My Little Ventrue Pt. 05 Ch. 03

But before Jack could say anything, Maria raised a hand, and waved it aside in a gentle dismissal. "Master Terry was present when Lucas assaulted the Prince. Both he and Mister Burksen can testify that the Archbishop used magic to assault the Prince. Theban Sorcery."

Damien lifted a finger off the table. "We of the Lancea et Sanctum consider them to be miracles of a sort, but only those of both great power and great faith can summon them so readily."

Maria shook her head. "We have seen other, magical acts and objects, done outside the grasp of the Second Estate. The Circle of the Crone perform their blood rituals, and the Ordo Dracul have... flirted, with similar tools before."

Hella winced, leaning back in her chair again. Perhaps the Gangrel had been living in denial that magic existed; it was certainly easier to pretend it didn't. Far kinder to a Kindred's mind to consider themselves the only supernatural things walking around.

"I felt the difference," Jack said, "between having those cuffs on, and off." Looking down at his wrists, he took a little time to rub one, then the other. Getting your hands chopped off must have been horrible. Being the one that forced that madness must have been a strange feeling indeed. "It was hard, pulling up my vitae, when I had them on. Very hard, like it was being suppressed. On top of that, I looked Angela and Jeremiah in the eyes, from only inches away. They didn't feel normal, they didn't feel like kine."

"Elaborate for the others," Julias said, gesturing to the table. The report had explained, but only the council and the right hands had read it. Time to get everyone up to speed.

"... they felt like... they felt indomitable. They felt like the sort humans that would walk into a monster's lair, and without hesitation, throw themselves into a pit of snakes to fight the gorgon. Real, crazy, psycho types, you know?" He shivered, and rubbed his head a few times, before he forced his hand back to the table. Old habits die hard. "The others, the hunters they had working for them, felt like normal kine. They were afraid of me, and had all the stress signs of normal humans. But the other two, Jeremiah and Angela, they... no, they weren't like the others. They weren't normal."

"Then what are they?" Bruce said.

Jack shrugged. "Not Kindred, not Uratha, not Begotten. They looked human, and they smelled human, but..."

"There are other things out there," Michael said, leaning forward onto the table, elbows against it, fingers netted together, "than those things the good Master Terry has mentioned. Dolareido has rarely, in its history, had to deal with them, but there are other terrors in this world of darkness we live in. I do not think such terrors are what we're dealing with, though. No, it would be a strange thing indeed for anything other than a human to be working with these hunters, especially in this manner, with this goal to kill the Begotten, and us."

Jessy looked confused, eyebrow raised, and eyes glancing between Jack and Michael's contradicting statements. "Then what are they?"

"We're... not sure," Julias said. "Azamel might know something, but as informative as Jack's meetings with the old monster have been, she's refused to give us a direct response on anything. Until we know more, assume that Jeremiah and Angela are both extremely dangerous."

The group of Kindred sighed, but nodded. 'Extremely dangerous' carried some implications with it, and no one liked them.

"Master Terry's latest meeting with the Uratha," Julias said, "has gone both well, and poorly. As I said earlier, we are less concerned that Avery will become a threat to us, but at the same time, she is unwilling to help us with the hunters until she feels more comfortable with the situation and the city. Master Terry has told me she wishes an exchange of trust, before it can progress further. Two of her pack mates will be moving into Carlava Villa, and we will be showing them the utmost respect. Understood?"

"We bending over for these people?" Jessy said.

Her words got her a hard glare from her sire, and she shrank into her seat.

Julias squinted his eyes at her. "Some minor gamesmanship is hardly bending over, Madam Herrington. And last I checked, you've submitted for one of the grand suites in the Carlava Villa to be given to your new friend, the kine who saved Jack's life. Should I question your motives there?"

Bringing in the woman's personal decisions into a business meeting might have been unwarranted or unprofessional, but Kindred were different. There was no separation between work and life, they were the same thing, despite how some Kindred did their best to keep them separate. And Jessy knew that, better than most.

"Wasn't suggesting it was a bad move, Mister Mire," she said, a grin sneaking up onto her lips despite her resigned pose. "Just wanted to know how far we're taking this. And Eric will prove a valuable ally with time, I'm sure."

Turio didn't look convinced. "He'd be better off a thrall or ghoul, Madam Herrington. Trusting him is foolish."

"... I think I can understand Madam Herrington's decision," Jack said. "Thralls and ghouls are tainted, their minds warped in ways that make them... reliable, but they lack the spark of a wildcard. Eric's behavior, what little I saw of it, and from what Beatrice and Fiona have told me, is a defining example of that behavior. As long as he does not learn anything that can be used against us, or tortured out of him for that purpose, I agree with my partner's course of action. He will be of use." Everyone looked his way, Julias included. Jack didn't normally talk to Maria, if only because it was probably easier for him to not, not since he'd killed Lucas. And for a fresh neonate to talk without being asked was almost insubordinate. For him to speak to her in the middle of an important Invictus meeting, and to go against what she said, was a huge step out of his comfort zone. Julias smiled.

So did Maria. "Well said, Master Terry." The ghost lady offered him a nod, and sat back straight in her chair. Jessy's grin turned into a warmer smile, and she shared it Jack before she sat up straight too. Kid's knack for smoothing out bumps of tension manifested everywhere.

"Back onto topic," Julias said. "If you see Jeremiah, and you think you have an opportunity to kill him, take it. Understand the danger of the situation, and that in all likelihood, you thinking you can kill him is actually a trap set up by him to bait you. But I'm not going to say don't try if you think you can do it. He needs to die.

"This brings us onto our final point of this meeting. As some of you know, the woman Jeremiah has recruited, Angela, a person Jack considers to be of similar... degree of danger, as Jeremiah, is Athalia's daughter."

The right hands and the council were unfazed, but for everyone else, this was new information. Isabella, Bruce, Hella, Gloria, Vicky, Parker, all of them raised a brow, and looked at him as they sat up straight and put their hands on the table.

Julias swiped the screen again. No picture this time, but a drawing, made for them by a forensic sketch artist in their employ, and Jack's description.

"The picture doesn't do it justice," Jack said. "The glass eye, I mean."

"As my childe says, she has a glass eye, so identifying her will be reasonably easy. Unless she exchanges it with a less-obvious piece, which is possible." But, he pointed to the huge scar that cut across the forehead, down through the eye socket, and down into her cheek. There were other scars too on her face, similar to Jeremiah's, though less in quantity. "Black skin like her mother, but she buzzes her hair. Remember this face. Master Terry assures me it is otherwise an accurate picture."

It was Gloria this time to raise her hand. Strange, considering how much she preferred to shut up when in meetings.

"I uh, I think I... yeah, um, I remember Athalia. Stirred up some trouble, around twenty years ago, right? Very dangerous woman? We were told to avoid her and let the sheriff handle her?"

Ah, right, that.

"The sheriff didn't kill her, Madam Jenning, if that's what you're wondering. She was a new Begotten, and the Ordo Dracul are more familiar with them than we are. But, after some time, she left the city. She's returned on a couple of occasions, never for long."

"I get that, b-but, I mean, if... we kill Angela, then—"

"Then nothing." Enough of this. "We owe Athalia nothing, and we have a right to defend ourselves." He slammed his palms against the table, and everyone jerked in their seats; except, of course, for the council. "We have a right to do more than that. Dolareido is our city, a Kindred city. The kine are ours, we've cultivated them, spent decades, centuries for some of us, raising them. We protect them from themselves and keep this city a safe place, statistically speaking. If anyone encroaches upon it, we are beholden to no one but our own. Kill her if you get the chance, and if issues arise with Athalia, then we will kill her as well. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," they said.

"Good. Dismissed."