Veridian Shores

Chapter 20 - Follow My Lead

He'd heard the stories; seen the sketches, but Capper had never actually been inside the Baelock mansion himself. With the exception of trained Glaive diplomats, their clan-members rarely went any further than the monumental metal gates.

Now ... well, now he needed to wrap his head around every detail, and fast.

The entrance hall dwarfed the atrium of his own clan. A broad ceiling with a shallow arching roof, it stretched well over a hundred yards from left to right, and it was packed with vampires. The smell of rich blooded incense filled his nostrils, mixed with a whole mist of scents that the clan members wore. They stretched out before him, a veritable army that blazed with colour and power.

Male, female, short, tall, young, old; every kind of vampire imaginable was represented in this gathering. He could see over a dozen clans with a single glance: Wolf, Wrath, Caeleon, Hunter, Furrick ... though he saw that Hearth were conspicuously absent. That was quickly forgotten, however, when he spotted a group of Pyre vampires gathered around an Elder-Blood that he recognised, with a tremor of unease.

Khymera stood a little taller than those around her, aided by the tall set of jet black heels she wore. Her crimson hair was clipped short, with a heavy fringe that partially concealed her left eye. The long dress she wore was deep, rich green, with a full sleeve over her left arm, while her right remained totally uncovered, displaying the flaming skull motif of her clan. Pyre held the nominal position, after Baelock and Glaive, as the next largest clan at play in Veridian Shores, and they were well-placed to be king-makers, or king-breakers. Khymera had manoeuvred herself into position as someone who could not, and would not, be ignored.

Spokesperson of Pyre's Elder-Bloods, she was about as powerful as you could get without actually being an Elder, and Capper was under no illusions that she carried a hell of a lot of weight within the clan hierarchy. If she wanted to do something, it would be a safe bet she would carry the majority of their Elder-Bloods with her. That certainly made her one person he didn't want to get on the wrong side of tonight. Her black eyes flashed over him for an instant, and that was long enough for her formidable Aspect to crash against his.

He felt Gliss's arm tighten around his.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine." He placed a hand over hers, pulled his attention from Khymera. "There are just a lot of powerful, dangerous people in this room right now."

"Yeah, I can feel it."

Capper steeled himself, squeezing her hand once, to comfort himself as much as her. "Well, we've come this far. Let's dive in."

A thrall seemed to materialise out of nothing, a shaven-headed male vampire with a trembling Aspect, clad in featureless grey servants' robes. In one hand he bore a massive circular tray that was jammed with high necked glasses. The a rainbow of coloured beverages might have daunted another, but Capper grabbed two of them without a thought, and swiftly placed the green one in Gliss's gloved hand.

"To a night of thrills and revelry." She bared her teeth and clinked her glass against his, with surprising daintiness. Then she took a sip and her features twinged unhappily.

"That bad?" he laughed.

She glowered at him. "I'll survive."

He raised his own glass to his lips, only vaguely tasting the sickly sweet, pear-flavoured ichor, his concentration focused on examining the edges of the massive room. Baelock guards flanked every exit, like statues clad in iron grey sheaths of body armour. Each of them carried a bolt-thrower and a long, forward curving dagger, with a blade broad enough to remove a head with ease.