My Little Ventrue Pt. 03 Ch. 08

"I—"

"No. You don't get out of this with a fist in the face, you fucking dog. Not enough. Nothing would ever be enough." Jacob, shaking his head and grinding his teeth, stepped around Avery, and started walking. Clara let go of Jack and blocked the old man's path.

Jack didn't see the man's arm move, but he heard it. He heard the crunch of knuckle against bone, and the snap air parting. Blood splattered over Jack's face, and he stared down at Clara as she crumbled, a streak of red following the movement of her skull as she fell to her palms and knees. The humans continued to walk around them like nothing had happened, like the werewolf hadn't just taken the back of Jacob's hand to the jaw. Like blood wasn't gushing from her mouth into the cracks of the sidewalk, and sparkling in the streetlights.

"I don't know you, dog. Get out of my way." Jacob walked on without so much as a glance over his shoulder.

"F... fucker..." Clara said, holding her mouth, the split open lip looked like it belonged on a butcher's table, and as she cradled her jaw, more of the red liquid dripped from between her fingers.

"Shit. You ok?" Jack said. No idea how well werewolves healed when in human form, but fuck that looked painful. Jack got down on a knee, and held out his palm. Clara took it, bloody hand and all.

"Yeah. Fuck, he sucker punched me." Every use of her lip splattered more blood, and attempts to pronounce F were a slurred mess.

Don't stare at the blood, don't smell the blood. And whatever you do, do not taste her blood. Don't lick the warm stuff off your hands. Just help her up.

"Sorry," he said, "about Jacob I mean."

"Nah." Avery came up beside him, and the three of them stared at the old man as he disappeared into the crowd. "We knew how he could be. I was hoping he could take out a little anger on me, maybe avoid the future fight, or delay it. But, seems I only pushed it to happen sooner."

Humans started looking their way, the three of them no longer protected by Jacob's cloak, and many did a double take on Clara and the copious amount of blood trickling down her neck and chest. Jack had nothing to give her though, and all he could do was wince and offer a pained smile.

"... you know he's half a millennium old right?" Jack said. "He's... I've never seen him fight, but I've seen elders do some pretty scary shit, Avery." Viktor and Tony, Lucas, Daniel, fucking monsters. And Antoinette, slaughtering over a dozen Kindred with her literal bare hands, until she was covered in ash.

Avery shrugged. "Kid, what'd I tell you? You won't win a fight with us." She brushed him off, and started walking the opposite direction of Jacob. "If Jacob becomes a problem, I'll kill him."

"He just wants answers. You killed the love of his life, Avery, and he doesn't know why."

The woman glared at him, grit her teeth, and walked over to the nearby lamppost. Sure enough, she reached out to touch the grip marks Jacob had made. "He knows all he needs to know."

"... come on, you want me to be the cream in the Oreo here, you're going to have to give me something to work with."

The two werewolves blinked at him. "... what?" they said, in unison. For a moment, they reminded him of Ashley and Julee.

"You know, Oreos? Cookie with cream in the center? And the two cookie sides are hard and rigid and... make for a good parallel... with Uratha and Kindred and..." Wow, tough crowd. The two werewolves were frowning at him hard enough to break glass, at least until Clara started laughing, then groaned as she cradled her ruined mouth. Avery just kept frowning though.

He was beginning to like Clara. The two wolves may have been terrifying, and being around them had his guts on edge and demanding he hide from them; Clara at least knew how to laugh at normal jokes and stuff though.

"We're trying to keep your fingers out of shit they shouldn't be in, kid," Avery said, frown chiseled into her face. "Curiosity killed the cat."

Jack sighed, and looked to Clara. "You really think that?"

Clara winced, looked at Avery, and then back at him. But she didn't say anything, only shrugged.

Well, that went nowhere fast.

Sighing louder, maybe just a little louder than needed, Jack jogged after where Jacob was walking. But the man was gone. Just when he was finally starting to understand the man, the wolves had ruined it. Avery's approach may have worked for wolves, but for Kindred, you had to be more subtle, more aware of the threads they weaved. Willing to dance the Danse.

Jacob was going to visit him again, and try and get his fingers into him, try and use him to get revenge on the Uratha. Only person Jack knew who could keep him safe from the man's machinations was Antoinette. He could walk to her tower, and just... ignore the shitstorm brewing. She'd give him sanctuary, hide him from all this fucking insanity until the Uratha left. One word, and she'd take care of everything for him. All he had to do was go visit her in her tower.

Jack rubbed his buzzed head, and started the walk home instead. You're a Ventrue now, for better or worse.