World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Topanga Tidings [Fin]

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

[11:00 PM, 21 August 2008]

Sarah O'Neally was a conflicted creature as she approached the home of one Declan Perault. News that had been gleaned from the literally flea-bitten Dredge a few hours before had been highs and lows, with nothing in-between.

The word about Amber was good and bad, but mostly good. She was here in L.A. She had a daughter, if one taken by Family Services. The drug issue was pretty grave, but not insurmountable. Thought exactly what to do now was something that weighed heavily on Sarah's mind; so long had she focused on finding Amber that she hadn't given a whole lot of consideration to what to do at the end of the hunt. Her undead condition had turned a search-and-retrieve mission into something altogether more complex.

And then there was the matter of the man-eater, and the official word from the Topanga Pack on that matter.

He is not going to be happy. He's a werewolf, I'm bringing bad news, and he's not going to be happy. He'll rip my head off; if I'm really lucky, I'll go to ash before he can shit down my neck.

With butterflies flitting around the dank caverns of her lifeless stomach, Sarah grimmaced and knocked on Declan's door.

[Owns-The-Night]

He winced, yet again as he stiffly walked into the lounge on his way to answer the door. He'd been taking it slow today, or trying to. But being on his feet again after a week of inactivity was a heady sensation for him, and he had been hard-pressed not to run flat-out or really wail on the bag when he exercised earlier. Even with the 'light' workout, his wound was paining him badly and had needed re-bandaging. He grunted in pain as he pulled on a clean white t-shirt over his self-changed dressing. It was good to be able to do these things himself now. He was clean-shaven, and had been able to work around getting relatively clean without taking a full shower. He answered the door.

"Sarah." A nod of greeting. "Come on in." He let her pass then shut the door behind her. The Dead Wolf's coming here reminded him that he needed to call Ariel and have her chase down that license plate. He'd take care of that in a minute, he thought as he led Sarah through into the kitchen.

"What's the word?" He asked as he turned to face her, leaning back against the counter with his hands braced against the edge. His silver eyes, nearly back to their old fire, watched her with intent curiousity.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Nervous or no, Sarah watching him as he moved. How he walked. How he leaned. The look on his face. It had been three years, but what medical training UCSF had been able to impart upon her stuck. Backing that up was a lifetime of watching the walking wounded from any number of scraps and skirmashes among her lupine kin. Whatever had Declan wincing the night before wasn't gone... and that was downright worrying.

Again though, there wasn't much to be gained by bringing it up; it would just make him madder than the news she bore.

"The Topanga's are... less than entirely supportive. They're giving you one cycle to deal with the oath-breaker. After that, they'll deal with him. And you."

With every bit of courage Sarah could muster, she maintained eye contact and did not flinch at the expected reaction.

[Owns-The-Night]

"Well, fuck them very much too." Declan growled. He wasn't as surprised or shocked as Sarah might have thought. Those snotty fuckers up the hill acted like Old Money humans ever since they had taken him through his First Change. "Try to give them a heads-up and they decide to play dominance shit. Fine. Duly fuckin' noted." He was staring off into the middle-distance as he spoke, then focused on Sarah, the silver in his eyes if anything intensified.

"Right. We'll show those country-gentlefolk how we damn well do things in L.A." He stepped past her to the new phone in the kitchen, a whiff of rich Uratha blood trailing behind him as he passed her. He dialled swiftly, decisively, then held the phone to his ear.

"Elle? It's Declan. We have a situation that needs handling. Got time for a council of war?"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

A council of war... yup, he's damned well going to show them. Sarah though about that, and then realized his actual words. Not 'him'. 'We'. A pride that had long been denied dared to swell slightly in her dead heart. We will show them.

Despite all her mixed feelings and misgivings, the hint of a smile began to come to both her lips and eyes.

[z-Amber Wren]

"War? What?" she asked sleepily. Amber blinked and slowly realized that she'd fallen asleep going over the help wanted ads. She'd actually picked up the phone and answered before she was really awake. Wearily, she pushed lifted her head and her hair back, grimacing at the drool mark she'd left on the paper. This was the last time she let herself overdo a patrol. She'd been asleep about six hours now, and it was almost midnight.

Sitting up on her bed, she tried again. "Start at the beginning, Declan."

[Owns-The-Night]

"I have a problem: rogue cousin going around actin' wild in the big city. Eatin' all sorts of the wrong things and making bad smells. We have news from our friends to the northwest, but it ain't good. I'm gonna need you and Ariel in on this one. And Elle? Best be prepared. Some cold-blooded types are interested too, and they want to work with us." Declan looked over at Sarah as he spoke, hoping the code was effective at transmitting his meaning without being too easy to break to anyone listening. "You have all the info I can give right now. Comin' over? Cos I need to call Ariel."

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber's fingers tightened on the phone. "We can't trust them, Dec. Be really careful, ok? They aren't like us." He'd called her by another name, so that hinted to her that someone else would be there. "I need to do a bit of quick prep but I'll be over as fast as I can."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

After the call to "Elle" came to its brusque end, Declan made a similar one to Ariel, covering much the same ground. The council of war was forming.

Meanwhile, Sarah was mulling over issues of her own. There was more to tell Declan about her trip to the Topangas, and only now was she really coming to realize just how trapped she felt by it. So focused was she that the tantalizing scent of fresh lupine blood failed to register with her for a moment; when she realized what it was, her concern grew, shifting her mood even more off-kilter. When Declan's call with Ariel ended and he turned to look at her again, Sarah swallowed hard and spoke.

"If you have a sec for another thing, Dredge told me more than just that. They gave me a lead on my cousin.

"Actually, 'lead' doesn't cover it. 'Everything but her address' is more like it. I know she's here in L.A. I know she's Changed. I know she has or had a drug problem. And I know who and where her dealer is. Also, she apparently had a kid taken away by Family Services. But yeah, she's here and I can find her."

For what should have been relatively happy news, Sarah didn't look exactly thrilled. Declan studied her with a curious eye as she continued.

"Problem is... well, I'm having sort of a 'dog that caught the car' moment, Declan. I..." Sarah's voice was strained. "...now that I know, I don't have any idea what the hell to do. I... I can't go back home like this. Grandma Wren would put me down for the count. And then there's Amber. Sounds like she's in a helluva mess. And her kid is here somewhere. And the more I think about it, the less I want to drag her back to that diehard bitch in Massachusettes."

Sighing hard, Sarah's shoulders trembled. "I'm not sure I even want to see her, Dec. I'm... hell, I'm this."

[Owns-The-Night]

Declan looked over at her, considering something from behind those silver-bright eyes. Whatever was going on in that not-now-and-never-had-been-human mind, Sarah had little clue of it. He was every bit the two-legged wolf she was used to associating with; only the rise and fall of his chest giving any life to his posture of predatory stillness. Finally he spoke, his voice low.

"Y'know, my uncle used to tell me things have a habit of working out. Sometimes they work out bad, sometimes good. But all we can do is play with the cards we get given." His eyes bored into hers. "Don't worry about what you are. Worry about who you are. That's the important shit right there. Don' worry about goin' home, neither. You're here now, frail. Everything's goin' to be alright."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

"Everything's goin' to be alright." The phrase repeated in Sarah's mind. Through the glass of the kitchen window, the half moon shone down through the trees, filtering through to cast upon her softly in silver light. More to herself than to Declan, she whispered, "By Luna, I hope so."

The sharp tang of blood broke her from the reverie once more, and she looked to Declan with a glance that wasn't so much curious as it was a mixture of concerned and knowing. "How long have you been bleeding like that," she finally asked, "and what the hell could do enough to one of the People to keep it going this long?"

[Owns-The-Night]

Declan grinned fiercely, the Rahu's pride as clear as Luna's light outside. "It's not too bad. Myself and some friends tangled with an Azlu last week. The bitch had nearly developed an egg-sac: she was fuckin' massive when we caught up with her. Throated the spider-demon but good, took her down in mebbe less than a minute. I'm takin' some credit where credit's due there." He shrugged, still smiling. "But she gave me a nasty partin' gift before Elle finished her off. Bitch severed my lower spine and rearranged my guts. The damn wound wouldn't heal as normal either: it's taken me a week just to get mobile."

He sauntered through to the kitchen as he told the tale, returning with a large bowl of some kind of stew. "Luna, but it's good to be walkin' again." he said through a mouthful.

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Even after a lifetime of exposure, the healing capabilities of her werewolf cousins never ceased to amaze Sarah. Nor did their vast selection of bizarre and hideous enemies cease to frighten her. The Spider Hosts were one of the worse of the latter, recounted in endless stories of great battles won and lost.

Sarah had been part of one of those battles, two years before; it was in large part why the Ajo Runners had deemed her worth of association in the end. The memory of it was anything but pleasant; it had taken far longer and far, far more of the costly vitae to heal from the monstrosity's cruel touch than had ever been expected. Declan's glacial healing progress suddenly made a lot more sense.

Nodding with what soldiers the world 'round called the Thousand-Yard Stare, Sarah sighed. "Yeah, that'd do it. Nasty damned things, and I'm glad you came through in one piece."

[SalmonMax]

Abruptly there was a brisk, loud knock at the door. A woman's voice called, "Open up! It's the police!"

Ariel came in and hugged Declan rather gingerly when he opened the door for her. "Good to see you up and around, big guy," she told him warmly. She was in a green T-shirt with a white band around the middle and a pair of blue jeans. Her orange hair was pulled back into a cute little tail. She glanced around the house automatically, noting differences from the last time she'd seen it.

Then her eyes found Sarah. Without looking away from her, Ariel said to Declan, "You know, it seems like every time I come over here, you've got a new girl hanging around."

She gave Declan a quick smirk, then went forward towards Sarah with her hand held out.

"I'm Ariel McKenzie."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

The smile was warm, but the hand that grasped Ariel's was anything but. "Sarah O'Neally, Dead Wolf. Honored to meet you."

Sarah's posture was something that the young werewolf had not yet experience from the receiving end: a subtle but almost wolf-like show of submission - not the equal of what deferrence given to Declan, but still there. Somewhere in the primal portion of Ariel's mind, it was clear that this person - this creature, for there was no scent of breath or life about it - considered her to be farther up in the pecking order.

[SalmonMax]

The surprise of grasping cold clammy flesh widened Ariel's eyes, and her nostrils flared as she instinctively drew a deep sniff. She pulled her hand back a little, not quite yanking it away, though that was clearly the impulse she was fighting.

Sarah's gestures of submission; things that Ariel didn't even really pick up on consciously, but that registered on the animal hindbrain, may have saved the day. They relaxed the fight or flight instinct, allowing the natural curiosity that both of Ariel's selves had in common to assert itself.

She looked Sarah down, then up, marking her pallor. She sniffed again.

"Dead wolf," she repeated slowly, tasting the words. "Literally dead? You're a dead...wait" Ariel's eyes narrowed, not in suspicion but in recognition.

"Sarah?" she asked in disbelief. "The Sarah from the chat? The one I called on the phone Sarah?"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah wasn't offended. She had endured much, much worse reactions over the past couple of years, reactions that all too often had left their mark upon her dead flesh.

Her smile took on a somewhat sad tone as she nodded. "That Sarah, yeah. And no, I never went through a First Change, and probably never would have. My change... well as you can see, my change came differently." The barest glimpse of sharp ivory showed in her wan smile.

[Owns-The-Night]

Declan greeted Ariel with a warm smile of his own that went some ways to softening his hard looks. The cop was not much younger than the ex-soldier, but something about her was almost... well, childlike to him. Especially the way she greeted him, with a spontaneous hug he returned one-armed as he held his bowl of stew out to the side. Even as a nuzusul, Declan had been more wolf than man, somewhat grim and withdrawn, rarely able to relax around others to the point of having fun in their company. His mischievous cold-nose trick on Morgan the night of the Azlu hunt was one indicator that he was starting to feel less isolated, less him-against-the-world. Relaxed wolves tended to play, even adults, and their humor could be impish to say the least.

Ariel was different. Raised human, she seemed more open and less taciturn. The fact of her auspice, too, made her seem more prone to seeking consensus, more compromising within a group dynamic. *Like a yearling.* the Wolf grinned from it's kibitzing position over Declan's mental shoulder. She's Uratha, though. And a cop. There's steel under the 'puppy fat'. Declan/Wolf thought. She just needs to learn to get more comfortable with herself and what she is now. Nice lines too... Too bad.

He watched as her and Sarah greeted one another, only a slight tension of his shoulders betraying a readiness to drop the bowl of food and leap in if a fight started. He relaxed as Ariel seemed more prone to talk than to fight. Half-Moons. He smiled. Thank Luna for them, and for Ariel getting here before Amber... He wasn't looking forward to handling that meeting.

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber brushed in the temporary dye and immediately pulled her hair back in into a bun. The dye could make her hair stiff when it dried, so Amber just sidestepped that by making sure the stiffness wouldn't matter. She then put on her bright blue 'Stab Wound Intercourse' shirt, knowing that she might get it trashed. But the shirt would make her eyes appear more blue than gray, which was the entire point. With the blond dye turning her hair from brown to a dirty blond and the pseudo-blue eyes, Amber had done what she could. The rest was up to chance.

She drove over quickly, her stomach in knots. Why the fuck did Declan insist on including the dead fucks in the People's business? That thought drove away a lot of her fear and infused it with anger. It wasn't their fucking business, but Amber wasn't going to fight with Declan about it in front of the others. Maybe, if they survived this crisis, they could fight about it later.

There was Ariel's truck already in the driveway, and Amber had to go around a bit to find a spot. Then she was striding up to the door, hoping that her disguise would work. She didn't expect her cousin to be here, but Declan was using a fake name for her, and for all she knew, Sarah had ties to every tick in LA. It was better to keep them in the dark completely and not risk it.

Drawing a deep breath, she knocked. When Declan let her in, she gave him a quick smile and touched his shoulder. "Lookin' good," she murmured to him. Her eyes were already moving past him, scanning the people in the room, noting Ariel and settling with an unfriendly gaze on the red-headed woman who had to be the dead thing Declan had referenced.

[Owns-The-Night]

"Elle, meet Sarah. Sarah, Elle." Declan closed the door behind his friend as she entered, then brushed his shoulder against hers as he went to stand near the vampire, still holding his bowl and eating. "Sarah's from some clan called Gangrel, and she's a Dead Wolf. They have some sorta kin-feelin' with us. She's the one clued me in on the rogue out there when another vamp called her in a panic. Speakin' of which, he'll be showin' up too later. He's got temporary safe conduct here while we get the rogue and those workin' with it contained." He grinned at Amber and Ariel, then winked. "Don't tell anyone, but I've got a bat in my belfry."

[SalmonMax]

Ariel gave Declan a narrow look. Another vampire? And rogue?

"I think I missed a staff meeting," she says tightly. "Someone want to bring me up to speed?"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

When the second Rahu entered the room, things changed. An undercurrent of barely-contained tension seemed to add almost an electric tinge to the air, as she and Sarah looked at each other, the werewolf's eyes narrowing as the vampire's own orbs widened.

Was it in fear of this obviously hostile new-comer that the undead creature suddenly seemed a touch more pale? Or was there the shock of recognition in those eyes that somehow shined with a life beyond death?

The truth would remain a mystery as Sarah repeated the spoken name either in belief or compromise. "Elle, honored to meet you." The same familiar-but-odd body language that Ariel had experience accompanied the words, as something not of the People showed a deference that betrayed both familiarity and respect for a pack-based social dynamic that went back to the dawn of time.

Then Ariel asked her question, and Sarah shifted from matters of propriety to duty.

"Last night, a vampire contacted me, the same one who's going to be joining us in a few minutes. He'd recovered the laptop of a murdered reporter, and that laptop had footage on it of one of the People in full battle mode. That's bad enough. But making matters worse, there's a ton of evidence that the subject of the video has killed over a dozen humans in the recent past... and eaten good-sized chunks of them.

"When I realized just how serious this was, not just with the film problem but with an oath-breaker running around eating humans, I contacted Declan, and we met up with this vampire and confirmed what he had. Your alpha had me run a message up to the Topangas, and they sent me back with word that we've got one cycle to deal with the problem before they decide to make it their own." Looking to the alpha male, she asked, "That about right? And should we bring in Adrian now?"

[Owns-The-Night]

"Adrian will be getting back soon enough. He's out chasing leads in his own way." Declan nodded to Sarah, a mixture of acknowledgement of her words and approval for her giving the brief update while he was polishing off his bowl of food. "There's another issue, too. Those snots up at Topanga have decided to graciously give me one cycle to sort the issue out. Otherwise they invoke the Oath and come to deal with both the rogue and me. I can only guess that they misunderstood my message as a plea for help: all I told them is I was going to try and deal with it, and if I failed they needed to be ready to take up the slack. So much for one big fuckin' family of the People, right?" A tinge of anger was in Declan's voice, a low growling rumble that suggested the slight would not be forgotten. He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of the ladies present.

"So there it is. First thing to do is find the guy. Lucky us, we have a picture and a license plate. Better than a scent trail in this town." He walked over to Ariel, fishing a slip of paper from his pocket as he spoke. "Need you to run this, Ariel. And here's the guy's face." The other item was a printed photo of the oily-haired male. "Pass the mugshot to Amber when you've looked at it." He walked over to his couch and leaned against the back of it, looking at them all.

"The smart move is to move slow. This is the stalking part of the hunt. Ariel, run that plate over the next few days. Later on, I want us all to head out to the scene of the last attack on four legs and sniff around. I want this fucker's scent lodged tight in our brains." He looked at all of them meaningfully. "There's another thing I want to talk about before Super-Private-Eye-Guy gets here."

"There's other allies we can draw upon. Maybe not for this, but maybe so. There's more supernatural shit in L.A. than just Uratha and leeches." He grinned tightly. "We might want to think about diversifyin' ourselves."

"I'll spill the beans first: I know a mage. Elle and Ariel know them too, they came along with us to help with the Azlu. Sarah has a friend with similar ability to do some kind of magic." He looked around as he spoke, gauging reactions. "We also know Adrian, who despite bein' a leech seems to make a habit of chasing down stuff the police can't or won't. The kid also carries more weapons than the 3rd Infantry Division." Declan grinned tightly. "Guess he likes bein' prepared."

"Anyways, I suggest we set up some sort of workin' arrangement. Not absolute trust as such: that needs to be earned. But we can start in on that earnin'. Somethin' like a round table, a meetin' face to face so's everyone knows that a) they ain't alone and other people are interested in keeping the neighbourhood clean." He let that hang in the air. "What do you all think?"

[z-Amber Wren]

"I think it'll work until the leeches get a better offer," Amber said tightly. She'd pointedly ignored the vampire in the room, not bothering to correct it about Declan's status as alpha. They weren't a pack until they had a totem, and until they were a pack, they didn't have an alpha. "The mage is cool, and as far as I can see, so I have no problems with that." She glanced at the vampire, briefly, scathingly. "If we wanna talk about this more, we should probably do it alone. As a pack."

She sighed and stepped back to the real issue. "Ok, is there any chance the maneater's been hurt? Blood spoor is so much easier to find. We should certainly look for that when we look for scent. What other clues do we have? Hunting ground? Does he run with a pack? Is he one of ours, or a cousin? Preferred prey? Any more info will help."

[Owns-The-Night]

"We can discuss that once Adrian gets here. The vampire's got the details with him and we get nowhere if we repeat "Louie-louie" over and over again." Declan straightened up a little, looking at 'Elle'. "You've got your reasons for distrusting leeches. Don't doubt that an' I'm not goin' to argue it with you." He stepped to Sarah's side and placed a hand on her shoulder, still looking at Amber.

"Sarah's not a leech as far as I'm concerned. I trust her like I don't trust Adrian, or anyone who wasn't with us for the Azlu. She's got a tale to tell, and I'd like you both to listen to it. Maybe some shit will become clearer to us all." He kept eye contact with Amber as he spoke, then looked at Ariel. "Sound fair?"

[SalmonMax]

Ariel poked her tongue into her cheek, bulging it out as she thought. It wasn't so much to sort out her feelings...she knew damn well what she felt. She was just trying to figure out a diplomatic way to say it.

"Part of the Oath is to keep the werewolf secret," she says after a moment. "Now, I know it's worded to limit that to ordinary people, but honestly, I think the -spirit- of it is to keep to ourselves when we can. -We- have a duty. -We- took the Oath. This Adrian guy..."

She grimaces and gives Sarah an apologetic look, but plows on. "...he sounds to me like exactly the sort of thing we're supposed to hunt. Not dead, not alive. Preys on ordinary human beings with supernatural powers. I'm not saying we should be declaring war on vampires, I'm just saying...we have our duty, and they have...what, exactly? Sarah's different. She knew about us already, and she's as close to us as you can get without being one. I'm alright with her. But I think we have to be -real- careful with any others, because if he's coming to us, running scared from this 'rogue,' who's to say who he'll go to tomorrow, running scared from us?"

[z-Amber Wren]

"A leech is a leech," Amber said. The tone held little rancor, but it had the firm, deliberate tones of belief. "I'll listen to any information it has, but I can't trust them, any of them. And if we hold them as Herd to the Oath, we hold all of the others to the Oath - leeches, mages and wolf-blooded. I know we want to make exceptions - I do, for the man who may become my mate - but it's a slippy slide. And it's not something to discuss in front of others. It's something to talk about as a pack, alone.

"The issue at hand is our man-eater," Amber added. "Any information we can buy or get from the leeches is good, though we need to treat it with a grain of salt. For example, I want solid evidence that this is a man-eater before we go after one of our own. I'm not willing to take a leech's word on the matter."

[Owns-The-Night]

"You're right." Declan nodded to Ariel. "You're right on several counts. Firstly about leeches bein' kind of what we're here to hunt, but also about not trustin' Adrian further than a Gauru can reach."

He smiled a little at Amber and Ariel. "We tell him what we have to so he won't get in the way at the wrong time. We don't give him a history of the People or a lowdown on all our strengths and weak points.

"As for your proof, Adrian's got the video footage showing someone wolfing out and killing. I've seen that. He's got autopsy reports showing that the bodies have been partially eaten. I've seen those. When he arrives, he can show them to us." He shrugged, then nodded at Amber. "As for the other matter, we'll talk about it as a pack: later. But once the business is done with, I'd like you to listen to Sarah's story, and judge her accordin'ly. It's a hell of a tale."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah watched the dynamics at work, and found herself agreeing with all of them, to her own surprise, at least to some extent. Finally, she spoke. The voice was not loud, nor was it disrespectful. But it was sincere.

"I'm not Herd. Whatever else I may be, I'm not Herd. But I'm also not part of your group... whether or not you're formally a pack. I'll tell my story later on like Declan says if you want, but I know full well that when the time for discussion and decision comes, it's something for you three to do alone. That's how it is, and that's how it should be."

[Adrian Moss]

He had found two of the vampires he had hoped to locate in the time before the meeting and now he felt he was running a little late. Adrian could hear the voiced form within as he approached the house, cloacked as usual. He almost regretted parking his car several blocks away. There was no helping it now.

Soundlessly til now, he opens the front door and walks in.

"I would have knocked, but there seemed to be such a lovely discussion in her," Adrian says with a degree of sadness.

He moves carefully through the room, eyes furitively looking at the werewolves. He makes careful to not stare at any one too long so as to draw offense. He doesn't look at Sarah at all.

When he gets to the sofa, he pulls the laptop out of the shadows, from nowhere. He sits an equally suddenly appearing shotgun down. Ignoring any of the people, he opens the laptop and boots it up.

"Files are in here," he says, not looking up. "Film file twelve is the one with changing shot, as well as two murders. The autopy reports are in the background file. We can sit back and let you go through it or you can just ask me questions. I've gone through about twenty percent of the stuff far."

"Oh, and it occured to me that one other human had seen these videos. He was killed by the two 'people' working with this Were - a fake overdoses."

He looks up and looks at Declan with eyes dead of all emotion.

"I contacted two kindred tonight who might be willing to help. It is costing me a favor, but they will keep their eyes out for this guy in most of the clubs in the West Hollywood area."

[Owns-The-Night]

Declan jumped, as did Amber, Ariel and Sarah, when the door suddenly opened and the dark-haired vampire walked in without a noise. What was most marked was the similarities in reaction. The tense atmosphere in the room needed an outlet, and Adrian's sudden entrance coupled with that atmosphere led to a feral response.

Declan and Amber immediately stepped towards the doorway, heads lowered and faint growls rumbling in their chests. Clothing stretched as their frames swelled to Dalu shape, wicked talons sliding from Amber's fingers as Declan's sledgehammer-sized fists clenched. Ariel's cop training meshed with her instinct, her gun coming into her hand as she too stepped forward, picking up on the pack-ready-to-spring vibe as her own teeth bared slightly, a fainter growl forming in her throat out of pure empathy. Sarah's reaction was equally feral and in sympathy with the others; her Beast's reaction to Adrian heightening the mundane shock as she partially crouched, fingers hooking as she prepared to call on her blood, to form talons of her own. Her fangs bared and a growling hiss began in the back of her dead throat before recognition set in. Declan was the first to react, throwing out his hand to the side in a "wait" gesture.

"Dammit, Adrian. Knock before enterin'!" the male growled from behind long, sharp canine teeth, punctuating the sentence with a snarl before his massive frame shrank again, becoming human-seeming. "And don't snoop at my door, neither. Folks who eavesdrop only hear ill of themselves." His clothes hung loosely on him now, the seams of his jeans having popped and his t-shirt having stretched.

Tension evaporated slightly, the three werewolves and the vampire coming down from the sudden triggering of their primal sides. Sighs and relaxing of muscles filled the quiet air as Adrian sat down and booted up his laptop. If the vampire had any idea how close he had come to bloody howling death, he gave no indication of it. At least his body language was right: keep the head down, don't make eye contact. Basic wild-animal management, which wasn't too many miles away from what he was doing, when one thought about it.

Declan shook his head and sighed as Adrian gave his report, then grunted in acknowledgement. When the laptop had loaded up, he took it from the vampire and set it on the table. "Gather round and watch." He found the video file and clicked 'play'.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel crammed her gun back into its holster and muttered to herself as she squatted down and looked at the laptop's tiny (comparatively) screen. What kind of asshole move had that been? He'd been telling them something. I can sneak up on you, he'd been saying. If I don't want you to, you'll never know I'm coming, or what I brought with me, until it's too late. That's how it felt anyway. And she didn't like it.

What she saw on the screen she liked even less. She watched it though, carefully.

"Alright," Ariel says in a thick voice after it's over. "What's the story behind this? The videoer was a reporter, what was her name? Who did she write for? You said there were autopsy reports, I wanna see them, especially the one who made them."

Belatedly she handed the picture, a scan from the video she gussed, and the license number to Amber. "Take a look."

[z-Amber Wren]

Angrily, Amber released the Dalu form. She was so pissed that it took extreme effort to not turn the invader into kibble. It either had no manners, no common sense or wished to agiatate them and put them off guard. Knowing what she did of leeches, it was the latter.

Snarling and pulling her clothing straight, Amber sat down to watch the video with Ariel beside her. The tape did nothing to improve her mood. She watched it through, not flinching away from the images. She recalled the stories she'd heard of man-eaters, of their debasement and trechery. She didn't doubt that this tape could be of a man-eater, but she still turned to Ariel. "Does this look to be a fake to you? It doesn't to me, but I'd like to consider all possibilities. It'd be a shame to be goaded into killing the wrong wolf. But if it is a man-eater, we've gotta deal with it."

She studied the picture of both man and car before handing them back to Ariel. She would remember, but it was the scent which would help her most.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel nods grimly at Amber.

"That thought occurred to me too. It doesn't LOOK fake, but I'm no expert. But it does seem pretty convenient that this footage showed us all the right things...face and license...and just happened to be left behind for someone to find and keep in a spot where Adrian here could find it."

"That's why I want the info on the reporter and how she found out."

She looks at Adrian. "How did you come by this, by the way? Anonymous tip?"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Sarah's mood wasn't a whole lot better than Amber's at this juncture; her eyes were a dark glower as they bored into the back of Adrian's head; her Beast was close enough to the surface that she caught herself on three separate moments starting to send vitae to her fingertips to form what little of the wolf she could, and her fangs were still out. What in flaming fuck is he thinking? IS he thinking?!? I'm walking a fucking tightrope in here, and he pulls that goddamned Shadow "poof, I'm here" shit? Fucking leech. The irony of her mental use of the term wasn't entirely lost on her, but the Dead Wolf had distinctly unorthodox (and uncharitable) attitudes regarding her fellow undead. In Sarah's mind, there were a few decent vampires out there - most of them Dead Wolves or certain Gangrel - but the rest were just leeches. Adrian's stunt managed to slide him into that unloved mental cubbyhole.

Her anger wasn't so much alieviated as redirected by the video. She'd seen it before, but doing so again wasn't any better. The hulking monster on camera was an Oath-breaker, and by Luna he would be stopped. "If it's a fake, it's a helluva good one. But you make a solid point, Elle; better safe than sorry. Question is: how can we check that? Can't exactly show the thing to a tech, unless you happen to know of one of the People who's also a video analyst."

[Adrian Moss]

"If its a fake, its beyond my ability to make. Hell, I'm lousy with tech."

Turning to Ariel, his voice calmer and respectful.

"The girl is dead. Her parents came to me, asking me to look into her murder. I went into the crime scene and looked it over. I figured out what happened there and I began to run down the girl's friends. I discovered that she ran this blog/E-zine covering crimes in the campus area with this guy."

He finally looks at Amber and there is a sense of loss and sadness in his eyes.

"I found the laptop there with her name on it. I found him too, but two large men - or what I assumed were men, tracked him to. I hid."

Adrian lowers his head,

"They held him down and overdosed him with some drug. When they left, I called 911 and reported the poisoning, but the kid didn't make it."

"Anyway, I tried to leave and they spotted me. Long story short, I eventually evaded them and got away."

He looks up and around the room.

"Okay. I then found a hacker willing to crack the password. I really don't believe that he looked at the files, or they were copied. That's not how these guys work."

"I went home, cracked open the files and began going through them. I finally discovered the autopsy reports and the files. The files were time stamped so I looked at the last one. I realized how bad this was and that it wasn't something I could handle alone. I called Sarah for help and that let to me being here."

"I'm currently going out and ..."

"People, I apologize for my stunt coming in here, but I am angry. I'm doing this because innocent people have been killed. More kids, and this Thing feeds on kids, are going to die. Am I the only one trying to save their lives."

He looks at Declan.

"I was rude to you and you really don't deserve that. You've been protecting me and I appreciate that. It was just that when I came up, it was all kinds of talk, but no one talking about protecting the would-be victims and getting vengeance for the dead."

"I came into this because of a 21-year old college junior. I would like to tell her parents that her killer was brought to some kind of justice."

Back to Ariel,

"Oh, the autopsy reports are in the this file," he points, "and are numbered by the days of death. I don't have the reports on the reporter and Victim 12."

[SalmonMax]

Ariel gets a notepad out of her pocket and a short pencil with toothmarks along its length from being chewed at and nibbled on. She starts writing in it.

"Okay. Reporter's parents ask you to investigate. Did they say it was a murder?" She jots more.

"You found out who her webzine buddy was, tracked him down, got the laptop from his room just in time to see two men overdose him. Need his name, and physical descriptions of the men you saw."

"Need the hacker's name too. Sorry, but 'you believe' he didn't look or make copies isn't gonna cut it. Plus, if they know you're involved they can find out he's involved. Which puts him on the hitlist. Name and address."

She looks up from the pad at Adrian. "I hear you're mad, but you being mad could have gotten you dead...er. You're not the only one trying to save people here, so lay off the tricks on us."

[Owns-The-Night]

Declan watches and listens as the other discuss the matter. He had already seen the video clip, but watches it anyway with his friends. It is a curious and distasteful sensation, watching this rogue Uratha who had sullied their shared blood by breaking one of the fundamental tenets of the Oath. He forces himself to bear witness, as though the fact of his willingness to confront this crime somehow purifies his soul for the upcoming fight. He knows he will watch it again, if possible, before he and the others go to deal with the rogue.

He nods in agreement with Ariel's last statement to the vampire, his own voice low as he adds: "As demonstrations of anger go, that one could have gotten ya killed. And as for the would-be victims and vengeance for the dead, that sort of sentiment takes a back seat to us decidin' whether or not we can trust you at our backs. Which you didn't just help us with: Bear that in mind. When we are out there huntin', we can't go into the jungle thinkin' noble thoughts about doing this for people dead, or people yet to die. Our goal is to put down a rabid animal and all come home in one piece." He looked the vampire in the eye. "Funny though it might sound comin' from me, don't let your emotions run the show. There'll be a time for that, but not until the kill."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

"So if I've got it right," Sarah said after Declan's words had hung in the air for a moment, "Ariel's going to run the plates and photo. Anyone have any ideas on how we can confirm the video?

"Also, I still have my old UCSF and pre-med credentials, an' they're not too out of date yet; that'd get me into the county morgue as an 'educational visit' to go take a look at the victims on ice to see if it really does look like something the size of that" - she pointed at the frozen image of the huge creature on the screen - "did the chowing down. I can probably get someone else in with me, if you want." She hesitated for a moment, and a touch of resignation and sadness shown on her face. "I don't have a whole lot of illusions about the trust factor here, and it probably would be best for one of the People to see it in-person."

[Adrian Moss]

Adrian looks chastised by Declan's words and looks down.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," he says meekly.

He brightens slightly with the memory there is one last piece of information. He reaches into the laptops's carrying case and pulls out s sheaf of photocopied papers. He hands them to Ariel without looking at her.

"This is the police report that the parents gave me. They said the investigating offered them up as an apology for moving on with the case. It was a murder, but the police put it on the back burner fast."

"The girl's body - Linda Tponksa, I'm used to calling her the Girl, has been claimed, but I don't know about Victim #12 and any other victims since then. After all, it took me nine days to run down a hacker. He is bound to have killed again."

Making brief eye contact with Areil again,

"About the hacker; I can't give up his name. Its a trust issue. Is there anyway around this?"

"And the webzine's guy's name was Randall Wilson. He was a grad student in Library Science. He died twelve days ago."

He turns to Sarah, not meeting her eyes either,

"You may want to study the autopsies of the other victims and then look for the same animal attack patterns in new cases. See if any new victims are suffering tissue loss. I can't believe this guy has been still all this time."