Death Sentence and a Murder

Xavier called me up a few days ago and said that there was going to be another meeting at the SAM at 9:30 on Saturday. And, like before, all of us, now 14 thanks to no Simone or Petrovsky, showed up on time. I sat with Jericho like before. I thought Rafael would join us, but no sign of him either. Genevieve got down to business right away. She started off with her wonderful pleasantries by accusing Rafael of being exiled due to stealing something from Lancea Sanctum and had a blood hunt called upon him. Then, to make things even better, she goes on to say, "Vince, Mike, Jim, Gabe, Jacqueline: you have 15 days to bring Pope's staked body to me or YOUR lives are forefit." Then she flashed her ever so friendly smile and dismissed the meeting. Oh god...

I nearly ran out of there. As soon as I got outside, I called Rafael. I was kind of in a panic, but he calmly reassured me that he wasn't in any sort of danger and that we could meet. He apparently was at Hemp Fest and had a few people with him. One of them was a young-business-man type, but the others were your typical low-life stoners. When Rafael and I were alone, I blurted out that I would get the bag for him. Maybe if he ran away for California, we'd be far apart, but at least he would be safe(r). He described an old store in the underground and in the back of that store, there would be a false wall. The doctor's bag would be behind that wall. I asked how I would know it was the right one and he gave me a blank smile like a parent would to try to not laugh at something his kid did. He patiently explained it's exact whereabouts again and I suppose the chances of someone else putting a similar looking doctor's bag in the exact same location is probably pretty slim. I told him I'd get in touch with him later that night and ran off to Pioneer Square. On my way, I called Blade to tell him that I was calling in the favor he owed me. I asked him to get in touch with Jericho and to have him expect me soon. He agreed, said he'd call back soon as he got in touch with Jericho, and when he called back, he told me he'd expect me at 1am.

Promptly at 1, I scurried down to where I knew Jericho usually hung around. As I got closer, I started hearing what sounded like a choir singing, but it was only the baritone section. It kept getting louder and louder the closer I got. By the time I got to our meeting place, the sound was resonating through my whole body! But when I saw the doorknob turn, it stopped suddenly and out came Jericho. He greeted me with a nonchalant "Hey, what's up?" I stammered a bit, thinking maybe I was going crazy in addition to being a fucking vampire, and asked if he heard the singing. He gave me an is-this-a-joke look and said, "Of course, it was me." I think I did the opening and closing of my mouth like a fish that Mike sometimes does out of being stunned. Jericho lead me to the store that I described. On our way there, we chit chatted about music. Turns out we have one big thing in common: music was a big part of our pasts that we (I think) miss terribly. I even suggested that maybe we should get together and sing some time... and now, looking back, that sounds pretty dumb when said aloud. Oh well. He didn't seem fazed by it. I think.

The bag was exactly where Rafael said it would be and as soon as I thanked Jericho for letting me come by to get it, I called him to tell him I had what he wanted. We made arrangements to meet at the Red Robin down at the pier. I made my way there on foot, but that might have been an error in judgement. As soon as I crossed the street near Ivar's, Sam, who I only knew by name, appeared out of the shadows and I swear, he was going to kill me. That scary fucker's scary enough without him growling at me to get away from his territory!! So I just ran. I ran so far away, Flock of Seagulls. And Sam.

We met at the restaurant as promised and Rafael seemed elated, after asking me if there were other bags there and if this was the right one, of course. I reminded him of his promise to show me what it was and it was a gilded cross. Hm, okay. Not as exciting as I had hoped, but at least I'm in on the secret now. He mentioned that he and his crew had a house party to go to in Wallingford and invited me along. I had nothing else better to do so I went. We all crammed in this beat up VW bus and headed north. When we got to the place, it was rowdy as hell. Part way through the night, Rafael took me aside and mentioned that he thinks Michael, the businessy guy, would make a good addition to our little family so he wants me to judge him. He said he would get us tickets to the opera and make it a black tie affair.

The next night, Mike and Vince dropped in to my club. Given that we were all on death row together, we tried to come up with a plan to get ourselves pardoned. We kept going back and forth on whether or not we should try to get Rafael to come in so I offered to call him up. Man, their eyes can get wide. I called him up and said that we'd really like to talk to him about the stuff that's going on. He mentioned that he's busy tonight and tomorrow, but suggests we meet before the opera to chat. He said he'll ExFed the tickets to my place. ...ExFed? Mike looked like he was going to be sick and immediately declined going. Vince said he'd think about it, but I can't honestly picture him in a tux. Mike then threw me for a loop and asked if I've seen a gilded cross on Rafael. Since he had said that it was for my eyes only, I sweetly told Mike no in order to protect the secret. Apparently it has something to do with Lancea Sanctum rituals. I got a text from Rafael saying "FedEx!!!" Ah, now, it makes sense. And he learned how to text! Vince also mentioned that Blade offered me a spot in the Invictus family if I was interested and wanted something to belong to. Maybe if he had asked me before I met Rafael and was a member of my own little family, I would have agreed, but I just said that I'd think about it. Truthfully, given all the fecal matter that's hit spinning blades, I think Jericho has it right: don't get involved. And speaking of the big mountain man, since Mike wasn't going to the opera for sure, I thought I'd give Jericho his ticket since it may be something he's interested in. I left him a note in our usual spot.

We left the club with the thought that the next best move was to track down Poor Old Willie because he was known to be good friends with Rafael back in the day. We went up to a run down church on Broadway in Capitol Hill where he's been known to be, and of course, the gate's locked. A small altar boy came out from the church and when he got to the gate, he mentioned that Willie had sent him along with a message that he will see us, but not tonight. We didn't want to press the issue any further so we left. Vince parted ways with us saying he had to make some calls. While Mike and I were walking down the hill, he got a call and it sounded like the conversation was cut short. He shoved me into the coffee shop we happened to be by and told me to go get some coffee while he uses their Wi-Fi.

By the time I returned with the drinks I stared at wistfully, Mike looked like he was about to start sweating. He spun his laptop towards me and pressed play on a crappy little cell phone video. The quality was poor, but anyone could tell that it was a woman, kindred, of course, staked and set on fire. There was a glint of something that looked like a cross, one I hadn't seen before, on the ground that looked as if she had dropped it and a hand came from off screen to snatch it away. There was a bit of a scuffle before the video ended. Apparently we've now met the mysterious Melanie who was rumored to have been floating around, unassociated with anyone. Mike about jumped through the roof when his phone rang again. Cursing under his breath, he answered and I could even hear the other end of the line screaming to delete the video and that someone had gotten killed over it. He made quick work of storing it on a secure something-or-other, and had me call Vince. I simply told him he should meet us at the cafe and that we had something important to show him.

After Vince showed up and we stepped outside and showed Vince the video. As we were standing there, a sedan drove by and slowed down when it was near us. It was one of Willie's retainers and as soon as he figured out who we were, he sped off. The three of us exchanged glances and ran back up to Willie's church. The place was lit up like there was some big function going on inside. The sedan was parked there and so was a familiar looking VW bus! The same altar boy came out to us again and had a different message this time: "Things have changed, but he still cannot see anyone yet. But rejoice for Rafael Pope has returned to the fold! He was innocent all along."