Depravity's Daughter

She purred the answer. "Oh, yes, thank you, Master. You're in such a good mood tonight."

I smiled. "I'm in a needy mood, actually, baby. After seeing you suffer and hearing what I have, I need the reassurance of connection and I need to feel the joy of conquering your insanity and seeing you coherent."

She sipped from the wine glass in answer, forced to obedience, and she easily filled her gaping pussy with her fingers. Her eyes rolled back and she sipped again with a moan of ecstasy. While I stood and stroked the cane down her knees, she drank both glasses slowly, so slowly, and she twisted with pleasure, her pussy displayed for my viewing enjoyment. She seemed able to start and stop the things like lactation at will and I had a feeling she could control how much cum she dripped, if she desired, as well. "Oh, Master, did I demonstrate how much I enjoyed it well enough?"

"Definitely." And God, she had. I couldn't resist her anymore. "Bend back over the bed," I growled. She obeyed and I stroked my palm between her legs before I breathed and pressed my cock to those slick nether lips. Instantly, she made a crying sound of bliss and I pressed inside of her, inch by inch. I had to fight for every silken caress of her, had to force my way while she so slowly spread to accommodate me in such an unnatural way. I loved watching it, loved seeing how insanely opened her sex became. It appeared as if I should ruin her forever, but it was the nature of her kind to take it and confuse it with food. Bloodlust and lust eternally twisted together inside of her.

Now that I knew that, it seemed all the more wonderfully pervasive. I moaned when I could go no further and she clamped on me, holding me still while she instinctively fed. It didn't take long at all, as I had already fed her this way the night before, and she had not actually been using so very much magic.

And then I fucked her, so hard the bed rocked with some of the thrusts. Each one brought a growl from me and a cry from her and I was glad this room was so warded, glad I could have this private moment with her to feel secure again, especially after her moment of managing to undo me. Especially after all I had learned and how much danger it could possibly mean for my offspring. I would do what I had to in order to ensure her safety, but I wondered what that would mean for me. I had already felt that demon that waited from combining Depravity and I together. How often would I have to become that thing?

There was one thing D and I both agreed on. It didn't matter what we had to become, so long as Mira could remain safely and twistedly my innocent. We didn't want her to ever have to kill. She refused to take human life to feed, had only taken it in insanity, and I did not want her to have to take undead life either. No, I would figure this out and then I would take her back to her human home so she could have her memory back.

————

"Levi, do you have a minute?"

I caught him outside of my library with Mira at my side. After a few days of staying in my house with her, he smiled gently down at her now. Besides that first incident, she had been well behaved and sane enough that he had started to be taken in by her. "Of course, Lucius."

I guided them both into the library and took a deep breath. "You seem a little more at ease with Mira."

He chuckled wryly. "Yes, well, if I'm not as at ease as I should be, you'll have to forgive me. The one run-in I've had with her kind left me shaken."

"Of course." I paused and considered. "And you have the self control that Astarte instilled in you, something that I know Sadra admires about you, loves you for."

Levi was still, calm, as was his nature. It was why he and Sadra made a perfect pair really. Levi, like me, was once a violently tempered man, from my understanding, until trauma had happened to him. But Sadra was always the gentle soul of a scholar, and he was endlessly patient. They traveled together without putting stresses on each other's time, and the temperament had rubbed off on Levi. "Where are you going with this, Lucius?"

I took a breath and tightened my arm around Mira. "She refuses to feed for herself. If something were to happen to me..."

Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't that, but there was no one I trusted more than him, not even Sadra. He glanced at her in astonishment. "Why won't she?"

She whimpered and I grimaced. "She'll only feed from me and nothing is apparently ever allowed to happen to me, but in case it does, I need reassurance."

"She'll go insane without you and your demon, won't she?"

I nodded, blushing. "He'll try to find her, call her back to hell if he has to, and I can tell you that for sure, but it's the hungers I worry for and-" God, I did not want to be thinking about this, "And that includes the other hunger of her kind. I think if she tried to feed on a human-"

"She'd kill him," Levi answered shortly, and I flinched. I had guessed, but he said it with the assurance of one who knew. "She'd drain him of his life force trying to refill her magic and then she'd kill him."

"Right. You know what, it's too much. Forget I asked it and I'm so-"

"I'll do it." He said it quietly, abruptly. "I'll make sure she's okay for you. Anything for you, Lucius, after what you did."

I breathed. "Thank you. I just needed the safety net."

"So she won't hunt."

I growled in my throat at Ishtar's voice, while Levi backed away. I nodded him to the door so he wouldn't have to deal with this bullshit and he gave me a look of gratitude. I knew he hated being near Ishtar even more than I did, hated the reminders of Astarte. "This conversation has nothing to do with you." God, I'd been irritated ever since she brought up Sebastian. Hearing the vampire king's name brought up feelings I didn't want to have every single time.

"Everything about her right now has to do with me and you know why. You're not stupid, Lucius. You know why they sent me." Goddamnit, I did know why and it made me even more irritated.

"Me and mine are not a threat to any of them." I said it silkily, as polite as I could manage.

"You also shouldn't have been a threat to your Sire, yet you bear the name Sirekiller with pride." She turned her eyes on Mira, who curled into my side. "So whatever it was that allowed you to kill yours, she apparently has none of that characteristic. She ties herself to you more, in fact, and I've seen the Compulsion make her obey. She's thoroughly under your control."

I snorted, thinking of the night I'd tried to get her interested in hunting one day. "She obeys me, but I tend to think she has total control over me."

Ishtar chuckled. "Come here, dearie."

"What are you going to do?" I asked it automatically when she beckoned Mira, wary after what she'd already done to her, how she'd managed to confuse and break her with just one projected set of memories.

"Relax, Lucius. I'm going to try to teach her. Look at me, child, and I want you to focus on me as if I were your food."

I blinked, taken aback. Mira was the one who answered with a confusion I hadn't even considered. "Y-you can't feed me, Your Grace." I hadn't made it past the thought of Ishtar being food for anyone.

Ishtar smiled. "Very true. I am not anatomically equipped for it, but I want you to pretend, I said. You have imagination, girl, so use it." Mira nodded, wary and hesitant, but she nodded still. "Now, for your food, you need to sexually entice them. That's where your magic comes in. I've already heard that you can drive humans to kill and that you can affect a room of vampires, as all your kind seems inclined to do while lost to insanity. But you can focus that magic too, on one specific prey, at least from what I understand. This has all been theory for as long as I can remember, since none of your sisters have had near the mental capacity that you do. I want you to try to entice me. You already know how to tap into that magic. Try directing it. Focus on controlling it under your absolute direction."

Damn her, but I was actually interested in this and how she might know about it. Where did Ishtar get this from, a book on succubus magic? I had thought the word to be a myth mere weeks ago and it turned out even Levi knew about them, where I didn't. Seven hells, maybe he was right and I was far too reclusive. I watched Mira curiously, as she closed her eyes and seemed to search herself.

I smelled it first, the change in her as she touched that magic. It crackled over her skin, that enticing scent that called to me. It wasn't nearly as bad as the nights when I could tell she would feel hunger soon, but it was there. And then I felt Depravity teased beneath my skin, much the same as before when she had sent her magic out. I growled in his voice and Ishtar sharply interrupted her. "Stop. Search your room first, dearie. Feel the differences in the two vampires. You can sense us and feel our presences, our different magics. I can project my thoughts and Lucius cannot, but he has his own magic and taste. It is something far darker than mine, I might add. Search the two feelings first because you only want to influence one of the presences."

Mira shook her head with a soft whimper while my vision cleared of darkness. "I'm trying. I am. Give me a minute. The fairies keep talking and the mirrors try to go up." Ishtar watched her struggle to focus with interest and then Mira breathed and managed. "Okay. I can feel you."

"Good girl. Now reach out to me, and me only, with just a trickle. You flooded those humans, child, and it's a waste of magic. You only need a small bit, just enough to seduce and call like a siren would. Try it." Mira's scent changed again and I braced for Depravity to be pulled from me.

It didn't happen. Ishtar gave a soft shiver and sighed with sensual lust, pleasurable chills apparently filling her with desire. "Very good. So it is true. That's enough, dearie." Mira seemed lost for a moment, her eyes still closed, and Ishtar hissed so that I quickly shook my fledgling, intervening for her safety.

"Stop, little one. Stop right now." Compulsion snapped her from her reverie and she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Your Grace. It's hard to focus and hear, I think. It's like hearing from far away." She bowed her head politely, in sweet apology, her sanity aided by my wild performance still recent in her mind.

Ishtar sighed. "You did well, child, and it's alright." But there was something upset in her eyes as well. She turned to me. "Lucius, I'd like to offer you a chance to rejoin my clan as family. Please take it."

I stared at her. "No." Never. I had killed her daughter for being a horror and I wouldn't be beholden to that bloodline ever again, especially not now when I had my own to look after. "I'll never accept that, Ishtar."

She nodded sadly. "Then you must know that you're bringing her for introduction to the rest of the Court as your own responsibility."

I sighed. I couldn't say that I was surprised. It was a formality, really, a way for vampires to make an effort at protecting our species, to make sure everyone was safe and so on and so on. I really hated some of the older ones though. They were pretentious bastards who used the power of their age to dictate when they were bored, when it pleased them. It was such a predictably human way for them to act that it annoyed me. "I assume we'll be traveling with you?"

Ishtar nodded again. "Yes."

"Can the others go, if they wish? I don't see why on earth they'd want to, but I need to know if I have to kick all of my guests out."

"They may do as they will."

Great. Now I could worry about vampire protocol instead of worrying about taking care of and understanding my newborn. Why? Because fuck me and my priorities, that's why.

————

I learned that I enjoyed traveling with Mira. We ran through the nights together, while Ishtar went her own form of travel. We would end up at the same safe houses for the day, but we didn't really have to see much of my grandsire. Usually she would just nod in acknowledgment that we had arrived where we agreed and then disappear to her room. I did far prefer my own method of materialization however.

Well, okay, I preferred it for the convenience, but I liked getting to run with Mira for the fun. It took us two days of traveling in the states together and we ended up using my materialization anyway. We would stalk prey as we found it together, while running through the trees. We didn't feed, or even kill. We merely hunted and crouched low to give silent chase to the animals whose senses were far more fun to evade than humans'. We played and wrestled and ended up taking too much time with our antics, so that I had to will us to safety anyway. But I materialized us a little ways outside of Ishtar's safe points so that it appeared we had been responsible travelers. With her driving for hours and us running, we ended up at the Court's stronghold on the American continent in the middle of the second night.

It was a perfect setting too. Northern, cold. Ice glittered on the ground and decorated the trees around us like an upcoming Valentine's Day scene. It would make an excellent painting, especially with Mira in the forefront. She turned to me outside of the fortress stronghold and I had to smile at the way she grinned, fixed the scene in my memory so I might be able to capture it on canvas. "It's so beautiful and the cold is so soothing. I can feel the blood moving slower inside of me."

I held my hand out for her to take and she did, walking with me. Ishtar had already said that we wouldn't be meeting the Court until the next evening and she had driven a car there, consenting to take our packed clothing in it. We had time enough to enjoy the scenery and I could use the time to make sure Mira's sanity was well fortified, to brace her for what was to come. "It's always a calming feel for us. Perhaps I'll take you swimming while we're here, so you can feel the freezing water soothe your skin. I think it might be something to help your sanity as well. I've already been considering different forms of water play, trying to think of a way to try it. If it works well, perhaps I'll buy us a water tank to use with you."

She danced beside me, laughing happily. "I would love that very much, Master! I like the thought of swimming. And I like the cold showers you've taken with me."

"I'm glad to hear it. Perhaps I'll get the tank anyway, just to play with." She nuzzled me and kissed my jawline before brushing her fangs down to my throat, caressing the vein there. I couldn't help but purr to the attention. "Now, where to start with a decent summary of the council." I considered the rest, wondering what all they would want to speak with her about, wondering how she would hold up.

"There's seven of them, because they're dramatic fucks, who feel the need to be cliche about everything?" She quoted my words back to me with a grin, trying to calm my worries.

I nodded and it worked to make me laugh. "Yes, exactly. Try to call one of them out on it and they'll tell you all about how it's poetically intelligent, that it's fitting, and then they'll tell you how the lake of harboring sin and guilt at the foot of Satan's throne is a poetic mirror to the lake of forgiveness at the foot of God's throne or some other justification. But the reality is they just feel the need to copy things and feel dramatic. They're seven of the oldest, most powerful vampires there are, and there's two females and five males. They're... a strange lot."

She stopped me in the snow to hug me, resting her head against my chest. "And Ishtar is one of them, but she's not as powerful as you now that you have Depravity."

"True. I'm more powerful in a direct sense, but Ishtar is clever and she didn't live this long by not being able to hold her own, so I would avoid a fight with her. I'd avoid a fight with all of them to be honest, especially Sebastian. I have no idea what his original name was but he's definitely older than that name is. He's the oldest of our kind who's still sane, as far as I know. I think he was likely around during the earliest versions of Egypt, but he's not an Egyptian either. Ishtar seems to be the youngest of them, as far as I can feel and tell. Sebastian will probably be the one to talk to you."

At that she moved away from me, with a soft whimper of fear, and she wasn't smiling even slightly anymore. I took her hand to guide her to the stronghold, while she spoke softly. "I'm scared."

"Of him? Don't be. He's nice enough from every time I've spoken with him." Barring my own twisted desires for the vampire king, that was true, actually. "He's power driven, though, so he doesn't like threats to his rule, but you and I are hardly a threat. He just needs to speak with you so he can learn that for himself, little one. He'll play nice. I think they have two concerns over you. The first is whether or not I'm becoming a threat, since I've been on the radar after I took in Depravity and his power. The second thing, I think, is that you might consider your kind, and others like you, as a separate race from them." I had agonized over this, wondering what questions the Court would ask her, wondering if it would be a full interrogation or if they would allow a conversation with her, one on one. I had requested a private conversation from Ishtar, thinking it would be better for Mira's sanity, but wasn't sure if I would be granted my request.

Mira stared up at me and I stopped outside of the stronghold gates with her. "But I don't want anything to do with finding others like me! I'm not even like them at all, from what everyone has said."

I smiled and stroked her hair back. "I know, dear one, but they don't know what you are, so they're wary. It's your job to show them and let them see." I kissed her head and rang the gate buzzer, waving at the security camera.

A human met us at the gate and I fell silent at the sight of her, while Mira sniffed and shook her head against the scent that filled her nose. The woman stood by as the gate opened, and she stared at the both of us with dead, gray eyes. Mira looked to me with distress. "Master. She-"

"I know," I answered softly. "Mentally dead. I'm afraid you'll find my species often barbaric in some ways." I led her behind the silent thrall that guided us. "It's something that happens when one of the elder vampires uses their thought implanting, and feeding hypnosis, too much. They'll often do so on purpose until the human mind erodes and dies, leaving just enough to keep the body alive. It gives the vampire a blood slave, so they don't have to hunt. All one like Sebastian needs to do is project his thought and one like her will go to his embrace and tilt their head for him to have access."

Mira was quiet, and then softly answered, "I don't think I could do that to someone. I know what it's like to feel lost in my mind, and it's terrible."

I soothed her hair back. "I know, little one. And I know it's disturbing. My kind is not a very nice species and they're often ugly. Would some music help you when we get to our rooms?"

"Yes, please, Master."

I smiled and kissed her forehead. "You're doing so well for one under duress. I'm so proud of you for keeping your sanity, Mira. Make it through this with me and we'll spend a few weeks going anywhere your little heart desires. I'll get you your human memories back and I'll show you how much fun it can be being immortal."

She smiled back, a scared little smile, but it was there nonetheless. "I'm trying, Master. It's hard."

"I know and I'm sorry this is the first you're seeing of the rest of our kind, sorry that I could not give you a softer introduction. Let's get inside together and get ready for tonight. They should meet us at the beginning of the night and if all goes well, maybe we can leave before the night is over and run together." I kissed her head and waited with her by the entrance of the fortress, while the thrall rang the doorbell.