Tomas on Chicago Chronicles

The Railroad Eccentric — Thursday, 17 January 1991, 4:35 PM

Thu, 17 Jan 1991 16:35:01 +0000

Clark/Division / Pedway / Succubus Club / Tremere Chantry

Chicago, Illinois

The bookkeeper from Ravenswood had been alone at a bar called Sterch’s with three bourbons past his credit limit and a wedding ring he kept turning with his thumb. Tomas took him in the alley behind the kitchen. Two points. Clean puncture, licked and sealed, the man back on his stool before the ice in his fourth drink settled. The blood sat in Tomas like ballast — warm weight distributed evenly through the chassis, hunger pushed to a distance where it became data instead of imperative.

The Debrief — Thursday, 10 January 1991, 4:28 PM

Thu, 10 Jan 1991 16:28:01 +0000

Tremere Chantry / Succubus Club / Near North Side Chicago, Illinois

The parlor smelled like binding glue and radiator dust. Nicolai sat in the wingback chair with a volume of Thucydides open on his lap, the Greek text angled toward the lamp. A ten-year-old boy in wool trousers and a cardigan buttoned to the throat, legs not reaching the floor. The eyes were wrong. They’d been wrong for six hundred years.

Tomás closed the front door behind him and stood at the threshold until the ward pulsed once against his sternum and released. He crossed to the center of the room and delivered the report standing.