The moments leading up to the eruption of fire had been uneventful to say the least. Grace had tried to her best to work the room from her limited position. The bubbly little blonde who knew far too much of what the Masquerade hid was of little help and she was joined by several others who were brainless sycophants to whatever had been cooked up at Molek's Light. As soon as she thought to get up and move around to others, the doors burst open and a pair of propane tanks were thrown in and blown apart.
When her vision recovered, all Grace could see was the white-hot fire burning as it consumed the organic and inorganic alike. Rötschreck welled up in her, her Beast borrowing the voice of Marquis and telling her "Flee! Flee!" Flee she did, moving away from the fire and away from the sounds of gunfire flooding into the area. Her eyes spotted the men in tactical gear approaching, apparently gunning down anyone in the vicinity with extreme prejudice.
Grace moved quickly behind the front-most row of seats, peering over it as the armed men swept through the room. She needed to find an escape route and needed it quick. The fire was rising and those men weren't getting further away. . .
"No survivors! Smoke 'em all!"
Ben looked down the catwalk to see that not only were their foes coming from below, but also on the level with them.
"Well, ain't this a surprise?" Aleister snorted. "Guess we'll have to continue our little grudge match later, Wolfie...ta ta!" Before Ben could react, Aleister had leaped off of the catwalk and down into the inferno below.
". . .drama queen." Ben muttered.
"Take him down! Now!"
Ben leaped over the railing as well, aiming for somewhere that pointedly wasn't the raging inferno below. Already, he could see several of the men in tactical gear already making their sweeps through the area. Kine from what he could tell, and all of them in unmarked gear. So, it was likely, not members of the Seattle Police Department. Either way, they had guns and were not shy about using them. A few Kindred had already been pummeled into dust and ash by a combination of bulletfire and. . .well, fire. He had no intention of joining them tonight.
Ben fell amid the rubble of a few completely destroyed seats, rolling with the fall and thudding hard against the backing of some less destroyed seats. From there, he got a better look at the utter chaos around him. The men were sweeping the area, gunning down Kindred and Kine alike. A mystery to solve later. Right now, he looked for the exits and found two, a pair of doors straight ahead and another set further away heading to behind the stage. That would have been the end of it had he not spied a certain Toreador stuck behind the front row.
"Damn it..." Ben hissed as he moved to get Grace out of there.
"I'm not slitting my wrists and dancing under the moon naked for this, I just want you to know." Sybil commented wryly.
"For the love of God, please be quiet. My Greek is rusty as it is." Anthony said, pulling up the incantation his contact had sent him. Quickly lighting the incense, he began to chant.
"Archaía kai paníschyri Forkýs! Dáskalos ton krymménon váthon!" He waved the stick of incense above the small plate that had had several drops of his blood dropped onto it. "Se iketévo, ákou tin kravgí mou!" He circled the plate once, twice, three times clockwise. "Týfla ta mátia ton echthrón mou! Krýpste tous ta ópla mou gia na min vlépoun!" He dropped the stick into the blood, which began to smoke much as the incense itself was. . .before the blood began to burn away.
A tense moment paused. Then two.
". . .did it work?" Sybil asked.
"You! Freeze!" If Grace had had a pulse, it would have been racing right then. She tensed, realizing that in the panic she wouldn't be able to focus and bend her attackers to her will with her Disciplines. It was actually the end, it seemed. She closed her eyes, waiting for it, and then. . .
"Hey, what the fu-" She snapped her eyes open to see her Gangrel coterie mate tearing the gun from the hands of one of the men and tossing it aside before kicking them into the other two who had been approaching, knocking all three down.
"What is going on?" Grace asked, getting to her feet and looking quite shocked.
"No idea." Ben said. "Not questioning it, but I don't think they can see us. Or hear us."
"Blood witch bullshit. . ." Grace muttered.
"Looks like it." Ben said. "Let's go. Quick."
"Just a sec." Grace reached down, pulling the pistol out of the holster of one of the men and putting it to his head, pulling back the hammer.
"No!" Ben snapped, grabbing the gun by the muzzle, his elongated claws slicing into the metal and rendering it useless.
"What are you doing? They were trying to kill us?" Grace snapped at him. "Why aren't you killing them?"
"There's been enough death here tonight. Let's go." Ben said, grabbing Grace's arm as his hands returned to normal, his other one taking the ruined gun and tossing it aside.
"Miss Penderghast! Miss Penderghast!" Grace turned, recognizing the voice and turning to see the bubbly blonde from earlier running up to her, a large wound in her head where she'd been clearly hit by debris. "Please help me! Please! They're everywhere and they're gonna kill me!"
"We need to go." Ben urged Grace. "Now."
"We'll bring her along." Grace said. When Ben gave her a confused look, she elaborated, "She...knows things. It wouldn't be a good idea to leave her behind."
"You mean about the vampires?" The blonde was shaking, panicked. "Are these vampires? Are these other vampires? Is that wasn't happening?"
"Stop talking." Ben said to the blonde. He looked to Grace. "Fine, but she's your baggage. You will deal with the problem. Got it?"
"Happily." Grace said, gesturing to the blonde. "Come along, dear. . ." The three quickly moved their way out through the chaos. It seemed that the men in SWAT gear not being able to see or hear them wasn't an isolated incident. The few remaining Kindred who had served the initial attack and the one or two sweeps through the area were turning on them and many were making meals, something which Grace was very much envying at the moment.
Even still, she went with Ben's direction. . .lamenting it the entire time but knowing all too well what the Gangrel could do. Besides, she had someone new to take care of. . .
"You asshole!"
"Mister Oliviera has control of your connection into this realm held quite firmly, rage all you like." Fabian stared at the conjured specter of his sire. The echo of the Kindred who had once been the man named Stephen Corwin raged. However, behind the sigils painted upon the floor, he could do nothing more than float around and scream at him.
A small adjustment, and he wouldn't even be able to scream.
"I pulled you up from nothing! I made you what you are! Everything you have is because of me, you ungrateful little speck of scum! ME!" Corwin hissed at him.
"You condemned me to an eternal existence where I had to give up all my friends and family." Fabian said. "With respect Mr. Corwin, if there's a Hell, I sincerely hope that is where you are."
"You ungrateful little bi-"
"Mr. Oliviera?" Fabian inquired. Oliviera began to chant something in Latin, causing Corwin to scream as his image flickered in and out of the visible spectrum. "Where. Is. The urn?"
"GO TO HELL!" Corwin shouted.
"In due time." Fabian said.
"I will tell you nothing! Nothing, do you hear me?!"
"Mr. Oliviera?" Fabian watched as the Lasombra chanted in Latin once more, the image of Corwin's wraith twisting and distorting as he howled in pain. "We can do this all night, Mr. Corwin. Actually, we can do this forever. . ."
"I WON'T SAY! YOU'LL NEVER FIND IT!" Corwin screamed at him. Fabian looked to Oliviera and nodded to him. The Lasombra nodded back and continued to read from his thick, black book. Once more, Corwin screamed as his image continued to twist and distort, looking now like a snake coiling around and around and around itself.
"Come along, sir." Fabian said. "There won't be anything left of you for the everafter."
"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!" Corwin screamed. Oliviera ceased his chanting and the image within the circle began to uncoil again, resuming the visage that he had had in his unlife. "In Chinatown. . .it's in the safe in the basement of my restaurant, the Imperial Sun."
"How do I know you're not lying?" Fabian asked.
"I'm not! I'm not! I swear!" Corwin screamed. "L-Let me go! Let me go! Please! Please!"
"If you are lying, then I'm going to ask Mr. Oliviera to conjure you up again." Fabian said, leaning toward the image. "And that time, I'll happily give you to him to play with as he sees fit..." The look on the face of his former mentor could only be described as pained rage mixed with utter terror.
"Nooo-!" Corwin's scream was cut off as Oliviera dosed the small brazier he'd brought out, the sigils ceasing their glow and the wraith disappearing.
"Alright, Mr. Oliviera. I thank you for your time." Fabian said, pulling his phone from his coat and unlocking the screen with a swipe. A few presses against the screen later and a text was sent. "My contact with the Harpies has it on record, you have a boon in my name on the books."
"Most agreeable, then." Oliviera said. "I do hope you locate your urn, Mr. White."
"Thank you, Mr. Oliviera. Good night." Fabian said, turning to leave.
"Oh, one more thing!" The Ventrue turned on the spot, facing the Lasombra. "When you threatened to bring his wraith into my custody. . .were you being serious?"
"Oh, absolutely." Fabian said. "Of course, if I were to find the item in question and you never hear from me again, there's very little I could do to keep you from dredging his spirit up once more, now could I?" The two men shared a smile.
"Good night, Mr. White."
"Why do we have a blonde in here?"
"Less talk, more drive."
The car took off down the street.
"So I'm presuming my little spell worked." Anthony said.
"We aren't resembling Swiss cheese, so good presumption." Grace said.
"Who the hell were the Stormtroopers?" Sybil asked.
"No idea." Ben said. "Not our monkey, not our circus."
"Got a feeling it's going to be our monkey and our circus soon enough. . ." Grace said.
"One problem at a time," Ben said, "and we have a much bigger one now."
"Baali?" Anthony asked.
"Yeah." Ben said. "At least one."
"The priesty boy?" Sybil asked.
"No, this one was a new one." Ben said. "Guy in a white suit. Said his name was-"
"Aleister?" Grace asked. When Ben shot her a look, she elaborated. "He attacked the Moon and Star. With zombies."
". . .how many?" Anthony asked.
"Did Carl show up?" Sybil asked at the same moment.
"Okay, so we know that there are at least two." Ben said. "And they're recruiting, although I imagine whoever is behind the death squad back there just put a big dent in their operations."
"With any luck." Anthony said quietly.
"What...what's going on?" The blonde was whimpering in the seat next to Grace.
"Shhh..." Grace said, brushing some of those blonde locks to the side. "Just relax. I'll explain everything. . ."
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