As written by CaerJester, glmstr, and Rorshach's_Journal
Why Nox had decided to bring her along, he might never be able to truly figure out. But the voice that plagued his every thought had commanded it of the Patriarch, and like a good puppet, the towering undead had obeyed. However, his stride was not sacrificed for his bride-to-be's comfort. The Caer had places to be. People to seek. Allies to gather.
So many unaffiliated, so many Houseless. Apparently the lash-back against the other vampire houses after the Skirmishes had not been kind, not in the slightest. The idea of his cowardly and traitorous kindred suffering did nothing but fill the marble-skinned giant with dark mirth. Let them be broken. He would collect the scraps left behind from the war and launch a second coming. Every day, his fledgling army grew, but what he needed were commanders. Soldiers. Ones who no longer wished to hide from the daylight, but instead extinguish it, and the life of every mortal in this city.
"Come along. Faster. We might not catch him before he flees with his prey if we don't hurry."
Of course, Nox bit his tongue. He'd have already arrived if not for this brood-sow.
His betrothed did not offer a response, only a quickening of her already labored pace. While she still bore the familiar cloak of feathers, Aurelie forwent the headgear and instead brought a dark hood to cover her head. Even if there was no sun to hide from, the fabric still instilled some sense of security, which was all she could necessarily hope for.
This grasping for hope, after all, is precisely why she brought along a firearm and blade, even if they may not be of use.
It was almost a scent on the wind that stirred the man in question's blood, had his head whipping in the direction that the other two approached. The feeling was like an itch at the base of the skull, a cold splash that made his hair stand on end, his eyes narrow behind his dark sunglasses.
Casually, in the dark of the alleyway he was perched upon, he slid a hand to curl around a silver knife blade, shifted his stance to better approximate a lower center of gravity - to flee or to fight, depending on who - what - was behind the interesting sensation.
Locking eyes with figure who towered over the crowd, he figured he had his answer.
Said towering figure came to a halt, eyes turning to face an alley that had opened at his side, holding an arm out to catch Aurelie's scurrying form. "Here. The one I seek is in here." The bride-to-be would have yelped in surprise, if it was not her betrothed's habit to pull her about in a similar manner.
Eyes flared, glowing bright for the shadows before him. Like beacons, they called, so resplendent was their shade of blue. There was an obvious power than, an unmasked and raw showing of might.
With a stride that spoke of untold arrogance and yet still somehow managed to be glorious in its grace, Nox made a bee-line for the watching figure. The stench of silver made a smile come to his thin, pale-blue lips. If things went sour, than the Caer hoped this elder's blade was blessed by some sort of divinity. For their sake.
Aurelie caught the glimmer of the metal and gripped tighter against her pistol, a century of practice and several Auraella festivals' worth of firearm knowledge playing over itself in her head.
Nox found one sided fights boring, after all. "Relax, kin. I mean no harm, not this night."
Not responding immediately, Torrential sized him up quickly - jerky head movements, with eyes hidden behind the dark lenses. Turning his head, he spat the toothpick onto the grimy asphalt, lifting one shoulder.
"I look worried?" he asked, his gaze shifting to Nox's companion. His gaze, the slow and easy look of a man who took his time, swept her features, her clothing, her... assets.
Tapping at his blade, he curled his lip upwards.
"This is how I say hello."
Nox smiled, slowly, a wicked shark grin that completely ruined his incredibly fair features. It split his mouth too wide, showed off far too many sharp looking triangular fangs. It was his trademark smile. His bride knew it well. Aurelie preferred not to look at it, as the sight even now made her uneasy. "A very straight-to-the-point way of greeting some one. I like your style already."
With a chuckle, Nox found a stack of discarded crates to lean upon, doing his best to not muddy his fine attire with the city's filth. "You don't reek of this place. You don't blend in. That means you haven't been here long. Tell me, one nosferatu to another. What brings you to Lutetia? What brings you to my city."
Might be jumping the gun a bit, but the Empeor of the Neo Caeruleum was nothing, if not confident.
Torrential kept his gaze on the woman as he responded to the man.
"Who wants to know?"
Before Nox even had a chance to respond, Aurelie gently nudged him with an elbow, with the intent to dampen his response. This was quickly becoming her job in the Caer's daily life.
His merriment soured upon his lips, and his gaze found the 'beloved' by his side. "Careful, dear. We are not yet that familiar." If she bore not his child within her womb, his response to the nudge would've been a hearty strike to the side of her head. And he hoped with all his dark might she knew that.
"I do. Nox Gildea Caeruleum. Third-boy, now tyrant of the Novus Imperium. Kindred undead to you, and future lord of this city."
Even beyond the limits of Issunar, the name of his family was known. After all, it was often that a single family managed to wage a private war with an entire country for nearly a decade.
Torrential sniffed at his response - a desperate attempt to keep up the casual, I'm-still-a-badass persona - though his head jerking in Nox's direction and the uptilt of his eyebrows betrayed it. His curled lip became a slow smile, his hand reaching upwards to pull the sunglasses off of his nose, revealing chocolate coloured eyes.
"Nice bag, lady," he said to Aurelie, then inclined his head in a sort of miniature bow towards the larger man.
The 'lady' declined to respond.
"I'm Torrential, fancy titles omitted. I'm mostly here because my fuck buddy's here."
Despite himself, Nox released a thunderous guffaw. "Oh, nevermind all this pretentious nonsense then!"
The air of cold superiority and nobility fled away, replaced instead by a charismatic magnetism. "Just tell me this then! What do you like to do, for fun? Do you like to fuck with humans, make their life a waking nightmare? Cause I like to do that stuff. You want in?"
The was an ebb of activated power at the edge of his words, like honey on a blade. Sweet, but dangerous in a stupid, simplistic way. As if each of his words held power of persuasion within them, so subtle was the attempted, passive charm that followed his speech.
Torrential smiled, slowly.
"See," he drawled, turning to fully face the other man for the first time, "now, I was just thinking about your name. Caeruleum. Rings a couple of bells in the ticker."
Tapping at his cranium with one hand, he fully drew the knife with the other, used it to casually point towards Nox. Before Aurelie even had time to think, her arm instinctively performed the movement so ingrained in every fiber, in an instant the vampiress had quick-drew her pistol and fired a single round at the knife itself, in an attempt to knock it from his hand. The only sound that signaled her action was the soft shuffling of cloth and the hissing of the silencer.
A shock wave of fel, icy power pulsed out from Nox, eyes growing wide and terrible, now little more than pupil-less icy portals.
Torrential watched the two of them, shifting from one to the other, and that slow smile sped up another few inches. He raised his now-empty hand towards the two of them, palm out, fingers curled lazily. A drop of blood from where the knife sliced into the back of his hand slid down his skin.
"Nervousness," he said, lightly, "is such an ugly trait in a man of your stature, Caeruleum."
Like layers from an onion, various barriers had fallen away, and before his eyes the Mad Dog of Nito had revealed a sliver of his true appearance. Mouth slack jawed and impossibly wide, it seemed to almost dangle stiffly as if disconnected or dislocated. Row after row of black shards, like diry ice, lined the maw that seemed to draw in what little light the alley had to offer. There was a fine glimmer to his aura, transcending the normal air of undeath and transforming it into a demonic miasma.
"It is not anxiety, but caution. And a show of dominance. Do I make myself clear? I did not come here to do battle, but to offer you a chance at skin and blood."
His voice, disembodied, seemed to fill both the air and the mind. After all, with a jaw like that, it would be impossible for the Caer to speak normally...right?
"Who's skin?" Torr said, as casually as fucking possible when speaking to a giant mouth on a torso, "who's blood?"
"The Monastic Order's. The Sylvestre's. Any and everyone who gets in my way. Lots of blood in it for you, lots of wome, money as well if that holds any sway over you. An all you can stand smorgasbord of death and debauchery."
The dark energies around the Caer Lord would subside, slowly, as would the various glimmers that had been abruptly displaced. "So, what do you think, Mr. Torrential? Does this appeal?" As Nox returned to a more presentable state, Aurelie stood close to him again, just close enough to make mild contact with her husband-to-be. As futile as it was, Lacroix saw stubborn determination as the only way to convince him to stand being around her.
The shorter man turned towards the open maw of the alleyway, breathing in the Lutetia air through his nostrils. It was wild, spicy and untamed, begging to be taken advantage of by someone with the brains and brawn to do it. To Torrential's reasoning, that man had been him.
But there were clearly bigger, badder forces at play, here - forces with more brain and brawn, with more firepower than he could likely match, and a power struggle wasn't his vibe.
"Sure," he said, easily, hooking his thumbs back into his pockets before nodding his chin at the woman at Nox's side.
"She available?"
Again, Aurelie did not even honor the question with a response. It was strange to her that, unlike many other times, her own patience was thinning much faster than that of the Caer. Her betrothed's inaction was actually beginning to irritate her.
"I'm curious," she looked up to Nox, her pedigree coming through in her tone, "normally such disrespect would have a man gutted. Yet, he has done so," the vampire counted on her fingers for emphasis, "one, two, three, four, five times, and he still stands."
A massive hand would place itself on Aurelie's shoulder, squeezing firmly, pulling the vampiress behind her husband-to-be. "She is not, Torrential. She is already claimed, and bred, and should things go according to plan..." Nox would look over his shoulder, eyes normally full to the brim with contempt and annoyance were for once, soft. At least around the edges.
"She will be First Wife of the Imperium. But, there will be plenty others, believe me. This city is ripe with sweet, young flowers." Diplomacy was a budding skill for the Caer Patriarch, something he was constantly trying to improve. "I will forgive you made advances towards the future mother of my children, but I will not forget. Is that answer clear enough for you?"
Torrential shrugged, thumbs sliding into his pockets as he rocked back on his heels. "Wouldn't call it advances, just trying to get a handle on how you work things. Some of us tend to be more free with their choice of mate."
He bowed his head towards Aurelie, hiding a small smile, before turning his poker face towards Nox.
"You want a demo man, you got one with a condition. I don't do permanence. Doesn't suit me. I don't squeal, and I don't shift loyalties, but I'm not sleeping in some nosferatu compound."
I don't do permanence. I don't squeal. I don't shift loyalties.
If there were ever phrases that could instantly erode all trust in someone, Aurelie would insist that would be them. The houses said they were loyal to one another, that they'd protect each other, and they left Lacroix to die, and tried to kill her anyway. They were liars and traitors to their own kind. To top it off, this 'Torrential' was working for profit. All it would take is some cash, whores, and a little power, and that loyalty would disappear in an instant.
She thought Nox would know better.
"As long as you do not betray me, I don't care if you leave my services. Just know, I have a nasty habit of holding grudges. And I do not take betrayal...lightly." Nox too looked towards the only female present, meeting her eyes with his own icy orbs. His gaze said volumes. He knew what his future spouse was thinking, and the Lord of Winter completely agreed. Torrential would have to be watched, closely. Perhaps he'd put Zanzi up to it...
"But a demo man I do indeed need. And I need a batch of high yield explosives, soon. Enough to blow through several sections of concrete, dirt, and rock."
"Alright," Torrential said, nodding along, "I think we understand each other."
He leaned back against the wall, lifted the heel of his boot, examined the stain of blood still prevalent on the brown leather. Idly, he scuffed it against the brick, chipping the dried copper off, mixing it with the dirty rust-colored stone.
"I can get you the explosives in three days' time. A little longer, depending on my guy. Do you need shaped charges, or will any run of the mill boom-boxes do?"
"As long as it creates a door, I don't care what shape its in. And good. Three days is faster than what I was expecting." Nox put a clawed hand to his chin, rubbing his index knuckle against his thin lips thoughtfuly. "Will there be any expenses I need to cover?. Normally..."
Once again, pale blue eyes would trace Aurelie's figure, quickly. "I'd have Pierette do such things like bringing the check book and making sure all my finances are in order. But I think I can get a grasp on such things."
"I can take a look at it," she spoke up and met Nox's gaze, "I dabbled in managing my family's treasury for a while, and after living alone long enough." She fully expected the Caeruleum fortune to be similar, possibly in scale but almost assuredly in function, similar to the Lacroix vault of the time. "Pierette also refused to ever let me see your documents though, so I will need those." In the end, she was glad that gutter whore was out of the picture.
Torrential nodded again, holding up a hand. "Ordinarily, yes - and in the future I'll ask you to pay - but take this first round as a token of good will. A contract."
His smile was feral, bright.
The towering abomination couldn't help but crack a grin in return, his voice more of a thundering purr. "Goooood. Normally, I'd let you choose your method of contact, but I've grown fond of these little things." Then, Nox would toss something to Torrential, a rather quick underhanded throw.
Nothing fancy. A small, black flip-phone, thin and slightly outdated by a couple years. A burner. "Only two numbers. Mine, and...I suppose I'll have to remove Ms. Hogan's number from these in the future. Aurelie, do you have a cellular number to contribute? Since you seem so keen in taking over my love's duties."
"I do," Aurelie refused to acknowledge what he referred to her as. He was taunting her, and she would not concede to it. She stepped towards Torrential and slowly plucked the phone from his hand, scrolling through the simple menus and clicking her own number into them. While the Caer used the simplest and cheapest of devices, Lacroix actually owned two, one given by her husband-to-be for keeping in contact with him and other associates, the other a personal one, notably nicer and more modern, which currently had no contacts but was more for utility and entertainment.
Torrential let the woman take the phone, careful to keep his eyes on the other vampire, his gaze curious, interested.
"You all business all the time, Nox? Or do you let loose now and again?"
The Caer would give a short guffaw, crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, being an emperor in the making, I rarely have the time. Though I do enjoy the occasional foray into the city's night life. Thats how I met the stunning creature who stands between us. How long ago was that now, betrothed? Several months?"
She turned and offered a smile to the Caer. Not forced, nor uncomfortable, but genuine. It was a nice change of pace to hear such things from him, to which Lacroix returned to his side and wrapped an arm around his back. "That sounds about right," the vampire purred. She could feel the beginnings of a child coming to bear every day, yet while she couldn't be sure if it would make it to term, there was always hope. Perhaps then he'd accept her more.
Maybe.
Torr nodded, examining the phone she'd handed back to him carefully, twirling it between two fingers.
"Well, hit me up if you're looking for a plus one," he said, slipping the phone into one of his too-large coat pockets. You learned a lot, in his experience, from watching things eat.
"Oh, trust me, my new associate, I will. I like to party crash, after all. And pretty soon, I'm going to be crashing a rather...bountiful one." The word, bountiful, rolled off a sharp, pointed tongue, dripping with innuendo and malice. Whether or not that venomous tone was directed at Torrential or at the general populace of Lutetia City as a whole was hard to discern. It was Nox, after all...
