Today was a "recover from the shitshow of last time" sort of session.
The envoys go back to the ranch, carrying with them three dead men, one injured vampire-henchman, and one injured victim. Emily and Jordan back the SUV up to the incinerators and load the bodies in. Emily strips off her bloody clothes and tosses them in as well, and then slumps back and contemplates what's happened.
Meanwhile, BB and Jennifer take Aaron (the aforementioned henchman) to the silo and tie him to a chair. He's not cooperative, however, and calls out BB for killing Fredo. BB, however, points out that this happened because the band was in the process of killing a dude. Aaron dismissively refers to him as a "goat," but clearly knows that he's human. If Aaron is under the influence of the Unknown, it's not obvious.
Dylan helps Darnell get the victim into a bed and Darnell checks him over. He reports that the guy seems to have lost a lot of blood through no obvious wound (no surprise there), and that he'll wake up with a hell of a hangover and needing a big breakfast, but otherwise he should be OK. Dylan explains what happened and Darnell blanches a bit. He's just become an accessory to a number of crimes.
Samantha contemplates who from her former career as an FBI agent might be able to help her out. She settles on calling James Stephenson, a former colleague that knew she was able to get hunches that panned out, but uses the Premonition discipline instead of actually calling him. She confesses everything to him over the call and tells him that this all happened because she was hunting a vampire with her friends from a worldwide secret organization that has "special abilities." James relates exactly how crazy that all sounds and tells her that he can't help her - even if he was closer, that would involve him committing a bunch of felonies. His advice is to get a lawyer and turn herself in. Samantha does, and the next day the ranch is swarming with cops, everyone's getting arrested...
...back in "now," the premonition ends and Samantha decides against calling James. It's just not going to help.
The envoys convene and talk through some of what they've experienced, reducing some trauma, while Darnell treats their wounds. Jordan smears mint and garlic over the windows and doors, and then goes out to the silo with BB and Samantha to talk to Aaron.
Aaron is unrepentant, however. He tells them that Ti Papa is not going to come looking for him - he's never been a priority for him. He tells them that every year on March 20, they perform a sacrifice to Legba, and go "through the gate." They gain youth and strength out of the deal, but isn't sure what happens if it's not performed correctly. When he sees Samantha, he identifies her as "Mabel's granddaughter," and says that after she interviewed Ti Papa, he recognized her and became somewhat obsessed with her. He says that the song that Ti Papa wrote - "Bad Night in the Quarter" - was written about Mabel ("huh, grandma got around," mutters Samantha).
Jordan uses Mental Shield on Aaron, hoping to break any lingering influence on him, but all it does is make him sweat and get nauseated. She wards the room, too, and that makes it worse, but he's still very much him - the Unknown has it hooks in. He doubles over and then grabs his chair and tries to fling it at Jordan, but BB tackles him and Jordan arm locks him and throws him into a wall. She tells him that they're going to keep him here and see if the Unknown leaves him, and he agrees (but only because he really doesn't have a choice).
Dylan checks the victim's wallet, and sees that he's a local named Henry Elizalde. Henry has a hotel keycard from the same place the band is staying, but it's worn and old, so he's probably staff rather than a guest. Dylan wakes him up and asks what he remembers, and he remembers almost everything - Aaron and Fredo waylaid him and threw him in the trunk. Dylan tells him to go back to sleep, and he'll call Henry wife; Henry says he has to be at work in the morning. He's got no sick time left.
The envoys try to think this through some more, but Darnell points out that they're all exhausted. The envoys set their alarms for sunrise - about four hours - and get some much needed sleep. Samantha, though, calls upon her Prescient Dream discipline...
She dreams she's in the French Quarter in New Orleans, dressed in the fashions of the 1970s. She sees Ti Papa playing guitar on a corner, but people aren't throwing money into his guitar case, they're slashing their arms and bleeding into it. She listens to the music a minute, and he looks at her expectantly, but she pulls out a handful of mint leaves and chews them. He recoils and misses a note, and then she walks in a circle around him. He tries to follow her, but gets dizzy and stumbles out into the street, whereupon he bursts into flames and his head falls off.
Morning arrives and the envoys rise and get some breakfast. Emily and Jennifer take breakfast to Aaron, but he doesn't get up from the bed (he does answer them, though, so at least he's not dead). Jordan talks to Henry and convinces him not to tell the authorities what happened - things like this tend to escalate, after all. She tells him that the band won't be bothering him, but he should stay away from their suite today. She and Emily give him a lift back to the hotel.
The envoys call Annie Crawford, a former envoy who acts as lawyer to the ranch and the envoys. They explain everything, and she informs them that this is pretty grim. If the police can tie them to the human remains in the incinerator, they're screwed - that's multiple counts of murder and a bunch of other charges. Without that, the police might be able to prove that the envoys were at the scene of a crime, but there are no bodies at the park, and Ti Papa is unlikely to testify. Aaron and Jacob (the other band member, the one that fled) is another matter. She advises that BB and Emily may want to leave the country for a while since they have citizenship in other nations, and advises the envoys to get rid of everything physical connecting them to the crime, including the ashes in the incinerator, now. Also, they might want to find Jacob and find out what he's doing.
BB, a former bounty hunter, has tracked down people on the run before. He and Jennifer visit the bus station, but no dice. They decide to check the airport, but Jennifer uses her Familiar Face discipline to walk in unnoticed. She finds Jacob sleeping at a gate; a boarding pass in his pocket says he's leaving for New Orleans later this afternoon. She wakes him up and, after calming him down, employs her Telepathic Empathy discipline to help interview him.
Jacob says that the band was always very honest about Ti Papa being a vampire and the "goat sacrifice" that was going to take place on the 20th, but he never really believed either one until last night. When the envoys showed up and starting shooting he panicked and ran. Now he's just trying to go home and forget all of this, and Jennifer supports this. He says that Ti Papa will absolutely do the last show by himself - he's done solo shows plenty of times. He doesn't know the particulars of the ritual, but does know it has to be performed on that date every year.
The envoys get back together and discuss their options. Ti Papa is obviously not the sort of vampire that burns in sunlight, but he's probably more dangerous at night. Emily suggests letting him go - if he leaves town, that's pressure off the envoys, and they can inform SAVE about him. He won't get far.
The other envoys decide this isn't good enough; that's not what SAVE does. They decide they are going to confront him and hopefully kill him. The question of how is a little fuzzier. They scout the area around the hotel and the theater (it's only a 3-minute walk between them), and find a car park catty-corner from the theater. They decide to send him a note: "My granddaughter wants your autograph. Meet in the car park, lower level, before your dinner. -Mabel."
They get some yellow caution tape and mark off the stairwells and elevators in the car park, hoping to keep civilians away. They get fresh mint, garlic, salt, and wooden stakes ("no point in bringing guns," Jordan points out). It's not a perfect plan, but it's the best one they have.
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