~~Beatrice~~
She curled up under her pile of blankets, and clutched Jennifer tight.
It was quiet in the cave. Jacob and the boys were out, doing things, looking for hunters or something. She didn't really care right now. Every part of her ached, felt drained, and demanded sleep. Deep diving into Crúac was exhausting, demanding, and beyond difficult. But that wasn't the whole reason she felt like shit, and she knew it. Every part of her couldn't imagine doing anything but staying in bed, and letting the world crumble around her.
Of course, Jennifer wouldn't let her do that. Like that annoying friend that refuses to let you die, Jennifer hounded her and demanded she not succumb to the blatant depression she was suffering. Like, right now, Triss had planned to just lie in her alcove, and mope, but Jennifer had slipped under the covers with her, wearing nothing at all. Triss was only wearing a tank top and some boy shorts, and they did little to block the feel of Jen's skin.
Triss held her close, the big spoon, and she set her cheek against the back of Jen's head.
"Hey," Triss said.
"Hey. How did your visit to Jack's go?"
Right, she hadn't talked to Jen about that yet. Too busy being sad, and crying in dark corners.
"It was... it went well. He agreed, but I... I could tell that... that this curse thing is real." She'd felt it, when in the kid's presence. He was stronger. He was deadlier. He'd gone from sweet, innocent little Jack, naive and untainted, to a predator. A seemingly corrupted predator, given the nature of the curse.
She didn't understand it, and didn't need to understand it. Jack was willing to help her, and he seemed confident he could handle anything she threw at him. More to the point, he was willing to kill Angela, no matter what. They both saw eye to eye on that.
That was where things got blurry, ethically. She never considered herself to be a particularly horrible person, even at her worst when she killed kine; they'd deserved it, and she didn't lose any sleep over them. Hunting down asshole humans and drinking them dead had been a good way to burn off steam, and it wasn't a problem as long as she kept killings rare, and cleaned up evidence. Dolareido's crime rate remained moderately low, despite it being the perfect nesting ground for the lowlifes of the world, because of Kindred like her. Low crime rate, casinos, theater, strip clubs, and everything in between, meant a lot of kine were always visiting or moving in, and food was always at a surplus for Kindred. Everybody won, a symbiotic relationship.
Slaughtering kine because she needed blood for rituals, was a grayer area. How many had she killed in the past week? Six. Drug dealers and abusers, people that didn't necessarily deserve death, but it didn't matter. She had a goal, and it required blood. People would keep dying until she met that goal, until she found Angela, until she killed every hunter in the fucking city.
Even if she had to burn the whole thing to the ground.
Tonight was her first break from practicing Crúac with Jacob since Julias's death. Her mind needed a break. They'd been trying to do something unusual, and something even Jacob himself warned her might not be possible: invent a ritual that could track down hunters. The problem was that, not only were they struggling to figure out a way to get the ritual to hunt hunters specifically, but Crúac rituals were as mysterious and obscure as trying to talk to God. God had a habit of not responding, so learning whether the Crone, or whatever strange alien entities or forces that existed in the universe, were even listening to them, was difficult.
That's where Black Blood came in. It—
Jen's hands, hidden underneath the many blankets, slid around until they found Triss's, and guided them along her body. One hand slid down to set Triss's fingers along Jen's thighs, while the other slipped Triss's fingers around one of Jen's breasts. The woman's body was smooth and curvy, and Triss traced her fingers along her friend's skin, sighing as she did. Soft, and delightful. The big tits and large ass were model material, and Jen did ever enjoy rubbing them against her.
It was obvious her friend was trying to get her mind off Julias, and onto something less depressing. Jen's body and sex drive were definitely less depressing, and Triss managed a weak chuckle as she gently squeezed the woman's large tit until it overflowed her fingers.
It was more than just sex. Jen knew that Triss had begun associating sex and Julias, with having Jen around as well. Rubbing her big ass against her, making her grope her breasts, it did feel like being in Julias's company again, if only a little. If a big guy had climbed under the blankets with them, wrapped his arms around her from behind, while Triss felt Jen up, it'd have been the same world she'd lost over two weeks ago.
She stopped, and put her hands back where they were. Still holding and squeezing the naked, beautiful woman to her, but no fondling, no groping, no fingering. Jen got the point pretty quick, and relaxed into the blankets while Triss held her.
"You don't need me to have sex, Jen," she said. "You have two ghouls, who I am sure are itching to fuck you. How long has it been since you've slept with them?"
"A long time ago." Groaning, she turned around and faced her, keeping the mountain of blankets pulled up to her shoulders. "Since... you know." Since Julias first invited her into his bed with Triss. For all Jen's talk about not being interested in romance, she'd displayed a lot of the signs of someone who'd been romantically interested.
Sighing, Triss squeezed her friend tighter, and buried her face in her neck. "I miss him. So damn much."
"I know. I was just—"
"I know. It's... it's ok." She kissed Jen's neck a couple times, before settling her head back down against her pillow. The past two weeks had been nothing but crying. Crying, and experimenting with Crúac when Jacob said to, that'd been her life for now and probably would be for some time.
The Beast in her disagreed. It was sad its mate was gone, but the Beasts were loners by nature. Relationships were not something it understood, especially long-term ones. The Beast told her to get out there, kill her enemies, reestablish her territory, defend her food supply, blah blah blah. Annoying as it was, she appreciated its candor, she supposed. It was the only part of her that wasn't screaming in rage and agony every second of the night.
Two years. Two fucking years she'd spent in that man's arms, and now, she didn't know what to do with herself.
Not true. She knew what to do next. Revenge. It was her only guiding light, the only thing she could trust. Once it was done, what next? The idea of going on with her second life without Julias felt pointless and hollow. All she wanted to do was climb onto his body, get between his arms, and disappear. Nothing else existed, nothing else mattered when she was there, just the way she felt safe, and loved, and happy, and complete, and...
God fucking damn it. She sobbed a couple times, and hid her face in Jen's neck. Her friend held her, squeezed her in return, and said nothing. The cave was empty tonight save for them. No one to hear her cry.
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~~Jack~~
Dusk arrived, and with it, new goals. He was going to talk to Beatrice today, and show his mom his apartment, and see Azamel. Or at least, that was the plan. Right now, his brain was having trouble picturing anything past the immediate moment, and what Antoinette was doing to him.
He gulped, melted into the bed, and watched Antoinette as she settled on the bed perpendicular to him, her torso draped across his thighs. She set her weight onto an elbow on the other side of his legs, got comfortable with her side pressing down on his upper thighs, and set her breasts around his shaft so it was sticking up between the two pillows. It was absolute bliss, feeling the weight of her breasts around his cock, how the soft skin and supple mounds molded to its shape, and how she smiled at him like a satisfied cat, as she watched him merge with the blankets and mattress.
"An old friend of mine will be visiting soon, my love," she said. "Do be careful with her."
"I, uh... wait, what?" He blinked down at the Prince, but she only grinned at him as she got comfortable. "Oh, right, Elaine. You haven't told me anything about her yet. Figured I'd wait before asking."
His shaft, still between her breasts, and getting squashed by the sideways angle she was lying on him with, fought to escape the tight confines. With a guiding finger, she pushed it back toward her sternum, trapping it between the two mountains. She set her temple against the hand of the arm with the elbow to the mattress on the other side of his hips, while her other casually teased over her nipples, circling and stroking their swelling, pink areolas. Her touching herself meant no stimulus for him, just a heavenly blanket of breasts around his length while they talked. That was fine. Hell, it was perfect. It gave him a little more self control, more mental capacity to simply watch the amazing sight, instead of immediately giving into sexual need.
It'd been weeks since they had a conversation like this, exchanging information about their day and whatnot, during the middle of sex. Apparently, she wanted to make it known that these sorts of talks would be happening regularly again. Awesome.
"Elaine is a fellow dragon and upstanding member of the Ordo Dracul. She will be visiting my city soon, and she means to speak with you."
"With me?"
"Oui." Still with her head resting lazily against the fist of one arm, keeping it propped up, her other hand reached down her own body, down her flat stomach and pale skin, to disappear between her thighs. Her body started to move, slow and subtle motions, a gentle rhythm that drew his eyes. She was masturbating, while she talked, instead of pleasuring him. All he could do was lie there, and watch the goddess play with herself, with his cock sticking up from between her two breasts sitting on his abdomen.
