"Yup. It's those three" Elissa said "I'm not feeling very comfortable about this Ann. You know you 'always know a vampire'? There's two parts to that. Firstly... it's just plain wierd. Secondly... You know... you sensed Sonja. I wondering if this is something like that. In which case... those three are probably quite powerful themselves. "

Can you just evict it from your body? "That is one of the functions of the invitation spell; by collapsing the safe space the spirit is forced out."

"Um, thank you," she says sheepishly. "I do not think that it is something I would do on my own, but it is not a completely terrible experience with... friends." What a strange concept that is. Friends.

Inoue looks up as Elissa rejoins them and accompanies the two women out for the rest of their night out on the town. "I felt the pulse but stopped trying to trace it when I hit upon Sonja," Inoue admits. "I am sorry, I should have been more diligent..." It was hard with all the noise and motion; Inoue was rather surprised she could sense much of anything at all amid all the club chaos. "I do not feel anything now."

Inoue goes along with whatever the other two decide to do. She is still a little frazzled from her first clubbing experience.

Elissa flashed Inoue a reasuring smile "Lot's happening. Don't worry" she leaned against a wall and considered options "OK here is what I can sense. There's still that 'big thing' up North... There are two of the three that are also going North", she nodded with her head but didn't point. "They are on opposite sides of the street, so they might not be 'together'.

"The third one is heading ... hmm ... East to the south of Parker's Piece"

"Now we have three things of interest to the North. The 'big bad'. These two. If you think we should go that way too Ann I'm all for it. I don't know if you two have had training in following people. It's quite hard to do it in a way that doesn't stick out. Most people look away or have body language that makes it easier for the person being followed to notice. On top of which ... all three of us are lookers... and we stand out anyway. So... I suggest we give them a good start and don't 'follow them' in the sense of keeping eyes on them. Perhaps we could get a taxi. That would get us ahead of them, and not give them that feeling of 'we are being followed'"

Ann considered their options.

"We could go after the one alone, but we don't know if they're evil. We can hardly attack without knowing, and I'd feel a right pillock asking."

"So it's north. We could go straight to the boom, but let's watch those two first. We can always try the boom if we lose them. The trouble with a taxi is we won't know where to go ahead of them. So let's just walk, three girls who've had a bit too much to drink for one night. Why don't you both put arms around my shoulders and act like you're helping me walk? Then if they stop, we can pretend that I've stumbled because I'm too pissed to walk right."

"Remember I can sense the big power to the North." Elissa said. "so we can get the Taxi there. As I say I am uncomfortable following these, but it's your call"

"OK," said Ann. "You're the one sensing the power and those three. If your instincts are to take the taxi to the boom, I'll trust them."

"Let's try it" Elissa said flashing the other two a worried smile "Let's just hope that the 'power' is friendly. Or at least not planning on wiping Cambridge or us off the face of the planet"

She headed to a taxi stand and gave rough instructions to the taxi driver along with 'We'll know it when we see it'.

By now, you would estimate that the 'Boom' is roughly due North and moving Eastward.  It seems to be heading in the direction of Jesus Green or perhaps the Fort St George.  The taxi sets off following your rough directions.  "It's a slow night," she said, "so why not, but if it goes on too long, it'll cost yer."

A taxi for three or four files split three ways wasn't much more than a pint. Elissa was cool with that given the unusual events. If it went on she wouldn't be... But if they got closer they would probably be getting out and walking anyway "Sure" she said "Let's go"

She was unpleasantly reminded of a horror movie she'd seen far to young where one of the protagonists had gone into the basement with a candle and a baseball bat. She felt unpleasantly like that right now. Why was she following this and not just running the other way as fast as possible? Thoughts like this ran through her head as she stared out of the window wondering why none of the people she could see could sense what she could right now

Ann watched night-time Cambridge speed past her window. A thought occurred to her, but she didn't want to speak too clearly in front of the taxi driver.

"Elissa, I wonder if the reason you've, uh, become informed about this party we're headed to is that it's related to your distant family. It would explain why Inoue and I didn't get invites. Have you ever been invited to something like this before?"

"Gosh" Elissa said sitting back in the seat and thinking "That's clever, girl. I suppose it could be. But no I've not had anything like this happen. I feel kind of as lost and at sea as I did when I suddenly got stronger and faster" she made a face "It's fucking scary, basically. Scary because it's happening to me, and scary because I'm not running away." She looked at the other two a little gratefully "At least I'm not on my own this time.."

"No, you're not alone this time. None of us are. Though I don't know whether that will do us any good. You're right, it is scary, but -" she reached out and held both the other girls' hands. "I'm glad we get to face it together. As long as we have each others' backs, maybe we can get through this."

She looked through the windows again.

"Are we getting closer?"

Elissa had to blink rapidly for just a moment to avoid a treacherous tear leaking out. Ann's movement had taken her quite by surprise, smashing through a load of defences she had against people getting close. She was feeling all vulnerable and scared, and Ann had just stepped in and done exactly the best thing she could have done to reassure her

"Thanks" she said quietly and squeezed the hands with a 'thank you' before letting them go, and returned looking back out of the window so that the other two couldn't see her face or slightly red eyes  "Yes. Three miles is like five minutes or so. We should be close enough to get out and walk soon"

Soon enough you are at the Blackamoor's head and the focus of Elissa's contact seems to be milling around with little purpose about half a mile ahead.

"Let's do this" Elissa guided the car for another quarter of a mile before stopping it and getting out " "As far as I can tell .. sheesh I don't even know what fing pronoun to use. 'He', 'She', 'It'? is about 4..500 yards ahead.Let's just amble a little closer and see what happens. What the hell do we do if it get's violent? Sodium lights? Iron?"

"I was thinking that Ann could try bonking xir," Inoue offers. "I think that is the right pronoun when you are uncertain. Xe/xir?"

"Bonking means... to fuck...to have sex with..." Elissa said laughing. Her mood lifted enormously by the sudden humour "Like 'I want to bonk 'insert person's name'. Or 'the two were bonking like bunnies'. It's a cultural thing. I had a friend who was Chinese and she couldn't tell the different between S and SH. S she couldn't bring herself to ask 'can I sit her please'... in case she did the wrong one"

"But no... if you don't know it's 'he'."

"I thought that was boinking, and bonking means to hit someone usually with a blunt object, such as their boinker."

"Oh. Wrong century I guess." Inoue does not explain further and innocently goes back to looking out the window while holding hands with Ann.

"Must be a Japanese thing" Elissa said "I've never heard of Boy-oinking" she stressed the 'i'. "And no. Not in the UK. It's 'to fuck' or 'to screw', only a lot less rude. And a lot funnier when you said it like that."

The road is coming close to the River now.  If you look along the river, there's a grassy bank all the way and about a hundred yards away, you see a figure looking for all the world as if they're searching for something.

"Let's back away and talk" Elissa said quietly and started to lead the others away. She didn't want to meet this thing without a plan.

"OK," said Ann as she allowed herself to be led away. "But I'm not bonking anyone."

She cast a glance back at the stranger.

"Well, probably not."

She remembered her training and scanned the area about them for threats.

"Any idea what they're looking for?" she asked as she tried to sense any nearby vampires.

It's not obvious what they're looking for but they are looking at the water and sweeping their gaze right and left and then from one bank to the other.

Once they were some distance Elissa responded "Remember this is so powerful I could sense its ... his ... her ... power three miles away. I think we should phone Alice. I am" she bit her lip "I just can see so many bad things happening if we approach. Perhaps I'm wrong and they will say 'Hey I'm looking for my Contact Lenses, have you seen them'. You two know more than I do about this sort of thing. What do you think we should do?"

"I'm not sure we have anything to tell Miss Casey. There's something here but we're not sure what? It's not a lot to go on."

She considered their options.

"Why don't I go up and see what's up? You two can stay back and call in the cavalry is needed."

She didn't add that, as Slayer, she really was the cavalry.