I can't believe it's not November 1st
When I left the beach house it took all of my will to avoid tearing out Brian's throat and drinking every last drop of crimson. My hunger had grown exponentially following the liberal use of my Disciplines, making me realize I should carry at least one extra blood bag on me at all times. Brian would have been an ideal candidate to feed on if it wasn't for the uncovered living room window where 4 men now stood, watching my every move as I left.
Brian tried to say something to me as I was leaving but I shot him a death glare and he left me alone. Nobody at the beach house was in a discrete enough place to feed and the Thin-Bloods on the beach... well I wasn't sure what would happen if I fed on them. Best not to test if you can be blood bound to a Thin-Blood so soon.
Then I remembered the pier. I needed to check out that body before it was taken down and moved. Hopefully I'd find somebody to feed on.
Making my way down the stairs I took a wide birth around the thin-bloods, and headed towards the pier. Not to far from where the thin-bloods were congregated, I found a stake just lying in the sand. I looked at it for a brief moment, but ultimately ignoring it until I was fed and dealt with the murder investigation. Heading up the stairs of the pier, I heard a howl. Looking up the cliff side near the pier I saw a wolf. It appeared to be staring right at me, watching me move through the pier. It shortly ran off after I discovered it, and I briefly wondering what it was doing so far in the city before realizing it might have been a ghoul.
From the pain in my head, I knew it wasn't time for pondering mysteries. I needed to feed, and I was about to lose control to the beast. My pace had slowed and my balance was off. It was almost like a combination of being drunk and hung over while starving at the same time. The weight on my person felt similar to bottled up anxiety and anger, to the point that if any pressure was applied I'd explode.
I had come to lean heavily against the wall of an arcade as I dragged myself towards a police car. Looking to my left, I could see further down the pier, where the perimeter had been set up around the crime scene. There were several cops and CSI around the crime scene, but down to my right there was a single cop smoking next to a cruiser. I straightened up as best I could and called to him.
"Excuse me officer? I have a few questions about the situation here." He turned to look at me and cursed as he tossed his cigarette over the pier. Striding over, he grabbed his radio and mentioned something about needing to block off access to the pier from the beach.
"No statements are being made about the case at this time. Move along, we got work to do." The fact that he walked right up to me near the corner of the building made it easy for me to grab him and drag him to the side of the building out of sight. He nearly yelled for backup but I clamped my hand around his mouth as I pressed him hard against the wall. Craning his neck to the side I didn't hesitate as I dove in, sinking my fangs into his artery and began guzzling his ichor. He tried fighting me off for only a moment but I easily overpowered him and he gave in to the dark kiss. I could feel the hunger urging me to drain him dry, the overwhelming exhilaration and pleasure from drinking blood was intoxicating. I almost killed the man, but another howl brought me back to Earth and I released him. I didn't even look to see if it was the same wolf, I just knew it was. I dragged the cop over to the cruiser and set him inside, to make it appear as if he was taking a nap. With as much as I drank he wouldn't be waking up for awhile.
I pulled the shadows over my form once more as I crept towards the crime scene. As I got closer, I saw the horror that had befallen this pier. The police officers standing outside the parking garage weren't exaggerating, the body was shredded apart, starting from the sternum down the body and didn't seem to end. The damage was extensive and it was a grizzly sight to behold, though I've seen pretty horrid things before, this was definitely something of an entirely different nature. The area was slick with gore and I seriously couldn't fathom how anybody could have gotten the body up here like this and not be noticed. The face and arms were slashed to hell as well, leaving no part of the body untouched. The arms were bound above the head to the light post and the head was looking down towards the mess that was made of it's own form. I could see the corpse was a man at one point, but the face was hard to make out.
My theory however is that this guy had a connection with the last two murders. This was a pattern. After a few minutes I over heard the CSI and Detectives talking. I got lucky and they had found a wallet with idea on the body of Mike Mateo. A name I'd have to look into at Kilpatrick's. I took a few more moments and after concluding nothing else would be acquired here I left.
Once I had made it back through the parking garage I quickly found a hooker and brought her into the darkest part of the structure. She gave a surprised sigh of excitement when I yanked her towards me and craned her neck to the side, moaning as I bit into her neck and writhing against me as I drank deep. After we both got what we wanted I stuffed $50 dollars in her bra and let her slide down against the wall, the location wasn't that well hidden but it was enough that I curled her up and let her rest as I went to Mercurio's.
I held on to his FOB to get in and walked straight over to his apartment. Opening the door, I saw that he was laying completely still on the couch. I cursed, thinking he was dead. I went over to the main bedroom and laid the explosives under the King Size bed. I chuckled to myself thinking that if he was alive LaCroix's ghoul would probably hate the idea of sleeping on top of a bomb.
After I was satisfied that the explosives were well hidden I strolled over to the broken body on the couch and grabbed his wrist, checking his pulse. It was stronger then I thought, and he eventually returned from his temporary slumber.
"I thought you went and died on me." I used a playful tone to try and lighten the mood.
"It'll take a lot more then some lowlifes with no manners to kill me kid." He chuckled before coughing up some blood onto his couch. Cursing about ruining the upholstery.
"Yeah, you're one resilient fixer old man." Mercurio's face was so swollen and damaged from his attack that I could barely tell if he was smiling at the joke or if his face was actually just twisted that way now.
"So, did you get the astrolite?" He asked with a hopeful tone.
"Yeah, it's hidden under your bed." I chirped. He gave me a look of disbelief at first, probably thinking I was insane for putting explosives under his bed. I told him so I didn't see the problem. "I'm not going to leave it in my run down apartment above a pawn shop. We're just asking for somebody to break in and either set the thing off by mistake or just take it for God knows what reason." Mercurio shook his head with what I could only assume was a smirk. After a moment of contemplation his face grew hard and he looked at me with such intensity I thought he'd pop another rib.
"Did you make those cocksuckers pay?" I shook my head. He sighed, definitely disappointed, but stayed professional. It was then I knew I liked Mercurio. "Well it's your call. Not really my place to tell you types what to do."
"Don't worry, I gave Dennis a choice, work for me and be protected, or eventually die when you come for him. Showed off a little with out explaining what I am, actually lied to him and his silent companion about how we're on this state of the art drug that almost nobody knows about. He was quite perplexed hearing that you survived, and was so scared when six rounds from his puny .38 special didn't end me like he had hoped it would. Not to mention the look on his face when I tossed his coffee table into a door frame to prevent anybody from getting in." Mercurio nearly jumped out of the couch at my depiction of recent events, only halting due to his injuries.
"Shit kid a little overboard don't you think? Wait, you sayin you didn't turn him into one of me right away? I'm pretty sure that's against the rul-" I lifted my hand.
"Don't worry, even though I said he'd have two nights to mull it over I know, no, I made sure, that he would give me an answer sooner then that. Hell, by the time I get home he'd probably have already emailed me. Regardless, I'll be keeping an eye on him." LaCroix's ghoul shook his head.
"Still pretty risky kid. Still, takes some balls to handle things the way you did without shedding their blood." He snorted. "Part of me hopes he says no, but if he says yes, let me have a few rounds with him after you've ghouled him will ya?" I smiled. I liked Mercurio. I knew that if it came down to it, Mercurio would be my right hand man. I wouldn't mind at all taking this ghoul off of LaCroix's hands.
"Straight up fight sure teach him some manners if tonight's lesson wasn't enough." He nodded, and I smiled. "Yeah, I approve of this. I'll go ghoul him tomorrow. Until then however, why don't you let me in on what the astrolite is actually for. It occurs to me we never discussed that."
"I can pretty much smell the military all over you kid so I'm sure I don't need to warn you to be on the other side of the world when you engage the timer." I shook my head confirming his hunch. "Thought so. What you're making disappear is a Warehouse of Sabbat interest. Hell they might own it already." I put my hand to my chin and stroked my beard.
"Fun. Had a run in with them before. Absolute nut jobs." My statement seemed to remind Mercurio of something as he perked up.
"You're telling me. I was apart of a crew of 4, it was me, two other ghouls and a vampire. We were on guard duty and came under attack by the Sabbat. Only me and one other survived." Mercurio seemed to chuckle at the memory, look back on it with a fondness that I wouldn't have expected from a professional that didn't seem blood thirsty for the sake of it. This intrigued me.
"Who was the Vampire?" I almost stated it, having a hunch that the Vampire was the one that survived with Mercurio. The half-dead-wise-guy gave me a side long look before shaking his head. I smiled, taking this as a confirmation to my suspicion. "Okay, well you don't have to talk about it. Where's the warehouse?"
"Dunno, and the guy who's supposed to get you there is one of you types. Never met him myself, but he's got a helluva reputation. He goes by the name Bertram Tung. Probably the only guy that knows more about this city then I do." I had never heard of this Bertram Tung before but that's no surprise seeing as how I barely know any Kindred to begin with.
"Okay, so call him and set up a meeting. Or do I have to do that. Not sure how this works." I was admittedly annoyed that my sire barely taught me anything about Vampire politics. Just the bare minimum. I had a loose idea of the differences between the Camarilla and Sabbat, but outside of one is raving lunatics and the other being basically the Vampire Mob that considers themselves akin to nobility and royalty of some kind, I was mostly in the dark about how hierarchy works in practice.
"You're not going to like this." Mercurio seemed to fidget uncomfortably and something told me it wasn't because of his condition. I sighed and slapped my face.
"You can't get a hold of him. What? Is he missing? Possibly dead?" Mercurio groaned.
"Worse. He's in hiding." God damn it. "Word on the street is Therese Voerman, I'm assuming you don't know her, is feuding with Tung. I don't know the details. My take is that he thinks he's about to get whacked so he's gone underground until the heat dies down. If you want to send that warehouse into orbit this year..." It was my turn to groan.
"...I'm going to have to make peace between them. Fuck's sake. These two, they better be willing to deal with me or I'm going to send them into orbit." Mercurio laughed. "Alright so where do I find Therese?"
"She and her sister Jeannette run that club down the way, Asylum. I'll never understand the freaky shit kids are into today. I try not to do business there." I nodded in agreement.
"Yeah I saw the place. Passed it on my way to the bounty hunter's office. Don't ask. The industrial-alternative-goth-punk scene. Pretty sure I saw a dude in a gimp suit. Not really my thing." Mercurio shook his head.
"I hear ya pal. I suppose I'm one to talk given how I'm dressed. Clearly I haven't left my era far behind me." Mercurio waved his hand in a dismissive manner.
"Alright, what do you know about Therese?" I questioned, sitting in the chair adjacent to his side table. He laid his head down, not willing to deal with the pain to face me from his position. Understandable.
"She's the woman around here, a power player. Nice looking broad for a dead chick, but uh, personality like stone. I don't like her much, but I can respect." I just a sat and absorbed the info Mercurio was offering up, and pushed on with another question.
"What about the sister? She the same or polar opposite?" Mercurio shook his head.
"Jeannette? She's definitely polar opposite. Funny considering their identical twins. Like I said I can respect Therese, but Jeannette, she's different. I dunno what to make of her. She's a little you know, in the head." He seemed to stop short, not wanting to continue. I quirked a brow and frowned in disapproval of his antics.
"Is that it? Ones a power player and the other is a little crazy?" Mercurio snorted, an act that he regretted when blood shot out of his nose and onto his coffee table. He sighed heavily before continuing.
"Look, they're obviously both like you, but Jeannette... I hear rumours about her." He stopped again, and I was becoming impatient with his hesitation.
"Spit it out man. Any and all info can be pertinent to my objective." Mercurio let out another sigh.
"Alright, Jeannette, has a body built for bedrooms. I got close acquaintances that says they conquered that territory. But I asked the main man, and he says that you types, you know, can't or don't, or... do that kinda thing. Anyway, whatever she is, I hear Jeannette's a wild girl." His hesitation was now more understandable. In that moment I remember I was talking with somebody who would be as old as my dad, and I can only imagine he would have had the same sentiments about openly talking about a woman and her private affairs.
"Thanks Mercurio. I'll get working on that as soon as possible. Before I do however, you got any info on Tung? Last question, then I'll let you sleep." He gave a mirthless chuckle while grumbling something about taking long enough. I smirked in amusment.
"I don't know him myself, would like to meet the guy, kind of a local legend. He in Therese seem to be contenders for this city. He's crafty, smart guy. Haven't heard anything bad about him." I nodded. Figuring he probably would have mentioned the clan if he knew, but that would also beg the question if he knew anything about clans. Alas, I had promised him rest, so I said my goodbyes, assuring I would keep his secret yet again, and then made my way out onto the Santa Monica streets.
Standing in front of Mercurio's apartment I realized his blood was still on the front steps. I looked around to see if I would get lucky and the building would have a water spigot that I could use to clean the blood. Leaving it might draw unwanted attention, and there was quite a bit of it. Then again, this was Santa Monica, Kilpatrick had made it pretty clear this place had become a dumping ground for the lost and damned, the outcasts.
Boy was he right.
Looking around I couldn't find any spigot's, and decided that I didn't know how long the meeting with Therese would take, let alone whatever it is she would inevitably ask me to do in order to earn the boon of her calling off the feud. I did however spot the familiar shape of Carson down the street, attempting to enter a building that looked to be a tattoo parlour. Curious as to what he was up to, I decided to head over to him.
As I approached, I noticed he was attempting the door several times and trying to look in through the windows. Unfortunately, they appeared to be mostly covered by posters or paint, and the lights appeared to be off. As I got closer, I made it a point to take heavy steps as to alert him without having him jump out of his skin. He snapped his head my way, surveying the situation with a tense but stern expression. He stood up straight, facing me, and squared his shoulders.
"Can I help you?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Was about to ask you the same thing. You and I didn't really talk, seeing as how you were avoiding being sat on by Kilpatrick after your wise ass remarks." Carson gears turned as he scrunched his face for just a moment, before he recognized me and relaxed, but only a little, considering he didn't actually know me.
"Right. Didn't think Arthur was hiring. Am I supposed to show you the ropes? Actually better question, how did you find me? I didn't tell him I was here." I shook my head. Though I would love to tag along with him, I already knew how to hunt.
"Ah, a misunderstanding. No. He told me your the bounty hunter. I left my email in case you move on from that. I just was visiting an old contact of mine, war buddy, and just happened to notice you down here. You trying to get in?" Carson studied me for what seemed like a good minute before he returned his gaze to the parlour.
"Well, yeah. My bounty supposedly owns this dump. His C.O says he's been missing for days. You don't show up to court or for your check ins with your C.O then your a labelled a jumper and guys like me get sent after you. Only problem is this lock is busted and the door seems to be jammed shut. I bet fucking McGee is strung out in there." I waited a moment before looking around. Seeing nobody in the immediate vicinity that could witness what I was about to due.
"Names Sullyvan. I can get you in, I just need you to keep watch for me." Carson gave me a stern look.
"We can't just break and enter. If it wasn't for the fact the lock was busted I'd be able to get in with the key he left in his apartment." I shook my head and waved my hands as if to clear tear gas out of the air.
"You're not going to see anything and I was never here. Door was busted when you got here. The rest I'm sure you have an alibi for." I didn't really believe that Carson never broke the law in order to serve it but maybe he kept his nose as clean as possible. Which was more of a reason for me to do the breaking and him to do the entering.
He seemed to pace on the spot for a moment, looking between me and the door to the rundown business. He eventually sighed, and wordlessly turned and walked passed me to observe the streets. After giving a once over myself I walked up to the door, and kicked it. The frame snapped and the door swung open. Luckily I held back as to avoid sending the door into the darkness within.
Carson quickly turned around and motioned for me to leave as somebody had turned the corner from an alley and started heading in our direction. They seemed oblivious to what was going on for the moment but I could see he was on edge about witnesses. Something told me I should stay and help, but a quick look at the digital clock in the front of the pawn shop told me that the night was getting close to ending and I didn't want to catch a sunrise.
Carson quickly moved into the building, nodding his thanks and closing the now broken door behind him. As I pulled a smoke, lit it, and took a drag to act casual, I realized that I still had to go by the diner to ask about Lily. I contemplated seeing Therese before heading to my Haven but I promised E I'd lend him a hand and I didn't want to neglect that particular mystery.
Walking past the now obviously drunk and strung out party goer, I made sure they kept making their way past the parlour, as to not interrupt Carson and possibly McGee. Then I headed through the dank alley between the hospital and art gallery, towards the diner. Before I made it out of the alleyway however, I felt like I was being watched. It wasn't that feeling you might have when there are a lot of people around and your sure somebody might have spotted you in a crowd, it was more like you were alone in a dark part of the world where nobody else was, yet you could feel another presence looming over you.
Spinning on my heel near the edge of the alley I activated my dark sight and scanned my surroundings. Nothing. I remained tense, I could feel the beast stir slightly, as if it was aware of the danger as well, maybe even more so then I was. Nothing however seemed to be in the alley or immediately near me. I relaxed a bit, taking another drag off my smoke as I meticulously scanned the alley one last time, then realized that I should look up.
For the briefest of moments, I could have sworn I saw the same guy I did earlier. The one that disappeared right in front of me after I left the clinic. I tossed my unfinished cigarette on the ground and moved to the diner immediately. I was being watched, followed. By who? LaCroix? No, that wouldn't be necessary I was working with his operatives and other members of the Camerilla there wasn't a need. Unless he was that controlling? Which was entirely likely. Could have been the Sabbat. Wanting to get their hands on their previous member's childe. I never officially worked for them so I don't really claim to have been a former member. Maybe it was the Anarchs, keeping tabs on the new Kindred in hopes of recruiting me for fighting the Camerilla.
None of it fit well enough for me. It was at that moment in my thought process where I suddenly realized I had walked right up to the register of the diner and the old woman running the place was giving me an impatient look.
"Uh, hello there." I sounded more confused then I wanted to. At the time I reasoned it was better then sounding scared.
"Yes hello, like I said. What'll it be?" Her voice belonged to one of those old fashioned hard ass mother's that smoked 24/7. She was probably in her late 70's and time was not kind to her. She seemed grouchy, a lot of them are at that age, and impatiently waiting for me to spit out whatever it was that I was going to say.
"Uh, right not here to eat. Sorry. I actually came here for a personal matter. Have you seen a young woman in here recently? Red-head, hair that just goes past her chin, pale, maybe looking strung out?" The woman groans and shakes her head.
"Gee, yeah, I seen about 20 of them a night, hun." My palm couldn't have met my face faster. I knew better then to be that vague. Thinking about it for a moment I came up with a solution that I was hoping would jostle the old birds memory.
"Probably didn't eat anything, maybe talked about something called a 'Thin-Blood'." At the mention of the weaker kindred, her eyes lit up and she actually smiled, though it was a sad one.
"Actually yes, I think her name was Lily right? She was here a while ago. Very nice girl, tipped even though all she had was water. First decent human being I've seen come through here in years. Not like all these other junkies and lowlifes. Poor thing looked really upset. Probably going through a hard time, she was so caught up in her thoughts she left her purse behind." I nearly jumped for joy, that was great news. I was honestly expecting a dead end.
"Could I get her things, might give me a hint of where she is. I'm a family friend, sent to find the girl to bring her home. I'll return her belongings of course." The woman tending the register nodded as she went to the back of the diner, disappearing through the swinging doors to the kitchen. As I waited I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see that shadowy figure in the window, watching me. Instead, I was greeted with a different sight.
He was just standing there, staring at me, holding a phone to his ear. I could have sworn I head him say something about a "Mr. Durbin", but I had only caught the tale end of his conversation. His eyes were trained on me as he put his phone away. He had short, fire red, hair, clean shaven, and green eyes that held a fiery wrath in them. His skin was pallid, covered by a wife-beater, Blue jeans and simple runners. He had a tattoo on his right arm. For a moment we stood so deftly still we would have been mistaken for statues from a max museum. I distinctly noticed he either wasn't breathing or he was holding his breath. I activated Auspex as to discern if his heart was beating and the strangest thing happened.
The normal enhancement to my senses occured, seeing better although my eyes sort of hurt due to the lighting of the diner, hearing the lack of his heart beat but a few others in the diner, smelling the curdled milk and rat droppings in the kitchen. All of this along with the smell and the taste of blood on the edge of my tongue. Coming from him. Outside of what I expected however, was something my sire mentioned to me during my tutelage of the particular discipline.
I could see his aura. It was a strange thing to behold, even more so because despite being able to see ghosts my whole life, I've always given those astrology, energy crystal, "I'm a Witch" types a hard time for believing in this crap. Well, I have to eat my words, although not fully because astrology is still garbage, because here I am a Vampire looking at another Vampire's aura.
It was pale, not very vibrant at all, but I could still make out colours, like dark blue was the most prominent currently, red was there too, probably second largest presence. The rest were flecks of, silver, gray, light green and even black. It all looked like static on a television.
The door to the diner opened, drawing my attention momentarily, and my new found vision landed on a young couple stumbling in, undoubtedly to soak up the alcohol with a greasy meal. They wore smiles on their faces, the woman wouldn't take her eyes off the guy and he was busy trying to keep them both from falling over, though giggling in the process. Their auras were more lively, albeit wobbly. Maybe something to do with their drunkenness. Both had a white base being the outline of their form, then streaming out and away from the body was the next most abundunt colour, vermilion. Following that pattern of descending amounts, with a little bit of deep red, and blue with flecks of orange. She had more of the deep red and he had more of the orange a long with lavender. I couldn't remember what my sire had told me about the meaning of the colours and states they would be in, but I did write them down in my grimoire. Something to have a look at later.
"Here we are." My attention was then drawn to the old bird running the diner. She had returned with the purse and her aura was less complicated. Her base was brown, followed by light blue, and a little bit of silver and pink. Though when she looked at me again the pink kind of grew, and she began to speak.
"I hope you find her. Last time I saw her was a few weeks ago." I nodded as I let the effects of the Discipline fade and retrieved Lily's belongings off the counter. I quickly looked behind me to see that the Kindred I had briefly encountered was gone. I shook my head briefly and turned back to the owner.
"Thank you, ma'am. I'll find her soon. Good evening." I gave her a nod and left.
Stopping just down the step from the entrance I quickly rifled through the purse and found a car key to a fire-bird and a bail bond for a 'Rolf Toten'. There were the usual things you would find in a woman's purse... including tampons? Well, if I smoke to give the idea I'm breathing maybe if anybody searches her purse... something tells me she isn't that cautious, given how she accidentally turned E. Then again I can't assume anything yet.
Looking up from my position I decide to make a quick stop at the Asylum. I'd rather get the introduction with Therese done tonight before heading to bed. I laughed that I'd probably look weird awkwardly carrying a purse in the club but whatever.
Once I stepped through the doors of the club the pounding industrial-metal music invaded my Kindred ears. It wasn't the worst music I'd ever heard, I just didn't find it very inspired. There were posters all over the front wall and cork board, advertising live talent, none was playing tonight, and the place gave off the appearance that it was an old abandoned building but clearly it was well kept and clean. I wasn't surprised, you want the aesthetic, but not the actual mess. Therese ran a tight ship, and knew her crowd.
And boy what a crowd it was. Nobody, and I mean nobody looked normal. Yeah, I know, these days people scoff at such a remark but you can't say a shirtless dude wearing a gas mask and leather pants with giant boots is something you'd see just waltzing down the street every day. If you do, I gotta know where you live. This place was something else. I'd been in many clubs, the ones in Germany more closely resembled this, and that was almost 10 years ago. The feel of those places were a little different though, music was some what different... I'm not exactly an expert on the subject so I'm just going to cut to the chase.
Standing in front of me at that very moment I knew had to have been Jeanette. She walked right up to me and she was practically grinning, a sense of mischief in her eyes. The trademark pallid skin of most our kind also gave away that she wasn't alive. So, Kindred, seemingly approaching me with purpose in Asylum, but you may ask how I knew she was Jeanette. Simple. Slutty school girl outfit topped off with the blonde hair in pig tails and a choker around the neck. Body. Built. For. The. Bedroom. And that's not all...
"Ooo, what do we have here? Another scrumptious young play thing straight out of life and into my club? Mmm... you smell new, little bo-" She cuts off for a moment, her eyes gliding over me and biting her lip. She giggles at me and I can swear her skin just gained a tinge of pink, signifying the Blush of Life. My sire and I would use this when we became intimate. She was ready to pounce, and there was no way anything about this woman was screaming Therese. "-Not as new as some think..." She pouts with puppy dog eyes. "...aw somebodies already taken your second virginity. Oh, I'm not frightening you, am I, duckling?"
I wasn't frightened but I was greatly confused as to how she knew all that. The way she corrected herself didn't seem like a sarcastic jab, like LaCroix would have done. I figured she must of had some kind of insight, maybe similar to Rosa from the beach.
"Nobody scares me, darlin. If anything, you've peaked my interest." I smirked and gave her a wink. She seemed to like that as she laughed knowingly.
"I can tell you and I are going to get along just like fire hoses." She licks her lips at the end of her sentence.
"Oh? Do tell." I briskly step towards her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her towards me. She moans under her breath and gets real close to my ear.
"When we get turned on, there's bound to be flames." She then licks my ear before stepping away from me and out of my grasp. She puts her hands behind her back and leans forward, giving me a view, while batting her eyelashes.
"I'm..." I hesitated. I knew if I gave her my fake name that she'd probably see right through me, given what she already knew. "...Cillian. I go by Sullyvan. Don't ask." I kept the front of smirking and flirting, not wanting to give off unease. She smiled knowingly and nodded. That was too easy. "What do I call you besides beautiful." God that was bad.
"Hehe. I'm the finger down your spine when all the lights are out. I'm the name on all the men's room walls. When I pout, the whole world tries to make me smile. And everyone always wants to know, who. Is. That. Girl?" With every word, she emphasized it with a sway of her hips, her tits, moving her body up to a fully standing position again in the most provocative manner she could.
"Now now, don't tease. I gave you my name after all." I chuckled.
"I. Am. Jeanette. And this bit of chaos crammed into a certifiable giggle is my club. Oh, I'd just love to give you funny feelings all night, sweetheart, but I really must trouble with some business. We'll reunite sweetie, and soon. I promise." She gives me a wink, and turns to walk to my right towards an elevator, the entire way swaying her hips as she reaches the call button. When the doors open, she looks at me up and down, she turns to leave, but then hesitates seeming to contemplate something. Then shakes her head and walks in, the doors closing after her.
I nearly chased her down, but I had more important things to be dealing with. Besides, it would have been extremely stupid to attempt, and probably succeed, at sleeping with Therese's sister before asking for a favour. Still, I shook my head and decided to head over to the bartender, and low and behold who do I run into, none other then...
"Seriously? You here to make fun of me some more? I told you I don't want to talk to you man!" I didn't think I was going to run into him again, but given what Kilpatrick told me about him earlier, I'm glad I did.
"Knox, hey man, just hear me out." He 'Hmphed' and faced the bar again, he was sitting a few seats down from this dyed-red-head, wallowing in his glass. Damn, didn't think he would take my criticism this hard.
"Thought you said I was an idiot and a lowly ghoul. Why would you want to talk to me anyway?" Okay, the guilt hit there. Though I was right to be concerned about the Masquerade, if Kilpatrick trusted this guy to be a bounty hunter, then he must be more capable then I thought. Probably had me picked out before I even walked up to him.
"Look, I'm sorry. I'm new to this. In fact, the whole reason why I'm here is because my sire broke the rules and embraced me without permission. The only reason I'm alive is because the court seemed split on the ruling and the Prince decided to maintain favour by using me as a tool rather then discarding me immediately. So, when I came across a very enthusiastic ghoul blabbing rather publicly about meeting another one of my kind, I was worried about us both getting in trouble. Still, I shouldn't have been so cruel. So, I'm sorry." I had hoped that I could raise the man's spirits, not wanting to let our first encounter sour a possibly good relationship. Mercurio I like for his professionalism, Knox will probably have other uses that would be favourable.
He looked at me for the side and gave me a scrutinizing look.
"You mean that?" I nodded
"Yeah, man, I do. In truth, you also reminded me of somebody I lost awhile ago, still stings." He actually did, but I wasn't going to tell him who.
He looked at me full on at that and frowned. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
"I'm sorry to hear that man. I'll drink to them for ya." He then turned, and tapped his glass on the bar top, then slammed his drink back and placed the glass upside down. "Another one please."
"I'll get the next couple." Pulling out some money I placed it on the bar and the big tattooed man working the bar nodded a thank you as he went to work. Knox grinned from ear to ear.
"Wow, thanks man! Appreciate it! Also, yeah, I know I can be a little much some times. Just know, I can keep secrets, and I won't let any of you down if you need my help." I was dumbfounded at how different he seemed in such an instant. One of those guys who can easily change moods. Kilpatrick was right about him. As soon as I thought that however Knox's face fell once again.
"What's the matter now Knox?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. I mean, I'm just waiting around for my master." Knox had briefly mentioned working for a master in our first conversation but I didn't give him much of a chance to speak about anything.
"Right, you mentioned him. Can you talk about him?" I asked eagerly.
"I shouldn't, but I guess I could. Aw man, he's so cool. He's a Nosferatu. I wish I knew where he was, I haven't seen him for awhile. I'm getting antsy waiting around for him, I need to tell him a bunch of stuff. I don't know where he is or stays. Whenever he needs me he just... appears, you know?" Knox's furrowed brow betrayed his true feelings that his excitable tone usually exudes. He wasn't smiling, and he looked to be constantly checking over his shoulder.
"Knox, you're not looking too good bud. How long has it been since you've seen him?" Something was telling me this 'Master' Knox was talking about was somebody important that I'd want to know, and helping him out would be in my best interest.
"Not since he told me to follow that Asian Vampire about two weeks ago. I mean, we've gone at most 3 weeks without speaking but that's not normally the case if he has things for me to do and, man, there's a lot of shit to take care of right now." Knox looked now more frustrated then anything.
"Okay, first off, Asian Vampire?" Knox nodded, a look of annoyance that he let slip what he was up to.
"Aw man, yeah. My Master got me to keep an eye on this Asian dude who's been poking around Santa Monica, he thinks he might be a vampire, or something like a vampire? I dunno." Knox seemed to be holding back, but I wasn't sure what.
"Tell me about him. What's the problem with this guy?" I pressed.
"Aw man, this guy... this thing... got wise to me. Instead of me watching him, he's watching me. I swear I'll just notice him appear around me all the time in the distance watching me from afar, and then he kind of just warps right up next to me... then 'whoo' gone." This was starting to sound familiar. I didn't like it. Still, I was certain Knox still had more to the story.
"Knox, don't hold back on me. I can tell there's more." I stated.
"What do you mean?" He tried playing it off but something else was going on.
"Knox, for the love of- look, I'm pretty sure I've run into this Asian Kindred myself. If you tell me everything, I can help you." I was getting impatient. His story didn't add up.
"Man, I don't know... you aren't being straight with me, why should I tell you anything?" So far I was pretty certain that I hadn't lied to Knox about anything, but I was unsure of whether or not his master knew of my actual vampiric age and anything else about myself and my sire. Even if he did, why would he tell a ghoul.
"I've been as straight with you as I can be. Tell me, why would a Kindred, especially a Nozzy that could go invisible or make himself appear like anybody else, send a Ghoul to track a maybe-sorta-vampire-like thing from Asia?" At this, Knox's tense shoulder's slumped in defeat and he actually chuckled. His demeanour seemed a little different from his obnoxiously loud trademark and he got down to business.
"God damn it Knox! You fucked up. Fine, my master knew you were coming to Santa Monica. He planted me to meet you and tell you about the Asian dude. What I said about him though is true. I don't know why he hasn't killed me, and he is poking around, but master says he's dangerous and needs to be taken out. I can't do it, so he needs you to." There's my Hitler. Glad to know my new unlife hasn't made me rusty in smelling a set up. Granted, nothing about this seems malicious.
"Why the hell didn't he just ask me? He trying to avoid owing a new Kindred like me a boon?" Knox nearly spurted the drink he just took out of his mouth.
"What? Nah ah. He just can't stick his neck out like that. Besides, he doesn't normally deal directly, usually sends me to set up deals and such. His way I guess." He picks up his next glass and without pausing or missing a beat says "So, can you do it?"
I sighed in annoyance and nodded.
"Fine, consider it done. Actually, if you can get a hold of him, you let him know he's owing me a Major boon for wiping out this thing, and for the annoying run around as opposed to the direct approach." Knox shook his head.
"I would if I could man. I didn't lie about not hearing from him for a long time." He says nonchalant, taking another drink.
"Of course you didn't Knox, because that would be convenient if you could just get a hold of him. Alright, got any leads?" Knox put his glass down and stands, pulling out his wallet. After handing cash to the bartender he turns to me and pulls out a Driver's Licence, handing it to me.
"This is the only lead I have on this guy. He dropped it once when I was tailing him, and I've been so freaked out I haven't even had a chance to check it out." I looked at the ID and saw the man in the picture wasn't even Asian, which meant this guy was probably a victim who's ID is being used to access something.
"Thanks, I'll probably find a location to start digging through with this... eventually." I slid the license into Lily's purse, which I was still holding, and then looked back at Knox to say my goodbyes. He seemed to just notice the women's accessory I was carrying and smiled.
"Are you making a fashion statement with that purse man." He started chuckling. "I mean, who am I to judge one of you. I just don't think it really matches you're style" I smirked.
"You're just jealous of my fabulous swagger. Give me you're email and I'll tell you when I'm done." Knox raised a brow. "What?"
"I have a pager. If you have a phone you can call me? I mean, I'll give you my email as well man no problem, just, you know, so you know." I really needed to get a cell.
After we exchanged current contact info I set off towards my apartment, no other hindrances along the way. When I got through my door, I felt unconsciousness biting at my heels. I noticed that it wasn't nearly as demanding as the first few nights but still, it was something wasn't really going to fight. I went to lock my door and the lock proved to not be working. Frustrated, I went and assured the windows were covered completely, and effortlessly dragged my bed and placed the head board in front of the door.
"I might actually move into that fucking beach house. Maybe there's a hidden basement that I can rest in during the day while Dennis and the boys keep an eye." Nodding to myself that the bed was secure against the door I walked back over to my desk and placed Lily's purse inside. I stripped naked, discarding the clothes that were now riddled with bullet holes and tossing them in the trash bin while leaving the unscathed ones in a small dresser. Walking over to the bathroom I took a quick shower and contemplated what my first task would be the next day. Deciding either to follow up with Lily's whereabouts or hunting that Asian Vampire would be my priority, then depending on how much time I had at the end of the night, introducing myself to Therese Voerman.
Leaving the bathroom, mostly dry, I walked over to my desk and flipped on the laptop, signing into my email. I had two new emails. One was from Lacroix, stating a sample of Werewolf blood was somehow, for some reason, being sent to the Santa Monica Clinic across the street from me tomorrow night. The email explained that despite this being a blunder on the part of the Garou, The Masquerade was put in place to keep mortals unaware from all supernatural creatures, as much as possible.
"Last thing we need is Hunters finding us through leads originating for haunted houses or clumsy werewolves. That and the greater population of humanity as a whole discovering the supernatural through a scientist stumbling upon the first documented sample of werewolf blood." From there, it goes on to state that Garou are normally willing to keep up the lie that their existence is limited to fictional works as are Fae and Mages but these groups tend to be very well hidden, even from Kindred. This thought startled me a bit. I remember Valentina mentioning that Mages and Fae were real, and in their own right dangerous, especially those mages, to think that they were existed in such a way that they followed a similar code of secrecy made me wonder how many of them I have walked by in my life, and unlife, alike.
I pushed those thoughts aside as I realized I wouldn't get anywhere ruminating on it for now and sent LaCroix a message back asking if I should just drink the blood to dispose of it. I of course had no idea at the time what would happen if I drank the blood of another supernatural creature outside of other Kindred and was also more interested in annoying LaCroix.
The next email surprised me. I would be lying however, if I said that it didn't bring a smug smile to my face when I saw that Dennis had replied to me a few hours after I left the beach house.
"That didn't take very long now did it." I opened the email and grinned, very happy with what was said.
It doesn't really take a genius to realize what the best option is here. If I was the only one on the line I'd just face that wise-guy wanna be and die with dignity... but I got people to protect. So, I want some assurances first, and then we'll get down to how I and Zala will be of service to you. He seems more willing to go this route. Who am I to argue, right? Fuck.
Anyway, come by the Beach House tomorrow night. We'll be waiting for you.
Your new employee
Dennis.
I honestly hadn't been expecting that. At the time, even though I knew he'd eventually cave, I thought he'd show more resistance or even rebellion. I quickly learned that Dennis was actually smarter then he looked... and acted. Which was good, because if he wasn't I would have had to kill him and his boys. Instead, I can put them to work.
Happy with how things had turned out, I closed the laptop for the night as I nearly fell over. The sun coming up was strange. When it rose, it was like the weight of the moon was being placed on you as a Kindred, forcing you asleep. To be fair, sleep isn't really what we are doing. We just aren't... activated. Whether it be in Torpor or during the day while unconscious Vampires are basically just returning to their inanimate state that most corpses take upon death. Like, removing batteries from those mechanical kids toys that can move around on their own. Better yet, like those wind of monkey's with symbols after their run is over. It's not until the next night that we rouse, or wind up, again.
I opted to sleep on the bed while it was jammed against the door, adding my dead weight to the security of my apartment. As I finally slipped into the darkness, my final thoughts were of a life I once had a long time ago. Seemingly unable to escape that part of my life despite being dead.