Note: Please see Prologue for warning, copyright and disclaimer information.
Tremere
I woke to the realization that I was sleeping against something hard and cold. Mac. Maybe an electric blanket would be a good investment.
He wasn't breathing, wasn't moving at all, and there was no heartbeat in his chest. Could I handle this? I guess I had, hadn't I? So far, anyway. And it wasn't like we'd have much chance to sleep together like this when we got back to Salem and the real world.
I laid there for a while and let myself think about the last few days. I'd come a long way from wanting him destroyed to sleeping on his dead shoulder. But I knew that I needed to be with him like I'd never needed anything else.
Finally my bladder told me I had to get up. Mac's arm didn't move at first when I tried to sit up, but after a moment he let me go and rolled over, never really coming awake. I blew out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and blinked when I realized that my hand had been reaching for the stake I'd left under the pillow I hadn't slept on.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down. He hadn't bit me and I hadn't staked him, that was all that mattered. As soon as my heart stopped pounding so hard, I went into the bathroom.
The shower stall was large and clean, something I'm not used to as a rule. Not that the where I normally shower isn't clean, but broken tile and stains don't do much for the setting when you're trying to relax. I stood under the hot water for a long time, something else I'm not used to. My shoulder felt much better, and I wasn't having any bad side effects from sleeping with a corpse.
I closed my eyes at that thought. He wasn't a damned corpse, he was Mac, one time fiancé, undead lover, father of my child, love of my life. Remember those terms? If I loved him enough to sleep with him, to let him sink his fangs in me, then I loved him enough to forgive what he now was.
Once I was dressed, I went downstairs to the kitchen we'd found the night before. There was lunchmeat in the refrigerator, and chips in the cupboard. I started a pot of coffee then poured a large glass of juice and sat down to eat.
A few minutes later a male ghoul came to the doorway and looked around the room. He looked a little out of it, as if he'd just woken up. He was wearing a gun.
"Hey," he said sleepily.
I sat the juice glass back down without taking a drink. "Hey." I made a mental inventory of my weapons, silently cursing my decision to leave my jacket upstairs. I'd chosen not to wear the knife, thinking it would be better to roam around the house unarmed. Well, almost unarmed. The tee shirt I'd thrown on covered the stake I'd stashed at my back, but just barely.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked.
"Not at all." Unless of course, he was here to shoot me, then he'd just have to leave.
He walked over to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of juice before sitting down at the small table with me. When he didn't make any threatening moves, I picked up my sandwich with my left hand and slowly started eating again.
"I'm Jake," he offered.
"Eliza." He kept both of his hands where I could see them, and I was careful to do the same.
"You're here with Cormac Brennan?"
I watched him take a drink from his glass and wondered if I was going to have to kill him. "Yeah."
He looked at me closely, then sighed. "You seem a little tense."
"I don't normally eat breakfast with strangers carrying guns," I said softly. "Or is it standard issue for house ghouls here?"
"Not usually," he admitted.
"You my babysitter?" I asked dryly.
"Today." He shrugged. "Faith said that you're a bit aggressive."
I smiled grimly. "I've been known to be."
"Do you plan on being aggressive today?"
They were afraid of me. I wanted to laugh, but I just smiled instead. "Not today," I told him softly. "Today I just want to eat and go outside for a little while."
He nodded and relaxed a little bit. "I didn't think you'd be trouble, but you know how the masters are."
"Yes," I told him. I did know.
Jake got himself something to eat and I drank a large cup of coffee before he led me outside. A dozen ghouls were playing volleyball, while half that many were working out nearby. I spent some time watching them before Jake suggested I join them. I knew that he just wanted to see what I could do, but I needed the exercise.
An hour or so later I was tired and sore, but I felt better than I had since… well since Mac and I had made love. A few of the girls went inside and came out a little while later with a huge lunch that they set up in the gazebo. After I'd eaten again, I decided to go back to our room.
"Are you planning on coming down again before sundown?" Jake asked me.
I decided to take pity on him, he looked like he needed a nap. "No, Jake," I told him. "I'll stay put until M-Cormac gets up." It was only a couple of hours until then anyway.
He nodded, but followed me up the stairs and made sure I went into the room. I showered again and changed into something more suited to the night and darkness, not sure exactly what we'd be doing when Mac woke.
Sundown found me sitting on the windowless window seat with one of the magazines I'd picked up in Paris on my lap. I'd been trying to read it, but sorry to say I'm more of an action person than a reader. I had a small lamp on that threw shadows across the room.
I knew the sun had gone down when Mac sat up on the bed. I smiled at him.
"Good morning," he said, swinging his feet down to the floor.
"Good evening," I corrected him softly. When he gave me a reproachful look, I just laughed. "The sun is down, it's evening," I reminded him.
He stood up. "How did you sleep?"
I shrugged, not wanting to get into my nightmares with him. "Okay. I'm not going to ask how you slept, I know it was like the dead."
He looked down and ran his hand across his chest. "I see you didn't have to stake me, I guess I don't bite in my sleep."
"You didn't last night," I told him, "or yesterday, or today or—"
"See," he said, smiling, "now I've got you doing it."
"Yes you do," I said with a laugh. "You didn't bite and I didn't stake. See how that works? We all get along." I watched him walk over to our luggage and asked, "So what's on the agenda? Princely visit?"
He opened one of his bags and pulled out some clothing. "I believe they were going to take care of the Brujah first. That is the gist I got from Faith."
"Okay." I was quiet as I watched him dress in less formal clothes than what I was used to seeing him in, but he still armed himself in his usual manner. A knife for each boot, his figure eights, and his biker leather jacket. "No suit tonight?"
"No," he replied. "We're hunting tonight. I've ruined far too many suits with unexpected head shots ever since Nina stopped doing my laundry."
I didn't like the sound of that, but tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. "Who is Nina, by the way?"
"Nina is a friend of mine in LA," he explained.
"Who does your laundry?"
He sighed. "Private joke."
Lovely. "So she's just a friend in LA?"
"Yes, she looks like someone I know but I don't remember who." He pulled out his wallet and walked over to me, handing me a picture of a beautiful Hispanic woman.
"She's pretty," I told him.
"Mmm-Hmm." He kept looking at me expectantly.
"What, you're asking if I know someone who looks like her?" I looked at the picture again. "She kinda sorta looks familiar, but…." I thought maybe I'd seen a picture of this girl once, a long time ago, but I really didn't know anyone who looked like that.
"That's how I feel," he agreed, taking back the picture and putting it away.
"You know, we only knew each other for a year in Baltimore," I reminded him. "It could have been someone in Ireland."
"Could be," he said, "although Stephen didn't say anything about it."
"Did you ask him?"
"No."
"There you go." How was he supposed to know if he didn't ask?
"Sorry," he said dryly. "I was killing a rogue Gangrel, then we threw a Nosferatu through a wall, I killed quite a few members of the conclave, high ranking members, then the Sabbat pack."
I shook my head in wonder. "Okay, I remember the Sabbat pack."
"It was a very eventful four days," he said with a grim smile.
"Is this what you do all the time?" I asked softly, looking up at him. "Cause it sounds like my life." Death and darkness everywhere.
"It's becoming more and more recurrent," he told me. "It seems like every week something comes up. You know how Garou are."
I raised my eyebrows. "Hard to kill?" I asked, not knowing exactly what he meant. "Big nails? Sharp teeth?"
"Ferocious is the word I was going for," he murmured.
"Been there, recently." Didn't have the tee shirt, though, I'd thrown that away.
"Yes," he said, turning back to me, "how's the scar?"
I pulled the shirt off of my shoulder to show him. "It's fine." I picked up the gun from the seat beside me and held it up. "You want to show me how this goes on?" I'd thought about trying it myself, but I knew it would be more fun if he showed me.
"Well, where would you prefer to carry it?"
How was I supposed to know? I'd never carried a gun before. "On me?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have a shoulder harness," he told me. "You can carry it at the small of your back, but that may interfere with your stakes. You can carry it at your side, for a straight draw—"
"Which could interfere with the knife," I finished.
"You can wear it on your left side for a cross draw," he suggested, then drew one of his guns to show me what he meant.
Looked good to me. "Okay, we'll try that."
He walked over and pulled me to my feet, watching my eyes. He undid my belt slowly, then the button of my jeans. I grinned as he pulled the zipper downward and stopped.
"Would you care for it in, or out?" he asked, taking the holstered gun from my hand.
"Which is the better draw?" I replied, my voice a little husky.
"Out is a little more noticeable," he told me. "In is a little more uncomfortable."
"Stakes are a little noticeable too," I murmured, "that's why I have a big jacket."
"Well, never mind then." He handed me back the gun long enough to zip up and button my pants again. I tried not to look disappointed as he strung the holster on my belt and adjusted it on my hip. He refastened my belt, then drew the gun and holstered it again.
He went over the draw with me to make sure I knew it worked, then turned around to walk away. "Anything else?"
Well, I had an idea, but this probably wasn't the best time for it. "No."
"Got enough stakes?"
"Yeah," I replied. Two were at their usual place at my back and I had one in each jacket pocket and at each ankle. Should be enough. "Depending on how many we come across." Plus there was the silver knife and the gun.
"Given the rest of our entourage, I don't know that you'll get close enough to use stakes."
"We'll see," I drawled. "Don't spoil my fun already." I looked forward to being able to kill vamps again.
"Let me rephrase," he said firmly, turning to look at me pointedly. "Given the firepower of myself and the rest of the entourage, don't try and get close enough to use a stake."
"Stakes throw well, too," I reminded him, "depending on the balance."
"Yes," he murmured thoughtfully. I wondered what he was thinking.
He held his hand out and we went downstairs where we met up with Brenda and Faith outside of the library.
"Good evening ladies," he said politely.
"Cormac," Brenda murmured.
"Cormac," Faith echoed a bit more pleasantly. "Sleep well?"
They both ignored me, and I liked it that way.
"Yes," Mac replied, "and yourself?"
Faith smiled. "Like the dead. Are you ready for the evening? Anything you need? A little refreshment?" I knew she meant blood.
"No," he assured her. "I'm fine."
"I wanted to tell you that the book is ready for you, it's in the library," she added.
His eyes darted to the closed library doors. "Thank you," he said, taking a half step in that direction.
She saw his movement and hid a grin. "We had some intel on the Brujah and if there's no further delays, we can head out."
"Just a moment," Mac murmured, letting go of my hand and literally running into the library.
I would have laughed at his eagerness, but I was feeling a little uncomfortable there in the hall with two vamps and more on their way up to meet us. Brenda shot a glance at me then turned to Faith just as Mac rejoined us and took my hand again.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"The cemetery," Faith replied. Beyond her I could see a group of nearly a dozen Kindred come up from the lower levels.
"The one on Fourth Avenue?" Brenda sounded like she'd been to that particular cemetery before and didn't have happy thoughts about it.
"Yes, at Oak Street," Faith replied. She glanced at the pack behind her and turned toward the door. "Shall we?"
"We shall," Brenda agreed.
There were ghouls waiting for us outside. The vans and the Cadillac were pulled into the drive, along with quite a few motorcycles. I caught Mac looking longingly at them and remembered that he'd had one when we lived in Baltimore.
"Do you have a motorcycle?" I asked him softly.
"In LA," he replied.
"Is it a Harley?" The one he'd had in Baltimore had been. The ones here were too.
"No."
"Don't tell me you're riding a crotch rocket," I drawled.
"No, but it's a little smaller than a Harley," he explained.
After everyone had loaded into the vehicles and we were on our way, Faith glanced around at everyone in our vehicle.
"The particular Brujah we are after tonight are supposed to be living in one of the mausoleums at the cemetery," she told us. "They expected us last night, which is why we decided not to show up. Kinda rude of us but…."
"Bummer," Brenda murmured.
"They'll get over it," Mac added.
"About the time they die," she agreed, "but that's okay. There will be at least ten of them."
Mac leaned forward to talk to Brenda. "Rafe didn't give you my gun back, did he?"
She glanced back at him questioningly. "No."
He seemed disappointed and I couldn't stop myself from commenting. "Giving guns away all the time?" I asked dryly. "And don't you have enough guns?"
"It would have been quite helpful at this particular moment," he said softly, "but it looked better on Rafe."
Looked better? "Okay, whatever."
He sat back and crossed one leg over the other. While he played with his boot heel, I made sure I could recognize all the vamps in the van with us. It wouldn't do for me to kill one on accident thinking they were Brujah.
It didn't take us long to get into Nashville, and soon the driver pulled down a side road that ran beside a large cemetery and cut his lights. When he reached the end of the cemetery, he turned down an alleyway and parked.
We all got out quickly and quietly. The cemetery had few lights and the moon was hiding. The darkness worked both for and against us, hiding us from our enemies, but hiding them from us too. We entered the graveyard through an access gate and as soon as we were through the party split up into three groups. One group went left, another went right, while the rest of us headed right for the mausoleum.
Faith and her ghoul led us, followed closely by Brenda, Nick, Lilah, Mac and me. Mac pulled his guns and made sure the safeties were off while I pulled the stakes from my jacket pockets.
As we headed toward the mausoleum Mac pointed ahead and to our right. "There's movement on the other side of the road," he whispered.
Nick peered in that direction. "I don't see it."
"I do," I said softly.
"I can't see for sure what it is," Mac told me.
"Something moving, a few of them." At least three of them, maybe more near one of the crypts on the other side of the drive that cut through the grounds.
"Can you sense what they are?" Mac asked me very softly.
"They're Kindred," I told him, "and there's a lot more here than just those three."
"Where?"
I thought for a moment, trying to isolate all those signals coming at me. "At least four in the mausoleum, and a few more on the other side of the cemetery."
He turned and passed the information along to Nick, although I'm not sure how he told him he knew, exactly. I followed him when he passed Brenda to move down the left side of the mausoleum. I could hear something moving near the front of the building and see some of our party over near the fence moving forward.
There was a light on the corner of the building and I didn't like the idea of us walking into it. "Don't you think we should take out that light before we get into it?" I hissed at Mac.
"I plan on it when I get up there," he told me. "Do you have something else in mind?"
Gee, I wonder. "Throw something at it? Knock it out?"
"A bit wicked conspicuous," he reminded me.
I glanced at the Tremere moving toward the other Kindred I could feel. "It's going to be wicked conspicuous in a minute really quick here anyway."
We stepped into the light and heard gunfire on other side of the mausoleum. Soon it was followed by gunfire from our left. As we reached the corner of the building, we could hear something moving along the front.
More importantly, I could feel something moving. "There's one real close just around the corner, Mac," I told him very quietly.
He nodded, then stepped around the corner to fire and stepped back. That brought the attention of the vamps to our right down on us, and they started firing. Luckily, they were bad shots.
Cursing softly, I decided not to wait for Mac to do something about the light. I threw the stake in my right hand and a moment later we were wrapped in darkness. I shifted the stake in my left hand to my right and scanned the darkness around us.
Mac stepped out and fired again, returning quickly to my side. Brenda moved toward the back of the building away from us and I could sense the things she was going after. Mac stepped out again, but didn't come back this time after firing.
I retrieved the fallen stake and peeked around the corner. Mac was firing at a vamp behind a tree about ten yards away, and another vamp was lying on the ground on fire. Gotta love phosphorous rounds.
Mac fired at another vamp that'd been hiding behind a tombstone and got him square in the chest. I could feel one just inside the mausoleum, but I didn't have a shot at it. Suddenly I heard a shot from behind me and when I spun to look I heard another from the front of the building. A quick look behind showed that Brenda had that situation under control, so I looked back at Mac.
He was standing further away then he had been, and firing at the front of the building. Unfortunately, he was standing in the line of fire between me and the vamp behind the tree, so I couldn't do anything when the vamp fired at him, hitting him in the leg. His leg went out from under him and he fell to the ground.
Fuck. A closer look showed that he didn't look that hurt, and at least now he was out of my way. I hurled the stake in my right hand and quickly readied the other for the throw, but there was no need. The vamp by the tree fell like a sinker to the ground.
Mac's gun went off again and from the corner of my eye I saw the headless body of the vamp in the doorway fall to the ground. I glanced around, but the Tremere seemed to have everything else under control, except for some gunfire on the other side of the mausoleum. I ran over to my lover and knelt beside him.
"Mac," I whispered urgently. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he replied, rolling to his left and looking behind me for trouble. Did he really think I'd be stupid enough to leave cover if it wasn't clear? He could heal a hell of a lot more easily than I could, and the fact that there was no wound on his leg from the shot that had knocked him down was clear proof of that.
Mac walked over to the vamp I'd staked and, placing the barrel of a gun at his temple, blew his head off. Blood and gray matter splattered everywhere, and when some landed on me, I groaned.
While I was glad to see he felt fine, he could have been a little more careful. "Point blank tends to splatter, Mac," I reminded him dryly, wiping at the gore on my arm.
He bent and pulled the stake from the heart of the body and handed it to me. I kept it in my hand, hoping I wouldn't have to put it away before I could clean it off.
Mac spent several minutes walking around the cemetery looking at the Brujah bodies, looking for Earl hardy. I walked with him, keeping an eye out for any vamps the Tremere might have missed. Most of the Tremere had gathered by the mausoleum by then, and I could tell that the rest of the graveyard was safe, from vampires, anyway.
When Mac realized that the fiend he was looking for wasn't there, he holstered his weapon. Somewhere along he way I'd found a body with clean enough clothing that I could wipe the stake off on and now I put it away too. Mac put his arm around my waist and led me back to the mausoleum.
"Well, that took care of that," Faith said as we walked up to the group. Then she got a good look at Mac. "Did you bring other clothes?" she asked him. "You know you need to see the prince."
"At the chantry," he replied.
She shrugged. "I guess we go back there then." She turned toward the vehicles, and we all followed her. Mac fell into step beside Brenda.
"I thought we were replacing the prince as well," he murmured softly.
"At some point I'm sure," she assured him.
He sighed dramatically. "All dressed up and no one to decapitate."
I shot him a startled look. "Didn't you already decapitate some people?" Not that vamps were people, but I wasn't going to say that to the undead man who had his arm around me. "Two vamps are nothing, you're looking for more?"
"I'm looking for Earl," he reminded me.
"What does Earl look like?" I asked, never having gotten a description of the vamp Mac was hunting for.
"He has a head," he said as we got into one of the vans.
"Once you get changed," Faith told him as we pulled out onto the main street, "we'll go see the prince. She's supposed to be at the Iron tonight." She shot a pointed look Brenda. "Of course you'll be coming as well."
"Of course," she replied.
I looked out the window and let the conversation flow around me. There was a camaraderie between these Kindred, even between Mac and Brenda, that seemed to transcend their differences. I knew it was their clan that held them together, and I wondered how other less structured clans managed to get along. Kate had answered my questions about the Kindred freely over the last ten years, but still she could only give me answers to the questions I knew to ask.
When we arrived at the chantry, I followed Mac upstairs and we both changed to something more appropriate for meeting the prince. Soon we were on our way back to town in the Cadillac, with Nick driving and Faith in the seat beside him.
Mac made sure to sit between Brenda and I. I don't know what he thought we'd do to each other with the damn primogen in the car, but he didn't seem to want to find out.
As we drove past the Iron, Mac zoned again. By now I was used to him spacing, so it didn't bother me when he hadn't come out of it by the time Nick parked the car. Everyone else got out, but I stayed put, waiting for Mac to come out of it. Finally he did.
"Welcome back," I told him dryly.
"Do you see that bike over there?" he asked.
I followed his gaze and saw a large motorcycle parked across and down the street. "It seems a little familiar," I murmured. I could barely make out the blue paint over the white, but I could see that it had large saddlebags over the back wheel. The bike resembled the 1961 Harley Davidson motorcycle Mac had owned in Baltimore.
"It's my bike," he told me firmly. "The one Glenn and I brought back from Ireland. I remembered it just now. The only question is, who brought it here?"
We got out of the car and walked over to the others.
"Nice of you to join us," Faith drawled.
Mac apologized and we went inside. The Iron was a teen hangout, but there were some older people among the crowd. I could feel a few vamps in the room but it was hard to tell exactly who in the crush of people. There were more somewhere beneath us. Faith led us toward the back of the club and down a flight of stairs.
In an antechamber of some sort were two vampires standing guard. One wore a suit, and I figured he was either Ventrue or Tremere, although he looked too old to fit in at the chantry. The other looked Brujah. Brenda knew the first one, and Faith introduced him as Nez Smith.
When Nez asked about Micky, I realized that they'd been in the same band in the sixties, the Jesters. What, was every member of that group a vamp now?
Our visit with the prince was short and strange. She didn't seem like she wanted to be there, and acted like she could care less that Brenda and Mac were in town. I was a little surprised that Faith called her by name, but no one else in the room reacted, so I guess it was the norm. Within minutes, we were headed back upstairs.