Chapter 57

~~Natasha~~

In the end, she couldn’t ask Matt and Art to listen to her. When push came to shove, when rubber hit the road, she was so swept up in the moment that she was reduced to a whimpering set of legs and a river of juices in minutes. But she was going to give herself an A for effort anyway.

She smiled to herself as she washed Matt’s body in the tub. Maybe next time? In the meantime, maybe she could try doing a little more ... gate opening? Their gates of course, not hers. Hers could come later.

She smiled down at Matt’s back. Art was standing beside them looking into the mirror, shaving, while Matt and her were still in the tub. Bathing together had come naturally, a byproduct of the fact both of her boyfriends were werewolves, and had voracious sexual appetites that manifested biologically. They came buckets. Which, in the moment, during the sex, was so terribly arousing that it melted her into a puddle. After sex, it was a giant pain, sticky and gross and ick and ew! So, bath.

Such a huge back on the gentle giant. So. Utterly. Huge. She couldn’t wrap her arms around Matt if his arms were in the embrace, too big. Or, she was too small. Either way, it was quickly becoming a sight she was growing fond of. She rubbed soap along it, and licked her lips at the shape of his muscles, broad, hard, and how they fought against the pressure of the soap.

Wait, you’re supposed to be gate opening. Stop admiring his broad shoulders. Less sexual stuff, more romantic stuff.

“You t-two should tell me more about ... how you met,” she said.

Art shrugged, tapped his blade in the sink — he shaved with a knife, eesh — and resumed shaving. “Avery’s pack had just arrived in Tijuana. Stephanie was with them, and she knew the place a bit.” Right, Stephanie, the one who died. “I had just suffered my first change ... some people died. It was on the news. I was on the news. I went into hiding, and Avery tracked me down.”

“We found him pretty beat up. I’d only been part of the group for a short while, and eager to prove myself.” Matt turned around in the tub for her, and she began washing his chest. As much as Matt and Arturo were big burly guys, she was thankful they didn’t have too too much body hair. Plenty, but not enough to seem like they were wearing sweaters. Still, she’d prefer they trim some of their pubic hair off, as was fashionable in the city. Maybe she could ask them later?

“So of course Lenny starts a fight with me the moment he finds me.”

Matt chuckled. Mmm, such a warm noise, from so close.

“Hey, you threw the first punch, Art.”

“You grabbed me by both shoulders. From behind!”

“I was trying to catch you. You Irraka are sneaky fuckers.”

“Pretty sure the grab was followed by a tackle.”

And back and forth they went, earning some giggles from Natasha as she listened to the two boys argue. Each had their way about it, an approach, a style. Arturo Ibarra had some grit to him, a touch of anger, a touch of the bad boy, but mostly a playful sort. Matthew Wilson was the gentle giant, and she could tell he didn’t have Art’s wit or grit; words and insults rolled off his back like water though. It was easy to see why they got along. Art was rough, in a way. And Matt was soft, in a way.

“W-What about b-b-before you became werewolves? What was life like? Or ... or um, d-don’t tell me, if you don’t want to.” She offered her best apologetic shrug at Matt, and continued to wash his body. Hard to focus on the questions, when rubbing down his enormous chest and abs and arms. She could fit into the grooves of him, between his arms and legs, and just disappear, if she wanted. No! Bad Tash. Focus.

“It’s a touchy question,” Matt said, “at least for some Uratha. Leaving behind the old life isn’t always easy, you know? I ... I guess you would know all too well.” The giant turned his head to the side, exposing his neck to her a bit, and he looked at her with the corner of his eye. Quizzical, curious, expressions she didn’t normally see on his face. But, it faded a few seconds later, and he smiled his usual smile. “I lost my family when I was very young, well before I became Uratha.”

“Oh...”

“Don’t worry, I was young, it’s a faded memory. I lived far up North, and sometimes the conditions can get you killed, that far up.”

“Far up North? You d-don’t sound like ... you’re from Europe. Oh, Canada?” Must have been living in Nunavut or Labrador.

“Mmhmm. Eh.”

Heh, her gentle giant was a stereotype.

“Do you ... s-say sorry a lot?”

Arturo laughed, hard enough he had to put the knife down. “He does, because he keeps knocking shit over, a regular klutz.”

Matt rolled his eyes, reached out, and picked Natasha up. She squeaked, squealed, and squirmed, as the huge man pulled her, wrapped her legs around his waist, and set her down so her butt pressed against his pelvis. He wasn’t aroused since they’d just had sex, but she knew what these werewolves were like, and if she didn’t get control of the situation, they’d be doing things to her in two minutes.

The gentle giant smiled down at her. The water of the tub reached their waists, hot, tingling. She wasn’t blushing life anymore, but from the look on his face, she knew what he was going to ask. Or maybe ask her when he was done kissing her, because he leaned in, and set his lips to hers.

Arg, it was just so damn easy to simply let go, stop fighting, and let them — or in this case, him — take control. She sank into his waist, his shaft underneath her butt and getting harder by the second, as his kiss grew more and more passionate. His eyes were open a sliver, enough so she could see the joy in them, as his hands held her tiny body. Soon he was leaning over her, and she pressed against his chest to try and get him to stop. He didn’t stop.

“Matt!” Art said.

“What!?” Matt sat up straight, and dropped her.

Water overwhelmed her, and she disappeared beneath the surface, frowning up at Matt the whole time. The water wasn’t too hot, so she had no issues looking up through the waves at the man, who had ‘sorry’ written across his face in big, bold letters. He scooped her up again, and guided some hair off her face so it was dangling behind her.

“Sorry,” he said, as if his puppy dog face wasn’t apologetic enough.

She snorted, laughter breaking through her frown, and pulled on his neck to start kissing him again. Which, of course, caused the shaft underneath her to start getting harder again, and harder, until it was just like it was an hour ago, with the man ready for more sex.

Art was watching them now, standing beside the tub and rolling his eyes. “Matt, I was going to say, give the girl a break. But ... I think we got time for a quickie.”

Oh no. She tried to re-summon her frown, but Art set his hand on her hair, combing it along her scalp with his fingers, before he gently turned her head to face him. And, once he sat himself down on the tub edge, one leg in the tub, he began to masturbate. A few seconds was all it took for his shaft to grow to full length, and aim straight at her. And, as he smiled his devil smile at her, he pulled her head in toward his cock.

... ok, maybe a quickie.

If she was human, she’d be sore. Sex, sex, and more sex. Two boyfriends made it hard enough to go five minutes without one of them trying to get into her pants, but the fact both of them were werewolves, and more or less in a constant of ready to fuck, made it impossible. And, the fact that when they got their hands on her, they were rather ... aggressive, about getting what they wanted, made it more impossible than impossible! And the fact that, every time they took hold of her, her whole body was set on fire, and she had to blush life and give in before it killed her, made it triple impossible.

But for now, they were done, and Art and Matt and she were out on the streets, walking toward Avery’s base near the Carthian district.

“You sure you want to come with us on this hunt?” Matt said. “Claimed can be dangerous.”

“I d-don’t understand what claimed are. So, I ... need information.” Information made the world go round. It made Antoinette happy. It made Natasha happy too. If there were things like urged or claimed in the city, she needed to know what those things were. “And, you’re my b-boyfriends! I should hang out w-w-with my boyfriends.” And she liked saying the word. Boyfriends.

Art leaned in beside her, walking beside her, devil grin on his face. “Want to hold hands?”

“ ... no. I’m t-too small. I’d look like ... your daughter, or something.” Hand holding could come later, when they were alone.

Matt laughed, and turned to walk backward for a few moments while looking at them. “We know Dolareido is a strange city. But a lot of that strangeness, you Kindred don’t really understand, right?” He slowed down for a moment until he was beside her, opposite of Art, and he started walking in line with them as he leaned in, reigning his voice in. “The balance between Dolareido and the Shadow world is an odd balance, sitting on a knife’s edge.”

“B-But I ... d-don’t know what means.” And honestly, it wasn’t her primary or secondary goal at the moment. Still, it was terribly intriguing, knowing her boyfriends could interact with this Shadow world at any time, when Antoinette and Tash had to work so damn hard just to get peeks at it.

“Maybe we’ll show you sometime?” Matt said.

Art shook his head. “Avery would kill us. And more than that, it’s not safe.”

Natasha frowned up at Art. The three of them were walking the sidewalks closer to the Carthian district, which meant there weren’t many people on the sidewalks, at least not nearly as many as the Invictus half of South Side. It gave them the room to walk side by side, and for Tash to try and shove Art. Alas, too light, and she succeeded only in pushing herself into Matt.

“I’m older than either of y-y-you! D-Don’t underestimate me. I ... would love to see it someday.” Terrifying as that idea was. It also wasn’t one of her goals, but the idea of crossing to the other side, of seeing this strange world she’d only poked at, of seeing more things like Safe or that strange spirit of secrets, it was all so interesting.

And that was one of the primary goals of the Ordo Dracul, to gain knowledge. Invictus wanted power, money, and structure. Lancea et Sanctum wanted history documented and religious tenets satisfied. Carthians wanted ... well, borderline anarchy. The Circle of the Crone wanted to push their dark agendas, of instigating a predator and prey world filled. The Ordo Dracul wanted knowledge, all knowledge, especially about things that could be of use to a Kindred trying to learn more about themselves, about the nature of being a vampire.

At least, that was what Antoinette and Daniel taught her, and she bought into it, believed it. And now she was strong enough, old enough, to pursue it.

“Honestly,” Art said, “I’m surprised you haven’t been there already. Avery says Antoinette and Jacob have both been poking at the Gauntlet for centuries.”

“Yeah, b-but all we can do is poke.”

Matt nodded, sighing a little as he looked up, leaned back, and scratched his head through his shoulder-length dirty blond hair. “Honestly, I think we should take you. Dolareido’s a great city, a nice place, all things considered. You vamps are a part of that, you made that. You should see what sort of effect it has on the side of the veil.”

She perked up, blinking at him. She didn’t realize their actions could affect the other side directly.

But Art shook his head. “You know if we ask Avery, she’s going to say no.”

The gentle giant shrugged, and set his hand on Natasha’s further shoulder, so he could pull her in a bit into a sort of half hug while they walked.

“What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.”

“The fuck? Of course it can.”

“Tash will be fine.”

“She might be fine, but she’ll definitely be at risk.”

“It’s her choice.”

“Yeah but curiosity killed the cat.”

“She’s been doing fine so far.”

“We almost killed her when we met her.”

It was weird listening to the two boys argue, because Art was being the cautious one, and Matt was being the adventurous one. Normally it was the other way around, and she changed from frown to smile and back again as she listened to them argue about her. Eventually, enough was enough, and she elbowed Art in the side.

“I can t-take care of myself, especially if you’re both there to protect me. I really ... want t-to see...” See the place Safe came from.

“Arg, don’t give me those eyes,” Art said, covering his eyes with a hand.

“What eyes?” she said.

“The eyes! The cute, adorable eyes.”

“I...” Who was she kidding? She was tiny, she could pull off adorable eyes if she tried. When Art looked at her again, she put her forearms to her chest, hands in small fists against her collar bone, and gave him her best begging ‘help me please I’m so frail’ eyes.

The man groaned again, as if she’d shot him. She had, sort of, with cuteness.

“Fine, fine! If she dies, I’m blaming you.”

Both she and Matt chuckled. She was going to get to see the Shadow world. It wasn’t going to be an imaginary thing in her mind anymore, it was going to be solid and real and something she could touch and see and smell.

But, focus. Primary goal was to deal with the hunters.

“Hey guys,” she said. “You ... you um ... you t-talk to Avery yet? About the hunters?”

Both werewolves visibly cringed. “We did,” they said in unison.

“ ... she d-doesn’t want to help, does she?”

“It’s not like that,” Matt said, “but after what happened last time she was here, she says she’s not jumping headfirst into anything.”

“ ... I see.” Weight pulled her head down, and she let it hang in front of her a little as they walked. Maybe Jack could convince her? If anyone could, it was him, but considering all the baggage around the whole previous incident, with Avery and Jacob and Antoinette, there was a good chance Avery might be hands off. At least, until the hunters decided to hit the Uratha too. Would they do that? Of course not, not if their goal was the Begotten and any Kindred giving them refuge. Fighting a war on multiple fronts was never a good idea.

“On that point,” Art said, “Avery can go fuck herself. You need help with a hunter, Tash, just ask.”

Uh oh. She blinked up at the man, eyes growing wide again. “You’ll ... get in trouble.”

“She’s our pack leader, not our mom.” The Irraka shrugged, like it made sense. “Do your bosses punish you if you’re insubordinate?”

“Yes!” She squeaked, looking around after making the noise. “Y-Yes, they do. Violently, s-sometimes ... a lot of the times.”

Matt laughed. Maybe he didn’t understand, or take her seriously. But, his eyes changed after a few moments. “I ... suppose yeah, they probably would, wouldn’t they? I remember what some of the vamps did to their childes and whatnot, in Tijuana. Nasty. The church dudes were particularly brutal.” But he shrugged, and hugged her in a little tighter. “Avery might yell at us, maybe smack us around a little, but nothing like what you vamps might do to each other.”

Natasha leaned into Matt’s side, and shuddered a little at the memories. Strange, it was memories of Viktor being a colossal tyrant toward his servants, that made Tash appreciate Maria a little more.

“You’ll help t-too?” she said to the gentle giant.

“Not as excited to go against Avery as Art is, apparently, but yeah, I’ll help.”

Once they arrived at a corner, now bordering on Carthian territory, Art and Matt each came to a stop, and both sat on a nearby bench. Not sure why they wanted to stop here, but Natasha shrugged, and stood beside the lamppost, leaning against it.

“Jack will probably tell Avery more details,” Art said, “but you can fill us in too.”

“O-Ok.” She’d told them about the hunters before, but not details, not yet. Wasn’t sure it was her place to maybe cause issues, getting the Uratha involved when Antoinette hadn’t asked her to. Still, Kindred had to be proactive, they had to actively hunt down ways to solve their issues. It was true that action was not inherently superior to inaction, but that was rarely the case when Kindred were typically on the receiving end of antagonism.

“So, um.” Where to begin, where to begin. “W-We know the hunters came for Azamel.”

“The Begotten?” Matt shuddered, and rubbed his arms, kind of like Natasha did when she was disturbed by something. It was cute on him. “No one in the pack has so much as talked to her yet.”

“Exactly,” she said. “That’s p-p-part of the reason that ... that we haven’t talked to the Uratha yet about this. The hunters are ... they’re here f-for the Begotten. Kindred are in their way. But you guys, you’re um ... not really involved. And, w-we don’t want to ... make more enemies.” If they asked the werewolves to help, and some of the werewolves died dealing with the hunters, that was asking for a problem.

“You know much about the Meninna?” Art said. “Us, the Hunters in Darkness.”

“N-No.”

“We told you before the Meninna don’t like roaming. We want a place to live, to stay, to protect. Avery came back here cause she thought she could do some good, to a place that kind of got royally fucked last time she was here, so she says.”

Matt raised a hand. “And David told us the spirits were talking about this place.”

“Yeah, that too.” Art shrugged, and gestured around them. “And hell, we’d prefer to be living out in the wilderness, or maybe some quaint little village. We’re here because we think we can do some good, or at least Avery does. And, honestly? Like we said, Dolareido is a pretty good setup, and we’d like to help keep it that way.”

Natasha tilted her head to the side. That all sounded great. Then... “Then w-why are you all so concerned about ... stepping on eggshells?”

“Because you outnumber us thirty to one.” Art sighed, leaned forward, and let his forearms rest on his knees, hands hanging between them. “We’re on orders to be on our best behavior, because we’d like to stay.”

“ ... you’re afraid ... of us?”

Matt laughed, as if what she said was silly. “This is the only vamp city I know of, with six elders, who aren’t trying to kill each other. If you guys decided to work together, and use those silver swords of yours, yeah, we’d be fucked.”

She meeped, and moved her hand down to her hip. “You ... y-you noticed, huh?” It wasn’t like the sword was out and dangling. She had it hidden inside her suit jacket, above the hip.

“We’re not blind,” Art said. “We’ve seen you take off your clothes. Hell we’ve stripped you many times.”

Yeah, she was being delusional if she thought they wouldn’t notice the new sword. “ ... true.”

“And hey, we understand. It’s a weird situation for everyone involved. We didn’t know Begotten would be here, we’ve never really dealt with them before. We’re trying to be nice, and we almost got that Fiona girl killed.”

And there was that. Instead of Fiona dying, Stephanie died, and despite that, the Uratha were still playing nice, albeit very passively.

The more she learned, the more she felt the Uratha would be the perfect allies for Kindred in Dolareido. Maybe Jack would learn the same thing, and he could find some way to smooth out these issues? Ugh, it was horrible politics. Jacob had every reason to hate Avery, and Antoinette certainly didn’t trust them, both vampires unhappy with the Minerva situation. And the wolves had a relationship with the Carthians already, which meant there was stress with the Invictus. Jack had his work cut out for him.

But maybe she could do a little work too.

“If ... if you help, w-with the hunters, I ... I c-can only imagine that ... everyone in Dolareido w-would appreciate that. All the covenants, and even the ... B-B-Begotten.”

“Unless we get someone killed in the process,” Art said. “We don’t play nice, Tash.”

“I know!” She fucking knew. Running from them, through the tunnels, and the way they literally tore through walls of concrete, and ripped apart an old subway train like a paper bag, was not a memory she was ever going to forget. “I-I know, b-b-b-but ... we’ve already lost someone, and almost lost another.”

Matt sighed, slouching back in the bench, opposite of Art’s forward leaning. “Yeah, it’d have really sucked if that Jack kid died. Dude really pulled through, jumping in there with the Azlu.”

“Ha, yeah, now Clara’s got a crush on him.” Art laughed, and brushed back some of his dark hair out of his eyes. “I really hope she doesn’t do something stupid and piss off your Prince.”

“That ... is ... is that something she m-might do?”

Art shook his head. “No ... probably not? Shit I don’t know. She’s Cahalith. They’re always a bit emotional, and have a habit of letting those emotions make them do stupid shit.”

“It’ll b-be kind of funny if ... a strange love triangle brought the whole city down, r ... right?” she said.

The two men looked at each other, then back to her, before they broke into laughter. “Yes, it would,” they said together. Was it something they’d seen before? A scary thought, romance destroying cities.

“So, um ... w-what are we going t-t-to do now?” she said.

“Two choices.” Art counted them off, pulling down on a finger with each option. “Matt and I were going to investigate some reports that sound like Urged or Claimed, but nothing serious, nothing we can’t wait on. So instead, we can start showing you the world we live in, the Hisil, what spirits are, and where they live. Or, we can help you get a lead on finding these hunters.”

“I vote option B,” Matt said. “The former isn’t your problem, the latter is. And I’d really hate to see you get hurt in the Shadow world, just cause I offered. Worse, I’d hate to see you die to hunters here, in the physical world. Kind of gotten attached to you.”

“ ... thank you,” she said, smiling and walking in closer. There wasn’t any room on the bench for her, so she sat down on their knees, where their two knees were beside each other. A kiss for Matt, leaning back to give him one. And a kiss for Art too. Nice, big, proper kisses.

A kine walking by raised a brow, a woman, tattoos and dreadlocks. When Tash met her eyes, the woman mouthed ‘nice’, and kept walking.

It was nice.

“I ... I hope Avery d-d-doesn’t ... get too upset.”

Matt put a kiss on her neck, and winked at her. “We can handle her.”

The three of them took a taxi to the old prison, or near it, at least. They didn’t anyone know where they were going after all. The taxi driver offered her a few curious glances through the rear view mirror when both men got familiar with her, touching her legs, stroking her cheek or neck, each putting a kiss on her head. And of course, she got flustered and tried to stop them, including some elbows in their sides. But, she couldn’t stop giggling, which earned more touches from her boys, which earned more glances and raised brows from the driver.

Once the driver let them out, and she managed to get her laughter under control, the two of them made the five minute walk toward the old prison. She felt safe with them around. What hunter would be crazy enough to try and take on two werewolves and the red riding hood vampire they were with?

But she wasn’t a moron. She kept an eye open, peeked around corners, looked buildings up and down, used her auspex to scan for nearby threats. It wouldn’t be able to separate a hunter out from the people walking by, the other kine, but it was better than nothing.

A smooth walk to the old prison. No issues, no hiccups. The Invictus had already cleaned everything up, cleared out any evidence of the incident, and removed any police presence. The front door of the complex was locked, the outdoor gate, but that was easy to deal with.

They jumped over it. Natasha was light, and with a little vampire strength, she launched herself ten feet into the air. Grip managed to catch the top ridge of the gate, and she flipped over it with no issue. Art and Matt both looked at each other, and started clapping, quiet little claps, like they were suddenly rich snobs applauding an appealing performance. Jerks.

The other two couldn’t jump so easily; they had to make running jumps, throwing their weight into the pillars of the gate and running up it before forcing themselves upward, and managing the tip of their grip on the pillar top. The pillars were small, with only enough room for one hand, but each beast was able to pull themselves up with the one hand.

Damn that was impressive, for a living creature.

“Not much security,” Art said.

She shrugged, and gestured to the main door ahead of them. “It won’t even b-be locked. There’s n ... n-nothing going on here, nothing to steal or anything, so—” A hand on her shoulder brought her to a halt, and she looked up and over at Matt behind her.

“ ... something happened here.”

“Y-Yeah, Jack was—”

“No, I mean ... something horrible happened here.”

~~Jack~~

Heading back to Avery’s apartment, except this time he had Damien and Jessy with him. They took a drive, one the larger Invictus cars, one that let the three of them sit in the back. Naturally, Jack and Damien both took a window seat, and Jessy sat in the middle.

“Hey Damien,” Jessy said, “where’s that Fiona girl been lately?”

“I have not seen much of her. I believe she is in hiding with her fellow monsters,” he said. “Why?”

“Thought you two might have been dating or something, and you being you, Mekhet and all, were conveniently refusing to share with me juicy details.”

“ ... and why would you think that?”

“She expressed interest, didn’t she? I remember what she was like at the ball.” Jessy elbowed the poor man in the side, complete with a nudge nudge wink wink. “She likes you. Apparently she’s got a thing for dark, brooding types.”

“She is what, nineteen years old? Perhaps twenty?” He sighed, and looked back out the window. “I am over fifty years her senior.”

“Not the same, and you know it.” She wrapped an arm around his neck and shoulder, and pulled him in toward her to face her. Well, face her breasts really, with the way she yanked his head in for a casual headlock. “If you don’t move fast, Eric will take her.”

“Eric? Ah, yes, the new bouncer at Bloodlust.” Poor guy squirmed some, but he wasn’t getting out of Jessy’s bro hug. “He is welcome to her, if he is as—”

“No no, god damn it Damien, you jackass. Fight for the feisty redhead.” Jessy reached out, and yanked in Jack’s head as well, so she had the two of them in headlocks. “Jack here was what, twenty, when he was embraced? And not long after that, he was in the Prince’s bed. And she’s got a lot of years on you, Damien, so I don’t think the ‘she’s younger than me’ defense really applies.”

No doubt Jessy was trying to cover up her own sexual adventures, and how the woman only ever slept with kine, all much younger than her. But it was true, so Jack smirked at her, and managed a shrug, despite the headlock.

“Think we can focus on the job?” Damien pulled away again, and Jessy let him go. But, not before a hint of a smile hit the man’s lips. Enough for Jessy to laugh and wink at Jack.

“It’s all on Jack,” she said. “Nothing we can do. You got a plan anyway, Jack? Wanna fill us in?”

He almost started with the crows. Jessy and Damien both knew he worked with crows, but he didn’t want them knowing everything he was doing. Not because he didn’t trust them, but because it was the safer way in managing a secret; the less people who knew the better. His two pets were watching them from above, and with some practice, the two birds would be his eyes in the sky from now on, permanently.

He was going to take this new position of his seriously. Right hand of the Invictus, with the paltry amount of experience he had? He could already picture the scenarios, some older Invictus questioning him, prodding him, testing him to see if he actually deserved his position. And when the cards were all laid out on the table, Jack would come out on top. Diligence and preparation.

It wasn’t the only reason he acquired his two new pets, but, he wasn’t so stupid to not see the eventuality coming a mile away.

“The plan is to convince Avery to help us.”

“Yeah, duh, I get that.” She let him go, but not without a shove. “I mean, details. How are you going to convince her to help us?”

“Two things. Julias gave us various things we can offer as incentive. But, I can already tell Avery won’t take that bait, not wholly. She’s like Garry, and has no issue living in a rundown apartment building, with cockroaches for neighbors. And she’ll want to do hunts without our interference or help anyway. No, we if want to make friends with someone like Avery, we have to offer her something more than open borders.”

“And that is?” the two of them said.

“Peace of mind.”

Jessy raised a brow. “I’m not following.”

“She’s a leader now. She wasn’t before. The last time she was here, her pack leader Simon got into it with the vamps here, right? But he’s gone, and now the shit show he stirred is on her. I get the impression if Simon wasn’t her leader, things with Jacob and Minerva would have gone differently. The backlash of that is on her, and she wants to fix that.” The memory of Jacob and him running into Clara and Avery in the street was a powerful one. Poor Clara, down in one punch from the Nosferatu. Not even a punch, just a backhand slap.