In the two-hundred years he has been kindred, Azrael had never seen anything like the feral beast-men who attacked him. He knows they were not Garou. He knows they were drinking blood. But he never sensed the vampiric beast as he knew it. He begins to ramble, his need for blood rising. One of Shala's canteens feeds him, but his wounds do not heal. They lay him to rest within his circle and promise to come back in four nights to aid him when he returns from the earth's embrace. As he sinks into the earth, Daniel and North realize who the creatures were. They all wear eight-mile orange, reflective vests. They all have city sanitation or subway maintenance uniforms. It all clicks as they realize these are the bodies of the missing crewmen from the subway incident a few nights ago. Thry go about hiding the bodies in the van they arrived in and carry them off to Krieger's haven to be burned in his furnaces, all except for one.
Meanwhile, Shala has chased the beast-man to the edge of the forest. Deciding that she has to kill the creature before it breaks the Masquerade, she chases it beyond park boundaries and into the streets. She almost has it as it darts across the street. She chases after and is almost struck by a passing cab. The driver sees Shala's wounds and runs out to help her.
"Jesus Christ! What the hell was that thing you were chasing?! Did it hurt you?" he says.
"It was a rabid animal I think. I was trying to run it down," she says.
"The hell it was! It was wearing boots and clothes for Christ's sake!"
"Look, I'm really hurt," Shala says, a dark urge taking hold of her. She needs blood. "That thing tore me up. Take me to a hospital." As she says these words, she sees a familiar car turning down a side street. She recognises the driver to be James Murdoch. She continues with the dark plan forming in her mind as she sees him drive away.
Shala gets into the back of the cab, knowing that she will not go to the hospital. There will be no reporting of the creature. The Masquerade will not be breached by her inability to capture the fleeing creature. The cab driver will speak to no one.
The cabbie hears the plastic and metal mesh tear behind him. He swerves instinctively, but he is dead before he knows it. Shala's claws rip into him from behind the seat and mesh. He loses control of the vehicle and the cab smashes into a lightpost. The driver is thrown forward, his skull hitting windshield with deadly force, lacerating vital arteries and veins. Momentarilly stunned, Shala feeds from his dying body out of her base need of human blood that the night's battle deprived her of. She feels the impact of what her desires have brought her to. She has murdered a human in the name of preserving the Masquerade. 'It had to be done,' she thinks as she stumbles away from the cab and back into the deep woods, her conscience plaguing her until she finds the few members still at Azrael's circle. The Cabbie becomes just another casualty in the shadow war of the Kindred...
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