Chapter 39

New Orleans, Next Day

Davina is of course unconscious when I first see her, brought to a small estate on the edge of the French Quarter that is supposedly owned by a member of the Human Faction of New Orleans. In reality, that member is one of my people and thus su casa es me casa. I think that's how that saying goes.

I eventually leave her to her sleep, knowing she won't come around until well into the morning. When she does wake up, she's escorted to the dining room where I wait with a large spread of dishes laid out across a table. She shuffles in carefully, clearly wary of her surroundings as her eyes land on me sitting at the head of the large table.

I smile, "Davina, a pleasure to finally meet you. Please, come sit with me. You must be hungry."

Davina makes no move to come closer to me, her entire posture defensive, "W-what have you done to my magic?"

I sigh and stand up, walking over to the young teenager slowly. She tenses up and instinctively tries to back away from me, but the hybrid who escorted her here is still right behind her, and she doesn't get far. I stop a foot away and smile at her, "You need not fear me Davina, I don't mean you harm. And your magic is merely locked away for the moment, by that shackle on your wrist."

She looks down to see the shackle where a moment before she hadn't seen anything. While she's distracted with that I step forward and place a hand on her back, guiding her to a chair and sitting her down in it. Her eyes are wide as she stares at the thick metal bracelet, "W-what? Where did this come from?"

I chuckle as I sit back down myself, "It's part of the enchantment darling. The shackle locks your magic away, and the wearer doesn't know it's there until someone else mentions it to them. Sort of like a perception filter."

Davina looks up at that, expression incredulous, "Seriously? A Doctor Who reference?"

I chuckle, "We all have our hobbies love. Now please, eat, I know you're hungry."

Davina frowns as she looks at the food, "How do I know it's not poisoned?"

I grin at that, grabbing her attention before flashing my game face, eyes flashing gold black and dual set of fangs popping down. Davina draws back, eyes wide as I revert back to a normal face and chuckle, "As you can see Davina, if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't resort to poison, I'd just do it. I'll say it again, you have nothing to fear from me."

My captive audience shivers in response, "W-what are you?"

"I'm an Original Hybrid darling, the younger brother of the one who turned your savior Marcel into a vampire so long ago. And you are Davina Claire, young teenage witch and the last Harvest girl. You have quite a bit of power flowing through you at the moment."

Davina tenses up, her fear hardening into anger and resolve, "If that's why you took me, you can forget it. I won't let you use my magic for your gain. If you unshackle me, I'll kill you."

I laugh at that, "Now see Davina, that's the sort of thing you don't let me know until after I've removed the shackle. You need to work on the subterfuge darling, what you should have done is convinced me that you want to help me, and then kill me once I've unshackled you."

I lean back in my chair and preempt her next response by speaking again, "But the point is moot sweetheart, I have no desire to use your immense magical power for my own gain.

Davina scoffs, "And I'm just supposed to believe that?"

I grin, "Believe what you want Davina, but where do you think I got your shackle? I have hundreds of witches and warlocks if I need magical might. You're worth a good number of them alone Davina, but I don't really need your help. You have another use entirely."

Davina blinks at that, "And what's that supposed to be?"

"Why, to piss off Marcel of course. I know how he reacts when he's calm, collected, and in control. What I want to see is what he does when he feels threatened. We're also testing exactly what he truly cares about. You, or his control over the witches. You and I will be going to his compound after sundown, so eat up. You'll want your strength for this."

Davina frowns at that but falls silent, and finally begins to fill her plate with food.

XxScenebreakxX

Davina and I arrived at Marcel's compound an hour after the sun had set. We walked into the courtyard to find Marcel and Rebekah standing there alone and waiting. I made no move to stop Davina as she runs from me into Marcel's arms, instead coming to a stop in the center of the courtyard and smiling placidly.

Rebekah is staring at me with clear heartbreak, her loyalties tearing at her, but my eyes are on Marcel and Davina as he looks down at her and asks, "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Davina shakes his head, "N-no, but he's locked away my magic, I'm powerless."

She shows Marcel her shackle and he reaches for it only to have it zap him. He growls with anger and pushes Davina behind him as he finally looks to me, "You're really starting to piss me off Vali. What the fuck is the point of all this? Do you get your kicks out of poking a hornet's nest?"

I chuckle and shrug my shoulders, "Perhaps I do. I wonder, what will you do about it Queen Bee?"

This provocation works exactly as intended, Marcel's jaw clenches and a moment later he's whistling sharply. His people come out of the wood works, a mix of his stronger daywalkers and some of his nightwalkers riff raff. They form a perimeter around me, a loose circle as they cut off any exit and stare me down.

I ignore them, raising an eyebrow at Marcel, smile still in place, "Is this it Marcel? This wouldn't be enough to deal with Niklaus, let alone me."

Marcel just smirks knowingly, "You're right." He whistles again and the second force of nightwalkers shows up. I'm quickly surrounded by over a hundred vampires and my smile morphs into a wide grin.

I spread my arms and gesture around at the vampires, "This! This is what I wanted to see Marcel. This is the proof of your skills as a leader, as a ruler. You command the loyalty, love, and respect of those around you. What will you do with it now?"

Davina's eyes are widening, as she tugs on Marcel's arm and whispers frantically to him, "Marcel he told me he was testing you!"

Rebekah looks to Davina sharply, but Marcel doesn't take his eyes off me, anger swirling in them as he speaks, "Take him."

As his vampires charge forward, all I can do is laugh. The first one who gets in range is lucky, my hand snaps out fast and all they suffer is a quickly broken neck. The next is not so lucky as I catch them by the arm, break that, and then thrust my hand straight through their chest and right back out in the blink of an eye, letting them fall to the floor.

After that everything is a blur for several minutes, for my opponents at least. I'm faster and stronger by simple virtue of my age, I outclass every single one of these poor shmucks by a wide margin. But I've never been the type to play fair. Even now, with my body practically invincible, with my immortality practically ensure… I was still cheating.

As I back flipped over a closing circle of six nightwalkers, it was at least partially because of the enchantments on my boots that I had the agility and dexterity to avoid every single one of them. As I knelt down and grabbed one by the ankle, before swinging him like a flail into every vampire who was closing in, it was at least partially because of the strength enchantments enthused through my leather jacket.

Everything I wore was magically enhanced by my witches, my outfit was almost a century old by this point. I had once compared it to playing an RPG, all of my stats increased by the enchantments placed on my favorite set of gear. Of course, I'd made that comparison back in the 1940's, leading to blank faces all around me to those I'd said the metaphor to.

I was having the time of my life as I laughed and viciously tore through Marcel's army. One of his vampires managed to get a hit with a metal bat on my back, only to find it bouncing off like it'd hit armor with no effect. I took the bat from the vampire and used it to hit a homerun with his head.

This causes a small lull in the combat as everyone stares at the wall that his head went over. Even I wince a bit, looking to Marcel, "I hope he wasn't important."

Marcel bares his teeth at that and comes at me himself this time, Rebekah on his heels. The rest of his people are still too leery to go in with him, leaving me to face off with my sister and her lover for the time being. It wasn't any more of a fair fight than before. Rebekah comes at me from behind, and I spin around faster than most of the baby vampires' eyes could follow, backhanding her hard enough to send her into some of the vampires waiting in the wings.

And then I have Marcel's throat in my tightening grasp. With deliberate force I push him to his knees even as his hands come up to grasp my wrist, trying to break my grip as he grimaced in pain.

With my free hand I wagged a finger at those around me who were considering jumping me, grinning as I show off my dual set of fangs, "Now now nobody make any sudden moves. Would hate to accidently pop off the King's head."

Looking down at Marcel I change my grin to a pleasant smile, "Now then Marcel, are more of your people going to die or are you ready to concede?"

Marcel manages to get the words out in a raspy voice, "Fine… you win. New Orleans is yours."

I blink at that, feigning confusion as I bring my free hand up to my chest as if mortally offended by that, "I don't want your city Marcel. I'm here to help you save it."

As I release his throat, he just looks at me confused. Grinning, I pull him to his feet, "But that was fun, wasn't it? We should do it again sometime. It was almost a challenge."

I turn away from him before he can formulate a reply, raising my fingers to my lips and releasing a sharp whistle of my own. A moment later, the rooftops around the courtyard are filled with my hybrids, hundreds of my new children encircling what's left of Marcel's forces. I watch Marcel with a keen interest, this being the moment I've been waiting for.

His face starts shocked and slightly fearful, before turning incredulous as he realizes that the people I had waiting in the wings would have made any attempt at truly bringing me down entirely fruitless. The incredulity gives way to resignation as he finally understands the truth of Davina's words. I'd baited him out and forced him to act recklessly. Now some of his people were injured, some of his people were dead, and I didn't have a single scratch on me.

I regain my pleasant smile from before as I look around at both my hybrids and those of Marcel's vampires who still stand, "Well then, you lot can start cleaning up. I'm pretty sure I bit at least a few of these moaning bodies, those of you with vials of my blood are allowed to heal them."

Turning back to Marcel to find him flanked by Rebekah on one side and Davina on the other, I grin, "Let's go inside and talk, shall we?"

-x-X-x-

If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com! I'm known as 'Cambrian' on those websites.

If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on P atreon.com/Cambrian

Thanks for reading!