. 03

~~Jack~~

"So, uh, what're you gonna wear to the ball?"

Elaine laughed as she lit another candle. "Obviously whatever I can that is both luxurious and fashionable, and scandalous."

He watched her as he paced around the mansion's basement's basement. Viktor had several large rooms carved deep into the Earth, offshoot rooms from the empty cells and the secure sleeping room. Torture rooms. Something about blood got into concrete and changed it, altered the color. You could never quite get it out, far as Jack knew. Doubtful Viktor tried. Fucker probably enjoyed sleeping down the hall from the smell of death.

Well, either way, the room was useful, once he removed the chair Viktor had probably tortured people on. Now it was just a big, empty concrete room. Was empty. Candles sat in the room corners and in the corners of the symbol Elaine drew on the floor, which she of course drew with blood because why the hell not.

"You could wear something not scandalous, you know."

"Where is the fun in that?"

"Elaine, come on. You're five hundred years old. I seriously doubt you get excited by wearing something scandalous anymore. You could strut naked in a packed football stadium and not even blink."

She grinned at him over her shoulder, before dipping her small, dark brush into a black jar filled with blood, and working on her symbols again.

"I could."

"Then why bother with scandalous?"

"Just because I have played the game for hundreds of years, does not mean I no longer enjoy the game. We go through phases, young childe of mine, we all do. Antoinette knows what it is like to be filled by half a dozen men, at the same time, while another half dozen coat her in white. And yet I have seen her enjoy some of her most fulfilling sexual moments with you, a single, small man."

Jack frowned, but it just made her laugh.

"What I mean," she continued, "is that Antoinette is now in a phase in her life where she finds her greatest joys in fulfilling your sexual desires. Perhaps in a hundred years, you will wish to do the same with her, and she will enjoy that you will enjoy satisfying her with a myriad of kinks."

"What's this got to do with scandalous clothing?"

"Phases. Your lover and I show off our bodies for different reasons than your younger companions, now that we are as old as we are, but we still wish to show them off. I am blessed to have been sired at the height of my beauty, and I am blessed to have had the genetics to be so lovely a creature."

"Not lacking for confidence, that's for sure." Ventrue she was.

Again she laughed. "Well, unlike your lover, I am all natural."

"I guess that's true."

"Dressing scandalously is, for Antoinette and I, a game about making other people squirm. The goal is not to show off, but to force reactions from others. Surely you noticed how many times Antoinette has done something, not with the intent of drawing the eyes of others, but to make specifically you wriggle?"

Jack groaned and paced faster. "Yeah, that happens a lot."

"After centuries, you learn to accept reality, and stop seeking validation. She and I are beautiful, and no longer look to prove it. We look to tease others, and indulge in this mischief."

"That's what you matured into? Teasing people? Cause I knew more than a few girls in high school who thought the best thing in the world was teasing young guys. A little flirting, a boob smoosh, anything to get the guy to blush or squirm."

"As I said. Phases."

"I don't buy it. I think you're both just a couple girls who'll always be a couple girls, using tits and ass to flirt and tease cause you like causing, as you said, mischief."

"That would imply Antoinette and I are quite young at heart. Do you believe that?"

He eyed her, even gave her his best stink eye, but Elaine just laughed as she drew another line on the concrete floor. No, he didn't believe that. As much as he loved Antoinette, there was no denying that was she was old, right down to the soul. Hell, that was part of the reason he loved her.

"Think of it as nostalgia, then," she said. "Antoinette and I are indulging our nostalgia, when we act like young women. Forgive us old monsters our guilty pleasures."

That did make a lot more sense. Nostalgia was a powerful force, and even Jack, in his mid twenties now including his kine years, found himself occasionally listening to old songs or watching old movies from his childhood for a taste of it.

"I suppose of all the silly immature habits an elder could have, being outrageously flirty is pretty reasonable."

"Indeed." Laughing, she stood up, walked over to another corner, and continued expanding the symbols below. "I suppose you told Antoinette that I was here?"

"Yeah."

"You do not trust me?"

"I trust you enough to try this. Not so much that I won't tell Antoinette you're here. I'm a pretty trusting guy, Elaine, to a fault, and I didn't tell her anything about your past or what we're up to. But I made sure she knows we're up to something, in case you stake me, throw me in a box, and ship my ass to Europe."

"Come now my childe, I would never use something as dull as a box. An expensive coffin, on the other hand, would be far more comfortable."

"Pretty sure there's issues with shipping dead bodies across borders."

"Then it is a good thing the Ordo can make such issues disappear."

He hadn't considered that. In Dolareido, the Invictus had their fingers in every aspect of running the city, from the mayor to the police to its criminal groups. A lot more than that, considering how big an organization the Invictus was. The different cities normally ignored each other, but when they had to, Invictus had ways to help each other out, and that probably included getting into other countries without issue. No reason to think the Ordo Dracul didn't have the same systems in place.

"So, um, are you gonna stake me?"

"It is always a possibility. Will my great grandchilde be so valuable a prize, I steal him away and lock him in a dungeon somewhere, where I can experiment upon him in peace?" She shrugged, laughed again, and lit another candle, as if she hadn't just threatened to basically be his undoing. "I suppose it will depend on developments. But, for what my word is worth, it is not my plan. It is clear the curse you bear is not a blessing."

"You did remove yours for a reason."

"Mine had been bound, eating away at me as a whisper I could never quite define. You said the same of yours, before my grandchilde's death broke it free."

Jack winced. "Julias's death didn't break it free. I did."

"Regardless, your tales of your time with the curse before then were quite vivid, while my memories of it are blurry scars."

"But..."

"But now, your curse is no longer bound. It is free to run amok in your mind, instead of some insidious part of your subconscious. I do wonder if it could somehow be extracted."

Jack paced some more, if only so Elaine wouldn't see the moment of surprise on his face. Yeah, Black Blood had suggested that very idea, and Black Blood gave the impression of a villain who liked telling the truth, so he could make people suffer with it. The idea was there, an option Jack considered every night now, letting Black Blood extract the curse. No way he'd do it knowing the spirit-not-spirit was performing some kind of ritual the size of the damn city, but still.

"I assume," she said, "you will be wearing a suit to the ball?"

"What dude won't be?"

"I suppose that is true. How many variants can you make of a suit, before you retread ground? Suits three hundred years ago looked closer to penguins than they do to the suits of today, and yet, still suits. Women have so many more options."

"Yeah well, guys don't wear suits for how they make the guy look visually."

Elaine smiled, like a teacher glad her student figured something out.

"Correct. The world of fashion for men is an entirely different beast, filled with social posturing and silent proclamations of power and control. I do not envy the fashion game men play. I am quite content to be judged solely on my looks, particularly when it comes to a ball."

"Easy to say when you're thin and have huge breasts."

Licking a fang, she came closer, walked past him, and scooped up a book from the floor.

"Do not forget my ass."

He rolled his eyes, even as he took a couple peeks at her ass and the suit skirt snug to it. Anal sex had become pretty norm for them, because Antoinette liked burying him in kinks, but wasn't a fan of anal herself. So Elaine was a tool Antoinette could use to treat him, an ass for him to fuck. Which Elaine seemed to enjoy, being treated like a sex toy by her friend. Elders were weird.

It really was a great ass, though.

"I wonder," she said, "about your friend Beatrice."

"Triss? What about her?"

"I've come to understand she and Sándor have spoken to each other several times over the past few months."

"I know, but--"

"And several more times besides, when pursuing the dark path your friend follows."

Jack winced again. "Really? I was hoping she... fuck, I don't know. Beatrice and Sándor are nothing alike, but then so was Triss and Julias. Maybe... Maybe she and Sándor could get involved, romantically, and help each other be a little happy." If that was even why they were hanging out. If Sándor was hanging out with Triss because of the whole resurrection rumor, Jack wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

"You do not hate Sándor for his role in my grandchilde's death?"

"You know I don't. He wasn't in control of himself. And fuck me, if Triss can get past his role in Julias's death, I can."

"Perhaps. I wonder if Sándor's guilt, and Beatrice's resentment over his part in Mire's death, has led to a strange connection between them. Perhaps he aids her in her ultimately futile goal, to settle his guilt? The poor fool reeks of it."

Slowly, Jack sucked in a breath as he shook his head. "I trust her. She's smarter than she seems. Same for Sándor."

Elaine raised a brow as she met his eyes. "I am surprised. Ventrue normally prefer to control their friends, and meddle in their lives."

"I get that. Part of me really wants to get involved and say something about what Triss is doing, and Sándor's involvement. But I won't." He gestured to the circles drawn into the floor, and the candles at the connecting points between lines between the circles. "Ready?"

"Indeed. Kneel in the center, if you would please."

"Kneel." Yeah, he hated this. "Reminds me of the vision I had, of Susanna, and the priest binding the curse. You ever find that dude?"

"No. There was much chaos during the 1500s. Upheaval, death, communities ruined by flame or disease. I have no idea what happened to my sire, as you know. And I have no knowledge of the priest who bound her curse. If she told me of him, it is too far a faded memory."

"He was in the vision, but I can't really remember what he looks like. Like trying to remember a dream, but he was there, casting the spell on Susanna. And he was there, watching, when Susanna sired you."

Elaine nodded as she flipped through the pages of her book. Her very old, very creepy book.

"Shadows of my past."

"Think they're still alive?"

"No. They would be ancient elders by today, and I have not discovered any elder Kindred older than I, few as they are, that could be those from your vision."

"Damn."

"As I said, the time period was fraught with dangers for Kindred. With the curse bound and weakened, Susanna and her extreme tastes -- as described by you -- would likely have led to her exposing herself, but without the power to defend herself, not against an entire mob armed with pitchforks and torches."

"But those urges were because of the curse... right? It didn't have any visions from before Susanna cast the ritual and got the curse."

"Naturally."

"I... remember what she was like when it and her were in full bloom together, slaughtering people by the thousands. It was just like when the curse gets a hold of me, that crazy blood lust that's psychopathic. Like... rage, and eroticism, mixed into some kinda gorefest."

"Then the question is, how much of the curse's personality is a product of the Strix, and how much of it is a remnant of Susanna?"

"Lot of questions about Susanna."

"Indeed. If only my sire would reappear, and answer all our questions for us in a dramatic storytelling moment." Elaine looked to the concrete tunnel stairs, and waited. No one appeared. After a minute, she sighed and shrugged. "Alas, we are on our own."

Jack chuckled and knelt in the center of the circles. The chuckles vanished, and he gulped on a dry throat as he looked down. He felt it. Holy shit, he felt it, felt the invisible lines in the air circling him and tugging on him. He felt the power in the blood, the dead life used to tear down the barriers between physical and otherworldly. He felt wind swirling around him, even though the air was still.

It'd always be a shocker that magic actually existed. For some reason, it was easier to believe in vampires, werewolves, and stuff like spirits and other realms and dream monsters. But magic? It felt too silly, too ridiculous, but kneeling in the center of a ritual circle smashed him the face with the truth of it. And it was terrifying.

Elaine stepped outside the circle, and fetched a knife from her purse. More like a curved piece of stone that looked like it'd been chipped out of a bigger piece of stone, complete with a wooden handle bound to it by leather strings. Just looking at it was enough to put images in Jack's head of someone getting sacrificed under the full moon, having their heart cut out or something.

His great grandsire looked the book over a couple more times before she set it down, and walked over to him. Face steady and unfazed, she nodded, and slowly dragged the knife across her palm. Kindred blood resisted leaving the body naturally, so Elaine had to focus, eyes locked onto her split palm, until a thick, heavy, dark droplet of vampire blood fell and splashed onto the floor beneath her in front of him.

White lightning cracked across his vision, silent, and blinding. He closed his eyes and looked away, but when another one of her drops of blood fell, it hit him again. Not actually there then, but inside him. He ground his teeth as a third droplet summoned a third bolt of lightning, brighter than the others, blanketing his vision in white until it was all he could see.

And then he wasn't kneeling. Standing, naked, in white, endless white that curved at edges beyond any distance he could ever reach. A dome, not endless, but it certainly felt like it.

He'd been here, multiple times. As far as he could tell, it was some sort of interaction point in his head, some place his mind created when it needed to communicate with other entities at a level deeper than dialog. If psychics existed, true telepaths, and he assumed they did with all the other shit that apparently existed, they probably had their visions or conversations in this place.

Elaine stood there as well, also naked. As much as seeing the tall blonde naked would usually send Jack's mind into the gutter, it didn't seem to be how this place worked. Naked meant as much as clothed in this place: nothing. Plus, there was a ravine between him and her, some sort of pit carved into the white, exposing endless black, a canyon that couldn't be crossed. It was maybe ten feet wide, and Elaine and him were maybe twenty feet from each other, but he just knew, no matter what they did, this canyon couldn't be crossed.

"It has been some time since I have gleamed the inside of a mind," Elaine said. "Someone else's, or mine. I rarely cast such rituals, even at the height of my experiments."

"I see it far too often."

"Oh?"

"Something the curse does, I guess. Whenever we Dominate, it lets me see this." Jack gestured around him. "Dominate didn't let me do that before."

"Indeed. Dominate does not let you meld minds with your victim. It is predatory, not an exchange." Elaine folded her arms under her breasts as she came closer to the edge and looked around. "If the curse allows you to see this part of your mind frequently, it is perhaps using your mind in ways a vampire cannot normally."

"Yeah, maybe. It was in here I... I freed the curse." And as if his subconscious was intent on torturing him, a sledgehammer materialized in his hand, dangling and half resting against the nothing floor. A moment later, the chains appeared on the floor too, giant and broken, surrounding him.

He tossed the hammer aside. Fuck his subconscious and its masochistic desires.

"Then... perhaps it is not that the curse is using your mind in a unique way, but rather it is letting you see into it in a way not normally possible. Perhaps the curse is letting you see what the Beast sees, when it attacks someone's mind."

"You mean this room isn't mine? This isn't my head? It's the Beast's?"

"I imagine there is overlap. But to Dominate someone is to use the power of the Beast, as is all acts of using our Kindred Disciplines. It is not you, but the Beast that makes true contact with another's mind, in order to Dominate. After a fashion, at least. Thus, if you are seeing this room when other Kindred do not, you are being shown something the Beast normally cannot show you... or perhaps simply prefers to not show you. That is until it is cursed by the Strix."

"You make it sound like it's an animal guarding its own interests."

"I would not be the first Kindred to come to such a conclusion. The difference now, is that your curse connects both your Beast and your consciousness." She looked down, chin in her fingers. It was easy to see now why she was a dragon. It wasn't just the lust for power, cause she could have easily been Invictus if that was all she wanted. But in her eyes, he spotted some real hunger for knowledge, as if everyone else vanished and questions and answers were the only things that mattered anymore. "Perhaps it--"

A heavy growl silenced the both of them, and Elaine stepped back as a growing black mist seeped up from the white floor near Jack's feet. Up, and up, and up, until a cloud of smoke stood twenty feet over Jack, twisting and swirling on itself. Red eyes flowed within, occasionally joined by a beak, or set of fangs, or a snout, or mandibles. Claws occasionally reached out from the cloud to touch the floor, sometimes talons, and sometimes a tail or a black feather.

Elaine blinked at Jack, and blinked up at the Beast and the curse melded to it.

"Extraordinary," she whispered.

"So here's the bitch, finally paying a visit." The Ripper snorted, a guttural sound mixed with rasp and bass. Here, inside Jack's head, the curse felt like a Goliath. Standing beside it... him, was enough to have Jack trembling, and he had to force himself to stop shaking as the curse hovered closer to the canyon edge.

"You are the curse."

"I am Jack the Ripper."

Elaine squinted at the giant creature. "You are a Strix creation, infecting my great grandchilde's Beast."

"And you're nothing more than a whore Susanna pulled off the streets, cause she knew you'd make a valuable asset."

After a few seconds of cold staring, Elaine growled. "What do you remember of my sire?"

"More than you."

"Tell me."

"Why the fuck would I tell you anything? You're nothing. How much power did you have hiding under your nose, but instead of releasing it like Jack here, you fucking removed it?" The curse laughed, and his titanic body of compressed black mist vibrated.

"You are an unseemly creature."

"And you're a waste. Susanna saw potential in you, you know? She groomed you, prepared you, because she thought your tits combined with your aggressive personality and quick reasoning, she could get some real value out of you. Not exactly a lot of women like that five hundred years ago. But what did you fucking do? You ran from power, and then spent the rest of your life chasing it again."