SUE VS SUE
Nov. 26th, 2013 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratATTENTION: This is the LATTER half of the latest SvS installment. It was too large for one LJ post, so I posted it in halves. Please see the post BELOW this one for the FIRST half of this installment, then read this one!
SUE VS SUE
In Seattle, deep in the headquarters of the American Red Clan of weretigers, the queen and princess were in sole counsel with one another. Like the Regina Cleo, they were not about to send their people into the fray, but they would use it to get others out. And if they could get a little revenge on that usurping false tiger that dared present herself as Mistress of their species, well, so much the better. Reba owed her, after all, as did Cho Chun for what had been done to Alex and Reba both. They would get the other red tigers there out first, followed by other clan tigers, and then, if they could, any orange or mixed tigers. Priorities, after all.
"Besides our own people, I think the first priority clan tigers should be the rare ones," said Reba, "The golds, and the black and blue she's made her servants. We should focus on them before the white ones; there are white tigers aplenty, but these colors are among the last of their kind in the world."
"Agreed," said Cho Chun, "And if that means we end up having to leave the whites behind with the mutts and infecteds should something go wrong, well, I say that's Bibiana's fault for allowing her son to get so out of hand that he went and let Anita have them all so easily."
Cho Chun was proud that her daughter had protected her clan as best she could from Anita, even if that had meant having to hurt them herself to stop them from giving into the false queen's thrall, unlike that Victor boy who had served them up on a silver platter after watching his own lover be assaulted by the usurper. Reba had failed, yes, and suffered the same fate, but she had at least resisted as a real weretiger should; that was why you never sent a man to do a woman's job, not even if he had royal blood. Bibiana believed that it was better to walk with Anita than be in her path, but Cho Chun and her Red Clan took the opposite route, and proudly so.
Unlike Cleo, they weren't particuliarly concerned about any repercussions for these plans either.
"She might be 'master of tigers' in metaphysics, but she's too foolish to think to even use that to find out where they went," said Cho Chun contemptuously when Reba brought up the idea.
"You're right," Reba snorted, "In fact, from what I saw of how she treats them, she won't even care except maybe for her precious 'Devil' and that poor blue child...you know, when she realizes they're gone after a few weeks."
"Or months," said her mother, and the pair busted up laughing in a most non-regal way.
***
In somewhere that was neither Cape Cod nor Las Vegas nor Chicago, so as to give no one the advantage of being in their home territory, Bibiana, Maximilian Bellici, Augustine, Samuel, and Thea were weighing in on the weighty matters with each other, as all were allies in some way or another to Anita and Jean-Claude. Or at least, they had been.
"I have no dog in this fight," said Augustine with a touch of bitterness, "She has killed the werelions that I gave her from my city, including the one that she had made Rex, and with that has purged my influence from her court. Jean-Claude gives nothing to me, and the both of them have only taken and taken from me since our alliance began. I won't be sending St. Louis any aid, but I can't say I care about the other side at all either. As much as I'd like to stick it to that little upstart and his whore for what they did to me, for what they cost me, entering a war just for the sake of spite is not how one survives long enough to stay Master."
"She didn't fulfill her promise to my sons, and she's shown no signs of so much as remembering she even made it," said Thea.
"We were going to give Jean-Claude and her an ultimatum, to fulfill it now or we drop our alliance to them, but since she's been captured by these revolutionaries and thus can't, we're going ahead and dropping it now," said Samuel, "I've met with someone on the side of the rebels, someone of Belle Morte's line, and he's said he'll find another succubus, another woman who possesses the ardeur. Lust vampires are hardly a rare breed, we only ever wanted Anita to do it specifically because of the in it would give us to her empire."
"And that empire seems to be crumbling even faster than it grew," said Thea, "But speaking of Belle and her children...she has reason to want to preserve St. Louis as it is, since what belongs to Jean-Claude is practically hers as well. Augustine, as a child of Belle as well, how can we trust you? You could be her agent, even unwilling."
"That I could, but you invited me here all the same, so I doubt you believe that I am," snorted Augustine, and turned his gaze to the Bellici couple, "And what about the pair of you? Where do you stand?"
"I am glad to hear that, though you are no longer allied to Anita, you are not siding against her either," said Bibiana in a smooth, pleasant tone, "For that would make us enemies, which I do not wish to be with you."
"Your loyalty remains with St. Louis, then?" asked Samuel, a little surprised.
"We believe that Anita can still serve our interests," said Maximillian, his hands clasped together before him on the table, "And we have faith in her being able to escape her incarceration. Victor is being sent to her city to aid the weretigers of our clan there in defending against the invaders."
"And what would these interests be?" asked Thea, looking pointedly at Bibiana.
"Nothing that affects you, I promise that," said Bibiana, still pleasant, "As I said, I would wish none of you for enemies. But if you would really like to know...Max?"
"What this Lucille can't change is that even in captivity, Anita is still Master of Tigers," said Maximilian, "As a Master who calls tigers and the queen of the white clan in America, Bibi and I have a vested interest in keeping her on our side so that she doesn't take away our people from us altogether."
"Even if that means giving up your son to her," said Samuel with an undertone of grave disapproval.
"Sons are made only for making advantageous marriages," said Bibiana sagely, "We count ourselves lucky that Anita has such a weakness for men that she would take but a few white weretigers over the lot."
This referred to how, at the same event where Reba had been assaulted, all the white weretigers that had come to the party with Victor had been bound to Anita as 'hers' through him via them kissing one another. No one was quite sure exactly how that nonsense worked, but since such nonsense had become par for the course when it came to dealing with her, it wasn't questioned. Since then, Anita had made no demands upon the White Clan of Vegas though, it was true. Of course, she had given them no power either, though, but the others in the room didn't know that, and so didn't question it when Maximilian added, "In exchange, we get to keep our positions and power over the majority, as well as reap the benefits that come from standing beside the Master of Tigers."
This did not smell as a lie to the others, since Maximilian really did believe that these benefits would come to pass if they kept playing their cards right. He thought his wife had the same in mind, but in fact, Bibiana's plan was something much different than what she had shared with her husband and Master. Concealing anything from him was hard, given the telepathic link that a Therian Servant shared with its Vampire Master, but she was a powerful wereanimal and this was a powerful secret.
Bibiana needed Anita alive, and she would do anything, go up against anyone, to keep her that way. Because Anita was the only one in the world that could destroy the link that bound Bibiana to Maximilian, and set her free from him forever
***
Asher was currently being sheltered by the New York City Kiss, and, in the absence of their Master, had taken the liberty of moving himself into Armel's quarters. None of the New York Kiss liked this at all, as he was not only an outsider but had also ingratiated himself to none of them, but since no one in the Kiss could agree who among them should be the rightful one to take Armel's rooms, they let Asher have it so as to keep the peace among themselves. Actually, no one was supposed to be in there, Armel had told them in no uncertain terms to stay out of his rooms and out of his stuff while he was gone, but vampires, as well know, are by and large basically a bunch of a petty teenagers who just care about who gets the best room and the tackiest clothes and prettiest people-pets, right?
Asher was in a perfect 'draw me like one of your French girls' pose on the bed, and was just about to mentally ring up the Traveller and see if he couldn't get him to do him the wee favor of mentally linking him and Narcissus together for some telepathic fun-times. Sure, this meant that the Traveller would also be seeing everything they did, but Narcissus and Asher didn't mind an audience (since being kinky means being okay with everything!) and the Traveller liked it (since he was gay and thus would always be interested in all gay sex going on no matter what) but just as he began to open his mind, the scent of roses filled his senses, and he realized it was a different Council member who would be coming psychically to him.
"Asher," Belle Morte's voice pouted smugly in his head, "I know you and my Jean-Claude have had your differences, but why must that mean that you betray me too?"
Asher tried to protest, tried to form words in his mind to send back to her, but she was already filling him up so much he could barely even think, his mind was already so much hers.
"Don't speak, mon cher, you will only lie, and what a waste of time that is when the truth is all here in your head!"
Roses...pain...Asher's body writhed and contorted as he tried to fight for control of it, but it was all for naughty. She was its owner now, she was the one who would move its limbs and speak from its mouth, all under the guise of being truly him, for her psychic powers were so great that she could hide the truth from the telepathy of all her fellow vampires, except perhaps the Traveller himself.
Thea had had the right concern about Belle possessing her children, but had been worried about the wrong one.
***
As Maureen was walking by the door to the attic stairs, it opened and Delilah stepped out, her gait suggesting floating rather than walking, which added to the ghostly quality she had, with her pale face coming out of the darkness and her long brown hair the fanned out from behind her. It was enough to almost give Maureen a start.
"Dolly, whatever were you doing up there? I've told you, there are no mice," Maureen had found that one of the few things guaranteed to consistently make her adopted daughter happy, at least for a little while, was the company of rodents. Maureen herself was a fan of rats, having kept a delightful one as a companion in college, and had made a gift to the girl of several. There were none in the house, however, that were not pets, and certainly none in the attic.
"I was seeing Lootie," said Delilah, looking away from Maureen and twisting her hair in her hands.
"Lootie?" Maureen questioned, but the timid explanations she got were, alas, the usual indecipherable word salad that was all Delilah could speak at most times. As far as what a few brain scans and top psychologists could reveal, something was screwed up in the parts of her mind that processed thought into the corresponding language required to best express that thought, and the result was her Ophelia-esque babbling that did have her meaning somewhere in it, but for the most part one had to be as mad as her to find it. She took the shortcut and asked Simon instead, who said that "Lootie" was some imaginary friend that Delilah had come up with and been pretending to visit whenever alone.
"I think she got it out of The Princess and the Goblin," said Simon, "It's one of the books we got for her, it has a nursemaid named Lootie and a grandmother who lives in the attic. They aren't the same character, but she probably mixed them up in to one."
It sounded quite likely, and Maureen thought nothing else of it until a few days later when Delilah came to her a few nights later, and told her that Lootie had said Maureen was special "like Lucille."
Maureen blinked at her,"Where did you hear about Lucille?"
It was true that Lucille's son Thomas was staying with them, but Maureen had been sure never to so much as mention her name to her own children, lest even that much knowledge put them in danger.
"Lootie told me about her."
***
Eva and Sati had continued to visit the captive wereleopards during this few days lull. They had also checked on Rafael, to make sure that Lucille hadn't done anything to him like she had to those two. She hadn't, but they still did what they could for him, as they did for Micah and Nathaniel. Eva had been going to wait for another commotion like with the zombies to free them during, but just these last few days of seeing their agony had been too much for her. She couldn't wait. She had to do it now, and she would have to do it alone. Sati had proclaimed where her loyalties lay, and Eva had realized in the short time they'd known each other just how much that meant to the weresnake. Of course, Sati would know who must have let them loose when the 'crime' was discovered, and that same loyalty to Lucille would cause her to tell on Eva, and Eva knew this. Why was Eva not afraid of this as she should be? Because she believed Lucille to still be a good person, in spite of what she'd seen done to the wereleopards, and not someone who would do the same to her for helping them escaping. Why did she believe her to be a good person? Because of Lucille's influence on her. Why then, did Cornelius, who should also be under that influence, clearly know she was not a good person, hence why he had been concerned for Eva and Sati? Because he hadn't needed to think Lucille was a good person in order to be coerced into working for her.
It was all very, very simple really. And Lucille's influence on Eva's mind was also why the normally very clever wererat girl was doing something like this without thinking of ways to conceal it from Lucille, guaranteeing that Lucille would find out. Forget Sati; her own subconscious had already sold her out. Only when she was finished with her task would she even think to go back over her own footsteps and use the cayenne pepper trick.
When she'd untied Micah and Nathaniel, she helped the former to his feet, then tried with the latter, but he refused to stand, and instead begged to be let to stay. Eva looked horrified, and turned to Micah for answers.
"What is this, like Stockholm Syndrome?"
Micah sighed, "He thinks his chances are better with Lucille than Anita. Lucille looks like the winner right now, and Nate here has always known which side his bread is buttered on."
"But look what she's done to him!"
"Doesn't matter. Even if it's past the point he finds pleasureable, he'll endure anything to ride the right set of coattails."
"And you?"
"I think my side still has a chance." Actually, Micah had tried the same thing as Nathaniel, tried to make Lucille his next meal ticket, but she'd laughed in his face when he'd tried to make his move and told him that, girly though he might look, he still wasn't woman enough for her. Just his luck that when his Nimir-Ra met her match, it had to be a lesbian. Nathaniel, however, didn't seem to have gotten the message, as he seemed to think he still had a chance of joining Lucille's harem. Micah could understand his persistence, as it went beyond just self-preservation; for Nathaniel, Lucille probably seemed like a godsend, the next step up from his current sugar-momma. She was cruel, sociopathic, and beautiful just like Anita, and, unlike Anita, she did not whine or need his reassurances or baking or anything. His life could be so much easier if he could just swap mistresses, and he wasn't about to give up just because Lucille couldn't be a little homoflexible. After all, it had taken Anita forever to get Yiyu in her harem, Lucille probably just needed similar convincing. If there was one thing Nathaniel had learned in St. Louis, it was that EVERYONE was bisexual, especially 'gay' people. Well, unless they were evil...shit, that could put a damper on his plans.
"Either you take him with you or you're not getting out," Eva told Micah. She might feel bad about how Nathaniel had been punished, but she also knew the things that he had been punished (according to Lucille) for, and she did NOT want to potentially end up sharing a side with this guy. Micah obliged; if he was going to go back, he didn't want to leave Nathaniel here to blab any secrets he hadn't already for the price of a little pain. He was only interested in Lucille winning if it meant he was on her side, but if she was rejecting him, then he damn well was going to go back to the St. Louis stronghold and hope she lost instead. He dragged his fellow 'main squeeze' with him by the hair. Nathaniel said nothing, made no protest, just lay limply on his back as they went, much like Anita in bed. Speaking of Anita, Eva kept watching for them to try to rescue them, kept waiting for them to ask or try to overpower her, but they didn't. She wondered if they even knew she was captured, since they had been taken unconscious. Maybe they just didn't think they could do it? Or did they know something she didn't?
All the entrances were guarded, but Eva had made her own that no one knew about, using her rat form to chew and dig through a small pre-existing hole in the nearest bathroom. A natural rat could chew through concrete given enough time; it had been easy for her. The hole was still small enough that the men had to squeeze, and scraped themselves up a bit, but they got through.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Eva could see their feet just standing there from her side of the hole, "Get going, somebody is gonna smell you soon!"
"Aren't you coming?" Micah sounded confused, "If you're letting us go, you must be joining us, right?"
"I meant what I said about you," Eva's voice and face filled with almost angry disgust, "I didn't do this to be part of your sick system, I did it because I didn't want to be part of something just as bad. Now get out of here!"
And they did.
***
Naturally, Lucille was unhappy to find the pair gone. She'd had no use for them, true, but they'd been fun to hurt, and she'd enjoyed the challenge of finding things to do that Nathaniel wouldn't get off on. And with them loose, they could lead the rest of the St. Louis forces back here! Yeah, she had a right to be pissed about this. Unfortunately, she didn't know who did it. Whoever they were, they'd used the cayenne pepper trick, so she couldn't smell who had been beside the wereleopards as they'd escaped, and no electricity in the school meant no security cameras to catch such things like at the Circus.
Well, there was just one thing to do then, and truth be told, she was going to have fun with it. With the slightest flex of her mental powers, she gave everyone a nice little ring-a-ling saying they were to assemble for her in the gymnasium. Once there, she stood before them, looking very calm. Cool, even. It was much more terrifying than if she'd simply thrown a fit like she tended to do over smaller things, like losing a favorite lipstick or not having the right shoes to go with her outfit. Maybe it was because Lucille had been dealing with big shit all her life until she was sixteen, and it was only after that, after having been adopted into her cousin Hiero's rich and well-connected family, that she had the luxury of small things like that even mattering to her, or even owning lipstick and shoes at all, and enjoyed being able to make the most of it like that, enjoyed finally being in a position where the biggest thing she had to be upset about was something so frivolous.
This issue, however, was anything but frivolous. It wasn't just the fact she'd lost prisoners that concerned her; it was that one of her own had betrayed her, had had the capacity to betray here. Lucille had no faith in people on their own; they were all treacherous, selfish creatures, naturally predatory and out only for themselves, and would hurt you simply for spite. In other words, she thought everyone was just like her. But this still relatively recent abilities of hers had made it so that the true natures of people were suppressed, so that they were forced to be loyal to her, absurdly so, despite whatever their best interests or personal beliefs might be. Lucille had always been special, had always found the rules or reality and realism bent a little for her, but lately it had been stronger than ever before, allowing her to build and lead this army. It was why she had only struck now, had only been sought out by Padma and the Traveller now. So why then had her power failed her in this now? How had someone even thought to disobey her, let alone carry the thought out into action? Plus that little ragtag group that had gone to save Max and Fell without Lucille having ever ordered any such thing. It was a small slight, yes, but Lucille knew better than to ignore early warning signs. This needed to be figured out and nipped in the bud, right now.
They all stood before her, grouped together, some clearly afraid, some with stony faces of acceptance for what was to come, and some so perfectly brainwashed that they looked as blithe as if this were a simple Homeowner's Association meeting.
"Somebody," said Lucille calmly but with a sharpness to the edge of her tone, "has let our captive kittens out."
She let that sink in, and contently watched the slight ripple in the little crowd before her, then continued, "I'm going to be fair, and let whoever is responsible step forward. This is your first and only chance before I use force."
Her tone was not threatening, just factual. One didn't innately feel as if one should be afraid from it, and the blither faces in the crowd looked no more aware of the real peril that the culprit might be in than before. Sati's face, however, presented a struggle; betray Lucille by staying silent, or betray her comrade by speaking up? Cornelius, who happened to be standing next to her, saw this, though Lucille did not, and he more or less knew what had happened, though he assumed she was a guilty party in the release as well, and decided to help her out by putting his hand over her mouth. She turned her eyes to him, and her gratitude was clear.
"Alright then," Lucille said lightly when no one confessed, with a casual shrug of her shoulders, "Guess everyone has to suffer."
With that, she took the hold she had on their beasts and brains, and she squeezed, and she tugged, and they all spasmed before her. Some screamed. Some clenched their hands in their hair, scratching at their scalp as if trying to physically tear their tyrant's presence from their minds. Eva fell forward, her body hurling itself against her will at Lucille's feet, an admission of guilt tumbling out from her lips even as she tried not to speak. Lucille lifted her up by the front of her shirt, and slashed at the side of her face with her opposite hand, whose beautifully varnished nails had suddenly shifted into claws, leaving wide gashes in the poor girl's cheek.
"Congratulations, Eva. As our first traitor, you get to be our first example to everyone of what happens to scum like you."
Her eyes were cold, and Eva felt her blood run just as cold when she looked into them. Up until now, she hadn't wanted to get caught just on principle, sure, but she hadn't thought anything truly bad would happen to her if she were. Now, suddenly, she had doubts, as reality began to seep just the tiniest bit more into her mind, just as when she'd decided to help the wereleopards. Just a little more realization of how wrong everything was, how wrong Lucille was. Just a little.
Still holding Eva aloft, Lucille took out a small, slender silver knife. When Reba had done the same to Lacey during Anita's last meeting with the American weretiger clans, Anita had claimed it was a sign of weakness on Reba's part that she didn't shift to punish her underling instead. Nonsense. It was a matter of subtlety, something Anita had never understood. Reba and Lucille both knew that there were things that smaller instruments of torture could do that big clumsy claws and jaws just couldn't. Not if you wanted to make it hurt, to make it last, as much and as long as it could.
"No! Don't!" Odette had hurled herself at Lucille now as well, and not by her Call All Animals command but by her own desire to save her friend. She was grabbing at Lucille's arm, trying to tear with her own tiny blunt nails. "Don't hurt her!"
With an annoyed sound, Lucille easily tossed the little swanmane aside, sending her sprawling across the slick and dirty gymnasium floor, her ruffles and frills in disarray. At this, Sig was now called to action, and he sprang from the group to pick up his "Cygnet" from the heap she was cowering in, while at the same time drawing one of his pistols and cocking it at Lucille. The message was clear: Don't move a muscle. Lucille, however, was not impressed. She knew that Anita could heal from a point-blank silver bullet to the brain, and that made her pretty confident that she could as well.
"So," she said, not even seeming to notice as Eva started to struggle and kick, "We have a mutiny on our hands."
The metaphor made her remember that the mermaids were still new, and she decided then to, as she had with the rescue team, feign mercy for now until she could get their fins under her thumb securely along with everyone else. She dropped Eva with a warning, and the wererat scurried to the arms of Odette, their previous quarrel clearly now forgotten. She began to speak now to her troops about why this was necessary and justified, how things were hard in war, how great an offense Eva had committed...but for once it didn't look like they were all buying it all the way, and now it was Lucille's turn to feel shock, even a little fear. How? Why? Everyone always 'bought it' from her! What was disrupting her influence now? She could have gotten away with all this before, and more, and they would have accepted it. Their normal personalities, normal moralities, normal loyalties, these were all returning! What had changed?
Anita.
Anita was in the same building as her, the same vicinity. Lucille might not know what she and Anita truly were, might not know that they had reality-warping abilities which were now canceling each other out due to their prolonged proximity, but she could put two and two together nonetheless and notice that her hold on everyone else began to fade when Anita had been near her for some time.
No more fun and games. She had to figure out how to kill that bitch, and fast.
SUE VS SUE
In Seattle, deep in the headquarters of the American Red Clan of weretigers, the queen and princess were in sole counsel with one another. Like the Regina Cleo, they were not about to send their people into the fray, but they would use it to get others out. And if they could get a little revenge on that usurping false tiger that dared present herself as Mistress of their species, well, so much the better. Reba owed her, after all, as did Cho Chun for what had been done to Alex and Reba both. They would get the other red tigers there out first, followed by other clan tigers, and then, if they could, any orange or mixed tigers. Priorities, after all.
"Besides our own people, I think the first priority clan tigers should be the rare ones," said Reba, "The golds, and the black and blue she's made her servants. We should focus on them before the white ones; there are white tigers aplenty, but these colors are among the last of their kind in the world."
"Agreed," said Cho Chun, "And if that means we end up having to leave the whites behind with the mutts and infecteds should something go wrong, well, I say that's Bibiana's fault for allowing her son to get so out of hand that he went and let Anita have them all so easily."
Cho Chun was proud that her daughter had protected her clan as best she could from Anita, even if that had meant having to hurt them herself to stop them from giving into the false queen's thrall, unlike that Victor boy who had served them up on a silver platter after watching his own lover be assaulted by the usurper. Reba had failed, yes, and suffered the same fate, but she had at least resisted as a real weretiger should; that was why you never sent a man to do a woman's job, not even if he had royal blood. Bibiana believed that it was better to walk with Anita than be in her path, but Cho Chun and her Red Clan took the opposite route, and proudly so.
Unlike Cleo, they weren't particuliarly concerned about any repercussions for these plans either.
"She might be 'master of tigers' in metaphysics, but she's too foolish to think to even use that to find out where they went," said Cho Chun contemptuously when Reba brought up the idea.
"You're right," Reba snorted, "In fact, from what I saw of how she treats them, she won't even care except maybe for her precious 'Devil' and that poor blue child...you know, when she realizes they're gone after a few weeks."
"Or months," said her mother, and the pair busted up laughing in a most non-regal way.
***
In somewhere that was neither Cape Cod nor Las Vegas nor Chicago, so as to give no one the advantage of being in their home territory, Bibiana, Maximilian Bellici, Augustine, Samuel, and Thea were weighing in on the weighty matters with each other, as all were allies in some way or another to Anita and Jean-Claude. Or at least, they had been.
"I have no dog in this fight," said Augustine with a touch of bitterness, "She has killed the werelions that I gave her from my city, including the one that she had made Rex, and with that has purged my influence from her court. Jean-Claude gives nothing to me, and the both of them have only taken and taken from me since our alliance began. I won't be sending St. Louis any aid, but I can't say I care about the other side at all either. As much as I'd like to stick it to that little upstart and his whore for what they did to me, for what they cost me, entering a war just for the sake of spite is not how one survives long enough to stay Master."
"She didn't fulfill her promise to my sons, and she's shown no signs of so much as remembering she even made it," said Thea.
"We were going to give Jean-Claude and her an ultimatum, to fulfill it now or we drop our alliance to them, but since she's been captured by these revolutionaries and thus can't, we're going ahead and dropping it now," said Samuel, "I've met with someone on the side of the rebels, someone of Belle Morte's line, and he's said he'll find another succubus, another woman who possesses the ardeur. Lust vampires are hardly a rare breed, we only ever wanted Anita to do it specifically because of the in it would give us to her empire."
"And that empire seems to be crumbling even faster than it grew," said Thea, "But speaking of Belle and her children...she has reason to want to preserve St. Louis as it is, since what belongs to Jean-Claude is practically hers as well. Augustine, as a child of Belle as well, how can we trust you? You could be her agent, even unwilling."
"That I could, but you invited me here all the same, so I doubt you believe that I am," snorted Augustine, and turned his gaze to the Bellici couple, "And what about the pair of you? Where do you stand?"
"I am glad to hear that, though you are no longer allied to Anita, you are not siding against her either," said Bibiana in a smooth, pleasant tone, "For that would make us enemies, which I do not wish to be with you."
"Your loyalty remains with St. Louis, then?" asked Samuel, a little surprised.
"We believe that Anita can still serve our interests," said Maximillian, his hands clasped together before him on the table, "And we have faith in her being able to escape her incarceration. Victor is being sent to her city to aid the weretigers of our clan there in defending against the invaders."
"And what would these interests be?" asked Thea, looking pointedly at Bibiana.
"Nothing that affects you, I promise that," said Bibiana, still pleasant, "As I said, I would wish none of you for enemies. But if you would really like to know...Max?"
"What this Lucille can't change is that even in captivity, Anita is still Master of Tigers," said Maximilian, "As a Master who calls tigers and the queen of the white clan in America, Bibi and I have a vested interest in keeping her on our side so that she doesn't take away our people from us altogether."
"Even if that means giving up your son to her," said Samuel with an undertone of grave disapproval.
"Sons are made only for making advantageous marriages," said Bibiana sagely, "We count ourselves lucky that Anita has such a weakness for men that she would take but a few white weretigers over the lot."
This referred to how, at the same event where Reba had been assaulted, all the white weretigers that had come to the party with Victor had been bound to Anita as 'hers' through him via them kissing one another. No one was quite sure exactly how that nonsense worked, but since such nonsense had become par for the course when it came to dealing with her, it wasn't questioned. Since then, Anita had made no demands upon the White Clan of Vegas though, it was true. Of course, she had given them no power either, though, but the others in the room didn't know that, and so didn't question it when Maximilian added, "In exchange, we get to keep our positions and power over the majority, as well as reap the benefits that come from standing beside the Master of Tigers."
This did not smell as a lie to the others, since Maximilian really did believe that these benefits would come to pass if they kept playing their cards right. He thought his wife had the same in mind, but in fact, Bibiana's plan was something much different than what she had shared with her husband and Master. Concealing anything from him was hard, given the telepathic link that a Therian Servant shared with its Vampire Master, but she was a powerful wereanimal and this was a powerful secret.
Bibiana needed Anita alive, and she would do anything, go up against anyone, to keep her that way. Because Anita was the only one in the world that could destroy the link that bound Bibiana to Maximilian, and set her free from him forever
***
Asher was currently being sheltered by the New York City Kiss, and, in the absence of their Master, had taken the liberty of moving himself into Armel's quarters. None of the New York Kiss liked this at all, as he was not only an outsider but had also ingratiated himself to none of them, but since no one in the Kiss could agree who among them should be the rightful one to take Armel's rooms, they let Asher have it so as to keep the peace among themselves. Actually, no one was supposed to be in there, Armel had told them in no uncertain terms to stay out of his rooms and out of his stuff while he was gone, but vampires, as well know, are by and large basically a bunch of a petty teenagers who just care about who gets the best room and the tackiest clothes and prettiest people-pets, right?
Asher was in a perfect 'draw me like one of your French girls' pose on the bed, and was just about to mentally ring up the Traveller and see if he couldn't get him to do him the wee favor of mentally linking him and Narcissus together for some telepathic fun-times. Sure, this meant that the Traveller would also be seeing everything they did, but Narcissus and Asher didn't mind an audience (since being kinky means being okay with everything!) and the Traveller liked it (since he was gay and thus would always be interested in all gay sex going on no matter what) but just as he began to open his mind, the scent of roses filled his senses, and he realized it was a different Council member who would be coming psychically to him.
"Asher," Belle Morte's voice pouted smugly in his head, "I know you and my Jean-Claude have had your differences, but why must that mean that you betray me too?"
Asher tried to protest, tried to form words in his mind to send back to her, but she was already filling him up so much he could barely even think, his mind was already so much hers.
"Don't speak, mon cher, you will only lie, and what a waste of time that is when the truth is all here in your head!"
Roses...pain...Asher's body writhed and contorted as he tried to fight for control of it, but it was all for naughty. She was its owner now, she was the one who would move its limbs and speak from its mouth, all under the guise of being truly him, for her psychic powers were so great that she could hide the truth from the telepathy of all her fellow vampires, except perhaps the Traveller himself.
Thea had had the right concern about Belle possessing her children, but had been worried about the wrong one.
***
As Maureen was walking by the door to the attic stairs, it opened and Delilah stepped out, her gait suggesting floating rather than walking, which added to the ghostly quality she had, with her pale face coming out of the darkness and her long brown hair the fanned out from behind her. It was enough to almost give Maureen a start.
"Dolly, whatever were you doing up there? I've told you, there are no mice," Maureen had found that one of the few things guaranteed to consistently make her adopted daughter happy, at least for a little while, was the company of rodents. Maureen herself was a fan of rats, having kept a delightful one as a companion in college, and had made a gift to the girl of several. There were none in the house, however, that were not pets, and certainly none in the attic.
"I was seeing Lootie," said Delilah, looking away from Maureen and twisting her hair in her hands.
"Lootie?" Maureen questioned, but the timid explanations she got were, alas, the usual indecipherable word salad that was all Delilah could speak at most times. As far as what a few brain scans and top psychologists could reveal, something was screwed up in the parts of her mind that processed thought into the corresponding language required to best express that thought, and the result was her Ophelia-esque babbling that did have her meaning somewhere in it, but for the most part one had to be as mad as her to find it. She took the shortcut and asked Simon instead, who said that "Lootie" was some imaginary friend that Delilah had come up with and been pretending to visit whenever alone.
"I think she got it out of The Princess and the Goblin," said Simon, "It's one of the books we got for her, it has a nursemaid named Lootie and a grandmother who lives in the attic. They aren't the same character, but she probably mixed them up in to one."
It sounded quite likely, and Maureen thought nothing else of it until a few days later when Delilah came to her a few nights later, and told her that Lootie had said Maureen was special "like Lucille."
Maureen blinked at her,"Where did you hear about Lucille?"
It was true that Lucille's son Thomas was staying with them, but Maureen had been sure never to so much as mention her name to her own children, lest even that much knowledge put them in danger.
"Lootie told me about her."
***
Eva and Sati had continued to visit the captive wereleopards during this few days lull. They had also checked on Rafael, to make sure that Lucille hadn't done anything to him like she had to those two. She hadn't, but they still did what they could for him, as they did for Micah and Nathaniel. Eva had been going to wait for another commotion like with the zombies to free them during, but just these last few days of seeing their agony had been too much for her. She couldn't wait. She had to do it now, and she would have to do it alone. Sati had proclaimed where her loyalties lay, and Eva had realized in the short time they'd known each other just how much that meant to the weresnake. Of course, Sati would know who must have let them loose when the 'crime' was discovered, and that same loyalty to Lucille would cause her to tell on Eva, and Eva knew this. Why was Eva not afraid of this as she should be? Because she believed Lucille to still be a good person, in spite of what she'd seen done to the wereleopards, and not someone who would do the same to her for helping them escaping. Why did she believe her to be a good person? Because of Lucille's influence on her. Why then, did Cornelius, who should also be under that influence, clearly know she was not a good person, hence why he had been concerned for Eva and Sati? Because he hadn't needed to think Lucille was a good person in order to be coerced into working for her.
It was all very, very simple really. And Lucille's influence on Eva's mind was also why the normally very clever wererat girl was doing something like this without thinking of ways to conceal it from Lucille, guaranteeing that Lucille would find out. Forget Sati; her own subconscious had already sold her out. Only when she was finished with her task would she even think to go back over her own footsteps and use the cayenne pepper trick.
When she'd untied Micah and Nathaniel, she helped the former to his feet, then tried with the latter, but he refused to stand, and instead begged to be let to stay. Eva looked horrified, and turned to Micah for answers.
"What is this, like Stockholm Syndrome?"
Micah sighed, "He thinks his chances are better with Lucille than Anita. Lucille looks like the winner right now, and Nate here has always known which side his bread is buttered on."
"But look what she's done to him!"
"Doesn't matter. Even if it's past the point he finds pleasureable, he'll endure anything to ride the right set of coattails."
"And you?"
"I think my side still has a chance." Actually, Micah had tried the same thing as Nathaniel, tried to make Lucille his next meal ticket, but she'd laughed in his face when he'd tried to make his move and told him that, girly though he might look, he still wasn't woman enough for her. Just his luck that when his Nimir-Ra met her match, it had to be a lesbian. Nathaniel, however, didn't seem to have gotten the message, as he seemed to think he still had a chance of joining Lucille's harem. Micah could understand his persistence, as it went beyond just self-preservation; for Nathaniel, Lucille probably seemed like a godsend, the next step up from his current sugar-momma. She was cruel, sociopathic, and beautiful just like Anita, and, unlike Anita, she did not whine or need his reassurances or baking or anything. His life could be so much easier if he could just swap mistresses, and he wasn't about to give up just because Lucille couldn't be a little homoflexible. After all, it had taken Anita forever to get Yiyu in her harem, Lucille probably just needed similar convincing. If there was one thing Nathaniel had learned in St. Louis, it was that EVERYONE was bisexual, especially 'gay' people. Well, unless they were evil...shit, that could put a damper on his plans.
"Either you take him with you or you're not getting out," Eva told Micah. She might feel bad about how Nathaniel had been punished, but she also knew the things that he had been punished (according to Lucille) for, and she did NOT want to potentially end up sharing a side with this guy. Micah obliged; if he was going to go back, he didn't want to leave Nathaniel here to blab any secrets he hadn't already for the price of a little pain. He was only interested in Lucille winning if it meant he was on her side, but if she was rejecting him, then he damn well was going to go back to the St. Louis stronghold and hope she lost instead. He dragged his fellow 'main squeeze' with him by the hair. Nathaniel said nothing, made no protest, just lay limply on his back as they went, much like Anita in bed. Speaking of Anita, Eva kept watching for them to try to rescue them, kept waiting for them to ask or try to overpower her, but they didn't. She wondered if they even knew she was captured, since they had been taken unconscious. Maybe they just didn't think they could do it? Or did they know something she didn't?
All the entrances were guarded, but Eva had made her own that no one knew about, using her rat form to chew and dig through a small pre-existing hole in the nearest bathroom. A natural rat could chew through concrete given enough time; it had been easy for her. The hole was still small enough that the men had to squeeze, and scraped themselves up a bit, but they got through.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Eva could see their feet just standing there from her side of the hole, "Get going, somebody is gonna smell you soon!"
"Aren't you coming?" Micah sounded confused, "If you're letting us go, you must be joining us, right?"
"I meant what I said about you," Eva's voice and face filled with almost angry disgust, "I didn't do this to be part of your sick system, I did it because I didn't want to be part of something just as bad. Now get out of here!"
And they did.
***
Naturally, Lucille was unhappy to find the pair gone. She'd had no use for them, true, but they'd been fun to hurt, and she'd enjoyed the challenge of finding things to do that Nathaniel wouldn't get off on. And with them loose, they could lead the rest of the St. Louis forces back here! Yeah, she had a right to be pissed about this. Unfortunately, she didn't know who did it. Whoever they were, they'd used the cayenne pepper trick, so she couldn't smell who had been beside the wereleopards as they'd escaped, and no electricity in the school meant no security cameras to catch such things like at the Circus.
Well, there was just one thing to do then, and truth be told, she was going to have fun with it. With the slightest flex of her mental powers, she gave everyone a nice little ring-a-ling saying they were to assemble for her in the gymnasium. Once there, she stood before them, looking very calm. Cool, even. It was much more terrifying than if she'd simply thrown a fit like she tended to do over smaller things, like losing a favorite lipstick or not having the right shoes to go with her outfit. Maybe it was because Lucille had been dealing with big shit all her life until she was sixteen, and it was only after that, after having been adopted into her cousin Hiero's rich and well-connected family, that she had the luxury of small things like that even mattering to her, or even owning lipstick and shoes at all, and enjoyed being able to make the most of it like that, enjoyed finally being in a position where the biggest thing she had to be upset about was something so frivolous.
This issue, however, was anything but frivolous. It wasn't just the fact she'd lost prisoners that concerned her; it was that one of her own had betrayed her, had had the capacity to betray here. Lucille had no faith in people on their own; they were all treacherous, selfish creatures, naturally predatory and out only for themselves, and would hurt you simply for spite. In other words, she thought everyone was just like her. But this still relatively recent abilities of hers had made it so that the true natures of people were suppressed, so that they were forced to be loyal to her, absurdly so, despite whatever their best interests or personal beliefs might be. Lucille had always been special, had always found the rules or reality and realism bent a little for her, but lately it had been stronger than ever before, allowing her to build and lead this army. It was why she had only struck now, had only been sought out by Padma and the Traveller now. So why then had her power failed her in this now? How had someone even thought to disobey her, let alone carry the thought out into action? Plus that little ragtag group that had gone to save Max and Fell without Lucille having ever ordered any such thing. It was a small slight, yes, but Lucille knew better than to ignore early warning signs. This needed to be figured out and nipped in the bud, right now.
They all stood before her, grouped together, some clearly afraid, some with stony faces of acceptance for what was to come, and some so perfectly brainwashed that they looked as blithe as if this were a simple Homeowner's Association meeting.
"Somebody," said Lucille calmly but with a sharpness to the edge of her tone, "has let our captive kittens out."
She let that sink in, and contently watched the slight ripple in the little crowd before her, then continued, "I'm going to be fair, and let whoever is responsible step forward. This is your first and only chance before I use force."
Her tone was not threatening, just factual. One didn't innately feel as if one should be afraid from it, and the blither faces in the crowd looked no more aware of the real peril that the culprit might be in than before. Sati's face, however, presented a struggle; betray Lucille by staying silent, or betray her comrade by speaking up? Cornelius, who happened to be standing next to her, saw this, though Lucille did not, and he more or less knew what had happened, though he assumed she was a guilty party in the release as well, and decided to help her out by putting his hand over her mouth. She turned her eyes to him, and her gratitude was clear.
"Alright then," Lucille said lightly when no one confessed, with a casual shrug of her shoulders, "Guess everyone has to suffer."
With that, she took the hold she had on their beasts and brains, and she squeezed, and she tugged, and they all spasmed before her. Some screamed. Some clenched their hands in their hair, scratching at their scalp as if trying to physically tear their tyrant's presence from their minds. Eva fell forward, her body hurling itself against her will at Lucille's feet, an admission of guilt tumbling out from her lips even as she tried not to speak. Lucille lifted her up by the front of her shirt, and slashed at the side of her face with her opposite hand, whose beautifully varnished nails had suddenly shifted into claws, leaving wide gashes in the poor girl's cheek.
"Congratulations, Eva. As our first traitor, you get to be our first example to everyone of what happens to scum like you."
Her eyes were cold, and Eva felt her blood run just as cold when she looked into them. Up until now, she hadn't wanted to get caught just on principle, sure, but she hadn't thought anything truly bad would happen to her if she were. Now, suddenly, she had doubts, as reality began to seep just the tiniest bit more into her mind, just as when she'd decided to help the wereleopards. Just a little more realization of how wrong everything was, how wrong Lucille was. Just a little.
Still holding Eva aloft, Lucille took out a small, slender silver knife. When Reba had done the same to Lacey during Anita's last meeting with the American weretiger clans, Anita had claimed it was a sign of weakness on Reba's part that she didn't shift to punish her underling instead. Nonsense. It was a matter of subtlety, something Anita had never understood. Reba and Lucille both knew that there were things that smaller instruments of torture could do that big clumsy claws and jaws just couldn't. Not if you wanted to make it hurt, to make it last, as much and as long as it could.
"No! Don't!" Odette had hurled herself at Lucille now as well, and not by her Call All Animals command but by her own desire to save her friend. She was grabbing at Lucille's arm, trying to tear with her own tiny blunt nails. "Don't hurt her!"
With an annoyed sound, Lucille easily tossed the little swanmane aside, sending her sprawling across the slick and dirty gymnasium floor, her ruffles and frills in disarray. At this, Sig was now called to action, and he sprang from the group to pick up his "Cygnet" from the heap she was cowering in, while at the same time drawing one of his pistols and cocking it at Lucille. The message was clear: Don't move a muscle. Lucille, however, was not impressed. She knew that Anita could heal from a point-blank silver bullet to the brain, and that made her pretty confident that she could as well.
"So," she said, not even seeming to notice as Eva started to struggle and kick, "We have a mutiny on our hands."
The metaphor made her remember that the mermaids were still new, and she decided then to, as she had with the rescue team, feign mercy for now until she could get their fins under her thumb securely along with everyone else. She dropped Eva with a warning, and the wererat scurried to the arms of Odette, their previous quarrel clearly now forgotten. She began to speak now to her troops about why this was necessary and justified, how things were hard in war, how great an offense Eva had committed...but for once it didn't look like they were all buying it all the way, and now it was Lucille's turn to feel shock, even a little fear. How? Why? Everyone always 'bought it' from her! What was disrupting her influence now? She could have gotten away with all this before, and more, and they would have accepted it. Their normal personalities, normal moralities, normal loyalties, these were all returning! What had changed?
Anita.
Anita was in the same building as her, the same vicinity. Lucille might not know what she and Anita truly were, might not know that they had reality-warping abilities which were now canceling each other out due to their prolonged proximity, but she could put two and two together nonetheless and notice that her hold on everyone else began to fade when Anita had been near her for some time.
No more fun and games. She had to figure out how to kill that bitch, and fast.
