Night Light (Exalted vs World of Darkness)

[Kinotics]

Headlights from his car push back the night on an empty forest road. Bouncing to the tune of the potholes as his car rattles around him, Elio is silent with his eyes focused on shapes beyond the spotlight the headlight provides him. He spares a glance at his phone down on the console, "your destination is on your left" appearing on its bright screen.

Moving his gaze back up, he sees among the tops of the trees a silhouette against the glowing moonlight that doesn't resemble that of the waving and groaning forest around it. It reveals itself as a church steeple with the top of its weathervane missing, a broken spear on the horizon. The lights turn off as he continues his approach and he parks on the road. His engine shudders and sputters as the lights go out. A small creak echoes out as the driver's door opens and he cringes. Stopping to listen, all he can hear is the sigh of the warm summer wind through the trees and his heartbeat in his ears. Hearing nothing stirring to come find him and the source of that creak, he rotates to have his legs facing outwards to the forest and rubs the dark stubble of his chin as he pulls a composition notebook whose cardboard front is fuzzy to the touch from so much use into hand from the passenger seat, shuffling a small backpack out of the way to do so.

He thumbs through the pages until he gets close to the back. The pages before are full of notes and details with each one evoking the painstaking tasks of collecting that which others would prefer hidden and Elio can't help but smile like a carpenter appreciating a finely made table or chair they poured their souls into. The destination is a page close to the back where the pages feel thin behind your leading hand as you hold it. Elio rubs the few remaining blank pages between his fingers as he reads his notes for why he came all this way.

'Local residents of the neighborhood report seeing suspicious strangers hiding in the basement of the Galena Community Church.' Says one line, written in a nice flowing Italian. 'Drug-related deaths on the rise in Galena suggest the trade has begun to flourish' that one is a cut out from the local newspaper.

Reaching behind him into the backseat to grab his trusted digital camera, he stops as his shoulder seizes. Elio gasps slightly as he breathes through the motion of moving back to grab the small camera and rotate back to the front. He gingerly rubs his right shoulder as he stands from the car, gravel crunching and slightly poking through the thin and soft soles of his old tennis shoes. His grimace fades as his shoulder pain dies down to its normal dull ache and he slings his camera strap over his head. The soft leather rubbing against the skin on the back of the neck was always a comfort for him. He leans across the driver's seat to grab his backpack, opening the pockets to check its contents. A lock pick set, a hefty wad of cash, pepper spray, some rope, and a trusty handgun with an extra loaded magazine greet him. He nods and slides it into a holster at his hip. It weighs on him more like an anchor than a trusty partner like his camera. The last check is in his pocket. His hand falls on the reliable treated wood of the hilt of his knife. He pauses as he considers the times it has got him through before moving on.

Stepping forward along the side of the road he keeps his gait methodically slow and graceful. Like the games he played in his youth with his brother, he avoids the twigs and leaves on the ground. The games back then only had the consequences of losing being heard and the sibling getting their chance to try and not be heard. Today the consequences of the game could be being shot by drug runners and left to bleed out in the woods. Of course, he weighs the scales in his favor as much as he can. A forest camo hunter's hat, freshly procured for the job, dark gray sweatpants, and a leather jacket all help to obscure his form as he crosses the threshold into the parking lot of the community church.

A white van without windows sits in the side lot, near a closed entrance to presumably a basement. From this distance it looks more like just the idea of a car, with the light from the only streetlight in the area barely illuminating the fact that it is indeed white. The church itself is barely staggering on through time. Its windows are broken, graffiti from the local kids and toughs now decorating its once hallowed halls. For a moment, Elio can't help himself and he walks to the front entrance. He peers through the metal front door, which he can't help but note looks like it was forced open with a crowbar and sees the ruined interior. Pews now decorated with ages of dust, an altar long since stripped of its cloth and holy scripture, and shards of stained glass lay on the floor. The sad nostalgia of a place once filled with hope, now rotting away. Elio pulls himself away from the wreckage and towards the van. He wasn't here to reminisce, after all. Listening once more, he hears nothing but the wind again and the crunching of a small animal in the underbrush nearby. His camera flashes as he takes a photo of the white van, discovering a lack of license plates. "Figures." He says quietly to the night.

The door down a set of concrete steps has to lead to the basement. With the church floor being empty, if there is something to find it will be in the basement. He creeps down the stairs and tries the handle to the door, finding it locked. Pulling a pen light from his pocket and the pick set from his backpack he crouches down. The lock glints and shines in the light, contrasting the dull galvanized steel of the door. Fresh tool marks define the edges where the dull meets the new and Elio quietly sets to work, putting the pen light in his mouth to hold. Gently pushing and scratching inside the lock, it takes a few minutes of effort and one full reset to hear the dull thud of a deadbolt retracting.

Elio smiles and pushes on the door gently. It does not move. He pushes a little harder, his smile running away from him as he realizes what this was. A small shriek of ill-cared for metal emits from the hinges, echoing down the hall still hidden in the dark beyond the door. There was no quiet way in. Applying just enough pressure to keep the hinges to their quietest level, he opens the door enough to fit through and stops to listen. No footsteps, no questions or shouts, nothing but the absorptive silence of drop ceiling tiles. There is a jingle as Elio replaces his lock set in the satchel and removes the pepper spray, keeping it close to hand.

Darkness abounds in the short hallway leading further into the abyss. Though he can see light coming in from under a door at the end of it. Creeping forward and guided by the small illumination provided from his pen light to avoid pitfalls near the feet, rumpled rugs and wooden debris mostly, he moves to the door. He grunts quietly as he lowers himself to the floor, knees creaking under the change in posture and his shoulder aching as he lays belly-down to look under the door. No sign of shoes, and what looks like the bottoms of several crates. Rising again with a similar groan, he opens a crack in the door. This one at least has the decency to be quiet about it. Inside there are some yellow caged workshop lights hanging from the ceiling, providing some decent lighting for the room. Large wooden crates lay closed on the floor while some iridescent white powder lays idle on the table dominating the center of the room. A large pile that is slowly being divided into smaller baggies. Safety gear, respirators, yellow gloves, and leather gowns are hung from coat hooks on the edges of the room and the various desks and chairs that were unneeded are pushed into the corners. One of the crates is much taller than the others, but is still stacked with the rest, standing twice as tall. Odd considering the others seem to be rather uniform.

What he doesn't see is people. Emboldened by the emptiness and the quiet, Elio slinks into the room, camera ready. He snaps photos of the piles of white powder and baggies on the table as well as pulling off the top of one of the already opened crates to find wrapped bags inside. More photos are taken.

He is putting a baggy into a jacket pocket when he hears footsteps running behind him. While not fast enough to turn to see it, a large man with a bat cracks the side of Elio's head and sends him tumbling to the floor. His vision swims and doubles with darkness beginning to encroach from the edges as the trauma sets in immediately. The stench of iron and the taste of bile fills his mouth and nose as he feels his stomach riles in confusion and pain. Elio tries to get his feet back under him, to not at least be on the ground from the assault, but the damage is too great to overcome. The beast of a man pulls him up by the back of the shirt, turning Elio to face his attacker.

The part of Elio's brain still capable of forming coherent sentences and thoughts whispers in gouts of clarity, taking in the scene and his attacker. Hispanic male, above average height, tattoo along right arm of a snake. The man is saying something, but Elio can't hear it as his head rolls around trying to find balance. All he can hear is a voice in his head chastising himself for not being careful. There's a woman here now. Where did she come from? Elio's head rolls to the other side and finds the tall crate has been opened. It's empty inside except for a person-shaped void in the cotton packing material. Voices start to come back as he feels the hot flow of blood down the side of his head and down his neck, beading up on his leather jacket.

"What should we do with him?" The man asks, still holding Elio up with a casual display of strength. His bat, stained crimson at the end, leaning easily against his other shoulder while the other arm holds Elio at bay as though Elio was no more than a child. Elio begins to reach into his pocket towards his knife. Feeling its wooden hilt, he relaxes a bit through the pain. Nothing like wood and steel to ground you.

The woman locks eyes with Elio though, and everything freezes. She's beautiful. Mysterious. She has a glower for a moment, but it fades away to a smile of an old flame that has reignited. Elio has never met this woman, but it feels like he's known her a lifetime. She has long hair, dark as night and is wearing a necklace made from glittering rose gold. "Are you lost?" Her voice... my god her voice. Silk and honey. Ambrosia to the concussed brain. If he weren't being suspended by a gorilla goon, Elio would have swooned. He tries, actually, only to choke as the grip tightens. "Well, since you came through all the trouble of coming here, would you like to help a girl out? I need some help putting these crates onto the truck and really need a strong guy like you." She puts a hand on Elio's chest, gentle as the breeze. It feels like it's just him and her, spotlighted in eternity.

He's melting. That voice in his head of clarity and panic begins to stir but something puts its foot on its neck. In the choking writhing of that longest moment the struggle is momentarily replaced with bliss. Of true belonging as he stares transfixed into the void of this woman's eyes. Nothing seems to matter and all he can see is her and her words floating through his aching head.

Then the light comes. The fight returns. Whatever beast that has clamped its jaws down on the artery of his consciousness finds its teeth cracked and broken as its assault on personality is rebuffed. Wood and steel. He focuses on the knife in his hand. The spotlight recedes and he can see again the grimy basement he finds himself trapped in. Time is slow, but not because of the woman anymore. He can hear everything, the heartbeat of the man holding him, the drops of his blood falling to the floor beneath him, the shifting of the woman's hand against the rough fibers of his shirt. There is something he smells past the blood caught in his mouth though. The rot of a carcass left unburied for weeks, hidden behind flowery perfume.

He grits his teeth and pulls the knife out from his pocket. The motion is so fast that as he watches their eyes they don't even react to the knife's presence before it's been pushed through the arm of the man holding him. It punches through the long sleeve and emerges out the other side, blood splatter sent flying up to the ceiling to drip down later. As he screams, he drops Elio.

The dizziness is gone, replaced with the sharpest focus possible. There is no time to be tired. Light fills the room and dances along with Elio as he pulls the knife free with his right arm and slams his foot into the goon who stumbles back and onto his ass as he clutches at his arm, knocking a chair over in the process. The woman has frozen, her eyes once sultry and inviting now wide and reflecting bright golden light back to Elio, her mouth turned into a frightened frown.

Was it day time? It couldn't be. Elio pulls his camera up and snaps a photo of the woman and the man down on the ground before dashing away, back out of the basement. The light follows him. He stops at the top of the stairs, noticing the area around him is lit with that same uncanny golden light. His head still aches but the dizziness and nausea is gone. His balance is perfect. Behind him he can hear the woman racing towards the stairs in pursuit. Her footsteps sound like gunfire in rapid tempo, the space between each step seemingly growing shorter and shorter. Elio looks to the forest and the shadows. They whisper to him enticingly. Every hiding spot, every blind corner to set up an ambush, and every escape route looks highlighted against the night to his eyes.

Which is when he feels the burning. It's not unpleasant but it is urgent. A tingling, pinprick sensation in his legs and arms and euphoria in his mind. Something inside him is desperate to be used. A muscle he never knew he had that suddenly is cramping and asking, no, demanding it be stretched.

So he stretches it. He dives into the shadows of the forest as she bounds out of the basement on all fours. Her eyes are wild as her head snaps to and fro, seeking her escaping prey. The night wind howls in his ears as he surges through the underbrush, always finding the right hiding place at the right time as a manic grin spreads on his lips. The light that envelops him casts confounding shadows and guides him from place to place as the woman tries to find him amongst the thorny bushes and old trees. The game was afoot. Out here in the woods, she's more beast than woman. She sniffs the air and stalks the shadows, fangs occasionally catching in Elio's light and reflecting back ivory. But in the end, all she finds is stinging nettles, scratching branches, and empty woods. So far astray she has gone, that Elio is able to get back to his car without her being the wiser.

From the driver's seat he can finally see himself in the mirror. He's glowing. Enveloped in a now fading daylight that emanates from nowhere. His forehead has an empty golden circle on it. Rubbing it feels just like normal skin, a bit sweaty, but normal skin. His hand goes straight through the sigil and to the skin. And as the light fades and the car starts, the burning feeling does not fade. Putting his hand up to his head as he pulls the car around, the blood has stopped and the wound closed. The aching has stopped. As he drives away he throws his camera and backpack into the back, carefully maneuvering his arm to avoid triggering his torn rotator cuff and stops. His shoulder doesn't hurt. He rotates it experimentally before slowly returning it to the wheel.

What the hell just happened?

He returns to his apartment. A well organized affair, it also doubles as his office. He breathes out as he takes his coat off and is about to hang it before seeing gel-like blood spots on its sleeve. Elio tosses it towards the kitchen sink. A ratty couch that he's had since his college days takes up most of the living room with a long outdated TV facing it. He sets his camera next to a laptop on the coffee table and pulls out its card, beginning to transfer the photos to his laptop for review and later printing. Sitting down, he reviews his photos. White van with no plates, lots of product, and a blurry photo of the perpetrators. The laptop fan kicks on, giving a little bit of white noise to the otherwise dark and quiet apartment as Elio leans in and looks at the woman. Does... she have fangs?

The rational part of his brain immediately dismisses it. But the curious glow he had and the crushing force of personality she had? This was beginning to be a lot of circumstantial evidence for a part of reality he had never considered valid. The supernatural. And he was part of it somehow.

He prints off the photos and puts them in a manilla folder for Megan, the mayor's aide who hired him in the first place not two days ago to investigate the drugs coming into Galena. Guess he'd have something to show her tomorrow. A slip of paper with "overdue" in large red font on the kitchen table looms in his vision. Just in time to pay rent, luckily.

 

[Kinotics]

Elio enters into the quiet offices of Galena City Hall, the manilla folder of printed photos from last night's expedition into the Galena Community Church in his grip. He still feels like he can feel the alluring gaze of that woman when he closes his eyes, still trying to pull him under.
The foyer is a small room with two hallways leading off, a staircase, and a secretary's desk attended by a bored looking woman in glasses with a blonde ponytail who quickly hides the phone she had been looking at as he enters. "Welcome to Galena city hall, can I help you?" She says with what little enthusiasm she can muster.

"I need to see Megan Clark. She'll want to see me, tell her Elio is here." He rattles off, barely bothering to look at her.

She looks down at the empty schedule in front of her. "Let me call her." She picks up the desk phone and presses a few buttons. He ends up needing to wait at least twenty minutes in a terribly uncomfortable wooden chair in the lobby. Some sort of commotion starts to stir outside the hall and craning his neck, it looks like a crew is setting up cameras for some even. Before his curiosity gets the better of him, the assistant calls his name and leads himself to Megan's office. Entering, Elio finds himself seated in front of Megan, assistant to the mayor is what her shiny placard says. Her office is fastidiously tidy, with each cabinet labeled for different types of documents and supplies and her desk dressings in perfect alignment with one another. There are no personal effects however, at least none that Elio can see from where he is sitting. He does catch a whiff of lingering cigarette smoke from her though.

"Back so soon?" Megan starts, pushing a wayward bang of black hair out of her eyes. "I expected not to see you for a few weeks."

Elio leans forward, putting his file onto the desk. "I work fast." He says quietly. "Your sources were right," he picks out the photo of an open crate, pouches of white powder kept within, "someone is moving heroin through town. I have a photo of some girl involved." He moves a couple aside and shows the blurry photo of the transfixing raven haired beauty. He stops and stares at it a moment, vaguely noticing the fangs in the photo once again. "She and a friend of hers attacked me down there. Barely slipped away."

Megan leans in, looking over the photos. "Did you notice anything odd down there?"

"Besides the drugs and guy with a bat?" Elio quirks an eyebrow.

"Yes, besides those things." Megan continues, looking up from the photos and at Elio.
He frowns and cocks his head. "Can't say I was leaving anything out. Turn these into the police. Should be enough for probable cause." An uncomfortable silence fills the room as Megan frowns. "So, am I getting paid for this now?" Elio taps his fingers on his arm as he breaks eye contact and looks around the room.

Megan gives a winning smile and reaches into a drawer. "Of course, let me get the checkbook..."

He can hear it, the slight sound of metal on wood. The heft in the arm looks wrong for a simple leger or checkbook and there is a malicious glint behind her eyes.

Before the gun is fully removed from the drawer, Elio is already standing, the chair falling behind him as he draws his knife from its hiding place behind his back. Leaping across the desk, Elio grabs Megan's wrist and pulls it behind her back, preventing her from moving easily. Megan growls as her torso is pushed forward towards the desk and Elio feels her muscles tighten as strength not portrayed by her slight form starts to fight back.

The sheer strength of the woman catches Elio off guard as she slips away from him. "Help! Someone help me!" She shrieks, which echoes down the hallway outside of her office. Her hand darts into the still open drawer and removes the silenced pistol while tumbling over the desk and into a firing position where Elio had previously been sitting in front of the desk.

Elio moves faster and with a quick mental calculation takes in his surroundings for escape routes. The window behind the desk has a rickety old fire escape behind it and it will have to do. He quickly opens the window and looks back before continuing out into the fire escape. "How much are they paying you for this Megan?" Elio asks as he wrenches the window open with a squeal of wood on wood.

Megan smiles from behind her gun, behind her Elio's keen hearing can already hear footsteps approaching from down the hallway to see what is going on. "You've been useful. But no loose ends I'm afraid." She fires, the silencer muting the worst of the bang, but it still rings in Elio's ears.

Elio moves faster than he thought possible, the air in the room rippling past and tickling the hair on his arm as it travels. Sparks fly as his knife slices the air and the bullet, cleaving it into two before it reaches its target, sending the two halves into a picture on the wall and shattering the window he is climbing through.

There is a moment of stunned silence as Megan looks wide-eyed, then checks her gun quickly. By the time she looks back to where Elio had been standing, he's already heading down the fire escape. Before the help she summoned through her scream can arrive she hurriedly wipes the gun down and steps back behind her desk, but not before looking at the shattered photo and seeing the half a bullet inside it. She pensively rubs the back of her neck as the gears in her head turn round.

Outside of the window, Elio can see that there are already two police cruisers parked outside of the city hall. At the sound of gunfire, even silenced, two officers step out of each car, making for four total police. They look up and see Elio making his way down the fire escape. "Sir! Drop the weapon!" One of the officers shouts up to him.

"I don't have a gun! I'm being attacked!" He shouts down to them as he hastily pockets his knife. The fire escape groans under his weight and he has to step carefully to avoid the worn and rusty parts that may not support his weight.

"Come down here and we can talk." The officers begin to move towards the base of the fire escape. With a resigned sigh, Elio descends from the escape. Megan does not even stick her head out from the window, but Elio can still hear the discussion she is having from this distance.

"What happened?" A male voice asks, sounds like the mayor.

"That private eye attacked me!" Megan's voice quivers and shakes in all the right ways. "He pulled out this gun and shot but he missed. Then he left from the window once I called for help. He dropped his gun..."

Elio reaches the ground as the front desk aide runs out the front door. "There he is! He's the one who attacked Ms. Clark!" At this the cops who met him at the bottom reach for their service weapons.

"Come nice and easy." The lead one, bald with sunglasses, says, "No one needs to get hurt here." His words are confident, clearly sensing the superiority of numbers and already having come close to Elio. The other three prepare handcuffs and batons in case he resists.

Elio takes a step back and his eyes dart from officer to officer. A bead of sweat forms on his brow and the cops can sense his trepidation.

Putting his hands up slowly, he waits for them to close in. As the first one reaches for his arm, he slams an elbow into the wrist of his partner with a baton, attempting to disarm and claim the baton in a single smooth action. There is a grunt as the attack connects, doing no real damage but causing his hand to open as Elio snatches the baton before it can hit the ground and readies himself for retaliation.

The cops act as a unit, with the two with batons remaining attempting to batter Elio's knees and the other two attempting to grapple him as he falls. As the batons crack the sides of his knees, Elio is already moving to reduce their impact, stepping away from both of the blows simultaneously in a move that would be more at home at a ball than on the battlefield.

Disarmed and with a now sore wrist, one of the cops slides over to Elio's left to get an angle to grab him. Unfortunately, a mole decided that was an excellent place to put up its hill. His foot catches in the loose dirt and he tumbles forward and into a thorny hedge abutting city hall. He sputters curses as his embarrassment mounts. The lead officer, bald with sunglasses, Officer Davinsky so his badge reads, manages better though. He manages to slip behind Elio and grab an arm, forcing him into an arm lock with one hand while preparing his cuffs with the other. "I got him." He grunts.

If Elio's right shoulder was still hurting like it always would, he certainly would have been caught. However, after last night he can easily bend and twist any way he needs. Slamming an elbow into his captor's gut, Elio twists free from the lock as the officer sputters and coughs while taking a step back. As he recoils back, he has just enough time to look up as Elio whips the baton across his jaw.

There is an audible crack as the baton dislocates the captain's jaw. He falls away with a scream, clutching his injury as he hits the dirt. Elio falls into an easy posture, the baton ready to intercede on the next attack. One of the officers draws her service weapon and moves back to an appropriate distance.

The other officer's face turns red, and he grits his teeth as his fellow officer rolls on the ground in pain. He tries to slam the baton into Elio's side in an almost hay-maker-like blow as Elio swirls in place, heel digging into the loamy soil underfoot as his baton intercedes the officer's. They struggle for a moment with baton's locked until Elio steps forward, his body weight sliding his baton up and along the other. Sparks skitter from the connection and a moment later Elio's baton catches the officer on the neck. He falls away coughing and trying to fight for breath.

Looking up, he sees that a sizable crowd is gathering on the lawn near the front of the building. He blinks and his flowing assault and defense halts for a moment. He sees a banner above the speechless crowd. A TV show, Divers, Diners, and Drives, is filming in the city. Elio vaguely remembers something about a restaurant in town gaining attention. Apparently, they were planning on shooting a scene here at city hall for the show and fans had gathered in the time he was waiting for Megan. A lot of fans. And a lot of cameras, which were capturing the brawl.

"Crap." He mutters as the cop in the bushes finally gets free from the thorns.

"Drop your weapon! I am authorized to use deadly force if you do not cease and desist!" The officer holding her service pistol aimed at center mass shouts. Around him, Elio can hear the sputtering of the captain with a broken jaw and the gasping of the one he just injured. He begins to idly count the crimes as his eyes flit between injuries. Looking behind him he sees a tall wooden fence at the back of the property. It may be time to leave.

The cop that was caught in the bushes also draws his service pistol. Pieces of hedge are caught on his uniform and some leaves and sticks are stuck in his hair. His cap is missing, lost somewhere in the bush. There is a pregnant pause to see if Elio surrenders.

Elio kicks the chest of the officer still holding his throat towards the others as a distraction and dashes away trying to create as much distance as possible from the officers as he rushes to the fence. The officers open fire at his back, sending several rounds Elio's way. He is a blur as he dips behind cover and seemingly vanishes and reappears feet away from where a bullet was intended to travel, and before they can recover for another volley he has made it to the fence. "God dammit, he's getting away!" The female officer shouts, taking aim once more.

Putting a foot up onto a trash bin near the fence, Elio leaps higher than the fence and vaults it in a single bound, using his hands to continue his forward momentum as he takes off sprinting on the other side. There is a gathered group of gasps from the crowd and camera crew not too far away once Elio vaults the tall fence.

He lands on the other side and ducks into one of the few alleys in Galena. Catching his breath for a moment, he switches from sprinting to a lower profile walking as he turns his coat inside out and walks away down the streets.

Places where he can lay low start to flash through his head as police sirens pierce the quiet of Galena. Ezio's work would be a good choice, but also some place that the police would likely look for him. Scratching his chin, he sighs. There is a good enough option, but it'll be awkward as all hell. But better than trying his luck out on the streets until he can clear his name somehow. At a brisk walk, he heads towards the residences in the suburbs at the edge of town, towards an old love of his.

 

[Kinotics]

It is late afternoon as Elio approaches a two-story house out in the suburbs of Galena. Avoiding police cars and anyone who could recognize you slows travel to a crawl as it would turn out. He sighs and walks past the neat rows of flowers and bulbs up to the brightly painted house. Stepping up onto the front patio, there is a moment of hesitation as his finger hovers over the doorbell. Elio stands to the side of the door, out of sight of the road, and rings the doorbell after gathering himself for a moment. A couple minutes go by before Lisa, a bright looking woman in her early thirties wearing a yellow sundress, opens the door.

There is a long and quiet moment as Lisa sees Elio. He waves. "What the hell are you doing here, El?" She hisses, looking at the road behind him.

"I didn't think you watched Divers, Diners, and Drives, Lisa. Can I come in?" Elio smiles winningly.

"No! Absolutely not!" Lisa steps through and closes the door, leaving them both on the patio. "And I don't watch that show, you were all over the news!" She gets closer, her perfume wafting to Elio. "Do you know who that was that you hit with the baton?!"

Elio stretches his memory. "I think we went to high school with him. Was he on the football team?"

Lisa nods. "Yeah, he was on the football team. He's also my husband! He's in the hospital after you fucking dislocated his jaw!? The fuck is wrong with you!"

Bret? She married Bret?! "Oh... I didn't realize..." Elio starts.

"Didn't realize it was Bret? Would it have mattered?" She suddenly looks very tired. "Even if he wasn't my husband, El, you still just broke someone's jaw! Then you come here and ask to just waltz into my home?"

"Look Lisa. Do you really think I would just do that without a good reason?" Lisa gives him a flat stare. "There is some shit going on around here. One of the mayor's aides tried to silence me after I turned in evidence of drug trafficking in town. Would you just hear me out?"

Lisa thinks for a moment, mulling it over. "Fine." She opens the door. "But you don't get me involved in this and you're gone by tomorrow." Elio moves towards the open door and Lisa bars it with her arm. "And I swear to god, El. If the police show up for you while you're here I am throwing you under the bus and saying you took me hostage."

Elio grunts and walks into the neat home. Warm lights and a confused meow from an orange tabby welcome him in.

"Take off your shoes." Lisa demands.

He complies, leaving his worn boots by the door. "I won't stay long. I just need some time to get my thoughts together and figure out what I'm doing next."

"Fine by me. The sooner the better, I think." Lisa points to a comfy looking couch in her living room. "You get to sleep on the couch." Elio plops down his back and lays on the couch for a moment. A minute passes and Lisa sits down on a recliner across from the couch. "What is going on, El?"

He sits back up. "I don't know. I was just working the job last night. Tracked this group down to the old church outside of town, you know one that hasn't had a service in a decade now?" Lisa nods. "Down in its basement were a bunch of crates with I think heroin in them. So I took a bunch of photos of that. They must've seen me though because it was a trap. One of them slammed my head with a bat." He rubs the temple where it had been hit and stops. It didn't even ache any more. Looking over in a nearby vanity mirror there was no bruising. He could see Lisa looking weirdly at him.

"If you got hit by a bat in the head, why don't you look, well, hurt? I know you're a tough guy but come on it's a bat."

"That's part of the weirdness. I'll get to it." Elio cracks his knuckles nervously. "A younger woman pops out of one of the larger crates. She's... transfixing. Like her eyes just see straight through me. Her words were honey and I was like putty." Lisa frowns and folds her arms. "And... well... God dammit... She had fangs Lisa. Like a fucking vampire."

Lisa starts to laugh. "Oh my god. El, you've actually gone insane."

"I know what it sounds like. I've got a photo of it..." He takes out his phone and rummages through its gallery. A moment later, the blurry photo taken in panic of the fanged woman comes on screen.

She looks at the screen and back to Elio. Her face is inscrutable as she leans back and rubs her temples. "Okay. So, this woman and her lackey with the bat corner you. How did you get away?"

He leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees. The cat comes around, watching curiously from the threshold. "Whatever hold she had on me, I broke out. It took everything I had to not worship her at her feet, but I did it. Then I felt so strong. There was this light that was all around me. I got my knife out and stabbed her lackey in the arm then I ran away. I know she was looking for me, but it felt like the shadows themselves were helping to hide me." He clenches his fists. "And I still feel like I'm different somehow. I mean, you saw me, right?" Elio looks frantic for a moment, lost in the energy, "I fought four police officers. Lisa, I didn't break a sweat. They didn't lay a finger on me. No. They couldn't lay a finger on me. I dodged bullets, I even cut one in half before it hit me!"

He laughs suddenly, the absurdity of it all coming together finally. When he looks up, Lisa has risen and moved towards the kitchen, keeping him firmly in her line of sight. "El... you're kinda scaring me. You're talking like an insane person. They didn't show you fighting anyone. Just showed your picture and told everyone you were considered dangerous after assaulting a police officer. I only know Bret broke his jaw because the department told me."

Elio stands up and Lisa takes another step into the kitchen. "No. I'm not crazy, I swear. Something in me changed last night." Light shines from his brow, lighting up the darkened room with pale yellow light as the empty circle appears on his forehead again.

She looks confused as light glints off her eyes. "What is that on your forehead?"

He looks back to the vanity mirror and sees the empty golden circle on his forehead. For a moment, he feels light headed. He hears a voice, distant and faint, speak not quite to him, but about him.

Night.

The moment passes quickly. "Night..."

"What?" Lisa asks having fully retreated into the kitchen now.

Elio's hearing sharpens to impossible degrees, as he hears the sound of a finger touching a touch screen. He can even hear the small beep as it sounds from her putting in a 9 into her phone.

"I can hear you on your phone, Lisa." Elio says. There is a small squeak from Lisa as she gets ready to run. "I'm not here to hurt you. I really do just need a place to rest for a little while. Just until nightfall." He sits tiredly on her sofa. "I have work to do."

"What kind of work?" The typing has stopped after the first 1.

"When I gave the evidence to Megan about where the drugs were when she tried to kill me. Whatever is going on, I'll find out if I go back to that church." He looks back to Lisa, standing a distance away as the light fades. "I swear, you'll never hear from me again after this, Lisa."

"That's what you said the last time we met." Lisa says.

Elio chuckles. "I'm not here to be sentimental Lisa. I really am sorry about Bret's jaw, by the way."

The night rolls on, small talk leading to an awkward silence. Eventually Elio sleeps for a few hours.

He awakens from a restless nap to the sounds of sirens. Lisa is nowhere to be found. Elio slides off the couch. He knew the shadows well and that they would hide him if he decided to use them.

The police meet Lisa outside, who tells them that Elio is asleep on the couch. Nothing escapes Elio's hearing these days. The four officers then execute a silent search of the house, quietly taking it in once they find the living room empty. After a fruitless half hour search of the house as Elio creeps from shadow to shadow as lithe as darkness itself, the officers are left scratching their heads after returning empty handed. Back outside with Lisa, the officers return.

From a window on the second story, Elio listens in. "There's no one in the house, Lisa. Must've been awake and got out in time. Stay in your house and keep the doors locked, we'll canvas the area." The senior officer of the group points to his younger partner. "Jenkins, you'll be watching Captain Davinsky's house until the morning." Jenkins nods and moves back up towards the porch.

"Okay. Thank you, James." Lisa says quietly. She glances up at the window where Elio was just watching from moments ago, only to find it dark and empty. As she starts to move back towards her house, officer James calls out to her.

"Would you mind coming by the precinct tomorrow sometime? We just want to ask you some questions about what happened tonight."

Lisa nods with a half smile before returning home, with Jenkins opening the door into the house for her. Listening to the floorboards squeak, Elio quickly maps out that Jenkins is posting up in the living room while Lisa enters into the kitchen across the way.

On the ground floor, Lisa leans against the sink and sighs, shaking her head. Rain begins to patter against the window. Suddenly in the reflection of the window, she sees Elio's face as he emerges from the darkest shadows in the room behind her. "Look, you really didn't..." He begins in a quiet whisper.

She shrieks and runs towards the living room. "Get away from me! Jenkins! He's still here!"

Elio fades back into the shadows. As Jenkins enters into the kitchen and flips the lights on, all he finds is empty linoleum.

Outside and behind the property, Elio frowns as he walks away. "Maybe another time then." It'll be a long walk back towards the church, but a necessary one. At least the rain will make it harder for him to be found.

 

[Kinotics]

The dead of night has fallen by the time Elio steps out from under the boughs of a large oak tree near the church. He strains his ears in the dim summer night trying to glean some information of what may be waiting for him.

Even through the pattering of the rain and shaking of tree limbs, Elio can hear that there is a car coming down the road. Probably will be here in the next fifteen minutes. Inside the church he can hear someone moving boxes loudly, likely loading into the nondescript white van nearby. It sounds like there are three distinct people working in the basement and nearby.

The glint of a rifle's scope catches Elio's eye. Up in the belltower of the church is their lookout. Elio checks his trusty pistol within its concealed holster and ensures his jacket is on straight before stepping forward from the tree line as a cloud covers the light of the moon. Time to pay them a visit. The abandoned nature of the church has led to much of the grounds becoming a bit overgrown that hasn't been trimmed back by its new inhabitants, likely not wanting to give away that someone has been using it for other purposes. This works fine for Elio who quickly picks his path towards the open door to the basement with the white truck nearby.

Elio looks into the open truck back as he slinks by, noting that a good amount of the product he saw the other night is already in the back. "Come on! The sooner we can move this all out of here, the less likely that fucking PI will come back with the cops!" The shrill cry of the lady echoes out. Elio silently rolls behind an empty crate, taking in the scene in the dusty and poorly lit cellar.

Two men are hard at work moving product up the stairs and hastily throwing it into the back of the van while the dark haired woman pulls at a strand of hair and paces. "A bit worried, are we?" Elio says, standing up from behind the crate but seemingly materializing to the people in the room.

"Fuck!" One of the men drops a crate and reaches for his bat nearby.

Elio holds up his empty hands. "I'm just here to talk."

The woman just sighs. "Look, I don't know what you want. I don't know what you are either. We are kind of on a schedule here so spill it before I kill you."

He appears to consider this for a moment. "Tempting. But I have a better offer. You tell me what I want to know and I don't delay you so that the cars I heard coming this way to take your product away get here before you are all done packing."

The two men exchange uncertain looks before turning back to the woman, who appears to fume for a moment. "Keep packing, idiots. I'll talk to this one." The men nod and keep going. "Who did you tell about this?" That same alluring and pacifying feeling comes over Elio as she exerts whatever power she has over him.

A gentle feeling of comfort engulfs Elio. I should tell this person what she wants to know. He leans casually on a box. "I told the mayor's aide, Megan, about this little operation. Turns out she tried to kill me after getting what she wanted. Trying to get my name cleared now and you seem like a good starting point to figure out what's going on in my town." There is a growing concern in the back of his head. Why am I telling her all this? "Gah." He shakes away the feeling of relaxation, "What is that you keep doing to me?"

She smiles winningly and flips a lock of black hair, "Oh, nothing. I'm just charming."

The men continue to work tirelessly at their charge, beginning to load the last of the boxes in. "I told you what you wanted to know, now tell me something. What is your relationship to Megan? Are you in on her conspiracy?"

Her smile is like that of the cheshire cat, "Why do you want to know? This doesn't concern you, why don't you just buzz off?" She moves closer, "Or better yet," her eyes are like moon lit pools, but hidden under the perfume Elio can smell rot, "why not help me? I could use the help of a big, strong man like you."

"No." He feels the rippling tides trying to pull him under and rises above them. "The last thing I want to do is help someone bringing god damn drugs into my town." He pulls out his pistol, leveling it towards the woman. "Now tell me what I want to know, or things are going to get messy."

A woman's voice shouts down from upstairs, "Hey! We can see the headlights of that car! We need to get going!"

She frowns in concentration, feeling her allure fall short on Elio. "Why don't you stick around and ask Megan or whoever she got to do her dirty work today? I'm sure they'd be..."

Elio is like flowing lightning and appears in front of her with his gun leveled against her temple. "Let's start with your name."

"There isn't any time for this bullshit." She growls as she shoves the gun aside. In the moment of distraction, Elio reaches into her purse. A moment later, a wallet is safely concealed in his own pocket.

"Fine. Leave then." Elio stands to the side. "If you think this is the last you've heard from me though, you're sorely mistaken." She rolls her eyes as she ascends the stairs and out of sight. The sound of a van starting up can be heard. Elio walks up the stairs as the van starts to leave. Pulling out his pistol, he takes aim at a wheel.

The shot of the pistol is aimed true as a crack rings out and the van wobbles as it loses its stability. Not too far off, a pair of SUVs approaches from the road, about to pull into the front parking lot. The van swerves as it moves along the backroad. The SUVs notice the van leaving and begin to speed after it. From the front window of the lead SUV, a dark-skinned man looks curiously at Elio as they speed past to catch up to the van.

Not far down the road there is the sound of a crash as the SUV runs off the road due to the wheel being out and trying to get away. A few minutes later the SUVs return with a few new passengers. They stop as they drive by Elio still standing by the church and roll down the window.

"S'pose we're supposed to thank you?" The lead driver asks.

Elio approaches and sees the two henchmen in the back, but no woman. "Did she get away?"

The driver frowns. "Don't know who you're talking about."

Elio just shakes his head and sighs. "Alright. So, you guys clearly aren't the police. What is this, rival gang shit?" He gestures to the guys in the back.

"You could say that." The driver replies.

"Look. I want to talk to Megan. I don't give two shits if you are taking the drugs or whatever, I just want them out of Galena. And if Megan and whoever is sponsoring this agrees, I don't see why we should be fighting each other."

The man grunts before pointing to the other car. "Walk up to that one, she's riding shotgun. Don't try any shit though."

Elio nods and steps up to the other car with Megan in the passenger seat. She rolls down the window. "What a surprise!" she says. "I really thought you would've been caught by the police by now." Some smoke leaks out with the window opening, cigarettes.

He clicks his tongue. "You think so little of me, Megan. And I thought we had a nice thing going."

"What do you want, Elio?" Megan asks while flicking the ash from her cigarette out the window and onto Elio's shoes.

"I want to know what the hell is going on. I told you where the drugs were and you came with a bunch of goons to get them yourself?" He shakes his head, "Normally something the police would do. Plus there was the whole trying to kill me thing."

She sighs and puts on a tired smile. "Look. Asking questions is exactly why I thought you were a loose end. And all you've done tonight is prove that you are a loose end." She clears her throat. "While I appreciate you helping us out here, my boss is very secretive. And we'd hate for anything to happen to your family's business. So I am doing you a favor here. Fuck off and skip town and I promise nothing will happen to them."

Elio's hands ball into fists, fury burning in his mind. "You wanna play this game, Megan? Because I can play it. I'll take both yours and those drug runners' plans out of action."

Megan smiles sadly with a tinge of pity. "Oh Elio. You don't know the deep waters you're treading right now. My boss has connections all over town and way beyond. We can and will snuff you out just like we are doing with those drug runners. It will be easy." She leans closer slightly out the window, a gasp of cigarette smoke comes with her. "Like smashing an ant."

Elio begins to laugh. In an impossibly quick motion, he pulls his gun and points to the driver of the other car. "Smash this." There is a blinding light as the pistol goes off in the dark of night. The window shatters and the interior of the vehicle and its occupants are suddenly dyed red with the driver's body slumping over the steering wheel. As his body hits the wheel, an exceptionally loud horn goes off and doesn't stop. Flocks of birds who had been resting in the trees take flight and Elio quickly covers his ears out of reflex.

Megan screams at her driver, "Get us out of here! Now!" While she scrambles to pull her own gun. As she rushes tries to find her gun, Elio slips over the hood of the screaming other car, now driverless, and ducks below the other side to put a block of metal between him and Megan's line of fire. The passenger door of the car is shoved open as the man in the passenger seat kicks out and brings a shotgun level to what he can see of Elio. Megan's potshot ricochets off the hood of the car and off into the woods while Elio bashes the door back into the shotgunner, throwing his aim off enough to cause a shell to deafeningly be emptied into the asphalt a foot to Elio's left.

Springing forward while the passenger recovers from his sudden shove, Elio lands in a firing posture and breathes out while getting a bead on the driver of Megan's car as it peels out and starts to get away. Most would call this a hard shot, a pistol shot through the tinted back passenger window of a moving car on a rainy night while a goon with a shotgun not five feet away is moments away from lining up another shot on you. Elio makes it look easy, however, as the bullet passes between raindrops, shatters the back window and neatly slams into the back of the driver's neck.

With the car already in drive, its pilot slumps his foot onto the accelerator with dead weight and throws the wheel as the torso slumps right, the car is now aimed for the church itself and accelerating rapidly with Megan in the passenger seat. Her scream is easily heard over the rest of the chaos as she realizes what has happened. Inside, she can be seen reaching for the hand brake while trying to find the leverage to pull the driver's foot off the pedal.

The shotgun-toting goon steps out from the side of the SUV, the night lighting up with another blast from the shotgun. Elio is already in motion as he dives for the side of the road and towards the forest as another chunk of asphalt is removed from the road in a hail of rocky splinters and bits. With a short sprint, Elio manages to hide behind a wide tree in the darkness. Listening to the approach of the goon, Elio wastes no time before crouching down and exposing himself to take a shot at the approaching man. His pistol shot is a lance of light that arcs into the goon's shoulder. With a grunt, he takes a step back before quickly finding his footing and gritting his teeth as another blast from the shotgun is released, causing the blood splattered on his face to momentarily glint and reveal the manic look in the man's eyes.

His target is a little too quick, however, as Elio pulls his head behind the tree just in time for a large section of bark to evaporate near him in a hailstorm of pulp. Elio breaths in, focuses his senses, and steps out from behind the tree. Time seems to slow as he breathes in, the shot perfectly aimed for maximum damage. Lightning cracks with the pull of the trigger. The thunder claps as the shotgunner feels the bullet easily pass through his jacket and pierce his heart. He stumbles for a moment, blood staining his fingertips as he falls to the ground in a crash. Elio releases his breath.

Megan, still screaming in the passenger seat, collides with the church at a decent speed. There is a solid crunch as the car punches through one of the exterior walls up to the front windshield. The front windshield breaks and inside the cab, Megan has had the airbag go off in her face. Elio walks over to the car and speaks over the rain, "Scamper back to your boss. Tell them there is a new sheriff in town." He can hear Megan shifting around and is still light on his feet, ready to dart out of the way if needed.

"Fuck you, Elio." Megan leans out and squeezes a shot off into the rain at the ready and waiting Elio. The attack misses by a mile and Elio doesn't flinch. "Fuck..." Megan wobbles in her seat. Elio closes the distance and puts his pistol, still reeking of gun smoke, at Megan's forehead. "Do it." She says, "Pull the trigger. I'd rather die than return to my master at this point."

Elio's face is grim. "Master, huh?" He reaches in and easily grabs away her pistol, pulling the magazine free with a flourish. "I don't care about your weirdo relationships. If you won't go back to them yourself, you'll tell me where they are."

"Never." Megan is resolute.

"What was it you said about loose ends?" Elio asks.

"That you shouldn't leave any." She groans, putting her head in her hands. "Are we gonna do this or are you gonna talk for like an hour? You're still a wanted man. We still know where your family lives. Killing me doesn't matter! You are still fucked six ways to Sunday!"

The rain begins to fall in earnest, splattering on the concrete in large blots. "I'm going to let you go. Then I'm going to burn the drugs. Then," he looks her in the eyes, his focus piercing, "I'm going to hunt down that other woman and your 'master' and make them both pay for thinking they could just do as they please here." He begins to walk away, fading into the rain.

There is a long silence and a biting back of obscenities from Megan. Unsteady, she opens the door and tumbles onto the pavement. Slowly, she stands and begins her own long trek back into town in the night.

Elio puts his hands over his ears and moves to the other vehicle and finds the back doors open and the seats empty. Opening the driver's side door, he pulls the driver's body free and the horn finally silences. There is naught but the sound of rainfall and rustling trees to be heard. Elio frowns before heading down the road towards the direction that the white van scampered off in. After a few minutes of jogging, he finds it run off the road and into a particularly rugged tree nearby. Engine block smoking, one of the few streetlights in the area illuminates the two lackeys that escaped with the woman hastily trying to load duffle bags with product from the back of the van.

"Fun's over." He announces from behind them. They yelp and turn to face him. A baseball bat is in one of their hands, its tip still slightly ruddy red from last night. The other is holding a duffle bag and a large yellow camping flashlight.

"What do you want to know?" The first one with a short blue mohawk blurts out. The other one, bald with the bat, shoves him in the side.

"Shut the fuck up!" He hisses to his companion.

Mohawk gives a hysterical look to the other, "Are you fucking with me? You saw what he did to those guys!" He hisses back.

"Who do you work for?" Elio asks, coming closer with his gun pointed skyward.

"Elizabeth! She's the one you were talking to down in the church cellar."

Elio nods. "And what is she? I don't think she's just a human."

Both of them stop talking and exchange a look. Elio fires a round off into the air and both goons jump.

"She's a fucking Vampire! Alright? Just... stop shooting!" The second goon, this one with the bat, answers.

Elio points the pistol at him. "You fucking with me?"

"No!" He hurriedly answers, "God, no!"

"Hm." Elio thinks for a moment. "Vampires. I hate being right." He motions to the drugs. "And the drugs? Where are they going?"

"Local dealers buy some, but most of it's going to Chicago for Elizabeth's friend's parties." Mohawk says.

"And where did it come from?" Elio continues.

They both shrug. "Fuck man, I don't know. We just move it and guard it."

There is a subtle change in the pattern of rainfall behind him. A sudden absence in a small spot of the rain and moving closer. He whips around as the lightning strikes, showing in the darkness the ghoulish form of Elizabeth down the road, beyond the light of the lamp. Her feline eyes gleaming with pearly fangs extended in a grimace. "Feel like talking now, Elizabeth?" Elio says into the darkness beyond the streetlamp, eyes scanning for when she will next appear. His ears are keen enough to know where she is based on the small changes in rain drops but his eyes cannot pierce the shadows.

The solitary streetlight that kept this area illuminated suddenly pops, glass tinkling to the road below, and the area is submerged in inky darkness. Elio pulls his knife from his pocket and gets ready, knife in one hand and pistol in the other. "I think I am." Elizabeth whispers, closer than before. "I don't know whose side you are on or who sent you. But sending witch-hunters after me?" She cackles in the shadows, "Now that is a new low."

Elio can hear the goons shuffling around as well, the one with the bat is creeping closer and Mohawk is fucking around with the flashlight. "I'm kicking you out of this turf. Walk away." He can almost feel her breathing down his neck now but needs to get her a little closer.

There is a stumbling sound and a sudden flash of light and a yelp as a flashlight is suddenly lit and extinguished just as fast. "Boss! Flashlight's broken!" Mohawk shouts. The other one attempts a baseball swing in the direction he last saw Elio in. He is not close enough to connect and has to spend a moment recovering his momentum.

The gap in the rain Elio had been following by ear vanishes. A moment later, he feels her claws dig into his shoulders and pull him into a crushing embrace. "You don't get to talk to me like that, kine!" Stepping forward and pushing her back, Elio's coat rips along the shoulders as the skin and muscle underneath that Elizabeth found purchase on is torn during his escape from her clutches. While the pain blossoms on his arms and warm blood runs down to his palms, he whirls to face his foe. With his blade in hand stabs forward to where he can hear her in the dark. His aim is true and Elizabeth isn't fast enough to escape as the knife finds its way into her throat, eliciting a hoarse scream. To his surprise, she doesn't go down. Instead, she reaches up to the knife and grips it with an iron strength, trying to wrench it from his grasp as she steps back and away.

"Maybe there is something to this Vampire talk after all." Elio says with a grunt as sweat appears on his brow, switching to both hands on the knife now stuck in Elizabeth's throat. Of course, as long as she was here, she wasn't hiding in the shadows to strike him. That golden sigil alights on Elio's forehead, giving him back his sight to see the pale woman oozing blood from what should be a lethal wound for any human. Her eyes are orange and cat-like, hyper fixated on Elio's face. Even now her muscles were swelling larger and larger under her dress and coat as her strength somehow surges, giving her the edge in the struggle over the knife. Switching tactics, Elio quickly moves forward towards Elizabeth and throws as much of his weight on top of the knife as possible which begins to cut downwards and towards her torso. It carves a long track from the throat to below the ribs before being released as Elizabeth finally crumbles without even a further screech.

The sound of Elizabeth's body echoes out amongst the rain fall, now illuminated by Elio standing over her. "Still feel like this is worth it?" Elio says to the two henchmen. "Elizabeth is down for the count."

"Fuck." Bat-goon says while adjusting his grip. There is an uncertain moment before bat-goon gets the gumption to approach and attack. Coming close enough for a solid swing, he takes his best chance but only finds air as Elio slips under the bat and stabs up at bat-goon's arm with the knife, piercing through it again.

Dashing back to a safe distance, Elio frowns as bat-goon cries out and grips his arm. "Wait. Weren't you the one that I stabbed in that same arm yesterday?" He returns to a ready posture, "You must not be quite human yourself, eh?"

Mohawk throws that broken flashlight he's been trying to get working at Elio. It arcs through the air beautifully before being deflected by Elio's forearm and its cheap plastic shatters on the ground. While the flashlight breaks, bat-goon swings in from the other side with gritted teeth, just fast enough to catch Elio in the ribs, eliciting a pained grunt from him. From where the flashlight was thrown, Mohawk sprints forward while Elio falters, trying to throw a right haymaker into him that is blocked with a solid thump by Elio's left arm.

With his right, he stabs down at Mohawk's legs, the knife skimming off his jeans. Its grip is a little too bloody and Elio for once a little too unsteady to land a clean stab. Stepping back from the next bat swing, Mohawk executes what he believes to be an excellent roundhouse kick at his foe. His planted foot squeaks on the asphalt and he can feel the rain that the foot intercepts as it travels. So excellent is this kick that Elio is easily able to step within his guard while Mohawk recovers and stabs upwards and between his ribs. Mohawk quietly snarls and sputters as his lungs are pierced, blood spattering with his cough.

"Dammit, Jim." Bat-goon says. "I always told that idiot to stop trying to kick people."

Elio breaths hard, "Then there were two." His side aches with a growing bruise but this endeavor has finally reached its conclusion. He takes one more gulping breath and begins to glow as he feels the now familiar strength of Essence guide his hands through the dark.

For a moment, night becomes day as Elio's anima alights in earnest. At that moment that bat-goon is shielding his eyes from the sudden light, the pistol in Elio's off hand fires into bat-goon's chest. "What... are... you?" He gurgles as the cloak of anima fully engulfs Elio, finally obscuring his features except for two glowing orbs for his eyes and the empty circle on his brow. His life bleeds away on a nameless backroad.

On the blood and rain-soaked asphalt, Elio plops down in a heap, struggling to catch his breath. His shoulders hurt and while it was easy to ignore in the fight, they were quickly making themselves known. But his duty for the night is done.

What do I do now? He asks himself. His gaze falls on the drugs in the van and duffle bags. Can't just leave those out here. Elio grunts as he stands and begins the arduous task of moving them to the church. By morning light, he has completed the task.

Well. I am going to need some sort of base of operations. He thinks while looking at the church. Maybe once Megan and her boss are taken care of. Something is eating at him though as he looks up at the church tower. He thinks for a moment. Did he forget something? His head snaps up to the church bell tower. The sniper.

Elio easily jumps up along some of the rubble and broken wood until he is face to face with nothing. The nest is empty aside from a few spare rifle cartridges and a well-worn camping chair. "God damn." In all the excitement he had forgotten about them. Sleepiness overtakes him though. It's time to rest. Settling into one of the broken pews in the main area of the church, Elio idly flips through Elizabeth's wallet. Credit card. More than a few hundred in cash. No ID. Figures. He sighs and shimmies around. Won't be his most comfortable rest, but sleep is required.

 

[Kinotics]

Elio awakens on the uncomfortable pews only having his coat as a blanket. The bruises from last night after being struck by bat-goon are already healing and the lacerations Elizabeth created on his shoulders are little more than pale scars. Perks of being whatever he is. A Night. Turns out that Nights still have to eat though and his stomach rumbles with assent. Quickly rising, he feels through his pockets and takes stock of what assets of his that he has. Knife, pistol, wad of cash from Elizabeth, packet of heroin, phone that died sometime yesterday, his own (empty) wallet. With sniff he cringes and realizes his last shower was at least three days ago. Sweat, blood, and assorted grime cover most of his skin and hair. Even the rain from last night was not enough to scrub the past from him.

He starts to search through the church. Rotten kitchen filled with the bitter-sweet smelling rotten food, old drawers filled with mildew and illegible papers, and eventually a packet of matches. Looking up from the bathroom drawer he found them in, he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and stops. Matted dark brown hair, olive skin, deep hazel eyes ringed in too many sleepless nights, ratty and now torn and bloodstained jacket. Turning the handle of the sink, no water comes out and Elio settles for licking a palm and scrubbing a little of the dirt and dried blood from his cheeks. Shower. Gotta get a shower.

First things first though, he's going to burn this church down. Can't just leave all this heroin just sitting out here and the church was a hazard anyway. Elio rips some old curtains yet untouched by the rains and mold and piles it within the relatively dry kitchen. Holding the match book in hand, he plays with it between his fingers. He glances down the hall towards the main hall, where light pours through the few remaining unbroken stained glass windows in a prismatic glow.

For a moment he leans against the side of the hallway, which groans with his weight. Sorry big guy. I think you'll find it in you to forgive me this time though. He strikes a match and lights the rest of the book before placing it under the pile of now rags in the kitchen. On his way out he offers a quick prayer before swiftly exiting.

The morning sun has begun to shine properly, warming Elio's back, as the church's smoke begins to spread in a thick cloud. Elio begins his hike back to town proper. It's early afternoon and his feet are sore by the time he makes it back to town.

A drive for familiarity, a shower, and the leftover pizza in his fridge brings Elio to his apartment to at least see what his odds of snagging some comfort are. He moves to the far side of town towards a ramshackle apartment complex. Standing three stories tall, its rundown faces don't exactly invite one inside. Out front in the lot is his old green four door sedan complete with evergreen air freshener hanging from its rear view.

Stalking the surrounding blocks, Elio does not find anyone who is keeping an eye on the apartments. An oddity for sure. Opening the front door into the equally shabby lobby, Elio steps past a few of his neighbors milling about, checking mail, gossiping, and the like. His apartment is on the second floor and it becomes painfully obvious which one is his from the police tape covering the door. Carefully parting the tape, he opens the door.

His normally neat apartment is a mess. Clearly the cops already turned it over. Papers are strewn about, couch cushions torn open, cabinets ransacked. Worse, his backpack that kept his laptop, "investigators" tools, and camera is gone. Elio cracks the fridge, hoping his leftovers survived the inspection. Nope. There are some condiments, but it looks like the cops helped themselves. "Hungry bastards." He mutters under his breath. Elio eyes the ketchup but he's not that desperate. Yet.

Stepping into the bathroom, he washes the grime off of him with a quick shower and acquires a change of clothes. His windbreaker is replaced with a light hoodie and baseball cap and sweats with loose fitting jeans. He grabs the keys to his sedan but there doesn't appear to be much else waiting for him here. He'd park it on the edge of town, somewhere quiet.

Connections everywhere. Megan's words echo through his mind. She'd threatened his family and that wasn't something to take laying down. With that thought rattling in mind, Elio closes up the apartment just like he had found it. As he closes the door to his apartment, his neighbor Joyce opens her door and finds only the empty hallway. She frowns, having sworn she heard Elio's door open and close. From behind a large ornamental fake plant, Elio emerges before heading back down the stairs to the lobby.

By the time that he drives up to Aiello Funeral Home, Elio notices that he's picked up a tail. A police cruiser whose passenger is craning his neck to no doubt pick out his license plate and confirm that it is Elio's car. How did they find me so fast? He quickly thinks for a moment. They probably put a bug in my car just in case I was stupid enough to come back for it. Cursing under his breath, he pulls a sharp turn in an attempt to break line of sight with the cop. The car shudders and heaves slightly at the turns but holds together. Speeding through the backlot of a breakfast place, he has to swerve to avoid more than a few illegally parked cars along the sides. On the other side of the back lot there is a completely full parking lot.

While thinking he had managed to get ahead of the cop, the cruiser pulls up and blocks the parking lot exit he was about to drive through. "Step out of the vehicle with your hands where I can see them!" the cop says over their loudspeaker.

Didn't really like the car much anyway. Elio steps out of the car, hands above his head.

Looking behind him, he sees a crowd gathered. That same damnable banner flying over a nearby restaurant Divers, Diners, and Drives was filming at the local restaurant behind him. And half the freaking town was here to see it. He could already see a number of people turning to see what the commotion was. "Just can't get away from this show." He mumbles.

In the distance he can hear sirens rushing closer. "Stay right there! Don't move!" The officer checks their pistol and keeps it trained on Elio.

"You got the wrong guy, man." Elio says, changing his accent. "I'm not Elio, I'm just boosting the car!" There is a moment of confusion in the cops' eyes suddenly. "I'm no murderer or whatever!" And the moment the cops' gun lowers a fraction of an inch and he takes a hand off of it to speak into his shoulder radio, Elio darts into the parking lot towards the crowd.

"Son of a bitch!" The cop shouts before holstering his weapon and takes off after Elio but as he reaches the edge of the crowd can no longer find his target.

The cops search becomes more methodical as another cruiser with a pair of police arrive to assist. "We believe that Elio is hiding in this crowd. Please, everyone form a line so we may search!"

"Oh my god," Elio whispers to a few of the more nervous looking members of the crowd, "that murderer could be anywhere right now! They can't keep us here!"

"We're going to die!" Shouts a panicked man, his eyes wild as he grabs the shoulders of his daughter to start pushing his way through the crowd.

"Everything is under control!" The police shout back.

"Get out of the way!" A larger woman shoves through the front of the crowd, which proves to be the keystone as the crowd quickly floods in every direction trying to leave back to their cars. Enough of a distraction for Elio to grab a plate of pancakes from inside and vanish with the fleeing crowd.

Slipping across the street the bell above the door dings as Elio enters the Aiello Funeral Home. A lean looking woman is speaking with a stout looking man with the same eyes as Elio, but framed with smile lines, and thinning hair behind the counter. She turns and her eyes widen as Elio enters.

"Uh, thanks for your help. I'll just be waiting in the lobby for a bit." She quickly says and steps aside, hefty hiking boots clomping on the wooden floors.

Elio steps up to the counter. "Can I speak to you in the back, Ezio?" Elio asks quietly.

"Yeah, we'd better. I got some work to do anyway." Ezio sighs and steps through a back door that leads from the nicely decorated lobby into the cold, white lights of the morgue.

As soon as he enters the back, Ezio embraces Elio roughly. Then pulls back and punches his shoulder. "Why the hell are you worrying me like this? You don't tell me anything anymore." He berates Elio in Italian.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, really..." Elio puts a hand up to his shoulder and stops as his eyes slide to the body on the slab. He recognizes her. Pallid skin, raven-black hair, the wounds in her throat that extend down her torso. The cuts seem well clotted and slightly more closed than. "Hey, uh, where'd you get that body from?" Elio thumbs over towards the corpse.

Ezio looks confused for a moment before looking behind him. "This isn't the time to grill me on my work. I can hear the sirens just across the road. Why the hell are you assaulting police officers! I thought you said you were done with your petty gangster shit?"

Elio leans in close. "This isn't about my shitty past. There is some conspiracy theory level stuff going on right now, Ezio."

Leaning in closer, Elio can smell the coffee on Ezio's breath. "Well, I know you are a wanted criminal and everything... but when you say conspiracy level stuff, do you mean talking men in black level? Or like bigfoot framed you for murder level?"

Elio blinks, truly perplexed. "Uh. V... vampire level? Where do vampires and zombies fall on this list?"

It's Ezio's turn to look confused. "Vampires? Come on man, I'm more into weird 'government is up to shifty stuff'."

"I got a little bit of that. Least I think." Elio says, sinking into a chair. "Don't suppose I could get something to eat? All I've had in like two days is a pancake I stole from across the road."

"Fine." Ezio crosses to a large stainless steel refrigerator and takes an apple out, tossing it to Elio.

"Grazie." He crunches into it with enthusiasm. "So. This all started when I turned in evidence of drug trafficking to Megan, which she hired me to do. You know, the mayor's assistant Megan. When I did, she tried to off me. Called me a loose end. Which is also when the cops got involved and I knew if I was taken to the station you'd never see my handsome mug again. So I had to, you know, rough them up a bit and make tracks."

Ezio smiles broadly. "I knew that Megan was up to something." He jogs over to a binder and opens it up, going down a list of names. "The amount of drug related deaths in the area has gone up. More and more of them come to our place as time goes on and in almost all of them Megan has been involved." He stops and looks over to Elio, halfway through the apple now. "Weird part is that most of them didn't die from drugs. Least near as I can tell in my autopsies. But" he closes the book, "whenever one of them comes in, she's been giving me more than a few bucks to write it in as a drug-related death."

"So what did they die of if it wasn't drugs, Ezio?" Elio asks, coming over to look over Ezio's shoulder at his books.

Ezio smiles broadly, brandishing his teeth as though he had fangs. "Exsanguination. These body's veins are drier than the Mojave when they get here. And you bring up Vampires? Can't be a coincidence."

"That's the thing, Ezio. Vampires." Elio tosses the apple core into the trash across the room. "Apparently well-connected ones. Well-connected enough that since they know I'm causing trouble for them, they might come looking for trouble here."

"What, you gave them your real name?" Ezio says flabbergasted.

"I told you, I'm on the straight and narrow. Real names for honest work." He coughs, "Least as honest as my work gets." He adds quietly.

Ezio shakes his head. "The one time you try and be honest and we get fucking vampires down the throat. That's life for you, eh?"

"You are taking this pretty well for a guy that I just told is probably gonna be hunted by some Vampires you didn't know existed a few minutes ago."

He shrugs. "Take things in stride I guess."

"Oh," Elio begins, "that woman on the slab? She's a vampire that I put to rest last night. What's she doing here?"

Ezio looks over to the body. "Really? She looks pretty normal to me." He wanders over to where a couple of plastic tags marking wounds are on the body. "Except for the massive fucking hole through of the neck and a gaping knife wound through her sternum and several ribs. How the hell'd you manage that one?"

"I'm stronger than I look. You know that." Elio lies. "Open up those ancient shutters and let see if she burns in sunlight then. That'd prove it no doubt, right?"

His brother raises an eyebrow. "I guess. I don't really want the fire alarm going off though..."

Elio rolls his eyes before moving to the shutter chains and pulling them to allow the sun into the normally purely artificially lit exam room. As soon as the rays touch her body, Elizabeth's skin begins to blister and blacken, smoke rising up. Elio quickly shuts them before her body can truly burn away. With a metallic shriek at the sudden jostling, bright white, fluorescent light reasserts itself.

"Well look at that." Ezio leans down and looks at the fresh burns. "These really are just like third degree burns. And from such little time in the light? Fascinating." He prods at the burns with a gloved hand. "If this is a Vampire, why doesn't she move? Shouldn't she have screamed or woken up by now?"

Elio shrugs. "Dunno. Maybe I did enough damage to her that she is just out cold."

"I guess..." Ezio is curiously prodding the body with the end of a scalpel. "Do you think she'd be upset if I removed organs? She seems like every other dead body." He stops for a moment. "Do vampires need organs?"

"I'll let you puzzle over that." Elio starts. "In the meantime, who brought her here?"

"That woman that you saw when you came in. Names Ashley I think?" Ezio says absentmindedly. Elio is already heading towards the door back to the lobby. He bumps against the door and it doesn't move. From the other side he hears a yelp and the pressure moves away. He opens it and sees Ashley just as she is sitting down. Frantically looking near her, she grabs a magazine from a side table and flips it open. "Okay." Elio says as he moves between the exit and her. "I'm not even going to entertain the notion that you were not listening in."

"Whhaaaaattt?" Ashley does her best surprised expression as she pulls a blonde lock of hair out of her eyes. It does not work well. Even Elio can see through it.

He looks around and sees the rest of the lobby empty. "Why bring your master or whatever here?"

She sighs and with a shaking hand puts the magazine down on the side table. "We don't have a place for her after you took over the church. This was the backup plan for if she needed time to recover. Most morticians don't realize something weird is happening until she's recovered and gone." She isn't making eye contact and fidgets. "We didn't know that you'd be here though."

Elio nods along. "And what is your relation to the deceased?" He chuckles despite himself.

"I'm... a helper?" She says, "Due to her condition she isn't able to work well during the day, so I help out with tasks that are during the day. In return I get some of her blood."

"Some of her blood." Elio says flatly.

Ashley nods quickly. "It, well, first off it feels really really good. Also makes me a bit stronger and she told me that as long as I drink, I'll live forever! Seems like a good deal to me."

"I think I can work with this." He sits down next to her. "So. You'll tell me anything I want to know with the knowledge that if you don't I'll have Ezio open the shutters in the morgue, burning Elizabeth to cinders. Sounds good?"

Ashley pales. "Yes, sir."

Elio smiles. "Good. So you get blood and she gets a willing servant? That sounds right to you?" Ashley nods. "Okay. Do you know anything about other Vampires in the area? I believe that Megan may be in a similar position to you. Except I don't know where her master is."

She shakes her head. "Elizabeth kinda keeps me and the other two in the dark about other Kindred. Says it's better if we don't know anything for situations like, well, this one." She swallows loudly.

"But once she wakes up? She'd know?" Elio insists and Ashley once again nods. "What about weaknesses? Found out about the sunlight one, anything else? Garlic? Crosses?"

"Uhhhh, the only ones I know about are sunlight, obviously, and I think garlic works?" Ashley says, putting a hand on her chin and closing her eyes. "It's not like she goes around talking about the best ways to kill her, you know."

Elio grits his teeth. "Fine. And how long until she wakes up?"

"A week? Maybe two? Or a month. Yeah, a month." Elio looks at Ashley like she grew a second head.

"Is there any way to wake her up earlier than that? I'm kind of on a tight schedule with being a wanted man and all."

Ashley shrugs. "I dunno. Never had to wake her up before."

"Great." Elio adds sourly. A moment of tense silence passes. "Okay. What about non-vampire stuff? One of the other guys mentioned you deal with some local gang people? Maybe they'd know something. You know where to find them?"

"We would give them some of the stuff down at the Palace Campgrounds. I think they hang around there?" Ashley says.

"Palace campgrounds, huh?" Elio reaches through his memories, something tickling his mind about research into the players here. The Lead Bellies operate in that part of town. Low level street gang who are more just young adults playing at being gangsters, doing drugs and target practicing with pistols their fathers bought them. Only issue is that they wouldn't be happy talking to someone with as much heat on them as Elio.

"Lead Belly's sound familiar? Bunch of kids who think they are tough as nails?" Elio asks.

Ashley thinks for a second. "Yeah! Some twenty something is in charge, Sylvester or something."

"I think he's in charge cuz he's the only one who's been to jail." Elio laughs. He looks at Ashley for a moment. "Thanks for working with me. I really didn't want to have to hurt you."

Ashley nervously stutters and laughs. "I'm actually terrified right now!"

Elio slaps Ashley's back causing a surprised squeak. "Don't cause my brother any problems. He's not the pushover he seems like." Elio rises with a grunt and moves to the middle of the room. "Actually." He looks back to Ashley, eyes narrowed. "Since your master is being stored here, perhaps we could come to an agreement? You help protect my brother from this other vampire and his allies while I'm out on business and we'll shelter Elizabeth until she awakens. How does that sound?"

"I... I can try. If the vampire comes, I'm not sure that there is much I could do." Ashley says quietly.

"I'll be here at night. I doubt they'd risk coming during the day, right?" Elio replies.

"That sounds right at least." Ashley says.

Elio walks back towards the back. "Sounds like a plan." He pushes through the door, finding Ezio where he left him, now with a notebook in hand. "I got us some extra hands. Long as we keep the Vampire here safe and intact till she wakes up a month from now, Ashley will help keep baddies away during the day."

Ezio gives Elio a withering look. "I don't need a bodyguard Elio. I can take care of myself."

"Sure, sure. Karate and all that. But it won't help you if there are a few vampire blood hopped up junkies kicking in the backdoor with machine guns." Elio explains. "Just let her hang around. Kick her ass if it comes to that. But I think the only thing she really cares about is making sure her master is intact."

"So she's like a blood servant or something?" Ezio asks, not looking back to Elio as he begins his autopsy.

He blinks. "I guess? Is that what we are going with?"

"Sure." There is a snapping sound. "Oops." Ezio mumbles.

"You keep doing whatever it is you're doing there. I'm gonna go investigate some local gang for clues." Stepping back towards the front lobby, Elio pulls up his hood and nods towards his brother before emerging out into the still mostly empty lobby. Ashley appears a bit more composed when he returns, one leg laid atop the other while she sits and sorts through a large duffle bag. The clinking of metallic parts within is apparent. With nary a sound Elio passes through unnoticed while she is distracted.

Out on the streets, Elio is little more than a face amongst the crowd during the tourist season on a warm summer day. He sets his course for the Palace Campground, not too far away.

 

[Kinotics]

Moving through the late summer breeze with a hoodie covering most of his features, Elio makes his way towards the Palace Campgrounds. Making a quick stop by the local market, he acquires a pack of light beer with the cash Elizabeth "left" him. Fortunately, he still knows the places that won't card you if you look old enough.

Beer in hand, he passes through the arch proudly proclaiming Palace Campgrounds, and wanders for a moment between the paths and trails that wind between cabins, RV parks, and areas for tents to be set up. He passes past the areas where he and Ezio would play hide and seek in the woods while his mother set up a tent or dinner over the bar-be-que. Eventually, he sees a man wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, wearing mirrored shades, and holding beer still cold from the cooler while lounging in a worn down camping chair outside an RV. "Beer for your thoughts?" Elio offers one of his beers to the guy, who's bottle is running a bit low.

"Yeah." The guy smiles before swigging the last of his drink down and reaching out for Elio's. "My thoughts? Well, my thoughts are that you look kinda familiar." He looks Elio up and down. "You a cop?"

Elio chuckles before cracking a beer open for himself a few paces back from the guy. "Is that what you ask everyone who comes through with a beer?"

"Nope." He shakes his head before cracking the lid off the new bottle with a refreshing pop. "Just the ones who offer 'em to strangers."

"Probably fair." Elio takes a sip. "But I am looking for Sylvester. You know where to find him? You look like someone who spends" He eyes the chair and the relaxed demeanor of the man, "a lot of time here."
He sputters. "Hey come on man. It's just cuz rent is cheaper here than any of the crappy apartments in Galena. What d'ya want with Sly anyway?"

"I have something to talk to him about." With a small glance to his right, he can see a man replacing the liner of a trash can nearby a little too slowly to not be paying attention. "Business opportunities and whatnot."

The guy takes a long swig from his beer. "Whatever. The little shit increased his prices anyway. If you ain't a cop then talk some sense into him. He hangs out near the pool. Unless his camp manager is around." He jabs a thumb off to the woods nearby, "Then him and his buds hide out in the woods somewhere."

With a nod, Elio moseys over towards the pool. The man on trash duty speedwalks that direction well ahead of Elio. By the time that the gate to the pool is in view, there are a couple of young gentlemen in cargo pants, hi-vis shirts, with nametags on between Elio and entering the pool. Somewhere amongst the people behind them enjoying the pool must be Sly.

The bigger of the pair, Joe if his name tag is right, steps up to Elio as he walks up. "Heard you have been asking around about Sly. What's this you want?"

"Jesus." Elio looks the guy, who is more than a half a foot taller than him, up and down. "What are they feeding you kids these days?" He clears his throat. "Business opportunity, blah blah blah. I'm not about to just talk to the door guy."

"No details, no Sly." The other one says, apparently named Hunter. "You can take your opportunity and fuck off."

From his pocket he produces the baggie of heroin. "This is coming from one of your dealer's stashes. That dealer is no more, and I know where it all is. Talk to me."

At the gate is Sylvester, presumably. He's dressed in baggy swim trunks, t-shirt, and flip flops. Elio weighs the youth at a single glance. He can tell why he's in charge of this pack of misfits. There is just a spark of concealed violence behind those eyes and an unwillingness of Joe or Hunter to meet his eyes. While there doesn't appear to be a gun on Sly, Hunter and Joe are almost certainly carrying. "Let him in." He points to Elio before pointing towards a table with vinyl chairs beside it.

Elio smiles and follows behind Sylvester past the pool. Water splashes and kids are laughing. He stands a little shorter than the younger man as they size each other up. Elio nods a bit, then sits and Sylvester follows suit. "You Sylvester?" Elio asks as they both take a seat in the creaky chairs.

He snorts and leans back with a squeak from the plastic chair, curly brown hair bobbing along with him. "You a cop?" From an inside pocket of the swim trunks he pulls a knife that he starts to play with in hand.

"No. But I am looking for some info." Elio looks over to the pool house, which has a snack bar. "I'm going to guess all you got here is non-alcoholic, right?" He puts the rest of his beer onto the table. "Wanna drink?"

Sly eyes the beer before grabbing one and prying the cap off with the knife. He motions again to Elio, this time eyes on the pocket where the heroin baggie is contained. "The hell's that about?"

Elio puts his hands up disarmingly. "I'm looking for who's moving H on the streets here."

Sylvester laughs loudly, "So what, you give me some H and I give up my dealers? I knew it, you are a cop." He stands and makes to leave. "Go mess with someone else, huh pig?"

"Someone took out Elizabeth and her operation. Not enough people left to move the goods." Elio says, just loud enough to be heard. "She was only dealing to you guys on the side, but I know where her full supply is. You tell me about the other dealers and I'll tell you where to find it." The real stash had burned, but by the time this kid figured that out Elio would be long gone. "You and the Lead Bellies could finally move off this fucking kiddy campground. Be major players."

Sylvester grins wolfishly. "Now that's what I like to hear." He licks his lips with nervous energy and plops back into his chair. "But how do I know you aren't just lying to me?"

Elio slides the pouch over towards Sly. Light white powder lies within, almost glittering in the sunlight. "This is a package from it. For you, course."

He snatches it and looks closely at the powder within. "Fine. We've been buying from a couple of shady fucks fresh from outta town. I think they got a distribution operation somewhere north of town. But we've been buying it from a bakery, Fresh Tastes. They got a guy that sets up there around noon on Saturdays."

"Right. Thanks for the tip." Elio stands and stretches, "That old church outside of town? Check the basement. There's whole crates worth of H in there." He walks away.

Sylvester quickly catches up, grabbing Elio's shoulder. "What's your name, man?" He doesn't let go as his grip tightens. "In case we need to get in touch."

"Sammy. Sammy Liner." Elio quickly says before shrugging off Sylvester's hand.

He frowns. "Right..." Some kids come into the pool area, a little too close to the pair, as he is about to say something else. "Fine."

Elio quietly slides into the background of trees and roads once he steps past Hunter and Joe.

As he walks past the trailer the sunglasses man was in front of earlier, Elio can't help but overhear a news report playing on the TV.

"Breaking news, the man accused of assaulting officers and attempting to murder a public official has been taken into custody!" Lauren Willis, local news anchor, announces. Elio stops and frowns. "Found hiding in plain sight, Elio has been arrested by heroic officers, some of whom were the same that he attacked. Further news as it becomes available..." The news goes on to a different inane subject.

What? How could they mess up that badly? Elio thinks to himself. Whatever. He continues on his way out of the campground. Least that will make waiting for Saturday a bit easier.

Stalking back towards the funeral home, Elio finds it much the same as he left it. Ashley remains seated in the lobby, now having relocated to the far corner from the entrance. She nods slightly at Elio as he enters in, which Elio returns in kind before heading into the morgue. Ezio is drawing blood out of Elizabeth's cold corpse when he enters.

"You got a plan for that blood?" Elio says as he sits loudly onto a rolling office chair at a large wooden desk. He eyes the blood in Ezio's hands, contained in several small vials.

He looks up to Elio. "When'd you get in here? I didn't hear the door open." Ezio carefully sets the vials colored a dark crimson onto a metal tray next to him. "Yeah, I mean if this is really a Vampire, we should do some basic research on the blood. Gotta be something there we can learn."

"Sure." Elio nods. "So I need a place to lay low until Saturday and I was wondering if I could..."

"You can't stay at my place. Sarah can't stand you man." Ezio cuts his brother off.

Elio rolls his eyes and huffs. "I thought she forgave me already. You can't talk to her about this?"

Ezio returns the sigh. "I've tried. You really fucked up and she isn't likely to forgive you for that." He points towards a locker room on the other side of the morgue. "There's a cot, a sink, and some lockers in there. You can stay there if you help me out with the behind-the-scenes stuff here."

"Aw what? That room..." He takes a deep sniff in its direction, "smells like sweat and formaldehyde man. Would it kill you to buy some of that spray stuff one of these days?"

"It's that or nothing, Elio. You can't stay at your place. There's no way you'd have done something dumb like ask to stay at Lisa's place." Ezio narrows his eyes as Elio doesn't make eye contact. "Right?"

"Right."

The silence stretches for a moment, really taking in all the corners of the room until only the harsh buzz of the refrigeration units can be heard. "Well. I won't let my brother be on the streets so you'll stay in the locker room." Ezio's tone makes it certain that it's the final word said.

"What about," Elio jabs a finger in the direction of the front lobby. "That one?"

Ezio shrugs. "She's not a wanted criminal. Let her figure that out. Only got one cot."

The rest of the week crawls by. Elio helping out with whatever tasks keep him in the back. Mostly mixing cleaners and chemicals and checking temperatures of samples and cooling units. Despite living in a morgue for a week, little to no spooky occurrences happen, much to Elio's disappointment. Ashley has pitched a camo tent somewhere in the vicinity out in the light shrubbery nearby.

Saturday finally makes itself known, and Elio heads towards Fresh Tastes to find his mark. As he is about to turn the corner to the bakery, he stops to momentarily admire a red Ferrari that was parked nearby, nodding appreciatively before carrying on. A few trickles of rain find their way down to the sidewalk, bringing forth the smell of wet pavement. Rounding the corner, he finds Sylvester quietly chatting with a man wearing a baseball cap at the corner table of the bakery through their large front bay windows. Flanking Sly is Hunter and Joe of course. Glancing at the rest of the bakery that's in view , it's deserted. Not much of a way to get closer without being noticed by Sylvester who looks to be speaking quite emphatically to the cap wearing gent. Fresh Tastes occupies the bottom floor of a larger apartment complex, an old brickwork building.

Settling onto a bench across the street, he waits. Elio waits as an occasional customer comes in and the people in the corner seem to do the same, waiting for him. An hour passes at this impasse. The rain does not pick up or slow down, keeping its slight pace as clouds pass overhead.

Sly motions to his Hunter and Joe, says something to them, and the two of them stand and exit the building. They start to walk around the block, staring at people as they walk by before moving on. Before they can approach the bench that Elio has claimed, he stands and moves to the side of the building, a rickety fire escape above him.

Getting inside could provide a better opportunity to listen in on the two still inside. Lithely, Elio leaps atop a dumpster and reaches up to the bottom rung of the ladder to hoist himself up and to the second floor.

Glancing down as he climbs the rust-colored metal fire escape, Hunter and Joe are nowhere to be seen. Turning back to the task at hand, a window inside to the second story greets him. Looking inside, he sees various crates and containers and a few pieces of machinery with cloth covering them. Seems like no one is home. Elio reaches the window bar and gives it a quick check. It easily opens as he slides through, creeping over the old floors towards the stairs leading down. Here, he can catch an occasional scrap of dialogue from below as he focuses his hearing.

"You think he's gonna show, Sly?" The dealer says. "We've been waiting an hour. Your fuckers outside are ruining the business. Mine and the bakery's. If we're lucky the cops are gonna get called in." He grumbles.

There is an irritated shuffling sound from Sylvester. "He's gonna show."

"And if he doesn't?" the dealer sounds exasperated. "Fuck's sake man. I'm already gonna have to get a new place to sell from. Worse, what if he's a cop?" There is a note of fear in his voice. "For all we know, he's getting his posse together to come bust us."

"Come on man, get a grip. That guy gave me a bag of H. And I know it was from Liz's stash." Sylvester pleads.

Elio can hear the dealer's head shake against a plastic jacket. "That was definitely from the shit before they burned it up! So goddamn stupid. You wanna wait for this weirdo? Fine. But you're doing it without me." His chair pushes back, rumbling against the wood floors. "I'm not selling you shit again. This is your fault. Should've checked his story before telling him shit." He hisses. "Fucking gave us a fake name even. Sammy Liner. Fuck." The door opens and slams not long after.

Elio stands from his squat near the stairs and makes his way back to the fire escape, closing the window behind him. Glancing down the alley as he creeps down, Elio's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Where the alley meets the road is where that Ferrari was parked. And the drug dealer is getting into it. And then it squeals away as the pedal is put to the metal. At least it'll be easy to follow... Elio thinks as he grunts, leaping down the fire escape without taking the ladder. His knees creak a moment before he takes off running through the alley, trying to keep an eye on the car.

As Elio races out of sight, easily ducking behind buildings and cover as needed to keep pace with the car, he hears a massive crash. Rounding the corner onto one of the main streets he finds the Dealer's car totaled, having run straight into one of those old fashioned steel plated mailboxes.

"Oh my god! Call an ambulance!" An old woman shouts as her adult son pulls out his phone and dials, starting to blabber into the phone.

Another man comes up to the car, "Hey man, are you okay?"

Inside the car, the Dealer has a large cut across his forehead and moves sluggishly. "Yeah..." he mumbles, trying to right himself enough to stand but failing, "I'm... fine..." The police and ambulance arrive in short order.

Officer Jenkins steps out of the cruiser and rushes to check on the Dealer. As the other one approaches, she stops at the trunk, which is cracked open from the force of the impact. They pick up a container of white powder that has burst open on impact. Rubbing it between her fingers she looks over to the Dealer who is being helped by Jenkins before moving to assist.

While the cops are interrogating the Dealer the ambulance arrives. In the crowd that has gathered to gawk at the crash, Elio is slinking between the people within it, making his way to the passenger side of the car to quietly ruffle through his belongings. Cracking the door quietly, as all attention is on the other as the police officers work to assist a reluctant drug dealer, Elio finds a small leather journal in the glove box. It's all he has time to look through as the crowd around him shuffles and threatens to reveal him. He grabs it and quickly retreats as the ambulance arrives, taking the Dealer away with a police escort.

Elio plops down at a nearby cafe, the only good one in Galena and starts to leaf through the journal. Debts, names, and meeting spots, all in one place. Most of the names, however, are pseudonyms and nicknames, making identification a little difficult. Maybe Ashley will recognize some of these names.

 

[Kinotics]

Returning to the city block where the funeral home resides, there is a car in the lot that makes Elio's stride catch for a moment as his leading foot hangs in the air. It's a red Bently from the 90's. Down the street are a pair of black SUVs with heavily tinted windows that weren't here when he left as well parked on the street. Restoring his walk, Elio moves to the side of the Bently and puts a hand on the side mirror. Frowning, he wipes a finger along the mirror itself, leaving a long smudge. Inside, he can hear two men quietly talking in the foyer.

Sucking in a shallow breath, Elio pushes open the doors. The bells hung to the door jingle loudly as conversation is cut off between Ezio and another man at the front desk. He turns to look at who just came in, a smile running away from him as it turns to a grimace. He's a bit gray, a bit stocky, and his stance screams of someone used to getting his way one way or another. "Well, if it isn't little Elio." His voice is gravelly, his tone severe. There is a glass of red wine in his hand.

"Dad." Elio says simply. "Didn't know you'd be stopping by."

Mr. Aiello chuckles and sips his wine. Ezio remains quiet, not making eye contact with Elio. "A man doesn't need to announce a visit to his kid, right? Plus I didn't know you'd be here." He waves dismissively. "If I'd known you'd be here I'd have taken Ezio out somewhere else."

"Yeah yeah." Elio rolls his eyes and walks towards the door to the morgue. "Some heads up next time he's coming by, Ezio?"

Ezio nervously chuckles. "Yeah... I'll try."

Pushing through the doors into the morgue, the doors only open halfway before Elio catches Mr. Aiello say, "Thought he was done with the mob shit." To Ezio. He clicks his tongue. "Not that we expected much more from him, eh?" With a deep sigh, Elio continues into the morgue, allowing the continuation of the conversation to escape his senses.

In the morgue, Ashley sits at the empty slab cleaning and assembling a long hunting rifle with a carved wooden stock.

"Family trouble?" Ashley says quietly, not looking up from her work.

"You could say that." Rubbing his forehead, he takes a seat at the wooden desk on the far side of the room. "Old wounds don't close easily." Instead he looks over Ashley who seems to nervously fidget under his gaze. "Let me guess. You're a hunter of some kind?"

"What makes you say that?" She says while moving to keep her body between her work and Elio.

He points to the rifle, "Hunting style rifle. Bolt action with .308 cartridges. Not a cheap gun either. Plus there's the hiking boots and dirty camo jacket. Kind of a dead give away."

Ashley slowly nods. "Yeah. I was actually out hunting when I found Elizabeth. Or when she found me? I'm not sure."

"So you found her out in the woods and just decided to become a blood slave or whatever?" Elio quirks an eyebrow.

"No. Elizabeth came to our camp in the night. Said that she was being chased by someone and that she needed help. There's been a few missing persons reports in the area, so it wasn't hard to believe. The three of us let her stay with us while we packed up and got ready to leave in our camper." She rambles for a moment.

Elio holds up a hand. "Three of you? Those two other blood people I killed weren't them, were they?"

She shakes her head. "No. The mistress ended up feeding on the other two, but something about me caught her eye. She calls me her hare, whatever that means."

"Were they your friends? The other two on your trip."

"Yeah, they were good friends of mine. But the mistress must be sated. She didn't kill them," She adds after seeing the befuddled look on Elio's face. "No, just helped them to forget me and that night. But she took me with her to help out with her goals here. Gave me some of her blood, told me I was special and that I would help her a lot to have around." She looks over towards one of the wall storage units and holds her gaze there.

"Great." Elio mumbles. He pulls out the notebook from the dealer from a coat pocket. "I have a ledger here, but most of the names are nicknames. You recognize any of them?"

Ashley takes the small notebook and flips through it. She stops on an early page. "Yeah, this one. Stripes. I heard Elizabeth talking about that name a little while ago. She said that she thought he was a ghoul for her rival. A big wig with the local police." Ashley looks again at the ledger, "Looks like this dealer friend of yours was actually getting a little bit of product from him."

"Something else to look into, I guess." Elio takes the book back. "I'll have to poke around in the police station to see what I can find." He stops and frowns a moment. There isn't anyone talking in the front room anymore. Elio quietly and quickly stands and makes his way across the tiled floor, straining his ears to hear anything through the thick walls and door.

He hears footsteps. More than two people, maybe four in total. The clicks and jingling of weapons as well. The click of a magazine being checked and the pullback of an SMG action being primed. "Fuck." He mutters, turning back to Ashley. "Our friends are here. Stay back here and get an angle." He takes in the surroundings. There is an exit into the locker room and a back exit but only one way into the front from the morgue.

Listening for a moment, Elio doesn't hear anyone at the back. It's daytime though, so moving Elizabeth is out of the question without some prep work. Perhaps he could talk his way out of this? Not his strong suit, but better than putting blood into his brother's funeral home.

Elio hides his handgun in the back of his pants and steps out into the front room. He finds no sign of Ezio, but sees his father speaking quietly with three goons in body armor. Mr. Aiello turns to his son. "So, you've been sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, eh?" He starts to roll up his sleeves, exposing the hardened muscles of a brawler in his prime. A set of brass knuckles is pulled out as he wriggles his fingers.
"What the hell is this?" Elio looks at the armed men and back to his father, pieces falling into place. "For an old fart, you look pretty healthy. Been working out?" Elio has a casual grace as he walks slightly forward. "Or are you back to doping like the good ol' days?"

Elio senior smiles wryly. "Sure. I've been feeling like I was thirty again for a bit now." He takes a practice punch, a straight with expert form. "Turns out there are still people out there that still have a use for an old brawler like me."

"Huh, a mob thug then?" Elio's eyes narrow as he glares at Mr. Aiello. "Sounds like you've just become the thing you've hated me for doing all this time."

"I don't have to tell you shit." He cracks his knuckles and looks back to the trio as they begin to pull up their SMGs. "You three just watch." He looks back to Elio, "I'll show this idiot what happens when you mess with the business personally." Mr. Aiello raises his knuckles and falls into a brawler's stance. "Do you remember your old boxing lessons?"

Elio grits his teeth and raises his fists. "All I remember is you beating the shit out of me and calling it practice." He looks at his father, not as family for a moment but as a combatant. The lean muscles are all there. Muscles that should have fallen off as the years caught up with him. He doesn't look like the slightly overweight sixty-something that Elio remembers anymore.

"Where is Ezio?" Elio asks as the two men start to circle and look for openings in the other's stance. The three gun-toting men move to block the few exits. Clearly, even if Elio wins this bout, they are here to make sure he doesn't walk out.

Mr. Aiello sees an opening and takes the first jab. A fast strike at the head to test reflexes and defenses. Elio twists out of the way as the first attack flies past his ear and retracts into a defensive wall before a follow-up attack can be attempted. "He didn't see the benefits of working with us."

Elio moves forward, a straight punch aimed for the gut and hopefully under his father's guard. The punch's path is impeded by the fists of his father, easily batting away his attack. Exhaling through his teeth, "Is that all we are to you? Things to get out of the way if we don't work for you?" Elio follows his words up with a haymaker using his left hand, pushing his father back towards a side table and into reach of a standing lamp next to it. The haymaker catches Mr. Aiello on the side of the head near the ear, rattling his balance and causing immediate ringing in his ears.

"Gah. I see my lessons didn't go to waste at least." He grunts and twists a bit, switching from his favored boxing stance and bringing his knee up into a brutal Muay Thai maneuver aimed at the stomach as he pushes off his other leg. Elio is like the wind as he shifts to the right and steps to his father's side, taking his flank as he reaches for the lamp.

"I'm done with this game." Elio flips around and grabs the lamp, a long slender brass standing pole with a light bulb on the end. "Fuck you and your boss." He brings the lamp to bear, a crushing overhead blow meant to settle this quickly and likely non-lethally, if his hunch is correct.

Mr. Aiello raises both his arms above his head, catching the brunt of the damage of the viciously fast attack on his forearms. There is a snapping sound as the ulna in his right arm breaks from the sheer force of the blow and he screams as he falls to his knees clutching the broken limb. "Fucker!" He points up with his still intact left arm, "Kill him!" The guards ready their weapons and fire, two with SMGs on full auto and the last taking a shot with his pistol.

The room lights up as bullets fly everywhere. Mr. Aiello throws himself flat on the floor and prays that none find him. Elio is like light itself as he ducks and weaves between seemingly impossible spaces each time finding safety between heartbeats. The last gunman waits for his moment, however, and fires directly into Elios' torso. The bullet in a bloody flesh wound and Elio grits his teeth against the sudden white hot pain.

There is a series of clicks as the two SMG wielding grunts find their weapons empty, having sprayed devastation across the room but not finding their target. Elio quickly capitalizes on this by whirling around the lamp and aiming for the throat of the pistol-wielding gunman. A sickening crunch rings out as the lamp connects with the man's neck. He hits the floor in the slump as something vital breaks in him. The other two gunmen step back and pull out magazines that click into place, reloaded.

The door into the morgue is kicked open and Ashley has flipped a metal exam table over to provide cover as she lines up her shots on the gunmen. There is a blast of a high powered rifle that shakes the timbers of the room as the first bullet lances out from the back room, aimed at the first gunner who just managed to get his magazine into place.

Blood splatters over the floor as the bullet passes cleanly through the man's shoulder and impacts into the wall. Both gunners take a step back to reassess the new situation and Elio takes advantage of the confusion to throw another swing of the lamp at the now bleeding gunner, grunting as he ignores the pain in his own side. The gunner falls under the brunt of the assault, but lands on his knee. He breathes heavily, pulls down his balaklava to get cooler air and grits his teeth before rising back up and bracing the SMG against his hip and yelling while pulling the trigger in the direction of the lamp wielding maniac.

Elio desperately springs into action, blurring as his lamp spins into the path of the incoming dozens of bullets. He barely manages to turn each aside and into the surrounding wooden walls and floors. At the end, his lamp is riddled with dents and holes where each bullet made contact.

The is ready as he pulls the action of his SMG back, primed for another long burst. He aims at the blur of brass and flash that is Elio and fires a crossing stream of bullets. The foyer is full of holes and gun smoke and the gunman intends on adding to it. Elio spins and twirls, sweat beading his brow as he creates a passage through the bullets and into safety. Most of the bullets spark off the beaten and battered lamp, but more than a couple streak past, leaving bloody marks on the walls and floors as they find flesh. The metal rings of a bolt action being operated as fast as possible as it's primed before the smoke from its last shot has time to clear. Ashley takes her second shot in as many breaths. The second shot rings out and crashes through the body armor of the wounded man, slaying him before he has time to hit the ground.

Elio grimaces and breathes through the pain as he watches the last gunner. He needed to conserve himself for later. The bent and battered lamp post wasn't going to last much longer like this, but it will serve as a bludgeon just fine for now. Swinging horizontally, Elio catches the gunner in the ribs, leaving him with bruised bones through his body armor. Stepping back, he reaches into his vest and removes his last magazine and slaps into place, continuing to skitter back and breaking line of sight with Ashley from the morgue. He's too slow though, as another rifle bullet slams into the ceramic plate in the gunman's bullet proof jacket, which he can feel break under the impact of the round but does its job of saving his skin.

The gunner dives behind a couch riddled with bullet holes, taking shots at Elio and trying to conserve the last of his bullets. "What the fuck are you?!" He screams over the hail of explosions. Elio breathes quickly as he ducks under the incoming attack, his shoes squeaking on the hardwood floors as he inexorably advances towards his foe. He leaps over the couch, executing a mid-air forward flip, the momentum all coming crashing down in a single blow of the lamp post, crushing the back of the couch as it shears through to find its mark.

The lamp rings and sings as it breaks through the wooden cover of the frame of the couch and slams into the helmet of the gunman. He staggers then goes limp and slides to the floor.

He looks back to his father who watches in stunned silence. Shards of wood, broken glass, and the smell of gunsmoke fill the room. Sirens can be heard in the distance. "Was that part of your training?" Elio says to his father with a grunts as he looks at his wounds, blood running down his arms and legs, staining his clothes.

"You aren't any child of mine." Senior spits. "I don't know what the fuck you are, but you aren't human. No normal person moves like that. Who gave you that power?! Who did you steal it from?!" From the ground, his fingers grip the carpet, pulling it in bunches in his fists.

Elio is in front of his wounded father in a heartbeat grabbing a fistful of his silvered hair, pulling him up and forcing him to look his son in the eye. "This power? It's mine. No one gave it to me." He pulls his pistol from behind him, leveling it at his father's temple. "Tell me what you did with Ezio."

"He's gone. We moved him somewhere you won't find him." Mr. Aiello chuckles. "Power doesn't just come from nowhere, kid. And wherever yours came from? It'll come knocking one day. I hope it finds you when you least expect it." He spits blood into Elio's face.

Elio slams his fist into the senior's jaw, finding it firmer than expected but still causing a pained grunt. He wipes his forehead. "And what about your power, eh?" He shouts, "You're sixty fucking three and you somehow just came back to your prime? I've got a hunch you made some bloody good friends, huh?" He shakes him by the collar, "What have you done just to get a taste of that blood? You attacked your sons! Ezio will be lucky if he's still alive when I find him! And you actually loved him." He shakes his head, throwing him down to the ground onto his back. "I may not understand my power, but at least it doesn't control me like a hound on a leash."

Senior's breath comes in ragged gasps as he struggles to maintain consciousness. "You've kicked the hornet's nest, kid. He's never gonna stop coming for you. Not till you're dead and buried."

"I'll kill every dog he sends after me, if that's what it takes to get rid of him." Elio says resolutely.

Ashley pokes her head around the corner. "Hey, those sirens are getting closer. What do we do?"

"Get her into a coffin. We'll move her in the hearse." Elio grunts.

"Okay... where?" Ashley continues.

Elio glares back to her, "Just do it. I'll figure that out later."

Senior cackles from the floor, "Run, run, run away little cockroach. We'll find you wherever you go."

Elio slams a foot into Mr. Aiello's side and he goes quiet. He quickly goes through the pockets of his father and the three gunmen. Three cell phones and a tablet. He does nab their wallets for a little bit of cash as well as one of the empty SMGs. No paper trail to follow without cracking the phones. He does get a couple car keys though, one for his fathers car outside and another presumably for the black SUV he sees parked out there as well. "Change of plan Ashley, get the coffin into the back of that SUV. Tinted windows and doesn't stand out like a hearse will."

"Okay." Ashley replies as she struggles to get Elizabeth into a coffin in the morgue, Elizabeth's limp body flopping wildly as Ashley struggles.

The culmination of his wounds and exertion finally hit him. Elio sits for a moment, before the approaching sirens return him to action. He helps Ashley get Elizabeth into a coffin and back into the SUV before driving off before the police arrive. Peeling out, they drive down the road as several police cars scream past and towards the funeral home. Elio sighs in the passenger seat and leans down to not be seen.

"So where do we go?" Ashley asks from the driver's seat.

Elio is quiet as he applies pressure to his bullet wounds, which are no longer even bleeding as they congeal closed on their own. "I... don't know." There is a tightness in his voice. He's been pushed hard in the past, but never as hard as this last week has pushed him. "There aren't really any bridges left for me at this point. My brother is kidnapped, my father works for the enemy, and my old friend wants nothing to do with me. And I think I'm still wanted by the police, it's only a matter of time until they realize they got the wrong guy."

"We have the cash to go stay in a hotel for a while." Ashley offers.

He nods. "I think that's kind of our best option at this point. The Green Dot just at the edge of town still takes cash. And they don't ask questions and play dumb for cops and PI's."

A few minutes where the only sound is the road and the low volume radio playing some old rock lurch by before they see the Green Dot. Grungy, single story building with bars over the windows, overflowing trash can, and a large green dot on a post with a neon light reading "vacancy" under it. Even in the middle of the day, there are people loitering about. Some pace endlessly, some are in the midst of an argument, and punctuating it all is a baby crying somewhere, of all things.

Ashley sighs as she sees the Green Dot. "So this is it, huh?" Elio nods. "This looks like a place where people go to die." Elio nods again.

"More than a few OD cases have made it to Ezio's morgue from here. Looked into it one time, this place is almost certainly a front for something, but like I said, they don't talk to private investigators." The black SUV stands out from the rest of the sometimes literally duct taped together cars in the lot as it parks. "Go get a room and I'll worry about moving Elizabeth. I'll attract to much attention if I go in like this." He points to several barely closed bullet wounds and his ruined, blood soaked clothes.

She pauses before looking over to Elio, eyes narrowed. "No. I'll take Elizabeth. You go deal with the front."

Rolling his eyes, Elio steps away from the backseat where Elizabeth's coffin was hastily shoved. "Be my guest." Approaching the front office, an older, balding man sits reading a book behind the desk in the lobby reeking of smoke.

Without looking up from the book, he addresses Elio. "It's eighty a night, cash or credit. Don't do anything that the cops would come around for. Otherwise, I don't give a fuck."

Walking up to the desk, the old wood floors creak under Elio. "We'll pay day by day. Not sure how long we'll be here." Ruffling through the roll of bills, he puts the cash on the counter. The man looks up to see Elio and frowns, but takes the money.

"Don't cause me any trouble." He says simply before reaching to a row of keys and tossing one onto the counter with a metallic clink.

Walking down the row of rooms towards the room at the end of line, Ashley clearly needs some help with the heavy coffin as she struggles to move the load from one end. Elio quickly grabs the other end and the pair move towards the room in question. Next door to theirs is a greasy looking man with a blue bathrobe and slippers on. He gives what he clearly thinks a winning smile is towards Ashley.

"Hey babe, you staying a while? I'm Dale." Dale actually has a voice for radio, just the right amount of grumble and good enunciation. It's just... everything else. Ashley laughs and doesn't answer while avoiding eye contact, picking up her pace as Elio speeds to match. They make it to the door as Elio swiftly turns the deadbolt and kicks open the door. "Well, you know where to find me. I'll see you around." Dale's smile only widens, and Elio can feel a small shudder go through the coffin from the far side.

The door slams behind Ashley and Elio as they drop the coffin onto the floor between the two beds. Elio sits down on one of the beds and checks his clothes. "Did that guy not even see we were carrying a coffin?"

From the other bed, Ashley folds one leg over the other and purses her lips. "Yeah, he had other things to look at." She looks down to the coffin and sighs. "I hope you wake up soon."

Rising from the bed, Elio moves into the bathroom and sniffs experimentally. "Someone has definitely shot up here. A few times. But it will do." Shutting the door he takes off his shirt and gives himself a proper once over. All the bullets except for one seem to have passed straight through. He'll have to worry about the one in his thigh some other time though. The shower squeals to life and does his best to relax for once.

In the room proper, Ashley continues to look at the coffin. From a pocket she pulls out a pocket knife. Her eyes move from the coffin and the bathroom, where the shower running can be heard and she weighs her options.

 

[Kinotics]

Returning from the shower, Elio quickly towels off his hair. The towel is slightly tinged with red as it rubs across his closed bullet wounds.

"So what's the plan now?" Ashley asks as she clicks on the television for some background noise.

Elio sighs as he closes his eyes, leaning on the counter near the sink. "I need rest. Time to heal. Then, I'll see what I can find at the police station. If I can figure out who the, what was the word you used? Ghoul? Whoever that is, I can find out where they took my brother."

"And after that?" She continues.

"Find and kill that vampire. Save my brother. Stop the drugs coming into Galena. Clear my name." He mumbles, ruffling his hair.

Ashley looks away from the TV and towards Elio, "And after that?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Maybe kick father dearest again." Elio says quietly.

She shakes her head, "Do you know how many vampires there are? It's not like you'll be able to just kill them all. They'll get you eventually, you know? Especially if you kill one of them."

He sits heavily onto the other bed, taking a moment to feel the cardboard like structure of the mattress beneath him. "Everything worth doing comes with its fair share of risks." Elio lays back on top of the comforter. "What about you? Just gonna keep on being a ghoul for old Elizabeth there?"

"Yes, duh." Ashley chuckles.

Elio sizes Ashley up as she watches an infomercial on the small TV screen. "To each their own, I suppose." He shrugs and closes his eyes. A few minutes later he begins to quietly snore.

Once he begins to snore, Ashley's hand returns to the knife in her pocket, her gaze falling upon Elio.

The days pass uneventfully. Some attempts to breach the security of the phones have had no success. Elio's wounds close frightfully quickly as the flesh knits itself back together without even a slight scar. Even the retained bullet in his thigh pushes its way out without a trace. That spark inside him seems to grow just a bit brighter, or perhaps he becomes more accustomed to the intoxicating power of Essence. His dreams are odd these days. Feelings and words float around in his mind when he is idle and sleeping.

Solar. Creation. Protect.

It's one of those evenings when Elio has found his way up onto the roof at night that Ashley comes up as well, a six-pack of beer in hand. She tosses one to him, which he catches without even looking. The starlight is enough to illuminate their outlines in the dark, but little else. "How long until Elizabeth wakes up?" He eventually asks.

"A few weeks, I think." Ashley says quietly.

There is a long silence. "What happens when she does?" Elio asks.

"We'll probably leave. She's already seen how dangerous you are, so she is going to want to leave as quickly as possible. Maybe she'll tell you some info if you ask nicely."

"And go back to selling drugs and whatever else it is you guys do?" Elio asks. There is a barb in his voice. A sharpness that seems ever present these days.

Ashley shrugs and cracks open a can of the beer. "Whatever she wants to do."

"And what if I make sure she never can again? Put her to rest finally." He tightly grips the can in his hand.

"Then I'd have to try and stop you." Ashley says matter of factly, taking a long drink.

Elio looks over to the dark outline next to him. "Why?"

She looks up to the stars and the sliver of the moon. "Because I love her. Her and her blood. Even thinking about being away from her for too long is enough to bring me to tears."

"That doesn't seem healthy." He mutters as he opens his own can and takes a small sip.

"I don't care." Ashley says. "I just want to feel good and live forever."

He takes another sip. It's cheap beer to be sure. But is there something else in there? He smacks his tongue twice, then spits the sip out. Bitter. Some sort of medication. "Is this your attempt to stop me?" He stands, towering over Ashley as the streetlights fail to reach his face.

Gone is the meek Ashley as she stands, drawing her knife. "I can't let you hurt her. Now that your brother is gone, you don't have a reason to keep us around." There is a note of worry in her voice as she takes a ready stance.

The moment stretches on as the two figures in the night size each other up. "Fine. After this week is done, you can leave and take her with you. I can't have you ratting me out while I stay here, but I don't care after that." He walks past her towards the edge of the roof. "Just keep in mind that I will be protecting this town. If you or Elizabeth start messing around here again, you'll find me in the night waiting." Without waiting for a reply, he leaps down from the roof, landing without a sound and moves to the room.

A tense week passes and Elio's wounds have fully closed. As the day at the end of the week rolls around, Ashley loads Elizabeth's coffin into the back of the SUV. From the threshold of the room only a few feet away Elio watches. "So this is it, I suppose."

Ashley nods as she slams the trunk closed. "Yeah." An awkward silence reigns.

"Where are you going?" Elio eventually ventures.

With a shuffle, Ashley heads to the driver's side door. "I don't want to tell you. You might come and finish what you started some time."

"Right." Silence returns as Ashley opens the door and steps into the vehicle. "Stay out of trouble." The door does not close but the engine comes on with a roar.

"Go to hell." There is fury in Ashley's eyes in the crack of the door. "We aren't friends. You almost killed Elizabeth. And I know the only reason you kept me alive is because I was useful to you." She hisses.

Elio smirks and leans against the doorframe. "There's the venom. Only have the guts to say shit like that to me when you see the way out." He scoffs, "Come talk to me when you're willing to say that to me without a shiver in your spine. Because I know you're afraid, even now."

The door closes and the engine roars to life as the accelerator is pushed and the SUV peels out of the parking lot. Elio sighs before dusting himself off and beginning a trek into town. He didn't need ghouls around anyway. He had a hunt to get back to.

 

[Kinotics]

Noon-day sunlight on a warm sunny day shines down as Elio traces a path towards the Galena police precinct. Settled near the center of town, it's a two story beige building with bars over the lower level windows. Sitting down across the street from the entrance at a local cafe, Elio gets a drip coffee and starts to watch people coming and going from the station. No sense in rushing into things, after all.

He recognizes some of the people but only incidentally. A couple hours and a few coffees pass by until he sees the form of his father, heavily bandaged and wearing a sling on his right arm, approach the station. With a frown, Elio stands up and begins to follow towards the station. Hurriedly pulling his sweatshirt around the holes that were shot in it a week ago, at least he's managed to scrub the worst of the blood from it.

Standing at the entrance for a moment, he watches the eb and flow of the office. Looking at what everyone else is wearing, which is either some variation of business casual or uniforms, he's going to stick out like a sore thumb. And it's not like he can avoid everyone's stares, there's too many people going about their business. But this opportunity to see what Mr. Aiello is doing here won't last forever.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Pushing open the door, he's the perfect picture of confidence, of 'I'm supposed to be here'. The officer manning the front desk looks up at him before tapping a sign in sheet on the desk in front of him and returning to looking at the computer. Approaching the desk, Elio glances down and fails to find his fathers signature on it. Pretending to write on the sheet, he puts it back down before continuing a brisk stride past the front desk. Elio slides through the precinct, glances falling off and away from him as he seems to perfectly know when to seem as though he belongs here and when to slide into a corner and appear busy. All while keeping pace with his father, who is making his way towards the offices in the back before knocking with his good arm and entering the office of one Mr. Hunter, sheriff of Galena. Elio grabs a stack of paperwork off an unoccupied desk to appear busy and follows along towards the sheriff's office.

As he moves through the office, he overhears a detective talking about her case with a coworker. "What do you mean his alibi checks out?" She grumbles.

"Just got off the phone with the library. They have him on camera at that time waiting for the bus outside." Now walking past the open door, Elio sees Officer Jenkins talking with a woman in plain clothes with her badge hanging from a lanyard. Detective Tanya, Elio's more official public counterpart.

Elio stops at the doorway momentarily to listen in. "So what you're saying is that he's still out there? This is going to be a PR nightmare!" Tanya leans closer to Jenkins and hisses. "Have you told anyone else about this yet?"

"No, I..." He stops and looks back where Elio is standing. "Come on, keep walking, I'm talking to the detective about an open case." Jenkins comes and closes the door.

"Sorry..." Elio mumbles. As curious as he is about this, he needs to keep moving.

He continues following his father through the small precinct until they get to the back office. Once inside, the door clicks locked, a "I'm in a meeting" sign is flipped and the shades drawn. Looks like we may have our informant. Elio looks around the area. He'd look suspicious just standing in front of the door or window listening in. Glancing around, Elio looks for perhaps a vent or other airflow option nearby. Old construction. Vents tended to be an afterthought. He looks around for a better option. The room adjacent is a bathroom. He could hang out there without much issue.

He pulls the handle. Locked. "Occupied." Someone grunts from inside.

Okay. Hanging out in front of the door and looking suspicious. Got it. He takes up a position next to the door and sharpens his hearing while trying to appear as natural as possible while pretending to read his stack of papers. It looks like an expense report. Maybe.

As he starts to listen, officer Jenkins with his neat uniform that looks like it's only been pressed once, comes up to him. "Hey... so how much did you hear when you were at the door there?"

Elio's eyes flicker to a poster of his own face, or at least close to it, behind the officer on a cork board. "Uh, nothing really. Something about someone still out there?" He lowers his voice a bit, trying to throw him off the scent. Listening into the conversation happening while doing all this is proving a little difficult to split his focus however.

From outside the room, he can hear Sheriff Hunter talking to Elio's father as though they were standing in front of him. Like Jenkins is.

"Wow. You look like shit, Leonard." Sheriff Hunter chuckles.

"Save it." Mr. Aiello says. "That idiot you got in the cell? That isn't my dumbass kid."

A chair squeaks forward, "I know." Sheriff Hunter says. "We had to catch someone for this. Public perception of the police is already awful. We can't be seen as ineffective now. My officers, at least the ones that need to know, are still looking for him."

A hand hits the desk, "We need something! Victor is getting pissed, Richard. It's been two weeks now and every time someone runs into the shit-stain they end up dead or beaten within an inch of their lives. It happened to Megan and me. It's only a matter of time before he comes here to do the same to you!"

"Relax." Richard says calmly. "I already have an officer patrolling near my home at night looking for suspicious people and he'd never just break into the police station."

Back outside of the room, Jenkins squints as he speaks at Elio. "Hold on. Where is your visitor pass? Do you work here?" His eyes flicker to Elio's hoodie and slightly torn jeans.

"Yeah, I work here." Elio scoffs. "I'm a consultant on the drug trafficking case. I came in from Chicago like a week ago?" He looks at Jenkins as though this should be obvious. "Just came in from the field, haven't had time to get cleaned up."

"Oh, geeze." Jenkins slaps his forehead. "I should've realized. Did you get a haircut or something? I didn't even recognize you."

Elio smiles, "Don't worry about it. I'm just waiting to talk to Sheriff Hunter about some new evidence that has been brought to my attention. Carry on with your own investigation."

He smiles and does a sloppy salute then moves away. Elio turns his attention back to the conversation.

"You think this is a joke?!" Leonard hisses, "I watched him go toe to toe with three thralls that Victor gave me. They had two SMGs, three mags each. Opened up on him, TWICE. One of them was fucking point blank." He pauses for effect. "He used a lamp to deflect the entire magazine. Just a standing brass lamp. And I taught him how to fight. Whoever I fought last week? That was NOT him. Moved like a demon, broke my arm with that lamp, and you know I've picked up a bit of Fortitude."

There is a long silence. "So what is he, then?" Richard eventually asks. "We saw him in broad daylight. He can't be Kindred."

"Don't know." Elio senior says with a bit of bitterness. "Victor seems confused too."

"Did you just come here to tell me about this, or was there something else?" Hunter asks.

"Right." Elio hears something being placed on the desk. "Victor wants an update on your progress. He wants to meet tonight."

There is a long sigh, "Fine. I'll go talk with him." He picks up what was on the desk. "And what's this?"

"List of aliases and wherever else he's lived in the past. Every place that I know. If he's gone to ground, he'll be at one of those places."

"I'll send some officers around. See what I can dig up." He leans back into his chair, based on the squeaks. "Anything else?"

"No. Just be careful. Any more fuck-ups and Victor is going to drain one of us." Leonard says seriously.

"I haven't fucked up. Just you and Megan." Richard says, a threat hiding behind his voice. "Don't forget that." A moment of tension follows. Elio steps away from the door and behind a desk, pretending to read his expense report as the door opens and his father storms out, a little red in the face.

Elio smiles before heading down the stairs towards evidence and lockup if the signage is to be believed. Maybe he can find his duffle bag somewhere down there.

The lighting is significantly different down here, flickering fluorescent lights shine through the bars where a few people sit largely motionless. Elio sniffs and wrinkles his nose. Sweat and blood with a touch body odor that cuts easily through the air freshener someone sprayed. He stalks down the hall, the current inhabitants of lockup not sparing him more than a passing glance as they turn over and try to sleep on hard cots and benches. One of them looks familiar though, and turning his head, Elio makes out the face of the Dealer from a few days ago.

Down the hall, the reinforced glass door with 'Evidence' written in large black block font on it looms. The metal handle is cool to the touch and the door opens without a squeak. Stopping at the threshold though, Elio spies a camera in the corner of the room, and is greeted by a red cage taking up most of the room with another door with another door to the interior, this one likely heavily locked. A desk is pushed into a space next to the door, currently unoccupied, with forms and procedures laden on its surface. Pulling his hoodie over his head, Elio smoothly moves to the desk and glances through its drawers. No key within. His shoulders slump and Elio retreats back into the lockup hallway. No key, no lockpicks, no access to evidence. Could try to lift one from someone...

Footsteps are coming down the stairs, several sets. Seems someone may have been watching the camera feed. Before they can come into sight, Elio darts into one of the open cells and shuts the door almost all the way before lunging onto the cot and turning his back to the hallway. Three distinct sets of boots hit the concrete floor and move into evidence lockup without a word. A moment later they come back out. "He couldn't have gotten far." Richard's voice is apparent. "Shut down the station. No one in, no one out."

"Right." Officer James's voice answers as he runs upstairs.

"Jenkins, talk to the burnouts here. One of them saw something, I'm sure of it." Richard then follows James upstairs.

Turning towards the cells at the foot of the stairs, Jenkins shakes the cell door, rattling metal echoes through the small space. "Hey! Wake up! Any of you see anything?" There is a generally unhappy muttering from the trio in the first cell.

At the far end of the hallway, Elio feels the rapid beat of the flickering lights and moves with them as his cover, his body seeming to fade in and out with the coming and going of the dark. Silently, he slowly slides open his cell door. The muttering from the far side continues as the door opens fully and Elio creeps out, pulling the neck of his hoodie up over his nose and mouth while pulling the hood low over his eyes. Stepping silently behind Jenkins, he turns for a moment to glance at the inmates, and sees the Dealer staring wide eyed at him. Putting a finger up to the opening of his hood in a demand for silence, Elio watches the man slowly turn away, eyes still wide. Sensing something amiss, Jenkins whips around, only to find the empty concrete hallway behind him.

Back upstairs, Elio pulls his hood back down and resumes looking as important as he can as the station bustles to block entrances and several officers begin the important duty of searching every corner of the station for the intruder. Elio is already heading to the Sheriff's office as he watches Richard coordinate the search from the front lobby. Inside his office, there is a window which is swiftly unlatched as Elio races forward and then out onto the side of the building. As he runs past the desk, he grabs the envelope his father left on the desk for the sheriff and stuff it in a pocket. Leaping down and onto the gravel lot off to the side of the office, Elio begins to saunter away, pulling his hoodie back down to normal position.

If he's planning on following the Sheriff to wherever he's going after work though, he's going to need some wheels. Elio, now more than a few blocks from the station, starts to consider his options. While stealing some poor fellas car would not be difficult for him, it certainly doesn't feel good to him. Ashley took off with the SUV, his own car is bugged and likely impounded by now, and he isn't going to drive the hearse from the funeral home around. Maybe he could borrow Ezio's van.

The answer comes to him as an hour later he watches Joe from the Lead Bellies get out of his terrible, rundown, orange vehicle of indeterminate make and model and head into a motel. No one appears to be inside it anymore. Quickly moving to the side of the vehicle, Elio tries the handle. It opens with a loud creak. Looking at the lock and experimentally pushing the lock tab, it doesn't give in and remains unlocked. Sitting down in the seat, before he can set to work removing the cover of the wiring that runs the ignition Elio is blinded by the scent of the interior. It's a mix of rot, fast food grease trap, and vomit. If he was so inclined (he's not), Elio could pick out each individual element of this foul aroma with his semi-divine senses.

"God... damn!" He coughs, "What is that smell?" He shuts the AC vents and it takes the edge off, but he quickly shifts his focus away from his senses, taking the smell from utterly incapacitating to merely stomach turning. "Something must've died in the AC." He mumbles as he pulls his shirt up over his nose and sets to work bypassing the key ignition, pulling wires out from underneath the steering column. The car rumbles to life with a complaint.

As he begins to drive away, he hears a knocking sound coming from the trunk of the car. "... the hell?" He gets one block away and opens the trunk of the car once he is sure no one is around to see him. Elio blinks a few times once he sees the person bound and gagged in the trunk. The young woman, who can't be older than fifteen, starts trying to scream through her gag. Elio closes the trunk and leans against it. "What the fuck."

He reopens the trunk and puts his hand on her gag. "I'm not trying to hurt you. Don't scream when I pull this off, they are still nearby." Elio quickly removes the cloth gag.

"Who are you?" She asks shakily, dark brown hair a frizzled mess around her.

Elio clears his throat and pulls her out of the trunk. "Get in the passenger seat. We'll talk in the car." In a single motion he pulls his knife from his pocket and slices through the rope bindings on her legs and arms.

She stumbles out of the trunk and quickly into the passenger seat. Elio is not far behind as he lands behind the wheel. "It's better if you don't know my name." Elio leads with. "I was actually, uh, borrowing this car and you were in the trunk." He grimaces. "Call it a happy coincidence."

"Thanks? I guess?" she mumbles. "Do you think you could get me back to my parents house? Those assholes kidnapped me. I'm sure my dad would be happy to pay you when I get back."

Elio does some quick mental math. "I'm kind of on a time limit myself, but I'll see what I can do. Where do your parents live?"

"Chicago." She says.

"Chicago?! That's like a hundred fifty miles away!" Elio rants. "Can I just leave you with the police?" He asks.

She goes wide eyed, "No! No police!"

"What do you mean!? Why not?" Elio exclaims, exasperated.

"Those guys have friends in the cops. They'll give me right back to them."

"Weirdly, I get that." Elio mutters. "Okay. I can't get you back tonight. Can we call your parents to come get you here?"

The girl looks away for a moment. "... I don't know their phone number."

"Are you kidding?" Elio says flatly.

She shakes her head. "No. My phone remembers those things for me."

"Those things are rotting you kids' brains." Elio grumbles. "Fine."

"I've got a very time sensitive thing going on right now." Elio continues. "If you promise to be quiet and stay in the car while I'm doing it, I'll get you home tomorrow." He starts the car and drives away before the kidnappers notice it was gone in the first place. "What's your name, kid?" Elio asks gruffly as he rolls the window down and lets the crisp summer air in and blows away as much foul air as he can.

"What, so you don't tell me yours and you get to know mine?" There is a tone of offense in that voice.

He turns to look at her as he stops at a light. "You realize I just saved you, right? And the fastest way for me to not have my current plans be complicated is to ditch you on the side of the street, right?" Elio says.

She flips from indignant to worried quite quickly. "...I'm Briana. Briana Greenwich."

"Okay. You can call me Night." Elio says as he moves the car closer to the police station, settling down a block away with a good view of the exit from the gravel lot next to the station.

She quirks an eyebrow. "Like an old-timey knight?"

"No. Like the time of day." Elio shakes his head. He's not sure why that was mildly offensive to him, but it was.

A few minutes later, the car arrives and shuts off a block down from the back of the police station. There is a good enough sight line to see when Richard leaves from the lot. "Okay, strap in Briana. We're on a stakeout." Elio grunts as he leans his seat back and stretches.

She looks down the street, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. "You're staking out the police station?" A note of curiosity in her voice. "I mean, I guessed you weren't a great guy, what with stealing a car and all."

"Yeah. Staking out the police station. You don't need to know why. Probably better that you don't." Elio says from his reclined position. "And what? Good guys can't stake out police stations?"

Briana frowns and shakes her head. "No. Not normally."

"Your opinion on good guys is noted." He opens the console and pokes around the glove box, ruffling through old fast food receipts and empty boxes of cigarettes. Elio sniffs a moment. Odd. The car doesn't smell like smoke. Probably masked by that god-awful reek coming out of the AC. It's not even on now, yet it still creeps into the cabin. Elio opens the windows a little wider.

He manages to find a crumpled up registration hidden under the floor mat. The creases in it have been ironed in through pressure. It is registered to Brian Copeland. Likely stolen. Well, it was stolen before Elio stole it.

An hour passes. "So why were you kidnapped?" Elio asks.

Briana shrugs, fabric rubbing against the cloth seat. "Probably trying to get my dad to pay a ransom."

"He rich or something?" Elio doesn't take his eyes off the station.

She nods. "Yeah, he works for, like, a bank or something? I'm not super sure, actually."

"Sure, sure. Do you know the guys that took you? Because he was a member of local blockhead gang the Lead Bellies" Elio continues.

"Yeah. I know them." She says quietly. "They are part of my family. Not those guys that you got this car from, the people that hired them."

"Family is a complicated thing." Elio says softly.

"We only got the money a little while ago when my dad got promoted to whatever his job is now. Some people in the family don't think we deserve it and we stopped talking to them. Guess that they took that personally." Briana continues.

"How do you know it was them?" He asks, finally taking his eyes off the station.

"I heard one of those guys talking to my aunt on the phone after they grabbed me from school. I'd recognize her nasal, whiny, awful voice anywhere." She frowns as she recalls the time.

Elio's eyes flicker back to the police station. "And why couldn't we take you to the cops again?"

"Well, my aunt and that part of the family work for the police in Chicago. I figure they'd hear about it if I got turned in and a call got through to Chicago police."

He groans. "Better safe than sorry, I guess..." Elio settles back into his seat.

Another hour passes. No sign of Richard leaving yet as the early afternoon creeps by. "So what's your deal, Night." Briana makes a finger quote motion around the title.

"Too long and you wouldn't believe me." Elio says firmly. "Long story short, Galena is embroiled in some serious conspiracy bullshit. The guy I'm trying to follow is going to the boss tonight and I'm getting to the bottom of it."

She laughs, "So you're a fucking conspiracy nut?"

He shakes his head. "Conspiracy nut would imply that it isn't real. And I have the unfortunate position of having seen it."

"Prove it then." She sits smugly, arms folded across her chest.

Elio takes a deep breath. "No. You don't want me to. In fact," he turns away from her and looks out the driver window, "forget I said anything in the first place."

Briana's smirk turns to a frown as Elio doesn't play ball. "Come on, not even gonna try and prove it? Must be a really fake conspiracy when you aren't even going to defend it."

"I know you're just baiting me, kid. And for your sake, I really mean it. Forget I said anything. There are people out there who would kill you for even suspecting it."

She chuckles. "There isn't anything actually like that. You've watched too many spy movies."

"Yeah. Let's go with that." Elio slowly says. "We'll get you home tomorrow and you just put this all behind you and go back to your life."

Hours pass as afternoon turns to evening. Soon, Richard's nice white sedan pulls out of the lot. The engine of the orange death stink car rumbles to life with a loud complaint. The hunt was on.

 

[Kinotics]

Most people are already retired to their homes, though the sun is still poking over the horizon. It is a weekday, after all, and the nightlife in Galena is small compared to the big cities.
"It's time to go." Elio says suddenly, startling Briana into waking from her nap in the passenger seat. Tucking away the pair of bobby pins he'd discovered while poking around the car, he starts the car with a rumble and a spark and follows the sheriff's car out of town from a good distance.

Following Richard out of town, he drives down the winding paths that lead up towards Galena Lake. A nice area for sure, with a resort and golf course as well as a fairly ritzy gated neighborhood. The land of paranoia and infidelity, from what Elio's previous jobs here told him. Richard's car passes by the resort on his way to the neighborhood, Lake Ridge. He stops at the front gates and gets buzzed in. The gate grinds close behind him and he continues.

"Well, what's the plan now?" Briana asks with a yawn.

"I've got a code from a client I took a few jobs from a while back. Let's hope they haven't changed the locks." Elio drives up the gate once Richard has driven forward a bit more.

The speaker above the keypad makes a loud beep as Elio finishes keying in the code and the gate does not budge. Elio frowns and puts the car in reverse. "Course they did..." He grumbles. "Plan B, I'll follow on foot." The car softly grumbles as Elio pulls off to the side of the road outside of the gates and between a pair of streetlights.

Briana looks over to Elio as he steps out of the car and opens the trunk to get to his duffel bag. He slides on his leather jacket and checks the half empty magazine of his pistol. "And what am I supposed to do?" She asks.

"Stay here and watch the car." He answers matter of factly. "If trouble comes looking, push the alarm and I'll be on my way." Elio slams the trunk and looks to the dark, tall, iron wrought fence in front of him.

Briana looks out into the darkness. The moon glimmers dimly on the surface of the lake down the ridge from the car. "Are you really just going to leave me here?"

Elio glances around and nods. "You scared of the dark or something?"

"No, but..." She starts.

"Then I don't really see what the problem is." The dirt crunches under his feet as he walks to the open passenger side window. "Keep your head down and the window closed, and no one is going to bother you. I'll be back in just a little bit."

Elio stalks up to the tall fence, grips the cold steel and hauls himself up. Carefully overcoming the spiked tops of the poles, he lands silently on the other side in someone's side yard. Now to track down where Richard went.

Big houses on big lots. While there are not a lot of houses here, they take up a lot of space. It takes time to get anywhere and individual people and cars will tend to stand out against the relative lack of people in the area.

Slowly patrolling around the neighborhood are a couple of private security cars. 'Sterling Security' is proudly emblazoned on the side doors as they watch the shadowed streets. Perhaps it was a good thing that Elio had not managed to get the car in, its burnt orange coloring does catch the eye.

The smell of barbeque and the slight sound of chatter catches Elio's attention. It looks like a decent amount of the people living here are out having a get-together on the front lawn of one the estates. A catering service seems to be in attendance and security is definitely higher there.

Time to take a look around. Elio walks off the road, choosing paths through estates away from eyes and avoiding security systems as he looks for the white car that he followed all the way here.

Elio stays ahead of the security cars and out of sight of the cameras and residents. Ducking from bush to bush and shadow to shadow, he manages to cross the width of the neighborhood, gaining a good look at the car ports of them all. He's just in time to spot Richard's car pulling into the garage of a large manor, its door closing shut behind him. "Jackpot." He mutters with a grin.

The front doors have a pair of guards standing nearby. Bored guards, but guards nonetheless. There are a multitude of cameras and motion sensors that make getting too close without being detected difficult. A fortress even amongst the other manors and estates of this place.

For a brief moment, Elio can see through a crack in one of the blackout curtains in the upper floor. The insignia of the Galena police department on the sleeve of a dark blue jacket. Must be where the Chief is. Elio looks about the manor, searching for the path of least resistance.

No trellises lead up to the second floor and there are no carelessly leaning ladders to take advantage of. A back patio has both ground and second floor entrances but is patrolled fairly heavily. Elio frowns. Without getting some of these guards distracted or otherwise away from their posts it doesn't seem as though there will be a way in unnoticed. A disguise perhaps? He looks around. Breaking into one of the other manors for clothes could work, but coming up with a lie convincing enough to be allowed in by the guard without checking with their master would be difficult. Plus, every moment he spends thinking another passes on whatever they are discussing in the manor.

Sometimes, fortune favors the bold. Elio emerges from one shadow before darting to the next, carefully watching the guard rotations and paths. He moves as though he is the night itself. Shadows would be jealous of the smoothness of his motions, with fate itself seeming to conspire to meet his needs and whims. Cameras are always perfectly in sync to be avoided and motion detectors are positioned just with bare blind spots. The surrounding garden crackles and hums to distract guards, and Elio is always just fast enough to pass by with even the slightest lack of focus by the manor's defenders.

Slithering to a door behind the house, it is, of course, locked. Fishing out the bobby pins from his jacket pocket, Elio sets to work with his knife as a tension wrench, knowing he only has moments before the guard looks just to the right and notices his presence.

The lock clicks open and Elio moves through the door into a sitting room. No one is in here at the moment, though he can hear footsteps above him. He looks around the well decorated room, noting the blackout curtains artfully pulled to the sides of every widow. A large series of bookcases line the far side, the two halves of the room divided by a fireplace near the center surrounded by couches. Stairs lead up from here and there are doors leading off to more of the ground floor. Elio slides up the stairs, heading towards where he hears the footsteps.

Elio passes across the rich red carpet lining the middle of the hallway and by a few unoccupied rooms. Sparing glances into the doors that are open, he can see guest bedrooms and a study currently unoccupied. The door that most interests him is a thick wooden door with light leaking from underneath it. He brings his ear close to the gap and listens to the proceedings inside.

"...problems." Richard finishes, Elio having come in at the midway point of their conversation.

"You will not fail me as the other two have, will you?" A voice like flowing water speaks, authority is obvious in its tone and force.

"No, of course not." Richard says quickly. "We're getting close to being able to purchase the land. But until Megan recovers, we've stalled a bit."

"And this... Elio? I believe that is what Megan called him. What is the status of that nuisance?" Victor asks.

"The police are searching everywhere that he's ever lived. Friends' houses, old coworkers, mob buddies. We'll find him." Richard says. Elio can almost see the smug look on his face.

"But you haven't found him yet." Victor says curtly.

There is a short pause. "No. Not yet. I have my best detectives on the case they..." He is cut off before he can continue.

"If they are your best, why has he escaped you?" Someone stands from a leather chair, based on the squeak of fabric against it, "I have brought Leonard back to his prime, backed the political machinations of Megan, and removed numerous obstacles to you becoming chief of police Richard." Footsteps across the room. "Have I not done enough for you, as your master, to get me results?" The question is extremely pointed.

"Of course, you have, master. You've treated us very well." There is a tightness in Richard's voice. "I would like to point out that I haven't failed you. It's been Megan and Leonard!"

There is a click of a tongue, "So quick to blame your peers. Unbecoming of you, Richard. Unbecoming. If I were less merciful and more like my clanmates, I'd be looking for new ghouls. You are lucky to have such a lenient and understanding master, are you not?" His tone is light and easy, as though he was discussing the weather.

"Yes, we are very lucky, master." Richard mumbles.

"Then get me Elio!" He roars, echoing through the door. "And if you can't do that, I want Elizabeth staked on my back lawn or a jar of her ashes on my desk by nightfall next Wednesday. If none of you are able to do either of those things... then I may have to look into new help." Victor returns to a cool tone of voice, silky even. "And Richard?"

There is a moment of quiet again before Richard squeaks, "Yes, master?"

"When can I expect the arrival of the addicts?" Victor continues conversationally.

"Within..." there is the sound of tapping on a screen, "No, in three days. We can get them here in three days."

"Good. I have guests arriving to discuss business soon. And I can assure you, any disappointment on their part shall be the same as my disappointment."

"Of course." Chief Hunter sighs inwardly. "Is there anything else I can help you with, master?"

There is the sound of a wooden drawer opening, and paper being withdrawn. "Yes. I have a missive I would like you to deliver to one of our neighbors. A Gangrel that has been stalking the local farmsteads. Memorize the address on this slip and then burn it. Have it delivered quickly, within the next two days. And for god's sake, mind your manners. She's known to be quite quick to bite." Victor sits back for a moment. "You may leave now. Ensure the door is locked behind you."

Chief Hunter stands from his seat. "Your will is my own, Master." Elio darts into one of the guest bedrooms, watching as Chief Hunter emerges, sweat dotting his brow, and he descends to the first floor and heads towards the garage for his car.

Maybe I should have searched the car. Elio thinks as he pokes his head back out of the room. He stops at the door he had been listening in through but hears nothing else going on besides the occasional creak of a chair with someone in it.

Victor walks towards the door and Elio once again ducks into the guest bedroom. Emerging as the door pulls open, a tall man wearing a finely pressed dark blue suit, though the outline of body armor can be barely seen underneath, Victor struts into the darkness of his home. A black beard and mustache decorate his chin line and icy blue eyes peer out from under dark brows. Even looking at him inspires a sense of foreboding dread in Elio, who nervously swallows without thinking at his first glance at the Vampire.

Victor pauses a moment and sniffs the air, frowning down the hallway, before carrying on down the stairs. Elio silently follows him as the Vampire comes to a bookcase. He pulls a copy of War and Peace from the shelf and opens it, revealing a wireless keypad within. A few strokes that Elio eagerly stores into memory later, and the bookcase swings open. Down from the depths of the staircase now revealed, Elio's heightened hearing can pick up the dredges of a conversation from a familiar voice. His father is talking to someone down there. A draft of what smells like dry blood, bile, and harsh chemical cleaner that isn't fully covering the stench wafts up the stairs as Victor draws smiles before taking long strides down the cement stairs. Fluorescent lights are already on as he moves down.

Just as the bookcase starts to slide back into position, Elio slips through at the last possible moment, continuing to creep down the hard stairs. The smell is foul enough to force him to reduce and dull his senses, preventing him from hearing the conversation further below.

Going down the stairs, Elio passes by a few storerooms holding what look like hardtack and other non-perishable food sources. The last hallway is filled with at least two dozen metal cell doors, much like you'd find in the solitary confinement section of a prison. Elio, slowly following behind Victor, has to stop numerous times to avoid being seen by the several cameras monitoring the area. He can hear his father's voice again; he must be getting close.

Victor stops at the last cell at the end of the row, pulling open the door with a grunt. "What progress have you made, Leonard?" He says, voice muted through the door. "Has this one provided us with information? Or will he be my sustenance for tonight?"

"No." Elio senior says quietly, barely audible through the door. "Still claims to not know where the shit-bird flew." Elio sharpens his ears, grimacing as the scent grows large in his nose. He holds his nostrils shut just to get away. He is able to hear his father talk quietly to Ezio, even though the metal. "Give us anything, Ezio. He'll rip your throat out if you don't." A plea to the favored son. Elsewhere in this dungeon complex, he can hear labored breathing coming from the other cells, a woman softly sobbing further in.

Victor's foot scrapes on the concrete floor as he steps forward. "Tell me whatever I want to know about Elio junior."

"Of course..." Ezio mumbles, his words slurring slightly.

"Where is he?" Victor starts. There is a creak as it sounds like he sits on something.

Victor starts to pace back and forth. "I don't know..." Ezio slurs.

The door is thrown open, barely giving time for Elio to get out of the way and into the shadows at the end of the hall. Victor tears open the door across the hall. A woman is chained to the wall inside. There are track marks on her elbows and she looks dazed. She lifts her head just in time to see Victor lunge forward without prelude, sinking his fangs into her neck. Taking a moment to look into Ezio's cell, he sees his brother similarly chained to the wall. Blood runs fairly freely from wounds across his body, slowly falling away into a drain in the center of the room already caked with dry blood. Leonard in his arm sling, simply shakes his head looking at Victor feed.

Elio bites his tongue as he watches Victor. This was the moment to strike, if there ever was one. The woman starts to go limp in Victor's arms, her full weight falling against the chains. Elio waits until his father looks back to Ezio and steps into the cell with the Vampire. He draws his knife from his jacket pocket and aims for a joint in the armor he can see under the suit, up near the shoulder where he should be able to access soft flesh.

It's over before Victor even knew it was beginning. He starts to shake as he feels the knife, moving with godspeed through his muscles, sinew, and even bone. His flesh, hard as oak wood, parts as though paper under the knife. Elio cuts, starting from the armpit and pulling down, spilling the vampire's unused organs onto the floor. Ribs clatter to the concrete and blood pours down in a wet splatter. Victor falls along with them, leaving his victim chained to the wall still just barely alive.

Leonard turns his head around at the sudden commotion. Only a moment had passed since he took his eyes off his master. "Holy mother of God..." He mutters, pulling out a pistol, shakily held in his left hand.

"No." Elio says, turning to his father, arm dripping red. "Just me."

From inside the cell, Leonard screams up the hallway, "Get some men down here! Intruder!" He fires off a round at his son as his screams echo down the hallway, hoping against hope that he can at least slow his master's attacker down. With casual grace and minimal movement, Elio catches the bullet on the flat of his knife and sends it careening into and bouncing off of the concrete floor down the hallway.

"Get out of my way or you'll join your master."

For the briefest moment, Leonard tries to consider it. But his blood has already answered for him. He shakily pulls out his brass knuckle and puts it on his left hand and steps forward. "I'd rather die than abandon..." He doesn't have time to answer before Elio attacks as a response.

Elio rushes forward and easily reads his prey as his father tries to duck to the right and out of the way back into the cell. His knife finds Leonard's lower leg and there is a snap as the Achilles tendon is severed, causing him to crumble to the ground as his stability is immediately and painfully taken from him. Leonard clutches the new injury with a tortuous scream. "Fuck, my arm now my leg?!"

Elio moves to his brother, still mumbling to himself against the wall, numb to the world around him. "What did you do to him?" Elio seethes, turning back to face his prone father, now in a growing puddle of blood.

"Blood..." Elio senior says between pained pulls of breath. "He's taken two doses of Victor's blood." Elio looks at his brother's inner elbow and sees a set of red and painful injection marks.

Elio shakes with barely contained rage. "I don't know who the bigger monster is. The literal vampire or the father who allowed, no, enabled this to happen." He pulls out the bobby pins and sets to work opening the chains. "Why aren't the guards coming down?" Elio asks as he drapes his brother's arm around his shoulder and hoists him up. He needs medical attention.

"I don't know!" Leonard growls. "Those idiots need to get their asses down here..." He seethes.

Elio sits Ezio on the cot in the room. He moves towards Elio senior, who continues to lay on the floor as his blood tangles with that of his son's as it moves towards the drain. "Tell me how to kill him." Elio demands.

Looking up with eyes narrowed, Leonard looks confused, "What?"

"The vampire. Victor. I know that he isn't dead. Sunlight is hours away." Elio steps onto the knife wound, twisting his toe, "Tell me how to kill him."

"Stake him." Elio senior gasps. "Through the heart. It's the only way to make sure besides sunlight."

He nods and moves into the hallway, finding a wooden table with a few chairs. Elio snaps a leg off and moves to Victor, slamming the leg home through the heart. Blood sprays up and dots Elio's face. Breathing a deep breath, he feels a weight fall off his shoulders. "Thank you. That's one less monster in the world." Elio's eyes fall on his father like thunder. "Though maybe there should be one fewer still."

"Come on." Leonard chuckles painfully, "You wouldn't kill your old man. It's the blood that made me like this! Now that Victor's dead I can get back to normal."

Elio sighs, looking upon the foul creature in front of him. He knows, on some level, that whoever his dad once was and whatever good traits he may have once possessed have abandoned him. But he still has the dream of a happy family. The dream that one day his father will "wake up" and see the light. Accept him back into the family. Respect him.

"Tell the guards to let us leave. Then never." He pushes his father to the ground fully under his foot, "Ever. Come back until you are ready to look me in the eye, apologize, and work with me to make things right."

"Yeah." Leonard smiles, genuinely to Elio's eyes at least, "I'll do that." He grunts and stands, supporting himself on his good leg. "Let me go talk to them. Come on, get your brother up and I'll get you out of here."

Elio grabs his brother and follows slowly behind his father as he hobbles up the concrete stairs. He opens the bookcase and finds no guards in the house. In fact, Elio can't hear anyone nearby. "What the fuck..." Leonard mumbles. "Where the hell are they?"

"I don't care." Elio says, striding with his brother towards the front door. "I'll be back in the day tomorrow. Those prisoners down there? They better be gone. Otherwise I'll do it myself. And cause tremendous pain to whoever tries and stops me." He gets to the front door and grabs the handle. "Remember our deal, Leonard." Elio says as he glares back over his shoulder at his father.

"Of course." He mumbles, as he falls onto one of the couches, starting to wrap some of a tablecloth around his bleeding leg.

Elio steps out and stops. There is blood on the front stoop. He can see a few of the guards in pieces on the front lawn. Police sirens wail in the distance and one of the security cars and their occupants lay in a heap at the bottom of the drive. The night is still otherwise. "What in the hell did this?"

Elio looks at the wounds. The splatter patterns. Sees patterns that don't match the positions of the guards. Most of them look like they were running from something and the bodies that he examines have terrible bites and claw marks taken out of them. Among the wreckage, he finds a tuft of soft gray fur and pockets it for later study. Glancing down at the spent bullet casings in the grass, he counts at least fifty shots were taken at whatever did this. But it doesn't look like many actually connected.

He nods, satisfied with his brief investigation. Then he notices an envelope on the front gate with his name on it. Elio snags it then retreats out of the neighborhood before the cops can arrive.

Elio makes it back to the car, helping his brother over the fence nearby. Briana opens the door of the car and leans out, "Holy crap man!" She hisses as she sees the state of Ezio, hurriedly opening the door and helping Elio get his brother into the backseat. "This guy needs a hospital!"

He grunts as the back door of the car closes and he hurries to the front. "I know, that's exactly where we are heading." The note sits on the console for the moment, more pressing matters pushing it down the priority list. He turns the engine over and hurries off to the hospital.

 

[Kinotics]

The car screams into the hospital ER landing. Elio throws it into park and sprints around the side to his brother, pulling him out of the backseat. Adrenaline flows in his veins as the doors open and he carries Ezio into the lobby.

There are a number of people waiting in the lobby and they all look up as Elio enters carrying a bleeding man with a young girl not far behind him. "I need a doctor!" He yells to the front desk. Thirty seconds later, Ezio is put onto a stretcher and rushed further into the depths of the hospital. "God, I hope he has insurance." Elio mutters before throwing himself into a hard plastic couch.

Briana sits next to him. "Is he going to be alright?" She asks.

"I don't know." He answers honestly. "I didn't have much of a chance to look at his wounds. Not that I know the first thing about medicine. That'd be my brother's domain." He adds softly. An hour passes into the night, and it's around midnight that a nurse comes to speak with them.
"Are you Ezio's brother, Elio?" She asks.

Elio stands up, "Yeah."

She nods. "Come with me." She leads them into a hospital room with Ezio sleeping in the bed. He's covered with stitches and gauze. With the blood washed away, numerous small cuts are seen across his body. His eyes are a bit more sunken into his head than they were before. "He's going to be okay, but we have some questions for you."

Elio rushes to the bedside, grabbing Ezio's hand. "What do you want to know?"

She opens up his chart and grabs a pen, "For starters, what happened to him?"

"He..." Elio starts, but stops a moment. I can't just tell her what happened. He thinks. "There was an accident at his work. Came into contact with a rock grinder."

She puts her eyebrows up, clearly smelling bullshit. "Sir, if you're lying to protect someone who attacked him, you need to tell me."

Fuck. "What? I didn't say anything about someone attacking him."


"It's clear he was attacked, maybe even tortured. These are shallow knife wounds, maybe even scalpel wounds." She takes a step back towards the door, which has a phone near it. "I'm going to give you a moment to decide if you want to tell me what's really going on."

"God damn it. Okay." Elio sighs. "He and his partner are into some really kinky shit. Knife play, they call it. They took it too far, panicked, and left him to bleed out. Which is when my daughter and I found him when I was coming to visit him for the night." Please, please, please work. He prays.

"Right. Okay then." The nurse quickly excuses herself.

Briana looks at Elio. "So she's definitely calling the cops, right?"

"Yeah." He moves to the bed and starts to help Ezio up. "She's for sure calling the cops. Come on, help me get him up. He's stitched up, hopefully it'll hold."

Out in the hallway, it's all quiet. No nurses, no doctors, no security. Elio's vision sharpens as he sees a tuft of soft hair float down from the nearby hallway. Same gray tone as what he saw back at the manor.

He listens to the quiet of the hospital. The sound of patients breathing and doctor's muttering as they attend their rounds is all there, just not nearby. He can hear the quiet padding of someone running away, but by the time he makes his way to the corner of the hall to see them, they've vanished out an open window and left nothing but the rustling of a shrub to find. Elio snags the hair before it can hit the ground and quickly motions to keep moving. The front is not empty, however.

"Hey! Stop!" The secretary at the desk shouts as she sees Elio carrying Ezio, still in a hospital gown, out. Elio does not stop, instead running out the door and into his car.

"Sorry!" Briana shouts with a loud cackle as she follows behind. Elio only grunts as he throws Ezio into the backseat.

Ezio grunts and grimaces a moment before settling in. "Okay! We are out of here." Elio says as the car roars to life. Security is coming out behind them as they pull out of the lot.

By the time the phones come up to get pictures, he's on the road and heading down back to the Green Dot.

"Where are we going?" Briana asks, streetlights momentarily illuminating the car.

Elio clicks his tongue. "Shady hotel. Don't really have anywhere else to go, and I have enough cash to keep us there for a little bit longer at least."

It's a fairly quiet drive as they leave to the outskirts of Galena. A few cop cars go by, but without a good description to go off of, they don't pay the group any mind. "Are you gonna tell me what's going on now?" Briana eventually asks. "Like why do you have a bloody guy in the back seat?"

"That's my brother. He got caught up in all this so I had to save him." Elio says matter of factly.

"And you said your name was Elio in the hospital." She says triumphantly, clearly seeing this as a big victory for her.

He rolls his eyes as he pulls into the parking lot. The letter from the Vampire's manor is still on the console, and he grabs it. "Yeah, you got me, master detective." He pulls it open and finds a handwritten note.

'I'm ready to say it to your face.' Is all that's written on the small note.

Elio goes from a grimace of having inadvertently revealed his identity to the kid to genuine confusion. He looks up to the room he had rented and sees the door is cracked open. "Stay here." He says to Briana, suddenly deadly serious.

"What, you're upset that I know your name now, Elio?" Briana says mockingly.

"Be quiet." He pulls out his pistol. "Something has been following us since Lake Ridge. I don't know what it is." He hisses.

Briana looks confused, but quiets down. Elio steps out of the car and quietly treads to the cracked door. He can hear a woman breathing hard inside. "This better not be a trap." Elio says into the darkness beyond while opening the door with his left hand, keeping the right with his pistol aimed where he can hear the person waiting.

"I... was wondering... when you'd get here." Ashley gasps between quick breaths.

The door opens fully, revealing the still slight form of Ashley. Something is different about her though. Elio takes her in at a glance. Lithe muscles have replaced the frail looking form of the woman he saw a week ago. Glittering silver markings cover the skin he can see and a shock of silver hair, not white or gray but almost like sterling silver, takes up the middle of her blonde hair. She looks healthy. Gone is the slight pallor and tired eyes, replaced with the glow of a body cared for and eyes hiding the agility of both mind and body in sync with each other. "You look... good." Elio says, still keeping the gun trained on her.

"Oh, thanks." She says, having caught her breath now. She stands and moves towards Elio. He looks around the room for the coffin with Elizabeth in it, but does not find it. "Have you ever tried to keep up with a car?"

"That's close enough." He says, "Where's Elizabeth?"

Ashley looks down at her nails, and Elio notes clotted blood under them. "She's gone. I ripped her head off."

"You... what?"

"I ripped her head off." There is a ferocity behind her eyes and words that Elio didn't expect to see. "She's been... controlling me for years Elio. Living in my head, whispering to me in my sleep." Ashley balls her fists, shaking with the intensity. "A slave. I've been a slave for so long. And what did I get for my enforced loyalty? Almost eaten." She pulls her tattered camo jacket a little closer around her and sits on the bed closest to the window.

Elio cautiously moves to the foot of the bed, remaining standing. "I'm glad that you saw that you were being used, Ashley. But that doesn't answer my question." He hardens his gaze and looks Ashley in the eyes. "How did you rip a vampire's head off? And what are those markings on your skin?"

"I don't know how. There was a silver glow and I felt so powerful. It was like vampire blood cranked up to a thousand." She blinks, realizing she got ahead of herself. "Elizabeth woke up earlier than I told you she would. I knew it would only be a week or so before she would wake up, but I had to lie to you. To protect her." She grits her teeth as she says that, as if the words burn in her mouth to say that. "But she was hungry. 'Ravenous' she said. Then she tried to drink me." She looks down at her arms. "Then I was so strong. So fast. She looked like she was standing still as she tried to drink me. Then I grabbed the sides of her head and just... twisted." Her eyes gleam as she recounts the story. "And I kept going until her head was just in my hands. She screamed so loud... but all I could do was laugh."

"Silver glow..." Elio mumbles to himself. "A glow like this?" He wills the mark on his forehead to appear and the empty golden circle shines forth.

She cocks her head, looking at the circle that's appeared. "I mean not golden or yellow." A solid luminous white silver circle appears on her forehead. "You ever seen anything like this?" She asks.

"Nothing comes to mind." Elio replies, suddenly tired. "I hear words sometimes. More feelings than anything else. Night. Solar. Creation. Protect. I don't know what it all means." He suddenly laughs. "I really thought I was just going crazy. Or chosen by God or something." Elio looks down at the markings on Ashley's skin, glittering in the cheap lamp light. "And those? I didn't get anything like that."

Ashley looks down at them, as if really taking them in for the first time. "I got these... uh... in like the spirit world or something. I walked for a long time until I found one of those abandoned mines. Felt like I couldn't stop. Next thing I knew I felt like I walked through a window. If that makes any sense. Then there were all these things that looked like different moon phases, and they gave me these. Then I woke up back in the mines." She looks up to Elio. "I'm sorry." She stutters slightly. "I didn't know where else to go, but I knew you were looking for Victor. I helped get rid of those guards for you so you could escape, and scared off the security staff at the hospital. Given how we parted, I can't imagine you're happy to see me."

"Look... I don't trust people easily. That should be obvious. But I'm glad to know that I'm not the only glowy weirdo out here." Elio holds up the tufts of fur, retrieved from his jacket pocket, "And what is this about? It doesn't match your hair color. Doesn't even feel like it's human hair."

"Oh. Right." Ashley nods. Then her skin, bones, and flesh start to contort. Elio stands immediately, rattling a side table. She shrinks until she barely reaches Elio's knee, then grows fur and a pair of floppy ears. She is a gray hare.

Elio blinks, looks around, then looks back to the hare, who stares back. "Ash... ashley? Are you... a rabbit..."

The hare nods. Elio rubs his face, setting the pistol on the side table. "You know what? Fine." Elio states loudly. "Vampires? Sure. Blood slaves? Why not? Let's just add... wererabbits? To the list."

The cracking sound of molding flesh and bone returns as Ashley returns to her human form. Strangely, her clothes seem to be included in the transformation, disappearing as a rabbit and reappearing as a human. "Actually, they are called ghouls, not blood slaves." She says matter of factly. "And I'm not a 'wererabbit'."

"Oh yeah?" Elio says with eyebrows quirked. "What would you call yourself then? Because I can't turn into a rabbit."

She narrows her eyes, opens her mouth a couple times, looks away. "Shut up."

"Help me get my brother into the room." He grunts as he moves to the door. "It's been a hell of a night."

"Fine, fine." Ashley sighs and moves alongside Elio towards the car.

Briana leans her head out the window, "Great, who's this freak now?" She rolls her eyes.

"Watch your mouth, brat." Ashley snarls. Honest to god snarls, bearing teeth and everything. "Where'd you pick up this stray?" She keeps her eye on Briana, staring her down as she casually asks Elio about her.

Elio effortlessly picks up his brother from the back, who groans and grumbles. "Two seconds and they already hate each other..." He mumbles. "She was kidnapped by some assholes paid for by her shitty aunt. Give her a break. I'm getting her to Chicago tomorrow to get paid by her father and get her out of my hair."

"Hey!" Briana breaks her staring contest with Ashley. "Come on, I'm not in your hair! I'm helping." She pouts slightly as she steps out of the car and finally fully takes in the motel. "Oh. Nope. I'm not staying here."

Elio pushes open the door and places his brother on the bed, sticking his head back out, "It's either here or out in the fields."

Ashley narrows her eyes. "There's only two beds, Elio."

"I know." Elio feels some sweat appear on his forehead. Interpersonal conflicts really weren't his specialty. "Me and Ezio will share one and you and Ashley will..."

"You want me to stay in this shitty motel AND share a bed with a strange woman who shouted at me?" Briana asks, dumbstruck.

"You want me to share a bed with a shitty teenager who called me a freak?!" Ashley whips around to Elio.

Elio considers his options. "I don't have enough money to get another room. So. It's a nice evening and someone should stay up to keep watch. I'll take the first half and then Ashley you take the second watch? We can use the empty spot next to Ezio, who's gonna be knocked out all night seeing his injuries, to house one of you two depending on who's on watch." He says calmly.

"I'll sleep next to Ezio." Ashley says quickly. She steps inside and curls up onto the bed next to Ezio who has managed to somehow sleep through this noise. "Wake me up for my watch."

Ashley looks out into the dark fields and occasional spots of trees and weighs her options. "Fine. Only one night, right?" She asks as she enters.

"Yup. One night." Elio confirms.

"Good." Briana flops onto the unoccupied bed.

Elio grabs his gun from the side table, checks his brother's wounds which appear still stitched together, then heads out to the roof. The stairs up to it still have their door unlocked, so it's no strain to get to the flat rooftop. The beer cans from the last time he was up here with Ashley are still here. He sits on the edge, enough in the shadow that he can't be seen but far enough out he can see the streetlights and the rare car passing by. Stars illuminate dimly the vast open country of Illinois. What are we? Elio thinks to himself as he gazes up at the celestial bodies.

Hours pass as the night creeps on. It's around four in the morning when Elio is roused from his half sleep by noise. Light footsteps, the rustle of rough cloth, likely Ashley. He can detect the light clanking of cans as well. A moment later, Elio's suspicion is confirmed as she bobs into view up the side stairs.

"Your shift ended an hour ago, Elio. Why didn't you wake me?" Ashley frowns, and has a few cans of iced tea in her hands.

Elio sighs and stands, brushing himself off a bit. "Just got lost in thought, I guess." He says.

She smirks and sits in the spot he just left, "So you fell asleep?"

"I didn't." Elio grumbles. "I also didn't see you leave to get those." He points to the cans.

"Well," Ashley cracks the first can, "were you looking for me, or for a rabbit?" Her smirk widens into an outright smile.

Elio scowls. "I think I liked you better when you were afraid of me."

A crease appears on her brow and the smile escapes her face, pausing before taking her first sip. "Get used to it. I'm not going to be afraid of anything ever again. Not you, not Vampires, not whatever is out there in the dark."

Elio sits back down nearby. "Sometimes being a little afraid is a good thing." He holds out his hand. "Don't suppose you brought enough for the class?" He points to the other cans.

Ashley looks at the cans, releases a growly sigh, then tosses one to him. "No sleeping pills stuffed in it this time." She mumbles.

"Appreciated." He opens it and carefully sniffs the iced tea and takes a small sip, testing it against his tongue. Other than gross amounts of sugar and other strange chemicals, it tastes correct. "So, I'll ask the same question you asked me a week ago. What's the plan now?"

Ashley's eyes catch in the moonlight, reflecting pale white light for a moment as she turns to face the street. "Kill them."

"Kill what?" Elio takes another sip, already knowing the answer.

"The Kindred. The Vampires." Her hand crunches the can without effort. "Make them remember fear and drag them into the sun."

Elio takes a deep sip and watches the road as a car passes by in the dead of night. "You really think you can kill them all? There are so many of them. They will get you eventually." He parrots back.

She stops and puts her bent can onto the rooftop. "I know the odds. Better than you do. I said that before I knew how you felt. I feel fucking invincible, Elio." She rants, "Like I could fight a bear out in the wilds with my hands and feet, like I could dance through a bonfire and not be burned..."

"Like the shadows hide you, like I could be moving faster than the wind itself or overhear a conversation whispered at fifty feet." Elio interrupts.

There is a moment of silence, where only the warm late summer wind blows through. "Are we still human?" Ashely asks. There is a smallness in her voice as she looks up at the cosmos.

"I don't know. I still feel human." Elio pats his arm. "Still the same man I was before I started glowing. Just got some new tricks." Elio lies, maybe even to himself.

"Did you kill anyone before you changed?" Ashley asks suddenly.

Elio is quiet for a moment, weighing his answer. "Yeah. Did some work for the mob back in Chicago because of a debt my dad owed. Only killed one guy."

"Do you really think you're still the same? In this last week alone, you've attacked and killed more people than in your entire life, right?" Ashley says, worry infiltrating her voice.

"People may be a stretch, Ashley." Elio says quickly. Perhaps too quickly. "I've killed vampires and ghouls. I've done all I can to not kill normal people." There is an awkward silence. "What about you? You massacred the guards at Victor's place. How do you feel about that?"

"Fine." She answers. "I thought I would feel guilty, but I don't. I've never actually, well, directly killed anyone before. But it felt natural. Easy even. Like it was what I was made to do."

Elio takes an uneasy sip of his tea, letting the silence speak for itself.

"I mean..." Ashley starts, "it's not like I enjoyed it. But just knowing they worked for Victor? That was enough justification for me. They would try to stop me from killing Victor."

"Doesn't that seem just a little slippery to you?" Elio asks. "It's not like the people that get snared in a Vampires net are all bad people. Like you were, a lot of them just can't get enough of the blood. They are addicts."

Ashley shakes her head. "Addicts that you will never be able to break off their addiction. I would know. I did some really awful things just to make sure I would be fed."

"But you broke out." Elio adds.

Ashley's caste mark starts to glow dimly silver in the night. "I think I'm a special case."

"So let me get this straight. Despite the fact that they are hopeless addicts and you were one before last week, you don't feel at least a little bad about killing them? You've been whatever you are for all of a week."

She shakes her head again. "Nope. I don't feel bad about killing monsters. And they are monsters, ghouls and all. And now I'm a different breed of monster, I guess." Ashley shrugs and opens another can.

"Right..." Elio stands and moves to the stairs. "Ashley, don't become a monster. You've been given a second chance, a second breath of life. Try not to waste it turning into something worse than what you are hunting." He says as parting words from down the stairs.

He returns downstairs and yawns. He's been up for too long at this point. The room is just as he left it a few hours ago, with a spot of ruffled covers near Ezio. Elio lays down and falls asleep listening to his brother's labored breathing.

The morning comes with a quiet chill, reminding the world that fall is not far behind. This is especially noticeable given the AC is stuck on and the window unable to fully close, leaving a nice cold draft to awaken those who sleep lightly.

This is of course Elio, who awakens with a cough, his mouth dry. He rubs his eyes and stands from bed, moving to the sink in the bathroom to splash water on his face. In the mirror he can see Ashley moving around outside near the window. Everyone else seems to be still asleep.

"Wake up." Elio grumbles, kicking Briana's bed. "Time to get moving."

As Briana grumbles and rolls over, Ezio stirs from the other bed. "Wha... where am I?" He tries to sit up and winces, grabbing his side where one of the stitched cuts are.

"Hey," Elio appears at his brother's side, "take it easy. You've got a few more holes than you're used to."
Ezio looks confused, "What happened to me? I feel... itchy all over." He reaches to his neck and rubs it.

"Remember how I said a vampire would be trying to get you because of me? Turns out he got you. Dad... well dad worked for him, which is how he got to you."

"Right... right..." Ezio slowly sits up again. "And why do I feel like there's ants under my skin and my head's pounding like I've never felt before?" He grimaces as he takes full stock of his sensations.

Elio sighs and puts a hand on Ezio's shoulder. "They tried to get you to talk by feeding you vampire blood. Who knows what the blood did to you."

"Goddamn." Ezio mumbles. "Shit kicks like a couple mules..." He mutters while rubbing his eyes.
The door opens and Ashley walks in. "Everything okay here?"
"No, it's not okay!" Ezio shouts. "I was turned into a blood servant over the course of one week!" He holds his head, "Woof. That makes the room spin."

Ashley gets very close to Ezio, prowling across the hotel room. "How many times did you drink from Victor?" She hisses.

"He got two doses, is what my dad said." Elio quickly says.

Ashley nods and pulls back. "You will be fine assuming you don't have any more of Victor's blood in the next month. It will not be a pleasant month, but the blood bond was incomplete. Which should not be possible since Elio, you killed him right?"

"Staked him myself, yeah." There is a grim satisfaction in his voice.

"Staked him..." Ashley's eyes go wide. "Elio. Can I talk to you outside?" Her voice is taut.

Elio looks confused, "Sure?" They both step onto the outdoor walkway.

Ashley speaks quietly, looking for anyone else listening. "Did you only stake him?"

"I mean, I spilled his blood and guts on the floor, but other than that I staked him." A ping of panic goes into his head. He had listened to his father on how to kill a vampire.

"Staking a vampire doesn't kill them. It just immobilizes them." Her tone is serious as she steps towards the car. "We have to go back. Kill him before he can recover or be moved by his ghouls."

"So you do know how to kill a vampire." Elio chides. Inside he is screaming and berating himself for his idiocy, but Ashley doesn't need to know that.

She looks at him like he's stupid. "Yeah. Of course I do. I lied to you because I was Elizabeth's slave. I would never have told you how to kill Vampires. Now? I don't have that problem." As Ashley steps into the car, she looks at Elio expectantly. "Come on, let's go!"

"I can't just leave my brother and Briana on their own here. She's a kid and he's wounded." Elio says firmly.

"Then get them in the car." Ashley says with exasperation. "We can't wait any longer than we have!"

"..." Elio ponders for a moment. "Fine. But we leave for Chicago right after this." He steps back into the room. "Okay. Load up. We've got to make a pit stop on the way to Chicago."

 

[WeylandSmith]

Thanks for the chapter!

When I read that bit about the note the first thing that came to mind was that there might have been a Sidereal involved. However, on reading through this chapter I think that the inclusion of Ashley's Exaltation flows very well. And, with everything that's happened so far, I'm starting to wonder what exactly the group will find when they get to Chicago!

 

[Kinotics]

Thanks for the chapter!

When I read that bit about the note the first thing that came to mind was that there might have been a Sidereal involved. However, on reading through this chapter I think that the inclusion of Ashley's Exaltation flows very well. And, with everything that's happened so far, I'm starting to wonder what exactly the group will find when they get to Chicago!

Click to shrink...

Hey, glad to hear you're enjoying the story thus far. It's been a fun writing project and it's nice to see that there's actually peeps reading it and even enjoying it

There are certainly some shenanigans to get into in Chicago, that's for sure! The life of an Exalt is rarely uneventful, and Chicago is rife with things in the night.

 

[Kinotics]

As the car containing the unlikely crew rolls up towards Lake Galena and Lake Ridge, several police cars can be seen behind its iron gates near the manor and estate of Victor. "Uh, looks like the investigation has already started." Elio says as he throws the car into park and looks as far into the neighborhood as he can from the shaded parking spot.

"Uh huh." Ashley opens her door and steps out. "Headed by his police ghoul, Stripes or whatever."

"Sheriff Richard Hunter." Elio corrects her as he steps out as well. "Turns out the sheriff of the Galena police is a ghoul."

"So is it safe to assume that Victor has already been removed from the manor?" Elio asks.

Ashley looks down and sighs. "Yes. Yes it is Elio."

"Great." He says awkwardly, looking at the police in the area. "Think you could make a distraction so I can search the place? There's gotta be something there that can tell us where he went and what he's doing in Galena in the first place."

She looks at the pistol hidden in Elio's jacket pocket. "Give me the gun. Nothing draws cops like flies more than gunshots in a rich neighborhood."

He gives Ashley a look. "Don't you have your own gun? The big rifle? Where'd that thing go?"

"I, uh, lost it." Ashley mumbles. "Back in the spirit world, it fell off my shoulder and with all the excitement..." She nervously rubs her thumbs together.

"Great." Elio grumbles and pulls out his pistol, slapping it into Ashley's waiting hand. Ashley gives a winning smile as she stuffs it into pocket.

"I'll give you twenty minutes to be in position, then our distraction goes off." She begins to shrink and contort until she is a rabbit again, and bounds away, easily slipping through the gaps in the fence and into the lawn beyond.

Inside the gates, Elio can see a number of the neighbors on their lawns chatting with each other. So much excitement and right in their own neighborhood. More eyes to see him.

And in the middle of it all is a news van for the local news, as well as one for a larger station from Chicago. Elio looks back to Briana as he gets ready to hop the fence and get into the thick of it, "Same deal as before. Keep your head down and make sure both you and Ezio don't go anywhere."

"Don't take too long. I want to get home." She grumbles.

Elio easily vaults the fence and dives into a large bush to better assess the situation. Cops are interviewing the news reporters, neighbors are already beginning to gossip and take photos on their own of the bloody sight at the manor. At least everyone is looking inwards and not towards the edges of the neighborhood, where Elio begins to slink.

Creeping across the roads and through people's lawns he even sneaks through someone's house at one point to get past a particularly tough crossfire of people chatting. Almost twenty minutes of careful movement later, he ends up in one of the trees across the street from the manor in question.

From his vantage point above the crowd and off to the side of the manor, Elio is able to catch sight of Richard talking with officer James before ducking through the police tape and back into Victor's haven. Then, somewhere back in the heart of the neighborhood, there is a gunshot. The residents watching the scene flinch and look confused, the reporters start to turn towards it with the addition to their scoop already forming in their minds, and the cops start to move towards it.

More shots follow, as residents flee back to their homes screaming, local news anchor Lauren Willis smirks and begins to address the still running camera with a 'breaking news' segment, and of the six officers, not including the sheriff, that are on the scene, four of them head off in the direction of the gun shots. Elio falls from the tree, landing in the shadow it casts as he starts to walk towards Victor's manor.

He sneaks down to the door he used last night. Trying the knob, he finds it locked. With a groan, he pulls out the bent and twisted bobby pins and tries to go to work. His tools are only able to enter about a quarter of the way in, and feeling around, he finds that someone jammed a piece of something into the locking cylinder. It cannot be opened by the proper key anymore, let alone picked open. "Who ruined this lock?" He mumbles. Elio retreats and tries to open the door on the upper part of the deck that leads to somewhere on the second floor.

Coming up to the second level of the porch allows a great view of the wall of windows that makes up this side of the house. A weird feature for a vampire's house. The numerous thick blackout curtains are all currently drawn. There is a set of very nice French doors leading inside.

Again pulling out his pins, he checks the locks. Again, he finds a metal strip bent into the lock, preventing any chance of unlocking it. Are you kidding me? He thinks to himself.

Elio gauges the positions of the cops as he eyes the glass on the French doors, sharpening his senses to feel out where they may be. He notices a couple things. The first is that he can feel the vibrations in the porch as someone approaches from the inside of the building. Elio manages to duck behind a large metal fire pit as Richard pulls open the curtain of the closest window, clearly having heard Elio messing with the handle. And below him, he can hear two people making out messily. Great. Looks like getting in from here isn't going to work.

Seeing the obvious path forward blocked by ghouls, police, and hopelessly broken doors, Elio tries to think like a vampire. A paranoid, wretched thing like that would surely try and have back up plans, right? Perhaps a hidden entrance into their blood dungeon. He looks across the grounds, sighting patches of shrubs and a greenhouse that could possibly hide a staircase below. Behind the greenhouse, there is a locked shed. Upon close observation of the foundation and surrounding earth, it becomes clear to Elio that there was far more excavation here at one point than a simple tool shed would need for its construction. Checking the lock, it also has not been tampered with like the ones in the house. Quickly rolling out the pins, he sets to work.

He can hear from the other side of the house Laura commenting, "The police have been unable to locate the source of the gunshots heard just moments ago, but will remain vigilant while they resume their investigation of the attack on Victor Gauge's home."

The lock gently clicks open, revealing a well organized landscaper's tool shed. Sharpened shears, spare gasoline for power tools, and various tools for maintaining the implements can be found. More interesting, however, is a keypad obscured by a poster discussing the proper mixing of oil and gas for small engines. Pulling the poster back, Elio enters in the keycode he saw Victor use last night in the house.

As a trapdoor with a ladder underneath clicks and unlocks, Elio grabs a long pry bar from the shed to carry with him down. Never know when you may need some leverage. He descends the ladder down about thirty feet before landing on a concrete, sterilely lit hallway. The familiar smell of blood and cleaning solution fills his nose.

Carrying forward, Elio can hear the quiet crying and sobs of a multitude of people down here. Looking into the metal cells, he finds that not only are the prisoners that he saw down here last night still here, there are more now. The shipment that Richard mentioned must have arrived early. Jogging to the cell where he staked Victor, he finds it empty aside from the splatter of blood and bits of viscera that were thrown out from Elio's attack. No body. "Damn. Ashley was right." He mumbles to himself. Looking at the many cells, now all occupied, Elio wonders what exactly to do with them all. If he could lure the police in here it could cause trouble for the sheriff. He briefly considers just breaking them out, but without the resources to actually care for all these people...

Elio rubs his face and starts moving towards the entrance of the dungeon that leads back into the sitting room above. He'll consider his options as he learns more. Once again entering the number into a keypad at the top of the stairs, the bookcase slides open. The bookcase slides quietly on well oiled tracks, revealing the sitting room. Scraps of table cloth from where his father bandaged his wounds remain strewn on the otherwise very nice Persian rug underneath the coffee table and a pair of velvet couches. Elio walks through the darkened house, the blackout curtains helping to obscure his presence to prying eyes as sunlight cannot reach this place.

Stepping up the stairs, Elio moves back towards the office that he saw Victor in last night. There was a computer on a large desk inside, perhaps something to inform him of what Victor was doing here in Galena at least.

Also waiting in this room, almost catching Elio as he tries to enter is Richard. Sitting in a cushioned chair in the corner of the room obscured by the door, he is reading through physical files by the light of a nearby lamp. How do I get this guy out of the way? Elio ponders, leaning against the wall. Let's poke through a few more rooms before doing anything hasty.

The guest bedroom next door to the study is unexciting, containing exactly what is expected. It does seem like someone had or has been staying in this room, however. Elio does a quick once over, but fails to find anything interesting. Whoever was staying here is likely not staying here anymore. He steps back into the hallway and into one of the other rooms.

Inside are rows of bookcases. It isn't a large room, but the space has been used to maximize the amount of books stored here, with a maze-like structure of bookcases taking up almost all the walking space. Taking a brief moment to look through the books he can see the titles of on the spines, there are bountiful histories of Galena both geologically and politically. Clearly Victor is a big history buff. There are innumerable books here, though. Looking through them all would be a day long project in itself.

He steps back out into the hallway. There appear to be only two more doors to look into. The first he looks at has a marble column, sculpted to look like a series of skeletons that were supporting something that is no longer there. The rest of the furniture in the room would likely be that of a bedroom; a side table, comfortable looking and well worn sitting chair facing a never used fireplace, and several pictures of ocean vistas. A white noise machine sits on one of the bedside tables, set to ocean wave sounds. Where the bed would be, though, is only the strange marble statue. Sitting on the table next to the well-worn chair is a laptop, currently closed. Dust gathers on it, clearly not having been used recently. Elio considers it for a moment. With the pry-bar still in hand it isn't easy to carry both at the same time while still keeping a hand open.

There is a walk-in closet on the other side of the room. Poking his head in, Elio sees it goes back quite a ways, enough to be a room in its own right. Fashions ranging from sleek modern suits and business casual wear to more antiquated hats, suspenders, and tweed suit jackets from years gone by can be found in this hall of clothing. Elio is quick to check some of the trunks and wardrobes here for any weapons or armor that Victor may have wanted to keep close to him in case of emergency, but doesn't find anything particularly of use besides more clothes and fashion.

While digging around, he stumbles upon a leather satchel. It's pretty old looking, but is meticulously cared for with well cured and oiled leather that despite its obvious years bears no cracks but has been repaired innumerable times with a steady hand and good quality thick thread. Curious, Elio flips it open. Inside, the pouch is empty aside from a small bundle of cloth that when unwrapped reveals a metal locket. Clicking it open reveals a photo of a woman. 'Evelyne' is written on the photo-facing side and it is dated 1932.

Elio pockets the locket. Information, even useless seeming trivia about a vampire's past, may help in the future. The satchel itself is large enough for the laptop with some room to spare if he finds anything else worth nabbing.

There remains one last room worth checking. The rest on this floor seem to be various recreational rooms, including one for fencing with all the gear and foils needed for bouts. A meeting room is the one that draws Elio's attention. A map takes up the far wall in this windowless cavern of a room. The table is lined with six chairs, with one larger than the rest and living at the head of the oval table. Drawing closer to the map it looks like a geological map of Galena and the surrounding area out to Freeport to the east and to Dubuque in the West. Dozens of small lines subdivide the sections of Wisconsin to the North and of Illinois. The lines don't correlate to any jurisdictions, counties, or any other bodies of bureaucratic meaning that Elio is aware of.

He pulls out his phone, having finally remembered to plug it in last night. Elio takes a photo of the map for future study and puts the phone back into his pocket. Looking over the papers left in a neat stack on the table, they seem to be some bills of sale for land in the area. He isn't quite sure what it is exactly he's looking at, but it looks important. Elio notices the sigil for the local government of Galena on a good deal of these papers. Likely Megan has something to do with this. But these papers will need to wait for later to go over more closely. He slides the folder into his new satchel.

Hearing the floorboards creak slightly back out in the hall, Elio cracks the door and looks out. Richard lumbers down the stairs while pocketing something and heads towards the front as officer James calls for him. This leaves the study open for, well, study. Elio creeps in, seeing what may be left here for him to pick over.

Looking through a few drawers and folders, Elio doesn't find anything besides some nice office supplies. As he feared, Richard was here to clean up what was left behind so that no wandering eyes could get to it. Luckily, Elio got here fast enough to beat him to the meeting room. It was time to go. He creeps back downstairs and towards the bookshelf. Putting the code back in, it slides open silently.

With a grunt, Elio takes the prybar and jams it into the mechanism that makes the door open and close so easily. The door and gears behind it complain as they try to close but no longer can. Moving to the cracked open front door nearby, he can see James talking to Richard. A look at the screen of the phone that one of the officers is showing the sheriff looks an awful lot like the car that he had driven here.

"Help... someone help us..." He whispers from the crack in the door, loud enough to get the attention of the group of police.

Timing is on Elio's side. Richard is too distracted grilling James to notice when two of the officers, Jenkins and the woman who was initially part of the group to try and arrest Elio, move away from him and step into the house. "Hello?" Jenkins shouts into the darkened room as he clicks on the lights. Elio has by this time slunk back up the stairs to watch this unfold from the banister. "Is someone in here?" His eyes fall to the open bookcase, still complaining and grinding away as it tries to close. "Sheriff, I think you should see this." Jenkins says as he moves up to the stairway down before gagging as the first waft of the awful smell hits him from below.

"Wait!" Richard detaches from his interrogation of the other officer to push into the house, "I told you not to come in here Jenkins!" He roars before stopping at the threshold, eyes bulging as he sees the bookcase jammed open and officer Jenkins standing at the top of the stairs.

Jenkins coughs and gags, "Sir? What's down there?" The other officer comes to the side of Jenkins and she similarly gags and her eyes begin to water.

Richard opens his mouth and finds it suddenly dry. He regains his words a moment later, "It's none of our business. This is a private citizen's home that we should not be intruding on. Get out of here and back on task. If you don't, there will be serious ramifications for both your careers."

The two officers exchange uneasy glances. With some hesitation and a nervous shrug, they start to move back towards the front door. Elio silently drops from the banister above, landing close enough to the door to contest the orders of Richard with another plea for help from the darkness. "Please don't leave us here!"

Jenkins stops at the front door, having heard the voices once more. He looks at Richard. "I... don't think that this is right, sir."

"Your complaint is noted, Officer Jenkins. Now get back to your post." Sheriff Richard says dismissively.

There is a long moment of quiet tension. The officer who had accompanied Jenkins into the house has already left. Jenkins sighs and breaks eye contact with his superior. "Yes, sir." He mumbles and steps out of the house, closing the door fully behind him. The gears churn in Richard's mind. The voices that shouldn't be able to reach up the stairs, the sudden opening and forcible jamming of the hidden door, the handle shaking when no officers were nearby. He's here, isn't he?

"I know you're here somewhere, Elio." Richard announces. He puts a hand into his jacket. Walking over to the jammed book case, he wrenches the pry bar out of it with his free hand, allowing it to fully close once more. "Why don't you come out so we can talk like men?" When nothing seems to happen, he continues. "If you don't, I'll be sending a couple officers to investigate that car they found. Your little distraction didn't work out as well as you hoped it would and I doubt you'll be able to get there before they can."

Elio sighs and takes his hand off the handle of the back door. He moves back to the sitting room, emerging from the shadows under the stairs. "What do you want, ghoul?" He says softly. In his hand is a knife, the same used to gut Vincent.

Hunter startles, taking a step back as Elio appears from his blind spot. He clears his throat and regains his composure. "I want to know what you want. You've clearly got an issue with my master, which means you have an issue with me." He holds the pry-bar in both hands.

"You know what I want, Richard." Elio says.

"No! I don't. That's the issue. You came out of nowhere, started killing ghouls and vampires. What do you want?" Richard points the bar at Elio. "Money? Power? Women? Whatever you want, we can provide it for you. "

Elio is completely still as he takes account of this. "Do you think I can be bought off?" He almost laughs, catching the chuckle in his throat. "What I want is for there to be no more heroin coming through Galena, I want revenge for what your ass of a master did to my brother, and I want those people in the basement to be freed and given resources to help them." The light glints off the knife edge dangerously, "And I don't think you'll be willing to do all these things."

"Baby steps, Elio. You want those people from the basement to be freed? Turning those drug addled idiots back onto the streets? I don't have to tell you why that's a dumb idea." He smiles. "At least this way they are serving some greater purpose of feeding Victor."

"No. I don't want them turned loose, I want them to get help. Help that you and your master are going to be paying for as an act of philanthropy. If you can't agree to that I am going to kill you and drag your officers down there to see if I have to."

A bead of sweat appears on Richard's brow. "So quick to threats and violence. I'm offering you a chance to get away from this and to get ahead in the meantime. You know, we're actually doing Galena a favor. These poor souls get some free or very cheap drugs to be happy for a while, then come here to help someone much greater than any of us."

"You really do a shit job of making this sound good." Elio growls.

"I am just telling the truth of the matter." He continues with a chuckle. "Do you know how much business and income that Victor has brought to this charming community? All that money for the upkeep of historical buildings and maintaining their grounds? Taxes, tourism, and small donations sure as hell don't pay for it." He holds his hands out, gesturing all around him, "Or how much money Victor spends to ensure that the community has access to the best public utilities currently available? How many favors he's cashed in with the local and state government for grants and other tax breaks for members of the community?" He raises his eyebrows, "And what does he ask for in return? Some blood from those who spoil and rot the community he works so hard to keep for us."

Elio just shakes his head in disbelief. "Even if what you said is true, do you really think that doing good things is enough to justify being a monster?" He points to the hidden door. "There are two dozen people down there who are going through massive withdrawals because they probably got forcibly addicted to a drug. Literally chained up in a dungeon. Do donations to the community really outweigh that?"

Richard appears to ponder this for a moment. "I'm going to go with the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Having someone like Victor around to help protect Galena from more predatory Vampires while also bolstering its economy seems like an easy choice for this price."

"God it's like talking to a bunch of psychos!" Elio laments. "That price you're talking about is dozens of human lives!"

He shrugs and sits on a couch. "You greatly overestimate the cost of a life." Richard clasps his hands together. "It's about symbiosis, you know that Elio? He provides you a service and in return he gets something as well. A win-win for everyone!"

"Except the people in the basement." Elio says sourly. "Okay. I've had it here." He steps towards the back door.

"You're not going anywhere until we come up with an agreement, Elio." Richard says with a smug grin. He holds up his phone, showing a message to his officers outside, written but not sent telling them to arrest anyone they find near the car. "Did you forget we know where your friends are?" He brings the screen down, but keeps the phone in hand. "Attack me, and I'll send it. Try to leave without my permission and I'll send it."

Elio stops mid step. "You certainly have some guts, I'll give you that." He hasn't turned around, but the fury in his voice is easily detected. "You want to know something though? It wasn't me who killed the security here last night."

The sheriff looks befuddled. "What do you mean? Who else would've done that?"

From the dark shadow under the stairs, Elio turns, a twisted grin on his face. "I'm not the only monster gunning for you. I am the more reasonable of us though. If you send any officers to that car, I can guarantee that they will die." He moves closer to Richard, who backs up and holds his phone, threatening to send the text, "As for you? I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to disassemble your career. Every dirty deed you've done, every officer you ever intimidated? I'll find out about it and put it on blast until you're investigated. Then I'll make sure that it gets results until you're just the janitor at the station."

The sheriff shakes his head. "Fine. No cops to your car. But I'm not scared of your assault on my job. You want to try and ruin my career? Good luck. I've been the sheriff for a decade now." He chuckles and folds his arms. "Those people down there belong to Victor. And I'll release them over my dead body."

"That can be arranged..." Elio mutters. He fades back into the shadows at the edges of the sitting room. "I'll be around, Richard." Elio departs via the backdoor. Slinking past the cops on the exterior of the manor, he makes his way back to the car.

Ashley is waiting for him, leaning against the car and drumming her fingers on the hood behind her. "Did you find Victor?" Briana leans out from the open window as she hears Elio approach, curious enough to want to listen in.

"No. You were right and he's been moved somewhere else. No clue where though." Elio heaves the satchel he collected into the trunk with a dull thud. "And we should get going to Chicago. They have pictures of the car so we might have to get a new ride." From the back seat of the cabin, he sees Ezio sit up and stretch.

Ashley frowns. "How'd they do that? The car wasn't anywhere really close to the cops." Her eyes narrow as she thinks about it before flashing open, a bit of embarrassed red stinging her cheeks. "I may have shot the pistol off a little close to here..."

The car creaks as Briana leans back into her seat, "Yeah, I mean I heard it from here pretty clearly."

A siren can be heard in the distance as a police car starts up. "That'd explain that." Elio trots to the driver's side and climbs in, starting the car as Ashley plops down in the passenger side. "But no time to worry about it. Let's get moving."

They drive off, heading due east. A couple hours pass on the road as the rural countryside gives way to suburbs and the buildings of Chicago appear on the horizon. "So did you get a chance to kill Richard?" Ashley eventually asks, having grown bored of watching the road and cars sail by.

"No." Elio hesitates a moment before answering. "I didn't."

She looks at Elio, trying to feel his response. She sniffs and goes back to looking out the window. "Too bad. Would've saved us some trouble to get rid of him."

"Wouldn't that cause a bunch of trouble at the police station if we did that?" Elio asks.

"Do we care?"

"I mean... a little bit, right?" Elio shrugs while not taking his eyes off the road.

Ashley snorts. "Elio, the police are literally being controlled by..." She glances into the backseat where Briana is quietly snoring, "Vampires. Whatever purpose they serve to the people is only because it happens to align with what they want."

"But they are normal people. Do we really want to have a bunch of people asking questions about why the sheriff is dead that they won't have good answers to?" Elio continues. "That just sounds like a good way to have more police looking into us."

"We've stayed ahead of them so far. And they are hardly any trouble to us on their own."

"And we live in a shitty motel with a stolen car, barely any money to our names, with a ton of enemies." He says flatly.

Ashley kicks her feet up onto the dash with a dull thud, knocking down some of the tin foil and paper hastily and desperately affixed to the vents to keep the dreaded smell at bay. "I'm sure it'll all work out."

A minute passes. "Were you always like this? I remember you being much more... anxious, I guess, before you got all glowy."

"Yeah, I was anxious. You're terrifying to people!" Ashley glowers. "I was sure you were going to kill me for just being near you. Now that I'm not scared you're going to murder me, I can relax a bit more."

Lacking any better response, Elio grunts and drives on. Next stop, Chicago. Or its suburbs at least.

 

[Parabola]

It's somewhat admirable that Elio wants to stick to a code while this is all going on and only wants to kill 'the monsters', but all I can really think of is that he's going in the direction of a Limit Break. If or when someone dies because he was too merciful to a human when he could have permanently stopped them, that's going to weigh on him. Or it should, personally.

 

[Kinotics]

It's somewhat admirable that Elio wants to stick to a code while this is all going on and only wants to kill 'the monsters', but all I can really think of is that he's going in the direction of a Limit Break. If or when someone dies because he was too merciful to a human when he could have permanently stopped them, that's going to weigh on him. Or it should, personally.

Click to shrink...

And it almost certainly shall. He already took a point of limit for abandoning the people in the basement to their fate alongside a point or two across the story thus far for his limit trigger. He's... probably going to run into some problems if he gets on the wrong side of some "kill everything supernatural" hunters or the Prince and/or Primogen of Chicago actually get enough info together to realize that Elio will keep the kid gloves on against anyone he sees as "innocent" of the WoD conspiracies.

And speaking of monsters, time will tell how he manages with Ashley as his circle mate once she actually uses her war form and powers to great effect.

 

[Kinotics]

It's a long drive to the Chicago area. Briana directs them past downtown Chicago, an extra fifty miles or so past Chicago proper. There in a quiet suburb pushed up against the blue horizon of Lake Michigan is a house that while large is not quite manor status. Elio occasionally glances back at his brother, who has alternated looking bored out the window and sleeping. He hasn't seemed too bothered by vampire blood symptoms while on the trip at least.

"Is this the place?" Elio pulls up to the drive.

Briana nods quickly. "Yup!" As soon as the car stops, she hops out and runs to the door.

Ezio pipes up from the back, "So how much are you thinking you're going to get for this?"

"No clue." Elio shrugs and opens the driver's door. "I'll go talk to them and see if they are happy enough to offer to pay without an issue."

"Want some backup?" Ashley stretches in the passenger seat.

"I doubt that the family is going to attack me, Ashley. Just stay here with Ezio. I'll be back soon." He begins the trek up the driveway behind Briana, who has just rang the doorbell.

Halfway on his walk the door opens, revealing a tired looking man of Asian descent wearing a nice plaid button-up shirt. He looks over his square frame glasses at Briana with a curious look in his eyes. "Briana? Did you forget your house key?" He looks past her and a spark of fear crosses his features as he sees Elio approaching. "Get in the house, honey, there's a stranger behind you." He pulls Briana behind him and past the threshold.

"No, I didn't forget my house key!" Ashley sounds affronted. "I was kidnapped, dad!"

"Not by me." Elio calls out as he speeds up his pace.

"That's Elio! He rescued me!" She adds.

Briana's father just looks increasingly confused. "We'll talk about this later, Briana. Get inside." He turns to Elio, "Sir, please don't come any closer. What's this all about?"

There is a crunch as Elio comes to a halt on a gravel part of the path. "It's exactly as she said. She was kidnapped by some thugs and taken out to Galena for some reason, thugs hired by her aunt so she said. By happenstance I was able to get her out of the situation and bring her back here."

"Wait." His eyes go wide as he looks at Elio. "I know that name... I heard it on the news the other night!" He starts to quickly close the door. "I don't know what you want but get off my property before I call the cops!" He yells.

"Dad! Listen to me!" Briana screeches from inside, slightly muffled, "Some guys grabbed me after school and stuffed me in a trunk! I heard Aunt Laura talking to them on their phone, I swear! Elio helped me, really!"

The door stops before hitting the frame. Something about his daughter's screaming story has struck him as truthful. Perhaps it was the dirty clothes, disheveled hair, and the fact that she hadn't answered her phone or text message in a few days. There is a heavy sigh and the door opens up again. "Fine. Come in. Clearly there is something that I am missing here."

Elio steps through the opened door and follows Mr. Greenwich into his living room, where they both have a seat on opposing couches. Briana remains standing for the moment.

As Elio sits down he frowns. He always felt a little naked without the familiar presence of the pistol in his hidden holster. A woman, pale and sensibly dressed, strolls into the room and stops when she sees Elio. "Roger," she starts, "you didn't tell me we were expecting guests."

"Yeah." He smiles, a little forced, "Mary, this is Zack. He's a..." Rodger thinks for a moment.

"Investigator. Private investigator." Elio finishes his sentence and stands to shake Mary's hand. "Roger is taking point for his company by hiring me for a job."

There is a moment where Mary does not shake Elio's hand, instead looking him over. Ratty clothes. Smells like he hasn't showered recently. And is that a bit of blood spatter on his boots? As Mary grabs Elio's hand to shake and starts to say something, Elio begins just as she does. "Sorry about my appearance, I'm coming here right from another job. Haven't had a good moment to grab a shower and freshen up after the stakeout."

Understanding seems to pass through Mary's eyes. "I totally understand. I can be the same way sometimes, with my job, I mean." She lightly laughs.

Roger laughs loudly, causing everyone to look at him. "Mary, would you mind making our guest some tea?" He asks suddenly.

From across the coffee table, Briana blinks a few times. Mary looks increasingly confused at Roger. "Oh... uh... I guess I can?" She lingers for a moment as if expecting more explanation before sighing and moving back where she arrived from.

The couch squeaks as Elio sits down. "Why are we lying to your wife?" He asks quietly, looking to make sure she wasn't still close.

"I don't want her to know who you are! She saw the same reports I did." Roger leans in as well, "I was going to stop with just a fake name, why'd you keep going?!"

"Uh..." Elio looks away. "I thought we were just, you know, lying about everything?"

"No!" Roger looks flabbergasted. "That is so much more work! Ugh." He puts his hands in his hands. "Whatever. We'll work with it now. So what do you want, Zack."

Elio feels suddenly awkward. "Well... I want a reward for saving your daughter."

"A reward?" He scoffs. "Can't you just be happy with having done the right thing? I have a hard time justifying a reward to a criminal beyond not calling the police."

"Come on dad. Can't you just give the guy some money? You should see the way he's living." Briana laments.

"That doesn't sound exactly my problem. More like a personal problem, really." He scoffs and leans into the couch.

"Well!" Elio grunts as he stands and dusts his jeans off. "This has been lovely. I'm glad to have seen you back home safely, Briana. But unless there is something I can do for you I don't see much of a reason for staying here. I have things to attend to back home."

Roger holds up a hand, "Wait." He calls out. "While I'm not willing to just give you a gift..."

"A reward. For rescuing your daughter." Elio adds.

"Gift, reward, whatever." Roger shakes his head. "I would pay you to investigate these claims that Briana is making against Laura. And, if you find evidence, hard evidence, that she was actually kidnapped... I suppose I would have to reward you for your efforts and pay for your investigation."

Elio stops at the door, "I don't come cheap. I wasn't lying when I said I was a private investigator. Plus there is also the problem that I don't live in this area and would need a place to stay for the duration of the investigation. I'd be willing to knock my usual price down if you had a garage or loft for me and my team to stay in." He says, looking back.

There is a groan from Roger. "You are already making this more complicated than I would like it to be. I have a detached garage that I was planning on putting my boats in once I bought them. But if it will reduce your price, let's talk numbers. How much of a reduction are you saying?" A good deal of eye rolling and discussion of going rates later, Elio has managed to convince Roger that only a modest price reduction is needed for this.

Mary returns from the kitchen with a light blue tea kettle, which looks new, and sets it and an assortment of mugs on the table as the two men settle their price discussion. Briana has long since absconded upstairs to reacquaint herself with a proper shower. "Have you already talked about your business?" Mary asks as she sits down next to her husband and pours herself a cup of some floral tea.

"Right, about that." He turns on the couch to better face Mary. "You know the garage?"

Mary narrows her eyes. "Yes. I know the garage."

"Well, I was able to negotiate a price decrease from our investigator if he's allowed to use that space during his investigation." Roger seems pleased with his shrewd tactics and Elio isn't about to step into this arena to say it was his idea.

She smiles and looks to Elio, "Excuse me Zack, I need to speak with my husband." Her shadow seems to loom a little as she faces her husband again, "Privately." She hisses.

Elio quickly makes himself busy pouring himself some tea as Roger is dragged halfway down the nearby hallway and out of normal human hearing range. Ever the eavesdropper, Elio sharpens his senses and listens to the bare echo of the whispers down the hall.

"Roger! You can't just invite strangers to stay in our home!" She begins.

"Relax, it'll be fine. Plus it's just the detached garage..."

"And you just said it was okay without asking me?! I live here too! Why don't you ever talk to me about things before you just do them?!" Mary hisses.

"And why can't you just trust me when I say that I got this, Mary?" Roger pleads, "Look. Don't freak out, but that guy is actually Elio, you know, the one that they did the reports on in Galena."

There is a stunned silence. "And you just invited him into our house! God Roger! What if he tries to kill us!"

"Are you really afraid he'll try that?" Roger says sarcastically. "He tries anything and we call the cops, tell them that he broke in and they take care of it and I'm sure they have a bounty for information on him."

"Plus, well... there's no way he can take you in a fair fight, honey." Roger continues.

There is a knock on the door, interrupting Mary before she can retort. She snorts and hisses, "This isn't over." as she brushes past him and to the front door. Opening it, there is a fit looking young man wearing a wife beater. Tan skin tone with brown eyes. Head shaved. Craning his neck from the couch, something about him is tickling Elio's memory for some reason. Frustratingly familiar. But nothing is coming to mind. "Mike?" Mary asks with some disbelief. "I haven't seen you in what? Two years?"

"Yeah, it's me, Aunt Mary." He holds up a baggie with a lock of familiar dark brown hair in it. "I'm here to talk about Briana."

Mary seems confused and tries to take the baggie from Mike. "Okay." She narrows her eyes as Roger comes to see who's at the door. "What's this about?"

"I'm here to give a message. If you don't want anything to happen to Briana, you'll be paying my employer a nice hefty sum." He smiles broadly, teeth slightly yellow in the light of day.

Mary seems genuinely taken aback. "What are you planning to do with my daughter, you idiot?" She growls, her fists balling up.

"Easy. You don't pay up, my boss returns her one piece at a time until you are willing to pay. Pretty easy, yeah?" He says smugly.

"...returns?" Mary goes from angry to more confused. "You do realize she's here. At home. Right?"

"What?" Mike's expression sticks in its smug smile, but there is a bit of panic starting in his eyes. "Your... foolish attempts to make me look..." he stutters, "f-foolish won't work, auntie."

Elio stands and looks out the front window at the drive. He sees his car and Mike's car. Which now has Ashley casually leaning against it. Seems she's gotten bored of just sitting in the car.

"Yes. She was returned by this man not thirty minutes ago." Roger says, coming to his wife's side as he gestures to the now empty couch barely in sight of the door. "Uh, he's in the bathroom. Now. What was this about a ransom?"

Mike starts to sweat and the hand holding the bag trembles slightly as he swiftly hides it behind his back. "Uh. Nothing!" He laughs loudly, "This is all just a prank!"

"Right." Mary moves up to Mike and grabs his wife-beater in an iron grip.

There is a slam and the house shakes slightly as Mary immediately pins Mike to the floor. He flails and tries to get out from under her to no avail. "What the hell auntie?" He yells.

"Well." Elio chuckles as he comes back into view. "This was a freebie." He looks over to Roger who appears stunned. "Do you believe she was kidnapped now?"

"Uh... let's see what he has to say before we jump to any conclusions..."

"Let's start my investigation, yeah." Elio stretches his neck as he moves over to the struggling duo.

Mary flips her hair out of her eyes, "I thought you were investigating something for Roger's company?"

"See? I told you this lying would just make everything more confusing!" Roger says.

"Whatever. Get this Mike kid over to the garage and out of sight." Elio turns to the open door where he can see Ashley watching the proceedings. "Come help get this guy into the garage, would you?" He shouts over to her.

She hops off the hood of Mike's muscle car and slides over, grabbing hold of Mike and pulling him easily out from Mary's grasp. "Time to go, kid." She growls. Ashley moves Mike around the side of the house, him thrashing desperately to escape from Ashley.

"So." Mary stands and dusts herself off, turning to face Elio. "You're the guy that assaulted police officers and attacked an official in Galena."

"And the guy that saved your daughter." Elio hastily adds. "And those other things are either wrong or taken very out of context."

She looks at Roger, who shrugs helplessly, and returns to Elio. "I don't think that we need your help to investigate this matter." Mary says simply.

"Mary..." Roger moves close to his wife and puts a hand on her shoulder. "I think that we should perhaps leave this to a professional? We could always call the police..."

"No cops!" Both Mary and Elio shout at Roger, causing them to exchange wary glances.

"Okay, okay. No cops. Then can we leave the work of actually catching these crooks and apparently my sister to the private eye and not to my wife the newspaper editor?"

Newspaper editor? Elio is surprised but does not show it. With moves like those? "Don't worry, Mary. I have your family's best interests at heart. You'll be able to rest easily soon."

Mary suddenly gets very close and whispers into Elio's ear, "My family was doing just fine before your clown fiesta showed up. You do your stupid investigation and get off my property."

"Not a fan. Got it." He takes a step back. "Well, I have a Mike or Mark or whatever to interrogate. I'll be quick about it." Elio walks over to the car that now just has Ezio in it. "Hey bro. Let's get you out of the car and into a nice garage!"

"Really." He looks up. "It's better than boiling in the car, I guess." Ezio grunts as he's lifted from the seat and pulled onto his feet.

"Is this the new normal, Elio?" Ezio asks at the halfway mark to the garage.

"God, I hope not." Elio chuckles.

"No, I'm serious Elio. You are wanted by vampires and cops, no house, no money and I think that you are about to interrogate some kid."

"I don't think there's really any going back. Vampires exist. That cat isn't going back in the bag Ezio."

"The fact that Vampires exist is not a personal challenge to you." Ezio groans. "And I'm more concerned with interrogating a kid."

"Look. We need some cash and a place to stay that isn't likely infested with roaches. Unless you're able to work in the state you are in, I've got to find some income. It's not like I'm going to kill the kid. I already know half of the stuff that he knows about this operation, it'll be a cinch. He also looks kinda familiar..." Elio mutters as an aside.

They arrive at the front of the garage, a two story tall boat garage to be specific. "Just leave me out here." Ezio points to a set of patio chairs underneath an umbrella. "The fresh air will do me some good after that death trap of a car."

"Fine." Elio sets Ezio down in one of the chairs in the shade. "I'll be back out in a bit."

The lights are out when Elio opens the door to the empty floor of the garage. Sensing something amiss he listens closely. He can hear something big breathing heavily and can hear someone sobbing softly. "Ashley? What's going on here." He flips the light on.

The light falls upon a bipedal, horribly muscled monstrosity. A bunny, if a bunny was a hulking, semi-humanoid, sharp-fanged and clawed monster. It whirls as Elio enters, taking him in with a low, howling scream. Just in front of it is Mike who is desperately pushed into the corner of the garage, a broken 2x4 near his hand. Elio squints at the behemoth. "Ashley?"

Bones snap and flesh rearranges as the beast shrinks back to around human size, eventually revealing Ashley from the rearranging tissue. "What?" She sounds annoyed. "You said we were going to be interrogating him." She looks behind her now at Mike who can do nothing but babble and stare at the duo.

"Yeah. Interrogate him. Not reveal what we are to him. Now what are we supposed to do with him." Elio gives the young man a pitying look.

"I...I...I..." Mark struggles to find any words. "I'll do anything!" He stares frantically at Ashley, "Please don't eat me!"

Elio looks at Ashley. "Did you threaten to eat him? Do you eat people?"

"I mean... I won't say I didn't. I ate a deer before we met back up at the hotel. Now I can turn into one." She looks back, bestial curiosity and a pang of hunger in her eyes back at Mike. "I wonder if I can turn into you..."

"Let's keep the eating people talk to a minimum. Preferably zero." Elio says as he moves to Mike and crouches down in front of him. "As for you. Let's keep this simple. What was your role in kidnapping Briana?"

"Nothing! I swear! I just overheard my mom talking about this plan and I tried to beat her to the ransom part! Even the hair isn't Briana's, it's just my girlfriends."

The room is silent except for the creak of the building. "Are you an idiot?" Ashley asks eventually.

"No..." He sullenly says.

"So you don't know anything about the actual plot to kidnap Briana. Besides that your mom did it. And the only evidence you could provide to that effect would be your word." Elio states. Mike nods.

"Okay." Elio continues, "Tell us where to find your mother then."

"She works at one of the downtown precincts as an evidence manager. Make sure all the files and evidence are properly filed and stuff. She's got an apartment not too far from the precinct too." Mike spills.

"That was easy enough. I was thinking I was going to have to scare you a bit to get you to sell out your mom, but I guess Ashley was good enough on her own to get what we need." Elio says with a smirk. "I guess I'll leave it to your aunt what to do with you..." Ashley immediately gets into Elio's face.

"We're just gonna leave him alive? Even after he's seen me?" She demands.

Elio gives her a blank look. "I mean, yeah. He's just an idiot that got caught up in something. Nothing worth killing him over."

She grabs Elio's arm and pulls him away from Mike, who has a spark of hope in his eyes now. "If we don't kill him, he's gonna tell the lady about us. Then she's gonna tell more people about us, and before we know it the police, an angry scared mob of neighbors, and the local Kindred are going to be all over us. We have to make sure there are no loose ends, Elio. Our lives depend on it."

"And whose fault is that, Ashley?" Elio lightly scolds her, "You turned into a goddamn monster and screamed at him. We could've just got this out of him without the show. We had leverage and knowledge. You jumped the gun. And maybe people should know about us. Know that there are people out there trying to help them."

"Help them?" Ashley scoffs. "Elio, we don't even know what we are. All they are going to see is monsters to hunt. Then they would look into the dark for more."

"If we are hunting monsters, then they will see monster hunters. As long as we aren't worse than the monsters themselves."

She points back to Mike, "And how does this help with the monster hunting? This seems perfectly mundane."

"Money, Ashley. We need money for supplies, information, shelter, and everything else. We can't, at least as far as I know, run off of righteous fury alone. And these people could be good clients with a good referral list. Especially for people with skill sets like ours. And they won't refer people who kill their family members, even shitty ones like Mike!"

Ashley tilts her head and thinks. Elio can almost see the gears winding away in there. "Fine."

"Okay. I'll go tell Mary and Roger that we got what we needed from Mike and ask what they want to do with him." Elio steps to the front door and stops, "And don't scare him any more than he already is, okay?"

"Fineeeee." Ashley rolls her eyes. The door closes behind Elio with a quiet crack. She turns back to Mike with a grin. "So, you aren't going to tell anyone about what you've seen here."

"What?" Mike squeaks. He had managed to half stand in the brief interim of his interrogation.

Ashley saunters up to him, grabbing him by his shirt and easily hoisting him above her head. He tries to yell out but finds his air choked out by his collar. "You aren't telling anyone, right Mike? Or else I'll have to chase you down and kill you like some sort of bug. You get that, right?"

"Please... just put... me down..." He croaks. She releases him into a heap on the floor. "I won't tell anyone..." Mike says between gasps for breath. "Just leave me alone!"

"That's what I thought." Ashley purrs.

Elio returns back to the main house. Inside, before he can even knock to enter, he can hear the two talking. "What are we going to do with Mike?" Roger asks.

Mary sighs. "We're going to have to keep him here. Luckily no one probably knew he was coming here except maybe that girlfriend of his." Elio pauses at the door to listen for a bit before making himself known.

"And we can't just call the police to have them sort this out?" Roger presses.

"No, we can't. I have a few unfriendly faces at the police department here, and they'd love this chance to rake me over the coals for family drama."

"If this is about your job Mary, you know I make enough for the both of us now. You don't have to keep editing your hit pieces for the Voice."

"Hit pieces?" She scoffs. "Is that what those are to you? Just because I edit pieces that actually expose some of the shit that the police and city hall do here does not make them 'hit pieces' Roger. And it's not about the money, it's about the principle of it. If I don't make sure those articles are being written and taken seriously, who else is going to do it?"

"Sorry, sorry. But we still can't keep our nephew prisoner in our home, either." Roger continues on. Elio takes this opportunity to knock on the front door. "We'll talk about this in a moment." Roger says as he opens the door. "Oh, here already?" He says to Elio.

Elio nods. "Yeah. We learned a whole lot of nothing." He steps into the foyer. "Turns out Mac or Mark or whatever doesn't know anything. Just an opportunist who overheard a conversation with his mother."

Mary moves to the sitting room and plops down onto a couch. "So he's the same idiot that we remember him to be. Great." She mumbles.

"So what are you going to do with him now?" Roger asks.

Elio looks surprised. "What do you mean? He's your family, figured I'd let you two figure that out. Turn him in to the cops, let him go, give him a firm talking to, I don't really care." He shrugs. "He's already told us where to find his mom, so that's our next stop after picking up some equipment."

"Oh... okay." Roger says with uncertainty, casting a glance back at his wife. "Just put him up in one of the guest rooms and we'll figure out the rest."

"Can do. You sure he won't just run the moment the door is closed though?" Elio can't help but inquire.

Mary stands back up suddenly and moves towards the stairs, stopping at the bottom. "I'll make sure he isn't going anywhere until he understands the full consequences of his actions, yes." She moves up the stairs and out of sight.

"She's fun, huh?" Elio remarks as he moves back to the front door. Roger doesn't reply as Elio makes his way out.

Back at the garage, he moves Mike out of the area and into a guest bedroom indicated by Mary. The door closes and Elio returns to the garage who starts to make himself at home.

From one of the windows of the house, however, Mary is watching the strangers move into the garage with a frown and creased forehead.

 

[Kinotics]

The door to the guest bedroom closes behind Mary. Sitting on the bed is Mike, eyeing his aunt warily. It's quiet here as the close walls muffle any sound from beyond. "Okay." Mary breaks the silence. "What do you know about Elio?"

"Nothing, I swear auntie. This is the first time I've seen him." He mumbles.

Mary sits on the bed next to Mike. "Look. I know you think you're some sort of big shot right now, but you need to know that those people out in our garage? They are very dangerous. And I need to know if they mean any harm to me or to my family. If you help me out and just tell me what you know about him so I can get a better feel for what he may want from us, I'll let you go."

He perks up, "Really? Just... let me go?"

She nods, rocking the bed slightly. "Yup. You'd be able to head back home and put all this unpleasantness behind you. I'd even invite you over for thanksgiving. I just need to know what you know."

"Uh, okay." Mike quickly agrees. "I know Elio from back up in Galena. I have some friends up there that, well, we have a business. When I was working, I saw him talking to one of the locals about Sly, the guy in charge. So I went and told him about it and they talked for a little bit and he went on his way. One of my friends says that he killed one of our suppliers in cold blood."

"Business." Mary says flatly. "Like drug business?"

There is a long, awkward silence. "Yeah." Mike eventually relents. "He burnt her whole supply, all we found was ashes of the stuff that he promised Sly for information."

"Who's her?" She asks.

"I think her name was Elizabeth? Weird lady apparently. Never met her in person."

"And do you know what Elio was doing before that?" Mary presses on.

Mike scratches his neck. "He's a private eye I think. Seen him around town sometimes. Didn't really think I'd run into him this far from Galena though."

"Who is that woman he's traveling with? Have you seen her before?"

"She's..." Mike's words catch in his throat as his stomach flips. "Yeah, she was moving H for Elizabeth. I bought some off of her a while ago. She seems really different today."

"Wait." Mary looks confused. "I thought you said Elio killed Elizabeth. Why is one of her dealers traveling with him now?"

Mark shrugs helplessly and looks out the window. "Couldn't tell you auntie, maybe she just had a change of heart or some shit like that."

Mary purses her lips a moment and continues along, brushing some hair out of her eyes. "What else do you know about her? What's her name?"

"Ashley." He says absently. Following Mike's gaze out the window she can see him staring at the detached garage. For a moment, she can see Ashley looking back at him from one of the windows, eyes boring into his before snapping to Mary's with a toothy grin, then ducking out of sight. She can see Mark shivering slightly, sweat appearing on his brow as he turns back to Mary. "Elio called her Ashley."

"And does she seem different from the last time you saw her." Mary frowns as she continues to look at the garage in the fading daylight.

Mark is quiet for a long time, continuing to shake. "Aunt Mary. Do you believe in monsters?"

The question seems to catch her off guard. "No. I don't." Mary answers firmly.

"Well what if you saw a monster?" He continues quickly. "Even though you don't believe in monsters? Then what would you do?"

"I would think about it rationally." Mary answers slowly, "And take the necessary precautions to deal with the threat. Like finding out as much as possible about the 'monster'". She uses finger quotes around the word, "And if a monster were to exist, I would also treat it as my first priority to get rid of it before any family squabbles." She says meaningfully.

Mark leans close to Mary and whispers in her ear, voice trembling, "Please help me. She said she would hunt me down and eat me if I ran or told anyone about her. I broke a board across her back and she just laughed at me like it was nothing. Elio didn't even seem that surprised, he just scolded her. I think he's one of... whatever the fuck they are too."

Mary's mind races. "Describe her." She says simply.

"Big!" He suddenly says very emphatically. "One moment she was just a normal person and the next she was... fucking huge! Like twelve fucking feet tall! Looked like a demented rabbit or some shit from hell! Then she turned right back as soon as Elio came in."

"Okay. Stay here. I have some friends I need to call." Mary says as she stands from the bed. The ease of a person in her own home is replaced by that of a huntress finding a bear in her living room.

She steps out and into the upstairs landing, pulling out her phone. She quickly dials a number known by heart. "Gray? It's Violet. We've got a code feral at my house. Yes. At my house. How soon can you and the others be here? Okay. I'm going in to confirm this is actually true, but they scared the hell out of my dumbass nephew. See you soon." Moving the landing to her office, she unlocks the door and pulls back a shelf to reveal a reinforced set of clothing, a variety of stakes, a sword, a spear, a revolver, and a long rifle. Cartridges of silvered bullets lay just below the firearms, next to a silver tip of the spear that she quickly sets affixing to the long shaft of the spear after removing the steel tip. This was going to be a long night.

Meanwhile back in the garage, Elio has pulled the car inside and is taking in the room a bit more.

"Well, it's going to take a little bit of work but this should work for now." He looks up at the loft. "Set up some cots or something like that up there, get a few desks down here, and then we'll have a proper base for now. Best part is no one is going to know about it so long as we are careful."

Ashley returns from staring out the ground floor window back up at the house. "You think that kid won't rat us out?"

"Oh, he almost certainly will." Elio says matter-of-factly. "But all we have to do is explain ourselves well enough and," he checks the remaining ammo in his pistol, finding it lower than he would want it to be, "be ready for any fallout."

"This is great." Ezio grumbles as he falls onto the only piece of furniture in the area, a worn leather couch. "I've got a headache coming on, so I'm just going to sleep now. If you could get me some ibuprofen or something that'd be great. Otherwise keep the kooky weird talk quiet for a while, eh?"

"Okay, just try and get some sleep." Elio says before turning back to Ashley. "So I can sleep in the passenger seat. But we should keep a watch. For tonight at the very least to make sure Mark or whatever doesn't do anything too wild."

Ashley sighs. "I can take the first watch. I've barely done anything today so I'm not tired yet anyway." She shrinks down into the form of a rabbit and darts out the front door to watch the outside.

Elio settles into the passenger seat of the beat up sedan, keeping the door open to let the foul scent of the car be a little less potent. "That's next on my list if we are keeping this car." He mumbles with a yawn as he closes his eyes.

Outside, Mary is carefully watching the garage from one of the ground floor windows of
her home. She frowns as she sees the small rabbit dart out from the garage door and vanish into some of the surrounding shrubbery. It will be a while yet until the rest of her cell arrives, so she settles in to make sure the inhabitants of the garage don't go anywhere. Once they've arrived she can investigate further.

She is so focused that she doesn't hear her daughter's light footsteps coming up from behind. "Mom?"

Mary startles slightly before laughing slightly, "Oh, hi Briana. You startled me. What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?" She glances over at the silver tipped spear that she was keeping nearby, leaning just out of sight against the refrigerator.
"I hadn't seen you for a couple days, so I just wanted to say hi." She looks out the window past her mom over to the garage. "Are you staking out the garage?"

Mary blinks and nods. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"Are you that worried about Elio?" Briana continues.

"Aren't you?" Mary replies. "He's a wanted criminal. And while I appreciate what he did in bringing you back here I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."

"He did say he's caught up in some crazy stuff." Briana pulls over a kitchen chair closer to her mother and sits, "Said it was like a conspiracy? Something going on in Galena with drugs and the mayor or something. Wouldn't tell me about it, said it was 'too dangerous' for me to know."

"How did you end up in Galena, anyway? We got a call from Nelli that you were over at her place for a few days." Mary looks away from the garage.

"After school some guys grabbed me and put me in the trunk of that car in the garage now." Briana says simply.

"And what about your pepper spray? And those self-defense classes?" Mary presses.

Briana frowns. "There were three guys, mom. And they came up from behind me. There wasn't a whole lot I could really do."

"I see..." Mary returns to looking at the garage, clearly distracted. "Well, I'm glad that you're home, Briana."

There is a scoff from Briana. "Is that it? I was kidnapped from school by three men and saved by some rando who just happened to steal the car and who felt responsible enough to return me unharmed and all you have to say is "I see?" She stands from her chair and stomps out of the kitchen and back upstairs.

"I'll have to smooth that out later." Mary grumbles to herself.

As Briana stomps up the stairs to her room, she pauses at the second floor landing as she looks at the door that leads to her mothers office. It was cracked open. Her mom never left that door unlocked, let alone open, at their old house. Briana has not ever been allowed in that office and tonight serves just the right defiant energy for her to break a family taboo.

Pushing the door open quietly, she finds a neatly organized space filled with shelves of books. Glancing over a few titles she finds books on interview techniques, biographies of famous reporters, and a few books on folklore and myth. More interesting to Briana is the computer set on the modern looking desk near the window. Sliding into the chair, Briana moves the mouse and the screen lights up, asking for a password. Groaning, she leans back in the chair and looks around the office. Her mother would never just leave a password around for anyone to find. One of the books lays on the desk however. This one is a bit different, with heavy dark leather binding and no title or author on its pages.

She isn't sure why, but there is something inscrutable that catches her eye about the book and with a creak of the binding, she cracks the book open to a random page. It isn't in English or any language she knows, but it looks like her mom has been translating some of the pages and there is a slip of ordered writing in this page. Most of it makes little sense, but there is a sentence underlined. 'The way forward to Day will be through the Night.'.

"Night?" Briana frowns and folds her arms as she is bent over the text. She glances over to the computer. "Couldn't hurt to try." First she tries the underlined sentence, no luck. Next just Night. Also no good. It warns her she only has a single guess remaining before it locks up. 'Day will be through the Night' is her last guess. Against all odds, this works, and the workstation welcomes 'Emerald'. For an hour or so, as any nosy child would do, Briana picks through her mother's files. Which is how she stumbles onto a series of interviews and reports from other news stations in an "unaired" folder.

'Several great lake states declare a state of emergency.' reads one title, picturing a mass pyre of human corpses. 'Locals report massive creature in Lake Michigan.' A large eerie shadow under the water is the image. 'Sunrise extremist group becomes active near the Canadian border.' This one has a series of photos of someone wielding a katana and charging a group of soldiers while glowing gold. The last photo shows them cleaving through a dozen men and women with a single slice. 'There is little time, Briana. Are you ready?'

Wait. What was that last one? Her own features make up the image, but she looks... tired. Harrowed somehow. Her brow is adorned with a strange green sigil. She scrolls up and away from the file, only to notice another. "The Red Star will soon awaken." Its image is of a large red circle, somehow boring itself into Briana's eyes. Another file flickers when she looks at it. "The way forward to Day will be through the Night." An empty golden circle. Standing up and away from the computer, Briana feels sweat bead up on her forehead and adrenaline courses through her veins. She rubs her eyes and backs away through the office. The book of writings is gone. The computer is locked. Not even the chair is pulled out. Briana rushes out of the office, closing the door behind her. Pausing, she tries the handle of the now closed study. Locked. She shakes her head and slowly backs into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Four hours pass by. It's true night by now and Mary rubs her eyes as she continues to watch the garage. She once again sees that rabbit come by and frowns as she watches it. Then the rabbit kicks the closed door. Then kicks it again a few moments later. A minute passes and the door opens, she can just barely make out the tired form of Elio as he lets the rabbit inside. He stretches, says something, then steps outside. He sits down in one of the lawn chairs that were left out there from a barbeque that the Greenwich family hosted a few months back and watches the night.

While she knows that he is there, it is hard to focus directly on him. Mary's eyes keep slipping off and away from him, as though he was so uninteresting that she can only just barely force herself to watch him. The shadows of night play across him as the wind blows and casts the deep darkness from the nearby trees on him, making her lose sight of him completely on occasion.

Mary's phone lights up, momentarily casting a light on her before she is able to cover it. She curses and quickly pockets her phone. By the time that she looks back up to where Elio was seated, he's gone without a trace. She quickly steps back away from the window and into her home. Looking at the phone, she sees a message from Gray. 'We're out front. What's the plan?'

'I've been watching the garage. Something is up. I'll meet you out front. Have your gear ready.' Shouldering her spear and sliding into her armored leathers, she makes her way to the front door.

 

[Parabola]

She steps out and into the upstairs landing, pulling out her phone. She quickly dials a number known by heart. "Gray? It's Violet. We've got a code feral at my house. Yes. At my house. How soon can you and the others be here? Okay. I'm going in to confirm this is actually true, but they scared the hell out of my dumbass nephew. See you soon." Moving the landing to her office, she unlocks the door and pulls back a shelf to reveal a reinforced set of clothing, a variety of stakes, a sword, a spear, a revolver, and a long rifle. Cartridges of silvered bullets lay just below the firearms, next to a silver tip of the spear that she quickly sets affixing to the long shaft of the spear after removing the steel tip. This was going to be a long night.

Click to shrink...

Well, well, well. Mary being involved in a Hunter group may be why her daughter was kidnapped in the first place, I guess. Yeah, that'd track to an extent, if Mary was looking into some vampires and someone wanted leverage on her.

'Several great lake states declare a state of emergency.' reads one title, picturing a mass pyre of human corpses. 'Locals report massive creature in Lake Michigan.' A large eerie shadow under the water is the image.

Click to shrink...

A pyre could be basically anyone, but maaaybe it's about an Abyssal. The creature in Lake Michigan might be another Lunar... or, less likely but still possible, you doing a really deep cut and it's a Spoken from 3e, one of the 'extinct' Exalt types.

'Sunrise extremist group becomes active near the Canadian border.' This one has a series of photos of someone wielding a katana and charging a group of soldiers while glowing gold. The last photo shows them cleaving through a dozen men and women with a single slice.

Click to shrink...

And another Solar out there. Wonder what these Sunrise guys want.

'There is little time, Briana. Are you ready?'

Wait. What was that last one? Her own features make up the image, but she looks... tired. Harrowed somehow. Her brow is adorned with a strange green sigil. She scrolls up and away from the file, only to notice another. "The Red Star will soon awaken." Its image is of a large red circle, somehow boring itself into Briana's eyes. Another file flickers when she looks at it. "The way forward to Day will be through the Night." An empty golden circle. Standing up and away from the computer, Briana feels sweat bead up on her forehead and adrenaline courses through her veins. She rubs her eyes and backs away through the office. The book of writings is gone. The computer is locked. Not even the chair is pulled out. Briana rushes out of the office, closing the door behind her. Pausing, she tries the handle of the now closed study. Locked. She shakes her head and slowly backs into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Click to shrink...

I guess Briana is/is becoming a Sidereal now? The green sigil and a capacity to make it seem like nobody ever intruded into the room indicates Secrets caste.

The Red Star... I don't know. Possibly Mars, and by extension a Battles Sidereal also showing up sometime soon. But the symbol for Mars is the sign, not just a red circle alone. Possibly it's a WoD thing that I just don't know about.

 

[WeylandSmith]

The Red Star... I don't know. Possibly Mars, and by extension a Battles Sidereal also showing up sometime soon. But the symbol for Mars is the sign, not just a red circle alone. Possibly it's a WoD thing that I just don't know about.

Click to shrink...

As far as I know the Red Star is just a general harbinger of the associated apocalypses of the WOD. It appeared at some point, and only supernatural adjacent beings could see it getting closer to the earth, and at some point it becomes visible to the mundane eye.

I was wondering what Mary was, my guess was something mage related, but a hunter makes a lot of sense.

That Ashley seems to be exalting as a Sidereal is interesting. On one hand this is the third person out of the cast to exalt, but on the other hand it is a sidereal exaltation, and it also makes sense that they would cluster.

 

[Parabola]

As far as I know the Red Star is just a general harbinger of the associated apocalypses of the WOD. It appeared at some point, and only supernatural adjacent beings could see it getting closer to the earth, and at some point it becomes visible to the mundane eye.

I was wondering what Mary was, my guess was something mage related, but a hunter makes a lot of sense.

That Ashley seems to be exalting as a Sidereal is interesting. On one hand this is the third person out of the cast to exalt, but on the other hand it is a sidereal exaltation, and it also makes sense that they would cluster.

Click to shrink...

Oooh, good to know. That just reaffirms the Sidereal thing - if anyone would notice that there's a Weird Astrological Thing heralding doom, it'd be a Sidereal.

 

[Kinotics]

From the bushes near the front drive, Elio listens in on the three people, two men and a woman, who have arrived at the Greenwich residence by the dead of night. They don't look like your normal office workers, each has a certain determination in their eyes and gait. Not to mention the weapons that they have. Crossbows, heavy pistols, a rifle, and a silvery tipped spear. Definitely not office supplies. Mary comes out from the front door quietly. The late summer breeze gusts for a moment as she approaches the strangers.

"Alright Violet. Where's your code feral?" The man, thin haired with a full beard asks.

"Side yard, in the detached garage. My idiot nephew says one of them turned into what sounded like a war form." Mary says with a sigh. Her attire is different from the day as well. She's wearing a thick leather cuirass and gauntlets, dark toned enough to blend in more easily in the night.

The other woman, this one with a long coat and curly black hair, pipes up. "He saw a war form and remembered it? Must be one cool motherfucker."

Mary scowls. "No. Just lucky is more like it. I've also seen a rabbit acting suspiciously. And they definitely set a watch tonight. Issue is, I think I was made. I have no idea where the guy is now."

"Well." The second man, wearing a kevlar jacket and speaking with a thin French accent. "Let's get this over with. My wife's already going to ask questions about where I am tonight, let's try and keep our injuries to a minimum, eh? What's the plan?"

"Keep your silver ready. There shouldn't be any good reflective surfaces for them to use in that garage except maybe their car windshield that would be big enough for them to run through. So if we corner them expect a hard fight." Mary continues. The woman tosses Mary the silver spear.

"And why are they here?" The thin haired man presses. "It's not like werewolves to just muscle into someone's home like this. You know them?"

Mary sighs as she catches the spear. "My idiot husband invited them to stay. They actually returned my daughter back to here after she was apparently kidnapped."

The other three exchange looks. "That really doesn't sound like werewolves, Violet. You sure you got this one read right?" French-accent asks.

Elio takes this moment to step out from the bushes. "Afraid not." Without missing a beat the group falls into ready stances, naturally ready to back one another up. "Not werewolves. I don't really know what the other options are besides Vampire though. And I am also not a vampire."

"And why should we just believe you?" Mary asks with narrowed eyes. "My nephew had a hell of a story to tell me after you were done interrogating him."

Elio shrugs. "Okay. My friend might be a were...thing. But I don't have any weird transforming bullshit going on. I didn't even know werewolves were a thing until I overheard you all here."

The curly haired woman spits, "The fact that none of us were even able to see or hear you from behind that bush or get into there is enough to tell me that something is wrong here." She puts her finger on the trigger of her heavy revolver and takes aim. "What are you?"

"If I tell you, will you at least tell me who you are? I think, given what I see you armed with, that you are hunters or some shit." Elio replies.

They exchange a set of quick looks with each other. "We'll see." Thin haired man says.

Elio points up to his forehead and alights his caste mark, casting a golden glow through the night and onto the collected people. "I'm, uh, whatever this is. A Night."

Solar. It flows in unbidden asking, no, demanding to be heard. To be understood. Lawgiver. Normally it's quiet, like a hum in the back of the head. This one shouts with a certain indomitability.

Elio shakes his head. "Um, a Solar."

The three around the car look at Mary, eyebrows raised, but leaving their weapons trained on Elio. "I've never heard of a Solar or a Night before." She says quietly. "But you clearly aren't human."

"And you clearly are not just a newspaper editor." Elio says while eying the various weapons. "Probably a good spot to try and spot anything weird going on and get your friends together though, eh?"

"I don't think that's any of your business." Mary says. The group expands out into a half circle.

The woman with curly hair is sizing Elio up and liking her odds, based on the expression she is wearing. "You made a mistake coming out here by yourself, monster."

Elio puts a hand into his pocket, gripping the hilt of his knife. "Let's not throw the monster word around. I'm just as human as any of you. I'm more interested in causing trouble for your local Vampires than hurting normal people."

"How convenient." The French man says, "Got any good proof of that? Sounds more like someone realizing their back is against the wall and trying to wriggle out."

"Are any of you familiar with the Vampires in Galena? Because before coming here I was out there giving them hell. Does the name Victor ring a bell?" Elio starts backing up slowly. He could go get Ashley, but this would turn into a bloodbath if he did that.

There is a collective shaking of heads. "No guns, Red." Mary says to the curly haired woman. "Can't wake the neighbors."

"Fine." She grumbles. Reaching into a satchel hidden behind her coat, she pulls out a whip. "I'll keep him on his toes. The rest of you know what to do."

"So I guess no talking about this, huh?" Elio puts his foot down onto the tines of a rake that is half hidden behind a longer section of grass. The shaft leaps eagerly up into his hands. He gives it an experimental twirl, throwing the bit of dew that had gathered on it out to his attackers. Looking around the lawn, there is actually a fair bit of equipment, both blunt and sharp, laying about. The lawn care folks must have left them out for some reason.

As the hunters come closer, Elio catches some early fall leaves in the rake and throws them into the air around him. The leaves swirl and Elio vanishes from sight, little more than a flickering form in the midnight shadows.

Mary strikes first, leaping forward with her spear at the mirage of a person she sees in the falling leaves. The handle of the rake slams into the spear shaft, throwing it far from its intended course and planting the head deep into the lawn. Elio follows up, sliding the wooden rake along the spear and planting its end into the gut of Mary. From the cover of shadows that bend and align to protect him, Elio strikes like a serpent. Mary coughs and sputters as she feels the force of the rake dull slightly from her thick leathers but not enough to prevent a rib from breaking and her breath to leave her immediately.

Orange, the man with a Kevlar vest and a French accent, draws a sword from its sheath and closes in to the last spot he saw Elio. He cleaves down with expert precision. He only finds a few splinters as the sword is rebuffed with enough force to force him to take a step back. As the sword bounces back, Gray takes a knee and aims down the sights of his crossbow.

Red carefully times a whip, trying to aim for approximately where she last saw the sword connect with something. Elio feels the whip wrap around the end of the pole. It tugs sharply, but he's far more prepared for this than Red could have expected. He follows the pull and applies his own force just as it's about to pass by her, slamming it into her exposed side. Red groans as she feels the rake hilt bruise her side before she jumps back and into a ready stance. "I can't see him, Violet. We got a better plan?"

Mary grunts as she pulls the head of her spear from the lawn. "Orange, powder him." Orange nods and reaches into his own satchel. Elio can see what looks like a handful of white dust in his hands. As the powder launches forward at Elio, he spins the staff, generating a whirlwind-like structure around him. In the eye of the windstorm of twirling leaves is clear of the choking powder. His assailants are not as lucky as it begins to burn their eyes and noses.

Gray coughs and sputters, "What the hell was that Orange?! Check your aim!"

"It wasn't me." Orange hacks as his eyes water. "He did something!"

Red takes a running lunge at Elio, trying to tackle him to the ground. "I got him! I got him!" She shouts. There is a resounding slam as Elio easily steps to the side and punishes the attempt to get close to him with a blow across the back as Red goes sailing by, falling prone herself. She yelps as she feels the bruises continuing to spread across her body now.

In the back near the car Gray continues to aim, his crossbow gently but surely sticking to Elio's form in the gloom.

Mary drops low, aiming for the legs with a sweeping blow that is barely above the head of Red who happens to be on the ground. "Don't get too close to him, he's fast enough to counter attack you!" She shouts to the group.

Well, they certainly are more coordinated than those cops from a while ago. Elio thinks to himself as he plants the end of the rake into the path of the sweeping blow. The sweep comes in and instead of landing in the path of the attack Elio's impromptu quarterstaff lands on the spearhead mid flight. It feels as though a miniature earthquake occurs as the tip of the spear shatters. The silver tip lands somewhere behind Elio as it flips off into the night. Mary blinks and pulls back the spear, ready to make a follow up attack, but goes wide-eyed when she sees the sheared metal of the shaft of her spear and missing tip.

"Orange, take his left!" Mary yells, as she swirls around to the right.

"I can't see his left, Violet!" Orange takes to the other side of Elio, attempting to catch him between their attacks. The attacking duo run past each other. Confused, they look back. The leaves have fallen and there doesn't appear to be anything in the path that they just tried to spear.

"Can we just take a breath here?" Elio says, briefly appearing leaning on the group's car. "You're monster hunters, I want to hunt monsters. I feel like there is some common ground we can come to here."

Gray, whose careful eye had followed Elio through the subtle signs he left towards the car, replies. "No." He pulls the trigger and the bolt sails to Elio, aimed for the throat. The tines of the rake appear instantly in the path of the bolt, catching it between two of them with a metallic screech. The tip of the bolt is only an inch away from its intended target, but Elio doesn't flinch. "Come on. I'm not even trying to hurt you guys. Would you just listen to me?" He shakes the rake and the bolt falls to the ground.

Red whoops and lunges forward, "Come on monster, haven't had this much fun in ages!" She brings her whip to bear once more, feet crunching on the gravel as she advances towards Elio. The whip rips past the air near Elio, who turns to the side and the whip chips the paint off the trunk of the car, leaving a sizable imperfection. "Ey!" Orange shouts, "Watch the ride Red! Just got it buffed from last time!"

Gray puts up a hand and sighs. "Alright. Orange? Close us up here." Orange pulls out a canister from his pouch and tosses it to the ground. A moment later, the entire area is covered with thick smoke. Elio begins to cough as it fills his nose and lungs. He hears the doors slam on the car, and exhaust is added to the smoke cloud as the car takes off down the drive. When smoke clears, he's alone with the only company being the tail lights down the drive.

As Elio continues to cough he is able to hear the soft click of the front door. It seems Mary has returned home. Elio sighs as he drops the rake, now dented and splintered. No rest for the wicked, I suppose. He lopes back over towards the garage to tell Ashley and Ezio of this latest development, pausing for a moment to pick up the shattered silver spear tip.

While Elio deals with the Hunters out front, Ashley stirs. Some primal instincts scream in her head as she naps in the backseat of the car, forcing her back to the land of the waking.

She blinks and looks out the window, raising herself from her reclined position in the back seat. In the dark of the garage, she can see two shapes near the couch that Ezio is on. Not recognizing either of them, Ashley narrows her eyes and quietly opens the door to step out, catching the end of their conversation.

"What's up with this guy?" A higher pitched man's voice speaks quietly. "Just looks... hungover and cut up."

"Could be a prisoner. Or a thrall of some sort." The other voice belongs to a woman with a slight timbre.

"No ropes, handcuffs or chains though..." Ashley opens the door just wide enough to step out into the darkness of the garage, only lit by a pale slice of the moon showing through one of the windows. "Doesn't make a lot of sense. Didn't Violet say there was a woman with them?" The man continues, having missed signs of Ashley moving.

"Check the car." The woman responds. She creeps up to the window that Ashley had just been sleeping behind. "Car's empty." She mutters. "I don't like this." Ashley hears the woman look about, failing to notice Ashley's form hidden behind the car.

There is the sound of a struggle beginning as the man attempts to grapple with and tie up Ezio. "Well, let's take this one and leave then. Give us some leverage if we need it."

"Hey! Who the hell do you think you are?!" Ezio manages to yell before being handcuffed and gagged.

Ashley exhales softly through her nose. If I don't help Ezio, Elio is going to go off on these guys. She slinks up behind the woman as she is turning away from the car, and slams her fist into the back of her head. It impacts Green's head forward and into the glass window of the car, leaving a small crack in it. "Fuck!" She screams as she scrambles to bring her weapon, a shotgun, to bear. "She's here!" Ashley continues her assault, hand rushing forward to grab Green's hair to pull her head back and slamming her once again in the already bloody and cracked window. The window shatters as Green is thrown face first through it. She goes limp before she is able to pull the trigger on her gun.

Blue quickly takes his hands off of Ezio and pulls out a silver knife, twinkling in the starlight from one of the garage windows. "Green! You alright?" He lunges forward at Ashley, trying to take advantage of the dark as he goes knife first in a stab towards Ashley's gut. The attack firmly should have struck Ashley, but she grabs the incoming blade, wrestling it and Blue to a standstill. Blood runs down her arm and across the knife from the stinging cut it leaves in her toughened flesh. "Should've run while you had the chance." Ashley says with a grim smile.

Blue wrenches his knife free, sending a gout of blood down to the cement, and switches his grip, swinging overhead in a plunging stab. "Die freak!" Ashley moves to the side, enough that her clavicle impedes the path of the knife. What should cause a nasty cut and likely severely damaged bone instead grinds to a halt, drawing only a pinpoint of blood at the broken skin. "Why isn't this working?!" Blue yells. She responds with a right hook to the face.

Blue falls to a knee from the force of the punch as he tastes blood in his mouth. He spits and starts to rise before noticing the glow in his goggles. It's not from the lights in the garage though, it's from Ashley. Silver light falls on everything near her, flickering and casting terrible bestial shadows. And in the center is her, blood on her hands as she smiles wickedly at Blue. She jumps high enough above Blue to grab the overhanging catwalk, which creaks and groans at the sudden weight. Swinging forward and towards him, she releases and clasps her hands together in a hammer blow. The hammerblow lands at the crown of his head with a loud thud as it drives Blue down to his knees. His vision swims and he tries to stand as his consciousness fades from the concussive strikes.

Ashley breathes heavily for a moment and rests on her knees before wiping her brow, smearing a bit of blood on it, and standing up straight. She steps over to Ezio and rips the gag off. "You okay there?"

"No! Who the hell were these assholes?" He struggles against the cuffs. "Why can't we go a day without being assaulted?!"

She shrugs, retrieves the handcuff key from Blue then stops and looks at his gear. "Huh. Night vision goggles." She looks at the silver knife, glinting in the argent light from her aura. "And silver knives." A grin spreads across her face. "Hunters. I should have known." She quickly opens up the handcuffs and Ezio rubs his wrists.

The front door opens and Elio enters, turning on the lights to the garage. Ashley's pale silver aura seems less bright in this light, but still quite present. "So we may have a teensy problem." He looks at the groaning and bloodied pair of hunters in the garage. "Oh. Seems like the problem came here too."

"Hey!" Ashley shouts, standing up near Ezio and pointing to Elio, "Why didn't you wake me up!? That's, you know, the whole point of a watch!"

"Sorry, I was just planning on getting a look at what was going on." Elio moves into the garage, holding up the silver spear point from Mary's weapon. "I think these guys are monster hunters or something."

"No shit." Ashley rips the night vision goggles off of Blue, who is groggily rolling and trying to focus. "Apparently well supplied ones too."

Elio winces as he looks at the broken window with Green halfway through it. "Yeah. Mary is one of them. Mike probably told her about us."

"Great..." Ashley mutters, snatching Green's shotgun from the ground and investigating it. "Let's tie these two up and then get some sleep. Guess we'll be moving on again, huh?"

"Probably." Elio grunts. "You okay, Ezio?" He moves to the couch and sits next to his brother.

Ezio sighs and puts his head into his hands. "Yeah. I'm fine. Can we just go back to Galena? Stay at the funeral home? I have clients that are going to be waiting on me."

Elio nods after a moment. "Let's go back tomorrow then. We'll skip town on this job. I doubt that after tonight we're going to get paid for an investigation anyway."

In the distance, near the front of the house. Elio hears the family's car start. "Just a second." He dashes out of the detached garage and to the front of the house, just fast enough to see the family's green sedan fly down the driveway. Briana looks back at him from the backseat, a confused look on her face before drifting onto the street and away.

He kicks what's left of the rake he fought with and walks back to the garage. "The family just left. We should take what we can and go." Elio announces as he enters.

Ashley has already finished stripping the weapons, armor, and gadgets from the two incapacitated hunters. "Way ahead of you. You check out the house and I'll get the car going." Returning to the large house, Elio checks the front door, finding it locked. Breaking out his picks, he easily turns the lock open and enters the quiet home.

There is a gasp from upstairs as Elio enters and looking up he's just fast enough to see Mike retreat around the corner and out of sight. Course he got left behind. Elio runs up the stairs and looks into a guest bedroom, finding Mike desperately working on getting the window open. "Hey Mike." Elio says from the doorway.

Mike stops with the widow half open. "Uhh, hey."

"You told Mary about this, didn't you?" Elio saunters forward and Mike panicidly starts to open the window further. "We're on the second floor, Mike. You jump out and land wrong, you're breaking your legs. Just talk to me for a sec." He sits onto the bed.

"You're not going to hurt me, right?" Mike says, putting his back to the window.

Elio shakes his head. "No. That's not the plan. You from Galena? You look familiar."

"Yeah... were you the guy that Sylvester was looking for?" He asks.

Elio is caught a bit off guard by the name. He looks at Mike more closely and the last puzzle piece clicks in. He's one of the thugs that Sylvester brought with him to try and catch Elio talking with the Dealer. "Holy crap, you're one of the Lead Bellies. Small world I guess. I'd suggest dropping the gang shit. It's bad for your health." He walks out of the room, leaving Mike in the dark.

Looking around the house, Elio desperately tries to find a couple things. Things worth pawning for some quick cash and wherever those weapons that Mary had came from. It turns out to be quite a bounty that he's stumbled on. A good amount of fairly nice jewelry from Mary's collection and a very nice seemingly unused camera. Not to mention the weapons. More bullets for his pistol, a heavy revolver, a rifle for Ashley, as well as some ill-fitting kevlar armor, a few sizes too small for him. With a bit of tweaking it could work though.

He hauls it all out to the driveway, where the car awaits. Ezio is already snoring in the back seat again, and Ashley is in the passenger seat. Popping the trunk, Elio drops the goods alongside the satchel full of documents from Victor's mansion. "You're driving. I still haven't gotten any sleep." Ashley grumbles as she moves over to her side and Elio sits behind the wheel.

The car shudders as the gears engage, foul scent begins to leak from the AC as Ezio and Elio cover their noses. "This was a nice field trip I guess." He mutters under his breath as they start the long trip in the early morning back to Galena.

 

[Kinotics]

It's sunrise as they pull into the back parking lot of the funeral home. Their car looks terrible, dented and with a broken back seat window. The parking lot is empty and the surrounding businesses and homes sit quietly. As the engine shuts down, silence envelops the car and the parking lot. Even the wind seems to be holding its breath. Ashley and Ezio stir as the car shuts down, rising and looking at their surroundings. "Seems like we walked a big circle." Ashley grumbles as she steps out and walks towards the funeral home.

Elio looks up and down the street. Even though it was like five in the morning, there are normally always a couple people out and about heading to morning shifts. "Shouldn't there be people around? It's almost time for the early morning people to get going." He shifts from foot to foot as Ezio steps out of the car with a wince. "Kinda weird."

"Can we worry about this tomorrow or after sleeping?" Ezio mumbles. "I don't have it in me for any more weirdness."

"I'm going to just go for a walk around the neighborhood at least. Just stretch my legs." Elio says.

Ashley and Ezio mumble, clearly neither one wanting anything more than to sleep some more. Elio walks through the crisp morning air as he takes in the nearby strip mall and other smaller businesses and residences surrounding the funeral home trying to put his finger on the strange silence that seems to have swallowed this block whole.

Inside the funeral home, Ashley and Ezio end up in the back rooms in a break room with a single twin-sized cot. Ashley sighs. "You can have the cot. I'll just sleep on the ground or on a pillow or something." She rubs her eyes and shrinks down, becoming the small rabbit again. She lopes to a patch of carpet, lays on her side and closes her eyes.

Ezio slowly and carefully sits on the cot. He puts his head into his hands. "God. What am I going to tell Sarah about all this?" He mumbles in Italian. Eventually the sleep catches up with him as he slouches over and returns to a fitful sleep full of odd dreams.

Elio moves down the street and stops as he hears quiet talk about a block away. Moving towards the only source of sound, he crouches behind a row of rose bushes that mark the boundary of a nice residential house. Two people are on the porch with mugs in their hands, a man and a woman. Looking closely in the breaking morning light, Elio can make out the form of Sheriff Hunter and presumably his wife, a woman with brown hair and square glasses wearing a light blue robe. "It's so quiet in the mornings." She says softly enough to force Elio to sharpen his senses to hear.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Richard smiles and takes a sip from his mug.

"Are you going to be back late again tonight?" His wife asks after a moment.

Richard looks uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the other. "Probably. The job doesn't get any easier, unfortunately."

She sighs. "I guess." She frowns down the street, expression hidden from Richard.

"Is something wrong, Vic?" Richard asks.

"I dunno. I just feel like you've been gone a lot. I know that your job is important and everything, but what about spending time with George? What about time with me? The last time you took any time away from being sheriff was years ago." Vic suddenly unloads.

There is an awkward silence where Richard looks at his watch. "It's about time for me to get going, Vic. Can we talk about this later?"

She deflates slightly. "Sure. Later."

Elio retreats away from the house as the couple similarly retreat from each other. Satisfied that the quiet morning is a simple coincidence, he returns to the funeral home. Opening the trunk of the car, he takes a couple trips to move the satchel and the various pieces of equipment into the funeral home. There isn't a great space for the new pile of goodies so he claims a corner desk in the morgue to drop the documents and laptop from Victor's manor. Pulling up a squeaky stool, Elio begins to pour over the papers. They appear to be legal documents pertaining to obtaining something. There are a lot of words that Elio doesn't recognize from his limited formal legal training.

After five hours of studying and googling terms that he doesn't understand on the computer at the desk he's been occupying, Elio can feel his focus slipping. It's now ten in the morning. Ashley has gotten the other half of the night's sleep she needed and has wandered out and into the morgue to find Elio laying on the floor and looking at the ceiling. "Everything okay there?" She asks, looking down at him.

"Who in their right mind would choose to write documents like this?" He nods towards the desk. "No one can understand that gibberish." Ashley goes over to the desk, moves a couple papers around and frowns.

"Are these the documents you got from Victor's place?" Elio nods. "I don't suppose you know someone who's more familiar with," She squints at the top page she can see, "some sort of Latin mess of unsigned contracts."

Elio feels the cool tile under his head for a moment before responding. "Yeah. I know someone. But she and I didn't leave off on the best terms last time I saw her. She works at an insurance firm."

"Well," Ashley reaches down and grabs Elio's arm, yanking him up to his feet, "let's go talk to her then. We aren't making any progress just staring at this thing."

"I don't think you realize just how awkward our last encounter was." Elio pulls his arm free from Ashley's grasp. "Like never want to talk to you again."

Ashley rolls her eyes. "What's this? Elio the Solar is afraid of a girl?"

He cocks his head. "I don't think I remember telling you that word."

There is a tense silence for a moment. "You aren't the only one with weird feelings rattling around your brain these days." She eventually says, tugging on the silver bolt through her hair.

Elio looks like he has a retort but bites his tongue. "Makes sense, I guess. But where are these feelings coming from?" Ashley shrugs and rubs her forehead, the disc of silver white light appearing under her fingers.

Footsteps from the break room draw Elio's attention to his brother, who looks tired and like he hasn't showered in a week, entering the morgue. "I'm going home." He announces simply.

"Oh shit, you haven't seen Sarah in a little while, have you?" Elio says.

"Been two weeks about, yeah." Ezio mumbles. "Finally got my phone charged last night and I have more than a dozen voice mails and," He glances down at his phone, "two hundred and fifty texts." Elio gives his brother a pitying look and stands up from the floor, dusting his back off.

"Is Sarah your girlfriend, Ezio?" Ashley asks.

"No, she's my wife." Ezio looks slightly affronted, which is when Elio hears the front door open into the funeral parlor.

Elio looks away from the other two and towards the morgue doors to the front. "Hey, did you forget to lock the front doors?"

Ezio shakes his head. "No, I'm sure I locked them last night. Why?"

"I just heard..." Elio begins before the door into the morgue slams open. Standing there is a woman with red hair, a spark of anxiety hidden behind her eyes, and wearing some pale pastel street clothes.

"There you are!" She says, locking eyes with Ezio. She swivels her gaze to Elio and Ashley. "And of course your brother is here too along with one of his girlfriends."

"So nice to see you too, Sarah." Elio says with a sigh.

Ezio trots over to Sarah and wraps her up into a large hug. "Thank god you're alright. It's been a long week for me."

"Girlfriends?" Ashley quirks an eyebrow and smirks.

Elio lays a hand on her shoulder. "Just go with it. When she's all worked up like this it's best to just let it be."

"I'm not upset with her. I'm just curious about her using the word plural when referring to you." Elio pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I don't know why, but she doesn't really like me."

"I don't like you because you're always dragging Ezio into dangerous situations, Elio! Doubly so because you're wanted!" Sarah shouts, leaning around Ezio as she disentangles herself from the hug.

Elio rolls his eyes. "Get one document forged for a case..." He grumbles.

"You made Ezio have me sign that under false pretenses! You are a terrible influence on him." She snorts back.

"Anyway. Sarah, this is Ashley, who is working on a case with me, Ashley this is Sarah, she works for the Jo Daviess County Medical Examiner's Office." Elio quickly dispenses with the introductions. "Sarah, while you're here..." He starts.

"No." She grabs Ezio by the arm and starts to move him out of the morgue. "I won't be helping you with anything you need. You almost cost me my job the last time, Elio."

"Bah." He shakes his head and turns back to Ashley. "Okay. Now we should go. Ezio is going to be gone for..." he turns back towards Ezio's retreating form, "When should we expect that you'll be available?"

Ezio shrugs helplessly, "Just make sure you lock up before you go anywhere!" He shouts back. Sarah gives one last glare back to Ashley and Elio and then they are out of sight.

The morgue falls into its normal silence other than the hum of the refrigerator units. "She seems lovely." Ashley eventually breaks the quiet.

Elio moves back to the desk, shuffling the papers back into their folders. "She's a good person. Cares a lot about Ezio."

"Seems like you've taken advantage of that in the past." Ashley says casually as she leans on the cold stainless steel of the mortician's slab.

There is a snap as Elio fastens the folder top. "Yeah. Turns out that learning about deaths under investigation that city hall is keeping quiet requires signatures from her office. Apparently I didn't cover my tracks well enough and the blow back came to her and not me."

"Nice. So who's this other person you've mentioned who might be able to look these over?" There is a bored air to Ashley as she listens.

"You could at least pretend to be interested in my story." Elio grumbles. "An old girlfriend of mine, Lisa, works over at Dragon Insurance. She was a paralegal for a while before that. Let's lock up and head out."

"Are we driving the piece of crap mobile? I don't know if I can take any more of that stench." Ashley groans.

"It'll be a couple miles, but we could walk. Maybe it would be smarter to ditch the car somewhere anyway, I'm sure it's on the police databases as stolen. We've gotten lucky and no one has noticed us driving it yet."

"Let's drop it in the woods somewhere and just walk to, what was her name again?"

"Lisa." Elio grabs the folder and moves towards the back entrance.

"Lisa's place." Ashley follows behind. She stops for a moment in the break room to look at herself in a mirror. Ratty jeans, torn camo jacket, and a stained gray tank top underneath. The only parts that don't look tired and slightly grimy are her eyes and that silver streak in her hair. "Think that Lisa is my size? I could use some new clothes."

Elio pauses a moment before the exit. "I doubt she is going to just give up part of her wardrobe to a stranger. Especially one with me. And for the love of god, don't steal my ex's clothes."

"I can be quite convincing, I'll have you know." Ashley says slyly.

"Really. I've never seen you be anything besides sarcastic and acting with barely restrained violence." Elio kicks open the back door and moves the car.

Ashley sits down into the passenger seat not long after, crinkling her nose as the AC turns on briefly before Elio slams the off button. "Rude."

"Who keeps turning that on?! There is no reason for it to be on. Maybe the piece of shit is haunted." He grumbles as he checks the tape on the foil and paper over the vents. The car chugs as the key turns and it comes to life.

As they drive, the radio drones on with commercials for a time before switching back to the hosts, who are discussing what seems to be local news.

"This is James and Riley in the morning with your news slam!" A gravelly voice echoes out through the low-quality speakers. "Locally, we've got a story about Elio Aiello, the guy that assaulted those cops a couple weeks back. Apparently they've caught him and have him in custody! Can you believe it Riley? The authorities are saying that he's linked to some extremist movement that's been popping up more and more these days, a group that goes by Sunrise."

"Hard to believe that one of our own local boys has fallen so far, that's right James." A younger man's voice speaks up.

"Sunrise?" Ashley asks. "I've never even heard of them."

"I've heard of them before. Extremist group that started up about a year ago apparently. If you dig deep enough into any social media you'll find at least a few groups talking about them. Claim that they want to create a perfect nation out of the rubble of this one. Or all of them really. Fortunately they seem to lack the cohesion, materials, and motivation to do any big time terror stuff." Elio explains. "No substance besides a bunch of disaffected people who are angry at the world with no good outlet for it. The government doesn't seem to share my opinion though."

"In other news," James continues, "developers have been putting the moves on city hall. The old lead mines that this town is known for are being bought out and reopened."

"Hey, that's great news!" Riley tacks on. "Once those mines are open again, a whole new set of jobs will be coming back to town and America! Great news for Galena's economy..." Ashley flips the channel to a pop music station.

"I was listening to that." Elio says.

"Come on, it's super boring." She retorts.

"What are you, five?" He flips the channel back.

"That's all for the local news for now, Galena is just as quiet as it's always been. Keep tuned for the local sports report!" Riley finishes.

"Great, missed the tail end of it." Elio grumbles as he flips back to the pop channel.

He drives the car out to a midpoint between the funeral home and Lisa's house, a nice wooded area. Driving off the road the car heaves and tosses the pair around a bit before they leave it behind a large oak tree. The rest of the trek is made on foot as they ditch their stinky, incriminating ride.

"Well, here goes nothing." From the street in front of Lisa's nice home, still decorated with flowering bushes in its gardens, Elio moves past the wooden gate. Ashley waits out on the street, watching with bored curiosity as Elio goes to the door. He taps the doorbell.

The door opens and Lisa is on the other side, hair damp from the shower. "Yes?" She stops opening the door when she sees Elio.

"Hey Lisa, could I ask a favor?" Elio asks hopefully.

Lisa does not open the door any further. "What do you want, Elio?"

"I actually have some documents of sale that I want you to look over. It... well it has to do with that conspiracy thing I was talking about the other night." He holds up the folder.

A voice from inside the house speaks up, voice a little stiff. "Who is it hon?" A gruff man's voice.

"Just the neighbors." Lisa shouts back. "Aren't you supposed to be in prison or something now? They were saying you were in custody." She hisses to Elio.

"News of my incarceration was greatly exaggerated." He rolls his eyes. "I just need someone to tell me what the heck I'm looking at here."

Lisa nervously looks back into the house, and Elio can hear someone standing up and moving towards the door. "Goddamn it." She whispers. "Come by work tomorrow morning and I'll look them over. Now get out of here before Bret sees you!"

"Thanks Lisa." Elio takes a step back and seems to fade away as though he was never there, leaving only sunlight and a warm breeze behind.

"Before Bret sees who?" Bret says, coming to the front door. He gently pushes Lisa aside to look outside, finding no one besides Ashley who appears to just be walking past.

"No one, Bret. You must've just misheard me. I was talking with Nelli, you know Nelli right?" Lisa pulls Bret back inside as she starts to talk more about Nelli.

"Oh, yeah, I know Nelli. Lives next door, right? I watch the game with her husband Clyde sometimes." He seems to get off topic as he's led back inside. Lisa casts a worried look back down the empty front path outside as the door closes.

There is a whirl of wind next to Ashley as she starts to walk the couple miles back to the funeral home as Elio seems to emerge from the shadows cast by a light pole. "We just have to go to Dragon Insurance tomorrow and we'll get Lisa to look over it."

Ashley flinches slightly as he appears suddenly. "God! Scared the hell out of me. How do you do that?"

"Do what?" Elio looks confused as he leans down to tighten a shoelace.

She gestures wildly to the shadow he just walked out of. "Pop out of nowhere. I didn't even see you leave the front porch."

"I don't know. I just move quietly and it makes sense at the moment." He thinks for a moment before rising back to his feet. He runs a hand along his beard that has long stopped being stubble. "It'd be like me asking you how you turn into a rabbit I think."

"I guess." Ashley continues walking. "I could totally fit into some of her clothes." She says.

"Don't cause trouble." Elio states simply. The pair spend an hour walking back to the funeral home. "Are you from around here Ashley?"

"No." She doesn't spare a glance over to him.

"Okay, where are you from before the whole ghoul thing?"

"From the west coast. Moved out this way to go to vet school. Plus I had a couple friends here too, so it seemed like a good idea." Some dry leaves crunch underfoot as they walk.

"Guessing the blood thing put the brakes on a lot of that?"

She nods. "Yeah, you could say that."

"How long ago was that?" He continues.

"Thirty years ago." She says it quietly enough that a passing car almost blots out her words.

"Thirty... but you can't be past your late twenties." Elio gives her an appraising glance. She does look like someone around twenty six or eight, eyes still filled with youth but tempered with a bit of the real world. Perhaps more tired than expected, but still.

She chuckles genuinely. "That's nice of you to say. But the blood halts your aging. Then whatever this is seems to be doing the same thing. I'm fifty or sixtyish. I stopped counting after a while."

Elio stops and Ashley keeps walking for a few steps before stopping and looking back with her head cocked. "And you don't have any more of the blood in you, right? You really think that whatever this is is keeping you young?"

She breathes in a moment, "No. There isn't any in me. When I started glowing it felt like it burned away and was replaced. And I'm sure. Ghouls who run out of blood really quickly change back to their proper age. And here I am, still young as when I first started."

He looks up for a moment at the blue sky. "Do you think we'll live forever now?"

"Man, I don't know." Ashley grabs his arm and drags him forward a step until he keeps walking. "Guess we'll have to find out."

"What am I going to do with forever?" Elio wonders as he walks

"You are really kind of annoying." Ashley snarks. "You're too young to worry about something like that. We don't even know if that's on the table and I can see you already starting to worry about it."

"Isn't it just a little worrying though?"

"Well, you'll have forever to figure it out, I guess." They make it back to the funeral home around noon.

The closed sign on the front seems to be doing its job well as the front parking lot is empty when they return. "Well, we have the rest of the day and not a lot to do with it." Elio says, stretching. "We do need some new wheels and some money as well."

"There is the hearse..." Ashley thumbs over to the black hearse in the back lot.

"I really don't want to have to drive a hearse around, Ashley." He thinks for a minute. "What happened to that black SUV we got from my dad back when he assaulted this place?"

"Oh, I took that when I was leaving with Elizabeth after our meeting on the roof." She looks nervous for a moment, "It's also where she woke up and it may be covered in blood on the inside."

Elio frowns. "I also don't want to drive a blood-mobile around either."

"I don't hear you coming up with any ideas for a car." Ashley folds her arms.

"We could steal one of Victor's. He has a garage up there and I'm sure one of us could get in and out without much issue." Elio offers.

A toothy grin spreads across Ashley's face. "Now that is an idea I can get behind. I'll go steal a car from a vampire's manor."

"And I'll pawn some of the stuff we got from the Greenwich's place." Elio follows up.

They split up for the rest of the day and return at nightfall. Elio with a few hundred more dollars for expenses and Ashley with a sleek, gray, two door car freshly procured from Victor's manor.

The rest of the late afternoon passes without much of note occurring and the pair spend the night in the break room. Ezio does not return that day, nor the next morning when they awaken. Spending a bit of their new cash on breakfast, they head out on full stomachs around eight AM to Dragon Insurance, a small branch of a larger insurance firm. It's a small one story brick building, a sign hangs in the window with a minimalist drawing of a dragon surrounding the title.

 

[Kinotics]

Glancing through the windows, it looks as though only the insurance agents, three in total including Lisa, are the only ones home at the moment. "Shall we?" Ashley moves to the front door and pushes it open as Elio follows behind. An assistant looks up from a filing cabinet and wheels his chair over to the front desk.

"Hey there, welcome to Dragon Insurance." He starts his well rehearsed spiel. "Are you already one of our clients or interested in starting a new account with us?"

Elio walks from behind Ashley, "We have an appointment with Lisa Rose this morning, could you point us in her direction?"

"Lisa... Rose?" He looks confused for a moment and glances down the hall to a closed door with Lisa Davinski. "Do you mean Mrs. Davinski?"

"Yeah. I guess I do." Elio blinks a couple times.

"Can I have your names?" The assistant asks.

Ashley quickly steps in front again, now at the front of the desk. "Yeah, I'm Ashley Marvin and this is Sheldon Chopper."

He nods and moves back towards Lisa's office. Elio looks over to Ashley. "Sheldon Chopper? Really?" He whispers.

"Shut up and go with it." She grumbles back. The assistant pokes his head into Lisa's office and a moment later Lisa pops her head out, nods and gestures to them. The pair passes by the assistant on his way back to his station.

Lisa closes the door to her office as they enter and have a seat in the pair of chairs on the opposite side of the desk from the cushy chair that Ashley quickly sits in. Glancing around, her office is neat and smells like air freshener. A bookshelf with various reports and legal books is in the far corner and a couple of tall potted plants flank her desk. "Okay." Lisa starts. "You have an enormous amount of nerve showing up at my house unannounced like that. Bret almost saw you!" She puts both hands onto her desk and slightly stands, face reddening a bit. "And who is this?!" Lisa points to Ashley.

"This is Ashley. She's helping me investigate what's going on here in Galena." Elio starts, leaning his chair back a bit. "And sorry, I thought Bret was still in the hospital."

Lisa puts her head into her right hand. "Just tell me why I shouldn't tip the police off that they got the wrong bastard in jail right now?"

"They're just saving face is my guess since they haven't caught me in a couple weeks." Elio says lightly. "And I'm back because I know you're at least a little curious about what I have to show you." He pulls up the satchel and places the folder on the desk. "Big investor type is interested in buying something needing official documentation to get here. Maybe he needs a new insurance plan for it."

Lisa looks balefully at Elio, sparing a glance at Ashley and looking her up and down. She grabs the folder. "Only because I'm curious." She looks at the top papers, then a couple more. "Give me a couple hours, I'll see what I can do." She opens the door and shouts down, "Zack! Cancel my 9 o'clock, would you?"

A few minutes tick by. Elio heads out to a nearby cafe to watch people go by and get caught up on his missing caffeine. Ashley is content to wait in the office while Lisa works.

"So." Lisa says while flipping through one the reports, "How did you get mixed up with a mess like Elio?"

"Twist of fate." Ashley says simply. "Found out we have a lot in common and decided to team up." She watches Lisa carefully. There is just a twinge of anger, a crease of the brow, when Ashley mentions how much she has in common with Elio. Just a sudden stutter in her otherwise well oiled maneuvering of the pages and reading of their contents. Oh, this poor girl. Ashley laments internally.

"Ah, of course." Lisa says before returning to her work.

A few more minutes pass. "Random question, I don't suppose I could borrow some of your clothes?"

Lisa pauses and slowly looks up, a bewildered expression on her face. "No. I don't think you can. Have you considered a trip to the thrift shop if you need new clothes?" She looks at the ratty and well worn clothes that Ashley favors, a small look of smugness barely concealed.

"Oh come on, I'm sure that this place pays you good enough to be able to afford a few extra clothes? For a poor girl like me?" Ashley does what she hopes is a pitiable expression. It comes out more like a grimace.

"I'm very sorry for your situation. I'm not a charity." Lisa says.

"What if it wasn't a charity situation." Ashley's chair squeaks as she scoots closer to the desk. "What could I do for you to convince you to get me some new duds?"

"Besides just paying for them yourself?" Lisa grumbles while not looking up from her work.

"Yes, besides that." Ashley leans on the desk, a wide grin appearing on her face. "I could wing-girl you."

The same befuddled look comes onto Lisa's face again. "You do know I'm married... right?"

"And you know I can see the way you flinched when I talked about Elio and I," she takes on a dramatic, breathy voice, "having so much in common," she reverts back to normal with a sly grin, "right? Darling, your poker face needs work."

Lisa clicks her tongue. "I don't have to take this. Why don't you just leave so I can work in peace or I can call the cops on both of you."

"Oh I doubt you would have the gumption to call them here."

"I already did last time Elio showed up." Lisa says matter-of-factly. "The only reason I haven't this time is because he's acting more normal."

Ashley's grin continues to widen. "More like that boy you remember from so long ago?"

"No. Seriously. Stop." Lisa has stopped working and is staring at Ashley. She squints. "Do I know you or something? Why are you acting this way?"

The chair squeaks as Ashley puts a foot up on the table and leans back. "I'm just bored. This seemed like a fun way to kill a couple minutes."

"Go be bored outside then. I'm sure that Elio is doing something idiotic that'll keep you entertained. Maybe playing in traffic or something."

"Oooo, good deflection of affection Lisa." The floor rumbles as Ashley's chair legs touch down. "But that is a good point. I should make sure he isn't playing in traffic." She moves to the door and glances back with a smirk before it closes

"Asshole." Lisa grumbles before continuing her work.

Looking outside, Elio has plopped down outside of the only good cafe (in his opinion) in Galena. A cup of coffee sits in front of him and another one at the empty seat to his right. Ashley frowns and walks over. "You made a friend?"

"No. I figured you'd get bored after about fifteen minutes of being in there with Lisa, so I ordered this so you'd have something when you came over."

"Have I become so predictable already?" She sits down and sips at the still warm coffee.

"Ashley, you switched off a news broadcast no more than two minutes into it. I don't think you could bear to be in the room with someone researching for a couple hours."

"Whatever." Ashley drinks the rest of the coffee in a few large gulps. "I'm going hunting."

Elio looks over, "For what?"

"A bird would be a good start, I think. If I can turn into a deer, a bird seems like a good thing to have in my back pocket."

"O...okay." Elio returns back to his relaxed position. "Have fun, I guess." Ashley trots off with head held high to best see where birds may be hiding. "Elio, you keep some odd company these days." He says to himself as he snags an unattended newspaper and opens the crossword.

A few hours crawl by and Elio has long finished the crossword and word jumble and is on his third cup of coffee, having gone from a drip with cream and sugar to an iced americano. A pigeon lands on his table and blinks at him. One of the feathers on its head is suspiciously silver. He blinks back. "This is going to sound really stupid," he looks at the other people at their tables. "Are you Ashley?" The bird puffs up and coos loudly. Elio suddenly leans forward a bit towards the pigeon which does not startle it. A woman sitting nearby sees the pigeon not fleeing and cocks her head. Elio stands and goes to order another coffee, and iced caramel latte. One that he knows that Lisa quite enjoys, or at least did a while ago. With it in hand, he moves back to the insurance company, finding Ashley casually leaning against one of the corners near the alley of the building next door.

"Is that for me?" She says as she tries to snatch the coffee, which is deftly pulled away.

"It is not." Elio says, holding it at arms reach away from her. "It's for the woman who's working on our project for no pay."

Ashley pouts for a moment. "Come on, you should know better than to tease a girl like that."

He looks confused. "What do you mean? I didn't even try to offer the drink to you."

"Really?" She blinks. "I wasn't talking about me. She's a married woman you know." Ashley jerks her head towards the insurance company.

"You are really reading into this coffee, like, a lot, Ashley. I'm allowed to do nice things for people; especially people who, again, are helping us for no pay." Elio slides over to the front door of Dragon Insurance.

"And why do you think she is helping you for no pay?" Ashley says while following. "Someone who is confirmed to be dangerous and who acted so weird the last time you were with her she called the cops on you?"

He pauses. "Wow, you really must've gotten under her skin." Elio turns to Ashley, his gaze steely.

"And now that you are acting more 'normal' as she says, she's perfectly willing to help you out? Hide your existence from her husband? Come on man, you can't be this slow."

"Are you just... vetting the people we meet now?"

"Yeah I am. They have agents and hands everywhere, Elio." She is suddenly very serious, lowering her voice. "You have to be careful who you trust. A little bit of blood and any human is just another one of their puppets." Ashley leans back into neutral posture, "Fortunately this one isn't a pawn, just an old love-sick puppy it sounds like you left behind."

"Great pep talk Ash." He grumbles and continues inside. Ashley slinks in behind him.

Zack looks at them as they enter, recognizing them. "Here to see Mrs. Davinsky again?" He asks.

"Yeah." They continue past him and open the door to her office just as she is standing up.

"Great timing." Lisa says with a small yawn and a stretch. "Just finished up. Was about to give you a call."

Elio steps into the room and puts the coffee down on Lisa's desk. "Perfect timing then." He moves over to the chair as Lisa recognizes the drink and quickly hides a small smile when she sees Ashley smugly smirking at her.

"You didn't have to get me any coffee."

"It's the least I could do." Elio quickly responds. Ashley is now no longer restricting her smirk to just Lisa and plops down in the other chair.

"So what have you found Lisa?" Ashley asks.

Lisa holds up a couple pieces of the documents. "Deeds of sale for the public land of Galena to a Victor Gauges" She adjusts her glasses and reads from one of the documents for a moment. "The subject of these bills seems entirely focused on the land that happens to have a large amount of those old lead mines on them."

"Wait, didn't the guys on the radio say those sold already?" Ashley says, leaning onto her knees.

"I mean, they could have still. I'm sure these are just copies of the originals." Lisa says. "Assuming the city council and mayor sign off on these, then after Victor Gauges pays his amount in full he would own those lands."

There is some silence for a moment. "We haven't seen Megan for a while. Have we?" Elio eventually says. "What would he want with a bunch of lead mines?"

"Apparently to reopen them. There could be something there that he wants and needs to dig for." Ashley says. Lisa just looks confused at this point.

"You mean lead? The stuff buried there? It's clear he wants to start mining these mines again and profit off it. That's the only reason an investor would buy that property, probably to give mining rights to a company to, well, mine it. Probably not environmentally friendly, but nothing too bad otherwise." Lisa says.

Elio runs a hand through his beard and stands from the chair. "Okay, well, thanks for taking the time to look that over for us, Lisa." He looks at Ashley expectantly and she stands as well. He quickly gathers the papers back up.

One of the papers does not move though and Lisa has grabbed it before Elio could. "You're not going to do anything stupid, right?" Her eyes are boring into Elio's.

"When have you known me to do anything stupid." Elio leans back and puts a hand on his chest. Lisa releases the paper.

"Whatever. Just don't mention my name if you get arrested. Again." She mumbles as she turns back to her actual work.

Ashley gives her a pat on the back on the way out, causing Lisa to flinch slightly. "Better luck next time, Mrs. Davinsky." She chuckles as Lisa turns a little red. Before she can retort though, the pair have left her office.

The streets are empty, hot, and dry in the late summer afternoon. A few people walk from place to place, but most have retreated into the AC dens of the city. Elio and Ashley pile back into their ill-gotten vehicle. Elio opens his phone before starting the car and pulls open the picture of the map he took from Victor's board room. None of the marked areas are near the mines that are in the process of being bought, apparently.

Ashley leans over and looks down at the phone. "What's the map?" Elio shrugs but doesn't take his eyes off the device.

"Dunno. Been kinda trying to figure it out." He angles his phone for Ashley to have a better view. "Any ideas rattling around in there?"

She frowns and looks it over, putting the pieces together internally. "You said something about him sending a letter to a Gangrel?" She eventually says and Elio nods. "Well, I think what you got here is a territory map. Kindred territory map."

"Like where they operate?"

"Like where they hunt." Ashley corrects. "They are territorial bitches and hunting in someone else's land is a big no-no. But," She points to a green hued batch of the map to the south of Galena, mostly big farmland. "This is the closest neighboring territory. That is probably where our Gangrel calls their home."

Elio starts the car. "That's interesting and all, but that doesn't really help us with the mine situation."

Ashley stretches her arms across her body, "It doesn't really. But it does give us a place to look to kill more vampires before they can be a problem."

"I think we should focus on what's happening in the mines." Elio says, turning out of the parking lot. "If there is something there that Victor wants, we need to figure out what it is and get it before him."

Ashley huffs. "I don't think you get the big picture here. The more vampires we can kill before they realize that we are a threat the less we will have to fight later when they actually organize to kill us. As soon as Victor wakes up from his nap you put him into, he's going to tell the Prince of Chicago and get a whole hunting party together to gut us. So we have like a month until that time. We should weaken them before they get to us."

"Okay, then I'll go investigate the mines and you go deal with the... what was the word? Gangrel?" Elio says.

"And now you want to split up?" Ashley tugs at her hair. "What if you get in over your head?"

Elio rolls his eyes. "I appreciate the concern, Ash. I'll be fine."

"I'm serious!" She folds her arms. "If you get caught out by a bunch of vampires and ghouls, you'll die. Especially since we haven't exactly been friendly with them."

He looks over to her. "Isn't it the same for you? There's probably not any of them out in that area. No territory is marked in the mines." Elio narrows his eyes and smirks, "Oh, this isn't out of concern for me, is it?"

"What?" Ashley knits her eyebrows together as lines appear on her forehead.

Elio nods to himself mostly. "Yup. Too afraid to go out on your own and hunt an actual vampire and need the Solar hero Elio to make sure everything goes smoothly."

"Wow." The car shakes as Ashley shifts to the right to stare out the window. Icy silence follows until about halfway back to the funeral home. "First off, fuck you." She whips back around, now with a deeply furrowed brow. "Second, I am looking out for both of our safeties and you're making light of it! Fuck you!"

He chuckles as he turns onto the last street before the funeral home, "Okay, fine. Let's go get that vampire hunted. Then can we go check out the mines?"

"Yes, fine."

 

[Kinotics]

One moment she was soundly sleeping back in her family's home and the next her mother was shaking her awake urgently. Not getting a response quickly enough, Mary drags her daughter in pajamas from her bed and down the stairs. "What's going on?" Briana eventually asks between jostlings. Down below on the first floor landing her father stands pale faced with a suitcase fully packed.

"There isn't time for questions." It's easy to see Mary is haggard. The hand that isn't holding her daughter's arm is gripped onto her side. "Outside there are bad people and we need to leave. Now."

Glancing down the hallway to the kitchen and out the window just as a cross breeze gently pushes the curtains out of the way, Briana notices a source of light in the dead of night emanating from the detached garage, some sort of ghostly silver glow moving jarringly through the garage's windows and doors. It whispers something to her, some sort of almost magnetic attraction drawing her eyes in.

Mary shakes her daughter, rattling the thoughts from her mind. "Are you even listening to me?" She pushes Briana towards Roger. "Take her and get in the car. Don't stop for anything and keep quiet. I'll be behind you."

Swallowing and clearing his throat, Roger nods and puts a hand on Briana's back. "Come on, you heard your mother."

Briana doesn't move. An unfamiliar feeling of adrenaline rushes into her heart. Something urgent was happening, something that was demanding her attention. "I think I left something upstairs." She croaks.

Her father simply pushes her forward, "Come on, we can get it later." Mary darts back up the stairs as she sees the pair move forward.

"No, there's something happening." That light. There is something urgent with that light. But what? A moment later, Roger has simply lifted Briana up and begins a quick walk to the car. Tossing her into the back seat, he shuts the door. As he climbs into the driver's seat he begins to drum his fingers on the wheel waiting for Mary. Briana takes a look at him, blinks, then reaches out and touches his shoulder. Briana has never been the best student nor the most avid reader so perhaps the feeling of being on the verge of discovering the solution of a murder mystery novel or of putting the various components of a physics formula to proper use in a real situation was lost on her. What isn't lost on her is the feeling of clarity. Roger has been hiding something from her. She leans back into the seat and folds her arms as Roger turns around to look at her.

Mary pulls open the door to the passenger seat before Roger can speak. "Let's go." She falls into the vinyl seat with a squeak. In her hands is a briefcase that she quickly sets in the footwell and out of sight. Her leather armor she had been wearing has been removed and as the engine sparks to life with the key and the car pulls forward onto the drive, she pulls her shirt up to expose a nasty bruise along the ribs and she winces as she prods at it.

The feeling she got when looking at her father paled in comparison to the one she got looking at her mother. However, she feels someone looking at the back of her head. Turning to the back window, she sees Elio standing in the driveway now behind them. Hands in his pockets and a frown creasing his face. Night. Specifically not like an old-time knight. She turns to sit in her seat again, looking at Mary. "What's going on?" Briana asks. From the front seat, she can see Roger glance out of the corner of his eye at Mary.

Sighing heavily, Mary pulls her shirt back down then turns to her daughter with a forced smile. "Those people who rescued you ended up being bad people. They tried to attack us once it was night. So we are going to go somewhere safe while the police get them." Roger's eyes return to the road.

"What?" Briana tightens her arms across her chest. "But why were you wearing that leather stuff when you woke me up?" Her mother begins to tune the radio rapidly. "And if they were attacking us why didn't I see them in the house?"

"Just... give me a minute." Mary says while focusing on the radio with one hand and in the she is frantically typing a message on her phone. "There are perfectly reasonable explanations for both of those questions." She lets the statement hang.

Silence echoes loudly in the car. "Do you think I'm stupid or something, mom? God, why can't you just tell me what's going on?"

Radio static crackles to life quite loudly. "Warning." An androgynous voice whispers somewhere in the noise. "Reality deviants within vicinity. Safehouse Delta is activated. Use of technology up to rating two allowed. Preserve unity at all costs." Roger simply covers his ears as the noise screeches out into the car, cringing away from it. Mary sighs and reaches into her briefcase, withdrawing a device resembling a pen light.

"Thank God. It's so much easier this way." Before Briana can fully comprehend what she is looking at and what she heard, Mary pushes a blue button on the side. The light is like a flashbang as it goes off showering Briana's vision with sparks and stars. Her muscles go stiff, and her consciousness becomes foggy, distant, but still present. She can't speak as she falls onto her side, her head smacking against the window.

"Hey, Mary? There's someone in the road up ahead. He's blocking us." Roger pipes up. Ahead of the car is a large yellow Ford truck parked perpendicular across both lanes. Leaning against the hood is a dark-skinned man with thin salt and pepper hair looking at his phone. He glances up as Roger and company approach, not slowing down, and wears a wry grin.

Reaching into the center console, Mary pushes a button and an ominous electrical humming fills the cabin. "Don't slow down."

The man steps into the driver's side door of his own vehicle. "Evening, folks." He says, stepping through one of the side doors of Roger and Mary's vehicle, now sitting next to Briana. "Just passing through." Gripping Briana's foot, he pulls her through the door on the other side as he passes across the seats.

"Advisement." The radio crackles again. "Major disruption to unity detected. Engage with caution. Technology up to rating four allowed. Disruptions to unity allowed as necessary." By the time the announcement finishes, the man has arrived back in his truck with Briana in tow.

Pushing her into the back seats, he throws the truck into drive, facing the woods that surround the road here. "That device shouldn't mess with you more than a few seconds." With the now Briana-less car barreling towards them, he floors the truck and it roars towards the trees and off the road. Feeling is returning to Briana's arms and legs as she struggles to sit up.

"Mom? Dad?" She slurs her words as she watches the truck barrel towards what looks like certain death ahead of them. Despite the numbness in her body, the world seems clear, like looking through glasses for the first time after years of needing them. It was bending. The path, the trees, all of it out of the way as the truck glides through and over what should be impassible.

The man clicks his tongue. "Just a kid. Guess fate doesn't have time for niceties." With one hand on the steering wheel, he reaches back with the other to shake Briana's hand. She doesn't reach out, instead pressing herself back into the leather scented seats. "Just call me Grim. Sorry about the sudden appearance, but you have places to be." Retracting his hand, he refocuses on the path ahead.

"How did you do that?" She asks.

Grim chuckles. "The door trick? Pretty good one, least I think so. Just imagine a door nearby you want to go through and walk from one door to the other. Or something like that." He waves a hand without turning towards Briana.

Briana closes her eyes as the last of the numbness fades. Feeling around the seat, she grips a rubber band lost between the seats. "Why are you kidnapping me? Why is everyone kidnapping me?!"

"I'm not kidnapping you." He grunts. "Fate has a plan for you. I'm just speeding the wheels cuz we don't have two months for you to get to the point you need to be at. And I don't have two months to wait for the right moment." Pulling the rubber band around her fingers, a well-practiced maneuver for some reason, she gets ready to fire at the back of this guy's head. He stops moving for a moment. "You know, I know what you're about to do. And I ain't gonna stop you. This'll just speed up the learning curve." He braces himself slightly, his leather jacket squeaking.

Pulling the idea of an arrow from her mind, she compares it to the rubber band in her fingers. The stretchy material feels like the clean cut wood of an arrow, the whipping edge the sharp steel of the head. Anything can be an arrow with the right encouragement. She releases her grip and the rubber band flies true. It streaks forward, imbued with the idea of an arrow. In two moments overlaid she sees possibilities extend out like blood splatter on the upholstery of the truck. In one, the rubber band that believes itself to be a broadhead arrow pierces Grim's head ending his life in one fell stroke before carrying forward out the front windshield. In another, Grim was never in the front seat, but instead she was driving and Grim was in the back. The arrow streaks above her head and out into the forest, embedding itself into one of the swiftly passing trees before remembering it was a rubber band and falling to the floor of the woods.

Briana grips the steering wheel, white knuckled as she notes in the back of the head that she was going sixty miles per hour through the woods like some sort of suicidal maniac, wind whipping into her face from the hole in the windshield the projectile left behind. Behind her, Grim lounges on the seats, a yellow marking appearing on his forehead and his hazel eyes become flecked with amber sparks. "See? That was basically the door trick, but you did it with a rubber band."

"I don't know how to drive!" She screams as she grips the wheel but closes her eyes. The wind stops once she does.

Grim shifts up to the passenger seat, squeezing his frame over the console. "No problem. The car and fate know where to go. No fighting it anymore. We have a lot to talk about, sister."

Letting go of the steering wheel, she opens her eyes and looks out at the path created before the, glittering with warm yellow star light, the engine of the truck steadfastly charging forward towards her destiny. Whatever damage that was done to the window has been forgotten as it looks as new as the day it was installed. "I...I..." She stutters a moment. "I don't understand. Just... let me go home. Or wake up. Or whatever this is. I don't want any of it."

"This is as real as it gets." Grim puts his feet up on the dashboard. He glances at the girl out of the corner of his eye and sighs. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Really. It's bullshit that a girl young as you would get pulled into this. But since you did, did you see it?"

"See what? What are you talking about?" Shakily she reaches into her pocket and grabs her phone, dialing her mother's number.

He points to the sky. "The star. Well. The prophecy of the star. I don't think it's appeared yet. But it will. The other person like us I've run into saw it too."

"The red star?" She says. The phone begins to ring and moments later her call is ignored and she's rendered speechless. Flustered, she can feel tears beginning to well up.

Grim nods and continues to look at Briana. "It was only a matter of time." He sighs. "They won't remember you. Even if I didn't grab ya, they would've forgotten you at the first rest stop."

"Stop with this vague shit!" Briana screams. "What is happening to me!"

"You're chosen." He says. "Short story? I don't know what the fuck is going on either. Woke up one day and my kid didn't remember who I was. Next day my work had taken me off payroll. So, I just took my truck and started driving."

She glares over at him. "I don't care what happened to you, I want to know what is happening to me."

"Slow your roll, kid. I'm trying to explain. It's not exactly easy." He clears his throat. "Do you feel it? Like there is something you need to do or some place you need to be?" Hesitating a moment, Briana wipes her eyes and nods. "I have that too. I knew that I had to be on that road at that time because there was someone there that needed to be somewhere else and in a hurry. And once I get you there, there's a dozen more places I need to be and a hundred more people to get places. It'll probably be like that for you too. And they'll forget you." Grim finally breaks eye contact to look out the side window as the truck vaults over a creek. "Everyone will forget you. So I'm going to give you a crash course over the next few days till I get you when and where you need to be. Give you a fighting chance out there."

"Why should I trust you? You're a..." She searches for words. "A weirdo! A pervert!"

He reaches up and turns the rearview mirror to face Briana. "That the best you got, little lady?" In the mirror a green sigil burns on her brow, different from the yellow one on Grim's forehead but clearly connected somehow. "I'm not saying this will be pleasant or even easy but this is what the world wants from us right now. Count yourself lucky you have me to teach you."

"I don't want to." Briana stoutly denies. But there so many questions welling unbidden in her mind. Secrets to discover. Most focused around Ashley and Elio.

"What you want doesn't matter any more." He reaches over and grips the steering wheel, turning gently towards the North. A moment later, they rush over the side barricade of the freeway and flawlessly merge with traffic. "Try to run and it'll chase you. Try to live a normal life and it'll hunt you. Even before you realized what you were, you were involved. But there'r more people like us out there. It's up to us to bring them together."

"Why?"

"Because the world is ending, kid, and it's time to get the heroes ready to fight like hell."