Geoffrey wasn't expecting it to take as long as it did to reach back out to Dr. Reid, the man could clearly be slippery when he wanted to. The hunter's own schedule certainly didn't help. There had been a spike in Skal activity recently and a couple of the beasts had kept them on a chase throughout Southwark that had lost them one man and nearly cost them three more. That was to say nothing of the innocents that had put the beast on their radar to begin with. With how things had been slowing down recently he'd almost forgotten what it was like to be chasing multiple monsters every night. That was to say nothing of trying to keep his own hunger in check. Hodge had offered to donate but McCullum had shaken him off, he didn't want to be reliant on the other man, not to mention that despite the lack of craving for it, he didn't want to develop a taste for human blood. The animals that he was able to find around, the rats and cats and foxes, they weren't good but they worked in a pinch, at this rate he felt like he was going to run pest control out of a job.

He huffed out a frustrated sigh, looking down the street again, hoping that the view would change. It was currently a running debate in his head if he should nab some unlucky animal and just go back to the base, getting an early night or if he should keep prowling about. He stared at the clouds for another moment, just watching as they drifted heavily above and considered the madhouse Ross was running trying to keep three men from getting up before they should and figured at least ten more minutes out in the cold wasn't going to hurt anything.

It was a good thing he did too.

The sounds were the first thing that tipped him off. His ears were so fine tuned to the sounds of fighting that he started in that direction before he'd even realized what he was doing. His hand was grasped firmly around the hilt of his sword and he was running before the smell of blood even hit his nose. The world dipped into monochrome and his fangs were suddenly the only thing he could feel against his tongue as saliva started to pool in his mouth. Not just any blood. Ekon blood. McCullum rounded a corner, already starting to pull on the shadows as he assessed the situation in front of him.

Reid was going toe to toe with another Ekon, some fancy looking puff that Geoffrey didn't recognize. Not important or clumsy enough to be on their watch list then. The doctor seemed to be holding his own fairly well aside from a few small knicks that were already healing but the commander was hungry and figured he owed the other man an assist as he manifested out of the shadows behind the unknown Ekon. The ponce didn't even realize that he'd been outflanked until there were fangs in his throat and even then his attempts to escape were pathetic. Some of the greenest rookies were able to get out of a grip on their throat like this, it was one of the first things they taught them. It was all he had time to think before he was overwhelmed with the taste. It had nothing on Jonathan's blood but it was leagues better than what he'd had the past several nights.

The doctor waited politely for him to come down from the high. He wasn't sure if it was actually quicker this time or if he was just getting better at getting a handle on himself faster, but Reid was looking through a small notebook when he finally took him in again. The man held out a handful of coin and McCullum felt himself bristle before Reid just raised a brow at him.

"I did you the favor of going through his coat, since you so kindly stole my dinner."

"The great Doctor Reid, pickpocketing the dead, whatever will the papers think?" Geoffrey couldn't help but tease, his hackles were falling back down now that he knew that the doctor was trying to help. The man just rolled his eyes instead.

"Probably the same thing they say of me now seeing as no one has seen me in the daylight since I've returned. Besides, you can't tell me that you weren't about to do the same."

Geoffrey smiled and shrugged. "Not like he was going to have a use for it anymore, besides he's donating it to a good cause, isn't that something you toffs like to do?"

"He hardly seemed the type to care about the wellbeing of the community while he was trying to tear my throat out." Reid fired back, tucking the notebook back into his coat. McCullum noted that the doctor had already pulled the body to a less conspicuous location where the early morning rays would reduce it to dust and there would just be some strangely fancy clothes sitting in an alleyway where they would be picked over before anyone would think too much on them.

"Why was he? You not wave with the correct hand or some shit?" The hunter knew that Reid didn't particularly get on with the other Ekon population in London but it was far too much fun to wind the man up.

"Hardly," Reid scoffed, "I suspect he's a member of Ascalon but we didn't exactly stop to have a pleasant chat about his motives. They've been getting pushier lately. I still don't think that they took it particularly well when I told them where they could shove some of their ideas on who "deserves" immortality. In more polite words of course."

"Only you would tell someone to fuck off politely Reid. Sorry for taking your kill." he wasn't terribly sorry, since he'd been surviving off scraps for the past several days but now he was putting the doctor in the same position. Jonathan just sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll make due, I wasn't in terrible need of it anyway, I had a fairly successful hunt earlier this evening. You seemed to appreciate it more than I ever would."

"Yeah, we both seem to be coming to the conclusion that when it comes to other leeches I always will." McCullum scoffed, crossing his arms.

"You act as though that's a bad thing." Reid turned to start walking away, speaking over his shoulder. Geoffrey took the cue and followed after him, happy to get out of the cold street.

"It's useful, I'll give you that, but I can't say that I'm thrilled to be on the other end of this. Always thought that would be the end of me. Die in battle or die to my own sword." The guard fidgeted with the hilt of said sword for a moment before shaking off the morbid thought.

"And now?" the doctor had paused in his walking, he was looking at Geoffrey with open curiosity. Geoffrey huffed but actually paused to consider his question.

"Now… well now I'm just too damned busy to roll over an die for one." this earned him a small chuckle from the doctor and he continued, "For two, well it's… it's different now. I can't say I like how complicated and grey the world has suddenly become but I'd be a fool to not acknowledge that I may have been a bit involved in some of my past ideals… shall we say overzealously."

"That's a big word for you McCullum." the doctor teased. Geoffrey just frowned as Reid smiled. "I can't help but agree, life seems to just… keep going, for some definitions of life. At least you're not too big of a man to admit that you took things too far."

Geoffrey rolled his eyes. "Let's not take it that far, I'm not stupid, I know that I am, in fact, a large man." He wasn't comfortable keeping things this serious for this long and at the very least Reid conceded and laughed, letting the matter drop. They both walked in amicable silence for a few minutes, just letting the world around them pass them by. McCullum knew that he was going to have to bring up what he needed to, that now was the perfect opportunity for him to pitch their idea to the doctor but he was enjoying just… letting things be for a moment.

"Any further discussions on the pitch that you offered me?" Jonathan asked and Geoffrey could've kissed him for broaching the subject himself, a thought that he did his best to bury before it could grow too many roots.

"Aye, probably too much, we've scraped together a pitch, and pending the rest of the captains' acceptance and seeing as myself and two others are already on board, hard to see where they would actually disagree with any of this, we're more than happy to pull you on board. If you've the time, I'll walk back to one of the safehouses and we can go over the details."

Reid's eyes were calculating as he looked the hunter over. They'd built up a bit of a rapport these past several weeks but that didn't change the fact that Geoffrey had, in fact, tried to kill him on several occasions. The doctor held the gaze for longer than was typically comfortable but Geoffrey didn't look away, let the man see what he needed to in his eyes. Finally the other man sighed.

"I think I can manage to spare the evening. Not taking me back to your home base?" there was a half of a grin there, a bit of fang peeking out around the edges.

"That was a concession we had to make, not to mention the Reverends would have my skin if they had to constantly adjust the warding around the building. I think we've got a pretty good work around however." Geoffrey went on to explain the location of the safehouse and said he needed to go back to base to fetch the other two captains involved currently so they could all sit down and discuss.

"You better not be setting me up. I will be equally frustrated if you come to kill me or just leave me waiting." the doctor said before turning down a separate street, leaving the hunter smiling dumbly in his wake.

-Face your Fears-

Being able to dart across rooftops and flit through the shadows made the return trip much faster than what would've been if he were restricted to the usual walkways. He hadn't expected them to be out but he was still thankful that both Wes and Lloyd were still in and alerted them to the situation, not even bothering to remove his coat before they headed back out. Only this time it was going to take a lot longer to get where he wanted to go.

By the time they opened the door to the safehouse Geoffrey was starting to worry about making it back to the base in time for sunrise. They'd burn that bridge when they got to it, he supposed as he knocked on the door before entering. Jonathan looked up from where he was settled comfortably at the rickety desk, a notebook balanced on one knee. There was a tension that settled over his frame that McCullum wasn't sure that the other two could see, a slight shifting from relaxed to a readied predator.

"Evening," McCullum said, making a point to fully enter the room and cross to the mismatched chairs around a table that had a cobbled together deck of cards huddled in the middle where he sat down, hoping that his captains would follow his lead. The last thing they needed here was Reid bolting before they could even discuss terms.

"Glad to see you're good on your word." Reid said, following Lloyd with his eyes, clearly a little more trusting of Wes at this point.

"I don't have much else to my name." Geoffrey said, doing a double check on the papers that Wes handed him. It wasn't anything truly official, just notes so that the trio of them didn't forget what they'd already discussed and agreed upon. Jonathan made a noise that might have been disagreement but didn't argue with him, instead starting to settle a little bit as everyone got ready to make their pseudo alliance a little more official. Wes went about getting a kettle of tea going without saying anything, setting cups in front of all of them before pausing at the doctor. His eyes nearly flicked to Geoffrey but he managed to catch himself.

"I'll take a cup, if you don't mind." Reid said. Lloyd was staring, his expression unreadable.

"I enjoy the warmth and the smell." the Ekon continued as the old man kept staring him down. Geoffrey was just happy not to be on the receiving end of that gaze for once.

Once they were all settled it was time to genuinely get to work. It was almost comical how easily they all slipped from their assumed antagonistic positions when faced with negotiating a deal that benefitted both parties. There was a lot of discussion about times and Geoffrey was slightly surprised when Reid opened up about his mother and her health, mentioning that he may need to take time to take care of her if her health continued downhill, which, with her age, seemed more an inevitability than a chance.

"I knew you were young but I didn't realize you were that young. Didn't want to wait until your family passed before taking up immortality doc?" Lloyd asked. His expression hardened when three sets of eyes stared him down. Reid glanced briefly at the two younger Guardsmen before looking back to Lloyd.

"I'm afraid they didn't ask my opinion on it prior to the change." The doctor said softly but firmly, looking back to the papers that they'd been marking up with changes and negotiations. Lloyd's gaze flicked to Geoffrey and Wes, and the old man had been reading both of them long enough he could see the knowledge in their gaze and his mouth thinned to a flat line.

"I see. Well, not many folks got living family round us, so anyone who does we don't begrudge them the time to take care of them. Most any of us would give anything to have a bit more time. Well," he looked at the vampire again, "most anything."

Reid smiled in a way that showed his teeth and McCullum had to look away, fighting the urge to do the same as the doctor continued to antagonize one of his captains. Tensions died down some after that and they were able to work through the rest of the contract with nary a problem between them. Reid would come by the warehouse that they'd discussed tomorrow evening and in the meantime they would all sit down and discuss with the remainder of Priwen about the potential for bringing Reid on board. If all went well they could be reaping the benefits from the doctor within a week or so. It was better than McCullum could have hoped for if he was being perfectly honest with himself.

-Face your Fears-

It was going to be cutting it rather close when they finally left with the sun rising but Geoffrey couldn't help but feel uplifted about the whole thing. Lloyd touched the side of his arm as they turned a corner.

"Walk with me." he said bluntly. Hodge looked between the pair of them and McCullum dismissed him with a nod. The younger captain rounded the corner and Geoffrey watched as Lloyd seemed to wait, counting down seconds as Wes moved away from them. Seemingly satisfied he rounded on Geoffrey.

"How long." It wasn't even phrased as a question. It was a statement. So out of the blue that McCullum blinked several times before it started to sink in. By the time it had the older man had drawn a pistol and was holding it level with the commander's eyes.

"How. Long." he repeated, the words spat at Geoffrey's feet.

"How'd you know?" McCullum was less surprised that someone had found him out and more startled at how long it had taken everyone to notice.

"It was the similarities between you and the doctor. Something about the way you didn't move. It tickles at the edge of my perception, if I didn't have the direct comparison I would never have known. Even now everything in me screams that I'm wrong."

"Well then," Geoffrey turned to face the man who had nearly raised him. "What are you going to do about it?" That was apparently all the confirmation that Lloyd needed because his face crumpled, going from suspicious to defeated and turning even further into a resigned sort of anger as the gun steadied.

"How long?" the question was repeated. It wasn't normal to question a leech before shooting them, but nothing about this situation was normal so Geoffrey figured he could let it slide.

"After the fight with the doc."

"That bastard." Lloyd spat the words at McCullum's feet. "I'll-"

"It wasn't Reid." Geoffrey interrupted, not moving as the captain steadied the gun pointed between his eyes. "Trust me, I'd love to lay the blame at his feet too, but I only have my own pigheaded idiocy to fault for this one. That relic, the King's Blood, should've been destroyed before we lost where it came from. To the best of our knowledge, Reid and m'self, Arthur was an Ekon. Which makes an unfortunate amount of sense…" Geoffrey grimaced. Lloyd had lowered his gun, and was now just watching him with open confusion.

"Reid's aware." it was a statement and not a question but McCullum nodded all the same.

"Aye. Hard not to but it took him a weird amount of time too, we think there's something different going on here, but I haven't had the chance to dig deep enough in our knowledge to find out if we have any records on anything like this."

"And you didn't think to turn yourself in?" Lloyd ground out. Most of the fight seemed to have fled him since Geoffrey hadn't just up and attacked him the moment he'd realized what was going on. The commander liked to think he'd be better than that but after the few times he'd been in a true blood-haze he wasn't so sure.

"I did… it… started slow, I hadn't even realized what was going on at first. It took a botched fight with a Skal to realize what had actually happened to me. I… I was going to and then…" McCullum trailed off and looked up at the cloudy sky above them and took a deep breath. "I lost the nerve, wasn't sure that the Guard would handle another shakeup like that, the transfer after Eldritch was hard enough, we lost so many with the War and, I thought I'd stick around to make sure that things transferred well and then quietly disappear."

"And you just thought that you'd… what minimize your victims in the meantime?" the captain narrowed his eyes and Geoffrey could hear his heartbeat kick up a notch. Even if he didn't seem to prefer human blood it still made his fangs itch in a way that he didn't like.

"There haven't been any."

"What?" the words seem to strike Lloyd off guard so Geoffrey repeated himself.

"There haven't been any. No one's died at my hands that weren't dead already." he said it slowly.

"This why you've been out hunting by yourself?"

"Aye. Wes knows."

"And the kid didn't have the sense to run you through? You might want to rethink your pick on a successor." Lloyd grumbled, Geoffrey just raised a brow in his direction. He didn't want to get himself shot but it was a rather hypocritical statement all things considered.

"Fine, fine. Say you've been telling the truth, why should I believe you? How long do you think you can keep this up?"

"What makes this different than making a deal with the doctor?" McCullum asked.

"You know all our secrets, you have full access to the headquarters. Speaking of, how does that work? Did someone ask you in?"

Geoffrey scoffed. "Hell if I know, no, no one asked, I think since I've always lived there it's already 'mine' no invite necessary. If I step out of line I expect yourself or Hodge to put me down, same as objecting to a poor direction to take the Guard in."

"Consider this me objecting sir." the older man frowned, knuckles white on the handle of the gun at his side.

"And this is me asking you to reconsider. I won't stop you from asking me to leave, and I would, but if you shoot I will stop you." McCullum stated, he had long since realized that he did want to live, for all that this could be considered living. He could fight the good fight with or without the rest of the Guard and he still was himself, more or less. It was a grey area that he didn't like considering, it threw a lot of unpleasant thoughts on past decisions that had been made but he would have to carry those sins as long as he lived. Something about his expression must've come across, something unnatural shining through in his eyes because he watched Lloyd swallow stiffly before holstering the gun at his side.

"I don't like this. I want that known. But I'll give you a grace period. A warning though, if you so much as look at one of the lads wrong I will not hesitate to shoot you right then and there." the old captain said

"Reasonable enough." Geoffrey nodded, turning and following the direction that Hodge had set off in, giving Lloyd his back. It was a bit of a show of trust, or so he hoped the old man would see it as. He could hear every motion so it wasn't as though the captain would be able to get the drop on him but appearances were important.

"I need a drink." Lloyd grumbled behind him but he did start to follow.

-Face your Fears-

The old man was right about not letting him out of his sights, Geoffrey was going to get annoyed with having gained another shadow overnight, but he couldn't blame the man, Hodge had had more or less the same reaction. He needed to hunt and set up the patrols and was about to head out into the night himself, having left a bit of the sewers un-patrolled so that he'd have his pick once there, and there was Lloyd, dressed to go out. The older captain had mostly stopped going out on patrols beyond the perfunctory ones that rarely ran into anything or when extra hands were really needed, claiming that his old bones were better use behind a desk but here he was.

"Are we really doing this?" Geoffrey asked, fully aware that there were ears in the building and anyone stuck inside had nothing better to do than be a nosy gossip.

"Yes." Lloyd said in a tone that brooked no argument. McCullum sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head.

"Alright, but I expect you to keep up."

Just like before he had to keep his paths to the ground level and not constantly jumping from shadow to shadow, keeping one ear out for the screeching of a Skal or Vulkod that he could take advantage of. It wasn't until they were well into the sewers when he finally heard something. The lack of Skal was going to be a pain for him wasn't it? He started in the direction that he'd heard the noise and noted the moment that Lloyd also picked up on the sound. The older man pulled out a pistol and started moving quieter. Geoffrey didn't have the heart to tell him that he was still plenty loud and that it would only be because a Skal was distracted that he would go unnoticed and instead, slipped into the shadows himself.

It didn't take long to find himself face to face with the Skal, poor thing didn't even realize he was there until he was coming up behind it and sinking his blade into its back. The sword gave him better leverage to keep the flailing claws away from him while he dug his fangs into its neck, drinking greedily. There was only the one so he was going to take every bit that he could, leaning down with his prey as it started to lose strength. It wasn't until the dead veins were dry that he finally pulled away, breathing heavily and trying to pull the shaking under control. When he felt he could he stood, wiping his face on the back of his already dirtied sleeve and looking to the older man who was leaned back against the slick walls, looking fairly disgusted.

"You insisted." Was all that Geoffrey told him.

"I promised to keep up, not to like it, now hurry up, we need to finish this route before the meeting tonight."

They'd agreed tonight they were going to clear the plan about Reid with the rest of the captains. Geoffrey just hoped that Lloyd wasn't planning on outing him while they were at it.

McCullum wiped this blade clean and rose to his feet, the high fleeing quickly in the face of responsibility. "Don't remind me." he grumbled

"There's still time to fall on your sword." Lloyd suggested, checking the empty corner in front of them.

"And leave Hodge to your mercies? Even I'm not that cruel, c'mon, that paths' empty, but there may be another snack down this way." Geoffrey gestured with his head. Lloyd frowned at the jest but didn't argue, falling in step behind the commander.