Vampire: The Masquerade - Nirvana

Turned out Leona and Mercurio did receive the same message. If so, then at the present there was only one connection between them could bring up something like this: The case they were working on.

So before going there, she gathered some information about this Baron of Hollywood, both from her fellow Tremeres and the internet, and to Leona's surprise, he was quite famous, even in human society—Issac Abraham was known to be one of the greatest movie producers in the last century, and even though as a human he died many years ago, he was still the secret sponsor of many Oscar winners and commercial big hits in current times; Apart from that, he bought one dying jewelry chain that nobody had faith in in 2006, and successfully turned it into the biggest player on the West Coast, even built up a charity foundation under its name: The first Kindred in the history who built up a foundation that was dedicated to human philanthropy.

All in all, it was a shame that he didn't work well with the Camarilla—that's what everybody said at the end, after answering Leona's question.

Looked like a honorable kind, this Issac. Leona rested some doubts about his involvement with Alice's disappearance, readied herself for this meeting: Issac is a Toreador, a clan famous for its discerning taste of art and beauty, and this Baron is a particularly old-fashioned one, so she would have to dress herself up real properly in front of him; besides, it was Leona's plan to ask for his help on Alice's case, so she was eager to please.

Luckily, she saved some money for fancy gowns, so she ordered a set of black suit from a ghoul working in fashion industry, with shoulder pads and bell-bottoms, having golden-and-silver peony motifs embroidered on the outside. It was no high-end limited edition, but would be enough to show she made an effort—at least it worked for Mercurio. He changed his usual dandy appearance, too, and picked a formal, double-b.r.e.a.s.ted outfit in navy blue.

"Buonasera, signora." He looked at her permed side part and glimmering court shoes, whistled, offered his hand to help her walk out of the Chantry and into the his car, "Posso avere il piacere?"

The reason he did so, was Leona already started to stagger on her 3-inch heels. Goddamn fashion designers…how are people supposed to walk on these things? Leona cursed inwardly. Though every time before important occasions, where heels of some height were considered appropriate, Alice would teach her at home how to handle these things, Leona just…never learned.

Alice…that dumb girl. Those memories flashed back on Leona's way to Issac's place, reaffirmed her determination of finding the truth. Knowing that Leona would in no way have the mood to tolerate him, Mercurio spared his routine flirtations with her, and asked: "Do you want to keep the Prince in the dark about this?"

Leona thought for a second and responded with a question: "You think he would mind?"

"Well, he isn't that illiberal…if there's no conflicted interest."

What Mercurio said was true. Actually, Leona had done several "favors" for Anarchs like Nines' people—not big ones, something like taking care of the screaming ghoul girls who thought they lived in teenage vampire romances but ended up being dumped by their masters, and though she never reported these to the Prince, she didn't assume he knew nothing, and he never stepped in and stopped her.

"Then let's hope there is no…conflicted interest." So she replied.

Soon they drove into the most legendary part of the city—Hollywood, where all the young and beautiful people hang out, dreaming of being on the screen and becoming rich and famous. Even at night, the place is flooded with humans: tourists, celebrities, fans, paparazzies…You could hardly find "random passersby" in this place. Everybody comes here with a purpose.

In fact, just on their way to the jewelry shop, both Mercurio and Leona got a business card…and a home number from a scout of opposite s.e.x, while the former chuckled and accepted, the latter simply tore it up and threw it away.

"You know what they mean when they give you their private number, right?" Leona said, walked into the Lalaland Jewelry shop on Sunset Boulevard, shaking her head about Mercurio's reaction.

"I know," Mercurio shrugged, "I'm just making a private collection—I have ones in Italian and French, too. Lovely mementos."

Leona scoffed, regretted about even asking, just turned around and looked for someone to ask about Issac, but she hesitated. Though right now the shop was about to close, there were still lots of customers and human staff in here—this is one special branch of Lalaland Jewelry that features designer products and wonderland-theme decorations, which make it extra popular.

It would definitely be weird to ask aloud here…about a dead celebrity.

But soon, she noticed someone unusual here with her vampiric senses: a well-dressed gentleman appeared in his 60s, wearing a black wool coat and a hand-tailored pinstripe suit, with a walking stick in his hand. He was talking to a young human couple, as if giving suggestions about choosing wedding rings. Despite the old age, having the born good look and a cared body build, he could still charm lots of young ladies.

And certainly, he's a vampire.

"Here's our guy."

Mercurio confirmed: He was the one who sent them the messengers. They waited until the couple left in gratitude for Issac's advice, then approached him naturally.

"Young love never bores me." But Issac didn't seem to be in a rush to talk about business, still gazing at the happy lovers who were about to walk out of the shop, "One of the best things to see in my profession…come, let's go to some place private."

They took the elevator to go upstairs into the staff-only area, entered the manager's office—who was the ghoul that delivered the message to Leona, opened a secret door on the wall and introduced them to his own place—a suite decorated in a flamboyant, Turkish style, much smaller than Prince's haven, but no less nobby.

"So why did you ask for us?" Sat down on the sofa in the meeting room, Leona cut to the chase.

"We were investigating the same thing…or to be precise, the two sides of one thing—you are tracking the victim, and I'm tracking the killer..." Issac paused, adjusted his saying, while trying to open some files on his computer and project them onto the TV, "No, maybe a kidnapper, since both us and the police haven't found the bodies."

Upon the end of his words, photos of eight young women marked with their names appeared on the screen, and the last one was Alice Turner. What shocked Leona most, however, was these women had the identical features: same dark, blonde hair, same azure blue eyes, same skin tones, same tall, slim figures…

Then Issac began to explain: "About two months ago, one of the Kindred under my command went missing, just around the same time these kidnaps started, in a cycle of 7 to 10 days all across the country. I noticed it because the first victim, Ginger Swan, is one of the actresses I worked with, and when I went to ask the law enforcement about her case, I saw signs of them being Presenced…so I know it is a vampire work."

"Any idea why would…this guy of yours do this?" Mercurio asked.

"Truth to be told…I don't know." Issac sighed, seemed troubled by this himself, too, "I heard from one of my agents that he was…somewhat into an occult? But no one knows the details."

The word "occult" disturbed Leona greatly, even though it was just an unconfirmed possibility. A human occultist killer was already brutal and perverted enough for preparing those "rituals"…she couldn't begin to imagine what a vampire occultist could do to torture Alice.

Noting that Leona was too occupied by something on her mind, Mercurio took over the conversation: "OK then, what do you propose? If you want someone to work on this, I believe you have plenty of capable personnel."

"Unfortunately since this Kindred was too familiar with my system, he knew how to avoid my people and my scrutiny. Moreover, I'm not sure if he did some part of it in LA, and though I hate to admit, outside the Pacific Coast it is beyond my reach, and CNA has a greater influence." Issac stopped, looked at Leona and continued, "I understand that you want to save your friend, yes? So let me put it in your perspective: if we work together, I can assure you no one else will step into the matter, provide you the secrecy you prefer and you will have any resource of mine at your disposal."

It was a clever move. Mercurio knew. Because clearly Leona was the one among them who would be more easily convinced. So he raised his doubts:

"Why do you want to keep it in secret, then? If you just want to finish this, you could walk past us and directly ask the Prince, who would immediately clean it up to let you owe him a favor. That is a better shot than us."

"First of all, I don't need favor-exchanging and relationship-building with LaCroix…I don't want to owe him anything." Issac looked quite open about his reason, "And as you can imagine, I have a face to keep. Right now you guys are eager to label me Anarchs and accuse us of being reckless about hiding our nature, if something like this got into these bureaucrats' ears…Ha, I can already picture the Prince lecturing about Camarilla's noble quest of protecting the Masquerade with me being a bad example."

"Fair enough, you have a deal." So Leona said yes.

Mercurio still wanted to say something, but Issac quickly replied with a relived smile: "Excellent, but I do have one condition."

"And what is that?" Mercurio didn't seem surprised at all.

"When you locate that Kindred, let me know. I want to hear what he has to say." While saying, Issac had his hand above his lips, with a light sadness on his face, "Ginger Swan is an actress with great talent and promising career, and I just got her a new, big role…if he ruined her, it will be personal between him and me. Any more questions?"

Sensing a bit of irony and impatience from Issac about him, Mercurio didn't push further, and Issac stood up to get them a flash drive of all the information he had. Leona let out a long breath, seemed finally got her head all cleared and noticed the suspicion Mercurio harbored still, thus said: "Don't worry, there's no conflicted interest here so it should be fine…I mean, it shouldn't hurt much for the Prince to lose a piece of speech material."

"Well, fingers crossed on that."