"You are dismissed."

The Brujah didn't even acknowledge. He turned tail and fled out of the room.

Julian Luna leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. He mused on how his city seemed to be a magnet for trouble. Two Blood Hunts in a year, botched Assamite attacks, deranged Nosferatu child-snatchers, more Masquerade breaches than he cared to remember, and now a Caine sighting? He wondered if he'd wake up tommorrow night to see a Sabbat or Lupine pack tearing down his doors.

Luna looked at the Primogen Council members. The Ventrue Primogen chair was, of course, empty. Archon, the former Primogen and Luna's sire, was dead, and the Clan had yet to elect a new Primogen. And then there was the Brujah Primogen, Cameron, who also happened to be the one who emptied the Ventrue chair...no. Julian fought his anger down. This was far from the time to let grudges surface, old or new.

Lillie was the first to speak. "Caine?" The Toreador gave a half-laugh. "What, did Gehenna come and go without us noticing?"

Daedalus nodded in agreement. "I can't imagine that Caine would appear in the city without a single one of us noticing. I can't imagine that Caine would appear anywhere on the continent without a single one of us noticing!"

"Agreed." Luna flexed his fingers. "It's clearly some Kindred posing as Caine for some bizzare reason. Maybe a Malkavian playing a prank. That's certainly happened before.

Cameron shook his head. "There are very few Malkavians in this city, and none that could have done this to four of my Brujah!"

Cash snorted. "Your big tough Brujah a moment ago looked like he'd be having trouble controlling his bladder if he had a usable one. It doesn't seem that strange to me that a crazed Malkavian with a phosphorus gun'd have much trouble with four of him!"

Cameron slammed a palm on the table. "Bite your tongue, Gangrel, and try engaging your brain before your mouth! I personally oversaw the examination we did on the three corpses! The one with half a chest missing had no trace of phosphorus on him! None of them did!"

Luna cut in before Cash could retort. "Then what did you find?"

"The one had his chest blown up, some sort of electric attack. That agrees with Sanders' account of a lightning bolt. One had their heart ripped out by brute strength...but the hands that did it weren't like a human's or a Cainite's...not even the most deformed Nosferatu.!"

Daedalus narrowed his eyes at the remark, but said nothing.

"The third one, though...she had no injury at all."

"Nothing?" Luna asked. "Then what was the cause of death?"

"That's just it. There isn't one. Her body simply stopped working."

Luna groaned. This he didn't need. "I'm not going to put any belief in Caine rumours, inexplicable deaths or no. What about the other creature? Raisel?"

"Raziel, according to Sanders. I have no idea. From his description, he sounds like a Nosferatu squared."

"Nictuku?" Daedalus whispered.

"What was that?"

"No." Daedalus shook his head. "There've been no unexplained Nosferatu disappearances recently. If this Raziel was a Nictuku, his first victims wouldn't have been a Brujah gang."

Luna started to ask Daedalus to elaborate, but decided that he had enough to worry about. "So what kind of Vampire tears and eats the soul out of its victims?"

Lillie shuddered. "Some sort of mutant psychotic Salubri?"

Cash looked little happier. "A Tzimisce elder with some new Discipline?"

Daedalus frowned unhappily. "A rogue Tremere?"

Cameron joined the doom-sayers. "A super-powered Caitiff?"

"People!" Luna called. "We're getting delusional here. We're seeing monsters and conspiracies all over the place. We have no way to know who or what these creatures are. I suggest we concentrate on the practical. Whatever they are, they're dangerous to the Masquerade. Cash, get your Gangrel out there looking. You and your Brujah too, Cameron - for all we know, these guys could be Brujah-haters. Daedalus, ask the Nosferatu if anyone's come across some relevant information."

The Council murmured and started to break up. Luna grabbed Cash as he made to leave.

"Cash, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell Sasha about this."

Cash nodded. "Don't worry, Julian."

Luna slumped back into his chair. What next, he wondered.

***

Elsewhere in the city, Kain was doing a little exploration.

After their run in with the Brujah gang, he and Raziel had found an old abandoned storehouse of some kind. It looked like one of the huge strage buildings that humans had used to store goods in industrial cities like Meridian in Kain's Vampiric youth. Even the machines were reminiscent of the machinery powered by Glyph magic in those days, though whatever form of magic powered the machines here, it was far less deadly to vampires than Glyph magic, for which Kain gave thanks.

Raziel was prowling the area near their temporary sanctuary, ensuring it was secure. Kain had decided to move further out, to try and gain some knowledge of the world to which Azimuth had thrown them. Raziel couldn't accompany him, of course - his appearance would attract far too much attention. Kain, on the other hand, could use his powers to hide his nature under a mask of humanity. Now he walked amongst humans unseen, and could concentrate on his discoveries.

At first, he'd only been able to discern the basics. This world was far more populated than Nosgoth, if the city was any indication. Houses seemed to cram into each other, and in some places the buildings reached into the sky. Though they didn't stretch endlessly into the heavens as the Pillars of Nosgoth had once, they were far taller than virtually any other construction in Nosgoth.

After a few hours, Kain had been gifted a stroke of luck - he came across a library. The script was in no language he recognised, so he had to improvise. He sat himself in a chair with some random book placed in front of him to create an illusion of study, then reached out with his mind, taking control of a nearby human who he was pretty sure was not with others. Through the mind of the human, he was able to translate all but the more complex and difficult parts of the language used here.

First, he concentrated on the world. His first attempts were too large - he learned that this world was called Earth, and found himself staring at detailed maps of the entire realm through the mortal's eyes. He noted that the humans here seemed more advanced than those in Nosgoth - even the commoners had access to knowledge that on Nosgoth would only been known to scholars - but maps of other continents were of little use to him.

A second search proved more fruitful. Kain was in the city of "San Fransisco" in a country called "America", or possibly "Usa" - the humans seemed to use more than one name for their places. After learning some of the geography of the city, Kain directed the human to gain information about Vampires and the supernatural.

He was amazed. This world, as advanced as it was, seemed to progress with very little magic at all. Indeed, the majority of people here didn't even believe in magic, and those few factual sources he found described earth and mind based magics that were a far cry from the obvious magics that were everyday in Nosgoth. Even more suprising was the fact that no one here believed in Vampires. Kain knew them to exist - he and Raziel had dispatched a couple the previous night - but the Vampires on Earth had aparently done an incredible job of convincing humankind that they were nothing more than a fairytale. Kain chuckled - Vorador would have loved it here!

Kain was intrigued by the accounts of Vampires he read here. Vampires were apparently extremely vunerable to sunlight, so much so that a few moments exposure would turn them to dust. Kain wondered if this was true, or if this was just a misperception of the weaker state of a Vampire in daylight. He read about various myths, some that applied to him (such as shape- shifting and inhuman strength), some that had applied to some of the youngest and weakest Vampires in his Empire, and some that seemed implausible to him. A creature as powerful as a Vampire repelled by a simple plant? Ridiculous.

Kain read for several hours before he started to feel weaker. Over the millenia, his powers and magical energy had increased enormously, but even his powers weren't infinite. If he continued to control the human as he was, his disguise would soon start to fade. Reluctantly, he released the mortal, who stumbled dizzily for a moment, then checked a small contraption strapped to his wrist, cried out a few choice words, and ran out of the library. Kain chuckled as he made his own exit.

An hour later, including a quick pause to feed, Kain was back at the warehouse, filling Raziel in on the day's findings.

"And no Vampires?"

"No." Kain replied. "The Vampires here have done a truly masterful job at hiding their existence. The humans don't believe they exist. Remarkable."

"So then what do we do now? If there is no magic here that we can use to return to Nosgoth, how will we return?"

"The humans seem to have no access to magic, but I theorise that this may be another part of the deception that the Vampires have played upon them. We should find the Prince Luna that the fledgling mentioned a night ago. He would be our best bet at this moment."

Raziel leaned against the wall. "And how do you propose to do this?"

"I don't propose anything, Raziel. The Prince knows of our existence - we allowed one Vampire to escape yesterday, and the Prince will surely have been his first destination. And if Luna did not have the resources to track us down, he would never have gained control of a city in the first place. Such weaklings do not rule for long."

"And if he will not aid us?"

Kain chuckled. "He will, Raziel. When I am through with him, he will aid us."

***

Not too far away, Cash and his Gangrels were searching through the warehouses at the docks. There had been a sighting of a monsterous figure that fitted Raziel's description. The gang had locked down their bikes and were following Lana, who had the keenest enhanced senses of the group.

Cash had been sure to shoot down any questions about Caine that the group had - he didn't want any part of those rumours. He didn't believe for a second that Caine really was skulking around in the docks, and any hysteria over the so-called original Vampire would be distracting. Still, he couldn't shake a distant feeling that something was wrong.

That body they'd discovered a while ago. Drained of blood and no fang marks, not remarkable in itself. But the trail of blood...for about a foot there had been blood drops on the ground, and there was a light splatter of blood on the victim's chest. From the looks of it, it seemed that the blood had burst out of the body and flown into the mouth of a Vampire standing a few steps away. Impossible, of course. Probably a ruse. But for what purpose?

Lana stopped outside a warehouse. "Here." She whispered. "There's a Vampire...of some kind in here."

"Clan? Age? Anything?"

"Can't tell. But he's with...something. Like nothing I ever smelled before."

"Can you hear them?"

"Hang on...yeah, just about. They're talking about...about...Vampires. Vampires...here? Something about magic."

"Magic? Are they Tremere?"

"Don't think so. Wait...I heard 'Luna'!"

"Julian..." Cash growled. They had designs on the Prince. "Get out your guns, guys. We're going in!"

***

With a crash, the door to the warehouse came down, and the Gangrels poured in, firing away. The phosphorus blasts slammed into Raziel's body, punching holes and burning flesh. To Cash's suprise, Raziel staggered back in slow motion and simply faded out of sight. His Auspex powers flared up, trying to find anything hidden in Obsfucate. Nothing.

Kain was hit by one blast, in the arm, but by no others. A blue glow had enveloped his body and manifested as a faint blue arua-shield of some kind. The rest of the volley simply ricocheted off the shield. One of the Gangrels fell to his own shot. Kain raised an arm and fired off a blast of lightning. The Gangrels scattered as the lightning blew a hole in the wall. Quickly, they surrounded Kain, guns at the ready. Kain did not seem worried. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a small shuriken. Cash allowed himself a grin. All the Gangrels here were quick enough to avoid a thrown weapon.

Kain threw the shuriken. It flew towards Lana, who simply side-stepped the weapon. But the weapon turned in mid air, and before Cash could shout a warning, it had struck her in the back. To Cashes horror, Lana barely had time to scream before the flesh on her body melted and shredded off the bone. The bloody visceral skeleton that moments ago had been his friend collapsed to the floor.

Cash was teetering on the edge of the Rotschreck, something that he hadn't experienced in over two centuries. What the hell was this guy? What kind of Vampire could create an inpenetrable shield, fire lightning bolts and wielded tiny death stars that left the victim a skeleton? He noticed that the shield was starting to wane, and held up his gun to fire. He felt a slight ripple in the air, and then his gun was on the floor and he had a deep slash in his chest. Raziel was standing above him, a bizzare glowing sword of some kind eminating from his arm, pointing at his throat. Kain glanced at the other Gangrel, and the guns were lowered.

"Now that the obligatory fighting is finished," Kain said with a hint of amusement. "Perhaps now we can talk business."