~~Jack~~
He went home. He didn't want to go home. Well, he did, because he wanted to see his thralls and crows, and make sure everything was going well. And much as it kinda irked him, he did feel possessive of his thralls. They were his pets, his, and any good owner took care of what was theirs. The Ventrue half of him loved that idea.
But at the tower, he spent all night in bed, recovering, and being the center of attention to Antoinette and Elaine. Antoinette, er, Ann, got in a pampering mood whenever Jack was injured, and considering how the confrontation with Black Blood went, combined with him now being as weak as a young neonate again, mostly, she was in a super motherly, pampering mood. He'd spent every night with his head on her lap, kissing and sucking on her breasts, while Elaine made sure he came over and over, until he had to feed on Ashley or Julee just to stay hard.
Difficult to walk away from that. But, as he stepped out of the car in front of his mansion, and Mulder and Scully flew down to land on his shoulders, he smiled. There was something empowering about coming home, even if he felt only a shred of the curse's power left in him. A shred was a shit load more than Elaine had expected him to have left, and he was damn happy to have it. He'd need it. Owning a mansion as a young neonate? There was a chance Michael or Garry would try and take the mansion from him, and he'd have to prove he could hold his own territory from pushy Carthians.
And he was kinda excited to do that.
He stepped into the mansion, with his mom, Damien, Beatrice, and Athalia following behind him. It was originally just going to be Damien and his mom, but he'd found her with Beatrice and Athalia, chatting away. And naturally, his mom had invited them, without checking with him, because it never even dawned on her that Jack might not want all the possible company he could have for his first trip back home.
That was fine. After everything that'd happened, those three deserved a little leeway from him, especially his mom. If she'd been anyone else, his mom would have figured out how to use the 'I saved the world' card to get whatever special treatment she wanted. But she was his mom, and the idea would never, ever enter her mind.
He loved her for that.
"I feel like I should be helping carry some bags of clothes," his mom said as she followed him into the entry hall, big stairs in front of them inviting them to come upstairs if they wanted. Not yet. "Like old times, you know?"
"This isn't a yearly trip to the university dorms, Mom."
"I know. Still. Where's the girls?"
Right on cue, all three girls stepped around the wall upstairs and stopped at the top of the stairs. He half expected to have a very awkward situation with his thralls standing there in sexy fake maid outfits, or bikinis, or nothing at all. Thankfully they were wearing more normal, modern maid outfits, and they all waved before hopping down the stairs.
"Master!" they said in unison as they ran up to him. Before he could say anything, they all hugged him, at the same time, and they made sure to squash him between them as they did.
Veronica with her blue hair was a bit shorter than Jack. Leilani with her brown hair was his height. Rachel with her short blonde hair was a couple inches taller than him. Having all three hugging and giggling was colorful and varied, and Jack did his best to hug them back while ignoring the judging looks he got from his mom and Athalia.
"Dude," Triss said, and she held up a thumb. "Nice." Which earned a small slap on her hand from his mom.
"It's nice to see you too, girls," Jack said. "Sorry I haven't been here. I'll make sure you get your blood later."
Their eyes lit up like kids on Christmas.
"Yes master," they said. They stepped back, gave him a small bow, and gave his mom a small bow, too.
"Thank you, Miss Terry."
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
They bowed deeper, and left.
If she'd been Blushing Life, his mom would have incinerated from the heat of embarrassment. She stared after the girls, before looking back at him and the others.
"Don't look at me," Jack said, shrugging. "Probably something Antoinette told them to do."
"You didn't call them?"
"I did, but I didn't really fill them in on the details."
Nodding and sighing, she came in closer to him and gave him a quick pat on the arm.
"I know you don't like to talk just to talk, but young girls do. Make sure you treat them nicely, even if that means just having a conversation with them every so often. Even if that means... sitting around and just listening to them talk."
He raised a brow, and looked to everyone else. Damien shrugged. Triss shrugged. Athalia shrugged.
"Yes, Mom."
And then they all laughed. Assholes.
"Think you can defend this place without the curse?" Damien asked. Leave it to him to be direct about the issue. One of the reasons he was Jack's best friend.
"We'll see. I know Michael's gonna wanna talk about it."
Athalia frowned as she looked around. "But you own it."
"I'm Invictus, and this place was passed down from other Invictus. I don't really own it. I mean, I kinda do, and I kinda don't."
"Stupid," she said, shrugging, and walked off.
"Mom, follow her and make sure she doesn't burn my home down."
Athalia laughed, which was a pretty damn strange sound to hear from her. And kinda creepy, evil sounding, like she belonged behind some big computer screen with a countdown showing the seconds before her deadly nuclear strike wiped out the world.
His mom nodded and followed after her.
"I'll show you around. This place is huge! Almost as big as my sire's tower! Well, its basement anyway."
Jack watched after them as the two mothers left, before he relaxed and sat down on the stairs. He clucked his tongue a few times up at Mulder and Scully, and the two crows nodded before flying after his mom and Athalia. Much as he trusted his mom, she could be a bit of a pushover, and he didn't want Athalia rummaging through all his shit. The birds would stop her. Hopefully.
"How're things with Sándor?" he asked Triss as she sat beside him.
"Pretty great, honestly. You'd think there'd be drama, considering how we met, and all the shit with... everything. But, no, the dude is so chill."
"Yeah? Sounds kinda boring."
She snorted a laugh as she shoved his shoulder, and slid him a few inches across the stairs.
"You'd think, but it's not. He's--wait, why do you care?"
"What, I can't care?"
"No. You're a guy. And you're Jack."
"True," Damien said, nodding. "She makes a valid point. I couldn't care less about how Beatrice's dating life is going."
Triss nodded and gestured to Damien, as if he'd said some universal truth. And Jack did kinda agree, but only a little.
Groaning, he rubbed his hair a few times. How to say this, how to say this.
"I care, because... shit's happened to everyone. Bad shit. And I'm hoping people are recovering."
Damien leaned against the railing beside him. "That's also true. Fiona was a wreck when Sándor delivered a message to her from Azamel. She really was the grandmother Fiona never had."
"That old bitch?" Triss asked.
Jack laughed. "She was an old bitch, but probably the kind who was super nice to her close family. I don't know how Fiona got into that family, or Athalia, or Mark, but considering Mark was willing to die to see her again..."
"Assuming Jacob meant Azamel," Damien said, "when he was talking about Mark."
"Assuming, yeah. Athalia doesn't talk about Azamel, Triss?"
"Nah. We keep the topics light, ya know? It's her and Sam that get into the heavy topics with each other. I steer clear."
"They do?"
She nodded as she looked down, tapping her boot toes on the floor.
"They're the ones who know what each other's going through, ya know? Sure, I'm Sam's friend, and I guess Athalia and I can talk now without wanting to kill each other. But it's those two that are gonna be best friends, given some time."
Athalia and his mom, best friends. That was a weird thought, but Triss was right, it fit. Both moms who'd lost their daughters. Both had gone through a lot of other nasty trauma, too. His mom had lost her husband, and then killed the next man she'd gotten close to. Athalia, Jack had no idea what other sorts of troubles she'd faced, but considering the sort of shit Begotten had to go through just to survive, combined with having her own daughter hunting her down to kill her, it probably ranked similar.
"I wonder," Triss said. "I mean, I know what happened with Jacob is probably eating her up, and Athalia is the best person she could talk to. They both blame themselves for shit. But, Athalia's got a boyfriend."
Jack grimaced. Best head this conversation off before it went sideways.
"Mom's been through Hell. I think we should let her recover before--"
"Fuck no. Your mom is not that sort of person, Jack. She shouldn't be left alone to wallow in misery in a tomb with candles, listening to shitty emo metal, and drawing bleeding roses on her arms with a black pen."
Jack blinked, and looked to Damien. Damien blinked and looked to Jack.
Triss threw up her hands. "Yes, I've done that. You fucking assholes."
"Okay," Jack said, "you think we shouldn't give Mom time to recover?"
"I think some people need that. The super introspective types that can't get out of their own head." Predictably, she poked Jack in the skull, and he winced as her claw almost pierced skin. "But your mom? No. She's better off with someone in her life. She is the last person on the planet who should ever be alone."
