A/N: Okay I'm starting right after finishing chapter 11. So if this story is late, it's because nothing short of the wrath of goddess almighty forstalled me. Last chapter was pretty self explanitory. So, as I tend to say too often, On with the show! R&R please!
Disclaimer: I'm running out of clever ways to say I don't own anything. You forgive me, don't you?

Chapter 12

As Charlie descended the stairs into the main floor of The Haven, a hush swept over the Kindred occupants of the club. Of course, the human patrons didn't notice this, they were too immersed in the playing of the band, or in their drinks, or in each other. But the various night-walkers in the crowd seemed to cease everything as The Firestarter took her place amongst her new people. The reactions of the Kindred to Charlie as she passed varied greatly. The sparse gatherings of Brujah seemed to regard her with a mix of awe, revulsion, and cowardice. Most Toreador seemed quite pleased to have such a one in their ranks. The Ventrue she could see all gave her looks of foreboding, as she could sense the few Nosferatu skulking in the rafters and shadows were also doing. But the reaction that most surprised Charlie was the look of icy betrayal she got when she approached Lorraina, her supposed friend.

"Lorraina, we have to talk." Charlie began, a hurt look gliding across her now even more elegant looking features.

The Gangrel glared at her, turning briefly from the group of clanmates gathered around her. Lorraina's eyes raked over Charlie in utter malice as she spoke in cold, casual tones. "I don't see why, Toreador. You've obviously made your choice. Welcome to the club. Now get lost."

Flames glanced across Charlie's eyes at the same time as they took on a predatory glow. She did not have time for this. She took hold of the Gangrel's arm and dragged her backstage, earning a few odd looks from Kindred and human alike. Lorrains found that, though she herself was a neonate, amazingly, she did not have the strength to rench her arm out of the Toreador fledgling's grasp. Charlie only let go when they were safely out of earshot of the rest of the club. Lorraina looked about to launch into some diatribe about how Charlie dared to touch her, but the redhead would have none of it. "Now, you listen to me, Gangrel. I don't have time to stand here and have you chew me out or give me the cold shoulder about the choice I've made. Cash is in trouble. That is why I let Lillie Embrace me and that is why I need your help now."

Lorraina's stance immediately changed at the mention of her brood-brother in danger. She eyed Charlie for a moment to determine if the girl was actually telling the truth. The Gangrel had been so hurt when she'd been told by one of her clanmates, who worked as Julian's guard, that Charlie had asked to be Embraced by the Toreador Primogen. *How could Charlie do that?* she'd thought, *Cash wanted so much for her to be Gangrel.* Lorraina didn't know if she could trust the girl before her, the one she'd once considered a friend. But the desperation in the Firestarter's manner told her she was in earnest. "Alright, say I believe you. What kind of trouble is Cash in, exactly?"

Charlie's eyes softened a bit as her ire toward Lorraina shifted again to desperation. The blood tears began to fill her eyes anew and she could barely stand still to look at Lorraina. "He's been kidnapped. That's why I had to get Embraced. I had to find him quickly. There wasn't time. There still isn't."

Lorraina softened as well at the site of her friend going into such panic. It was the first time she'd seen Charlie really scared, and that gave the Gangrel pause. Her leadership instincts took over, for she was in charge when Cash wasn't around to lead. Lorraina took hold of the fledgling's shaking hands and pulled her to attention. "Okay, Charlie. I believe you. Come on now. Look at me. I need you to tell me what's happened. Why did you have to get Embraced to find Cash?"

Charlie took a deep breath and let her heartbeat slow until it stopped. *God, I gotta get used to that.* she thought idley. "I have this bond with Cash. We've had it since we met. It allows me to feel what he's feeling or to see what he's seeing. I talked to Daedalus and he said it was like we are Mated. He said that if I were to be Embraced, the bond could become stronger and I could probably sense where they took Cash. So I asked Lillie to Embrace me and... I can. I can feel where he is now."

Lorraina nodded her understanding. "Does the Prince know about all this?"

"Yes. He told me I could go get Cash. He's been put in some kind of warehouse by the Hunters. But I need to take some Gangrels with me as back-up. Will you help me Lorraina? I'm so afraid that I won't get to him in time. He's so hurt and weak. I can feel it." Charlie seemed on the verge of another panic attack.

Lorraina blanched when she heard the word Hunters. If the Hunters had taken Cash, it was no wonder Charlie was so worked up. Though, Lorraina had never known Charlie to be this emotional. *Must be the Toreador blood.* she thought. "Yeah. Come on. My bike's out back. I'll get some of my boys to follow."

They both turned to go out the back door and ran face first into Sasha Luna. Evidently, Sasha had followed them back and had been eavesdropping the entire time. Before either Gangrel or Brujah knew what was happening, Sasha's feet were dangling like a ragdoll's as Charlie pinned her to the wall a few inches off the ground. The Toreador snarled as Lorraina attempted futilely to pull her off of Sasha. For her part, the Brujah was terrified. The enraged creature before her had all the fury of a caged Nosferatu in her eyes and, right now, that fury was directed squarely at Sasha Luna.

"Charlie you have to let her go." Lorraina pleaded. She hated Sasha as much as the next Gangrel but that didn't mean she wanted her dead. The last thing anyone needed right now was to incur the Prince's wrath by killing one of his favorites. And, as Charlie had made her so painfully aware just moments before, they did not have time for this.

The Firestarter didn't even respond to her friend's entreatings. She simply snarled again at Sasha and hissed, "What did I tell you, Brujah? Or didn't you get the message last time, to stay out of my way?"

Sasha could do nothing but gurgle in response, as Charlie's fingers were locked in a deathgrip around her throat. Lorraina pulled at the redhead's arm again, trying desperately to get her to relent. "Charlie, we don't have time for this. Remember? Cash is in trouble."

This seemed to break through the fury to reach Charlie. She immediately released her grip, letting Sasha fall helplessly to the floor. The Brujah coughed a bit as she watched Lorraina pull Charlie toward the exit. She was still staring into the Firestarter's eyes as Charlie backed away. They were like that of a wolf, yet they had flames dancing in them. Charlie turned to go. Sasha gathered up all the courage and strength she could to say, "To spite what you may think, I love him too, you know. I want to help."

Charlie stopped dead in her tracks. Her body went ridged and Sasha feared another attack. After a few moments of silent inner debate, Charlie cocked her head slightly in Sasha's direction. Without turning around she said, "Well?... Are you coming?"

Sasha didn't have to be asked twice. She rose to her feet and followed her two rivals out The Haven's back door. There, the three unlikely allies mounted their respective motorcycles. Lorraina barked out orders to some of her clanmates. They were to follow the three women at a safe distance. She added silently that they were to let Charlie lead in all things, she wasn't sure what the Firestarter would do if crossed. And, with that, they were off.

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Cameron thought that he'd never been so greatful for anything as when they'd taken him out of his cell and away from that stinking Gangrel. Of course, his human hosts hadn't passed up the opportunity to beat him to a bloody pulp before they'd taken him out. And something told him that they would soon bring Cash with him too be transported to where ever they were taking the Brujah Primogen. Nevertheless, Cameron couldn't help but thank Cain that he had a few moments of repose after spending hours in a cell with the screaming Gangrel Primogen. Presently, the Brujah was being dragged along by two bulky, non-descript guards, but he was to doped up and starved to care to fight.

Suddenly, he heard a scuffle somewhere behind him. A booming female voice he could barely place called out to the guards on either side of him. "Let him go."

The guards turned in unison, in the process, turning Cameron with them. He saw something he never thought possible: a Toreador, a Gangrel, and a Brujah standing menacingly against a backdrop of a cloud of smoke. A trinity of sirens had come to lay waste to his captors; two of them his mortal enemies and the third a clanmate with little but disdain for her Primogen. It occured to Cameron that he should be laughing at the campiness of the whole thing, but he didn't have time. Within seconds of Charlie's command, the guards dropped Cameron's arms and pointed their guns at the three women.

Charlie turned to Lorraina with a predatory gleam in her eye and a mischevious smile. "Now, is that the sort of thing you'd call 'imminent danger'?"

The guards opened fire on the three, but none of the bullets ever reached their targets. A hot wind came out of nowhere, enveloping the three Kindred. Shots seemed to explode in midair as they hit an invisible forcefield of heat. When the smoke from the bullets cleared, all the guards could see was the deadly grin of the Firestarter and the aghast looks of the two that flanked her.

With preternatural speed Charlie took hold of one of the guards while Sasha and Lorraina subdued the other. The redhead gave her prey a deadly smile before sinking her fangs into his neck and drinking deep. As the body fell to the floor, it seemed to burn from the inside out. Charlie looked down at the pile of ash at her feet and cocked her head saying, "Shoulda just let him go."

In the interrum, Lorraina and Sasha finished off the second guard. They'd been told by Charlie that Julian had given them special permission to kill, if it was self defense. As they let the guard's dead body fall to the floor, he too was consumed by fire.

"Well, I guess that solves the problem of evidence, now doesn't it?" Sasha remarked companionably to Lorraina. Both were still a bit stunned at the extent of Charlie's powers. Lorraina had never seen such a thing and Sasha had only gotten a taste of it in that alley.

"Pick him up." Charlie ordered, indicating Cameron, who was laying on his side on the ground with his mouth open. Her companions obeyed without question. Charlie pushed past the piles of ash and walked down the hall. When she found the door she wanted, the Toreador used her supernatural strength to kick it in.

Lorraina saw Charlie gasp and rush into the room. She piled Cameron's limp body onto Sasha and rushed after her friend. What she saw when she entered broke the Gangrel's heart. Her beloved brood-brother lay limp in the arms of his Toreador lover, like something she'd seen in an art book somewhere. *The Pieta?* she thought. Blood tears were now streaming freely down Charlie's cheeks onto Cash's bruised and broken body. The look in the Firestarter's eyes as she looked up into her friend's could have broken Lorraina's heart a second time. "He won't wake up." Charlie whimpered.

The Gangrel rushed to her Primogen's side, gently putting her hand to his forehead. "He's lost too much blood."

From the doorway they heard a gasp. Both turned to see Sasha attempting to support her Primogen's weight against the battered door jam. "Oh my God." she croaked, "Cash."

Lorraina turned back to Charlie. "He's nearing Torpor, the waking death. He needs blood now, and lots of it."

Charlie nodded. She knew what had to be done. The Firestarter placed a light kiss on her lover's lips and then used a sharpened fingernail to slice open her throat. Cradling Cash's head, Charlie placed his mouth over the wound.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, Cash seemed to sit up and latch onto the wound, although he was still weak. A million images flew threw Charlie's brain of Cash's abduction, the time he'd spent here, and the things that had been done to him. But most importantly, Charlie got the sense that he'd overheard some of the plans the Hunter's were making. They were plotting to go after the Prince, and Cash had been helpless to warn anyone.

At the same time all this was happening, the joined pair began to feel the connection between them deepen. They saw flashes of two beings made completely of fire. They saw the beginning of each other's lives and got the distict impression that they'd both been waiting for this moment all their lives.

When Cash was strengthened enough from Charlie's powerful blood, he used one of his own claws to cut his wrist. He did this without relenquishing Charlie's throat, and he brought his wrist to her lips. As he drank from her, so she drank from him, and the spiritual bond they had grew into something else. They could now see that their bond had existed since birth, and now that they were both Kindred feeding from each other, the connection was fleshed out into a true Blood Bond. It was a bond of flesh and blood and will, and now they were Mated for life.

As she felt Cash weakening, Charlie also got a clear mental message from her Mate. They let each other go and Cash slumped back into unconsciousness. Charlie took a moment to catch her breath before looking into the confused faces of Lorraina, Sasha and Cameron. Charlie gently took Cash's body and placed him into his brood-sister's arms. Then, the Toreador rose to her feet, still a little shaky. At Lorraina's questioning look, she simply said, "He's still a little weak, but he'll heal. Take care of him, will you? There's something I have to do."

Lorraina was dumb struck. Charlie had been so obsessed with finding Cash and now she was just going to leave him? As Charlie passed the Brujah at the door, Sasha said, "Hey, where are you going?"

Charlie turned to face both Lorraina and Sasha. "The Prince is in danger. I have to help him."

"I'll go with you." Lorraina replied, her Gangrel's loyalty flaring.

Charlie shook her head. "I need you to stay here and help Cash. He's still weak and he won't be able to handle the Hunters." She cut off Sasha's impending remarks, saying, "You need to stay and help your Primogen. And I need you to help Lorraina. I'm trusting you both with the life of my Mate, so don't let me down."

Sasha nodded as did Lorraina. Then the Gangrel called back to her friend, "At least take some of my boys outside with you for back-up."

Charlie simply smiled at this and pushed past Sasha and Cameron. "Don't worry Lor," she said, "where I'm going, I won't need them."