The Investigation: Deliverance Part 13
Written by @PegLegPhury and @TohrSASRP
Phury: -I had been over the events of the prior weeks in my head thousands of times. My brain hurt from all the angles I attempted to see. Talia was out of control, got in league with drugs, and was on a dark path. She knew of mine but had not known the full story and how bad it got. I was steeling my nerves to talk to her about the full truth.
I knocked on Tohr’s office door, I needed someone to talk to in order to confirm my idea was a good one and wouldn’t just fuel the rebellion fire. There were consequences to her running off and there was another reason too. It appeared another Chosen had decided to run off. I would need him to run the trace program on her phone. I walk in.- Tohr, what’s doing? -I hadn’t really talked to him since I sent the text when she was found, now I had to admit I lost another Chosen, would he see me as the failure I considered myself?- @TohrSASRP
Tohr: There’s something to be said about copious amounts of paperwork. It forces you to stay sober despite how much you’d love to see the ass-end of who’s-even-counting-anymore bottles of whiskey, vodka, and whatever else one could kidnap from the various bars around the manse when no one was looking. Tohr furrowed a brow as he was looking over Leethall’s admission papers, reading over the notes he had made during his interrogation of the kid. Impressions of bottled-up anger, tendency to have a violent temper, and how sloppy he got when his temper flared. Plenty to work with but the kid had fucking potential. Definitely a blooded son of a Brother, that much was clear with all that raw talent in the boy.
Tohr’s thoughts were interrupted by a knocking and he soon packed away the papers, crossing his arms as he leaned back into his chair. “Enter,” he said shortly, halfway expecting a trainee to come in. The massive form of his brother surprised him, causing him to arch a brow. “What’s doing, brother?” he asked Phury, his expression changing subtly to one of concern rather than the stern face he had taken to always have.
Phury: -Sitting in the chair offered, a hand scrubbed over my face.- I need your help on a couple of things. First … should I tell Talia the truth of my addiction? I seem to be in a space of I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t with that one. I don’t want to encourage her to do it again but she needs to know the path she’s on will lead her to that destruction. She already overdosed once I don’t want the next call to be to come to get her body.
And I need help reading a phone trace. Greyhson, she’s missing now too, if it’s not one Chosen sneaking out it’s another. I swear I am a fucking failure, maybe the Scribe should have enlisted someone more competent than myself. I’m failing the Chosen at every turn. I can’t even keep them safe. -Handing over the paper with the newly missing Chosen’s cell number written on it for the program.-
-Stopping my own pity party and looking up I see how tired my Brother is and now I was adding to it.- Fuck, Tohr I’m sorry. I can just go to V if you’re too busy. You really do need an assistant.
Tohr: Listening to Phury’s troubles certainly was still something Tohr was getting used to. The Brother had always been secretive, carrying his pain on the inside. Hearing him finally opening up and seeking help active was still something Tohr was getting used to, but it made him happy. Relieved and happy, to be exact. As soon as Phury mentioned the phone-tracking, Tohr opened up the program, letting it load as he continued to give Phury his attention. He reached out and patted his Brother’s arm softly. “You, my Brother, are not failing anyone. You are doing the best you can in a duty that is new to you,” he said and nodded. “The Chosen have always been secluded until now. It’s only natural for a transition period to occur and in no way, is it your fault.”
Tohr ran a hand over his own face, shaking his head softly. Was it really that obvious he was exhausted? Had to be, since someone had picked up on it. He looked to his brother and offered a smile. “I’m fine, don’t worry. The paperwork is just doing my head in,” he said and motioned around to the office that was overflowing with papers and folders. “Greyhson’s phone, you say?” he said and took the paper, typing the number into the program. “Sal’s is the last signal in the system. When do you want to beat feet there, Brother?” he asked as he pulled a .45 from a drawer.”
Phury: -Nodding my thank you to Tohr for his words, they resonated deeper than he knew. I respected the hell out of my Brother and the headache he had stepped in to with the training program. He had all of our support and confidence. It may not have actually been my fault, but it felt that way. Perhaps I was still my own worst enemy in a way. Tohr had trusted me to come to my own conclusion, maybe I needed to trust myself as well.-
-When he mentioned Sal’s, I perked up. What the hell was she doing there? It seemed Tohr was done behind the desk for the night and he was offering to go with. Glad I was already dressed and armed I nodded.-
Ready when you are Brother.
-I could think about my other issues later, what was important was getting this Chosen home before she met any unsavory characters. After collecting myself, I head outside with Tohr and dematerialize to the alley behind Sal’s. As soon as my feet hit the ground I could smell the familiar scents of herbs and spices. The restaurant was famous for its flavor. I look over to Tohr and another silent nod of communication as we stepped into the restaurant immediately surveying the area, but I didn’t see Greyhson. I growled a low curse.-
What the fuck is going on?
Tohr: Tohr was out of the office in a hurry, swinging by his room to properly arm himself up with leathers and daggers before heading out with Phury, dematerializing and cracking his neck as his molecules reformed in the alley by his Brother. Sal’s was as it always had been. A place that smelled incredible and made your mouth water for the food iAm cooked inside the kitchen. It was obvious Greyhson was not in the restaurant but Phury’s growling was starting to gain looks. Tohr placed an arm on his Brother’s shoulder. “Easy now. Let’s go check out the security tapes in the back. She was here, so there’s bound to be a tape of what happened to her.”
With a nod to the staff, Tohr went into the back of the establishment and tapped the worker in there on the shoulder. “Take 10 minutes to get an update from the kitchen,” he said, rummaging around in the poor kid’s brain for a second, watching the human trotting off without a care on the world to get clued in on what the kitchen needed. Tohr then sat down and started working the machines, pulling up footage of Greyhson outside the restaurant and playing the footage for Phury to see.
Phury: -It was a damn good thing he came with, I was scaring the humans. I stalked off toward the office with him to get the information we needed. Greyhson wasn’t here. I had failed again and lost another of the treasured females. Fuck I seriously doubted myself on this.-
What is that? -I point at a corner of the screen when I see a female that resembles her.- Slow down the footage.
-Watching it several times, attempting to identify what is going on in the moments, I tightened the grip on the hilt of my dagger to keep me in place. With everything going on we now had a Chosen that was truly missing. My previous guess was wrong. I was no longer hungry for the food the building offered, the scents no longer held my attention.-
Tohr, do you recognize who this is? -Pointing at another visage in the tape, the question dripped with acid as I spoke. There was no mistaking what that was, the blonde hair, the sunken features.- Fuck!
Tohr: Watching the tape made Tohr’s stomach stir. A fucking lesser of all things approaching any vampire was shit news, but a lesser approaching a Chosen was shit news that had been skullfucked. There was absolutely nothing good about this in any way, shape, or form. “Shit fuck,” the Brother added before he pulled back his upper lip, his fangs fully exposed as he snarled. The lessers were getting too damn cocky taking females like this.
A small lightbulb went off in Tohr’s head and he looked to his Brother, his eyes narrowed and concentrated. “That kid, Leethall. He said he came to Caldwell to investigate females vanishing. I think we just found our fucking culprit to that mystery. We need to send intel to the others, all hands-on fucking deck” he said and looked to Phury. “We need the entire brotherhood on this one, to have a chance of finding her.”
Phury: -The growls rattled the glass in the office. Those baby powder fucks. The lesser touched a Chosen, he cracked her on the head and stole her. This was one of my worst fears realized, I had failed to keep her safe and now she was paying the consequence if she hadn’t already paid the ultimate.-
-I flipped out my phone and called Vishous and Z quickly after to have them make the rounds of contact. Greyhson had been kidnapped and we needed to find her.- Had she fed from anyone recently? Could we use that bond?
-Was there traffic cam footage?- Can we get the footage from outside? Are there cameras outside? -Looking at the file listing reading the camera titles. Letting Tohr take the lead on the tech shit I knew I was liable to break the computer if I lashed out like I was doing on my phone. Soon all the Brothers would be informed. We needed the trainees too. It was going to be time for everyone to hit the ground running-
I need to send the Chosen back temporarily till she is found, we can’t leave them unprotected while we search for Greyhson.
Tohr: Tohr listened to Phury’s questions, his hands working fast on the keyboard. Not as masterful as V, but all his admin work at a PC had given him a few skills when typing. “Let’s see..” Tohr pulled up the outside surveillance, looking over the parking-lot footage and cursed, nearly biting his lower lip as he watched the screens. “Fucker knew how to stay in the blind-spots,” he said pointing to Greyhson being dragged along.
He suddenly paused the footage and pointed to the screen, smirking. “Bingo, license-plate and make of the getaway car. Go figure, a shitty Honda”. Tohr noted down the license number and nodded. “V can roll with this, I’m sure of it, anyone responding yet?” He asked and made sure to email V all the relevant footage before deleting it from the memory of the computer. “It took off towards the east, so maybe we can snoop around, see what we might find while everyone else is gathering up”.
Tohr looked to Phury, offering him a soft look. A rarity given the many recent circumstances. “I can’t tell you what to do, Phury. But, at the very least they all deserve to know why if you do send them off,” he said as he looked to his Brother. “Your mission here was to give them freedom of choice. Maybe this is the perfect opportunity for them to have just that. Given them the option and the reality, but let them choose whether they stay here or go back to safety?” He suggested. “It’s your decision of course.”
Phury: -I nod to the question of responses.- Brothers and several trainees are getting strapped now. They should be on the hunt within minutes.
-Looking back at the footage, seeing barely a glimpse of the male dragging off one of our females. It stung bad- what was she even doing here? Why was she out without an escort?
-The mention of going east pulls me from the thought.-
Yeah, let’s get moving. Maybe we can beat the fuck out of something tonight. Let me know if there’s a hit on the Honda. Till then do we want to try the old stomping grounds? Maybe they went back to one of them.
-Grabbing my shit and following Tohr out of the restaurant, more than a little ready to fight tonight.-
Tohr: As soon as Tohr was out of the restaurant he nodded to Phury. “I was thinking the same thing,
Just to see if there’s some sort of trail we can follow,” he said and pulled out a map on his phone, showing it to Phury. He pointed out a few key areas eastward, sending coordinates out to the trainees and his fellow brothers. “Let’s get going. The sooner the better. I’ve sent images of the Honda and license plate to everyone, so they know what to look out for and asked if anyone has recently fed from her,” he said and nodded. “Let’s head off to the first area and see what we might come up with.”
Phury: -The Brother was thorough. I enjoyed working alongside him, our brains sometimes worked on the same wavelength. His phone showed the warehouses, and the rural house we had raided previously.- Do you think they’d be dumb enough? -Already knowing the answer, it was yes.- After you, Brother. -Dematerializing to the tree cover at the first location Tohrment wanted to check out. It wasn’t a secret Tohr was a great strategist. He had the ability to calm and rally his troops.-
-Stepping out from the trees and inching closer to the house. I watch for traps and movement within the house. I couldn’t see anything. I waited after several steps, weapons drawn and ready to demolish any lesser who dared appear.-
Tohr: “Given how ballsy kidnapping a Chosen is, I’d say our boy is stupid enough to go to an old location, thinking we won’t search there,” he said. He wasn’t sure how much he meant it, but Phury definitely needed some form of hope. They all did, but Phury the most. Greyhson was at the end of the day his responsibility and this had to be tearing him apart from the inside, given how twitchy his brother was.
Despite the area being a rather large one, it really came in handy that both Tohr and Phury were seasoned warriors. It didn’t take long to scope out the shithole they were at, but sadly it only amounted to a whole lot of wasted time. Tohr frequently checked his phone receiving reports of the same nature from both trainees and the other brothers. Just a fuckload of nothing but empty warehouses, farms, barns, and outhouses. Well, shit. The place was completely abandoned after they had last raided the place. Back then it had been a storage facility for the Lessening society, containing a couple of jars and they had already been stored in the Brotherhood’s secret cave.
“Looks like flyboy has some brains, so we need to find out if she has fed someone or been feeding herself” he explained and crossed his arms. He walked around inside the abandoned farm, his shitkicker making contact with a support beam, leaving behind a nice deep impression of the sole of his boot. “FUCK!” Time was really of the essence now.
