normal rhythm and the shaking to stop. He extracted his claws from the leech's guts and couldn't help himself but bring them to his mouth, laving his tongue over each one, a fresh set of trembling washing down his spine and making his breath hitch in his throat every time his tongue made another pass. It took far, far too long to come to his senses, to be able to think in coherent thoughts, to comprehend what he'd just done. He swallowed, fighting back the pleasure that came with the taste that coated the back of his throat and picked up his sword from where it had fallen in the thrill of the hunt. Wiping the blade on the leech's clothing and sheathing it were safe motions, things he'd done a hundred thousand times before and helped him start to feel more in control of himself despite every nerve feeling like fireworks were going off on them. The claws were still there and at this point Geoffrey wasn't entirely sure how to make them go away. At least, not when he was still riding so high from the fight. He tried to slow his breathing and all it helped him succeed in was taking jittery inhale and a rapid exhale with an annoyed growl. If this was going to happen every time he needed to try harder to get a handle on himself.

"Fuck…" he sank down with his back to the alley wall, hoping that the bracing of the solid brick would help. It didn't. At least not as quickly as he would've hoped. Eventually he felt more like himself and felt the tingle of the blood pulling away from his fingers as the claws retracted. The first taste of blood hadn't been like this… this felt… far more intense. Geoffrey almost lifted a hand to his face before remembering the mess that he'd made of himself. Slowly he stood back up and pulled the leech's body somewhere where the sun would take care of the remains and then looked around to get a bearing on his surroundings. He had a lot of time before dawn remaining and he needed to at the very least get the worst of the blood off of his face. The hunter looked up to the sky, the moon was hidden behind the thick London clouds, just as gloomy as the mood that settled over him. This was his new reality, wasn't it?