"Have you found it?"
She gazed around the copse, finding nothing. Just the wind blowing through the trees, and the fog pooling at her feet.
"You have to quiet your mind."
She sighed in irritation, but continued to try. Angel pushed the wayward thoughts from her mind and tried to focus on the here and now.
"Have you found it?"
"No, I-" She stopped, mid-sentence, as she caught motion in her peripheral vision. Turning to the left, her eyes fell upon the sight of some sort of... creature. "What... what is that?" It had blood red skin, looking almost like a man hunched over. The head was that of a goat, blood leak from every visible orifice. It bleated at her, hunching toward her on its limbs. Angel backed away from it. "What the hell is that?!"
"Speak to it."
"No, thank you!" Angel said, shaking her head at it approached her closer. As it did, the goat-like mouth opened and row after row of teeth were visible, long and sharp as they threaded and un-threaded with the movement of the head. The teeth were stained with the blood leaking from its mouth. "No! No, it's wrong! It's wrong!" The creature leaped up at her with a ghastly roar, moving as though it intended to bite into her flesh. Angel braced herself, her eyes closing as she felt a tightness in her chest, unbeknownst to her her Beast rising up in pure rage.
"Angel! Angel! ANGELICA!"
The things faded away, and Angelica found herself back in the lodge, Ben holding one of her arms as Nathaniel held the other. A calming energy folded into her, and she felt the tightness recede.
"What... what was that?" Angel gasped out, body still shaking even as she fell back into a sort of calm again.
"That... was your Beast." Nathaniel said, taking the crystal he had had her stare at off the hook and putting it back in his pocket. "Part of it, anyway."
"Part?"Angel huffed, exasperated.
"Are you okay?" Ben asked, getting her attention as she turned back to him. He had healed from his time in the wax pit, fully restored as though he hadn't been nearly beaten into torpor before. An eternal existence that she, too, now shared.
"I'm... I'm fine. I'm fine." Angel said, realizing he was still holding her hand carefully, as if he were afraid that he would break her.
"I think we've come far enough tonight." Nathaniel said. "You need your rest."
"I want to try again." Angel said, though every instinct was telling her not to face whatever that was again.
"No. You need your rest. Believe me." Nathaniel said. "You did very well for a first session." He looked to Ben. "Benjamin, can you come help me for a moment?"
"Yeah. Sure." Ben said, looking confused for a moment before looking at Angel. "I'll be right back, okay?"
"Okay..." Angel nodded, moving toward and slipping onto the couch while the two men went into the next room.
"Her entire Beast?" Ben hissed in a hushed tone at the revelation that Nathaniel had brought to him.
"I didn't mean for it to happen." Nathaniel told him. "I had thought it was impossible."
"What does it even mean?" Ben asked. "I thought your technique kept the entire Beast from coming out if you didn't allow it?"
"It was supposed to, yes." Nathaniel said. "For a young Beast, it's remarkably strong."
"I don't like the sound of that..." Ben said.
"Nor do I." Nathaniel said. "I could feel the pull. It was stronger than any Beast I've ever helped a Kindred contend with, even yours."
"What the hell does that even mean?" Ben asked.
"I only know of a few clans that have a Beast so strong, Ben." Nathaniel said. "You said she was a Caitiff?"
"Yes. She doesn't know her sire." Ben said, adamantly holding on to that.
"She doesn't, no," Nathaniel said, "but I think you do, don't you?"
"No. I don't." Ben stared blankly at the man, arms crossing over his chest.
"Let's see, then." Nathaniel said, starting for the other room. On the way, he opened up a cabinet and pulled a simple wooden crucifix from it.
"No, don't!" Ben started, but the older Gangrel had already burst into the living room and held the crucifix aloft. The commotion had gotten Angel's attention. Her eyes shot wide as she moved back against the sofa.
"Wh-What are you doing?" She demanded.
"Something wrong, Angelica?" Nathaniel asked, holding the crucifix up at her.
"Get... get that away from me!" Angel said, nearly stumbling back off of the couch, nearly falling to her face on the floor in an attempt to move away as he approached her with the thing held up. She looked to Ben with desperate, terrified eyes. "Ben, you told me that those didn't work! You told me! How is he doing that?!"
"Nathaniel, stop it!" Ben protested.
"Tell me what she is." Nathaniel said, the cross still raised toward the redhead as he looked back to the blonde. "Tell me."
"Nathaniel-"
"Tell me!"
"Ben, m-make him put that away!"
"Benjamin-"
"I... I know..." Ben said his shoulders slumping. "Please..." Nathaniel lowered the cross, setting it on the table. Even with it left alone, Angel was still eyeing it warily as she stayed well away from it.
"Benjamin. You know that the Prince will not-"
"I know." Ben said. "I know."
"You need to do something."
"I know! I-"
"What am I?" Angel's voice got the attention of both men. She repeated her question as her first attempt was answered with nothing but silence.
"You're-"
The door to the lodge slammed open suddenly. In through it came the towering form of Blackjack, accompanied by a familiar Malkavian, Tremere, Brujah, and Toreador.
"I think this is the first time we've all been in the same room all season!" Sybil said cheerfully as the group entered. "Glad you're up, Ben!"
"What... where have you been?" Ben asked them.
"We're fine, thanks." Grace said, preening a hand through her hair. "Definitely did not deal with our priest friend and the worst party I have ever been to in my life."
"What? The Baali were there?" Ben asked.
"They've been all over." Anthony said, walking forward and bringing with him a bundle wrapped in rags to the table and setting it down. Peeling away the rags, he realized an ornate chalice within it. "That thing was heavy..."
"Where did you get that?" Nathaniel asked, staring at the object they had just revealed, now set on the table next to the crucifix he had moments before brandished.
"From the Baali. Pay attention." Grace said, her arms crossed over her chest. "They were using it, no doubt, for some sort of nefarious purpose."
"Chalice of naughty, black evil!" Sybil said, giving the vessel the stink eye.
"They were gathering Toreador blood?" Nathaniel asked, his eyes widening.
"I didn't mea-HURK!" Anton screamed as Étienne rammed the third red hot poker into his side.
"You didn't mean!" His sire roared at him. "I did not waste centuries planning this for you to foul up as we approach the night of the Ascension!"
"I'm sorry!" Anton mewled, vitae falling from his open wound in his stomach and from his eyes as they made a mockery of tears.
"Father, I-" Aleister began to interject.
"Be silent!" Étienne hissed at his childe, cowing him into silence before turning his attention back to Anton. His other childe was strung up by his wrists, his body having been stripped bare and a horrific wound festering in his side where the pokers were still burning at his flesh. "You... you failed to a bunch of fledgling scum! The wolf wasn't even there!"
"I tried!"
"They have the vessel now!" Étienne spat at him. "If they discover how to access it, then our plans are for naught!"
"They haven't, Father! They haven't!" Anton screamed.
"Father, please stop!" Aleister interjected again. "We can retrieve the item!"
"You had best move quickly, then." Étienne said, picking up a large knife from the table next to where Anton had been hung up, reaching up and cutting the leather band keeping him secured up to the ceiling. Anton fell in a heap, screaming out as gravity took its toll on him. Aleister winced as he watched his wounded brother fall right on the pokers in his side, further exacerbating the wound. Then, the elder Baali turned on him. "You and your brother have work to do."
"We will! We'll have it before tomorrow night!" Aleister promised emphatically.
"Good." Étienne said, then turned back to Anton, who was gasping in pain on the floor. "Clean yourself up, your pathetic mongrel." The man stepped out through the door, it closing behind him. Aleister rushed over to his brother, a hand dropping to his shoulder that was suddenly pushed away by Anton with a frustrated huff.
"Get off of me!" Anton yelled at him before reaching down to begin pulling the first poker from his side.
"I'm sorry." Aleister winced as he backed away, but rolled up his sleeve to . "Here, take some of my vitae-"
"Keep your vitae!" Anton hissed at him as he wrenched the poker out of his side with a howl of pain. "We have too much to do..."
"We need to find the Chalice before they can access its power... or destroy it." Aleister said.
"I know that, you idiot!" Anton hissed. Another scream and the second poker was wrenched out, clattering to the floor to join the first. "We need the help..."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I think it's time to call in a professional."
"You don't mean-"
"Oh, yes!" The third poker was pulled out and clattered to the floor, Anton slumping over onto the floor in a heap as he recovered. His vitae channeled into closing the wound, at least as much as he could at the moment. "It's time to call in Astaroth..."
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