Jeanne sat in the room she and Leonidas were lodging, sipping on some tea Leonidas had just brewed. She swished the contents in her cup as sniffed the soft scent of strawberry. Sipping on the tea she thought, Hmm, still can’t taste the damn strawberries. She chuckled and smiled at the observation. Doc will have a face when I tell him that.

Hearing a knock at her door, she rose from her chair and said, “Who is it?”

“It’s Gabriel,” she heard on the other side.

Jeanne opened the door, seeing the vampyre on the other side. “What brings you down here?” Jeanne asked.

“I was hoping to speak with you, actually.”

“Sheperd’s blessing what I do this time?” Jeanne asked.

“Nothing,” Gabriel replied.

“Oh, all right, that’s starting to become a first.”

“How many times have you gotten in trouble for something?”

“I stopped counting when the tally went into the hundreds.”

“I don’t even know where to start on that one.”

“Don’t, it’s better for all parties involved.”

“Right, right.”

“Oh, sorry, you want to come in?” Jeanne asked, getting out of the way towards the room.

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, moving inside.

“What brings over to this odd spot of the world?” Jeanne asked Gabriel taking a seat at the edge of her bed and invited Gabriel to sit in a nearby chair.

“Well,” Gabriel said, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize.”

Jeanne jerked her head back. “Apologize?”

“Yes, for my behavior the other day.”

Jeanne eye’s darted back and forth trying to figure out what Gabriel meant. “You’re going to need to explain this one to me, because I am a little lost here.”

“Back when you found the flagellant in the alleyway.”

“Uh huh.”

“And you were going to bring him back here to be looked over.”

“Right.”

“And I was a little short with you, and wanted to apologize for that.”

“You were short with me?”

“I thought I was.”

Jeanne shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking that at all.”

“You were?”

“No! And I’d like to think I know when someone’s being short, especially to me.”

“Oh …,” Gabriel said, half relieved and half embarrassed. “… well, this is … something.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Yeah, I’m well acquainted with good old something. Bloody cur.”

“He does have a penchant for causing a stir,” Gabriel said, her posturing becoming less rigid and her demeanor softening.

“Well, I’m glad this was sorted out.”

“Yes, it’s been on my mind for a bit.”

“Good to hear. I hope it didn’t put you and Benkin in a bad spot.”

Gabriel shook her head. “Not really. We kept to the shadows. Kept our heads down. Didn’t go into any songs or dances or anything of the sort. You know the drill.”

“Good, I was afraid I jeopardized the whole thing.”

“I mean, we weren’t going to go in blades out for the hacking and slashing. And we’re not exactly new to this thing.”

“Still, you worry about those things. Did you two find anything?”

“Well, here’s the odd thing. We were following them as normal. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Then as they passed by the back of the house about four blacks away from where they turned off that alley, they were gone.”

“Interesting,” Jeanne said, leaning back and sipping on her tea. “Any signs they went into the house at all?”

Gabriel shook her head. “No, most had stopped bleeding and there were no distinct footprints when we reached the house.”

“You thinking of checking it out?”

“Cid said he wanted to keep someone on watch in case there is activity. If one of them pops out, he wants to send everyone in.”

“Good, that’s what I’d do. Go in, break a few heads and see what we can find.”

“Sounds like my kind of plan.”

“I didn’t think that was your choice of violence.”

“Oh, once you crack your first skull, there’s no going back,” Gabriel said, laughing confidently.

“Where have you been all my life?” Jeanne asked.

Gabriel let out a loud laugh. “Oh, I needed that one badly.”

“You think we should go see what the others are doing?” Jeanne asked.

“Probably not a terrible idea,” Gabriel said, moving to her feet.

Both women moved down the hall, towards Cid’s quarters at the inn. Passing by one room they both stopped as they heard muffled noise from the other side of a door. Exchanging glances Jeanne pointed to the door. “What’s going on there?”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel said, “it doesn’t sound like something bad is happening, so I think we shouldn’t be lingering.”

“Fair enough,” Jeanne said, continuing down the hall with Gabriel.

Cid had come out of his lodging when he spotted Jeanne and Gabriel walking up to him.

“Oh, good, I was hoping to see you both,” he said to them.

“That’s either good or bad,” Jeanne said.

“Well, I don’t need you to explain yourself for anything, currently,” said Cid.

“Not sure if I should be happy or disappointed.”

“Would you be happy if I said that you can go and punch people to your heart’s content?”

“Cid,” Jeanne said, batting her eyes, “I didn’t know you could be so thoughtful.”

“By order’s grace, Jeanne,” Cid said, shaking his head. “I should’ve had you reassigned to another squad when I met you.”

“And yet you did not,” Jeanne said confidently.

“Tragically so,” Cid replied, gesturing Jeanne and Gabriel to follow him into the room. “Come, I don’t want to discuss this out here.”

Jeanne held the door for Gabriel and closed it, making sure to feel the door click as it shut and pulled it to ensure it was closed in full. Cid sat next to a table he was using as a desk, Gabriel sitting on the edge of the bed and Jeanne pulled up another chair nearby and sat in it. “So what’s going on?”

“Seems Weuve’s little Edmund might be seeing the light,” Cid said as he grabbed a parchment and handed it to Jeanne.

She looked at a large house drawn on the paper, several smaller rooms designated with their function written next to the room itself. There were four rooms presented; an entry room, the kitchen, a storage room and a personal quarters, each one roughly the same size and shape. She handed Gabriel the parchment as she turned back to Cid. “What’s this all about?”

“This is purportedly one of the main operating locations of the flagellants. Edmund said this is where some of the higher ranking individuals do some of their businesses when they’re not dealing directly with Stefan.”

“Huh,” Gabriel said, studying the drawing, “interesting.”

“What is it?”

“Just that he’d do all this,” she said handing the parchment back to Cid. “I wasn’t expecting him to go all this way to help us out with this.”

“Neither was I,” Cid said, “I almost fell out of my chair when he walked in with the little map.”

“And what is your thought on this?” Jeanne asked.

“A trap obviously,” Cid said. “The boy has a look of disloyalty all around him. And speaking ill on his mother half the time certainly didn’t help.”

“Remind me to smack him when I have the chance,” Jeanne said, scowling.

“You’ll need to get in line,” Cid said. “But I want to check this place first, see what we can find there.”

“But you think it’s a trap,” Gabriel said.

“Absolutely, but there might be something there which we could use. And this doesn’t mean we can pull a surprise of our own.”

Jeanne perked an eyebrow up. “I’m listening.”