My Little Ventrue Pt. 03 Ch. 06

The train was ripped out from end to end, like some sort of hollowed out metal worm. They jumped out the back end, and both Mekhet pointed to the glass shards over the subway tracks.

"More pieces of black fabric. Bit of white in here too," Amanda said.

Still on the trail then. Jessy nodded, resumed the march through the tunnels, and motioned for them to put their flashlights away. No need with the lights working, and now all they had to do was follow the claw marks.

Follow they did, but they didn't get much further. Soon the four of them were standing around a set of claw marks, subtle against the concrete, as if the beasts had stopped running. Some more fabric pieces were scattered about, threads, and a bit of ash mixed into the dust only a Mekhet would have noticed. But the trail stopped, and they all looked at each other in waiting. No one said anything. The trail was cold.

"Thought I smelled a rat."

Jack brought his pistol up and aimed at the new voice. Shit, shit shit. Bound to happen sooner or later, but hoping it'd happen somewhere other than an abandoned tunnel. No witnesses down here.

Jessy stepped toward the newcomer. Whoever this woman was, she was walking up to meet them, a small grin on her face and a big grin in her eyes. An average height woman, fit, tanned skin and black box-braid hair down to her hips. Looked perfectly normal, attractive, perhaps in her mid thirties.

The beast in his gut was screaming for him to run.

"And you are?" Jessy said. Voice was solid, but Jack knew she was feeling what he was feeling. And when he glanced back, he could see the two Mekhet were ready to bolt.

"Clara, of the Hunters in Darkness, pleasure to meet you."

Everyone took a small step back. Except Jessy, who approached the woman until they were standing maybe twenty feet apart. Jessy was bigger than her, looked stronger, looked faster, but if what the Gangrel said was true...

"So you know who we are?"

"Well if you're looking for your friend, that narrows it down. Besides, you don't smell like regular people strolling through old subway tunnels." The woman folded her arms across her chest, but otherwise did not move.

"You were waiting?"

"Yep, just hanging out to see if anyone would come looking."

"... you came alone?" Jessy said.

The woman shrugged. "Figured a squad of vamps would come through. One of us is enough."

Fucking hell. Jack kept his pistol pointed at her, but she looked at the gun and him like a god would look at a peasant farmer.

"Looking for a fight then?" Jessy said.

Clara laughed, shook her head and put up both her hands for a second. "No, not at all. Certainly a possibility vamp, but I'm here to talk."

Jessy stepped in closer. "Talk? Where is she? Is she even alive?"

"Natasha is alive."

Jack lowered his pistol, smile sneaking onto his face, and he motioned for Amanda and Vivi to do the same.

"Got proof?" he said.

The woman pulled out a phone. A few taps later, she pointed it at Jessy; pictures of Natasha were on the display. Kindred faces rarely, if ever showed up well on a picture or in footage, so if a Kindred wanted a good picture, they had to hold very still for the camera, like a statue, and suppress the beast's reflex to twist or turn at the click of the button. Gave credence to the woman's words.

"... pictures? How do I know she's still alive?"

"I can't call the pack from down here in the tunnels, dumbass." Clara put the phone into her back pocket, and dismissed Jessy's words with a small wave of the fingers. "Let's go topside."

"... or I take that phone from your corpse, and use it to figure out where you took Natasha." Jessy stepped closer again.

"Yeah, that's a possibility you could try. You got guts, vamp. Gangrel I take it? I like you." Clara still didn't move, even as Jessy got close enough she could transform and slice the woman open from skull to crotch. "Been a while since I've tussled with a Kindred. But my boss says Dolareido isn't like Tijuana, and I should play nice."

Jack walked up. This close, it was enough to make his feet itch with the need to turn around. Like the time with Viktor, and Antoinette, and Jacob and Tony and all the other big timers so ancient, getting this close felt like standing in front of a real beast, something hungry and large.

"Clara, I'm Jack Terry of the Invictus."

"Jack eh? Cute little kid. Natasha your girlfriend? Right size for you."

Jack raised a brow, and looked into the woman's eyes. The laughing, the chuckling, the smirking and grinning, the monster did them all, and looked back into his eyes with all the intensity of a wolf.

But he was used to a little fear.

"What are your terms?" he said. Jessy raised a brow at him, but said nothing.

"Oh, terms. I like that. Invictus all business." Clara tapped her finger on her chin, glanced at each Kindred individually, before settling on Jack again. "You, come with me, alone, back to our hideout."

"Like fuck he is." Jessy raised a fist, but Jack put a hand out in front of her. Course she could have just ignored him, or told him to shut up, but she frowned at him and lowered her hand.

"Why?" he said.

"Need someone to serve as a middleman. Want to see Natasha alive again, you do what I tell you and listen to us."

"Why alone?"

"Cause you seem young, seem like you can talk, can look me in the eye unlike your two little friends, and with you alone, we can manipulate you toward our goals." She chuckled, and waved off her joke like a bad fart. "Cause older vamps have a pretty fucked up opinion about us, and you seem young enough we might actually be able to get somewhere."

Yeah, that was true. That was very true. A beacon of hope maybe, that the werewolves weren't the same paranoid leeches that Kindred could be? Fool's hope, and he shut it down quick.

"Are you telling the truth, about wanting to play nice?" he said.

Damn the woman did not blink. Not even a fidget.

"Father Wolf as my witness."

"... then I'll go." Because if there was one way he was going to die, it was to a bunch of werewolves in their den.

Jack looked at Jessy, but the Gangrel was gritting her teeth and clenching her fists like she was ready to fight. For Jessy, that normally meant an inevitable brawl, but not this time. She snarled, pointed her finger at Clara, and glared.

"If Jack doesn't check in tomorrow at dusk, you have no idea how much trouble is going to come shitting down your throat."

Finally, Clara managed something more than a confident expression. She raised a brow, and looked at him for an answer. He just shrugged.

"We look out for each other," he said. Let Antoinette and Julias be a secret.

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Back up on the streets. Glorious moonlight, fresh air — not that he really needed to breathe it — some humans around, and lots of ways he could make chaos if it came to it. He didn't want to, but with a little eye contact he could dominate a nearby human, turn them into a shield. But it'd take too long, and he'd probably get himself killed just for the effort. No, stick to the plan, be the messenger boy for the werewolves. There were only a few souls around anyway, this edge of North Side.

"So, uh... you really let Natasha live eh?" he said.

"Course. She wasn't our prey."

"Who was?"

"Secret, and better for everyone it stays that way."

Clara was only a little taller than him, and he found himself admiring the box braids of hers that bounced against her back. Bit of an accent on her, and from her skin color, he imagined she was from Mexico.

"Why'd you take her then?"

"She was in the wrong place, wrong time. Good opportunity for us though, and Avery doesn't waste opportunities."

They were walking into North Side, and a mile from where Viktor, Julias, and Jack had all stood once, preparing for their unusual approach of a secret info drop. A fucking lifetime ago. Antoinette's secret manipulations, just to coax Viktor and Tony into a confrontation. Viktor had summoned an army of rats, a literal army, thousands of them, and they'd swarmed the place. He tried to remember the Ventrue display with admiration, but memories of Viktor were always cold, and painful.

"Opportunity to do what?"

"Force a conversation. Last time Avery was here, shit didn't go so well, so she's expecting she'll have to force your elders' ear."

"How do you know Natasha is important enough to do that?"

"... she's a pack mate, isn't she? Well I suppose Kindred are just a bunch of blood leeches with no concern outside their next meal. Her clan would let her rot if it meant a safe food source in the future, wouldn't they?"

"Harsh. Not necessarily untrue, but harsh and a bit exaggerated. We're not all like that, and every situation has details, Clara."

"Smart little punk, aren't you?" She smiled down at him, and took a second to look him up and down. "How old are you? How long you been a vamp, I mean."

"About half a year."

"Damn kid, I like you. Bet those three girls you were with were all older than you too."

"... they were."

"Heh." She winked at him, and kept walking. Signs. These were signs, flirting signs. Flirting with little him? "So, Avery knows Dolareido a bit, and she knows how Kindred act. Since Natasha was in our hunting grounds, investigating, it stands to reason that she's important to someone."

"... if... she was investigating the spiders, you're hunting the spiders."

Clara grabbed him by the neck, and slammed him against the wall of a nearby building. Not enough to hurt or injure, but enough to send a jolt of panic up through his spine into his eyes. The neighborhood was behind them, and only empty factories ahead of them. No one he could call out for, and even if he could, what then?

"What do you know about them?"

"N-Nothing!" Hard to talk with fingers squeezing the throat. And she was strong too. Really strong. It was weird, feeling the warmth and breath of a living thing, something he could normally overpower easily. But this living creature was pinning him against the wall by the throat like he weighed nothing.

Shit shit shit shit. Jack you dumbass, always say less than you know, always say less than you know!

"Didn't sound like nothing."

"Well, you saw the tunnels. They're filled with webs. Some Kindred have been worried, cause people have been disappearing in the area, and giant spider webs? The tunnels are ours, and—"

"Do yourself a favor and don't stick your nose into it. Consider the area our hunting grounds for now." She let him go.

"S-Sorry, I... we didn't know."

"It's ok, just... yeah, stay out of the way. Cute kid like you, getting caught? Shit, I'd feel horrible." A gentle tap on the cheek before she smirked and resumed walking. "Don't think I don't know your friends are watching where we're going either. I'm sure they'll scuttle back to their bosses and tell them where our pack is hiding." Another laugh, closer to a sneering chuckle though. "Would love to see what they try."

"... confident." He rubbed at his throat a bit, and fell back in beside her again. Remember Jack, her kind tore the concrete wall open, ripped the train's guts out, managed to catch Natasha, one of the fastest Mekhet in the city. Step lightly, this isn't like your first conversation with Antoinette.

"Text your bosses yet?" she said.

"I... I uh..."

"I saw you fiddling around with your phone in your pocket. I'd prefer you didn't, if you don't mind."

"... what if I already did?"

"Well then you'll have betrayed my trust, and I'll be sad." She offered a mock frown before chuckling. "Did you?"

"... not yet."

"Thanks. Wait till we're done, would you? Besides, your friends are watching us, they'll notify your bosses the moment we arrive. Paranoid things, aren't you?"

"We are." Because it takes half a century before a typical vampire's strong enough to break down a brick wall. Tear down a concrete one? Longer. "Kindred are... we're... we die in sunlight, we die in fire, we slip into a coma without a regular food source, and we sleep like the dead when the sun rises. Paranoid, or justifiably cautious."

"Never thought about it like that, I guess. Uratha typically only live two or three times as long as humans. You could say some us are jealous you can live forever."

"But... but you're so strong. We saw what you did to the train. It takes Kindred many decades to reach that sort of strength." Uratha? There name for werewolves?

"Cause you vamps are weaklings. But man that Natasha girl was quick on her feet. Fucking had the whole pack in an uproar chasing her, and we just ripped through that tin can." Clara held out her hands in front of her, and squeezed them a few times. Invisible metal bent in her hands, and Jack could almost hear it crunching under her strength. "What a rush."

He raised a brow and looked at Clara as they walked. Smile on her face and eyes drifting, she seemed lost in a pleasant memory.

"You like being a... a... Uratha, was it?"

"Yeah, and yeah. Nothing, nothing quite like the feel of ripping your prey open and biting off chunks kid. Nothing, nothing quite like that feeling of trapping prey with your pack, and everyone jumps in, tears your prey apart. The hunt is sacred, kid, especially to the Meninna. Wouldn't trade it for anything."

Not unlike the Kiss. Tempted to make the comparison, but he kept it quiet, and smiled at Clara as she reveled in what he could only imagine was animalistic bliss. Kindred enjoyed a successful hunt, but the Kiss was the goal. It sounded like Clara enjoyed the hunt as much as the kill.

"You're very open about this, and friendly," he said.

"Like I said, we're just trying to avoid the trouble of last time." She reached out, hooked her arm around his neck, and pulled him in. Only a few inches taller than him; a weird difference compared to Antoinette's twelve. "And you kid, seem a lot more willing to talk than your brethren. Wanna go on a date when this is all done?"

Say what?

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~~Author's Note~~

Love the support, thank you readers.

This chapter exposes a lot of the story angles; sorry if it's a bit overwhelming or hard to follow. But after this point things will start to solidify and align into stories. I had to expand the cast and setting, to create the room I need to weave and grow the plots, for many many chapters to come.