Story 3

==The Regulators:==
*Aidan:  Live Fast.  Die Hard.  Be a good looking corpse.
*Colin:  Master of the Mystic Arts.  Bad luck with cars.
*Evangeline:  Sass and Shadows.
==The New York Crew==
*Greystone:  Orphan.  Brother.  Tremere.  Regent.
*Krum:  Double Barrelled Man of Mystery.
*Ceasar:  Loud and proud.
==Previously:==
Prince Alejandro has charged Colin, Aidan, and Evangeline to travel to New York City and consult with the Tremere there about ways to combat the demon, Balphagor and his church,  Abundant Light Ministries.  The Ravnos, Dax has agreed to act as a guide on the road and the Nosferatu, Wyatt generously donated his personal RV, nicknamed the "King of the Road", for the group to use.  After putting their affairs in order, Aidan and Eve travel with Dax in the King, while Colin elects to take an alternate route in a more comfortable ride.
==Friday, May 2 2014... AKA "King of the Road"==
Dax and the others are 2 days into their road trip to New York. Evangeline and Aidan are riding in the RV with Dax and two of Evangeline's ghouls, Mike and Gloria. Wyatt's RV is a couple decades old, but he's kept it in good shape and so far, the trip has been uneventful. Aidan's ghoul, J.D. has been scouting the road ahead of them in a semi truck. Dax tells the others that they're getting close to Nashville for the next stop. Eve asks why they're going through Sabbat territory and Dax responds, “I'm Independent. Why go through Camarilla? Since you're so worried, we'll detour through Knoxville instead.” He makes a couple phone calls and in a little while, they pull into the parking lot of the Blue Swallow Motel. They pile out of the King and stand there looking at the sign for the very seedy looking establishment for a moment. Aidan says, “I think I was here in the 80's. Sign hasn't changed.” Eve whimpers a little. Dax gets two rooms, and Mike checks them out to make sure they're safe. J.D is already asleep in the truck.
There's a bar called the Double Deuce across the street and Eve heads there with Aidan in tow, hoping to feed. Inside, there's very slim pickings. They sit in a booth and Mildred the waitress brings Aidan a coffee and Eve a can of Milwaukee's Best. After a moment, Eve hops up from the booth to check out the customers- two old men sitting at the bar and a fat guy in shorts and a belly shirt. Beauregard, the desk clerk from the hotel, walks in and orders a whiskey and a coke. Eve eyes him for about 2 seconds and asks him, “Where are all the parties?” He answers, “Farther in town by the college. We're on the outskirts here.” She asks if he wants to give her a ride, using a bit of presence as she smiles at him. He pulls out his keys and says, “Let's go!” Aidan gives her a death glare as she goes out the door and shakes his cell phone at her so she remembers to call. She just grins back at him and follows Beau to his Chevy.
One of the old guys looks over and calls to Aidan, “Hey, boy! Herb's leaving. You can play me in next round of checkers!” Aidan shrugs and walks over to join the old man. After several rounds, Aidan manages to win at least one game- “This ain't Tic Tac Toe boy! You gotta pay attention!” Aidan grits his teeth and sets up the board for another game as the old guy cackles. The front door opens as a young Asian guy and an older white man in a trench coat walk in the bar. Aidan looks up, but turns his attention back to the game so he doesn't notice when they lock the door. The white guy lights a cigar. He takes a few puffs, then snaps his fingers and the entire bar is flooded with darkness.
Aidan hears coughing and a thump as his checkers opponent falls over and hits the ground. Aidan pulls his knife and tries to move back to the booth to get his back to the wall, and walks into someone. The lights come back on as the darkness melts away and Aidan sees he's standing next to a Nosferatu. The Nosferatu grins and says, “Time to die, Regulator.” The three vamps attack and overwhelm Aidan, knocking him unconscious.
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Meanwhile, in New York City, Sam Greystone, the Regent of the Kennelworth Chantry, is spending the evening at Elysium. Lucy Graves is the Keeper of the Elysium in the VIP lounge of Pan's Labyrinth, a hot new dance club in Manhattan. Lucy, along with Victoria Ash and Aisling Sturbridge are keeping Greystone company. After small talk and pleasantries, Victoria mentions that she lost something during her time in Atlanta, and she's now heard rumors that it's resurfaced in the city. She tells Greystone that she was hoping with his background in archaeology, that he might have some experience tracking down artifacts and would be willing to help her find it. She describes a small diary belonging to a French Soldier that dates back at least 400 years. She assures Greystone that it has no mystical qualities, it just holds great sentimental value to her. She heard that it was seen in an antique shop recently. Greystone googles the store (New City Pawn) on his phone and sees that it has a 3 star review on Yelp. Victoria goes on to say, “If you can do this for me, I'll do a minor favor for you at some point.” Greystone tells her he'll look into it, then turns to Sturbridge and says, “And do you need anything Aisling? A minor boon? A pizza?”
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Henry Krum, the Scourge, is in the middle of tracking down Peter Jackson, a neonate believed to be an illegal thin blood. He's tracked Jackson to a bar in Spanish Harlem, called Chico's. Krum looks like a homeless bum in his tattered coat and cap, and he pushes a shopping cart full of junk past the bar to a place where he can watch the comings and goings. A guy staggers out of the bar with a friend, smoking and drinking from a bottle. Krum follows behind them for a bit, listening to them speak in Spanish. The guy with the bottle notices Krum and calls out to him, “Hey, gringo!” He takes a large swig from the bottle, leaving about an inch of alcohol in the bottom and then passes the bottle to Krum, “Happy Friday!” Krum thanks him, and watches as the pair head back into the bar.
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Greystone calls his ghouled cabbie, Abdul, to pick him up from Pan's Labyrinth and has him drive to Victoria's pawn shop in Spanish Harlem. Abdul pulls over in front of the shop, and Greystone looks it over. It seems a bit shabby- the “A” in the neon pawn sign is burned out and it blinks fitfully. Greystone opens the door and goes in. There are two people in the store, one browsing and a young guy working at the counter. Greystone goes up to the counter and asks about the diary. The young man says they don't have a lot of books, but there's some 50 cent novels over in the corner. Greystone tells him that he's looking for a leather bound book from the 1600's. The guy shrugs and says, “Let me look in the back.” He goes through a door behind the counter. Greystone takes a look around the shop as he waits. Most of the things on the shelves are crap, but there are a couple items of value. The young guy comes back in the room and says, “There was a book like that in stock, but we got rid of it a couple days ago.” Greystone asks if it was a diary, and the guy says, “Yeah?” Greystone says, “Who bought it?” and the guy responds, “We're not allowed to give out that information.” Greystone steps closer to the counter, looks the man in the eyes and attempts to dominate him, saying, “Check your records and give me the information.” The guy answers, “Absolutely,” and he walks back through the door to the back room.
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Outside, Krum goes around to the back of the bar and sees a couple of people coming out of another building a little farther down the alley. As he watches, they both get into a black Trans Am and drive away. Krum shrugs it off and continues looking for his quarry. He heightens his senses and sniffs, looking for traces of death in the air. He smells what he is looking for, but is surprised to see it's coming from the building down the alley instead of Chico's like he was expecting. He decides to check it out and goes to the door the two guys just exited. The door is unlocked and he goes in to find an old man with his throat ripped out on the ground.
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Greystone waits a few minutes for the young guy to come back to the counter and then starts to realize that something isn't right. He goes to the backroom and finds the Scourge, Henry Krum, standing next to the body of an old man with glasses. There's no sign of the young guy working the counter.
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Krum looks up as the Tremere Primogen walks into the room and asks, “You know this guy?” Greystone looks over the room and says, “Probably the owner. Where's the guy I dominated?” Krum remembers the two men getting in the trans am and answers, “He just left in a car. Had someplace to go.” Greystone goes back to the front of the store and turns the lock on the door as he flips the sign to closed. Krum investigates the body, trying to pick up the scent of killer. The man's throat has been torn open, and someone carved the number 9 into his chest. Greystone returns to the back room and takes a look at the store computer, trying to find a record of the book he came to find. He finds a sales record from when the store owner bought the book from a man named Liam Parker over a month ago. There's no indication that the book was sold from the shop yet, and Greystone assumes that the book has been stolen after it becomes clear that the book isn't in the shop anymore. He gets the address of the previous owner and makes a note of it.
Krum catches the scent of his target from the open back door, and tells Greystone that he has to go, “I'm after a thin blood.” Sam nods and starts a thorough search and inventory of the items in the store. Krum looks out the back door and sees six people in the alley behind Chico's. One of the guys is saying, “Only 2 tonight. You decide who.” Krum takes a shotgun out of his shopping cart and walks towards the group gathered around Jackson. Nobody pays him any mind until he gets close enough and shoots Jackson in the chest.
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Greystone hears the shotgun and looks out in the alley to see the confrontation happening. He concentrates for a moment and the alley is flooded with supernatural darkness. The terrified mortals run for their lives and Krum is left with Jackson, who starts pleading for his life. Greystone lets the darkness dissipate and goes back to his work in the shop, leaving the Scourge to his work. Krum pulls out a stake and rams it into the young vampire's chest. He dumps the body in the cart and covers it over with a blanket. He goes back to the pawn shop to get the body there and asks Greystone if maybe he can get some information from the corpse about what happened before they get rid of it. Greystone kneels down and performs Spirit's Touch on the old man's body. He gets a vision of a long haired man and a young Asian woman. He hears the man saying, “Daku, take out the security before we leave, there's someone out front. After the vision fades, Greystone looks for the security tapes and finds out that they're missing.
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Back in Tennessee, Aidan wakes up in the back of a cargo van. His hands are cuffed together and he hears the vampires arguing in the front of the van. The Lasombra, Harlowe, asks why they don't just kill him already? The Nosferatu, Falstaff rasps, “He'll be good bait for the others. They were fools to leave the city.” Chang says, “Dammit Falstaff, you're an agent of the Black Hand! Not some B movie actor! Act like it!” Aidan decides he's heard enough and directs some of his blood to heal up his wounds. He snaps the cuffs apart with potence, and then goes to kick open the back doors of the van in a bid for freedom.
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Eve is riding in the pickup with Beau. They are almost to the college, when Eve gets a text on her phone from Dax- “911 5th and Main.” She asks Beau where that location is and he tells her “About 10 blocks behind us.” She gets another text with another street name and this time it's obviously spelled wrong. She asks Beau about the new street and he tells her it's a block away from the last one. The next text she gets says, “Ida's been kidnapped.” Eve mutters, “I'm never gonna get to eat..” She turns on the Presence charm and asks Beau to head off the car that has Aidan. She calls out the street names as Dax sends them, and Beau turns around to intercept.
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Aidan tries to get the back doors open. It takes him a several tries and he hears from up front- “He thinks he's getting out.” Chang says, “I think we're being followed. That RV's been behind us for three blocks.” Aidan finally muscles the doors open and sees the King of the Road with Dax in the driver's seat. Dax speeds up when he sees Aidan at the open van doors. Aidan leaps for the RV and his hands grab the edge of the hood. His legs dangle on the street until he manages to drag himself higher. Dax rolls his eyes and Aidan sees him mouth the words, “Hold on!”
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Beau is hauling ass in the pick up and Eve sees that there is a line of police cars blocking the street ahead. Eve tells Beau to pull to the side of the road so they can see what's going on, and she realizes that the police barricade is probably an illusion from Dax. It's getting harder to ignore her hunger, but she doesn't want to start feeding on Beau, who says she reminds him of his granddaughter.
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Dax breaks the RV and brings it to a stop so Aidan can climb inside. He tosses Aidan his phone and tells him to send a text to that number saying the police aren't real. Aidan complies and they both watch as the van ahead stops in front of the police barricade. Harlowe gets out of the van and starts walking towards the police with his hands out to his sides as he talks to them. Dax puts the RV in reverse and starts driving away. From her vantage, Eve sees Harlowe start cursing as the RV disappears down the street. She looks over at Beau and tells him, “We can go back to the party now.” Beau tells her that he has a nephew that he thinks would be perfect for her as he continues the drive. Eve gets to the frat party and finally gets to feed. She stays for a couple hours before returning to the hotel and the others. Before they shelter for the day, Aidan tells her what the Sabbat pack said about being Black Hand Agents. She tells him that she heard rumors about them in the Sabbat- that they were some kind of shadow police force. Aidan just sighs, “Great.”
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Greystone and Krum part ways and leave the pawn shop. Greystone heads back to Pan's Labyrinth and Krum heads out with the bodies in his shopping cart. Krum calls the sheriff, David Morgan and tells him that he's captured the thin blood, Jackson. He asks Morgan if he wants him to interrogate Jackson to find out who embraced him, and Morgan gives Krum the go ahead. Krum tries to get a number for Greystone from Morgan, and Morgan puts him on hold while he calls Greystone for permission to give out contact info. Greystone tells Morgan to give him Krum's number instead. Krum dumps the body of the old man in the sewer and then makes his way to an abandoned sewing factory where he can interrogate the thin blood. When he gets inside, he pulls the stake out of Jackson and gives him blood from several dead rats he had tucked away in the shopping cart. Jackson wakes up and Krum starts asking questions- “Who's your sire?” “What's a sire?” “Who made you?” “You mean like this? Just some guy.” Krum tells him he needs to do better and he says, “I was attacked in an alley and left in a dumpster.” Krum sighs and says, “You have one chance. You have to be presented to the Prince. Why haven't you done that?” The kid says, “Prince? What's that?” and Krum starts shaking his head and muttering, “Oh, no. This isn't going to work. What were you doing out there in the alley.” Jackson says, “Giving them blood. The gang members, they love it! It's like a drug. I was going to take over the operation.” Krum starts shaking his head more, and the kid adds, “I can make sure you get laid...” Krum repeats himself louder, “Oh, no. This isn't going to work.” He walks over to his cart and picks up the shotgun. He turns around and shoots, putting Jackson down for good.
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When Greystone gets back to Elysium, he walks over to Victoria and says, “You left things out about the book.” Victoria frowns and says, “I was pretty straight forward.” Greystone replies, “Well, the shop owner was murdered for the book and I can't track it down because you won't tell me the name of it.” Victoria sighs and lays her cards on the table. She tells him that the book is supposed to have a lost chapter of the Book of Nod encoded into it and she's had feelers out for it for awhile. While Greystone is processing this information, he gets a phone call from Prince Estivez. The Prince tells him about some visitors that will be arriving shortly from New Orleans- Colin McCry from the Hirsig Chantry and his entourage. He says that the New Orleans Kindred want advice about dealing with an infernal problem, and he has agreed to host them in the city. Greystone takes the news about visitors in stride and then asks about any Sabbat packs known to be using the number 9 as a symbol. Estevez says that he'll call back about it, as it's triggering a memory and then hangs up.
Saturday, May 3 2014
The Regulators wake up in the early evening in the Blue Swallow Motel. After the events of night before, and much discussion, Aidan and Evangeline decide to scrap Dax's planned route to New York in case it's been compromised. According to their schedule, they were supposed to meet up with Colin in St. Claire, VA today but that plan's been thrown out of the window now. Aidan has been driving for a couple hours in the rain through dark back roads to get to the new meeting spot. Aidan gets a surprise when a herd of deer suddenly runs out into the road and he has to slam on the brakes. He barely avoids hitting the herd and keeps the RV on the road. He gets a second shock when he sees that the herd of deer is being chased through the rain by a very ragged, very naked man. The man looks at the RV and he makes eye contact with Aidan for a moment before continuing the chase after the deer now on the other side of the road. Aidan sits there for a moment with his hands on the wheel trying to process the situation. He says, “That was weird. Hey Dax, think we should chase the naked man chasing the deer?” Dax gives him a flat look and says, “Sure. I'll be waiting a mile up the road.” He rolls his eyes and goes back to his tablet.
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==Sun May 4 2014...==
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==Wed, May 7 2014... AKA “A Priest, a Gargoyle and a Rockstar Walk into a Bar”==
Greystone wakes early and feeds before tending to his evening rituals. He gets a call from his contact, Jimmy C., who tells him about a new gang grabbing territory. The Niner's seem to be gathered at a restaurant/bar called the Dixie Pig. Greystone decides to pass the information to Colin's people so they can investigate for him with less risk for himself. He makes his calls and the Regulators agree to go check it out.
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Evangeline wakes up at the Marriott, she takes a shower and then heads back to the hotel she shares with Aidan. She gets a call from Aidan on the way, who's worried when she didn't come home the night before. She tells him she was with Mazz and starts to describe the strip club Mazz took her to in great detail before he says he'll see her back at the hotel and hangs up. After that, she calls home and speaks to Carlos. He asks how she was able to take a picture and she tells him the whole story.
He tells her what's going on back home and says, “You know your friend, Danior? He's in torpor.”
Eve asks, “What? What happened?”
Carlos says, “Looked like about 150 rounds of ammo.”
Eve says, “What?! What did you do?!”
Carlos says, “Nah, It wasn't me. His people found him in the road outside his trailer park. They're tending to him.”
Eve thinks for a moment and says, “You think it was Jules?”
Carlos says, “Might be.”
Eve says, “You're sure it wasn't you?”
He laughs and says, “Nah, I don't want that crazy bitch.”
Eve says, “You better not. Okay. I'll let Dax know. Let him deal with it.”
She talks with him until she reaches the hotel.
Before meeting with Aidan, Eve knocks on Dax's door. Dax lets her in and she blurts out, “Danior's in torpor!” before noticing that Dax isn't alone in the room.
Eve says, “Oh, uhh, sorry. I didn't know you had company.”
Dax introduces her to Martin one of his Ravnos contacts that has settled in New York for the time being. Dax tells her it's okay to talk in front of Martin and asks about Danior. She tells him that she heard from a friend back home that Danior had been attacked at his trailer park and now he's in torpor. She adds that it might be because of Jules.
When Dax gives her a sharp look, she just says, “Look, I know you guys had her, but I kept your secret. I told Danny it was dangerous to hang onto her. She had two pack members still around that would be looking. One of them probably hurt Danny.”
Dax sighs, “I have to go back to New Orleans.” He grabs a bag and starts to pack.
Eve just nods, “I'll let the others know.” She smiles at Martin as she turns to leave, “Nice to meet you.”
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After Colin wakes he spends some time helping the other Tremere with the nightly rituals. Afterwards he decides to go hunting at the bar used as feeding grounds by the Tremere at the Kennelworth Chantry. Colin arrives at the Magic 8-Ball and takes a seat at the bar as he looks the place over. The bar is quiet tonight; a few people are clustered around the pool table while a few more are seated at the bar, watching the game as they nurse their beers. Colin orders a beer, and the bartender sets a bottle in front of him. Colin picks it up and turns around, leaning against the bar to survey the rest of the room and his feeding prospects for the night.
As Colin watches the patrons at the pool table, the bell over the front door jingles a bit as it is pushed open and two men enter the bar. The two men enter together, but couldn't look more different from each other. One is a priest from his clothing, dressed all in black, with the white clerical collar. The other looks like he spends most of his time on the back of a motorcycle. His arms sport several tattoos and his hair is on the longer side and looks like he spends a fortune keeping himself stocked in hairspray and styling gel. The one thing they have in common is the look in their eyes- no nonsense determination.
The two men immediately split up after entering. The man in the coat heads towards the pool tables and the priest walks towards the bar. The two snap pictures of the bar and the people in it, not bothering to hide what they're doing. Colin seems to be the only one to take notice of them so far though.
The priest takes Colin's picture and then pauses to look him up and down. Colin is still leaning against the bar, holding his beer and watching. The priest walks over to Colin and sits next to him at the bar.
He looks directly at Colin and asks, “What exactly are you drinking tonight?”
Colin narrows his eyes and tries to play “human”, but it's becoming more and more obvious that the priest knows something and suspects that Colin is a vampire. The priest pulls out his rosary from his jacket and lays it down on the bar. He tilts his head to the side and looks at Colin's reaction.
Colin is vaguely disturbed by the beads but tries to keep his poker face and ignores them lying there. The priest's eyes are practically burning with fervor and he decides he's done playing games. He picks up the rosary and shoves it right in Colin's face. Colin falls back and grabs his face as the beads start to burn him with holy wrath.
The priest stands up and brandishes a cross along with the now faintly glowing rosary. The other hunter joins him as Colin stands back up. The stand-off is interrupted when a huge gargoyle appears in the middle of the room.
Ferox says, “He who is without sin may leave.”
The mortals collectively bolt for the front door. He tells Colin to tell Greystone that the seals are in danger and he needs to reflect on the key.
Colin raises his hand a bit and says, “I should probably go with them...”
Ferox looks at him and says, “If you wish to flee then go.”
Colin kicks in his celerity and hauls ass back to the Tremere chantry to report.
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Henry Krum wakes up as the sun sets. He heads over to a fast food place and picks up a sack of burgers and fries and brings it over to one of the places where some of the homeless like to frequent. He shares out the food with the people there and takes the opportunity to get a little blood for himself. After his meal, he decides he needs to do a little shopping since his c art with most of his gear is still at Elysium.
He heads over to a hardware store that is still open, and buys himself a machete and a hatchet. He leaves the store and pulls out his cell to check in with Morgan. Morgan answers pretty quickly and tells him that so far, it's been a quiet night with not much going on. A blue sedan drives by and the driver honks three times and waves as he passes. Krum just makes out that the driver just has blonde hair and not much more than that before the car is out of sight. Morgan continues talking on the phone and Krum complains about the driver to Morgan.
After checking in, Krum goes back to Elysium and checks on his shopping cart that he left there. He sees a gift basket has been left inside and when he goes to investigate that he get a little wet paint on his coat. His beloved cart has been painted a glittery pink and rainbow handlebar tassels have been added to the push bar. The gift basket has an assortment of personal care products from Bath and Body Works. Clearly someone is trying to send a message.
Krum tries to sniff out the culprit of the pranks, but he notices a parrot sitting on a fire escape watching him. He tries to throw a bit of an old cheeseburger to it. The bird launches into the air and poops on Krum's shoulder instead. It circles around and Krum looses sight of it. Krum looks back towards the food on the ground and sees it disappearing bite by bite.
Krum sniffs again and catches a whiff a cinnamon on the breeze. Krum gets a bad feeling and decides to back away from the alley. Faint laughter echoes from the entrance of the alley as he gets back to the main street. He decides to take in a movie to clear his head of the crazy. Something in the movie seems familiar as he watches, but he's not sure what it is. He seems to know how the action is going to play out before it does. He enjoys the movie despite the odd feeling.
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When Colin gets back to the Chantry in a controlled panic he tells Greystone that he just saw Ferox in at the Magic 8-Ball. Greystone immediately puts the chantry on lock down and activates the defenses. Steel shutters roll down to cover the windows and doors, the ghouls start arming themselves with machine guns, the acolytes start preparing defensive rituals.
Greystone puts in a call to Estevez to tell him what happened and Estevez orders Morgan to send his people to patrol the neighborhood around the Chantry. Greystone gets a news report from one of his flunkies that the 8-Ball has been set on fire and several firetrucks have been dispatched to try to contain the inferno. Greystone decides to set a trap for the hunters by making appear that the chantry is moving to a new location. He arranges for moving vans and an 18 wheeler to be brought to the brownstone and finds out about a warehouse for rent to use as a fake chantry.
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Aidan and Eve hunt together and then Aidan calls Colin to meet up to go check out the situation at the Dixie Pig. Colin tells them that he ran into a situation with the Tremere and he has to take care of it. They give him a bunch of shit for picking the New York Chantry over his friends and they decide to go take a look without him.
The two arrive at the restaurant known for the best barbecue around, and Eve takes note of some the graffiti on the buildings in the area. She points out some signs marking Sabbat territories. Aidan asks if they should leave, but Eve wants to just take a quick look in the bar first before they go.
They go inside and the place is pretty busy. They count 11 people wearing denim jackets with “9's” sewn onto the back of the jacket. They're obviously in the right place. They make their way to the bar where Eve flags down the bartender, a pudgy, greasy looking man with a large porn-stache that almost completely hides his upper lip.
She says, “Hey, have you seen a guy that goes by the name, Bedlam hanging around here?”
The bartender looks her over and says, “Bedlam? Oh, yeah. He's right over there.”
The bartender shifts his gaze to a table in the back where two woman are seated with a man with long dark hair. The man is in the process of standing and turning towards the bar as the bartender is speaking and then Eve hears, “Hey Bedlam! You got some company!”
Eve turns to look and is stunned when she's suddenly face to face with Bedlam again.
==Wed, May 7th Continued.... AKA "Bedlam"==
Aidan and Evangeline are at the bar in the Dixie Pig where they serve the best ribs in New York. Eve turns from the bartender just as he shouts Bedlam's name and finds herself looking at Bedlam. He looks exactly like she remembers, with long tangled black hair and those piercing eyes. He even has a mock clerical collar attached to his black t-shirt. Eve stands there frozen in shock, too afraid to move and watches him walk towards her. Aidan looks over at Bedlam, but isn't sure if it's really the Bedlam they fought in New Orleans or not.
As Bedlam gets to the bar, the bartender says, “Hey Bedlam, this chick's looking for ya. I think you might have a fan...”
He kind of elbows Bedlam a bit. Aidan glances over at Eve to gauge her reaction to this guy, and sees that she is visibly terrified. Her whole body is trembling and she looks like she is about to have a full on panic attack. Aidan decides to start calling on his blood for celerity because it looks like the shit is about to hit the fan.
Bedlam steps in really close to Eve, looking at her curiously. He leans in towards her neck, closes his eyes and inhales deeply. He opens his eyes with a look of recognition and murmurs, “Well, hello.”
Bedlam straightens up and whistles, still not taking his eyes off Eve. The two women sitting back at the table stand and start to approach the bar. One is a tall blonde with black streaks running through her hair. She's all gothed out in a shiny leather corset and heavy black make-up. The other is a smaller Asian woman wearing black yoga pants and a red hoodie with the hood pulled up and forward to obscure her face.
Bedlam is still staring at Eve and his eyes flash with anger for a moment and he says, “Evangeline,” drawing out her name in a low growl.
That snaps Eve out of her shock and she bolts for the door, yelling, “Aidan, run!”
Aidan says, “Hey, Remember me?” and he shoves a knife in Bedlam's gut.
Bedlam doubles over a bit and looks pretty pissed off. Aidan keeps stabbing him four more times in quick succession.
Bedlam staggers back, but is still standing after Aidan's attack. He reaches behind his back and pulls out two small crash axes. He swings both axes at Aidan's neck, trying to take his head off. Aidan tries to dodge, but can't avoid the blades completely.
Discordia, the tall blonde, shakes her hips as she walks towards Aidan while whistling the tune for “London Bridge is Falling Down”. The song seems to worm its way into Aidan's brain and it echoes louder and louder inside his head. Aidan feels like the neurons in his brain are firing and snapping and it's just wrong. The song keeps echoing in his head, and after a few minutes of this he feels himself just break.
Daku, the girl in the hoodie, smashes a bottle into glass shards and throws it at Aidan as he crumples to the ground, but it misses him.
Eve reaches the door and looks back over her shoulder for Aidan. She sees him crumpled on the ground in the fetal position in front of the bar and surrounded by Bedlam and the others. Eve pauses in her flight and takes a deep breath to calm herself before summoning shadow arms from the abyss. She's able to bring out 4 of them and she sends one of them across the room to grab Aidan and drag him back to her.
The bartender pulls a shotgun from under the bar and shoots at Eve in the doorway, but she just shrugs the bullet off as she focuses of getting to Aidan.
Bedlam yells, “Come back, Evie!” and he runs over to the doorway slashing both axes at her. Eve's shadows get in his way as she shrinks back towards the door, and he's unable to do any damage to her.
Daku throws a blade at Eve and hits her in the shoulder. Eve picks up Aidan and runs out of the building.
Aidan, who had been muttering snatches of London Bridge at Eve's feet, suddenly yells, “IT'S FALLING DOWN!” and then goes limp in her arms again. Eve concentrates a moment and tries to summon Colin to her for help. She makes it across a row in the parking lot and shakes her head, thinking, Fuck it, it'll be quicker just to go to him.
Discordia steps out of the bar, sashays forward a few steps holding her arms out to her sides with her palms facing up. Disturbingly familiar black tendrils come pouring out from her hands and she smiles sweetly at Eve. Eve's shadows are still around the door of the bar and they lash out at Discordia and wrap her up in shadow before she can launch an attack at Eve and Aidan.
Bedlam saunters outside with a gun in his hand. He points it at Eve, smirks and turns it sideways before shooting. The bullet grazes Eve's arm and she keeps moving, trying to get some distance. Bedlam doesn't pursue any further, he just stays where he is, putting his hand out to stop Daku and Discordia from pursuit as well.
He calls out, “See ya around, Tasty Cakes!”
Eve drops the shadows and runs as best as she can while dragging Aidan with her.
….........................................
Krum leaves the movie theater and wanders the streets a bit, paying attention to his surroundings and looking for anyone acting suspicious. After awhile, he runs across the local Anarch Baron, Callahan sitting in his car near one of the parks.
Callahan waves Krum over to the car and says, “What's going on? Krum, right?”
Krum nods and replies, “Krum it is.”
Callahan asks, “You on the hunt tonight?”
When Krum shakes his head he goes on, “Nothing going on? Come on with me.”
Krum says, “Really?”
Callahan says, “I mean, you can say no. I don't give a shit. Let's go.”
Krum gets in the car with him and he says, “So, tell me a little about yourself.”
Krum says, “About myself?”  
Callahan replies, “Yeah, I've seen you around and we don't hang around often at court.”
Krum says, “I've been in New York quite awhile. Call it home.” He pauses a moment and when Callahan doesn't say anything, he continues, “I'm a loner type.”
Callahan asks, “Have you been around with our people very much? The anarchs?”
Krum replies that he has occasionally and Callahan tells him he should come to one of their get togethers sometime. He says, “We're gonna be having a poker night.”
Krum says, “Here's a phone number.”
Callahan asks, “Is it yours?”
Krum kinda rolls his eyes a bit at that, but he agrees to come out to poker night and gets Callahan's number. Krum gets out of the car and continues walking.
…...........................................
Colin and Greystone are still on lock down in the Kennelworth Chantry. It's started raining pretty hard outside. By this time Greystone has succeeded in procuring a warehouse for use in Brooklyn. Colin has been participating in protection rituals and he decides to call Eve to check in with them.
...............................................
Eve is walking down the street with Aidan. She's got her arm around his waist and his arm is across her shoulders as she tries to help him walk, but she's more than half dragging him along the sidewalk. He's still not coherent and is still mumbling, “London bridge is falling down, falling down...”
Eve is just crying as she stumbles along, intent on reaching Colin and not understanding why it's taking so long for him to get to her. Her phone starts ringing, and she fumbles it out of her pocket. She doesn't hear anything at first and then realizes she has it upside down. She mutters as she turns it around, “Dammit.. Hello?”
Colin is on the other end and he gets as far as,”Hey, just checking in-” before Eve cuts him off crying, “Why haven't you come here yet?”
Colin is confused, “What? What is going on?”
Eve says, “I tried to summon you an hour ago!”
Colin, still confused, says, “Summon me? My phone has not gone off.”
He hears Aidan saying, “It's falling!” in the background and Eve starts going on about Bedlam and not making much sense.
Colin tries to make some sense of what he's hearing and asks, “Bedlam from....?”
Eve sounds like she's about to loose it, “Bedlam, he was dead... I...we ripped him in half! He's supposed to be dead, but he was there! It was him!”
Colin starts to ask how, but stops and says, “Okay where are you guys?”
Eve just wails, “I don't know.”
Colin closes his eyes, rubs the bridge of his nose and says, “Okay, I'll see if I can get out of this building and I'll come pick you guys up. I should be able to find you. I'll call you right back.”
Somehow knowing backup is on the way helps Eve to calm down again, and she starts walking towards Colin again.
…...........................................
Colin hangs up and shakes his head as he mutters, “God, every fucking time.” He tracks down Greystone and tells him, “I... might have a situation. The rituals are all set up and ready to go, but I think I have to go and pick up my friends. They're in deep again. Is there a way out of this building?”
Greystone looks impassive while Colin speaks, and he just says, “Yeah.”
Colin says, “Am I allowed to leave?”
Greystone repeats himself, seeming uninterested, “Yeah.”
Colin says, “Well, I'll go check then.” and he takes his leave.
The guards open up the door and Colin steps outside into the pouring rain. Colin goes to walk down the steps and accidentally steps on a frog, feeling it squish under his very expensive shoe. Looking around, he sees that there are several dead frogs scattered around the sidewalk. He frowns, and starts scraping frog guts from the bottom of his shoe when another frog falls from the sky and smacks him in the head.
Colin backs himself back into the chantry and asks the guards, “Is there an umbrella? It's raining fucking frogs out here.” He looks from guard to guard and adds, “It is end times. I've heard of raining cats and dogs, but this is new.”
Greystone is walking past and hears the commotion and asks, “Is is raining frogs?”
He goes outside the building kicking in his heightened senses, and starts scanning the area for Ferox and the two hunters that were seen in the Magic 8-Ball earlier in the evening.  They see a tricked out purple sports car drive slowly past the chantry and it appears that the sheriff has coerced the Lasombra brothers, Dino and Vince into patrolling the area around the chantry as well.
Colin goes with him and joins in the perimeter search. They spend several minutes scanning the area and don't see any signs of the gargoyle or the hunters in the area.
Colin pulls out his phone and sends Eve a text saying, “Um.. I might be a little longer. It's raining frogs where I am right now. And yes...ACTUAL FROGS.”
A minute or two passes and he gets an entire rant back from Eve, “Of fucking course it is. I'm only walking here, carrying Aidan because he's fucking out of his mind and can't walk and I'll just carry him by myself through fucking New York city. BY MY SELF”
Colin reads the text and then sends back, “At least it's not raining frogs..hail a cab!”
While Colin is on his phone, Greystone discovers that someone has painted some graffiti on the side of the old brownstone -“James 4:7” has been scrawled in spray paint. Greystone pulls out a cell and calls inside to one of his lackeys. He orders the underling to check the security tapes to see if they get can get an ID on who painted the message.
Colin goes back inside to look up the bible verse and finds that it reads, “Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.” He passes the info to Greystone and then tells him, “I'm going to go pick up my friends, do you have it here or do you need me to stay?”
Greystone tells him to go ahead, so Colin finally gets in his car and drives towards Eve and Colin.
Greystone heads towards security to check on the tech's progress with the ID check. He watches the tech work for a moment and then calls Morgoth into the room. He gives Morgoth special instructions and then sends him to the newly rented warehouse. After a few minutes of sifting through security feeds, the tech comes up with an image of the graffiti artist for Greystone. It turns out to a picture of the man that accompanied the priest in the Magic 8-Ball.
Greystone studies the image and then picks up a different cell from earlier and makes a call. A very groggy voice answers on the other end, “Agent James.”
Greystone goes straight to business, “I need you to run a search on a perp.”
The very irritated FBI agent says, “You gonna tell me who this is first? It's the middle of the goddamn night.”
Greystone replies, “It's Greystone.”
Agent James says, “Oh.”
Greystone adds, “I wouldn't have called if it wasn't important.”
James sighs and says, “Yeah, I've been up for 28 hours working on a case.”
Greystone says, “I'll send you a picture of the guy.”
He hears the sound of a chair gliding across the floor in the background as James says, “Alright, I'll run a check and get back to you.” 
Greystone asks him if there's anything he can help with, and James just says, “Can you add more hours to the day?” Greystone says “No”
James says, “Can you cure my wife of her porn addiction?”
Greystone, completely no nonsense, says, “Yes.”
James thinks he's kidding and says, “Yeah, okay. I'll call you back.”
…......................................
Colin is driving through the city, looking for Eve and Aidan. He's focused on the bloodstone he made for Eve back in New Orleans, and knows he's getting closer to her. He just needs to keep following the trail. Luckily, the torrential rain (including the frogs) guttered out just a few blocks past the chantry. He's driving past a park when he sees the scourge getting out of a shiny Oldsmobile.
Colin slows down for a second and then decides to stop. Might be a good idea to have Krum there as he still doesn't know what Aidan and Eve ran into when they scouted the restaurant. He pulls the Cadillac over to the curb next to Krum and rolls down the window. “It's Krum, right?”
Krum looks the car over and sniffs a bit. Colin says, “Smells like privilege, I know.”
Krum laughs and says, “Krum. Yeah.”
Colin says, “Cool. What are you doing tonight, because I could use your help.”
Krum replies, “Coming with you.”
Colin unlocks the door and Krum climbs in. Colin says, “I'm picking up my friends and I don't know what's going on with them so..”
Krum says, “Let's go get your friends.” The tires squeal as Colin steps on the gas.
.................................................
Eve hears a police siren go off briefly behind her as she trudges down the sidewalk with Aidan in tow. Eve curses under her breath as she hears an officer call out, “Everything okay ma'am?”
She yells back, “We're fine!” and she starts to try to scrub away the black, bloody tears from her face as best she can. She knows there's not much she can do to hide the bloody knife wound in her shoulder or the holes the bullets tore through her clothes. She glances over at Aidan and he's still a mess- beaten up and STILL muttering snatches of that stupid song.
The cop tells her to hold up and he gets out of his car and walks over to them. The office takes one look at her and says in a very serious tone, “Ma'am come on. What happened tonight?”
Eve gathers her will, raises her chin, looks him straight in the eye and says, “We're just fine Officer.”
The command seems to take hold as the officer studies her for a minute longer before saying, “Everything looks fine here. Just take care of your friend.”
Eve musters a smile and says, “That's what I'm doing.”
The cop gets back in his car and Eve sighs in relief as he speeds off. She mutters, “Where the fuck is Colin..” and she starts walking again.
After another fifteen minutes of walking, Colin's car pulls up next to Aidan and Eve. Colin and Krum get out of the car and look the pair over. Both are a mess. Eve has been stabbed in the shoulder and has a couple gunshot wounds and she's been crying bloody tears for awhile. Aidan doesn't have as many injuries, but something else seems to be wrong with him. He doesn't seem to be aware of anything around him and Eve is supporting him.
Colin frowns and says, “What the hell is wrong with Aidan?”
He walks over to him and Aidan seems to snap out of what ever state he was in.
Aidan looks around frantically and says, “I need to feed. I need to feed now!”
Colin grabs Aidan's head in both hands and starts whispering calming words under his breath as he focuses on the blood. The thaumatergical ritual seems to help and Aidan doesn't seem quite as panicked.
Aidan takes a deep breath and says, “That's amazing.”
Colin says, “Hey, tricks of the trade. Let's get in the car and get you back.”
Once Eve sees that Aidan is okay, it's like the dam breaks and she looses any semblance of control and starts crying again. She tells Colin that it was the real Bedlam at the Dixie Pig and the more she talks, the more upset she gets.
Krum asks, “Who's Bedlam?”
Colin sighs and ignores the question for the moment. He holds Eve's head in both hands and preforms the same ritual that he did for Aidan, until she calms down and stops crying.
She looks up at him and says, “You know what he did to me.”
Colin just looks at Eve and says, “You need to calm down too, and we will get back to the chantry and we will talk about this quietly.”
He guides her to the car and puts her in the back seat next to Aidan. She seems calmer, but it doesn't stop her talking about Bedlam and the rest of the pack at the Dixie Pig and she spends much of the drive alternating between that and asking why Colin didn't come when she summoned him.
Colin calls Greystone on the way back to the chantry to make sure it's okay to bring back his friends and the scourge. Greystone, not realizing he's on the speaker, says it's okay since it's always good to not spill Tremere blood if they don't have to.
Eve tells Colin to stop the car because she wants out at that point, but he ignores her. Colin tells Greystone he's on speaker and continues. Colin gives him a brief summery of what Aidan and Eve found at the Dixie Pig and says that Aidan is pretty messed up. Aidan speaks up and says he feels better now.
-------------------------------------------------------
They arrive at the brownstone and Colin parks the car. It's still raining here, and there are frogs on the ground- some are still hopping around, some are squashed.
Colin points at them and says, “Told ya. Frogs.”
Eve says, “Just cause there's frogs doesn't mean it was raining them.”
As she stops talking, a frog slams into the windshield. Eve stares at it and the windshield wiper knocks it to the side.
Colin says, “Raining frogs.”
Eve snaps, “It jumped.”
Colin throws up his hands and stalks towards the front door with the others in tow.
The guards usher them inside the chantry. Eve takes in all the armed guards standing around and the security shutters over the windows and leans over to Colin to ask, “Do they do this in New Orleans?”
Colin shakes his head and gives an emphatic no. Krum looks around and admires the decor. Colin leaves the others in the reception area and goes looking for Greystone.  They kind look at each other then around at the armed guards and each becomes aware of a feeling of oppression that gets stronger the longer they stand there.
............................................................
As Colin searches the chantry, Greystone gets a phone call back from Agent James. James tells him he has an ID on the guy in the picture, “His name is Andrew Kane.”
Greystone asks if he was able to find out anything else.
Agent James replies, “He's a former FBI Agent. Did some special ops. Retired early due to an gunshot injury in his knee. Went on to do mercenary work, but was real choosy about the side he worked for.”
Greystone asks if he found any contact information and James says, “No, I haven't. Everything seems to have dried up a few years ago.”
Greystone says, “Okay. Known associates?”
He hears James shuffle through some papers and then James says, “Well, he has an ex-wife in Chicago, a son age seven... and a brother-in-law named Elias Buckman.” James gives him the Ex's contact info and Greystone thanks him for everything. James tells him he's going to get some sleep and hangs up.
Greystone dials the number for the ex-wife in Chicago. After a few rings, there's a very groggy, “Hello?”
Greystone says, “Hello, I'm trying to reach Andrew.”
She sounds more awake and definitely more pissed as she says, “He doesn't live here anymore, goddammit. We divorced.”
Greystone says, “I know. Do you have his contact information? It's very important I get in touch with him.”
She says, “He doesn't do that kind of work anymore. And don't call me again.” The line goes dead as she hangs up.
Greystone calmly dials the number again. She answers and says, “I said don't call here again!”
Greystone says, “Give me the information and I won't.”
She says, “I don't know where he is. He's running around somewhere with my brother. Call him.”
Greystone says, “What's his number?”
She's even more irritated as she says, “I don't know. I don't talk to him anymore.”
Greystone doesn't believe her and says, “You don't talk to you're brother or your ex-husband?”
She says, “No. Fuck both of them.”
Greystone asks, “Who pays your alimony then?”
She says, “None of your damn business. By the way, if you call me again, I'll have you up on charges for harassment.”
Greystone says, “Okay.” She hangs up.
Greystone dials the number a third time, but this time it goes directly to voice mail. Greystone leaves a message saying, “Alright Mrs. Kane, it's a shame you couldn't help me get in touch with your husband. I guess we won't be able to split that ten thousand dollar inheritance with you that he inherited.”
------------------------------------------------
Greystone leaves his office and finds Colin waiting in the hall for him.
Colin starts talking right away, “Maybe your people can go find the mortals with Ferox and go kill them.”
Greystone tells him, “That's what I've been working on. I'm trying to find out how to find Andrew Kane.”
They walk back to the others as they talk and Colin fills him in on what he knows about the events at the Dixie Pig.  Aidan is sitting in a chair. Krum is poking around the room, sniffing at things and Eve just looks bored.
Eve narrows her eyes at Colin when she sees him talking to Greystone across the room, and she tries to use her Presence discipline to summon him to her side again to try to figure out why the summoning didn't work earlier in the evening.
She focuses all her attention on Colin and wills him to her side. She feels the connection sink in, but then something twists and then she's compelled to Colin's side instead. She runs across the room and tackle hugs him, knocking both of them to the floor.
Colin snaps, “Jesus Christ! What the hell?!”
Eve's lying on top of Colin on the floor, their limbs are all twisted up, and she smacks him on the head and yells, “What did you do to it?!”
Colin says, “Do to what?!”
She yells, “I can't summon you!”
Colin says, “You just ran over here! Apparently you summoned yourself. Are you sure you're doing it right?”
Eve smacks him again and demands, “What did you do?!”
Colin pushes her off of him and says, “Stop hitting me!  I didn't do anything!”
He stands up and starts brushing off his once immaculate suite.
Eve, still sitting on the floor says, “Yes you did!”
Colin looks exasperated as he fixes his blue silk tie and says, “Nope.”
She snaps, “My Presence has gone BACKWARDS!”
Colin points at Aidan and says, “Summon him!”
Aidan says, “That's a bad idea. Last time she did that, I killed somebody.”
Eve focuses on Aidan and says, “Oh! You try it! You try it on him!”
Colin says, “Oh, God.”
Greystone's had enough of the circus and says, “Try it on Andrew Kane.”
Eve completely ignores him and keeps coaxing Aidan, “You know how to do it right? You try it on him.”
The sound of someone ringing the front door buzzer echoes through the chantry, and it gets ignored by everyone in the room besides Greystone. Greystone doesn't say anything to the others, but the irritation is plain on his face as he leaves the room and heads towards the entryway.
Aidan goes out in the hall and attempts the summon on Colin. He only gives it a half- assed attempt though, so his result doesn't end as spectacular as Eve's. Instead he finds himself walking back in the room towards Colin.
As he passes Eve, he says, to her in confusion, “Isn't he supposed to come to me?”
Eve says, “See?” She points a finger at Colin, “You did something to it!”
Colin still maintains his innocence, despite the mounting evidence against him, “I didn't do anything.”
Eve says, “It's not working on you.”
Colin shrugs and says, “I don't know what to tell you.”
She looks over at Aidan and lowers her voice, “He did some Tremere bullshit.”
Aidan says to her, “He always does.”
Back in the entryway, Greystone orders a guard to step aside so he can on the video feed who is standing at the door. He sees Lucy Graves standing on the steps of the brownstone, with Victoria Ash standing right behind her. By now, Lucy is ringing the doorbell over and over, so much that she might as well be leaning on it. Victoria is standing there with her hands on her hips, looking frustrated as she stares up at the security camera.
Greystone does a quick Auspex scan to make sure they are really who they appear to be. He looks them over for another minute, then gives the order to the guards to let them in the building. The door opens and the two Kindred walk in the building.
Lucy keeps going down the hall until she finds Aidan, and then she slaps him hard right across the face. She glares at him and says, “What the hell did you bring me here for?”
Victoria follows Lucy into the room at a much more leisurely pace. She's taking time to admire the the decor, looking around, she says, “Wow, Not bad.”
Aidan runs his hand through his hair and says, “I know I didn't call you-”
Lucy interrupts, “No, you summoned me.”
Aidan looks confused, and says, “I did?”
Colin says brightly, “See, it does work.”
Victoria turns around and says, “Good evening, Regent Greystone.”
Greystone replies, “Hello.”
She says, “Lovely place you have here.”
Greystone says, “Yes. You want to tell me what was so important about that book about Francois?”
Victoria narrows her eyes and says, “Oh, we were just in Elysium when my dear friend here felt a compulsion that forced her to leave and asked if I would accompany her. But, you didn't inquire as to that. You want to know about the diary I requested your assistance in retrieving? Have you had any luck with it?”
Greystone says, “The person who had it was murdered. We found the murderer tonight and apparently these two,” he indicates Aidan and Eve, “had a bad encounter with him.”
Aidan looks over at Lucy and adds, “A really, really bad encounter.”
Lucy has zero sympathy and says, “Any experience you can walk away from.”
Aidan frowns and says, “True.”
Victoria notices Krum standing over in the corner watching over everything going on and she says, “Really? He knew about this place before me?”
Krum says, “Damn straight.”
Greystone ignores Krum and says, “Well it's good that you're here because there's a Red List vampire in town, and he's looking to kill people.”
She looks at him in disbelief and says, “Oh, this sounds like the worst place to be.”
Greystone contradicts her, saying it's the safest place in the city.
She asks, “Does this have something to do with the diary?”
Krum mutters, “Yep.” just as Greystone says, “I don't know. I don't know what's so important about the book.”
Victoria rolls her eyes and says, “I told you, the diary supposedly has some coded references about the Gehenna myth along with the locations of three of the supposed Antediluvians.” She makes air quotes with her fingers as she says 'antediluvians' and kind of rolls her eyes.
Greystone crosses his arms and asks, “Some french soldier knew all this?”
Victoria says, “I think the soldier was coerced into recording the information for someone else.”
Greystone says, “Well, sadly I have not caught the one that killed the book shop owner yet. We had a lead on him and they went to check it out.”
He looks Aidan up and down and says, “He lost his mind apparently. So...”
Colin speaks up and says, “Bedlam is a Malkavian with some pretty nasty tricks.”
Eve looks from Greystone to Colin and can't believe what she's hearing from them. She says, “He came back from the dead.”
Colin says, “Yeah, that's a pretty good one actually.”
Krum kind of clears his throat and mutters, “I recommend you refer to James 4:7.”
Victoria says, “That's some pretty good Fortitude.”
Eve looks at her and says, “No. I killed him. I killed him three years ago. I ripped his body in half-”
Lucy starts trying to get a word in, “Dear...Dear”
Eve keeps going, trying to get them to understand, “He was dead. I felt him die. I had a bond to him.”
Lucy pats Eve on the head and gets her to start listening, “Dear, didn't you say that he's a master of mind fucks? Isn't that what you just said?”
Colin speaks up and says, “Well, I said that..”
Lucy says, “Whatever. How do you know you did what you thought you did.”
Eve looks at Lucy with doubt in her eyes and just whimpers. After a moment Eve starts shaking her head and saying “No...no...it's gone...the bond, the vinculum is gone.”
Lucy says, “Well, there you go.”
Eve looks her in the eye and says, “He died.”
Lucy says, “The bond is gone, you saw him die, I'm sure everything is just fine.”
Eve says, “No! He was there. He was there tonight.”
Lucy looks at the others and says, “Maybe he had an evil twin.”
Victoria says, “Wouldn't he have been the evil twin?”
Eve just starts laughing and crying hysterically and goes and sits down in the corner.
Colin looks at Aidan and asks, “So, you don't remember summoning Lucy?”
Aidan shakes his head.
Colin says, “So he's not released from whatever the Malkavians did to him tonight after all.”
Victoria says, “Well, these are Sabbat?”
Colin says, “Correct.”
Victoria says, “Well, that explains why they want the book, because they still believe in these fairy tales. I don't think we have anything to actually worry about since they are just fairy tales. I wanted the book for it's historical value as a keepsake more than anything else. Maybe we can come up with some sort of bait for them. But more importantly, you said there's a gargoy- what is going on with the frogs?”
Colin says, “Uh, yeah. We've been dealing with some stuff too.”
Greystone asks if they are familiar with the Red List, and Victoria replies that of course she is. Greystone tells her about Ferox's sudden appearance earlier in the evening and the subsequent deluge of frogs. Both Toreador are extremely unhappy to be caught near an apparent target of someone on the Red List. Greystone tells them they can leave if they wish, but it's also uncomfortably close to dawn by now as well.
Victoria asks where the confrontation with the Malkavians took place, and Colin tells her that it happened at the Dixie Pig. She pulls out her cell phone and makes a phone call. Some one on the other end answers and she replies in her sweetest voice, “Yes, Mr. Bell. Could you please do me a favor? I'll owe you a minor boon. Could you have someone commit arson today? Thank you so much. It needs to be done before sunset. It's the establishment called the Dixie Pig. I understand it's a restaurant. Yes, Thank you.”
She has a satisfied smile as she hangs up her cell. Victoria decides to claim the hospitality of the chantry for the day and the coterie from New Orleans does as well. Each is shown to a guest room and they settle in for the day.
On the way to the guest rooms, Eve finally tells Colin and Aidan that Dax left town because of Danior getting hurt. Colin says he didn't even realize Dax had stayed in New York. Eve finally comes clean to Colin about the secret she's been keeping for the Ravnos. She looks up at him with a guilty look on her face and says, “Colin, they had Jules.”
Colin stops dead and says, “What? Wait, you said had. Do they still?”
Eve looks miserable and says, “I don't know. I don't think so. I think that's why Danny got hurt.”
Colin says, “Alright, well, that's not great.”
Eve says, “She's Ravnos and they were trying to sort of rehab her.”
Colin shakes his head and says, “Leave it to the Ravnos. Well, I will keep my eyes peeled.”
Eve says in a small voice, “I just thought I should warn you that she's loose again.”
When Eve is finally alone in her room, she makes a phone call home to New Orleans and Carlos/Remy. He answers the phone saying, “Yeah Babe.”
She just says, “It really is him. It's Bedlam. I saw him tonight.”
He says, “Alright. I'll be on my way.” And he hangs up.
She lays down on the bed and tries to count out how long it will take Remy to get to her.
==Thurs, May 8 2014....AKA "Hunger Games"==
The coterie wakes after spending an uncomfortable day in the Tremere Chantry. Aidan wakes in his room and he's immediately starving. It feels like the act of rising tonight burned up most of his stores of vitae even though he knows that's not possible, and all he can think of is feeding as soon as he can. He's feeling guilt for the events of last night on top of the hunger, like the whole thing was his fault.
Aidan shakes his head and mutters, “I need blood now.” He flings open the bedroom door and takes the stairs two at a time until he gets to the front door of th e chantry.
Two guards are standing at the front door and they watch Aidan run up to the door with cautious expressions. One of them speaks up, “Can I help you, sir?”
Aidan says, “Let me out now.”
The guard says, “Let me call Mr. Greystone-”
Aidan interrupts and says, “No, Let me out right now.”
The guard says, “I'm going to wait and call Mr. Greystone.” He pulls a cell phone from his pocket.
Aidan starts to loose his shit and bares his fangs at the guard. He hisses and says, “Let me out. Right. Now.”
The guard holds out his hand and says, “Don't threaten me in Lord Greystone's house. He'll be very upset with you.”
Aidan unleashes his beast as he snarls at the guard. The guard drops his phone in fear and stumbles back as the other one scrambles to open the door. Aidan goes tearing out the door in search of prey and hears cries of “Mr Greystone! Mr. Greystone!” coming from the terrified guard as he runs from the building.
….......................................
Greystone is just finishing the final touch of his evening rituals when he receives a panicked call from one of his guards. “Mr. Greystone! Mr. Greystone!”
Greystone responds in his measured voice, “Yes. What is it?”
The guard calms a bit and says, “Um, One of the people that you invited in to the chantry last night.. uh, he left. He.. he didn't give us a chance to run it by you, but he used a discipline on us. He.. he.. I'm not sure what it was, but his face twisted all nasty and he was baring fangs and it was very scary!”
Greystone says, “I see.”
The guard seems to be a little more emboldened and adds, “I think he made Harold wee himself.”
Greystone asks, “Is it still raining frogs?”
The guard says, “No, no. The rain seems to have stopped.”
Greystone pauses and then says, “Why don't you come here and we'll talk about this.”
The guard says, “Okay, sir.”
Greystone says, “Send Harold in first.”
Harold the guard enters Greystone's office and stands in front of the desk with a very nervous expression on his face. Greystone indicates a chair and he sits. Harold says, “I'm okay sir. I'm very, very, very, very calm.”
He puts his hand on the arm rest and Greystone can he him shaking in his seat. Greystone fixes him with his gaze, looking the guard in the eyes and delves into his memories, removing the incident with Aidan at the door from his mind. The guard relaxes a bit and says, “Um, what..”
Greystone says, “Good talk. You're doing a good job.” The guard gets to his feet and moves to the door with a slightly confused look on his face. Greystone tells him to send in the other guard on his way out.
…..............................................
Aidan finds a man in an alleyway, brandishes one of his knives and forces him deeper into the alley. He takes the blood by force, feeding until he's completely sated, sparing no thought for the human's health until he finally raises his his head from the man's neck, his face smeared with hot, sticky blood.
…............................................
Evangeline also wakes up in the evening feeling hungry. She leaves her room and heads downstairs, remembering that someone mentioned that the chantry keeps stores of blood on hand. She starts looking for the storage rooms, opening doors and rummaging through the kitchens. She finds the food stores for the mortal staff pretty easy, but she keeps looking for the blood, leaving an ungodly mess in her wake.
…...............................................
Greystone finishes with the second guard just as there is a timid tap at his door. Another ghoul enters the office and says, “Uh, sir? One of the women that you brought in last night is rummaging through the kitchen. She's looking for the blood? I think she may have found it?”
Greystone looks over at the ghoul and says, “Alright. I'll handle it.”
The ghoul backs out of the office as he bows, “Yes, sir.”
…....................................
Greystone arrives in the kitchen just as Eve is about to force open a cold storage locker with brute force. He doesn't comment on the mess, and just opens one of the lockers for her so she sees the blood bags.
She says a meek, “Thank you.” and starts to grab a bag and then hesitates. She raises an eyebrow and asks, “So, how many can I get?”
Greystone's patience is starting to wear thin and he says ominously, “How many do you need?”
Eve pauses, and tries to assess how hungry she is. She says, “Um.. Seven pints oughta do.”
Greystone looks at her with disbelief and says flatly, “I'll give you two.”
Eve grumbles a bit and says, “Alright.” She takes her two bags and hops up on a counter top as she starts drinking. Greystone locks the rest of the supply back up and tells her that she can go hunting if she feels like she still needs to feed.
Colin walks into the kitchen and hears the tail end of the conversation. He frowns and asks, “Eve, are you leaving?”
Eve says, “No, I'm drinking blood.” She finishes off the first blood bag and starts in on the second one.
Colin says, “Where's Aidan?”
Eve says, “I don't know. I just got up.”
Greystone looks up and says, “He pushed past the guards and ran out.”
Colin pinches the bridge of his nose as he sighs. He pulls out his phone and starts to call Aidan.
Eve feels her phone vibrate as a text comes in, and she pulls it out of her back pocket. She keeps sipping on her blood as she checks her phone and sees a text from Aidan saying, “I'm sorry I didn't run when you said to run. I put us both in danger.”
Eve softly says, “Oh, no.”
Greystone looks at both Colin and Eve, points to the south east and says, “He's that way.”
Eve looks at Greystone in confusion, but before they can ask further, Aidan answers his phone. Colin says, “Aidan, where are you?”
…..............................................
Aidan is in the alleyway with a mouthful of blood. After sending his text to Eve, he starting feeding again, drowning his guilt in blood. His phone starting ringing, and he answers it. He gulps down more blood and says a garbled hello.
Collin is on the line sounding worried, “Where are you? I heard you just ran out?”
Aidan looks down at the body of the man he killed and says, “I.. just really needed to feed.”
Colin says, “Do I need to come pick you up?”
Aidan says, “No... no. I'm good.” He's only a block away from the chantry. He can still see the building from the mouth of the alleyway. He had been so out of his mind from hunger, he hadn't been able to wait until he was further away.
Colin asks, “Are you coming back?”
Aidan says, “Yeah.”
Colin says, “Are you good?”
Aidan keeps trying to reassure his friend and repeats, “I'm good.”
Colin says, “Okay.”
Aidan hears Greystone's voice in the background asking, “Does he see the hunters?”
There is a pause and then Colin asks, “Do you see anyone suspicious?”
Aidan looks down at the corpse in the alley, “Just the guy I'm feeding on.”
Colin says, “Alright, come back when you can. It's a lot safer here.”
Aidan replies, “I'll be back soon.”
Colin says, “Make sure you clean up.”
Aidan hangs up the phone and then turns his attention back to the body. He starts to lick the wounds to seal them when a figure steps out of the shadows. The newcomer levels a shotgun at Aidan's back and pulls the trigger, firing a wooden stake from the barrel right through Aidan's heart. Aidan falls over, landing on top of the corpse.
…................................................
Back in the kitchen of the Chantry, Greystone pulls out his phone and discretely steps away from the other two Kindred as he calls his security team to see if any of the cameras can get eyes on Aidan.
Eve looks at Colin with concern and says, “I don't think Aidan's feeling good, Colin.” She holds out her phone so Colin can read the text he sent.
Colin sighs, and sounding very put upon, mutters, “I'll see what I can do. He said he would be right back.”
Eve says, “I'm worried about him.”
Colin says, “I don't have anyway of finding him.”
Eve frowns and says, “What?”
Colin says, “I don't have a way of locating him. You know... how I can find you?”
Eve asks, “Why didn't you give him one too?”
Colin says, “Because he...usually.. sticks.. you know..”
Eve glares at him and says, “Oh, I see.”
Colin grins and shrugs.
Colin looks over at Greystone who is on his phone, and asks, “Which way did he go?”
Greystone ignores Colin for the moment as one of his guards says, “Excuse me, Mr. Greystone.”
Greystone says, “Yes.”
The guard says, “The gentleman that burst out of the building is being loaded into a van.”
Greystone looks over at Colin and says, “Aidan has been taken.”
Colin jumps up and says, “Where?”
Greystone says, “Somebody grabbed Aidan. He's being loaded into a van. He's that way.”
Greystone points towards the southeast wall with certainty.
Colin asks, “How far?”
Greystone repeats the question to the guard and he replies that the van is driving off now. Greystone says, “A couple blocks away.”
They run to Colin's car and pile in to chase after Aidan. Greystone tells them which direction to drive in. Eve turns around in the front seat and asks him how he knows which direction Aidan is in. Greystone snaps, “The same way I know which direction you're in.”
Eve blinks a couple times, really not liking that answer and asks, “Um, what way is that?”
Greystone just says, “Magic.” Eve stares at him and he adds, “We Tremere have our mysterious ways.”
Eve asks, “What did you do?”
Greystone says, “When you first arrived in the city, the divine compass was activated upon you.”
Eve frowns and says, “What does that mean?”
Colin tells Eve, “He's a lot higher than I am.”
Eve narrows her eyes and asks, “Did you take my blood and do something with it?”
Greystone says, “Not yet.”
Eve turns back around in her seat and mutters, “Jesus.”
Colin leans towards her and stage whispers, “Every time you walk in the chantry, some gets taken from you.” She stares at him with horrified eyes and he grins and says, “I'm just kidding!”
Colin steps on the gas and eventually they catch up to the van as it starts to make the turn onto the on ramp to the highway. Colin asks, “Should I stop the van here?”
Greystone says, “Yeah. You want Aidan back don't you?”
Colin speeds up until the car is almost past the van and then suddenly swerves into the van's path, forcing it off the ramp and into the guard rail. The van comes to a stop after scraping along the rail for several feet. Colin's car skids to a stop a few feet farther along.
Colin decides to disguise himself in the car instead of letting whatever hunter that kidnapped Aidan see his true face, and concentrates a moment. His features shimmer for a second and then he looks like Bedlam. Eve glances over at him before getting out of the car and suddenly she doesn't know if it was Colin sitting there or if it was Bedlam the entire time just screwing with her. She scrambles for the door handle in a panic.
Colin realizes he just freaked out Eve and says, “Hey, it's for the cops. It's me!” Eve pauses and looks back at him and he adds, “Also, the hunters will be looking for this guy, not me.”
He gets out of car, leaving Eve still confused about if he's really Colin or not. Greystone and Eve both get out of the car and follow Colin as he makes his way to the front of the hunter's van. Eve keeps her distance from Colin just in case. Greystone makes his way up to the passenger side and sees that the door is open. No one appears to be inside anymore.
Eve goes to the back of the van to look for Aidan. She climbs inside and finds a locked coffin. She breaks the coffin open with shear strength and finds Aidan lying inside with a stake through his heart. She grabs a hold of the stake and pulls it from Aidan's chest.
Aidan gasps for air and sits bolt upright, “Oh shit!”
Eve tries to steady him and asks, “Are you okay?”
Aidan looks around and says, “Where the hell am I?”
Eve tells him, “You got caught by a hunter.”
Colin pokes his head in the van and says, “We need to go now. Get in the car.” He starts to leave and then pokes his head back in and says, “Oh, it's me by the way.” He chuckles a bit and exits the van.
Eve says, “Come on, come on. We'll get you in the car.” She starts to help Aidan up out of the coffin. “Quick, before the cops come.”
Eve gets Aidan out of the back of the van just as the Greystone notices the hunter making his attack. Colin immediately recognizes the man as one of Ferox's companion's from the Magic 8-ball and Greystone realizes it's the man he identified as Andrew Kane. Kane has a rosary wrapped tightly around his fist and he slams it into Greystone's jaw.
==Fri, May 9 2014... ==
==May.... AKA "Free Puppies"==
Greystone tells the New Orleans crew that he needs to do some preparations before they go after the Malkavians at the skating rink, so the Regulators are on their own for the night. Aidan tells the others that he needs a new shirt for one thing. Evangeline says she's good but wants to feed somewhere and suggests going to the Elysium. Colin complains that he got in trouble when he fed there. She tells him that was just because he didn't know where to go and she'll be happy to help him find the feeding area. Aidan adds that his sire owns the place. Colin asks Aidan how he's feeling and Aidan says, “Pretty good, actually.”
He tells Colin about his early evening visitor in his hotel room and relays what Ferox told him about the seals the Tremere have around the city and the dragon. Aidan says that Ferox healed his condition before he left. They leave the chantry and discuss the seals and the dragon on the way to the store for Aidan. They end up frustrated with the New York Tremere's insistence on secrecy and decide they need to start making friends in New York that are outside the influence of the Tremere. They start heading towards Pan's Labyrinth for the night.
On the way, Aidan starts to lament on his lack of the dominate discipline, and both Eve and Colin offer to teach it to him. Eve doesn't want anything in return though, saying “we're coterie members.” They sit together in the back seat and she gives him an impromptu lesson: “You gotta focus! You gotta REALLY MEAN it.”
Colin, fearing for the state of his upholstery, says, “No transferring of blood in the backseat please.”
Both Eve and Aidan give him a look, but he's unfazed. Aidan wants to try it out on someone though, so he asks Colin to pull over. Colin picks out a hooker and pulls over.
Eve coaches Aidan a bit more, telling him, “When you say the command word, you gotta like, put everything into that word. Focus the blood and look 'em in the eye.”
The very young hooker awkwardly saunters over to the car puts her elbows on the open window and says, “What can I do for you, honey?”
Colin looks at her with a little pity in his eyes, gives her a hundred dollar bill and asks, “Can you talk to my friend back there?”
She raises an eyebrow and says, “I can talk to him most of the night for that.” She moves over to Aidan's window and gives him a smile.
Aidan looks her in the eye and says, “Can you do a little boogie for me?” putting an emphasis on the word, boogie, and attempting to dominate her like Eve said.
The girl takes a step back from the car, does a little twist and a bit of a dance and asks, “Like what you see?”
Eve yells, “Good job!” and she pats Aidan on the shoulder, “You did it!”
Aidan isn't so sure, “Did I though?” he mutters. He's not sure if his dominate attempt worked or if the $100 bribe Colin just gave her did. Aidan sighs.
Colin tells the girl to enjoy the money and drives off as she blows them a kiss.
They talk about the nuances of dominate as Colin drives towards Elysium, when Colin notices a yellow cab out of the corner of his eye. He turns his head to get a better look and sees someone in the back seat beating at the window. There is no driver and it looks like there is a vision of a giant slug that overlays the cab if you look at it a certain way. He sees what looks like a tongue whip out and lick its lips and he slams on his breaks, stopping the car in the middle of the street. Eve yells at Colin when the car suddenly comes to a stop because she wasn't wearing a seat belt and she goes flying into the front seat.
Colin gasps out, “Oh, God! Did anybody else see that? That cab was not.. a cab...Am I just going crazy?”
Eve is still miffed and just says, “Yes.”
The cab just keeps driving on ahead. Aidan looks around and sees a few yellow cabs. He just kinds of points.
Colin says, “But, no one saw a slug...”
Eve echoes, “A slug?”
Colin says, “Yeah, I don't know. I'm just tired.” They drive another block and Colin can't let it go. “No. You guys want to make sure that's not a slug-demon thing?”
Eve says, “A slug-demon thing?”
Colin replies, “I don't know. What else would a giant slug looking like a taxi be?”
Eve says, “A figment of your imagination?”
Colin says, “So is that a no?”
Aidan says, “I don't care, if you really want to.”
Colin says, “Okay, I have to make sure.”
Colin speeds up trying to catch up and spot the cab again. Each time they pass a cab, Colin squints at it, trying to see if it's the one he saw with the creepy aura, but so far each is normal. After passing four cabs, Colin sees another up ahead and steps on the gas to drive up along side it. As the car gets closer Colin sees the same guy in the back seat pounding on the windows. He points at the cab and says, “That one!”
When Eve and Aidan look over at first everything looks normal, but then it's like a fog seems to lift and they see that there's no driver at the wheel and the man in the back seat is panicking and trying desperately to escape. The cab itself seems to be covered in a thin layer of oil or slime and it glistens dully in the streetlights.
Eve yells, “What happened to the driver?”
Colin says, “I'm telling you something's wrong with that cab.”
Eve says, “Well, are you gonna pull it over?”
Colin says, “How am I going to do that?”
Eve says, “How's it even running?”
Colin says, “Like I said, when it drove past us, it looked like a giant slug. Should we shoot out the tires?”
Eve says, “Just drive in front of it and slow down.”
Colin says, “I really don't want to crash my car.”
Aidan says, “You can always get another car.”
Eve says, “It's called a repair shop.”
Colin says, “No, I'm not wrecking my car!”
Aidan says, “Give me a gun and I'll shoot out the tires.”
Colin opens the glove box and pulls out a .45. He passes it back to Aidan and says, “Just remember, we're on New York streets.”
Aidan rolls down his window and says, “It's alright, I bet they deal with this kind of thing all the time.”
Aidan takes careful aim at the cab's front tire, but Colin hits a pothole and Aidan misses the first shot. The cab swerves up close to the car and something long and fleshy lashes out from the undercarriage of the cab to wrap itself around Aidan's gun arm.
Eve yells, “It's got Aidan!” The fleshy appendage starts to pull Aidan out of the window and the cab starts to drift away again, putting distance between the two vehicles. Eve grabs onto Aidan's ankles before he's pulled completely from the car and hangs on for all she's worth.
Colin keeps driving, trying to stay even with the cab while going 60 mph and not letting it pull too far away with Aidan. He yells, “Guys, this was not a good idea! This was not a good idea!”
Aidan yells from outside the car, “THIS WAS YOUR IDEA!”
Aidan pulls his arm free from the evil cab and he slams face first down onto the pavement as he gets dragged alongside the car. The back door of the cab flies open and the man inside gets dumped out onto the street. The cab itself speeds up until it looks like it's doing over 100mph and starts weaving in and out of traffic. Colin slows down when he sees the cab dump the guy.
Aidan yells for Eve to let go of his feet and rolls to a stop on the pavement when she does. He staggers to his feet and jogs back to the man that was in the cab to see if he's still alive. The man has a broken leg and he's gasping for air, but when he see's Aidan he starts saying, “Gotta get home...gotta get to my wife...”
Aidan tells the guy, “Relax, man. We're gonna get you some help.” His attempts to calm the guy don't seem to be helping much because the guy yells, “I've gotta get to her!”
Colin pulls the car over to the side of the road and he and Eve both get out and head towards Aidan. Colin steps into the street and grabs the guys head in both hands to perform his calming ritual, “You need to calm down, sir.” The ritual seems to work and Aidan starts to give him a little first aide.
Another car finally stops and a man calls out, “You guys need a hand?” Colin tells him to call an ambulance.
Colin turns back to the man on the ground and asks, “What the hell was that thing?”
The guy seems to have a one track mind though as he just says, “I gotta get to my wife. I gotta get to her now.”
Aidan tells him, “You gotta get to the hospital.”
He says, “It's a matter of life and death.”
Colin pokes the man's leg where the bone is sticking up through his skin and says, “I don't think you're going anywhere.”
Eve asks, “What's wrong with your wife?”
The man focuses on Eve and says, “Her life is at stake. I have to get to her now.”
Colin asks where he lives, and the man tells him a street.
Eve asks, “What's the matter? Should we send the police to her?”
The man quickly says, “No! Can.. Can you get me there?”
Colin says, “I don't think you're going anywhere. You're leg is mangled. If you give us an address we'll go check on her. I promise. Scout's honor.”
The man is silent, his eyes darting around as he's obviously trying to think it over. Eve tries again, “What's wrong with your wife?”
The man slowly says, “I have to see her. Something bad is coming for her.”
Eve says, “You gotta give me details, dude.”
The man snaps, “I don't know. I don't know the details! I saw things!”
Colin asks, “Does this have anything to do with the car you were just in?”
The man babbles on about seeing things, and Eve asks if his wife has a phone number. The man gives it to her and Eve calls the number. She tells the woman about the accident and tells her to meet her husband at the hospital.
Colin pauses a moment to read the guy's mind as the ambulance arrives. He learns that the man is afraid of loosing his wife- he's afraid that something's going to hurt her unless he can keep her close, so he's planning on chaining her in the basement and keeping her away from everyone so that she'll stay with him forever. Colin just stares at the guy with his jaw dropped open a bit. He looks over at Eve on the phone and says, “Ask where she lives- find out her address. Or just tell her to run.”
Eve looks at Colin like he's crazy and says, “What?”
Colin pulls Eve over to the side away from the guy and says in a low voice, “This guy is thinking about chaining her in the basement. He's fucking crazy. I just read his mind and he needs to go to jail.”
Eve says, “But he's going to the hospital...”
Colin says, “Yeah, but she doesn't need to go.”
Eve says, “What's he gonna do to her in the hospital?”
Colin says, “Well, they'll leave together and then...”
Eve looks back at the guy and they see the cops are arriving now. She marches over to the guy and leans over him to look him in the eye as she uses dominate and says, “Don't chain up your wife.” She gets back on the phone and tells the wife to call her husband's cell to stay in contact with him and then hangs up. The officers and EMTs are now taking charge of the scene. Eve tells an EMT that she called his wife and that she'll be calling on his cell. The EMT nods in a distracted way. One of the officers calls for any witnesses to step forward and the group takes that as a cue to quietly be on their way. When no one steps forward the cop says, “Of course not. Goddamn New Yorkers.” They get in Colin's car and drive to Elysium.
 
.......................................................                                                                
They arrive at Pan's Labyrinth and go in the back entrance. Aidan still has quite a bit of road rash from earlier, though he did manage to heal some of the damage. Loud dance music dominates everything and the place looks pretty busy tonight. They head towards the stairs to the VIP section first to make their presence known. The upstairs section is curtained off tonight for extra privacy, and when they get upstairs they see why. The Nosferatu, Buttface is in residence tonight, without his obfuscate disguise in place in protest. The sheriff, David Morgan is also here, along with Panhard and Samuel King.
Colin walks in and says, “What's up guys?”
Buttface throws up some gang signs and says, “What's up?”
Colin says, “Slow night?”
King speaks up and says, “Mr. Face here just beat me in a game of spades.” He stands up, straightens his tie and continues, “I'm Samuel King.”
Colin says, “Wow, that's a power name.”
King gives a hint of a smile and says, “Yes, indeed. Oh, I know who you are! You're our visitors. The out-of-towners. The Emulators? Something like that?”
Aidan says, “Something like that.”
Eve says, “It's the Regulators.”
King smiles and says, “That makes more sense.”
Eve walks over to him and introduces herself, “I'm Evangeline.”
He says, "Good to meet you Evangeline. This is Helena Panhard.”
Panhard smiles politely and says, “We've met.”
Morgan speaks up and asks, “You guys keeping out of trouble?” and Colin bursts out laughing before he can stop himself.
Eve elbows him and says, “Of course!”
Morgan says, “That's the answer I'm looking for.”
Colin just smirks and he and Eve pointedly ignore Aidan's road rash until Panhard notices it and says, “Oh my god! What happened to you? You look like 30 miles of bad road?!”
Aidan says, “I had a little accident.”
She says, “Well do something about it!” He tells her he will, he just needs to feed first.
She says, “Well, why don't you go downstairs and do that?” Aidan just kinda shrugs and she sighs, looks at Buttface and then back at Aidan and says, “I don't know. I just can't.”
Aidan walks over to Buttface and says, “So, Spades..”
Aidan starts to play a few rounds with Buttface before feeding just to piss off the Ventrue. Eve tells Colin she's going to go downstairs to feed. Aidan invites Colin to join in the card game, but Colin says he thinks someone should stick with Eve. Eve hears him and gets mad, saying, “I don't need a babysitter!”
They both look at her with their eyebrows raised and she throws her hands in the air in disgust and stalks away. Colin calls after her, “Stay out of trouble please!”
Buttface starts dealing the cards for the next round when he suddenly stops, reaches up behind his neck and pulls something off and throws it on the floor where it crawls away. He resumes dealing and says, “Alright, this game might get a little ugly! Heheheh!” Buttface wins the round and both Aidan and Colin lose a hundred dollar each to him.
….................................
Eve goes down into the labyrinth to hunt. She finds a few people partying with several kinds of drugs and she has her choice of pharmaceuticals to try for the night. She's feeling pretty good when she makes her way out of the maze and back to the dance floor to have some fun.
…..................................
Aidan leaves the card game and makes his way to the labyrinth to feed. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have as much luck as Eve and can't find anyone safe to take blood from. It looks like most of the people down here have been fed from already. He goes back upstairs for plan B. He decides to summon the jock, Lars, he met at the club a few days back. Aidan goes outside the club and summons Lars. He decides to wait outside for him to arrive.
…...................................
Colin is still in the VIP area. Morgan asks about Aidan's road rash. Colin tells him that he had a bad night on his motorcycle. Morgan looks flatly at Colin and says, “Everybody fucking lies to me. I ought to quit this goddamn job. I don't know why the fuck I do it.” He keeps mumbling and looks pissed off. He gets up and goes and sits in the corner at a table by himself. He pulls his collar up and crosses his arms. He looks over at Colin every now and then still muttering, “Mother fucker..”
Colin looks over at King and asks, “What's his problem?”
King says, “He's like that sometimes.” He lowers his voice and says, “Kook blood. You triggered him.”
Colin says, “Ah. Can't all be born with the good blood.”
Colin gets up and writes a note for the sheriff to warn him about the demon cab and leaves it under his elbow, then walks downstairs.
Colin walks past the dance floor. He sees Eve out in the middle of the dance floor. Some random, very over weight dude dressed in skinny jeans, a red and blue pin striped shirt and Fedora starts trying to dance with her and he's just getting it. Eve stops dancing, looks him up and down and moves to another spot on the dance floor. Colin sees the the whole thing, chuckles to himself and keeps walking around the club.
….....................................
Aidan's still waiting for Lars outside the club. After a few minutes he sees someone sprinting down the street from about a block away. Aidan squints and sees it's Lars running all out down the street.
He yells, “Goddammit! The parking sucks around here!” He sees Aidan and he runs over towards him with his hand in the air for a high five. Aidan obliges, high-fiving Lars with a grin.
Aidan says, “Hey man, can I talk to you in the back?”
Lars is very enthusiastic and says, “Yeah man, I've been thinking about you and I had a feeling I'd see you here, ya know?”
Aidan leads the way into the alley behind the club and says, “That's so crazy! I was thinking about you too!”
Lars isn't paying much attention to where Aidan is taking him and says, “I was gonna do some workouts later, I was wondering if you wanted to spot me?”
Aidan says, “I'll think about it. I'll definitely think about it.”
Lars sounds strangely vulnerable when he says, “Okay.”
Aidan says, “Hey, how's your wife?”
Lars says, “Pretty good. Hey, how's your pecs? You working out? You're looking good!”
Aidan smiles and says, “Thanks, man.”
They get deeper into the alley and Lars says, “So whatcha got, man?”
Aidan says, “I got a secret..”
Lars says, “I like secrets..”
Aidan motions him closer and when Lars obeys, Aidan bites him and starts to feed. He drinks pretty deeply reasoning that the body builder can handle the blood loss. When he's done drinking, he closes the wound and eases Lars to the ground.
Aidan is looking Lars over, figuring that he'll be okay when something outside the alley catches his attention. A beat up, white panel van pulls up on the street next to the club. The wheel wells are all rusted out, and both bumpers are more dented than not. Someone with an artistic bent has painted “Free Puppies!” in bright purple letters along the side of the van. Underneath that, in sparkling rainbow letters, the artist added “Candy!!” A bright, smiling clown face has been painted on the passenger door. All together, the van just screams creepy Child Molester.
The van backfires as the engine is turned off and everyone in line for the club is staring at it. Aidan moves to the entrance of the alley to get a better look and sees that the van is still in the street. The driver didn't bother with trying to find a parking spot and just parked it in the middle of the road.
Lars is starting to perk up and follows Aidan out of the alley even though he's a bit unsteady on his feet, “Hey man, so, uh, I got tickets. I mean I'm gonna get tickets, I know a guy, I can get tickets for a game.”
Aidan pauses and says, “What game?”
Lars says, “What kind of games you like?”
Aidan says, “Basketball playoffs?”
Lars says, “Yeah! Yeah, I can get those!”
Aidan says, “If you can score me three tickets, that would be awesome.”
Lars looses some of his enthusiasm, “Shouldn't it just be you and me? I mean bros! Am I right?”
Aidan says, “Yeah, but you know what's better than a couple of bros?”
Lars jumps in with “Hoes?” Aidan grins and Lars says, “Aight”
Aidan promises to spot him later at the gym and he manages to shake him loose.
…................................
Eve is starting to loose her buzz on the dance floor when she sees Bedlam walking through the club flanked by Discordia and Daku and followed by Oberon. They're dressed to the nines and walking in like they own the place. Eve stops dead on the dance floor. Bedlam looks around a bit and then heads towards the steps leading to the VIP room. Eve takes off running towards the stairs, pushing people out of her way, thinking that Colin and Aidan are still up in Elysium and she needs to back them up.
…...................................
Colin sees Eve running towards the stairs pushing people out of the way. He sends a text to Aidan asking where he is. Aidan texts back that he's outside. Colin sends him a message saying something's up and he needs to come back in before heading back toward the VIP area himself. He reaches the stairs and waits there for Aidan.
…...................................
Eve gets upstairs and sees that all eyes are on this crew that just walked in.
Bedlam looks around the room then loudly announces, “Not so impressive.”
Eve doesn't see Aidan or Colin in the room and realizes they already left. Bedlam pulls out a pack of Marlboros and taps one out.
He raises an eyebrow and says, “You guys afraid of fire or sumthin?” No one answers him and he lights his cigarette.
Oberon goes over to Morgan's table and sits down. He leans down to look him in the eye and says, “And what is wrong with you my dear man?”
Eve starts edging her way around the room pressed up against the wall, doing her best not to be noticed by Bedlam.
…....................................
Aidan catches up with Colin on the stairs and Colin tells him, “Something spooked Eve, she just bolted into the VIP lounge.” Aidan pulls out his phone and shoots a text to Eve saying, “What's up?”
…....................................
In the lounge, Eve's phone vibrates as she gets Aidan's text. Bedlam hears the noise and he spins around and looks at Eve. Eve freezes when his eyes meet hers. He smiles and says, “Hello little mouse.”
Eve says, “What are you doing here?”
Bedlam spreads out him arms and says, “Visiting Elysium! Sanctuary for all Kindred. Thought we'd see how the other half... lives.”
Eve slowly pulls out her phone and sends a text back to Aidan “Bedlam is here.”
….....................................
Aidan gets Eve's text and says, “Oh shit. Bedlam's here.”
Colin stares at him and then starts doing a thaumatergical ritual to increase his blood potency.
Aidan texts back “Where?”
Eve sends back a response saying, “He's talking to me.”
........................................
Back in the VIP room, Bedlam watches Eve on her phone with his head tilted to the side.
He says, “That's very rude you know.”
Eve gets a guilty look on her face and hides her phone behind her back.
Colin and Aidan both enter the VIP section.
Discordia looks over at them as they walk in and blows Colin a kiss. Colin pretends to catch it and says, “Thanks.”
Aidan leans over to him and whispers urgently, “Don't take anything from her..”
Colin crosses the room and sits down on one of the couches. He looks around the room at the stand off and says, “So, we having a party?”
Daku looks over at Aidan and speaks up, “You bad fighter. Easy prey. You're soft like...puppy.”
Aidan has an incredulous look on his face as she continues speaking to him. He says, “What?”
She raises her voice, “You soft like puppy! Weak like old woman.”
Colin says,”No need for name calling is there?”
Daku fixes Colin with a look and says, “Constructive criticism.”
Aidan says, “She's just trash talking, that's all.”
Oberon suddenly stands up and says, “I don't think we've been formally introduced.”
Colin replies, “No, can't say we have.”
Oberon saunters to the center of the room and he looks towards Eve and gives her a charming smile as he says, “So, you are the lovely Eve.”
He looks around the room and points towards Colin, “Ahhh... Colin?”
Colin says, “That would be me.” He looks over at Aidan and says, “Dean?”
Aidan says, “Sup.”
Oberon shakes his head and says, “It's so hard to keep you all straight.”
Aidan says, “Well, the fact that you know who we are says that we're making a mark.”
Colin glances over at Bedlam and it looks like he's lost in thought while counting something on his fingers. Bedlam snaps out of what ever it was and takes over the introduction from Oberon. He says, “I am Bedlam. Y'all will get to know me much better.”  He points over to Oberon and each of the women in turn and says, “This is Oberon Groz. My quiet friend over there is Daku and this lovely lady is Discordia.”
Panhard looks like she's reached her limit and she yells, “You can't be-” She suddenly cuts herself off as she remembers that Elysium is supposed to be open for all Kindred regardless of sect. She sits there in silent frustration and obvious confusion about what to do. Bedlam looks at her and grins like a Cheshire cat as he takes a drag from his cigarette.
Colin speaks up and says, “So, Bedlam. It's good to see you walking around.”
Bedlam looks over at him and says, “It is.”
Colin continues, “It's been quite awhile.”
Bedlam says, “It is. It's very good. It's good to be up and walking.”
Colin says, “Looks like you have some good magic tricks up your sleeve.”
Bedlam gets a sly look on his face and says, “Oh, I don't do magic. No magic at all.”
Colin says, “You gotta have a little bit of something.”
Aidan is getting more and more impatient with Colin's way of trying to get information from Bedlam and he finally breaks into the conversation and says, “Let's just stop pussy footing around. We dusted your ass. How the fuck are you back?”
Bedlam's demeanor instantly changes from jovial and smug to something much more dangerous as he focuses on Aidan. He slowly walks towards Aidan and says, “You dusted me? You?” Eve still standing over against the wall cringes as he talks. His voice turns incredulous and he asks, “You?!” like it's the most impossible thing in the world.
Aidan says, “I didn't say me, I said 'we'.”
Bedlam stares at him for a bit longer and then it's like a switch gets flipped and he's back to being jovial and smug. He turns away from Aidan like he's being dismissed and says, “Not how I remember it.”
Aidan, trying to hold back the sarcasm, says, “Please, tell us.”
Bedlam ignores the question and turns to Colin. He spells out Colin's first name asking if he has it correct. Colin, looking confused, confirms the spelling. Bedlam looks like he's deep in thought again and asks for Colin's last name. Colin doesn't want to give him any information and asks why he wants to know. Bedlam looks annoyed and says, “I can't tell you unless you tell me. I don't do magic, so you don't have to worry about me stealing your soul through your name.”
Colin just gives him a look and says, “You can never be too careful. I think we'll leave it on a first name basis.”
Bedlam looks Colin up and down and says, “I'm getting a sense of energy and moderation. You vie for balance, but your strongest points seem to be ambition and success. Those are driving motivators.”
Colin stares at him and says, “Sure..”
Bedlam says, “I could give you more information if you tell me your embrace date.”
Colin smiles and says, “Not a chance.”
Bedlam says, “The more you know..”
Colin says, “Knowledge is power my friend, and I'm not in the business of giving you much.”
Aidan says, “Good thing you're back, because I don't think we had enough fun the first time around.”
Bedlam says, “I don't recall that being fun.”
Aidan says, “It was fun for us. We kicked your ass.”
Bedlam says, “That's how you remember it.”
Bedlam turns his attention towards Eve, looking at her curiously. Eve flinches when his eyes meet hers and she tries to back up further against the wall. After a moment she manages to gather her courage and asks him, “How are you back?”
He completely ignores her question and says, “I see darkness lying ahead for you. A rough road... very rough. If you're not worthy, I'm not sure you can even survive. Choose your allies well.” He walks right up in front of her as he talks and ducks his head lower so he can look her in the eyes as he adds, “Be better.” He puts his hand against the wall next to her head and says conversationally, “Remember the hook game?” Eve's eyes widen when he goes on almost crooning, “It was so fun. They would hang for hours.” He turns back to the rest of the room and speaks louder, “I would have her pick the spots where the hooks would go in.”
Eve closes her eyes, trying to shut out the memories. She manages to ask once again, “How are you back?” Bedlam looks down at her and smiles, but doesn't answer.
Discordia walks right over to Colin and sits down in his lap. Her eyes travel over his body as she puts her arms around his neck and she says, “Well, you're not hideous.” Aidan tries to catch Colin's eye and frantically shakes his head no, but Colin ignores him.
Colin says, “Well....I keep myself... well put together...”
She smooths the collar of his suit and says, “You dress nice.”
Colin says, “Usually you ask to sit in someone's lap...”
She just smiles at him and traces her finger along his shoulder. He says, “Your eyeliner's kind of thick there.”
Discordia's smile grows and she says brightly, “Just the way you like it. So you're one of the Tremere.”
Colin says, “Among several others, sure.”
She says, “I was in a pack with one once, right before they all disappeared.”
Colin says, “Yes, it's a pity that they all had to leave your side.”
She frowns a bit at that and changes the subject, “We've been enjoying the hospitality of your city.”
Colin asks her how long they've been here and she gives him another dazzling smile, “Oh, we've always been here.”
Colin says, “In New York?”
She says, “Not necessarily.”
Colin gives her a puzzled look and tries again, “How long have you been here?”
She tilts her head to the side as she thinks and says, “I guess maybe about fifteen, sixteen minutes?”
Colin sighs.
Aidan asks, “How's that barbecue joint doing?”
Discordia looks over her shoulder at him with a cool expression on her face and says, “Not so well from what I heard. I hear there was a terrible incident at that porn shop too.”
Buttface, who has been watching the whole thing speaks up and says, “How the fuck can they be in here?”
Panhard answers with forced civility, “Because this is Elysium. It's not the time for violence.”
All the Camarilla kindred, except for the sheriff, seem to be borderline panicking about the situation. Morgan is still in his own world in the corner and hasn't noticed the new arrivals. Oberon has stepped back from the middle of the room.  He's leaning against the wall near the stairs and has been watching the conversations play out.  He seems to be studying everyone in the room as Bedlam and Discordia talk.
Bedlam looks over at Aidan and asks, “Have you ever pushed yourself like that? Suspension with the hooks? I've done it myself a number of times. You take the hooks- fishing hooks work really well, but you have to get the right strength and the right test cable. And put them just under the flesh. It's so exhilarating.” He has a sly smile as he looks Aidan over, “At least for certain people.”
Aidan, a little shaken that Bedlam seems to know so much about him, tries to sound sarcastic as he says, “Sounds... lovely.”
Bedlam turns his focus back to Eve and he's humming a tune to himself. Aidan realizes with shock that Bedlam's humming the tune for 'My Girl', his favorite song.
Bedlam stops humming after a couple bars and asks Eve “So, how have you enjoyed your time with the tower?” He gives her a conspiratorial grin and says, “Not nearly as fun. You can be honest. You can tell papa.”
Eve looks up at him and says, “Actually I quite enjoy not killing everyone I come across.”
Bedlam gets a mock hurt expression on his face and says, “We don't kill everyone.”
Eve says, “You kill a lot.”
Bedlam says, “We treat food like food.”
He gestures towards Aidan and continues, “We didn't kill your friend. We could have.”
Eve stands there looking at him, knowing full well that Bedlam's right and not wanting to admit it.
Colin rescues Eve from having to come up with an answer when he asks, “What is your purpose?”
Aidan jumps in and says, “Murder and mayhem.”
Bedlam gives him a withering look and says, “That's just silly.”
Colin says, “You guys have to be on some mission, right? Everyone's on a mission. What's your mission? I'm interested.”
Discordia starts playing with Colin's tie. Bedlam looks Colin in the eye and says with perfect seriousness, “To bring about the end of all things.”
Colin says, “That's quite a mission.”
Eve speaks up and says, “I thought you were trying to stop the end of all things.”
Bedlam shrugs and says, “Things change, perspectives change. The Great Lord will walk again.”
Colin interrupts and asks, “Which lord is that? Jesus?”
This time he gets a glare from Bedlam as he snaps, “Caine! And he will destroy his children. One by one.”
Colin and Aidan each start to ridicule Bedlam's proclamation and Aidan says that Caine doesn't exist. Bedlam's eyes narrow in anger. He starts to mutter to himself, “What I'd really like to do is shove a red hot poker right up his goddamn ass- bring it out through his fucking ear as I twist his neck. Maybe it'll make a nice little snapping sound. Yeah. Or rats. Feed rats through his mouth. Ghouled rats so they can stay alive as they dig into his intestines and belly...”
Everyone is just kind of staring at him at this point and Colin says, “Is he talking about me?”
Bedlam snaps out of it and says, “What?” He looks around the room again and then stretches his arms out above his head, “Well I think we should make our exit.” He looks down at Eve again before walking away and says, “Are you coming?” When she shakes her head, he says, “The offer's always open.”
Discordia gets up from Colin's lap and joins Bedlam at the exit. Oberon and Daku are already there, waiting. He turns and faces everyone again and says, “We'll be taking our leave, we have a few places to visit tonight.”
Aidan says, “We'll be seeing you guys again for sure.”
Bedlam says, “I'll look forward to it!”
They leave down the stairs and start going through the club to the exit.
==May Continued...AKA "Can You Hear Me Now?"==
Evangeline jumps up to follow Asylum #9 out of Elysium.
Colin grabs her arm and says, “Don't let them talk to you.”
She says, “I know.”
Colin lets her go and she follows them through the club to make sure they really are leaving. Aidan and Colin decide to go with her as well. The pack walks outside the club. The coterie follows at a distance, just watching. The free puppies van that they arrived in has been towed by now, but another car with no license plates pulls up to the curb like it's been waiting for them to appear. They all get in and the car drives off. Eve asks if they should try to follow them, but Colin says he thinks it's too late to try.
Eve's phone rings and she answers it. It's Bedlam on the line.
He just says, “And now the darkness falls,” and then he hangs up.  
Eve drops her phone and grabs her head in pain as her mind tries to re-order itself after erasing three years of memories.
Aidan looks over at her and says, “Eve?”
She collapses to the ground and convulses for a moment. Once the convulsions stop, she huddles there shaking in confusion.
Colin goes over and picks Eve up off the ground, “Eve are you okay?”
Eve looks around in confusion and says, “Where are we?” She keeps rubbing her head like she's in pain.
Colin says, “Do you not remember Bedlam just coming to see you?”
Eve looks at Colin and says, “What?”
Colin says, “Bedlam. They were just upstairs.”
Eve looks at the buildings and says, “This doesn't look like New Orleans. Where are we?”
Aidan slowly says, “We're in New York City.”
Colin adds, “We've been here for a week.”
Eve looks over at Aidan when he answers her question and says, “Who are you again?”
That takes Aidan completely off guard. He looks as confused as Eve when he says, “What?”
Colin looks at Eve and points to Aidan as he says, “Aidan...” then points to himself as he says, “Colin...”
Eve shakes her head and says, “That's right, you're the new guy.”
Aidan says, “What??”
Colin says, “He's not really the new guy anymore...”
Aidan says, “We're here to investigate the demon in New Orleans..”
Colin says, “Who called you?” He picks up Eve's phone and looks at the caller ID. It just has a number listed with no name attached. Colin asks her again who called and Eve insists that she didn't get a phone call.
The Sheriff walks out of the building and he shoves past Colin without a word as he walks away. Colin says, “Eve, do you know who that is?”
Eve looks at the sheriff and says, “No, but he's AWEFULLY RUDE!” shouting the last part to make sure he hears it.
Aidan says, “You think I'm the new guy?”
Eve says, “Well, I just learned your name like last night.”
Colin says, “Eve, what year is it?”
Eve says, “2011 why?”
Colin sighs and doesn't answer yet.
Eve says, “My head hurts.”
Colin says, “Come on Eve, we're going to go home.” He puts an arm around her shoulders and starts guiding her away from the club.
Aidan shakes his head and says, “Those Malkavians, they fuck with your mind.”
Eve looks around again and says, “Why are we in New York? We're supposed to be fighting the Sabbat.”
Aidan says, “Don't worry Eve. We're gonna figure this out. I can tell Colin's already working on the problem.”
Eve's phone rings again and she scrambles to answer it, but Colin is quicker and he snatches it from her hand. She looks at Colin with a mix of panic and anger in her eyes when he takes the phone and she demands, “Give that back.”
Aidan grabs hold of Eve from behind, pinning her arms and holding her back from attacking Colin. She starts struggling to get loose from Aidan and yelling “Give me my damn phone!”
A random guy walking past chimes in and yells, “Give the lady her damn phone! I'm sick of assholes like you coming to this city and giving us a bad name!”
Aidan hollers back, “Keep walking, pal!”
Eve uses Aidan's second of distraction to break free of his arms with a sudden surge of strength and she lunges for her phone still ringing in Colin's hand. Colin uses thaumatergy to send a bolt of electricity from his fingers straight into the phone. There is a brief sizzle and the smell of ozone and the phone is completely fried, a small tendril of smoke trailing from it through the air.
Eve stops dead for a second staring at her phone. Then she looks at Colin and her eyes turn completely black. She launches herself at Colin with a snarl, trying to rip out his throat with her bare hands.
Aidan yells, “Whoa, Eve! Back off!” He turns on his Presence full strength, trying to get Eve's attention off of Colin. He shouts, “Eve!”
She glances at Aidan for a moment and it seems to bring her back from the edge for a moment. She starts screaming at Colin, “How could you! How could you fucking do that?! That was my fucking phone! Not yours! I'm supposed to answer my fucking phone! How can I fucking answer my fucking phone now?!” She's working herself up more and more and she's almost back into a full fledged frenzy again.
Colin takes a step back from Eve and calmly pulls out a needle from behind the lapel of his suit. He looks Eve in the eye as he shoves the needle in his own hand to complete a thaumatergy ritual.
Eve stands there blinking at him for a moment as all her aggression and anger completely disappears and she collapses to the ground for the second time.
Colin looks over at Aidan and says, “Pick her up and get her to the car.”
Aidan crouches down next to Eve and says, “Come on Eve, let's go.” He picks her up and follows Colin.
Eve is strangely passive and just tells Aidan in a forlorn voice, “I'm supposed to answer my phone.”
Aidan says, “I know. Let's go.”
----------------------------------------------------------
Colin and Aidan talk it over and decide to take Eve to the hotel instead of the Tremere chantry. Mike and Gloria are still at the hotel and they figure the familiar faces will help with Eve. Aidan talks to Eve on the drive back and tells her that she's missing three years of memories.
They get to the hotel and Colin goes up to the room first. Mike answers the door with his typical grumpiness when Colin knocks, “Yeah?”
Colin says, “Hey, We're bringing Eve in. She's.. uh..”
Mike raises an eyebrow, crosses his arms, and says, “Whad'ya do?”
Colin continues, “She's got a really bad case of amnesia for some reason.”
Mike gives him a flat look and says, “For some reason.”
Colin says, “Yes. We just need to get her-”
Mike cuts him off and says, “Whad'ya do?”
Colin says, “I didn't do anything. I'm going to fix her.”
Mike heaves a huge sigh and says, “Come on in.”
Colin does and says, “Don't freak out.”
Mike fixes him with a look and says, “Do I look like the kind of guy that freaks out?”
Colin says, “Yes. You literally shot me yesterday.”
Mike shrugs and says, “You had it coming.”
Aidan and Eve arrive in the room at this point. Colin guides Eve to a chair and sits her down. She's still extremely docile and stays where she's told. Mike goes and gets a wet cloth from the bathroom and starts wiping down her forehead. He starts signing “My Girl” as he does and Eve closes her eyes and listens. Aidan kind of starts when he does, after hearing Bedlam humming the same song earlier. Colin sits down on the bed puts his head in his hands and tries to think, “What was that fucking saying.” Aidan asks, “What are you talking about.” Colin pauses a moment and then motions for him to follow him out into the hall.
They both go in the hallway and Aidan asks, “More Tremere secrets?” Colin says, “Actually it's an Eve secret.” Aidan says, “Oh..” Colin tells Aidan about Eve's time in the Sabbat pack Dead Reckoning and about the mental conditioning and domination that Bedlam put her through. Aidan looks incredulous and says, “And she still has that stuff in her head?” Colin says, “I've been working on it. It's deep. They do mind fucking really well.” Aidan says, “Yeah, but this is on whole other level.” Colin says, “It's been about three years. I just can't remember the damn saying to make her memories come back.” Colin realizes he can hear a phone ringing in the hotel room. The ringing stops. His eyes meet Aidan's and then they both run for the door.
Back in the hotel room when Colin and Aidan leave for their talk, Mike looks at Eve and grumbles, “I don't like that guy.” Eve says, “Which guy?” Mike says, “The wizard.” Eve says, “Colin? Why not?” He looks at her and says, “He's kind of a piece of shit. I don't trust him with you, but you do you darlin'.” The hotel phone rings and Mike gets up to answer it. Eve holds out her hand for it and he passes it to her. Eve says, “Hello?” There's an unfamiliar voice on the other end that says, “Hey, Darlin'.” Eve says, “Who is this?” The guy sounds irritated and says, “It's Vince.” She frowns, and says, “Who's Vince?” He says, “Have you been feeding on bad blood again? Look I got some information for ya.” Eve just says, “Okay...”
Vince starts talking when Colin bursts in the room with Aidan right behind him. Colin yells, “Give me the phone!” Eve slowly hands him the phone and she can hear Vince through the speaker yelling, “You tell that mother fucker not to boss you around! I'll whip his ass-” Colin puts his ear to the receiver and says, “Hey, Who's this?” There's a click as Vince hangs up without saying a word. Colin puts the receiver back and then yanks the cord out of the wall. Eve knows she should be upset, but she can't muster any anger. She just says, “You shouldn't do that. You're supposed to answer the phone.” Colin says, “Well you did answer it. Who was it?” She says, “Some guy named Vince.” Aidan asks, “Why are you supposed to answer the phone?” Eve just shrugs and says, “I just have to answer the phone.” Aidan says, “No you don't” Eve says, “Yeah, that's what you do. The phone rings and you answer it.” And as Aidan thinks back, she's never not answered the phone as long as he's known her. He's never had to wait four or five rings for her to answer either. He looks over at Colin and mutters “They really mind fucked her hard.”
Colin sits in a chair, trying to remember the phrase. Eve goes on about the phone call, “He said he had information. That Vince guy.” Aidan says, “Why would Vince be calling you with information?” Aidan tells Eve that she just met him two days ago. Colin slams his fist on the table, jumps up and says, “Got it!” He walks over to Eve and whispers in her ear, “In Caine's name, We rise.” It takes a second and then the memories start flowing back. Eve groans and leans forward with her head in her hands, “Oh, God. I feel sick.” Colin says, “She'll remember again.” Eve says, “It's coming back.” Colin says, “It'll take some time. Mike? Can you get another cold towel?” Mike says, “Yeah, sure.” He shuffles off to the bathroom and brings her another wet cloth. “Rough night?” Colin says, “She had an old friend that was a little abusive. He came around again.”
Colin gives Eve a few minutes to recover and then asks, “Alright Eve. Do you remember Bedlam tonight?” Eve just looks at the floor and nods. Colin asks, “Did he call you tonight?” She nods her head again. Colin says, “Do you remember what he used to do to you?” Eve says, “Yeah.” Colin says, “Yes. He did that again tonight.” Eve gets another flash of memories from Bedlam's hook game and being torn between ending the victim's suffering early or making them last longer in order to please Bedlam and she shudders. Colin studies her and asks, “Have you always been so quick to answer your phone?” Eve looks up and says, “I'm supposed to answer my phone.” Colin says, “Like Aidan says, You have free will. You don't have to answer your phone.” She just repeats like she's reading it off a card, “I have to answer my phone.” He pulls Eve's phone out of his pocket and hands it to her and says, “Well, you can answer it if it rings, but good luck.” She looks down at it and it is absolutely trashed. Colin continues, “He called you again tonight. You actually frenzied in front of Elysium.” Aidan adds, “You tried to tear Colin's throat out.” Eve says in a small voice, “He took my phone.”
Colin turns to Aidan and says, “We're going to have to undo that.” Aidan says, “It's pretty bad.” Colin turns back to Eve and says, “Also Eve, why would Vince be calling you with intel?” Eve's eyes widen a bit when she remembers the phone call from a few minutes earlier. Aidan says, “Yeah, that was weird. You barely know the guy.” Eve struggles to come up with an answer on the spot and says, “Umm. He knows we're staying here and he just called the hotel room. You know he talked to whoever answered.” Colin says, “And you just happened to be the one that answered.” Eve says, “Well, I don't know what he wanted because you took the phone away and hung up on him.” They ask why, if it was so important, he didn't try calling any of the others and she says maybe he did and they just didn't know because they're all still in her room and not Aidan's.
Eve grabs the phone and plugs it back in to call Vince back before they can question her anymore about it. Nobody mentions anything about how she seems to already have Vince's phone number memorized. She hears traffic in the background and Vince/Remy says, “Yeah?” Eve says, “Vince?” She hears him yell, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!” and then there the sound of tires squealing and horns honking then he's back on the phone, “You all right?” Eve doesn't notice Colin wincing while listening in with his auspex and getting blasted with the loud car horns. She says, “Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm okay. That Bedlam guy was at Elysium tonight and-” He interrupts and says, “Well that's what I was calling about. Hold on, hold on. I gotta pull over, shit.”
Eve waits a moment and listens to the sounds of traffic as he pulls his car to the side of the road. He tells her, “Some years back in Nashville, when the Sabbat had control of the city, seems like Bedlam killed somebody in public. In front of witnesses and shit.” Eve asks, “He killed a mortal?" He goes on, "Yeah yeah. Shortly after that, he disappeared from public view, but he also went to court and was tried and convicted. Confessed to everything and went to prison. Got like 15 years.” Eve is silent, trying to process the information and Remy tells her, “I know, it's weird. I'm thinking it was one of the Live Reckonings,” referencing the ghouls that were altered to look like body doubles of the pack members in Dead Reckoning. He adds, “This was all before my time.” Eve says, “So you think he had a double?” Remy says, “Evidently he had a double take the rap for him.”
Eve tries to puzzle it out and says, “And then when he died, he was somehow able to come back. Do you think he took over the double's body maybe?” Remy sounds doubtful, but says, “Maybe. Maybe he is the double. I don't know.” Eve says, “He remembers too much.” Remy says, “Well, maybe you killed the double.” Eve sighs and holds her head in her hands again. Remy says, “But, you said the vaulderie snapped so it can't be that. I don't know. I don't know what to tell ya. Did you still feel a connection to him?” Eve says, “Tonight? No, no vaulderie.” Remy says, “Hey, is that asshole still in the room with ya?” Eve looks up at Colin, smiles and says, “Yeah, but he's not really an asshole.” Remy says, “Hang on a sec..” She hears someone in the background saying, “Can I take your order?” and Remy responding, “I don't give a fuck- gimme some french fries or sumthin,” and then he's back on the phone with her saying, “Just pulled into a drive-thru. Guess I'll feed the ducks. Any ducks around here? Goddamn New York. Lemme know if you need anything.” Eve says, “Okay.” He says, “Love you, Babe.” Eve replies, “You too,” and she hangs up.
Aidan says, “Looks like Vince knows a lot about Bedlam.” Eve looks up and says quickly, “He's been looking into it. Vince said that when Sebastian Lord went to prison in Nashville, it looks like he was a ghouled body double for Bedlam to cover a masquerade breach. Dead Reckoning had body doubles for everybody, so it wouldn't be the first time they did something like that. He said maybe the one I killed was the double, but that doesn't make sense because the vaulderie snapped.” Colin asks if the vaulderie could have broken on it's own or another way and Eve laughs bitterly as she says, “No, there's no way. Believe me, I searched for a long time for a way to break the vaulderie.”
Aidan says, “So what you're saying is the guy we met tonight probably isn't the original.” Eve gets more confused as she says, “I don't know. He has the memories.” Eve hugs herself a bit, remembering, “He knows me. He's got Bedlam's memories.” Colin says, “If he knows the codes to activate your conditioning, that's Bedlam... or at least Bedlam's mind. I've heard stories about some kindred that can put their minds in other people's bodies. It's at least possible.” Aidan says, “Maybe it's a Malkavian thing. They seem to talk to each other without talking to each other sometimes. They talk about some crazy Network.” Eve says, “I don't know. He sure wasn't answering any questions.”
They sit in silence thinking for a moment and then Eve speaks up in a plaintive voice, “Can we go get me another phone?” Colin turns and looks at her completely dumbfounded that she just asked that question and says, “You know.. I don't think that you need to have a phone at all for right now.” It's obvious that she's feeling anxiety about not having a phone. She starts twisting her hands together and says, “But, I was taking pictures and selfies and they're gone.” Colin says, “Your selfies were gone anyway. They were fading, remember?” She says, “Not completely. Not yet.” Colin shrugs and says, “Well, they're gone now.”
Eve sits in her chair despondent and says she's hungry and she wants a phone. Colin pulls his box of blood-infused tic-tacs from his jacket pocket and gives Eve four of them. She obediently takes them, and as she pops them in her mouth, they turn back into Colin's blood. She closes her eyes as she savors the taste of his vitae. Colin watches her and asks, “Are you good?” She nods and says, “It's better, yeah.” Colin sits down across from Eve and says, “I think we need to have a sit down and really think about this here. If we get you another phone and Bedlam calls you again and we're not around... What happens if he does this and your on your own? You're fucked.” Aidan looks at Eve's face and see's Colin isn't getting through, “If we get you a new phone, you can't give the number to anybody.” He looks over at Colin and says, “She's going to get a phone no matter what we say.” Colin shakes his head and says, “I just don't think it's smart to give Bedlam that kind of access.”
They make the connection that it sounds like Bedlam wants to wake up the antediluvians now. Eve says that he used to preach about destroying the antediluvians in order to stop Gehenna. Aidan says, “What if this was what Ferox was talking about when he said something is coming to break the seals.” Colin says, “I would say it's probably Bedlam. Hey! Maybe we can get Ferox to fight Bedlam for us. That would be a sweet showdown, right? We wouldn't even have to do anything. They could kill each other.” Aidan tilts his head back as he pictures it, “I could go for that.”
Colin says, “If he wants to protect the seals, we can give him the name of the person that's trying to break them. At least then he wouldn't be coming after us anymore.” Aidan says, “Until he finds out who killed his people.” Colin says, “We'll just say Bedlam did it.” Eve chimes in, “We only killed one.” Aidan says, “Yeah, I'm sure that'll be comforting. 'We only killed one of them!'” Colin says, “Well, they did kidnap you. Did Ferox leave a number or a way to contact him?” Aidan says, “No. He didn't leave any instructions or anything. He just said to protect the seals.” Colin says, “Awesome. Can we just throw up a fucking bat signal or something?”
They hear a knocking on a door out in the hallway- sounds like its next door. Aidan gets up and looks through the peep hole on the door. It looks like there's a bell hop in the hallway in front of Aidan's room. Aidan continues to watch him. He waits a moment then he leans down out of view for a second, stands back up and walks away back towards the elevators. Aidan waits a few more minutes and then opens the door to the hallway. Colin asks, “What's going on?” Aidan goes to his room and opens the door. He sees a small rectangular gift wrapped package lying on the floor. He picks it up and brings it back to Eve's room. He turns it over and sees a card attached.
He hands the whole thing to Colin and says, “Do... something... with it.” Colin gets a doubtful look on his face and looks the package over. The card looks like it's written in Japanese. Colin concentrates on the card for a moment to try to get a reading with Spirit's Touch. Eve is looking on and says, “If someone brings you a present, you should open it.” Aidan says, “Hush up, Eve.”
Colin gets a mental image of Daku writing on the card and carefully taping it to the package. Colin looks up and says, “It was that Asian chick with Bedlam.” Eve says, “If you hadn't killed my phone I could have used Google translate.” Colin gives her a Not Now look. Mike speaks up and says, “I got a goddamn smart phone.” Colin says, “You do? Bring it over here.” Mike lets out a very put upon sigh and shuffles over with his phone. He puts out his hand and says, “Let me see the package.” Colin and Aidan ignore him at first and he says louder, “Hey. Amateur hour is over. Hand me the package.” Colin looks up and says, “It's sitting right there.” Mike says, “Nobody touch it.”
Mike walks over to his bag and pulls out an earpiece with a wire attached to something that looks sort of like a stethoscope. He mutters, “Usually use this for safe cracking, but..” He puts in the earpiece and puts the other end to the package. Colin turns to Eve and says, “Who the hell is this guy, Eve?!” Eve smiles and says, “Isn't he wonderful?” Mike puts away the earpiece and returns with a razor knife. He makes careful incisions, and gently opens up the package. Colin says, “Okay Mike, what are we dealing with?” Mike says completely deadpan, “Oh great. Outdated technology.” He tosses Aidan a VHS cassette tape, “Jesus fuck.” He goes back to his chair and his book.
Colin says, “Uh, Mike? The letter- we still need to know what it says.” Mike doesn't even look up from his book as he tosses Eve his phone. Eve catches it with a grin. Colin shakes his head and says, “God, she's like a teenager.” Eve takes a picture of the card and a few minutes later, she gets a translation off of internet. The note reads, “Study hard, do better next time.” Eve looks up at Aidan and says, “Oh! She sent you some help!” Colin says, “You're gonna want to be real careful, man.” Aidan says he doesn't want to watch the tape and Eve says she's curious about what's on it. Aidan says, “Well, you can have it.”
Eve asks Mike where they can get a VCR, “Maybe you can call the front desk and see if they have one?” Mike sighs and says okay. He comes back and says, “They got a VCR in storage. I slipped them some bills, so they're gonna pull it out. Hopefully it still works.” Eve smiles at him and says, “You're the best, Mike.” Mike says, “Don't I know it,” and he goes back to his book. Colin suddenly says, “Oh, wait!” and he pulls an invoice for his damaged clothes out of his pocket and hands it to Mike, “For the other night.” Mike looks at it and says, “I already got toilet paper, buddy.” Colin says, “I expect to be repaid soon. It wasn't cheap.” Mike kinda rolls his eyes and goes back to his book again.
They get the VCR and Mike hooks it up for Eve. Eve has the remote and she's looking at it. She says, “How to you get it to play?” Mike says, “You stick it in the slot. Works like sex.” Eve says, “Oh.” Aidan says, “I remember when these came out.” Eve looks at him and says, “God, you're old.” The video starts playing, and it's Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. Eve sits there in disappointment, “I was hoping it was going to be something good.” Aidan says, “Oh! I remember this!”
They start discussing Bedlam and the Sabbat pack again and their motives for showing up to Elysium tonight. Colin says, “They're testing they waters and making sure that everyone knows they're here.” Eve just says, “They showed up because they could and to fuck with us.” Aidan says, “There's got to be more to it. They've gone against the teachings of the Sabbat.” Eve says, “Yeah, Bedlam used to give these long sermons and you had to sit there, and you had to listen and you had to remember it.” She shakes her head a bit. Aidan says, “So Bedlam doesn't sound like the same guy.” Eve says, “Parts are different, but believe me, other parts are the same too.”
Mike, who has been listening to the conversation, speaks up and says, “Well, didn't you say he was dead?” Eve looks over at him and says, “He's back.” Mike says, “Well, being dead probably changes a person.” Eve says, “Maybe.” Mike adds, “I mean, you're dead, right?” Colin says, “The three of us are dead.” Mike says, “Are you the same as you were before you died?” Eve starts to nod in understanding, but Colin and Aidan seem to disagree, both claiming they are the same as they were in life. Mike shrugs and says, “I'm going back to my Nora Roberts book. This is too much shit for me.”
They decide to stay in the hotel for the rest of the night. Mike gives Eve his phone to use until she can get one of her own. She sends a text to Remy and Danior to contact her on this phone if they need to call her and then she keeps going. Colin calls her out for texting people already. He mutters that he's gonna put parental controls on her phone.
==May....AKA “Why'd it have to be snakes?”==
A new night falls in New York City. Colin still lies in torpor on the coffee table in living room of the Marriott Hotel suite, only now he's been covered with a blanket and a pink Get Well Soon teddy bear has been tucked up next to his chin. Greystone is the first to wake up as the sun starts to set. He takes his shower before the others start to stir and then sets about doing his evening rituals.
….......................................
Aidan wakes next from a day of unrestfull sleep marked by nightmares. He goes out into the living room and sees Greystone in his circle preforming his rituals. It's utterly fascinating for about five minutes and then he's over it. Aidan goes over to the couch and sees Colin lying there on the coffee table with his pink bear and his blanket. He stands there staring for a moment, and then he pulls out his camera and takes a picture. He leaves the room to do a little hunting in the hotel.
He heads one floor up, picks a random door and knocks.
He hears a quavering voice calling out, “Hold on please!” A couple minutes later, a sweet old lady opens up the door. She's wearing a nice hat and her bathrobe and she smiles nearsightedly up at Aidan and says, “Can I help you young man?”
Aidan looks down at her. Says, “Goddammit,” and walks away.
Aidan tries again at a different room and a young guy opens the door with a beer in hand, “Yeah? What can I do for ya?” Aidan turns on the supernatural charm and convinces the man to let him in the room and he gets his breakfast of champions in short order. He goes back to the suite and settles on the couch while he begins healing more of the damage done in the explosion.
….................................................
Krum wakes up a little after Aidan and takes a cold shower before making his way out into the common area. He walks around the suite, checking to make sure everything is still secure, then settles in a chair in one of the corners and keeps watch.
…...............................................
Evangeline wakes up much later than normal, during her sleep she kept getting flashes of memory from her frenzy from last night. When she does wake, she's still a little lethargic like she still feels the remnants of the sun in the sky even though it set a couple hours earlier. She goes and takes a shower to wake herself up and then wanders out into the living room.
When Eve sees Colin with his teddy, she smiles says, “Oh, Mike! Did you take care of him?”
Mike looks up from his book and says, “Gift shop downstairs.”
Eve says, “That's so nice of you!”
Krum mutters, “Really? No balloon?”
Eve gives Mike a quick hug as she walks by and tells him, “It's so sweet!”
Eve finds Aidan sitting on the couch and sits down next to him. The news is still broadcasting about the massacre at the bowling alley, but now the suspect is being pictured as a young black man with gold teeth and a fade.
Aidan frowns at the TV and says, “Someones gonna call and say I owe them a boon.”
Eve says, “Why's that?”
Aidan frowns as he points at the TV and says, “Because that should be my picture.”
Eve says, “That was you?”
Aidan says, “That was me.”
Greystone says, “It was his picture on there yesterday.”
They watch the story for a bit longer and Eve asks, “Did you do all that in your frenzy? Chop'n them up like that?”
Aidan is watching the news impassively and says, “No, I did that after.”
Eve looks at him like he's crazy and says, “Why?”
Aidan says, “Because I wanted the police to think it was some crazy occult thing rather than a monster.”
Eve looks back at the TV. After a moment she says, “See, mine all tend to look like that, but I do it during the frenzy. Don't really remember it afterwards. It's weird.”
Aidan looks at her and says, “Yeah, you do a lot of things when you frenzy.”
Eve says, “What's that supposed to mean?”
Aidan says, “It means I've seen you frenzy a lot.”
Eve gets a hurt look on her face and says, “No you haven't.. not really..”
Aidan looks over at her and says, “More than once is a lot.”
Eve tries to count how many times Aidan has seen her frenzy and she props her feet up on Colin's torpored body while she thinks. Aidan glares at her and she says, “What?”
Aidan says, “Can you have a little respect?”
She looks over at Colin and says, “He doesn't feel it.”
Aidan says, “Would you want us to do that to you?”
Eve sighs and says, “Noooo....you're right.” She moves her feet to the floor and slouches down in her seat.
Greystone ignores the rest of the conversation on the couch and takes out one of his cell phones. He makes a call back to the chantry to arrange transportation for himself and Colin. Aidan and Eve are too involved with the TV to pay him any mind as he steps away to conduct business. Wilson answers at the Chantry and says, “Mr. Greystone. What can I do for you, Regent?”
Greystone tells him, “Our friend, Colin was severely hurt and is in torpor.
Wilson says, “All right. I have something I think I can pull off. I'll make some calls. Anything else?”
They discuss chantry business for a few minutes and Wilson tells him that the new billiard table with the red felt has arrived. Greystone asks him if there has been any news about a Masquerade breach.
Wilson says, “No, nothing. Is there something we should know about?”
Greystone just says, “I don't know.”
….....................................
About an hour later there is a knock at the hotel room door. Eve and Aidan look up in alarm from the TV. Krum gets up from his seat in the corner and heads towards the door. Eve asks Mike to go take a look. Mike looks out the peep hole and says, “It's a bunch of guys in uniform. They're wearing tags saying they're movers.”
Aidan says, “Tell them to go away.”
Mike adds, “Their names are Mexican and they ain't Mexican.”
Greystone says, “Open the door.”
Krum says, “Yep, I'm expecting them.”
Eve looks at Krum in confusion and says, “Seriously?”
Krum says, “They're going to take Colin back to the chantry.”
Mike opens the door and two movers come in the hotel suite with a refrigerator dolly and a box. The guy in charge says, “We're here to move your fridge.” He looks down at Colin lying on the coffee table, “I see the light's not working.”
Eve looks back at Krum and says, “You know these guys?”
Krum mutters, “Mr. Greystone does.”
The movers start packing up Colin into the box under Greystone's direction. Eve hovers nearby watching to make sure the movers don't hurt Colin any further. Krum asks Greystone if he minds him tagging along and Eve announces that she's coming too. When Aidan realizes everyone is leaving, he shrugs and says he'll go too.
The movers take Colin's box downstairs on a dolly to a large moving van. Everyone climbs in the van. Eve climbs in the back with Colin and perches on top of his box for the ride back to the chantry, not wanting to let him out of her sight. They arrive at the chantry without incident, and Greystone has some ghouls unload Colin and bring him to the basement. They put him in a hospital gown, lay him out on a table and hook him up to the tesla coils to get the show ready to start.
Eve is watching nervously with Aidan off to the side. Krum looks around and leaves the room, heading back outside the chantry itself to keep watch. Eve speaks up and tells Greystone that if Colin needs blood, he keeps a box of tic-tacs in his pocket that dissolve into blood when you put them in your mouth. Greystone raises an eyebrow and checks Colin's pocket, but doesn't find the tic-tac supply. Greystone mutters, “Doesn't matter, he's the only one that could activate them.”
Eve says, “Oh.” and looks disappointed.
Eve looks over at Aidan and says, “They're really good. He gives them to me all the time.”
Aidan says, “No wonder he always gives them to you. I thought they were just tic-tacs.”
Eve says, “No, they melt in your mouth, and they're full of vitae and they're sooooo good!”
Aidan looks dubious and says, “Yeah, but aren't you blood-bound to him now?”
Eve frowns and says, “No...”
Aidan raises an eyebrow and says, “Really.”
Eve says, “Should I be?”
Greystone says, “How many times have you drank his blood?”
Aidan says, “As many times as you've had those tic-tacs..”
Eve says, “That's his blood?”
Greystone says, “How many times have you taken his tic-tacs?”
Eve says, “I don't know. I lost count. He gives them to me all the time.”
Greystone looks at Aidan and says, “Looks like she might be blood-bound.”
Aidan says, “And you don't even know it.”
Eve shakes her head and says, “Nah, I'm not blood-bound to him.”
Greystone goes over to the machines and flips the switch. The tesla coils light up and start arcing. As the electric current passes through Colin, his body twitches and jumps a bit on the table. Eve moves closer to Aidan and whispers, “It's so creepy, I hate watching this. It was the same with Vince.”
All the sudden Colin gasps and sits bolt upright. Greystone powers down the machine.
Eve looks at him with wide eyes and says, “Colin, are you okay?”
Colin looks around wildly and says, “Where are they?!”
Eve says, “We're in the Chantry.”
He looks around slowly, taking in his surroundings and calms down when he realizes the danger is gone. Colin says, “Does anyone have any blood? I'm really kind of hungry.”
Eve offers him her wrist and Colin takes it, drinking for quite awhile before letting her go. When he finishes drinking he asks where his car is, and Eve tells him it's at the hotel. Jebidiah, who was assisting Greystone with the ritual, flicks his tongue out like a frog and asks Colin if he's feeling good. Colin looks at him and says, “I feel like shit.”
Jebidiah says, “Don't worry. Just don't be too rough with your neck until you heal it. Right now we have a special epoxy.”
Colin reaches up and feels around his neck. There's a neck brace under a thick layer of gauze wrapping. Jebidiah asks again, “How are you feeling?”
Colin mutters, “I have a headache.”
Jebidiah pulls out a notebook and asks, “Do you remember anything from the other side? Do you have nightmares?”
Colin says, “I don't know. Everything went black.”
Jebidiah nods and starts scribbling in his notebook, “Just black...”
Colin looks over at Eve and says, “What the hell happened?”
Greystone says, “Yes, what did happen?”
Eve says, “It was that pack that followed us up from Tennessee. They had an extra person this time.” Colin says, “That means they've put our entire coterie into torpor. We need to return the favor.”
Eve says, “They're Black Hand.”
Colin says, “How did they find us?”
Eve shrugs, “Apparently they've been looking.”
Aidan says, “Where were you guys when you were hit?”
Colin says, “The S-Mart. Had to get new covers for my wheels.”
Eve says, “Sorry, I dropped them in the parking lot.”
Colin says, “What?! Those were expensive!”
Eve looks guilty and says, “I'm sorry. I just grabbed you and ran for the car. It was all I could do.” Colin mutters, “Maybe they're still there.”
Colin turns to Greystone and says, “Sam, we might need to keep a lookout for four more Sabbat.” Greystone says, “What do you know about them?”
Eve says, “One's a Lasombra, one's a Nosferatu, one's really really good with a stick, and the other one's new.”
Greystone asks what they look like and Colin gives him basic descriptions and adds, “The new girl has magic, but it's not Thaumaturgy.”
Greystone narrows his eyes at that. Colin and Eve describe what they encountered during the fight. Eve says, “It was just really cold then all the sudden it got hot.”
Colin says, “It was elemental.”
Greystone thinks about that for a moment and then realizes they're talking about a form of blood magic favored by elder Tzimisce. Greystone says, “Hmm.”
Aidan says, “Well, that's just lovely.”
Greystone says, “Do you think they have a way to find you or was it an accident?”
Colin says, “Oh, they have to have a way. They were waiting for us.”
Eve looks skeptical and says, “I don't know. We were at an S-mart. They probably knew if they staked out the S-marts they'd find us eventually.”
Aidan's phone starts to ring. He glances at his cell and doesn't recognize the number, but it is a New York area code. He cautiously answers it and an unfamiliar voice answers, “Hey, buddy!” The guy sounds way overenthusiastic as he talks.
Aidan pauses for a moment before he says, “Who's this?”
The guy on the other end says, “Oh uh, Martin.”
Aidan says, “Do I know you?”
Martin says, “I'm a friend of Dax's. I've seen pictures of ya.”
Aidan says, “Oh. Great.”
Martin continues, “I got your number from Dax. Umm.. couple things. Uh, I took care of a couple things. I thought you might appreciate it, but I think we're gonna have to talk terms if it's going to be a permanent solution. You alright with that?”
Aidan frowns, “Depends on what you did.”
Martin says, “Well, hopefully I took care of something before a certain visitor to the city found out about it, but um, I mean I guess it's kind of a temporary solution unless you wanna make it permanent. That depends on terms.”
Aidan looks over at Eve and says, “I told you someone was gonna call asking for a boon.” He turns back to the phone and says, “Yeah, what do you want?”
Martin says, “Where ya at? I'll come by.”
Aidan tells him that he'll meet him in Times Square.
Martin says, “Okay yeah, I'll meet ya. There's a bar called O'Malley's not far from there. I'll be there in about 40 minutes.”
Aidan says he'll be there and hangs up. Eve asks him who was on the phone. Aidan tells her, “Some dude named Martin. Friend of Dax.”
Eve says, “Oh, he's cool. I met him. Ravnos.”
Aidan says, “He's the one that fixed my situation apparently. He's going to want a boon. Told ya. Cause that's how they do things in the Camarilla.”
Eve frowns and says, “I don't think he's Camarilla.”
Greystone says, “He might not want a boon. He might want something else.”
Aidan says, “Boon, favor...it's all the same. Y'all want to go to a bar?”
Colin says he'll have to catch up to them later, but the others all agree to go with Aidan to meet Martin.
…........................................................
Colin heads upstairs to his room in the chantry, showers and changes into a clean suite. He struggles with trying to get a tie around his neck brace properly for several minutes for giving it up and deciding to go with a blue scarf instead. He takes the time to do his daily protective rituals and hears music blaring from the third floor as he finishes the last one. He leaves his room and walks up the flight of stairs to the third floor. It sounds like a metal band is playing live in one of the rooms down the hall. Colin goes to the door and knocks. The music cuts off and he hears JD saying, “Goddammit. Hold on.”
The door opens up and JD is standing there shirtless, in black leather pants with a guitar in his hand. Colin says in surprise, “Was that you?”
JD says, “Yeah, man. I usually wait for Greystone to get out of here before I do this. The noise kinda..” Colin says, “No, it sounded good. Was that you playing?”
JD says, “Yeah. I got a machine to pick up the drums and bass, but yeah.”
Colin says, “Pretty good man. No one else complains? It's pretty loud.”
JD shrugs, “I don't care if they do. Long as the boss doesn't care.”
Colin says, “That's pretty cool.”
They stand there in awkward silence for a couple moments. JD is clearly waiting for Colin to leave so he can get back to playing, and then Colin asks, “Can...you give me a lesson?”
JD stands there staring at him for a moment and then says flatly, “Okay.”
JD walks back into the room and Colin follows him in. JD picks out another guitar and hands it to Colin. He plugs it into an amp and says, “Acoustic is for pussies.”
JD proceeds to give Colin the most basic elementary guitar lesson. Every time Colin pulls a chord, JD twitches a bit and shows him again where his fingers are supposed to go. As they get farther in the lesson he says, “Now the cool thing is, on the track I just played... When I lay it down right, if you take it on vinyl and spin it backwards, it says cool shit, man.”
Colin raises an eyebrow and says, “Really?”
JD says, “Oh, yeah. Makes it easier for me to dominate actually.”
Colin says, “That's a good idea. You dominate through music?”
JD says, “Nah, nah no. The subliminal shit, man. It's preparation. When they listen to the song, there's subliminal shit playing backwards and it's got some occult stuff in there. If you notice, I always release on vinyl, but even on this compact disc, if you hold it up to the light, you see some archaic occult runes that glimmer just a little if you hold it a certain way.”
Colin says, “You actually put out your own albums?”
JD says, “Yeah, that's how they found me.”
Colin says, “Huh. Damn. This chantry is pretty cool.”
JD shrugs, “Yeah.”
Colin says, “I like you guys. My chantry hasn't done anything special.”
The lesson goes on a little bit longer. JD tells some stories about when he was alive and touring with his band, mostly about the women and the parties. After awhile, Colin leaves JD's room to head back downstairs. After being sidetracked he remembers he's supposed to be meeting up with the coterie at the bar.
….................................................
Aidan, Eve, Greystone and Krum arrive at O'Malley's Irish Pub. The bar looks like it's fairly busy tonight as there's a decent crowd inside. Eve decides to do a quick hunt and hangs back as the others head into the bar. As they walk in, Greystone immediately starts scanning the patron's auras, looking for other Kindred. He picks out Martin from the crowd and recognizes him as a local Ravnos. He doesn't see any other troubling auras in the bar and relaxes a bit. Aidan looks around, but having never met Martin, doesn't make a move towards anyone. Martin however sees them walk through the door and whistles, waving at Aidan and motioning him towards his table. Aidan walks over with Greystone and Krum.
Aidan says, “Martin I assume?”
Martin ignores Aidan for the moment and grins at Greystone, saying, “Hey, Mr. Greystone! How's it going?”
Greystone says, “Hello.”
Aidan says, “Oh, didn't know you knew each other.”
Martin says, “Yeah, this guy's the man. You should'a seen some of the shit he did back in the day.” Aidan looks over at Greystone and raises an eyebrow.
Greystone smiles a bit and says, “I'm not the boring person I assume to be. At least I used to not be boring.”
Martin says, “How's the rest of your old coterie?”
Greystone shrugs and says, “Fine, I guess. The group kind of moved on and separated. We're doing our own things now. You know how it is.”
Martin nods and says, “Yeah.”
Martin finally looks over at Aidan and says, “Uh, do these guys know your business?” He points over at Greystone and Krum as he asks the question.
Aidan says, “Concerning what?”
Martin looks at him like he's crazy and says, “Concerning what we need to talk about, man.”
Aidan says, “Oh, yeah.”
Martin shrugs and says, “Oh, okay. You done fucked up, son.”
Aidan sighs and says, “Well, I don't have much control over myself when I lose... control. I mean, I started off in a quiet place and all the sudden I'm in a bowling alley.”
Martin nods along as Aidan is talking and says, “Hmm. Okay. What is it you do?”
Aidan shrugs and says, “Almost die? A lot lately.”
Martin shakes his head and says, “I mean what is it you can do? What are your qualifications? What are your skills? How do you make your money? What can you do for me? I'm not Camarilla. I don't do this boon shit.”
Aidan says, “I'm pretty good in a fight.”
Martin looks unimpressed and says, “I try to avoid them. I find you loose control a lot less often.” He smiles. Martin tilts his head to the side and asks, “Are you worth money?”
Aidan asks with disbelief, “Am I worth money?”
Martin asks, “Do you have a lot of money you can give me? Like a lot?”
Aidan asks, “What's a lot?”
Martin says, “Mmm.. a hundred grand?”
Aidan is speechless for a moment.
Martin shrugs and goes on, “I mean, I hear there's an Archon in town who you know... would probably like to talk to you, but...” He looks at Aidan, spreads his arms out and smiles.
Aidan says, “I don't have a hundred grand lying around.”
Martin gets a disappointed look on his face and says, “Oh. Shit. Look. I mean, I'd tell ya this ain't blackmail, but I ain't gonna jerk your chain. So, umm, if you got something else besides money that's good and all, but think of what you can do for me that's worth a hundred grand.”
Aidan sits there for a moment staring at the Ravnos while Martin kicks back in his chair with his hands folded behind his head and a pleasant smile on his face. Aidan says, “I can drive a car or a motorcycle.”
Martin says, “I can drive a car and motorcycle and a mo-ped.”
Aidan glares at him and says, “Yeah, but I can kick your ass in any race and probably 90% of the people in this city.”
Martin starts nodding, “Okay, okay. That's something. How can that get me a hundred grand?”
Aidan says, “Easy. Just bet on me to win. And then-”
Martin interrupts Aidan completely and yells, “Oh, shit! I know you!” He points at Krum and says, “Hey! Hey! You! You're the goddamn scourge! Holy shit. Hey, I'm Martin, man.”
Krum says, “How ya doing, Martin.”
Martin says, “How you doing?!”
Krum says, “I've been better.”
Martin says, “I like the whole, spooky, kinda quiet man, thing you got goin' on.”
Krum says, “That's the way I roll.”
Martin says, “Does that work for ya?”
Krum says, “Um, yeah.”
Martin nods his head and says, “Yeah? Cool.”
Krum looks around the bar and asks, “This your place?”
Martin shakes his head and says, “Ah, naw, naw. I don't like to have roots. Keep it moving, ya know?”
Martin turns back to Aidan, who is now visibly annoyed and drumming the table with his fingers. Aidan says, “So you want to hear my plan or not?”
Martin sits up straight in his seat and says, “Yeah, yeah! Whatcha got?”
Aidan goes on, “So, I'm thinking just the classic scam, right? I just win a bunch of races until everyone's betting on me. Then you bet against me at the last minute and I lose and you win big because everyone's betting on me to win.”
Martin is completely silent for a couple minutes as he looks at Aidan. Then he shrugs and says, “Yeah, I guess. It seems like a lot of work, but umm..” He heaves a big sigh.
Aidan says, “Trust me, it's easier to lose than win.”
Martin crosses his arms and says, “Alright, you got, uh...We'll just make it real simple, okay? I didn't know if there was something else you could offer me, but money's always good- never say no to money! Umm...You got three nights. We good?”
Aidan looks at Martin and says flatly, “A hundred grand in three nights? Okay.”
Martin gives him a satisfied smile and says, “Yeah. Hey, three nights or the stuff gets gone over. I'm assuming you're not going to try to screw me over in any kinda way.”
Aidan says with a bit of sarcasm, “That's pretty trusting of you.”
Martin points over at Greystone and says, “Umm.. He's known a few Ravnos in his time right?” Greystone says, “A couple.”
Martin smiles and says, “Yeah. He can tell you that it's... it's not usually a good idea to fuck us over so, you know...”
Greystone says completely deadpan, “It can be expensive.”
Aidan looks disbelieving and Martin adds, “More than a hundred grand.”
Eve finally walks into the bar at this point, smiling and looking well fed. She sees the group sitting at the table and makes her way over. She smiles as she gets there and asks, “Everything go okay?”
Aidan looks over at her and says, “Swimmingly. I love this city. Have I mentioned that?”
Eve looks concerned and says, “It sounds like it didn't go okay...” She looks around the table at the others and says, “Hi, Martin.”
Martin grins at her and says, “Hey!” She grins back and gives him a high five before sitting down. Krum asks for Martin's phone number as Eve settles herself and Martin obliges.
Eve looks around at everyone again and says, “So.... all good?”
Martin says, “A pleasure doing business with ya, man,” and he quickly spits a bit of blood into his hand and holds it out for Aidan to shake to seal the deal. Aidan looks at Martin's hand for a moment and then reluctantly shakes it. He quickly wipes his hand off under the table afterward with a look of distaste that would have done his sire proud.
With business concluded Greystone asks Martin if he's heard of any Sabbat gangs entering the city recently. Martin thinks for a moment and says, “Uh, I'll call you back in about twenty minutes and see what I can dig up.” Greystone says, “Alright.” Aidan snarks, “That information will only cost you ten grand.” Martin looks over at Aidan and says, “Nah, nah. Him, I know.” Martin steps away to make a call.
The group makes conversation as they wait for Martin to return, and after a few minutes Eve asks, “Where's Krum?”
Aidan glances around and says, “He probably left to do scourge stuff.”
--------------------------------------------------------
Krum is hanging back, keeping an eye on everyone at the table when he gets an overwhelming urge to leave. He quietly gets up and leaves the bar. As soon as he gets on the street, he starts moving fast as the compulsion takes hold. He takes a bus heading in the right direction. After a couple of blocks, his phone rings. He sees that it's Greystone calling, so he answers. Greystone asks where he went.
Krum says, “I'm on a bus.”
Greystone pauses for a second and then asks, “Why are you on a bus?”
Krum says, “I'm going to find somebody.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Well, where are you now?”
Krum looks out bus windows and tells Greystone the names of the streets that pass by and the number of the bus that he's on.
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Back in the bar, Greystone tells Aidan and Eve that Krum has been summoned by an unknown vampire. They leave the bar and head to Greystone's car to intercept Krum. On the way to the car, Eve's phone rings with a call from Colin. When she answers, she fills him in on the situation with the scourge. Colin agrees to meet up with them and help provide Krum with some back up.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The bus comes to a stop and Krum is compelled to get off the bus and make his way down a side street. He hears loud music coming from inside a nearby building. He sends a message to Greystone on his phone to let him know where he is as his feet carry him closer to what looks like might be a warehouse. The music gets louder as he gets closer. He slips inside the door and there are a ton of kids dancing to blaring punk music. The only lighting seems to be various black lights and strobe lights going off at random. He takes a few steps inside and a girl with a mohawk walks up to him and gives him a big kiss on the cheek. She smiles and says, “Welcome the the party!” as she slips something into his pocket and dances away. Krum pulls the little baggie out of his pocket and sees it contains ecstasy.
Krum feels pulled towards the metal stairs off to the side of the building, so he pushes through the crowd and begins to climb. As he gets to the top of the stairs, he takes his shotgun out from under his coat, and carefully chambers a round.
At the top of the stairs, there is a hallway with a green metal door at the end. There's a message written in chalk on the door saying “Little Lamb Lost”. Krum makes his way forward. He opens the door and steps inside the room and sees a young woman dressed in red and black standing against the wall.
She looks at Krum and says, “Oh, you're late. You missed the party. Come with me.” She walks through another door. Krum knows she's not the one he's there to see, and he follows her through the door.
The girl hangs back and lets Krum pass her into the next room. The walls are covered with graffiti that look similar to hieroglyphics. The summons seems to end in this room, but Krum doesn't see anyone else in the room besides the girl. A man suddenly appears in front of Krum, and it's immediately apparent that this is the one that issued the summons.
Krum looks at him for a moment and then asks, “What do you want with me?”
The man says, “Ah, well we lost you for awhile. Thought maybe you would want to finish something you started.”
==May .... AKA "Praise the Prince and Pass the Ammunition"==
Colin, Aidan, Eve and Krum arrive at the Hard Rock Cafe together. The restaurant has been chosen as a temporary Elysium for tonight's court and it looks like there is quite a bit of security outside. They all decide to obey the orders to not bring electronics or weapons and leave the cell phones in the Escalade. Colin has chosen to wear one of his very expensive tailored Italian suits for the occasion. Eve is wearing a lacy black cocktail dress that seems to show more skin than it covers. Aidan has decided that a golf shirt and dockers is as dressed up as he's willing to go, and Krum stripped off a few layers of clothing until he got down to the now rumpled and slightly stained suit Lucy and Victoria bought for him not so long ago. Aidan realizes that Eve's not wearing her usual jacket and asks her about it since he never sees her with out it. She rubs her arms like she's uncomfortable without it and says, “It doesn't go with the dress.” Aidan says, “Well, you could make it work.” He turns to Colin and says, “She's very pretty.” Eve smiles at him in thanks and they head to the doors.
Greystone arrives separately from the others. He puts a cellphone and a handgun in a small gym bag and give it to Mary hang onto before instructing her to watch for trouble from a nearby rooftop. He sees Colin and the others and joins them as they wait their turn to enter the building.
Theo Bell is standing outside the door as part of the security tonight. As Greystone walks to the door, Theo gives him a nod and a cursory inspection to make sure he's not carrying weapons or other contraband. Aidan is next in line. Bell frowns at him and says, “I don't know you.” He motions Aidan over and gives him a very thorough search. Aidan is followed by Colin, who gets the same treatment. Theo looks over Eve in her little dress frowns a bit, but then searches her much more politely than he did for the others.
When Bell gets to Krum, he says, “You're the scourge, right?” Krum nods. Theo motions to someone inside and gets a long box that he hands over to Krum. He says, “This is for you. You'll be working security inside.” Krum looks inside the box and sees a sawed off shotgun along with a knife and several rounds of ammunition. He looks back up at Bell and nods before going inside after the others.
The group gets inside the restaurant and see that there are a lot of kindred already in attendance. Most are milling around. They find their seats and Krum takes up his station near the front of the room after loading his shotgun in full view of the rest of the room. Colin has been seated with Greystone's chantry, but Aidan and Eve have been seated at one of the tables in the back with the other Kindred that don't matter. Eve cringes when she realizes she's supposed to sit next to Dino and decides to mill around until the last minute to avoid talking to him. Aidan sits down at the table and asks Dino, “So, where's your buddy?” Dino looks nervous and says, “Uh, he moved to Jersey.” Aidan says, “Why? That place is a shit hole!” Dino fidgets a bit and says, “Well you know, the racing is good there... nice long flat roads. I was thinking of following him there myself.” Aidan raises an eyebrow and says, “Uh huh, okay.”
Soon court is started and everyone goes to their seats. The restaurant looks like it's at full capacity with all the city's kindred packed in for tonight's court. Prince Estevez goes to a small stage set up near the front of the restaurant in full view of all the kindred in attendance. He makes a short address to the assembled Kindred, welcoming them to court for the evening. He pauses and then introduces the Archon Pieterzoon who is standing off to the side.
Jan Pieterzoon takes the Prince's place on the stage and it's clear that he is not pleased to be standing there. He's dressed in an immaculate gray suite with his blonde hair artfully combed back. His hands are clasped behind his back and he paces back and forth along the stage as he watches the audience. The longer the silence lasts, the more uneasy the other kindred seem to get and the younger ones in the back start to shift uncomfortably in their seats.
He pauses in the middle of the stage and says, “I assume that most of you are aware of what has been happening in the news.” His eyes scan the Kindred in their seats and then he resumes speaking, “What you may not know is that the Camarilla in the city of London has fallen.” He stops speaking to let the news sink in amid gasps and whispers from the audience. He starts pacing the stage again and says, “It appears that several mortal institutions have pieced together enough information about our kind to mount the kind of coordinated attack that was able to exterminate a city's entire Kindred population. Let me be clear. There are none of our kind in London as of this moment. This is a result of Kindred trying to manipulate those mortals in positions of power. FBI, CIA, MI6. This can be placed directly at the feet of the anarchs and Clan Nosferatu. Will the Kindred known as 'Uncle Smelly' please come forward.”
Calebros motions to Uncle Smelly to stand up and go forward to the front. When Pieterzoon spots him, he says, “Scourge, please escort Uncle Smelly to the manager's office.” Krum steps forward from his post and follows the nosferatu to the office commandeered by Pieterzoon for the night. There are a couple guards standing inside and they motion Uncle Smelly to a chair. Krum goes back to his post and hears Pieterzoon going on with his address.
Pieterzoon stops speaking and there is an uncomfortable silence. Eve hears the soft buzz of a cell phone vibration coming from the seat next to her and she looks over at Dino with wide eyes. “Dino,” she whispers. Dino looks at her and they both look up to find Pieterzoon and every other Kindred in the room staring directly at them. Eve sinks down in her seat, just wanting to hide. Pieterzoon calls out, “Scourge, escort the antitribu to the front please.”
Krum walks over to Dino and puts a hand on his shoulder and half guides, half pushes him towards the front of the room. Dino starts babbling, “Hey, I didn't mean to do anything wrong... I had it on vibrate! I thought it would be okay!” Pieterzoon cuts him off when they get to the front and Dino drops to his knees, “It appears at least one of you can't follow directions.” Dino says, “It's my brother! He's missing, and..” Pieterzoon doesn't let him continue, “Scourge, execute him as an example.” Krum levels his shotgun at the back of Dino's head. Dino yells, “Wait! Please!”
Theo Bell steps forward and yells, “Pieterzoon!” Krum pauses when he hears Bell's objection. Everyone else in the room seems to be watching in a state of shock. Pieterzoon looks over at Theo calmly. Theo continues, “This is my city.” Pieterzoon says, “This may be where you live, but the inner circle sent me here on business. This is my jurisdiction.” Krum looks over at the Prince for direction and Estevez grimly nods his head. Krum pulls the trigger on both barrels and the shotgun roars as Dino's head explodes and his body falls limply to the ground before the stage.
Eve screams, “No!” and starts to cry. Pieterzoon says, “Someone escort the hysterical woman out please.” Aidan stands up and takes Eve out of the building saying, “This is some North Korea dictator bullshit!” He takes Eve out to the Escalade where they wait for Colin. They see Theo Bell storm out of the building not long after their exit, and it's clear he extremely pissed off and trying to hold back frenzy as he gets on a motorcycle and speeds out of the parking lot.
Inside the building, as soon as court is dismissed, Colin stands up and storms out. He's the first one out the door and he goes to find Aidan and Eve. Greystone leaves at a much calmer pace and stops to grab a souvenir pin from the gift shop before leaving. Krum checks in with the Prince before leaving and keeps the new shotgun and knife since no one directs him to give them back. He goes back to the Escalade as well. The ride back to the hotel is awkward and silent.
Greystone calls Mary back to him and tells her she did a good job and heads back to the chantry.
…...........................................
The group gets back to the hotel suite. As soon as the door opens, Eve practically sprints back to her room where she left her jacket and swings it over her shoulders, not bothering with the arms. She pulls it as close to her body as she can get and sits there with it like a security blanket, just rocking back and forth on the bed in shock over what happened at court. Aidan stalks into the suite after her with Colin, and Krum follows behind them at a much slower pace.
Aidan can't hold his anger in any longer and turns on his heel to confront Krum over his part in court. “So, how does it feel to murder a kid over a cell phone?” Colin nods and adds, “It was kind of messed up man. He did nothing wrong and you helped make him an example.” When Krum doesn't rise to the bait, Aidan says, “What do you have to say for yourself?” Krum shrugs and says coldly, “Praise the Prince and pass the ammunition.”
Colin points back to the bedroom where Eve is huddled in her jacket and says, “How do you think Eve is going to feel about that? He was her friend.” Aidan narrows his eyes and says, “If the Archon told you to destroy me like that, you'd never get the chance.” Krum says in his level voice, “Well, I'm glad your phone didn't ring.” Aidan paces back and forth some more in a rage and then stops and says, “If you're going to embrace the role as the scourge, expect to not make many friends.” Aidan looks at Colin and says, “I have to get out of here. You coming?” Colin says, “Alright, I'm done. Let's go start a fight somewhere.” And they both walk out without a backward glance, leaving Eve and Krum behind.
….................................................
Aidan and Colin find a little hole in the wall pub with no name down in Hell's Kitchen. They go inside and Colin heads straight for the bar and orders two shots while Aidan makes a circuit of the room, looking for the biggest guy he can find. Colin calmly pulls a straight pin from the cuff of his immaculate suit and carefully lays it down on the bar as the bartender places two shot glasses of whiskey in front of him. Aidan approaches the biggest man in the bar, a large burly guy named Mac that looks like he works construction. Colin picks up the first shot and knocks it back, grimacing a bit at the taste as he places the empty glass back on the bar. He looks at the bartender and says, “Just let it happen my friend,” as Aidan taps Mac on the shoulder and then sucker punches him in the face. Mac stands up, sending his chair flying back and a fight starts in earnest.
Colin notices the rest of the patrons seem to be reaching under their coats for weapons, but nobody has actually pulled a gun out yet. He starts to reach for his second shot when he feels a gun against his temple and someone says in an Irish accent, “Now don't be doing anything stupid.” Colin knocks back his second shot and puts the glass down next to the first one. He turns his head and looks the gunman in the eye before saying, “Why don't you fight me like a man?” The command takes hold, and the man smiles as he puts away his gun saying, “Alright, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you got.” Colin swings and gets the first punch in.
Meanwhile, Mac and Aidan are still going at it in the back. Aidan is making absolutely no effort at all to evade Mac's punches, he just takes them and keeps on going. Mac kicks at chair at Aidan to distract him and then punches him in the gut. Aidan looks up at him and says, “Nice punch,” before returning the favor and sending Mac flying across the room to crash against the back wall.
A shotgun goes off and everybody freezes in their tracks. An older woman snaps, “That's enough of that!”