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In Los Angeles the group are wondering how Patrick is doing on his investigative trip to Europe.
What they do not know is that Patrick has been captured by the St. James family, a group of black magicians. The
family patriarch, Charles St. James, has been questioning, and torturing, Patrick on a daily basis to learn why
he has come to England and how Patrick came to have a sword that had been in the family's possession for
centuries.
Back in Los Angeles, Dana is researching various blood-related gods in mythology and demonology to
try and identify the one that the "super vampire" Alexander they met referred to. While researching she comes
across a set of symbols that seem familiar. With her photographic memory Dana matches the symbols to ones carved
on the stone sarcophagus unearthed at the Paradise Theater by the Dusk Lord Talan. According to her research the
symbols represent the ancient Egyptian warrior goddess Sekhmet. Dana must consider the possibility that the
sarcophagus contained this ancient being and that Alexander is involved in some scheme to awaken her (not knowing
that Sekhmet had already been awakened by Keri Prescott shortly after the death of Talan several months earlier).
Back in England Patrick's daily routine of torture and interrogation is shaken up when he receives
a new visitor in the dungeons beneath the St. James estate. Visiting Patrick in his cell is the young Bethany St.
James, who wants Patrick to tell her what happened to her cousin Peter, Patrick's former teammate. After Patrick
gives her the details of Peter's death, Bethany departs, leaving Patrick alone in his cell to await the return of
Bethany's uncle Charles.
Having learned the possible identity of the "Blood God", Dana tells Ethan and Lauren. She then
fills in Lauren, who had been absent when the group first encountered Talan and Keri, on what they know about Dusk Lords.
Ethan wonders if maybe the Dusk Lords are behind the kidnapping of the vampire the other day, and for the general absence
of vampires in Los Angeles.
A couple of days after her first visit Bethany returns to Patrick's cell, only this time she is there to
do more than ask questions. Patrick soon learns that like her cousin, Bethany does not agree with her family's practice
of black magic. She frees Patrick and the two of them flee the family estate in Bethany's BMW. She drops him off
somewhere in the English countryside, returning the sword to him and also giving him an ancient tome she says may help
him when he gets back to America. Bethany then gives him directions to a site a few miles from the road and tells him he'll
find something useful there and then she pulls away.
Some additional research reveals several incidents in and around Los Angeles in the last few weeks that
indicate there has actually been an influx of vampires into the city despite the fact that none have been seen, other
than the occasional starving vamp. Ethan wonders if maybe it is Dusk Lords that have been coming into the city and not
vampires, since as far as the group knows Dusk Lords need blood just like vampires. Hoping for some additional information
Ethan calls up Alexandra Morelli at Wolfram & Hart and asks her if she knows about Dusk Lords entering Los Angeles.
Alexandra offers no real answer, leading Ethan to think that maybe W & H, or at least Alexandra, don't know what is
going anymore than he and the rest of the group do.
Following Bethany's directions leads Patrick to a large hollow tree in the middle of the woods. Entering
the tree Patrick finds himself in a tunnel leading down. He follows the tunnel until it emerges at the edge of a massive
pit lit from below by an eerie glow. A bridge spans the pit and in the middle is a hooded figure. As Patrick approaches
the figure pulls back the hood revealing a woman with bluish skin and hair. She is the former demon god Illyria, though
does not reveal such to Patrick. All she tells him is that the pit is known as the Deeper Well and that it is the resting
place of the remains of the Old Ones, ancient demons that once ruled the Earth, and that she too was once incarcerated
within it. Now, she says, she is trapped in human form with a fraction of her powers and has come back to contemplate her
future. When she sees Patrick's sword she recognizes it as an ancient weapon that has been masked and dampened by dark
sorcery. She tells Patrick to thrown the sword into the Well, which he does reluctantly. The sword tumbles down out of sight,
but soon a new light emerges from the pit. The sword floats back up to Patrick's hand, its appearance changed as centuries
of masking enchantments have been cast off by the power of the Well. Illyria tells Patrick that the sword is the
Ageira'n'solaïs, the sword of light, that was forged in ancient times by the Powers to combat the demons. While a powerful
weapon against any creature of evil, the sword's true power is revealed when used in battle against a True Demon, for it was
created to slay these ancient beings.
Patrick asks if he should leave the way he came in or if there is another way out at the other side of the
bridge. Illyria tells him the choice is up to him so Patrick crosses to the other side of the bridge and follows the tunnel
on that end. The tunnel grows smaller and darker until Patrick suddenly finds himself blinded by a bright light. When his
vision returns Patrick realizes he is in a washroom stall in the London subway. He hides the sword in his coat and finds the
subway that will take him to Heathrow airport, eager to get back to Los Angeles. On the plane ride back to the U.S. Patrick
notes an article about a strange robbery the previous night at Westminster Abbey. Thieves had broken in and dug up a previously
unknown tomb beneath the abbey. Whatever was in the tomb had been removed and the only clues left behind were several strange
piles of ashes.
Back in Los Angeles, Jalen returns to the house where the others brief him on what they have learned about Sekhmet
and their suspicions regarding the Dusk Lords. As they are talking a taxi arrives; it is Patrick just returned from England. He
gives Dana the tome he got from Bethany and proceeds to tell the group what happened to him while he was in England. The others
then tell Patrick what has been happening in Los Angeles while he has been gone. Examining the tome, Dana sees that it is a
collection of ancient Greek writings on various supernatural creatures. Among the texts are a treatise on creatures that Dana
realizes are the Dusk Lords. According to the book, the original Dusk Lords were human magicians who used powerful magic to
steal the demonic powers of an ancient vampire. It was this power that transformed the magicians into the first Dusk Lords. The
text also explains that, while long-lived, Dusk Lords are not immortal and that when one dies its body liquefies. It is by immersing
another human (or several) into this liquid that new Dusk Lords are created.
While Dana continues her research Patrick and Lauren visit the Oracle to let him know what is happening and see
if he knows anything that could help them. Meanwhile Jalen breaks back into the kidnapped vampire's mansion hoping to find more clues
as to who took him. He finds nothing but brings back a few personal items which Ethan uses to try a complicated spell. With the
objects from the mansion, Ethan tries to divine the location of the vampire and his kidnappers. The spell reveals nothing, causing
Ethan to realize that the vampire is probably dead, leading to the question of why kidnap him if they were just going to kill him?
Dana, meanwhile, has discovered another text in the tome which seems to hint at vampire history. She learns that vampires did not
always have the weaknesses to things like stakes and fire and holy objects, that many of these weaknesses were the result of various
powerful curses put on the vampire race over the millennia.
At that same moment Sekhmet is out shopping and enjoying all that modern Los Angeles has to offer. She
eventually returns to the Talan's former home in the mountains, which she has taken over as her own. That night several vampires
arrive at the house. The vampires have just come in from London where they stole the ancient relics of Saint Vigeous (the vampire
saint) from a secret tomb under Westminster Abbey. Several of the weaker members of their group were destroyed because they spent to
long on the hallowed ground, but the stronger ones survived to bring back the relics. Sekhmet, Keri, and the other vampires take
the relics to a ghost town in the desert. Once there they go to a deconsecrated church where Keri begins reciting a complex spell in
Latin. When the spell is done the relics of St. Vigeous are no more, but as a result Sekhmet's followers find that they are no longer
affected by holy water and crosses. The second curse has been lifted.
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