It's three in the afternoon right now, and as soon as I finish this entry I'm going to hit the sack for five hours or so. I've been running on caffeine and adderall ever since I got the case yesterday (mostly adderall; I'm going to run out at least a week early this month if I keep this up) and I need to be at least a little rested if I'm going to survive this.
Anyway, I spent most of last night visiting sites of the attacks. Before I left I gave Pablo (Lucia's brother) instructions on how to search social media, news websites, and specific online forums for relevant data. I also made audio recordings of all the data I have so far on the attacks, and when I headed out I played it together with some of my audio files on vampires on a loop. When I actually got to the sites I took pictures with both a normal, digital camera and the one I rigged for supernatural impressions. I also took readings on the arcanometer (why did I ever think that was a good name?) and wrote down all my results. At the end of each visit I took a few samples, and if there was a shrine or anything for the victims I'd take some small sample from it as well.
I finished visiting the sites around three in the morning, and when I got back home I put all my raw data and a few notes into a single document and emailed it to all my friends in the supernatural community, so basically the people from weekly game night and bimonthly (twice a month, not once every two months) roleplaying games. I also sent it to a private investigator I worked with once who has some awareness of the supernatural community even though he rarely involves himself in it. I'm not expecting any of them go off on a crusade, but it'd definitely be nice to have a few capable folks on alert. Oh, and based on all the data I collected it looks like I'm dealing with a particularly young vampire of the vurdalak bloodline. It's one of the two dozen or so vampiric bloodlines that can pass for human, they are burned by sunlight but do not need to sleep during the day (meaning that wherever he holes up during that time he's still able to defend himself), and they can't sire new vampires until they're at least a few decades old.
The first rule of fighting vampires is to not fight vampires. Depending on how old it is and what bloodline it belongs to and probably a handful of other unknown factors, a vampire can be anywhere between two and six times as strong as it was when it was human, so unless you've got a magic weapon or special powers or something you're pretty much guaranteed to lose a fair fight. The second rule is that if you can't arrange a nice explosion or some other trap, you should protect yourself with plenty of distance and anything that harms the vampire in question. Basically, if you're not some kind of epic hero, you'd better be an expert in the art of cheating.
Which brings me to the events surrounding sunrise.
Around four thirty or so I drove down to a grove of oak trees just southeast of Elk Grove, bringing with me the samples from the shrines as well as Nox and a handful of other items. There are places that are rich with arcane energy. Sometimes it's because of a relic or something that happened there way back when, but sometimes the place is just special. That's what this grove is like; faeries regularly party out here and whenever there are waves being made in the supernatural world something shows up to spend the night there. Not that I make a habit of hanging out there at night. You can tell by how I'm still in one piece. Anyway, I placed a bowl in the middle of the circle, took out a bag of items relating to each known victim, and called up Tina to assist in the ritual.
When a vampire feeds on someone it's not just a matter of nutrients; it's an act of spiritual predation. As such, even when the victims don't rise again as newborn vampires or ghouls, they are still unable to find rest. A lot of old journals and rare books of lore refer to a ritual in which the spirits of a vampire's victims are summoned and laid to rest after giving a blessing to the hunter. Reconstructing that ritual was one of my first jobs for the Agency.
The ritual was actually fairly simple after the timing and setup. Once I had Tina to help guide the restless spirits I recited with the forty-fourth psalm and began to call up the victims. I called upon each one three times, first lamenting their death, then calling them as one in need of rest, then asking that they lay the burden of their worry and vengeance upon me. Then I tossed the item relating to that victim into the bowl, in which I had lit a fire. When I had finished I did one last invocation for the unknown victims and completed the ritual with the forty-fourth psalm again. There weren't many visible manifestations, but that's normal for this kind of thing.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the time between then and now annoying the three Agency consultants who specialize in statistical analysis and studying the available. I'm trying to figure out the ideal hunting grounds for the vampire. Tonight I begin the hunt in earnest.
Now I need to sleep before my eyes start to bleed.
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