Chapter Nine

*Prelude: A week has* passed since ALEXA WOODS’ unfortunate demise. Just as JASON predicted, during that week KIDA, KILLIAN and NEMO undergo their First Change. DOM is gracious enough to offer his family’s estate as refuge. As one of the few estates in San
Francisco that actually has surrounding land, it’s privacy ensures their First Changes don’t endanger any of the citizens of San Francisco. They all turn
under the new moon. LALEH finds her way safely back to the team. DANI spends
her nights at the estate, but takes advantage of their “leave” from the FBI to
spend some time with her brother during the day, catching up and doing her best
to repair their relationship. As the week comes to a close, the team makes their
way to Treasure Island. A moot has been called by the Night Sisters to
celebrate the discovery of five new Uratha and the team is officially
introduced to the rest of the packs in the San Francisco area. – the Bone
Gnawers, the Get of Fenris, the Harbingers of Day and the Lords of the Gate. It
is time for the new Uratha to petition for membership into a tribe. After the
successful completion of their individual trials, they will be able to
officially form a pack and claim territory in San Francisco if they so choose.

Chapter 9

*To be a Blood Talon…*

DOM is the first to undergo his trial. The Get of Fenris
tell him he needs to prove he has the strength of a Blood Talon by enduring a
“beat down” executed by the pack. How long he lasts will determine his
worthiness to be a member of the tribe. DOM stands resolutely in the center as
the five werewolves surround him. Starting with DESMOND, their Alpha, they each
take a shot. DOM endures each blow without wavering, even the blow by the
packmate known for his dirty fighting tactics - not necessarily honorable, but
effective. As each blow lands, DOM resists the urge to fight back. But why? Is
that truly what it means to be a Blood Talon? Blood Talons are known as the
most vicious of all the tribes. A Blood Talon would not turn the other cheek if
he was being attacked. It didn’t make sense, and it certainly was against DOM’s
nature. Wasn’t the point of all of this to be true to yourself? As the first
round comes to a close, DESMOND sneers at DOM. “What do you have to say for
yourself?” DOM squares his shoulders as he comes to a decision. Instead of
answering the Alpha with words, he balls his fist and lands a solid blow square
on DESMOND’s chiseled jaw. Blood splatters from the Alpha’s mouth followed by a
couple of teeth. DESMOND smiles knowingly as he spits more blood from his mouth
and holds up a hand. The rest of his pack backs down. “He’s good.”

*To be a Bone Shadow,*
Iron Master or Storm Lord…

NEMO petitions for membership into the Bone Shadows and is
tasked by the Night Sisters to discover where the vampire, MASON makes his lair
and provide proof of her discovery. KILLIAN feels the call of the Iron Masters,
and is tasked by DAMIEN KINGSLEY to discreetly deliver a letter into the hands
of EDWIN COLTAIL, the face of American Hawk Security. KIDA, acting on a dream
that has been haunting her, decides to petition the Storm Lords. All three of
them are told they are allowed to ask for assistance from the more experienced
members of their team, namely DOM (since he has already completed his trial),
DANI and JASON. NEMO decides to ask DANI for assistance. KILLIAN decides to
complete his trial alone. KIDA’s trial has not been decided yet, but she is
told if she wishes to assist NEMO with her trial, she will be given her own
agenda to complete while assisting. MASON has already proven himself to be a
formidable force, and KIDA decides NEMO and DANI may need her help. She agrees
to the Storm Lords’ terms and is tasked with discovering MASON’s weakness. The
three of them sit down together as NEMO tries to figure out where to start.
DANI suggests they start by considering the places they have already
encountered MASON - the children’s hospital, WAHNSINNIG’s private office, and
Alcatraz. Perhaps they could track him from one of those locations. In typical
NEMO fashion, NEMO takes DANI’s advice a step further. “Well, vampires like
dark, scary places, right? And Alcatraz is a dark and scary place. I say we
start there.”

As the ladies prepare to depart for Alcatraz, KILLIAN heads
back to the mainland to access FBI resources. EDWIN COLTAIL’s official address
is listed as the TransAmerican Pyramid. If he has a private address, it is
unlisted. KILLIAN decides to do a facial recognition search throughout the city
to discover places EDWIN frequents, and perhaps use that to triangulate a
private address. He has better success than anticipated, and actually gets a
hit on EDWIN around a private estate located on the north side of the Bay. KILLIAN
decides stake-out the residence and makes his way to the estate. After he
positions himself at an appropriate vantage point, he can’t help but feel there
is something off about the mansion the longer he looks at it. KILLIAN can’t
quite put his finger on it. He watches as a car drives up the driveway. A stately
elderly gentleman gets out of the vehicle and gathers some bags from the
trunk.  He appears to be some sort of
butler or manservant, but the size and number of packages he is able to carry
seem far too heavy for a man of his advanced years. KILLIAN watches as the
gentleman approaches the front door. As he enters the mansion, KILLIAN notices
something else odd. Even though the front of the mansion is decorated with
large elegant windows, once the gentleman enters, he does not see him pass in
front of any of those windows. It is as if the gentleman walks in and disappears.
Intrigued, KILLIAN decides to give Meagan a call to if she might be able to
join him and provide some insight from a magical perspective. Unfortunately,
she informs him she is in the middle of a deposition and unable to break away.
She promises to join KILLIAN as soon as she is able. Disappointed, KILLIAN
gives into his curiosity and decides to approach the front door.

NEMO, KIDA and DANI are able to sneak onto Alcatraz
unnoticed later that evening. The ferry that takes tourists to the island has
closed down for the day, and only the park rangers responsible for its care and
upkeep remain. They live on the island, and most have turned in for the night.
The three Uratha are able to enter the main prison after NEMO works her magic.
KIDA picks up a blood trail once they are inside. They follow it to an
abandoned office with a large hole in the wall leading down below. All the
furniture in the office has been unceremoniously shoved against the wall save
for a single chair that sits in the middle of the room. The smell of blood is
strongest on and around the chair.  NEMO
takes a quick look inside the hole and realizes there is a steep drop-off not
too far in. Large claw marks mar the inside of the hole leading up from the
drop-off, like something claws its way out regularly. She is about to
investigate further, when they hear footsteps coming down the hall. The three
of them quickly hide, just in time to avoid the notice of a park ranger that
enters the office. He walks over to the chair and stares at it a moment, then
removes his shirt and sits down with a heavy sigh. Intrigued, the three Uratha
remain hidden and observe. The ranger does not seem to be aware of them. It’s
not long before they can hear rustling and scraping coming from the direction
of the hole. Something is climbing up from below. In a few minutes, MASON’s
large frame fills the hole as he steps into the room. He pauses a moment, then
moves toward the ranger, who exposes his neck willingly to the dark knight.
“Leave now!” MASON growls at the ranger.

Taken aback, the man stutters. “But…why? I can do better. I
promise. Please don’t turn me away!”

“LEAVE!!!” MASON demands. The man cowers and scuttles out of
the room quickly, disappearing down the hallway. Once he is out of sight, MASON
turns around abruptly and crosses the room, yanking DANI out of her hiding
place and pinning her up against the wall by her throat, preventing her from
speaking. He snaps his head in the direction of KIDA’s hiding place. “Why are
you here?!” KIDA steps out of her hiding place, admirably maintaining her
composure as she thinks quickly. NEMO remains hidden close to the entrance of
the hole. It doesn’t appear the dark knight knows *she* is here.

“We…uh wanted to let you know we delivered your message to
LEIDECKER.” KIDA explains. Out of the corner of her eye, KIDA sees NEMO’s
shadowy figure move closer to the entrance of the hole and realizes her friend
intends to take advantage of the fact that MASON is currently distracted and
sneak into his lair.

“So, you do work for him…” MASON snarls as NEMO disappears
down the hole silently behind him. DANI tries to shake her head in denial, but
can’t move. As far as DANI is concerned, she has been using LIEDECKER and the
FBI to get closer to the people her vision told her to seek out. She has no
true loyalty to the mage himself.

Unfortunately, KIDA nods her head, “We do work for the FBI,
and LEIDECKER *is* the head of the
FBI.” She is about to elaborate further, when MASON interrupts her.

“Spies! You are not welcome here! Come here again, and I
will kill you!” With that, he throws DANI bodily through the glass window of
the office and onto the rocks below. KIDA backs away and turns to leave once
she is in the hallway. She can hear MASON taking his anger out on some hapless
pieces of furniture behind her. That didn’t go well… Hopefully NEMO will have
better luck, *if* she can stay out of
sight. For now, she needed find DANI and make sure she was okay.

NEMO lands harshly on the floor of a large cavern. Thank
goodness for werewolf regeneration…otherwise she would be a pancake! She can
hear the heated words of MASON and KIDA up above, followed by a loud crash and
the sound of glass shattering. Moving quickly, she brushes herself off and
looks around. She feels like she has just landed in the middle of a museum.
Artifacts that span several centuries are carefully preserved throughout the
enormous cavern, not the least of which is a large pipe organ that dominates
one side. NEMO starts using her cell phone to snap some pictures. There is no
signal down here, but the camera still works. *This* would be her proof. There is a large pool of water in the middle
of the cavern. Eventually the noise above NEMO dies down. MASON could be
returning any moment. Unfortunately, NEMO didn’t see any other exits from the
cavern. If she climbed back up the hole, chances were good she would be
discovered. Taking a deep breath, NEMO secures her phone and dives into the
pool of water, swimming down for what seems like forever. Good thing her phone
was waterproof…

As KILLIAN lays his hand cautiously on the doorknob of the
large mansion, he is pleasantly surprised to find it is unlocked. Steeling his
nerves, he opens the door quietly and steps inside.  As soon as he closes the door behind him, his
world shifts and KILLIAN finds himself on top of a mountain, standing in front
of the entrance to a large cave. The butler is nowhere to be seen. KILLIAN
shakes his head in wonder. No turning back now… He enters the cave slowly. Shortly
beyond the entrance, KILLIAN sees the beginnings of a roughly hewn stone
staircase. It spirals down into the darkness below. KILLIAN begins his descent,
trusting his newly evolved senses not to lead him astray. About halfway down,
he can see a dim light below. As he approaches the bottom, he can hear strange
guttural noises echoing from a long stone hallway. It almost sounds like some
sort of primitive language. The hallway ends in a large cavern and KILLIAN can
see small humanoid shapes moving back and forth amongst flickering lights.
Keeping himself hidden, he moves down the hallway, shifting into his wolf form.
He holds the letter gingerly in his mouth. The small humanoids become clearer
as he approaches. He can only describe them as… well… lizard folk? One of them
seems particularly proud that he has a large cave rat as a pet. The flickering
lights are coming from…computer screens? The lizard folk seem to be monitoring
them, and KILLIAN can see images all around San Francisco flitting across the
screens – some kind of weird surveillance system. Fascinating! Maybe he could
track down EDWIN on one of those. Time to flex his new wolf muscles. KILLIAN
shifts up to his large wolf form and strolls confidently into the room. The
lizard folk scatter fearfully when they behold his visage… exactly what he
hoped they would do. Only the large cave rat remains. To his surprise, it turns
to face him and hisses, then moves to attack. Really?!

KILLIAN drops the letter and moves to intercept the rat. He
makes quick work of it and then realizes with chagrin that while he was
battling the rat, one of the lizard folk crept forward and is now inspecting
the letter. “Don’t you dare!” KILLIAN barks. The lizard man squeals in terror,
grabs the letter, and runs. An overwhelming urge to hunt wells up within
KILLIAN and he charges after it. “Oh, no you don’t!!” It doesn’t take him long
to run down the creature and reclaim his letter. He returns to the strange
computers and shifts back up to his human form to take control of one, scanning
San Francisco for EDWIN. Was it some sort of magic? KILLIAN manages to find
EDWIN in record time. He is feeling very proud of himself…until he realizes
EDWIN is standing right behind him. EDWIN clears his throat, amused as KILLIAN
turns to face him.

“May I ask what you’re doing here?”

KIDA makes her way outside of the prison and back down to
the rocky shore. She combs the area looking for DANI and soon stumbles across a
freshwater pool slightly inland. She can see a crevice at the bottom of the
pool that could lead to an underwater tunnel. It is pointed back toward the
prison. Could it be? Maybe this was another way into the vampire’s lair. She still
needed to find MASON’s weakness and NEMO might need her help escaping. KIDA
dives in to investigate. Indeed, the crevice does cover an underwater tunnel.
KIDA starts swimming through the tunnel. She can make out the dim shape of a
humanoid figure swimming toward her from the opposite direction. NEMO? As the
two draw closer together, KIDA’s hair stands on end. Something feels different
about this section of the tunnel. She reaches out toward NEMO and their hands
seem to pass through each other. Then, NEMO surges forward. Something shimmers,
and NEMO is by KIDA’s side, completely solid again. That was something worth
investigating further… later. For now, the two swim back to the surface
together and climb sputtering out onto the shore. They find DANI a short while
later. She’s pretty beat up, but functional. A piece of glass is lodged deep in
her shoulder. The three return to the mainland. DANI heads home briefly to
change clothes and tend to her wounds. KIDA and NEMO return to the Night
Sisters on Treasure Island. NEMO proudly shares her pictures, but is told they
are not sufficient evidence. A witness will need to corroborate her story. KIDA
asks to comb through them. Perhaps there was something in the pictures that
would reveal a weakness? She notices in one of the pictures there is a
sketchbook sitting on top of the pipe organ. There appears to be a humanoid
shape sketched on it with care, but it is too small to reveal any details,
perhaps a woman? KIDA decides to take the camera to the FBI to get the picture
enhanced. She is told it will take at least eight hours. Frustrated, she meets
back up with NEMO and DANI. After some discussion, the three head back to
Alcatraz. KIDA decides it would be quicker to go down into the lair herself and
see the sketchbook firsthand. DANI agrees to go with her and NEMO says she will
keep watch at the edge of the inland pool.

KILLIAN returns triumphantly to Treasure Island with an
acknowledgment letter from EDWIN COLTAIL. The businessman had seemed rather
amused about the whole situation once KILLIAN explained himself. EDWIN had
escorted KILLIAN back upstairs and “off the mountain,” but did warn him not to
return uninvited. There was obviously a lot more to EDWIN COLTAIL than met the
eye. KILLIAN had walked off EDWIN’s lawn buck naked to a perplexed Meagan, who
was waiting by his car. He hadn’t quite figured out how to get his clothes to
transform with him, and so they were left behind somewhere in the mountain. He
would have to ask DANI how she did that. The important thing was that he had
passed his trial and was now accepted into the *Iron Masters*.

DANI and KIDA descend once more into the underwater tunnel
while NEMO keeps watch above. The second time they pass through the strange
section of the tunnel, KIDA realizes what is happening. They have just entered
a verge, “a place that isn’t” – it’s on a different plane of existence, similar
to walking through the Shadow and seeing a reflection of the real world. KIDA
wonders if MASON realizes what he has as they surface inside the large cavern. The
dark knight doesn’t appear to be home. The two exit the pool cautiously and
make their way toward the pipe organ. NEMO was right – it was like walking
through a museum. A human skeleton sits at the pipe organ with its bony fingers
resting upon the keys. DANI is so fascinated by what surrounds them that she
stumbles over some loose rocks on the cavern floor just as KIDA reaches for the
sketchbook. Not a woman, but a young girl between 6 and 8 years of age is
scrawled lovingly on the parchment with amazing detail. Below her picture is a
single word, “*Ange*.” KIDA cringes as
the rocks at DANI’s feet scatter loudly. At the same time, the skeleton reaches
its hand up and grabs KIDA’s wrist. The bone takes on muscle and sinew, then
flesh as MASON now towers over KIDA. He does not look happy.

*The Story Continues…*

Current Developments - Chapter Eight - Chapter Ten