Chapter 28: Epidemic 5-6

Being a predator was thrilling. The hunt, the chase, and the reward were all so satisfying in a deep, primal level. Skelter and I once had a conversation about the older vampires, the Antediluvians, and how the curse running through our veins is thousands of years old. Regardless of what clan or generation we were, we all hunted the same, we were all haunted by the beast the same, and we all killed the same. Our urges were, according to him, two thousand years old, and the result of a curse from God Himself.

When we broke out into a sprint, I could hear gunshots echo behind me. Jack and Skelter were putting up a fight. Then, suddenly, there was silence. No more sounds of struggle. I didn't dare look back. I kept my eyes forward, focused on the open road ahead. In the distance, I could see the lights of Santa Monica. Some part of me - probably what remained of my humanity - told me that the light meant safety, civilization. It told me to run to the city so that Wulf didn't get me. I knew that was a stupid thing to think. If Wulf wanted to get us, he would have gotten us by now. He was just playing with us.

It was a good thing that we no longer got tired. We sprinted without even faltering, Kamala, Jenna, Damsel, and I. Behind us was Wulf, bounding after us on all fours, his every movement pounding hard against the pavement. A few cars darted right past us on the road, and I could see their heads turning. This was a definite Masquerade violation. We needed to end this and quick or else the Prince will undoubtedly be on my case.

"Al, move to the left!" Damsel said quickly. She was a bit faster than me, so she ran a few feet ahead. I saw her take a freaking grenade off of her tactical belt.

I did exactly that. She pulled the pin from the grenade and threw it back. Quickly, I took off my coat and threw it up into the air. "Protego!" I said.

My coat began to expand, forming a wall behind Jenna, who was behind Kamala and I. When the grenade exploded, I heard metallic pelting as the shrapnel from the explosive hit my enchanted coat, shielding us from the blast. We stopped running. I didn't hear Wulf on the other side. Did a grenade really take care of him? Well, it was an explosive, and fire is a pretty big deal to kindred. Maybe we managed to make semi-clean work of this after all.

The shield I'd created shrank and, as if guided by an invisible set of hands, allowed me to put my arms through the sleeves. I saw a huge spot of burnt gunpowder where the grenade exploded. This was futile, but hoped that this wouldn't be on the news or anything. It was unlikely that anyone managed to record footage of this fight - and if they did, it was likely that it wasn't very good footage - but there was no doubt that the few cars driving by us were going to the police with the story of the crazy people fighting a gorilla-panther-scorpion thing.

"Seems like that took care of it." Kamala said, pulling an uzi out of nowhere like she had with her sword earlier. "But stay on guard. Gangrel have methods of hiding available to them."

She just had to say that. Just when I thought we had taken care of it…

I turned on Auspex to see if I could detect anything. In the distance, there was a small ripple in the dirt off the road, as if it were water. The ripples grew larger and moved forward, creating a trail. With my enhanced senses, I picked up Wulf's hulking visage swimming through the ground like it was completely natural. He came to us so quickly that he popped out of the ground before I knew it. The grenade didn't take him down, but it sure hurt him badly. Practically half of his body was burnt to a crisp and his eyes were wide and wild, like he'd gone mad. My heart dropped when I realized the attack made him go into a frenzy, and all four hundred odd pounds of muscle, claws, and teeth he had? Now that was under the control of a monster more ancient than the asphalt on this road.

He pounced towards us with unnatural grace for his size. Jenna was in the way. I expected her to make like a thin-blood and run, but she stood her ground and, man, she looked pissed. She held out both of her hands and an invisible force caught Wulf in mid-air. I was in awe as she suspended him for a few seconds, visibly straining as she tried to take his weight. Then she slammed him down to the ground, gritting her teeth. She had him practically flattened, with his limbs splayed out to his sides.

"B-Bind him, god damn it!" Jenna roared. "Now! He's f-fucking heavy!"

Kamala acted first. She put her gun back in whatever pocket dimension she'd gotten it from and used some discipline - presumably Protean - to grow claws. Cutting her wrists, she held out her hands and let a few drops of vitae fall to the ground. I felt the silent thrum of power as her vitae thickened and flew over to Wulf as fast as a bullet, gathering and clotting into large bands that stuck to him like adhesive. Jenna finally released him and the Gangrel immediately began struggling. The sounds he made were straight up inhuman: growling and snarling, like he was completely gone.

"Well...this is a massive Masquerade violation." I muttered.

"All the reason to kill it quickly." Kamala said. "Neonate, if you'll please."

I wanted to make a snappy remark about how I wasn't her servant or anything, but I didn't feel like arguing. I took my axe out of my leather bag and moved carefully towards Wulf. Of course, before I managed to behead him, he broke free from his bonds. Kamala moaned out in pain as her will was overpowered by Wulf's brute strength. The vitae holding him down turned into a thin liquid as he got up, towering over me so much that I had to lift my head all the way back to look him in the eyes. That wasn't something I had to do often.

I activated Celerity and fucking vamoose'd, creating quite a few feet worth of distance between us before he managed to act. A car darted past us but Wulf moved his arm faster than anyone had the right to, grabbing onto the back of the car before it passed him. The car's tires screeched as the driver tried to keep going, but Wulf's talons were embedded deep into the metal. It wasn't going anywhere. He activated Potence, the usually faint blue aura glowing as bright as a street light. He lifted the car, threw it right at me, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Jenna probably couldn't catch it with Mentalism. She looked spent already. Damsel was several feet away, and Kamala was still recovering from her spell being so forcefully broken.

Nobody was going to save me here. So I held my hands out, reaching deep inside for something - anything - that would save my ass.

Here's something you might not know: cars are heavy. And when I caught the car that Wulf threw, it was hard. It was back-breakingly, toe-curlingly, internal organs-liquefyingly hard. But I did it, and I couldn't believe I was. I activated Potence, because I knew that my arms would give out and the vehicle will crush me if I didn't do so. Wulf ran at me on all fours, and I met him halfway, bringing the car down on his head. Unfortunately, he caught it, and he was much stronger than I was, bringing me down on my knees. The driver was out cold or perhaps dead, having suffered whiplash from Wulf grabbing his car.

Before Wulf could crush me, Damsel ran up with both Celerity and Potence activated. She leapt into the air and kicked the car, creating a dent in it large enough to crush it like a soda can and sending Wulf flying back several feet. Now destroyed car was going to drop on us, but Kamala stepped in just in time.

"Langsom!" She cried out. I felt the subtle thrum of her will as her spell slowed the velocity of the car. It was fast enough for both of us to get from the bottom of it before it crashed down to the ground. Wulf hit the ground hard but recovered quickly. He was slick with his own vitae due to some of his burned skin coming off. He was taking a hell of a lot of punishment, and he didn't even have Fortitude activated!

"He's coming." Jenna warned. She took out a pistol, Kamala grabbed her uzi, and I tossed Damsel one of my guns before taking out my revolver. We opened fire on Wulf but it only seemed to slow him down. By the time we needed to reload, he had already crossed half of the way to us. Wulf activated Fortitude, which led to the next round of fire from us just bouncing off of him harmlessly. He charged at Jenna, moving faster than she could evidently react. I ran to step in the way but before I could, something intercepted so fast that I could barely see it, and the sound of a shotgun blast reverberated through the night. Wulf was floored.

Jack stood with his fist extended. He had claw marks all over his skin. His left eye was closed, and his beard was soaked in blood. He looked pissed. It took a few seconds, but I realized that shotgun sound wasn't a shotgun at all. It was his fucking fist.

"Want to mess with my blood? Huh?!" Jack growled, his right eye wide like a madman. "Get up. Get up!"

Jenna, Kamala, Damsel, and I watched in awe as Wulf got up. He growled like a hungry lion and attacked Jack, swiping his claw in a wide arc. Jack moved faster than I'd seen anybody moved, blocking the swipe and countering with a haymaker so hard that Wulf's body rippled. His fist had gone so deep into that wall of fur and flesh that I thought it was going to pierce right through him, but all that happened is Wulf was sent flying back a few feet. Jack wasn't showing any mercy. He sped up to the Gangrel and grabbed his feline head, slamming it into the pavement repeatedly, cracking it with the sheer force.

Eventually, Wulf stopped moving and Jack stopped pounding. He got up, took a deep breath, and cracked his neck as his wounds closed. I sensed the movement of vitae beneath his flesh, mending it and making him good as new. This seemed to give Wulf the opportunity to attack. He jumped up and pounced once again at Jack. Jack stood ready to attack, but instead came a loud, thundering sound. A light that came from a nearby vehicle approaching flashed on Wulf. It was what looked like a Vietnam War-era Jeep with a fucking minigun attached to it. In the driver's seat was one of the Anarchs we'd left behind. On the top of the car manning the gun was Skelter himself.

"Fucking animal!" He roared, shooting round upon round of bullets into Wulf. His Fortitude and blood heal couldn't keep up. The gun poked holes in him like he was made of swiss cheese, and finally he fell. The Jeep stopped driving and Skelter dropped off the back, taking out his own M16 and walking up to Wulf's broken body. With all of the cold professionalism of a soldier in combat, he shot Wulf clean between the eyes, dusting him right then and there.

"Everybody alright?" Skelter asked.

All things considered, everyone seemed to be okay. Kamala and Damsel looked like they were a little tired, and Jenna seemed absolutely spent. No doubt they'd be fine after feeding. I didn't feel quite drained yet, but I was sick of fighting the Brotherhood of the 9th Circle. The sun was going to rise in about five or six hours. Even though the job wasn't done, I did good enough tonight, and I didn't care who had to say anything about that.

"Yes." Kamala confirmed. "Everyone seems to be okay. What you had done was surprisingly honorable-"

Skelter gave her a look.

"...What I mean to say is...thank you." She continued.

"I'm letting LaCroix know that Wulf is toast." Jack said, turning to Damsel. "You guys take care of Brother Kanker?"

"Yeah." She said. "I say we're done for the night. Let the other coteries do their fuckin' job."

"Amen to that." I see. "Jack, I'll talk to you tomorrow night. I got a few questions about things you might know about."

Jack nodded firmly. "See you then, kid. Jenna, let's go."

With that, we all headed back to LA. Once we were within city limits, we all parted ways, scurrying back to our havens with our own pieces of eternity.

"Heather, I'm back." I said once I entered the doors of my Haven. Nobody answered.

"...Heather?" I called out.

Heather wasn't here. That was unusual, because she didn't usually leave for school at this hour. In fact, if Heather ever leaves, it's usually to get a bite to eat or some movie from Blockbuster for us to watch. And even when she does leave, it's never while I'm not home. She knows better than to do that. There had been a few cases of ghouls or other kindred seeking to steal Justine's grimoire. Since I'm not exactly good at animating things, I usually have Heather fight them off.

But now? I couldn't smell her. I couldn't hear her heartbeat. Where was she?

I went upstairs to my computer to see if I could find a note. There was a note, but it wasn't in her handwriting. Heather's handwriting was neat, pretty. This handwriting was too, but there were very noticeable differences like curlier j's and y's.

It read:

Dear Algernon,

It is a shame I'd just missed you. With everything our Archbishop says about you, I just had to witness it myself. Our promising young fledgeling, destined to destroy the Camarilla. Your prince had sent a few innocent little flies into my web...I was hoping that he would send you. Alas, sometimes you have to get things yourself if you want it.

I have your pet. Heather is her name, right? She looked so terrified before I'd dominated her. Come to my suite in the Empire Hotel. Perhaps I can show you both true pleasure.

With love,

Jezebel Locke

I grit my teeth. It was too late for this shit. The sun was going to come up in about three hours. But this Jezebel person must've been a member of the Brotherhood. Why else would LaCroix be sending anyone after her? I had to get rid of her. Besides, she took Heather.

My Heather.

"Fuck's sake." I growled, going into my closet and restocking ammunition for my guns. If it was a fight she wanted, I'd sure as hell give her a fight.