Taking Care of Business, No Matter the Strain
I compel it out of Luc: every detail of what’s been happening with Resa and the Dulce. Then I order him, “Take me there. Right now.”
He cannot help but comply, muttering about how much he hates me the whole while.
“I am doing this for Ben,” I assure him. “After this is dealt with, I will never control you again, not unless I have to.”
“How fucking comforting a claim!” he mocks. “But you **know** I ordered you, as your sire, to never--”
“You rescinded all orders. I can’t remember anything you said afterward, because it was all of it meaningless, and you will never use your authority as my sire to command me, not ever again,” I cut him off, eyes burning bright red, as I keep hold of his chin to keep him locked with that stare, until his eyes glaze over with dreamy compliance.
“I fucking hate you,” he nonetheless repeats, and I give a smiling:
“Likewise. Now get moving.”
Resa’s new base was only half an hour out of town in an old Victorian estate that was once a part of Roman’s holdings. “The arrogant prick left no will, assuming he’d live forever of course, so you inherited everything, after Julian killed him,” Luc airily states. “Makes it all the more ridiculous that you are refusing all that money and leaving Leah to--”
“Stop speaking,” I command, and quiet he goes, fists shaking with rage. In truth, I didn’t know my father left me an inheritance. He’d never even spoke to me after all, not that I can remember… I’ll have to get a lawyer and look into how to access it later on. I’m sure Luc’s just going to stealthily seize all those holdings and use them for his selfish gain otherwise.
Resa’s men relax and let Luc inside after one sentence of justification for our unscheduled intrusion; “Gentlemen. I know I’ve just finished my last appointment, but I’ve brought my progeny here to make amends to Resa, the way she so desired.”
The locked passage to the lower levels opens in an instant and Luc and I are left alone with a honey-haired woman with shriveled lips, overpowering perfume, and a most uncomfortable looking dress pulled straight from the pages of a 1700’s catalog of the French court. The pupils of her eyes are most unsettling and slitted, like a snake. It’s a strange characteristic of all Dulce, descended from a sireless ancient: Resa’s very own son in law, that she personally murdered and overthrew right after he killed her daughter.
“You ordered him away from his own wedding to come service me instead?” Resa cackles, the second I walk in. “How delightful! I will be giving you a long and loving reward for this, Luscious, be assured. Now get him out of that tux--”
“Cease speaking,” I order, and her tongue catches, eyes locked with mine in steadily widening outrage. “You will not scream, or fuss, or alert your guards to what is happening in here. You will do nothing but answer quietly and concisely every question that I ask.”
She tries to snap some defiance, but all that emerges is a strained hiss of breath.
Luc smiles and gives a cocky, “Yes, that’s right. You’ve never actually met our Gracen, now have you? You allowed a face to face meeting with him, with no precautions, no gag order, because you thought it’d be the same as dealing with Roman? A little push toward an inclination, possible to resist for one so ancient as yourself. The Draugr are barbaric simpletons, and that’s the only reason we were able to trick them. You are so much smarter than that,” he mocks. “You could always snap in the enforcers to try and behead him if it came to that. But no, Resa… This is not like Roman’s compulsion. It is not like mine. This is actual, unbreakable mind control that will keep its hooks in you long after this conversation has ended. You will do whatever he wants, you domineering, old bag, and be forever powerless to resist.”
He seems to be taking an abundant amount of pleasure in being able to witness that coming victory, even though I forced him to come here. I was beyond furious hearing of what he arranged to have happen to Ben – killed on his sixteenth birthday and made an enslaved tool, but seeing his desperate, unhinged gloating now…
I remember that video of him and Roman on the night of my father’s death. When did I see it, and why did I watch it? I don’t know. I can’t remember many details, but I know Luc was terrified of his sire. He was tortured and abused for hundreds of years. Now to be forced into almost the same dynamic with Resa these past two years… For all his status and airs, I forget he’s just as powerless as the rest of us sometimes.
I’m the only one with the power to change it and put an end to this twisted system.
I get Resa to tell me every name of every single person who knows about the existence of this living human half-breed. I get the details on where to find every one I cannot get to in this fortress tonight and wipe the memories from, and I forbid Resa from calling or contacting any of them before three days have passed. That way I’ll have a chance to meet with them all and erase all knowledge of Ben from their minds before they can start discussing it with their mistress, reminding her of what she is going to permanently forget.
“Even if you hear rumors of half-breeds from now on, you will be skeptical. You won’t believe it, because no one would dare defy your orders and create such crimes against nature, not in this age.” I am getting a serious headache at this point in this night, after a solid two hours of these strenuous, binding, extensive commands. Still, we’re almost finished. “You remember your bargain with Luc. You respect him, and you will honor all the terms. You remember fucking with him, but you’ve lost your taste for that now,” I forcefully conclude, and Luc arches an eyebrow. “He bores you. You don’t wish to see him again.”
“Yes. He’s nothing special,” she murmurs. “Why bother?”
“You won’t. But you will give him any boon he asks, just to keep him from pestering you, the pathetic, love struck fool.”
Luc rolls his eyes at that critical embellishment painting him as a needy sap, but he still most graciously puts his hand out to steady me, as my stance starts to sway.
“I am taking my leave now,” I force out, eyes burning with strain. “and you are going to forget I ever came her.” Her enforcers will not remember my passage either. They have blacked it right out, and I am good to go back to Leah and finally give her that dance…
I can’t even walk by the time we make it back to the car though. Luc has to drag me. My pounding head, spinning with vertigo, makes it impossible to even find where the door handle is…
He lays me down in the backseat, clapping me on the back. “What an overbearing yet effective solution to our troubles. Didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Should have just asked for my help in the first place, you arrogant prick,” I mutter, wiping at my eyes, and… yep, that is blood on my fingers, not the clear, salty discharge I was hoping for. “Now I’m good to… go to Leah. Just need to… rest my eyes a little.”
The second they close, I can’t open them though, not until long after that chance at a wedding night has ended.