My Little Ventrue Pt. 09 Ch. 19

"Wh-What's happening!? What's going on? I... oh... Mister McDonald?" She blinked at him, the stake in his hand, and then Damien and Jack. "Ja--Mister Terry? Mister Burksen?"

"Miss Pol," Michael said. "How are you?"

"I... I'm in pain." She clutched her chest, and after looking down at it under her palm, blinked several times at the hole in her suit. "I was staked?"

Michael gestured to the stake in his hand. "Take a moment to remember what happened. It was the night of the fire at Xnomina HQ, when the Carthians attacked."

"Fire? Fire... I... what?"

Jack put up a finger. "As much as a building of marble and metal can burn. But yeah, we lost a lot of furniture and paintings and fake plants." Which were replaced, of course. The Invictus would never let the Xnomina HQ look bad for any longer than a couple days.

"I see. Then... w-why am I here?" She looked around at the storage room, more confused than Jack figured she'd be. "Xnomina storage?"

"Yes," Damien said. "You don't remember?"

"I remember... I remember..." She blinked at them for the hundredth time before closing her eyes and clutching her head. "I don't remember. I remember the fire, but... I don't remember any details. I don't... remember anything for the past few days. Or, few days since I was, um, staked."

Of course she didn't, cause if she did, she'd be able to answer questions.

Damien stood up, and set a hand on Amanda's shoulder. "I'm going to try and open your mind."

"I don't--"

He shook his head. "Auspex. You'll learn it eventually. Whatever Gloria is willing to share with you."

Ah, the joys of being Kindred. Secrets everywhere. No one told each other a damn thing, Mekhet especially. How did Auspex work? Only the Mekhet knew, and even they kept its more powerful abilities hidden from each other. Good chance that Gloria didn't know shit about the crazy things Auspex could do, while Daniel knew a lot. Would Gloria ever learn them? Maybe. Hard to use a crazy ability unless someone came along and taught you how, especially Auspex.

Amanda nodded, gulped, and waited, eyes wide. She was scared.

Damien smiled at her. A comforting smile, subtle but there, and a much bigger smile than Jack was used to seeing on the dude's face. He'd changed.

Whatever Damien did, or was doing, it didn't have any outer expression. Like a lot of Kindred Disciplines, it was something that affected someone else's mind in some way or another. A human watching wouldn't see anything. But everyone in the room could feel something change. Damien pulled up his vitae, like flexing a muscle and lifting a heavy weight, and pushed it out to touch Amanda's mind.

And then he stood there for five minutes with a strange look on his face, like he'd tasted something sour and wasn't sure if to like it or not. Jack watched, eyebrow raised, and glanced between all three vampires. Michael didn't show any expression. Amanda waited like someone was going to pinch her, but it never came. And Damien continued to stand there, sour expression slowly growing worse.

"I can't..." His frown turned into a wince as he concentrated, and pressed a couple fingers against his left temple like he had a headache. Vampires didn't get headaches. "I can't get through."

"That's fine," Jack said. "We can ask the sheriff. Prince says he should be able to help, considering how important this is."

"Important?" Amanda asked. "The sheriff? Um, I... w-what's going on?"

Michael raised a hand slightly, palm forward. "Amanda Pol, it seems you've been tricked into doing something... problematic. I will reveal more details to you in the future, but know that you are to not speak of this conversation to anyone until I say otherwise. This is important. Lives depend on you." Way to lay it on thick.

Poor Amanda. Her eyes widened to freakish levels. If she'd been human, she'd have been having a panic attack.

"I don't know if the sheriff will have any better luck." Damien stepped back and paced from shelf to shelf as he looked down. Good to see Jack wasn't the only person who did that. "I can reach into the memories, try and remember things from before a few days of the attack, but then I get blocked."

"You mean you succeeded at, um, doing the mind thing?"

Damien nodded to him. "Barely, but, yes."

That, was damn impressive for a Mekhet his age.

"I get blocked every time I use Dominate," Jack said. "I have to punch my way through. Maybe it's like that?"

"This is different. This is... like... I don't know, it just blocks me. I don't know. I don't know if the sheriff will be able to do anything either. I am barely able to use this ability, advanced as it is, and I'm sure Daniel is a thousand time better at it than me. But trying to... find the memories, all I find is something stopping me. Like trying to trudge through a deep swamp. Cold, dark, and full of death."

Amanda almost stood up, but Jack met her eyes and shook his head. Just sit tight and don't move or ask any questions, Amanda, and you'll be fine.

"That's... so scary," she said, brought up both hands to her face, and hid her face in her palms. Slowly, she lowered her hands, and blinked at one of them. "Um, did someone put a ring on my finger?"

The three men all turned to look at her hand. Yeap, she was wearing a single ring, a tiny black band.

"That's not yours?" Jack asked.

"No. It's pretty ugly. A black ring? And it looks old, worn and warped and--"

Damien grabbed her hand before she pulled it off. "Don't touch it."

"Uh, I kinda already am."

"Don't remove it. Let me see if I can gleam something from it." Eyes locked on the ring, Damien held Amanda's hand in one of his, and touched the ring with the other.

Same thing. He stood there for a good five minutes, face sour, but otherwise the room was silent. Vampires didn't breathe or fidget much, so even with four people in the storage room, it was just as quiet as before the vampires came in.

Slowly, Damien pulled the ring off her finger. Amanda winced as he did, Jack did too, half expecting it to explode, or for Amanda to drop dead. Deader. But the ring came off without issue, and Damien held it in front of him as he glared at it.

"I see... the same thing. A cold, dark swamp, filled with dead things."

"Fuck," Jack said. "Not useful?"

"I see a black skeleton, huge, and its... doing something to the ring. There's a... cauldron, and it's dropping the ring into it. And then... a street. Dolareido maybe. People... drifting... and the ring's in the crowd somewhere. And then it's on... a corpse's finger. The corpse is on fire."

Amanda almost stood up, again. "Corpse? Fire!?"

Damien lowered the ring, and rubbed both temples with finger and thumb. Jack knew that look. The man was drained.

"I assume metaphor," Damien said. "A corpse can be a vampire. The fire could be metaphor for inciting something."

"Or not," Michael said.

"Or not. The corpse could be the lie that you were told about the kine death, Mister McDonald, and the fire could be the fires the Carthians were spreading. There's no way to be certain."

Damien had told Jack about Auspex before, about how problematic it was to try and learn anything with it. It could be wrong. It could even give you one of those self fulfilling nasty prophecy visions, where it tells you exactly what to do to avoid death, and you end up dying because of it.

"Either way," Jack said. "I think we know where this ring came from."

Michael raised a brow but said nothing. Of course he didn't want to admit ignorance in front of Amanda, but a quick glare from the man told Jack enough. He was going to make Jack tell him everything.

"Should we ask the sheriff to take a look at her?" Damien asked.

"Yeah, but if you think he'll run into the same barrier, it can wait until he's free."

"Miss Pol," Michael said, "I say again, speak of this to no one. If Miss Jenning or anyone else asks, tell them you were involved in private Invictus business about the war."

She nodded again, but her eyes were locked on the ring. It would be freaky to wake up from torpor, have several days of your life missing from memory, and find a random ring on your finger.

"Now," Michael continued, "some things happened while you were unconscious. Let me explain."

Explain he did. He told her about what Amanda told him during the Xnomina attack, about what they did, him staking her, the following war, and the people who died. Poor Amanda. Every thing Michael said made her sink further into her chair, until she couldn't look him in the face anymore.

"Oh my god."

"It wasn't your fault," Jack said, and he spared a quick glance to Michael, complete with a hint of anger. Michael returned it. Yeah, their relationship was going to suck now.

"Take your time recovering, Miss Pol," Michael said, "and don't be surprised if Mister Terry, Mister Burksen, or indeed, the sheriff, come to you again to ask questions or dive deep into your mind. Obey their requests, and you will be compensated. Don't, and it will not end well." He leaned down toward her, and eyed her. Classic mob boss eye, the sort that told her it was an offer she couldn't refuse.

She took it, hook line and sinker, nodding like her life depended on it. Michael was a jackass.

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

Michael sat down in the main office where they had their meetings, a big long table with lots of chairs, and a touch screen on the wall, similar to the top office where the triumvirate held their meetings. It wouldn't be long before the other Invictus seniors showed up, and they'd have do a debriefing of the damage, and the truce. But there was enough time for the big conversation.

"As far as I know," Michael said, gesturing to two chairs across the table from him, "Mister Tones has gone to Avery to learn about this. I'm going to learn it from you two. I assume Burksen knows as much as you, Terry, since you seem to tell each other everything."

If they told him Jessy knew, how would he react? Not good, definitely not good.

"He does," Jack said. "The Begotten were the first to tell us about it. He's close with Fiona."

"I see. Azamel told you, then?"

"Yes, about two years ago."

"Two years. Impressive that you kept it secret for this long."

Jack nodded as politely as he could. "Yes sir."

"And the dragons know."

"Yes."

"So then. Explain."

Jack and Damien glanced at each other, and Damien nodded to him. Well, fine, he'll do the talking. How did he get this ambassador job?

Jack told him quite a bit. He told Michael about Black Blood, though Michael knew of the spirit's existence, but only barely. He told Michael about the strange tears showing up, and how it seemed to be the markings of a ritual symbol they were pretty convinced was not good. Like, might destroy the city, or even the world bad.

Michael took the threat to the city seriously, but he wasn't convinced about the threat to the world. Fine, whatever, taking the first threat seriously was good enough.

"So Jacob is our enemy? I know he conspires with the spirit."

"We don't know," Jack said. "Maybe? We've seen nothing to prove he is."

"Bold of the Prince to continue letting her childe maintain her romantic involvement with him."

Yeah, Prince's childe, not his mom or anything like that.

"She doesn't know."

Michael raised a brow. "Mister Terry, are you telling me you're letting your mother risk her neck? You?" Oh now she was his mom.

Jack didn't bother hiding his scowl. "Yes. This is important. We don't know if Jacob is working with Black Blood, but there's a chance, and in either circumstance it's better we don't tell her. We don't want Black Blood knowing how much we've uncovered."

"An intelligent and tactical decision. I assume this was the Prince's plan, and not yours?"

"... yes." Oh this guy, this fucking guy.

Michael must have seen the frustration in Jack's eyes, cause he chuckled as he kept his gaze.

"And Azamel is truly convinced these tears are a threat?"

"Was," Damien said. "She died, not long after your encounter with her."

Michael sighed as he leaned back in his chair again. "I cannot say that life won't be easier without her, but she was worthy of respect. You don't often run into women willing to use an iron fist."

"True enough sir," Jack said. "She was... banking on accomplishing some things in this city. That's why she told us about the dark ritual being cast; we didn't know that's what it was at the time. She told us so we could put a stop to it, so Dolareido would be a good place for her goals. And for her family."

"More sentimental than she seemed on the outside, wasn't she?" And Michael threw him another eye, like Jack should know that about other people, too.

"Yes. I think we should trust what she told us. The Prince does, and the dragons have been working on this problem for a while."

"Does this have anything to do with why Avery attacked Maria?"

"Yes. The werewolves followed a trail of evidence placed by spirits that led to her. We're convinced Black Blood tricked them."

Michael glanced up as he thought. "And... not long after that, Amanda came to me with an idea that would trigger the war Garry and I had been tiptoeing around for decades. An idea she has no memory of. And a mysterious ring has been found on her finger, that Damien's Auspex revealed to be linked to something rather dark. Which means you think Black Blood has been creating distractions."

Damn, he put things together pretty quick.

"Yes sir," Jack said.

"You give this spirit a lot of credit."

"We do," Damien said. "And it's earned it. Black Blood is a terrifying, brutally intelligent creature."

Jack raised a finger slightly. "Problem is, it's hard to tell anything with Black Blood. It isn't malevolent, far as we can well. It helped Sándor, when Jeremiah had us all bound in a strange ritual, the one that wounded Azamel." The one you failed to stop. No, no don't think like that. Stop accepting responsibility for everything. That last words of a dying woman, Jack. Stop beating yourself up. "Jacob and Black Blood saved me, Damien, and the others from Jeremiah and Sándor when he was still enslaved, when we were rescuing Jessy, Clara, and Eric. It's a tricky situation. We have to be careful, and not let Jacob know what we're up to."

"Garry and Jacob are friends, of a sort," Michael said. "You think Garry won't speak to him of this?"

"Once Avery tells him the details? I hope not."

Michael nodded as he sat back, and let his eyes drift off to nothing as he entered thinking mode. He came back after a minute, and hooked his fingers together as he set his hands on the table.

"Mister Terry. Your curse revealed some other, rather important secrets. Namely that you killed your grandsire Viktor Honors, Tony, and even Lucas, Damien's sire. That deserves elucidation."

Jack and Damien looked at each other. Tell him? Well, too late to not tell him.

So Jack told him. Told him about the fire, and then told him about how Jack was at the tower when Lucas attacked, and how Jack managed to turn the situation around. Surprisingly, Michael's face didn't get more angry at the explanation went on. If anything, he smiled.

"Impressive, Mister Terry. Thinking on your feet, and a pure display of will. And the curse did not help you dominate Mister Burksen's mind?"

"No. Or, maybe it did, but at that time it was still... getting its claws into my mind, I guess."

Michael grinned as he leaned back, and folded his arms across his chest. "Very impressive. Julias chose well." He gestured to Damien. "As did I, and Lucas, and the sheriff. Our childer have all been Right Hands at one point or another for a reason."

"You're not angry?" Jack asked.

"I am angry at myself and my agents for not having discovered this sooner. I am... happy, to know that Mister Mire sired as well as he did. If I had known you'd already created so much chaos and change in Dolareido, Mister Terry, I would not have found your disrespect and disregard for the chain of command to be so insulting. All this time, I felt I was being usurped by an idiot child. You've earned recognition."

"Um... thank you."

The man's grin turned a little more sinister than Jack liked.

"But make no mistake. This curse of yours is strong, but without it, you would have died last night."

"Agreed, sir."

"You're not going to apologize for your behavior last night, are you, Mister Terry?"

"Probably not."

"Ha. There's a little more Viktor Honors in you than you might like to admit, Mister Terry. Ventrue, indeed."