London Burning: Revelations

[Sansa]

Sansa woke suddenly, a cry for help dying on her lips as she sat up in the murky semi-darkness of Gabriel's apartments. The shirt she had borrowed from him clung to her sweaty body, and she ran her hands through her hair as her heart rate slowed. She had been dreaming that she was still a captive of the... Archbishop.

She pulled her legs up onto the couch and hugged her knees, shivering slightly. Was it night? Her eyes tracked over to the still closed bedroom door where Gabriel was sleeping.

[Gabriel Rodermark]

I awoke with a start, instantly aware that I was alone. I was no stranger to waking as such and would not have fretted over it were it not for the fact that I had not been alone upon falling asleep. A jolt of fear caused me to sit upright in bed, blinking away the lethargic haze of rest. I pulled the bedsheets around me and padded quickly to the door, pushing it open with such force that it clattered against the living-room wall, its hinges squeaking in protest at my overly dramatic gesture.

It was not irrational of me to think that she might be gone, that I might have opened the door to find my apartment transformed into the scene of some ghoulish slaughter. Few places were safe now, least of all those places that I inhabited. Yet... there she was. Safe and untouched, if a little startled by my sudden appearance. I might have blushed, had I still been mortal.

“Sorry... are you... is everything alright?”

[Sansa]

She twisted around at the sound of the door opening, and let out a tiny sigh of relief that it was just Gabriel. Just Gabriel, a blood sucking monster. But even as she thought it she couldn't feel the horror that those words should have given her.

"I...I couldn't sleep. I..." Sansa tugged the blanket she'd found during the day around her. "I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

She looked down a bit, her chin on her knees and her hair falling into her face.

[Gabriel Rodermark]

“Oh.” I nodded. Just a bad dream, she said. Her eyes avoided mine and I felt certain that I had been the cause, if not the central concern. My eyes wandered around the room, lost.

“Have there been any calls?”

[Sansa]

She looked confused for a moment, and repeated the last word of his question. "Calls?"

Ah. Phones. "No... none that I heard." As the words left her lips the ring of a phone could be heard from his office. She shrugged, and as he moved towards the office to answer it she got off the couch with the blanket wrapped loosely around her. He seemed concerned for her, and she liked that. Sansa found the pants he'd let her borrow the night before on the floor of the bedroom, and started to pull them on when she noticed a dress laying across a chair.

Self consciously she checked the size, and then stripped off her borrowed clothes and dressed in the provided clothing.

[Gabriel Rodermark]

It was Roland, of course, somehow inexplicably knowing that I would have just awoken. He had already been up for an hour and delivered a concise briefing on the events of the previous twelve hours. As I expected, the situation had not improved. The Baa'li continued to spread, even during daylight. The lupine population of the city had been approached to offer assistance, but no official truce had been made, as of yet.

“They want you to speak with representatives from the tribes. Apparently it's the only way they'll offer a united front.”

First an alliance with the Sabbat, and now a proposal from the Garou nation. If stranger things had happened, I had not lived to see them.

“Would it be possible to speak with the pack leaders tonight?”

“I've already arranged the meeting, sir. Greta and Dylan will be on hand to help. Both of them have had dealings with the Garou quite recently. Apparently Greta in particular has friends within the packs.”

“Good, good. I'll be ready soon... could I ask a favor?”

“If it's about the Miss Martin, I've already dispatched a coterie to your apartment. There are a couple of day-shift ghouls still in the area too. Don't worry, Gabriel.”

Gabriel. It was rare that Roland address me as anything other than sir. It was an odd moment of intimacy, which Roland brushed over seamlessly and speedily, concluding the conversation: “That's all, sir. Rendezvous in one hour.”

The line went dead. I held the receiver for a moment, while looking out into the dark street. There were people loitering here and there, looking nervously up and down the avenue, watching for anything out of the ordinary. They couldn't have looked more conspicuous if they'd tried. I shook my head and left the study, returning to the bedroom where I found Sansa getting dressed.

“I have to go out. There are people coming over to watch the apartment... will you be alright?”

[Sansa]

No. Her forehead creased with worry almost instantly at the thought of him leaving her. "I'll be okay." Would they be coming inside the apartment or staying outside? Babysitters or bodyguards?

She didn't ask him to stay - he said he had to go out and she believed him. But she wished he would stay. Sansa fumbled with the zip up the back of the dress, breaking a fingernail in her haste to finish dressing before he could disappear on her.

[Gabriel Rodermark]

I felt terrible leaving her, but there was nothing else to be done about it. I freshened up, as quickly as I could, and stood for a moment examining my reflection in the bathroom mirror. The color was fading from my cheeks... I blinked, and returned quickly to the lounge. I slipped on a jacket and cast a glance around the room, searching for anything that I might have forgotten, anything that might have been useful. I pocketed my cell and looked up, hearing footsteps in the hall.

Sansa had emerged again, and seemed uncertain of what to do with herself, lingering in the doorway between the two rooms. A key turned and the front door swung inwards, revealing Dylan and a handful of other Kindred. The Scourge looked with poorly disguised disdain at the interior of the apartment, all but snorting.

“Ready to go, sir?”

“Who's staying?”

The group shrugged, almost as one. “None of us. Salisbury said you needed the real muscle for dealing with the Garou.”

More footsteps approached, and the group in the hallway turned to meet the new arrivals. All of a sudden the usually expansive corridor had grown quite cramped. There were a few grunts, and 'watch its', as one figure pushed through the crowd. Elizabeth Atkinson emerged from the mob, her face twisted in distaste, her immaculate outfit now creased and somewhat scuffed.

“Elizabeth?”

She embraced me, setting a quick kiss on each cheek. “Roland sent me to keep an eye on the boys here. He thought a softer touch might be of use,” she said, with a knowing smile, her eyes roving smoothly towards Sansa.

[Sansa]

The blonde woman from the Barbican two weeks ago entered the apartment, kissing Gabriel on the cheeks in a way that seemed a little more than casual. Sansa felt a stab of jealousy at their intimacy, but remained where she was as Elizabeth's eyes looked her over.

Looked over her, catalogued her, and dismissed her. She resented Elizabeth already.

Before she could say anything, however, Gabriel was out the door in the company of some of the largest men she'd ever seen, and she was alone with the blonde vampire. Sansa fidgited in the doorway a bit, feeling plain and unglamorous in comparison with her companion.

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

The apartment was much nicer than I remembered it being. It was a shame the same couldn't be said of Gabe's little blood doll. What was she wearing? It looked like Stevie Wonder was her stylist. With a look of sympathy, I laid an ever-compassionate hand on her shoulder.

“How are you feeling, dear? You look shaken.”

[Sansa]

"Uh, I'm okay." Her eyes were probably giving her away as a liar, and Sansa couldn't help but shrink away from Elizabeth's touch. The dress that she'd found was a simple enough black number with an empire waist, v-neck, 3/4 length sleeves, and a flowy skirt that fell to mid calf. Before she'd emerged from the bedroom she'd admired her reflection in one of Gabriel's mirrors, but now she felt quite the opposite.

Moving as smoothly as possible, she began to make her way to the kitchen, her stomach grumbling at its emptiness. "I don't need a babysitter." The words were bolder than she meant them to be, and Sansa wished she could take them back.

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

Don't you dear? I smirked and fought the urge to roll my eyes. The poor girl had no idea how deep into it all she was. I smoothed out my century-old cynicism with a perfect, lip-glossed smile.

“Think of this as a social call, then. Gabe and I have been dear friends for so long... I feel like it's only right that we should get to know one another, since he's taken such a shine to you. Why don't you grab a coffee and a snack, then we can sit down and have a little chat?”

[Sansa]

Sansa smiled half heartedly, and disappeared into the kitchen. She was hoping for a few minutes of respite from vampires as she prepared some coffee, but it appeared that Gabriel had anticipated her needs and there was a fresh pot waiting for her on the counter. A quick hunt for a mug and a plate for a cheese danish she found in the pantry, and Sansa was all too quickly back in the living room.

Instead of sitting on the couch, however, she turned and sat at the dining room table. Elizabeth languidly entered after her, taking a seat at the head of the table and resting her chin on her hand as she studied the mortal as one might study an interesting, but disgusting, bug. Sansa sipped the coffee in silence, then broke the uncomfortable silence.

"How long have you known Gabriel?"

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

“How long have I known Gabe... since way back when he was like you. Human, I mean. I guess that would be-”

I press two perfectly manicured fingertips to my lips and take in a small, gasping breath.

“One hundred and thirty years! It feels like just yesterday that Nobu first introduced us to one another... how time flies.”

[Sansa]

"Jesus," Sansa muttered, sipping her coffee and promptly burning her tongue on the too hot liquid. She gulped air, and then added, "That's... a-a long time."

She bit the danish to soothe her mouth, and to give her an excuse to not say anything more.

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

“Oh, it's not that long really,” I laughed, sparkling and sudden, and continued to chuckle at the thought of how the poor blood-doll would look when she was over three centuries old. Regaining my composure, I caught sight of my reflection in the glass inlay of one of the prints on the wall and smoothed down a stray messed hair. “I don't suppose he's told you about much of his past, then?”

[Sansa]

Sansa gave her an almost incredulous stare, and then slowly shook her head. "Considering... considering that I just found out... about..." She waved a hand helplessly to encompass all vampires. "Just found out what he was... is... last week... No, he hasn't had a chance."

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

“Of course, how silly of me.”

When unprompted to speak further, the girl retreated behind the superficial safety of her coffee cup. I sighed and casting a searching glance around the room. It was terribly dull without Gabe.

“Well,” I sighed, standing, suddenly clapping my hands together. “As much as I'd love to stay and chat all afternoon, I better go check on the boys... make sure they aren't up to any mischief!”

Excusing myself into the hallway outside Gabe's apartment, I found the atmosphere no better. Evidently the boys didn't appreciate my presence. How rude! I seized the moment and gave myself an on the spot manicure, only to chip a nail when the sound of a cell ringing pierced the silence like a dart.

“Drat. Who is it?”

[Roland Salisbury]

“There's been a change of plan,” a cold voice said.

The line hissed with static, as if something had just exploded on the other end.

“No time to explain, but we need all the man power you have. Head to the Isle of Dogs, and bring the girl with you.”

Click.

[Elizabeth Atkinson]

“Ro-” The line went dead. “Sometimes I don't know who Salisbury thinks he is!”

The collective loitering in the hallway sent glares my way, but they were all so much water on this ducks back. My cell closed with a snap. “No rest for the wicked. Get the cars started. The Prince wants us all in Cubitt Town, ASAP.”

The boys – and one girl, who I had failed to notice earlier, on account of her apparent determination to repel any hint of femininity – marched out like good little toy soldiers. I whirled around and blustered back into the apartment, a blonde tornado.

“Sansa! Quick, dear. Throw something on, we have to leave. Don't worry, nothings wrong – well, here at least. Gabe needs us, Nod knows why.”