~~Welcome to the world of Vampire: the Requiem~~
~~One Week Later~~
~~Jack~~
"Second fire this week," he said.
Amanda knelt down, and ran her fingers through the ashes. "Poor Barry."
The two of them stood on the street corner, and stared at the destroyed apartment building. The edge of South Side, closer to North Side. Not far from the Uratha and the building Garry gave them, and touching Carthian territory too.
"First fire didn't get a Kindred though."
The Mekhet shrugged and dusted her gloves free of ash. "Yeah, but Monica used to live there. She only moved deeper into South Side two days before that fire."
He sighed, but nodded, and squatted down beside her. Police tape around the place kept everyone at bay; everyone being no one. This close to North Side, people minded their own business and kept to a decent sleep schedule. A rough, but not super rough neighborhood. A nice neighborhood, kept that way by Garry and his covenant. Which, Jack thought, was pretty stupid. It wasn't a Kindred's job to cultivate the attitude of people. He smirked at no one and shook his head as he looked over the remains of the destroyed building. The Lancea et Sanctum would disagree with him, and Damien probably would too.
"What did she say about the fire?" He also picked up some of the ashes, and felt them in his gloves. He'd made a point to start wearing gloves; seemed like the thing to do. Cool, badass gloves, black, leather and stuff, the sort of gloves a professional wears. A professional assassin maybe, and he grinned to himself as he rubbed his fingers together.
"Nothing," Amanda said.
"Nothing? We know she's been involved in that Mirrden business." Cause starting fights with the Carthians over meaningless territory was a great way to spend their time. Maria and Michael said it wasn't just about territory, but blood, humans, their sheep, their sole food source, and their future. Jack figured they just wanted to show the Carthians that the Invictus were stronger. They were right, but they didn't need to make enemies over it.
"Yeah but she says there wasn't any fighting over the area she's covering. Told me things had been clear as day for her."
Sighing, he got up along with Amanda, and the two of them stepped out onto the wreckage of the building. No one had died — except for Barry — but some humans had been burned, many inhaled smoke, and overall the area was now considered dangerous. Old buildings spread fire if they fell in a bad way, and while that hadn't happened here, it didn't mean it couldn't happen. And this far from South Side's main district, the buildings were old and flammable.
Kindred did not like fire. But more than that, they didn't like it when the sheep were spooked. It was hard feeding on kine who were constantly glancing over their shoulder, so if an entire district of people were feeling nervous about burning buildings, it meant younger Kindred might trip and stumble on a hunt they'd otherwise be fine with. It only took one, just one vampire to royally fuck up and ruin everything for everyone. So, as per the Prince's orders, it was their job to keep that from happening. Dolareido was a great place for Kindred, and it was their responsibility to maintain that utopia, and the Masquerade within.
But that wasn't the main reason Jack and Amanda were investigating the fire. This was a second fire, one that killed a Kindred named Barry. A young guy, only a little older than Jack, and a Gangrel. Young Gangrels were often troublemakers, but they didn't set fire to buildings, especially not when they were in them.
And the biggest telltale that something was up was that Barry was the only one that died. Sure, fire was a bigger concern to a vampire than a human, since vampires went up like kindling. But Kindred were more than capable of dealing with it with a little foresight. Kindred like Jack slept in buildings that were secure and borderline impossible to burn down or whatnot. Kindred like Barry often slept in hidden holes, secret, safe, secure, and kept a separate den for their living arrangements. That was this building for Barry, his den; the fire didn't catch him sleeping.
"Barry was also working the Mirrden job," he said.
"Yeah. I have no reports of any incidents with the Carthians about it though, not since that whole business in the tunnels and the Uratha." Amanda followed him along the piles of broken wood and fallen walls. A lot of collapsed rooms, and the five-story building's top two floors had collapsed down onto the center fire. Meant that trying to recover anything was impossible, with Barry's den right in the dead center of the extinguished inferno.
"I can't believe this is an accident." He pulled out his phone and took a few pictures of the pile of rubble, ash, stained walls, melted kitchenware, and some ruined couches, all half buried.
"Yeah but, this is a bit extreme for the Carthians. It's not like they just burn down buildings. And besides, Barry could have gotten out anyway."
"Agreed." He stepped down from the rubble and started to circle the building. There was a good twenty feet between it and the next building; normal for this far out from South Side's central area. It gave him the room to walk the building's contours, and stop to take some more pictures. Amanda did as well, and came to stand beside him.
The two of them had become work buddies. They got along, and had started handling contracts together, or inspections, or similar tasks. The sort of relationship that stayed at work, but had all the makings of a friendship despite that limitation. Jack liked it, kept things fun. Not that his work was supposed to be fun, necessarily, but if you can't enjoy your work, bleh.
"What about the wolves or monsters?" Amanda said.
He shrugged, and climbed up onto the next floor. With so much of the building collapsed, gutted, exposed, little him climbing onto higher floors was easy.
"Can't see any reason for it. I know Garry and Avery are on good terms with each other, and Garry isn't happy about the Mirrden situation, but I doubt he'd ask for this kind of help from her. Not hearing anything from the network either." He looked down at his partner from his perch, and squatted down near one of the melted ovens. Damn fucking hot to partly melt an oven.
"And the Begotten?"
That was a better question, and he hummed with his thinking. "We still don't know what Azamel wants, why she came back. So, I won't cross her off the list. But no reason to suspect her either."
"... we still sure this isn't a coincidence?"
"How often do buildings burn down in Dolareido?" Not very often. He sighed and rubbed his head—fuck now he had ashes in his buzzed hair. Amanda giggled at him, and he kicked down a bent frying pan at her. "How much surveillance we got on this area?"
She dodged the frying pan with barely a glance, giggling the whole time. "Not much, nothing over here really to monitor. At least not until the Uratha moved in down the street. We got eyes on them, and reports say the Uratha haven't been down in this area. At least not from that direction."
"... I wonder if the Prince has more information." He paced around the wreckage for a while, snapping some pictures, before jumping down the sloped mess and rejoining his partner. "Cause we got nothing."
"How are you and the Prince anyway?"
"Eh? What do ya mean?" He raised a brow and eyed the woman closely. But she only returned the raised brow, like he was the crazy one thinking she was crazy for asking about his relationship.
"Jack, stop being so antisocial! You never talk about yourself, about normal things, you only ever talk about music and books and stuff."
"Those are normal things!"
She rolled her eyes, and started walking, making their way around the building. She had better eyes than him, Mekhet and all, so maybe she'd see something he couldn't.
"You don't wanna talk about your relationship?" she said.
"I... I mean I guess we can do that. What about you though, no relationship?"
"I um... been getting kind of close to this kine I met." She shook her shoulders a little, like a creepy crawly was going down her back, and she giggled again as she took a few pictures of different corners of the ruined building. "And after that conversation you and I had, I started getting a little more aggressive with him."
"Oh?" He never did quite understand talking about this sort of stuff, having a back and forth about the nuances of normal, everyday life. Much happier to talk about things he understood, like music and books.
"Mmhmm. I took him out to a movie."
"You took him out? Not vice versa? I'm impressed."
More giggles. "It was some shitty old movie, no one else there. So, after nudging against him and getting him to kiss me, I Kissed him." More giggling, more squirming, and she almost jumped as she vibrated.
"A kine?"
"Yeah... do you think that's weird?"
He shrugged as he put his phone away, and slipped his gloves into his jacket pockets. They'd gone out wearing dark woolen coats; looked great with gloves, and gave them both a professional look. They could also have disguised themselves as cops or whatnot, brought fake badges, but Amanda opted for the nice coats. Jack had to admit, he liked the coat, a woolen trench coat that screamed 'I'm an assassin and a lawyer' all at the same time.
"No, but it is dangerous. I mean, sleeping with and drinking kine, even familiar ones, I get. But the moment it crosses the barrier into a relationship, you've got a classic dilemma. How much of your personal life do they get to see? How much truth are you willing to tell him?"
"I know! I know I... I don't know, you got me all excited to start being more aggressive and stuff."
"Hey, I'm glad I did. Just be careful, you know? Make him a thrall if you want him around. Maybe a ghoul if you really like him. Just... be careful."
She nodded, and got in a little closer until they were almost touching shoulders. "I asked you first though. How are you and the Prince?"
