Capítulo 23: Chapter 23: Epidemic 5-1
Three months later…
"...In other news, the outbreak of the blood disease now being called the 'Red Plague' has been traced to a serial killer group known as the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle." The late night newsman announced. "CDC and LAPD are teaming up to stop the spread of the illness and are enstating a curfew for all citizens after 6PM. Police say that anyone out after curfew can potentially be criminally charged. More on this at 4."
I was lounging on my couch in my haven, and Heather was cuddled up on top of me in her pajama shorts and tank top. This epidemic had already been identified by the Camarilla - specifically by the Tremere - as being spread by the Sabbat, but everyone was on standby until they found the exact cause. Strauss had been working on a cure. The plague had been killing off the local kine, degrading the quality of their blood, which isn't very good for the Kindred.
Once the news station went to commercials, Heather gazed up at me, which made me stop petting her hair. It took awhile for me to get this comfortable with her. Some part of me felt guilty for enthralling her...but that part was very, very small and quiet. The rest of me began to think of Heather as a pet and a companion. She was certainly useful in most cases, provided good conversation.
"This whole disease thing…it doesn't have anything to do with you guys, right?" Heather asked.
"Not at all." I lied, bringing down my hand to caress her cheek. "We're not behind everything, you know."
She chuckled, propping her chin on my chest. "No, only the passage of history since medieval times."
I smirked at that. "Okay, we're only behind most things. But we aren't behind this plague. We're trying to find a cure."
"Is it because it affects the blood…?" Heather asked. "That's bad for you guys, right?"
I didn't answer. Heather was great and all, but sometimes she asked too many questions. In the months since she'd started living with me, I tried to make it seem that we Kindred weren't the horrible, amoral monsters that we were. This was helped greatly by the fact that I didn't let her meet any of the vampires that I knew, nor did I let her glimpse into my world beyond just the surface level, but sometimes her questions revealed a particularly painful truth about myself: I was a monster. And I was becoming more and more of one as the days went by. Between running errands for the Anarchs and the Camarilla, I'd gained quite a bit of blood on my hands.
Heather was going to ask me another question, but she quickly turned her head towards the door as if she heard something. Ghouls often gained weaker versions of their domitor's powers, and lately she'd displayed lower levels of Auspex that enhanced her senses. Just a moment after she turned her head, I heard the doorbell ring. Strange, I don't usually have visitors - just the few friends that Heather would make at school, people she'd want to meet me. It was all becoming a bit of a mess, but I was willing to do it if it kept Heather happy. After all, as long as she was happy, she'd be with me.
"I'll get it!" She said, getting up off of me and padding to the door. When she opened it, I saw Magister Kamala standing at the other side. She was dressed in black pants and a red tee shirt with a black blazer, a gun holstered to her side. Her hair was done into a neat bun, which further accentuated her exotic features and the rounded lines of her face. She was pretty in a distant, inaccessible way.
"Oh...hi." Heather said, raising an eyebrow. "Can I hel-"
"I'm here to see Algernon. He's here, no?" She asked, her tone businesslike. I didn't know Kamala very well, but I had a feeling that indicated she wasn't very happy.
I got up from the couch and moved behind Heather, gently putting a hand on the small of her back to indicate for her to get out of the way. She did so immediately. Now that I saw Kamala, I saw that she might be starving. The indication of a struggle within played out right in her eyes, especially when she looked at Heather. Regardless, she remained outwardly calm, even managing to tilt her head in slight curiosity.
"A girlfriend?" She asked.
"Ghoul." I replied flatly.
"Ah. A pet. I remember my first ghoul." Kamala's gaze turned to me. "She died. You're only going to lose her."
"I don't want to talk about it. What do you want?"
"Grab your things, neonate. The Prince wants us in his suite."
I suppressed the urge to sigh. What could it be now? It wasn't that I was weary or anything - I no longer got tired. But being the Prince's errand boy was starting to grow old. Being everyone's errand boy was growing old. If it was already growing old, I was in trouble because I had at least a century more of being pushed around before people started respecting me. Without another word, I grabbed my duster off of the coat rack by the door and my leather satchel. After gathering my stuff, I went upstairs to talk to Heather.
"I'm going out." I told her. "Might be back very late. Don't wait up for me, okay?"
She nodded. "Where are you going?"
I looked downstairs at Kamala impatiently waiting for me at the door and sighed.
"Right into the mouth of trouble." I replied.
LaCroix's office was more chaotic than I'd ever seen it. As soon as we entered the double doors, my ears were assaulted with the sound of Kindred bickering and yelling at each other. This is because some idiot thought it was a good idea to put the LA Anarchs and the Camarilla in the same room. Around the room, I saw well-dressed vampires yelling at vampires dressed in more casual clothing. All things considered, I was surprised weapons weren't being brandished and that they were yelling at each other. Judging by the overall feel of the room, however, it seemed that it was getting to that point.
Kamala looked absolutely irritated. As did Prince LaCroix, who was sitting at the far end of the room behind a long table with Strauss, the Nosferatu Primogen Gary Golden, Tourette Voerman as Therese, Jack from the Last Round, and the Banu Haquim Primogen Mohammed Aziz. They were all speaking among each other but not the Prince. I saw LaCroix lean in to whisper into Strauss' ear beside him. Strauss nodded and presumably used Auspex to project his command into the minds of everyone in the room.
"Everyone, remain calm and take a seat, please."
His voice was louder than any of the shouting in the room, yet still gentle and even-toned enough to leave no room to interpret that he was yelling. Everyone in the room stopped and looked at him, then went to take seats. I went to sit near the back in one of the unoccupied spaces, away from both the Anarchs and the Camarilla. Once everyone was seated and relatively quiet, LaCroix stood up from his seat and buttoned up his blazer. Everyone in the room immediately placed their attention on him, save for a few including me. Upon looking at him with Auspex, I saw that he was using Presence to command the attention of most of the room.
"My fellow Kindred," He began, the irritation barely repressed in his voice. "Today, the Camarilla and the Baron of the Santa Monica Anarch Movement are proposing a collaboration between our two sects to brave the threat of the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle."
"Collaboration?!" I heard Nines speak up. "Yeah the fuck right! You just want to use us as pawns and take the fucking credit for brownie points with your old ass masters!"
The irritation again flickered on LaCroix's face, but he remained calm.
"I am actually quite glad that Mr. Rodriguez had shared his opinion on this matter." The Prince said. "I can assure you, neither me nor my Primogen intend on reporting our potential success in this operation to our Justicars or the Inner Circle. This issue is entirely self-contained within Santa Monica and Los Angeles, so there is simply no one to report this to."
Nines didn't say anything, but I was guessing he didn't look happy.
"Now, if I may continue without further objections," The Prince continued. "The Tremere Primogen Maximilian Strauss and his Chantry have worked extensively to find a cure to this Red Plague and had finally achieved success. Baron Therese Voerman and I will collaborate, using our connections to various medical centers in LA and Santa Monica to distribute this cure, but we must first deal with the matter of the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle. They are still mass embracing and slaughtering the kine indiscriminately, which is an existential threat to the Kindred of both of our cities, as I'm sure you can imagine."
Strauss spoke up. "Without the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle eliminated, all attempts at curing this plague will be futile. Now, we do not know if the Brotherhood is of Sabbat affiliation-"
"Of course they're fuckin' Sabbat!" One of the Kindred, presumably an Anarch heckled from the crowd.
Strauss ignored them. "-So open warfare with the LA Sabbat is out of the question. It could tip the delicate balance of power both of our sects have in this city, and provide an opening for the Kuei-jin to launch a counterattack. We do not want that. So for now, we will focus solely on the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle."
"Through the efforts of Primogen Gary Golden's spies throughout Los Angeles and Santa Monica, we have managed to find the members of the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle." Therese said, speaking up. "The members are as follows: Brother Kanker who is located in the sewers of Downtown LA, Jezebel Locke who has frequented hospitals in Downtown LA and is posing as a prostitute, Bishop Vick, though his location is unknown at this time. In Santa Monica is a 7th Generation Gangrel known as Wulf who seems to prowl the beaches and outskirts of the city, and a Kyasid spree killer by the name of Peabody. Now, there was another member, but-"
"Her name was Rowena." Jack said, interjecting himself into Therese's announcement. "Malkavian. Dark Thaumaturge. Skelter and I caught her outside the convention center, took her down."
For a moment, there was silence. Irritation flickered over Therese's features, but she composed herself as quickly as it happened.
"...That leaves just the members I'd mentioned, then." She said. "Mr. Golden?"
Gary Golden stood up. The man looked absolutely horrifying, and I was several feet away from him.
"All of the vampires in this pack are 9th generation and below." Gary told the crowd, his voice raspy like a knife scraping against rock. "New age elders. From what I've been able to gather, they travel, completely wipe out kindred within a city, kill a few hundred kine in a city until they get bored, and then move on. My people have found records of them stretching back to the 40's, though they are probably much older than that."
"We will be separating all of those that are combat-ready into coteries, then we'll assign them to specific members of the Brotherhood." LaCroix said. "The superior of your coterie will then call their assigned number to report the assigned member dead. The rest of you will be intelligence-gathering and assisting Ms. Voerman and I with distributing the cure."
The rest of the meeting was Therese assigning the teams. Jack, Skelter, and a thin-blood named Jenna Cross, who I'd seen around but didn't know, with Jack as the leader, getting assigned to taking down Peabody. The rest were no-names: Nines being grouped with a Camarilla Nosferatu named Gregory, who was grouped with an Anarch named Mira Mendez. There were a few more new names after that, which made me realize that I hadn't met most Kindred in LA. They were probably avoiding me on account of my Sire. When I heard my name, my still heart dropped into the pit of my stomach.
"Algernon Blake, independent." Therese called out. "You will be with Damsel O'Hara, Anarch, Kamala Al-Fasi, Camarilla, and Tanner Khan, independent. Kamala Al-Fasi will the assigned coterie leader. You are all assigned to Brother Kanker."
Oh no. I thought.
I wasn't worried about Tanner. I didn't know him. But Kamala? She was the Camarilla hardass next to Strauss. The few times I did encounter her, she regarded me coldly and rudely, treating as someone beneath her - which, to be fair, I was if we were talking about the Pyramid. Putting her in the same team as Damsel was a recipe for disaster. Who's fucking idea was this? Was this LaCroix trying to kill me again?
I saw Damsel and Kamala glare daggers at each other from across the room. Then Damsel glared at me.
This was going to be one hell of a night.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder