~~Antoinette~~
"There they are," Elaine whispered.
Antoinette nodded, and took the binoculars from her. High up upon the enormous cathedral, the two elders watched the city, the streets beneath, and now the fleeing werewolves.
"Twelve," Antoinette said. "They all live."
"You sound disappointed."
"I am... torn. Avery does not deserve death, nor does her pack. But they are a thorn in my side."
"From what I hear, they think they are going to save the city."
Antoinette sighed and shook her head. "Perhaps. But they will make enemies of us all doing so."
The werewolves looked horrendous. Whatever Jack had done to them, assuming it was Jack, he had spared them, but he had also broken them, thoroughly. As hundreds of rats flowed out of the cathedral, hidden in the night and disappearing into the black of Dolareido, the twelve werewolves dragged themselves back toward their homes. Most lived near the Carthians, but Clara and Carter did not. And yet, despite their homes being in the entertainment district, they went with the pack, with Avery.
They no longer felt safe near the Invictus. That thin thread was now broken.
"Perhaps Maria is the one who injured them?" Elaine said. "She is quite the deadly woman, after all."
"Rats flee the cathedral, by the thousands." She handed the binoculars back.
Elaine took them, and Antoinette watched a smile slowly spread on the woman's lips. "Impressive, to summon so many."
"The curse is disgustingly powerful. And disgusting."
Sighing, Elaine lowered the binoculars and met her eyes. "It was not all bad."
"You remember such details?"
"I can remember... the thrill of it, of the power. I can remember the sense of purpose and rage it gave me. But I never broke it free of its bindings. I could never do that." She gestured far down below, underneath the gargoyle they stood upon, down to the scurrying lines of black that flowed over the gutters.
A glint of something crossed Elaine's face. Envy, perhaps?
"You could do that now."
"Not without great effort." Sighing, she shook her head. "With the power of the curse unleashed, an elder vampire would be beyond formidable."
Antoinette watched her friend for a while, reading the expressions Elaine felt comfortable surfacing. To summon an army, a legion of rodents, was indeed an impressive feat for a Ventrue of any age, let alone one as young as Jack. However...
"It would not be worth it, old friend. You have not spoken with the curse unleashed. I have. It is abhorrent, disturbing, and twisted."
"Then, perhaps, my ignorance shall be alleviated tonight? The army of vermin, the fleeing werewolves, I surmise the curse shall step out of the cathedral any moment."
Sighing, Antoinette nodded. In all likelihood, Jack had unleashed the curse once again tonight, and she was terrified to learn the results. The werewolves left the cathedral alive, something she would not expect the curse to do, but then, maybe the curse had the forethought to consider ramifications. Maybe, instead of thinking of the curse as a compressed vortex of rage and sickening tastes, she should think of it as a malevolent villain, quite capable of intelligent decisions.
The thought was beyond putrid.
They waited another ten minutes, but nothing came of it. Jack did not step out from the cathedral, and there was no ignoring the dreadful aura that emanated from the building. He lurked within.
After a frustrated groan, Antoinette hopped down from the cathedral rooftops, and landed before its grand doors. Once Elaine joined her, they pushed them in, stepping over the blood of the werewolves, and walked into the church.
She did not enjoy the cathedral's presence. Not for lack of beauty; it was a marvelous structure. It had been built without her permission, Lucas testing the limits of his political power. But Lucas was gone, and the cathedral, forever a reminder of the fool and his delusions, was a testament to his failure. And Maria, the poor soul, was attached to it.
It was dark in the cathedral. Distant streetlights managed to penetrate the stained glass windows, but only just. The candles that usually dotted the nave and chancel were extinguished, and the towering organ looked monolithic in the darkness.
In the third row sat a young man, shirtless, with a dozen cuts on his skin, none deep. He sat leaning back, arms hooked over the back of the pew, his head looking to the crucifix that stood before the pulpit. On the pew in front of him sat two crows, perched upon its back, and turned to face their master.
The two birds looked to the approaching elders, and both let out annoyed caws as Antoinette and Elaine drew near.
"Jealous?" he asked.
Antoinette blinked, turned back to Elaine who only shrugged, before she looked back to Jack. "I am not sure I--"
"I was talking to Mulder and Scully, dumbass."
Antoinette froze, five feet back from the pew Jack sat upon, and she clenched her hands until her nails threatened to pierce her palms. Again she glanced to Elaine, and found her friend's eyes wide, locked onto Jack. The boy had proved Antoinette's concern and disgust with his very first sentence.
"Maria and Damien are downstairs," he said, "alive, but not looking too hot. Maria will be out of commission for a few weeks or more. Maybe months. Damien too. Avery really fucked them up."
"And yet you did not kill them," Antoinette said.
"Who, Avery? Nah. Coulda. Hell, I was tempted. But then I'd have this jackass screaming at me for the rest of eternity." He pointed at his temple. "And burning bridges is never a good idea. Unless it's a really big bridge that would burn spectacularly."
The ambiguity on whether he meant a metaphorical bridge or not, did not sit well with her.
"Jack," she said, "I--"
"Jack the Ripper." He laughed again, reached out, and lightly scratched one crow behind the head, and then the other. "Everyone's been thinking it. Might as well go with it."
The Ripper. She grit her teeth and walked down the isle a little further, until she stood beside the pew her lover sat within. Of course, it was not her lover, but the curse that fought for control of his body. She would not dignify it with a name.
"Where is the necklace Elaine gave you?"
"Here." He waved his right hand a little, before setting his arm along the back of the pew once more. "Still intact. Jack took it off when he saw shit was about to get hairy. Can't fight a dozen werewolves with his Beast being squashed. And in the fight, he let his guard down, so I came out to play." The following laugh had her gritting her teeth.
"I see." She stepped a little further down the isle, so she could look the curse in the eye. But her eyes fell to his chest instead, and she took a slow, deep breath.
She could see his rib cage. Four enormous claw marks cut from his neck down to his stomach, and each left lines of burned flesh and ash along the outside of the wounds. His ribs had been cut through, as had his abdominal muscles. Kindred blood slowly pulsed within the wound, keeping his innards inside, but wounds of that caliber, wounds that looked to be caused by blades of fire, would take an elder days, perhaps weeks to heal, no matter the amount of devoured blood.
"Avery got me pretty good." He chucked, gestured to his chest, and winked at her. "But I got her back."
"You must be hungry," Elaine said, joining Antoinette's side. "Defeating a dozen werewolves and now recovering from those wounds will be draining."
"Yeap. That reminds me, how'd it go with my new thrall?"
Antoinette could not keep a small frown from escaping. "Your taint does not poison her." And she is not your thrall, demon.
"Ha! Shame. I was hoping it'd turn her into a super thrall or something." He shrugged, and held out his hand sideways. One of the crows hopped onto his finger, and flapped its wings a few times, as Jack brought it in close.
"You were waiting for us," Antoinette said.
"Jack sent you a message, right? Michael should be here soon, too. Probably with a bunch of ghouls and Kindred." Shrugging again, he set the bird back on the pew in front of him. "I'll be gone by then. Jack can handle the clean up."
Antoinette nodded. "It is Invictus procedure, to deal with--"
"Not that clean up. I mean with Maria. She'll... well, she'll be out for blood." He laughed, a twisted, corrupt sound, and Antoinette's spine shivered as if a ghost dragged its nails across her bones. "Garry's gonna be pretty happy. I figure he gave Avery the nudge to actually attack Maria. Mission successful, sorta. Maria won't be defending shit for a little while, which means Garry's gonna go on the offensive. And you know Michael's gonna have Jack front and center dealing with it."
Antoinette grit her teeth and looked to Elaine. Her friend stared at Jack, eyes occasionally drifting to the two crows, before she looked to Antoinette. The curse was correct. Garry and Michael had been pushing at each other's borders for months now, skirmishes, occasional gunfights, and far worse, economic warfare between Xnomina and Terra Den.
That was their prerogative. Antoinette enforced the Masquerade in her city, but if the Invictus and the Carthians decided to slaughter each other, that was not her concern. If they crossed a line and brought the attention of the kine, then it was. But she had no stake in either covenant, at least, not before she met Jack.
"And you," Jack said, and he snapped his head to look at Elaine. The sneer on his face turned Antoinette's stomach. "You might have abandoned the gift you were given, but a lot can happen in hundreds of years. I won't let you kill me, great grandsire. And I won't let you have me, either."
"Have you? I--"
