My Little Ventrue Pt. 08 Ch. 07

Antoinette and Elaine both wore sleeveless, plunging dresses, with all the typical flair of a nightclub dress meant to accent sexuality to the extreme. Antoinette wore black. Elaine wore red. Both went with loose chest straps, to insure that any who looked their way would be hypnotized by the possibility of their skin becoming exposed by roving fabric. Such a simple trick for distracting wandering eyes, timeless, and useful.

And, despite the years she and Jack had been together, she still delighted in dressing up for him, and stirring lust and awe in his honest gaze.

They went to Bloodlust.

Elaine smiled with predatory eyes as she looked at the kine that drifted within. Bloodlust did not have half what the usual nightclub of its size would have in activity, though that did not stop dozens of people congregating on the dance floor to grind their half naked bodies together. The smell of sex, of hunger, of drugs and alcohol, it mixed with the pulsing light and beating bass of the music, creating a concoction of stimulus that would drive the most saintly nun to wanton acts of rebellion and sin.

"This place has not changed," Elaine said with a smile as she looked over Jack's head to her. "Well, the music and fashion has, a bit."

"Ben non. It changes as the kine change, and they have not changed much in the past fifty years."

"True."

They chuckled. Jack looked up at the two of them, perhaps a touch confused from how he raised a brow, and the two women laughed again. The boy likely felt humanity had changed drastically in half a century. It had, but only on the surface.

As Elaine and Antoinette walked, they made sure to keep Jack between them. It was an interesting game, to see how the kine reacted to the short, handsome man in his expensive suit, with two tall, curvaceous goddesses at his sides. Men looked at him as if he must have hired two very expensive prostitutes that were clearly out of his league, though the more observant ones realized the flaw in that reasoning, and found themselves staring in confusion, and desire. Women realized far more swiftly that Elaine and Antoinette were not prostitutes, and they also stared in confusion, though after a moment, they looked down at Jack with intrigue.

Antoinette would make sure every kine knew that Jack was here with them as her date, and that they were quite sexually compatible. And, that both she and Jack indulged their beautiful friend in their sexual adventures. To show off for her love was an endless delight. To show off for the admiring crowd was a Daeva compulsion she had long ceased trying to suppress.

But, perhaps such tomfoolery could wait. Jack had looked dreadfully serious in her cell, and the fact she had locked him in a cell for the day had been plenty cause for concern. The matter was serious, and as much as enjoying a date with her lover with Elaine in tow naturally had her seeking outlets for a growing need to play and tease, she had to focus. Such a task was never easy with Elaine, who brought out such joyful memories from the haze of her past.

Focus. The curse. It affected her lover in ways she had not considered, and Jack wished to speak of it after eating, to her and to Elaine. She had been tempted to invite her sheriff, but she was confident she could handle whatever situation arose. Perhaps she was a fool.

The three started up the stairs, Jack first, and Antoinette noticed the lingering gaze of a young man, a kine who looked at them with envy instead of confusion. Elaine noticed her noticing, noticed the young man, and promptly slipped one of her red straps aside to show the stranger one of her heavy breasts in its entirety. She waited for his jaw to drop before she grinned, redressed, and followed after Jack. Perhaps a meal for later, or a meal in the immediate, if the kine was brave enough to follow them.

He was not. Understandable. Antoinette and Elaine radiated an aura of power and control even kine could sense. And now, so did Jack.

The three of them sat in the largest booth, furthest back upon the second floor, and Jack sat between them. Elaine and Antoinette made sure to sit close enough for their thighs to touch the boy's, naturally, and such proximity drew the eye of a few kine that sat upstairs as well. But as Antoinette and her company settled into the darkness of the booth, observing kine returned to their own social groups.

One young couple were obviously celebrating their marriage, giggling themselves silly with alcohol pouring through their veins. One man entertained two women, and it was obvious at a glance that they were, indeed, prostitutes. They looked well paid, and happy to be there. In another booth, one woman entertained two men, who were obviously fighting for her affection. And in another booth, two women and two men were engaged in a game of truth or dare. It had turned sexual, as such games always did with such players, and one woman was kissing the exposed breasts of the other. From how the men were watching, it seemed they were enjoying the show their girlfriends were putting on for them. And from how the girls' hands were roaming, they were enjoying it as well.

Not her eyes, nor her Kindred senses, found any other presence in Bloodlust. No other Kindred, no Uratha or Begotten, and her network told her the three hunters, still under orders to not leave the city, were currently in one of the apartment buildings.

"I believe you are free to speak," she said.

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I guess." Sighing, he looked between them, and then down at the table, as if an anchor were latched around his head. "I... I think I need something to drink, before I get into this."

Elaine nodded, slipped out of the booth, and walked down the stairs. A moment later, she returned with the man she had teased before, and from the neutral, empty look in his eyes, the man had been Dominated. Antoinette would have found a woman for Jack to feast upon, knowing his preference, but it was not a sexual situation, and a male would do fine.

After a shuffle, a rather quick feeding from Jack, and then a moment from Elaine to set the unconscious man at the end of the booth, they returned to their original positions. Jack looked considerably better, and he relaxed back into the seat as he looked up.

"Thank you, Elaine."

"You are most welcome, great grandchilde."

"I almost didn't want a meal. With a full belly, I... I can tell the curse is stronger, too."

Antoinette leaned forward and set her elbows upon the table as she looked to her lover. "You spoke of it as if it were conscious."

"It is conscious."

Elaine raised a brow, and looked over Jack's head to her again, before she too leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Explain."

"When... when things get rough and difficult, it talks in my head. You've talked to it before, when it was in control."

Antoinette sighed and nodded with the painful memory. "I had assumed it was something that intoxicated your mind."

"It's not. It's got its own mind. Its own desires." He shivered as he leaned forward as well, placing the three of them close, heads within inches of each other over the booth. "And last night, it almost attacked Damien, just because Damien finished off that azlu monster. It wanted a fight, wanted to win the fight, and Damien got the kill."

That was an absurd reason to become irate. This curse, this voice that plagued her little Ventrue, was not mature or wise. The wise and intelligent were dangerous, but so were the stupid if they had too much power, not unlike an unstable explosive. And Jack was now carrying such an explosive.

"I do not remember the curse ever speaking to me," Elaine said.

"You wouldn't unless you freed it. Before, it was trying to change me, get its claws into me and alter me. But now that it's free, it's just... in there, in my head, aware."

Antoinette shook her head. "But you have never shown any sign of its presence."

"It's normally sleeping, or shut away or something. Sometimes it... he... says some things, but mostly he's dormant. Normal stuff doesn't awaken him. It's when things get interesting that he comes up."

Calling it 'he' did not sit well with Antoinette, but Jack knew the situation better than she.

"Interesting?" she said.

"Just what I said before, when things get tough. He's never said a thing when you and I are together, romantically, or anything like that. But, when I had to beat the hunters, or when fighting that azlu, or when... when Julias died, he awakens."

"It... he takes control?" Elaine asked.

"No, he asks for it. Taking control back is... difficult. I guess taking it from me would be difficult for him."

Antoinette sighed, slid in closer, and slipped her arm around Jack's shoulders. The first time Jack had broken free of its grasp, it was the sight of his mother, unconscious and dying, that had given him the strength to break free. The second time, Antoinette had had to remind the boy that Athalia was a mother, undoubtedly calling up memories of his own. The third time, Damien had simply staked the boy, and had likely only managed such a feat due to the boy's solo battle with an absurdly strong, arachnid monstrosity.

"He has a survival instinct," he said. "I... that's not all of it. He has a desire to live." And with that, the boy looked at Elaine.

"He... is aware, of what we are trying to do?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We need to get to work, and now. No more waiting. I want this thing gone. The hunters are dead, so's Angela, so's Jeremiah, so I don't need him anymore. Him or his power."

Elaine grimaced, a subtle expression that guided her eyes down onto the desk. "Alright. When would you like to begin?"

"Tomorrow night, if you can?"

Elaine nodded, and looked to Antoinette. She nodded as well. The sooner they dealt with this infection, the better for everyone. She did not want this explosive in her city for any longer than it had to be.

"Did you have plans tonight, my love?"

Jack smiled up at Antoinette, and leaned his head against her shoulder. "Need to check up on the Begotten. They wanted to talk to Sándor, and I want to see how that went."

"Your mother would like to speak with you, little Ventrue. Perhaps tomorrow? I distract her with tasks of study, and of learning to control her Kindred abilities, but she aches to know what trials her son suffers."

That earned several different pitches of moan from the boy, and he lowered his head onto the table. "I don't know what to tell her about this... this whole fucking problem."

Antoinette pat the boy on his back, and kissed his cheek. "Neither do I."

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

The curse spoke to Jack. An unnerving bit of knowledge, and she was not sure she wished she knew it. She was quite thankful that it remained silent during her romantic time with the boy; if it did not, it would have tainted past, and future encounters. But he insisted that it did, and she believed him.

Jack had departed to speak with Azamel and the other Begotten, while Elaine dug through her old, digitally record and photographed records, in search of information that could help the boy. Antoinette would check on their progress later, but for now, she wished to speak with her childe.

Samantha came back from her outing, and Antoinette met her in the lobby of her great tower. The woman was still dressed to kill, and considering she had not come home to the tower before dawn as she was meant to, she had spent the day elsewhere. And, considering who Antoinette had seen her childe speak with on multiple occasions, it was obvious with whom she had spent the night.

The guilty expression on the soft woman's face sealed it.

"I trust you enjoyed your night with Jacob?" she said, with an obvious smile that announced to Samantha the subtext.

"I... I... how did you know?"

Antoinette laughed, and motioned for her childe to follow her. She did, eyes downcast once the shock dispersed, replaced with more guilt and shame.

"You and your son are similar in many ways, my childe. Honest to a fault, betrayed by your green eyes." She gestured to the woman's dress, while Antoinette wore a suit. "And, of course, you walk with shame as if this were Halloween, and you had indulged the advances of a stranger interested in your seductive nurse façade."

"Oh god, the walk of shame." She buried her face in her hands, earning more laughter from Antoinette, who slipped an arm around the woman's shoulders as she guided her.

"Do not concern yourself with shame, my childe. You are Kindred. Such concerns are for kine."

"I... I guess."

"Though, I was serious with my question, if you would be willing to share."

"Girl talk?"

Antoinette rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Oui, though such a demeaning term does not fully describe what I thought we could engage in. I speak to a very few of romantic topics, Samantha Terry, and I thought to include you in that petite circle. You are my childe, after all, not my daughter."

Their shoes clacked along the marble floor as they descended, and Samantha considered her words. Reframing their relationship as sire and childe was important. Much could be shared between Kindred family, that could not be shared between blood family.

"Perhaps," Antoinette continued, "I was too blunt. My apologies. Elaine's attitude can be contagious. I should have asked, how did your night out with Jacob fair, dear Samantha? It has been ages since I have talked of him with another in your circumstance." Not since Minerva.

"Um, well, we went to see one of Isabella's plays. That was... spicy. Then we went back to his cave, cause I was curious about the Circle of the Crone, and occult stuff." Judging from the rising energy in her voice, Samantha likely enjoyed suspense motion pictures that indulged occult fiction. "And, um... one of his warlocks, uh, Othello, was..."

"Having sex with Madison in the open, I assume?"

Samantha gasped and looked up at her. "You don't think Jacob asked him to--"

"Non, I am sure it was coincidence. Othello routinely engages with his ghoul in public, often with a host of enthralled kine to pleasure them. Visit Bloodlust with enough frequency, and you will doubtlessly find the lovely man and Madison, having anal -- always anal with that man -- sex, while several kine... well, fill her completely."

Samantha stared at her, eyes wide, and Antoinette had to nudge her to continue their walk.

"Um, well... he was having sex with Madison, in the open, like you said. She was really... really enjoying it." Samantha shook her head and covered her cheeks with her hands. If she Blushed Life, doubtless she would have exploded. "So, uh, I'd eaten, at the play, so when Jacob took me back to his room to show me all his cool artifacts, I kinda..."

"Threw yourself at him?"

"Yes!" She squeaked and hid her face again. "And before I knew it, we were naked, and... and... that man looks really, really good naked. I knew he was fit, but... wow."

Ah, there it was, the sexual fascination in Samantha's eyes that would allow her to grow past her timidness.

"Kindred usually groom potential childer, and for good reason. Several years of misery and hard work from a kine, for an eternity of perfect physique? A worthy endeavor."

Samantha licked her lips, and looked left and right, checking for any who might be listening, before she leaned in closer to Antoinette and whispered. "And, he... he uh... he knew what kind of things I'd like. I didn't even have to ask. He just... did them to me."

Antoinette smiled warmly down at her childe. So naive, the young woman. Jacob had centuries of experience, and could easily read a young vampire's desires, especially one with as open a soul as Samantha. No doubt Samantha would want the man to start gentle, to tease and caress with soft touches, to settle her. But once arousal pumped through her undead veins, Samantha would want a man to take her, grab her, hold her down, and make her do things. The sort of woman who, when in the throes of lust, wanted to be treated like a harlot. She wanted to be bound with hands behind her, and to be forced to give her lover pleasure. She wanted to be spanked, and penetrated with enough force to make her tender. She wanted a man to whisper into her ear that she was a dirty whore, and then have his hand tighten around her throat, as she soaked him in her arousal.

So terribly sweet and naive. She likely thought her desires taboo and uncommon. Little did she know how common her tastes were.

"And after we were done," she continued, "we started talking. I talked about... Mary. And... he talked about his life, too."

This, Antoinette had hoped for. Her gambit had succeeded. Now, to see if Jacob was manipulating Samantha, or being honest with her.

"Please, dear childe, continue."