Note: Please see Prologue for warning, copyright and disclaimer information.

Berlin

I quickly changed my shirt and was able to get most of the blood out of the one I'd been wearing. When I came out of the bathroom I could hear him moving around in the bedroom. I quickly packed the rest of my things and stood looking down into the suitcase for a moment, thinking about what was most familiar to me now; weapons.

When Cormac came back out I looked up at him. He was wearing clothes identical to what he'd had on the night before, which didn't surprise me. His shirt wasn't quite buttoned all the way, and he had a leather trench coat over his arm. He also wore a figure-eight holster that held two large handguns.

"I assumed we were doing the whole prince thing," I told him, "and I didn't know how obvious I could get with my… accessories."

He knew exactly what I was talking about. "What accessories do you have besides stakes?"

I shrugged. "A knife or two." I had a few other things too, but nothing that worked well on vamps, so they weren't worth mentioning.

"Those would be better," he said.

"Than the stakes?" I asked, surprised.

"Where we're going?" he replied. "I believe so."

It was a lot harder to hurt Kindred with a knife than with a stake. "Good point."

"Exactly."

"Okay," I said to myself, "knives are good, but stakes are in the suitcase."

"If you can hide one well," he told me, "you may take a stake."

"I may?" I asked dryly, trying not to smile. "I have your permission?" I pulled a stake from its usual place at the small of my back.

"Eliza," he said patiently, "you are supposed to be my ghoul while at the chantry."

I froze for a moment at his words, not liking the reminder of our deception. I dropped the stake into the suitcase and pulled out a large double bladed knife in its holster. With ease of motion that came from years of habit, I fastened it on my belt at my right hip.

As I closed the suitcase and picked up my jacket, Cormac checked his guns with a practiced motion that told me he'd worn them for years. I wanted to cry; although he'd owned a gun and known how to use it quite well, my Mac hadn't needed anything more than his mind and his magic to defend himself. Then I remembered that his magic hadn't been enough to save us from the monsters that had invaded our apartment.

Unaware of my morbid thoughts, he put on the trench coat and finished buttoning his shirt. As he began to do up his tie, the ghoul entered the cabin.

"Excuse me sir," Jax addressed Cormac with utmost respect. "I understand you will be seeing the prince as a first stop on your visit here?"

"Of course," he replied.

"The car is ready whenever you are ready." The ghoul stood patiently as if waiting for orders. At least he was a well-trained puppy.

"Jax," Cormac asked, "exactly what will you be doing while we are staying at the chantry?"

"I'll be staying with the plane," he explained. "There's not enough room at this airport for it to remain here so I will be taking it on to Paris." He stepped forward and handed Cormac a business card. "When you are ready for me to return just give me a call."

"Okay," Cormac agreed. "Then we should take everything with us."

The 'everything' consisted of my suitcase and carry on bag, Cormac's suitcase, knapsack, duffel bag, and a sword shaped object wrapped in a tarp that I was betting really was a sword. I grabbed my luggage and the crossbow while Jax helped Cormac with his things. Soon everything was packed into the waiting Mercedes.

Cormac put his knapsack on the floor behind his seat, then watched as I laid the crossbow on backseat within easy reach. "You're not planning on taking that in, are you?" he asked quietly.

I shot a glance between him and the weapon. "Do you think they'd let me?" I seriously doubted they would, but I also knew that anything could happen between here and our destination.

"Do you think I would let you?" he said in a low voice.

I turned away to hide my smile. "Party pooper."

Jax handed Cormac an envelope that contained maps and directions to both the prince's palace and the Tremere Chantry. It also listed a few nightspots and restaurants, not that I thought we'd need them. Mac and I had never been much for nightclubs, and I hadn't had much of an appetite since he'd returned from the dead.

As Cormac drove toward downtown Berlin, he asked for his phone back. When I handed it to him, he asked, "Did your mother call again?"

I took a deep breath to control the anger I felt at that word. "You know, we're really going to have to come to terms on this. Either you're gonna have to quit calling her that or I'm gonna have to start carrying more stakes." When he didn't reply, I added, "Cause I'll start using them."

"As long as you start with her," he told me.

"She at least listens when I tell her to quit referring to herself as my mother." Well, sometimes she did.

"She didn't last night."

I shot him an angry look. I'd forgotten that Cormac would now have the same ability I had to enhance his hearing. I made a mental note to take pains not to be overheard in the future and said, "You know, there's a time and a place for overlistening, and my conversations are not the time or the place."

"I heard you tell her to not call herself that rather loudly," he replied, glancing at me. "It is a rather small plane, Eliza."

Yes it was, but I knew he'd made the effort to hear both sides of the conversation just the same. "Mmm hmm. So are we gonna come to terms with this whole thing?"

"What would you prefer I call her?" He seemed to be concentrating on traffic, but I could tell he didn't like talking about Kate.

"I believe right now she's going by—"

"Be nice," he warned me in a low voice.

"—Prudence," I continued, hiding a smile, "so why not use it? Although you know I call her Kate."

His phone rang, and I hoped it wasn't Kate. Just because the sun was still up over Salem didn't mean it wouldn't be her. Rules that applied for normal Kindred didn't always apply to her. He let it ring once more, than answered it.

"Hello?" he said so calmly that I wondered if he'd even considered that it might have been Kate. "Corrine."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't really want to talk to Kate where Cormac might overhear again. It didn't occur to me that this might be worse.

Cormac shot a glance in my direction. "Yes," he told her. "Yes, just a moment, dear."

"Dear?" I raised my eyebrows at him as I took the phone. "Corrine, I'm glad you called," I said into the handset.

"How are things going?" she asked.

I looked out the window at the streets of Berlin. "About what I expected."

"You're arguing?" she accused.

I was very conscious of Cormac sitting beside me; I knew he was probably listening to the entire conversation. "Have we done anything else in the last week?"

"At least you know the fire's still there, don't you?"

I closed my eyes. "Corrine, please," I asked softly. I knew she was only trying to do what she felt was best, but I still very much had my doubts.

"You have to admit you still care for him," she pressed.

"I don't have to do any such thing," I told her coolly. Then I did the only thing I could do, I changed the subject. "I hear you had a visitor the other night."

"Jared," she confirmed. "We talked for hours, Eliza. There are so many things I never dreamed about! Things I can learn how to do, powers I can harness. I never thought it could be like this." She was so excited that I wanted to cry for her happiness.

"I'm glad," I said softly.

"Look," she said tentatively, "Jared said something when Cormac was here that made me think, Eliza. He said I looked like you."

Here was the very thing Cormac warned me about. "People have said that all your life," I reminded her cautiously. "Why would it make you think about it now?"

"Well," she replied, "I always wondered why you picked me to take care of all these years. Why you loved me like you have."

I rubbed my forehead and the sudden ache I felt there. "I loved you because you're you, Corrine," I told her honestly. "I take care of you because I love you."

"No other reason?" she persisted.

"Do I need another? Look, I wish I could tell you that I was you mother, luv. When I thought Mac was dead—" abruptly I remembered that he was right beside me and could hear everything I said. I dropped my voice, but made myself continue. There were things I had to tell Corrine, and if things turned out badly this might be the only time I had to do it.

"I wanted to die too," I admitted softly. "You were the only reason I kept on, Corrine. You know I couldn't love you any more if you were my daughter. I wish—" My voice caught, and I had to take a deep breath before I could continue.

"Corrine, the Wrights did right by you," I told her, turning away from Cormac and keeping my voice low. "They loved you like you were their own and gave you a wonderful home to grow up in. That's a lot more than I could have ever given a child, my life has been… unusual. I hope you understand."

"I understand, Eliza," she replied softly. "I do."

I smiled sadly; I think she did understand that I was her mother and that I loved her, but that I couldn't claim her for reasons I wasn't going into. "Good," I said aloud. "Is everything else going well? School and all?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" she asked.

"Just checking," I murmured.

"I know," she said. I could tell she was smiling. "You worry."

"Sometimes," I admitted. "Look, Call Cormac's phone if you need anything, okay?" If Kate was taking me seriously, I didn't want to run the risk that she'd hurt Corrine.

"Sure," she replied, obviously confused at my request, "but I don't know what I'd need."

"Okay, well, take care of yourself," I said softly. I wanted to warn her about Kate, about so many other things, but there was no good place for me to start without telling her everything.

"Have a good trip," she told me cheerfully. "Call me."

"Yeah, I will, I'll call you," I promised, knowing I'd try to do it when Cormac wasn't right next to me. "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied. "Tell Cormac I hope everything's okay."

I shot a glance at him. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell him." Like I needed to, he was probably listening to every word we said.

We said our good-byes and I hung up the phone. I handed it back without looking at him, not sure how he would react to what had been said.

"How is she?" he asked.

"You weren't overlistening?" I asked in surprise.

He looked at his watch. "We missed the time by about an hour and I don't see the place…."

I shook my head. Maybe he hadn't been listening. Maybe I was too suspecting, too mistrustful after years of caution. Did it matter? What we'd felt twenty years ago was over, things would never be the same between us, they couldn't be.

"She's fine," I assured him. "She seems to like Jared quite well. She would, he was a nice guy, from what I remember of him. It looks as if that she had a few things to think about after Jared's visit."

"Oh?" He turned his blinker on and changed lanes.

"Yeah, well you did warn me," I reminded him.

"Yes, I did." Did he have to sound so smug when he said that?

A few minutes later we pulled through a set of large gates in front of a large palace. Cormac pulled up to the doors and turned off the car. A ghoul came around and opened his door, and then waited for Cormac to grab his bag and me to exit before he drove the car away to a parking area nearby.

Walking into a palace full of bloodsuckers without a dozen stakes and the crossbow made the skin between my shoulder blades itch, but it couldn't be helped. I was supposed to be one of the 'in' crowd now, Cormac's ghoul. I wondered if he had enough power in their society to protect me from other vamps, but in the end I knew it would come down to my own wits, just like it always did.

A tall Hispanic gentleman stood at the top of the steps waiting for us. He had several facial piercings, but surprisingly none that looked too tacky. He held his hand out to the Kindred beside me and said, "Cormac, it is good to see you again." He had a Spanish accent and might have been cute if he wasn't a monster.

Cormac shook his hand. "Jurgen, it's been quite some time."

"Yes, it has been," he agreed with a smile. "Too long. Eduardo suggested that I meet you here. I was supposed to be at the airport, but I was running a bit late."

"That is fine," Cormac assured him. "I remembered my way fairly well."

"Good, good." He shot a glance at me and I looked back at him coolly.

Cormac caught the look. "Jurgen, this is Eliza," he said evenly. "Eliza, this is Jurgen."

"It is good to meet you," the fiend told me pleasantly.

I nodded as respectfully as I could, but kept my mouth shut. Just because I had to be around a bunch of vamps didn't mean that I had to socialize with them.

"If you'd like to come in I'll sit with you until the council is ready for you," Jurgen told Cormac. "They're having a bit of a crisis at the moment, but as soon as they're ready…."

"Oh," he asked, curious, "in relation to…?"

"Just Kindred politics," Jurgen replied vaguely.

"The usual."

"Yes, you know how the Ravnos clan is." He stepped aside and gestured into the palace. "If you'll follow me, we'll get you to the prince and then I'll accompany you to the chantry."

He led us through this magnificent palace to a large waiting room. On one end of the room was a love seat and two chairs arranged in a seating area. Cormac sat down on the love seat and I sat next to him, feeling very uncomfortable. Jurgen sat in one of the chairs across from us.

The vamps talked while I stayed out of the conversation. I didn't think anything I had to say would add either to our pretense of me as his ghoul, or the chat they were having. Not anything they wanted to hear, anyway.

"Did you see Dougal when he was here last?" Cormac asked, pointedly not looking in my direction when I shifted on the seat.

"Yes, I did," Jurgen replied, "but I didn't really get a chance to talk to him."

"Did he say if he was journeying on from here?"

"Well, as I said, I didn't really talk to him all that much," he repeated. "I was in the middle of a project when he was here. I don't know where he was headed, I believe he left rather suddenly, actually."

They talked for several minutes about an Earl Hardy and some vamp named Garaboldy. I'd never heard of either of them, but apparently when Dougal disappeared he was involved in a blood hunt. A Blood Hunt occurs when a Kindred breaks too many rules. They are hunted down and killed by any means necessary. Now that's my kind of party.

At some point in their conversation we heard angry voices coming from the next room in French. Jurgen glanced toward the doors, but didn't comment and continued on with the conversation.

It seemed that no one knew where Dougal had gone when he left the Berlin Chantry. He'd requested an out of the way room while he was there, and Cormac wanted to see it. I knew he hoped to find some of Dougal's belongings there, but somehow I doubted he would.

The door to the next room slammed open and a very pretty vamp stormed out. She was extremely angry and her movements were almost violent. A tall male ghoul with long dark hair followed her out and was nearly running in an effort to catch up with her. Neither of them saw us as they stormed out of the waiting room without a backward glance.

Now we could hear the angry voices quite clearly, but again they spoke in French and I couldn't understand a word. Soon another ghoul came and closed the door, blocking the voices.

Cormac and Jurgen continued to talk for about various subjects, none of them interesting. About ten minutes later, the puppy that had closed the door opened it again and nodded to Jurgen, who stood and gestured for us to precede him into the next room.

The room was large and fancy, like a throne room. There were stools in an 'L' shape down the right side of the room and across the far end. The prince sat on a throne that had wings spread out on either side of it, and he had a white tiger lying at his feet.

One of the vamps on the right, another Hispanic gentleman, nodded pointedly at Cormac, who returned the greeting. We walked forward until we were about fifteen feet from the throne. At first a female ghoul translated what was said into English, but when Cormac replied in German, she quickly stopped. It seemed too pretentious to me; I was very glad that Dougal's plan to embrace me had failed, I never would have survived in this kind of society, I don't have the patience for it.

Not soon enough for me, the audience was over. Cormac nodded again at the Hispanic vamp and Jurgen led us back out of the room.

Once we were walking through the waiting room, Jurgen spoke to Cormac. "Eduardo wished to meet you at the airport himself however, this whole mess came up. He does look forward to speaking with you at the chantry later."

"As I him."

I figured Eduardo was the vamp Cormac had nodded to, Tremere tended to keep to themselves a little so than most clans do.

Jurgen led us back through the palace to the exit where he asked if he could ride back to the chantry with us. Cormac agreed, and while they were waiting for the car, they discussed the Ravnos clan, one I knew almost nothing about.

"They have a fine temper," Jurgen commented.

"I've had very little contact with them," Cormac replied.

"You're fortunate in that," the other Kindred told him. "They tend to be like cockroaches, they multiply, they're everywhere, and they're extremely annoying."

"And they scatter when the lights are turned on," Cormac added.

"Yes, yes," Jurgen said, pleased. "That is exactly it."

The car pulled up and without a word I got into the back seat with the crossbow. Cormac and Jurgen got into the front, and before taking off, Cormac adjusted the rear view mirror so that he could see me clearly.

I smiled wryly; did he expect me to pick up the crossbow and shoot Jurgen with it? As much as I hated having another vamp to watch, at least they were both in the front seat. Why did I feel guilty about thinking like that? They were both monsters, I told myself as I watched the streets of Berlin streak by. They were.

Damn it, they both were.