~~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?"
