Of late, I find that I have sunk into a hole of doubt and uncertainty. When once my feet were planted firmly on a solid foundation, now it seems like I tread through thick mud, unable to find footing. The paradigms upon which I had built my structure of rationalization and deduction are collapsing beneath the weight of forces that, at times, seem beyond the human ability to reason. The cumulative events of the past year have forced me to see the world in an entirely new light and this light has proved to be both blessing and curse. In an attempt to retrieve some sort of order from this maelstrom of chaos, I feel compelled to put to paper that which I have learned and experienced in that time.
If I had to put my finger on the domino that set in motion this latest chapter of my life, when my eyes were opened to that which exists behind a veil of secrecy from society at large, it would be the case that first introduced me to my two singular companions, Dr. Edward Longley and Don Giovanni de Cartago. It began in early 1885 with a sudden rash of incidents of a mysterious illness that left its victims paler and weaker with each passing night, until they were finally and inevitably found dead. One of the victims of this illness was one Melina Westenra, the sixteen-year old daughter of famous and wealthy barrister Jonathan Westenra who, intent on finding some cure for his daughter, called upon the services of Dr. Longley, a neurologist with a reputation for treating rare illnesses.
To backtrack slightly, as my meandering thoughts are wont to do, a ship delivering cargo from the mainland of Europe crashed into a London port shortly before the epidemic began, the captain and crew of which were all found gruesomely murdered, several even completely exsanguinated. The ship was property of the Fairway Trading Company whose owner, Don Giovanni, knew all too well what those telltale signs indicated. He and the barrister Westenra walked in the same social circles and it was by good fortune that he learned of the illness that struck young Melina. Once he heard the details of the illness, he hypothesized that the murders and the illness were related; He decided to look further into the matter and soon came to the conclusion that the murders and the illness were connected. Westenra consented for him to come see Melina and it was under those circumstances that the fateful meeting between Edward Longley and Don Giovanni de Cartago took place. In all probability, both had experiences dealing with "vampyres" in the past and decided to work together to protect Melina if such a creature truly was the source of her malady.
At the Westenra home, they met a servant of Melina's age by the name of Mary Reilly. Though I know little of this girl, and Longley seems particularly reluctant to discuss her, I believe that he suspected what she was even before she had any inkling. It was doubly fortunate, however, that Longley and De Cartago were present because, the day after their arrival, two grotesque creatures stormed into the home during the dead of night, covered with black hair, simultaneously resembling both wolves and jackals. My friends defeated the creatures with help from Mary who, in the course of the melee, had transformed to a large wolf-like beast herself, similar to the attackers yet distinctly different. The word "werewolf" is one that cannot possibly do justice to the fearsome creatures that bear the name but to see one in its hybrid form is to be drawn in by an instinctual fear which, if one is not of strong will, may cause in a person such a panic as to instantly force him to faint or flee. After the encounter, during which one of the creatures had escaped, Mary confessed to the two that she had recently been suffering from nightmares that seemed to prophesize her change.
The next morning, De Cartago and Longley managed to track the escapee to what was apparently the abandoned apartment of the two attackers, and it was there that they met Malcolm, a Scotsman who claimed to be pursing the very same people. He told them that the attackers were a perverse form of werewolf from a clan whose name translated to "the Black Spiral." Malcolm, who referred to werewolves as Garou, also revealed that Mary was possibly the last of a special bloodline and was being hunted by the Black Spiral for that very reason.
That evening, Cartago and Longley returned to the Westenra home to protect Melina. The vampire they sought to protect her from, however, was powerful and clever and managed to drink the poor girl's blood one last time. She, like the victims before her, passed away.
I often wondered as to how influential that death was to these two men. Both are skilled, competent men and any foe would be hard-pressed to match wits with either of them, much less the two together. If they had succeeded in protecting Melina from the vampire, would they still have felt compelled to remain a pair afterward? Common logic would say not, as they have both proven to be loners by nature, and understandably so. Therefore, I believe it was their perceived failure, a rare occurrence for both, that ultimately made the two men a team. And it further served the purpose of introducing me to them.
As a consulting detective, one of the few of that variety I might add, I have assisted Scotland Yard on numerous cases in the past. (I have not taken to the moniker "private detective" because of both the unsavory image it invokes as well as the fact that the majority of the work I do is on a consultation basis for the primary investigators.) During my investigation, I had noticed that, of the five victims, four of them bore surnames that were distinctly Scottish. I surmised that this may not have been coincidence and, through extensive research, traced all of the victims to a common Scottish ancestor, Duncan MacCrinan. MacCrinan's historical significance was that he was a chief rival to MacBeth Mac Findlaech (the warlord that inspired the largely fictional Shakespearean play). I won't go into the details of the investigation that followed but suffice it to say that I played a hunch by researching property acquisitions and discovered that an immigrating Scottish lord had recently purchased several estates in and around London.
During the course of my investigation, I went to meet with Dr. Longley and Don Giovanni, as they were both witnesses to Melina's death, and was struck by the intense interest they both displayed in the outcome of the investigation. By that point, I already suspected the possibility that the deaths could have been supernatural in nature; it was further evident to me that these two men had had experience in such matters as they demonstrated a remarkable lack of trepidation when discussing the singular details of the case. I decided, therefore, that it was in my best interests to work with them to achieve our final goal.
Throughout this time, I was unaware of the fact that I was being watched by the very undead creature that I sought to capture. I believe that its interest was twofold: it was intrigued by me when it learned that I had unraveled its secret, and it knew that I was in league with the men who hunted it, so it intended to use me to get to them. Whatever the case, MacBeth Mac Findlaech came to me one night and, in what was quite simply the most harrowing experience of my life, used supernatural influence to make me drink from its own tainted blood. I remember little of the experience but the end results can never be forgotten: at the behest of the vile creature, I attacked and attempted to kill my two allies. I was fortunate only insofar as they are - how shall I say? - tougher than the average man. They subdued me, and Longley was able to use his remarkable "medical skills" to negate the effects of the vampire's domination. We knew we needed to act quickly lest the vampire try to kill again. That next morning, we searched each of the estates to which I had linked him. At the second location, in what would not be exaggeration to refer to as a climactic confrontation, we cornered the powerful vampire and slew him. Would that the experience itself were as simple as the act of putting it to paper.
Pleased with the success we met working together, we maintained one another's acquaintance and, over the next few months, investigated various cases both together and apart. Among the more noteworthy events was the abduction of Mary Reilly, an incident of which I know very little since Edward was the only one of us involved and hardly speaks of it. I get the impression that he feels partially responsible. Only a couple of months later, I had my own experience with a similar case of abduction. A fifteen-year old boy, Gerald Hill, was kidnapped from his home, his parents found with their throats slit. Without going into excessive detail, it was obvious to me that the Garou were involved and that the boy was taken because he was believed to be of that race.
It would seem that Garou progeny grow up "normal" throughout the length of their childhood, and usually show no signs of their heritage until the adolescence period or later. Lycanthropy appears to be a recessive trait, and thus it is often the case that a Garou child is born to two parents who are carriers of the Garou gene but are otherwise quite normal. This inevitably leads one to the conclusion that there are many Garou children who are raised with absolutely no knowledge of their heritage, nor established any contact with others of their kind. Hence, in the pursuit of domination, warring Garou tribes have members who seek out these lost children to either recruit or destroy them. (I will not even attempt to further complicate this narrative now by writing of the lupus Garou.)
In the process of finding the boy, I met Sebastian Sharp of an organization of men called the Sodalitas, Latin for "secret society". In truth, he met me: I was ambushed and severely wounded by Michael Finn, the boy's abductor, whom I can only assume was a Garou from the Black Spiral Clan. Sharp managed to find me and nurse me to health. After that, we worked together to find Finn and the boy; Sharp seemed impressed with my intellect and my skills in tracking the abductors, as impressed as I was with his seemingly endless network of contacts. Though Sharp has since accepted me into the fold, I still hold misgivings about the Sodalitas and their agenda. I know little about the organization as a whole except that it has existed for several centuries and that its chief purpose is to chronicle the events of the supernatural. But to what end is it seeking and maintaining this intelligence? I am not certain because, as an acolyte, there is a limit to the knowledge to which I am privy.
During that same time, Don Giovanni found a protégé in Elizabeth Davidson, or Beth. This is a curious pairing as I can hardly imagine a person, man or woman, as dissimilar from that man as she. I can only conclude that it is a bond from necessity rather than choice. I have observed that he has been rigorously training her in fencing, as he himself is a master of the sword. Had I not seen her use the weapon myself, such training would still be obvious to me from her poise and the development of the muscles in her hands, wrists and forearms. The enigma was somewhat clarified recently when Don Giovanni revealed to me that he has lived, well, quite a long period of time. And yet that hardly explains his fondness for the sword or why he is always in possession of one, even going so far as to having one concealed in a cane that was on his person at all times, until the other night when he presented it to me. The obvious and only satisfactory explanation is that he believes both himself and Beth to be in danger from some outside force. But from what? And why carry a sword instead of a gun, which has the advantages of both greater range and easy concealment? Even if he was born in a time when the sword was the weapon of choice, that hardly explains why he is insistent on her carrying one as well. Logically, he must believe that the forces from which he defends himself cannot by killed by a bullet but only by a sharp edge. But I digress.
The next time that we all worked together again was recently, in early February. John Palmerston, the Earl of Clarendon and a wealthy Parliament member, summoned Dr. Longley, who in turn brought Don Giovanni and I along as his associates. Palmerston told us that his stepson had recently died under mysterious circumstances and that he believed a spirit haunting his estate to be the killer. He asked us to come to investigate the matter and, if possible, to purge his house of the spirit. We came to his home as requested but it soon became evident that there were facts that the Earl of Clarendon was deliberately trying to keep us from learning. Eventually we realized that there was indeed a spirit haunting the manor but it was actually that of Julian himself. And he was not the only supernatural entity there. The Earl had an alliance with a powerful demon that was quite willing to kill to hasten our hunt for the benign spirit, to ensure that certain secrets remained secret. Indeed, the demon killed Julian's own mother, Irene Palmerston, as well as an innocent servant girl. At one point, the demon "looked" at Edward (I use the term loosely as what I presumed to be its eyes bore little resemblance to any I'd seen before) and said "Sammael." That was most curious. My first instinct was to believe that it was saying its own name… but why should it do that? Logically, the creature was saying the name of someone else. Someone it recognized. Again, most curious.
Eventually, we confronted the Earl and the demon, which had summoned a host of corpses to slaughter us. During the ordeal, the mansion was set aflame while Julian exacted a final revenge against his stepfather. The demon was severely weakened it seemed so the rest of us fled while Dr. Longley remained to hold the demon off. Longley, however, succumbed to the smoke and Julian pulled him from the fire just before the flames could take him. It was believed then that the demon was defeated. How wrong we were.
In truth, the demon dispersed itself, let Edward think it was destroyed and, when the doctor fell victim to the heavy smoke, took advantage of his weakened state and the fiery chaos around him by invading his body. There it stayed, hidden, growing stronger, insidiously taking slow control of Edward's psyche.
A month after the Clarendon affair, there was a string of singular deaths: three individuals in separate incidents were found gutted with slash wounds that resembled claw marks and appeared feral in nature. The deaths were publicized as attacks by an escaped wild animal but it soon became apparent to us that they were in fact murders committed by vampires. These deaths coincided with the sudden appearance of the vampire Haven Blackwater, whom Don Giovanni had met the previous evening. Blackwater, once a Knight Templar who had fought in the Crusades, had apparently confined himself to his ancestral home for the last few centuries, with only one or two caretakers at any given time. His lengthy self-incarceration was interrupted by the sudden disappearance of his ghoul, Thomas Langley (whom I had learned from my own sources had been killed a week or two previously in an unpublicized incident that closely resembled the three killings). Blackwater immediately took to the streets in search of his ghoul but met with little luck. I imagine that, in spite of the length of time that has passed, he was quite taken aback by London's dramatic change over the years; indeed, Blackwater Castle had been two miles outside of the city walls during Haven's time! In any event, Don Giovanni related to Longley and I that he came upon the vampire when the latter had decided to feed on a purse-snatcher, or some other variety of scoundrel. My companion expressed doubt that Haven was the perpetrator of the murders, favoring that the recent murders were committed by whoever killed his ghoul. Still, the coincidence could not be discounted altogether. With that in mind, the three of us went to Haven's home that evening. (It should be noted here that Julian is often present even if I neglect to refer to him in our numbers, or directly refer to him in any other way; the simple fact is that he cannotusually invisible to all but Longley).
Blackwater is an intriguing man and not quite what I'd expected. For one, I had imagined that language might have been a barrier, since modern English bears little resemblance to the English spoken in the Dark Ages. Apparently his ghoul had done more for him than simply provide a fresh source of vitae. Also, Blackwater was surprisingly respectful towards Longley and I, despite that we were nothing more than uninvited strangers to him.
Shortly after our arrival, we were ambushed by a group of vampires. As their numbers equaled our own, we can reason that they were not expecting Haven Blackwater to have company since they were not ready to take on all of us. Among the attackers was a dark-skinned vampire who watched the melee for a short time before he left.
Dispatching the group was not difficult for us. What came next, however, served as a far greater challenge. During the battle, our coterie had separated: Longley and I were up on the second level of the manor while Don Giovanni and Blackwater were downstairs. When the battle ended, I searched one of the staked vampires and found a clue that pointed to the source of the attack: a silver cardholder, which held business cards with the name "The Jinn Club." Just then, a gunshot rang through the hallway and a moment later I was shocked to realize that I was the one who had been shot. And, as I writhed on the floor, I was further shocked to see Edward coming upon me, smoking revolver in hand. For the sake of my survival, I took what I perceived to be the only course of action available to me.
Permit me to back up a bit. Over the preceding months since the encounter with Mac Findlaech, I had experienced cravings for the tainted vitae of the undead. In addition to normal symptoms of addiction such as nausea, headaches and insomnia, I was occasionally plagued by horrible nightmares in which I attacked others for their blood. Though I pride myself on my strong will and was able to refrain from seeking out vampires to fulfill my craving, I was faced with quite a dilemma when I lay in a pool of my own blood with certain death creeping upon me and the dreaded means of my salvation only a couple of feet away. Neither option was pleasant.
I chose life. With the little remaining energy left to me, I lunged upon the staked corpse nearby me and drank from its veins, hoping that its blood would restore the ghoulish healing powers I once bore.
As luck would have it, it was at that moment that Don Giovanni and Haven emerged from the staircase to investigate the gunshot. The sight they witnessed, of course, cast me in a poor light, and Edward wasted no time in telling them that I was once again under the influence of the Kindred. Don Giovanni was understandably disturbed; he leveled his blade at me threateningly, demanding an explanation. Edward took advantage of the preoccupation by cunningly maneuvering himself behind the swordsman and then shooting him with a fatal blow to the back of the head.
Don Giovanni's violent murder shocked us all; it became obvious to me that Edward was not acting of his own accord and that he very likely had been possessed by the demon that we had believed was destroyed. Haven, who knew nothing of the doctor, our exploits or our friendships, was ready with his sword and intended on killing Edward before he did any other damage, but the latter was quick enough to just barely escape with his life. Before we could take any further action, the doctor disappeared. Haven and I scoured the castle in case Edward was close by and, indeed, we found him in the cellar, near Haven's crypt. I don't know why he remained in the castle at all; it could be that the physical injury he sustained from the knight prevented him from traveling too far, or that Longley's will proved difficult for the demon to completely subvert and managed to exercise itself in subtle ways. This is certainly possible because, as we also learned, the doctor was able to psychically summon a friend, a priest no less, who came and offered his assistance. Even so, fighting the possessed Longley proved a Herculean task and we probably would not have succeeded without the help of Don Giovanni, whose unexpected return came during the ensuing melee where he proved that he was not quite as dead as we had thought (and, in point of fact, actually had no visible mark where he had been shot). Together, we subdued Longley long enough for Father Byrne to perform an exorcism, a difficult ordeal as the possessed doctor fought us every step of the way with every power that he could summon.
With the demon seemingly destroyed, it only leaves us to track down this mysterious sect of vampires that has been so flagrantly murderous. However, this group may have anticipated our intentions, because the very next night after the ordeal I just described, Don Giovanni went to speak to Father Byrne at St. Jude when he came upon the dark-skinned vampire, a native from America named Black Fox, who had just tortured and almost killed the priest. The two confronted one another but Black Fox escaped.
It is evident that the sect is now bent on our destruction. As it stands, our circle of gentlemen will have to bring the battle to them as soon as possible, before others needlessly lose their lives.
