CVU2

Chapter 2: Part 5

5

"So he has no humans or tutelaries fighting with him." Karet struggled to understand exactly why the vogelfrei had been given such a fearsome evaluation by the Circle.

"Not for now," Zvera said. "A small fly in the ointment: he might not have wanted to kill anyone this time, so we can't be relaxed. But the real problem is ... something else, Karet. They're smothering this story as best they can, because of the how, and the technical creativity and fame potential, let's just say, with their dry words. It's perfect gossip material, the ugly particulars, and he definitely wants to be talked about. He didn't crucify anyone, but it's not far off, and the whole point of crucifixion is a public display.

"The Circle doesn't want him becoming any kind of celebrity, because if that happens he'll have help. Tutelaries who hate our guts will be willing to assist him, and tell him how to kill permanently. With that northern spirit active near the winter solstice the average vampire would now have to try dozens of times to kill him with a true weapon, but that's just frustrating ... unless he knows that he needs to strike with the foe's own weapon to kill. In our first fight, it was simply a weapon of opportunity, and he is hopefully still clueless."

Karet made a mental jump, 'getting' the situation a bit better in a flash, shelving his curiosity about the exact kind of mutilation the vogelfrei had chosen in Montreal for later. Once more there was a bit of an insult to keep off his tongue - the vogelfrei was very inconvenient for the Circle, but not the deadly fighter that a label like 'Proofing opponent' would normally imply, and they were simply going to use a student with ambitions of nobility to get rid of this tedious problem.

He covered this incredibly rude thought with a better covering statement this time:

"And they don't want anyone knowing how strong we can get off-book. They couldn't fudge his age."

This time his distraction worked, and Zvera didn't detect the extra thoughts behind his eyes at all. She could always be distracted by such complaining.

"Probably not. I'm expecting a huge bureaucratic fight before the real one. If I can't tell anyone who I killed to become a Lady, that will really suck."