My Little Ventrue Pt. 08 Ch. 11

"I'll... think about it, a ghoul I mean." He turned, took a few steps toward the door, and looked over his shoulder at Antoinette. "You'd really be comfortable with another ghoul in the bed?"

"If she were your ghoul? But of course. You are comfortable with two of mine, after all. I would be comfortable with one of yours." Her smile turned absolutely serpentine. "Or two, or ten."

He gulped, waved, and left.

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He fiddled with his necklace as he opened the door of the car, and stepped out onto his driveway, two things on his mind: the fact New Jack didn't show up in Antoinette's machine thing while other hints of the curse did, and an orgy. The first thought was very depressing. The second was very not. He smiled to himself as the car dropped him off in his mansion, and he entertained what Antoinette and Elaine had suggested.

"You're one dude, Jack, with one dick. One rather normal-sized dick, I might add. Five women, or more? Good fucking god." He laughed as he opened the door to the mansion, closed the big fancy door, and sat on the big fancy stairs. "But it would be pretty nice to have some ghouls taking care of this place. Who, though? I shouldn't go picking up random kine as ghouls. I should... socialize, I guess. Hah, no wonder Mekhet rarely have ghouls, they suck at socializing even more than I do." He laughed again and rubbed his buzzed hair as he looked around.

Images danced through his mind of women dressed in playboy bunny outfits, dusting and sweeping and doting on his every need. He didn't really have any needs beyond blood and someone to take care of the mansion, and an army of playboy bunnies would do that perfectly. And of course, whenever Antoinette came to visit, she'd insist they all get naked and watch the Prince fuck him. After one or two bouts between Jack and Antoinette, then the bunnies would jump in and--

He slapped himself in the face, hard, enough to hear the sound crack. "Jessy. Blame Jessy. This is all her fault. I--"

Knock knock.

Groaning, and happy as fuck he wasn't Blushing Life so he wasn't sporting a stiffy, he got up and opened the door.

"Beatrice, hey."

"Hey Jack. Can I come in?"

"Yeah sure." He stepped back, let her in, and sat down at the stairs once again. She sat beside him, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. Black combat boots, too. "How you doing? How's Mom?"

"Heh, your mom? Why don't you ask her?"

"I do, occasionally. But I can't really think straight, knowing she and Jacob are together. Really gets under my skin."

"You hate him?"

"I... don't hate Jacob. But the man is--"

"Unpredictable. Chaotic. Fucked up and weird."

"Ha, to say the least," he said. "I was talking to him once, when Avery and Clara ran into us. Avery pleaded with the man to let the past go, and he uh... well Clara got in his face a bit, and he backhanded her. Hard. Would have put any human in the hospital."

"Yeap, that sounds like Jacob. He really fucking hates Avery. And I--"

"Can't blame him?"

Triss sighed and lowered her gaze. "Yeah. I know what it's like."

"Yeah, you do." He leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees. She did the same. "The hunters are dead, except for three, and I've talked to those three. They seem nice."

Triss snarled, but it faded quickly. "Yeah, at least Brace does." After a moment, she started laughing. "God, that moron was hiding behind fallen trees in that fight in Sándor's dream, and it was like watching a cartoon character. Dude was panicky as fuck, but he just kept hiding and crawling and helping."

"He's a goofball."

"Ha, yeah."

He nodded. "It's good we can think of him like that, you know? I know we... we were both pretty consumed with hatred, during that whole... during the worst time of our lives. And it's a good thing it didn't follow us to the point we can't even think straight, and see every human as a villain. See where I'm going with this?"

"You think Jacob hating all the werewolves is fucked up and wrong."

"Yeah, I do."

"There's just one problem with that, Jack." She shrugged and let her head droop. "Jacob's already told them he'd let up if they told him the one thing he wants to know."

"Yeah, that's true, isn't it? Whatever Minerva was doing, Avery thinks it's worth not letting Jacob know."

"And you trust her over Jacob?"

"Honestly?" He shrugged, head drooping like hers. "I don't know. She's pretty headstrong, but she hasn't tried to do anything sneaky."

"Hasn't she? She's getting pretty close to Garry you know."

"Isn't Garry gay? And isn't Avery dating some random kine?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I didn't mean romantically, dumbass. I meant, Garry's talking to her, more frequently than you'd think necessary. Makes you wonder."

Ugh, more covenant bullshit. He got up and paced in front of Triss, and she leaned back and watched him; they'd done this dance before.

So, Garry and Avery were getting close, closer than Triss figured was just friendly. The Invictus had tried to get on Avery's good side, and had partly succeeded, but that effort had mostly stalled with the hunters gone. Avery insisted there were still problems in the city to be dealt with, remnants of the azlu, and other problems from the spirit side of things, mostly on the word of David. If Avery and Garry got really close and chummy, that could be a problem, since Garry continued to push against the Invictus.

"I don't suppose you could ask your old boss to fuck off?" he said.

"Ha. You know he won't. And Garry and I were... I guess we were kinda friends, but he gave me orders, Jack. If I disagreed with him about something, he'd just shrug, hear me out, and if I couldn't convince him -- I rarely could -- he'd just tell me to do it anyway." After a heavy sigh, she shook her head and leaned back. "So, yeah, your mom's doing well. Like, really well."

"Oh god, do I dare ask?"

"Haha, probably not. But I don't mind telling you your mom has great tits."

Oh god. He clawed at his face with his fingers, a desperate and futile attempt to tear the images out.

"She hasn't--"

"She hasn't fucked anyone besides Jacob, despite Jen and Othello's attempts." Her following grin had his eyes bleeding. "But, you know, witches do a lot together."

"That's my mom!"

"Oh come on, she told me what you told her. You literally told her to have an orgy!"

He paced faster, each turn followed by his head snapping to the side to glare at Beatrice while he waved his arms in the air. "Yeah but that was just a psychology trick! Mom's kinda... well, Mom's Mom. If I want to convince her of something, I hit her with an extreme example, so the normal stuff doesn't seem so crazy. I was hoping she'd just... I don't know, get comfortable using Majesty to seduce kine, and use them to let off a little steam."

"She's letting off a lot of steam, I can tell you that."

"Oh god."

"I mean, I knew you were a horny guy, Jack, I just didn't expect it to be hereditary."

"I'm not hearing this, I'm not hearing this."

"Dude, your mom's a total milf."

Game over, man, game over. He pointed his finger at his temple, pulled the invisible trigger, and died standing up, which sent Triss into hysterics.

"End me."

"Ah come on, don't be like that. You think your mom's comfortable knowing her sire is fucking your brains out all the time? And not just her, but another vampire, and two ghouls?"

He sighed and continued pacing, this time slowly, head drooping and arms limp. Zombie pacing.

"I guessss. And... and if those two had their way, it'd be more than just them."

She laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah. I need to get some thralls, to help manage this fucking mansion. I can do that with Dominate, but the only way to make sure a thrall is totally trustworthy is the Vinculum. Feeding my blood to someone is... risky. Who knows what'll happen with the curse. But the conversation went to ghouls from there, and..."

"Ah." She laughed again, leaned back, and set her elbows on some of the stairs behind her. "Isn't creating ghouls draining?"

"Yeah. Takes effort to infuse enough vitae into vamp blood so it'll give a ghoul their powers. But I'm confident I could create... well, as many as I want, with this curse fueling me."

"Damn. That's a lot of tits."

"I--"

"Don't lie to me, you little hornball. I know exactly where your mind went when the idea of owning a mansion with a bunch of servants came up." Grinning at him, she raised her hands up to the top of her head, and held up fingers, pretending to have bunny ears.

He rolled his eyes. "I... Ok, yes, the idea had occurred to me."

"Hot. Julias and I"--she winced with the name, but pulled through it quickly--"had some fun with his thralls sometimes. Honestly, it was pretty awesome, having a bunch of kine walking around, naked, doing whatever we wanted, often to us at each other's request. I think it's pretty much par for the course any Kindred who gets power starts getting a bunch of kine fuck toys. I say do it."

"And the curse?"

"Well, try one Vinculum bind and see what happens."

"You say that like there are people just lined up, willing to devote their life to a master. I don't want to force someone." He frowned at the air, but it faded as a bigger problem presented itself. "I wouldn't even know where to begin on meeting potential thralls or ghouls. I don't hang with kine very... ever."

She shrugged at that, like it was the simplest thing to fix in the world. "Ask Michael for tips. I know he's got a bunch of thralls and ghouls. Hell, ask Antoinette? Julias liked to hang out in clubs and stuff, talk to people, get to know them, and when he found someone he thought could use a hand in life, they became a thrall. Though he did pick up a lot of thralls through the Invictus when he got the mansion. He didn't blood bind them though, or at least not very often."

Yeah, Julias was a master of subtle uses of Dominate.

"He was good at that sort of stuff," he said. "I'm not."

"That's why you should ask the Prince. She'll hook you up. I bet she's got a hundred kine she could easily recommend, either as bodyguards, cleaners for your new digs, or fuck toys."

He scratched his head and looked down. "Yeah, I could. But ever since Elaine's shown up, she's been... acting like a horny, reckless teenager, honestly."

"You're shitting me."

"Nope. You know when you saw us leaving Bloodlust a few days back? Elaine and Jessy got into a bit of truth or dare, and ten minutes later, everyone at the table was topless."

That earned raised eyebrows from the Nos, and she leaned forward, suddenly intrigued. "Everyone?"

"Everyone. Damien, me, Eric, Matt and Art, and Jessy, Fiona, Elaine, Antoinette, and even Tash."

"Holy shit. I mean, it's not like I don't know what they all look like naked already, considering the shit they wear to balls, but still." She tapped a clawed on one of her crocodile teeth for a moment. "Antoinette and Elaine would fuck you in the middle of Bloodlust with an audience, wouldn't they?"

"Definitely."

"Can... Can I be there when that happens?"

Oh god not this again.

"You and Jessy? Thought you girls were into big, strong guys and stuff?"

She laughed and shrugged. "I mean, sure. But Julias did a good job grooming you, Jack. You're fit as fuck, and I'd definitely enjoy seeing you squashed between a pair of giant tits."

He frowned at her. "I'm not sure I want my mom hanging around you anymore. You are definitely a bad influence." He folded his arms across his chest with some emphasis. "You are banned from seeing her."

They laughed. It was fun. It'd been a damn long time since they'd laughed like this, hard, loud, not since Julias was with them. God, it felt good.

Once the laughter died out, Triss shook her head. "I'm not here to talk about sex and shit though."

"Eh? From how the conversation started, thought you just wanted to hang?"

"I was just trying to get you relaxed before I dropped a shit bomb on you."

He threw up his hands, and groaned. "Thanks, I guess. Shit bomb?"

"I was... doing some stuff. Witchy stuff. I was talking to Black Blood, and he, uh... kinda mentioned something I thought you should know."

Uh oh. Triss doing witchy stuff didn't sit well with him, but who was he to judge? Blackmailing people and financially exploiting corporations was a nightly job for Jack, and that job could get pretty dirty. Maybe not as dirty as the sort of shit he figured a witch might do, but still. The thing in what she said that got under his skin, was the mention of Black Blood.

"That... thing, do I want to know what it said?"

"He said."

"He?"

She nodded. "Black Blood identifies as he, at least... just, yeah, he. And yeah, you'll want to hear it."

"Something tells me I won't, but, fine, shoot."

"Black Blood mentioned that he'd seen things like... the curse before."

Jack froze. No more pacing. After a heavy gulp, he slowly looked at Triss and winced.

"You think he... can do something for me?" Please say no, please say no.

"Yeah, I think he can."

Fuck.

"What else did he say?"

"Not much. I asked, but he said if he was going to tell anyone more details, it'd be you. And..."

"And Black Blood's a spirit. He won't tell me anything without making a deal." Again he threw up his hands before letting them fall, like weights were tied around his wrists. "Elaine's been trying to help me, but all she has are ancient texts and stuff. Not exactly thorough documentation. Plus there's the whole issue that I'm the first person in our bloodline to break the binding placed on the curse. She didn't, Viktor didn't, and Julias didn't."

"What about Elaine's sire?"

"Susanna, I have no idea. If she's alive, no one knows where she is. I'm happier keeping it that way." His great great grandsire was worse than Viktor. She was a fucking psychopath, someone who genuinely enjoyed killing, causing carnage, massacring kine, and worse. She was... everything the Strix would probably want a vampire to be, according to what he knew from the elders of Dolareido. Was the voice in Jack's head actually some sort of residual copy of Susanna?

"You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, just... yeah, thinking. Ok, I need to talk to Black Blood."

Sighing, Triss stood up and nodded. "Figured you might say that. I can help, if you want."

"You can summon Black Blood?"

"Yeah." It took her effort to keep her eyes on him, as if she wanted to look down and away. Guilt? Shame? He wasn't sure, but something about Black Blood made her uncomfortable.

"Actually," he said, "I... I think I want to talk to Jacob too. Might as well get both at the same time."

"Jacob? This about your mom?"

"No... well, partly. But it's about other things too. He can summon Black Blood, right?"

"Sure, but... well, Jacob and Black Blood are a dangerous combination, Jack."

"Ha, think I don't know that? But I can handle it. Things are different this time."

"Different? How?"

He looked down at his hands and slowly flexed and released his fingers. "Because now, if Jacob tries something or crosses the line, I'll kill him. I know I can."