MSI


Two women stalked the halls of Manifested Services. They were both tall redheads with green eyes. While familiar with one another, it was obvious that they were not yet comfortable enough in each other's presence to adjust to the subtle movements of each other's pace or gait.

The first was five foot nine, wearing a slick black nylon jacket over a button-up robin's egg blue shirt and black twill pants. She had an oversized black velcro belt. A discerning observer would notice it had slight indents in its fabric, traces of the many heavy objects once clipped to it. She had an angular beauty with a long face well suited to expressing sadness and a mouth well suited to joyful smiles.

Her companion was an astounding six-foot-three. She had on a button-up shirt with a western cut collar that was unbuttoned low enough not only to reveal her ribbed sleeveless undershirt that was so thin, one could make out the sports bra underneath. Her bootcut jeans were new; the color hadn't faded from repeated washings. Her finely made boots were old and well-worn. Like her companion, her weather-beaten double-eye belt bore clear signs that the holsters that typically adorned it had also been removed.

The smaller woman adjusted her pace to keep up with the longer legs of her companion who in turn slowed a bit. To break the awkward silence and distract her larger friend from being uncomfortable, the smaller woman spoke up. "I'm so glad she came here to get treatment. I don't understand why Lucy was so hesitant in the first place," Heather said.

"Noble crap. Giving the slot to someone with more time on the clock. Grams thought she'd lived long enough. Who was she to hog the limited time of a Dragon-Blooded when she was over eighty," Tex answered.

"Well, she didn't figure a few things in like..." Heather stopped as Tex pushed open the door to the cafeteria.

The assembled women and the new arrivals stared at each other for a moment and then Tex spoke up. "Is this a convention or did Grams loop you all into being back up? When I said I half wanted to beat your stubborn old ass for scaring me senseless I was being hyperbolic."

"Look at you! Using your big words! I'm proud!" Sakura smiled at her

"You know this aggravating thot?" Lucy asked her granddaughter.

"Yeah, we've met. I don't think she qualifies as a thot, however. To be that you have to get some," Tex said with a smirk.

"Apparently she slept with my brother," Reiko spoke up.

"Still just one guy," Tex said, rebuffing the younger Dragon Blooded while taking a seat beside her grandmother. Heather took a seat on Tex's other side.

"Multiple times!" Sakura shot back.

"Sounds like monogamy without the extra paperwork..."

"Tex, cool it will ya? Brenda was telling a story that Lucy seemed to think one of you would be good at continuing," Bree interrupted.

"Brenda?" The tall woman said looking at the unfamiliar young lady.

"Oh, you're the Risen girl! I know you and I know what you're talking about. The prince of Mobile called us about helping with that mess. Sakura was there for that," Heather broke in.

Sakura shrugged. "Only the tail end. Not willingly either. Your girlfriend's husband treating us to brunch was nice, however."

"I'm the one legally married to him. You can call either of them my lover. I'm fine with it," Heather said.

"You're what? A thruple now?" Sayuri asked.

"Multi-partner relationships aren't easy, but they can work if you put in the effort. The two of you are here, where's Alex?" Terra asked.

"This isn't going to be a quick move. Alex is with the girls. We are not moving them 'til the school year ends. Tex and I are going to look at houses."

"It's a compromise. He's over the moon at moving back here to California. So, he agreed to Heather and I having more input on the house."

"What did Kashi get up to that required a multi-state police response?" Sayuri asked.

"Why do you care? You've cast him off," Natalia wheedled at Sayuri. Sayuri ignored her.

"Police?" Bree's eyes passed back over the pair settling on Heather.

"Yeah, I was until my sudden retirement from dispatch for A.W.T.E.P.S. Why would that be an issue? I thought you were an ex-cop yourself," Heather asked

"I don't like the idea of cops who have other priorities than law and justice."

"The fact you had to separate those two is a sad admission that the system isn't perfect. New Orleans is as close as you are going to find to the supernatural answering to the law," Heather countered.

"It feels wrong. To be honest I don't know enough of what you've built to say. Maybe later you can break it down for me."

"Well, at least you're willing to listen. This much is related to the story. You see, we built a branch of the state police to deal with psionic and ghostly crimes. The Prince of Mobile was eager to embrace what we were doing. Most of the deep south was Sabbat territory. New Orleans and Mobile were Camarilla holdouts. When we fought off the Sabbat invasion post-Katrina it impressed people.

"Alabama followed our lead as did Texas. Mississippi was slower to adopt but followed suit," Tex added.

"Why was Alabama so quick to work with you?" Banyan asked.

"Well, Mobile had a long-standing Camrillia Prince. He's a Toreador and was disgusted with the ugly brutality of the Sabbat. He had long been an ally of the Princes of New Orleans. The rest of the state was nominally Sabbat mostly due to the presence of revenant clans, hereditary ghouls, or half-vampires. To preserve his territory he needed outside allies. He had long-standing arrangements with Cult of Ecstasy mages and the local Changeling courts. Our style of governance, giving everyone an open seat at the table but also formalized responsibilities was right up his alley."

"That doesn't sound bad but I feel a giant 'but' coming," Bree interjected.

"You're not wrong. The revenant clans are not stupid. They chose to profit off the principality rather than fight it. They set up locations where darker impulses can be indulged just outside the edge of the prince's control."

"Ahh, the proverbial liquor store across the border from the dry county line. A southern tradition," Tex added.

"There are those for whom even that inconvenience is too much so the Setite cult, the Serpents of Light, who take it as a holy calling to corrupt anyone they can, set up such a den of vice. They also sold drugs laced with vampire blood. When their victims stopped being able to get a fix elsewhere they'd recruit them into being muscle," Heather stopped to get a soda.

"Let me guess: Brenda's two assailants were men they had their hooks into. Not knowing she was supernatural they attacked her," Bree reasoned.

Brenda swallowed her current mouthful of raw meat and answered. "Mike had me use my powers to the point I was drained. He tested my willpower to be sure I could resist eating people. Kashi didn't want me to go back to Edith's house and browbeat Mike into letting me stay. I borrowed Axe's motorcycle and rode back to get my things when they hit me."


Baldwin County


Kashi arrived, pulling up on Axe's bike. He got off and approached the old beater van Mike drove and shut the engine off. Mike rolled down the driver's side window with an expectant look.

"She wasn't there. Looks like she was jumped in the parking lot. They didn't touch the bike. They might not have seen her come in. She came in, claimed her backpack, and left. She had her backpack on and I didn't see it laying down anywhere," Kashi explained.

"Told you it was a waste of time," Willow told her supposed mentor. She was leaning forward from the back seat.

"Well excuse me, we can't all be all-knowing thirteen-year-old anime protagonists," Mike sneered, glancing back at her.

"I hate to say it but I agree with her. Not only was this a waste, but Willow couldn't possibly be a protagonist. She's too boring to carry a story. She's at best a supporting character in my story," Kashi said nonchalantly.

Willow gave an exasperated sigh and tossed herself back into the seat."We're wasting time, they could be doing terrible things to her!"

"Like what? Kill her? She's already dead! I told you, revenants are one of the hardest things to permanently terminate. Out of physical beings only mummies are worse and for similar reasons. Destroy their physical form they just bounce down to the underworld and then back as soon as they regenerate their energy."

"There are plenty of things they can do to her that would be just as bad as death," Kashi said.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Fine, we follow the squirt's connection with her and white knight this thing. Are you taking the bike or climbing in here?"

"I'll stick to the bike unless Axe is violently opposed."

The taciturn werewolf just gave Kashi a thumbs-up. He pulled behind the van as Mike drove off following Willow's directions.

They seemed to have a pretty smooth time tracing the kidnappers. Willow's skill with correspondence, the sphere of distance, and the interrelation of objects was second only to her death magic. She'd also been nervously pouring over maps while waiting. With her extraordinary memory, she knew the general direction of every road around.

The van turned into a dirt road that cut through the woods. Mike pulled to a stop. He rolled the window down but left the vehicle idling. He then recognized the house at the end of the road. "Shit"

"What?" Kashi asked as he pulled up next to the van.

"We know these guys," Axe answered.

"Friends or enemies?" Kashi asked

"Business associates. Their business, at least the ones I know about, are drugs, elicit vampire blood, and arranging clandestine trips out of the Prince of Mobile's extended territory to do…things…he doesn't like," Mike said.

"They call them safaris," Axe added.

"Mother fu-" Kashi started to say as he moved to rev his cycle.

"Hold up! Before you go running up there and waving your dick around, we gotta think about how best to do this," Mike groused.

"They are arranging trips to hunt people for sport! They need to be stopped," Kashi shot back.

"The vampires they do that for were going to go kill someone anyway they just move around where the victims end up. They could get the same service from a travel agency; they are just lazy enough not to want to deal with the extra lies."

"You are a garbage human being," Kashi glared.

"Hey, I can feel darkness, suffering, and misery ahead. It's not a shadowland or haunt, but I think I could punch through anyhow. Combined with the banshee powers I have it would be easy to call some ghosts. I'm sure there's plenty of ghosts looking for payback for similar crimes inflicted on them before their deaths."

"Or indiscriminate victims to torment no matter their guilt because they're so blind with rage at their own deaths? Oh, and just how pray tell are you going to close this rift you opened between worlds miss smarty pants?" Mike countered, turning around to stare at his pupil.

"Okay, so there are holes in the plan."

"It's a shit plan. By and large, ghosts are NOT your or anyone's friend. This is why they came to me to teach you. I understand the underworld better than most mages that haven't decided you are an abomination heralding the end times"

"You know, that actually answers some questions I had about why they picked you. I was hoping it wasn't just because you lived kinda close to Nana's family," Kashi said.

"Look, follow me up there then let me do the talking. I'll get the most information and the best outcome I can before we have to break out into killing everyone. Hopefully, I don't have to give you some Gandalf the Grey speech about not being able to take back killing so be careful before you mete out death BS," Mike lectured before cranking the car.

On the way up the road, Kashi thought about how the supernatural kept interfering with this life. He had been doing some hard but honest work. He had been helping out Accel who reminded him of Avery, the closest thing Kashi had ever known to a grandfather. He'd been sleeping better and thinking about Sayuri less, just living in the moment, then here it comes again! This stupid shadow world shit. It kept grinding away at his soul. He had to find an equilibrium for all the misery these people caused that kept bleeding over into his life before he became a bitter loser like Mike.

The buildings they approached were a cluster of older structures mixed with some newly constructed cinder block buildings. There were more cars than Kashi had counted on. It was then that some guys came out of what he assumed to be the main building, something that looked like it was a lodge for the surrounding rental cabins.

Mike opened the door and got out, slouching on the side of his van. Axe also emerged and walked around to lean on the front fender. There was no window on the side of the van facing the house so Willow wouldn't be able to see. Kashi was thankful for that as he pulled up and walked over to stand next to Axe.

"D'Angelo. Been a while." the man in the lead called out.

He was thin, but most of the guys were big either with fat or muscle. They wore working men's clothes but each sported several odd out-of-place items: new well-done tattoos, fancy watches, nice jackets, or expensive chains. All very expensive, far beyond what was normal for the area. Business was clearly booming.

"Dave-o! Bit of expansion since I was out here last," Mike said casually waving at the newer buildings.

"A man starts making good money, he starts looking to reinvest. Business 101: expand. There are a lot of untapped markets around here and we've worked out some new services."

"You don't say? A new business might mean you need new things from me. Things I didn't know to offer."

"Nothing you'd be comfortable with; what you don't know the Prince can't ask you about, right?"

"Yeah, 'til I find out anyhow. Now, here's where we've got a problem. Normally, I'd tell you to pull up stakes, move the operation, and not to contact me. But, from what I can tell, I'd say you're not just doing blood runs or even vampire snuff, you guys are working with the Wyld Ones. If you're selling live products to ravage and they're paying you in glamor or Wyld blood. That's a volatile business. It's not an if it blows up in your face it's a when."

"We're not moving the operation for you, so either you keep quiet or we kill you."

"See, I thought we'd hit this little snag. That's a non-starter. First, I don't take to being threatened. Blackmail only ends with one of us killin' the other anyhow and you guys aren't up to it. This ain't even half the guys me and Axe took out in Cairo and I'm including your customers back there who are more than likely going to run rather than help you out."

"Cairo was a long time ago."

"Yeah, so you should be more concerned by what I've learned in the meantime."

"You don't look it, but you're getting old. Your dumb ass is nearly forty. The wolf ain't that much younger. So, unless this kid you dug up can carry you, your ass is toast. And he don't look like much more than a pretty boy to me."

Mike jerked his head back toward the incredibly angry Kashi. "This kid ran the Bishop of San Diego out of the city. He fought the undead in L.A. next to Kai Silbern and earned his respect. He defeated one of the new Ultra Hit Mark agents the Technos are fielding. The damn thing ran like a bitch. This kid has taken moral offense at what you're up to and only my smooth self has been holding him back from wiping you out. So, as I was saying before you interrupted, relocation isn't an option but I can spare maybe five to ten guys."

"The fuck?"

"You heard me. The first five to lay down in the dirt and give up get spared. The next five are contingent on how much information they have and how pissy we feel after having to rip through the rest of you."

"Fuck this shit. Let's just kill'em," Kashi said quietly to Axe, straightening up.

"No, not yet. You got to give the words time to work, for the doubt time to grow. This is the talking time. You'll know when it's over. Then it becomes the time for the screaming and fighting then the sobbing and dying. Then it's time to clean up, get something to eat, and go home," Axe explained.

"You don't... You don't actually like doing any of this do you?"

"Not really, man."

"Then why do you?"

Axe shrugged. "Same as you. Because I got a gift"

With a slight nod from Dave-o, every gun started firing. Kashi slammed his power into his defenses as quickly as he could. It proved to be unneeded as the bullets didn't hit either of them or even wing the van they all seemed to curve away from them. They bent further, returning toward their senders.

Eyes widened in panic as men dove behind cars for cover. Mike gave a calm gesture and, like they were rigged, the cars started to explode. Axe transformed and Kashi followed him. Together they hit the front line even as they were dropping their guns and pulling knives and bats.

The shield Mike had woven while chatting with Dave-o had done its work and he released it. The shield would do little now that they were mixing it up at close range. In its place, he wrapped his own body in defensive force and pulled a staff out of the extra-dimensional pockets of his hoodie. With each blow, a blue glow shoved his targets with a clap like thunder

Kashi had heard the Garou were some of the most fearsome hand-to-hand fighters in the supernatural world. He now saw how true it was. Between them, they were pounding men down, and from the feel, even the vampires and glamor-wrapped fey who joined the fray were not able to stop them. Having made peace with using lethal force during the Calibration fighting, Kashi held back nothing. The humans here were just as monstrous as the other supernaturals.

Unable to see, Willow had been focusing on something else. There was a connection between her and Brenda. She focused on her sphere of Correspondence and what she'd learned from Mike of Prime. She pushed the raw power of magic, her quintessence, down that connection willing her power to refill Brenda with energy.

Brenda slowly became aware of her situation. The last thing she remembered was riding Axe's cycle to the church. She had been exhausted and hungry. A sharp pain struck the back of her head. She remembered hitting the ground, voices mocking her. The injury to her brain was so great she could not repair the damage. Without a brain, her body was like a car with no steering column, though her body was still intact enough to shelter her against the pull of the Underworld.

Rather than abandon it and have to fight her way back through the barrier to the skin lands again, she'd rested. It wasn't much but she had recovered small amounts of energy while at rest. Proximity to Miss Willow seemed to be key to how much she recovered.

This feeling now overcoming her was well beyond that beacon of green fire and stirring song that guided her path. Power. Overwhelming power and purpose filled her.

She rose from the ground where they had cast her aside like a broken doll. The men who had brought her were cowering back here. They were not experienced and were unable to overcome the aura of madness exuding from Axe.

They screamed in fear. They'd thought she'd been a mere corpse. They'd violated and beaten her body in a rage at not being able to capture her alive, but now her ravaged body rose. The shorter man kept screaming as the palm of Brenda's hand impacted just above his nose. Her fingers then clenched into claws. Pressure built for a few seconds that seemed to stretch forever. Arms and legs flailed in a macabre dance as bone cracked and flesh ripped. The skull gave way around the ocular orbit before the crown and an explosion of viscera gushed out to release the pressure as the bones and face flooded inwards to the brain box.

"You're next," she calmly said to the other, the one who had twice hit her with a shovel.

Outside, the screams were lost among the general din of combat. By the time Brenda exited the house, the yard around the van was a ruin of twisted flaming metal and fiberglass. Axe was tearing through the bush to deal with a few runners. Kashi was watching as Mike questioned a man who seemed to have surrendered.

Brenda rushed out the door and looked around. "Miss Willow, are you alright?"

"I'm fine they just won't let me get out of the van!"

"You don't need to see what's out here," Kashi shouted back.

"I saw one of my classmates get eaten and held Brenda while she bled out."

"Just because you've smelled shit before is no reason to dive into the sewer kid," Mike shouted over his shoulder.

"Huh. Well, actually I have no counter for that," Willow admitted.

"You. Dead girl. Go get a shower. They'll have some around here somewhere. Use fucking pumice soap and pay attention to your hair. Blood doesn't come out easy. Don't bother finding clothes, I'll set something out for you when we find something that's not torn, ripped, or filthy," Mike barked.

"There are people in there. In cages, some are in pretty bad shape," Brenda said as she headed back inside.

"Are we really going to let this dickhead live? It sounds like they were up to some pretty nasty stuff," Kashi asked.

"You gave your word man!" The guy begged.

"I'm no paragon of virtue but I have my limits. Still, the guys got a point. That offer was for giving up at the beginning, not during the battle. So, I'll split the difference: you get to live but you'll wish you hadn't." Mike waved his hand in front of the guy whose face went from worried to calm.

"What did you do?"

"Mind wiped him. Full erase. Maybe he starts over and makes himself someone worth a damn. Maybe not. He lives, but his old life is over"

Kashi set his jaw. "That's terrible, but in this case yeah, I can live with that. I have to go check on my sister, you got this?"

"Get the spare helmet out of the van, take your sister on the bike, and go. It feels like she sent Brenda all her power so she'll be exhausted and we don't need her here. Don't need you here either, you have a skill set and cleanup ain't part of it. We'll figure out what to do with the girl after we're done here. I'm going to have to report this to the Prince. He's going to be pissy. It was all under his nose. Vampire shit I don't particularly feel like dealing with and you definitely don't want to deal with."

"True," Kashi said walking away

Willow was surprisingly cooperative, a fact Kashi attributed to her being exhausted. Both siblings were hungry so Kashi stopped at a Waffle House and sat in the booth. Having wolfed down his food Kashi pondered the situation while Willow chewed on her waffle with a tired expression.

"Hey, squirt I need to say something serious. I'm not messing around here or pushing your buttons. I think this is something you need to hear."

"Oh?"

"Yeah on the ride over here, it sort of hit me how to explain things, how to put words to why Brenda can't stay. You said I wanted you to make friends. She's not your friend Willow."

"She's devoted to me; she puts my well-being above her own. If that's not friendship what is?"

"That's beyond friendship you said it yourself it's devotion or better phrased it's worship she looks at you in a worshipful fashion."

"She just..." Willow started in an argumentative tone but suddenly paused. Her eyes got a far-off look.

Kashi sipped on his soda while he watched his sister process.

"Oh." Willow closed her eyes and putting her elbows on the table lowered her face into her hands.

"Willow, I don't think it's good to have someone always at hand who has that kind of fanatic devotion. Even if you are trying not to abuse it, that sort of power over someone is dangerous to both you and her."

"Yeah no I get it but what do we DO? Her very purpose is to keep me safe if we take that from her. Kashi, it's all she has" Willow said nearly in tears with the realization that there was no clean fix to the situation.

"We give her a mission something important but removed. We send her back to L.A. She can keep an eye on Mom, Ken, Kimmy, and anyone else you want to be sure stays safe. That old bastard might not go after them but the undead might try again sometime I think we'll both sleep easier knowing they're being looked after. She's still helping but not close at hand where some off-the-cuff remark might send her off on some crusade or something. We can even give her some recommendations for work I'm pretty sure Leo can give her a job."

Willow nodded, got up, slipped into the booth's other side, and wrapped her arms around her brother. Surprised Kashi hugged her back.

"It'll be alright squirt neither of us was ready for all this mess. Power and stuff but we'll make it." Kashi reassured her. On some level maybe comforting her made him feel more like it would be too.


MSI


"The bigger problem was the gang they wiped out had been one of Mike's main contacts with his creditors. It wasn't until after this we discovered what his long-standing issue was. Well before we knew him well anyone but Kai that is. Mike had become a blood junkie. He had wracked up hundreds of millions in debt he still owed tens of millions he had the money to pay it off but he couldn't access it we had no idea why he always blew his funds only that he had a cycle of making fortunes then being broke and doing stupid shit to get more money quickly afterward." Heather explained.

"So all the money he made from Kai that could have paid off his debt was in an annuity. I remember it being set up" Terra interjected.

"Mike had been giving this cartel support. He enchanted items and did the occasional introduction to other seedy groups. They made sure his other creditors took payments rather than coming after him for lump sums. Sort of a cosigner on his debt. Now that they were gone he needed a new arrangement he could have made one with any number of groups but he'd run across some information while cleaning out their records about a major shipment of contraband they were going to get a parcel out of."

"And so his larcenous heart leaped at the chance to make a quick buck." Bree guessed.

"Very much so and so distracted he just went along with Kashi and Willow's plan to send Brenda out here to shadow and protect their loved ones."

"They should have at least told me," Banyan argued.

"Kashi seems opposed to ever telling you anything it's like keeping things secret from his mother is his default state," Bree said with a sad shake of her head.

"It's almost like he needs someone with a responsible level head to help him get his head on straight" Natalia responded.

"I don't need your advice," Sayuri said darkly as she eyed the athletic woman.

"Advice? No, I was thinking of offering him my services." Natalia said raising her eyebrows

Brenda looked from one to the other worriedly.