An Ominous Warning

Defense Against Supernatural Forces, that is the name that had been hastily tacked on to the large office space that Bazel was now sitting in. Flipping through all the information that he and the police department he had suddenly found himself under the employment of had gathered. Whilst writing down on a previously blank notebook various tactics that his new men could employ to combat a threat that is ordinarily far beyond their means.

Across from him was Neto, as a veteran in the police force and a former underworld ringleader, who had a wealth of experience to make up for the massive gaps in Bazel's knowledge.

'There are still gaps in my knowledge, in particular when it comes to the still unknown Houses,' thought Bazel as he took a break from his work with Neto and spun his phone around in his hand, 'thus it seems to me that it is time to call in a favor.'

Motioning to Neto who was sitting across from him on the long table that they sat at to be silent, he opened his phone and dialed a number that he had been given in passing not too long ago.

The dial tone played followed by three rings, before it was answered by a familiar voice.

"Hello there Bazel Vasa," said the voice before Bazel had even the chance to speak, "I did not expect you to call me so soon. Is it time to pay a debt or are you accepting my offer and joining up with me?"

'Taking control of the entire conversation from the get go, tsk' thought Bazel in annoyance as he carefully chose his next words.

"I need information, in return for the forgiveness of Zaira McGrath's actions with no strings attached."

"You are still adamant on going things all on your own I see, well then, let us cross out the debt then. I will answer two of your questions no matter what they are on, to the best of my abilities. Do know that there is only so much I can say to an outsider, but seeing as the debt incurred I can bend the rules a little bit. Ask away."

Though Bazel wished to address how Tiernan was neatly cleaning house with his logic, so much so that he even left himself a room of escape incase the information requested is too disadvantageous, Bazel could not complain for he was the inferior in the party.

'One side has an entire powerful House at their back and the other is just a newly minted Rouge with a powerful Gift. If I was dealing with Sanguis they would surely not care enough to honor debts or give out information, it is his nature and character that even causes him to consider doing this.

'A saint when compared to the only other House I have been dealing with, but I should not be taken in by his pleasing outward facade. In the end he is acting to strengthen his House just as the Sanguis did, it just that the method he uses is more palatable' thought Bazel inwardly.

While into the phone he said,

"First I want to know about the methods of giving a Gift to someone."

Tiernan was silent for a moment before finally answering,

"Interesting question, interesting indeed. One I can also answer easily as it is common knowledge among those in my, well, 'our' circle.

"Anyone can give a Gift to another, assuming that they have enough purity within them to do so. For each and every single time that one is passed the quality of their own Gift will suffer.

"Anyone can do it a few times, under five at the most, and suffer little to no problems.

"But those who remain at the branch family level will start having trouble after that and even those in the main line will begin to have issues when they reach ten.

"After that the strength of the Gift will begin to suffer, with eventually it completely dissipating. It is for this reason that most people will never bestow a gift more than five times.

"As for the method of bestowel, it is different for every type of Gift. Once a certain set of conditions are met then the Gift can be transferred. The specific methods are kept as much of a secret as possible, which means that I cannot tell you how my own family's is given...but...I can tell you Sanguis' method.

"Their method of Bestowal is where one who has their Blood Manipulation Gift creates a concoction of their own heart blood and transfuses it into the still beating heart of an animal. Then the one receiving the Gift must bite into the heart and drain it of all its blood.

" Though one of their Primogenitors believes that only human hearts are fit for the process though, nasty bunch they are.

"Of course, like all other Gifts if the parents have the Gift then the child has a decent chance to naturally awaken it. This is the ideal way, for Bestowal has a high chance of not working and causing the death of whoever is receiving it.

"Since it seems you wish to know this so you can give out your own Gift, I suggest that you find what major or minor House yours actually belongs to and look into the methods.

"That or experiment with it yourself and try a bunch of random things until it works, haha"

'Well that did not answer my question all that well, but at least its a start.' thought Bazel as he came up with his second and final question.

"Then for my last question, tell me what you can about all the major players. Who are the great powers and what are their Gifts."

"Reaching for the big stuff with that, hmm, but it is understandable as to why you would want to know that. Let me see...

"First we have the four great houses: McGrath,Astra,Spinolus, and Sanguis. And finally is the mediator between all of us, and the most powerful entity, the freaks known as the Children of God.

"As for Gifts, in the same order as before, they are: The Gift of Beastial Atavism, The Gift of Summoning, I have no idea, and the Gift of Blood Manipulation.

"As for the Children of God, they appear to use the power of their God to create powerful tools and relics that have great effect on all of those with Gifts. They are our antithesis and had hunted us down like dogs for centuries until the power of the Church was finally split due to a civil war from within.

"Although it did take every single House combined to beat them in the end, and even then all we really did was get them to acknowledge our territories. So long as we treat the commoners well, of course."

The information was useful to say the least, but Bazel noticed something odd in the description.

"What about Spinolum? Do you mean to say that even you do not know what their Gift is?" asked Bazel with a heavy amount of suspicion.

"Hey hey, I speak the truth. They are one of the biggest mysteries of our world, a group that makes no sense no matter how you look at it.

"I have only met two of them, but their abilities were extremely different. The first had the ability to control reddish black flames that erupted from the ground, while the other was one of the most frightening close combat fighters I have ever had the displeasure of fighting.

"The first one I was able to fight back fairly easily, but the second one almost killed me before I had a chance to react. What is even more frightening is that it was just a cute looking young woman I happened to take a pass at...er, I mean admire from a distance.

"In fact, you can pretty much guess what a factions Gift is based on how they recruit new members for their branch families.

"Sanguis needs people with high quality blood, hence the blood drives and banks. While my own needs people with strong bodies and minds hence the gritty underworld. House Spinolus on the other hand...they operate businesses that make no sense.

"They run beauty parlors, bars, gambling dens, casinos, brothels and even dance clubs. The only common link is that they are all forms of entertainment, but how does having fun relate to conjuring flames and using some kind of powerful melee artifact?

"Beats me, but if you figure something out about them I will pay you good for the information."

"Thank you for the information, though it was not quite as detailed as I would have liked it to be."

To which Tiernan simply sighed and said,

"But it is information that an outsider would not normally be able to just call up and ask, especially from a main line heir like me.

"My offer still stands though, join me at any time and I can be of more help. I will even assist you in getting back that sister of yours, but you need to quickly come to a decision. There will come a time when it is too late, even if you wish for my help."

Tiernan ended the call with such ominous lines, but even without them Bazel was already more than tempted to just accept the offer. His original plan had been just that, to join with Tiernan if his initial assault failed, but recent events had caused him to think otherwise.

Looking at Neto who had been silent all the while, Bazel thought,

'It is true that the people of this city will be forsaken if I choose to give up now. I am in a unique position to perhaps save a lot of lives, but the cost...the cost is something that I do not wish to bear.

'Originally I could not care less about people I have never met nor will ever, but when I met Lily it was clear that something had changed about me.

'Which Neto all but confirmed, that perhaps the awakening of my Gift is changing more than just how strong I am.

'It is also changing how I see the world, twisting it completely making me forsake things I never would have before. But...what if my actions cause Lily to be harmed...which do I weigh more, the lives of an entire city or my closest family member?

'Do I give in to Tiernan, and lose my ability to stop his family from slaughtering whoever gets in their way just like what he was doing when we first met...or do I try my best to hold everything but at the risk of losing that same everything...'