Act Two Chapter Five - The Perfect Drug

Emmanuel Noble had made a grave error.

It was a little surprising, given that he had chosen to use magic to restrain the vastly stronger Sarah. That he’d be so careful there yet still fail to account for another aspect of vampire physiology; they were damn tough too. It was not easy for a human with average human strength to drive a stake into a vampire’s heart.

Had he used his magic to do it, it might have been very easy and Sarah would be doomed. But he chose his hands and arms instead and, as a result, the stake had deflected off her heart and merely pierced inert flesh. He had missed Sarah’s heart entirely. It left an ugly wound in her chest, but had no other effect.

The kinetic spell released a few minutes after Noble had departed. Sarah sat up violently, as if shot out of a cannon. Freed of her paralysis, she took hold of the stake and yanked it out of her. She then stood up. Her shirt was in tatters, her bra ruined. Her skirt was torn but still largely intact. Her panties had long disappeared; the pervert had probably taken it with him for some masturbatory journey down memory lane along with those pictures he’d taken.

The Beast quieted now that the danger was past, but Sarah found her body shaking at the trauma of what had just happened to her. But she also smiled. As brutal and violent as what she’d just endured was, it also revealed everything she’d wanted to know about Dr. Emmanuel Noble. Everything she needed to bring him to ruin.

On his desk was a computer. She tapped at the keyboard and up came a password prompt. She looked about and as was often the case with amateur computer users, the password was written on a nearby slip of paper. She was in.

It was a Windows 98 system, brand new and easy to navigate. She began digging through folders, one of the skills Michael had taught her. Most of what she found was typical. Documents of scholarly articles, a few ungraded papers from students, and other mundane items. But there was one folder that contained encrypted files. She could tell they were JPG image files, but attempting to load them brought up a prompt asking for an encryption key.

That was more advanced hacking that she was capable of.

But it was also more advanced than someone like Noble should be capable of as well. After all, that was pretty sophisticated computer use from a person who left their account password on a slip of paper in their desk. The encryption key was likely nearby and easy to find as well. But where to look?

The bookshelves around the room were filled with various philosophical textbooks. Socrates, Camus, Hobbes, the whole gamut was there. Attempting to discern who among them might be Noble’s favorite, and thereby give a possible key, was impossible. But then her eyes fell on one book that seemed out of the ordinary: A copy of Lord Byron’s narrative poem about Don Juan.

It took about a dozen tries, different variations of both “Lord Byron” and “Don Juan” before she found what she sought. Suddenly, the image file opened, revealing a small girl of about eight or nine sprawled half-naked on the floor like Sarah had been.

“Son of a bitch…” Her own rape was vicious enough. But now seeing in living color what Noble had spoken of while violating her was still a shock. There were other victims of his particular perversity and they were children. Real children.

“I have you now, you monster.” She said aloud. She wrote down the encryption key that she’d figured out on a scrap of paper and made for the exit. She dropped the stake on the floor in roughly the same spot she’d been lying. Perhaps he’d not realize she’d escaped. That would buy her time to set her plan in motion.

---

“Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'.”

As a teenager, Michael had read all the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels. For some reason, that quote from Goldfinger rang in his head as he began his search for Amy. It was a quote from the book, not the movie, said by Goldfinger when he kept running into Bond by accident throughout the first act of the story.

Happenstance. Coincidence. The two times he’d seen Amy were both the same small neighborhood of Conshohocken, once the party and once near Mia’s house a block or so away. The second time she’d been on foot, walking with her groceries from the bus stop to her home. That was evidence. Amy almost certainly lived in the same neighborhood as Mia.

Sunday night’s search proved fruitless, but Michael was undaunted. He was back out on Monday, patrolling the streets in the early evening in his Falcon looking for any sign. There was however a nagging feeling in the back of his mind. It occurred to him that this search was really going to hinge not on where Amy lived, but rather on what instruction she’d received from her kindred master.

If her master really wanted Mitch out of the way, then there would be no sign of Amy again. She’d be summoned away and hidden where Michael would never reach her, only appearing again on the day of Mitch’s trial to incriminate him into prison. But this early in the game, such an extreme move seems unlikely. Michael had done nothing to Walsh or his allies at this point. He’d harmed no kindred, ruined no plans, and killed no subordinates. He’d merely shown up, accepted his tiny patch of hunting ground, and bought an apartment.

This was a warning. A prank. An effort to remind Michael just how vulnerable he really was, so he really needed to rethink any ambitions here and just move on to somewhere else. Unless Michael proved himself truly inept (and therefore harmless) there was no way this rape farce was going all the way.

When Michael spotted Amy on Monday night once walking back from the bus stop with a small bag of groceries, he knew he was right. Walsh, or whoever of his allies ruled Amy, had left her out in the open to die.

He watched her for a long time from his darkened car. There was no one else around. He could take her at his leisure, but he still hesitated. He’d spent much of the last three days wallowing in a misery of guilt and regret and here he was plotting to murder a young woman in cold blood. Cheating on Sarah had been bad enough, dealing out death to a woman whose only crime was obedience to one of Michael’s enemies seemed far worse.

This was not the first time he’d done this. Hell, in Tidewater during Max’s rise, he’d relished this. On Max’s orders, he’d helped murder a half dozen or so of Michelle La Croix’s most loyal thralls. He’d been a little too eager back then to deal out death indiscriminately and it was not coincidence that Mitch had been the one to call him out for it. Now it was for Mitch’s sake that he was here about to kill again.

He noted Amy make a turn and head into a duplex. The left hand side was her home. Michael let out his breath. There was no putting this off any longer. If he spared her, Mitch would rot in jail and Walsh, Dylan, and most everyone else in the city would think him weak. He couldn’t afford that. If they believed him weak (as he really was), they’d swoop in like vultures and drive him from the city. If they believed him strong, they’d think twice about that. He had to convince his opponents there was something to fear in him and it would start with the death of a young blonde woman.

Michael stepped out of the car and willed the shadows to envelop him. Now hidden from mortal sight, he made his way over to the duplex. With his vampire dexterity, he scaled the sheer brick of its wall and entered the building from an unlocked second floor window.

It was her bedroom. He stepped into a corner and waited.

She did not come upstairs for close to an hour. She came in and flipped on the light, wholly unaware of his presence. She began to undress when Michael dropped his power of stealth and stepped forward.

Amy yelped in surprise, but it was no scream of abject terror. No “Oh, my God, someone is in my house” panic. After recovering from her start, she looked at him rather dispassionately.

“I figured you would show up sooner or later.” She said calmly. “So how are you going to do it? Drink me dry? Break my neck? Cut my throat?”

The casual way she spoke of her own demise reminded Michael of Virgil and how he had spoken of his likely fate as Michael’s agent in Tidewater. He too was a bound thrall and to them, death didn’t matter. You served your master. You did everything for him or her. If he or she demanded your life, you gave it without hesitation.

Michael gave her no answer, in large part because he didn’t know. He’d avoided thinking about that part. Oh, there was no question he’d find something. His fist could crust bone. He could run like a cheetah. He was a crack shot and an expert with a blade (and he was armed with both gun and blade.) There was no escaping him. He could kill her any of a hundred different ways.

She interpreted his silence rightly. “You don’t know yet. Haven’t figured out a way yet? I know I have no right to ask this, but I do have a suggestion.”

“And that is?”

“Take me like you did the other night. Fuck me and then when the moment is right, strangle me to death. They say an orgasm that hits when you’re brain is sapped of oxygen is the most intense. I could go that way.”

Erotic asphyxiation. Michael had heard of it. It was not a kink he practiced. It was very risky for mortals and pointless for kindred. But the analytical part of himself that was thinking about this was soon overridden. The Beast made its opinion known with a surge within his chest and a spiritual growl of lust and hunger.

Yeah, that was another memory. Kris Keller again, demanding Michael be the one and the only one to take her life. When she’d made that demand of him, he got as aroused as he ever had. When the moment came for him to carry out his promise though, it was anything but sexy. Kris was mortally wounded in a hail of bullets. He drank her dry as she expired, barely outpacing the death her wounds would have granted her anyway.

But this was different. Killing in the act of sex was the ultimate expression of his darkest lusts. The Beast approved and that scared him. No, this was a line he would not cross.

Michael moved forward and clamped his hand around her throat. “No,” he whispered to her. “I resent having to do this to begin with. Your master is a monster, giving you to me to kill for a pointless warning. A shot across the bow. I will not corrupt my soul by doing anything more than what I must.

“And speaking of monsters, you are much like him.” Michael’s rational mind regained full control and the Beast reluctantly went quiet. “You level a lie to destroy a man, but your lie has the potential to destroy not just him. Rape is a vile thing, an abomination inflicted on hundreds of people each day. And the beasts that do this thing too often escape punishment because of people who lie as you did.

“Your master will say you died for his service. But I say you die for your lie.” With that, he began to squeeze.

---

Michael returned from his dark deed to his home, hoping to scrub the memory of what he had had to do from his mind with a good book or a video game or something. He walked into the apartment to a surprise. Sarah standing in the kitchen, waiting for him. The grim visage of hate and anger was gone from her face. In its place was one of ambivalence. They stood before each other in silence for several seconds, neither certain of what they were going to say to one another. Her body language seemed off to him, as if there was more going on than a mere awkward encounter after a huge fight.

“I have a gift.” She finally said. “Call Boar. Call Paul. Call everyone. They all need to see this.”

“What is it?”

She held up a newly burned CD. “Please do as I ask.”

He summoned the group mentally. Everyone he could, save Mitch, who was still in jail, and Dylan, whom he did not trust enough with whatever this might be. Over the next half hour or so, they all arrived: Solomon, Paul (with Kathleen), Boar, Julia, even Damian.

“I hate when you do that.” Grumbled Solomon, the last to arrive. “You could use modern technology and call.”

“Do not hold that against him.” Sarah spoke up on her own. “This was at my request.”

“I do hope this is not about your little spat with one another.” Interjected Damian. “I got far more important things to occupy my time.”

“Indeed you do and you’ll have more in a minute.” Said Sarah flatly. She ushered the lot of them into her bedroom, where Michael kept his computer.

“What I am about to show you is a small sample of files from the computer of one Dr. Emmanuel Noble of Villanova University.” She put in the disk, loaded it up, and unlocked the encryption. Image after image of child pornography played across the screen.

“So Dr. Noble is a pervert.” Said Damian sardonically. “That puts him in good company with many in this room.”

“He’s also a mage.” Said Sarah. “The mage at Villanova.”

“Breathing room.” Said Michael after a moment.

Damian nodded. “So, let me guess, I am to take this here evidence that you’ve collected somehow and go to my esteemed contacts in law enforcement. And they’ll take care of the rest.”

Michael picked up the baton here. “With a mage involved, I don’t think cops are the best option.”

“I would agree.” Said Damian after a moment. “But if I’m to bring in my TFV friends, there’s a price.”

“Name it.”

“I want that campus. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll share, but I get to arbitrate the hunting ground.”

That was a lot of power Michael was giving to Damian, essentially the prize itself. But Damian knew, as well as everyone else, that he was the only one with the means to really take advantage of what Sarah had brought them.

“Deal.” Said Michael, offering his hand. Damian shook it and stood up.

“May I?” he said to Sarah. Sarah ejected the disk and handed it over to him.

“Your mage friend is about to have his life turned upside down.”

“Good” Michael heard Sarah mutter under her breath, an undercurrent of hate in her hushed voice.

“I will report back news of our success sometime in the next few nights. Good night.” Damian gave a polite salute and departed.

“That’ll be all.” Sarah dismissed the group. They shuffled out of the room, disgusted by what she had found but amazed and pleased that she’d found it.

Michael was the only one that remained behind. “You have luck like Mitch.” He said. “How’d you find all that?”

“It was luck.” She admitted. She then told him of her encounter with Noble at the Samhaim ceremony. “He then invited me back tonight, to visit him in his office to discuss an offer to help lead the coven.”

Michael began to put two and two together. “Jesus, Sarah, that was risky. If he’d had any glimmer of belief you were a vampire…” He let his voice trail off, completing the sentence was a fate too horrible to be spoken aloud. “And considering his tastes, you might have ended up…” He was going to finish that sentence with the phrase “on that disk” but he noticed Sarah’s odd body language again, this time accompanied by a clenching of her jaw and the visible battle to fight back tears. He knew.

She kept herself from breaking down, holding her composure together by sheer force of will. “There are pictures of me.” She admitted. She looked down to the floor avoiding his gaze. Michael said nothing, stunned by what she’d essentially admitted.

“Sarah…” he began to say after a long moment.

“It was worth it.” She snapped quickly, her eyes meeting his with a fierceness behind them. “It got us what we needed. And Damian will get me my revenge. He unleashes those TFV thugs all over his ass and I’ll smile. What he did won’t go unpunished.”

Michael slumped onto the bed, his emotions still a confused mix of guilt, anger, and astonishment. “I fear you have given me a gift for which I cannot repay you. Why? Sarah, you could have died. And maybe what he did do was just as bad. I don’t deserve…You didn’t have to do that. After all I’ve done to you…after all the horrible things I’ve done…the way I’ve treated you…taken you for granted…why do this for me?”

“For all your flaws and mistakes, Michael Allens, and for all my anger at them at the moment, one thing has not changed between us. I still love you, Michael, and I still would do anything for you.”

If Michael thought he’d felt guilty before, it was nothing compared to what surged through his heart now.

Without a word, he got up and walked out. He couldn't bear to look at her.

---

“Dr. Noble has been an esteemed and tenured member of this faculty for twenty years.” Protested the university president. “I protest this.”

TFV agent Alex McCoid, fresh off a two week vacation to Tahiti with the other members of his squad, gave the president a cold look. “We have a search warrant for his office here.” He repeated what he’d told the president when they’d first arrived. “We are also searching his home as we speak. Do you know where he is?”

“If he’s not here or home, then no, I don’t.”

Alex gave the dignitary a hard look. The president’s vehement protesting made him wonder if he wasn’t somehow enchanted by the mage they were seeking. Probably, but it didn’t seem the enchantment was strong enough to drive the portly little man to physically attack three very-well-armed government agents.

“I think I’ve got something.” It was Mateo Sanchez, the squad’s tech wiz who had spoken. “Jesus, this guy’s an amateur. Basic encryption and thanks to our contact we have the key.” He typed in a few quick keystrokes and the screen began to fill with images of naked children.

“Still convinced he’s an innocent man?” Alex growled.

The president gave an indignant look but said nothing. He was not shocked. He was not surprised. In fact, he gave no reaction to what had just been discovered on his prize professor’s computer whatsoever.

“Confiscate the computer.” Alex ordered. He turned to Mariah, the Jamaican woman who’d helped him in Virginia Beach a few months ago. “Contact local law enforcement. APB his ass. We’ve got him dead to rights.”

“And as for you, Mr. President, you have a choice to make. Dismiss this criminal yourself or some of this evidence may end up in the hands of your Board of Directors. Your choice.”

---

“Hail the conquering hero…” Michael sang. It was the only lyrics to the classic song he knew, but it was enough to set the mood.

Mitch smiled. He’d been released. Lack of evidence after his accuser had mysteriously gone missing. No one talked about what they all knew really happened to her. That was a taboo and a mood killer.

“So, what’s this I hear about Villanova? I get out and the thing that’s all over the news is a college professor is now on the run after hundreds of megabytes of kiddie porn was found on his computers both in his office and at home.”

“Yeah, funny that.” Said Michael with a smile. “Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. I wonder who will fill his shoes as the secret master of that university.”

“How’d you pull it off?” asked Mitch. “Come on. I’ve been in the slammer for almost a week. I missed the details.”

It had been a few days since Sarah had revealed her evidence against Dr. Noble. Damian had summoned TFV onto the case almost immediately and they swooped in like a vengeance. Michael remembered his conversations with Agent A, about how his squad at least didn’t really meddle in the affairs of supernatural entities unless they did something that really messed with mortal society. A child porn ring definitely qualified.

It had exploded into a huge scandal for the university. The news ran with the story like wildfire. But despite his name and his face being all over everything, no one had seen or heard from Dr. Emmanuel Noble since before his office had been searched. It’s like he’d vanished from the face of the earth.

Mitch was still waiting for an answer to his question. Michael pretended he hadn’t heard him, so Mitch turned to Boar. “Okay. Why the secret?”

“Sarah found the guy. She got everything for us to nail his ass.” Boar answered.

That phrase made Michael flinch. All his exuberance at Mitch’s release had vanished at his remembrance of Sarah and what she had done to get them their evidence.

Mitch read between the lines. “Is she all right?”

Michael answered evasively. “She won’t say.”

“Did he do something to her?” Mitch asked. There was an angry concerned tone to his voice, his own sense of chivalry coming out.

“Michael won’t say.” Answered Boar.

“I’d really rather not talk about this.” Michael demanded. “She got the evidence and we got the guy and that means we got the university. It’s ours. Damian is going to arbitrate the hunting ground; that was the deal for bringing in TFV. That’s all that matters right now.” He paused before adding. “For the two of you anyway. The rest is what Sarah and I have to deal with.”

“Dude,” Mitch wasn’t stupid and neither was Boar. They both suspected the secret Michael was hiding. “We’re your friends. If you need us…”

“I know.” Replied Michael with reassurance. “There are just things you can’t help me with. This is one of them. Look, we’ve all had to make sacrifices. We’ve all taken some terrible risks along the way. Sarah stepped up and it’s won us our first battle here. I’d rather dwell on the victory right now than the sacrifice. That part is between the two of us. Okay?”

---

Prince Elias Walsh was in his study, reading over some esoteric tome of ancient church history, when he heard a popping sound.

“Dimitrius,” he called out. “Go see to our guests.”

The butler, who was standing silent behind the prince, gave a quick bow and exited the room. He returned a few moments later with two men. Dr. Emmanuel Noble and his elder brother, Regulus, the leader of the Dark Brotherhood mages.

“So, gentlemen,” said Prince Walsh, putting down his book. “You’re quite the talk of the town, Emmanuel.”

“My brother is a fool.” Interjected Regulus.

“Damned modern technology.” Growled Emmanuel.

“Task Force Valkyrie raids your home and your office, ruins your good name, and makes you a wanted man and you blame your unfamiliarity with computers.” Retorted Walsh. “I’m guessing that they didn’t just pick you at random and I’m guessing that the real reason they picked you is the reason you’re now before me.”

“It was a vampire.” Said Regulus. “One of your kind found my brother’s secret.”

“This vampire have a name or a description?”

“Sarah. Looks like a young teen or a child. Purple hair. Golden eyes.”

“Michael Allens’ little whore. Yeah, I know of her. They’ve been in the city only a few weeks.”

“And who is Michael Allens? What is this that you’re not telling us, Walsh?”

“Mind your place, Regulus. We are equals. You do not lord over me like you do your wizards. In answer to your query, Allens is a kindred out of Virginia, one who’s built up quite a reputation over these past ten years or so. He’s an interloper and an insurrectionist. Wherever he goes, political chaos follows. ‘He casts down the mighty from their thrones’ as says the Magnificat.”

“So he’s gunning for you?”

“Without any doubt. But he’s my problem and Philadelphia is not Virginia. He’s way out of his league here.”

“Impressive that a vampire can get TFV to dance to his tune.”

“That’s Drake, another kindred of reputation out of Washington D.C. He’s got his fingers in everything government related. In many ways, he’s a greater threat than Allens, but for the moment they’re allied. Neither of them should be underestimated, but nor should they be overestimated. They don’t know our city and one or both of them will fumble into a violation of our law soon enough. And when that happens, I’ll bring the hammer down on them and they’ll be no more talk of them. Our plans will be safe.”

“We’re barely a year out from Y2K.” said Emmanuel. “We’re dangerously close to seeing everything we’ve worked on for twenty years unravel.”

“Don’t panic. That’s more than enough time for Allens to screw himself over.”

“You should retaliate against Sarah now. Don’t wait for a moment that may not come.” Growled Emmanuel.

“I’m not here to avenge your stupidity, Emmanuel.” Retorted Walsh. “Nor would it be very wise for me to act aggressively in defense of a Dark Brotherhood mage. Right now, almost no one in the city knows of our arrangement and even fewer know of our plans. You’d risk all that over a petty vendetta?”

Emmanuel snorted out his frustration and stormed out of the room.

“Impulsive as ever.” Grumbled Regulus. “You’d think a man more than a hundred years old would learn some patience.”

“Or some competence.” Insulted Walsh. “Why didn’t he kill the vampire himself?”

“He claims he tried.”

“Obviously he failed. Damn his lusts. It’s like a stupid comic book villain. He could just kill her outright. Instead, he had to have some fun first, didn’t he?”

“You know his inclinations.”

“Yes, but nothing must get in the way of what we propose to do. Nothing must intervene with the dark sacrifice our master demands. If Allens and his allies threaten that, you have my word I will destroy them. But, Regulus, if your brother’s so-called inclinations also become a threat…”

“…then he will die.”

“Good. I’m glad we understand one another.”

---

Their celebration had been brief. Although Michael was plenty happy that Mitch was out with all charges dropped, his mood was grim with the remembrance of all that Sarah had done and said.

“Sorry, guys.” He apologized after about an hour. “I don’t want to see ungrateful that Mitch has been freed.” He looked down at his glass and then finished his drink. “I’m guess I’m just a buzzkill tonight.”

“I appreciate what you’ve done, Michael.” Said Mitch. “But there’s a dark shadow over you right now and the person you need to talk to in order to deal with it is not here with us. Go. You know what you have to do. Boar and I can drink the rest of the night away. You need to be with her.”

“That’s part of what frightens me.”

“Whatever it is you need to say will only get harder the longer you put it off.”

Michael nodded and got up to leave. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Of course.”

Michael headed out of the bar and down to his car. He drove back to his apartment. When he got inside the first place he went was her room.

When he entered, he found her sitting on the bed, her Tarot spread out before her. “I knew this moment was coming.” She said softly. She pointed to several cards in the layout before her; Michael noted “The Lovers” but had no sense of meaning for the rest that she pointed to.

“Well, you don’t need divinations to know there’s a lot we have to talk about.” Said Michael as calmly as he could muster. His emotions were a raging storm within him.

“Sit. This is not the first time you and I have come together like this. We’ve always been able to talk before. Tell me what you’re feeling.”

“I so don’t deserve you.” Said Michael. Admitting that was like breaking a dam on a flooded river. It all came rushing out after.

“I have so taken you for granted. We were apart for two years and I didn’t know why. First I thought you were dead but then I learned otherwise. But you didn’t reach out to me. You didn’t contact my agents in Tidewater. You knew they were there. Why? I didn’t know. Did you blame me for something? For nearly getting you killed?

“I blamed you though. You didn’t come to me. It felt like rejection. I was angry. I was lost. I was broken-hearted. I was trying to drown my pain in an unending fountain of hedonism and excess. But it didn’t go away. I hated you for staying away. And then, almost on whimsy, I decided to come to you. I came back to Tidewater and then I learned the truth. Ernie’s madness had come upon you. That explained the silence but the explanation did nothing for the feelings. I had you back and I was still angry. But I didn’t realize it.

“Then we came to Philly. And the very first thing you did here was sleep with my best friend. Everything I resented about you just exploded at that. We both know what I did then. Tore into you and Mitch at every opportunity. I kept Rebecca’s presence in the city a secret, knowing it would upset and hurt you. And I slept with Kathleen, who is more like you than any of us care to admit.”

“My sister, quite literally through a common sire.” Said Sarah, in that same clinical voice she always had in these sorts of conversations. “Not unlike Mitch being your metaphorical brother, as close as you are to one another.”

“I didn’t think about it that way at the time. Didn't think it was vengeance or retaliation, but I suppose it really was. I fooled myself into thinking it an act of kindness to a lost soul. I should have known better.

“But as bad as all that was, you then had to go down to Villanova and deliver the campus to me on a silver platter. And all it cost was for you to be raped and nearly murdered by a devil-worshipping mage. You did that willingly…for me.

“All I’ve done over these past few months is hurt you and you turn around and risk everything for my sake. I’m not worthy of that level of devotion. Not even close. But I want to be.”

“I take it you have a proposal of some sort to make.”

“I do.” He took her in hand and brought it towards his mouth. His fangs were out. At the last moment, Sarah realized what he was about to do and tore her hand away.

“Don’t you dare.” She said hurriedly.

“If I’m bound to you I’d never betray you again.” Michael pleaded. “We drank of each other twice before our wedding ceremony. We were to share our third drink that night together, but it never came. Those two drinks still count. One more and I’m yours forever.”

“No,” she said firmly. “You’re being impulsive again, Michael. You don’t realize what this will do to you. You’re our leader. Goddess willing, the future Prince of this city. I can’t be your master if that’s your ambition. It won’t work. I would be a poor lover indeed if I let you abandon your every desire for me and me alone. It’s flattering, but it’s the worst thing you could do.”

“Then what can I do? How can I be worthy of you?”

“We do it the way everyone else does it. We will rebuild our trust for one another. We establish boundaries. Rules that neither of us will violate.”

“And what will those be?”

“You are Daeva and so I cannot ask you to be monogamous. I cannot ask that level of fidelity. It will simply drive you mad. But I can put limits on how you will express that part of yourself. First rule. No kindred lovers. None. No exceptions.”

“Julia won’t like that much.”

“You hardly pay her any heed as it is. I doubt she’ll notice much. But no exceptions. Not her. Not Deborah, if you ever encounter her again. Not Kathleen. And certainly not Rebecca. I am yours alone and you mine.”

Michael nodded. “Alright. I agree to that.”

“Rule two. Henceforth, any mortal lover you bed, you will do so with me in the room with you.”

“Are you planning to join us?”

“No. You know I don't swing that way. I’ll just watch and maybe sample them once you’re finished. I’ll also keep my eye open for any potential signs they’re a spy or a thrall of one of our enemies.”

“It won’t be easy to sell that. My perverted kid sister over there would like to watch us fuck. Are you okay with that?”

“Okay, let’s dispense with the old ‘kid sister’ routine. That served its purpose for a while but that Sarah is dead. The one that pretended at being a harmless little girl and hid in a corner. She’s gone. This is who I am now, all piercings and punk.

“Secondly, you’re Daeva. You know damn well most women will agree to just about anything to get in your bed. So don’t tell me this is going to be hard. Don’t insult my intelligence.”

“Alright. I can make it work. But this is a lot to ask. It’s like you’re supervising my every move.”

“We will hunt together. As a pair.”

“I can agree to that, but this still seems a stretch.”

“I want you to understand something, Michael. These women, they’re food. Nothing more. No more harems. No more pets. No more favorites. It will be you and me in each others’ hearts and no one else.”

“You once told me I needed a mortal love to keep me centered.”

“That was then. This is now. You will have me alone now.”

For the very first time, Michael saw the Ventrue in Sarah. The domineering overlord, master of her domain, demanding absolute loyalty. He may not be bound to her, but she was asking a lot to prove his fidelity. Nearly everything really.

He hesitated to answer, uncertain of whether he really was willing to meet her price. Recognizing his doubt, she spoke again. “You spoke of your feelings earlier. Let me tell of mine. Over the past week, you have hurt me worse than just about anyone ever has. You talk about heartbreak? Anger? Resentment? All these you have given me one right after the other. An almost unending barrage of disdain and apathy for me and everything we have tried to build together. After all that, I have more reason to hate you than just about anyone. And I have for much of the past week. The wounds you have given me are worse by far than even what Noble did to me. But, even still, as angry as I am, I do still love you. For that love, I was willing to overlook all that you've done to me and put myself at his mercy for the sake of your ambitions. I am also willing to overlook and forgive all the hurts you've inflicted upon me. But there is a penance. If you walk away from these demands, we are done.”

“I understand. But let’s be fair. We have both hurt one another. I’m not going to debate whether my sin or your sin is worse than the other. There’s nothing productive to be gained from going down that road and we both know that. But if I make concessions for you, what will you do for me? What rules will you establish for yourself?”

“I will take no other lover but you, kindred or mortal. You see, Michael, as harsh as what I am demanding of you, I am still giving myself the higher standard. For you, at least, I’m conceding something to your Daeva lusts.”

Michael was quiet again for a long moment. “You are everything I ever truly wanted.” He said at last. “I came into this room fully prepared to surrender everything, even my own will, to be with you. Compared to that, what you’ve asked is nothing. I can’t lose you again. I would die inside without you. Whatever you ask. Whatever you demand, I will do. I am yours, now and always.”

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