Chapter 8, By C.J. Ruby

_ Ike goes to LA for ghouls.  Gabi helps the Euthanatos and gets night terrors for her trouble.  Jacek has two wards come to Tampa._

Important notes missed in Chapter 7.  [So I was drunk and missed this stuff.]   Anyway, Jacek apparently sent his  , consciousness somehow,  into the rat's body.  Ike saw his "good buddy" Austin to his BMW and secreted the rat in the vehicle.  Jacek meanwhile conked out in a darkened room upstairs.    The gist is that rat-Jacek found the Mage Austin Thorell's real home (maybe?), but then he became a bit of a deal lawyer and did no further investigating.  (He must not like Gabi as much as she thought.)  He said he would find the house and he did.  It's about a mile from the faux home and is in Clearwater as well.  But he has no further info, which you really cannot blame him for.   It seems that a vampire's long existence causes them to be very diligent in caring for their precious undead lives.  

                                                                                * * *

Ike awakes the morning after the party to find he has a visitor.  His young assistant wakes him from a deep slumber and tells him that "a really hot chick is out here and wants to see you dude . . . I, I,, I think she's a porn star."   Ike racks his mind to think of who it can be, but is stumped.  He tells the assistant to let her in. 

It is of course the Cultist he had met in Los Angeles, Flower Electa, and she has come to ask a "Big" favor of him.  It's something she can't ask - the naive in some ways - Gabriela for.   Ike leads her into his sanctum to speak in private.   Flower tells him that Hyacinth House is still active and a few Cultists, Mataio for instance, are still operating in LA.  Some people in LA are in a real bind and need to leave town immediately, and could Ike come and facilitate their departure.   Ike teleports to LA to deal with the issue, finding out more about the situation and interviewing the parties involved.  He then calls Gabi and tells her he's in LA and he needs her to get a message to Jacek.   She wonders what in hell he's doing there, but tells him she'll have Jacek get a hold of him after 10pm, Tampa time or 7pm LA time.   He says fine and tells the parties in LA that they'll just have to await the call back.     

                                                                                * * *

Macair awakens to a radio reporter talking about another dramatic serial killing.  It seems the jailed killer, Simon Kalo, has admirers who have copycatted his MO.  He checks the TV and it's all over the airwaves.  Shit! He thinks, I may have to ask Gabriela for a favor.   

Gabriela's smoking a cigar and reading the Tampa Tribune's Stock Market reports and is looking ahead in time to get a view of  next week's Doe Jones numbers over breakfast.  [ So she cheats. Wouldn't you?]   Uri thinks this is pretty neat trick  and accepts a few tips.  Macair knows his stock order would merely be lost or misfiled so it's pointless, and besides who needs money that bad.   But he has come here for just this sort of thing.  He needs the assistance  of a Time Mage and Gabi's the best he knows. 

Macair tells Gabi about the killings and that he thinks the police have the wrong guy.  His first plan is for Gabriela to meet with Simone Kalo  and read his Mind to see if he's guilty, but that might not be realistic since he's probably in maximum security with restricted visits.   Besides Gabi may go to a filthy old prison to see a friend [maybe], but it seems out of the question in this case.  Then he asks her to go to an old crime scene to take a look at what actually occurred there.  She tells him that he will owe her big-time  for this.   An outing in East Tampa after lunch might not be so bad, they can make an adventure of it, she thinks. 

Uri gets the Volvo and they drop by Gators  and  pick up Ursula.  She can help Gabriela with the Time magick.   Gabi checks out Ursula's eyes, she appears pretty lucid.  Good thing they are starting out early today. 

The murder scene is in an undeveloped area near an overpass in East Tampa.  Macair sees that it is very secluded and a perfect place to commit a murder.  Uri parks the car and Macair uses Life magick to find the exact spot where the murder happened.  Gabi helps out his success with a little Life magick of her own.   

Gabriela has them kneel in a circle around the scene in the dirt.  She then links all their Minds altogether with their help as she sings a few lines from the Rolling Stones.  She lights a cigarette and presses a hand into the earth and with Uri's and Ursula's aid (Macair is Time inept)  she starts to unwind Time back to the fell night of the murder. 

They all watch as a large American car pulls up.   There are two people inside, a man and a woman.   After  awhile there is a struggle in the car.  There isn't enough light to clearly see.  Then suddenly,  the woman breaks free, exits the vehicle and starts running towards them.  She is felled by a large pipe - the murder weapon - and crashes to the ground ghost like in the midst of them.   Gabi stifles a shriek and Ursula a giggle.   The woman attempts to crawl, but he is upon her.  He beats her again and again with the pipe long after she is dead,  and then he reaches for her battered visage and gruesomely removes her eyes with his fingers.   Gabi is too horrified to scream.  This is much more terrible than she imagined, it's not at all like Murder She Wrote .

The killer lifts the orbs to his face, licks the eyes, and then tosses them into the brush.  Gabi lets go of breakfast and lunch, right in the middle of the circle.  The link to the past weakens and flutters back to the now.

Oh Gaia! This is exactly what I was afraid would happen,  thinks Macair.  Looking down at Gabriela, who is unsuccessfully trying to compose herself.   The three escort Gabi back to the Volvo.  They clean her up a bit and ride in silence back to Ybor City.  Gabi wants a drink and they stop at Gators for some power drinking and conversation.   "Two Yukon Jacks, straight up, for me and my friend and keep em coming, " yells Ursula to the bartender.  Uri and Macair enjoy a beer.

At around 10 Jacek comes in.  "Thought I might find you here., I believe you have something for me," he says.  He notices that Gabriela appears quite drunk.  She reaches into her small purse and pulls out a key and gives it to him.    She then asks him to escort her across the street to the Napolie.   He walks her home and asks her what is wrong [at least he is feigning some concern] .  She tells him of the events of the day and how they shook her up.  "Guess I'll need to toughen up if I want to aid Ascension, " she mumbles.  He asks, "What's that."  "Never mind," she answers as the elevator opens to her private residence.   Ira lets her know that Mr. Black has called several times for her  and that it sounded urgent.   Also Flower Electa is here and needs to speak with her.

"Oh my Gaia, I forgot all about Ike!"  She immediately goes to the phone and calls the Hyacinth House.   Ira goes to get Flower while Jacek mixes Gabriela another drink.  Gabi speaks to Ike for a moment and hands the phone to Jacek when he brings her the martini.  "It's for you, " she says.    Jacek takes the phone and goes to another room.   He hangs up and within a few moments the elevator doors open and Ike Black steps out.  "I thought you said you were in LA? " says Jacek.  "I was,"  replies Ike with a twinkle in his eye. 

                                                                                * * *

Flower calls Max and asks him to come by Gabi's, she has a proposition for him.  He's in the area and comes by.  He has spent the day cooking up some cons and checking out the new residence of the vampire Gabriela is helping.    Flower tells Max that displaced Cultists in Colorado and Michigan need some help with some real estate records.  Virtual Adepts' abilities are needed. 

                                                                                * * *

The ghouls get to Tampa on the red-eye in the early morning before the dawn.  Ike and Jacek are there to greet them.  One is from the America Civil War era and must have very special abilities for vampires to have kept him for so long.   They dress normally, there is nothing anachronistic about them in their speech or manner.   Their names are Bradford and Dedra and they appear to know Jacek.

                                                                                * * *

Gabi goes to bed after this awful day.  That night she tosses and turns and wakens in evil night sweats.  Just before dawn she screams in anguish and wakes up shaken and weary.  She calls down to Ira and lets him know she'll not be leaving the bed today,  she feels sick.

                                                                                  #