October 31, 2018
The previous night had ended with Lilah being eerily calm. She had gone through the rest of her vault, gathering together a few items of interest and setting them aside for use. She had dismissed Anthony, telling him to return the following night at sunset. The night had come, and he had returned to that office with the glass floor.
"Come in." Lilah spoke from within the still open space in the wall. Anthony walked into this room that should not exist, seeing that Lilah had taken out only one of the items in question: a goblet with its outer edges forged to resemble unnerving demonic faces.
"What is-"
"Secrets above your Circle, Wallace." Lilah said, pouring a now not smoldering bit of ash into the cup. "Give me your arm." Anthony raised a brow. "Your arm, Apprentice. Now."
". . .yes, Regent." Anthony rolled up his sleeve, extending his arm to her. With a swift motion, Lilah drew her knife once more and cut across the vein. Vitae poured from it, the sanguine liquid falling into the cup. A flame erupted within the cup, Anthony looking away as he felt the Beast pulling at him. When Lilah finally let go of his arm, Anthony licked the wound to close it, glancing back as the flames died to show the blood in the cup bubbling up as though it were boiling.
"I can see it...them..." Lilah said, seemingly staring blankly ahead. "They're. . .they're. . .oh, by the Pyramid!"
"What? What is it?" Anthony asked.
"We have to stop them! We have to stop them right now!" Lilah said. "Call the First and Second Circle Apprentices! Now!"
"At once, Regent. But where to?" Anthony asked.
"To war!"
"You have got to be kidding me..."
"Does it look like I'm kidding you?"
"Stow it, Grayson."
"Up yours, One-Eyed Willie."
"If you were Kine, I'd tell you both to fuck already." Nathaniel rolled his eyes at the two younger Gangrel, earning a glare from both of them. He leaned over the corpse, examining the remains. "These marks were made by a machete, no mistake."
"So we're looking for...what? Jason Voorhees?" Ben asked. "Like, actual Jason Voorhees."
"Yes. And the wound is relatively fresh." Nathaniel said. "I don't think this could have happened more than an hour ago at most."
"So what do we do?" Blackjack asked, his arms crossed.
"Get ready to fight." Ben said.
"The hell are you talking about?" Blackjack turned his head, one eye glaring at Ben. He found, however, that Ben wasn't looking at him. Rather, Ben's eyes were focused on a point not that far away, within the line of trees. A figure that was at least as tall as Blackjack was stood there, moth-eaten and water-damaged clothing on and an all-too familiar hockey mask over their face. ". . .you have got to be kidding me..."
"Once again, nope..." Ben said as the figure started to move toward the trio, wielding a machete in hand. Far from the eyes of the Kine (at least for now), Blackjack tapped into Protean and moments later a large bear was where he had been standing only moments before. The bear charged at the towering figure of Crystal Lake's prolific killer, rearing up at the last second and slamming its front paws down into the killer's flank.
Jason Voorhees fell like a sack of potatoes, grunting as the bear climbed atop him, roaring with its success.
"Drama queen." Ben muttered.
"Don't count it out yet." Nathaniel said, eyes still focused on the supposedly ended struggle. The elder's view was indeed confirmed as the bear started to struggle as Jason began to force his way upward. Without the machete to his hands, the killer was now grabbing at the bear's paws and yanking Blackjack upward onto just his hind legs as the Gangrel turned bear tried to bite at his attacker's hands.
"We need to help him!" Ben insisted.
"Benjamin, wai-" But Nathaniel's protest went unheard as Ben charged forward. In him, there seemed to be a stirring of the Blood. His vitae moved through his body in a new and interesting way...and a wolf howled from deep within his undead body. Soon he ran upon not two legs, but all four. His eyes narrowed upon the target, and his mouth hung open, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. Fur morphed along his body, which had shrunken down into a smaller, sleeker form.
The Wolf of Vancouver had become a wolf, his power in Protean reaching a new height. He slammed right into Jason, grabbing at one of the serial killer's arms with his new maw and tearing into the flesh. Jason groaned, the distraction giving Blackjack an opportunity to turn the tide once more, forcing Jason to the ground again. Ben released his bite on the killer, instead going for the strap of his mask and yanking at it until the fabric gave way, revealing a disfigured visage marred by wounds and disgusting rot all across its flesh.
That detail was true to the films...some of them, anyway.
So as it was when Jason grabbed for Ben's throat. His wolf form tried to pulled away as the hand closed tighter and tighter on his throat...
"I'm afraid I can't say. Police business." Sybil said. "What have you found out?"
"Well, the coin is over 2000 years old. Easily. Looks like your source was right." Eric, her friend at science lab at Seattle University, responded. Sybil pondered this. A killer who was leaving two of these coins on the eyes of their victims every time. Nothing seemed to connect his three victims thus far. Not age, not race, not sex. Nothing. Yet, they bothered to leave this very distinctive calling card. Something wasn't adding up.
She picked up the coin in her latex-gloved hand, turning it over and over. Sybil clicked her tongue and tapped into her Auspex for a premonition. The Beast pawed at her from within her psyche.
"Eric would make such a good snack..."
"Be quiet." Sybil muttered as she focused her vitae.
"I didn't say anything?" Eric stared at her, confused.
"Not talking to you." Sybil said, instead focusing upon the vision in the blood forming before her mind's eye.
"You treat me so poorly..." Sybil wasn't listening as she felt the vitae in her gut dissipate and her mind was opened out into the world around her and the worlds beyond. She saw herself seated at a chessboard. Yet, while she wasn't familiar with chess, she did not think the board had been set up correctly.
At the center of a board was one of the rook, the white rook towering over the entire board. Around the rook were several figures, all of them no taller than pawns and yet not having the rounded head of the pawn. In the middle of them all, four were distinct: a wolf's head, a rose, an open book, and an unblinking eye. Those, she knew. Others, though, she was less clear on. One, the one closest to the rook as if protecting it, was a queen in black amidst all the pawns. The board, too, was wider than any chessboard she'd ever seen.
On one side, there were more of those pawns with the heads replaced with an open book. Some were white and black, though some were...Sybil's eyes widened as she watched, seeing some of the books turning red and bursting into flame. Behind them were the three kings from her previous vision...the ones who had been dancing around a dragon. There was no dragon to be found, though...they were concerned with something else...a war...
Her eyes caught another pawn, this one on its own. It wasn't black or white or even red, but gray with a single circular spot of red on its body. It was...moving...toward the eye...
"Detective? . . .Detective? . . .Detective? . . .Sybil? Hey, Sybil!"
"Hmm...what?" Sybil found herself back at in the lab, her mind more or less back in her head where it belonged.
"Are you okay? You zoned out..." Eric said, looking at her with concern.
A thrown knife that had been thrown by a figure in a gray hoodie, said hoodie obscuring any sign of their facial features. Sybil heard the distinct clicking of a tongue as the knife hit the far wall and clattered to the floor.
"How disappointing..." A distinctly feminine voice came from the figure's unseen mouth. "That knife had been meant for you, after all."
"You're a piss poor shot, don't blame me." Sybil said, leveling her pistol at the suspect. "I'm guessing you're the one playing ferryman, huh?"
"I'm just making sure the souls go to the right place, yes." The hooded figure spoke. "Do you know how long I waited for you to catch up, Detective?"
"Sorry to disappoint you." Sybil said. "Now put your hands on your-"
"Blood of the Sires, you really took your sweet time!" The woman said. "I thought I'd have to get a few more of the Kine killed before you got put on the case..."
". . .you're Kindred?" Sybil asked.
"I am far more than Kindred, Sybil." The woman pulled the hood back off of her head, revealing porcelain skin with large, green eyes and braided blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders. "And I wanted to bring you a chance to be more than Kindred, too."
"I'm plenty okay with how I am right now, thanks. At least the voices in my head tell me so." Sybil said.
"Ah, but you see with more than just eyes...you saw me coming, I know. The daughter of Malkav." The woman said. "Let's talk, you and I..." Sybil stared her down, slowly sliding the gun back into its sheath.
"You have five minutes..."
"This is the place."
"You're certain, then?"
"Absolutely." Lilah Brook looked down upon the large apartment building rising like a spire amid Seattle's other buildings. It had been condemned many years ago by the city, but was now infested with something far, far worse than insects. "The Baali are here. Tonight, we're going to scrub the last of them off the face of our city." She turned, looking to the fall, bald man next to her wearing a button up and a pair of slacks. "Wilson? How many do you have?"
"Fourteen ghouls. Six apprentices. They're ready to move." Preston Wilson answered.
"Harkness?"
"Eleven ghouls. Eight apprentices." Angela Harkness spoke. "They are likewise ready to move."
"Excellent." Lilah said, nodding. "My own forces will give us greater numbers still. We will overtake them in one fell swoop."
"Most of the Chantry should be here by now." Preston said.
"The others will join the battle soon enough," Lilah said, "the block has already been cordoned off by the police. Our time is now..."'
"Send the message. All units, move in."
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