My Little Ventrue Pt. 04 Ch. 16

That was an interesting spin. Were other Kindred getting lazy? Dolareido was a nice, easy place for Kindred, relative to other cities supposedly, and he got the impression from the other Kindred, like Amanda, that they were a little unprepared for all the shit being dumped on them lately. Lucas's return, Azamel's return, Avery's return, spider abominations, and the newcomer Jeremiah, it seemed like the Kindred of Dolareido, or at least the younger ones, had no training on how to deal with these major threats.

But that didn't mean Jack should suddenly find himself on the frontlines, dealing with those threats!

He almost asked why him, why not one of the other Kindred, older Kindred, like Bruce Vanna, or Hella Vendram. Or hell, Isabella Leauvion, older than Jessy or Natasha, why not her? His eyes danced between the three councilmen before him, and they met his gaze with steel faces and subtle smiles.

"I can see that you are concerned with the choice," Julias said.

"... a little, sire."

The ghost lady shrugged, leaning back in her chair and licking a fang. "To be one of the right hands of the Invictus council in Dolareido, is not as simple a matter as who is the strongest, Master Terry. Madam Vola served me well, and not for her might. Your ability to impact a situation, and to steer the result toward our expectations, or simply in our favor, is what is expected of a right hand. You have proven capable of doing this in many situations where far stronger Kindred would fail."

Well, that was true, he supposed. Not necessarily true like they thought it was, since they didn't know about Lucas, or Viktor and Tony. Julias did though. Maybe he was the swaying voice in this decision.

"Thank you for the honor," he said. "I'll make the Invictus proud."

"See that you do," Maria said.

At least Julias wasn't being so serious about it. "It's not all about extra responsibilities, my childe," he said. "You have more freedom to enact your judgments, and your allowance has been tripled."

Tripled? He raised both brows, and did his best to stop himself from smiling. Couldn't be done, and a little crack of a grin sneaked onto one side of his lips, and then the other. Course it was an allowance, not a salary; Invictus basically owned you, they weren't paying you wages. Still, that put him into pretty deep into the six figure salary range, and that meant nicer suits, a nicer apartment — and he already had a great apartment — and maybe some extravagant expenditures for Antoinette. Eh, probably not, she had more money than the Devil, and expensive purchases probably didn't mean much to her.

Shit, stop thinking about money, pay attention.

Michael got up, and leaned his ass against the table by his chair, signaling that the conversation would soon end. "We'll be hosting a ball in six weeks, in honor of both Mister Burksen's and Master Terry's joining of the council as our right hands. And of course, other Kindred in the Invictus will discuss their own advancements, agendas, and such. The ball will be for you two though."

A ball for him in six weeks, just as Antoinette predicted.

"Thank you, sir," he said, and offered Michael a small bow. It was a chance to glance behind, head down, to see what Damien was doing too.

The man noticed Jack's action, caught the queue, and gave a small bow as well. "Thank you, sir."

"Mister Burksen." Maria got up and walked around the table, soon standing beside Jack. She wasn't looking at him, but Damien instead. Still, being this close to her, her ghostly clothes and more ghostly mist, always chilled him, made him feel like he was standing next to that girl from The Ring. "You are to use that ball as an opportunity to communicate with other Kindred. You may not be a member of the Invictus, but we are the First Estate, and as you know, the Lancea et Sanctum are the Second Estate. We have been partners since long before your embrace, or mine, Mister Burksen, and you are to foster that partnership by getting to know your fellow Kindred. Do I make myself clear?"

Poor guy. Jack knew an introvert when he saw one, hell he was one, but Damien was both introverted, and a troubled man. He probably wanted to do nothing more than hide away from everyone else, feel guilty about shit, and read the Bible a bunch. Being forced to go to a party and socialize with a bunch of strangers? Jack wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy.

"Yes, Madam Turio."

"Good."

Julias got up to stand beside her, arms folded across his chest, and that pleasant-but-cocky smirk on his face as he set his butt to the table behind him. "And we have a mission for you three."

Jessy stepped in, as did Damien. "Yes sir," they said in unison.

"Yes sir," Jack added, a little late, a little surprised. Come on, a giant responsibility had just been dumped on little him, young him, inexperienced him. His sire already had a task for him?

Michael came up to join them, so that the triumvirate all stood with the table behind them, and their respective right hands in front of them.

"Yes. The Invictus have decided that we could be on even better terms with the werewolves. Garry is, and that would suggest Avery is at least capable of some degree of compromise. Go, speak with her, and offer her incentive."

Incentive? Jack raised a brow, and glanced between the three, as each of them offered him a small, knowing smile.

"Indeed," Julias said. "We want you to explain to Avery that we're opening the doors to her, inviting her into the territory. If she wants help with tracking down one of her targets, we can give it. If she wants a better place to live than a junk heap in the Carthian district, we can give it."

Oh, that was actually a pretty good idea. Kind of like an open borders treaty between two countries, a step before trade agreements, two steps before a defensive alliance, three steps before a full alliance. He doubted it'd ever reach full alliance, but if they agreed on open borders, and if that worked out nicely, there was a good chance that could grow into a defensive alliance, where the Uratha and the Invictus could agree to help each other if one was attacked by a third party.

And perhaps most importantly, it stopped Garry from having a potentially disastrous advantage, since he and Avery were somehow on decent terms.

"Naturally," his sire continued, "we're hoping she'll keep a nose out for the hunters, and help us if an opportunity presents itself. And Master Terry will be in charge of this meeting with Avery. So, the next time you and Avery plan to meet, please bring Mister Burksen and Madam Herrington with you. They don't need to be in the meeting with you, if Avery demands, but they should at least be outside the door."

Made sense, especially if he was going to be acting as a right hand now, something with a much bigger 'official capacity' stamp on it.

Michael nodded in Jessy's direction again. "But, again, outside of matters as intermediary with the Begotten and Uratha, Jessy is your superior."

The right hands nodded.

"Dismissed," Maria said, and moved back to her seat.

The right hands bowed, turned, and left.

"Oh, Master Terry," Julias said as they opened the door, "take another week off. You've earned it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The three of them sat inside Jack's apartment on the couches. Slick, sleek, it was a nice place that he was pretty proud of. He could move to a better place now though, if he wanted, a penthouse suite maybe, and indulge in a personal hot tub, a bed twice as big as king size, maybe even as big as Antoinette's, and maybe a sound system for some serious music listening.

"So, you two are my two new slaves, mm?" Jessy said, cocky grin on her face. She couldn't pull it off like Julias, hers being far more hyena-ish. "Just kidding."

"We are your subordinates," Damien said. "Close enough."

"Ugh, no it's not, church man. I was just joking, for christ's sake. You do what I tell you in the context of the job and only the job. Besides, it's a fluid position, considering it doesn't apply in ambassadorial matters."

Jack smiled at her. Didn't say he was surprised she knew the word ambassadorial though; didn't need a kick in the face from a new boss.

"So, I'm a right hand of the Invictus now," he said. "That's, um... terrifying."

"Tell me about it. Kid, you just got in on a whole whack of shit." Jessy got up, got a bottle of blood out of his fridge, and poured herself a glass. Not one of his preferred wine glasses, but a normal glass, and she chugged the blood down with all the grace of an ox. Probably best she didn't get a wine glass. "I mean, I'm sure the triumvirate have secrets they don't share with us, nasty shit like betrayals, ancient agreements, murders and stuff, bones in the closet. But they do share a lot with us, a lot of stuff that allows us three to run this city."

"Sensitive information about political figures," Damien said.

"Every. Damn. One of them." She poured herself another, decided to sip this one, and came back to sit with them in his living room. "All the big wigs. Anyone with their name in drugs, money, or politics — listed from least to worst evil for your convenience — and we know stuff about them, shit that can either ruin them, or be used to hit them where it hurts."

The Mekhet raised a brow, following Jessy with his eyes, though he didn't move his head much. Seemed to like holding still while the world moved around him. "Do we right hands spend a lot of our time exploiting kine?"

"Kine number in the millions, Damien. Control them, you control the city... for the most part."

Jack nodded. Yeah, most part. Once you were as strong as an elder vamp, or these werewolves or monsters, that stopped being so clear cut. But for the majority of paranormals in the city, they were at the mercy of whoever controlled the teeming masses. Hence much of the tension between Carthians and Invictus.

Jessy finished her drink, and folded a leg over the other, elbows on the back of his couch. "Jack, Damien's been at this for a little while, unofficially at least, so don't feel feel like you need to worry about two freshmen dragging me down. Besides, Damien's got a lot of notches in his belt, knows his shit. Fucker was hiding from us for fifty fucking years, right?" The two men nodded. "Exactly. Damien knows the Devil's Corner damn well, and that's a feather in our cap we didn't really have before. And you, you adorable little nitwit, can't seem to stop making friends. And as you heard from the triumvirate, that's becoming more and more important."

He grinned at his boss, and settled a little in the couch. If he got along with Triss, he could get along with Jessy. "I'm not even a year embraced though. Barely a neonate, nowhere near ancilla. When push comes to shove—"

"You'll do fine." Damien nudged him in the side with an elbow. A grand gesture, considering who it was coming from. Jessy wouldn't get the full meaning of the gesture thankfully, about what Jack did to Damien during Lucas's raid. And hopefully, she'd never learn.

"Yeah, we saw the cleanup at the old prison," she said. "You really fucked those hunters up. So, maybe it's only when your backs to a wall, but you have a habit of pulling through, and that's what matters." Jessy winked at him, with all the subtlety of an action movie hero.

He nodded as he let that sink in. These vamps fifty years older than him in Kindred years, were trusting him with the rough stuff. Now if he could trust himself to be able to tap into that part of him again when he needed to, everything would be perfect. He didn't, but, practice makes perfect.

"What about Amanda?" he said.

Jessy shrugged. "She'll get a new partner. Not like you can't visit her or something."

Yeah, that was true. Amanda was the only one who knew he was visiting his mother and sister, hopefully, and hopefully she wouldn't tell that to anyone. And hopefully she'd help him do it again.

"... I really pissed off that hunter, Angela," he said. Better tell his new partners what was up before it bit him in the ass. "Athalia thinks she's still alive, and she probably is. And... and she's Athalia's daughter."

Damien and Jessy both raised their eyebrows at that, and the Mekhet leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, hands together between them.

"... that does complicate things," he said.

Jessy threw up a hand. "Fucking right it does. Can't be much of an ambassador for monsters if you go killing their children. And as a right hand, if you do kill her, you won't just be putting yourself into deep shit, you'll be taking the Invictus in with you."

Yeah, what wonderful world. "I'm sure my sire knew, they all must have known, when they gave me the position. So I mean, I guess... they're trusting me to figure out a way to kill Angela, or at least deal with her, without bringing down Athalia on our heads?" And he did not, not not not not want that reaper creature slipping under the crack of his door while he slept. Antoinette's vault was air tight, but still.

"Quite the responsibility," Damien said. "Or maybe, they don't expect you to be able to kill her, not now that she's prepared. Could be they're putting off dealing with it."

"And she could be dead," Jessy said. "Everyone's convinced she's still alive, but you said it yourself, she was stabbed and then hit by Beatrice with a car. Besides, I'm betting that the Invictus don't give two shits what Athalia thinks, aren't afraid of her, and fully expect you to kill her daughter if the situation presents itself."

Lot of ifs, lot of unknowns. This was the difference between reality, and the cute little plans he used to make for himself, his safe plans about where his old life was going to take him. Now every night was an unknown, every night was an adventure! Except, unlike most people, Jack was familiar with many logical fallacies, including the survivorship bias fallacy. Adventure sounded great because you heard about it from the survivors. Adventure would be known as a minefield of death and trauma, if the overwhelmingly larger number of victims were ever given chance to voice their experiences. But the dead can't speak.

The Gangrel shrugged, switched which leg was folded over which, and snapped her fingers. "Either way, we keep each other covered now. Buddy system for all movement, except small trips in the center of Invictus territory of course; we're not joined at the hip."

The Mekhet, predictably, groaned. "That's dropped our freedom to go solo from... the entire city, to a quarter square mile."

"Yeah," she said. "But that's enough room we can still live private lives, right? I mean I know the Cathedral is a ways out, but you shouldn't go there without Maria anymore anyway, not till these hunters are done. And that quarter square smile is in the dead center of the city. Elysium's there, Xnomina's there, hell Bloodlust is there. Oh, speaking of, you boys wanna go? We don't have to do that Avery trip thing till Jack's vacation is over. Could be a nice chance for us to bond."

Were she human, Jack would have found her suggestion a blatant attempt at getting drunk.

"How can you like it there?" he said. "The music alone—"

"Fuck me, man, you don't go to a nightclub for the music. You go to a nightclub for the people. Slip into a booth with a cute guy or girl, be flirtatious, aggressive, but not overbearing or—"

"Yeah, I know. Antoinette's been showing me how to... bag chicks, I guess?" To speak in a language she would understand. "Not that I'd sleep with them. She'd kill me."

"Right right, you two are all lovey dovey with each other. Ugh, bleh." She stuck out her tongue, as if romance were swiss chard, before she looked at Damien. "How about you? Rumor has it the priest has never known the touch of a woman." The animal got up, and slid onto the couch between the two men as she raised an arm up to rest it around Damien's neck. Poor guy was now trapped in her hug. "You have no idea how much playing hard to get can turn on a girl on. We should get you a... a uh, that white collar thing priests wear."

"... a clergy collar," he said.

"Yeah! Girls will be lining up to bag you at just the sight of you."

"Didn't you just tell Jack that I should be flirtatious and aggressive if I want too—"

"Dude, no, you're not getting it. With the priest setup, they come to you, like flies to honey."

And just like that, it sounded like Jessy had a new goal. Get Damien laid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He still had two hours before sunrise. He'd prefer to spend at least one of that with Antoinette, but his fingers dialed a driver, and he set off toward Julias's mansion. Damien came with. Vampires were on the buddy system now when leaving the safer areas of the city; which made taking Damien a funny irony that had Jack smirking. Damien smirked too, on more than one occasion. Maybe his new life as a right hand of the Invictus was agreeing with the assassin? Or at least, a score better than hiding in the city bowels for half a century.

"Visiting one of the council, after he's given us orders? Highly unusual," Damien said.

"Thought you could use a moment away from Jessy."

"... thank you. But, honestly, I know she's only trying to help me, and that's a welcome change."

The two of them were looking out their respective windows, elbows on the door armrest, chins in their palms. An occasional glance at each other to let the other know they were listening, complete with a small smile or nod. Two introverts communicating. All they needed now was Natasha nodding along and they'd be the smoothest trio of little nods ever.

"She is trying, I guess," Jack said. "You ever been to Bloodlust? I don't like it much there either, but it really is a prime place for getting an easy meal."

"It is frustrating, being a Kindred of the Lancea et Sanctum, taught to steer kine away from sin, and then throwing myself into the center of it for my own needs."

"I thought the deal with your religion was it's the kine who needs to not be sinful, and that Kindred were under no such rules?"

"... yes, that is true. But, certain dogma is difficult to toss aside. And I would prefer to not encourage sinful ways in kine anyway."

Jack shrugged, and tapped the armrest with his fingertip a few times. "Dolareido is Slut City, right? Adultery is rampant. But we have a low homicide rate, low assault rate, low... most of the rates I'd be worried about, legally or religiously."

"Agreed."

"Then I suggest you stop sweating the minor stuff, and focus on the big stuff. There are still murderers, rapists, drug dealers peddling to minors, that sort of shit in Dolareido. I'm sure they could use a little fear of God in their lives, right?"

"A valid point. And I have been a bit... directionless, without Lucas's shadow haunting me."

What a horrific way to think of the man who sired you. Julias had been nothing but supportive, instructive, and open-minded with Jack, while Lucas had royally fucked this guy's head up, to the point he was now paranoid every action he performed was tainted.

"I suggest going to Bloodlust, and giving Jessy's idea a try," Jack said. The poor guy groaned, and Jack laughed as he reached across the car backseat to poke the man in the shoulder. "Jessy wasn't lying, about the hard to get thing. Just sit there, look interesting, maybe look slightly out of place or unique, or even churchy, and some girl's bound to take an interest."

"... I could do that, I suppose."

"Or hell, you can try and get Clara interested in you instead of me."

"Yes, I noticed at the ball that she seems attracted to you. And as an Uratha, she is one of the few who could stand up to Antoinette. Or at least, not die instantly."

Yeah, Antoinette was crazy strong and deadly when she wanted to be. Part of her charm, when instead of being the all powerful dragon of Dolareido, she was gentle, tender, and loving with him. But he doubted that she'd be so gentle in their next meeting. And that was exciting too; he couldn't wait.