A/N: I wanted to go a while without an A/N, but what the hell. This chapter's a couple of pages short, sorry. I hope no one is cheated by the end of it, I just thought it was a good enough pre-cliff hanger-cliff hanger.

Chapter 10: A Single Tear

Rain fell upon the city of Portland. Wind and waves crashed against the shores biting any unlucky passerby with a slap of icy cold spray. The ferry to Peak Island was closed down, much to the chagrin of patrons who were desperate to get home. Water taxis, fishing boats, and yachts were stranded in the harbor. Winter in Maine was both a beautiful and violent time. Within the walls of Lazarus' Conclave things were equally so.

Tremere presence in the city of Portland constituted forty percent of the Kindred living there. The Ventrue, Malkavians, and Toreador were the only other clans with a permanent settlement.

Lazarus was dressed in full ceremonial robes. His brown hair was cut in military fashion and his face appeared chiseled from stone. His gray eyes lent beauty to his militant composure and his arms folded neatly across his chest showed the primogen at this table that he was not one to be toyed with. If one could be a model Prince and the Leader of a Tremere Chantry, it was Lazarus.

"The Council of New England has chosen not to take sides in this matter," he spoke in a monotone voice. "They feel that the matter involving the Kindred under my care is to be settled between ourselves and the Vermont clans. By Tremere law, Amanda Capron will be put to Final Death if she is found guilty of the crimes that were brought to my attention. But I know we all have concerns about the Vermont Clan and its recent actions. The table is open to you now."

"The Gangrel primogen is behind this," the Malkavian primogen spoke up. "It was a mistake giving a kindred slayer the gift of eternal life. And it was an even bigger mistake to make him primogen of that area."

"That matter has been discussed since 1996," the Toreador primogen replied. "Let's drop it for the sake of argument. And in any case at least he's with the Camarilla. What about the Sabbat member?"

"Are you so certain he is Sabbat anymore?" The Ventrue primogen asked. "From what I hear he and his Lasombra are aiding clans in Vermont in preventing other Sabatt from entering the country."

"Once a Sabbat, always a Sabbat."

Lazarus listened while the flurry of arguments arose. He had learned long ago to bring order to his thoughts, from the chaos that came outside. Plans of war brewed in his mind in the hopes of gaining Vermont as a Tremere territory. He'd have to get through New Hampshire's Brujah first, but he was certain the power of his Chantry could overcome them.

Time was a factor of course. With Amanda and Benjamin's stunt Vermont would all ready be on defense against the Tremere. Lazarus raised a hand to silence the primogen.

"The council has spoken on the matter of the Sabatt and the Kindred Slayer." He said. "We can do nothing to change that. Nothing directly that is…"

Lazarus let the implication hang in the air. It was slightly amusing how Amanda believed she was the mistress of manipulation. One by one he could see the wheels of calculation grinding within the primogen's minds. One by one he could tell that each primogen was all ready deciding what he could do to make things difficult in Vermont.

"In the meantime," He went on. "I will personally go to Vermont to apprehend Amanda, and negotiate for her release into my custody, so that she is punished by Tremere standards and not Nosferatu."

"You imply that Zarius will treat her with amnesty after what she has done?" The Ventrue asked.

"I imply that Zarius will make her death swift, and I want to preserve the laws of my clan. I will enter his territory in order to extract her before they even know I was there."

Lazarus adjourned the meeting, and the Malkavian returned to his home to make a phone call.

"So how long have you been Kindred?" Trent asked out of curiosity. They were on the highway again, making their way through Stowe.

"'Bout thirty years," the Brujah muttered.

He clearly wasn't in to conversation right now. Trent sighed and leaned on the armrest, gazing out the window as the cliffs became pastures. The sun was setting in the west, and he watched it until he fell asleep.

An hour later he awoke to the fifth ring of his cell phone.

"Hello," He said groggily.

"Trent?" It was Mary.

"Yes ma'am. You got my message I take it."

"Yes, I did excellent work. Are you on your way back to Bennington now?"

"Yeah, we should be there in a couple of hours."

"Good. You probably have company so I won't get into detail, but I need to speak with you soon. Are you busy tomorrow evening?"

"Nope. I don't think Sean will need any more of my help, but I do have to speak to Zarius."

"All right, see him first and then come to me as soon as you can."

"I will."

"Get home safe Trent."

Trent looked forward to being home again. The events of the past three nights were exhausting. He was glad to have survived his ordeal with Allen, but he was also very nervous about having Benjamin in the cooler behind him.

"I really appreciate you're help," He said to the driver. "I was always told the Brujah were money grubbing gang…"

A sideward glare from the driver shut Trent up. The taste of foot was strong in his tongue when he fell back to sleep.


Sean found the precinct where the girl was being held. Sarah Matterson was her full name. And they were getting ready to transfer her to New Hampshire. He was thankful to get the chance to speak with her first.

Sarah told him everything. About how she and her boyfriend Dennis were on the run and hoped to be together for along time. They stopped at the house on a tip from a stranger, and they stopped there to rest. When they woke up Sarah found a wallet full of cash and an empty house. She took the cash and ran until the cops finally picked her up.

"Can you remember anything else?" Sean asked.

"I'm sorry, no." The girl seemed confused. "You look too young to be a cop."

"I'm uh…" Sean tried to grasp for a reasonable explanation. "I'm a genius. I graduated early and went to the police academy after high school."

"Wow…" Sarah said, mock impressed. "Do you tell everyone that or did you come up with it on the spot?"

"I came up with it on the spot." Sean glanced towards the one-sided mirror and was thankful no one stood behind it. "Don't take this the wrong way, but-" Sean focused as he spoke. "You were getting sleepy just now, and you were dreaming the last fifteen minutes."

Sarah seemed to get groggy in a short amount of time. Sean got up and signaled the officer who waited outside the room.

"She's getting tired; you better take her back to her cell."

Sean located the officer who helped him, a Ventrue by the name of Coleman.

"Did you get what you needed from her?" He asked.

"Not a thing." Sean collapsed in the chair beside Coleman's desk. "Has anyone been by here to pick her up?"

Coleman shrugged. "A social worker is supposed to be here shortly."

"Do you know anything about this social worker?"

"Only that it's a woman. We'll have to verify her identification of course but…" Coleman trailed off as he went to a coffee machine. He returned with a Styrofoam cup and handed it to Sean.

"Thanks." Sean sipped the hot liquid. "I think I want to stake the place out. There anyway you could arrange that for me?"

Coleman shrugged. "I don't see why not. Any reason why?"

"Call it a hunch. But believe me when I say a lot of lives are in the balance here, and I've run out of options. Can I count on your support?"

"Of course."


Kyle's hands flew over the computer keys at impossible speeds. It was possible he was this good before being embraced, but he couldn't imagine it, nor could he actually remember being any better now. Piracy was one of his specialties, and Sean never failed to make his opinions clear on it. If you couldn't pay for the movie or video game you had no right to own it. Ironically, it was when Kyle began learning to master hacking that the Kindred took an interest in him, and allowed Sean to embrace him.

The cell phone itself rested on the cluttered desk beside Kyle's personal computer. What magick had not been able to do was prevent Kyle from finding the cell phone number and determining which company serviced it. It was a Boston based company called Distance Wireless. Finding the website and breaking into the company's database was easy enough. And with his enhanced reflexes and reaction time he was able to get past the anti-virus and firewalls without triggering any alarms.

That's a lot of security for a cell phone company, Kyle thought. He wondered briefly if the people running this company might not be Gangrel as well.

Kyle checked the records from Customer Service against the list of people working in Amanda's Chantry. There were over forty-thousand customers listed and neither one lived in Vermont. Distance Wireless serviced most of Eastern Mass, New Hampshire, and parts of Maine. Though many of the Tremere in the chantry were from Maine none of them showed up on the customer service lists.

He tried the Billing and Receiving records to see where bills were coming from in the last month. His eyes stopped on a Maine address. A customer by the name of Leigh Zeus made a payment last month, but oddly enough it didn't come from Maine. It was a Vermont address, and it was highlighted in red, along with an animated Warning GIF. Beneath the address was a note to sales reps: House has been condemned. Possible fraud suspected.

But then how come it wasn't shut off?

Kyle printed out the address and saved the customer service list. The name "Leigh Zeus" sounded odd enough, and although a lot of people had weird names now a days it was worth showing to Zarius. Someone might also come up on the list that Zarius recognized. Kyle slipped all the information into a folder and popped it in his desk before taking a brief nap. His abilities were too weak for him to detect the Tremere sneaking up to the house, armed with maltov cocktails.


A violent tremor woke Sean from his sleep. Concerned, an officer came over to the tiny couch where he'd been sleeping.

"Are you all right?" She asked, kindly.

"Just a…" Sean tried to find the words for it. "Bad feeling I guess."

"Do you need something?"

Sean sat up and took a good look around the break room. There was no one else here.

"As a matter of fact…"

A second later the officer left to start her shift. She didn't seem to notice the tiny bite marks on the side of her neck.

Sean tried to brush the feeling off, but it wouldn't go away. It was three in the morning, and Sean couldn't go back to sleep. Coleman was keeping watch on the precinct while officers came and went. Occasionally a criminal was brought in for DUI or drugs and thrown in the tank. Sean could sense the girl in a private cell, sleeping like a baby. She was so calm in this situation, neither afraid nor upset. It was almost like a life on the run was ordinary for her. If she weren't from New Hampshire, Sean would have gladly marked her as a potential fledgling.

The feeling was brought back by the thought of his progeny. His thoughts were on Kyle, the first of his childer. Kyle was his best friend in mortal life, next to Trent. It wasn't until a few years after his own embrace that Sean was allowed to embrace Kyle. Andrew came along shortly after that, having been held back once in high school in spite of his incredible intelligence. His third childe, a boy by the name of Aaron, was currently in Montreal, the city of his birth. Nothing happened to either one of them, Sean was certain. But that tremor was unmistakably the same tremor that James Reed once described to him. A feeling like your heart had just stopped for a second time…like something inside had just been torn out. Coleman came in to get some water, and sensed Sean's distressed.

"What's wrong?"

Sean looked up as a tear trickled down his cheek. "I someone I love has been hurt…"