"You stupid son of a bitch!" Edge went flying across the room within seconds of the words's utterance. "Do you realize what you've done? You've brought war when this could have been an easy overthrow!"
Hunter Hearst Helmsley stalked across the floor with an evil glare. It was only those who followed him in Brujah and Gangrel that thought this would come down to a war. They would fight until there was only one side standing. Hunter was of a different mind. It all came down to taking out the primogens. Batista might have been able to be saved. Hunter knew he had no desire to be prince, and his loyalty to the prince was timid at best. But the others... Daedalus would lead the Nosferatu against him, and Cash would revolt with his Gangrels. Morgana wasn't like Lillie, and in the end, she would stand up to be princess before she let a traitor to her prince rule the city.
If he could get rid of them, then he there was no one else to rule the city. Hunter saw no reason that Archon's enforcer should now be in control. Sure, he fought against wars that endangered the Masquerade, but he was weak. He was too lenient and didn't know how to enforce his power. Though it would have thinned his ranks, Hunter felt that a true prince would have killed all traitors. Were he in charge, he would have personally killed them all.
And now, because of these idiots, the main weakness he planned to play on, Julian's softness towards humans, could be their downfall. Any other human wouldn't have been so bad, but his niece? The last of his line? That could bring only bloodshed, and Luna was going to be on the hunt. Hunter knew that he would go through every Kindred he could get his hands on until he found the perpetrators. And these Gangrel were too stupid. They would spill their guts and then they would all be destroyed.
"This was all to get rid of Cash!" Edge scurried backwards on his hands. "And Luna!" He pushed himself to his feet. "They'll destroy each other! Luna will blame Cash for not watching her and they'll fight. Neither will survive!"
"They know who was supposed to watch her! They'll come after him, and from him, they'll link you. Are you a complete imbecile?"
"How will they know, huh? We just hide Jeff out until the final battle. They'll think he was killed by whoever killed the girl."
Trish Stratus walked forward, her hands on her hips. She held all of the beauty of the Toreador clan and its creativity within her singer's voice. She stepped up next to Hunter and lightly pressed her hand against his back. She looked at Edge with the same ferocity of her would-be prince. Her designs were toward primogen, and she was not about to let this idiot ruin her chances.
"The girl isn't dead." Trish reached up and stroked Hunter's arm. "Word is coming out of Julian's compound. Cash was there when the girl was dumped, and he Embraced her. She is now Gangrel, and your primogen has declared the deaths of those involved."
"Has she..." Edge gulped. "Has she talked?"
"Of course, she's talked, you imbecile!" Trish released Hunter stepped up to Edge. She slashed out and ripped his right cheek open. "We know because Cash has put all of his Gangrel out to find the four of you, and if they find you here, we're all done for. Morgana will have my head on a platter because you're too stupid to go to your prince before you make a decision!"
"We had the opportunity and we took it!" Edge stood tall and let the blood leak from his face. Jeff, Matt and Lita stood behind him. They were afraid, but did their best not to show their fear. "You want to wait because we have an eternity, but that doesn't mean we should. We'll only take this city with a fight."
"We are trusted!" Hunter shouted. "Only a few in this room felt the wrath, and they took their pain with stoic eyes because they had faith in me as their true prince. Even those that were scared into submission by the punishments had enough sense not to talk. All we had to do was plan it out, and you ruined everything!"
"You know just like we do that Luna didn't want her to be Kindred. He and Cash may be on the warpath now, but they'll still destroy each other before this is over. They're pissed off!"
"Yes! At you!" Hunter's arm moved and in a flash, he had Edge around the throat. "Luna will destroy this entire city to get to you, and so will Cash. And they'll know that you're not smart enough to be the one behind this whole plot. I didn't want war, I wanted civil unrest! I wanted to prove that Luna couldn't hold the city!"
"You have," Edge croaked out, trying to pry the fingers away. "We've done that for you."
"How? By sending him on a hunt? By showing the other clans that the beast really does still lie within their prince?"
"Nosferatu won't fight in a clan war." Matt stepped forward. He didn't touch Edge, but he moved close enough for eyes to turn on him. "They can't win without a clan war if we kill their leaders first."
Matt's boldness made Lita speak up. "They're distracted," she said. "They have a new Kindred to care for. If they're so focused on her that they can't stop other things, the clans will turn against them."
Trish struck out her. "Stupid, bitch! You think Luna got to be prince by not knowing how to do two things at once? You think he became the head of the San Francisco underworld by being simple-minded?" She reached out and grabbed her by the hair. "If we can't control this, you've doomed us all! The hell with being primogen! We'll only be dead!"
A slow grin started to spread across Hunter's lips. His grip around Edge's throat tightened. He turned towards Trish and gave a low chuckle. "But, we might be able to control this." His fingernails grew into sharp claws and Edge's blood welled around his fingers. "Luna wants the blood of those that hurt his niece, we'll give him their blood."
"And then..." Trish smirked. "...we will be the prized. We'll be the trusted."
"And we can leave Luna and Cash to tear each other apart."
"And Morgana? She won't let them destroy each other. She knows that without Julian, her reign is over." Trish shrugged. "Not that she was a bad primogen. I would just rather have her job."
"She won't be there all the time," Hunter told her. "It's going to be the downfall of her decision not to move onto Luna's compound. She can't be there all the time."
"Daedalus?"
"He lives in the dark. We'll destroy him in the dark."
Satisfied that there was enough of a plan, Trish turned her shining eyes on Lita. With a howl, she bent forward and bit into the redhead's neck. Hunter echoed her howl as he ripped Edge's throat out. The rest of their traitorous clans swooped in and took out Matt and Jeff. They would leave the bodies on Luna's doorstep, lead him to believe that they were behind him. They could honestly say that Luna's insult was theirs as well, but for wholly other reasons. And while they pretended to show their loyalty, they could just sit back and wait for their two biggest threats to destroy one another.
Or at least they could have... If Stacy Keibler weren't lurking just behind the cracked door.
