~~Antoinette~~
Deep within her tower, she sat at a table with an array of laptops, tablets, and artifacts. The resonance circle sat empty, and she had her chandelier to a normal white light. The necklace that had summoned the odd spirit of secrets sat in front of her, and she stared at it as she folded her arms across her chest.
Should she tell Avery of her concern with Maria? No. Avery would overreact. Besides, there was no tangible proof. But the werewolf was bound to find out sooner or later, as she grew increasingly involved in the affairs of the vampires.
Sighing, she pulled her hair over her shoulder onto her chest, and combed it. There was a missing piece in this madness, in her city, and she was determined to find it. Daniel had spent how many nights now, searching? Drifting through the city with the highest skill Auspex could provide, he was nothing more than a wisp of shadow, a dream, moving through the walls and streets. His hunt had no goal, nothing obvious. He was as likely to discover a random ancient city beneath Dolareido, as he was to determine the secret forces planning something unknown.
Was this unseen force using the hunters as cover? The hunters had become the focus of everyone, and rightly so. If they continued unabated, they would eventually strike gold, and ruin the delicate balance Antoinette had crafted. She did not mind if they killed Azamel, but not if it meant damage to her city.
She did not wish for Fiona to suffer, either. The silly girl was a ray of sunshine, and now that Antoinette had met her on multiple occasions, she was happy the tiny monster had come to her city. She followed the rules, and had only acted against them in ignorance, originally.
Chuckling at memories of the girl, Antoinette shrugged and looked at her laptop. The video feed had four pictures, one for each corner. One was of Samantha Terry, and the feed showed Julias and Jack sitting by her bed. Good. Those two had a tenuous relationship as of late, the sort all childer and sires eventually felt, as their natures clashed. The curse of Kindred, with their instincts forever pushing for solitude, while their human half demanded socialization to some degree. But, those two were not the typical Kindred, or men for that matter. They did not let ego dictate their decisions, usually.
Perhaps Jack would ask her to sire his mother. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she would, and that it would be a beneficial, and enjoyable change to her own life. To have a childe was an experience she had long forgotten, except that her previous was not only a male, a young male, but also her lover. This one would be a mature woman, and according to Jack, she was not the analytical sort.
What would that be like? Forever her conversations with Tony had been mental battles, each trying to outwit the other. Love faded, replaced with resentment, paranoia, and with time, hatred. With someone like Samantha, where Antoinette was the clear intellectual superior, would she feel superior in more problematic ways to her new childe? She had known Kindred to sometimes sire those they considered easily enslaved; after all, a Kindred did not sire to pass on the generation of their blood, like breeding humans. Kindred sired to increase the strength of their dominion. There were even stories of Kindred who sired, raised their childe, and then devoured them, draining their blood, and their soul.
She shivered. Diablerie was a vile act, and she was glad it had rarely reared its ugly head in her life. No, she was kinder than the average sire, let alone one capable of Diablerie. She would treat Samantha with respect, and with the wisdom she had gained in the centuries since Tony's embrace. And, it would be nice to have a female companion who was of an age. Ashley and Julee were wonderful, but young, and she was never sure if siring them would be a good choice.
Jack was young. But, was he? The boy had similar attributes to an old man, a strange concoction of intellect, hope, and cynicism. It was terribly appealing.
She sighed as she watched the two men talk over Samantha's body. This potential childe was the mother of her lover. That was a strange situation to be in, but not unheard of for Kindred. Indeed, many Kindred abandoned all pretext of romantic norms, and many engaged in sexual webs more complicated than any soap opera dared dream. It was not unheard of for Kindred to embrace their biological children once of age, leading to parent siring child, who sired their child, who sired their child. There were almost laughably intricate romantic triangles between Kindred that included parent, grandparent, child, and grandchild, fighting for the affections of the same man or woman.
But, while such complications were normal in Antoinette's world, they would novel and shocking in Samantha's. The woman would be Antoinette's childe, while Antoinette made love to her son, took care of him, pampered him, and, in a way, replaced Samantha as the woman in his life. There would be a wall between her and her new childe, and it would take great effort to overcome.
If she decided to sire her at all. Perhaps she should tell the boy to let his mother go? No, that would be cruel. Life was worth fighting for, even a second life. But that did not mean another Kindred could not take Jack's mother for their own, and not her. The issue was that Kindred groomed potential childer before the embrace, and no one knew this woman except for Jack.
Sighing, she looked to the other camera feeds. There were three cameras set up, high on building tops and pointed at the hospital. Some of her thralls sat upon them, perched on roofs, watching the city streets from above; so were Invictus thralls, she was sure. They had to be careful to not step on each other's toes, but at least they all had the same idea: there was a chance hunters would come to the hospital.
And what if they did? What could they possibly hope to achieve from that? Surely they were not willing to risk their lives and the lives of kine in a hospital, in some mindless bid to assassinate a visiting Kindred. That did not mean they did not have some other trick up their sleeve, though.
Her phone buzzed, and she sighed yet again as she picked it up. First she was interrupted from her research by her own thoughts, and now she was to be interrupted by another's. She was tempted to not answer, but if someone was calling her on this number, it was important.
Ah, Natasha. She answered it, and forced down the frustration building in her chest. "Miss Vola, my dear. Are you well?"
"Y-Yes, Prince."
"It was most startling, receiving your message." Only some thirty minutes ago, Natasha had sent the distress message, warning the Prince and the sheriff of her immediate danger. For the GPS on her phone to vanish shortly after had been worrying indeed.
"Sorry, P-Prince. We had to investigate immed-d-diately, for fear we might miss the opportunity."
Antoinette nodded, phone to her ear. "Do not apologize for your tactical decisions, Natasha."
"B-But I... w-we could have wasted time, if I made a mistake. And w-w-w—"
"Vola, my dear, you must understand. Even should your decision lead to wasted effort, or disastrous result, if you made it through steps of correct, logical reasoning, then you made the correct decision. It is always possible, that should you make zero mistakes and perform perfectly, you will still fail in your endeavor. Such is life. Do not take on guilt that is not yours to bear." Natasha had to learn to stop blaming herself for things. She internalized her negativity, and the neurotic behavior was a shackle around her ankle.
"Yes, Prince. I... I understand." Antoinette could almost see Natasha squirm on the phone. "W-We found hunters."
"I see. Then I am doubly glad you sent the message. Was Daniel of use?"
"Um... n-no, not really. He showed up once we were... spit out."
"Spit out?"
"We found Elen, and she w-was... d-d-doing things, in a hidden chamber, and it was... was—"
"Come to the tower, Natasha. This is important." Antoinette reached out, closed her laptop with the video feed, and left the research room. Her attempts to pierce the veil could wait. Hunters were the priority.
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~~Beatrice~~
Mission successful. Sort of? They learned something damn important about the hunters, but that knowledge seemed like such a small thing, compared to how awesome it would have been to kill some hunters, capture Elen, and maybe free that Begotten from her control; assuming it was mind control. So much potential success, and it'd all been right there in front of them. They followed a hunch, followed their instincts, and tracked down the hunters to what must have been a sort of jumping point they used for their weird... flesh... chamber... thing.
She groaned as she raised her head so the falling hot water fell on her face. Soaked in blood as she was, it had dried out a fair bit by the time she and her fellow witches had broken into a private indoor swimming pool. The pool wasn't close by, but they all desperately needed a shower after the insanity of what just happened, so they made the effort. They'd collected some of the blood into a jar, in case they could use it later, but for now, time to get it the fuck off.
"I wished Natasha joined us," Jen said.
"Well, I'm sure she's got better gigs to shower in than here." Triss motioned to the barely lit shower room of the swimming pool. Taupe tiling, large, with mirrors and counters; all around pretty decent, but it probably had nothing on the showers in the Elysium Tower.
The two of them stood naked under the falling water, a showerhead for each, and the two of them let out small groans and moans as they felt the blood wash away. A bit of it had gotten into her mouth, and it tasted very human. That was fucked up. How the fuck could a room of flesh, tortured and cut and spread and split and tied and punctured flesh, with arms and faces growing out of its walls, be human?
"Yeah but, I wouldn't mind getting a peek at her."
Triss rolled her eyes. "Jen, really?"
"What? She's got this teeny tiny little body, but still has feminine curves, except it's all petite, and... she's beautiful." Jen sighed and turned under the shower, running her fingers through her hair as she did. "And you heard her. She's got those two boys doing things to her nigh every night, and you just know they're both fucking her at the same time."
