My Little Ventrue Pt. 03 Ch. 01

"I'm surprised! You're a guy. Guys aren't into romance."

"Hey now, unfair. I'll let you in on a secret." He leaned toward her a little as they walked, and lowered his voice a touch. "Guys love romance stories too, just not when it's self-indulgent garbage."

"I don't follow."

"Well... you know how a lot of guys enjoy movies that are nothing but explosions, car chases, and gunfights?"

"Yeah."

"They're pretty awful, yeah? Just testosterone candy in movie form."

"Yeah."

"Well, you can do the same thing with romance. Page one, introduce your two characters destined to be together. Page two through five hundred, have them be drawn to each other with attraction, desire, emotion, and have the writer throw every possible hurdle you can think of to make it so their relationship seems doomed and impossible. Have them get together in the end. Bam, you have the same idiotic, indulgent crap as a movie that's nothing but explosions, just of the romance flavor instead of action flavor."

Amanda blinked at him, and he smirked. He did love a good rant, and he loved it more when people actually bothered to listen. In love with the sound of his own voice, such a Ventrue trait.

"So On Morrow's Break is—"

"Not garbage, because it has a combination of action and romance, and also quality pacing, introspection, meaningful character growth, and events that aren't just formulaic cliches." He laughed when she smiled, his whispering voice gone. "So yeah, I loved that scene too. It had weight."

Some people glanced at them a few times as they walked by, but it passed. Just a young guy and girl on a stroll through Dolareido, middle of the night, wearing suits and looking quite dashing. Jackets on, to hide their shoulder holsters, pistol, some magazines, and a huge knife. Unlikely Jack would ever use them, given his Ventrue approach; words over violence. Powerful words.

But while the two Kindred kept their jackets on, the kine didn't. And as they got further and further into the darker shadow of Dolareido, the clothes people wore changed. Less dress shoes, more sneakers. Less suits, more jeans. And as they went deeper, less shirts, more men shirtless and women in tiny tank tops. Pawn shops with bars on the windows, police sirens for background noise, and instead of restaurants with outdoor eating areas, convenience stores with parking lots and loiterers.

Soon, where people barely noticed the two little vampires in suits before, now everyone noticed them.

Amanda leaned over to him as they walked under the streetlights. "Think maybe... we didn't dress appropriately."

"Can you hide us?"

"No. It'll be years before I can hide us when we're out in the open like this. But, let's find a dark place, and I can."

With a nod, the two neonates turned a corner between two buildings, only five feet apart, and went into the darkness. Where his neighborhood's streetlights were in pristine condition, and the buildings had plenty of space, tall as they were, in the dark alley of Devil's Corner the buildings were near each other, cramped, and only one light over a handleless door was lit. A couple people were sitting, torn jeans, sneakers with the toes worn open, tattoos of guns and faces on their shoulders, and a couple of fake-silver chain-link necklaces.

They looked at him and Amanda, shrugged, and returned to their conversation about music. A band he recognized!

"I love Russel's voice." Jack stepped up to the two strangers, men, probably in their thirties, and smiled at them. "That power! Oh god the compression he can put on his voice? That cord closure too! Fucking shivers every time I hear it."

They blinked at him, looked him and his suit up and down, and said nothing. Jack looked to Amanda, and she blinked at him the same way, and said nothing. Nothings all around.

"I uh... nevermind." Chuckling, scratching his buzzed hair, he managed a shrug and kept walking down the alley. He needed to find another metal music lover to talk about this shit with, later.

Once down the alley where it met with the other buildings that formed the block, they were in almost complete darkness. Good enough for Amanda. He could feel the blood change, but as subtly as a light breeze on the hairs of his skin. Not noticeable unless you were looking for it. The cloak of night.

She put her hand on his shoulder, gave him a nod, and pointed up. He reached out for a windowsill and climbed. The thrill of strength, of power coursing through his dried veins, of the balance and animal instinct to pull his weight up and balance. One foot on the window bars, one foot up high onto the metal beam of what was once an alley light, he pushed higher. A glance behind him showed Amanda was following suit.

Once they ran out of things to brace their feet down against, they had to reach out to the wall across, both hands. Two feet against one wall, two hands against the other, they crawled up the walls like spiders, until they were twelve floors up. No fear, none at all. They could fall, and the worse they'd get is a broken leg they could heal in minutes.

So god damn awesome.

Once he got his fingers onto the roof, he pulled himself up, crouched low, and poked his head out to look over the street. One of the taller buildings in Devil's Corner, they could see out and into the nightlife below, the shitty lights flashing horrible signs for bars, brothels — illegal, but still blatant — and everything in between. People walked, chatted, and breezed right on by without hesitation as cop cars with sirens blasting drove past. Just a night in the life of Devil's Corner.

There were worse places in the world, far worse, but he had to admit, he much preferred his life of high class. If he had to dine on the kine on a regular basis, he preferred the cocaine addicts to the disease ridden.

Disease ridden. Sounding awfully judgmental and full of yourself, Jack. Ventrue side showing through a little more than you'd like.

Amanda squatted down beside him on the roof, and looked out over Devil's Corner.

"You're... kind of nice," she said.

He quirked a brow. "I uh... what?"

"Nice. I don't know, after learning you and the Prince were an item, I thought you'd be scarier. And then after... after I... came back from the Lancea et Sanctum, I thought you'd..."

"That I'd criticize?"

"Well yeah."

"Antoi—the Prince told me the underground network, that section of it that Tony used, that Lucas took over, was some sort of special... thing. A wyrm's nest, with magical mystic jumbo happening there. Made people very subservient, easily controlled. Hence, Tony's brood. Hence, Lucas's brood. Hence, his control over you." He shrugged and looked out over the city below, to the police tape blocking off an alley a few blocks down. The wyrmn's nest, whatever that meant, had been destroyed and collapsed since then, nothing to worry about."We should—"

Her hand grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him down so he stayed next to her. "It... it wasn't just... that." Eyes down and lip trembling, she shook her head so her long hair fell over her near-obsidian skin, until Jack had to lean out a little ways to see her eyes. "He said a lot of things that make sense."

"Lucas?"

"Yeah! And Bishop Damien," she said. Good thing she couldn't see his eye twitch at the name. "They... they talked about god, and the origins of vampires, and our purpose. A lot of it... rang true, you know? Maybe not all of it, maybe Lucas got a little zealous, but Damien talked about... finding your purpose in God's plan."

Finding your purpose. Jack grit his teeth, and turned his gaze back to the street below. They were still wrapped in her cloak of night, so he could talk and move, as long as he stayed near her, and they didn't get out into the open lights or close to people. Good enough for him to vent a little.

"A lot of circumstantial evidence, a lot of hearsay, a lot subjectivity, and a lot of blind concepts like faith. You're talking to the wrong person about this, Amanda, I'm a scientist at heart. Got some evidence you want to talk about, or maybe analyze some deduced reasoning? I'm there. Want to talk about what you feel"—he air quoted—"and what you know in your soul, and your heart"—more air quotes—"then you should talk to Damien."

A long sigh from her made Jack wince, and he stuck out his hand to touch hers.

"Sorry," he said, "I uh... threw that impression you had of me right back to where it was, didn't I?"

"No, no. You're honest, and direct. I like that." Another smile from her, and a little warmer too.

Flirting? She couldn't be flirting, girls did not flirt with Jack, he wasn't Julias.

"So, you a devout believer?" he said.

"I... don't know? With Lucas, it was easy to believe I was. Now, I guess I'm just agnostic."

"Ah, me too."

"You too? Thought you said you were a scientist."

He laughed and scratched his buzzed head. "A good scientist knows when to reevaluate the hypothesis, when new evidence is brought to light. I've seen some... strange things, since being embraced, that I'd be a fool to ignore. Being dead and still talking, for one. The Prince's wyrm nest thingy, for two."

Amanda laughed too, and smiled at him. Another one of those fun, sly little smiles. Maybe she was flirting? Was Julias rubbing off on him?

"Exactly! Others just ignore all the mystical, the magical. I mean, we can regenerate from bullet holes through the skull! I've seen my sire hide us from dozens of eyes. I've seen Damien read the history of items, just by touching them! It... it—"

"—Would make anyone wonder if there's more at work here than we can see." Yeah, no denying that. After seeing Lucas disintegrate a sword with his hand, and then a bolt of lightning strike Antoinette? He had to question a lot of things that night. "So, how do you want to do this?" He gestured to the police tape down the street.

"Let's stay up on the roofs and climb down into the scene. I won't be able to keep us hidden if I'm scanning the area for evidence. If anyone notices us, can you make them go away?"

"No problem." Brainwashing Dracula style, bending people's minds to his will, turning them into puppets? He could do that. He could do that easily.

Cocky, Jacky. Pride comes before a fall. But a little pride was good for the soul, too.

The two of them resumed their journey, and started jumping across the rooftops. Neither had the proper strength to make enormous leaps, but they were vampires, jumping five feet across building tops was easy enough. A few seconds later, they were passed the police tape sectioning off an alley on the other side of the street. They made a quick climb down, across into another alley on the other side of the street, up onto the buildings, and down into the sectioned-off alley.

Not exactly the best entrance, but an entrance nonetheless; pretty damn good for a couple of rookies. The officer standing by the tape was a good thirty feet off, with the turn of a building corner blocking him off from the two Kindred. It gave them the room to wander around the dark alley, each bringing up the smartphones and taking pictures of things that looked unusual. What qualified as unusual, he had no idea. That's why Amanda was there.

"These claw marks are massive." She squatted down next to a blood splatter, and snapped a few pictures. "Look here. They cut in at a curve, and go a few inches deep. The slash itself is... six feet long? Either the person was moving forward while attacking with a huge claw-like weapon, something with a pointed tip, or they held still, and attacked with such a weapon of absurd length."

"Former sounds like Gangrel behavior. Latter not so much," he said.

"Yeah. But in either case, I don't see a human cutting into asphalt like this. Or... this." Another claw mark, on the wall. "Cut through brick like it was butter... I've seen Jessy make marks like these, when she was upset and in a fight."

"I've never seen a Gangrel transform." How big could their claws get? Beatrice had some claws on her, but nothing that could make these marks. And it was hard to imagine a Gangrel sporting a transformation nastier than what the Nosferatu had all the time.

Amanda shuddered, stuck out her hand to touch her fingers along the gash, and traced it as she walked. Deeper into the alley, where it was almost pure black, Jack turned the light on his phone and started scanning the walls as well. Careful to avoid stepping in blood, but not for fear of leaving evidence; the Invictus owned the police. The shoes were too expensive to get bloody.

So damn snobby, Jack. Heh.

"They have lots of transformations, generally warping the body in a single way. They don't normally do a proper transformation like a werewolf, usually just a body part or two. Gangrel like to give themselves massive claws, more than capable of gashes like these. And... blood splatters like these." She motioned to the red dots and lines along the wall. Not exactly red anymore; the blood looked a day old.

"I wonder if McDonald and Garry have ever gotten into a fight. I wonder how that'd go."

"Probably bring a building down on them," she said. They both chuckled.

The claw marks stopped, and so did the blood, as they neared the end of the alley. Only a manhole waited for them where the blood trail ceased. He stopped and looked down at it, then at Amanda, then back at the manhole.

"... shit. I really liked these shoes."

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

It could not get anymore classic horror than this.

Tunnels. Lots of tunnels, large ones, with cement bricks and a shallow amount of water at the base. No light to see by except for their phones. If there was one way he was going to die, it'd be by getting torn apart by a sewer monster.

And his shoes. Oh, his poor shoes. The water was over his ankles, and it most definitely did not smell nice.

"I've never been down here," he said.

"Neither have I. I know when Antoinette, Viktor, and Jacob first came to the city, when it was just a tiny town of log cabins, they started digging." She started walking, and he followed. At least she was a little more comfortable with the dark than he was, Mekhet and all. "They made sure that, as the town grew and more of it came under their control, that there were always tunnels for vampires. Lots of them, big, sturdy, with places to hide. Complex. Sire Gloria and Natasha, they know the sewers well."

"I can't picture Madam Jenning enjoying sewers the least bit."

She chuckled and pressed on, scanning the light around up at the manholes above, the drainage pipes that ran across the concave walls, and the various large holes along the walls that lead to ladders. Occasionally there was a twinkle of light as his Kindred eyes adjusted to the dark, but nothing more than a glimmer of streetlight getting through some manhole covers.

The further they went through the sewers, the more lost he got. He was sure he'd figure out where he was once he climbed out, but until then he was just a rat running around in a maze. The noise above was muffled, cars and chatter, quiet enough he could hear actual rats squeaking and scurrying. They walked for a good while too, following some unknown trail. Amanda seemed to know where they were going, and she was the senior.

Let a Mekhet lead. He could just imagine Viktor's reaction to that. But he wasn't Viktor, thank god.

Stop thinking about Viktor. Stop thinking about Tony, or Lucas. Stop thinking about Mrs. Pavala, just focus on—

"I can... smell perfume," she said.

"You can smell perfume? Down here?"

She looked over her should, grinned, and tapped the side of her nose. "You can keep no secrets from a Mekhet."

"... can you tell me what cologne I'm wearing?"

"You're not wearing cologne."

"Touche."

Amanda stopped, and looked around. When Jack made eye contact, she held up a hand and put a finger to her lips, before she started on once again. But as she did, she reached into her suit jacket, and withdrew her pistol.

Jack gulped, and did the same. The two of them were not so dumb as to not bring flashlights though, and better than their smartphones. Pistol lights, leaving both hands free to aim the gun, and see what they were aiming at; nothing but concrete brick and water dripping down the old walls. But he could feel the tingle on his arm hairs as Amanda once again enveloped them in the cloak of night. She was no Natasha, her skill with the discipline was a far cry from who Jack was used to working with. He wouldn't be able to rely on her if something horrible happened.

Not that he'd do any better, especially in the dark. And it was better than nothing, maybe that one extra second they'd need to respond to whatever rotted zombie limb reached out from the black abyss around their feet to drag them into a second death.

The tunnel opened up into a junction, a large room with flat walls and half a dozen other tunnels connected. There were a few holes, large ones capable of fitting a person on their knees; probably opened into rooms with ladders to the streets, or down deeper into the maze. Massive pipes crossed the open ceiling in a dizzying array of zigzags and twists, and metal doors lined each wall. At the end of a couple of the tunnels, he could see tall metal grates, bars thick and tight. Any second, he expected a wave of rats or cockroaches to pour out of the tunnels and swarm over them. Even the drip drop of trickling water in the black sent chills down his spine.

No place a beautiful redhead.

He blinked, looked at Amanda, and she looked at him, before the two pointed their pistols at the woman. Someone wearing jeans and a jacket, a decent looking leather one too, made for traveling. A bit short, curvy, with long red hair, a mane of frizzy curls. Her hands were in her jacket pockets, and her pale skin sported many freckles.

The beast in his gut growled, a cat with its fur standing on end. A quick glance at Amanda showed hers must have been doing the same, as she kept her gun pointed at the stranger, eyes locked and wide. Her cloak of night was gone too; not that it'd help much with the light of their pistols shining out.

No one said a thing. Just silent stares as the two vampires quivered. Who the fuck was that?

The stranger moved first, turning to face them straight on, and tilted her head to the side. Squinting, perplexed, she looked them up and down, before she gasped and took a step back. "Vampires!"

And she bolted. Panicking like she'd seen ghosts, she swung open one of the nearby metal doors and ran through it. The following slam of her closing it resonated through the sewers until the echo rang in their ears.

And then silence again. Jack stared at the door, then at Amanda.

"Um... should we follow her?" she said.

"Dunno. You ever felt a vampire like that? ... or heard a vampire freak out at the sight of other Kindred?" First experiences with elders aside.

"No, and I don't recognize her. I... maybe we should report back."

"We have nothing to report back." Not good enough for the council or Jessy, anyway.

With a sigh, he stepped toward the door, and motioned for Amanda to get on the other side. She was quick to act, and pressed her shoulders to the wall, pistol up. He pointed to his ear and looked at her, but she shook her head. No sounds coming from inside then. Well, no use in waiting any longer. Get a bit more info, get out, report back to Jessy. Don't do anything stupid. Not that what he was about to do wasn't very stupid, but he needed something to report, or it'd look badly on his standing in the Invictus. Gotta play the game. Dance the Danse Macabre.

He pulled open the door, pinned it to the wall with his shoulder, and poked his head in along with enough of his hands and arms to point his gun into the darkness.

Nothing. He aimed up, down, left and right, but found only pipes. Not big pipes either, little ones, all connecting to varying junctions of other pipes, connected to a few large metal bins; no clue what they were for. There were dials, rusted and dirty, and everything was covered in a generous helping of spiderwebs.