It was nice to get out of the apartment. As much as I had formed a, possibly unhealthy, bond with my nest, it was good to be free. The breeze was warm and the moon was getting close to full, as we crossed the last few buildings to the murder scene. I could almost feel a buzz in the air as I leapt from roof to roof. The buildings here were a little newer than on my last outing, meaning a few more stories and slightly less vampire friendly roofing.

Not that it had stopped us, Merii had surprised me by actually explaining how to handle crossing these new obstacles without making noise. I did have to give it to her, while she was an awful classroom teacher, she could actually give some useful advice when she was in the wild, and could be bothered.

The blood trick she had shown me was going to save so much time soaking and washing. I wasn’t good at it but I was already formulating new ways I could use it. Like, if I could use the blood to pick up all the particles on something then reabsorb the blood leaving only dirt in my hand. Honestly I was mostly just thinking of how I could cut down on cleaning and maybe have a kind of “blood shower” on the go. There was a wild concept in my head about using it to drain a target just by touching a wound, but I definitely needed to consult Brewer on that one.

Thoughts of how to weaponize blood aside, we soon reached the alleyway where the murder occurred. The Guard had long removed the body, the cable, and likely anything else of importance, but the pentagram was still there, as well as several little evidence markers. Peaking quickly over the edge of the building I also confirmed that there was a patrol car parked down the street. The two guards inside were distracted by sleeping and playing on their phone respectively. I wasn't surprised to see them here, it was still an ongoing investigation, and the sight would likely attract all manner of no good creeps. Really, who knew what kind of weirdos would come poking around if you opened it to the public.

Merii whispered low enough that no human ear could hope to hear her. But in the quiet of the late night it was perfectly clear to me.
“Guards?”

I responded in kind, struggling a little to be as quiet as she was while still being intelligible. But doing my best to match the mood our little stealth mission had set.
“Yeah, one car, two guys around sixty meters down the street? One’s sleeping and the other’s on their phone.”

“Perfect. ~”
With that she placed a hand on the building’s facade and vaulted over, making only the slightest of noise on her landing. I did want to try emulating her, I was reasonably confident three floors was still low enough to not break my legs, but I didn’t really want to risk it. I might be a bit tougher than I used to be, but a broken leg would definitely be scream worthy and that would be a problem…. also, it would make me look stupid.

So I settled for a seemingly safer, if less graceful, option and made like a raccoon. It was a little difficult to get a grip on the down pipe, but I managed to lower myself over the edge and start my painfully slow descent.

Only a meter into shimmying my way down, I wished I had jumped. 

I did recall the mention that animals really didn’t like us much. In truth I hadn’t paid much attention, it was a little depressing but nothing to worry about. Or so I had thought. Imagine my surprise when I realized I had forgotten something very important about the ecology of the city, of all cities in fact. Pigeons.
I was currently face to face with one such creature. It’s beady little eyes filled with nothing but hate and malicious intent. I froze, it froze, and for a long moment neither of us moved.

“Hi…. bird…..”
I spoke softly, ever so softly. Summoning the most soothing coo of a voice as I could.
“You’re a good little bird….. aren't you?.....”

The effects of my smile and soothing voice were lost on the horrid creature, as the next thing I knew my face was covered in a whirlwind of beak and claws, wings battering my head as the damnable thing went after my eyes. Despite its best efforts to bind me, I had some experience fighting birds at this point, and tried batting it away while shielding my face from the completely unprovoked attack. It was about halfway through pushing the fearsome feathered beast up and away from me that I remembered where I was, mainly because gravity had decided to make itself known in its usual cruel way.

To my credit I didn’t scream. The only real noise, other than a loud hiss, was the thump of my body bouncing on the concrete and the crack of at least one vertebrae, some ribs, and probably my skull. I likely would have made some very loud and angry noises, mostly aimed at the feathered rat, if the wind hadn’t been completely knocked out of me and my brain rattled. That, and I needed to wait a minute or two for my ribs to heal before I tried yelling, or breathing…..

At least the concussion dulled most of the pain.

Of course Merii was never one to miss such a golden opportunity. Once I had opened my eyes, and managed to get them to focus, I found her standing over me looking all kinds of smug.

As my body started to heal I draped an arm over my face and groaned.
“Urggh…. Not a word…..”

“I literally didn’t say a word~.”
It didn’t help that she said that while smiling ear to ear. 

Slowly I managed to pull myself together, literally, and get up. Not everything was quite healed, but I would manage. I was finally thankful that Merii had gotten me used to moving while hurt.
In a kind, if slightly painful, gesture, my sire helped pat some of the dirt off my back, and together we walked to the ritual site. A site, I personally found it was a lot more impressive in person.

Up close the scale actually came across. The thing had to be at least eight feet in diameter, and the way that it had been smeared on the ground gave a very good impression of something made deliberately frayed. Like the purposeful tears in jeans or the fading of a modern photo. According to the reports we were monitoring, the paint they had used was some super long lasting stuff that they had painted over with the victim's blood. It was very odd. What was also odd was how I could almost feel it, as though I was standing next to some immense battery or high voltage line. But unlike either of those this one was almost magnetic, driving the buzzing in my skull to new heights. I had felt the same sensation earlier, it felt intimately familiar, maybe i felt it even when we first left the apartment, but I had just thought it was excitement then……I wanted to touch it.

Almost without my notice my hand reached out. I wanted to let it know I was here, to give it my blood and my blessing, to feel.....

Merii grabbed me by the back of the collar and hauled me back several feet. I hadn’t even noticed her move until I was already in the air, but the sudden motion broke me from whatever strange trance I had entered.
Spinning me around she put her hands on my cheeks and lent down slightly, moving her head as she examined my eyes with a piercing gaze.
“You still in there dear?”

I blinked a few times and did my best to answer with my cheeks squished.
“Uh yeph?”

Merii nodded but kept looking into my eyes for what felt like a full minute. The reflection of the faint red glow that occasionally came over them reflecting in her own before flicking out. A moment later she seemingly deciding on something. 
“Ok…. You don’t get within six feet of the circle. And don’t look directly at it.”

“Okay?.....”
She let me go and went back to looking over at the circle while I rubbed my cheeks to get a little blood back into them.
“Want to explain what just happened?”

Merii just shook her head.
“Don’t know exactly, but nothing good.”

“Well that’s reassuring.”
I was trying very hard not to look, but my eyes were being drawn to it.
“Have you been feeling it pull you too?”

Sighing deeply Merii took one last look at the thing then turned around, her tone still serious.
“No, not even remotely.”

“Ah…..”
I didn't know what to make of that.

She looked at me, studying me from head to toe.
“How close did you get before you felt funny?”

I thought back to when we left, the more I thought of it the more sure I was that the strange feeling I had since earlier was the same as the one that had just overcome me. It was subtle but it was definitely the same, a feeling that had slowly grown as we approached and crescendoed when I was close enough to see the details. Of course I explained all that to Merii, who seemed troubled by the whole thing. Nervous even, something I had never seen from her before.
“Well that’s probably really bad…. We’ll see if we can get Brewer to put something together for you…. For future reference, it might be best if you don’t look directly at strange magic circles or try to touch them.”

Closing my eyes and, breathing deeply to center myself, nodded.
“I can agree to that, having my mind screwed with feels…. disgusting….” I didn't add that it also felt sickeningly familiar. “Any reason why it didn’t mess with you?”

That got me a pat on the head that did very little to reassure me.
“Because…… we’re different people dear….. we’ll double check with Brewer before we make conclusions though.”

It wasn't much of an explanation. Did she mean that I was a fledgling? That I was strange? Or literally that I was just a different person to her? All questions I wanted answered but was interrupted before I could ask as Merri put an arm around my shoulder, her presence comforting and reassuring as my thoughts seemed to calm.
“To the task at hand? Do you notice anything?”

My questions could wait as I looked around, being careful of the circle and its symbols, I tried to spot anything that might help us. Mostly there was nothing, the guards having done a good job collecting anything that could be a clue. What was there was garbage, and even that seemed to have been gone through and piled neatly by the dumpsters.
  “Pretty sure the Guard actually did their job here….. I can't see anything interesting….”

  Merii nodded and breathed deeply.
  “I said notice, not see. Just like the club, what do you smell?”

  Following her lead I took a deep breath through my nose. The myriad of scents filling my nostrils as my brain quickly began sorting them into categories. There was blood, obviously, and I could tell it was female easily enough. There was also the smell of urine, of exhaust smoke, of the nearby garbage, the faint smell of paint, cigarette smoke, and the sickly sweet and strangely familiar scent of fear soaked sweat. Nothing I would call a lead.

Merii must have guessed at my confusion from the look on my face.
“Think about negative space here…. Ok, you’re probably missing some context for that. Werewolves smell bad, like, obnoxiously so. That we can't smell them all but confirms they had nothing to do with this.”

I shivered, not expecting the sudden chill that had shot up my spine as thought on what I could detect, and spoke.
“Right…. I can smell the fear that was in her sweat, the blood…. It's so odd…”

Presumably it was my answer more than my reaction that got a smile from my sire.
  “But only her’s right? Not the excitement of her killer? The adrenaline he must have had during the kill? The sweat of the labour he performed hoisting her up?”

  That… that was a very good point. I could smell what I assumed was the guards, just the general smell of people. But if they had attacked her and hoisted up the body, then they would have been sweating, would have been excited. Just from the beating she received before she was killed, I should smell the adrenaline of the killer somewhere. No one could possibly do all this without leaving something like a smell. Well, we could, mainly because we didn't sweat, but Merii was sure it wasn't a vampire, and I was inclined to agree given the information we had.

“So a mage then? Someone who could hide themselves from others, likely a biomancer or something like that?”  I voiced my opinion with a slight frown. “It's not much.”

Merii took a look around again. “It's more than the Guard reports have, and it gives us a solid start. The number of skilled mages running around this part of town at night is definitely going to be low. I’m sure I can probably get the registry for the area from Hunter when we get back…. You need a hand getting back up?” She nodded to the rooftops, “I think I could throw you that distance if I tried~.”

“Ha,ha. But seriously, can we do something about that?”
I nodded towards the bloody circle on the ground while studiously keeping my eyes on Merii.
“It's starting to feel really strange now that I know what it is.”

“Yeah…. One second.”
In several quick steps Merii was at the circle once again, squatting and passing her hand close over the marking. I didn't actually look, but I assume she absorbed some of the blood, breaking the circle, as the feeling in the back of my mind suddenly vanished. It wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling, and I shook my head several times to clear my mind.

                                                                                                                      ⁂   

My ascent to the roof was luckily both free of Merii’s, or any kind of feathered intervention. Though I couldn't shake the feeling that the creature was still nearby, watching. But regardless of lingering evils of the world, we made good time back to the car. The brisk walk giving me an opportunity to ask a few more questions.
“Are we even sure this was one guy? Wouldn't a group make more sense?”

Merii slid down a particularly steep roof and sprung across the gap between buildings.
“It would, especially if we were still working with the wolf theory. But masking the traces of more than one person isn't an easy thing for a mortal to accomplish. No, I still say it's one guy. If it's a talented mage then they could easily make themselves strong enough to hoist the victim up and take care of the rest by themselves.”

“Ok…. but why do it? I get the offering part. But who is it to if it was screwing with me? Is it like…. I don't know? A vampire beacon? Are vampire cults a thing?”

Merii took her time answering, the two of us covering several buildings before she spoke up, her voice once again carrying a hint of hesitancy and nerves.
“Vampire wannabes are a thing yeah….. Normally made up of people who’ve had their minds bent by our kind….. If this was something like that then we may have had a rogue running about for a long while, but not any more…. As for why you?”
She paused again, obviously thinking.
“I’m not sure, but we’re going to ask Brewer and I'm going to make some phone calls. Once we have more information we’ll start on theories.”

I didn't fully trust her words, it felt too much like she just didn't want to answer. But there was little I could do, if she had made up her mind then it was unlikely I was going to change it. If anything I was more likely to get the information out of Brewer, something I would have to work on.

The two of us didn't exchange any other words along the way back to the car. A beige and incredibly plain little thing that looked exactly like the manager of a fast-food place would drive. It was kind of perfect for blending in, I hadn't even noticed it in the car park when we first headed out.

Merii was strangely quiet as she started the thing and pulled us out into the night. When I looked at her she still gave me a cocky little grin and a raised eyebrow, before revving the engine a little too hard. But she wasn't as jovial as I had come to expect. I suspected that whatever details she was keeping to herself were gnawing at her mind. While it would have been nice if she would actually tell me, I trusted her to share the important parts after she knew for sure. So I sat in the passenger's seat, not even sure how to use the old radio and absentmindedly fiddling with my fang again.

Whatever was playing on Merii’s mind hadn’t abated by the time we reached the apartment. She was still acting strange, something Brewer picked up on immediately on our return, shepherding us to the couch before we could get distracted or wander off. Something I was planning on doing as the exhaustion from using magic still lingered. I had never really used magic for anything more than the usual sparks or little jolt of electricity that everyone could do, and certainly not to the point of exhaustion, but I had seen Jess in such a state a few times. Mainly after healing me when we were young, and it always took her a long while to recover.

Despite my building craving for sleep, I was wide awake. Stupid undeath not letting me snooze. So I was able to pay attention to Merii and Brewer as they discussed the details of what little we had found.
Merii was very direct for once, no talk of “doggos”, no mention of my fall, only sticking to the facts. As she spoke the witch listened closely, nodding along and occasionally adding a comment. Not that there was much to comment on, really I still thought we were coming back empty handed.

“So”
Brewer began after Meriis' suspiciously well made report.
“This both narrows the options for the murderer and our recent..... interloper?”

Merii narrowed her eyes and looked sideways at me.
“Yes…..”

“Do you plan on reaching out? Contacting Eliana maybe?”

Merii grimaced and sucked in a breath.
“Exactly the plan, yes. I’ll be as polite as I can and try to make the time zones work too”.

“Well that's an improvement.”
Brewer nodded.
“I think the two of you pulled this off far better than when you last went out. And I believe we can narrow the scope of our search quite significantly.”

Merii crossed her arms and grumbled
“Well I'm still not happy, too many things up in the air till I can get in contact with people.”

Brewer voice was surprisingly low as she spoke.
“I can fix that, I believe”

“You’re going to let me cook Ogma?!”
Merii said, perking up immensely.

Brewer gave her signature deadpan expression. Before lightly tugging her sleeve up slightly, exposing her wrist as she extended her arm towards Merii. The little glint in her eye, so rarely seen, coming to life.
“Freely, and willingly.”

Not wasting a moment, Merii took a firm hold of the proffered wrist. Pulling Brewers arm taut as she herself moved forwards, leaning across the coffee table, one knee on top of it. Merii placed her free hand to Brewer's cheek, a predatory, feline grin on her face, as she looked directly into Brewer’s eyes mere inches away. There was a brief pause as the two stared at each other. The tension was almost palpable, as Merii spoke in a deep purr.
“Feeling neglected are we?~”

Brewer’s response was to tilt her head in the best approximation of innocence her cold look could accomplish.
“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re teaching the fledgling properly and believe in rewarding good behaviour”

Merii chuckled softly.
“Then I accept your offer my dear familiar. ~”

In a motion I was sure was far more delicate than my own, Merii brought the older woman’s wrist to her lips, delivering a single soft kiss before, slowly, and with precision, sinking in her fangs. The smell of blood took some time to reach me, it was subtle, barely a trickle of scent. But even then it was enough to make my fangs tingle.
I thought I had shown restraint in my feeding, but Merii was drinking at a crawl, taking her time and savoring every drop. It didn’t take long to see why, as Brewers stone face seemed to slowly melt into bliss, her body losing its tension. First a small whimper, then a soft, delicate moan escaping her. 

I was fairly sure my experience with the witch had not been nearly as sensual, in comparison this was dangerously close to pornography. And, though I would rather have ignored it, the scents in the room and the look on Meriis face suggested it may soon become the actual thing. 

While Merii was certainly attractive by nearly any metric, and Brewer had her own strange charm, I was hardly looking to see my de facto, and legal, mother getting it on with my respected teacher. So I politely, quietly, excused myself. Creeping my way up the stairs and squirreling myself into my beloved nest.