Chapter 86

~~Antoinette~~

Deep within her tower, she sat at a table with an array of laptops, tablets, and artifacts. The resonance circle sat empty, and she had her chandelier to a normal white light. The necklace that had summoned the odd spirit of secrets sat in front of her, and she stared at it as she folded her arms across her chest.

Should she tell Avery of her concern with Maria? No. Avery would overreact. Besides, there was no tangible proof. But the werewolf was bound to find out sooner or later, as she grew increasingly involved in the affairs of the vampires.

Sighing, she pulled her hair over her shoulder onto her chest, and combed it. There was a missing piece in this madness, in her city, and she was determined to find it. Daniel had spent how many nights now, searching? Drifting through the city with the highest skill Auspex could provide, he was nothing more than a wisp of shadow, a dream, moving through the walls and streets. His hunt had no goal, nothing obvious. He was as likely to discover a random ancient city beneath Dolareido, as he was to determine the secret forces planning something unknown.

Was this unseen force using the hunters as cover? The hunters had become the focus of everyone, and rightly so. If they continued unabated, they would eventually strike gold, and ruin the delicate balance Antoinette had crafted. She did not mind if they killed Azamel, but not if it meant damage to her city.

She did not wish for Fiona to suffer, either. The silly girl was a ray of sunshine, and now that Antoinette had met her on multiple occasions, she was happy the tiny monster had come to her city. She followed the rules, and had only acted against them in ignorance, originally.

Chuckling at memories of the girl, Antoinette shrugged and looked at her laptop. The video feed had four pictures, one for each corner. One was of Samantha Terry, and the feed showed Julias and Jack sitting by her bed. Good. Those two had a tenuous relationship as of late, the sort all childer and sires eventually felt, as their natures clashed. The curse of Kindred, with their instincts forever pushing for solitude, while their human half demanded socialization to some degree. But, those two were not the typical Kindred, or men for that matter. They did not let ego dictate their decisions, usually.

Perhaps Jack would ask her to sire his mother. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she would, and that it would be a beneficial, and enjoyable change to her own life. To have a childe was an experience she had long forgotten, except that her previous was not only a male, a young male, but also her lover. This one would be a mature woman, and according to Jack, she was not the analytical sort.

What would that be like? Forever her conversations with Tony had been mental battles, each trying to outwit the other. Love faded, replaced with resentment, paranoia, and with time, hatred. With someone like Samantha, where Antoinette was the clear intellectual superior, would she feel superior in more problematic ways to her new childe? She had known Kindred to sometimes sire those they considered easily enslaved; after all, a Kindred did not sire to pass on the generation of their blood, like breeding humans. Kindred sired to increase the strength of their dominion. There were even stories of Kindred who sired, raised their childe, and then devoured them, draining their blood, and their soul.

She shivered. Diablerie was a vile act, and she was glad it had rarely reared its ugly head in her life. No, she was kinder than the average sire, let alone one capable of Diablerie. She would treat Samantha with respect, and with the wisdom she had gained in the centuries since Tony’s embrace. And, it would be nice to have a female companion who was of an age. Ashley and Julee were wonderful, but young, and she was never sure if siring them would be a good choice.

Jack was young. But, was he? The boy had similar attributes to an old man, a strange concoction of intellect, hope, and cynicism. It was terribly appealing.

She sighed as she watched the two men talk over Samantha’s body. This potential childe was the mother of her lover. That was a strange situation to be in, but not unheard of for Kindred. Indeed, many Kindred abandoned all pretext of romantic norms, and many engaged in sexual webs more complicated than any soap opera dared dream. It was not unheard of for Kindred to embrace their biological children once of age, leading to parent siring child, who sired their child, who sired their child. There were almost laughably intricate romantic triangles between Kindred that included parent, grandparent, child, and grandchild, fighting for the affections of the same man or woman.

But, while such complications were normal in Antoinette’s world, they would novel and shocking in Samantha’s. The woman would be Antoinette’s childe, while Antoinette made love to her son, took care of him, pampered him, and, in a way, replaced Samantha as the woman in his life. There would be a wall between her and her new childe, and it would take great effort to overcome.

If she decided to sire her at all. Perhaps she should tell the boy to let his mother go? No, that would be cruel. Life was worth fighting for, even a second life. But that did not mean another Kindred could not take Jack’s mother for their own, and not her. The issue was that Kindred groomed potential childer before the embrace, and no one knew this woman except for Jack.

Sighing, she looked to the other camera feeds. There were three cameras set up, high on building tops and pointed at the hospital. Some of her thralls sat upon them, perched on roofs, watching the city streets from above; so were Invictus thralls, she was sure. They had to be careful to not step on each other’s toes, but at least they all had the same idea: there was a chance hunters would come to the hospital.

And what if they did? What could they possibly hope to achieve from that? Surely they were not willing to risk their lives and the lives of kine in a hospital, in some mindless bid to assassinate a visiting Kindred. That did not mean they did not have some other trick up their sleeve, though.

Her phone buzzed, and she sighed yet again as she picked it up. First she was interrupted from her research by her own thoughts, and now she was to be interrupted by another’s. She was tempted to not answer, but if someone was calling her on this number, it was important.

Ah, Natasha. She answered it, and forced down the frustration building in her chest. “Miss Vola, my dear. Are you well?”

“Y-Yes, Prince.”

“It was most startling, receiving your message.” Only some thirty minutes ago, Natasha had sent the distress message, warning the Prince and the sheriff of her immediate danger. For the GPS on her phone to vanish shortly after had been worrying indeed.

“Sorry, P-Prince. We had to investigate immed-d-diately, for fear we might miss the opportunity.”

Antoinette nodded, phone to her ear. “Do not apologize for your tactical decisions, Natasha.”

“B-But I ... w-we could have wasted time, if I made a mistake. And w-w-w—”

“Vola, my dear, you must understand. Even should your decision lead to wasted effort, or disastrous result, if you made it through steps of correct, logical reasoning, then you made the correct decision. It is always possible, that should you make zero mistakes and perform perfectly, you will still fail in your endeavor. Such is life. Do not take on guilt that is not yours to bear.” Natasha had to learn to stop blaming herself for things. She internalized her negativity, and the neurotic behavior was a shackle around her ankle.

“Yes, Prince. I ... I understand.” Antoinette could almost see Natasha squirm on the phone. “W-We found hunters.”

“I see. Then I am doubly glad you sent the message. Was Daniel of use?”

“Um ... n-no, not really. He showed up once we were ... spit out.”

“Spit out?”

“We found Elen, and she w-was ... d-d-doing things, in a hidden chamber, and it was ... was—”

“Come to the tower, Natasha. This is important.” Antoinette reached out, closed her laptop with the video feed, and left the research room. Her attempts to pierce the veil could wait. Hunters were the priority.

~~Beatrice~~

Mission successful. Sort of? They learned something damn important about the hunters, but that knowledge seemed like such a small thing, compared to how awesome it would have been to kill some hunters, capture Elen, and maybe free that Begotten from her control; assuming it was mind control. So much potential success, and it’d all been right there in front of them. They followed a hunch, followed their instincts, and tracked down the hunters to what must have been a sort of jumping point they used for their weird ... flesh ... chamber ... thing.

She groaned as she raised her head so the falling hot water fell on her face. Soaked in blood as she was, it had dried out a fair bit by the time she and her fellow witches had broken into a private indoor swimming pool. The pool wasn’t close by, but they all desperately needed a shower after the insanity of what just happened, so they made the effort. They’d collected some of the blood into a jar, in case they could use it later, but for now, time to get it the fuck off.

“I wished Natasha joined us,” Jen said.

“Well, I’m sure she’s got better gigs to shower in than here.” Triss motioned to the barely lit shower room of the swimming pool. Taupe tiling, large, with mirrors and counters; all around pretty decent, but it probably had nothing on the showers in the Elysium Tower.

The two of them stood naked under the falling water, a showerhead for each, and the two of them let out small groans and moans as they felt the blood wash away. A bit of it had gotten into her mouth, and it tasted very human. That was fucked up. How the fuck could a room of flesh, tortured and cut and spread and split and tied and punctured flesh, with arms and faces growing out of its walls, be human?

“Yeah but, I wouldn’t mind getting a peek at her.”

Triss rolled her eyes. “Jen, really?”

“What? She’s got this teeny tiny little body, but still has feminine curves, except it’s all petite, and ... she’s beautiful.” Jen sighed and turned under the shower, running her fingers through her hair as she did. “And you heard her. She’s got those two boys doing things to her nigh every night, and you just know they’re both fucking her at the same time.”

“You make it sound naughty. You were getting DP’d on the regular before you jumped into my bed, Jen.” Laughing, Triss looked over and watched the blood slide off Jen’s skin, disappearing into the drain. Hot damn, Jennifer had a body.

She must have noticed her gaze, cause Jen smiled at her, and started to make more a show of rubbing her body down. Around and around, she moved her fingers around her large breasts, circled her nipples, and slid them down to her smooth slit to begin rubbing it free of the mess.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Trying to arouse you, obviously.” With a few chuckles, she looked up into the falling water, ran her fingers through her hair, and raised her elbows as she did, emphasizing the hourglass figure, tight waist, flat stomach, the big tits, everything. A model pose for an adult photoshoot, no doubt. The brown eyes and almost alabaster skin combined with her shoulder-length black hair always did remind Triss a little of herself, though Triss had darker skin, more muscle definition, and much smaller tits. Still, they looked similar, and seeing herself bathing rather erotically, a bustier version of herself without the crocodile teeth, was hot.

“Well that makes you a bitch. I’m dating Julias, not you.”

“You wound me!” She feigned offense, bringing a hand to her sternum to clutch at her heart. “And besides, I’m not trying to ... you know, damage that. Buuuuut...” Licking her luscious lips, the damn Ventrue walked up to her, and slid under the falling water that Triss had been claiming as her own before. “You know Julias doesn’t mind if we get a little physical. I can kiss you, right?” She leaned in close, and did just that. Of course she leaned in her body too, so her breasts pressed to Triss’s, a bit lower with their size and weight, nipples grazing under hers.

Rolling her eyes again, Triss put her hands on Jen’s hips, and returned the kiss. “We’re not fucking unless Julias is around.”

“I know, sad as that makes me.”

“Well I know I’d be pretty pissed if you fucked him when I wasn’t there.”

“Yes, but he’s your boyfriend. The gender dynamic is different.”

“That’s sexist.”

It was Jen’s turn to roll her eyes. “Come now, no it isn’t. Do you really think Julias would feel jealous, if I licked you all up right now? Because I know I’d make sure, and you’d make sure, to not only explain to him what I did to you in great detail, but to do a repeat performance for him.” Jen took Triss’s hips in return, and pressed their bodies a bit closer together, hips to hips, breasts to breasts, and she swayed side to side in a dance-like motion. “I won’t, of course. But I thought you should know, I very much want to do all sorts of things to you right now.”

“I’ve noticed.” It was very hard to not be convinced by her. And Triss had to admit, there was a little logic to it. She knew she’d be right fucking jealous if Jen fucked Julias without her. But, would Julias feel that way if Beatrice and Jennifer fucked?

Her gut said yes, he would. Even if the two of them could bury the man in sexual favors to ‘make up’ for their wanton sex drives, it didn’t feel right. She supposed Jen would be right, and it’d be fine to fuck without him, if she and Julias weren’t romantic with each other, but something about the emotional connection made the physical act of sex carry more weight, and meaning. That was something Jennifer just didn’t get. The girl didn’t crave romantic connection like other people did. While there wasn’t anything wrong with that, it did mean Triss had to keep the girl’s sex drive on a leash, which probably only turned Jen on more. Julias had given her the freedom to fuck her ghouls whenever she wanted, but she hadn’t been. She’d been saving up all her sexual desires, her salacious and carnal nature, all her sexual hunger, for Triss and Julias.

She trusted Jen. The girl had proven to be a great friend, and trustworthy. But damn, seeing her strut her stuff all the damn time, constantly trying to seduce Triss, was mouth-watering; once she Blushed, at least. Hell, the way she was rubbing their bodies together right now was enough to have Triss struggling to keep her voice under control, and not moan. The moment they got back to Julias’s, she was going to fuck his brains out, and Jen’s.

“You were like a superhero.”

“I ... what?”

“Tonight, in that flesh room. The boys getting aggressive like that, I expected that. But you ran in there and didn’t hesitate. Bullets flying, screams and gunfire, in an alien room of fleshly nightmares, you faced it, fought it, without indecision or delay.”

“What? Fuck yeah I hesitated. Felt like I froze for an eternity.”

Jen shook her head. “Try one second, from behind cover where no one noticed.”

Shrugging, Triss leaned in and set another kiss on Jen, this time on her neck. Ok, maybe a little teasing, to get them all tingly when they saw Julias tonight.

“Well, you were too young to be on that trip, but you stuck your head out anyway,” Triss said.

“I barely managed to get a grip on that hunter’s mind.”

“But you did, and saved our asses.”

Jen smiled at that, and if Triss didn’t know any better, it looked like the girl was feeling shy about it. Surprising, that Jen knew that emotion at all.

“So,” Jen said. “I’m thinking tonight, we fuck Julias in the shower.”

“You ever fuck pussy in the shower?”

“I don’t have a penis, and neither do you.”

Triss shrugged. “I’ve heard horror stories about how nasty it can be, from the positions, to how the water washes away the juices so it’s all ... rubbery.”

“They have water-resistant lubricant these days.”

“Ah, right, yeah. I’ve used them, too.” Triss sighed with the memory. That was a good time. “I was sitting in the tub with Julias, one of those old school tubs. We’d found a couple outside, two kine, man and woman, and he used Dominate to turn them into temporary thralls, right? We used them as our servants for the night, and it was ... was the first time Julias showed me what it was like to be a pampered princess. I sat on his dick, and—”

“Anal, I imagine.”

“Excuse me for enjoying it!” She shoved Jen away, and got back to wiping her body down. Always teasing her about the anal thing. Some women liked anal! Fucking hell. “So I was sitting on him, leaning back in the tub, facing him, and I relaxed there while the two kine massaged me and fingered me. Felt like a god damn queen, being pampered like that.”

Jen didn’t stay on her side of the shower for long. Licking her lips, she came back over, slipped behind Triss, smooshed her big tits to her back, and hugged her from behind. Her hands found Triss’s breasts, and she cupped them, fingers crossing over her nipples, and she fiddled with the nipple piercings between her knuckles.

“Let’s do that then. I’ll play the role of servant, and do things to you while you sit on your lover boy.”

“We already do that, all the time.” She squirmed, and Jen held on. Her hands continued to massage Triss’s body, fingers tracing around her nipples, before they slid lower to run along the subtle lines of Triss’s abs. It made her tingly, very tingly, especially when Jen’s fingers slid lower, and started to gently press and tease the softness of her smooth mons. The snake tattoo’s tail started there, right over the clitoris, and Jen’s fingers stopped there as well, a hair’s breadth away from the pierced clit hood. If Triss Blushed Life, her clit would be screaming with need, swollen, and demanding to be touched. But she didn’t Blush, and Jen didn’t touch. Oh how her friend liked to walk that line.

“How about this time, I—hey!” She snapped her head up to the shower room entrance, and glared as Aaron and Othello walked in. “Assholes. This is the girl’s shower room!”

Othello, Triss had seen naked plenty of times; more than. She’d seen him fuck his beautiful ghoul dozens of times by this point, and usually in the ass, so there’d been a hypnotic appeal to it. So she’d watched, more than once. Hell one time she’d given instructions like a porn director. That’d been a fun night. She hadn’t expected to see him walk into their shower naked, though.

Othello was a hunk, no two ways about it. The tan skin, big and strong body, dreadlocks, very fashion model. Aaron, on the other hand, she’d never seen naked. With his clothes on, he seemed like a normal dude, average height, average build, pale skin. Nude, was another story. The fucker was mother fucking ripped, like a god damn Olympian ninja, a lean and athletic build that would have put most accomplished elite to shame. She hadn’t noticed it because he lacked bulk, girth, but god damn.

And like Othello, Aaron kept his pubic hair shaved off too, like most in Dolareido. Without the Blush going, both of them looked like they had small dicks, but she knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Kindred without the Blush always looked a bit emaciated, anyway.

Wait. Triss was standing there, naked, with Jen’s hands roaming all over her. The boys had never seen her naked. She should probably feel shy about all this.

Eh, not really. She’d been fucking Julias and including thralls semi-regularly in their bedroom, for months now. Put Jen on top of that, and then seeing all the shit that went down at the Circle’s den, she’d become thoroughly robbed of all shyness and shame. So she let her eyes linger a bit, and she didn’t cover herself up, either.

“Nice tats,” Othello said, offering an eye wiggle as his eyes roamed up from her sex to her breasts, where the snake bit into one nipple. “Everything’s pierced.”

“The fuck you dumbasses doing in here?” she said.

Aaron shrugged, and came in closer. He turned on one of the showerheads, and started washing. It was true the boys still looked bloody, so they hadn’t showered yet.

“Honestly?” Aaron said. “We said we wanted to stay close, and this is close. Considering how dangerous shit is, and considering your guard is down right now, we should group up. But, I think we both just wanted to see some tits and ass.”

Triss and Jen both laughed. Ok, points for honesty.

“Othello gets ass every night,” Jen said, peeking over Triss’s shoulder at them. “And you both have seen me, and my insides getting filled on the regular.” If Triss had no shame, then by comparison, Jen was some sort of shame black hole, sucking it into a vortex where it was promptly destroyed. “But Aaron, I’ve never seen you fuck anyone. Hell, I don’t know anything about your sex life.”

The man shrugged as he ran his hands up and down his lean muscles. Much as Aaron always had a calm demeanor, mature, wise, cold, Triss noticed him sneak the two women a few glances, especially when Jen started massaging Triss’s breasts again. And Triss let her. Hey, it was just a bit of fun, showing off. The fact none of the Circle gave a shit about her crocodile cheeks, her snake eyes, or her claw-like fingernails, was awesome. The fact they were all comfortable as fuck with nudity, was also awesome.

“You never asked.”

“Are you serious?” Jen let go, and stepped around Triss to lean against the shower wall with her shoulder so she could look at Aaron, arms folded under her breasts. “All I had to do is ask?”

“Yeah.”

“ ... alright, what’s your favorite kink?”

Right to the good stuff, as expected. The girl could be so suave, verbose, and poetic when she wanted to be, but sometimes she was just a god damn slut. Triss loved her for that. Julias did, too. The dichotomy of her personality was like a really good spice on food; or she assumed it was. Christ, how long had it been since she’d eaten spicy food? Over twenty fucking years, Jesus.

“Kink?”

“You know, kink, like, do you prefer vaginal or anal, do you really get off from blowjobs or face fucking, or maybe you want to fuck some tits?” To emphasize, she jumped in place a few times, small jumps that made her breasts bounce.

Triss couldn’t help but laugh. Jacob had told her stories about witches of the Circle that made sacrifices, performed rituals, and otherwise did some pretty nasty stuff, and did it naked, in the middle of the woods; often during an orgy. Nudity meant nothing to witches.

Aaron shrugged, and pressed his hands to the wall, head down, so the water ran down his neck and back. “I like doing whatever she wants. Usually it’s pretty gentle. A lot of spooning, some missionary.”

Jennifer groaned in pain and stopped bouncing. “Aaron, you don’t understand. Women like a man with desire, with passion, and they like it when he expresses it with aggression.”

The man lifted his head, and slowly raised a brow, just a little, enough to give that classic Aaron look, the ‘I’m not sure if you’re right, and even if you are, I’m not sure I care’ look. The man lacked passion, that was for sure. But he had the calm and collected thing down, and some women dug that, Triss figured.

“Not every woman wants to be choked and fucked hard, Jennifer.”

Jennifer looked at him, squinted an eye, and gestured to Othello. “Othello, how often do you get your fingers around your ghoul Madison’s neck when you fuck her.”

“Almost every time.” The big guy nodded, shrugged, and started washing himself as well, across the room from them under another showerhead. Triss took a little longer than she probably should have watching the guy, but damn he had a body, with an ass of steel. And, like he said, he had a habit of using his hands, big strong hands, wrapping one around Madison’s neck, and holding her down as he fucked her ass. It was powerful imagery that scratched an itch in Triss’s mind just the right way.

Triss licked her lips as she let a memory of Julias doing just that to her drift through her mind. The man got pretty aggressive with her sometimes, held her down, pounded her hard, and didn’t stop until she was a mess. And she had to admit, those were the times she probably came the hardest. Jennifer had a point.

But Aaron just shrugged, and lowered his head again, letting the water fall down over his face. “Think the Prince is like that with that kid?”

“Touché,” Jennifer said. “Based on how we see them interact, I’m guessing she plays the dominatrix a bit. He’s probably spent many nights as bottom, watching her dance on him.”

Othello laughed. “Maybe. I’m guessing he’s spent most nights with his dick between her tits.”

They all chuckled. This was classic locker room talk, dirty and ridiculous, with a mix of feminine and masculine vibes stirred in. This was fun. Horribly juvenile and stupid, but fun.

“I think,” Triss said, coming up behind Jen, and hugging her in the same way Jen had hugged her before, “we should try that with you and Superman.” She leaned in closer, pressing her piercings into Jen’s back as she clutched her tight, hands cupping her breasts.

“Which part, the dancing or tit fucking?” Jen turned her head enough to give Triss access to her neck, and Triss responded appropriately, kissing the woman’s skin as she massaged her body. She was very tempted to get on her knees, and stick her tongue inside Jen’s pussy right here and now; and the idea of having the boys watch her lick Jen to an orgasm or two was exciting, too. But she didn’t. Self-control, dumbass, exercise some self-control.

“Both.”

Jen laughed, and pressed her ass back into Triss, earning a lingering gaze from the two boys. “Deal.”

~~Julias~~

He reached over and set his hand on Samantha’s forehead, sighed, and lowered it back to the sheets. “You going to be alright, Jack?”

“Dunno.”

“Good answer.”

Jack laughed and shrugged. “I mean, what else is there to do?”

“Go talk to Antoinette.”

“Right now?”

“Right now,” Julias said. Jack reached for his pocket, but Julias shook his head. “In person. Go talk to her tonight. Hell, tell you her you want to do it tomorrow night, dusk.”

“Dusk?” His jaw dropped, and it took a few seconds before he realized. Wide eyed, he looked at his mother, before his gaze steeled. The Jack face, the face he made when he was determined to do something and finally realized it. “ ... yes. I’ll ask her to do it tomorrow, the moment we wake up. That’ll give Mom the night to acclimate. Docs say she’s stable for now. Shouldn’t be an issue to wait one more day.”

Nodding, Julias got up, and Jack joined him. He was tempted to suggest Jack get this done tonight, but rushing an embrace, even in this situation, was a bad idea. It was an important part of a Kindred’s life, both the giver and receiver, and with only an hour of night left, now was not the time.

Thoughts of Tony clawed their way into his head, and he grimaced. Antoinette would be thinking of her old childe, no doubt, when deliberating this, and that could mean she’d change her mind. Tony, he was sure, was her greatest mistake; or at least that’s probably how she thought about him. Creating a new childe was not to be taken lightly, and she knew that most of all.

“So, what does it feel like to embrace someone?” Jack said. The two of them began the walk toward the elevator, and dismissed any curious nurses with small mental suggestions, gentle uses of Dominate. The kid had a talent for it, that was for sure.

“Feels like putting a piece of yourself into someone.”

“I can’t really visualize what that feels like.”

Julias shrugged as he hit the elevator button. “It feels like, you’re taking a part of you that resonates, and sharing it with someone. Not just sharing, giving, infecting. It feels a little ... wrong, but also, meaningful.”

“Resonate?”

“Like when you read a good story or watch a good movie, or listen to a great song, it resonates with you, sticks with you. You feel it in your guts, your heart, everything.”

The kid nodded, and stepped onto the elevator. No one else was using it, and he noticed Jack sigh with relaxation. He hated being stuck in an elevator with strangers, probably.

“I know that resonating feeling, yeah.”

“So, when I embraced you, a lot of that kind of ... got muffled. More Beastly desires surfaced for a while.” That same night, he’d gotten into a fight with Rebecca, and had nearly beaten her to death. At the time, he’d almost found it fun.

“That sounds horrible.”

“The worst of it passed quickly. You’re my first childe, and I have a lot of ... the part of me, us, that keeps us from giving into the Beast. There are horror stories of younger Kindred, desperate to hold onto who they loved in the first life, embracing a bunch of people. Young Kindred can resist their Beast just fine, usually, maybe even more easily than older Kindred, but a young vamp who doesn’t know better can find themselves ruined by over-draining themselves of that special part of them.”