14

Yarrk bolts past you and vanishes over a low hill. Then he starts to howl and yip. Knowing the lobo might be your only chance, you follow his howls until you're looking at the ruins of an old filling station. Shelter!

Though the station looks abandoned, you see footprints in the sand. A golden eagle sits on the stripped diesel dispenser. Yarrk growls, and the eagle puffs up, but this is no mere territorial dispute among wild animals. You can feel the vitae in the golden eagle. It is a famulus, a servant of the Blood, like your lobo.

You approach the main building, looking for a way in. The windows and doors are all boarded up, and though there's a garage door for a loading dock, it seems locked.

The eagle spreads its wings and screams. You don't have time for this. The sun will kill you, but first it will drive you mad—you can feel the Beast rising in you. The Beast: the untamed monster that lurks inside every vampire, that drives you to acts of depravity and violence. You're losing control. You need to act now—but that famulus seems almost to have been put here to guard this place. Its talons flex.