Catching Up

Eito let out a long exhale as he stepped off the trolley and onto the sidewalk. He stood directly in front of the entrance to his apartment building. Sy had offered him the chance to tag along to see what Lara and her mongrels were up to, but Eito had to decline; as exciting as that venture was sure to be, he could not postpone speaking to Agatha any further.

As he opened the front door, passing through the landing to the stairs, he recalled what had occurred earlier that evening. Though he had made plans to impress the Prince and prove his worth, he instead stole from her twice over. Nina had called what they had done, "Noble". He wanted to assure himself he would have still tried to get Agatha to safety even if for some reason she did not remember him at all. But truly, his motivation was one of self-preservation whether he liked it or not. The same as any other vampire.

As he ascended the stairs to the third floor where his haven awaited, his thought's continued to race. Agatha was in his apartment- something that he had secretly wanted not too long ago, yet thought would never happen. He had always admired the way she. . .  actually, he admired almost everything about her. Her worth ethic. How she looked both professionally modest and attractive at the same time. Though he would go through great lengths to charm whatever girl he wanted into coming back with him from parties or errand runs, he never as much asked her out for a cup of coffee. It was only after he had lost his chance of ever doing such a thing that he finally realized why.  

Because you would have had to show the real you.

The Eito who thought his career at the Tribune was just a game he wanted to win. Passionate, yes but his livelihood never depended on it. As someone who clearly had to work hard just to get by, why would she be enthralled by what she would perceive as a spoiled rich brat? Or, that was how he talked himself out of it. And settled for woman who swooned over the number of zeros he could write on a check.

He stopped before he entered his front door. Whether she fully knew about Kindred or not, he was going to have to tell the truth - and reveal as much of his true self as possible- to her. He needed to find out who embraced him. Sowing deception was no way to reap the truth . . . or whatever his old Tribune manager used to say. It was something along those lines.
Steeling himself, he pushed open the door, relieved to see that Agatha had gotten her in one piece. Not the prettiest, but one piece nonetheless. It looked as if she had slung herself over his study chair, then remained there as that had taken her last ounce of strength. He cleared his throat as he approached her, saying in a small voice, "Agatha? Are you awake?"

She'd always been a small woman, barely over five feet tall and not a dime over a hundred pounds. She used to wear her hair longer, but it was cut in a short bob now. It looked good framing her olive skin and almond eyes even with her makeup having run all over. She'd built a small fire in the fireplace and had been staring into it with her arms wrapped around her knees when Eito came in. When the door swings open her hand goes down to grasp the iron fire poker leaning against her chair. Then dark eyes settle on Eito and some of the tension leaves her body but those eyes smoulder with some cocktail of emotions Eito can't quite identify.

"I'm awake."

Eito nodded as he closed the front door, stepping toward Agatha while trying to hide the nervousness that weighed upon him. Nervous she wouldn’t trust him and refuse to willingly give any information. Nervous she wouldn’t actually know anything that could save him. Nervous about what would happen if any one of the prince’s allies found out what he had done.

Even if he had no reserves of courage, perhaps it was time to dig some.

Still standing several feet away, for began, “I am glad for that , for you see shortly after your escape, the Lodge came under attack from Capone’s men. Thankfully, I do not believe there were many casualties.”

There he went again, just discussing current events with her instead of anything personal.

In a noticeably empathetic tone he said, “You can let down your guard and speak your mind. It is safe here. I thought we might have a bit of catching up to do?”

Agatha unfolded herself from the chair and took a few steps closer. Eito could just make out her outline with the fire burning behind her. She stopped just inside of a polite distance away. She slowly raised up one hand and traced a finger up his sleeve so he could barely feel her touch. Her other hand came up and felt along his chin down his throat and towards his chest. Her eyes were hidden in shadow but he could hear her heart beating rapidly, smell her breath from this close. Her feet shift just a little bit.

Then her fist slammed into his nose and sent him staggering back several steps. Cartilage popped and blood streamed from his broken nose.

"I MOURNED FOR YOU!"

Blinking through the sudden tears Eito could see she was trembling as she shouted, both of her fists clenched though she hadn't come closer.

"For months! You were dead and gone and I had to deal with that! But that never felt right, and I just couldn't stomach it! So I set out to solve your murder and bring whoever did it to justice. I thought maybe if I did that I'd be able to sleep again. Maybe if I helped you get justice it'd stop hurting so much..."

She breaks off in a sob and wipes furiously at her eyes.

"And when I do my digging what do I find? Mobsters and monsters and secret societies and in the middle of all of it I find you!"

Her legs give out and she tumbles to the ground. Her legs curl up and she hugs them to her chest, leaning against an ottoman while she glares and sobs.

"And you didn't even give me so much as a 'hello'. You just went on with your whores and big plans and let those things take me..."

She breaks off again, sobbing into her dress.

With a gargled loud sniff, the blood that flowed down Eito's face withdrew into his nostrils. He grabbed his nose as it affixed and aligned itself properly, wincing as he blinked a few more times.  He told himself she had every right to be upset. She had to let it out. And maybe with a few sips of blood she would calm down and listen to what he had to say. . .
No, he was going to give her the respect she deserved. Even if refused to do so before.

"Alright, I am not going to pretend I didn't deserve that." He stood up straight no worse for wear as he continued, "I wasn't fair to you, Agatha. It wasn't fair I did not greet you that night at the Eveleigh Club, how you have been dragged into this mess, or how I pretended there was nothing between us."

If she does not try and strike him again, he steps closer and says, "But know this, I did not try and talk to you the other night because I thought there was a still a chance you could avoid all of this."
He paused, reaching up a hand to wipe an errand strand of hair from her face, "And in truth, I don't want to give you false hope, because even though I'm speaking to you know, if I do not find out who murdered me, I will die. For real this time."

He was going to add, "That's why I need your help," But decided to keep the attention on her. He decided instead to say, "I am truly sorry how I treated you in the past. But so I can help you, you must share everything you found out about these monsters."

She doesn't try to hit him again. Instead her breathing steadied somewhat and she leaned into his hand. Eito saw that her eyes were dialated, huge and dark and empty. Her eyes didn't quite meet his and her face was tilted towards his hand where his blood had left a smearing track. Her nostrils flared on every inhale. Her mouth opened to let her tongue peek out but just as quickly she froze, her eyes snapped somewhat back to lucidity and she turned to face him fully, terror and agony etched on her face.

"Oh God... you're one of them aren't you?"

Her hand feels at her throat where Eito had fed on her earlier that night. She shivers and closes her eyes, breathing hard again.

"You're just like them."

Eito stayed uncharacteristically expressionless at Agatha’s realization. He gave a slow nod,
“I will not lie to you. Not that it would do any good; you can sniff out the truth from across the city.”
A determined frown then spread across his face,  “Though Agatha, you can not tell anyone about anything that you have seen. If you do, you’ll be hunted down and killed. Every effort  is made to keep my kind a secret.”

Though he titled his head to the side regarding her last remark, “I would like to say I preserved a level of respect for others. Know that both myself and my friends were willing to take the risk to get you away from that ball. If my superiors had their way, we couldn’t be having this conversation.”

He sighed, then asked, “Well, you have found me. Do you still care to bring my murderer to justice?”

She reels back, staring up in horror and obviously dumbfounded. Her eyes screw shut and she forces a few deep breaths. When she opens them again she seems somewhat more in control.

"After we got the news of your murder I... I went to the morgue to see your body but the coroner's office wouldn't let anyone in. They said your body had been taken by a funeral home already. So I went to the funeral home and they wouldn't let anyone who wasn't family see. I tried to sneak in but they caught me and threatened to call the police. None of it felt right, so I started looking for a pattern. I wanted to see if there were any other murders like yours. There were more. One in Lincoln Park. One at the Union Stockyards. A couple in Chinatown. All of them were immigrants fresh to the city except you. All double homicides where it looked like one of the victims had been torn apart by an animal and the other quickly disappeared. The victim's ID's were all known, but when I tried to find where they'd been burried or the investigating officer I hit brick walls. Yours was an outlier though; it happened in the middle of the Gold Coast; the others were all in bad parts of town. So I started digging deeper."

She sits up a little bit, gathering herself more and more as she recounts the chain of events.

"The more I dug, the more brick walls I hit. I knew I was onto something. I didn't get much for a long time. Not even rumors, but when you run into that many walls you know there's a house all around you. Then a few months ago all these odd murders started happening again and it seemed too much like what happened to you. That's when I heard the name Obediah Flick. I saw him once when I was working the Green Mill. He gave me the creeps; kept staring at the club singer all night. Poor girl was so creeped out she didn't take a break all night just to avoid him pawing at her. I thought for a while he might have been your guy, but I know he had an alibi for at least one of the murders; I waited on him and Capone while it happened. But I did overhear him talking to Capone about a Prince Bianca. He was always careful how he talked in the club but I could piece things together. They talked about her like she was some rival crime lord they wanted to either bring into the organization or wipe out. So instead I talked up Flick's men, the Pinkertons. They're not so tight lipped once you get some whiskey in them. They told me more and I started to piece some things together. But it still didn't tell me anything about you. Then I started hearing another name, but only in the poor parts of town."

Her dark eyes focus on Eito again, curious.

"Have you ever heard of a Cassius McDonald?"

Eito gave a look of resignation when Agatha first began to speak; to a ravenous killer, he would probably still look enough like a recent immigrant to draw it's attention.  When she mentioned Obadiah Flick, he could not help but sneer. As if he needed any more reasons to dislike the man.
When he heard the last name, he gasped.
"Yes. . . yes, in fact he is wanted amongst my kind. Actually, "wanted" is too weak of a word- it's more of a 'shoot on sight, then trample on his body' kind of situation."
His voice turned frantic as he said, "What did you find about Cassius? He has proven to be very elusive."

"Not much. I've heard some talk that he's raising an army. I've heard his son is working with Capone. That he has a secret island out on the lake. I've also heard that with his dying breath he cursed the vampires of Chicago somehow. None of it makes sense."

She seems to regain some of her old strength talking about the case and she stops fidgeting quite so much as she meets Eito's eye again.

"But I heard some of it from another apparent murder victim. The one from Lincoln Park. He's... he's like you."

Though Eito continued to listen intently, an air of excitement began to rise within him. In the back of his mind, he was aware that this reunion was going to be short lived. Either to order protect herself for what she knew, Agatha would disappear into hiding and never be seen again or she would be discovered and executed. But with how much she was able to uncover, perhaps Eito could convince the Kindred above him to see her use. Better her to live as a pawn than not at all.  
Of course, there was the distinct possibility that Bianca and the others knew full well what Agatha was sharing, and someone like him wasn't supposed to know. He delayed thinking about her fate as long as he could as he said,
"If I pretended to know all the ins and outs of my kind, I would be a fool. Still, everything you have uncovered thus far is . . . amazing, to say the least. But I wasn't aware of any other murder victims who couldn't stay dead. Even if they swore you to secrecy, can you share their name?"

"Giuseppi Philipelli. I only met him recently and talked to him once right before I heard about the Everleigh girls disappearing. He's nervous and hard to track down but he may know more. I decided to go after the girls instead; I figured it might be the killer at work again and I could catch him in the act."

She looks down at herself, wiping at her face.

"Look where that got me."

She moves to stand, faltering a little on a leg that's fallen to sleep.

"I should be going. Bobby will be worried sick; I was supposed to check in yesterday."

She starts idly playing with the diamond ring still on her finger looking sick.

Giuseppi Philipelli.. He said the name over in his mind. This Kindred was as vital clue. And who knew what await- Philipelli could have been turned by the same bastard who did this to him.  Eito finished jotting down the name on his flip pad which he had seemingly produced him thin air, before he looked up from his scrawl into Agatha's eyes, "I cannot thank you enough, for not giving up on me, for sharing all this . . . and not staying too upset with me to do so."  
At the mention of their old editor, Eito's eyebrow raised, "McCormick? What's he been up to these days? Did he think I was still alive, too?
His eyes widened in realization, "Wait, is he the one who got you that ring?"

Agatha wouldn't quite meet Eito's eye, fidgeting with the ring.

"After your disappearance and apparent murder we had a bit of a wake at the office. Just a few of us from the investigative and administrative offices. I was a wreck but I showed up. We got to talking and drinking and Bobby... comforted me."

She blushes furiously and starts wiping at her ruined makeup with a handkerchief.

"He's really a gentle man in private. Things... just kind of happened. But his divorce was already final, I'm no home wrecker!"

She sighs and shakes her head.

"I just can't believe all this. I know Bobby won't want to, but when he sees all the notes I've taken, the names to follow up on and how all this is connected... we're going to blow this thing wide open. Soon everyone will know about this secret world, and then we can stop those monsters!"

She looks sheepishly at Eito.

"Um, well, I guess you're not all monsters."

Eito's mouth went agape when Agatha explained what had happened.  That was not a couple he could have ever pictured.
But then again, in the last year what had gone as expected?
After only a few seconds he composed himself and said, "Your relationship to Robert is between he and you. Know that even if I missed my chance to be with you, understand all I want is for you to be happy."
Even with her intentions to leave however, he did not step out of her way.  He instead gave a tense frown and continued "Which is why you need to promise me you'll burn every note of yours and forget everything you've seen about my kind."

Now it was Agatha's turn for stunned silence. After a moment was the her mouth agape her face flushed and she stormed right up to Eito.

"So that's how it is then? You get to decide what I do with the story I risked my life to get? Why, so you can put your story out first? Get over yourself. I've risked too much to get this story already to destroy it just to stroke your ego or protect your new friends or whatever excuse you're telling yourself."

She makes to leave and realizes he's blocking the door.

"It was good seeing you but I've got a wedding to plan and a story to publish. Excuse me."

At the mention of him stroking his ego and taking the story for himself, the vein on Eito's forehead threatened to burst.
"This is not about me! It's to protect YOU, Agatha!" He bellowed.
Trying to recompose himself he says,
"If you tell anyone about what you know, they'll turn the entire Tribune upside down until they get you. Hell, they may even decide to just burn it down with everyone inside to make sure the secret stays safe!"
He narrowed his eyes, "You think you really know about my kind? I've done this for over a year and even I have barely scratched the surface of our society! You may think you've found a big break; all you will accomplish will alert others of my kind that you're on to them. You have no idea what they are capable of."
He reaches his right hand into his pocket, taking hold of his knife yet leaving it hidden as he pleaded, "Turn back while you still can and enjoy what you have. Trust me that some stones should not be overturned." In his head he added mentally to himself, "And don't make me do this. . ."
Even though all his bluster, Agatha steeled herself, and advanced toward him while meeting his eyes with the full intention to push past him to the exit.
He didn't expect her to back down that easily- she never did. Her tenacity is what made her so appealing.
In that moment, Eito realized he hadn't missed his chance- this very night he had been given another.
She could still be his.
McCormick didn't deserve her. There was no one way she had given her heart to him.  She had spent the entire night demonstrating that it truly belonged to Eito. She probably wouldn't have even shed a tear of he had died in Eito's stead.
All he had to was reach out and take it.
Eito actually let out a growl, gripping her shoulder with more force that he ever could have in life. With the other hand he withdrew his knife while Agatha let out a curt gasp, as if choosing to disbelieve what was happening.  
One cut. That's all it would take. She'd could be persuaded to end this foolish crusade and they could both have what they always wanted. He raised his knife, oblivious to her scream as she tried to pull from his inhuman grasp.
And yet. . .
This wasn't what he wanted.
Not anymore.
If she only stayed only to feed on his blood. . . than it wouldn't be real.
His knife began to lower.
He would be no better than the Kindred who did this too him.
His expression dulled, as if he was staring past her with a blank expression.
Dammit, he was a monster.
He released his grip on both the girl and the knife, which fell to the floor. Still panting, Agatha bolted for the door, darting past Eito as he crumpled to the floor.
Eito continued to lay there as the door slammed behind Agatha.
Part of him said to jump up and follow her; she was doomed if she revealed what she knew. Making her a thrall would be an act of mercy.
He clenched his fists and got himself back to his feet. This night was still not in vain- he had learned who he needed to find.
And he received a reminder his old life was well and truly dead.