Epilogue - The Hand of Carthage

[Alex]

The Cainites of New Carthage had crowded together, jostling and occasionally snapping at each other as they packed into the small campsite. Normally their gatherings had taken place in old warehouses, in nightclubs, and in other indoor venues. But their Sufet, their Archbaron, had demanded they join him outside this evening. So they had all made the trek by car, by foot, by claw, and by wing hours south to a small island in the Keys. Dozens of Cainites had made their way here, not sure what Mateo had in mind. As they approached they saw three great tarps draped over three tall structures of some kind. They couldn't see anything under those tarps, but they could smell it. They could smell the vitae leaking out. Several had to be held back by their fellows, prevented from diving under the tarps to feast on what was below. It wasn't their time yet, they were told.

Hidden by the powers of his Blood, Mateo bided his time. He knew there was value in making the Cainites wait. Letting them get agitated and tense. And it was a bit of a power move besides to make them wait. So he did, counting down the moments until he'd be ready. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. When the first Cainite got stopped from sneaking under the tarps, he knew it was time.

Mateo appeared before the Cainites assembled to boisterous roar of approval. "Hermanos y Hermanas!" He cried out. "Brother and sister Carthaginians! Thank you for giving me your time tonight!" Mateo motioned for the commotion to quiet. "There will be feasting tonight. Of that I promise you! But first I come to you with a message and a warning!" He let the crowd go entirely silent before he continued, walking in between the tarps.

"In these past weeks and months," Mateo said in a more solemn tone. "A Cainite named Julian has been preaching of the return of the Sabbat. He has claimed he is the chosen of Caine, and that a great power commands him from beyond the grave." The crowd rumbles - they'd all seen the videos going out. They'd all seen his propaganda. "My brothers and sisters, Miami was once a part of this Sabbat. I was a part of this Sabbat." He paused for effect. "We were the last of the Sabbat. Last city. Last Archbishop. Last packs. We were all that remained after our cowardly counterparts in Montreal and Quebec hid under the skirt of the Tower." He looked around now. "I know the Sabbat, Brother Carthaginians. I know their ways, sisters in Caine."

"The Sabbat will promise you freedom," Mateo said. He reached up and tore the tarp off one of the structures, revealing a grievously-wounded Cainite, flesh dangling from its form, tied to a great spike with a stake in its heart. "But their vaulderie does not bring independence. It shackles you in chains of the Blood." The Cainites assembled had gone dead quiet at seeing Mateo's grisly trophy, but he continued.

"The Sabbat will promise you pleasures," he said. "Pleasures of the flesh and the soul." He pulled off another tarp. This time the stake came out of the Cainite with it. There was a female Cainite snarling and biting, lost in the Wassail. That it was Mateo that had driven her to savagery and madness didn't matter. It wasn't as though it took much. "But they offer you only a path into the permanent dark. They will see you lost to the Beast. Not its mater, but its slave."

"And the Sabbat will promise you power!" Mateo said. He pulls one more tarp, and reveals a third Cainite. This one is staked like the first, dressed in the garb of a Catholic bishop. But instead of being bound to a spike, he's been crucified. "Here is their power, my brother and sister Carthaginians! Power over chained monsters able to do nothing but feed and snarl! Dominion over the fucking muck!"

"Many of you, like me, once called yourselves members of the Sabbat," Mateo continued. "You I do not worry about. You know the truth. But there are the young among us. The impressionable. Those who can be led astray. Those who do not know what the Sabbat was, and might receive the words of Julian as truth. So I wish to make it clear right now. The Sabbat, like drugs and pre-marital sex and riding motorcycles - are a trap for idiots. They are a threat to the New Carthage we have built. And they will not be tolerated. I have with my Gang scoured the state of Florida to weed out their cults and their monsters. And I have brought these three back to you among many more we killed. Reflect upon them my children. And the fate that meets any Sabbat."

"As to what that fate is," Mateo declared. He smiled. "Whoever pulls them down gets to eat 'em."

Mateo didn't have to say anything else. The Cainites would remember the mad scramble for the souls of these monsters. And would guard themselves against the same.