My Little Ventrue Pt. 06 Ch. 05

"Ultimately, she is Jack's mother. Her fate is in his hands. If he wishes to bring her into a second life, then I will discuss it with him. In the mean time, go, speak with Jacob and his witches, and see if you can prevent their inevitable meddling from ruining our goals. If lucky, you may even find and detain or kill some hunters."

"Yes, P-Prince." Natasha took a few more seconds staring at Jack's half dead mother, before she let out a tiny whimper, and walked toward the door. Stopping halfway, she looked over her shoulder, a small, weighty frown on her gentle face. "I... I think... it'd b-b-be better to... to embrace her, than let her die. At least then, she... she'd be able t-to choose if she wanted to live or... die."

Oh Vola, naive child. What mother would not consider suicide in her situation, even if given immortality? And, what would happen to Jack, if his mother was given a second chance at life, and threw it away?

It was not a decision so easily rationalized.

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~~Beatrice~~

"We want to capture her alive?"

Jacob nodded as he walked around the cave, hands behind his back. The eye bandage covered his empty eye sockets, but Triss had gotten pretty good at figuring out where he was looking. Looking at the floor while he paced around, she guessed, like he was being pensive. A pensive Jacob was a strange Jacob.

"We do," he said.

Triss looked to her fellow Kindred, but the rest of them were all looking at him with confusion, too. Jen and Othello shrugged, and watched their boss pace around. Aaron wasn't around, but he'd be back soon with a report, probably to also become confused by the strange request.

"Sounds dangerous as fuck," Triss said. "We're talking about this old shaman woman who's supposedly sacrificing kine, and using some strange magic to hunt people down? The one who gave you the boot out of that Begotten's nightmare thing?"

"Yeap. Old woman. I didn't get a good look at her when I was there; she was off in the shadows somewhere, and I only got a peek at her, before she tore the world apart." Jacob jumped a few times in place, laughing, before he spun around once, and grabbed the sacrifice bowl that stood in the center of their headquarters. "What a rush."

Triss rolled her eyes, and waited. Jacob did love to have his spurts of silly randomness, and she'd learned to just wait them out. A child. Her boss was a fucking child. A super powerful, intelligent child. Wasn't there a horror movie about that sort of thing?

"Catching her alive will be difficult," Jen said. Damn girl was too young to be going on these sweeps, but she'd insisted, and Jacob was a 'let them learn the hard way' sort of teacher. "Cause, you know, she has a bunch of hunters defending her, not to mention Jeremiah and Angela, and a monster."

It was sort of a shame that no one in the Circle had been a part of that mission. Jacob had been there for a whole twenty seconds, according to his story, and that meant a thousand details about the whole situation had been lost.

"The Invictus may help us with that," Jacob said.

Othello tilted his head to the side. "Oh, was that your request of Julias?"

"Mhmm. Unfortunately, there are many circumstances where that may fall out of his hands. Old woman with a breathing aid, in a wheel chair? If they even look at her wrong, she might implode. If she gets caught in a crossfire, she's dead." Groaning, Jacob walked away again, and stared up at the bones arranged into painting-like sculptures on the cave wall. "Think I wasted my favor?"

Triss shrugged, waiting by the bowl. "I'm just glad you didn't ask him to sacrifice his balls to a ritual or something... That... isn't a thing, is it?"

"You shitting me? There are sacrifice rituals meant to give guys bigger dicks and more sexual endurance in every culture."

Jen snorted on a laugh, before raising a hand to her mouth in embarrassment. Not very lady like. "Even in the Circle?"

"Honestly? I don't know. Probably." Chuckling, Jacob came back to the bowl, and ran his fingers around the stained edges. "That woman has power, a familiar power. There's something there, something in her ability, something that makes her special. She has knowledge, and I want it."

"She's a hunter, Jacob," Triss said. "She's trying to kill us, and the monsters and werewolves. And, considering what everyone keeps saying about her, she's deadly."

"Mhmm."

"You think we can catch her?"

"She's a fossil. If she tries to flee, just grab her wheelchair. If she refuses to cooperate, just grab her breathing tube and squeeze it. A little asphyxiation is great motivation."

Everyone blinked at him

"Torture an old person?" Othello said.

"Torture is such a strong word. More like, push her around a little. Literally. She's in a wheelchair. Push her here."

Triss groaned. If this continued, Jacob was going to start making puns. She wouldn't be able to handle that without bursting into laughter.

Jen raised a hand. "What about Garry? He's looking for the hunters, too."

"Garry owes me more favors than Julias. He'll try and get me the shaman woman more than the Invictus will."

What sort of favors had Jacob done for Garry to earn so much from him? Beatrice worked for that Gangrel for almost thirty years, and she was completely unaware of this connection until that incident with Tony. Sneaky fuckers.

They all turned around at the sound of another entering. Aaron. The pale man came up to the bowl, but his eyes were down, and he held his chin in his fingers, lost in thought. A normal pose for Aaron, except for the frown.

"Sup?" Triss said. "You look down. More down than usual, I mean."

"Any of you check the news?"

She shook her head. "Nah, Jen and I came back not long after sunset." And it'd only been an hour since then.

Sighing, Aaron stepped aside, and held out his arm to someone coming up behind him. Everyone came around the bowl to watch, arms folding across their chests. They didn't plan for visitors, so this was a bit weird.

A tiny girl in a suit came in, very tiny. But Triss recognized the aura, and the way her beast stood up to acknowledge the familiar power and hidden smell of the small girl.

"Natasha," Triss said, smiling and walking up to her. "Why are you here?"

"Hey Triss. I'm here t-t-to... for two reasons. The first, um, is the Prince would like me to join your t-team."

Wait, what? Triss raised a brow before looking back at the rest of her crew. Othello and Jen both seemed confused, too, but Jacob adopted a smile. It was his 'I see what you're up to' smile, his Dance Macabre smile, which meant Natasha being here to help them wasn't just the straightforward gesture.

The Prince didn't trust them. Understandable, especially considering the conclusion they'd just came to.

"I accept," Jacob said, grinning. "Be aware that I am trying to capture the shaman woman alive. If you're going to join my group of witches here, I expect you to help in that regard, or at least, not get in their way."

Whoa. All his cards out on the table. Either he was one of those poker players that liked to bluff with the truth, or it wasn't all his cards.

Both. Probably both.

"Y-Yes, well, the Prince expected that." The little Mekhet walked forward, and looked around as she did. So damn cute, teeny tiny Tash with her teeny tiny frown. There was no denying the girl was terribly strong, in her own weird, sneaky Mekhet way, and that she was so tiny made her so cute and awesome.

Heh, it wasn't too long ago Natasha was in the Invictus, and Triss's enemy, a Carthian. How the times had changed.

"Five vamps should be able to handle anything these hunters throw at us," Triss said.

Tash shook her head, and walked closer, eyes scanning the room with blatant curiosity in her gaze. Bones on the walls could do that to a person, not to mention skulls with candles on them, being kept by thralls. "D-Don't underestimate them. They're... they c-could kill us all, if they catch us off guard."

"Then it's a good thing we have a very tough Mekhet with us." She stepped forward and offered her hand. Tash looked at her, head hanging heavy, before she took her hand gave it a slow shake. "What's with you? You and Aaron, both look like someone died... Oh fuck, who died?"

Sighing, Tash shook her head before she slipped her hands into her pockets, eyes down. "Jack's sister was stabbed t-to death. His mom... is in the hospital, almost d-d... dead."

"Fuck!" Beatrice backed off, throwing up her hands, as if putting distance between her and the messenger might help take the edge off that bomb. It did not. "You fucking serious?"

"Y-Yes."

Of course she was. Tash didn't have the capacity to joke or be sarcastic about serious things, especially dark humor.

Triss managed only a cursory glance at the rest of the Circle, before she started stomping around. They were all shocked; hard to tell with Jacob, but he wasn't moving, at least.

"His sister's dead? Mom's in the hospital? What the fuck? What... what the fuck?"

"They were b-both stabbed many times."

"Stabbed! That... you... what? Hunters?"

"W-We think so."

Triss threw her hands up again, and clutched her head in her claws. Oh fuck, poor Jack. Poor poor Jack. Fucking hell. "How's the kid?"

"The P-Prince is... still w-waiting for him to... to... we don't know. He's out on a sweep."

"Think he knows?"

"P-Probably."

"Just... wow, fucking hell. Poor guy." She kind of felt like the guy's aunt, considering she was in a committed relationship with his sire. That was a strange way to think of the friendship. But she couldn't deny she'd started to care for the kid, quite a bit. Even taught him how to hunt kine in the alleyways that littered Dolareido. She was one of the few people he'd told — accidentally, heh — that he'd killed Viktor and Tony.

Christ, he was Julias's childe! She had to speak to him, both him and Julias, see if she could do anything. The fuck could she do, though? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Nothing except, catch the people responsible. Catch, kill, maim. Hell, she still owed one of the hunters for shooting her, when she met Eric. That was an afterthought, though, compared to your first family getting murdered.

"I've t-texted Jack," Tash said, "but no response. P-Probably underground."

"Text Julias yet?"

"... no. I... I should, I j-just..."

Frowning, Triss put a hand on Tash's shoulder, and started walking her toward the exit. "Let's get out there and hunt these fuckers down, and I'll throw Superman a text." A glance for the rest of the crew, and they all nodded.

Jennifer the Ventrue, Othello the Daeva, Aaron the Gangrel, with Beatrice the Nosferatu and Natasha the Mekhet. Best team? Best team.

The rest of the crew shrugged, and fell in behind her, no questions or anything. Othello was too much of a pushover to fight her for command; not that she was in command, but it did feel like she'd be comfortable barking orders when shit hit the fan. Maybe it'd come to that, maybe it wouldn't. For now, a trip topside to hunt for hunters, and give Julias a call.

"Beatrice," Jacob said, bringing everyone to a halt and looking back at him, "be careful. These psychopaths will kill you, or torture you, then kill you."

"No kidding."

"And they're a lot stronger than we give them credit for."

"At this point, I'm under the assumption they're fucking deadly as shit and could probably do anything. Is that not enough worry?" she said, turning to face him.

"No. It's not. But if you're going out there, find out how Jack's doing, would you? Julias probably knows, and I'm interested."

She almost asked why, almost said something stupid. But Jacob's expression wasn't his usual Joker smile annoying. Instead, it was serious, as serious as he could get with a bandage covering the eyes. Jacob liked the kid, most people did. Everyone liking you was a good way to get attention, and getting attention was how Jack found himself in his current predicament, with enemies targeting him, and murdering his family.

Fucking hell, his sister was murdered, and his mother was assaulted, all because he had a nasty habit of getting on Kindreds' good side. That, and he did far more damage to the hunters than any Kindred his age should have been able to.

"Check out Devil's Corner while you're there."

"Will do, boss," she said, offering a salute, before she crouched down and started crawling out the exit.

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Once they were out of the cave and out of the canyon, Triss pulled up her phone. "You really didn't contact Julias, Tash?"

"I... I d-don't... I'm not sure what I w-would say to him."

"Hi, your childe's first family have been assaulted? Sister's dead?"

"He knows. He m-must know. Invictus network p-pays more attention to this sort of stuff. If the Prince knows, Julias... m-must know. And I... I'm afraid of... what he'd say. His voice is... powerful."

Sighing, Triss nodded and squatted down, eyes on the roadside that circled the city. "I forget sometimes that you know him better than I do, and hung out with him for years." The others were changing clothes to better streetwear, so she had a moment to talk with the tiny Mekhet.

"I... never slept with him, though."

"Heh, why is that? You're a very cute girl, Natasha. And, knowing that you're banging two werewolves? Gotta admit, that's sexy as fuck. You must be a fox in bed."

"I... I um." The tiny creature squirmed a bit, and combed her long black hair with her hand a few times. Triss had seen the Prince do that, on more than one occasion. "He was a f-friend. Always a friend."

"Yeah, that's understandable. Julias the white knight." Rolling her eyes, she dialed him. Ring ring. No answer. She got a text back though. ~In a meeting with the council. Love you.~ Awww. Heh, what a dumbass, taking the time to text that when he was talking with two elders. "K he's busy. I'll talk to him about it later."

Soon Jennifer with was with them, dressed in black jeans, a blouse, and a black bra; blouse undone of course, except for one button at the stomach. Tash raised a brow as she took a moment to look at Jen's exposed chest, but eventually shrugged. In the past, she'd probably have rolled her eyes, but the girl was getting buried in sex on such a regular basis now, she must have become desensitized. Totally hot.

Othello came out, wearing basically the same thing as Jen, jeans and an open shirt, showing off his abs. At least Aaron bothered to button up.

"What's the plan?" Othello said.

Triss stood up, rotated her neck and shoulders a few times, and started walking. Everyone fell in line behind her. "Gonna scout Devil's Corner."

"The hunters have been abduct-t-ting people," Tash said, walking beside Triss, "for their rituals. They're p-probably looking for people that fall b-between the cracks."

Othello sneered. "Smart of them to go for the sick and weak sheep that have fallen behind."

Everyone in the group stopped, and looked at the moron Daeva. Ok, that was a lot more than Othello usually said. Normally the idiot just focused on his own pleasure, and stayed out of everything. Probably for the best then, with a personality like that.

Aaron, standing beside him, shrugged and sighed. "Grim as that is, that is accurate. The hunters have instincts, good ones, to know how to take advantage of our own hunting grounds without us noticing."

Triss groaned a little louder as they started into the streets of North Side. "Yeah, I know, but god damn it. They're still people."

"You've killed people, when you were hungry and looking to let off some rage," the Gangrel said, eying her.

"I always made sure they deserved it." And that was true, she did put in her due diligence to make sure those she killed were the nasty sort. "Some of them ended up on the news... a lot didn't, I guess."

"The hunters are doing the same, more or less. So, if we're going to hunt them down, let's take a page from your book."

"My book? Ha, fine. To Devil's Corner we go."

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They took to the rooftops and ran. With Natasha and Beatrice keeping them all wrapped in the Cloak of Night, it was easy to move quick and not worry about getting caught. Course, after learning the hunters had some particularly weird tools at their disposal, they couldn't discount that maybe the hunters could see through their stealth. Still, hunters would have to be insane to try and attack five vampires in the open.

Fuck, she was underestimating them already. They weren't only insane enough, they were competent enough. Fucking crazy.

Once they got to the bars deep in Devil's Corner, Triss sat down on one of their roofs, and let her legs dangle a few floors high. Everyone joined her. Like a scene out of a coming-of-age movie. If they had ice cream cones, or a blood sorbet, it'd be perfect.

"Man, Jack must be fucking crushed," she said.

Everyone nodded, each turning heads in different directions to watch the kine move about below. Lots of jeans all torn up, old and broken shoes and sneakers, dirty shirts, tattoos meant to intimidate instead of just be art, and other crap. People got piercings to look scary in Devil's Corner, not to be cool. She got them to be cool. Bunch of posers.

She reached up, and plucked at the chain dangling from earlobe to nostril. "Look for the ones that are alone. Lot of people sort of drift into their own little pits of misery out here. Much as I'm cool with Dolareido letting people do whatever they want once they're adults... a lot of adults are really fucking stupid, and throw their lives away on addictions. The really stupid ones, and the nasty ones, end up here, eventually."

Nodding, Natasha pulled out her pistol, and started examining it, checking the slide and safety. In the past, Triss would have figured Tash was a paranoid bookworm. Nowadays? The little Mekhet was more confident, and each time Triss met her, she started to fear her a little more. Tash was ancilla, and no matter how tiny she looked, she was a deadly creature.

"Can I read a book?" Aaron said.

"No," everyone else said. Heh, comical.

Sighing, Beatrice put her elbows on her knees, and watched some people coming and going from the more filthy bars. Prostitutes were everywhere, a lot of them with track marks, and plenty of men were getting in on that action, driving by and offering the ladies just enough money to fuel their addictions. The men weren't any better off, most working shit jobs or getting by on petty theft while squatting in some old, rundown buildings, or shacking up ten to a single apartment.

There was a balance, though. It never got too crazy, too out of control, too insane. The Prince, and other Kindred like the Invictus running some brothels out here, had offered enough support for people to be able to live. Those that were willing to fight their addictions and try and climb out of their hole, had options. Shitty options, but options, and that was more than Triss could say for other cities.

Those that weren't willing to climb, and succumbed to resentment, died. The ones that resented themselves died in their own vomit, usually. The ones that resented others became extreme criminals, and were quickly dealt with by the Kindred. The Invictus liked to keep thing orderly. The Carthians liked to protect humans who had shit lives and we're trapped in that circumstance; or just let out some of their frustration on those deserving, like Triss had done. The Prince hated anyone that disrupted her Kindred utopia, and murderers, rapists, drug dealers dealing to minors, and pedophiles generally fit into that group.

Those were also the best targets for a fanatical group looking for sacrifices.

It'd been a while since Triss had killed someone. She could still remember what it was like, though, to bring a human's life to an end. It'd been a little sickening, at first, but a part of her had enjoyed exercising its predatory desires. Only now did she realize that part of her was the Beast, and she'd become quite attuned to it, far more than most Carthians had; they rarely killed their prey. She'd been careful to not do it often, and only to do it to those who deserved it, but now she had to wonder if other Kindred in Dolareido could kill people as easily as her.