Tori Vordenburg rang her Aunt Kim's doorbell. Kim Hamilton opened the door and smiled. "Victoria, you're here! Oh, I see you and Erzulie brought friends."
"Yeah, these are Fiona MacGorrie and Megan Swanson," said Tori. "I rescued them both on my mission to clear out that nest of rogue vampires in the Hebrides. I brought them along in case we have to deal with the von Karnsteins, since they both have a fair bit of inside knowledge on vampires."
Kim Hamilton, not a remotely naive woman, raised a questioning eyebrow. "And how did they come by that inside knowledge?"
Tori began playing nervously with her spiky chin-length blonde hair. "Well... Megan's actually a vampire herself, and Fiona used to be a vampire before Erzulie cured her with her Voodoo magic. Don't worry, they're both pro-human. Hell, Fiona chose to be cured."
"I suppose I can live with that," Kim said warily. "Come on in, and we can discuss the Beck situation."
Everyone filed into the house and settled onto the couches around Kim Hamilton's coffee table. "I guess Beck's still at school?" asked Tori. "When will they get home."
"Beck's actually out of the country right now," said Kim. "They left just this morning on some kind of student exchange program."
"Wait, what?" gasped Erzulie.
"This seriously smells of bullshit," Tori frowned. "The timing of that feels a little too convenient. I think I'm going to need all the details, Aunt Kim."
"It was at really short notice," said Kim. "Beck just came home the other day with an official-looking letter saying that their test scores over the past year had gotten her accepted into an exclusive student exchange program."
"Don't you find it really damn strange that you were only notified this late?" asked Tori.
"Yeah, shouldn't you have been told months ago?" asked Megan.
"I know it's weird," said Kim, "but I'm immune to geises. Always have been. There's know way I'm under a spell."
"I'm immune to geises, too," said Tori, "but a letter doesn't need to be a geis to be a lie. A witch, a werebeast, or a vampire can easily forge a letter the old-fashioned way, or maybe the culprit put geises on a bunch of government officials to send Beck that letter."
Kim's face fell. "Ugh, how could I be so stupid?! Of course it was all a part of this plan to turn my poor child into a twisted creature of the supernatural!"
"I promise, I'll fix it," Tori said soothingly. "What country is Beck being whisked off to?"
"Japan," Kim said glumly. "They said they'd be heading for Kyoto."
"Thanks for the lead," Tori said. "I'm thinking I'll send Fiona and Megan to Japan while Erzulie and I investigate the local monsters here in Stokerville to find the ultimate culprit."
"Och jings, crivens!" gasped Fiona. "Ah've ne'er bin tae Japan afore! Ah've ne'er bin anywhere near japan!"
"I actually visited there last summer," Megan smiled. "I'm a huge anime fan, y'know."
"Who in th' name o' God is Anna Mae?" asked Fiona.
"It isn't a person, it's a kind of cartoon," Megan explained. "You know, mecha? Magical girls? Guys with spiky, blue hair?"
Baffled silence.
"You know what?" said Megan. " Don't worry about that. I can be your cultural guide to Japan."
"Ther something else that I need to tell you, Victoria," Kim said, gravely looking Tori in the eye. "I caught a pair of werefoxes trying to burglarize my house last night. I winged them with silver bullets and questioned them. They said that Renata's entered into a romantic and sexual relationship with a werevixen."
"Holy shit!" Tori shouted, nearly choking on a pretzel. "There are werefoxes in town?! And they're messing with my other cousin?! Just when I thought this shit couldn't get any crazier!"
"We can't rule out the werefox skulk being responsible for Beck's mysterious changes as well," Erzulie commented. "I mean, we're almost positive that Beck's transformation is therianthropic in nature, right?"
"Agreed," Tori nodded. "They (or whatever werebeast pack recruited Beck) probably didn't act alone, though. Only a handful of werebeast shamans know the kind of magic that can transform ordinary humans into werebeasts. The only ones in this area that I can think of would be the wereotter shamans who run Camp Lutra. Most others would need Morgana or the vampires to help them pull off something that fucking drastic."
"Have you talked with Yomiel yet?" asked Kim.
"Sure did," said Tori. "She's found out that Carmilla von Karnstein knows what's happening to Beck, that our 'dear' leech matriarch is being really fucking tight-lipped about the whole thing, and that the official Clan von Karnstein line is that Beck is happy about their transformation."
Kim wrinkled her nose in distaste. "If that's true, then it's because those psycho fangs brainwashed them!"
"That's easily fixed if you're right," Erzulie smiled reassuringly. "Breaking curses and enchantments is one of my specialties." She proudly flicked a stray dreadlock out of her mocha-colored face.
"I think our next plan is to go ask Matriarch Carmilla some tough questions," Tori said as she stood up and finished the last pretzel. "Always a pleasure talking to you, Aunt Kim. Don't worry, we'll tell you the second we learn anything more."
"Thanks, Victoria," Kim said ask she waved goodbye to Tori and her associates. "You're a Vordenburg through and through."