My Little Ventrue Pt. 10 Ch. 06

The gargoyle looked down slightly, thinking, before slowly nodding. "Okay."

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

Mulder and Scully perched on Jack's shoulders, and cawed curiously at Sándor, and the thing he stood beside.

"You spied on the whole city with this?" Sándor asked.

"I did. Though I preferred weaker telescopes, things I could move easily. Now I don't need to do that, so I set up a proper telescope."

The gargoyle nodded slightly before leaning back into the eyepiece. It was an interesting building they stood on, tall but not as tall as others, which meant a telescope placed on the roof corner had access to multiple streets and many buildings worth of windows to peer into, up and down.

"It still surprises me a vampire hid in the city for half a century."

"You're telling me," Jack said. He sat on the edge of the building on the opposite side of the roof, looking down at the streets below. "The Prince and the sheriff didn't know what happened in the chaos of the Purge. Lucas got away, and took a long nap. Damien spent fifty years hiding in sewers and spying on us. Pretty damn impressive."

"If the sheriff knew I was hanging around," Damien said, "I'm sure it would have been a different story. I was basically anonymous. I walked the streets plenty of times." Which was technically true, but he also spent most of his time hiding in the tunnels.

"It still blows my mind," Jack said. "About the weird place Tony had underground, that Lucas took over. The wyrm's nest, according to Antoinette, whatever that means. Place had influence, bent people's minds. Dolareido really is a weird city, isn't it?"

Sándor aimed the telescope down to the street. Unlike Fiona, the man was naturally gentle and smooth with the motion, any excitement he might have felt over its extreme telescopic powers tempered by his age and wisdom. Or the man was just really chill, which was Fiona's belief.

"Places affected by essence," Sándor said, "most likely."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, that's what Avery said. Tony had been using it, not knowing it was giving his voice some power. Then Lucas found it and used it. A perfect storm of shit."

"You're telling me," Damien said. "I still can't believe how much things have changed. The Lancea et Sanctum is alive, again. Barely, but it is. I'm not hiding anymore. I have a nice apartment in the expensive center of South Side. I have a girlfriend."

"I was still human four years ago. So uh, I think I got you beat."

"True."

"Sándor," Jack said, "I wanted to ask you about Mom. You were helping her and Beatrice, right?"

The man stepped away from the telescope, a hint of sadness showing through.

"I did."

"I'm not going to ask about what you did or how you did it. I'm guessing Triss would prefer to keep that information between her and Mom and the witches. And you."

Slowly, the man nodded, face returning to its usual neutral state.

"Cool." Jack stood up and walked over to the man. "I just wanted to ask about Mom and Triss. I mean, Jen was there too, but she's... Honestly I have no idea about Jen. She likes Triss, romantically even, and is willing to help her in her witch pursuits, far as I know. But..."

"But," Sándor said, "Jennifer does not seem interested in a committed romantic relationship. At least for herself."

"Friends with benefits," Damien said.

Jack laughed. "A good a descriptor as any. But, my mom, how was she during all this? I... I was pretty adamant she needed to let Mary go, that she was dead and gone and her ghost had to follow. Knowing she kept working at resurrecting her despite that, fucking stings. I feel like shit."

Sándor looked down at the kid, before he sat back against the rooftop railing beside the telescope, and folded his arms across his chest.

"She was a mother. Beatrice tempered her expectations, but she was committed to helping her daughter. I think... if Mary had moved on, Samantha would have accepted it. But as long as Mary remained, a ghost, your mother would do everything she could do revive her."

"Ah fuck. Now I feel even worse."

"Don't." Sándor shook his head, eyes falling again. "You did the right thing. It's not good for people to hold onto the dead."

No one said a thing for a few seconds after that. The night was just filled with heavy silences.

"Which brings me to my next question. Beatrice. She, uh... she doing okay?" As if the question was a little too painful, Jack turned his attention to his birds, and scratched each of them behind the neck.

"You want to know about her progress with resurrecting Julias?"

"No. She told me that's far off, and Julias's ghost isn't hanging around. Unless she can pull off some really, really freaking shit, I... I don't think she'll ever revive him."

The gargoyle slowly nodded. "Perhaps. She has proven remarkably talented at... witch things."

"Agreed. But Jacob's a freaking master of that stuff, and even with Black Blood's help, he hasn't been able to bring back Minerva. Triss knows that. I think as the months have gone by, she's accepted that, but a part of her refuses to move on 'cause... well..." Jack shrugged as he sat down beside Sándor, and held out a hand in front of him, sideways. Without hesitation, Mulder flew down and perched on his finger, before cawing once at Sándor. "She's stubborn."

Damen laughed, earning Jack's glare and ire.

"Come on, Jack," Damien said. "You're one of the most stubborn people I know."

"That's... only a little true, right?"

Damien laughed and shrugged, got up, and set his eye to his telescope. The roof wasn't only selected for its altitude relative to other buildings, but also for its darkness. It was forever in the shadow of a neighboring building, which blocked the lights of a nearby casino. Anyone who looked out their windows, or looked up from the streets, would be partially blinded by the casino and other extravagant lights that could never quite land on the specific corner of the building with the telescope.

Sure enough, some of the windows were open. Plenty, actually, as was common in Dolareido. Many of them showed kine dancing and drinking. Others showed kine sitting upon couches and watching the television, often with an arm raised in triumph or dismay. Several had men sitting while a woman stripped, usually while standing on a table. One had women -- and one man -- sitting around while a man stripped on a table.

And of course, several windows showed people having sex. Three of them showed a young couple having sex. Two showed a man with two women. One showed a woman with two men. And one of them showed a couple well into their seventies having sex, which didn't exactly match Dolareido's tone. Jessy would probably have said it was awesome, old people getting 'randy' and having sex so openly. Old people simply did not care what others thought.

Damien aimed the telescope down, and scanned through the streets. Populous a city as Dolareido was, the wide sidewalks were packed with kine, going about their business in the nightlife. At this time of night in this part of the city, that business was almost exclusively some form of revelry by rich people. Suits, dresses, and nightclub attire were everywhere.

Not a single one of them knew the whole city could collapse around them at any moment due to some mysterious ritual no one understood.

"I think," Jack said, "Triss will eventually let this go, like Jacob did. But you've been hanging with her more than I have lately, Sándor. Am I right?"

"I... do not know. I think a part of her wants to let it go. I think a part of her is determined to see this to the end. She is stubborn, and she is intelligent."

Damien raised a brow as he took a peek at Sándor, before sticking his eye back into the telescope eyepiece. He said 'intelligent' with a little more inflection than the man usually used.

"She is," Jack said. "And I really do think she'd be happier if she let this go. She's gotten really close with Jen, and I know she's... uh... been a little more intimate with my mom than I'd probably like."

Damien coughed, causing the telescope to swing up. Thank the Lord it was very heavy and mounted on a tripod. Not easily knocked over. If it fell, it was more than large enough to punch a hole through a car's roof, let alone a kine's head.

Sándor nodded, as if what Jack said was the most normal thing. "All the witches I've known have been very free with their sexuality. And hundreds of years ago, that was empowering."

"It's not now?" Jack asked.

"I suppose it is. But back then, women were property. Most witches were women, and you can imagine how freeing it was for them when they broke free of their social chains."

"He has a point," Damien said. "Witches had a habit of being women. I can imagine it being very terrifying, and exhilarating, for women back then to break free and... be powerful." He had to admit, witches were an extremely popular and compelling image of female power. Then again, that was cultural, and inaccurate. Witches had always been both male and female, at least as far as vampires and the Lancea et Sanctum were concerned.

"Well, either way," Jack said, "I'm happy Triss is getting over losing Julias. Maybe not happy about her moving on by touching my mom, but still. And she's been hanging out with you, how's that going?"

"She... She seems happy. Happier than she was before. She's learning piano."

Damien raised his head. "Is she?"

"Yes. But she ran into some barriers with the basics. I think I helped her find the problem."

Damien almost asked what, but that'd give him away. And if Triss didn't tell Sándor it was Damien teaching her, better to leave it a secret.

"What was that?"

"She tried to..." He stopped. "I think I'll keep it secret unless she shares it." The gargoyle nodded to himself as he looked off into space, brows furrowed slightly. He was a heavy thinker. Damien could relate. He was also thinking about Triss more than Damien expected.

"But she's enjoying herself?" Jack asked.

"Yes. I think. She spends a lot of time thinking about what she's still trying to do, with Julias. But, she often comes out of those thoughts, and enjoys the moment. Laughs. Smiles. Your mother has helped her a lot with that, in a strange way."

Sighing, Jack held Mulder closer to his chest, and gently stroked the bird from head to tail feather.

"I know I was being an asshole, telling Mom she needs to let Mary go when Mary was still around, but... I don't think it's the same with Julias. She needs to let the man go."

"I don't think you were wrong," Damien said, "to tell your mom that. Resurrection is unheard of. No one could have seen Mary's resurrection coming."

Jack smiled at him, and raised the shoulder Scully sat on in his direction. Scully flew over to Damien, making him jerk back a bit, but she hovered there for a second before she eventually settled on his shoulder. How the bird managed to fly with a screwed up wing, he didn't know, but she'd managed somehow, and she stretched the crooked thing before hooking it against her side. Other than her moment of flight, Scully's movements were not very bird-like, and far more stone gargoyle-like, just sitting there perfectly still and occasionally twisting her head around to look at stuff. She didn't breathe.

"Agreed," Sándor said, eyes raising as he pulled himself out of whatever spiraling thought hole that'd caught him. "About Mary. As for Julias, I... don't know. Jacob and Beatrice have accomplished extreme things. And this time, they have both Black Blood, and Elen."

They went silent for a moment with the mention of Elen. The witches' prisoner. Someone who could perform haruspex, and flesh magic. Yeesh.

"It's a pretty scary road," Jack said.

Damien gestured up to the crow on his shoulder. "Two dead birds and two dead people sitting on a rooftop with a literal nightmare. Is the witch stuff really that scary?" Of course it was, but it was worth it to try looking at things from a different perspective.

"Heh. Figured you'd be the first one to say sacrificing people in dangerous witch rituals was a bad idea."

"I would be, but I'm playing devil's advocate for a moment. We really in a position to be judging witches for dipping their toes into stuff like that?"

The two vampires looked to Sándor.

The gargoyle spent some time looking down, thinking, arms still folded across his chest. It was strangely easy to talk to Sándor, about anything, probably because of how much he preferred to sit and listen. Which made him the perfect man to ask a question to, if you could find the right question.

"I witnessed some of what they did," he said. "Beatrice is trying very hard to keep her hands clean. Relatively speaking. She's well aware of the dangers of the road she walks."

Jack nodded. "Beatrice always was smart, way smarter than any Carthian I've dealt with. Kinda surprises me Jacob took so long to recruit her."

"She is special." Again, the gargoyle nodded with his usual quiet stoicism. He'd said 'special' with a little more inflection than usual, like he had with 'intelligent' a moment ago.

The longer Jack and Damien hung out with the man, the more obvious it was becoming that he had a lot of thoughts, and just preferred to not say them. He'd mastered the art of saying less than he knew, which was a very dangerous skill.

"Yeah," Jack said, smiling a little as he looked from Sándor to Damien. He saw it too, the way Sándor instantly went into think mode the moment they said Beatrice's name.

It could have meant a lot of things. Maybe Sándor was still tearing himself up over Julias's death, and how many people it'd affected, especially Beatrice. Maybe Beatrice reminded him of his dead wife. Maybe the guy was trying to find a way to stop Jennifer -- and by proxy, Beatrice -- from her constant flirting with him. Or, maybe, the guy liked her.

Unfortunately, Damien couldn't navigate social dynamics to save his life, and Jack wasn't much better. So Damien gave Scully a few strokes of the back of her head, and shrugged at Jack.

"I'm not sure what Triss is going to do," Jack said after a while, "but with how close she is to Jacob and Black Blood, we need to keep an eye on her." Sándor furrowed his brows a little harder, going from slight to actually noticeable, as he looked at Jack. "Which means, since you're the only one of us that's been involved with her, uh, extracurricular activities..."

"I'll keep an eye on her," Sándor said. He opened his mouth again, but after a few seconds of silence, he got up and turned to face over the railing and toward the streets below. Silence. Jack and Damien said nothing.

After a slow breath, Sándor leaned forward and set his hands on the railing. At this point Jack and Damien had caught on it was best to just shut up and wait until the man was ready to speak. It took a while. Sándor squeezed the railing, and looked up at the night sky, all stars hidden in the constant night lighting of Dolareido.

"I won't let anyone else die," he said at last. "I don't care what I have to do. I won't let anyone else die."

Damien and Jack blinked at each other.

"I get that," Jack said. "But, I mean, we're all on that page. Right?"

It took a few more moments before Sándor eventually nodded.

"Right."

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

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

~~Eric~~

"No Mary or Sam this time?" Eric asked.

Jessy laughed and shook her head. "Nope. I got a few dresses I wanna check out."

"Ball is tomorrow."

"Yeah but I know they got a few things here in my size. Come on."

He nodded as he looked around, and took a deep breath.

The clothing store was basically the same as the last one. A large floor filled with racks of clothes, dresses and suits, and shoes, with a few winding paths separated by walls that didn't quite reach the ceiling. There weren't many people in the store, but ten people was plenty when you were dealing with the crazy prices of Dolareido's nightlife.

"Sometimes I wonder why Dad doesn't come visit Bloodlust," he said, "or take advantage of the money I give him and go shopping for better clothes." Eric lifted the sleeve of a suit he passed by, checked the price, groaned, and let it go. "And then sometimes I completely understand."

"Wasting money is fun!"

"It's not so fun when you don't have a lot of it."

"You have a lot of it now." Jessy rolled her eyes as she scooped a black dress up from the racks, and held it against her body in front of him. She was in a casual suit, like he was, because coming to a place like this in jeans and a t-shirt would have been grounds for getting arrested.

"I didn't always." He checked the price tag, groaned liked before, and put the dress back. Which of course just made the vampire laugh.

"Me neither, remember? Rough life and all that before Michael found me."

"Then where's your natural aversion to wasting money?"

She shrugged, grabbed another dress, and did the same thing. "Gone. I'd like to say it's 'cause I've got a lot more years under my belt and feel comfortable spending. But I'm pretty I've always spent every dime I got, even in my first year." Her first year as a vampire, she meant. "I was a dumbass with money."

"I'm guessing you also spent any money you got your hands on when you were alive."

She laughed and shrugged, even as he pushed her ridiculously expensive dress down and helped her put it back.

"Yeah, I probably did."

"My dad would have given you a whipping. With a belt."

"Kinky."

"Not so much when you're eight and your dad's giving you a whipping cause you bought some candy without his permission."

"Oof, that sucks. Kinda surprised he was doing that in the... what, nineties?"

"He was old school." Eric made no attempt to hide the contempt in his voice when he said 'old school'. "But I'm exaggerating how bad it was. He was an ass, but not that much of an ass."

"Good. I'd stop sending him pictures if he turned out to be a shit dad."

Eric groaned, again, which of course sent Jessy into fits of laughter as she pulled him along.

"About the ball tomorrow," she said. "Any expectations?"

"A little. If you-know-who is going to make a move, it might be then."

She nodded as she grabbed another dress, did a quick test for him, and slung it over her shoulder before he could check the tag.

"Well, if the person of the hour isn't there, then we'll know something's up. They're invited."

It was annoying avoiding saying Jacob's name, but with how everything was building up, it was probably for the best. It wasn't like Jacob wasn't smart enough, or powerful enough, to spy on them. He could literally be in the room, and Eric doubted either of them would be able to sense him until he got close. They had to be careful.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"I expect to see a lot of skin, I suppose."

"Well that's a given. It won't be like our little parties at Bloodlust, though, everyone topless and shit."

"To your dismay."

"To my utter dismay." She nodded and stood tall and proud, before slumping and grabbing another dress. "I look forward to Mary being there."

"Poor kid. Been alive for a few days and now she's going to be sideline to an orgy."

"Ugh, I wish. Nah, no orgy."

"But there will be a few thralls and ghouls, naked, and getting drained mid orgasm, right?"

"Of course. That's not an orgy! That's just a banquet."

"Uh huh." He rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but chuckle. Vampires were a strange bunch. "I seriously doubt Samantha will let anyone touch her daughter."

"Yet. It's not like Sam has a leg to stand on, with the way her sex drive has exploded since being sired." And another dress went onto the shoulder.

They continued shopping for a bit. Jessy got ten dresses over her shoulder -- so much for 'few' -- before she was done looking around. She also checked her phone for a second, sent someone a text, nodded, grinned at her phone, put it away, and dragged Eric to a changing room. No one stopped them from sharing one.