Trish was uncertain as to exactly what time she needed to be at the meeting, but she’d agreed to be there, and had offered to bring Chance with her to make it easier on Charles, seeing as how he lived with her anyway. She got out of her truck, and pulled the wheelchair from the bed, set it up for Chance and helped him ease down into it, and headed inside the warehouse. Upon entering she paused, and blinked, distinctly remembering the one vampire, Luciano, mentioning that the place was empty. Yet here was a reasonably comfortable environment – rugs and furniture were scattered about, giving the illusion of a lounge for people to engage each other in. She noted that there was a separate, smaller lounge area, away from the main focus of the space, quite possibly meant for the ghouls.
Most people were arriving about now, and since she didn’t want to be in the way, she headed over to the smaller area, with Chance in tow. A few others came over as well, over a period of about twenty minutes. She smiled and waved at Jim – she hadn’t seen him in a while, and he looked like he was doing relatively well. Chance parked his chair next to one of the sofas, and she sat next to him, while Jett sat on the other side of her. There was a chair seated next to the small sofa she was at – hopefully Deacon would sit there.
One of the other ghouls, a heavily tattooed individual with a beard, sat down at a table and pulled out a sketchpad, and began doodling. Jim looked uncomfortable, but after a few minutes he sat down as well, followed by an auburn haired man. Good – that meant that only Deacon was left. Ten minutes later, another individual headed meekly over, sitting down near to the three of them. He was blonde, with a bit of a beard, and wore jeans and a long sleeved hoodie, despite the hot temperature outside. No one spoke for a bit, and Trish decided to start the conversation, by offering him a hand.
“Hi, I’m Trish.” she smiled, and Deacon looked up at her, giving a timid smile back.
He cleared his throat before he spoke. “I’m Deacon.”
“Nice to meet you Deacon. Are you new in town?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Well welcome. This here is Jett, and Chance.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jett spoke, fiddling with a cigarette. He nodded towards the table. “Over there’s Nikolai, Jim and I’m not sure of the other guy’s name.” He paused for a minute. “So, awkward question but…who do you belong to?”
Deacon gulped a bit, then gestured. “See that guy with that woman with the long braid over there? That’s my master, Gabriel. Umm..what about you?”
Chance nods in Charles’ direction. “I serve him.”
“Me too.” Trish added.
“Presently I feed from that guy.” Jett gestures in Vince’s direction. “But I’m technically a free agent. I’ve broken free of my master’s control.”
Deacon gaped, managing to look aghast and hopeful at the same time. “That’s…How is that possible?”
“I don’t know the logistics behind it – I just know a kind of magic was used.” He points over into Jasper’s direction. “That guy over there helped me out.”
Trish placed a hand on Deacon’s knee. “Can I be honest with you?”
He nodded, looking from her face to her hand and back again.
“We’re hoping you could help us. It might be hard though.”
“In what way?”
Jett looked over at him then, setting a serious tone.
“You’d have to defy your master, to an extent. But we’re in need of your help, and willing to offer you anything we can in exchange. The question is – what do you want?”
Deacon rubbed his arms and looked around nervously. He was skittish – he should go, and warn Gabriel that he was being asked to do things by other ghouls. But Gabriel had told him to stay away, and he was intrigued by their offer. But what did he want? He was quiet, mulling it over, before finally asking a question of his own.
“How…how are you guys treated?”
They looked at each other, and Chance spoke up. “Trish and I are treated very well. We do what Charles asks, when he asks, but he doesn’t ask much of us. For the most part, he lets us lead our own lives.”
“As I mentioned,” Jett spoke “I’m a free agent. I get my blood from those willing to offer it to me, usually in exchange for a favor or service…or just because.”
“That sounds like a luxury compared to what I’ve been through.” he says quietly. Trish squeezed his knee, trying to be supportive.
“You can tell us. We don’t judge – we just want to help.”
He took a deep breath, and nervously looked around to make sure Gabriel wasn’t nearby before speaking, albeit in quiet tones.
“Gabriel is tolerant of me, I would say. When I do very well, I get praise, and a reminder of how I might just be material for the Embrace yet. If I do average he largely ignored. But if I screw up…” he shuddered. “If I screw up, there’s hell to pay.” He pushed up a sleeve. Crisscrossing his arm were the small white marks of faded scars. “It’s worse on my back.” he pushed the sleeve back down.
“Sounds like you need to be free of him.” Chance said, making a mental note of what he’d said.
“Sounds like he’s an asshole.” Jett growled, recalling his past as he pictured what Deacon must have gone through.
“I’m roughly thirty years older than I look..so if I went off the blood, I don’t know that I’d survive.”
“That can be taken care of. You can become a free agent, like me, or, we can talk to our masters – or in my case my buddy – and see about getting you Embraced, if that’s what you want.”
“R-really?”
Trish nodded, and leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Yes – we want to help you. We’ll work on making either or both options happen. But we need that favor from you.”
“What is it?” he asked, feeling hope for the first time in a very long time.
“Your master put a spell on Petra. He has the materials from that spell in the chantry. We need those. Do you think you can get them?”
Deacon shuddered at the thought of what would happen if he were caught. “I can try. But how do I get ahold of you to let you know I have it, assuming I can get it?”
“Find a safe spot to hide and call one of us.” Trish reached her ahnd out for his phone, and typed in her number. “No ofense guys, but I can probably get to him quicker, being in town and all.”
“Hell, I’ve got no qualms.” Jett said.
“Like I can drive anyway.” Chance added.
“Okay, it’s settled then. When you see opportunity Deacon, take it, alright? I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”
Deacon nodded. “Thank you.” he managed to choke out, before needing to clear his throat again. He cast his eyes around the room once more, and scrambled to his feet when he saw Gabriel headed over to him.
“Come Deacon. It’s time to leave.”
He nodded and quickly fell into step behind Gabriel, turning to give them a last, slight wave before moving out of sight.
“I feel bad for him.” Trish said.
“I just hope he doesn’t get caught.” Jett nodded at Chance’s statement.
“Poor guy’s likely to get himself killed if he does. Well, hopefully this works.”