~~Jack~~
"Not long after I sired Viktor, I left him, and disappeared." Elaine held his eyes, for a while, but eventually she looked down. "I was not proud of abandoning him. I do not think he ever forgave me, even after my return."
The two of them were still on the stairs in his mansion. The stairs were the best place for a conversation, and their magic powers could hopefully disarm an elder vampire.
"I wondered about how you could have been his sire, without anyone knowing."
"It was not an easy feat. I met Antoinette after I returned, and avoided Viktor. When the man realized I had returned, he wanted nothing to do with me, and I had to make concessions to him so he would keep our connection a secret."
"But you never told him about the curse."
"No." She flinched.
"He never found out about what you did? To get rid of your curse? He never found out you were ever cursed, or that he still was?"
"No."
Jesus christ, that was cold.
"Julias told me diablerie marks you. Makes you... easy to notice. Like, you become tainted."
Those words hurt her a lot more than he thought they would. She winced. Elder vampires didn't wince, unless it was acting, or someone just sucker punched them hard in the emotions. Making an elder wince was tantamount to cracking them over the head with a steel beam. It felt bad, doing that, but he needed to know.
"It does. I avoided contact with everyone for years, hiding in caves, terrified a Kindred would find me. It was quite some time before the darkness left my mind and Beast, and before the... the addiction left as well."
His turn to wince. Being terrified made sense, considering how diablerist were pretty much a kill-on-sight situation in cities with a Kindred presence. And then there was the whole addiction thing. A diablerist around other Kindred was a meth addict surrounded by... meth.
"You remember?"
"No. Only small details, certain memories that burned themselves into my mind, while most are lost."
"But you remember killing another vampire. You remember breaking free of the curse."
"I do."
"You told me you didn't remember. You told me—"
"I lied." She smiled weakly. "You can understand why."
"If Antoinette knew—"
"Antoinette is not the concern. The Ordo, is. I violated the third law. The Ordo would not suffer a diablerist to live." She laughed and shook her head. "Not one so stupid as to admit to it, at least."
"You... think there are diablerists in—"
"There are diablerists, vile and putrid beings, who continue to commit diablerie regularly, who are in positions of power, young Ventrue. While a curious Mekhet may discover them, they..." She shook her head. "Do not worry. None of the Primogen here in Dolareido are tainted. And neither am I any longer."
"Does anyone else know? Antoinette?"
"No."
"Jesus fuck. You told me, but not her?"
She smiled at him, gaze steady, eyes carrying a billion hidden meanings he could barely scratch the surface of. "You are my great grandchilde."
"But you two have been friends for centuries. Plural."
"She does not know what it is like to have something vile inside, poisoning her every action. I do."
"Your curse was still bound."
"And yet I can still remember its claws, deep in my soul."
Jack shuddered. "It... it's better now for me, in a way. Now that the curse is free, at least it's distinct from me. Before, it felt like it was me, slowly becoming some sort of violent psychopath. Christ, I was fucking convinced I was turning into Viktor."
"You were, in a way. How Julias managed to stay above the curse's influence, I do not know."
"Julias was... he was one of a kind. He—"
Nodding, Elaine stood up. Apparently she didn't want the conversation to go down that road.
"I have shared with you a dangerous secret, my childe. If you somehow convinced my peers, or even others here in Dolareido, about what I have done, it could end quite poorly for me."
"That's part of the reason you told me, right? That I can't exactly prove it. Whatever you were before, you seem pretty normal now. The Begotten say you look normal."
"Indeed. But there are ways." She shook her head as she slowly paced. She was uncomfortable. Hell, Jack would have been too, dropping a truth bomb like that. "I have not told you the worst of it."
"Oh christ."
Chuckling, she shook her head again. "And I will not. For now."
"You're... gonna dangle a carrot in front of me, information, about something even worse you've done?"
"Quite perceptive of you, childe of mine."
"And the thing you want me to do? The reason for the carrot?"
"You, are going to join me in a ritual."
Frowning, he looked between his two pets.
~Do not trust her, master,~ Scully whispered into his mind.
~Do not trust her, master.~
"What ritual?"
"In my hunt to find a way to remove the curse, I discovered a ritual that will... let me take a peek within."