Chapter 120
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 119
Quincy feels a bit reluctant to leave the castle. Not that Lucy isn’t a blast to be around, she’s so very much friend material, just the kind of woman he gets along with, but somehow, somehow it feels as if he’s ditching Cycy. He wanted to take her out hunting, maybe kind of like a date, he supposes. One to make up for that terrible, horrible ritual which he preferably never wants to think about ever again.
But he is the first one to get when somebody needs space. And lots of it. He’s pretty sure that he would be sitting on the parapet, hissing at everybody coming within shouting range if that had been him on that altar.
So no, he should enjoy himself with Lucy, and maybe cheer her up a bit too. She seems to still beat herself up over the mistake she made at the ritual, and really, that’s understandable, too, because yeah, yellow roses for the husband. Not really the best sign.
Especially compared to the strand for Radu, that looked like much more than forced emotions had any right to, and he’s not in the mood to give the rapist any benefit of the doubt, but he still feels like he has a mountain of a task ahead of himself there to fix this marriage… or rather, find ways to get Cycy happy with Blondie, and hey, that should be just the topic to cheer Lucy up. Ergo, he starts asking her all the juicy questions about her double set of happily-living-in-sin.
Turns out, it’s hard not cooing at her, she seems to shed about three layers of holding back and fully fit the age she looks as she bounces and squeals all over her two men. Quincy is pretty sure they’d both be the most hilarious shades of red if they knew what he’s learning about them here, but hey, all in the name of a happier relationship for their daughter, right?
As a side-effect, he gets himself some tag-teamed seduction hunt. Now, that’s just fun, exchanging notes about how to turn heads with that firecracker, yupp, his mother has great taste in best friends apparently. He also learns how to pace himself, how to estimate how much blood to take and oopsie, yes, he really didn’t have much clue there. Good that gluttony isn’t his vice of choice; he guesses he’ll have to stick with other things to swallow in copious amounts.
Even while Lucy is laughing raucously at him for that comment, she suddenly looks distracted before telling him that they have to find their way back to the castle, apparently her Jackie (and that’s still so tempting a pet name to take over for that shy man of science,) wants some backup. Some kind of big family discussion now that they can? “Sounds like we are up for some social wrangling, sweetheart.”
Now, that, Quincy feels qualified for, but waggles his eyebrows if she’s sure she trusts him with her men after all the things she told him about them? He might be tempted to try to steal one.
Giving him a long look up and down with fake consideration, she starts grinning. “You look like a size queen and if you manage to entice my Art, I’m insisting on watching.”
That woman is impossible! Oh, he could kiss her… screw it, he does. Right on the cheek with a big smack and both of them laughing as they turn back towards the castle. Apparently, they have a little bit of time because Jackie is still setting up and his father isn’t back from where his mother sent him out with the Christmas shopping list. And yes, they both have a laugh at how ridiculous that thought is but also agree that yes, Mina could totally pull that off and make him.
~~~~
Jack’s been pacing up and down the width of the library a few times now, and that’s after Art confiscated the scalpel he was fidgeting with (and the next three as well.) He doesn’t like that he’s making Art wait. Art’s giving him such worried looks. Art is always so beautifully easy to read. Just like his rose petal. He wishes she was here for this but apparently she has holed herself up in her room with some big project.
At least, that’s what John told him when he checked with him if they should try again. But John could tell him that rose petal seemed much better. And they both might have agreed with a curt nod each that Mr Cobb being nowhere to be found might have something to do with it.
That’s just fine by Jack, he feels nervous enough as is about confronting the past without the ingrate of a son-in-law he has. Lucy arrives with Quincy, and he finds himself quickly smiling at both of them. Of course, the smile is real for Lucy, but it doesn’t even slip much for Quincy. The young man is very supportive and clearly skilled with Jack’s own biggest problem: Emotions.
He’s had a day now to try to deal with his own, but they still dodge around in the fog like rats in an alley, and that was a problematic choice of metaphor, given rose petal’s fondness and his rose’s phobia of rats. Nevertheless, he has to confront them eventually, (his emotions, not any rats,) and worse, confront whatever Art might think of him for his mistake.
This is his fear about revealing that he lied to him for so long all over again. And he can see that the longer he is pacing, the more worried Art is getting as well. Lucy, of course, can alleviate some of that by sitting herself down on his lap and petting his beard. He’s seen Art often enough doze off when she did that, but not even her presence can calm him down completely, he’s just always so concerned for his best friend. And that is what Jack wants to be.
Maybe that’s what he’s scared of? Losing Art? It may well be. But he can’t keep his realisation to himself, so he is nearly relieved when Draculya finally graces them with his presence, Mina on his arm again.
Alright, from the top. Start medical, describe the symptoms Lucy had shown, the mark on her neck, which, in hindsight, also makes little sense after he’s seen years of lack of bite marks and now weeks of actual bite marks when Lucy let him study them.
Then he produces the two test tubes he kept. Of course, by now both of them are not in perfect condition anymore, but still, the difference is obvious. He holds the one with the bad mix up to Art and explains what it is. Braces for any reaction, but Art looks confused and not sure where he’s trying to lead him, so Jack has to bring himself to actually say it, and finds his voice is suddenly shaking.
“Art. We put this into Lucy’s veins. I… I murdered her.”
~~~~
It’s Lucy who first reacts with a curse and wrapping her arms around Art because she can feel the tremble, but then Vlad speaks up.
“That is what I have tried to tell you- your deluded mentor, right while you were in the process of killing her, and I did my utmost to try to save her, and then a few days ago. I am not her murderer, you two are.”
He’s about to add something, but Lucy turns blur again and is standing in front of him, hissing. “Shut your male egomaniacal mouth! Nobody gets to decide who murdered me or who is the good one or the bad one, because you all fucked up! None of you get to be innocent here, least of all you!” Poking her finger into his chest, she scoffs at him, gives him a long look, then starts giggling, because uh huh, that’s Quincy, that delight of a bestie in the making, crossing his arms and huffing, too. “Yeah, less male ego and talking over the person this concerns most might do all of you some good.”
Before Art can growl at him for that, Lucy is back on his lap and she pulled Jack with her on the way there, makes him sit down, too, as awkward as he looks at that, but her Art really is big enough for both of them to cuddle up and it’s what those two need!
“Now, I don’t really care who did what here. I remember dying less than waking up badly. Jackie, if you did, then well, you forced Vladi’s hand on making me what I am. And Jackie, Art, you both remember how sickly I was? Who says I would have lived this long if not for all of this? You have me now, healthy and forever beautiful, so stop fretting, you silly men! I love you both. So don’t let that one over there huff you into feeling bad about anything!”
She puts a kiss on both of them and starts laughing because of course Art is sniffling and squishing both of them tight now, to only half a protest from Jack, primarily for not being able to breathe like this.
~~~~
Mina, meanwhile, on the other side of this, has to stifle a snicker at her husband all but pouting for being rebuffed like that. So much for being on the higher horse. But then she leans in and whispers at him that isn’t this exactly how family should be? Can’t he see Lucy be those two’s shield? A good wife? Taking care and protecting their emotions? That’s what men need from their women, after all, and oh yes, can she ever see him melt at that. The old romantic. He’s predictable sometimes, but in a very cute way.
And she just so happens to know another predictable man in this room, so she uses her knowledge to play right along with Lucy’s tactics. “Why don’t you, respectfully, offer your side of the story so we can clear this up once and for all?”
~~~~
With a nod, clearing his throat gently, Vlad stands up and tries his best to sound diplomatic: May he offer some more input on what happened twenty years ago? Because, while he is very glad to see Lucy so unaffected, he would like to stop being seen in the wrong light, too, and he reassures them that he acted perfectly honourably towards Lucy, although it might not have seemed like that from their side.
~~~~
It’s very… strange to be part of this family meeting, Arthur finds. To sit in a room with so many people, and most of them adults, too, and… and be part of the conversation?
Sort of. It’s not like he’s contributing anything, he’s just curled up in his corner of the couch with a cup of tea, (weak tea, so it doesn’t smell too much for the vampires,) and listening to and watching everything that’s going on.
He’s certainly glad that Dr Seward’s worries about his mistake didn’t come true, and that Darcy’s parents still are alright with each other. Though Dr Seward looks a lot funnier and less dignified than usual, awkwardly perching on Art’s thigh.
Hearing the full story- Arthur is very keen on that, though. He’s only got the roughest of ideas about what happened back when they all met for the first time, after all.
Apparently, it really is all a pretty big misunderstanding, thanks to this Van Helsing guy, who didn’t want to talk to Vlad and was all wrapped up in how vampires are evil. When, in fact, Vlad was trying to help Lucy with a bit of blood because she was sick and had a bad fever. And he definitely didn’t leave any bite marks on her, he’s very affronted at the idea. Which makes everyone wonder why Lucy then had that wound on her neck, until Mrs Harker exclaims that it might’ve been her.
“Remember? I accidentally stabbed you with that safety pin!”
After a long moment of thinking about it, Lucy says that she does vaguely remember. And then, on seeing Mrs Harker’s face, she rolls her eyes and adds that she’ll make her sit down on Art, too, if she gets as silly about this as her men. Even Dr Seward snorts at the horrified look on both Mrs Harker’s and Art’s faces.
After that, Mr Basarab continues the story, not that there’s too much more to tell- but he’s really good at it, he makes it really engrossing and entertaining. Just like that time they were talking at the theatre, Arthur can vividly imagine the events he’s describing. Like he came back to check on Lucy and instead of better, he found her doing worse, and how he was rebuffed by Van Helsing being all irrational when he tried to talk to him. In the end, he desperately tried to gain entrance to the house, and Lucy was too weak, even, to invite him in. So he had to… improvise.
By throwing a wolf through a window.
Which, apparently, shocked Lucy’s mother so much that she even died, and that’s awful, but the whole thing is just so ridiculous that Arthur finds himself laughing along with everyone else. And even he can tell that some of the tension between everyone is fading away with that.
~~~~
It’s dark outside, so Darcy has stopped yawning. She got so far with the riddles already, but there’s a lot of stuff to set up and she’s not entirely sure how she can even do everything. Maybe she should do it all in John’s dreamscape, he’d build it for her. She knows he would, but they have to build Arthur’s Christmas gift, and also… She thinks she also just wants John to hold her for a long while. She doesn’t know what to tell him, so she doesn’t think they’ll talk much, just tell each other that they need each other and that’s the truth.
Putting a hand to the big hole in her chest, she shivers for a moment, the edges don’t feel like crystal, no, they are soft and wet and bleeding. Not on the outside, no, this hole goes deeper. She knows that she could stick her whole hand into it and touch her own heart where there’s a Radu-shaped piece missing. It hurts so very, very badly. She doesn’t think it will ever stop hurting. Not ever in her life because she knows, she just knows, that it finally was real. Not like John, who she never can love right. Not like Quincy, who could never love her. No, just two dracs dancing together, two monsters, both so hurt and loving the taste of each other’s blood and pain and loving it better for each other.
But she can’t have him. Her family said that loud and clear. They punished her. So she has to live with the hole in her chest and she’ll forever look into the shadows in hopes to see a stir in them so she can give little forlorn love messages to Radu’s associate. It’s all she’ll ever have and it must be enough.
Enough, yes, enough of this Pandora’s Hope. She needs to focus on her family. She has to be better for them, and that means she’ll have to set up, somehow, on her own.
Testing her window, she finds it not locked, either. She still doesn’t know why her door wasn’t actually locked; maybe Daddy snuck over and unlocked it. That would be so very much like him, he’s always so sweet. Opening her exit to the night, Darcy laughs as she is immediately greeted by several bats. Yes, she missed them, too! But shh, don’t chitter so loud, her family will hear them and then she’ll have to explain that she’s not running away, she learned her lesson, she’s just trying to prepare for Christmas.
~~~~
In the branches of the closest tree, two bats are watching, and if Vladi gets any cuter about being nervous to meet his grandchild, Lucy is going to find out how it sounds when she coos as a bat. “I’m getting the impression I’m not here for the formal introduction but to hold your hand.” She can tell, so tell, that he misses his moustache to hide the face he’s pulling. Okay, Mina wasn’t lying, the big bad voivode is nothing short of adorable, but then again… She understands him. She was nervous, too, when she introduced herself to Darcy.
That’s half the reason she told him they should do it like this. She knows that her daughter is uncomfortable around people, but what she calls her night friends get instant passes into her heart. So she gestures up to the window where Darcy is doing her typical non-existent attempt at sneaking, down the wall at that, but somehow that girl has all the grace of a rumbling cart. Hey, did she just hear Vladi chuckle? And that’s him taking off, let’s wait and see if she should even intervene.
~~~~
“Aw, aren’t you a very big and pretty bat?!”
Those were not exactly the words he had envisioned to be the first he would hear from his granddaughter, but he can’t say that he doesn’t find them terribly fitting for a young knight. That she’d immediately reach out and try to pluck him out of the air is even less expected, and should he be this flustered? Should he have let her catch him?
She looks so dejected that he swerved out of her reach. He did not mean to disappoint. He feels so rejected himself by his own son. But he also has his pride, so instead, he flies little circles around her, does some aerial tricks while he’s at it and, very well, he’ll admit that her obvious delight and the clapping of her hands makes him feel rather pleased with himself.
Reaching with his telepathy, he warns, though, that she might give herself away to the household with the clapping and squealing. Thinking that maybe she might be disconcerted by the revelation that he is not an ordinary bat, he is ready with his explanation.
Instead, she narrows her eyes upon hearing him, but it’s not her eyes that she uses, he can see her stretching, nose forward, sniffing, and to his eyes, or rather his drac’s, he can see her drac lean forward. He feels a wash of pleasure and pride at this young knight trusting her senses, tilting her head. “Fur and earth… Captain Hook?”
~~~~
Lucy over on the tree snorts, that is so very much her Darcy, and there is something to be said for seeing a bat do a double take, but she hollers at him to go for it. If he does a story book entrance she’ll love it!
~~~~
After just a moment of uncertainty, Vlad decides to trust in Lucy’s advice, the mother would know her child, he hopes. So he lands on the wall next to Darcy, changes to his human form, kneeling, and takes her hand for a hand kiss. “At your service, fair maiden. Never-Never Land is half your home as a dhampir, so I’d be honoured to be your guide.”
He can see her puzzled and amazed look, then she slots the hints together and giggles. “Oh, oh, because I’m half-dead! That’s so sweet! But… why do you smell of Radu?” He didn’t know what he thought would be her reaction, but that was not it. And she’s giving him such a longing look that he fears the enthrallment might still be there, that the horror of the ritual was all for naught, but he couldn’t possibly lie to her, so he answers truthfully: That he is Radu’s brother, her grandsire. “You are my granddaughter and you have my sincere apologies for not having met you earlier.”
His words make her stare at him and he has to shoo at his drac as it wants to go right up and comfort her at the first sign of tears. He has no right, and he is holding himself back fervently on so much as acknowledging any knowledge about her emotions that his ears might provide. Why ever she is crying, whether she is furious with him or disappointed, he will bear it.
The first thing he has to bear is her sudden weight in his arms as she jump-hugs him with a sniffled: “Grandpapa!”
At that it takes him all his own control to not sniffle right back at her because… because after all the rejection from the son he had interacted with for a month- put so much effort and care into, tried so hard to be loving and caring- this is the reaction from the one who has seen him only up on stage as a stranger and then holding her down forcefully at what she thought were her dying moments.
His drac is howling at him, making little circles around him, tail wagging frantically. He wanted a family, his family, he fought so hard, did so many horrible things for centuries to have his family, and this… this is the moment he feels he really has one. It’s not his son but his granddaughter who gives him that sense of completion he hasn’t felt since back when Trathnona had the changelings with him.
And that’s exactly why it takes everything he has not to cry on her or to hug her so tight that he might break her. He needed this, he needed her and he will fight for her, to the last drop of his blood. She is blood of his blood and she accepts it, wants it. Wants him. Centuries alone, no more. Not between having his wife and at least one obviously loving child.
~~~~
Okay, Lucy is half tempted to sneak off because this feels a bit voyeuristic, and not in the way she’s into. She’s been up in Vladi’s face a few times now but looking at him over there, Darcy bawling on him and him trying so hard not to cry right back, it’s so damn obvious to her that, yeah, he’s just another one of those men who need a family. He’s like her Art. He can be the things society needs from him but based on what Mina said and on what she’s seeing here… Yeah, the old wolf needs a place to shut the world out and not perform. Somebody to love him, too.
And that means she should facilitate, because really, if she’s completely honest with herself, she could manage being on her own the last twenty years, she showed herself that she’s not the dependent little girl her parents thought her, but in the end, she is much happier with her two men by her side, and that just shows her that yes, they all need each other. So she lands on the other side of Darcy and joins the hug, (suppressing the giggle of Vladi startling at that,) and tries to imitate Art’s hair ruffle. (Yes, on both of them.)
Rather than them talking long about the family, though, it turns out that Darcy has big plans for Christmas and Lucy can so get into that, as can Vladi, apparently. She noticed earlier that he’s a good story teller, but now he’s showing off that it’s not just a skill but a passion. With his cooperation, and Lucy promising to get Art and Jack involved, Darcy’s plans grow until Lucy is honestly somewhat jealous of having ended up part of the setup rather than one of the players.
But then, as amazing as Darcy’s plans are, nothing, absolutely nothing will ever come close to the damn face Vladi pulls when Darcy unthinkingly yells ‘Daddy’ at him from across the grounds. If ever there was a man other than Art who might die of happiness at that title, it has to be Vladi, and Lucy joins her drac in falling over laughing because, ooh, yes, his drac is being an utter dork in obviously turning into a big, happy, proud fluffball, no matter how hard he’s trying to hide it on the outside. Lucy isn’t even that close with her drac, (like any cat it’s coincidence that it’s right up close to her most of the time,) but that is way, way too obvious.
Not that it gets any better when Darcy realises what she did and starts pouting, right from where she’s carrying something that is far too large and heavy for somebody her size, and follows the yell up with that not being right. Sure, he’s a dream of a man, like her daddy, but she can’t have two daddies. She loves them both very much, but they need to know that she loves them as each of them. And they both smell big and strong and so very manly, but they are two different men.
It’s not often that Lucy feels something that just might be motherly pride, but that just might be it at her spawn managing to make the centuries-old voivode blush. Aw, she can’t wait to tell Mina about this! Or about the downright shy suggestion from Vladi that well, he would be honoured if she would call him daddy in his native tongue.
Does Darcy ever jump on it, so obviously, Lucy gets treated, for the rest of the night, to a bunch of trilled ‘tăticu!’s, and every damn time, the big fluffball of a voivode looks about ready to burst with joy. That moustache does nothing to hide his grin. He’s totally rushing full vampire speed over there every time Darcy calls for him.
Ugh, men, they are a gift to this world! Lucy is grinning just about as much, because really, she won’t tell Vladi, but he’s so delightfully, outrageously scandalous with just how much he suddenly doesn’t give a damn about his image just so he can play with his grandkid. She just might end up teasing Art and Jack the next day, because she’s completely sure that they’ll look the very same way when they get pulled into all these elaborate plans.
~~~~
The first lazy rays of sunlight are starting to flood the estate and Vlad decides that is enough preparation for the moment. He had kept working on after his granddaughter (yes, old friend, wag your tail all you want, he agrees,) declared she can’t neglect Mr Silver and wished him a good morning with another hug so tight he felt some of the lingering loneliness of the last centuries being crushed out of his soul.
The thought of not being lonely anymore gives him the idea of checking this library for any books that might hold clues about restoring his wife’s memory. This is a fey estate after all. The library at the Court may be millennia old, but for all he knows, Felodiau is keeping specific books out of his reach for a sustained source of frustrated emotions through their contract.
It cannot hurt to at least check, and he has long had the habit of reading before going to sleep. Trathnona, or Mina, as she prefers at the moment, had been efficient as ever and prepared a resting place for him over in the same house she is staying at, so it is not as if he’ll have a long way to walk, even if he stays up too long.
However, it would appear that he is not alone in the library, that step and heartbeat pattern is likely the young scholar, and it seems he’s approaching him rather than avoiding him. Curious, what may he want?