<strong>The Kane Estate, a week later</strong><br/><br/>Selene sighed as she sat back from the massive tomes she had been studying. She had gotten a telegram telling her that her guest had arrived in New York, and she had replied back to her agents in Manhattan to stand by to offer any assistance that Mr. Carpenter might need. She had wished she could go to join him, a diabolist of the sort he was hunting would have been her preferred prey.<br/><br/>Unfortunately she had been ordered by the Queen herself to remain at hand. She sipper her coffee as she made notes on a pad, moving from the book she had taken from the most politically powerful vampire in England. The cipher was quite tricky. She was still fuming at Victoria's directive to 'remain at hand', without disclosing the particulars beyond the mention of Lady Annabell Key. The Queen's very own seer. Her missives to the woman were politely returned, which told her quite a bit since she had always been more than happy to meet with her.<br/><br/>Of course, she reminded herself, that was before she had unleashed the Wild Hunt on Whitechapel. Add on the passing of Greetree and there were more than a few in Summer who wished her dead, despite his forsworn oath. Only her position kept her from some of the worse. Several plots were in hand she was sure.<br/><br/>And Cook was up in arms at her insistence to keep an imported Italian coffee machine in her library. Selene had told Hightower that she hated a variety of dishes just to give the woman ammo to work with. She was rather looking forward to seeing how she could make a meal out of her 'hated foods'. Petty rivalries with the staff aside she was feeling like she was on the edge of the storm waiting.<br/><br/><strong>Just off the estate grounds.</strong><br/>The last man's blood poured free as he wrenched the spear free, and he reached into the wound to pull the still beating heart out. It had taken a lot of time, and no small amount of power, to pull one of the staff of the estate into his reach. She had done her work, warding and charming them in subtle but effective ways.<br/><br/>Ephraim was impressed. The first time he'd met Selene, she had no idea of her potential or the gift he'd given her when they parted. The second time her power was beyond anything he'd ever expected to face. She was literally the weapon of two opposing forces. The three queens of BOTH courts had given her power, all to stop him.  With a single gesture she had smote his forces at the Altar of Seasons down.<br/><br/>She had unseated plans that had taken him centuries to put into place. The corruption of both courts at his hands was a delicate dance the likes of which would never be done again. No one would treat with the Old Ones that he dealt with, Titania and Mab both had shown what they thought of the traitors in their courts. Rumors were nearly a decade later the unlucky ones still lived.  Another rumor had been that Mab had offered her chief torturer to Titania at her request. A move of detente that was scary in it's implications if true.<br/><br/>The mistake would be to attack her at one of the four times of high power for her. The changing of courts, the peak of one court's power. Those days were very potent with the power she had on hand. No, it would be better to take a leaf from her own book.<br/><br/>He squeezed the heart, the black blood pooling in the circle as he chanted and used Grungir to channel power into the spell he set at work. A chill filled the air as the blood flowed up from the ground to form obscene shapes and symbols. Forms, black and unearthly, rose from the ground as a growing pool of black blood shifted. Beasts from outside the realms of Earth, outside the purview of either court. All around the circle, decay and frost flowed outwards.<br/><br/>Ephraim smiled as the quintet of 'hounds' formed and started to pace the circle. The blood gave them ties to the folk inside the estate. The man's kin. Not even the wards along the land, so patiently walked and set, could keep them from their prey. He let the power drain away from the binding circle as he walked away to the waiting coach over the hill. The 'hounds' turned to sniff at the estate. Sooner or later, they would find that chink in the wall of power and be in. Then there would be much in the way of blood and screams, and he was sure the other things he set to wait for the opening would open the chink in the wards into a full breach.<br/><br/>Then..he's settle up with his foe and great-grand-daughter.