Geoffrey wished that he could capture the look of shock on Atkinson's face as the leader of the Guard of Priwen was walked calmly into his office. He'd stood and was pointing an accusing finger at the hunter. He opened his mouth, clearly about to yell or speak or do something but Geoffrey was already on the move, shifting with the shadows to slash at the other Ekon with his claws. Atkinson hastily threw up a blood shield and blocked the brunt of the blow though McCullum did get in a solid scrape up the leech's arm before it came up in the way. If the shock was great before Atkinson was going to have to pick his jaw up off the ground at this rate.

"How…?" the Ekon growled, trying unsuccessfully to shove Geoffrey away from him. The hunter grinned as he leaned forward toward the leech, the shield starting to crumple beneath his claws, the shadows starting to swirl at his feet.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he asked, about to shove Atkinson back to get another good swipe in when he realized the swirling shadows were not under his control at all. He darted back for Lloyd back before he had the chance to think about it, the shadows leaping up from the floor and tearing into clothes and flesh alike. Geoffrey grunted, vision turning dark as he started to rise back to his feet. All he could see was the bright red of the blood nearby, calling to him… his eyes caught on it briefly, considering, before the deeper more complex smell of the dimmer red caught his attention and McCullum turned to it, launching himself at it with no further hesitation. There were a few bright bursts of pain, but then there was blood oozing over his claws and he grinned with delight, it was so close… Something caught his side, tearing through flesh and muscle to bury itself there and the hunter snarled. The bright, bright red moved; there was an ear splitting bang and the prey before him eased its struggling. Geoffrey moved immediately to bury his fangs in the cool ecstasy that washed over him in waves. As the motions of the leech in his arms slowed, his mind started to come back to him, though it was clouded in a pleasant buzz sort of way that made the past several moments sting a little less.

When he was finished he staked Atkinson with shaking hands, just to be sure. There was a bang on the door, probably the staff having heard what Geoffrey had deduced was Lloyd's gun. He wanted to just sit down and enjoy the warm feeling tingling through his limbs but there was no time for that, instead McCullum threw open the window and looked down. The drop would be easy for him, but Lloyd? He didn't see any obvious handholds.

"Take my hand." he told the older hunter, who just watched him with wary eyes before scoffing lightly at him.

"Are you serious? Why the hell-"

"Damn it Lloyd, do you want to shove your way through the staff or not? Take my feckin' hand." Geoffrey had no idea if what he was thinking would work, but they had limited options up here with the staff and soon likely the police; bearing down on them. The captain's rough grip grabbed his own and McCullum reached for the shadows, wrapping them around them both and pulled them to the ground. Geoffrey stumbled and could hear Lloyd cry out as a knee banged into the ground, but a bruise far beat out a broken bone or time in a cell so he'd take it. They both kept moving, pausing only so Geoffrey could grab his sword from the bushes and not slowing until they'd left that district behind. As they rested, Lloyd bent over his legs and panting in a nondescript alleyway, the older hunter gave him an angry glare.

"Do not. Under any circumstances. Do that again." he managed between breaths.

"What were my other options Lloyd?" Geoffrey said "Like I said, it was that or fight our way through the staff." the Ekon didn't receive a response beyond the grumbling of the older hunter but the man seemed to be calming down from their flight from the mansion. He looked up at McCullum a few moments later and gave him a good long stare, long enough that Geoffrey raised a brow

"What?" he asked.

"There's still blood on your face." Lloyd said, pointing vaguely at Geoffrey's face. Geoffrey frowned but wiped at it, hand coming away sticky and he had to fight the urge to lick it clean. Instead he smeared it off on his coat, lifting a sleeve to smear at his face as well.

"It's damned eerie." Lloyd continued "To see ya like this… For a moment there I thought I was looking my death in the eye, I thought you were going to gun for me."

"I-" Geoffrey paused when he thought back on the instinct, adrenalin fueled moment, there was no way for him to say that he hadn't considered it.

"That's what I thought. Guess I'm lucky that you seem to prefer leech blood." the older hunter shook his head "We're playin' with fire here sir." he said. McCullum could feel his cheeks burn in irritation, a feat only possible due to the stolen blood in his veins.

"Well then let's hope that we don't get burned." Geoffrey said, feeling that his face was clean enough to get away with, and started back for headquarters. Lloyd followed him and said no more, he'd obviously put out what he had to say. Just the same as the window, Geoffrey didn't have any better ideas, better him, cursed as he was, taking down the doctor leech rather than send wave upon wave of his men to die under the Dragon's fangs.

-Twisted Fate-

Thankfully by the time they'd made their way back, most of the blissful energy surging in his veins had worn down. Men pestering him with questions also helped the feeling of normalcy that fell over him. By the time he found himself with any time to himself, he was exhausted and ready to let the sleep of the dead take him. Lloyd came up behind him and Geoffrey just barely stopped himself from groaning out loud.

"Yes Captain?" he asked, he could hear the sound of the older man's footsteps cease.

"We should go over the information that the crews brought in on the other targets." Lloyd said. This did warrant the heavy sigh that McCullum gave, or at least he thought so.

"Lloyd I have already killed one of the Ascalon members and managed to not get either of us killed in the process tonight, on top of all the other usual duties, excuse me if I'm not all that keen to deal with whatever the patrols were able to scrounge up." Geoffrey turned to continue up to his room but was stopped by Lloyd's hand on his arm.

"Frankly sir, you can sleep when you're dead, so forgive me if I'm not willing to accept that as an excuse." Lloyd said before turning and walking back to the fire and slapping the pile of papers onto the small table and staring at the leader pointedly. McCullum gave a world weary sigh and wandered over to the table to join him.

It took far, far longer than either of them would have wanted to go through the information, trying to parse what was actually useful and what was just superfluous. They were both extremely agitated by the time it was over and Geoffrey was just barely able to keep himself from growling at Lloyd with each word. They had managed to cobble together a bare minimum of a timeline however and the hunter was feeling more confident in his plan to take out the leech doctor than he had been before all of this. Before it had been more of an angry pushing forward, now it felt a bit more calculated. He collapsed onto his bed and he barely felt the impact before he was drifting off to sleep.

The twilight came too soon in McCullum's opinion. So did the evening's activities, Lloyd and Geoffrey scouted out the next position, deciding in the process that it was for the best to put it off for one more night. They needed a decent distraction to get the leech out of the house so that McCullum could do what he needed to. At the very least they had come upon a couple packs of Skals in their scouting; something that Geoffrey would have considered suicide not long ago but now it was barely enough to quench his thirst, let alone entertain. Lloyd peeled off after the first group, going to check in with one of the patrols that should be in the nearby area. As soon as he was gone Geoffrey sighed. It wasn't that he was afraid of hurting Lloyd, he would've done so already if that were truly a risk, no he had been concerned about the older man holding him back when he was around. He hadn't wanted to put his all into the moves that he was doing, afraid of pushing the old captain's allowance too far and having to put too much focus onto keeping track of Lloyd to keep from pulling too far ahead. The screams and squalls of the second pack of Skals had him grinning though, this… this he could really test his skills on. He was starting to get a better handle on his manipulation of the shadows and his own blood and had, for the briefest moment, sworn that he could feel the blood of the Blinker Skal as it had rematerialized behind him.

The second fight was far easier than the first but far more destructive and McCullum found himself sneaking back into headquarters through a window instead of through the front door so that he could change and clean himself up in peace. He'd cleaned the blood from his face and tossed his clothes in a basket when there was a loud knock on the door and the voice of one of the other captains echoing through the thin frame.

"McCullum? You in?" Jenkins said as though he couldn't hear Geoffrey's bootsteps on the other side. McCullum gave a heavy sigh, and glanced in the mirror to ensure there wasn't still blood on his face.

"Aye, I'm in, what d'ya need?" he called back over his shoulder, pulling his sword from his belt and placing it gently alongside his desk where he could clean it later. Jenkins didn't hesitate before opening the door, much to the commander's annoyance. The captain paused upon seeing McCullum standing half dressed in the room.

"Well?" Geoffrey asked, wandering back to the basin on the dresser to continue to wipe the blood from his limbs.

"I… Sir what happened? Are you okay?" Jenkins asked instead. Geoffrey shot him a glare

"What? I have to be impeccable when I hunt now?" he snapped, tossing the rag back onto the basin and turning to face the man. "I'm not injured, it was just a damn messy fight, now what did you need to see me for?" he crossed his arms. He could see the indecision in Jenkins' gaze as he waffled back and forth on whether to leave his boss alone.

"It can wait." he finally said, a bit of a flush dusting his cheeks in a way that McCullum needed to look away from before he started staring. He may have fed well on the Skals that he'd been fighting, but that didn't make the reminder of blood beneath his men's skin any less appealing. The door clicked shut behind the man and Geoffrey had just gotten back to attempting to wring some of the bloody water from the rag when there was another knock.

"Fer fuck's sake." he grumbled turning and stomping over to wrench it open. Lloyd stood on the other side, looking less than pleased. Good. The captain's mood matched his own. "Now what?" Geoffrey rumbled, standing back to let the other man in.

"I take it the rest of your hunt went well." Lloyd said as he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"Aye." McCullum said, not bothering to hide his modesty around the other man. Lloyd had half raised him, it wasn't anything he hadn't already seen. "Just more Skals, but that's fewer of the pests on the streets." he said

"That's one blessing mixed in amongst all of this." the captain conceded with an incline of his head. He sat down in the chair at the leader's desk and looked at him attempting to clean some of the blood from the scarf that still decorated his neck, despite the fact that it would be doing very little to protect him at this time. McCullum sighed and looked back at the captain

"What do you want Lloyd?" he asked, turning and leaning against the dresser.

"I want to go over what we learned today. Make sure we've got all of our ducks in a row for tomorrow evening." Lloyd said, gesturing to the notebook he'd pulled from a pocket "Also there's a few discussion points on food supply that Johnson reminded me of."

"Alright." Geoffrey said, after hanging his head and taking a deep breath. "Let's get it over with."

-Twisted Fate-

The next couple days followed a bit of a pattern, he'd even call them normal, if there was any semblance of that left in his life. He would wake upon the sun setting, usually without having gotten to sleep until well after its rising the previous morning. He would handle what needed to be handled at the start of an evening in the headquarters and then head out to hunt with Lloyd. Two more of the inner circle of Ascalon had been killed and consumed. The second had been much more difficult, with more security added to his mansion and they'd had a hell of a time trying to get Geoffrey in the door. Clearly the Club had started to notice that some of their midst had disappeared and were starting to suspect that they'd been killed, or at least gotten out of the way. Geoffrey's own power had increased exponentially with the blood that he'd gotten from the other two members of the Club, one had been particularly more potent than the other. Shockingly that it had been the one who'd been easier to take down who'd been more powerful, he supposed that the vermin were more paranoid than those who were overconfident in their abilities. Regardless, the hunter was starting to wonder if he'd come far enough, if he had enough abilities to be able to take on the leech doctor. Lloyd had been hinting at it the previous evening and after having time to himself to think he wondered if the older captain was right. He took a deep breath, looking to his sword and crossbow sitting near his desk before rising to his feet, mind made up.

Lloyd regarded him as he came down the stairs, gear already hooked to his person. The older man said nothing but raised a brow. Geoffrey met his gaze and asked

"Where was the last place we spotted the leech doctor?"

"We've had a few sparse sightings around the theater and the hospital but he seems to be laying low." Lloyd said, his tone grave "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be, and if I don't make it back, it'll save you the trouble of taking me out yourself. I'm sure you'll be able to handle the guard in my absence." Geoffrey said, trying to sound joking but Lloyd just frowned. He looked at his leader before reaching out a tentative hand and clapping on the younger man's shoulder.

"Sir…" Lloyd paused and Geoffrey looked at him before he continued "it's been an honor. Good hunting." And then he stood aside, letting the commander pass him by. McCullum felt his heart clench, this was as close to a goodbye as he was going to get wasn't it?

"Thank you." he said, steeling his reaction and stepping out into the cold night. London's weather was as dreary as ever and he looked up at the cloudy night with a scowl

"What a fuckin' dreadful night to die." he grumbled before starting first for the hospital.

The doctor was not at the hospital, in fact, the place looked near abandoned. He knew that there had been more Skals than usual in that area, but he didn't know that it had gotten this bad. He took out what he could find, feeding along the way. He'd quit gaining much power from Skals but they still soothed his thirst to a more bearable level. Continuing on to the theater also revealed little, there were the remains of the temporary camp they'd set up in the audience and the rotting remains of Fletcher on the stage. In the flurry of the first two nights he'd nearly forgotten of the report that one of his men had brought in. A recruit, still green about the ears and shaking from having fled, had told them that the doctor had come for them in the theater. Few escaped with their lives and further reports had informed them that Swansea had died in the aftermath. Geoffrey still didn't know if his men had taken 'rough him up' too far or if the damned Dragon had gotten tired of the Stole Bastard. Either way he wasn't here now. In fact, some of the notes that he'd been missing and had been pretty sure were here were also gone. Geoffrey wandered the streets, unsure of where else to look. His feet eventually took him toward the graveyard, whether he wanted to go there or not. He may as well pay his respects while he was here…

As he made his way through the gravestones he started to hear the shuffles and howls of a Skal. He paused to listen, no there were definitely more than one here… The exact number eluded him until he let his vision slip into the red tinged monochrome of a leech's vision and he was able to count out three of them. Well… he was getting cold and needed to stretch his limbs anyway so he leapt into the fray, snarling and slashing at them with his sword. He didn't need to resort to his own leechy abilities much, just to dodge out of the way here or there and let the monsters' momentum do the rest. About halfway through the fight there was suddenly a… weight on his consciousness, something that he couldn't explain and had every hair on the back of his neck standing on end. It only took a few more moments to take out the creatures before him and he could feel a rising bloodlust in the back of his throat, it was with dawning horror that he realized that it was the doctor's presence that he was feeling. He paused when he was done killing the lesser creatures and stood, able to feel the Dragon's gaze on the back of his coat.

"What do you want?" he asked, waiting for the monster to emerge from the shadows. There was an inordinately long pause, like the damned leech was enjoying his impatience.

"McCullum." The word was half a purr as the Dragon materialized from the shadows nearby, stepping into the diluted moonlight. Geoffrey wondered how anyone could mistake the man for human, he knew that most leeches put up a glamour of sorts. He'd been doing it himself, but just the way that Reid moved, like a predator… The monster stopped and observed him, stared at him, an almost perplexed look crossed his face.

"What do you want?" Geoffrey snapped, hand clenching on his sword. He'd come out here with the intent to hunt down the Dragon and try to kill him, but it wouldn't hurt to know why the leech was showing up now.

"I'm not allowed to look into your wellbeing?" the monster with a man's face asked, words sickly sweet and Geoffrey couldn't tell if the mesmerism was intended or if the other man was just particularly good with words. Regardless the hunter just raised his crossbow to point at the monster ahead of him.

"No, in fact, you shouldn't be allowed to live." McCullum said. He expected the Dragon to come for him then, for the fight to start and yet… the doctor just laughed. His rich baritone bounced off the gravestones around them, like this was just the world's funniest joke.

"I didn't come here to fight you McCullum." Reid said, Geoffrey didn't believe him for a minute, not with the way he tilted his head and the way he stared, like he was seeing straight through the hunter. "I came to ask a favor, and to see how you…" the leech stopped, continued to stare, it was making McCullum damned uncomfortable to be under that black and red gaze. "I swear I saw you die, Geoffrey… how are you…" the doctor trailed off, still looking at him as though he'd grown a second head. It slowly dawned on Geoffrey that whatever glamour he seemed to naturally put up that prevented his men, men trained to identify vampires on the spot, seemed to be working on the Dragon as well. This was an advantage if the leech still thought he was human, but it wouldn't last for long, he needed to get the first strike in or he was dead meat. It seemed that Reid was done inspecting him however and just shook his head

"It doesn't matter. I need to ask you about-" he didn't get to finish whatever he was saying as McCullum swung his sword forward. The Dragon leapt away, but the sword swirled the dark wisps that he left behind, a far closer strike than he'd ever been able to make before on the leech. Reid frowned, he was mad if he thought that Geoffrey would make some sort of deal with him. Instead Geoffrey launched straight for the second attack, firing his crossbow in the spot he was certain that the leech was going to materialize in. He was right, and was rewarded for his efforts with a grunt and the smell of the Dragon's cursed blood in the air. Geoffrey knew he was damned when that smell danced over his senses. How could the very same blood that had ended his life be making his mouth flood with saliva now? It didn't matter. All that mattered right now was another strike. Another and another and another. The doctor was dancing backward through the tombstones, still trying to say something between the shadow jumps and leaps.

After catching the leech in the side with a small dagger, he finally seemed to actually piss the Dragon off and Reid snarled, the shadows around them coalescing in a way that McCullum recognized. He waited as long as he dared and then rolled to the side, the spikes slashing up through empty air instead of the hunter's body.

"McCullum dammit, won't you just listen to me, for one moment?" Reid snarled, suffice to say Geoffrey wasn't particularly convinced, especially not when the words were followed by a slash of claws. The hunter scoffed

"I've heard enough of yer lies."

"Very well," the Dragon said, a sort of mad grin playing across his features. "I'll just have to take what I need by force then." Their dance continued, though this time the doctor was actually fighting back. Geoffrey's mind returned to the moment that they'd been in the attic of the hospital but now was nothing like then, now… now he could actually fight back. Now he had actual power on his side. The doctor may have been a fighter, a soldier, but Geoffrey had been training to fight leeches all his life. This may as well have been any other time that he'd gone toe to toe with an Ekon, except this particular Ekon was far more powerful than he was used to, and the other exception was his own abilities. They finally reached the point at which Geoffrey had had enough, one set of claws grazing his side in a sting of fiery hot pain and the Dragon swiped with the other hand, having lost hold of or tossed the dagger he'd been using earlier. The lashing out was lazy, an awkward slash of one unaccustomed to fighting in this way and it left him wide open…

Geoffrey saw his chance and he took it, leaning in, shoving the leech's chin up with one hand and biting down hard. There was a gurgled sort of noise and the hunter realized that the damned snake was trying to laugh. It was unsettling but that idea was quickly lost under the waves of joy now pulsing down his throat. He couldn't think past it, even though he knew it was important, he was doing… something that he needed his mind for… The slamming sensation in his solar plexus had him choking and wheezing despite the fact that he no longer needed the air that was suddenly hard to come by. With the gasping sensation however, came some clarity and the color trickled back into the world around him and he could see the doctor, blood oozing from his torn throat, giving him a mad sort of grin. The look of it sent a shiver down McCullum's spine but it only made the determination in his gut burn brighter; he needed to take this monster down, now. The laughter grew clearer as the doctor's throat healed and he launched himself at the hunter once again.

"I thought for a moment I was somehow wrong, that it hadn't taken… but this… this is better than I expected, Hunter." the last word was practically purred into his ear and it just made Geoffrey all the angrier. This was all a game to the Dragon wasn't it? None of it mattered so long as he got what he wanted in the end, and it wasn't fair. How could the world take an already arrogant man and make him a monster, give him self aggrandizing ideas about what he was supposed to do, let him trample over anyone who got in his way, manipulate and kill and rob the few unlucky enough for their paths to touch his own. Geoffrey snarled and pulled the shadows beneath the doctor's feet, barely catching the leech as he dodged backward and around a tombstone. The Dragon laughed again and they both dove back into the dance, this time with blood and shadows accenting the steps. Reid was putting up a hell of a fight but Geoffrey could tell that he was wearing him down, the couple of mouthfuls of the other Ekon's blood that he'd managed to swipe gave him about as much of a boost as he needed and the while the doctor hadn't been restraining himself when it came to his feeding habits, he also clearly hadn't walked in here expecting a fight. It was only a matter of time before the dance between them drew to a close.

It wasn't shocking, or graceful, or even particularly satisfying. McCullum saw the leech miss a swing, saw the instant regret that entered his eyes, and shoved his sword between the Dragon's ribs and straight for where he knew that dead heart was. There was a small choked sound from the former doctor, a claw that raked the side of his face in a desperate attempt to get away, and a dissipation of shadows at his feet before Geoffrey leaned forward to claim his prize. Draining the other Ekon would help keep him down long enough for the hunter to finish the job. That's what he told himself to justify it but in reality he was simply hungry and the Dragon's blood tasted like nothing else he'd stolen in his cursed second life. He didn't wait for the giddy high to fade before standing on shaky legs to finish the job and instead jerkily went through the motions that those who hadn't spent a lifetime dealing with things that refused to stay dead probably would've called excessive.

When the fire was steadily burning McCullum sat, knees drawn up to his chest, and shivered. He didn't know if it was the cold, or the fresh blood, or if it was the strangely relieved look that had been on Reid's face at the end and he wasn't about to allow the introspection that would let him figure it out. Instead he sat, waiting for the fire to burn out so he could scatter the ashes, how fitting they were already in a cemetery… and tried to think of nothing at all. When the shivering abated enough and his mind felt enough of his own, he looked at the small pile of objects that had seemed worth keeping from the former doctor's coat. There was some cash, Lloyd would put it to good use, and wasn't that a strange thought, that he wouldn't be the one deciding where the money went, there had been a pistol and some ammo, always worthwhile, and a wad of notes. Those hadn't been worth sorting when he was trying to take care of the body but now he had some time… There were two small vials that came tumbling out and plinked to the ground when he undid the tie that was holding all the paper together. Thankfully they didn't break and Geoffrey set them off to one side before looking at the paper that had been surrounding them. The innermost was something that the hunter didn't understand, scribbled notes in the leech's handwriting with words he didn't know scrawled and crossed out. There were two items worth taking note of though… Marshal, and Arthur. Marshal had been crossed out but Arthur had not. McCullum thought of the flask, sitting amongst other Guard treasures, that had the blood of a king in it, and wondered if that was what the Dragon had been intending to ask him about. The idea struck him and he sighed heavily, of course… the missing notes from the theater… This was the Dragon's warped idea of the protection against the Blood of Hate… What a load of crock. He stood, rather shakily, to his feet, collecting the few items that he needed to take back with him to headquarters and dusted off his rear, not that it helped much, he was covered in muck and blood to a degree that only his worst hunts. It was going to be a long walk back…

-Twisted Fate-

Dawn was starting to peek over the horizon and McCullum knew he was pushing it as he turned the final corner toward home. He was going to cut through a particularly shady alleyway just to lessen the risk of the sun hitting his skin. As he walked through it, it seemed to get darker and darker… The hunter paused. This was not normal. And not particularly something that he wanted to deal with today. He paused, took a long, slow breath and turned around.

"Whatever it is, it's been a hell of a night and-" Geoffrey felt the rest of the words die in his throat as he found himself face to face with a legend.

"You know not what you've done…"