[center] [img] https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/ibimg/www.apartmentratings.com/650x350_85-1/1/0/3/10310884881188511171856569.jpg [/img] [/center] “This is the last time, Rafael,” Algernon Regardie glowered at the Brujah, from over the rim of his blood-filled china cup, “How am I supposed to move on with my unlife, when you keep on popping up everywhere?” “This is different, Algernon,” Rafael frowned, “this isn’t some 4am drunk dial.” “Caine knows we’ve danced that dance enough times.” Algernon tutted. The four vampires were sat in Regardie’s plush living room, in a set of grandiose, high-backed chairs. Algernon’s room was decked out with a sea of expensive-looking bookcases, stuffed full of the kind of fat novels that Morgan suspected rich people only brought to make themselves seem sophisticated infront of their pompous dinner guests. “I sincerely hope I haven’t just been dragged along to some bitter, undead booty call,” Jadeja rolled her eyes, “three more minutes of this, and I’ll throw myself out into the fucking sun.” “Rafael knows all about three minutes.” Algernon mumbled, before quickling vanishing into his cup, to avoid Rafael’s furious glares. Some distant, ethereal voice began to whisper in Morgan’s ear. [i]”Primal impulses guide us, Miss Holloway,”[/i] the ghost hissed, [i]”the bloodthirsty beast, and the doting suitor. Killing and courtship are two sides of the same coin.”[/i] “Shagging has brought a great deal more joy into the world than homicide.” Morgan shot back, far more loudly than she had intended. Everyone else in the room stared at her. “S-sorry,” she spluttered, “the voices make it hard to -” “Could you not be a complete fucking basket case, for five seconds, Morgan?” the brujah growled at her, his brow furrowing. “Don’t be cruel, Rafael,” Algernon chimed in, “she can’t help it.” The brujah sighed, crossly. “Sorry. It's never nice, running into an ex.” Rafael muttered, his boot-clad feet resting on Algernon’s coffee table, much to the kindred’s obvious displeasure. “That's only a problem for me when the neighbour's dog keeps digging up my backyard.” Jadeja smirked, letting out a sharp cackle. Morgan couldn’t help but laugh. “From what I’ve heard about you, and your little family, you’d need a football pitch to hide all of those bodies.” Algernon chuckled. “Don’t encourage her.” Rafael grumbled. “I’ll do as I please,” Algernon snapped, “now get your feet off of my fucking coffe table.” Rafael did not comply. “What's happening to the Ravos?” the Malkavian asked, trying to steer the conversation away from petty bickering, “how is it affecting Jadeja?” “That pertains to something that all the [i]”sensible”[/i] canaanites are refusing to acknowledge,” Algernon said, with a sour grunt, “an ancient power struggle, between us, and our monstrous progenitors...” The bearded man continued to ramble and rant, in a dull, briny voice, but Morgan found her attention wandering. A deep unease washed over her, skittering up her back, and burrowing beneath her dead flesh. The Malkavian could feel something stirring, out of the corner of her vision. Whispering feet tip-toed across the synaptic corridors of her mind’s eye, and danced through her psyche. “Someone’s here!” She called out, rising up from her seat, in a sudden explosion of movement. “Oh for god’s sake, Morgan!” Rafael snarled, flashing his fangs, “pull your head out of Wonderland, you crazy fucking luna-” The Brujah’s lips kept moving, even as his head tumbled from his shoulders. Dark blood spurted from the stump of his neck, stirring the beast within Morgan. Rafael’s corpse slumped back in the chair, minus a head. In an instant, his body began to wither and decay, his clothes hanging loosely over rotting bones. A fraction of a second later, Jadeja let out a sharp gasp, as the sharp end of an enormous broadsword erupted through the back of her chair, and burst through her chest. Carmine tears dribbled out of the Ravnos’ mouth, and then she dissolved into a clump of wilted ash. “What a shame,” Algernon grumbled, taking a sip from his tea cup, full of blood,“I had rather been hoping to engage Miss Jadeja in a spot of [i]Amaranth[/i]. She has a kill list longer than the book of psalms, and you know how I feel about murderers.” A stab of dread lanced through the pit of Morgan’s stomach. “[i]Oh no…[/i]” From out of the shadows, two figures stepped into being. One was undoubtedly a nosferatu, riddled in burnt tissue, and warped scars. A single eye bugged out of the scorched remnants of her monstrous skull, and she clutched a pair of garden shears in her hands, still wet with Rafael’s blood. The second character was a towering, dark-skinned man, with a shaved head, who hoisted his mammoth broadsword over one shoulder, as though it weighed nothing. “I never got modern kine’s obsession with katanas and ninjaken,” the giant man chuckled, in his deep, booming voice “give me a good viking sword, and I’ll turn your enemies into a bloody stain.” Morgan glared daggers at the imposter Algernon. “You didn’t need to kill them,” she growled, “they weren’t a threat.” “They kept me from you, my love,” the deceiver shot back, “that in itself is a final-death sentence.” The fake Algernon began to shift, and morph, his slender body rippling, as though it were wet clay. His long beard melted away, and his angular features became round, and heart-shaped. The original face of Calantha Teohari, which she had first worn all of those years ago, before [i]the Angel[/i] had stolen her humanity away, gazed back at Morgan. Despite everything, Morgan felt her dead heart flutter. “We could have been together, amica mea.” Calantha murmured. “Not like this,” Morgan shook her head, “never like this.” A stray drop of blood flowed out of Calantha’s right eye, and trickled softly down her pale cheek. “Stake her, Gracie,” the Tzimisce commanded her underling, “I have plans for this wild little rose.” The nosferatu pulled out a sharp, wooden stake, which looked as though it had been whittled down from the leg of a bar stool. “When we’re through, you’ll need fields upon fields to tuck away all of [i]my[/i] skeletons.”