Chapter 53 – The Ankaran Sarcophagus

October 8, 2004 = Friday

~Eliza Flores~

SAW in hand, I passed the hard rock crypt and descended down the stairs into a medieval dungeon. At least it looked as much like a medieval dungeon as brick and mortar would allow with its cathedral style roof. Three pointed sconces using upside-down skulls for a shade lined the wall, and all of them burned with some kind of soft light that was steady, so I assumed it was electric. Murals made of multiple skulls lined the walls, which gave it a creepy vibe. All in all, I did not want to be down here.

The pathway ended at a T-junction, and the floor on both sides ended in open pits. I checked the pits, finding people milling around down inside them.

"Hey!" I called out to them. When they didn't answer, I pushed my sight into the shadows, and got a closer look at them. When I saw their lips had been sewn shut, I pulled back my sight with a sigh.

They were Giovanni castoffs, the remains of what happened when they ripped a soul from its body. I had to assume they were hostile, ghouls of a different nature probably. If that were the case, Giovanni ghouls had to have a way past them. Looking at the sides of hole, and the grates hanging there, I sized it all up. They were heavy enough to walk across, I just had to figure out how the Giovanni raised them.

Looking at the sconces, I thought back to how Mira pulled on the sword display to open a secret passage, and all the wall sconces done here. Pulling on the closest one, I was shocked to find it pulled easily. The grates in the floor rose with a silent whir, then locked in place with a clank.

I stepped out on them, finding they were solid, and quickly walked across to the other side. The walking dead below me didn't follow or track me, so I quickly followed the way to a door. There was nothing special about it, except it was thick and made from planks of wood. There wasn't any handle, and no nearby sconces.

The door seemed solid, and I pushed on it to test its strength. The middle gave, and pushing harder, found there were hidden hinges that allowed the door to bend in. I passed through, finding the door was rigged to close immediately, keeping any walking dead from escaping.

I passed through several sets of similar doors, these not holding me up as I already knew the trick. I followed the passage for a bit, then hit a corner where I found three of the walkers milling around with a door just past them.

They didn't seem to notice me, so I kept my distance as I got closer. I was no more than three steps away when one spun and swung on me with a backhanded swipe. I raised the SAW and caught it, but I was still knocked back against the wall. Problem was, I was now cornered.

The dead guy swung on me again, and I used my celerity to dodge that blow, then pulled on the shadows to make a katana. I slashed the arm, cutting it clean off. Blood spurted out of the arm as the dead turned to face me, and I stabbed him in the chest.

This time he fell, collapsing to be truly dead. The other two started for more, and I was torn between firing my SAW and fighting hand to hand. I made my decision in a flash, leaning the SAW against the wall before I waded into the other two. They fell easily, lacking any finesse in combat and I picked my rifle up and continued on.

Once through the door, I found myself turned back to the center, with a similar doorway on my right. I opened that door, finding a similar hallway to the one I had come done, sans the walkers. With a huff, I turned back to the hallway I was now in and started going clockwise around the interior wall checking doors.

Each room held two or three more of the dead, which prompted me to clear the room to inspect it. Each room was small, lit by a few sconces, but contained no access. I checked the sconces for secret rooms, but found none.

It was only when I was in the room furthest from the entrance that I found a door, metal this time with engraved patterns on it. I sat my SAW to the side and cleared them out, finding they were more of a nuisance than a threat.

Picking up my gun, I went through the door, down a small section of stairs to put me one more level down. Going over the layers in my mind, I could empty the SAW and not be heard even by the Giovanni in the crypt.

Turning one more time, I found myself standing on a ledge over a circular depression. It looked like one of those ritualistic things you'd see in a movie, and there, in the bottom on the far side on a raised dais, sat the Ankaran Sarcophagus.

Two men stood facing it, one carrying a pair of katanas on his bare back. The other didn't seem to have any swords, but some kind of knife setup hanging from his sides. They both seemed too interested in the sarcophagus to notice me, so I decided to announce myself.

"By order of the Prince of Los Angeles, I claim the Ankaran Sarcophagus!" I yelled to them.

The pair turned to face me, and I was surprised to see that they were Asian. I had figured them to be Giovanni kindred.

"Kindred!" one yelled back up at me. "Your presence here violates the agreement between our leaders! Leave now or face the consequences of your actions!"

"Agreement!" I yelled back, readying my rifle. "There's barely even a truce!"

"There's an alliance between your leader, Lacroix, and Mistress Ming-Xiao!" he yelled back. The other one was slipping his hands into the knife collection, and I figured I'd take him out first. "You violate that agreement! If you do not leave, we are not responsible for your death!"

"MY death?" I asked them. "I can deal with a pair of Kue-Jin rejects! I've raided the Sabbat headquarters twice and survived! You two can leave now or be sent for Trial!"

"We'll give you one more chance to leave this place and keep your life!" he yelled back. "You will go?"

"I'm just disappointed that there's only two of you to kill!" I yelled back, activating my celerity and potence. I brought the SAW up to my shoulder just as the knife wielding Kue-Jin brought his hands up to show that they were a claw set. I lined up, and began emptying the SAW into his chest. The claw wielding Kue-Jin was caught off-guard as my bullets began ripping his chest apart, the tracers showing me a laser-like path my bullets were taking into him. I shifted my aim to crawl up his spine, disintegrating him before he even had the chance to move.

Movement to my left caught my eye, and I barely got my rifle up as the sword wielding Kue-Jin swung his sword down to cut me from neck to hip. I absorbed the impact with the rifle, but his other hand also held a sword and he tried to stab me with it. With no other choice, I fell back off the ledge, dropping the rifle to absorb the impact as best I could.

The surviving Kue-Jin jumped down to follow, and pushing my celerity back into being, scrambled to my feet with both a katana and a tantō, a Japanese short sword that resembled a knife, in my hands. I caught his next attack with the tantō, parrying his off hand with my katana.

The Asian kindred was surprised with my counterattack, and we circled each other. I slipped my messenger bag off my shoulder as I waited, freeing myself in case I needed to roll. He cocked a grin, then holding his swords close to his chest, vanished in a teleporter like light show. I spun to catch his attack in case he tried to knife me in the back, but he was back up on the ledge.

We locked eyes for a moment, before an ethereal white flame coated his hands and he threw it at me. I dodged to the side, turning back to see the white flames turn into very real flames. Yellow flooded my vision as the flames washed over me, but somehow I kept from frenzying.

I looked up in time to see him jump from the ledge, and soar high into the air. I danced back half a step, managed three attacks as he settled onto his feet, and was then stuck deflecting his attacks. He was too good for me to take on, and I had to keep giving ground to keep him from landing one on me.

When I hit the wall, it seemed to infuriate him, as it limited his attacks. I still had to give ground though, soon finding a depression which turned out to be a staircase. That infuriated him even more, as our swords needed room to swing, and stabbing was so easily parried.

With a snarl, he started his teleportation process, but since I was prepared this time, and could see where he was already starting to appear, I used my own shadowstep to appear right next to him, then cloaked myself in shadows so he wouldn't see me.

He didn't even notice my own disappearance as he began winding up his fireballs. Dropping my tantō back into shadows, I brought my katana down just as he outstretched his hands to throw. The shock on his face as my shadow-blade flashed through his hands told me he hadn't expected it, and I was rewarded with both his hands falling from his arms.

He fell to his knees, looking at his ruined limbs, and I brought my katana up again. "Say hello to my sire," I mocked him, then brought my sword down on him, cutting clean through his muscled neck. The moment my sword was through, the Kue-Jin fell to ash, leaving nothing but his swords and heavy leather belt behind. I grabbed the belt, then jumped down and picked up the claws that his brother had, along with my messenger bag and rifle and placed them on the sarcophagus.

I ran my hand over the antique stone, finding it exactly as it was aboard the Elizabeth Dane. I pulled out my phone, but being this far down in a hole under stone, brick, a mansion and all the metal it took to keep it from falling in on itself, I had no signal.

Instead I took a picture of it, then I shadow-stepped to the Scourge's office, where I found not only the scourge, but the prince as well. The prince was leaned over the scourge's desk and seemed to be reeming him out.

"...where you should be," the prince was saying as I stepped in. He noticed me, where I had seemed to come in and his face was awash in anger. "As for you..."

"I found it, sir," I told him, not wanting to cut him off but figuring it was for the best. "I found the Ankaran Sarcophagus."

"Is it here?" he said eagerly as I showed him the picture of the prize on my phone.

"It's in the bottom most level of the Giovanni mansion," I told him. "There's too many Giovanni there for me to handle alone, but I have confirmed the sarcophagus is there."

"Good, good," he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'll have Sheriff Kondo fly out there immediately and we'll send as many deputies to back you up and assist as we can."

"Thank you, sir," I said, bowing my head in front of him. "I'll return there now to make sure no one tries to move or harm it."

"Thank you, Miss Flores," he said, then I stepped back to the sarcophagus.

I packed everything away, awaiting the sheriff and the deputies. It was a good fifteen minutes of waiting, while I leaned against the sarcophagus. When someone did appear, it was the man I had seen rip a soul out. I was about to pull a sword and threaten him when the brute of a sheriff came in behind him. Not a word was said between the two, but I had the feeling that words had already been said.

More men and women began filing past them, among them Jean. They had equipment they were carrying and began to set it up, while the Sheriff stood watch. They hefted the sarcophagus, carrying it out past a very upset Giovanni kindred. I marched with the deputies, as silent as they were, hoping and praying that the Giovanni didn't start something.

When we got back up to the crypt, the Giovanni were still there, and I had a momentary feeling that they would start something, but one look to me, then past me to the sheriff, and they all hung their heads. The two ghouls who had went to choose for the Kiss gave me vehemently violent stares, but since they were still ghouls I figured they hadn't completed whatever ritual they had started.

I also didn't see Chris, Adam or Mira as I went through the crowd. A part of me smiled at that, figuring my claim of the prize had guaranteed Adam and Mira would come to me. A part me of me still felt sad, but I squashed that fast. I didn't give Mira her disease, and I didn't make Adam go broke. They were free to avail themselves of other opportunities, and I couldn't help but smile at the fact that though there were more opportunities for an embrace in the night, I was the only one they knew of.

Outside the mansion, I broke off from the group to get my car, running the entire way to where I had parked. I quickly stashed everything in the trunk, then climbed in. The sarcophagus was just being loaded when I got back, and the deputies were piling into various vehicles. The sheriff himself just stood watching, and once the truck carrying the sarcophagus started moving, he turned into a large bat and took the skies.

That move shocked me, watching him become a large bat, but I remembered what Jean had said about Gangrel being able to transform. It was almost as handy as my shadow-step, but I had to figure that the mist and wolf forms I had seen Beckett use were more practical as they kept the person from being harmed or gave them an excellent way of fighting back.

Still, I had a car to drive, so I followed the procession in my car back to the tower, then on foot as the sarcophagus was wheeled directly to the prince's office. Beckett was waiting on it, and he began pouring over it as soon as it was set on the floor. The sheriff was behind the prince's desk, standing guard over the man who wore a cat-who-ate-the-canary grin.

"My wunderkind returns," he said proudly as he stood from his desk. "In my entire court, I knew there was only one who could have succeeded in this task. Finally, the Ankaran Sarcophagus is ours!"

I gave a respectful bow to him as he left his desk. I knew this was the moment. He was happy, which meant I was about to get my due.

"I'm happy to be of service to the court," I said, my head still bowed. When I lifted it, the prince was standing right in front of me. "Of course, I was offered a high bounty for it."

"A bounty I'm happy to pay," he said, smiling. "As prince, I grant you the right to make a childe of your choosing. Choose well," he said, his face growing serious for a moment. "For the sins of the childe are the sins of the sire as well. I'd hate to have to send you to your own trial for something your childe has done."

"I will choose well, sir," I said, again bowing my head.

"Come, I've granted Beckett's request to study and document all the markings on the sarcophagus," he said as he turned me to the sarcophagus. "Let's go take a look inside, and see what the commotion around the city has really been about."

"Before we do that, sir," I said, stopping him with my words and body language. "I need an answer to a question that might undermine your alliances. Are we in an alliance with the Kue-Jin? I killed two of their agents to get the sarcophagus for you."

"What? Preposterous!" he said, a wash of shock coating his face. "No kindred would trust them, nor would they trust us. Did the Anarchs tell you that? It sounds like you've been taken for a fool."

"The agents themselves did, before I killed them," I confessed.

"And you believed them?" he asked me. "They've been trying to take over Los Angeles for years. It's a ruse, a falsehood spread to undermine my rule and turn kindred against each other and thin our ranks. They are duplicitous, evil creatures. Did they not try to kill you?"

"They did," I said, giving him an evil smirk to know I had.

"Insurance," he said, smiling back. "They lied to you in case you lived through the encounter. They hoped to create dissention rumors. It's a trick older than even myself."

"Thank you for that, sir," I said, sighing in relief. "I just wanted to make sure your alliances were not put in jeopardy by my actions, and if I had, allow you time to make reperations as needed or mend fences before problems arose."

"I appreciate your concern," he said as he led me to the sarcophagus. "I just wish more were like you. So many would rather undermine me than help me. Let's see now what your labors have accomplished."

"Yes, sir," I said, keeping step with him. When we stepped next to the sarcophagus, Beckett gave us both a nod.

"What have you assessed so far?" the prince asked him.

"Unfortunately for the heralds of doom, it appears we won't be opening Pandora's Box," he said, drawing the words out as if he were letting us down gently. "The markings, as I far as I can tell, are of Assyrian origin. An extraordinary piece, but nothing earth-shattering."

"I see," the prince said, rubbing at his jaw. Was it anticipation, or relief? "Then there's no reason why we shouldn't open it."

At that the prince put his hands on the lid and tried to push it over, but it held fast. He braced himself and I joined him, lending my potence ability, but all we managed to do was push the sarcophagus itself closer to Beckett.

"Won't budge," the prince said in a whisper. "Beckett, do you see any mechanism for the lid?"

Beckett gave him a blank stare, then drawled, "I haven't as of yet had a chance to pore over it with my fine tooth comb. I think I have one in my bag."

It took me a minute to realize he was pranking the prince, who didn't seem to notice as he struggled more with the lid in trying to raise it by prying it up with his fingertips. "Why won't it...Why won't it open Beckett?" he spat, as his patience ran out and he turned on me. "And you! I thought you said it looked as if it had been opened on the Dane!"

"It had," I said, pointing to a spot where blood spatter still lurked in a niche. "There's the blood from one of the handprints."

"I want it open!" he roared at me, finger in my face. "You! You and Beckett figure out a way to open it. I need to know what's inside. I have other matters to attend to. Come get me when a solution has been found."

He stomped off back to his desk after that, leaving me alone with Beckett. I gave him a half shrug of 'oh well' behind the prince's back, but was just glad he hadn't rescinded my right to make a childe.

"Ah, the depths to which I'll plunge to prove other's wrong," he said mockingly in his quiet way. "The young ones get so temperamental. Fortunately for...Sebastian, is it?" he said, having to think for a minute as if he didn't remember the prince's name, "I'd already made up my mind to open the sarcophagus, if only to show the city that Gehenna, contrary to popular belief, has not begun."

"What do you think's inside?" I asked, looking at the markings.

"Put you ear to it," he said, and I looked at him in wonder ti see if he was joking. "I'll shake it and you tell me what you think's inside."

I gave him a chuckle. "Alright, stupid question," I admitted. "How do we open it? I'm not familiar with the opening of ancient sarcophagi."

"At least you got the plural form right," he said with a smile. "Fortunately for us I know of someone who has distinguished himself in this field."

"Indiana Jones?" I said, thinking he probably knew someone similar. Hell, he almost fit that role himself.

"Doctor Anders Johansen, a professor of archaeology from Norway," he said, choosing to ignore my jab at archaeology. "He was the one responsible for finding the sarcophagus, and as far as I know, the only authority on its origin and design."

"Where can I find him?" I asked, wondering if he was even in country. Likely he was, or hard been, and wouldn't be hard to find.

"Until yesterday, he could've been found in his suite at the Empire Hotel here in downtown," he told me. I had a sinking feeling he had done left town, but Beckett wasn't done yet. "But when I stopped by earlier this evening, all I found was spilt coffee on a morning paper. Appear's he's been abducted."

"Tell me he left notes or a diagram for me to retrieve or something," I moaned. If he disappeared in this town, I doubted even the Nosferatu could find him.

"I did find a pair of bikini swimwear and a book detailing the origins of various Turkish dialects," he offered, and I shook my head. Leave it to Beckett to find humor in this.

"That all?" I asked, wondering if he was leaving something out.

"I detected the smell of murrh incense, which is usually burned in monastaries," he said, taking a sniff to draw attention to his nose. "Also, I found beach sand in part of a muddy footprint. Putting two and two together, I located a monastary northwest of Malibu, where I believe hunters are holding Johansen captive.

"Thanks detective," I said, bowing my head. "You've taken several nights work off my hands."

"Actually, there were two hunters on the roof of the building opposite the hotel who were positively delighted to tell me everything they knew, provided I stopped dangling them head first over the side," he said, telling me the truth.

"What would hunters want with an archaeologist?" I asked Beckett. It didn't seem right to me for them to take an innocent without cause.

"They abducted Doctor Johansen for his own protection," he told me, probably from information gleaned from his torment of the two aforementioned hunters. "Or at least, that's how they've justified it to me. He's being held by the Society of Leopold and used, quite ingeniously, as bait for Prince Lacroix's minions."

"Or me," I said, and Beckett nodded. "Who are the Society of Leopold?"

"Sebastion mentioned you ran into their hunters at a primogen's home some time ago," he told me.

"Bach," I said, remembering the hunter who tried to burn me alive just because I was kindred.

"Personally, they are so secret a church organization I don't think they know they exist, but essentially they're murders for Christ or some such deity," he explained to me. You'll have to go the monastery and find a way inside and find Johansen. I'm afraid I can't accompany you, but then, it's best if I prevent Sebastian from having his goons wreck this piece of history over nothing."

"Alright," I said, thinking of a plan. "If I give them too much time, they'll fort up and make it night impossible to get in. I move too fast, I can get caught by the rising sun. I think the best thing is to hit them hard and fast tomorrow at dusk, and leave none alive to tell the tale."

"I'd recommend no other course of action to the foolhardy," he said, reaffirming my strategy.

"So, ever get around to checking out the local thin bloods?"

"How any sane kindred could think these poor unfortunates are an immediate threat to us is absurd," he said, shaking his shaggy head. "Most were afraid, or at the very least, uneasy around me. Tragic."

"Well, no sense me in standing around here," I said, looking at the door. "I'll get things ready to lay waste to the place."

"Remember," Beckett said, bringing my attention back to him before I left. "Doctor Johansen is an innocent, and as such, has no idea we exist. Try not to put the idea in his head."

"I won't," I said, giving him a smile as I left.

I hit the elevator, just to feel my phone vibrate. The number was for the motel, so I answered it.

"Mistress," I heard Yukie say. "You have a visitor."

"Who is it?" I asked her, leaning against the rear wall.

"A Mira Giovanni," she said, and I nodded my head.

"Tell her I'll be there within the hour," I said, and hung up. It looked like Mira had come to roost.