Belly of the Beast

[Jmiland1]

The cab pulled up to the address he'd been given at 9:54, and after paying the cabbie Martin walked up and down the street, fretful, glancing at his watch every ten seconds. He took several deep breaths to try and calm down, even though he knew breathing wasn't going to do him a whit of good.
He'd brought a gift for the Baron, as was expected within the Invictus. It was in his pocket and the weight of it felt like it would topple him over. If the Baron didn't care for it... best not to think of it, no. Martin was going to need the Baron's help if he was to make it in this city, and that's all there was to it.
At ten o'clock, Martin approached the manor and rang for admittance.

[Christiaen]

HOLY CRAP!

They'd overslept! Antoinette grabbed the first things she could find to wear; bondage shorts, hoodie and Docs, hussled Neil into his clothes, and jammed downstairs to the A10. She drove this time, remembering it's feel from Italy and slid it through the streets of Sacramento as quick as she could to drop Neil at his place before getting herself completely back over to the other side of town at Baron Quinton's house.

A mere hour late for her 9pm meeting with her Sire.

Well, nothing could be done about it now. She launched out of the car and saw Mr. Carpenter ringing the bell, so she slipped up behind him and waited to be admitted with him.

"Good morning Mr. Carpenter, how are you?"

[Jmiland1]

"I'm well, thank you," Martin says, turning to give a slight bow to Antoinette. "And how does the evening find you?" he asks her, giving her outfit the once-over. "Perhaps I'm overdressed," he adds with a smile.

[Christiaen]

"Oh, it's just going fabulously." Antoinette says in an exasperated tone. "And, no. I'm under-dressed. But I'm not crashing your meeting, I promise. I had another meeting I was suppose to be here for earlier that I seem to have missed. So I'll just be waiting for the two of you to finish, and then hopefully His Excellency will be able to fit me in after you're done. Otherwise, I'll just have to come back another time I guess.

"Did you knock? I wonder what's keeping his man..."

[West]

~~Narration~~

As they near the door, they notice it is slightly ajar. Entering the house, they discover a ransacked front room and the bloody pieces of Mr. Hostwick scattered around the room amidst the furniture.

Continuing further into the house, they find the condition of the rooms are similer to the front room. Upon entering Quinton's office, they see the desk has been rummaged through voilently and just about every other piece of furniture in the room is on it's side.

Quinton is no where in sight.

Antoinette can still feel her connection to him however, so he has not met final death.

[Jmiland1]

"Does he have somewhere he might have gone hiding?" Martin asks Antoinette, looking through the office for the Baron--or his remains. He sounds afraid, and his eyes keep darting back to the front room, where the Hostwick salsa is. Anything that can do that... Martin does not want to be present if it should return.

[West]

~~Narration~~

As Martin sifts through what is left of the office, he does not find anything that could be Baron Quinton's remains. Nor does he find anything else that might give a clue as to what happened here, except for various claw marks on the furnature, and the claw marks on the Hostwick salsa.

[Christiaen]

Antoinette is in absolute shock. She knows something is completely wrong and sinks in a puddle on the foyer floor, letting dear Hostwick's blood soak through her clothes. Whatever "it" is can come back for her, that would be fine. If the Baron is gone, her Requiem is over, and she knows what to do.

[Jmiland1]

No answer from Antoinette; that's fine. Martin takes the opportunity to poke among the Baron's things. If, God forbid, Quinton is dead, there may be useful things here for an enterprising Architect. Waste not, want not.
But after a while it becomes obvious that Toni isn't just off searching the manor for her sire, and Martin pokes his head out into the front room with a curious expression on his face. "Antoinette?" he asks, and suppresses a sigh. Well, great, will you look at this. "Antoinette, can you feel the Baron? Is he still alive? You might want to get up, dear, you've got ghoul all over."