The tattoos lost their glow as Jes took care of the last feral kin in the building, feeling tired after having used so much of her magic.
"Resilient bastards..."
She leaned on a nearby wall, taking a minute to fix her posture and look down at the bodies next to her feet. Being feral had made them considerably stronger, wearing down even a necromancer at her level. She exhaled, looking back at the only room she hadn't explored with a magical energy stronger than the others. Careful to walk around the bodies, Jes walked into the chamber with the broken doors and a single figure laying down on the ground. Being the only kin she hadn't fought she realized it was most likely Emma that had killed him, feeling impressed yet confused as to how she did it. Walking closer, she kneeled next to the figure and checked out the wounds on his chest, the diagonal cuts all too familiar from a certain kin she knew.
"Huh..."
Jes stood up, furrowing her brows. Her thoughts about that night surfaced again, how her spiritual presence was forcefully pushed out of Emma's body. A regular kin shouldn't have been able to do that. She looked around the room to see the bloody signs and markings, getting closer to inspect them. Most were written in an ancient language that she recognized. There weren't many supernaturals left that could use spells like that, and it definitely couldn't have been made by the kindred, confirming her suspicions that another type of supernatural was involved in this.
She took some colorful chalk from her pocket, looking at the body behind her. She looked for a clean enough spot to draw a big symbol with verses written inside then went to pick up the dead body of the kin and put him in the middle, starting to chant. The lines on the ground started glowing and came to life, the verses moving and starting to cover the body that stood over them. She took her decorated knife to make a cut on her palm and watched the black blood trickle down on the kin, putting her hand on his chest and completing her chanting. With the glow taking over his body, the kin opened his eyes with a shocked expression, a look of disbelief stuck on his face as he took in his surroundings.
"Where..."
He looked at his chest, staring at the wounds and starting to panic.
"Look at me." Jes held his chin and turned his head towards herself, "Answer my questions."
He stalled, seeming to hesitate before falling in a trance like state.
"How did you get in here?"
The guy took a second to answer, almost as if he was looking for an answer in his head.
"The Crusader covered our scent and hid us here, gave us a second chance."
"Who is 'the crusader'?"
He stood quiet, not giving an answer after a minute which meant he either didn't know, or his memory was interfered with. Jes changed the direction of her questions to see if she could get another answer.
"What is your goal?"
"To bring the day of reckoning."
She creased her brows, confused at the answer.
"How will you accomplish that?"
"The Crusader will use the heir against our enemies."
"Your enemies?"
"The ancient ones, those who look down on us."
She stopped for a second, a part of her suspecting she knew who that heir was. Curious, she decided to ask another question.
"How did you die?"
The guy blinked and panic seemed to fill his eyes, but with a soft chanting his focus came back.
"The infiltrator, she slashed across my chest and into my heart."
"With her claws?"
"No."
Seeming to struggle with his answers, he fell quiet but Jes held his head up, making him focus again.
"What were you killed with?"
"Knives, red knives that came out of nowhere."
Jes raised her brows, surprised with the answer despite having a guess. After a few more questions that led to nowhere she left the guy and stood up, who broke out of his trance as if he had just woken up from a dream. Jes chanted a few lines, breaking the circle with her hand.
"Return to where you came from."
"No, wait-"
The glow of the lines died and the body fell back on the ground. Assuming she wouldn't get a different answer from any of the other ferals Jes stood up and smudged the chalk with her feet, making sure the lines were unreadable. After that she left the room and walked to the exit of the building. She would have to let Rhiannon know of what happened and get help in cleaning up the whole mess.
* * *
Having just taken a shower, Emma used the towels Caleb had given her to dry her body and looked at the simple set of clothes left inside the bathroom. She tried the clothes on, realizing they fit her body quiet alright. It was definitely nice having a normal attire and not looking like she had just come out of a BDSM nightclub. She used the towel to dry her hair before folding it and leaving it on the counter, opening the door to walk back into the living room.
The interior of the house wasn't too different than what she had imagined it would be like. A lot of the furniture was made of wood with carvings on them, shelves with stacks of books filling the room with certain herbs and stones placed on the racks. There were a lot of plants hung on the ceiling and walls, resembling a small haven inside a forest. Caleb was sitting on a chair in the corner, reading a leather cased book with some tea on the table next to him. It still felt too surreal to be in their house. There were a lot of times she had questioned how she went from being locked up in the back of a van to being a welcomed guest.
"There is some tea on the stove if you'd like to grab a cup."
Caleb spoke while reading his book and Emma stared at the boiling tea.
"Uh..."
He finally looked up after a second, realizing the mistake in his sentence.
"Right, kindred can't drink that, my fault."
"It's okay."
She walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, inspecting the details of the interior. The silence was kind of awkward, she genuinely did not know how to make conversation. Hey, thanks for saving my ass again despite kidnapping me and causing my untimely death. Yeah, that definitely did not work. Finally saving her from the agony Caleb broke the silence.
"How are your wounds? They looked kinda nasty on the way here."
Emma looked down at her top, pulling the shirt up a bit to check the pierced wound under her waist. It was mostly healed up thanks to the blood she had drank, and her heart wasn't aching anymore.
"It's good, they will get better."
He took a sip of his tea before putting it aside.
"You heal surprisingly fast. Kat was never able to do that despite both of you having the same master."
Emma felt curious at his sentence.
"Kat seems to have a past with you two. How long have you known her?"
"A few decades, at most." he shrugged, "She used to hang out at White Heather a lot so we crossed paths a few times. That was before she left."
"She was welcome here as a kin?"
"Anarchs are too, it's not a problem if you are an unproblematic kin."
She got confused,
"Then why try to kill her?"
"Things are different now, she is not on our side anymore." he turned back to his book, drinking some tea after flipping the page, "She is the one that got you in here, isn't she?"
Surprised at him immediately guessing it, Emma hesitated to answer,
"Why do you think that?"
"She used to have colleagues here, I wouldn't be surprised if she still has connections."
"I can't really answer that." she crossed her arms, "I appreciate being saved and all, but we aren't exactly buddies."
"That's to be expected."
He sipped from his tea, continuing to read the book for a while. Emma stood quiet, looking around the room idly.
"The carvings on the furnitures are really pretty."
Surprised to see her make small talk, Caleb looked up from his book to look at the furnitures.
"They are all handmade. We had a lot of time in hiding so you gotta spend it somehow."
Emma guessed it was after the messed up war with the kindred. Staying indecisive for a while, her curiosity got the best of her and she decided it would at least be better to ask Caleb than Jes about it.
"Don't you guys hate the kindred for what they did? Why do you still help me despite that?"
Caleb didn't seem too surprised to see she had already found out about the war.
"Why don't you ask that to Jes?"
Damn.
"Didn't think she would appreciate it if I opened the topic."
He shrugged,
"You'll have to find out if you want an answer."
Before being able to ask more she heard the sound coming from the lock and turned to look at the front door. Her stomach dropped, feeling anxious about who was probably about to walk in. The knob turned and the door was pushed open, Jes stepping inside with a very battered look. Her boots and part of her clothes were covered in black tar and blood. She took off her dirtied jacket to hang it behind the door, then closed the door and looked back inside the room, her gaze first landing on Emma and then Caleb.
"I'm gonna go change."
She walked past into another room in the back with which Emma realized she had stopped breathing from stress again.
"Don't worry, Jes doesn't hate you."
Caleb seemed to have noticed her worry and spoke up.
"Just chill. She wouldn't let any random person in here, especially to kill them or something."
Emma was aware of that but it still made her feel uneasy. It was about ten minutes before Jes came out with fresh clothes and of course, a pack of cigarettes in her hand, lighting one between her lips and taking a long drag on it. She sat on a nearby chair, the smoke leaving her lips in a tired exhale.
"I checked the place out, it was some kinda feral kin nest."
Caleb looked troubled, drinking from his tea.
"So our idea of this being nothing is debunked."
Jes nodded, inhaling from her cigarette again before pointing it at Emma.
"Dunno how the hell you tracked those guys down but there is ought to be more of them in the city." she creased her brows, looking displeased with what she was about to say, "They probably have who you are looking for too."
Emma beamed up at that, surprised but also expecting of the news. If Jean was somehow connected to those ferals she was definitely one step closer to finding her.
"However,"
She took another long drag and Emma looked at her, waiting for her to finish the sentence.
"It's not gonna be easy taking care of this mess. Ferals aren't known to be too intelligent so they must have a leader somewhere, that's who we have to find."
While she took a moment to smoke and consider their situation, Emma found it as an opportunity to talk.
"I am not too good at tracking but feral kin have a sharp scent that I can recognize, that's what led me to their hideout."
Jes listened to her, looking a little interested.
"So, you're just gonna go around sniffing and hope to randomly catch that scent again?"
"In theory, yeah. I was hoping to find a clue or something from that place but guess that didn't work out."
Jes flicked her cigarette, then took out a crumbled piece of paper from her pocket and threw it to Emma. She caught it the air, opening it to find a black pamphlet with a dripping cross and a skull on it. There was "redemption" written in big bold letters over the cross. Emma looked up puzzled.
"Found that inside the place, probably for recruitment. It could be helpful in tracking them down."
Emma creased her brows, her puzzlement even more obvious now.
"You have been helping me a lot, haven't you? This can't just be about the feral kin."
Jes raised her brows, taking a drag from her cigarette,
"And why do you think I'm helping you?"
Emma retracted a bit at the intense gaze, blinking. Really, why did she think that? It could just be a mere coincidence that they had to work together, but somehow it didn't feel like that. She creased her brows and averted her gaze.
"No answer?"
Jes finished the rest of her cigarette with a deep inhale and crushed the remaining part between her fingers. Emma looked up at that,
"Why do you smoke so much?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
She opened the pack and put another one between her lips.
"I'm already dead, it doesn't really matter what I do to my body."
Emma watched her light it up, her eyes switching between her and Caleb who had just been listening to the conversation silently.
"I see."
She looked at the crumbled pamphlet in her hands, memorizing the pattern.
"I will look out for anything that I can find. How can I contact you?"
"Just give me a call, do you have your phone with you?"
With that Emma remembered the shattered phone she had found in her pocket. It must have been from the fall.
"It got smashed inside the building."
"Then go and talk to Tristan, he will give you a new one. Ask him to add our numbers too."
Jes flicked her cigarette again, the ashes raining down in small pieces.
"And feel free to rest here 'till you're good to go."
"Alright... Thanks."
Jes shrugged, going to one of the shelves to look for a book. With that the tense atmosphere in the room was broken and Emma relaxed in her seat, deciding to wait until her wounds felt better.