The new member of Lake's gang goes by Grey. She's thin, with short messy bleached hair, but more intimidating than she should be in that way vampires sometimes are. Samuel peers at her, trying to figure out what she might be. She stares back, with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.
"Now now, we're all friends here..." Lake says, moving to put himself between them.
"We are?" Danni asks. "When did that happen?"
David puts his hands up for calm.
"Seems there have been a lot of us coming into town lately. You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?"
"Might," Grey replies. "Town's getting busy. Probably gonna get busier. Should get your family somewhere nicer."
David's eyes narrow. Lake smirks slightly, seeing that button getting pressed again.
Mia puts a hand on David's arm, gently. He stops clenching his fists.
"It's not exactly ideal," Lake says, "but it probably won't be for long, so let's make do."
"Why won't it be long?" David asks suspiciously.
"Things to do. Places to go. Nothing you kids gotta worry about."
...
David walks out quickly, then paces the club's parking lot.
Jessica steps out, staying by the door as she sees him trying to calm down.
"Nobody ever means that."
...
Mia checks her hair before reluctantly opening the door to a private gallery in midtown.
Elysium. Somewhere she only goes if she has to.
Monica Brava, seneschal to the Prince, smiles icily as she sees her.
"Now what brings you back here?"
"I think Lake and his gang might be planning to move against you."
"I'd be disappointed if they weren't. Anything specific?"
"New... relatives in town. One with them, girl called Grey. Another... a man called Danton, I saw him around town."
"Danton? Really. Haven't heard from him in a while."
"Who is he?"
"Not somebody you should be trusting, let's just say that." Monica opens her purse, takes out a business card and writes on the back: LEWISTON. The name of a city less than a hundred miles away. A city with a Prince who hates Barrett, Prince of Lawrence.
"I... see. And the gang?"
"Probably looking to gain from a war. Now, what do you think of this? I'm not sure about the color scheme..."
...
Jones is out hunting when he sees another unfamiliar vampire at the edge of the Rack. He starts to follow, and she notices and runs. He chases her through back alleys, the small yards of apartment blocks, across a side street, to the subway, and loses her as she gets onto a train just as the doors close. She blows him a kiss as the train rolls away.
...
David slumps into his usual seat at a bookshop cafe near campus. The place he met his sire, who abandoned him and the city a year ago.
He senses someone approaching.
Grey. She comes and sits across from him, smiling placidly.
"So, you told your sister about us. That seems a little dangerous."
He scowls.
"Sorry, sorry, I don't mean it as a threat. It's just..." She leans closer, and drops her voice to a whisper. "I don't think our sire would be pleased." She looks back to see he caught her saying 'our'.
"I'm your sister too."
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