In the kitchen, I heard the mouse feeding her young, and Called Out a greeting. Having been on good terms with my sister, the little cousin soon became endeared to me as well. I was about to step out when my cell phone rang. It was Dominic, my ghoul from Chicago, calling with a message from my sire. Zythe To’lac bade that I should council with Pierce of Brujah, my lord having known him from the Detroit Invasion. I promised that I would, though it would probably take most of my night.
The outdoors was beautiful. A clear, onyx-black sky was studded with pinpoint stars, and everything seemed to be alive and emerging. The night was raucous with the thoughts and songs of animals and their spirits, and I was invigorated. This meeting with Pierce would be short, I swore to myself, for hunting down a mortal on a night like that is a pleasure not easily denied.
I reached the small apartment and knocked on the door. Pierce answered, and looked a bit surprised to see me. We had spoken briefly at the Ventrue wedding, but had never been properly introduced. Fortunately, I was spared an uncomfortable situation; the door had barely shut behind me when a knock was heard. Pierce let in a tough-looking woman wearing a nice leather jacket, followed a few minutes later by a large, bad-ass, though nicely dressed guy dragging a terrified teenage girl by the wrist, and finally, a wealthy but rebellious seeming woman.
Pierce invited us to sit down, and we did. The big guy sat down on the couch, throwing girl down next to him, the wealthy woman took the easy-chair, and I pulled over a wooden chair from the small table. The tough woman stood, despite being told several times that she could sit. Apparently, I’d wandered into some kind of meeting.
Larcen, the big guy, was a Brujah, and had caught the girl, Josie, picking his pocket at the airport. Furious, but not knowing what to do, he brought her along. She timidly protested that he’d not heard a small street child begging for money, so she’d tried to take matters into her own hands. She’d also not known that he was a Kindred like herself. The child hummed nervously to herself, occasionally singing softly.
Pierce started the meeting, saying that he’d speak privately to each of us, then we’d all meet to agree on our views. Larcen called the tough woman over to his side of the couch. Katrina, also a Brujah, again refused to sit down, but it soon became clear why he wanted her to. Pierce came out of a back room with a red-hot branding iron. Josie flinched and cowered against the arm of the sofa, fighting not to frenzy. I was cool, I mean, what the Kuomintang and Communists did back in Jinzhou and Yiban had been atrocities, this was nothing.
Katrina stared off into the distance, but when the brand touched her left upper-arm, she bit back a cry and jumped toward the wall. Josie screamed, and I shuddered as the smell of burnt flesh hit my nostrils. Pierce doused her arm with water, then spread on some kind of ointment. He and Larcen lifted their left sleeves to display a similar mark; DX. The wealthy woman was next, and she revealed herself to be Mace of Ventrue, an anarch-wannabe. She bore the pain of the brand well.
Then, Pierce turned to me. By then I’d realized that we were all being initiated into some kind of gang. I ran all my possible options through my mind; I could refuse to join and leave, refuse to join but pledge my loyalty, or join. Since my sire trusted Pierce, I decided that I could trust him. I pulled up my right sleeve, knelt, and received the brand. The pain exploded through me, but I didn’t flinch; I’d been through worse.
Josie was next. She looked panicked beyond all comprehension, and started singing louder. Mace offered to hold her hand, but she was brave, and took the brand. Pierce and Larcen explained that we were now a part of DX, something that bound us in thought and spirit. I already held many alliances; first and foremost I was loyal to my clan, the noble Gangrel, to my sire, and to the Kindred in general. However, what was going on didn’t seem to be at all harmful.
We started speaking about the state of the city. The Sabbat attack and treachery of many government officials was discussed. Josie muttered that Vincent would be angry with her for joining DX. I remembered him; the Justicar had introduced him to the Primogen during the wedding. He was a Lasombra antitribu. Pierce asked if we could trust him, and Josie replied that he was an elder Kindred, coming from a time before the clan Lasombra were Sabbat. I put in that he seemed trustworthy(his clan coming from a very noble kind in the Middle Ages), and it was the Tzimice antitribu that should be watched carefully.
The meeting broke up, and Pierce took Mace into the back room to council. Katrina sullenly took his seat, and Larcen expounded on his hatred for Sabbat and hypocrites. Suddenly, a knife flew through the air towards Larcen. He caught it and threw it back in one fluid motion. Josie jumped in shock and I was intrigued.
"You two don’t get along very well?" asked Katrina quizzically.
"Naw," said Larcen in his gruff monotone, "we’re just always trying to catch each other unawares. See this scar? He managed to get me once in Los Angeles. I got him back in Seattle though."
At that moment, Mace returned, and Pierce waved me over. I bowed to Larcen, Katrina, Josie, and Mace, then entered the back room.
"Well, Eternus, are you with us?" he said.
"With you in what endeavor? You spoke of many things. Are we going to over-throw the Prince?"
Pierce then launched into the litany of things that were wrong with the governing body of Swarthmore. He said a great deal, and explained what DX wanted to do and why. I must say, I was impressed by his commitment to both his group and his cause. As I expected, he concluded with, "So, are you in?"
I nodded. "My sire knows you and trusts you, as do I. He wishes me stay in the city for the next year or so. For as long as I am in Swarthmore, you have both my loyalty and support, and as long as I live, you have me as a devoted member of DX."
"That is well. We all must be careful, for murder and conspiracy breed thick here. Nick Gunner, the Ventrue Deputy Enforcer, was killed by Malkavians the night of the Sabbat attack. I had the good fortune of meeting him before he died, and from what he said, he seemed to have some foreboding of his demise."
"What did he say?" I asked.
"He told me, ‘I want you to know that life is a gift that, unfortunately, can be taken away at any time. So, I want you to treat your worst enemy like your friend, and treat you friend like your brother, for you don’t know what you have until you have lost it.’."
"A wise thought," I reflected.
We came back into the main room, and Larcen announced that we were all going into the business district to pick up some pizza. That puzzled me; back in China I’d known Kindred who ate mortal flesh, but all of our kind in Europe and the United States seemed to tolerate only blood. But then, these are Brujah, I thought, they go against all the rules. Again, I joined the night. We strolled slowly down the darkened sidewalks.
"Children, remember the First Tradition," spoke Larcen. Yes, I knew not to break the Masquerade, the strictest of our laws.
The mortals in the street unconsciously shied away from us, knowing that we were strange, but not quite knowing why. When we reached the local pizza joint, Larcen, Pierce, and Katrina went in to get the food, while Josie, Mace, and I stayed out in the street. Mace slipped on a pair of shades, wincing at the light coming from a near-by lit courtyard.
On the way back, we passed a Chinese restaurant called ‘Cheng Hing’. I stopped short, and stood staring at it.
"Happy snake?" I said to myself.
"Pardon?" asked Larcen, as the rest turned around.
"Cheng hing, it’s Mandarin, it means ‘happy snake’. I hope that’s not what they serve there."
"S-snake?" murmured Josie.
"However, near the Po River in the south, they often ate snake," I mused.
"Does it taste like chicken?" put in Larcen.
"No, it’s slippery, smooth. It’s not like eating anything else. If you’ve eaten snake before, and you have it again, you’d know. But then, it’s been fifty years since my last meal," I replied.
Back at Pierce’s place, we ate, and he spoke with Larcen. A bit tired and stressed, I began to meditate. Opening my eyes, I saw that Josie was staring at me. I smiled to put her at ease.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Just meditating. You think of a happy time, a pleasing memory, and pretend that you’re there."
She asked what I was thinking about, and I told her about the time I was in India. One night, my mortal guides and I got lost in the Southern Dravidian jungle. We accidentally wandered into a leper colony. My guides fled, but being Kindred, I had no fear of the disease, so I went in. A woman whose face was mostly gone pulled me into a mud shack where another marred woman was giving birth. They must have thought that I was a doctor.
Not knowing what else to do, I caught the child as he came out, and that remains one of my favorite memories. I commented on how most of the Western undead that I’d met seemed to be very arrogant and aristocratic about their status in life, but noticed that Josie seemed distracted.
"What’s wrong?"
"Can we?" she asked timidly.
"Can we what?"
"Can we have babies?"
I thought for a moment. Women embraced while pregnant always lost the child, and I’d never, in all my travels, heard of a Kindred bearing a child. "No, dear, we can’t," I told her.
"Yeah, the men are shooting blanks," said Katrina dourly.
"What? Why can’t we have babies?" Josie was confused. She’d probably had a very sheltered upbringing.
"Nothing, it has to do with the state of our blood," I lied.
Pierce and Larcen returned, and announced that we were out of batteries. I didn’t see why that was a problem, but they swore that the boom box couldn’t run on a house current. Katrina volunteered to drive them over to the CVS to get some D-cells, and Pierce brought Josie, concerned that she’d steal something. Mace and I stayed behind to ‘hold down the fort’.
Five minutes later, the phone rang, and Mace answered it. She spent a great deal of time talking in short, hurried whispers, and when she finally hung up, there was a look of uneasiness in her eyes. She told me that one of her spies had gotten wind of a Primogen meeting occurring at the Malkavian estate, one that Pierce and I had not been invited to. Then, inexplicably, she started reapplying her make-up. Anarch-wannabe or not, once a Ventrue, always a Ventrue.
When the rest of DX came back from their battery-run, we informed them of what was transpiring. Larcen was enraged, and insisted on going over there and demanding recognition. He and Pierce got into Katrina’s car and she drove off. Mace, Josie, and I walked; the two because there was a short-cut that would get us there quicker than following the roads, and I because it was a wild, beautiful night, and the short-cut was through some woods.
While walking through the business district, Mace asked Josie where she and Vincent were living, and when she heard that it was a motel, offered the two living quarters in the Ventrue estate. Josie, however, declined saying that Vincent would take care of her, and started talking glowingly about him. I asked her if she loved him, for it was clear by the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes. She didn’t answer, but began singing again. That was it! I knew there was something about her. I’d had Josie pegged as a Toredor, but everything fit; the girl was a Daughter of Cacophony, a clan that my sire had told me of, but I’d never before met one.
When we got to the woods, I just couldn’t restrain my joy any further. Checking to see that no one was around, I activated Shadow of the Beast and turned into a wolf. I ran through the forest like the wind, loving the feel of my feet throwing me ever-forward through the darkness. At the edge of the woods, I took my form once more and waited for Mace and Josie.
We reached the Malkavian estate at about the same time Katrina’s car pulled into the parking lot. Larcen got out with the boom box and put in a tape, cranking the volume way past mortal tolerance. It was a good thing that no one was using Heightened Senses, because they’d be in terrible pain. I wouldn’t be surprised if the base from that music was heard by my sire in Chicago. As we walked the long path to the door, Larcen turned to all of us and said,
"OK people, we’re DX, and that means we’re there for each other. Don’t let anyone in there push you around, ‘cause they just don’t have the right to."
He and Pierce took the lead, followed by Mace and Katrina. I stayed to the back, pensive. I hadn’t been in the city all that long, and was unsure of how we would be received. Josie was shaking and singing to herself. Larcen looked back and gave her a grin, saying that she was safe; she was with family. I told her not to worry, for if she were killed, Vincent would avenge her, and if I were killed, my sire would come, and there would be trouble.
Pierce reached the door, and it was locked. He knocked, but getting no response, kicked the door in. Standing there, full of Majesty, he shouted, "Break it down!" and the music blasted. From the back, I could see, people milling around and heard the outraged cries of Lord Ian of Toredor. One by one we were presented to those inside. I saw Lady Meredith, the Tremere, who recognized me and gave greetings.
Lord Brendon was deliriously angry that we’d showed up, for he claimed that there was no Primogen meeting, just a small get-together. Truly, Prince Tyler wasn’t even in the city. He, Lord Ian, William Blair, Lady Meredith, and Adam and Catherine, two Malkavians, followed us into the parking lot. Guns were drawn, but Pierce culled their fury, and took them back to council. Catherine stayed outside, speaking with Josie and I.
I found it hard to concentrate on what was going on; from far away came the cries of a squirrel being killed by a dog. I Called Out to his dying spirit, telling him that death was just part of the Nature and Way of the earth. He died valiantly, and I lifted my head and howled to the night, letting the sorrow and joy of life meld in my song.
Pierce soon returned with Lords Ian and Brendon, followed by Adam and William Blair. The master Malkavian had a shotgun that he was waving, and ranting that we had no business breaking in on their meeting, though he’d apparently decided that they wouldn’t try to kill us. Finally, he collapsed in tears, letting Lord Ian continue the tirade, which Pierce and Larcen defended DX against.
Catherine and Josie comforted Lord Brendon, and he sobbed that no one listened to him, and that he should be Prince. The argument grew heated, and I learned that the Justicar had done away with the Sabbat, so we no longer had that problem to worry about. Josie was becoming more and more distraught, so I bade her walk with me. She was convinced that she and Vincent would be thrown out of the city, and fell back to singing.
The stress was getting to me also, so I went into Earthmeld, sinking deep into the lush, forgiving soil. It was peaceful underground, though I could still hear and perceive the fight going on above me. I relaxed in the cool earth, and, feeling centered, rose to the surface. Mace was speaking quietly with Catherine, and Lord Brendon was screaming again. From the shadows, Lord Ian, William Blair, and Adam were making veiled insults and threatening comments.
Josie was panicking, and near frenzy. She threw herself before Lord Brendon, begging not to be kicked out of the city. Larcen calmly knelt and helped her to her feet, speaking softly, gently, and guided her over to Mace and I. Finally, we were told to leave. Larcen picked up his boom box and turned it up. Out of respect, I kowtowed to Lord Brendon and Ian, then followed the rest.
Katrina drove Mace back to Pierce’s apartment, but he, Larcen, Josie, and I walked. What had happened at the Malkavian estate had not gone well, but it had to be done. Tyler, self-admittedly, would be soon stepping down as Prince now that the Sabbat were taken care of, and the leadership of Swarthmore was in contest. It was up to us, I believe, to step forward as advocates of the down-trodden.
We celebrated on returning to Pierce’s place, toasting a drink called ‘Whup Ass’, a concoction of blood and vodka, but Josie was still upset and convinced that Vincent would be angry with her. Mace tried to reassure her, but was silenced as Larcen stood, took her by the hand, and brought her over to where the rest of us were sitting.
"Josie, you don’t have to worry. We’re DX. That means we’re close, closer than blood-bonded, closer than clan. We’re family, and we look out for each other. We must rely on each other, draw on our collective strength to keep us above water; we must strive to fight for what we believe in. Yeah, we’re DX, and we trust each other, for now, for eternity. Guys, we’re not a gang, we’re family."
It was an hour before dawn when I finally reached my apartment and settled down in the closet. I picked up my cell phone and dialed Chicago. Dominic answered, telling me that Zythe had stopped in, but then was forced to catch a flight to Tokyo; a friend of his needed a favor. Dominic asked what I’d done with my night.
"Well pal, I was branded and joined a gang."
He was speechless for a full five minutes, and it took me nearly twenty to convince the little guy that he was not going to come down and ‘defend’ me from ‘those Brujah thugs’. So, confident and feeling strangely pleased about being so accepted, I slept.