My Little Ventrue Pt. 05 Ch. 02

"... I suppose it was," Jen said.

Triss frowned at Jacob, but didn't say anything. She could warn him to be nice to Jen, but that was pointless, and would have invited the bastard to be more of a bastard. Better to let things unfurl naturally, and for it to scare the fuck out of Jennifer at a normal level.

"You coming because you're genuinely interested, Jennifer?" The psycho started to walk along, slowly, making sure to take his time and let the mood sink in, let the inevitability of pain and screams soak the two younger Kindred. Like marinating god damn steaks. "Testing these waters because you want to get closer to your girlfriend won't end well."

"She's my friend, Jacob." Jen fell in step beside him, and offered him as hard a glare as she could muster. It wasn't normal for the girl to carry a frown, let alone a harsh glare; anything but a seductive smile looked strange on her. But, it was better than nothing, and Jacob laughed as he continued along. "And, I am interested for my own sake too." The cemetery was silent, and yet, Triss thought for sure it was laughing at Jen too.

"As long as you're here to taste of the blood, to give it a chance peek because you're interested in what the blood has to offer, then you are welcome to come." The Joker shrugged, chuckle coming and going. "Three Kings Cemetery will be a place you come to know well then, Jennifer. I hope you agree with it." Not 'hope it agrees with you' of course.

As they walked, he hopped onto one of the graves, one with a very large, fancy tombstone with an angel on it. A warrior angel, with sword drawn and pointed upward. Truly amazing craftsmanship, and Jacob leaned out to catch his weight on its raised sword like someone swinging on a stripper pole.

"Did I ever tell you the story of Captain Darmer?" he said.

The two women raised a brow at each other, then at him. "Um, no?"

"Well, in the 1500s, pirates started to become a thing. Colonization was common, and not long after, trade by boat. Countries had to police their own waters, but it was proving impossible to actually police the open sea. It was an interesting time for vampires, as while a major focus of crime — always a tool for Kindred — was turning to the sea, vampires found themselves grounded. What vampire would dare sail open waters, when a sunrise could kill them?

"There were a few, actually. Most died, horribly, a victim of their circumstance. One died when his ship was blown apart by cannon fire during the day. Another starved, and probably sits at the bottom of the ocean as we speak, deep in torpor and likely dead from barnacles eating his poor ass. But, Captain Darmer was smarter than that. A woman, she used her feminine wiles to lure men and women into her employ. Soon she had a small army of thralls as her crew. They raided at night, sailed at night, and during the day they docked inside a hidden base, within a sea cave.

"Now old Captain Darmer, she was smart in many ways. The crew served her faithfully, as thralls tend to do, but they were also afraid of her and her powers. Darmer kept the skull of one victim of each city she raided in a chest, usually a politician or someone of importance. She spoke to those skulls, listened to their whispers. The crew thought she was crazy at first, until she started asking the skulls for secrets, about things, random things, weird things, the things you could only know if you were a politician, or a rich bastard.

"She spoke to her crew about the whispers of the skulls. When they doubted her, she guided them to raid a city, or find a sailing ship carrying expensive cargo. Time after time, she was correct in her predictions about the bounty. The whispers of the dead guided her, as they were bound to her, unable to escape to whatever afterlife awaited them."

Both girls squeaked, paralyzed, as Jacob turned and grabbed both of them by the shoulders. He had the bandage covering his empty eyes, but the smirk said it all.

"She bound these skulls with crúac, forced them to speak to her, took away their freedom and rendered them helpless voices." He leaned in closer to Jen, and licked a fang as he got in her face. "Are you prepared to walk such waters, Jen? To feel the souls of the damned tug at your bed sheets every night?"

Both Kindred tried to shake themselves loose, but the old man's grip was absolute. They weren't moving unless he wanted them to move. Bastard was obviously exaggerating the nefariousness of his tale... at least, a little.

"... what happened to Captain Darmer?" she said.

The old fucker started to laugh. "Alas, poor Darmer, dragged into the depths of the sea by those she had cursed to serve as her tools." Jen gulped, and so did Beatrice, but Jacob let them go, and dismissed them with a small hand wave. "I kid. She tried to raid a ship she wasn't sure about and found herself in battle with a navy ship. She burned."

Laughing all the more, Jacob started the long walk through the cemetery, and toward the mausoleum deep within the gathering of the dead. Pillars on the sides of the stone building's entrance, and a cross on the entry's archway, greeted the three of them with its intimidating, awe-inspiring magnificence. Jacob started up the small stairway, and stopped as he came to the statue of the virgin Mary. With a small chuckle and smile, he reached out and touched the worn statue's face, before he opened the gate into the building.

In the darkness of the mausoleum, Jacob withdrew an LED lantern, and took a second to examine the various coffin shelves within, before he pressed on a nook in one of them. The floor began to slide to the side, exposing the old, stone stairway beneath. Triss glanced Jen's way to see how she reacted to exposed stairway, and blinked as she noticed Jen stare at it with eyes wider than normal. She was afraid.

Triss took the woman's hand. Jen squeezed hers in return, offered a smile too, before she let go. Much as Triss wanted to be supportive for her, this was serious, neck-deep Circle of the Crone shit, and they had to be able to handle that on their own; to a degree, at least.

Jacob started down the stairs, and the two of them followed. Tiny stairway, short entrance, and they both ducked to get their heads under the old stones. Jacob pulled a crank ahead, and it closed behind them. Jen began to shiver, and set a hand on Triss's shoulder as they walked down the narrow stairway into the blackness of the depths. The smell of dead flesh, old and new, filled their nostrils, and Jen raised her wrist to her nose. She'd have to get used to it, if she was going to be joining Triss down here.

"How many times... have you done this?" she said.

Jacob turned around, and walked backward, lantern held up so the two girls could see the bloody designs drawn on the walls as it turned from stone bricks, to a cave. "Oh, hundreds."

"I meant Triss." Fucker knew Jen meant her too.

"This is my third time coming down here." Third time she was going to attempt to learn a crúac ritual. It was going to hurt.

They continued, into the depths of the Earth, passing pillars of wood that held the cave up, and various rocks and small cuts in the dirt beneath them. It felt like walking into a catacomb, an old-fashioned catacomb not unlike the one Triss used to hang out in. They were beneath a cemetery, so it certainly fit, but it just felt so god damn macabre each time Triss came down here. She liked macabre, and hell, she even liked this, but it could be a bit much. And Jen kept her hand on Triss's shoulder, her fingers clutching and shaking a little as they went deeper and deeper. Kindred their age wouldn't be able to escape a cave-in, and that sucked.

The sign 'Continue Forth, and Deaths Awaits Thee' came up, and Jen stared at the skulls dangling from it. If any human found this place, they'd find that, report it, and the Invictus would immediately suppress the story. But there was no chance anyone would find this place. Even if they did, all they'd find would be bones and corpses, nothing that could risk the Masquerade. Hopefully. But Masquerade risk or not, it was fucking spooky as shit to see that sign, in a pitch-dark tunnel, with the two of them being led by a creepy man in a dark robe holding a lantern. She couldn't blame Jen for squeezing her shoulder tighter.

Eventually the room opened up. There wasn't any howling this time, thank god, but the blood bowl was still there, held up by the dark skeletons underneath it. Jen let go of Triss's shoulder, and drifted closer, eyes drawing across the terrible sight of the large blood bowl that put the one she was familiar with to shame. She froze when she looked up, and noticed the enormous hook hanging there.

Jacob reached out, and pulled her back.

"W-What? I haven't touched—"

The man shook his head, and pulled her back further, until she was beside Triss. Triss almost said something, almost asked what the fuck he was doing or getting at, but the man offered them only a small frown before he turned toward the bowl, and stood before it.

"Come out." Jacob pulled back his hood, exposed the white bandage that circled his head to cover his eyes, and he scanned the darkness with his lantern raised.

The two girls looked at each other, then at him. Black Blood? No, couldn't have been. Jacob looked spooked, or annoyed, and he and that Black Blood entity were on good terms far as Triss could tell. Try as she might, she couldn't sense anyone else except for Jacob though, and judging from Jennifer's eyes, she couldn't either.

But there was someone. The soft clack of boots against the stone floor echoed in the silence, and shadows twisted and turned as someone exposed themselves from their cloak of night.

Face as deadpan as ever, the sheriff came out of the black, wearing his usual trench coat and his usual glasses. He had both hands in his pockets, until one raised to adjust his glasses. He looked so dull, he looked so boring. The presence of him had the same cold steel Triss imagined the empty gaze of a jaded executioner would.

Jen and Triss backed away, and stared on, shivering, as the sheriff approached Jacob.

"Hello Jacob."

"Why hello there Daniel. The fuck are you doing in my home away from home?"

Daniel sighed, and looked over to the blood bowl. Triss couldn't see into it from where she was, but the sheriff reached in, and pulled out flesh. A human head, a man's, and he dangled it by his hair. Poor dude's eyes were open wide, and horror was etched into his face, frozen in death.

"I'm investigating possible leads into disturbances. More than one finger has been pointed at this." The sheriff motioned to the blood bowl, and then to Jacob, as if the two were the same.

"I doubt my decor is the cause of these disturbances," Jacob said, hands raised to quote 'disturbances'. "And I never gave you permission to be in here, Daniel."

"I don't need your permission." The sheriff walked up to Jacob, looked at him, face as still as a tombstone, and past him toward the two women.

And the two women were struck still. They stared up at the man, both not moving, but trembling a little, both waiting. Being near the sheriff at a ball or Kindred gathering was one thing. Being alone with him was another.

"I, um... w-what sort of disturbances?" Triss said. Probably shouldn't have said anything, but the silence was killing her.

"That is part of the mystery." The man sighed, and continued to walk around the room, hands in his pockets, as casual and calm as ever. Far as Triss knew, Daniel was younger than Jacob; not that it was easy for elders of that age to remember their exact ages, but everyone was under the impression Jacob had a century on him. Did it even matter at that age? Or, was Daniel just that good, he didn't give a shit about Jacob as a threat?

Triss winced as she noticed the hard, long flat bit along a portion of the back of his trench coat. His sword. She was tempted to make a joke, something along the lines of 'is that a sword in your coat, or are you just looking to fuck?' but it was probably a bad idea.

"What have you and Black Blood been up to, Jacob?" Daniel's wandering took him around the room, and he paused every so often to look at the various patterns etched into the walls with rock. Other patterns were drawn with blood, and they stained the dirty stone like a timeline of torture.

Jen mouthed 'Black Blood', and looked Triss's way. She mouthed 'later'. Best not to throw gasoline onto this fire.

"Ask him yourself."

"It, ask it." Daniel shook his head, and reached out to touch the edge of the blood bowl in the center. "Remember what it is, Jacob."

Jacob, groaning, tossed the lantern backward, and Triss had to scamper to catch it. Not like she was going to let their only source of light go out, this far underground. Jacob approached the sheriff, rolled up a sleeve, and... held his own chin, like he was thinking about something. She thought for sure he was going to throw a punch.

"Black Blood and I have a mutual and beneficial relationship, Mr. Sheriff, and it's none of your concern. You and your pretty lit—tall lady can continue your experiments, continue poking through to the other side in your own way, and I'll continue with mine."

"Not good enough." Daniel continued around the bowl, beyond it, so it was between him and the girls. Past the bowl into the black was where Black Blood had appeared last time, where it had snatched the corpse Jacob had prepared for it.

And then they were gone. Blackness. A side of the room Triss had never seen. It was just a room, a wall, a cave or something, but she never went over there, because that's where that thing had come from. Good a reason as any.

Clanking. Metal, chains, stone hitting other stone, and some other metal sounds she couldn't identify echoed through the room.

"How many have you killed in here?" Daniel's voice.

"You follow the news. You control the news. You should know."

"... and this?" More metal clanks, and some fleshy thuds.

"She was selling drugs to kids. Apparently she'd never heard that song. You know the one? Drugs drugs drugs. Some are good, some are bad? Far as I can tell, she thought they were all pretty good."

Triss facepalmed. Why, why was her boss such a fucking weirdo?

More metal clanks continued, Daniel examining what Triss could only assume was some sort of torture wall. He had a few more questions too, about kine Jacob had obviously killed and was hanging up back there. The smell of rotting flesh and blood was constant, and Triss had expected it coming down, but whatever techniques Jacob used, kept the smell from escaping beyond the stairway. Good, cause even this smell would upset a grave keeper.

Daniel returned to the light, and stood by the bowl. It was like watching a fucking FBI agent investigate your shit, with you right beside them, unable to stop them for fear of retribution. It was a wonder the sheriff didn't flip the enormous blood bowl just to make a mess.

She stood up straight as Daniel came up to her, and looked down at her. The angle of the lantern lit up his lenses, one of them allowing her to see his gaze. Cold. And, as his eyes switched between the two women, she almost thought she saw a hint of sadness. Was he pitying them, the two witches?

"And you two. What have you done with the veil?"

"N-Nothing!" Jen said. Triss nodded. Hell, the fuck did they know about it? Triss, almost nothing. And Jen, probably less.

He stared, still, silent, not even a twitch of the lip to indicate any emotion. After a while of what Triss could only guess was staring into their fucking souls, he walked over to one of the walls where Jacob had painted various symbols in blood, and dusted with bone. The sheriff raised a gloved hand, and ran a finger around the symbol.

"You really like to walk a fine line, Jacob," Daniel said.

"You're one to talk, dragon. What sort of nasties have you summoned? What sort of experiments have you performed on the kine, hmm? Does your precious Natasha, or Annie's precious Jack, know about the shit you two have done in the depths of your tower?"

Oh good fucking god why weren't they discussing this shit in private, and not in front of the two little neonates who were well beyond their pay grade? This sort of conversation belonged in a Primogen meeting, not out in the open world. But then, they were underneath a graveyard, in a sealed room. The only people hearing the things they shouldn't be hearing would be people in the room, which were just the two neonates, currently standing shoulder to shoulder, and staring at the two elders having a tiff. And if Daniel thought it was two much information for them to know, he could kill them, and there wasn't much Jacob could do about it.

What a lovely night.

"... I can't stop you from acquiring new subordinates, Jacob. But understand the Prince and I will only tolerate your games to a point. If you stir the carnage that occurred before we—"

"Have you so little faith in me, Daniel? How long have we known each other, hmm?" Jacob came up to him, stood beside him, and offered him a weird mix of frown and smirk. Joker put a hand on the man's shoulder too. "And, if you wanted to observe me teaching my subordinates here a crúac ritual, you had only to ask." Up and down, left and right, damn fucker's personality was all over the place.

"... No, I don't want to witness that barbarism." He pushed Jacob's hand off of him, and again approached the blood bowl. It was impossible to tell what the cold man was thinking, or what he'd do, but he was searching, and a Mekhet searching was a pain in the ass. They always found something with that auspex shit.

And like he was reading her mind, Daniel looked at her, and set a hand on the blood bowl. A flinch crossed his eyebrows, and another, as he looked at her, glasses catching the LED lantern's white light, hiding his eyes. But she managed a glimpse of it again, that weird look, that pity look, as he touched the blood-stained metal where a corpse's parts lay, where Triss had lay when Jacob cut into her.

She knew a little bit about auspex, that Mekhet who had a lot of years on them could take that ability into ridiculous realms of insanity. Supposedly, powerful ones could see things, touch things and divine knowledge from them. The Carthians didn't have any particularly strong Mekhet, so she never got to ask. Which just reminded her she had to talk to Damien at some point.

And there was that. Watching this man, this cold guy as he examined their world, he had an air to him she couldn't quite put her finger on, until she compared him to Damien. A quality, a certain something she found in both their eyes, beneath the surface. Something cold.

And to have a cold thing look at you with a degree of pity, was a strange sensation indeed.

"... be careful, Jacob," Daniel said as he began walking toward the exit. "Things are different this time. The city is built, the people are content, and... yeah. Think about Minerva, would you?"

And all the voices in Hell went silent.

Triss looked at Jen, who looked back at her, and they both looked at Jacob. The elder had his back to Daniel, his eyeless gaze on the blood bowl. Daniel had his back to him, and never once glanced over his shoulder as he walked up the stairway to leave.

Maybe Triss should have used this opportunity to try and be Jacob's friend a little, like Antoinette had asked her to. Be his buddy, be his support, help him out and maybe stop him from doing reckless shit. Bringing up that the Prince asked her to do that could maybe brighten his day, let him know she was looking out for him. Or, backfire horribly and render Triss's tenuous connection cut. But Daniel had brought up Minerva, and that put a stake straight into the old man's back, and out through his heart.

So, she stood there, and waited for the man to do something. It wasn't until they heard the sliding of stone and grinding rock, announcing Daniel's departure, that Jacob turned around.