Utterly subpial
“Can you get me the files we had on Mr. Sullivan?” Ruby asked Velvet who gave her a salute and after making sure the coast was clear a chaste kiss on the lips that had both women beaming as Velvet nearly skipped her way to the filing area.
It was looking to be a great day. A shame Weiss couldn’t be there with them, but still a great day.
“Golconda?” Beckett asked amused. “That old fairy tale?”
“I’m trying to obtain it,” Cinder said seriously, tapping her finger on her arm to indicate her impatience without resorting to threatening to maim him as that would sour their working relationship.
“You do realize that there’s only been less than a half dozen vampires in all of history reported to have actually obtained it and one of them was the Salubri antediluvian who proclaimed to have found or created it, correct?”
“I’m aware, just as I’m sure you’re aware of the steps for enlightenment and all that,” Cinder said dismissively.
“You do realize that you’d need a number of things including most rare of all an actual guide who’s achi…,” Beckett trailed off as his eyes widened.
“Yep,” Cinder said smugly as Beckett reevaluated everything he knew about the process and sat down.
After a few minutes he turned a serious look toward her. “As much a secret as your status, and master, this is far more dangerous. If the Tremere knew or even suspected you could achieve or that your master has achieved it you’d never know a moment’s peace. Either of you,” Beckett said seriously.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, but it’s not like we can’t take care of ourselves,” Cinder said.
“You don’t understand. If the Tremere had even an inkling that any of Saulot’s teachings survived they’d waste no time declaring a blood hunt, and if they could they might manage to convince some of the venture or even the more bold, Nosferatu, or Kuei-Jin to help. Those are not odds anyone outside of Caine himself could hope to overcome,” Beckett said as he paced the room.
“You heard what happened to…,” Beckett stopped and considered his words carefully. “The week of nightmares?”
“Yeah but my boss ain’t gotta worry about the sun,” Cinder said.
“That won’t stop them from destroying the city with neutron bombs and calling it a victory. Even if your master could survive that you would not! Nor would anyone allied with you at any time including the revenant you favor!”
“If they even thought that I’d destroy every last one of them before my boss had the chance.”
“They would put you all on the Red List. You would never know a moment’s rest. You must be exceptionally discreet about this. I wish I didn’t know this,” Beckett said tiredly.
“Yeah, sorry you’re too smart and figured it out,” Cinder said not sounding sorry in the slightest.
“The curse of seeking knowledge is sometimes actually finding it,” Beckett chuckled humorlessly as he looked at her.
“Do you think you can obtain it?”
“I’ve been having that one huntress hit me with those guilt and penance things truth faith hunters do, and I seem to be fine, and my boss thinks I’m ready or will be soon,” Cinder said plainly.
Beckett nodded. “If you fail you are aware you’ll likely go insane and have to be stopped?”
“My boss promised she’d be on hand personally for it, and would take care of it if need be,” Cinder assured the man who nodded.
“Very well. I suppose it would be interesting to see the difference in your bloods potency before and afterward if nothing else. In answer to your question I’d need to research it more, but I believe the results would be mostly in favor of you both. Since it’s actually something that may happen I’d like to do more research before I commit to an answer,” Beckett said and Cinder nodded, able to wait for a more concrete answer.
Winter was too important to rush things over. She bid him farewell as he left to sleep the day away and started work on her paperwork for the time being.
She checked her phone to see if her master’s instructions had changed any and winced when she saw nothing.
There was going to be a lot of yelling in her future.
Emerald was asleep at their apartment. She’d tried, bless her she had, to stay awake but she was far too young to stay awake during the day and had gone to sleep just after the first rays of the sun crested the city roofs.
From past experience she knew Emerald would sleep in the bedroom with blackout curtains, double layered, until a few hours from dusk which gave her a few hours to enjoy the last bit of daylight she might get to see and experience for potentially hundreds of years.
It was just dawning on her exactly how big of a change she was about to undertake. She was idly drinking a cup of coffee relishing in the taste wondering what she should do with her last day.
She’d already called her parents and chatted. They lived about across the world so they didn’t see each other much anymore, but they could still call, and chat, as well as visit as long as they took some precautions, but her friends, this coffee shop. Would they still be here when she was able to visit next? Shit! The world spun and her vision blurred as she closed her eyes and grabbed the table.
She needed help right now, she was spiraling. She dialed Velvet and prayed she wasn’t interrupting anything.
“Yeah, Velv. Do you remember that coffee shop off main? Yeah, Know your Beans . I…I need some help. If you’re not busy could you? Yeah thanks. I’ll owe, you one,” Coco hung up her phone and waited as she tried to control her breathing.
“Ruby,” Velvet called out to the doctor who was raising a spoon full of soup to her lips in her office.
“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked in concern as she put her spoon down.
“Coco called. She’s having a panic attack, or going to have one, and well it’s during the day so Emerald can’t help her. I know I-” Velvet stopped as Ruby held up her hand and shooed her.
“She’s your friend. Go help her. We aren’t that busy today. In fact take the rest of the day off and make sure she’s alright until Emerald shows up. Weiss and I will catch up to you later,” Ruby offered.
Velvet crushed her in a hug and after reassuring her it was alright she was out the door knowing how bad Coco could spiral without someone to talk to.
Ruby smiled a bit sadly and covered her soup before she shivered at the cold in the room and rubbed her plain bare arms.
She knew she’d see them later so she picked up a pen and went back to work after setting some music to play to help keep her mind occupied.
“Coco, hey. You alright?” Velvet asked her friend who was sitting ramrod straight behind her sunglasses in the midday sunlight.
Coco greedily held out her hand and Velvet took it and began rubbing the back of it in the way she knew helped calm her down, or rather had told her worked when they’d dated briefly at college.
“Better now. Thank you Velv,” Coco said after a minute. “You sure you should be ditching work for me?”
“Please, Ruby doesn’t care and she knows friends are important so she wanted me to help you,” Velvet explained.
“Guess it pays to be dating your boss eh?” Coco said with a small laugh and a wince as she put a hand to her chest.
“Breath with me Coco. We can talk more when you’re stable,” Velvet said, waving down a server for some light lunch food before she reconsidered and ordered a bit more for herself just to be safe and followed Ruby’s advice.
“God I hope I don’t get these afterward,” Coco complained as she took off her beret and sat it on the table.
“Drink some water. In and out. Things you can see and feel. Three of them go,” Velvet said after Coco finished her water.
“Well I see…”
“Just think of the rent money you can save,” Cinder implored her girlfriend who merely raised an eyebrow in amusement at her.
She was stopped from answering when the door opened and Neo came into the office and bowed with a flourish.
“I understand you spoke with my master?” Cinder asked, causing the mute to nod frantically. “Relax, she vouched for you.”
Neo’s shoulders slumped with relief as Cinder put the sealed letter on the table and gestured to it.
“Your response. You should also know my master has expressed that while you are trustworthy she won’t trust your current masters until she’s verified the information they provided.”
Neo shrugged knowing that was to be expected. If Cinder’s master had just accepted it out of hand then Neo would think less of her.
“Oh Miss Fall can I go too? I think it would be fun!” Penny said, skipping into the room and ignoring every protocol in existence as she came up to stand next to Neo.
“You already asked Beckett all your questions?” Cinder asked, doing her best to ignore what she was sure was unintentional disrespect even as Neo seemed nervous at her friend’s actions.
“Oh not at all, but he seemed busy with his book, and I figured he’d answer better when he was finished and in a good mood,” Penny said, bouncing on her toes, which prompted a smirk from the club owner.
“I don’t see why not. Check in every evening, and return when you can. Things are getting…exceedingly dangerous,” Cinder warned them as Neo nodded.
Penny grabbed Neo’s arm in hers before declaring she was instituting the buddy system and dragging her from the room.
“They were right. That is going to be funny in the future,” Cinder said to Winter who raised an eyebrow at her.
“My master thinks they’ll get together in the future and believes it’ll be hilarious.”
Winter merely hummed, still not used to thinking of vampires as something other than mostly mindless monsters.
"So what benefits other than saving on rent would I get living here with you?" Winter asked with a smirk as Cinder smiled in return and began her sales pitch.
“So you were worried about just how big of an adjustment you were going to go through?” Velvet confirmed as Coco picked at her lunch but spared a nod.
“I just…I knew in my head what I was getting into, that I’d, outlive, my parents, and most of my friends, and not be able to see the sun anymore, but I started thinking about how I might not ever get to have this coffee again, or see the building, go bowling, or shopping at the mall, and I panicked,” Coco admitted.
Velvet listened to her friend as she spoke before she swallowed her salad and thought about how to reassure her friend.
“For what it’s worth I know you’ll have me, and Weiss, and Ruby too…if we can figure out how to manage it, and you can still do all those things but just at night. Plenty of stores are open at night, and during the winter I’m sure this place will still be open when the sun is down.”
“I know you’re right, but telling myself that didn’t make it go away. God I hate panic attacks. I finally got over being afraid of the dark thanks to you, and now these,” Coco lamented before Velvet's phone rang with a frantic Weiss on the line.
Ruby filed the last bit of paperwork she had and considered ducking out early. Already the sun’s last rays were dwindling and there hadn’t been anyone inside the building to donate blood for a while.
She removed her headphones and noticed how silent and eerie it was.
There was a slight hum from the lights and the freezers in the back, but surely she should hear something right? Voices up front, paperwork being filed, and even the janitor was on break, or had left. Actually…where was everyone?
She walked through the halls and grabbed the capped syringe in her pocket next to her flip phone. It was probably nothing but with recent events better to be safe than sorry.
Oh man what if it was zombies? No, that was dumb. She’d hear it if they were shuffling around!
Actually how did that work? Unless bacteria refused to feed on the walking dead it would break down in short order. So maybe something in a zombie gave off some sort of vibes that kept them from breaking down?
Could they be affected by holy water, or something similar? She wondered how the scientific formulas would work for it and what they’d look like as she began writing the equation in her head for fun.
The front office was…empty. Nothing out of place, but merely empty like everyone had suddenly vanished.
The chairs were in order, the TVs were unbroken but switched off, and the only thing out of place were a few pieces of paper on the floor where it looked like the wind had blown them over.
A window was open? That was odd. They had air conditioning so why open a window especially when there were bars in place over them?
She put her hand in her pocket around her items and began fiddling with the contents.
“You’re a hard one to get a hold of,” A voice came from behind Ruby causing her to spin around and blink at the figure behind her.
“I mean you just have to make an appointment,” Ruby said automatically as she tried to get a better look at the semi-familiar figure standing there.
They chuckled at that. “ I suppose that might have been a better idea, but, well, here we are.”
“Uh sure, but what do you want? I assume you want to donate some blood maybe?” Ruby asked hopefully
“Actually,” the figure said leaning in closer, revealing red eyes, fangs, and long black hair, “I’d rather make a withdrawal.”
Ruby glared at the figure. “The neutrality…”
“I get a warning don’t I?” The woman chuckled before the world went dark for Ruby, and her phone dropped to the floor from her pocket
The figure, upon seeing the muted phone was currently on a call to a number listed simply as W.S chuckled.
“Clever. There’s someone who wants to meet the little Rose, and I owe a favor,” the woman said hanging up the phone, and very carefully placing it on the counter, being sure not to break it before they shifted the woman in her arms to be more comfortable completely at odds with her behavior from a few minutes ago.
When Weiss, Coco, and Velvet arrived a few minutes later there was nothing left to find except the phone on the counter.