Xaviers!

Michael stumbled along the alleyways away from the house, desperately trying to get away. Two neighborhoods later, he was still doing his best to stay out of sight when he stumbled into a young woman standing in his way. "Hello, grandfather."

"Alessia! I am so glad to see you. We have to get out of London. They'll be coming after us."

"Will they now? And whose fault is that?" Her eyes flashed in the darkness of the alley.

Michael looked indignant. "You signed onto this plan, the same as the rest of us. You knew all that we had to gain..."

"And I recommended patience and a deliberative approach. You let that little bitch Bianca talk you into rushing things. You had a chance to correct her error, but you just had to take the Queen and leave your King wide open."

Now Michael was angry, "How dare you..." He went to slap her, but she grabbed his wrist and held it firm as he struggled.

"You have damaged the family. Your recklessness has cost the lives of both family members and allies. I have spoken with the Inner Circle and they have declared that your blood is now forfeit." She grinned at him and he visibly paled, her fangs obvious in the dull sky glow of the city, "More to the point, your blood is *mine*." Lightning fast, her head darted in, fangs sinking into his neck as he tried to push her off, but was unable to. His struggles got weaker and weaker as she continued to feed. Finally, she pulled away, looking him in the eyes. "Bianca never understood that being in someone else's shadow is the best place to really grow. It's a lesson I learned early and well. Thank you for that." She darted in again, drinking differently this time, a long hard pull that seemed to make the alley darker, if only temporarily. When she pulled away again, she released his wrist and he collapsed back onto the ground, quite dead. His body began to rapidly flake away like ash on the wind until virtually nothing was left.

Alessia reached up and wiped the corner of her mouth with her thumb before pulling out her phone. A quick dial and she placed it to her ear as he walked out of the alleyway and towards a waiting car. "Yes, it's me. ... It's done. ... No, I'll be returning to Italy. Leaving tonight. ... Well, start shuffling the assets around and find us some new places. ... No, just me. Cut all the England staff loose. ... Stop worrying. We'll deal with the insult later. ... Right. I'll see you then." She slid into the back of the car and tapped the driver on the shoulder, "Let's go." The car pulls away, heading down the street.

It takes some time to sort out the elder vampire's trail from the general chaos that has engulfed the house. Still, they managed to find it and tail it for quite some ways. Eventually, Diego and Sean stumble upon the ash-corpse. It's not completely gone, but the elder vampire's trail ends at the body.

Sean kneels next to the ash-corpse and then around the general area trying to answer the dozen or so questions he had.

"Seems somebody did our dirty work for us," Sean said to Diego.

"Friend or foe you think?" Diego for asked as he, too, knelt. Without his knowledge, his eyes began to glow ever so slightly as he concentrated on the search for evidence.

Contrary to what Diego had seen when the weaver had died, there was nothing on this body. Even her body had some residual faint glow when it had died as had the other vampires now that he recalled. There was none of that on this body.

Sean can feel that whatever happened here, it had some sort of mystical significance. He can feel the weight of some old magic having been enacted here, even if it wasn't a spell as he knows it.

"Not sure, but some old magic was worked here," Sean said before writing a series of runes into the ashes trying to see if there was a trail they could follow further.

Whatever had been done here had also obliterated any sympathetic trail so that there was nothing for his magic to latch onto. It was as if whatever ancient magic had animated the elder vampire had been pulled away.

Sean erased the runes and dusted off his hands before standing. He noted that it was possible to strip away the magic animating vampires, something to look into later if they decided to return.

"There's nothing left except ash," Sean said, "It's as if the magic that kept the vampire alive was stripped away and then whoever did it cleaned up after themselves."

"That must be why the other vampire ash piles glowed a little and this one doesn't," he guessed, assuming Sean had seen that as well.

"You saw what exactly?" Sean asked looking at Diego oddly.

"The vampires glowed and their ashes did too," he answered, looking at Sean with those faintly luminous eyes, "You... didn't see that?"

"I wasn't trying to...see this before," Sean said looking at Diego and the weave of magic around him. "When did you start seeing these things?"

The glow vanished as he thought about that. "When The Weaver died."

"No... that's not right... I once saw this flying wormy thing I followed to... Wanda... Okay, that's one freaky coincidence."

"The Weaver?" Sean asked.

"The old lady who died at the school. Turned out she was connected to a Norn, who commanded me to help avenge her. Weren't you wondering why Sam brought a goofy cat-boy along?"

"No," Sean said, "I trusted Sam's judgment and you didn't die, so seems like it work out, aye?"

"The Norn... so you were recruited to take the Weavers place?"

"What? No. God, at least I hope not. I'm no junior fate manager. She just drafted me to help you guys with this vampire problem."

"Hopefully your service is over," Sean said, "Being contracted to a being like the Norn might very well not be an... enjoyable experience."

"We should head back and see if we can help the Fey with the fire.

"Just a sec. I have an idea." He began poking through the ashes with the recovered stake, looking for any small objects that didn't burn up.

There didn't seem to be anything on the body, but then again, he was hosting a party and ran at the last minute, so maybe there was something back at the house? Assuming it hadn't burned down in the mean time.

He tapped the ashes off of the stake and holstered it as he stood. "Thought it was worth a shot. Let's go."

Sean smiled at Diego and pulled a rune incsribed metal tubeo and a small knife out of a coat pocket. He cut his hand and squeezed blood into the top of the tube. The runes filled with blood and began to glow.

"I can get us back a bit more quickly now that I can picture where we've been," Sean said, "Just try not to vomit."

Sean drew a circle with his off hand while picturing the back door they'd used to enter the house and every detail he could remember. The air crackled and sparked as a fiery circle appeared in the air eventually connecting and forming a doorway back to where they'd come from. The rune covered rod glowed brightly casting an odd blood red shadow around Sean's hand.

"Holy shit..." Diego gaped. "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen."

"But why would I have puked?" he asked as he bravely stepped through. "Oh God..." he moaned, wretching, "... my insides are crying..."

Sean stepped through next and the portal closed behind him. He looked a little green, but managed to not vomit. He returned the rod to a pocket unsteadily and then began wrapped his wounded hand with a handkerchief.

"I vomited the first two times I stepped through the gate," Sean said, "Third time's a charm though apparently."

"...actually I'm goo-" he began to say before suddenly rushing out the back door to vomit in the alley. He returned and gave a thumbs up.