[IC] Staring Back With Chrome Eyes [Vanq x HeySeuss]

[HeySeuss]

Dukewater, Illinois could be any town anywhere in America. It was the prosperous American dream, far enough away from Chicago to not inherit the city's violence, but close enough for a commute up 57 and into the city for people that could afford it. Prosperous, middle class, and wedded to a vision of bygone days in white picket fence prosperity.

Marco could remember prom, a lifetime ago now. This place was still doing them in high school gymnasiums, avoiding the expense of booking a local hotel. Hotels had more security. As he moved along the footpath through the park adjacent to Dukewater High (home of the Dukes) he noted the incoming messages as they pinged on one side of his vision.

<sub>* Alpha target still in the dance.
Roger. Maintain visual, do not break cover. What else is going on?
* Awkward teenage slow-dancing. Chaperones trying to force the distance. Well, one chaperone is letting herself get groped by a tight end.
* Units on the move, looks like they took that drug shipment bait.
* Will that get them high?
* Well, it'll get them hard. Dunno about high. I thought Deputy Trenton could use some dick drugs.
On mission, here. Virus inserted?
* Yes. Waiting command for activation.
* Eliminate deputies [Y/N?] N
Use minimum necessary disruption. We are holding. How many deputies are heading to do that drug bust?
* Good news is, all of them. Bad news is that if we don't do this fast, they'll be running around here with all that military surplus gear they're strapping on. Someone might get hurt.</sub>

For others, learning to use the mental communication was a steeper learning curve than Marco. He was maimed so badly that it was the only communication he had for some time, that first vital link with his father, who underwent the surgery in order to communicate directly with his flesh-imprisoned, Mai,Ed son. Somewhere back at Prime, the Doctor was watching the operation and biting nails, wondering about his flesh and blood out there in the field. They'd killed a thrall, but this was a trio of vampires and a bunch of thralls.

He wasn't alone in his evening stroll, he was arm in arm with the last member of the strike team, pretending that they were normal people. They'd already done a lot of recon, a week's worth of sneaking around, inserting virii into systems and otherwise subverting all the relevant electronics in town. Mullen had a very familiar modus. Marco's sense of deja vu threatened to overcome, along with a subtle flush of stabilizing anti-anxiety meds into his system and compensatory drugs of other types. It felt like control was something he gave up a long time ago, trapped in this metal nightmare of a body. Living this nightmare of a life where his fiance was dead and he was consumed in this fucked-up shadow war. He was faster, sure, stronger, sure. But nothing felt natural anymore, most of all himself. Almost everything on him of use, hands, feet, lets, arms, ears, eyes...all rebuilt. All chrome.

On the side of the school, a door opened, allowing a glance into the neon-lit interior. It was a couple of chaperones taking a nip from a flask and smoking joints. They were taking their refuge from the boom of the bass and the awkward slow-dancing. They had no idea what was going on here.

Not Mullen.

_{* Alpha target en route. He's bringing the bait along.}

Bad choice of words. That was what the girl was, but Saria never seemed comfortable with the plan of letting Mullen do his thing. They'd get him when his guard was down.

_{Roger that. Positions. I want location updates on Giorgio and Anna.}

Mullen's coven was taking it easy tonight, but that would change fast. If the girl was bait for Mullen, then Mullen was bait for the others, Anna Smith and Giorgio Ordelaffi. Giorgio was dangerous because he was old. But Anna was dangerous because she was smart. She was the one that devised an entire series of horror/romance novels designed to groom young girls into willing victims for others. She was a celebrity in the Eternal's world.

"Do you think you can steer him toward us?" he muttered to Saria. "We need to do this fast and get the girl the fuck away from that thing."

@vanq

[Vanq]

Much like the high school they now strolled by, full of kids who - according to pop culture at least - struggled to find their place, Ria wrestled with her new role. If she was completely honest with herself, she would admit that while the others intimidated her, Marco terrified her. Between the whispers of his past and glimpses of the extreme augmentations, she was not sure what exactly to make of him. Her brain had seemed to instantly assign fear as the appropriate response, a response she tried to ignore.

It had nearly been sensory overload when her own implants had been completed. As her eyes flicked to catch the incoming messages, she felt with the other neural implants. She could feel them, the vampires, in a way, pulsing in such a way as to provide a spatial recognition of their location. Their main target, Mullen, was inside the school. Saria felt it before the message had crossed her vision. She kept her sense of him her main focus but felt out for any other hot spots. Tonight, there would be no ambush except their own.

She had not cared for the plan. Bait. The word had been tossed out like it was nothing. Some teen girl, thrown to an apex predator. She knew her own past clouded her judgement, but at least Nima had known what they were up against. It had clearly not been her place to disagree, and hopefully the look of disapproval had been wiped off her face before anyone had noticed. She didn't need anyone thinking she was weak.

Marco's request sent a dose of adrenaline through her body. "Yea." She slid her arm out from Marco's, uncertain exactly what she was going to do. Giorgio and Anna weren't confirmed yet, but she could feel them being farther away than Mullen.

Boots against payment, she headed in their target's direction, along the school. Quickly, she formulated a plan, a shit plan, but something that the oh so dreamy Eternal would need to act on. Saria caught a glimpse of the duo ahead of her and broke into a full out run. Then nearly gagged as they came into full view, it looked like he was halfway down her throat, pressed up against the building.

"Hey! Excuse me!" She raised her voice just enough to carry to the preoccupied duo. A false panic welled within her, and she urged it on until tears formed in her eyes. "Please...I need your help. S-some asshole just hit my dog and I don't have my phone, and she's so heavy I just can't move her. Please, do you have a phone?" She rubbed at her face, her voice coming out strained and scratchy.

"Oh no!" The girl seemed genuinely concerned as she broke away from Mullen. Without further prompting, she fished a slim cell from the top of her dress. Saria watched it turn on and the girl's face scrunch. "I don't have any reception." The girl looked up, her admiration for the monster was repulsive.

"I didn't bring my phone." He spoke softly, but Saria was certain of the edge to his voice. Frustration.

"Maybe it'll work closer to the street," she offered, looking back towards her phone, "or Rick can help...right? At least get him out of the street?"

Saria eagerly agreed before Mullen could counter, "Thank you so much, thank you. I just didn't know what I was going to do. Thank you." She hiccuped.

^{*Heading towards Marco, target and girl with me.}

"What's his name?" The girl asked, walking next to Saria. In her peripheral, she could still see the girl's fingers intertwined behind her in Mullen's hand.

"Her, hah, Marcie." She sniffled.

^{*You ready?.}

Saria was ready, with the girl on her right, she could get her out of the way. She had to.

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

Saria did it right, she lured them out of screaming range. That was important, because they were trying to reduce witnesses. This was a hostage rescue, in his mind. The FBI training dictated that.

Marco didn't take the shot, though he had a weapon out, his pistol.

But that was where Morgen came into play; she had a long-range rifle. Aim-assist was a matter of network-enabled trajectory calculations that were constantly updated, with a reticle overlaid on his vision along with all the other data. Single shot, flechettes and he put three right into the stomach of the vampire; the idea wasn't to kill Mullen. Killing had to be done with a lot more firepower or some drastic action like removing a head. Stakes through the heart would neutralize long enough to allow for that, but eventually they'd come back up pissed. The followup was on the girl, a tranq from Marco's pistol.

This took the blood supply out. Marco was already springing forward on the power of nano-augmented muscle. That blood hit with a horrid, viscous splash onto the walkway and much of the vamp's power went with it. A vamp in this position would still be able to fight and deal with a human, but they'd heal quickly and become very hungry. Traditional hunters, not augmented, would not have very long to capitalize on this situation and the typical move was to stake.

Mullen was expecting that and was already turning himself sideways and trying to cover that vulnerability, snarling. He wasn't expecting augmentation. He wasn't expecting a fair fight. He wasn't expecting a very unfair fight with so much stacked against him, including his own expectations. The Eternal were too used to the ease of their victories. They were used to the same old.

Marco wasn't following the pattern. He wasn't aiming for his heart with a stake. Instead of trying to pry the vamper's hand off the girl's, he used finger-nail blades to sever the tendons and force a bloody release. The next move was to put his palm out and fire a blast from the other arm, the one with the shotgun, right into Mullen's torso to keep him healing. He wasn't taking chances here. Adrenaline was spiking and not all of it was synthetic combat drugs tailored to further heighten response times and the fight-or-flight.

He was extensively augmented for the purpose. Ripped to shreds, they had to put all that stuff into him, but he was making it count now. There was a whole strike team out there, but he didn't use them. They were already setting up for the next move.

Instead, he forced Mullen down in a struggle. The Eternal were strong, and the simulations he'd trained on against them reflected that, but he was still stronger. It didn't take long to get Mullen pinned to the ground or to put a foot through his sternum, with a blade extended that piled through the Eternal and into the concrete below. He began pounding the Eternal methodically with his pistol, made of alloys strong enough to take it. Relentless, precisely metered blows with the butt. Usually, the skin would bounce back a mortal's blow with a laugh. That happened when he fought for his fiance and her family. That didn't happen this time -- instead, it was blow after blow, pulping the flesh, but caught short of killing. Once the struggle stopped, Marco used a signal to reactivate Mullen's phone and text the other two. Asshole was lying, he had a phone.

"Help me bind him. ETA in two. They are moving fast." They had to keep Mullen alive; vampires in a coven could sometimes sense each other's life force and other things. It was entirely possible that Anna and Giorgio were aware that Richard was still alive but healing. That would be consistent with a traditional hunter attack. They'd come to help him tear apart the mortals that had the temerity to raise a hand to the Eternal. The retribution was often bloody and exaggerated, a display of superiority. It was no time to make them think that anything was different here, just another weak attempt by the prey to upset the natural order.

Also, bad tactical decision, he didn't want to just snuff Richard Mullen with no fanfare. There was no poetry in that. He wanted his revenge, so did everyone else in the hunt-kill team. The Vigil picked those that had lost, and they wanted to inflict the loss back.

The reports kept rolling in as the rest of the hunt-kill team updated with reports, Kramer handling all the network intel, the drone surveillance net and infiltrated systems. They had a damned good idea what was going on all over town.

Anna and Giorgio, on their way. Sheriff and Deputies too. The clock was ticking.

@vanq

[Vanq]

She was surprised it worked, that it was working. Her past with a hunter group chafed at her, the urge to grab a stake and drive it through the cruel creature's heart. She knew that had been her way, though she had never had a chance to do so herself. That training still felt instinctual, not the simulations they had been put through. This was reality, this was vicious. The need for revenge clawed from her gut to her throat and mixed with the thrill that, for the first time in her life, she was equipped to be the danger.

Though she dragged the girl away from the brutal beating, after Marco had slit at Mullen's wrist, she struggled to take her eyes off of his brutal attack. Vigil training was fresh in her mind, and though the temptation to revel in the initial success was there, she pushed through. Mullen was no longer their target and she let go of her focus on him, felt out instead for Anna and Giorgio. There was still much to accomplish to get out alive.

"Really fast." She muttered in agreement as she dropped to the ground. She had the special alloy restraints pulled out in seconds. Saria tossed one pair at Marco and used the other to bind the vamp's ankles herself. With Mullen secured, she grabbed her pistol. The other two would be arriving soon and she needed to be ready. Saria felt high, charged, her muscles ached for release of the pent up energy.

A new report blinked across her vision, Anna and Giorgio had been spotted closing in. They were heading from the opposite direction, behind her and Marco. The male may have been the one with advantage from his age, but it Anna who really made her blood boil. For a creature with so many advantages over humans, it was unnecessary cruelty to groom a generation of girls for their kinds' advances.

Night and darkness was no longer a hindrance, a disadvantage. She could see them in their fast approach. She took aim, leveling the gun straight at the bitch's chest. It wouldn't hurt her much, probably wouldn't even slow her down. But it would enrage her, and enraged vamps didn't think. They usually didn't have to. Saria took the shot, and heard another shot meet it's mark - Morgen most likely. "Fucker."

Saria had hit her mark and shot again. Square in the chest. She took off, feet propelling her quickly to take Anna head on.

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

Giorgio's blood boiled. The message was simple: "Another coven moving in on our territory. Help."

Internecine warfare was a way among the Eternal, when they weren't smashing mortals, as there were many Eternal and they were predators who operated in territories. They fought for influence, thralls and areas of control. Giorgio was never an ambitious one, Richard was focused on his game and Anna found her thrills in other ways besides brute force domination. Her work required a deft hand, manipulating the prey into acceptance of thralldom and other relationships, making the prey easier, more docile. In this age of reason, it was harder to believe in vampires. The Eternal encouraged this by manipulating information through skilled thralls. That was always the way of it, thrall work was the mundane. They didn't bother with it terribly much, unless amused by it as Anna was.

The home they kept was near enough the school that it wasn't that far away, picked for the preferences of Richard. His game was another amusement.

They moved fast, soaring down the streets. All thoughts of concealment were out the window. Anna had quickly given Deputy Trenton the signal to drop everything, but the thrall senior deputy wasn't going to be there as quickly as they could and it was imperative that they defend their territory. Other Eternal were the threat, as they could breed quite quickly and were the primary existential challenge to one another. Giorgio, of course, savored the challenge. He'd been created in late-medieval Italy, when cities fought among themselves and never got out of the mode.

There was quite a bit of state forest, the start of it anyway, to move past toward the school. Richard was, supposedly, a bit past that, as the phone gave a location for them to pinpoint, but Giorgio couldn't quite shake the instinct that something was amiss, particularly as they came in for where Richard was. He was alive, but bound up, and that was the first sign that things were not as they should be. A fight between Eternal did not involve immobilized enemies.

Then, a sledgehammer hit his gut. His knees went weak and he staggered. In trying to draw strength from his reserve, he found that he was unable to do so because it was no longer there. Looking down, he saw his strength, precious blood, spilled to the ground, and felt a fury rise up in him, alongside the immense thirst. This was a hunter trick.

He gave a snarl toward the mortal with the toy gun. Sometimes they would get cagey and try to improvise traps, and he'd dealt with them over the years, pityingly. Still, it seemed off. Perhaps, with his superior vision, he caught the glint of metal on the man, which perhaps meant armor, but he still tried to close the distance with his bare hands.

Several more rounds hit him, aimed from concealment. So they were good shots, but that wouldn't save them. In a sense, Giorgio had the medieval respect for a cunning and brave foe. But the human was just standing there, not trying to find a way to stop the approach. This would end once he was in striking distance.

Somehow, the human was timing the kick properly to actually land a hit. His punch, which should have broken bones, bounced off something hard and unyielding, not the soft flesh of a mortal. Even with armor, the sort he'd seen in his time as an Italian mercenary, mortals were frail.

His leg broke. It wasn't supposed to break, not under a mortal's blow.

It would heal quickly, but then there was another hammer blow, a shotgun at close range. He looked over and was shocked to see Anna's state, as the hunters came out of their concealment. They were all armed. This time, he carefully assessed his enemies as if they were real foes, dangerous foes, and realized that these mortals were different. They smelled differently, of cold metal. Their heartbeats and breathing were subtly different. The movement, however, really gave it away, there was a precision there beyond even the Eternal. Their eyes reflected back light like a cat's.

Had they found a way to balance the scales? That was Giorgio's last thought as his head came off with one brutal chop of a blade...

@vanq

[Vanq]

"Holy shit, it worked." Saria was breathing heavily, a mix of exertion and the remaining adrenaline in her system. Giorgio was dead, decapitated. Anna and Mullen were incapacitated. While she had not accepted that this would be a suicide mission, there was still a healthy dose of skepticism she retained.

"So far. Trenton and the others arriving in 10." Kramer joined in, eying the situation up close. "They're going to be pissed, it's Anna they're bound to."

The former hunter glanced sideways at the woman. Pathetic, her abdomen was mangled. Both of the incapacitated Eternals snarled against their restraints. Thralls in withdrawal would not be pretty for Dukewater. How long the withdrawal period would last seemed to depend on many variables, and this trio had set up their territory in the town for a while now. Saria pressed her lips in thought. Regardless of their decision, they did not have long to clean up and clear out. She wiped her face against the back of her hand.

"Hey, new girl. Get the van?" Morgen, spoke up. "We'll need to move the bodies out before Deputy Dickie shows up with his posse."

Saria rolled her shoulders in annoyance, she was frustrated to not finish off one of the vamps. "Trust me with the keys? You're sweet." She caught them easily, and jogged off to where they had parked their main transport.

A few minutes later, and with a few minutes to spare before the deputy should be arriving, Saria returned with body bags slung over her shoulder. They would finish disposal of the bodies later, where they wouldn't be disturbed. She glanced towards the others before setting herself to the task of getting Giorgio into a bag. In the distance, she could hear sirens. The others would be able to as well, undoubtedly. That made her nervous, thralls could be dangerous, especially those fully armed.

"We getting out of here?" She asked, the now heavy bag hefted over her shoulder.

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

Saria wasn't the only shocked one. Simulations, technology and all that didn't necessarily offset the dark fears that whispered in his head. The trauma required regular medication, there was a computer that monitored his emotional responses and dosed accordingly to stabilize. But he was elated, it worked. However, it worked and left them holding a bag. Saria nailed it; Thralls. What to do with them?

"Not yet. Can't leave these thralls to detox around civilians."

He didn't want the vampires to overhear the plan.

_{Designating map points for deployment. Let's pick up Anna and Richard and lure these deputies away from civilians.}

Either way, it'd be a mess, but at least if they left a mess of deputies dead somewhere away from everywhere else, there'd be an investigation. All the same, the result of leaving thralls to detox meant that people who weren't involved would get killed. So Marco was already hefting Anna up. Someone else grabbed Richard, and they started to move fast, getting the two of them to the vehicle and getting it started. Others were able to move unencumbered and quickly while the van played a coy game of lumbering along, trying to string the thrall deputies into the trap alongside.

It took a couple punches to get Anna to settle down long enough to get her and Richard into the back of the van. Marco was right there with them, so was Saria. And behind them were Dukewater's finest, blood-addicted and on the razor edge of seemingly normal behavior and a homicidal freakout with tac-gear.

@vanq

[Vanq]

She should have known better than to insinuate they would leave a bunch of helpless people to deal with detoxing thralls, but neither Saria was not eager to see how they would have to deal with deputies. She glanced back towards the damaged Eternals, a reminder of how far all of them had come. She hoped they felt the same sense of dread so many mortals had felt, she wondered if they could fully fear true death.

PDA in hand, she pulled up a map of Dukewater.

_{I don't suppose crossing jurisdictions means much to the deputies.}

It was only sent to Marco, and regardless of it just being an attempt at banter, she followed his lead in leaving the vamps in the dark as much as possible. With a different thought, she changed her search. Permanently closed business. There was a list, restaurants, mom and pop stores, not the kind of place she wanted to guide them towards. Her eyes lit up further down the list.

_{About 15 minutes out from an closed warehouse. Relatively empty industrial park.}

Seconds later she sent out the coordinates to the group. The route would take them closer to the city, a calculated risk. Saria doubted the thralls would want other police departments to engage, given their cargo. She flexed, stretching her arms and legs, one by one in the limited space allotted her. They might have to kill the deputies, she knew it and kept the thought in the back of her mind, preparing herself. But it wouldn't be their first resort, or at least it wouldn't be hers. Much like Marco had taken the poor prom girl out with a tranq, Saria shuffled to load up on some non-lethal options. Equipment was certainly not a scarcity with the Vigil.

The warehouse had surely once been one among many such facilities, a few decades ago. Once it had been a paper mill, and like so many others, had struggled along, cutting workers until it was barely a shell of what it once was. Back in the day, the jobs if offered would have given an average Joe a decent wage to lead a mediocre life. It had been abandoned completely for some years, boarded up with no trespassing signs littering it's entrance road and building. The county and state didn't have the funds to tear down all of them, especially when ownership remained up in the air. It remained fenced off, but between kids cutting it to sneak in for urban exploration or parties and more nefarious sorts using it as a place to dispense with business, the fence was not well maintained. It wasn't difficult to enter, and the sprawling, dilapidated parking lot with out buildings made it a prime location for the impending showdown.

As the vehicle came to a smooth stop, Saria took a deep breath. "Time for the not-so-fun part, hm?"

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

"Think of them as a bunch of lone wolf spree shooters if we let them go. They'll go delusional, then they'll go violent." What Marco didn't say, because it was irrelevant to the mission, was that they'd have to come up with better ways to handle these guys when they started sticking it to the Eternal on a mass level.

He was already tapped into their comm nets, and it was ugly; they were already starting to frenzy, especially the ones that were on Giorgio's blood. The others were picking up on it as if they were attuned to each other, like a pack of hunting dogs, baying for blood because the alpha is riled. That was new and unknown stuff.

He already had a plan. Morgen pulled up to the warehouse.

_{Deploy for an ambush. Prep vehicles for extraction, south side of the warehouse. We're going to use the north parking lot as our killzone. We have to get them all, use everything you have on them. Leave no survivors.}

The others started their deployment, but he held Saria back with another set of instructions.

_{When I give the signal, off Smith. I've got Mullen. The death of their masters ought to send the thralls into a much greater frenzy.}

The sirens were already coming closer, along with the growl of engines. The deputies were running those cars at top speed, screeching tires and all. When they started to pull into the business park where the warehouse was, Marco gave the signal. As he was doing so, he put his foot down, with the blade, on Richard's head, crushing it. There were a few seconds of resistance and then the skull gave way. He twisted the foot with the blade, creating even more of a mess, in conjunction with Mullen's convulsions.

_{Anna Smith and Richard Mullen are dead.}

The gunfire roared as the rest of the hunt-kill team opened up on the deputies. It was ugly, but it was for the best.

***

CHICAGO - A local couple, their adopted son and five deputies were found dead in Dukewater, Illinois yesterday morning. The killer or killers were thought to be at large, law enforcement officials said. Another local resident, Christine Haney, is missing.

The burned body of George Smith was found near Dukewater High School, where a senior prom was held the night before. Anna Smith and Richard Mullen, the couple's adoptive son, were identified in the wreckage of a van near an empty warehouse facility belonging to FTG Logistics, a bankrupt company. Five deputies were also found dead in the parking lot of FTG Logistics. Mullen and Haney were confirmed to be attending the prom at Dukewater High School together.

Officials said at a late-afternoon news conference that they could not rule out the possibility that other members of the community may be in danger and that officers were checking on them throughout the region.

“We are advising the community to be very careful, and take particular precaution,” the FBI Special Agent In Charge Jill McMullen, of the Chicago Field Office, said.

“The individual or individuals who committed this crime obviously are dangerous,” McMullen said. “We believe they are still at large.”

The dead included seven adults and a 16-year-old boy; officials had said earlier that two of the victims were juveniles.

“Three of the victims appear to have been executed,” McMullen said.

Asked if investigators had any indication of a motive, she said, “none.” Officials said it was also unclear when the killings took place.

“We are trying to assess precisely what was going on. Our field office is currently going over the communications of the Sheriffs department.”

At first, officials said they could not rule out the possibility that the killer was among the dead, “the preliminary determination has been made that none of the eight individuals committed suicide.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco are part of a task force investigating the crimes, according to Agent McMullen. No comment was given as to any persons of interest in the kidnapping and killings.

The killings and kidnapping took place in a suburb of Chicago, about 24 miles south of the City. There is an Amber Alert out for Christine Haney.

***

Extraction was routine, but the debrief wasn't. It was the first time that hunters ever took several vampires at once and there were new lessons learned in Eternal physiology. It was also when the six people of the hunt-kill team compared notes with each other. The news was all over the place, but the mortal authorities didn't seem to have any real clue what was going on, and there may well have been Eternal pressure to keep the inquiry from producing too much information.

But the Vigil knew what it had done and the Eternal were no doubt asking questions of their own. Anna Smith was one of their superstars, and her death was going to have consequences. And so it was Marco and Saria sitting in the cafeteria in their compound, all the way out in Tennessee, watching the news stories unfold. There was a lot on there that Marco could do without, such as the pictures of the deputies, their tearful families and all the condemnation by authority figures. It felt like he'd crossed a new threshold. Meanwhile, Christine Haynes was in a rubber room somewhere, being treated for PTSD and gently pumped for information on her relationship with Mullen. She hadn't gone insane from his death, so clearly she wasn't enthralled. It was unlikely she'd ever have a normal life again, but normal was all relative and incredibly fragile anyway.

"So, how did you think this would feel? I mean, I thought it'd feel great, but..."

But.

@Vanq

[Vanq]

She had thought it would feel great too. Now, as she sat in the cafeteria, picking at the nearly untouched food in front of her, with the news blaring, it didn't feel so good. It hadn't felt so good in the moment either. Thinking it would end without so much bloodshet had been a foolish thought on her part. So far, she had kept it together, in line with the rest of her team. Saria had never been one prone to long fits of despair, she buried it, turned it into fuel for rage.

At least the girl was alive, that was something. Perhaps this Christine Haynes or her family would not think so at the moment, but life was a success. The endless images of the deputies, the outpouring of anger at those who hadn't taken their lives, it was like daggers. How often had she felt the same for hunters whose lives were lost or those of the innocents taken as game.

It was hard to meet Marco's eyes. She did not want her resolve to appear weak as it was. "It did at first, at least." She paused, forehead creasing. "We proved...we proved the impossible. We got revenge." But. Marco's words hung heavily, the sentiment he chose to leave unsaid. "We will find a better way." If not for morality's sake, having to take out groups of thralls would not be tactically sound. Which reason the others chose to find a better way would be their own. Saria struggled to justify it, her life in danger against foes who did not choose their violent bindings. And she thought of Nima, if she was an Eternal, like Saria so absolutely believed, she had not chosen that fate either.

She cleared her throat, willing her tension away. "So what now? Do we get any rest before the rest of hell breaks loose?" Her half smile faltered, they had started a long road. Rest was, luckily, not something their bodies required as much of anymore.

-----

"It's impossible. Surely this was a rival staking a claim."

Far from Tennessee, a couple argued. "Don't be ridiculous. You may not have been one of us long, but have you ever seen a territory dispute leave such a mess in its wake?"

The man was tall, muscular, and very angry. His normally meticulously groomed hair was astray, his meticulous clothing, disheveled. The woman, his companion, positioned herself on the far side of the room. Tall and trim, her body's curves and perfect face had secured her fate. She had been with Paul for several years now. She had never heard him speak such nonsense.

"But-"

"No, our orders are final. We will look into this further, and you are essential to this matter. You came from a family of hunters, if there was information you kept from us during your...initiation, now would be the time to share it." Paul lunged from his chair and was upon the female in moments, her skin giving in to his grasp. He had chosen her, he had wanted her and claimed her. She had been his since the day she was taken. He had molded her, shaped her in her new life.

Nima blinked once, slowly. "There is no way in hell that even a large group of hunters would have been able to take on three of us. Especially not one as old as Giorgio." She cut him off before he could lash out further. "But of course, I will lend my expertise on resolving this."

Paul's grip relaxed. "We leave tonight."

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

Alexei Voronin was there too, to meet Paul and Nima. He had access to the reports. Bald, creased eyes, wiry build. He'd been Soviet-era KGB officer, taken after perestroika. A useful pawn among the Eternal and one of the rare ones made for his abilities rather than his beauty or amusement value. His sire was one of the great Ladies among the Eternal, the Lady Klotho. She used Voronin as an advisor, which was unusual. Most Eternal preferred older vampires as their advisors, but Lady Klotho made talented mortals into her entourage, and they provided insight into the modern world. He was one of several, but his presence meant that she was interested.

Their meeting was in a motel in Dukewater. The room was nondescript, but there was a computer and printouts all around. There were no thralls.

"It's good to see that you brought her, Paul," his English accented. "Because this is highly unusual. The killing methods...well, look at them. There are bullets, but also blunt force trauma and a sign of bladed weaponry in use. Most unusually, there is no useful surveillance footage."

His fingers were steepled, he was sitting with the chair facing backwards, straddling it. But he watched Nima as he asked the next question, "You are an interesting case, you come from the hunter community. Tell me about this community. I want to know anything you might have not told us before. Are any of them blood-drinkers? Do you know of any vaults of Eternal blood being stored?" Thralls, he thought, it could be thralls.

"They were gut-shot, the forensic report says that. Hunter trick, as you know. But that doesn't account for how the force that was used. Giorgio's leg was broken and then he was beaten to death. Someone put a blade through Richard's skull. There are inconsistencies. Have you ever heard rumors of vampires turning hunters into thralls?" That was the other thought, that one of the Eternal was betraying them. He watched both of the others intently. Paul was older, but Alexei's patron was ancient and had a terrible reputation. She wanted answers.

@vanq

[Vanq]

It was dangerous business, being such a youthful Eternal. While she had kept herself useful to her patron, rarely would be brought in to speak directly to her knowledge. The greatest threat had always been themselves, until recently at least. She looked over the images, the reports that were scattered around the room.

Paul had discussed it with her, on their way to Dukewater. Though the higher ups would try to down play this travesty, he was certain they were desperate for answers. Desperation which could lead to scapegoating. The threat had been thinly veiled, as it had been when she was tasked with ambushing her imbecile sister.

It took her a moment to answer, long enough that Paul inhaled sharply. "No, I have never heard of such a thing. But you must know, hunter groups are such a varied bunch. It is a community in the loosest sense of the word - I had heard rumors of other groups who honestly thought this might be reversible." Perfectly ruby red lips pulled back in a sneer. "Purposefully storing Eternal blood, or using thralls against us...Most of them would find that too repulsive." Most, but not all. She left the door open to that as Paul had demanded. It wasn't what she believed, but Paul's instructions had been clear so she swallowed her pride.

Nima picked up the crime scene photo of Giorgio. It screamed of hunter tactics, except for the lack of any sign that he had been staked. And the overkill. "I was a hunter, and now I am Eternal." "If that is possible, surely it is possible for a hunter to be enthralled to do their "prey's" bidding." That was closer to her own belief. A vampire or small coven misbehaving. "May I speak bluntly?"

Paul nearly hissed, Nima had always been difficult to keep in line. There were times he almost appreciated that about her but this was not one of them. Any slight would be held against him as much as her, if not more so.

"Anna was a high profile target." Paul spoke over her, with a look silencing any protest she might raise. "Whether this was hunters or an Eternal behind the attack, clearly they meant to make a statement. Surely that can be used to draw out this group once more and settle what is at play. We know the tactics they employed, and that can be turned against them."

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

Alexei glanced over Paul with a raised eyebrow. "Unless a better hypothesis presents itself, we are looking at empowered hunters. But how? Is it possible that more hunters were made Eternal, perhaps by one of our own looking to cull back the numbers?" He had extensive information on all three, but it was hard to see why others might go after Richard or Giorgio. He was working off Nima's thought that it could be hunters made Eternal. That would mean a rebellion in the ranks.

The problem he kept arriving at was that Anna Smith wasn't heavily involved in Eternal politics. She was young, devious and well-regarded, with few enemies. Giorgio Spada? Well, he had more enemies, but little in the last century or so. Richard Mullen? He'd always been caught up in hunting prey and cared little for the politics.

"With all respect due to your rights as a sire, my Lady Klotho is interested in the insights of your progeny, and if she has something to add, we should do well to heed. We are in a delicate situation of peril to Eternal, and you know as well as I do that in such a situation, our kind react badly."

And, it was implied, obviously. Alexei, and his lady, did not want the whole thing to blow out into the open. Enough humans, and the Eternal could be overwhelmed. The cost to everyone, of course, would be considerable. Corner humanity, focus their attention on the Eternal, and they might devise a solution to the problem. The Eternal gave up a lot of their creativity with their mortality, or at least had a hard time focusing on mundane matters, especially as they advanced in age. They shed their humanity and became more preoccupied with the urges of their hunger. They were more powerful, of course, but they lost their creativity. They became creatures of habit.

He might have worried about Paul's reaction to his breach of the protocol of seniority, but he had a powerful patroness, one who was a tad more enlightened than her other ancient elders. She relied upon the young, which was seen as an idiosyncrasy, but those youthful Eternal helped keep her and her resources in touch with the world even as it changed.

"So what was the thought?"

@vanq

[Vanq]

Paul, duly chastised so it stung, backed off. He was aware of the Lady Klotho, and her peculiarities in politics. Regardless of his own feelings, she was not one to cross and, by extension, neither were her underlings. There was little he could do but silently seethe at the effect it would have on Nima, and his relationship to her. Paul was decidedly old school with his progeny and his role as sire.

Satisfied that Alexei seemed to be of a mind with her, Nima grew more bold. She would likely pay for that later, in a private moment with her sire, but it would be simple jealousy on his part. She was tied to him, and would remain tied to him, for as long as she needed to. Nima had decided on that early on. She always had been the ambitious sort.

"Turning hunters could serve many purposes. You know my history, but did you follow what happened to my group after I was taken? My father killed himself. My sister tried to find me and met a rather disastrous end for it. Our larger group? Split apart. It was a rather brilliant decision. Hunters are not often victorious, and rarely take on meaningful targets. Still, taking a member of that community hits them hard. They dissolve. The story spreads and discourages others, or is hidden, allowing it to happen again." She knew full and well that had not been Paul's intent, but it was the outcome nevertheless. "Now we have another who has learned that, and added to the impact. Destroy the local hunters and set up an effective trap to take the territory." Her lips pulled back to an acknowledging smile. "Yet, they did not plan for those more intelligent seeing through the ruse."

Nima took pulled a chair opposite Alexei, smoothly seating herself. "I am sorry, let me be more brief. Anna was popular, but not overly involved. Giorgio was...past his prime. I doubt they were the targets the sire loosed his hunter - or hunters - on. It must have been Richard. We are still so emotional early on. It would have been easy for the sire to use that hunter hatred towards an Eternal that so enjoys the chase, particularly the chase of 'innocent' young girls." She paused, knowing Paul vehemently disagreed on this point. "I would also wager that the vampire behind this is young as well, stupid enough to threaten the natural order." But how would they solve it? That remained unanswered, and Nima was reluctant to admit that she partially agreed with Paul. "This was a test, they are not here, so they must be waiting to see the response, to see if they can steal territory in this way."

Paul interjected. "You believe they will try this again, given the chance. Alexei - if you agree to this, we must ensure we are the ones to select the territory they go after. We cannot allow chance to dictate their next move. I know there is a prime piece of real estate recently...freed up. There are many vying for favor to receive it." He pushed for his original plan, eager for the opportunity to prove that he was correct. "If these traitors believe they have won, they will be emboldened. It will be too tantalizing for them to pass up."

@heyseuss

[HeySeuss]

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