Alexei nodded, "If a younger Eternal, there may well be surveillance. Which organizations do you know of that are strong on technology? A sophisticated cyberwarfare attack hit the local computers, or at least I surmise because," and this was the galling part, "There was a flurry of activity that drew the local police, who were the thralls, away from the Eternal they targeted. They only mopped up the thralls after the killing, and lured them to an abandoned warehouse to do it. Also, the young mortal's body was not among the others. Why spare Mullen's prey?"

He ran over the facts in his head before nodding to the other two, "You are both right and I think we should test their surveillance. Let's create a few bodies, Mullen's favorite type, drained of all blood and put stories out only on the blogs. We can do it in Chicago, and then plant stories in the tabloid media. We should take care to make it only look like one of us, but be deliberate in creating thralls that we can throw away. Careless ones that will be observed grabbing people. We must be careful ourselves, because whomever these hunters are, they killed three at a time. That's never been done before."

Of course, the Eternal could turn a blind eye to one, two or even three of their kind being removed from the equation, but it went against their pride and their self-perception as apex predators to let anything hunt them like that. This blood demanded more blood.

"We will also have to match their numbers. You and I, Paul, need to create progeny. Perhaps we can make them from relatives of those slain thralls in Dukewater..."

[@Vanq]