Blood Pressure

Author's Note: Just to say, this is written as erotica but like not even softcore. Part II should totally have some funner stuff tho, though I still hope this is fun <3

CW for violent homophobia mention & partner loss

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Lune had turned over too many times now. Every angle, every side, put pressure on another of a copious count of bruises. And then there was the hangover, the aftermath of downing decades of carefully-prepared -- and stolen -- decoctions. Those that turned blood to bile, imbued inhuman reflexes, and let her fight for days and days and days on end.

Her body was not having a good time recovering from that -- her mind like it had a dulled sgian tugging at her neurons -- but Lune hadn't really been planning that far ahead.

And now there wasn't anywhere to go, just evermore of the Mistress's -- her Mistress's -- pillows to sink into. The colossal four-poster a castle-within-a-castle, whose depths of linen and eiderdown were thoroughly reminding Lune of just how much smaller she was than the ancient beast that approached her.

She drew her hand up to hide the lace collar around her neck, a glass bulb holding the tiniest drop of vampire's blood. "Does it bother you, dearest moonlight?" the beast cooed.

"Mistress Adeline." she spat nervously. Pulling herself up, glass twinkling against metal links, she grasped the silvered padlock at the back. It was supposed to be a ward but-

"It's a reminder, okay, of my failure." Tears fell from already well-reddened eyes. "The Firstborn, foretold for generations to slay Night's greatest terror, now its worthless toy."

"I think you're being a little hard on yourself, dear."

"No! No, I'm not. And you only sound like that because- because you've thralled me. You're not-" Adeline sat down next to her, her hand cold against Lune's cheek and warm against her heart. Burning even.

How could this not be an enchantment? Lune had felt it only once before, so long ago, for the tavern girl who'd been sweet on her, but her father...

No woman shalt make another feel so. You have let yourself be thralled child.

And they had butchered that poor girl. And she died far too easily. But if her father had been wrong, or lying, then it would have meant...

She never spoke of those feelings again. The Firstborn should think only of her duties.

No. It simply must be, Mistress Adeline was holding her hostage. The clan couldn't dare upon a thing while Lune was here. And Lune couldn't escape, the moment she would even dare she'd find herself locked in place by the merest of Adeline's musings.

Or no- no, wait. That wouldn't have stopped her. It couldn't have. She was the Firstborn, there was no choice but to try, she must always have the will to try.

The Mistress must have taken that from her. Yes.

It wasn't Lune's fault she couldn't bring herself to do it. No, the only choice given to her was to just rend herself unto the graceful talons that had laid her here.

"Dearest?" Adeline could feel the thought Lune was lost in, who simply couldn't hide them from her, yet still she acted otherwise. She did not ignore Lune's heart though -- beating fearfully, and loudly, in her chest.

"You know, you're going to have to get used to this, to me, sooner rather than later. It is quite difficult to keep myself composed when you're like this." Lune tried to find the threat in her words, but her mind found it playful. Concerned, even.

That twisting of her mind, it was an indignation, and Lune flared at it. "I don't want to get used to you, I want to go home."

"No, no you don't. I know your desires, know because you're in my thrall, dear. But not because I've thralled you to that." She blinked at Lune slowly, indulgently. Knowing she posed no threat to her at all. "Let me remind you."

And now another blade entered her mind, a chirurgeon clipping her worries away as though it were sickened and necrotic flesh. But carefully. Her Mistress took away only the feelings -- not the thoughts -- and asked "How does that feel?"

"Better. And I hate it." Lune tried to glare at her, deep into the pooling burgundy of her eyes.

And she tried to avert away from it -- first towards Adeline's chest. No no, she quickly thought. Further still was good, down to pensively intertwining claws. The anger just slipping away from Lune in a heady wave. "It's... wrong. Not what I'm meant to feel."

"And have I taken that wrongness from you?"

A moment.

"No... you haven't."

Lord, did she have an answer for everything?

"I would take nothing you did not wish to give me, or have me take away. I have always taken care of my consorts, dear. That's why you're here."

Lune stoked desperately at her ashen fury, "To be your consort?!"

"To be taken care of." Adeline soothed. "So much pressure, too many expectations. The Firstborn destined to slay me? Too much."

She did.

And tears had reached Lune's heart now, washing those last embers away.

"I wanted it to be over. And I- I thought if I could just do it. Not allow them to waste my entire life with training I wasn't supposed to fucking need." She pulled the sheets over her shoulders, a mind she couldn't hide but a body she still instinctively tried to.

She looked to Adeline now, and didn't look away. "Except that I did need it. I fucking lost."

"Did you, dear? You were quite fearsome." Ugh, what was her point in these platitudes? They mocked, not soothed. There had been no point to any of it, it was over the moment-

"And you bit me. Thralled me." Lune tried bade quivering cheeks back to their place, with no success. Her body's chain of command had collapsed. "And you- you forced me to yield."

"Did I, dear? Yes. I bit you. But you know what it feels like."

"Yes! I do! And stop saying that!" Adeline was playing with her, she had to be, sinking questions into her like claws. "I- I had no choice. You didn't give me any choice."

"They gave you no choice." Her words were sweet, and ever so tempting. "All you did was finally realise it, that you couldn't keep going on the only path ever given to you."

"No. No! I..." There was no escape from this clutch. Any attempt to wrestle from it would only leave her mind bleeding into itself.

"It's okay, moonlight. Let yourself tell the truth."

There was no stopping herself anymore. "I- I wanted to give up, okay!? It was too much. How many times had I seen you and wanted to just give up... give up into your arms. Whether I was thrall or not."

Her Mistress smiled. Gently pursing her lips as not to bare fangs. If Lune could have sensed anything back she was sure she would have felt pride.

"It's a good excuse isn't it? That I didn't give you a choice either." She slipped her hand around Lune's neck, holding the lock in a pinch. "There'd been no will left at the end. I could have torn your mind to pieces and made a new, perfect one in its place.

"But that's not what I want, moonlight."

Every time she said it. Lord.

"I'm just offering a new path, for as long or little as you need."

Lune paused at the words, slowed down more than she had in months. Or years.

And after a moment, she tilted her head and rocked, softly, into the crook aneath Adeline's head, greeted by a chilled porcelain. "I think I feel better. And- and that it's nice."

"Good. Good." The pleasant stoicism, the merest touches of ancient apathy, of the Mistress briefly eclipsed with joy. A hand pulling her close. "That's how I want all my girls to feel."

Lune was curious, if a little envious, at the question Adeline had now begot. "Your girls?"

"None of them stay forever, dear. Just as long as they need to." Adeline's hand slipped limply down her back. "I never keep them when they want to go but it's been... a while."

"How long?"

The recounting was precise, patient but immediate. "87 years. 4 months. 3 weeks. 6 days. And as of now? 12 hours and 42 minutes."

Lune stared up at her for a moment. How Adeline must never stop thinking about it. "I didn't think it'd be so-"

"It's not so bad for me. The time. Just that I know, even with my blood, she's gone now."

She'd pulled her hand back, and Lune hadn't noticed, such was that devilish grace and speed. "Are you... really the monster I was told of? You seem so-"

Adeline laughed. A short but vicious tittering.

"Ooh. Oh, yes I am dear. Should you ever deign to grace my dungeons you will know. I advise against it, though I assure you, they all deserve to be there."

"Lord, I- I don't know if I would have wished to hear that."

"Don't worry." her Mistress shushed. "My girls are far too precious for me to ever hurt -- I could always take it away for you? I'd like you to feel safe here."

"I... I would-"

"I'd like you to stay here for a while."