Night's Omen

The shit Iloquil was trying?  It wasn't working.

Justinian was far too old to fall for the same tricks that might have worked when he was young and new, and this wasn't about something stupid and trivial that he might be willing to be 'convinced' to let go with her ample talents.  No, this was his best friend, his blood brother, of two thousand years.  This was the man that he'd trusted his life to since he was a mortal boy, who was now human.  He wasn't stupid enough to believe that she had nothing to do with it, and frankly?  If she'd been innocent of what he was accusing, she would have gotten angry.  That she was trying to appeal to him the way she was meant that she was guilty and she knew they both were aware of it.  He didn't budge.

"Oh, I'm certain I'm being more than reasonable, yet you're still not explaining what the fuck happened," he pointed out, voice still dangerously quiet and casual.  For all of the yelling they'd both done earlier, this was scarier for how quiet it was, though he broke his refusal to touch her when his hand whipped up to grab the wrist attached to the hand she'd pressed against his chest.  "Why did the voodoo man target Alexander, Iloquil?"

He asked because, as much as he disliked the bastard, he knew that Aristide didn't do anything to anyone unless he stood to gain, or it was vengeance.  He surely didn't have any deals involving removing Alexander from the gameboard, so Justinian could only assume that the man had been slighted.  That a human was so powerful as to make his slights such a big deal infuriated Justin, but there was little he could do.  He needed to know more about this so that he could find a way to fix it, preferably that didn't involve approaching Aristide himself.  Too dangerous.

 Well, his night had gone from bad to worse. Between Persephone practically peeing on him to establish dominance over Darren (how the fuck was he supposed to know the cat was spoken for?) and Katya/Verity at the damn dinner table...  He honestly thought that Verity would have encountered Katya sometime before now, but evidently the two didn't care for eachother. Or, Verity didn't care for Katya. Katya was only there because Raphael had asked her to. He'd wanted her to meet Niall and Verity, he just didn't realize how chock full of felines Midnight REALLY WAS until her car had arrived and pretty much every pet or otherwise feline servant in the entire establishment rushed their rooms to try and see what that wonderful smell was.

Now they all sat tensely in the theatre room watching the only DVD anyone could find - The Vampire Diaries.

"Doesn't that guy kind of look like you?" Darren asked, finding the time to actually speak to him between avoiding his gaze and giving him the death glare.

"As much as that guy looks like you," he replied. Darren turned back to the TV to find what could have easily been a relative on the screen, and muttered something to himself about people needing to get their own look. Katya was next to him, white-knuckled in the chair, while Persephone and Kronos played a game of slaps, totally uninterested in what was on the TV as soon as they realized that they didn't bring in "anything good".

Finally, Raphael said aloud what they were all wondering. "What do you think they're doing in there?"

Katya winced. "I don't know, but Justinian sure looked mad when he came in to get Iloquil." She could only imagine how mad someone would have to be for the three-plus thousand year old vampire to want to avoid their company. She looked critically at Raphael, then. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. This is boring. And uncomfortable. And I want to know what's going on."

"Not it," Kronos and Persephone said at the same time. They both had turned to look at him, and Persephone yelped as she took her attention away from Kronos for just long enough; he'd slapped her hand so hard that the noise practically echoed in the room.

"Fuck!" she yelled.

"Okay," Raphael said. "Fine." He turned to Darren and held his hand out in a fist atop his other, palm facing up. "Darren. On three."

Katya scooted next to them and held her hand out. "ON three or after three?" she asked.

"ON three," he said flatly.

 Well, they could all go fuck themselves as far as Samantha was concerned. As soon as she realized that nobody was in her corner, she started walking over to Derek, fully intending to just hoist him up over her shoulders and steal Alex's car. That fucker could find his own way back.

"Wait," Verity called after her; Samantha could hear high heels clicking on the cold, hard surface of the marble floor. She turned around, walking backwards as she did it.

"No, he told me to go, and honestly, I think I probably should. Wouldn't want to get myself into more trouble than I already have tonight," she said sharply.

"No, dear, you misunderstand. I intend to attend to your little... friend before he leaves. It seems as though you've brought me my own cat back in marginally better condition than I had initially expected. It's the least I could do." She smiled, and something flickered across her face that the rest of them didn't see due to her proximity and angle towards Samantha - once again, Verity phrased demands like requests, and Samantha swallowed as she realized that telling Verity no could probably end in more trouble than it was worth.

"Okay," she said slowly. She was quiet for a half-second, then said, "what leftovers?"

Verity smiled, though it seemed a little too glib to be anything good. "Through that door. Why don't you take Alexander with you? I'll tend to your friend personally," she sang.

We'll see just how loyal he is to them before he leaves, darling. Maybe Katya's ability will come in handy, after all. I could ensure that I'm still on Derek's little brain long after he's gone home and gone back to his menial life. He might even miss me. She glanced over her shoulder at Niall with a knowing smile, then knelt down next to the snow leopard. People tended to think Verity herself was a vampire instead of a Triste, simply because of her alignment, but it was only due to the fact that the most well-known Triste in the area was practically begging for the wood to build a cross with. Just because Verity wasn't a "good guy" didn't mean she lacked the abilities of a Triste, and those did include healing, as well as mental manipulation. She just didn't need to use them often; she was very good with her words and actions alone. To add her own mystic touch to a project was usually overkill, but in this situation? She found it was just right.

"Oh my, it seems he's passed out," she said, feigning alarm. "Cerberus, would you be a love and have him brought to the infirmary? I'll be in with him in just a moment." And with that, she returned to Xavier and Kimber, offering them each an arm as she lead them into the dining area. Whether Alexander and Samantha followed was their own problem, although she was certain that the snake would go, regardless of her partner. She seemed like, had she the metabolism of a normal human, she would be easily obese at best.

Such a pity. I do love Brazilian women.

 She looked shocked when he pressed on, demanding for her to tell him what had really happened, doubly so when he grabbed her wrist. After thousands of years, Iloquil could still be hurt physically by very few, and one of those people was the man who currently had her in a vise-like grip. She didn't want to tell him what really happened. She didn't even know, fully, what had really happened, so how could she explain? He squeezed her, as if to prompt her into action, and she pressed her lips together.

"He didn't target Alexander, he targeted me," she confessed finally. She'd heard people say that it felt good to get lies off of their chest, but since Iloquil was more afraid than anything else, it didn't feel good at all. She yanked her hand away from her mate in the brief second he hesitated at her admission, stepping away from him to put some space between them. If he was going to be mad, she didn't want to be close enough to get hit.

"It was my fault," she said firmly. "He stepped in and took my punishment because of - his loyalty to you, I assume? I didn't really get a chance to talk it over with him. All I was able to say was a quick, "No, don't!" and then I was alone." She paused. "I just didn't want to say anything because I was afraid you'd blame me for it, like I could have stopped him." Physically, maybe, but would she really take that gamble? Probably not. "I thought you'd leave me. And anyways, I had no reason to assume he was still alive. Aristide didn't say anything, he just accepted the offer of sacrifice and they were gone. How was I supposed to know he was still alive - and human? If I had, I'd have probably said something a lot sooner."

She sounded defensive, mostly because she was worried about her own ass here, so it would make sense. She knew she was in trouble, but she didn't really feel like she should be abandoned because of someone else's actions. "So now, you know. And you can be mad at me if you want, but I didn't make him take my place. If he wouldn't have, I'd be the human one with no memories - or worse. Either way, it was going to be bad for you."