~~Beatrice~~
The night went so much fucking better than she thought it would have. After her heavy conversation with Jacob, she thought maybe things would get intense, in a bad way. Nope. Dude hung out, chatted with Aaron a bit, and Jack, and now Samantha. More surprising, was how the dragons let him.
Peace was the name of the game tonight. Carthians and Invictus were getting along, at least for now, and everyone else was more than getting along. They were getting fucked, in the good way. Othello was sharing his beautiful ghoul with a Carthian. The hunters were getting gang-Kissed by Isabella and her troupe. The werewolves were getting involved with plenty of people, Carthians and Invictus, and were literally fucking where people could see them. Damn, werewolves were all jacked and ripped.
Some people found it a little too uncomfortable. Avery, Clara, Aaron, Maria, Michael, they all left eventually. Jacob was outside with Samantha. Fiona and Damien were--well, they were probably having sex, on the roof. A few others had left too, but for the most part, the ball still had plenty of people. Over a hundred Kindred, a bunch of werewolves, a bunch of thralls and ghouls, and two Begotten, all remained within.
Sándor, she could understand sticking around, since Jen still held his arm, and the man seemed reluctant to forcibly remove her. He kinda looked like he wanted to, but unless he manually got rid of her, Jennifer just took his defiance as a challenge. It was cute.
Athalia, on the other hand, remained, and Beatrice did not understand why. Jack, Big Tits and Bigger Tits, along with two ballerina ghouls, walked past her, and after a few seconds talk with Jack, Athalia looked better. Legitimately better, like, maybe she didn't want to kill everyone and everything in the universe anymore. It was clear that she didn't want to talk to Jack, and the conversation had been very short, but she looked better for it.
But Jack hadn't been the one to kill Angela, Beatrice had. Sure, Jack did everything to get her there, including drag her broken ass, but he didn't pull the trigger, she did. No way in hell was Triss going to push, and try and talk to the dead woman's mother.
Daniel, on the other hand, chatted with her, and she listened. Hell, she even chatted back, and unless Triss was seeing things, she smiled a few times too. Daniel ignored all the sex around him like he was used to it, and he probably was, considering his closest friend thought sex was a literal art form, and had likely indulged in it like a kid in a candy store, for hundreds of years. The sheriff barely acknowledged it. Instead, his focus remained on Athalia, and a sliver of a smile sneaked onto his lips.
The sheriff. Smiling? Triss knew Daniel was one of the first people Athalia had met in Dolareido, when she'd first become a monster. And judging from the looks the two of them shared, she liked him. She might not have liked that she liked him, but she did like him. And Daniel, so closed off he made Sándor look chatty, apparently liked her, too.
Everyone was getting along, every single person. It felt way too weird, and too good to be true. Probably was. In a week or two or ten, something would happen, and shit would get problematic again. The Carthians and Invictus would step on each other's toes, or maybe the werewolves would pick a fight with someone they thought was fucking with the 'balance' or whatever. But for now, it was nice, how everyone was enjoying the peace, peace she'd helped bring.
She looked down, and let a memory up from the grave for a bit. Julias, hugging her, holding her, stroking her hair, kissing her. Just a little, just for a moment, just to remind her why she did what she did.
Except, the memory didn't go away. She'd gotten good at suppressing them, but after what Jacob said, she couldn't, not right now. Could he revive Julias? Could she use Crúac, and that bitch Elen, to somehow revive him? God, she shouldn't, she really shouldn't. Even Jacob thought it wouldn't work.
But, god, to hear his voice again, and... to hold him again, and--
"Triss, you alright?" Jen said.
"I... I think I want to go now."
Jennifer let go of Sándor, and set her hands on Triss's arm. "You--" Her mouth shut when they made eye contact. "Right, right. Let's go."
God damn it, it was great having a friend. Didn't have to explain herself, didn't need to justify anything, didn't even need to say a damn thing. Jen recognized the look on her face, knew she was suffering with memories of Julias, and knew she had to get her out of the party asap.
"Sándor," Triss said, "you could stay or--"
"I'll leave too." And without a further word, the man started for the door.
Jen managed some small chuckles, and followed after him. Triss tried to chuckle too, cause Sándor was funny, a perfect straight man. But, she couldn't chuckle. It choked in her throat, and turned into a quiet sob that forced her to look down and hide her face in the frame of her hair.
On the way out, she spotted Garry. He was chatting with someone, someone Triss didn't recognize. A vampire, and probably a Gangrel by the way he carried himself. Jeremy Long, Garry's new childe? Had to be. The Asian-looking fellow had dangerous written right on his forehead, but he managed to stay out of the limelight like an expert Mekhet might. Well, whatever, he was the Invictus's problem, not hers.
Once Triss, Jen, and Sándor were outside, a quick glance showed Samantha chatting with Jacob on a nearby bench, surrounded by grass and bushes. The Nos looked Triss's way, offered her a small, knowing nod, and returned to his conversation. She knew Jacob could flirt. Hell, Jacob was a smoother fucker when he wanted to be. But, the look she saw on his face was a little different, a little softer, a little kinder, almost like he was just having a genuinely pleasant conversation. Crazy, to think of Jacob doing something normal, like talking to someone, for the sake of talking to someone. No way he was just talking to her for fun. Jacob, like every elder, always had a bunch of things lined up, so every action benefited him in multiple ways. But, he did really look like he was enjoying himself.
Before she could stop herself, she pictured herself where Samantha was, and Julias where Jacob was. She never did the girly-girly flirts with Julias, and Julias didn't try and spin fairytale adventures for her. But, that didn't change that seeing them together reminded her of times with Julias, and--
Jennifer touched her arm. "Don't do that."
"I... I'm not trying to." Sighing, she shuddered, crossed her arms and rubbed her biceps. "Can we just go?"
"Back to the catacombs?"
Right, the catacombs. If she went back to the cave with the other witches, they'd hear her crying.
"Anywhere private, I suppose. I--"
Sándor looked at her, and she met his eyes for a second. He knew. He knew exactly what she was feeling. And after a quiet moment, the man let out a short sigh, and nodded toward the shadows around the building.
"You want privacy, quickly? Come with me."
Jen and Triss looked at each other, brows quirked, but after they realized what Sándor was doing, Jen smiled. She took Triss's hand, and pulled her after the Begotten, as he disappeared into the shadows that sat behind the Black Hall.
It wasn't the first time Triss had gone through one of the strange holes Begotten dug through reality, or the second. It came with a strange feeling, like walking at night when a thunderstorm was brewing. Electricity in the air. But with Begotten, and the strange ways they opened doors to their nightmare realms, the tingle in the air was less electric, and more like goosebumps. It was a nightmare realm, nightmare, with every intent to be scary, so goosebumps made sense. She wouldn't get goosebumps without Blushing Life, but that didn't stop a chill of fear from sneaking up her spine.
She stepped out of the shadows, onto a solid, dark platform. Concrete? Stone? With a few moments to think, she managed to piece together what she was looking at, and she sucked in a quick, useless breath.
There was a stone throne, enormous, and imposing. Around her were titanic pillars, dozens, maybe even hundreds in the gigantic room. Braziers lit the walls, gargoyle-shaped braziers, and they lit the pillars as well, showing frozen statues at the top of each. Gargoyles, each the same size and shape as Sándor's Horror, giant beasts that could have squashed her like a grape.
Movement in the shadows drew her eyes, and she froze as one of those titanic gargoyles crept around one of the pillars, and onto the huge throne of stone at the end of the room. Sándor didn't sit in the throne; he couldn't have, with four wings and a tail. Instead, the monster perched on it, squatting and holding onto the edge of its back with two of his hands, while his two others held his knees.
Triss looked behind her, at a large wooden door, opened, and it led into a hallway she recognized. This wasn't the place that opened up into the haunted village on the cliff edge. This was the place where Jack and his crew had rescued Eric, Jessy, and Clara. A nightmare chamber, linked to the other one, but not exactly the same place.
Triss and Jen both stared on as the giant got comfortable on his perch, his wings stretching out wide enough to hide a bus. Christ, he was huge, so god damn mother fucking huge.
"Take that door," the beast rumbled, and he pointed to one of the massive wooden doors that lined the walls of the colossal room, identical to the she'd stepped out of, "to emerge near the South Hill Cemetery." Right, right, Jen had told him that Triss and she often hung out in the catacombs in the South Hill Cemetery. Nice of him, and impressive, to open a portal straight there. Fiona, er, Vrall, had said his ability to control his lair was crazy strong.
He was a scary strong creature, Sándor. And terrifying. The gargoyle body he morphed into wasn't gross or anything; hell, it was pretty hot. The issue was her Beast recognized a stronger predator in its blatant superiority. She was a mouse before a tiger.
"Thanks," she said, and she took a step toward the door.
Before Jen could follow, she stopped.
"Triss?" Jen asked.
"I... I'm so sick of being sad, you know?" She reached out, set a hand against one of the nearby pillars, maybe thirty feet away from the huge throne. "Christ, it was going well! The party was going well. Everything's better, right? And... and then it hits me, out of nowhere." After a heavy sigh, she turned, pressed her back to the pillar, and slid down until she was on her ass. The dress did not like that, and she didn't care.
Jen sat down beside her. She did a bit better with her dress, keeping it from getting too bundled up or torn, but the dress was not made for anything but standing or sexily sitting on expensive chairs. The two of them looked ridiculous.
"Come on, we can go to your favorite spot, and--"
