My Little Ventrue Ch. 07

"This is my city," she said, "and mine alone. The Invictus have Xnomina because I let them. The Carthians rebel against their meaningless barriers because I let them. The Circle of the Crone hide in the dark and pursue their primal magics because I let them."

"B-but-"

"I will talk with who I please, about whatever I please, in front of whoever I please." She leaned in close. Her business dress hugged her form nicely, but her breasts were large and pressed to the boy whenever she leaned in so. His squirming always increased whenever her breasts touched him, despite the layers of fabric between them.

All the classic tricks of seduction, all the blatant flirtations, all the tosses of her hair, folding of her legs, and teasing with her fingers, it worked all too well on the poor boy. His eyes would widen, and then he'd catch himself looking at a part of her for too long, and then he'd force himself to look away. And each and every time, it made her cold, withered insides warm.

It had been ages since she'd had the opportunity to flirt, and ages more that it hadn't simply squashed her target with fear. This boy was precious.

"Yes, my Prince. I... wow, I just have trouble grasping it." He smiled up at her, scratched his head, and tried to shrug off his anxiety.

"I am sure you will grow more comfortable, the more time we spend together." She drew out the final word. Implications abound. It was enough to make the boy smile nervously and awkwardly. Honesty dripped from his every action like honey.

Her fingers grazed his skull, just soft enough that it'd shock him. And it did, but after a moment he managed to relax into her touch, and even gave a soft murr as her fingertips touched the odd texture of buzzed hair. His sudden ease and noises surprised her; she'd found a spot he enjoyed being touched, evidently.

"I enjoy trimmed hair," she said.

"T-thanks. I uh... time together?"

"Why yes. I was quite pleased that you decided to kiss me." She leaned in even closer, until her head was just over his, her nose just over his. "Or have you forgotten?" With others, toying and taunting and teasing them would soon have them thinking they were being drawn into a trap. But Jack Terry, little Ventrue, was both fearful of and entranced by it.

How she missed this game of cat and mouse, and Jack was such a cute little mouse.

"I... I...."

Ah, she'd stunned him. She would have to lead the poor boy, it seemed. That was ok, she enjoyed it.

"What were your plans for the night, little Ventrue?"

He snapped back to awareness. Her talk of time together had put a fantasy in his head apparently.

"Um... Julias was teaching me the Ventrue disciplines."

"Powerful knowledge and skills to learn. Ventrue can become nigh invincible, can control animals, and even others."

"Julias said the same thing. I like the idea of becoming invincible..."

Ah little Ventrue Who wouldn't? "But?"

"But... controlling others? I can't even... I can't wrap my head around that either." Jack squirmed, as if the sheer thought of controlling others was unfathomable to him. He'd learn.

"As your power grows, little Ventrue, so too will your ability to control the kine, and even other Kindred." She gave his buzzed hair a light stroke of her fingers; it truly was an interesting sensation on the skin. "Kindred have my permission to with the kine as they see fit. As long as you do not risk the Masquerade, you may do whatever you wish. You may kill, you may feed, you may bend, manipulate, control, build and nest."

"Whatever I want?"

"Indeed. Carnal delights, I admit, are what most freshly embraced drift to, and I cannot blame them." She spun her words carefully, with just the right inflections to emphasize the sexual nature of it all. "You could command a kine to make love to you while you drink them. With a little practice, you could have walked into Bloodlust, and simply asked any woman there to join you in a booth. At your command, they would have let you devour them while granting your every sexual desire." She gave him the look. The look. Sexual intent poured from her gaze like water.

She could play a brilliant devil when she wanted.

"Command someone, er, command a kine for sex? For blood? That..." The boy scratched at his buzzed head. "I mean yeah, that sounds great... for a little while. I dunno, that... that seems like it'd get pretty...."

He turned the words on his tongue. He was afraid he'd offend her. Just what was on the young Kindred's mind?

"It sounds hollow."

The erotic gaze she carried faded. The boy, the poor silly boy struck something within her so hard, she could feel the pain resonate through her core. She'd have gasped, if the reflex had still existed.

"... that it does, little Terry, that it does." She pulled him closer to her. The boy had a confused look on his face, but he usually did. She hugged him, pulled his head to her shoulder, and stroked at his crown idly. He wouldn't know why she was holding him so, and that was fine, because she knew he'd just accept her touch. And he did.

He most definitely was not Tony.

"But," she said, and turned them both slightly to again look at the humans that walked down the pathway past them, "you must still learn the disciplines, for protection or when you must feed and have no choice. I suggest...." She grinned down at the boy, and slid away on the bench so they could face each other. Whenever she held her words, Jack always squirmed a little with anticipation; it was delectable. "I suggest you practice on me."

"... my Prince?"

"You will not be able to dominate me." Oho, the word choice alone was making the game such a pleasure. "You may try though." With a foot between them, both of them sitting on the bench, she held his hands in her lap, and lightly stroked his knuckles.

"But, I... I...."

He squirmed and wriggled all the more at the proposal. The little Ventrue was almost turning on himself with conflicts and struggles. She gave him a moment to think, and soon Jack turned to face her, and gave a small nod.

"I must meet your gaze," she said, and looked the little boy straight in the eyes. "Now, you must learn to exercise your power over your Vitae. The blood in your body, you control it. Like an extra muscle, you can wield it."

Jack gave another small nod. It had been so long since she was embraced. Centuries. For her, to control the energy within her blood was just second nature. She'd long forgotten what it was like to breathe, but she imagined it was similar. For Jack though, it would be new, and she did her best to convey how ingrained it was into a Kindred's body.

"Yes my Prince. I think... yes. Alright, uh... what... what should I try to do."

"Mesmerize me of course." She gave his hand another gentle stroke of her nails. "I will be a slave to your whim. Anything you desire." And of course, a cherry on top to reward his efforts.

His eyes were so wide, she could see the whole of white around his irises. Then determination set in, he furrowed his brow, and gazed right back into her own eyes. The concentration in them was so endearing, she had to do her best to not smile at him. It was a serious matter, to learn to control Vitae, but the little man was truly adorable.

She could feel it though. His mind was reaching out and trying to control hers, mesmerize hers. It was surprising. Astonishing even. It was not like some fledgling only several weeks to the game, as Jack was. Rather, it felt like a Kindred of some years was trying to tear down her walls and dominate her.

He never could of course, but she had to admit, there was a reservoir there in the little man. Julias had chosen well.

"These... are not the droids you're looking for."

She bopped him on the head. He'd grown bold, the little imp, but she couldn't help but laugh.

"Sorry! Sorry, I... I couldn't stop myself," he said.

"Well, your silly sense of humor aside, you succeeded in performing the attempt."

"I... yeah, I felt something. Like I could feel you through my eyes. ...thank you, my Prince." He grinned up at her sheepishly, and stroked at where she thwaped him.

"Little Ventrue, you wasted a perfect opportunity at romance." She leaned in close, close, and closer still, and kept her eyes unusually wide. The boy was helpless to look away, despite how she did not use a single discipline upon him. She didn't need a Ventrue discipline to mesmerize with her gaze.

"But.. I didn't want to... impose...."

"I invited you to my estate." She ran one of her fingers down his neck, and then down the center of his suit's chest. "I shared one of my ghouls with you." Her other hand behind his head lightly grazed his ear. "We kissed." Her nose nudged against his. "And I would like to again."

Jack had the look of a boy confronted with a dream memory come to life. Had her kiss all been a dream, she imagined were his current thoughts.

With a warm smile, she brought her lips down to meet his with half-closed eyes. He'd have pulled back in surprise, but she had her arm behind him; he was trapped, and there was no way she was going to miss the look in his eyes.

It was always his eyes. They were wide with shock, despite the road he'd taken to get here. Beautiful, green, innocent eyes. His gaze blinked a few times when she plucked at his bottom lip, and she couldn't help but chuckle.

"You may kiss me in return, Jack. I will not bite." She nudged her nose into his lightly, and put a light kiss on his upper lip. "Yet."

Her silly threats sounded so juvenile and cliché to her, but Jack reacted just as she'd hoped, nervous and afraid but hopeless to escape her charms. He kissed her back, clumsy and timid, but that was what made it so enjoyable, so — dare she think it — fun. Her hand upon his head lowered to his shoulder, and with soft fingers, she tickled along his jawline while she played her lips across his. The boy's eyes eventually closed, but she did not close hers; she dared not miss a single moment of his expression. Even with his closed eyes, he looked so enraptured with her. And to her utmost delight, he made a tiny moan when she pushed a little harder into him.

Then her beast within stood upright and roared. The silent noise was enough that she almost slammed Terry back into the bench. She put a hand to his chest to hold him in place while she scanned around with angry eyes.

"My Prince, I-"

She silenced him with a finger over his lips. There, by the entrance to the parking lot, a man stepped around the stone wall and into her Elysium.

It was Tony.

"... you should run along now, Jack." Her voice had gone cold, and her grip around the tiny Ventrue had become protective.

"Is that Tony?"

"Indeed. Go home. He will not harm you, but it seems he would have words with me."

The young man looked between her and the Daeva in the distance. For a second, there was a strange look of determination in his eyes, but before she could say a word, it had faded and young Master Terry slipped off the bench.

"Goodbye, my Prince." And then he left.

He didn't sneak off through the maze though. To her utter amazement, the young man walked with slow determination up to Tony. She got ready to intervene, but Tony only gave him a quick glance, and Jack did not even raise his head to meet it; he just marched on past Tony and out into the streets.

She had not expected that. The little Ventrue did not seem so little anymore.

Tony walked toward her, hands in pockets and a small smirk on his face. He truly was a beautiful man with his tall, lean figure, his short black hair, and those blue eyes. Such a stylish dresser too, with his business coat and shoes. All he had to do was give her that half smile and memories crept up her spine and refused to die.

Their inner-beasts growled at each other in silence. Her childe had grown to the point she was no longer his obvious superior. He was a dangerous creature.

"New boy toy?" he said. "I'm a little surprised. Bit young, don't you think?"

"He is an adult."

"Barely. You always did like them young." He kept walking toward her, and soon he came to a stop just a few feet in front of him. He was almost as tall as her.

"Did you come here to taunt me, Tony?" She leaned her weight into one of her hips, and folded her arms together underneath her bosom. "A little juvenile."

"You'd know juvenile, wouldn't you?"

She grit her teeth until she felt her fangs poked against the inside of her lips. "What do you want, Tony?"

"Just came to check up on my old sire. I see your pedophile tendencies have only gotten worse."

Do not play into his game, Annie. Do not debase yourself.

"You stepped into my Elysium, Tony. When was the last time you came here outside of the meeting of the Primogen?" She took a step toward him, and looked down at him. "If you wish to duel, I will gather them, and we can settle your frustrations in combat." Her hand reached up and pushed her hair back over her shoulder behind her.

"Sorry Sire." He didn't look away or back down. He met her gaze with his usual arrogance and nauseating smirk. "Don't mix business with pleasure. You-," he reached out and poked her sternum hard enough to make her take a step back, "taught me that. Must have been a couple hundred years ago before this city even fucking existed."

She did not unfold her arms. "Do not test me."

"Sorry again." He gave a shrug. "But it's my right as the ex in our relationship."

The Prince took a moment to watch her childe. He was so smooth, suave, with just that edge of badboy and the cleanliness of a man who took care of himself. He dripped confidence, intelligence, and sexual allure.

She'd taught him well. Too well.

"Begone, Tony."

"It's the Elysium, right? I can take a stroll here if I want, by your own rules." He gave her another push against her sternum, and she was forced to take another step to stay standing. "That Jack kid looks cute as a button. Maybe I'll have Rebecca pay your new boy toy a second visit."

For just a moment, a split moment, she heard a growl. She didn't know where the sound came from, maybe it was from her, but a sound came that no human mouth could make. The next moment, she was standing with a foot forward and a fist already out in front of her. The skin of her knuckles had split open to reveal the dark, thick blood of Kindred that would not drip.

Tony was across the way with well over a hundred feet between them. One of the stone walls of her maze garden was cracked, and he was slumped against it with a hand against his jaw. The bone and skin of it was shattered, torn open, broken to pieces and splattered over his clothes. Kindred blood did not drip or flow, but her sudden assault had been enough to splash the viscous liquid against his neck and collar.

A crowd of Kindred crept up in the shadows. The garden maze covered a huge expanse of Elysium, and at least twenty freshly embraced fledglings who craved its no-violence law stood at the edge of the maze's walls. Their eyes were hide, and they whispered to each other while Tony crawled around on the ground with strands of his jaw hanging from his skull.

With a groan, the Daeva forced his body to recover. Flesh molded over the shattered bone and torn muscle; it was all dead flesh after all, and a Kindred as strong as her arrogant childe could regenerate from the wound. The young Kindred watching even let out gasps at the sight of Tony's jaw reforming itself.

She should have punched him harder.

"You're going to regret that," he said, once his jaw and tongue were back together. Much of his bone was still exposed, but pale skin was growing over it quickly. "You're going to regret everything."

Damn it, the bastard had baited her. Now there she stood with bits of Kindred -- now turning to ash -- on her fingers, with a host of fledglings watching. She'd struck first, and inside her Elysium where violence was forbidden. On top of that, his threat against Jack had been ambiguous; she had no proof. With just a few words, he'd damaged her position.

Conniving, manipulative, cruel and vicious. Part of her was proud, while another part of her wanted nothing more than to rip him apart, piece by literal piece.

Tony laughed to himself as he struggled to get back up. For a moment, she thought he'd fight back. Daeva fighting was a dangerous game indeed, for as fast and strong as they were, they did not have the resilience of a Gangrel or Ventrue. The fight would have been over in seconds.

He didn't though. With a snarky laugh, he turned around and walked away. He even gave a small wave as he moved on, without bothering to look back, and left her in the wake of her mistake.