I took calming, deep breaths. Telling my unfortunately racing heart to slow. Even hours after my interaction with Brewer, and after trying several things, I could still feel the pressure of whatever magic she had used, feel it clamping down on me. I had noticed after my…..awakening I suppose you would call it, that I wasn’t good with the idea of being restricted. With having my freedom stripped in any form. Not that I had ever been ok with it, not if it impacted anything serious, I was always a free spirit at heart, much to the displeasure of my mother. But I had never had such a visceral reaction to being confined….. not before the nightmares…. Or whatever memories they represented…..

Merii had done an admirable job distracting me with the promise of blood and a hunt at some point. But I found myself flooded with a manic energy. A need to do something, anything, that would keep me moving. I had started by pacing the floor, but I found that the movements of the city below kept grabbing my attention. A bird would fly past or the light would reflect off something at just the right angle and my head would snap to look at the offending object without my input. 

Quickly growing sick of that I ended up in my room, disassembling my gun and reassembling it, listening to music, reading. I couldn’t concentrate. None of it helped and I eventually found myself back on the couch. Merii sat across from me looking over printouts of the crime scene and reports.

I watched her work for a while, actually paying attention as she read, her tongue occasionally playing over a fang as she studied some bit of information or reassessed photos with a keen eye.
That’s what I did for a half hour, or it felt like that anyway. In reality it was probably only a minute before Merii looked up at me.
“Can you stop tapping? Or pick a rhythm at least? Something dramatic from a crime drama would be nice.”

Till then I hadn’t even noticed my leg was tapping out a furious tempo on the floor. I had barely registered that I was playing with my fang again, it was becoming an unconscious action these last few days, like some child sucking its thumb .
Placing a hand on my knee I held it still, giving the offending limb a glare, as though that would help.

Merii sat up a little straighter.
“You good?”

I grimaced.
“Just all…. Jumpy. After Brewers….. display.”

“Ah….” Merii nodded, softly drumming her fingers on the table. “Don’t hold it against her, she was sorry and did genuinely just want you to listen while she scolded me.”

“I don’t! Not at all…. “ And i didnt, she was nothing but kind in her strange way, and while she could have sucked the air from my lung or crushed my windpipe, she had only held me in place. But….
“It just made me feel…”

“Vulnerable?”
She raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t want to say it, to admit she was right. I grit my teeth and clenched my fist. If it were the old me, the human me, I would probably have told her not to be stupid. That I was fine. Even my newer instincts streamed to hide it, not to show a weakness to anyone, to be strong and stay quiet, just like I had about the contents of my dreams.
I could have simply said “uncomfortable”, but, as always, I felt drawn to my sire. I wanted her reassurance, her support. And with everything in my mind telling me no, I nodded my head. An admission of a weakness.

Merii, for her part, let a look of concern overtake her face.
“I can understand that….. all things considered you are only a fledgling…. But luckily I have a distraction for you.

I let my shoulders sag.
“Is it exercise?”

She looked down at the papers then back to me.
“Not quite.”

⁂

Soon the two of us were stood in front of one of the blackout blinds, with it unfurled all the way down, and with the help of a few dressmakers pins, it made a reasonable evidence board. Mostly we had the printouts of the photos, the reports and a large map Merii had marked the location of the murder on with a little red sticker. I doubted this was going to be as simple as tracking it back to the center of a bunch of killings, but you never know your luck.

Unfortunately our luck wasn't so good, because we spent nearly three days looking on and off at the damned thing. Neither of us had a real plan, other than poking around the crime scene now things were calming down. The reports we were getting from Hunter were mostly useless. A lot of interesting details, most of all being the contacting of several experts to look at the wounds. All agreed they were inflicted with a blade, likely a scalpel, rather than the bite of a vampire. Given Merii was absolutely sure none of the people listed have ever seen a vampire, I was a little incredulous, but did at least trust them to know a knife from a fang. 

Merii was right when she had declared that this would act as a distraction. It was frustrating, but it gave Merii time to talk me through things. Apparently she had some experience with hunting people down as a bounty hunter, and she was able to spend the days teaching me the finer points of putting together our little map. One of those points being that we simply didn't have enough information.

On the second day of this Brewer had picked my lessons back up. Whatever business she had left on being her own, I didn’t question it. She was…. patient, with me when she returned. No doubt having been told by Merii about my little moment of weakness. But as I had told my sire and as I made sure to tell Brewer, I didn’t hold anything against her. After she had so willingly given blood I doubt I could have hated her, or even felt anger against one so willing to feed us. If anything her magic was impressive and I felt a little better knowing she was in the house and on our side.. I didn’t want to, or feel the need to, mention that I was harboring a healthy fear of her and her powers though.

It took full two days once Brewer was back for her to actually help us translate the runes. Not because it was difficult, but because on top of everything she had placed us both on house arrest until we could provide her with a plan that wouldn’t result in either our deaths, or the Guard knocking down our door.
In the end I think she relented only because Merii was doing such an awful job of translating them by herself that she was almost offended by it.

Once the witch finally did relent, coming to our makeshift little crime lab on the third day, it only took her ten minutes to translate. And she could probably have done it quicker if Merii hadn’t kept butting in with her opinions. It was hard to tell if it was the usual banter or if Merii was joking with the witch to put me at ease. Either way, I was enjoying their company. It was…. relaxing.

“So this is slightly complicated. Not the runes themselves but the placement and inferred meanings.” Brewer spoke like she was educating me, which she was, but kept stealing glances at Merii to make sure she was listening as she laid out the runes, now printed on individual slips of paper.  “The literal translation is something along the lines of “offering, to, large, wolf, hear, people” or “I want to speak to the big doggo” as Merii so accurately translated.” 

I could help but snicker at Brewers deadpan delivery of such a wonderful line.

 Merii seemed a little indignant and tried to defend herself.
 “It does say "doggo". That is the rune for dog.” She said, tapping the offending image offending rune.

Brewer only blinked at her.
“It’s the general rune for canid, but it’s the ceremonial rune for wolf. Given that the rest are ceremonial runes it makes sense this way.”
 
Merii huffed but I actually had a question. The atmosphere seeming to invite me to join. 

“So what’s the literal translation? And the big one in the centre,” the one that I couldn't look away from “what’s that one mean?”
 
Brewer gave it a quick look, studying me for a moment before answering. “The focus rune is a more complex one taken from a different alphabet. But it generally means a great potential force, or denotes something waiting to be unleashed. As for the literal translation, there are a few, the basics are the first part and the last. So “We make this offering so you may hear our call”. Although I also suspect “hear our call” should be translated as “come to us” or “we summon you” in this case”
 That sounded sufficiently culty for me to accept it as fact. Merii had actually been able to get that one correct on day one, apparently knowing a fair bit about that one symbol in particular, but I wanted a second opinion before I accepted it as fact.
 
Brewer, having given me a moment to think, continued.
“The more complicated bit is “large wolf”. In this context, and given the nature of the focus rune, I think it can be read as “great alpha” or “great warrior”. Wolf being a possible stand in for both words depending on overall context, and “large” being more of a general use term for might and size.”
 
“So?….. werewolves? Is anyone else getting werewolf vibes here?” 
I tried my hand at a guess and a little light humour.
 
Merii though, was slightly more serious with her answer, the levity of moments before fading as she grew slightly ridged.
“Not werewolves, the setting is all wrong. Not to mention they would just pull the head off or torn out the throat. We can double check but I doubt it will come to much…… let’s put our chips on some kind of lone blood cultist and hope we’re right.” 

Brewer nodded in agreement and I was a little confused. The werewolf thing kind of made sense, and Merii made a good, and likely well informed point, but I thought betting on a lone cultist was a little odd. Not to mention hoping we were right? What was the alternative if we weren’t? A question that slipped out without me noticing.
“What’s the alternative?........ Anyone want to explain this one?”
 
Brewer looked at Merii who thought for a long moment.  “Not really….. it’s old world business that shouldn’t matter to us. But if it comes up I’ll explain. This is one of those things that you’re honestly better off waiting till you’re a Lady to hear, trust me it’s better this way.”

If she said so I guess. I still put on a pout but it wasn’t like Merii to hold back anything particularly harmful. If she said I could better grasp it as a Lady than a fledgling then she was probably correct. She had been fairly open with the fact that some things were simply better off waiting till I was powerful before I knew. Probably so I didn’t try something “stupid”. 

Brewer seemed annoyed though, snapping her eyes to Merii as she finished speaking, staring at her for an overly long time, Merii just shrugging in return. I guess she did say she would teach me vampire things, but still, it was up to her how and when she did it. Why was I defending her again?…..

Merii spoke up before Brewer could comment or I could ask a question. 
“Ok, so basic plan! We go out tonight, I have a spare car that will blend in a little better so we use that. We park near the river and use the roofs to head to the crime scene. We get in, see what we can see, get out, and give Brewer our notes. Happy?”
 
She said that to both of us but was mainly talking to Brewer, who nodded her assent. 
“Provided you exercise the caution you were trained to use, I see no problem with it.”
 
“Cool!” 
Merii turned to me with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 
“Want me to teach you a little magic real quick?”

I was hardly about to turn down an invitation like that, and so Merii sent me off to grab my bloody jacket. The shirt, bra, and honestly everything but the shoes I had considered a write-off and destroyed, or at least Brewer had, turns out she was very handy with evidence disposal…. And probably stealing my blood while she was at it, I was starting to realize there was a price for doing business with a witch. Whatever, she could wring the blood out of my other clothes if she wanted, but I did like the jacket, and if I could get the blood out of it then I was definitely going to wear it again, bullet holes and all.

Laying the Jacket out on the kitchen island, Merii took a close look at it, giving a low whistle as she put a finger through the hole in the shoulder. 
“I’m honestly kind of impressed you kept going after this one. I bet it hurt like a bitch.”
 
I shrugged. “Wasn’t too bad, I mean yeah, it burned like nothing I’d ever felt. But in the moment? I didn’t mind….. it was actually kinda awesome.”  I admitted, smiling sheepishly.
 
“Awww~”
 
“Oh shut up! I meant the adrenaline rush.”  
I rolled my eyes.
  “So what’s the magic I finally get to learn, oh wise and ancient master?” 

“Cheeky”  Merii said, poking my side. “But this is probably something I should have shown you before you threw out all those sets of training clothes.” 

 
“The ones you were responsible for ruining and refused to replace?”

“Well I can’t fix the actual damage…. Ok I probably could, I’m a wiz with a needle. But I was more talking about the blood stains.”  
With that Merii extended a claw and sliced her own palm. Blood seeming to boil out from the wound, forming a small, swirling ball in her hand. It was absolutely beautiful. I was transfixed for a long moment just watching the blood swirl and form, similarly to watching water in the river as the varying currents pulled it this way and that. 

Merii snapped me back to attention by clicking the fingers of her free hand.
“I know it’s incredible, but pay attention please. This is external blood control. Something we can do that a biomancer can’t, it’s something unique and useful. Due to our blood basically being a conscious part of us, we have an extreme degree of control. It’s basically the same as directing your blood to heal a wound, except that you're moving it out of the body. It’s not good for much…. Blood makes a terrible weapon, but it can do this~.” 

With her usual showmanship Merii slowly passed her hand over one of the bloodier patches of the jacket. Her palm down as the orb of blood pressed against the surface, seeming to glide over it. Mercilessly, as the ball passed over the blood that had been there seemed to vanish, apparently pulled into, and absorbed by, Merii’s own.
“Our blood will always overcome any other, even dried like this, the only exception being that of stronger vampires. It’s why feeding our blood to a mortal will heal their wounds, the catch being that too much will poison them. It’s a powerful and dangerous thing.”

I frowned.  “And you use it for cleaning?….. and you’ve been letting me do all that laundry?”

“Yep!”

I sighed. Fascinated where I probably should have been horrified.
“Is the self harm necessary?”

Merii looked at her rapidly healing hand, the skin knitting together before our eyes.
“Unless you want me to do it? Yes.”

I grimaced slightly at the thought of her doing it, getting hurt in training was one thing, but just letting her make me bleed was another.
I shook my head. I still wasn’t a fan of pain, or so I kept telling myself, and self harm had always been a big fear of mine. Something just on the edge that was always waiting for a bad enough day and enough apathy to pounce…. A little part of my brain wanted to say something but I shut it down. Not giving it the chance to interrupt an important lesson.

With a deep breath I extended a single claw, taking a moment before slashing it quickly across my palm. I hissed at the sensation of skin parting, at the slight coolness followed by the sudden burn, at the little rush the sensation bought me. A reminder of my hunt, of my fight, of the kill……

Not wanting to waste my blood, or to have suffered for nothing, I did as Merii had said, focusing on moving blood to the wound while still keeping it open, telling the blood to stay together as I felt it pooling in my palm. It was a very odd sensation, like holding a small water balloon that you could feel through. It would jiggle and sway, starting to roll as I moved my hand, but always sticking just at the edges of the wound.

I would love to say I mastered this in one go. But the truth is that after the first few attempts my jacket had more blood on it than when I started. Keeping an abstract concept, like magic in your blood, in a solid form was extremely finicky. Requiring concentration that I struggled to give. Most of the little tricks I slowly picked up were through my own trial and error. Merii’s saying “watch me” then doing the same thing again, not being very helpful at teaching nuance. 
Eventually, thankfully, I did manage it. But with something closer to a small pancake of blood than the ball Merii so effortlessly used. 

With a weary sigh I shook the last few fragments of shoulder bone out of the sleeve and put the thing on. My mind was as near dead as it had been since I turned, and any reserves of magic I might have had were completely exhausted. 

Merii though, was infuriatingly upbeat. 
“Well done! I know how weird that is but you got it done…. Good idea flattening it out, I probably should have started you with that.” 

“You’re a terrible teacher.” 
I grumbled, resting my cheek on the cold marble of the kitchen island. 

“Just the worst I know.” 
She chuckled and patted me on the back. 
“But you definitely earned dinner tonight. So I’ll get you a drink, then we have a crime scene to visit!” 

I closed my eyes and groaned again. I had forgotten that we still need to do that.  Somehow I got the impression this was going to be a long night.