"I'm going to need some time to look over this." Nathaniel said as he cautiously looked over the chalice that had been moved onto another table within another room in the lodge.
"Do you have any idea what it is?" Ben asked.
"I know a few stories about chalices being used to hold vitae. Most of them are Tzimisce." Nathaniel said. "The markings of this one look like Canaanite. Sixteenth century BC if I had to ballpark it."
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"Nothing good, that I can promise you." The elder replied grimly as he looked over the body of the cup with a magnifying glass. "Lotan. The coiled one."
"The what?" Anthony asked.
"The coiled serpent, sleeping within." Sybil remarked.
"Malkav comes through with a bit of truth in the chaos." Nathaniel said, setting the magnifying glass down on the table. "If this is genuine, then we're looking at a Maw of Lotan. A very old and sacrilegious thing."
"You've encountered one before?" Ben asked.
"No, but my sire has." Nathaniel said. "They are... unpleasant in the wrong hands. Even in the right hands, they do terrible things."
"Which hands are the right hands?" Grace asked, looking at it curiously.
"Mine." Nathaniel said. "Largely because I'm going to destroy it."
"If it's an artifact of that much power, I think I know someone who can help." Anthony said.
"Who?" Nathaniel asked, raising a brow at the Tremere.
"Marion. She's a fellow Tremere, aided us in the past with a situation similar to this one." Anthony told him. Nathaniel looked to Ben, who nodded.
"Very well. Contact her and we can meet her elsewhere to bring her here."
"Alright." Anthony said, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out his phone, dialing Marion's number.
"I'm going to check on Angel..." Ben said, turning and heading from the room. Sybil opened her mouth to speak, then stopped suddenly.
"...incoming message from the big, giant head." Sybil muttered.
"What's that, Space Cadet?" Hope asked.
"Oh, don't encourage her." Grace groaned.
"I'll be back..." Sybil said, leaving out of the same door that Ben had exited through.
"C'mon, Vixen. Pretty sure we need to keep an eye on her." Hope said.
"...are we seriously splitting up again? We just got everyone-!" Grace started, turning back to see the Brujah already leaving the room. "...oh, great!" She looked to Nathaniel, who seemed far more interested in examining the chalice, and to Anthony still on his phone. "...great!" She said, starting after Hope and Sybil.
Ben walked back into the living room, finding the redhead he'd left there still lying back on the couch. Her eyes were closed.
"Angel?" He asked quietly.
"I can't breathe." The response came just as softly. Ben's head tilted slightly to the side as he approached.
"Of course you can't. You don't have to anymore." He sat down onto the couch near where her feet lay, Nathaniel's couch large enough that there was still room for the two of them even as Angelica laid out on it.
"No, I mean... I can't." Angelica said, opening her eyes and looking up to him. "I don't breathe, I don't have a heartbeat... I..."
"I know. I know." Ben said. "I know. I went through the same thing when... when I was Embraced. It'll pass."
"I don't want it to pass!" Angel shot into an upright position, looking at him. "I don't... I don't want this. I... I don't want-"
"You think I wanted any of this for you?" Ben asked, his eyes shot wide in stunned surprise.
"Of course I don't." Angel said. "I just... I don't understand."
"What?" Ben asked. "What don't you understand?"
"Why me?" Angel asked.
"Why... did you get Embraced?"
"No. Why... why was I the reason you... turned? That you left the Sabbat?" Angel asked. Ben stared at her for a long moment.
"I don't know." Ben said. "I just... I don't know." It didn't seem to settle her at all. "I'm sorry, I wish I had an answer for you."
"Seems to be a lot of that going around." Angelica said.
"What I told you was true." Ben said. "I could see what I was becoming. How far I had gone. For some reason... you as an infant... you touched whatever bits of my humanity were left at that point."
"And then you put me into the foster care system?" Angelica asked.
"Well, Nathaniel did, but yes." Ben said. "I wouldn't have been able to care for you or give you any kind of life."
"I know that." Angelica said. "Or I know that now, anyway."
"If I had realized who you were, I would have stayed away." Ben said. "I swear to you, I would have. I would have kept you out of all this mess."
"Well, I'm in it." Angelica said. "And if I am so bad-"
"You're not." Ben cut her off.
"I don't know what it is, but I know enough to put two and two together, Ben. Don't treat me like I'm stupid." Angelica's voice raised slightly as she spoke. Ben raised his hands, palms toward her. She reached forward, gently taking his hands and lowering them down between them, her fingers threaded around his. "I'm sorry, I... I just... I feel like I'm spiraling. I just..."
"I know." Ben said. "I know. I-" He was suddenly cut off as his lips were being pressed against her own. After a moment, her hands slipped from his and Ben found himself cupping her cheek as the kiss deepened slightly. Another moment passed before their lips parted, Angel resting her forehead against his.
"Please, Ben... please catch me..." She whispered, and he did.
"Jacques?"
"Yes, my Prince?"
"You have your assignment."
"Yes, your Grace."
"Show no mercy. Do not hesitate."
"I do not plan to." Blackjack's one good eye meet the two of his Prince, Wren nodding in agreement at him.
"You do realize, you are turning against your own Clan to do this?" She asked him.
"I am aware." Blackjack said. "My loyalty to you and to the Camarilla is greater than my loyalty to Clan. This cannot be permitted to continued.
"Good. Good." Wren said, opening the box that lay on the meeting room table. "Then you shall need a weapon worthy of this task." She gestured for him to step forward, and Blackjack's eye stared upon the weapon. A short blade, much less imposing than his normal weapon of choice. If he recalled correctly, it was in the Celtic style. A weapon used to battle the Romans... or other Celts. He also noted the item sitting in the box next to it, nestled within the protective foam - a gauntlet.
"What is this, my Prince?" Blackjack asked.
"This is the blade that Boudica used in the battle to conquer Camulodunum. Or so I have been informed, anyway." Wren said. "Do not attempt to wield it without using the gauntlet."
"May I ask why?"
"Do you wish to lose your hand as well as your eye?" The Gangrel Sheriff supposed he couldn't fault her there, particularly if this was a weapon meant to battle other Kindred. He pulled the gauntlet from the foam and slid it onto his right hand before he reached to take the blade by the hilt. It felt... wrong. Something about this was immediately off-putting, something that he attributed to the fact that it was some sort of mystical or holy weapon. In any case, if it did this to him, then it would likely do the same to other Kindred. The thought made him smile brightly.
"I have work to do, Prince Blanchard."
"That you do, Sheriff. That you do. Clean the streets."
"They're going this way." Sybil said as they headed down the road in her vehicle.
"What way? Wha-EEEP!" Grace grabbed onto the edges of her seat for dear life as Sybil took a J-turn on the road and started heading the other way. "Who is they?! What the hell are you talking about?!"
"The mirror faced men." Sybil said.
"Oh, great! More of those assholes!" Hope sighed.
"The what?" Grace asked.
"The Glaziers. Bunch of weird ass guys who were targeting the Anarchs." Hope said. "We dealt with them earlier. It was a whole thing."
"Kindred?"
"Yep."
"Damn."
"They will be. They will be." Sybil said. "Hope, do you still have the key?"
"...yeah, why?" Hope asked.
"With you?"
"No, why?"
"Good." Sybil said. "They're looking for it." The car tore off down the street, weaving between other cars and getting various reactions, most of them loud horn honks and not a few obscene gestures thrown their way that Grace could see as they thundered past.
"The key? You mean that key we got from the homeless shelter?" Grace asked.
"Not that one, a different one." Hope said.
"There's more than one?!" Grace asked.
"There is only the one. It must be retrieved at all costs."
"I understand."
"I hope that you do, Astaroth." Aleister fixed the brunette with a stern gaze. "I am certain that I don't have to remind you what the price of failure is."
"I haven't failed you before. I don't intend to start now." Astaroth said, giving him a smirk.
"Remember your humility..." Anton, still recovering from the wounds that his vitae had not yet healed spoke, staring at her from the shadows where he sat. After a moment, he managed to rise as he towered over her by just a head. "The forces arrayed against us are strong. We must be even stronger than they."
"I understand. I will not fail you." Astaroth said.
"If you do not come back with the Maw, do not come back." Anton said. "For this is Our Will." He turned to his brother. "The basin, please, brother." Aleister hesitated for a moment, but quickly brought forth a basin that normally held water... and it instead was holding vitae, still steaming hot. Anton dipped two fingers into the basin and swirled his fingers around before reaching up, making a mark on Astaroth's forehead. "Take this power, and go with it."
"With gladness..."
"Stop here."
"You're driving!"
"Stop here."
"You're dri-AHHH!" Sybil's car came to a skidding stop at what looked to be an empty lot. "Where did you learn how to drive?!"
"Kamikaze flight school, First Class!" Sybil said, parking the car and pulling the keys from the ignition before getting out without another word to either of the other two women in the car.
"Absolute maniac! Is she insa-" Grace started.
"... no, no, finish your sentence." Hope said, giving the Toreador a look.
"I know what I said! I know!" Grace huffed as she unbuckled her safety belt and exited the car along with Hope, the pair of them following Sybil to where the Malkavian now stood. She stood there, arms at her sides, seemingly staring off into the middle distance.
"Uh... Earth to Sybil?" Hope asked.
"Sybil, what are you doing? What is it?" Grace asked. Only silence followed. Hope and Grace exchanged a look, after which Hope reached out and shook Sybil's shoulder.
"Syb-whoa!"
"No! No! You shouldn't be here!" Sybil said, suddenly reacting as though she were just now noticing that the other two were there, having twisted so as to throw Hope's hand off of her. "This isn't a place for you! Run! Now!"
"What are you talking about, Sybil?" Grace asked. "You aren't making sense! There's no one here!" The diminutive redhead looked to both Sybil and Hope, who were looking back over her shoulder. "...there's something behind me, isn't there?" They nodded, and Grace turned around to see a metallic face gazing at her, only the eyes visible through holes as the rest reflected her own face in its shattered construct. Wearing that mask was a tall, humanoid body in a black robe that had been stitched with silver threads to resemble the broken mirror motif.
Grace backed away from it, the figure did not move, merely staring at the trio of women. As they glanced around, they noticed other robed figures had emerged seemingly from nowhere.
"Uh... guys? Halloween was like... two weeks ago." Hope said.
"The last key." The voice seemed to come from all of the robed figures in unison. "You will hand it over to us."
"Sorry, must have left it at the locksmith." Grace commented.
"Not you." All the fingers were pointing at Hope. "Her."
"Moi? I ain't got no key." Hope said.
"You are lying." The voice this time had not come from the robed figures surrounding them, but they turned to find that Sybil, too, was pointing a finger toward Hope. "You. Have. The Key."
"Oh, shit..."
No comments:
Post a Comment