Chapter 134

~~Jack~~

He knocked on Damien’s door. Someone very much not Damien opened it.

“Fiona,” he said, smiling.

“Jack! How are ye, ye bawbag? And who’s this lass?”

“Veronica, meet Fiona, Damien’s girlfriend, and ... a paranormal creature.”

Both Jack and Veronica were dressed in suits, though Veronica’s was less fancy. It was how Invictus did things. Vampires and their servants were well dressed, but it was obvious who the master was.

Fiona, on the other hand, was wearing a white button shirt, and nothing but. Damien was above average height, while Fiona was short, almost short as Tash; the shirt covered her enough to hide her ass, but only barely.

“Paranormal?” Veronica’s eyes lit up, and she shyly waved at Fiona. “Hi, Fiona.”

“Hi Veronica! Jack, ye here to see Damien?”

“Yeah.”

“Damien!” She turned, hopped a bit, and waved down the hall. “Jack’s here to see ye!”

Jack facepalmed. “I coulda done that.”

Fiona stuck her tongue out at him, skipped down the hall, and came back with Damien, the biggest smile Jack had ever seen on her lips. Even Damien had something of a smile on, a bit awkward, and a bit happy, an emotion the man didn’t show often. Something had happened between them.

“Damien,” Jack said, and he sighed as he looked the man up and down. “Looking better. How long till the leg comes back?”

He shrugged with one shoulder, other locked onto the crutch he leaned on. “Fiona’s blood is damn strong. A few weeks?”

“Yeah but those werewolf teeth are strong, too.”

Maybe he should have worded that better. Damien winced and looked down at his missing leg, hidden inside his suit pants, folded halfway down the femur.

“Jack, about Maria.”

“Antoinette’s talking to her tonight,” Jack said. “She seems to think Maria won’t be as big a problem as I think.”

The Mekhet nodded. “I agree with the Prince, then. Maria’s not as ... obsessive as we thought. I think you’ll be fine.”

He had a hard time believing that. So far, elders were the ones that were either the most logical and wise, or the most insane and willing to burn everything to a crisp for their pursuits. But if both Damien and Antoinette were on the same page, maybe they were right? Maybe Maria wouldn’t do everything in her power to catch him, tie him up, and slowly set him on fire? Nice thought, but he probably just jinxed it.

“Veronica, Damien. Damien, Veronica.”

Veronica finger waved. Damien nodded a greeting.

“New thrall?” he asked.

“Yeap. I’m taking her around and introducing her to friends. She’ll be at the mansion most of the time, so, figured she should know who she can trust.”

“Ye can trust me, lass!” Fiona hopped past Damien, grabbed a very startled Veronica’s hand, and shook it with way too much energy. As long as Jack had known Fiona, she’d always been a happy hyper kinda girl, but this was a new level of enthusiasm. “Ye gonna build yerself a harem, Jack?”

Again, Jack facepalmed. “I didn’t plan on it.”

“That’s nae a no.” Giggling, Fiona slipped back into the apartment and beside Damien, and she cuddled his free arm to her side. “Lass, yer master’s dating the horniest, most beautiful vampire in the world. Be ready for—”

Damien nudged her side, and she giggled.

Veronica blinked at Fiona several times, probably also surprised by how bubbly the girl was. Well, bubbly was good. Bubbly was great. It was a nice reminder paranormals didn’t all have to be edgelords.

“Did you want to come in?” Damien asked.

Fiona shot Jack a quick look, complete with a harsh glare. Very much a ‘go away!’ glare.

“Uh, sorry, can’t. Like I said, showing Veronica my friends, so she knows who’s who, and meets them. Presence is important.”

“I’ll talk to you later then.”

Fiona smiled a thanks for Jack, waved, and took Damien back to his bedroom, bounce in her step relentless.

Back on the street, he walked the sidewalks of Dolareido with Veronica at his side, her slightly behind him. He didn’t ask her to do that, she just did it. And he’d be lying if he said he didn’t kinda like that. The Ventrue half of him was happy. He had to be careful, or this whole situation would feed his ego until it burst.

“Uh, Fiona,” Veronica said, “ ... she said something about a harem?” She leaned in close enough she could whisper it and be heard over the street traffic.

Jack half laughed, half groaned, and motioned for her to walk beside him. She did, nervously, and he smiled at her.

“You and others will be responsible for my property. With training, you can become my day guard. With more training, you can become ... a lot of things. But, harem? That wasn’t my plan. It’s just ... sex and vampires go hand in hand. Cliché, I know, but you remember what happened when Elaine Kissed you.”

The thrall shivered and blushed. “That was ... amazing.”

He raised a brow as he looked at her. Sure, Julias had taught him a lot about reading people, but Veronica made no efforts to hide what she was thinking. She enjoyed that night.

“And I won’t lie, Antoinette has two ghouls — thralls that have been elevated and given immortality — that join us in bed all the time. She, Elaine, and—”

She grabbed his arm, and her eyes went wide. “Immortality?”

He grinned at her. “Told you there’d be perks.”

Slowly, she let go of his arm, and shivered again. He recognized that shiver, the sensation of a new reality finally sinking in, the mind opening and letting in a myriad of unthinkable futures. It was quite a rush.

He started walking, and she meeped as she dashed to catch up.

“So,” he continued, “while I will be creating new thralls, you’ll never be asked to do anything sexual. Give blood on occasion, yes, but nothing sexual. And ... if you did want to do something like that, Antoinette would be there. We love each other, a lot.”

“I know. I saw it in your eyes, and her eyes, when you looked at each other.” She giggled as she joined his side again. “You’re so different from each other! And she is ... uh ... well.” At first she used a single hand to reach up and suggest height. Then, after a shy glance, used two hands to suggest a giant bosom.

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Every moment with Veronica was like taking a kid to Disney World; evil corporate greed included, given he was Invictus.

“Antoinette’s got quite a history. She’s half a millennium old.”

“Holy shit.”

“Elaine, too.”

“Holy shit!”

“And you don’t have to commit to anything like what Fiona was suggesting. I’ve put enough on your plate as is.”

She blushed again as she looked down. “Well, this is Dolareido. I’ve done some crazy things, and I liked doing them.”

He smiled at her, knowing damn well he was giving her that ‘I knew that already, I’m your father’ kinda look, and kept walking. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to assume she’d done crazy things, just cause she lived in Dolareido. He’d been born and bred in Dolareido, and did absolutely nothing crazy his whole life. But, she did have blue hair, nipple piercings, and a clit hood piercing, according to Elaine. There was some fire in her, and she wore it on the surface.

“Next up on the list. Jessy and Eric.”

He sent Jessy a text, and she directed him to Bloodlust, which of course meant loud EDM, lots of red light with bits of pulsing white that made the whole place feel like the inside of a literal heart, and lots and lots of drugs and sex.

“Ever been in here?” he asked.

“Not Bloodlust, no. It’s super expensive! And fancy and stuff. I’ve been to nightclubs, and a couple raves. But not here.”

Well, this would be quite a night for Veronica then. He walked up to the bouncer, and without a word, the bouncer stepped aside and opened the door for them; Invictus employee knew him on sight, after all. Veronica followed Jack in, and a glance back showed the utter awe on her face as she looked from the bouncer to Jack. Every moment was a new revelation for her, and Jack couldn’t help but enjoy it. This was too damn fun.

And he needed that. After what happened last night, he deserved a little fun, right?

People stepped aside for him as he walked past the bar, and stood before the dance floor. Some of them recognized him, but most didn’t. Maybe it was his limp, and how he avoided any hard steps to not put pressure on his insides. Maybe it was his eyes, and the confidence he carried, confidence he’d slowly built up over the past three years and then some. Or maybe it was his aura, the vampire aura of the Beast even kine could occasionally sense. Whatever it was, kine stepped aside for him, and Veronica stared at him all the harder as they did.

Up on the second floor, he looked around at the booths. The closest one had a couple of Invictus vampires in it, two women. A kine male sat between them, and was being treated quite nicely with both vampires pressing their barely covered breasts into him as they nibbled on his shoulders and neck. Both had a hand in his pants, which Jack was thankfully unable to see with the table in the way. Judging from the look on the man’s face, he was swimming in bliss.

Next booth had a male vampire, with a woman riding his lap, facing him. She had her dress down and off her shoulders, and she pressed her fake breasts into his chest as the man drained her.

Next booth beyond that had a scene Jack had actually seen before. No vampires here, but two male kine sitting outside of two females, with their hands up their girls’ skirts, fingering them hard enough to make the two girls shake. They were loving it, and they buried each other in kisses and fondling hands.

Jack walked past them all with only a short lived glance, though he could tell Veronica wanted to watch, even if she didn’t realize it. Moving on was enough to have Veronica chasing after him, and he smiled to himself as she did. The vampire in him loved that.

“Jessy, Eric,” he said. “Oh, Natasha, hi. This is my new thrall, Veronica. Veronica, this is Jessy, a fellow Invictus, and Natasha, a member of the Ordo Dracul. Vampires. And this is Eric, a bouncer here, and a werewolf.”

“Hey.”

“H-Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Hi,” Veronica said, and she gulped. Not audible this time, considering the music, but Jack noticed it anyway, watching her in the corner of his eye. She wasn’t just some random, pretty kine following him around. She was his thrall. Little kernels of awareness tickled up through his consciousness, demanding he pay close attention to her, protect her, and watch out for her.

Jesus, no wonder Antoinette felt so protective of Ashley and Julee. Veronica was his thrall, only dosed twice, and he couldn’t help but notice how much the Beast in him demand he protect what was his. If she ever became a ghoul, would he go shopping with her, pay for a decade of education, and keep her at his side at all times?

Daeva did that. Daeva were more protective of their ghouls, and anyone they fed on a lot, compared to other blood clans. So maybe he’d never have the same relationship with Veronica as Antoinette did with Ashley and Julee. Maybe he would. Antoinette treated her ghouls like they were precious, and that they’d leave the care of her nest some day. She was their master, but it was a strangely nice relationship, which was kind of twisted to think about. As long as he kept his head, and didn’t let the Beast consume him, he could keep his relationship with Veronica balanced and healthy, and some day, let her go. Hopefully.

“So, Jack,” Jessy said, and her grin grew. “Harem?”

He threw up his hands. “The fuck? Did Fiona text you?”

“Fiona? No. Why?”

He grunted and groaned as he facepalmed. “Not everyone needs a harem like you, Jessy.”

Veronica gasped and looked between Jessy and Jack. “She has a harem?”

“Had,” Eric said with an eyeroll. “Then we started dating.”

Natasha managed a weak smile as she looked to Jack, but it brightened when she looked to Veronica, and held up four fingers. “She has four ghouls. B-Big guys, and she’d ... well, you know. And at the same t-time!”

“Uh, you joined me in that orgy a few times, last I checked, Tash.” Jessy shrugged. Totally shameless.

Poor Tash. She winced and lowered her head, her plan having backfired. Jessy was shameless, but Tash was not. Jack almost made a comment about her having two boyfriends, and how awesome that was, no need for the shame. But, that could change very soon for all he knew.

Jessy pat her friend on the shoulder, and smiled at Veronica. “You are the sexiest thrall I have ever seen. Love the hair.”

“Thanks!” Veronica perked right up, and looked around with renewed vigor. “I ... I didn’t realize this place would be so, so um...”

“Full of sex and kine ready to be Kissed,” Jessy said. “Jack, can I have a taste? Or, you know, maybe borrow her? She’s very—”

Jack aimed a fist at her. “No. Bad. Down.”

“Aw come on! I lent your mom my boys!”

“She didn’t fuck them!”

Jessy frowned and looked between him and Eric. “But, I need a girl to—”

Eric slipped an arm around Jessy’s shoulders, and pulled on her hard enough to bring her down into his lap in a sort of capturing hug. “Nice to meet you, Veronica. Don’t worry about anything she says, Jack won’t let anything happen to you.”

Veronica giggled as Jessy wrestled to get free. “This is all so new to me. It’s kind of hard to believe that ... that there’s two vampires and a werewolf in this booth. I—”

Natasha lifted her head, and pulled a cheek back enough to expose her teeth. On cue, she grew her fangs, and Veronica gasped. She did love to gasp, but it was warranted, considering how much her life had turned upside down in record time.

“You uh...” Eric shook his head. “You don’t want me to prove it.”

Jessy snorted on a laugh, but nodded. “Probably for the best.”

Veronica almost asked, but Jack waved at his friends and walked back toward the stairs, and she darted after him. But despite her enthusiasm to follow him, a glance back showed her stalling a bit, eyes dancing around to the booths again. One of the women was sitting on a man’s lap, facing away from him, and had pulled her top down so the dress was hidden by the booth. Diamond nipples bounced around on her jiggling breasts, and the kine smiled at Veronica as her mouth opened with moans, lost to the music.

Veronica stared, until Jack started down the stairs, and she squeaked and dashed after him again.

“Your friends are nice,” Veronica said as she glanced around at the hall leading to his apartment.

He laughed and shook his head. “They can be, yeah. Jessy is a total sexaholic though, so be careful around her.”

“She won’t—”

“She won’t do anything without my permission, but that doesn’t mean she won’t put you in some extreme situations to tempt you.”

“Extreme?”

“Honestly? I expected to find her at the club, fucking Eric. She might have, if she’d known you were coming, even with Tash right there.” It’d hardly be strange, considering the group’s sexual history.

“Oh.” She giggled and shook her head. “She’s aggressive.”

“Very, and about everything. Tash is her opposite. She...” Sighing, he rubbed his hair, and opened the door. “There’s a lot of shit going down, between us and the werewolves.”

“Eric?”

“No, not him, the other werewolves, a pack of them. Tash dates two of them, and then shit went down yesterday and ... Best to not bring it up unless she does.”

She nodded, and followed him into his apartment. “Wait, two?”

“Yeah, two big guys.” He held up a hand indicating their heights. Seriously tall Art, and giant Matt.

“But she’s so tiny!”

He shrugged again and sat down on his couch. Not a fancy hall bench or whatever, just a nice, high quality couch, black leather, comfortable as hell. One of the things he loved that didn’t belong in a luxurious mansion. Or, maybe it could? It was his mansion. Maybe he could have a room dedicated to being comfortable instead of just looking it, while not being it. Or maybe he could just redecorate the whole damn thing like rich kids did these days, and have it all set up with black leather and shit.

“We all have our kinks,” he said. “You saw Antoinette and Elaine, and the type of women they are.”

Veronica giggled again, and sat down beside him. “You’re lucky.”

He winced and shook his head. “Luck in love? Extremely. In sex and money and power? Yeah, extremely. But I’m not telling you about the other shit, the unlucky shit, and it’s going to stay that way, for a long time. Don’t want you getting involved.” Fuck, it was really hard to not sound like some emo tragedy case when describing his situation.

“But you just told me a bunch of stuff.”

Laughing, he leaned back and clutched his chest as pain hit him, ending the laughter with a grunt. “Just the surface stuff, stuff all the Kindred in Dolareido know about. Nothing another Kindred might want to learn about, and use you to do it.”

“It sounds like you have a lot of enemies.”

“Enemies is ... a strong word.” He pulled out his phone, and flipped to a picture. “Here. We won’t be visiting these people, but yeah, this is Beatrice. She dated my sire. That’s him, too.”

Veronica smiled wide as she took the phone. Sharing pictures of people and talking about their lives, that was the sort of thing she probably did in her free time, before Jack adopted her. A social woman. Maybe she’d rub off on him.

Veronica’s smile turned to gasp, and she blinked at the picture on the phone. “That mouth is terrifying! And ... and she’s showing her tits! Ooh, the man behind her is handsome.”

“Ha, yeah, Triss and Julias. She took the picture and sent it to me. She’s a Nosferatu. They all have disfigurements, random. One of my old bosses looks like a corpse, and she leaks mist out of her skin. Basically a walking, talking graveyard.”

“And your sire didn’t mind Beatrice’s, uh, Nosferatu features?”

“Nah. Crocodile mouth? Snake eyes and claws? Barely registers as strange for a vampire with a few decades under their belt.”

“She is beautiful, in a strange way. And scary, but wow...” She ran a finger down the picture over Triss’s exposed stomach. “How does she keep a figure like that? I—”

Jack laughed. Oh god. “She’s a vampire. She’ll keep the figure she had when she was embraced. The abs, the hair, the muscle, it’s permanent. She could get a haircut, and tell her body to not regrow it during her daily sleep, same with the tattoos and piercings. But otherwise, yeah, her body is permanently like that.” He pointed at his head. “Alas, I buzzed my head a few days before I was embraced. I’m stuck like this.”

She giggled. “Still, you’re so fit, and so’s she! It must be nice to be like that forever.” Her smile faded, and her finger slid over to the man beside Beatrice. “And Julias. He’s ... gone now?”

Not forever, not at all.

“Yeah, killed by hunters. We got revenge, but ... yeah. She was damn happy, back then.”

“But not anymore.” She lowered the phone, furrowing her brow.

“She’s a member of the Circle of the Crone, now, and since Julias died, she’s gotten really deep in it. Neck deep.”

“Circle of the Crone?”

“Witches,” he said. “Like, hardcore witches. Think orgies and sacrifices under a full moon in the middle of a forest, while someone wears the skull of a horse for a mask, witches.” That got her eyes super wide, almost comically so, and he smiled as he took his phone back.

“Scary.”

“Yeap. But Beatrice is a close friend. If she shows up, you can trust her. Maybe not her boss — a dude with a bandage over his eyes — or her friends, but she’s trustworthy. Jessy, Damien, Fiona, Natasha, let them in if they show up at the mansion.”

“Um, b-but not Eric?”

“Eric.” Jack sighed, leaned forward, and set his elbows on his knees as he considered. “The other wolves in the city are proving to be a problem, but Eric’s not part of their pack. But, he’s not a vampire either, and not part of any covenant. So ... if he shows up with Jessy or the others, it’s fine. Alone? Much as I hate to say it, tell him to leave.”

She gulped and nodded. Telling someone like Eric to go away would be difficult for her.

“And, um, Fiona? She’s...”

“Not a vampire, right. She’s a monster. And she’s be helping me with some serious stuff for a long time now. You can trust her.”

“Monster?”

“Monster.”

“I ... don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, honestly. There are vampires, and werewolves, and ghosts, and—”

“Ghosts!?” She sat up straight, eyes wide, like he’d just dumped ice down her back.

“Ghosts, and other classics.” Damn she was adorable. Probably how Julias felt about Jack, every time he dumped a new info bomb on him. “But Fiona, and a few others, they’re ... they’re monsters. Like, monster monsters. The things that creep under your bed, or hide in your closet. The presence that comes up through the drain and drowns you in your own bathtub. The creature that lurks beneath the water, or hides in the trees. Unique individuals, monsters of legend. Things that literally feed on your nightmares and...” Yeap, that was too much. Veronica stared at him like he’d just shot her mother. “The ones in Dolareido are not our enemies, but they are ... well, think Pennywise. You should probably—”

She jumped off the couch, and turned around in place several times as she clenched her fists in front of her, and squealed. “Noooo!”

“What!? What?” He jumped up as well, and that fucking hurt.

“I’m afraid of clowns!”

He stared at her, and laughed, laughed hard enough he groaned and fell on his ass a second later, clutching his guts.

“None of them are clowns, but they’re all monsters, feeding on fear and able to create and feed on your nightmares.”

Veronica sat down again, shivering. “Very scary.”

“Very very,” he said. “But they’ve been some of my greatest allies. Fiona looks like a simple little redhead, right? But she’s a spider monster.” Veronica almost jumped up again, but he put a hand on her shoulder and kept her down. “Not an ugly spider. Strangely sexy, in a weird way.” And, if he guessed right, Vrallar’trakla of the Eight Blade Arach would enjoy taking advantage of Damien’s current weakness, like a spider indulging in trapped, wounded prey.

“I have a hard time thinking sexy when I think spider.”

“You’d change your mind if you saw her. You know, once the fear part past, cause she is terrifying too.” He scrolled through the pictures on his phone, and brought up another. “And this is my mom, recently turned vampire, sired by Antoinette.” And probably with the witches at this very moment.

“Oh! Oh, she’s pretty.” She wanted to say more. Probably something about how strange a scenario that must be, Jack dating his mom’s sire. A soap opera drama just waiting for a lit match.

“That’s from before she was embraced.”

“Who’s that beside her?”

Jack managed a weak smile, but didn’t put the phone away or change the picture. Instead, he looked at it, and let the memory hurt him, just a little.

“That’s my sister, Mary. Hunters killed her, trying to get to me.”

“I ... that’s ... horrible.”

“Yeah, it was. And that’s why I killed them.”

She stared at him, stared hard, trying to tell if he was joking. He held his face stone cold, and a new reality finally sank in for her. Jack, her master, had killed before. Multiple people. Deliberately.

Nodding, he got up, and motioned around. “Let’s check and see if there’s anything in the apartment we should bring.” Time for a change of topics before things got too heavy. “You can—”

He stopped, raised a brow, and slowly turned to face the door as his Beast announced an approaching presence. A powerful presence, another Beast, and a familiar one.

“Jack? M-Master? What—” A few seconds later, a knock came from the door, and she stared at it. “Oh my god.”

“Vampire thing. That’s another vampire.”

“Oh, so I ... Right!” Shocked but still smiling, she hopped over to the door and opened it. “Elaine! I ... uh...” And of course, her face turned bright red.

“Veronica Tam, how lovely to see you again. May I come in?”

“Um! Uh ... is ... is that a vampire thing? The whole invite thing?” She looked back at Jack, and he laughed again, shook his head, and motioned for Elaine to come. “Yes. The master says yes.”

How’d she know he was here? Probably had her own thralls or ghouls in the city, keeping tabs on him.

Chuckling, Elaine stepped in. It took Veronica a moment to understand why Elaine didn’t close the door behind her, but she got it and closed it. Jack didn’t really want her to do any of that shit, especially not in an apartment, but it was too much fun watching her figure it all out.

Elaine turned, looked down at Veronica, met her eyes, and said, “Sleep.”

Veronica fell back, body gently collapsing against the wall. She sank down into the corner, instantly sound asleep.

“Elaine? What the hell?” He stood up, but failed halfway and fell back down, guts fighting against him. That was a damn impressive display of gentle but powerful Dominate.

“Calm yourself, Jack. I wish to speak to you.”

He frowned at her, eyes scanning for threat. Antoinette was out talking with Maria and some other stuff, and it wouldn’t surprise him if Daniel was keeping an eye on her. Elaine, here, alone, was strange.

“You could have talked in front of her.”

She shook her head, and sat down next to him. “No, I could not. This is important.”

“Then the Prince—”

“This is between you, me, and the curse, Jack.”

He clutched at his chest with one hand, while the other gripped the arm of his couch. His eyes scanned her again, hunting for intent. His Beast stood up, ready for a fight. There was something in her gaze that struck him cold.

“What, you want to talk to him? I’m not taking off the necklace.” Not unless he had absolutely no other choice. Problem was, he was beat up and healing, and Elaine was five hundred years old. She was deadly powerful.

She didn’t come over here to exploit him, did she? No, no way. That wasn’t smart, not while she was in a city where the Prince was his lover. Relax, Jack, relax.

Except, remember what Black Blood said. If the curse was something the Strix placed on Susanna, because she fueled the ritual or whatever it was, by committing diablerie, how did Elaine get rid of it? It wasn’t a train of thought he wanted to go down, but Black Blood had sewn the seed.

“And I will not ask you to, great grandchilde of mine.” She smiled softly as she said it, and turned on the couch to face him. “But, I must know more.”

“What? Why?”

“I have dedicated centuries to the study of rituals and curses, childe. Many in the Ordo have. Antoinette knows that, but she would prefer to keep you out of the hands of the others.”

Jack winced, half from clutching his chest, half from imagining the sort of shit other dragons might do to him. And Elaine was one of those dragons.

“You ... wouldn’t tell me that, if you’d planned to stake and abduct me, throw me in a box, and do experiments on me.”

She laughed, a hearty sound, and lightly touched his shoulder. “If I wanted to steal you away and dig into what makes the curse tick, I could have done that at many points. But if I did that, I would spoil the friendship I have with Ann. And that is not a friendship I would damage lightly.”

“ ... that’s really the only reason, isn’t it? If it wasn’t for her, you’d do exactly what I said you would.”

Silence fell on them, and Elaine held an unwavering, analyzing glare as she met his eyes.

“Perhaps,” she said after a few seconds. “I am not Viktor. I am not so cruel as to ignore that you are an individual, with desires, needs, and a soul of your own. But I will not lie. If you and Ann were not in love, and hopelessly so, this conversation would be much different.”

He met her gaze and held it. It was scary, meeting the eyes of someone so old. She acted the horny-older-power-woman well, but like Antoinette, it was a mask, one she probably wore so perfectly and so often, it’d become part of who she was. Beneath it though, there was a different person. Antoinette had exposed her soft side to Jack an eternity ago, that first time at Bloodlust. Elaine though, he still had no idea what kind of person she really was.

“Alright,” he said. She had him at a disadvantage. Better to play along and see where this went. “What do you want to know?”

“He speaks to you, does he not? I want to know about his desires, Jack.”

He frowned again. Antoinette usually called the curse ‘it’, and resisted doing otherwise. Elaine didn’t.

“Not sure what to tell you that you don’t already know, Elaine. I—”

“Describe to me, in detail, little Ventrue. Describe to me ... how it feels, this personality that roams your mind. Describe to me the hate and rage. Describe to me the carnal lust this creature has for violence. Describe to me what it is like when the curse takes over, in minute detail. Describe to me the parts you do not wish for Ann or myself to know.”