My Little Ventrue Pt. 03 Ch. 13

"And this little twerp skydived right onto its head and killed the Azlu." Clara smirked and shook her head as she hooked an arm around him. Thankfully, avoiding the broken shoulder. The bones were aligning themselves, but it'd take sleep to set them healed.

"Really? You, mister Ventrue?" Triss hugged him again, arms fighting for space on his body with Clara.

"Girls, please, I have so many broken ribs and a fucked shoulder."

"Ha, sorry." Triss backed off and got back to the wall of rubble. The spider had torn through it, so a pretty damn large hole was open. Still a lot of rubble around and in their way, but it was cleared enough they could walk through it if they wanted.

But not yet. Clara let go of Jack's shoulder, and he walked over to crouch down by the two Begotten.

"Fiona, I think you'll have your work cut out for you in the monster world. This thing was fucking terrifying."

Athalia snorted and shook her head. "That wasn't a monster, that was some fucking animal. A weird animal, not entirely flesh."

Clara nodded but said nothing, only combed her braids back as she paced. Guess she didn't like sharing details about what these things were.

"I'm awright," Fiona said, reaching out to touch Jack's arm. "Need a week or two in bed though, heal some of this shit."

"Tell me about it." Jack nodded, pat her on the arm in return, and looked over at Damien again. He'd drunk Triss's blood, enough of it to heal a huge wound like that.

Julias had warned him about it, about the addiction, and the Vinculum. The love, the adoration, the devotion that came with it. But it took more than one dose, right? Took three, according to his sire. Three doses, but... was a belly full of it a single dose? Triss must have given him a good amount to heal a wound like that; though, Jack knew it was only healed on the surface. Damien would need days, maybe weeks to heal from a wound like that, even if the man had half a century under his belt.

He glanced Triss's way, and she winced when she looked back over her shoulder and caught it. Ok, they could deal with that later. For now, look for Natasha.

"We uh... we should probably keep an eye open and ear to the ground for any more of those Azlu," he said.

Clara shook her head. "One makes sense, two adult Azlu sharing a tunnel has never been heard of. If there's a third, well, we're all fucked. But, yeah, keep our eyes open." The werewolf walked over to Athalia and held out her hand. The monster handed the flashlight over with a grunt.

Armed with a flashlight, the two vampires and werewolf continued past over the rubble. And found another wall of rubble.

"Shit, Fiona, I uh... think we could use your help. Place is collapsing in here." Not that sticking a bunch of webbing to the underside of a collapsing ceiling was going to make it safe, but it was better than nothing.

"Aye, I'm coming." The redhead came up over the mound of rubble into the new area, and sighed with the groans of injury. But even injured, she braced herself with feet apart, pointed both her hands toward the rubble, and unleashed the spider monster inside.

Clara jumped back and stared at Fiona, eyes wide as the horror faded into existence, sharing the same space with the little redhead. She'd seen it before, but Jack guessed you never got used to it; he wasn't. Like sewing a giant sweater, the huge blade spider limbs poked at the ceiling like needles, each layering white thread along the crumbling concrete. While she did that, the rest of them got to work, rolling down rubble, and letting Fiona stabilize wherever they created space.

The werewolf was strong, even in human form. Not as strong as Triss though, who continued to throw giant rocks that weighed as much as Jack. Maybe not with as much energy though, and Jack caught her grimacing more than few times to lift something she could toss before. Drained, from saving Damien's life no doubt. She was probably starving.

Sure enough, as they opened up a hole at the top of the rubble, they found hands in there to greet them.

"Art! Matt!" Clara slapped a rock, and reached in to grab one of the hands sticking through. "God damn you fucking assholes, the fuck is the matter with you? You knew better than to come down here without the rest of us."

The hand pulled back and a face stuck against the hole, Matt's face. Comical.

"Sorry! Tash wanted to prove this Fiona girl's innocence, and some other stuff. So we came down to help her."

Tash. Certainly getting friendly with her. Well that was cool, a nice change of pace from Uratha and Kindred getting in each other's way.

Jack smirked and gestured down to Fiona. "Mission succeeded. And two Azlu dead, though one of them went full swarm mode and escaped."

"... two?" Matt's eyes opened wide, and he pulled his head back from the hole to look behind him. "Kid says there were two."

"Yeah." Clara grabbed some of the rocks and started sliding them down while Fiona kept at the ceiling. "Pretty fucking weird right? Whole fucking thing is fucked. David will probably have something to say though." Every so often they heard rumbling, and heard some rocks crack or shift above their heads as they moved more of the rubble down.

"C-Careful!" A squeaky little voice came through, and soon Natasha's head popped up to look through the hole. "We... we couldn't dig out, cause the ceiling started t-t-to collapse."

"Shit." Triss touched the ceiling of the tunnel where it connected with the wall of rubble. "Yeah looks like it's being held up by the shit we're tearing down."

"Awright, guess I've got work that needs doing." Fiona, panting and almost falling over, pointed her hands up at the ceiling and started laying more webs. And more, and more.

Art brought his head to the hole, and blinked as he watched the spider goddess work. "Well no wonder everyone thought you were Azlu. Look like there's a spider monster thing inside you. Should see a doctor about that."

"Sounds awfully coincidental doesn't it?" Clara said.

"Or the spiders are getting smart." Art sighed and stepped away from the hole so only darkness remained, at least until Natasha came back up with her flashlight.

"Who came?" she said.

"Triss, Damien and me. And Fiona." Jack nodded and gestured to Fiona as she worked. "Ran into the werewolves while we were down here, digging for you guys. But there was another collapse, and one of the Azlu was trapped in there. Everything went sideways. And—" Clara flicked out her foot to get him in the shin with the toe of her boot. Right, foot in mouth. Don't mention Stephanie. "We managed to kill them."

"We?" Natasha raised a brow at him. "Thought w-we were supposed... t-to stay out of it?"

Triss laughed and shook her head. "Didn't have much choice. It jumped us and tried to kill us on sight. Damien nearly died." The Nosferatu tossed Jack a quick glance. Enough for him to know to keep his mouth shut about that too. He'd talk to her later about it, but for now no one needed to know what she'd done.

Natasha nodded, and sighed. "Y-You shouldn't have... shouldn't have come down here."

"We had too many reasons not to. Finding you was a big one," Jack said. "Almost called Jessy, but I figured she might make things worse."

Natasha smiled at him through the hole. "You came d-down here for me?"

"Friends do shit like this, apparently." Jack reached for what seemed like a safe rock to move, and slid it down the rubble.

"Jessy is going to k... k-kill me." She chuckled, a tiny sound in her cage. "About now, she hasn't gotten my m-message, and is about to go on a war path... looking for me."

"Then we better get ye out of there." Fiona put up another web, and gave the ceiling a few taps with one of those massive spider legs. Enough to make Jack shiver, seeing them, seeing what the spider legs could do when controlled by something that wanted to kill you with them.

With some time and patience, a rock here, a web there, they created a hole big enough for the little vampire girl. Creating a hole big enough for Arturo took another thirty minutes, and a hole for Matthew took another thirty minutes. It was not a pleasant hour and a half of worrying about a tunnel collapsing on their heads, and by the time they were done, everyone was tired; Fiona was destroyed. She reached out to put her hand on the wall, and started to limp her way back to the first wall of rubble. Poor girl couldn't even climb it, and Triss smiled at the redhead before jumping over to help her.

"Hungry," Fiona said. "And tired."

"Well I got nowhere to be. Let's get you back to Athalia, and the three of us can head back to Azamel's. See what she can do."

"Is Azamel... nice?"

"Not even a little," Triss said. Fiona snorted on a chuckle, and hugged her arm around Triss's shoulders as the taller woman leaned down to hook her arm under Fiona's. "Hey Jack, can you check on Damien? Maybe get him some place safe?"

Jack nodded, a lingering second of eye contact carrying some weight. Check and see if the man was suffering the Vinculum as well, right. Better that she wasn't around for that.

Jack, Clara, Natasha, and her two friends followed after them through the hole. Sure enough Triss had Athalia's arm wrapped over her shoulder too, and she helped both limping women along out of the tunnels. Natasha tried to walk closer to the Uratha, to move with them like friends would, but Jack grabbed her shoulder and shook his head.

"Wha—"

He brought a finger to his lips. Clara kept walking, and the two wolves kept walking with her without breaking stride, just like a marching family. Good, gave them some distance.

Once the wolves had disappeared beyond the turn of the tunnel, Jack motioned toward Damien sitting against the wall. Natasha still had her flashlight; Athalia took Jack's with her. He really disliked that woman. Sighing, he leaned down over Damien and checked the man up and down, pulled aside where the flap of his shirt exposed his stomach, and moved his limbs around a little to make sure everything was connected and solid. Ready for transport.

Just as he started to pick the man up, the sound of rock cracking against metal rang through the tunnel. Curses followed, some yelling, some shouting, and a few more thrown objects.

"... Stephanie died to the creature," he said.

"... oh." The tiny Mekhet rubbed her arms as she hugged herself, and looked down the tunnel, the tunnel they'd have to walk through in order to leave. "Should... should we wait?"

"I get the impression they'd be more annoyed if we stuck around." Nodding to no one, he scooped Damien up into his arms and slid the man over his good shoulder. Damien wasn't a large man, and even a Ventrue, a young one like Jack, could still muster some vampire strength to carry him.

And carry him he did, silent as a monk as he walked past the werewolves. They were sitting around the corpse, squatting or kneeling, and Avery was giving a speech. Well, maybe speech was too strong a word, but she was saying something about Stephanie, something powerful, enough to have the rest of the pack nodding.

And she gestured to Jack as he walked past, and without stopping to call his attention, made comment about how he was the one who killed the second Azlu, or at least killed its body. That earned some glances from everyone, weird glances, raised eyebrows, shock, confusion, and after a few seconds, what Jack could only imagine was an animal's form of respect. Horrible way to get it, the wolves looking over the body of their comrade, their family member, but they gave it nonetheless.

It wasn't long before him and Natasha were past the wolves, and into the lit tunnels where Nosferatu hung out, where Damien liked to hide, where he was at least slightly sure they wouldn't be jumped by anymore spider monsters. They found an old platform, a place where he and Natasha could sit down, and lay Damien down beside them.

"I'd rather he wakes up before I leave him back at one of his hideouts," he said. "Or I'll have to take him back to my place."

Natasha nodded and smirked down at the unconscious man. Well, unconscious but not really; torpor wasn't about brain activity, it was a whole body healing and sleeping experience. He'd wake up once he'd healed enough.

"He... he came with you."

"He did." Jack glanced between the two Mekhet a few times, and made it obvious he was doing so.

"... Damien and I... it is a little weird."

"Yeah, you two have this weird thing going on and I can't quite place it."

"I... I told D-D-Daniel to spare him."

"And I told Antoinette to spare him. Aren't we a couple of saps?" he said, smiling. It got a smile out of her too.

"I t-told him we'd talk after, but... we... we never really did. I avoided it, and he d-d-did too. He... probably feels guilty, about helping Lucas kidnap me."

Oh, that.

"Yeah I'd feel guilty about that too. But, I can imagine doing whatever Viktor told me to, if he'd taken it upon himself to order me around. Ever heard of the Milgram experiment?"

"Mmhmm."

"I was out of my element and told that this man was my boss, my boss's boss. That he was basically my new general and if I didn't do exactly what he said, I'd end up in the shitter, or ash. If he told me to do something horrible, in a situation like that experiment, I can guarantee I'd do it." Jack motioned down to the sleeping Kindred beside him. "I can only imagine how fucked up that is when taken in a religious context."

Natasha nodded and sighed some more, pulling her knees up to her chest and looking out to the train tracks below where the platform ended. "I guess being around him makes me a bit nervous. I'll have to get p-p-p-past that."

"So, you've been down here for over a day now? Must be hungry. You go on without me. I'll get him back to his hidey-hole and make sure he wakes up fine." Thankfully she wasn't asking about how Damien healed from his injuries; he'd left the description vague for a reason. He couldn't see himself lying to Natasha, but avoiding some details was at least doable.

"Ok... thanks." She got up, dusted herself off, and smiled down at him again. "N-Not hungry, the wolves let me feed."

"Really? What was that like?"

"Very... energizing."

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~~Damien~~

He awoke to a pleasant sound, a familiar sound, the near silence of concrete, but the distance and gentle hum of vibrations moving through the earth and metal. The drip drop of water leaking from a pipe rang like a church bell. His favorite hideout.

So he was alive then. He looked down at his stomach and touched the wound. Tender, very tender, and pain shot through him as he struggled to sit up. No, don't do that, lie down and rest. He recognized the pain signs well enough to do that.

"Awake," a voice said, someone sitting beside him.

"... Jack. Glad to see you live as well."

"Ha, barely. But both Azlu are dead and so are our friends. One of the Uratha died though, Stephanie."

"Stephanie... Right, I remember her. Aggressive woman. Quick to accuse Fiona."

Jack put up his hands. "Let's not speak ill of the dead."

Damien nodded, and set his head back to the concrete. Everything was alright then. Mission successful.

"... wait, how am I healed so? That creature, it... you saw it, it'd take me weeks to heal from that, if I even survived."

"About that." Jack, sitting on his butt on the concrete with one leg on its side, the other with knee up to his chest, rocked back and forth a little as he rubbed his buzzed hair. "I didn't see how it happened; I got separated from the group. But when I finally got back to you guys... Triss had fed you her blood."

"... no."

"Yeah." The boy winced and nodded a few more times, sealing the truth in with each grimace. "She probably thought it was too risky asking a Begotten to do it. Who knows how we'd react to drinking monster blood? And we know vampire blood does better than human blood."

Damien raised his hands up to look at them, before letting one fall to rest on his forehead, the other collapsing to the floor.

He could already feel it, already feel little nudges in his mind. How was Triss doing? Was she ok? He should go talk to her. Remember the tank top you saw her wearing? Could see the piercings of her nipples and everything. You should go see her, see if she needs help with anything.

He'd be punching the floor right now if he thought his insides wouldn't rip apart, or his spine disintegrate. He didn't like Triss. She was brazen and brutish, and unlike Jessy, had the nerve to consider herself as deeper, more emotionally self aware, lending to all the stereotypes of brooding and depressed; that all conveniently went poof the moment someone's dick got between her legs.

No, no, stop. Stop, this isn't you, swinging from one emotion to the next about her.

"... how much blood did she give me?"

"Enough to heal a giant hole that'd been blown through your guts and out your back, spine and organs included."

A lot, then.

"Not... completely... healed."

Jack snorted on a laugh. "Maybe with another two hundred years under your belt. Viktor healed from some pretty ridiculous shit." The kid shivered and shook his head. "But, yeah... I didn't know how to tell you, but I figured I should. Fiona and Athalia saw it, but they probably don't know why we're not supposed to do that, or even that we're not supposed to."

Well, at least there was that. No pity glances from Fiona.

"And Natasha?"

"She doesn't know how we healed you. And to hear it from her, werewolf blood is quite potent, so maybe she thought we gave you some of that." He shrugged, got up, and started to pace. Not much room for pacing in the little hideaway, the pipes and old, dead computers built into metal casings provided little in the way of living space. "But it might come up. If she asks me, I'll say Triss took care of it and leave it at that."

"Half truths are worse than lies." He sighed, sighed, and sighed some more, before holding out his hands in front of himself again and flexing them, analyzing the shape of his fingers clutching the air. "But, thank you."

"You may want to talk to her anyway. Not about this of course, and I'm sure Triss will keep it a secret. But Natasha and you... well." A shrug and nod later, Jack reached for the door and readied to open it. "You Mekhet really suck at approaching your problems head on."

"... we do at that."

Jack laughed. Damien didn't, lest his insides rupture, but he managed a small, and a tiny wave for the man.

"Thanks," Damien said, "for getting me home."

"Dude, this isn't a home. Julias tells me Maria is going to help you out? She could hook you up with a real home easy enough."

A real home? The thought had never occurred to him. So used to sleeping in underground holes and hiding in shadows, it'd become second nature after fifty years of it.

"... I shall ask her."

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~~Beatrice~~

Fuck she was tired. What a night, what a fucking horrible, bad, weird night. Her laptop was still at Jack's being charged, no doubt fully charged by now, but the sun would be coming up soon and she just wanted to get somewhere to sleep.

For a second she considered going back to the Circle, telling everyone what happened, filling in Jacob on the details. Man loved his details, the scheming asshole. Devil's in the details he'd say, blah blah.

But, as she ran the memories of Damien's skewering through her mind, a chill danced on her spine and skin. No, she didn't want to go back to the circle to sleep in her new home. Awesome as it was, she wanted something warmer. She wanted to let the day knock her out while in Julias's arms. Maybe ask Julias to brainwash her an easy meal, someone she could drink, and then get under the blankets with her man, get comfy in the nook of his shoulder, and fall asleep.