Chapter Three: China Doll
Disclaimer: All the characters and places belong to their respective creators and owners. I only own my OC and make no money whatsoever out of this.
The night breeze hit me as I stepped out of the cab, mixed with that unique, spicy blend that spoke of exotic and mysterious rituals in the night (or, more realistically, of overpriced pseudo-oriental restaurants, designed to appeal to Western taste): I was back in Chinatown.
Carefully, I headed to the temple and slowly opened the giant wooden doors, crouching as soon as I was inside. Luckily the patrol didn't seem to have noticed me: I stealthily approached one of them and tried to Dominate him. It worked, and he fell into a trance. Just to be sure of my intuition, I got even nearer to his back and killed him before he could even waken from his stupor. As his body fell in the grass, I had the confirmation I needed: these were humans, not Kuei-Jin, to my relief. Thanks to Dominate this would be easier than I expected (although I quite envied those who could see auras, since they could avoid this painstaking process of examination).
Always crouched, I went deeper and deeper into Ming Xiao's lair, using the familiar tactic I had developed over these two years, with the exception that, if usually I tried to avoid killing if at all possible, this time I knew it was for the best to weaken the Kuei-Jin as much as I could. If an enemy was lonely I put him into a trance and then fed on him until he died; if there were two soldiers I put one into a trance, used Suicide on the other and then fed on or killed the first one. If there were more of them I would have to use Mass Suicide, but I tried to avoid that since it cost too much blood and I had to save my blood bags for the inevitable confrontation with Ming Xiao. Luckily the narrow corridors prevented this problem, and, with some blood-buffed lock-picking skills, I never had to confront more than two soldiers at the same time.
When I started encountering traps, I knew I was getting closer; luckily by staying crouched I had to proceed slowly, and so the first bamboo poles trap just went off a few inches before my face. After that, it was easy to spot the suspicious-looking tiles and avoid them.
The place was getting more and more like a maze, a thing I hated, but I used my rule of always taking my right, since, for some reason, it actually seemed to work most of the time. In fact, on my first visit to the Chantry I had found Strauss' office on the first try: the problem, ironically, had been getting out, which had irritated me to no end.
Besides ending up on a dead end a couple of times, the corridors finally got narrower and narrower and I had a good feeling I was on the right track. I was almost congratulating myself when the tapestry next to me was slashed open and a ninja-clad soldier jumped out: if I were still human I would have had a fatal heart failure. Well, truth to be told, if I were still human I wouldn't have been able to walk crouched for more than a few steps, let alone for hours, due to my weight and the fact that most of it was located on my… derrier, which had always made it very straining for the muscles of my legs to keep me in balance.
As a sad reminder of it, in my panic I landed straight on my butt, at the ninja's feet. He spotted me and readied his blade: luckily my survival instinct kicked in and my right foot connected violently with his nether regions. As he doubled over in pain, I didn't waste any seconds and used Suicide, praying that it would work. It did and he collapsed on top of me, motionless. Providentially, in his fit he had dropped his katana, which clanged at my side: it would have been mocking to end up being skewered by a cadaver.
I pushed his body off of me and sat up, taking his sword in my trembling hands and trying to regain my composure. This had been dangerously close, and I couldn't afford to find myself in the same situation again. I looked at the tapestry walls unwinding before me, and from experience I just knew there would be more ninjas hidden beneath them. What to do?
I couldn't see their auras, I couldn't hope for them to make any noise, I could try to smell their blood, but I wasn't a hound. Suddenly I had an idea, although it was a bit risky: the narrowness of the corridor was a disadvantage to me, yes, but what if I turned it to my favour? They could come from left or right, but they had to land next me one way or the other. I took my Tal'mahe'Ra Blade out from its sheath: crouching around while holding a sword wasn't usually the best of ideas, but in this case crouching around with two swords could be my salvation. I put them down on the ground, each one pointing at one of the walls, hilt to hilt. I used Bloodbuff to enhance my strength, and took one weapon in each hand, then brought my arms up to lean against my chest, in order to better support the weight. Each katana's tip grazed against the tapestry, but that actually helped my balance. I used Fortitude, to stay on the safe side, and started slowly moving forward, always crouched, keeping the blades on level with my shoulders. I could see a door not far from here, I was almost there.
Suddenly, a black form shot out from my right, and with a scream, impaled himself on my blade, as I was thrown to the left side and the other katana pierced the tapestry and the light, hollow wooden wall, eventually getting stuck in it. My muscles burned as I looked up at the ninja, who seemed to be staring at the weapon protruding from his abdomen, surprise etched as a mask on his face. I pushed him off the blade with the help of my now free hand and he collapsed on his back, finally dead.
The door was now only 10 feet away from me, the odds of another hidden ninja weren't very high, he would have probably come out to aid his comrade by now. So I sheathed my blade and made a dash for it, sighing with relief once I closed it behind me. I was in a big room with two pressure plates. I solved the puzzle and took the stairs, getting to yet another level.
Once I saw the statues being guarded by the soldier, I put two and two together with the pedestals in the central room and knew what needed to be done: surely Xiao had a strange flair for security systems.
I crouched to the first statue, trying to get nearer to the soldiers, in order to use Dominate, and suddenly there was a metallic sound and I felt a blade slicing the air, barely missing my head: had I been standing, I would surely have met my final death. The soldiers were alerted to my presence but couldn't get near, thanks to the blade, still one of them had a crossbow and started shooting in my direction. Luckily it missed, but it was not the time for finesse and I finally had to use Mass Suicide: fortunately I had fed on the lone soldiers in the previous corridors.
I went on and grabbed the statue, taking note of the shape of the pedestal, but the soldiers guarding the opposite statue started shooting at me. I stayed undercover and finally they stopped. I could hear them stepping towards me, and I got an idea. I poked my head out just slightly and saw they were approaching the corridor nearest to me. Evidently they knew how to avoid the trap, but hadn't taken into account that I now knew from experience how to set it off. I picked up a fallen crossbow and took cover behind the pedestal. They restarted shooting at me but, as they briefly had to pause to reload, I launched the crossbow, making it slide and tumble down the corridor. As I had hoped, its weight was enough and the trap went off again, beheading them before they even realized what hit them.
I got the other three statues, and this time I was able to use my standard Dominate routine. Finally I placed them on the central room's pedestal and a strange portal appeared before my eyes.
If this didn't scream "Ming Xiao is on the other side" I don't know what did. I consumed a regular blood pack to regain the lost blood, embraced my best friend the flamethrower (using it was a no-brainer, you pulled the trigger and aimed in the general direction, no particular ability or finesse was required and you dealt a ton of damage) and repeated like a Mantra in my head: Fortitude, Presence, Bloodbuff.
I stepped into the portal and was taken in front of the leader of the Kuei-Jin. She promised me an eternal torment and then literally showed me her true face. As I expected, it was not a pleasant one.
Even with the three disciplines running at the same time (thankfully I had been collecting some occult items, or I would have run out of blood very rapidly), I emptied the two gas cans and she was still standing and spawning copycats to boot, although she seemed weakened. I retreated and refilled my blood-pool, then I un-sheathed my blade and tried approaching her. I discovered almost instantly that it wasn't a good idea, since those tentacles didn't allow me to get very close and, even with all disciplines on, they dealt quite some damage.
I had always felt more at ease with bladed weapons than with guns, unlike most Neonates or Kindred born in the XX century. I knew I had to "thank" my father's passion for fencing (he had been some kind of champion at college), and the fact that he had practically forced me to take it up as a sport when I was eight, using a good amount of guilt-tripping. I was an only child, so my parents had projected everything upon me: they really loved me a lot, but maybe too much so and when we were still under the same roof sometimes it had been hard breathing or just saying no. Sadly, for my father's aspirations, I never was much of an athlete, my reflexes weren't exceptional and as I hit puberty my new body structure hadn't helped either. I was mediocre at best, and had been very relieved when I was finally allowed to drop out.
But at least I knew my way around a sword and how to handle it without hurting myself. I wasn't a pro by any means, but with Bloodbuff's help I could put on a decent fight. Moreover, so far I hadn't even had a real swordfight yet: I was mostly swinging at opponents using firearms or disciplines. Of course this meant that I couldn't do it often, and had to use my blade only against strong Kindred foes, when the Lethal and Aggravated Damage I could deal with it was worth the trouble and the consumption of blood packs.
In these two years I had tried to train myself by going to the shooting range regularly; sadly I was very uncomfortable with firearms and still almost flinched when having to shoot one. My aim had improved a bit, especially on unmoving targets but I was still very far from a sharpshooter. Combine that with the fact that bullets were mostly useful against Kine and that I could much more proficiently deal with them with Dominate, and you might imagine how I turned to gunfights as the last possible resource. But now I didn't have another choice.
Thankfully I had been saving money and had made Mercurio a richer ghoul before coming here. Time for my last resort: I stood at a good distance, took out my machine gun and just started shooting. I wasn't precise, I knew I missed a lot of hits, and was almost nauseous from the jerking caused by the recoil but I was aided by the fact that in this form Xiao was enormous, plus she had already taken a lot of damage and I had a great stash of ammo at my disposal.
I had to retreat and drink vitae some more times, but finally my patience paid off and the former Priestess collapsed in a gelatinous goo, her spawns disappearing with her.
My arms felt heavy with the effort and strangely detached, like they didn't belong to me anymore. Even after I stopped shooting, they still shook uncontrollably. It took me a strenuous effort to put away my machine gun, and I sat on the floor for a while, drinking some more vitae until my body calmed down. Since my mission at the Sabbat warehouse I had discovered that in a life-threatening situation, the adrenaline rush combined with some primal survival instinct allowed me to think fast and make decisions at the blink of an eye, which most of the time actually turned out to be pretty sound. Sadly, once the immediate danger was removed, it was like deflating a big balloon: I felt limp, emptied, and reverted back to my usual over-thinking self, who just couldn't take decisions based on gut feelings. Maybe it was the same mechanism that in College had allowed me to outdo myself during exams: under pressure I was able to solve exercises that in normal conditions I would probably have given up on.
Finally, I managed to regain my composure, grab the key of the Sarcophagus and leave.
There was simply no way I was going to be able to deal with LaCroix that night, although it would be for the best not giving him the time to know of Xiao's demise. Still, it was always better than meeting my final death or falling unconscious in the Tower at sunrise. I wasn't sure I could go back to Strauss for the day, and I needed to refill my stock of ammo and blood packs. Suddenly I remembered the words of that thin-blood clairvoyant: up until now they had proven to be true, although at the time I couldn't understand a thing. I had forgotten a lot of what she had said, but not her final warning: she had kept on screaming "don't open it" and now I had a fairly good idea of what it meant. This gave me the chills, but also a solution: I had asked her who could I trust and she had given me some vague descriptions, but now I could see she was indicating Beckett (who again had begged me not to open that Sarcophagus), and Mercurio.
Yes, I could trust Mercurio, he was loyal to the Camarilla, not to LaCroix and I was going to have to head there anyway. I took the usual cab and made a brief stop at the blood bank, then I sneaked into the ghoul's house.
"Whoa, whoa, Irene, you look like shit!" Mercurio said, opening the door and letting me in.
"Thanks, Mercurio, you always know how to talk to a lady…" I replied with a smirk, eyeing around the room to reassure myself we were alone.
"You're welcome!" he smiled back with a wink. "And don't worry, you are safe here. Or at least… less in danger than in most places."
"I know, I know… Listen, I need some more ammo and…"
"More ammo? It must've been one helluva a fight: you usually take weeks to run out of those, not two nights!"
He was right, I mostly used the weapons I found in loco, that's how I had saved so much money in the first place.
"I am not completely out, I just need two gas cans for the flamethrower and some magazines for the machine gun."
"Just?" he asked chuckling and I smiled back. He retreated to his bedroom, emerging shortly after with my purchases and I handed him the cash.
"Listen, Mercurio, I know it's a lot to ask, but could I sleep here for today?" After all, the Sheriff or his Kindred minions would be fast asleep too, and I was sure Mercurio could keep most Kine and ghouls at bay. Especially on his territory.
"Well, sure, pal, I owe you, after all. You watched my back, I'll watch yours!" he exclaimed, and gestured for me to follow him. We entered his bedroom, and he headed towards the closet. He dipped his arm in, touched a precise spot behind some jackets and I heard a click. A wall-mirror moved to reveal an alcove, quite narrow but as long as the room: evidently he had installed a fake wall. Here there were a mattress and some canned food, bottled water and ammos: a small bunker.
"A lesson from the East Coast," he explained with a smile and I couldn't help but wonder if he had taken into consideration the fact that Kindred had disciplines like Auspex. Still, it would be more than enough to hide me from Kine and ghouls.
"Thanks, Mercurio, I will repay you for all your kindness."
I was really touched that he trusted me with his secret refuge, or maybe he just had more than one.
"Just remember your old pal, when you climb to the top," he said with a wink.
"Yes, sure. I'll send your regards to LaCroix," I smirked.
"Ya know what I mean."
"Right now I am in such a big of a dump – figuratively speaking, of course – that I would be more than happy just to get back to ground level."
"Troubles seem to like you, Irene, but since I've met you, this fucking old cantankerous lady of a city just hasn't been the same. I can tell ya, you just can't be run of the mill: you may get to the top or come crashing down to the ground, but you're bound to put on a great show!" he laughed.
"Well, that's very comforting, thank you," I sighed, settling myself on the makeshift bed: at least it was clean, unlike in that hole above the pawnshop LaCroix had so generously provided for me before he decided I was worthy of a real apartment. "I'll get my beauty sleep now…" I joked.
"Then, I'll call you at sunset… Sweet dreams!" He closed me in the bunker and I could hear him singing the Eurythmics' trademark tune. I hadn't listened to it since my Embrace, and, now that I did, I decided it could have been some sort of Anthem for the Kindred way of life. Still, Mercurio's vocals were excruciating and it was a testament to my tiredness that even such cacophonic noise lulled me into slumber, way before sunrise.
A/N: Actually this should have been only a part of the chapter, but it got too long, so I decided it would be wiser to cut it here. The good news (hopefully) is that the next chapter is practically complete, I just need to find a suitable end and proofread it some more times. I suck at writing action scenes, I know… I like the plotting and politics best, but I couldn't avoid them, since they allowed me to show how Irene deals with danger and has managed to survive this far.
A big thank you to the reviewers: you really give me an incredible motivation! Hope this chapter does not disappoint you.
Olivia – You always ask great questions, the problem is that replying to them would be spoiling too much, one way or the other…
A special thank you to Loving Companion Cube for sharing her incredible knowledge of the World of Darkness and for all the support (not to mention "da lulz").