Chapter 90

~~Jack~~

Thank god. Thank. Fucking. God.

He breathed in the smell of her, and chuckled between his sobs. She was undead, like him, but he could still smell a bit of her, the old her, the living her, the person he grew up with, the person who raised him. Memories crashed into him, him sitting on the couch with her watching movies, waiting at the table while she cooked, reading a book on the couch while she decorated the Christmas tree with Mary. Her. It was her.

“Mom,” he said, his eyes buried in her neck. When was the last time he did this, hugged her while he cried? When Dad died, just once. After that, he’d drawn into himself, and hugging became a thing of the past. So many years, so many fucking years, he’d built up those walls, kept himself safe from feeling anything, especially where family was concerned.

Waking up to see her eyes blinking down at him, shattered those walls.

“Jack! Oh god, Jack.”

They hugged each other for a good couple minutes. It wasn’t until Antoinette shifted her legs a bit that Jack remembered she was there.

“M-Mom ... I ... how much—”

“She knows nothing, my little Ventrue.” The Prince reached out, and pat his shoulder, drawing his head out of the neck of his mother. “And, while I loath to end this moment, we should explain to Samantha the realities of the situation.”

The situation. Oh fucking god, the situation. Jack pushed away, slowly, gently, and had to fight against his mother’s squeezing arms a bit to do so. But after he tapped her on the shoulder a few times, she released him, and he smiled at her as he forced himself to stand.

“You were dead!” His mother jumped up with him, and set a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it as if he was a ghost.

“Sort of? I know I disappeared two years ago, and—”

“No, Jack, just now. You were dead! There was a ... a stick in your chest.”

Jack raised a brow, and looked down at the floor, then to Antoinette. A wooden stake was in her hand.

The realities of the situation, she’d said. In that moment, he thought she meant purely about telling his mom about her new life as a vampire; and she probably did also mean that. But she also meant a private conversation had to happen, about what he did.

The soft, heavenly, simple memories of his first life, when he was young, living with his mother, disappeared under murky waters. The hard, cruel, complex memories of his second life sucker punched him, and he grimaced as he looked at Antoinette. Julias, dead. Angela and Elen escaped, once again, for the last fucking time. Sándor was captured, and Antoinette probably had him locked up.

All of that faded into background noise, as he dug through the chaos of the event, and found the horrendous truth buried within. Something inside him had summoned an army of crows, and had slaughtered several hunters. Something inside him, something twisted and fucked up, had practically danced upon the blood and corpses. Something inside him, lurking beneath the surface, had lost its grip on Jack when he saw his mom in bed, and disappeared into him. It was still there.

And Antoinette knew it hadn’t been him. She knew it, Damien knew it, and to be careful, they staked him. Ouch.

“I...” He looked at Antoinette, and waited. This whole situation was paralyzing, and he didn’t know where to begin.

“Samantha, you have been brought into our world at a rather chaotic time. I can only offer my deepest apologies for how expedient we must be, but I cannot ease you into this.” The Prince met their gazes, steady, strong, a pillar for Samantha to rely on. “Two years ago, Jack was stabbed and killed by an enemy of his friend Julias Mire. Julias resurrected him, in the same way ... that I have resurrected you.”

“Res ... surrected?” Mom said.

Nodding, Jack winced as he looked down, and noticed his mom was still wearing her hospital gown under the robe. “Yeah. Look at me, Mom. Look at her. Pale as fuck, and ... well, check yourself for a pulse.” It was how it sank in for him, seeing himself in the mirror, and then checking for a pulse. Something about seeing the difference of yourself, and the lack of a heartbeat, shattered any willful ignorance.

His mom did just that. She blinked at him as she felt her wrist, then her other wrist, then her neck, and then her chest. “I ... I don’t ... have a pulse.”

“None of us do,” Jack said. “I—” He stopped, and looked to his love. “Sorry, I’m sort of just taking over the conversation.”

“It is understandable. I am a stranger to her, while Julias was ... was not a stranger to you.” The weight of her voice hit him, and his head lowered again.

His mom, fighting through her dry sobs, set a hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. “Julias is dead? I remember him, and ... he ... he was a business man, wasn’t he?”

“He was a vampire, Mom. We ... we all are.”

The grip she had on his shoulder loosened, and she started to sway. He caught her, kept her standing, and offered a weak smile as he pat her on the shoulder. Ok, that was a bit much for her, but like Antoinette said, no time to ease her into this.

“Vampires? You mean ... like ... T-Twilight?”

He groaned, so did Antoinette, until he couldn’t help but laugh. “No, not like Twilight. More like Dracula.”

“That movie with Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves?”

“Yep.” Close enough. Nodding, he helped guide his mom toward the door, following after Antoinette once she started to leave. Keep talking, explain things to her, it was better than thinking about Julias, or letting her think about Mary. “Well, I meant the book, but, yeah. We’re vampires. That’s what happened to me. Another vampire who hated Julias tried to kill me, and Julias had to turn me, so that I didn’t permanently die. It all happened so fast, that ... that I had to disappear.”

“So you’ve been ... like this, for two years? Alive, or ... or ... whatever you are now?”

“Yep.”

“But ... but ... you could have told me! You could have come back, told your mother you were still alive!” She wasn’t getting it. He was just saying words to her, and they weren’t sinking in. Vampire was a little too fantasy for her to accept, while seeing her son still alive was something her mind could latch onto.

“He could not,” Antoinette said. “It is a secret society, Samantha Terry. Your son was pulled into a hidden world, with no say in the matter.”

Samantha’s head fell, and she dragged a little behind, trying to process everything happening to her. It was a lot to wake up to.

Worse, was that Antoinette kept glancing Jack’s way, and he could see grains of suspicion there. Warranted. He could remember what he did in the hallway, could remember referring to her as ‘Annie’, and remember how callous he’d been at the time about Julias’s death, and Sándor, and the bodies. He could remember how different he’d been, how good it felt to be free, how natural it felt to be that cruel.

He’d been a different person, but not. He’d had his memories, knew who he was, but he’d been someone else at the same time. God. Fucking god. Fucking shit fucking god shit fuck, oh god.

No, focus. Multiple personalities can wait. First, he had to help his mom adjust to her new life; and be happy that she was alive! Or rather, undead. Be happy! Be happy that ... that Julias’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

“We’re vampires, Mom. Julias was my sire, and ... and he died, saving you, just last night. Saving you from that woman who stabbed Mary. Or, I mean, I’ve been assuming it was Angela.”

“Glass eye?” she said.

“Yeah, that’s her.” So she had been lying to her fellow hunters, then. They didn’t know Angela was doing the shit she was doing. She was manipulating them. “She went to the hospital where you were in a coma. She was going to kidnap you, so she could get to me, force me to tell her information. We stopped her. Antoinette here turned you, embraced you, same as Julias did for me.”

His poor mom. She didn’t know how to process a wave of information like this. Hell, she thought The Matrix was confusing. He loved her, but she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and she showed that as her eyes drifted down, with a small frown of mental exertion. He had to dumb it down for her.

“Vampires have a secret society, and that society is at war, Mom. You and Mary got caught in the middle. And I ... I ... couldn’t let you die.”

That got through to her. She lifted her eyes, and she looked like she was about to burst into tears, caught somewhere between a big smile and sobs.

“And ... M-Mary?”

“ ... dead.”

“B-But—”

“Dead, Mom. No one could ... could ... save her.” He reached back behind him, and held his hand open.

Slowly, with a shaking palm, his mom reached out, and took it, as they started up the stairs. “I can’t cry! I ... I can’t cry. Why—”

“You’re a vampire now. Things are different. And don’t worry, we’ll explain everything. For now, you—”

“You should feed.” Antoinette looked over her shoulder down at them, before they finally finished with the stairs and entered the lobby. Into the elevator they went. “I have stored blood that will tide you over.”

Jack frowned at that. It certainly didn’t tide him over on his first night. But then, last night pretty much proved that his inner monster was a whole different Beast than anyone expected. Fucking lovely.

“Blood?” Mom said. “I ... what?”

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle again, and once his mom was settled in the elevator with them, he pointed at her hand. The rest of her was covered in Antoinette’s robe, but he could see her hands at least.

“You have no pulse.”

“I know, but—”

“You’re pale, mom. You can’t cry. And I bet you’re hungry.”

“I know! I know, but ... but ... it’s all so...”

Jack opened his mouth, pulled back his cheek with a finger, and with a little will, caused his canines to grow into fangs. Samantha gasped and stepped back, before coming closer and looking intently, until he closed his mouth.

“It all sounds like a fantasy, I know. But...” He pulled up his shirt, and showed where the stab scars were, earning another gasp from her. “I’m not lying. I was stabbed, was dying, and Julias”—he couldn’t keep the flinch off his face that time—”sired me, turned me, moments later, to save my life. I ... I asked Antoinette to do the same for you.”

The lights were turning on in her head, each causing his mom’s eyes to grow wider. She lifted her head after a time, up to the white-haired Prince, and gulped—and coughed in result. Dry gulps were hard to get used to.

“Th ... thank ... you.”

“You are welcome, my childe.”

“Child?”

“Childe, with an E at the end,” Jack said. “She’s your sire. You’re her childe. It ... it’s not a normal relationship, and it’s very unusual to be made this way. Julias got to know me for years, right? Groomed me, prepared me, though he didn’t tell me why. I asked Antoinette to embrace a stranger. It’s ... yeah, unusual circumstances”

His mom continued to look up at Antoinette, and after a while, drew up a smile. “I’m sorry, I ... it’s all so ... I’m so...”

“Give it time, Samantha Terry. We have asked you to accept more in fifteen minutes, than most must accept in a lifetime.” After a nod, the elevator dinged, and Antoinette stepped out. She opened the first, large office double door, and Samantha gasped in awe as she was introduced to just one of Antoinette’s offices. There, Daniel was waiting, and he had a bottle of red at the table, along with glasses. In the back of the room, the curtain was pulled aside, showing the giant glass window, and the city skyline lit up with lights.

The man looked at Jack, adjusted his glasses, and watched him, like a sniper watches a potential target. Antoinette must have told him. Shit.

“My love and I have fed recently, Samantha. Please, help yourself to as much as you wish.”

“Um ... thanks.” Samantha walked around the glass table in the center of the room, and sat down. Her hands were shaking as she took a glass. They didn’t stop as Daniel filled it with red, and her eyes stared at the thick liquid. “Um ... uh ... s-so, this is your, uh, boyfriend?” she said, nodding to Daniel. “Hello, Mister... ?”

Antoinette raised a brow, looking to Daniel, then to Jack, then to Samantha. After a moment, she groaned, and set a couple fingers against her forehead. “Merde.”

“You’re going to make her head explode, with too many revelations at once, my Prince,” Jack said, unable to stop a smile sneaking through. Of all the shit, of all the horrible shit that was burying him, and the Prince by relation, there was something delightfully funny about her accidentally revealing that he was Antoinette’s lover.

His mom looked at Jack, caught the smile, and her eyes went wider than any time before. She looked to Antoinette, then back to him, and completed the circuit twenty times, before she downed the glass of blood without attempting to taste it.

“I need ... alcohol...”

“Sorry,” Jack said, sitting down next to his mom, and patting her on the shoulder. “Sorry for ... for a lot of things. Sorry I couldn’t tell you about any of this. Sorry that ... that our night war spilled over, and got ... Mary killed. Sorry that I couldn’t tell you I’ve been dating the Prince of Dolareido for over a year.” He nodded to Antoinette, eyes still on his mom. “Sorry, but you can’t drink alcohol either. Only blood.”

His mom stared down at the empty glass in her hand. “Are ... are you sure? I think now would be the perfect time to become an alcoholic.”

“Agreed. But, yeah, no alcohol, unless you want to vomit it up.”

Sighing, she took the bottle Daniel had set on the massive glass table, and poured herself more. Apparently, she liked it, or at least, liked the way it felt in her stomach. “S-So, um ... uh ... the Prince?”

Antoinette sat down at the head of the table, and leaned back in her luxurious chair as she combed her white hair over her chest with her fingers. “A gender neutral title, specific to Kindred. Vampires. This is my city, Samantha Terry, and I must apologize yet again. I have failed to keep the peace, to deal with invaders, to expunge the filth, and that has led to this situation. Ideally, you would have lived your life, blissfully unaware—”

“Blissful?” Mom set her glass down, and glared at Antoinette, sparing only a second for Daniel. “My son disappeared. Both of the most important men in my life were dead. I was ... I ... was...”

Silence fell on the room, and Jack, without realizing, put his hand on his mom’s wrist. With a squeeze for her shaking limb, he scooted his chair in a little closer.

“It’s the way it is, Mom. The way it has to be. Lot of vamps go through this problem, abandoning their families. We have to keep it secret, this night life. We’re undead.” Ok, his mom was his mom, and trying to explain to her things like the machinations of ancient elders, the harsh intentions of hunters, and the possible extinction of their race if they became known worldwide, was too much for now. Keep it simple, keep it succinct.”If ... if we became public, the sort of people who killed Mary, would be here in droves with pitchforks and torches. Worse, shotguns and flamethrowers. They’d hunt us down.”

“But ... b-but I thought vampires were the bad guys? I mean, I know it’s not that simple in Twilight, but ... but that’s just a story...”

Jack winced and looked to Antoinette, only to find her gesturing to him. This was a prime opportunity for her to learn about his mother through observation, while at the same time, let him handle tough questions. Smart. Evil of her, but smart.

“We can be. We’re usually somewhere in the gray, Mom. Yeah, we drink blood, but we don’t have to kill anyone. And Antoinette has pushed hard for Dolareido to be a peaceful city, compared to others.”

“Vampires ... are in other cities?”

He nodded, and poured his mom another glass of blood. She was going through it quickly, which was a good sign. “Basically every city. There’s hundreds of Kindred in Dolareido. It’s a society, with its own rules, its own history, its own ... political parties, and its own enemies.”

“And ... and ... I’m ... in that society now?”

“Sort of. You’re a fledgling, brand new. Just do what Antoinette tells you, and everything will be fine. You’ve got the most powerful Kindred in the city as your sire.”

“ ... and ... apparently, she’s your girlfriend?”

He winced, and scratched his buzzed hair. “She is. We love each other, quite a bit.”

His mom squinted at him, trying to read him in that way she always used to, making no effort to hide her attempts to decipher his face. Her gaze turned to Antoinette again after a while, and she spent a little more time looking at her, at how she looked, at the seat she was in, the office she owned, the window she owned, and the man in the trench coat.

“Who ... who’s he?”

“This is Daniel, my sheriff,” Antoinette said.

“Sheriff?”

“Yes, my childe. As my little Vent—as Jack has explained, this is my city. When matters must be handled with force, Daniel is my right hand.”

Mom shrank, and took another gulp of her drink. At least she was getting lost in other things, and not getting stuck on the whole ‘drinking blood’ hurdle a lot of vampires struggled to get over. She might hit it later, especially when she had to feed on an actual person, but for now, this was good.

“I ... I don’t have any say in this, do I?”

Sighing, Jack sat up straight, and withdrew his hand. “Not really, no. I asked Antoinette to sire you, to save your life. You were dying in that bed.” The unspoken choice was obvious of course. Kill herself. He dared not say it. His mom had to be volatile at the moment; a stiff breeze would shatter her. She wasn’t grieving over Mary, because she didn’t have time. Hell, he wasn’t grieving over Julias, because he didn’t have time.

Samantha reached out, and took his hand. She put it back on the table, held it, and managed to smile at him as she, again, gulped down some more blood with her shaking hand. “I’m sorry Jack. I’m just ... struggling to wrap my mind around all this.”

“You have all the time in the world now. You’re immortal.”

“Immortal?”

“One the perks. Antoinette and Daniel are both centuries old.”

Samantha raised her eyes at that; then again, she’d been raising her eyes at everything, and he could tell it was starting to lose meaning for her. “I ... I need to ... to stop ... and think...”

Antoinette smiled at her new childe, nodding, and motioned to Daniel. “Daniel, please go with Jack, and check the prisoner. Keep an eye on him.” A small glance Jack’s way added the double meaning. ‘Him’ meant both Sándor, and Jack. Yeah, that was understandable. “Jack my dear, I know you must report to the Invictus as soon as possible, but please spare a moment for Beatrice. I have invited her to the tower, and I imagine she will arrive within the next thirty minutes.”

Oh fuck. Oh fucking god. He lowered his head, and with heavy shoulders, forced himself to stand.

Beatrice. Her name crashed into him, broke him open, spilled his guts, and left him defenseless. Julias was dead, and he had to tell her. Julias was dead, and he had to tell the Invictus. Julias was dead, and the closest thing he had to a father, was gone.

When the rage rose up within him, this time, it didn’t come as a faceless wave. It came up, and it was obvious something else came with it, was pushing it, driving it, forcing it to bubble up through him. His Beast was out of the box, off its leash, and for some fucking reason, it came with its own personality.

Let’s go hunting, Jack. Let me drive, and I’ll rip the hunters apart. I can find them them. I can find them, and we can rip them into pieces. You don’t know how good it feels, to feast until you overflow. We can find that Angela bitch, rape her until she cries, stab her, rip her open, fuck her while we drain her and—

He shook his head, hard, hard enough to hurt his neck. What in the ever living fuck?

When he opened his eyes, Daniel had unfolded his arms from his chest, and one looked ready to reach over his shoulder. He kept a sword back there, a very long sword, hidden inside the trench coat, and he was prepared to use it on him.

They didn’t trust him. No, that wasn’t true. They trusted him a lot, actually. They trusted him more than they should have, considering his behavior when Antoinette and Damien had found him. Seeing his mom had shattered its hold on him, like ice water to the face and spine. That was why Antoinette had brought her when waking him up, so he’d wake to her face. It was a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea to trust Jack with talking to Sándor; but then, Daniel could kill him instantly if he started acting out, or at least stab him with a stake. Maybe.

If Jack was Antoinette, and a Kindred he knew had done what he did, summoned an army of crows, and had a personality shift, he’d have them locked up, hung them up, blindfolded them, and staked them, until he knew what was happening. Christ, the crows. That was a massive Masquerade violation, and it’d take a lot of media manipulation to pass that off as something natural or explainable. The Invictus were going to have his head for that.

He really hoped Scully and Mulder were fine. Would they even still trust him, after seeing what he did?

Daniel came forward, and walked past him before motioning for him to follow. He did, unable to look the man in the eyes. A flicker of the man’s gaze said it all: Daniel was more than ready to kill him, and if anything, the man looked offended that Jack had put him in this position. Daniel cared about Antoinette above all, with the only exception being his childe. Jack was now an unknown factor, who spent every night in her bed. If he did anything to make Daniel think he was dangerous, the best he could hope for was a stake to the heart.

“Damien and Natasha are waiting for us, Jack.”

“They are? I—oh, Mom?” He looked over his shoulder back at the two women. A moment of worry was on Antoinette’s face, and he caught it; an arrow to the fucking heart, and not a nice, pink one in the shape of a heart. Antoinette was worried about him, very worried, and she was putting that conversation on hold so she could handle her new childe, and everything else. “Stay with Antoinette. She’s your sire, and she’ll be taking care of you.”

“You’re going?” She almost jumped out of her chair, until Jack motioned for her to sit.

“I sleep here basically every day, and spend a lot of my time here. I’ll see you all the time, ok? I might leave the tower sometime tonight, but I’ll explain the situation to my bosses, and I’ll be back.”

“Oh ... ok ... p-please, come back?”

And his heart shattered. The Beast inside him, demanding he be angry, growling and roaring and looking to unleash its hate toward Angela, went quiet. That strange voice in his head vanished. The sight of his mom’s face, half panicked with the thought of losing the son she’d just got back, when the rest of her life was in ruin, buried the Beast and the rage it rode. Remember that face, Jack.

“I will. Don’t worry.” With a nod, he stepped out of the office, and joined Daniel in the elevator.

“Something happened to you,” the sheriff said. Oh boy, a conversation with the sheriff, when no one else was around. This was bound to end well.

“Yeah. Something ... did.”

“You know what?”

“Kind of? It’s ... it’s a blur. Trying to remember a dream.” Sighing, he put both his hands against the elevator door, and felt the vibrations of its descent. “Something’s inside me, and it isn’t supposed to be there. It’s ... it’s something, from the past, something that’s been in my bloodline for centuries, I guess. Some ... something ... something fucked up.” Something with a voice of its own.

Daniel stared at him, face as still and expressionless as stone, before he adjusted his glasses. “Does it mean us harm?”

“No. It means the hunters harm.”

“I see.” That seemed to alleviate Daniel’s concern a bit. “Is this something you can control, or should we stake you?” Thank god Daniel didn’t give two shits about being gentle with Jack. Antoinette might have wanted to avoid the hard questions, but the sheriff didn’t hesitate.

“I can feel it, something underneath my skin, lurking, hungry.”

“Sounds like the Beast all Kindred deal with.”

“Yeah, except ... except, now, it doesn’t feel like some mindless animal, you know? Now it feels ... feels like ... like something else.” Like something intelligent. Being hunted by an animal was a scary thing. Being hunted by an intelligent entity, on the other hand, was fucking terrifying. Made him feel like he was a helpless kine, in the middle of the woods, in the dark, being hunted by a monster that knew his name.

The elevator opened, and Damien and Natasha stood there, waiting. Damien took one glance at him, and sighed relief. Natasha, on the other hand, ran up to him, and hugged him.

“Jack!” She buried her face in his chest, and squeezed him. “Jack, oh god, I’m so sorry. I ... I...”

He blinked down at the tiny woman. This was new, and he wasn’t sure—

Jack, you’re doing it again. A horrible death haunts you, and you close yourself off. Don’t do that. Don’t go backward.

Sighing, he closed his eyes, and hugged her back, before opening them again and looking to Damien. “Thanks, for helping the Prince.”

“We ran into each other,” he said, shrugging. “And you ... you didn’t need our help.”

“Yes, I did.” He shook his head, and pat Natasha’s back a couple times. She was content to keep hugging him, which seemed very uncharacteristic of her, considering she was just as antisocial as he was. Then again, she’d changed, too. “If you guys hadn’t shown up, I don’t know if ... if I’d ... have snapped back.”

Natasha lifted her head and blinked up at him. “What?”

Sighing again, Jack explained what he could to the three Mekhets. He left out the detail that he’d chosen to let this Beast out, that he decided to do it, and decided to let it off the leash. He also left out the detail that, apparently, it could whisper to him now. Everything else, he explained in as much detail as he could. The attack on the hospital, Julias’s last stand, Jack’s blurry dream, his cursed ancestor, and how Jack defeated the hunters.

“It’s g-good you didn’t kill Sándor,” Natasha said, nodding and smiling as she stepped away from him, though he could see the weight behind it. Better to focus on their prisoner, than Julias’s death, she probably thought. “We think he’s b-b-being controlled, by Elen.” She squirmed a bit when she looked at him, and her eyes fell. She knew about his rage issues, and when he returned her gaze, the glance was enough for her to realize the two issues were connected; likely connected.

Jack drew his head back. “Really? Controlled?”

“Mhmm. There’s s-s-something carved into his back, b-by Elen. And ... he’s ... he’s like a zombie, when t-talking to her.”

That definitely sounded like brainwash behavior. Daniel nodded, and began the walk down the stairs to the lower depths of the tower, where Antoinette kept her prisoners.

“Damien,” Jack said. “Did—”

“I’ve already sent a message to Maria and Jessy. They know about the hunter attack, and ... your sire’s death.” His eyes fell as he said it, but only for a moment. He knew better than to stew in the pain of it, or rather, to let Jack stew in it. “They also know you killed three hunters, and that you captured their Begotten enforcer. They ... also know about the crows.”

Jack winced. Masquerade violation, and a massive one. The fact he’d dealt the hunters a massive blow, and that he was the only Kindred who’d managed to do so ever, let alone thrice, meant he was valuable to the Invictus. That was probably the only thing that kept them from tying him to a rooftop and leaving him there for sunrise, for that degree of violation. It was the sort of violation that’d hit the media, and there’d be no other way to spin it than ‘swarm of crows attack hospital’. It was the sort of media that went viral, and in this day and age, that meant within twenty-four hours of its occurrence, hunters around the world would read about it. Fuck, they’d get to see it on camera footage.

Damien told them, because it was bound to come out eventually anyway. Hell, the thralls probably reported it during the daily reports they prepped for dusk. Still, it was painful knowing his friend had told them, and not let him do it, no matter how justifiable it was.

“Mom’s upstairs with Antoinette now. It’s ... it’s pretty rough. She looks like she’s ready to break down.”

“B-But she was happy to see you, right?” Tash said.

“Yeah, overjoyed. But then I had to tell her about Mary, and that she’s a vampire, and ... it’s a lot. I want to get back up there, be with her, help walk her through this.”

“Trust in the Prince.” Daniel guided the three of them down the hall, not bothering to look back as he spoke. “She can handle your mother’s situation.”

The hallway had a cell at the end of it, but unlike the cell they’d kept Jack in, no other cells lined the hallway. It was also a deeper level of the tower, one Jack had been discouraged from exploring. What sort of secrets did the dragons keep down here? What sort of strange experiments did they perform behind closed doors. Antoinette had made it clear in the past that, while she considered Dolareido her city, and enforced her policies, her role in the Ordo Dracul had nothing to do with it.