38

Qui twitches, and for a moment it looks like he may insist, but instead he shakes his head, relenting. "Of course. I will defer to your judgment in your haven. If the ghoul is to be trusted, so be it." Gerard bristles at the slur and Qui pretends not to notice.

"You were saying?" you prompt him back to the original course of discussion. "About my sire granting you an audience?"

"Yes, of course. But truthfully that's of little actual importance. I could force the issue if necessary, but I'm certain she will see me in good time. No, the reason I'm here is to follow up on the events of the past two nights. The part you played in them is of particular interest to me."

Your skin crawls. It's rarely a good sign when a Sheriff feels the need to personally investigate Kindred in his Prince's own domain. Not servants, not underlings. A personal visit. Punishing Anarchs is one thing, but if he suspects foul-play on your part…"Of course," you reply with all the calm you can muster. "Anything I can do to help."

"Excellent," Qui says. "I'll get right to it then. When we confronted Ward during the Blood Hunt, he went after you first—I'd go as far as to say he picked you out of the group specifically. He then took the time to throw you free of the building before the explosion. It's been suggested to me that this may have been done on purpose to spare you from the fire."

"The question of what accusation is founded or not is my jurisdiction, not your choice to make. I did some background checking, you understand. Standard procedure, cross-referencing you with the Anarchs who recently left the Camarilla. Fortunately, it seems that you and Mr. Ward have little to no history together."

You nod, unsure what he expects you to say. Being overly defensive seems as though it would be unwise, but perhaps silence in and of itself could be seen as conspicuous. Maybe the straight-forward truth is the way to go for now. "Ward couldn't have known I'd survive the attack," you say. "The construction site was covered in exposed rebar, and any one of them could have impaled me, leaving me stuck in the blast radius. As it was, I lost so much blood I could barely keep myself moving."

"It's interesting that you should mention that," Qui interrupts you. "The police found a pair of bodies outside the warehouse, torn apart by what looked like an animal. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"