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Chapter -14- Setting the Stage

Friday, August 20 - 10am PDT San Francisco, California ...

Conner Parker opened the fridge and fished out a clear bottle with a cloudy liquid in it. He looked up at a red-glowing glass shelf, second from the top.

"Why's the second shelf glowing red?" asked someone from behind.

Conner turned to his uncle, the one he hadn't seen very much as of late. "Reno, hey. It means the food is spoiled on that shelf. If it gets worse, the shelf turns opaque."

Reno rubbed his forehead. "I love all these extra little things we have now in the future." He ran his hand up through his tousled black hair. "I noticed baby food still has expiration dates printed on the bottle, though."

"Glass bottles seal in the freshness, or lack-thereof. It's harder for the fridge to analyze."

Reno nodded in understanding. "I see." He rubbed his face. "Karla said you've been trying to do fifty things at once. Train Jon and Fara's son - the one who was injured the other day ... and case a job, and find a family member to join the team. How's all that going? And how is James doing?"

"Just for the record," said Conner, "we're not living in the future. We're living in the present. I can't imagine how hard it must be to adapt, but yeah. Uncle Jaye is doing fine. It was a puncture to one of his lungs. It's an easy fix. The dagger was narrow, like a letter opener. The blade went straight in and back out. No problem. He's not ready for the job. At least not the hard parts ... not yet."

"What's the job?" asked Reno.

"Tamamo says we need this headdress for this woman named Sekhmet. I'm not sure what the details are, but the headdress will help her somehow. We'll need her for the team."

"Weird name. Sounds middle eastern or something."

Conner pulled his cellphone out, opened a video application and pulled up footage. "This was leaked to the internet day before yesterday and it already has sixty-two million views." He turned the phone screen towards Reno. "She walked from Giza to Gaza. She's been attacking Muslim men, looking for something called a 'Caliphate.' I'm not exactly sure what that is - I could look it up but I've never cared enough to look up stuff about Islam. Anyway, it was a bunch of women that convinced this lady to leave."

Reno leaned in close, watching the footage of a woman with the head of a lioness. She killed a man, and then appeared to be sharing discourse with a woman wearing denim pants. "That chick really stands out from the rest of her peers."

Conner shrugged. "You just saw that first chick, who has an animal head, kill a man with her fangs and _that's_your first thought - that some woman is wearing jeans?"

Reno turned to his nephew and reached for the boy's free hand. "Hi. I'm Reno Nevada, homicide inspector for San Francisco - at least I was. I see people killed on videos, or see a body dead on the floor. I analyze what I see, then I consider the things that seem otherwise out of place. Is the lion woman CGI?"

"No," Conner replied with a sigh of frustration. "That's Sekhmet. She's joining the band. She needs her royal headdress for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe it's required to turn her back into a human so she fits in. All I know is Tamamo asked me to get it, so I'm going to figure out how to get it."

Reno hooked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at nothing in general. "Ask Karla. She can teleport stuff. She can insert you to do whatever you need, use telekinesis to put an object in front of a security camera, or to levitate you down to something without needing rope. I know she's a little outspoken at times, but her talents can be used in a LOT of ways."

"You know, I was just telling Uncle Jaye we could make her the third person not too long ago. And then, after that, it kind of slipped my mind. You're right, I could use her help. Thing is, it's a three-person-job."

"Why?"

"Someone to keep an eye out, to be ready to extract us, and to provide logistical support."

Reno shrugged. "Karla will extract you. Again, teleportation. She can keep an eye out and defend you - telekinesis. I don't know what kind of logistics you need, but who cares if someone sees you? They can't do anything to stop you with Karla as your wingman."

Conner rubbed his chin. "She's kind of in mourning about all the people she's lost. I don't want to impose."

"Maybe you've known her for years because of your mom, but I'm assuming you barely know her."

"What makes you say that?" asked Conner.

"Because if you did know her, you'd know that she would love to help you. It would give her something to do. She would love to get her mind off of everything she's going through. She'd really like to feel useful. She'd like to show off. And if you guys are doing this as part of an endgame? It gets her kids back that much sooner."

"You think so?"

"I'm still alive, why would Falcon keep me and kill those kids?"

The fridge beeped loudly in protest. Conner flinched and closed the door. He turned away from it and leaned back against the metallic front. "I'd not considered that. I mean, I sort of thought about it, but you're right - those kids are probably fine. I'll go talk to her." Parker paused. As an afterthought, he added, "How's your case with Kalen going?"

"Two cases. We're looking for a psychotic vampire chick, and then I've got another case involving some guy that has some unrefined time control ability. I don't think he can move _through_time, just slow it or speed it up somewhat."

"That's a real thing?" Conner asked, eyes wide. "How do you fight something like that?"

Reno shrugged. "Play it smart, have a plan ... and when all else fails, you fight at the speed of light." Nevada held his palms apart, creating an arc of lightning in the gap. "Karla is going to try and look for her mother's brother, Raul. Apparently that guy is rumored to have legit time control abilities. Thing is, nobody has seen him in a hundred years. But I was thinking - if you can move through time, a hundred years might just be a minute or two for him. Maybe he'll show up when we need him."

"You're an optimist, huh?"

"Sometimes." Reno grinned. "When I have to be. When it's all I've got left, yeah."

"I'll talk to Karla. Thanks, Uncle Reno."

"Any time."

Conner carried his bottle of discolored liquid out of the kitchen and took the stairs three at a time to the top floor. He knocked on Karla's door but there was no reply. He peeked his head in but there was no one in the room.

The boy made his way back down the stairs to the ground floor. He headed down the hallway to the guest wing and stopped by the gym. No one was inside. He headed back to the foyer, then took a hallway that went by the dining room and main living room. Conner went downstairs to the main gym and training area.

He glanced into each room on his way through the sublevel of the Parker mansion. Conner stopped, seeing a rolling door up on one of the storage areas. He approached and saw Kuda, the little ferret-sized fox, sitting on a coffee table near the opening.

Conner approached the small animal and held his hand out, palm up, beneath Kuda's snout. The little animal sniffed at his fingers. Conner curled his fingers up, gently rubbing his fingertips beneath Kuda's maw. "Hey little guy. You were in Europe the other day. You helped me. Now you're here. How do you do that and where do you go when you disappear like that, hmm?"

"Europe?" asked a female voice from the back of the storage room.

Conner felt the strange sensation of displacement. He appeared in the midst of stacked furnishings and boxes. He held his hands out to steady himself. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. Just warn me when you're going to do that," he said.

Karla sat on a sofa near the back. She grinned up at the boy. "Is Kuda sitting out there? He's protective ... like a watch dog. I was looking everywhere for him the other day. Europe, huh? That's a lot of travel, considering he can't use mirrors at the moment."

Conner eased down onto the sofa, two cushions away from Karla. "He saved my butt."

"Brilliant little bugger, isn't he?"

"Yeah. But he always seems to disappear on me after he's finished helping me. It's kind of frustrating."

"Yeah." Karla leaned back against the sofa's backrest and put her feet up on a fairly large box in front of the couch. "What brings you back to my little neck of the woods?"

"Reno thinks you'll be able to help me steal an Egyptian headdress from Joseph Pendleton Sr., and I could use the help."

"Pendleton?"

"They're an unrecognized surviving branch of my family. The more I learn about them, the less I like them. I tried to buy the piece from them, then I tried to recruit them to help us. But I can't figure out how to talk some sense into them. They don't respect me because I have everything they want, and I'm just a teenager to them."

Karla rubbed her chin and nodded. "Your grandmother told me to behave around you."

"Please, I need help stealing this thing. It's for a woman named Sekhmet. She's Egyptian."

Karla scrunched her brows upwards. "As in the warrior chick with the cat head? Was that North or South Egypt? I can never remember which was which."

"What's the difference?"

"One side had Bastet," said Karla. "The other had Sekhmet. Have you met this chick?"

"No. I saw a video online, and Tamamo told me she was real. That's good enough for me."

Karla smiled. "You really love Tammy Foxie, don't you?"

Conner nodded. He fidgeted for a moment then asked, "Why did my grandmother tell you not to help me?"

"I'm a succubus," said Karla with a grin. "She didn't say I can't help you. She told me I can't misbehave with you."

"Does helping me to steal an Egyptian crown fall under misbehaving?"

The sex demon replied with a shrug. "I ... suppose not. She only said I have to keep an aspirin between my knees if-and-when you and I work together."

"An aspirin? What does that even mean?"

Karla shook her head with a roll of her eyes. "It's a figure of speech from last century. Basically, she asked me to keep my legs shut around you. So, you really want my help stealing stuff?"

"Would that be okay? I know we had our differences recently but..."

Karla laughed and waved her hands at the boy. "That is water under the bridge, babe!"

"It ... is it? I thought women hold grudges?"

"I hold grudges," she assured him with a firm nod. "But not for petty arguments. I felt you needed to be humbled to be useful. Apparently my way of trying to humble you wasn't going to work. Tammy did a much better job. You must've seen some pretty crazy shit lately, babe. You're walking like a man, but you're not looking down your nose at everyone anymore. Now ... so far as holding a grudge, babe, Dr. Aris Falcon murdered my husband and kidnapped my children. Falcon's buddy, Reinhardt, killed the first man I loved. Another one of Falcon's pals, Nichole, made it sound like they did something to my father. And you know what? I can't do anything about it yet. So I sit down here and I brood. I ponder my grudge against them. And, sweetheart, when I finally have a team and a destination ... you will see what I do to the people who wronged me."

"You talk a lot. Has anyone ever told you that?" Conner immediately raised both of his hands. "Sorry, it just came out. I didn't mean it in a bad way. I'm just saying, you have the gift of gab."

"You have your moments, too."

Conner blinked. Confusion marred his forehead. "I do?"

"You ever hang out with Reno?"

"Not for more than a few minutes at a time, why?"

Karla shrugged. "Because he's never been much of a conversationalist. Donovan wasn't much of a talker, either. Eric's uncle, I mean - not my son."

"I never met Donovan or Eric. Just Reno."

"Jonathan Parker ... now there was a man who disliked rambling. That guy was always serious about every-damn-thing."

"I wish I could have met my grandfather. He died right before Uncle Jaye was born, I believe."

"You're thinking of Nichole. She was supposed to be Fara's birthing coach. She never showed. I can't remember whether or not Jon was there for his son's birth. I do remember that he died the day your mother slipped into a coma."

Conner rubbed his face. "My mother was in a coma? When?"

"She met Vincent in 2023, and they were captured by Aris Falcon. She barely escaped, and woke up in a hospital. Her father came to visit her. They spoke, briefly. Jonathan left her room and died right there in the hallway. Topaz slipped into some sort of coma. She was unresponsive to everything. Fox had to deal with everything alone. Funeral stuff, media reporters, taking care of his sister - everything. By the time Topaz woke up a week or two later, her brother had become a man. It's a shame you never got to meet Jonathan. He was a badass. Very focused, very motivated, and he was always very serious."

"Sounds like my mom."

Karla smiled. She lifted her other foot up, propping both feet on the same box. "Topaz learned how to relax. Fox was the one who knew how to take things in stride. He had the personality of wet cardboard, but he knew how to relax."

Conner stared at Karla, brows arched. "It's gross as hell that my parents are twins, but ... they're still my parents, Karla. You don't have to put him down because of his personality. He's my dad. He taught me a lot. He was always there for me, growing up."

"Yeah, it must've killed him to have to lie to you about being your uncle, babe. He was the quiet-yet-sentimental type." Karla drew her knees close and shifted her weight until she sat on her legs, taking up the sofa cushion at the far end of the couch. "Thanks for coming down and talking to me. I've been in a weird place, lately."

"I'm sorry you're going through some bad stuff alone."

Karla looked him over then glanced down with a nod. "...Yeah. I misjudged you, Conner."

"I'm going to get my parents back. You'll get your kids back. Tamamo will get her home back. Everyone will be happy. I'm sorry you lost your husband, Karla. Sinopa cried for days and days about my grandfather - Jules. And now she's hiding."

"So am I," said Karla. "I'm just hiding here instead of Japan."

"Yeah."

"Conner, to be honest, I don't think Sinopa is hiding. She's taking care of business. I'm the one who has been hiding, babe. I want a mulligan so I can redo the last twenty-five years. I'd have a better relationship with my daughter, I would ... hell, I would have done just about _everything_differently."

"I haven't been dating Tamamo very long, but it's killing me that she's on the other side of the world. I can't imagine spending decades with a spouse, only to have them taken away. I didn't know what you were going through, Karla. And then I argued with you and started a fight with you. You didn't need all that added crap."

Karla folded her arms, staring at the boy with a semi-bemused expression. "What on earth has gotten into you, Conner?"

"How do you mean?"

"You've been out of character compared to all the other times I've met you."

Conner shrugged. "I think it's the other way around, Karla. I was going through a lot of stuff with my parents missing, and with my grandfather's death. I didn't know how to handle it. I have a really nasty temper, and ... at the time we fought, I was still going through everything at once. Now you get to see the real me."

"Plus you need my help," Karla added.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be nice just because I need someone's help. You remember, a few minutes ago, when you said my father was dealing with Nichole's death, Jonathan's death, and his sister being in a coma? You said he became a man after dealing with all that alone."

Karla nodded. "You're comparing yourself to your father, huh? Yeah, I guess I can see it, babe. You lost your sister, your parents, your grandfather; you learned a family secret, you watched your grandmother fall into mourning, you started training your other uncle, James, and you're handling the family affairs. All you, no help. So yes, I agree, you've been growing up."

Conner leaned across the length of the sofa, hand extended to the succubus. "Friends?"

Karla grinned and took his hand. She shook it firmly. "Friends."

"So ... is my great aunt really as psychotic as everyone makes her sound?"

"Nichole?" asked Karla. "She's in Seattle right now. Rufus found her. Speaking of Nichole, isn't Reno technically your uncle? I mean, he's your mom's brother-in-law."

"So he was going to marry Nichole? So he'd have been my great-uncle by marriage, and also my regular uncle because of his little brother's marriage to my mom. That's weird, right?"

"Nah. Nichole was the same age as her brother's kids. She was over two decades younger than her brother. It's all complicated. You'd need a genealogy diagram to keep track of everyone, babe."

"I think I've got a handle on it," said Conner. "So, how about we stop talking about boring stuff and start fighting armed mobsters?"

Karla perked. "Now that sounds like fun. Who are the armed mobsters?"

"The Pendleton family has really deep pockets, and they're organized criminals. It's their family business, you know? They think they're some sort of mafia crime family. They hire people to work for them, like guards and such. Everyone is armed. It's kind of corny, really. They dress in vests and dress shirts. They wear polished dress shoes or leather loafers, and carry automatic rifles and high power handguns."

"What about James? Will he be joining us?"

Conner shrugged. "I sent him home to finish healing up. He's spending time with Dawn. Also, he really dislikes the whole 'stealing' thing. I tried to explain that the headdress belongs to Sekhmet and Egypt. I told him we'd be stealing it from thieves. But I know it bothers him. So ... one thing at a time, right?"

"I'll help you, babe. We got this - we don't need anyone else's help."

"Thank you. But maybe I should give him a call just in case he wants to learn what this family is all about."

Karla smiled. "Suit yourself. Heh. Look at you, babe - showing me appreciation, and family respect to James. You really are growing up, honey."

"It's kind of weird that you talk like that but you look my age."

Karla shrugged in reply. "So when do we leave for Europe?"

"North England," he said, adding, "Today if you're up for it."

"I'm going to take a hot shower, wear something classy yet sexy, and clear out a purse so we can bring Kuda. God ... if you think about it, everyone is so spread out right now."

"How do you mean?"

She shrugged again. "The fox chicks are in Japan. Reno and Kalen are working for the EC. They need me to find a family member that I've only met once, and until recently ... I thought the man was crazier than a loon. You and I will be in England. Rufus is in Seattle. Wilfred, Reno's friend, is coming and going, doing autopsies for the Esoteric Council. Watson and his wife are missing. James and Dawn are in Chicago. Everyone is spread out, Conner. Why do you think I've been hiding in the storage room? This is a huge empty house, babe. I was losing my mind upstairs."

"So you came down here to lose your mind quietly, surrounded by stacks of boxes and over-turned furniture?"

"You see boxes and stacks of furnishings lying on their sides. I see memories. I see things that remind me of the good ole days, babe. My memories are all I have. I've been treating this room like my own personal security blanket."

Conner slid off the couch, careful not to trip on anything in the storage room. He reached his hand to her. "C'mon. We're friends now, remember? And friends don't let friends sulk alone. You have me, and you have Kuda standing guard."

Karla laughed softly. "Kuda was just avoiding me because he is somehow sentient enough to know that I needed space. Or he's sentient enough to want to avoid a sulking sex demon. So! Meet me in the foyer in twenty minutes. I'm going to go clean myself up and wear something hot."

"I, uh ... okay. See you in twenty." The teenaged boy reached for her as if to help her up. However, Karla disappeared, leaving Conner alone in front of the sofa. He stood there with his hand extended towards the empty couch. He glanced over to the side, seeing Kuda on a stack of boxes, watching. Conner shrugged and dropped his hand at his side. "Am I getting in over my head?"

Kuda laid down on his belly, resting his head on his forepaws.

"If you could talk, what would you say? Would you have, like, some sort of really deep voice for such a small animal, and say only the cleverest things?"

Kuda lifted his head and replied with a high pitched yap, followed by a broken sentence comprised of chittering.

"Oh. You sound like an animal on helium. Figures."

Kuda sneezed. He turned around twice on the box and laid down, facing away from Conner, tail wrapped around himself.

"Okay, it wasn't the best analogy." Conner froze. "Holy shit, I'm talking to an animal. What is _wrong_with me?" He dropped back on the sofa and sighed. "I'm losing my mind."

X

X

August 20 - 8:30pm PDT San Francisco ...

Reno adjusted the clip on his tie and checked a mirror. He saw Kalen behind, standing in the doorway. "Hey. You ready to head down to the 'office' and start looking for this dope again?"

"I am. Why do you wear a clip-on tie? I thought you wore real ties?"

"I prefer real ties," said Reno. "But when you're on the job, you don't wear something that can be used to choke you. Hmm, I suppose that wouldn't matter to you. You don't need to breathe, right?"

"I breathe," said Kalen. "But I don't require it."

Reno tilted his head, turning away from the mirror. "Uhm, what?"

The vampire smiled somewhat. "Muscles require oxygen to function. But I no longer require oxygen to live. My body creates something that allows the brain to function without oxygen, and it keeps the body from decomposing. But muscle tissue still cramps up without occasionally putting oxygen in my body."

"So what if you're thrown over the side of a boat in an ocean? Let's say you sink. How do you get to shore without cramping up?"

Kalen shrugged. "There is oxygen in water. I simply breathe it into my lungs. I eject the water from my lungs when I reach the shore."

"Sounds painful."

"It is." Kalen folded his arms, leaning against the doorframe. "Vampirism is a curse, Reno. Anyone who thinks it is a blessing hasn't experienced it. People have sought it out and regretted it. However, it does have certain perks."

"Yeah, you live forever."

"That's not necessarily a perk." Kalen nodded towards a hairbrush on a nearby dresser to his left. "You'll need that."

Reno smirked and walked over to the brush. He ran it through his hair and asked, "So what's a perk?"

"It's a guaranteed cure to cancer and leukemia. The offending cells cease to function in an un-living host. A tumor will eventually break down over time. Marie Currie may have discovered the weapon to fight cancer but my disease is a guaranteed cure, but the side effects are less than desirable."

Reno stared at Kalen for a moment. He put the brush back down and frowned. "Is that why Natalia made you a vampire? You were dying from cancer?"

"She made me a vampire because I was useful to her, Reno. I still am useful to her. Lots of people died of cancer - people who never received her pity."

"Did people even know what cancer was back then?"

Kalen arched his brows in amusement. "Cancer has been around since the beginning of time. Scientists and doctors had different names for it throughout time, but even the ancient Egyptians were savvy enough to cut it out over fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. Mortal science has not yet found a way to cure all forms of cancer, but becoming a vampire is, in fact, a permanent cure."

"You didn't answer my other question - were you dying from cancer?"

"Reno, humanity is dying every day from age. So far as the topic at hand, I'm sorry I brought it up."

"Personal, huh?"

"I'm ready whenever you are." Kalen stepped back through the door frame and gestured with his hand.

Reno stepped through the doorway and headed down the stairs to the foyer. He opened the front door and froze. A body was slumped on the front stoop. Black male, pale with blood on his neckline. His eyes were half-lidded and his clothes were fashionable but disheveled.

Nevada knelt down and put his hands over the man's face, closing his eyes. The skin was cold to the touch. "African American male, approximately early thirties." He touched the man's right hand and pushed inward on the fingers. "He's cold, already been through rigor mortis."

"Obviously he wasn't killed here," said Kalen, approaching the front door. "Karla and Conner left through this door just a few hours ago. Apparently our unknown subject placed the body here knowing our habits. She knew we would be coming through here closer to this time. With Karla, Conner and Wilfred currently out of the house, she chose now to deliver her sign."

Reno sighed. "Can't call the real cops - this is an Esoteric Council call. Contact them. We'll have to move this guy and let the EC make a decision about what to do with the victim. I'll get a camera." Reno walked back into the house to look for a way to photograph the body for their records.

Kalen leaned down by the body and sniffed at the air, then he leaned down and sniffed at the neck wound on the victim.

Moments later, Reno returned with his new cellphone. "I'm still figuring out how to use the interface." He fidgeted with it for a moment then found the camera application. "So if the almighty Natalia Kincade were here, what would she say about all this mess?"

Kalen stood up and stepped back to give Reno space. "Something akin to 'Get thee hence!' so she could take matters into her own hands. I'll start canvassing the area."

"She's controlling huh?"

"Not always. But she would see this situation as a personal affront to her if it was on her doorstep. So she would demand to handle it directly. Nathan was one of the few people who had her deepest respect. So she would have called him or Lance."

"Methos," said Reno with a grin. He snapped a picture of the body's final resting position in the door frame, then several closer pictures, including the wound. "He's the oldest man in the world. He deserves a badass sounding name."

Kalen frowned. "Steven Milford is actually quite a bit older."

"Karla still thinks that guy is involved. She's been saying it since I met her, and she still says it. So Steven doesn't count because he'll probably dead soon."

Kalen folded his arms. "What if he isn't?"

"Then something else will get'em. He'll have to choose a side soon. Not choosing a side makes him an easy target. Chances are, he's already chosen a side, so as to keep himself protected. Do you see him helping us the way Methos helps us? Nope. So there you go - he didn't choose us. That means Karla is right ... Steve is playing for the bad guys. Process of elimination, man."

"Lance still has contact with him every now and then."

Reno looked up from the phone camera. "Kalen, when you've known someone that long, you look past the good and the bad. You learn not to argue about politics, or take things personally. You accept betrayals and tell them you're disappointed in them, and move on. If they're captured, you visit them in jail. You have a bond."

Kalen raised his brows. "That was rather longwinded for you."

"I was a kid at the right time - superheroes, immortals; all that stuff was part of my childhood."

"Ah. People with big imaginations left their mark on you when you were impressionable."

Reno snapped another photograph. "Professor Xavier and Magneto never took their fights personally. The fight was between the Brotherhood and the X-Men."

"Mm. I haven't watched those movies since Patrick Stewart passed."

Reno snapped another picture then looked up. "Shit. I never really thought about that but ... yeah, I guess he'd be too old to be around by now. Well that sucks."

"You seem surprised."

Reno put the camera in his pocket and frowned. "Stewart stopped aging before I was born. I just kind of figured he was immortal or something. Damn. Patrick Stewart, man. The future sucks."

Kalen sighed. "I'll be canvassing."

"No, wait."

"Excuse me?"

"She's here." Reno spoke in a soft voice.

Kalen lowered his voice in response to Reno's method of speaking. The vampire licked his lips and asked, "What makes you say such? I do not detect her scent."

Reno shook his head. "Trust me, she's here. She's watching us, man. She's waiting for an opportunity. We don't split up, Kalen. She came here, where we stay - where we sleep. That's personal. It's possible she's looking to finish this bullshit."

"I'm not sure I understand your frame of thinking, Reno."

"She's hoping we do everything by the book. She's waiting for us to work the scene, make calls, and split up. She wants us to move the body. She wants us distracted."

"This is a man," Kalen said, pointing at the victim. "He deserves respect. We should at least cover him."

Reno reached for his hip as if to draw a gun but stopped himself. He rubbed his thumb against his forefinger and shook his head. "There are bushes in the corners, and out by the fence. Nobody will see the body."

"Reno..."

"No, Kalen. Right now we have to think about keeping ourselves alive. This chick wants us to split up. She wants us vulnerable. Well fuck that. Let's casually head inside like we're going to make our calls."

"What's the plan?"

"Get to the car," said Reno, keeping his voice soft. "We take control of the situation. We lead her away from here. I'm not fighting at the Parker mansion if I can help it."

Kalen nodded and stepped back inside. Reno closed the front door. Together, they headed down the hall, and made their way to the lower level.

They went for the parking garage. Reno made a bee-line for the rolling door and opened it. Directly in front of him stood three pale vampires, ready and waiting. Two were female.

Kalen approached Reno from the left and stood to face the small group.

One of the women, fairly well dressed in a business suit, said, "I can see by the look on your faces, that you're surprised to see more than one of us."

The other woman was dressed in a surprisingly plain outfit - jeans and a blouse, and appeared darkly tanned or possibly mulatto. The man on the right wore a simple button-up shirt and nondescript slacks.

"Stranger danger," Kalen mused.

"Dumbest thing schools and society ever did," said Reno. "Flooding kids' heads with images of men in trench coats, hiding behind a tree, when the truth of the matter is," he gestured to the pale-skinned trio, "plain looking people are the most dangerous."

"Ah, but they haven't met us, Reno."

"True." Nevada turned back to the vampires and arched his brows at them. "Okay, so we were wrong. There are a group of you. We really thought it was someone who couldn't control their feeding and turned into some sort of psychotic serial killer. So you guys are some sort of vampire gang by night, and you blend in at the local office by day?"

Kalen folded his arms. "I heard rumors that small vampire groups were popping up over the last twenty years; living in the wake of a lack of supernatural policing presence. Why all the theatrical killings?"

"To draw attention," said the woman in the plain jeans and blouse. "Rumor has it, drinking an older, more powerful vampire is the way to become more powerful."

Kalen blinked. "Excuse me? You're doing all this to catch me?"

The man on the right of the group narrowed his gaze with a smirk. "Yeah. We're expecting one hell of a fight from you."

Kalen shook his head. "Reno, years ago a game publishing group from Stone Mountain, Georgia came up with intricate rules for a game about vampires. Some of the things they published were surprisingly accurate. Enough that it caught the attention of my kind. One of the things they wrote for their game was that if a vampire drinks an older vampire to death, the younger vampire becomes more powerful. However, that part isn't true."

"You've been hunting us for months," said the woman in the plain clothes. "You and your friend with the ugly tie have been investigating us. I brought two of my lieutenants to make sure this stops."

"There are more of you?" Reno asked, casually unclipping the tie and stuffing it into his pocket with an insulted look on his face. "How many of you are there?"

"Dozens," said the woman. "Ashley, here, is my best fighter. She was a government clandestine agent for the CIA fifteen years ago." She gestured to the man on her left. "Mark fit the profile I assume you made to catch a murderer - he was a serial killer who was never caught. His bloodlust is impressive but now that he's immortal, he's patient enough to kill only when we ask him to kill. I'm Hannah Hammons. I was a housewife who was abducted by a rapist. I fought back. I killed my attacker. It impressed the man in the apartment across the hall. He made me what I am, now."

"So why kill only men?" asked Reno, trying to delay the inevitable fight.

"Mark's task was to antagonize the two of you with the bodies of victims. We kill anyone who gets in our way, but we make sure most kills aren't attributed to us."

Ashley, the woman wearing the business suit, said, "We don't kill without reason. We don't kill when we feed. But that isn't to say we don't kill - I've killed men and women before. Before and after becoming what I am."

Kalen sighed. "Why are you bringing attention to yourselves with the fourteen drained bodies, then? Is it a message to the Esoteric Council?"

"Who?" asked Hannah, the woman in the jeans and blouse, adding, "I've never heard of such a group; we're here for you. You've been tracking us for quite some time."

"The council sent me to investigate a vampire kill in January," Kalen said. "The victim put up a fight. I found vampire blood at the scene. But it didn't belong to any of the known vampire families. At the end of February, I found another sample of the same blood at the scene of a fight. I took it to get tested. How did you know I was an older vampire?"

"We've been watching you," said Hannah. "How old are you?"

"I was born in the late 1800s," Kalen explained. "That's all you need to know. I would like to resolve this peacefully. And the drained bodies? That needs to stop. Despite what your history books claim, there are still crusaders in the world. Some are employed by churches, some are family groups who have passed down their so-called missions for generations. And it is these people who will be attracted by your killings."

Mark folded his arms. "They've wiped out our kind twenty-five years ago. We're all that's left. Our numbers are growing, now."

Reno cut in. "You're wrong, man. The people who wiped out all the vampires and all the supernaturals have nothing to do with the crusader types that Kalen mentioned. Apparently a small group of old immortals, supernatural people, and a geneticist decided to kill the world's population of people like us. They're holed up just off the east coast."

"I'm not the leader," said Hannah. "But I am good about following orders. And my orders are to kill you two and make it look gruesome in case anyone else ever gets the bright idea to investigate us."

Kalen glanced to Reno. "It seems like such a shame to fight in the same room as all these beautiful cars, Nathan."

Reno shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time. Topaz and I were jumped right here, where we're standing, twenty-five years ago. Funny how history repeats itself sometimes."

Kalen's eyes returned to the trio of vampires. "I would rather resolve this peacefully. It's nice to know I'm not an endangered species anymore. I could arrange a meeting between our Justiciar and the person to whomever you answer."

Hannah shook her head with a frustrated sigh. "No. We're here to kill you, and that's what's going to happen. Who is this Justiciar? We will resolve our differences with him directly, after we're finished here."

Kalen shook his head and turned to Reno, directly. "This is a shame. There are so few vampires left, and I have to kill them." He glanced back at the group and said, "There are only a handful of business cards in my wallet. I'll leave it to you to figure out which number is the correct one, but you'll have to take it from me."

Mark sniffed at the air. "Why are you spending all your time with this mortal man, anyhow?"

"Because I can do this." Reno held his hands apart and created an arc of electricity between his palms. "Why ... is that surprise on your faces? You thought vampires were the top of the supernatural food chain? Over a hundred thousand supernatural people were killed twenty-five years ago. What makes you think you guys are safe from the people who did it? The more attention you bring to San Francisco, the more likely you'll make this city a warzone. So how about we settle our differences peacefully and figure out a way to help each other?"

Mark and Ashley glanced back at Hannah, waiting for her to make a decision.

Hannah frowned. "They're going to cause us trouble just like the man with the shadows. We have to take care of them right now."

"Wait, shadows?" asked Kalen. "Was his name Justus or Eric?"

"Find him and ask him yourself if you live through the night," said Hannah. "He killed seven of us this summer. We don't need more of you over-powered freaks hunting us. Let's get this over with."

"No, wait," said Kalen. "The man who attacks with shadows..."

"I'm not going to help you find your friend. He's caused us enough trouble." Hannah nodded to Mark and Ashley. "Let's kill them and leave."

"Bullshit," Reno said, gritting his teeth together.

---

Next Chapter: https://www.sofurry.com/view/753705