My Little Ventrue Ch. 08

He held it in his grip. It was a lighter, he'd seen hundreds of them, but now it was something different. Just holding it in his hand was enough to make the strange Kindred energy in his blood, vitae, rise and prepare to defend itself. Like a human afraid of heights looking over the edge of a cliff fall, he could feel the fear in his bones.

He slipped the cashier the money, and left with his eyes still on the lighter in his hand. It was only when a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind that he looked up.

"Jack!"

"... Mary?"

It was his sister. Oh shit.

"Jack! Jack what the fuck? You're alive? How... I... what? What's going on?"

His sister was taller than him, a brunette with a soft face and lean figure. Her eyes were soft, and right then, wide enough he could see the veins.

"Mary, I... I...." Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.

"You're alive! What are you doing? Did you run away, is that what happened?" She had tears in her eyes, and her voice was getting higher in pitch. People in the streets were stopping to stare. Even the nightlight pedestrians were startled by random squeals of shock.

"Mary, let-"

"I got to call Mom! She's going to be so happy you're alive!"

Jack gripped the lighter in his hand tighter.

"Mary." He grabbed Mary's hand and pulled her to the side of the street, and then out of the way a little, between some of the convenience stores. Dark alleys. Dolareido was full of them.

"Jack, what are you do-"

"Look into my eyes, Mary." He forced down the imaginary bile he felt building up. There was no bile, because he wasn't a human anymore. He was a god damn mother fucking vampire, a Kindred, and he had to accept that, both the good and the bad.

"The fuck are you on about? I have to call-"

"Look... into... my eyes." He reached out with his mind, with his eyes, with the vitae inside him. Like reaching out with a hand, except it was his gaze, his own vision bestowed the power to grasp, touch... control.

Mary went quiet. Her squeaks stopped, her hyperventilating stopped, her expression went deadpan, and her arms fell to her sides limp.

It wasn't just eye contact. Eye contact was how you got your foot in the door. He couldn't do it against Julias, and definitely not Antoinette, but against this weak kine... his sister... he could feel it. Her will was broken; it didn't even try to fight. Unaware and ignorant, with no inner-beast to fight him, she just gave in without a fuss. He could almost feel her mind his palm, soft, malleable, ready to be shaped into whatever he wished.

"Mary... forget... you ever saw me. As far as you know, I'm dead."

"... I will forget." If a corpse would talk, it would sound like that.

"Now go home."

"... I will go home." No more emotion. No more sparkle of excitement and shock and surprise in her eyes. Mary just turned around without hesitation and walked down the street.

Jack crept back further into the alley until there was only shadow, and the sounds of the streetlife had completely faded. He found a dumpster, filth-ridden, but he didn't care. Something, anything to hide while he collapsed. With his ass on the dirty pavement and his back against the dumpster, he ignored the horrible smell and cold liquid soaking into his clothes.

He punched the wall. Ventrue reflex turned his skin and bone harder, so he punched it again. And again. The wall began to dent and crumble into powder and dust, and he kept punching it until the hole punctured the building. He was so close, so closing to moving on, but one stupid mistake and every horrible memory sprang back up and crushed him.

He had to stare deep into the eyes of his sister, and make her forget. The last memory he'd ever have of her would be her dead expression while he wiped the encounter from her mind. That hopeful, sudden burst of shock and joy and confusion and excitement in her eyes, and then nothing.

He got up and kicked the dumpster hard enough to send it spiraling down the alley before it slammed into a corner. He didn't care. He screamed into night air while he collapsed again, and put his hands against the wall he'd punctured.

For now, all he could do was cry, with no tears to show for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xnomina was paying for his own current apartment, and it certainly was a sweet apartment. It was expected that eventually, once trained under Julias, he would serve his sire as partner in expanding Xnonmina's branches. For now though, he had the time to become accustomed to being Kindred, and he needed it.

He went to Julias's apartment the next day. Normally he would have preferred to deal with his sadness alone, but things had changed. He had a sire, and the new shit that was tearing him apart wasn't exactly typical grief.

"Hey Julias," he said with a small nod.

"Jack. I was going to call you." Julias was in the living room, getting dressed into a casual suit, and slipping a large knife into a large sheath along his ribs.

"... um, what's with the knife?"

Julias gave him a long, hard look, but slowly his expression softened. "A mission."

"Never thought I'd see you carrying a weapon. I thought we were Kindred?"

"Unfortunately, the other clans are a bit more apt at straight-on confrontation than a Ventrue." He gave him a smirk. "So we adapt." Then he pulled out a pistol, and slipped the disturbingly large firearm against the other side of his chest.

"Shit... what's going down? Wait wait, do I want to know?"

"No, you don't. But you're going to, because you're coming."

"... on a mission."

"Yes."

"Where you're taking a knife, and a gun I'm sure could put a hole through an elephant."

"Yes."

They sort of just looked at each other for a while. He couldn't figure out his sire's face; what the hell was going on inside his head? Julias always looked like he belonged in the mafia in the 40's, but the knife and gun completed the imagery.

"We're going to North Side," he said, "to pick up a package meant for someone else, and wanted by Tony and Rebecca."

"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. Did you just say Tony and Rebecca are going to be there? That someone unidentified might also be there? That we're going on a mission I've had no prior warning about, into a potentially life threatening situation, to steal some unknown person's important package?"

"Yes."

Jack couldn't hide his frown. It was just one real moment after another. Every time he thought he had a second to get his bearings, to get adjusted to being a Kindred, something new came up. "A possible fight... as much as I'd love to see Rebecca dead, I'm only going to be a liability."

"Viktor wants you there."

"Viktor is a sociopath!"

It was Julias's turn to frown. "Viktor is my sire, Jack, as I am yours. He can be cold and brutal, but he is smart. Very smart. I trust his judgment."

There was a moment of hesitation in Julias's voice though. It was just a moment, and Julias tried to cover it, but Jack heard it. And Julias knew it.

"There's more to this, isn't there?" Jack said.

"... yes." Julias adjusted his jacket and stepped over to the giant window to look out into the city; the whole conversation now reeked of a movie scene. "I don't want to put you between Viktor and Antoinette." He looked over his shoulder at him. The look said it all; Julias knew he'd been seeing Antoinette more. "But the information we aim to retrieve is sensitive to the covenants. That means it could have to do with the Invictus, or the Carthians or... the Ordo Dracul and Antoinette."

Crap. Jack sat down onto the couch and ran his fingers over his buzzed head. "I probably should have listened to you and avoided Antoinette, right?"

Julias walked over to him, and to Jack's surprise, there was a strange smile on his face.

"I can't deny you and the Prince could have perhaps done a better job hiding your little game." He reached down and pulled Jack back to standing, firm but slowly, before patting him on the shoulders. "And now, like I said, you've got yourself in the middle of the Danse Macabre. You're important. You know things, whether you realize you do or not, and Viktor and Tony, probably even Garry and Jacob all know your face now."

"... ah shit. So I'm going because... because I should?"

"Viktor thinks so. You're in the Danse now. You have connections with Antoinette; your input may prove quite valuable," his sire said, and at the same time handed him a sheathed knife similar to his own. "I won't let anything happen to you."

He wanted to talk about Mrs. Pavala. He wanted to talk about him and Antoinette. He wanted to talk about Mary. But now, he had a knife in his hand, and his sire was hooking a carrying belt around his hips.

"You must trust Viktor a lot, to bring me on this mission just cause he thinks you should." Jack raised his arms so Julias would have an easier time hooking the belt on him.

"You know Viktor is a dangerous man." Julias finished and stood up. "But I've been working with him since he sired me seventy-years ago, since even before then. He truly believes in the Invictus, and you're Invictus now."

"I'm Invictus... but I haven't done anything for the Invictus yet."

"Yet."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Julias~~

He really hoped he was right.

The two them, Julias and Jack, were in a taxi and riding to North Side. It was an Invictus taxi, the driver was one of Michael's ghouls, but the two Ventrue had gone quiet. Julias occasionally threw his childe a small glance, but the young man was looking out the window and rubbing his buzzed head nervously.

He could tell Jack was a mess of nerves, since he always went quiet like that when he was nervous. Not only that, but Julias had seen the pictures; Jack liked Antoinette, and now the kid was getting put into a situation purely because he knew the Prince. Who knew how that was going to go?

Julias was no better off. Natasha and Jessy wanted him to kill Viktor. Kill his sire. It was a classic story of course, of an elder vampire grown old, powerful, and dangerous. Viktor's last torpor had lasted decades, and when he'd awaken from his long sleep, he wasn't the same. And now Julias had his own childe to think about.

Nothing was the same.

He almost laughed. God, did he really just think that? If Beatrice was there, he'd have said it just to irritate her with the cliche.

"Do I get a gun?" Jack said.

"... what?"

"A gun. You gave me a knife, but not a gun."

"Do you know how to fire a gun?"

"I'm sure I could figure it out." Jack finally turned from the window, and gave Julias a little grin.

Julias did laugh this time. "Tomorrow night. I'll take you to a range and make sure, so you don't accidentally shoot a pedestrian." He gave his childe a grin back. Jack's confidence was starting to show through, and he probably didn't even realize it.

The taxi stopped at a dead-end road that came to an abrupt stop before North Side. The factory district was blocked off by various walls of old brick and dying wire fences, and this particular road stopped in the most dense section. Every hundred feet was a warehouse of some kind, broken up by wood pallets and empty metal cargo units. The only lighting was the occasional flickering light hanging by wire, strung between warehouses.

Viktor Honors was standing by one of the buildings, with his arms folded across his chest. Dressed in a gray suit Julias was sure was made by the devil himself, his sire also sported a black long coat, a duster at that. It was open at the chest, revealing Viktor's own chest strap that carried a pistol, and... his sword. With his black hair in a ponytail, his young face and his ancient gaze, his sire looked somewhere between comic book cheesy, and awe inspiring.

Jack's jaw had dropped. Viktor gave his grandchilde a smile.

"Master Terry. I am glad to see you came." His voice was so smooth but monotone, soft yet antediluvian.

"Your Excellency." Jack gave a small bow.

"Please. We are all Invictus, and that includes you, Master Terry. Refer to me by my title."

"Yes Alder Viktor."

The kid tried to hide his smile, but failed. Viktor returned it though. Even Julias found himself smiling. Things were going well. It was true that Viktor was terrifying, but he hadn't fed on another vampire yet. Maybe Julias wouldn't need to kill him, if he even could.

"Do you understand why you are here, Master Terry?"

"Yes Alder Viktor. I am to provide possibly valuable insight into the situation if the opportunities arises. I understand we're here to retrieve an information drop that may be pertinent to the covenants."

"Indeed. Your relationship with the Prince is unheard of, since Tony. And I believe your insight regarding that serpent may be even more valuable." The elder Kindred then looked to Julias. "I have only been here twenty minutes, and I have heard nothing. Still, let us assume the worst and approach this cautiously."

All three Ventrue nodded. Jack got behind Julias while the two of them eased against a wall of a warehouse, and Viktor the other. Between the two buildings, it was a long, exposed walk toward their destination. Even Viktor, who dripped professional efficiency, carefully stuck his head out.

Then half of the elder's head exploded.