Cerulean Sins - Chapters 47-51

[masterofstlouis]

Musette's body, with Belle riding it, crosses the room to Asher. Before she gets far, and before anyone else can move, the main doors bang open like a rifle report.

Richard leads his wolves inside the large chamber, instantly doubling the bodyguard count in the room as they fan out behind him. Contrary to the others in the room, none of the male wolves are wearing makeup, and are dressed relatively conservatively -- black leather straps instead of shirts, but otherwise simple leather pants and short boots. Richard himself shunned the leather entirely for a formal black tuxedo. His hair is almost completely gone, shaved down to less than an inch as a result of his having attacked it with scissors earlier today.

While attentions are focused on the wolves, Micah leads the leopards around Asher. Not actively protecting him, but taking up positions that ensure they will have to be gone through before Belle can reach him. Musette, meanwhile, looked more like Musette than she had in some time, but with the faint echo of Belle's presence still lurking.

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[loyaltyinmotion.livejournal.com]

Jason falls into step behind the wolves, wearing the dark blue twin to Nathaniel's outfit of straps. His eyes are quickly scanning the room, a sensual smirk on his face to mask what's going on behind his eyes. Shit has been going down in this room, and he hadn't been here to support them. All because of Richard. Once he finds Nat and sees that he's still in one piece, he scans the room until his eyes find Anita, and there's a warning in those eyes.

He takes a breath and turns on his stage smile, sauntering past Jamil and Shang-Da as he crosses the room to Anita. He greets her like Richard should have: he slips his arms around her and pulls her sultrily against his body. His lips graze her ear lovingly as he whispers, the seductive grin never leaving his face. "Richard found his balls and now he's trying them out."

He gives her neck a faint nuzzle as his fingertips trail across her collarbone, then turns her face towards his, their lips close enough to kiss. He chuckles warmly, but there's nothing warm or comforting in his words. "He's going to try and take all the wolves away from Jean Claude."

[anita_blake]

Anita is grateful her face is hidden by Jason's, because she can't hide the shock. Had Richard lost his mind? Yes, she's pretty sure he has. Jason cups her face, lets her see his eyes, and she sees just how unhappy he is about this situation. It's bad timing, downright shitty timing, and she could scream at Richard for it.

In fact, she probably will, but when this was done. She has more sense than God gave a rock, which Richard seems to be lacking at the moment.

And then Shang-Da is beside them, trying to make a grab for Jason, but Jason evades it. Anita thinks the movements so subtle no one would notice what was happening from a distance. The growl that comes from Shang-Da's human throat makes the hair on her neck stand on end, and the answering one from Jason ghosts over her skin, making her shudder.

Richard's bark at Shang-Da ensures the Skoll -- his third in command -- doesn't make for another grab at Jason. Shang-Da lowers his head, trying to be discreet when he murmurs to Anita. "A man cannot serve two masters."

Anita doesn't like those words. She doesn't like them one damn bit, because she disagrees with them. With Richard over this. "And so Richard has ordered you to remind Jason just who is master?" she challenges, her voice quiet, her lips so close to Shang-Da's.

"My Ulfric's orders are none of your concern," he whispers, and Anita realizes Shang-Da is trying to not clue in their guests that something is off in all this.

That's when she notices Jean-Claude and Richard, and she can tell by the body language and expressions that neither was happy with the other. This is bad, just bad, and she doesn't think it's going to get any better.

[masterofstlouis]

Loath as he is to leave Asher's side, Jean-Claude does not fancy shouting across the room, either. He makes his way to Richard in long strides, as outwardly casual as if this had been the plan all along.

He tries to get close enough to Richard to whisper, but when he tries, Richard steps back from him. Jean-Claude frowns, but doesn't try to close the distance again. He pitches his voice as low and soft as he can to still be heard. "Mon ami, this is a very bad time for this. The situation is very dangerous right now, and we cannot afford to show division," he says, trying for reason.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

He'd almost growled with Jean-Claude had come too close, almost. He's glad the vampire kept his distance the second time. His voice pitches low, just like Jean-Claude's, keeping the conversation pretty much just between them. It's threaded with so much anger though, his marks are so tightly shielded that there's no sense of how deep that anger goes. "It's always a bad time in this city. So I'm making my own time."

[masterofstlouis]

"You have no idea how tenuous things are," Jean-Claude insists. "I can see that you are clearly vexed by something, but I urge you to set that aside for this night, and we can speak at length once the current crisis resolves."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard gives the barest trickle of a growl, a sound so low most wouldn't even hear it. "This next crisis will settle into a new crisis and you know it. I've been around in this city, around you, to know it."

[masterofstlouis]

Jean-Claude recognizes that look in Richard's face. The wolf has made up his mind and nothing Jean-Claude will say can deter him.

So, instead of pushing further, Jean-Claude simply bows his head. Then, in an even quieter, even harder voice, he says, "Very well. But if your actions cost me any of my people, the next crisis this city faces may well be the wolf pack's search for a new Ulfric."

Then, without waiting for a reply, he turns on his heel and strides back toward Belle Morte and Anita.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard's eyes, expression hardens at Jean-Claude's little threat. It was bad enough he was told where to be, how to act, like Jean-Claude's mutt, but that threat just stirred and added to the boiling rage within Richard as he watched the vampire walk away.

His eyes fall on Anita and he watches her and his Skoll with Jason. He's quiet for now, trusting that Shang-Da will do what he's been told.

[anita_blake]

Anita eyes follow Jean-Claude, and she can only guess how that conversation had gone. She returns her attention to Shang-Da. She could argue that, as Bolverk of the pack, Richard's orders were her business, but she also knows Shang-Da hates she's anything to the pack.

"Whatever Richard's trying to prove, tonight is not the night for it," she says, trying for logic.

Shang-Da's gaze flickers. "I have already spoken to him about this, but he hears no one but himself right now. Sylvie argued with him over it. She fought him. He won." Anita's surprise and sudden gasp makes Shang-Da nod. "She is badly hurt, but she will live. Jason must come with me."

Anita presses herself back against Jason momentarily, not wanting him to leave her side, but nods. "For now," she says, because she would take Jason back from Richard come hell or high water, and she lets that fill her eyes and voice.

Jason brushes his lips against Anita's neck, and she shivers. His voice is so quiet, a hint of fear in the whisper. "I won't go back to just being another pack member," he says. "After being Jean-Claude's pet wolf for so long, everyone's going to want a piece of me. It'll be a fight every week with no one protecting me anymore."

She looks over her shoulder at him. "Only for tonight, I promise," she says. "This isn't forever, Jason."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard watches the interaction with Jason, lingering emotions and words forever echoing in his head. It's not so much that he's angry with her, not truthfully, but his anger craves a purpose. A focus for itself. And for better or worse it's currently latched onto her.

"What is it with everyone wanting to fuck you, Anita?" His use of one specific word telling more than the tone of his voice or the hardness of his eyes telling how angry he was and how he vicious he was going to be in this. One crack of compassion for her and he wasn't sure he'd be able to hold onto his anger. Even if it was more geared towards the men, than her.

[anita_blake]

Anita wants to snap at him, Is that what we were doing, too? Just fucking?, but now is hardly the time for domestic squabbles. Suffice it to say that his remarks hurt, cut her right to the quick.

She can see in Shang-Da's face that he didn't care for Richard's words either. She leans in close to him, whispers against his mouth, "Take him for tonight, but this is not permanent." Her tone brooks no discussion.

Shang-Da's face hardens back into its usual anger, and he jerks backward, extending a hand to Jason. "Your Ulfric has commanded that you stand with the wolves." Shang-Da leads Jason away, the younger wolf looking for all the world like a scared child on his first day of school being led away from Mommy for the first time.

Anita looks at Richard, then, raising her voice to be heard, but keeping her tone calm and even. "We'll discuss things when our company goes home, Richard."

She feels something leak through Richard's shields, despite how tightly he's tried to lock them down. It's rage. Somehow, the anger at himself had eaten away at him to the point where, now, he could only fling it outward, and right now, 'outward' seems to mean her.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard’s gaze meets Anita’s, unflinching and lost of all the usual softness. He can’t have the softness when he was so angry. It was all he could to keep his shields as locked and tight as they were. "If you’re the Bolverk of our clan, Anita, you should be standing with us."

His eyes shift to watch Jamil walk across the room with Stephen held in his arms. Gregory still clung to Stephen’s hand, moving together as a unit. That wouldn’t do. When Jamil got close enough, Richard’s head turned a little towards Jamil, “Gregory is not one of us and therefore cannot stand with us.”

Jamil’s words fell on deaf ears when he tried to talk Richard to sense. His mind was set and he was in no mood to be argued with, shaking his head at the wolf.

Richard’s patience snaps at Jamil looking back at Anita for help. He’d never seen the wolf do it before, which was his saving in the past, but tonight was not a night to turn to someone that was still lower than he, as Ulfric. He was done with people questioning his decisions, authority.

Grabbing Gregory’s wrist, Richard jerks him away from Stephen. It earned a scream from the blond wolf as Stephen rears in Jamil’s arms, trying to cling to his brother with both hands. Richard’s expression at the moment though, says the display gets no reaction. The anger holding true as he tries to separate the brothers.

[anita_blake]

Anita has had enough of Richard's bullshit for one night. She storms across the room. "Richard, stop it. I know I said you needed to be a strong leader, but this is just cruel."

When Richard refuses to let go of the sobbing Gregory, clutching as best his can to his brother, Anita steps forward again.

"Let me explain it better. Strong is putting aside petty differences so we don't look weak in front of a council member. Cruel is saying that I'm only Bolverk because you don't have the balls to do it yourself."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard stops pulling on the twins to face Anita, Jamil taking that moment to slide away and leave the two to face off alone. He glares at Anita, knowing how imposing he looks when he was angry.

It’s not until she starts moving towards him, closing the distance between them, that something else shifts in his eyes. A shimmer of panic shifts under the anger, not wanting her close at the moment. Just as he didn’t want Jean-Claude close.

He takes a step back before he actually realizes what he’s doing, as she gets closer. Internally growling at himself, he steels himself, refusing to give any more ground as she comes to stand before him. Feeling the heat of her body so close, it’s hard for him to keep his hands at his sides. For him to not reach out at touch her.

The only sign of where the small glitch in his thinking and feeling was, is that when he looks down at Anita, he’s not looking at her face, her eyes. No, his eyes are memorizing the skin lower, watching what her dress shows off quite well. It’s not until she took a deep breath, those pale mounds rising and falling, that he looks up and meets her eyes. He can’t hide the pure and unleashed fury that burns in his eyes as he looks at her. A rage born with a fueled purpose but becoming something of its own. Burning and destroying now because of what it is.

[anita_blake]

Anita stares at Richard with a rage to match. Old rage, the kind that has had years to boil down and condense into something thick and strong. She didn't care if he wanted to fight or fuck; at this moment, she'd go either way.

She feels his beast rising, flaring out of him like heat haze across the desert. When they were dating, he had used only that -- the power of his beast across her skin -- to draw her to orgasm. Tonight promised to be rather less enjoyable than that, however.

[ab_npc]

Musette has been watching the exchange with no small interest. Belle had released her for the moment, bored by the pettiness of it all. Musette, on the other hand, found it delicious.

She glided to the arguing pair, the rising beasts washing across her like a hot breeze. She reaches out, running her fingers through the energy, just above the wolf's skin.

It makes her laugh, the feel of it. A giddy, half-drunk laugh that just bubbles out of her, despite the drying blood on her face. "Oh, but you would be so tasty! I could just eat you up!"

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard turns to face her, his anger not caring who the target was so long as it had a target to focus on. And he was, deep down under the angry, happy that it was no longer focused on Anita. “This does not concern you. When we’re done with pack business, and only then, will we talk to the vampires.”

Musette’s head was thrown back and she laughed until red tears carved runnels down her face. The laughter dies slowly before her eyes open again. The honey-brown color of those eyes pauses Richard’s breath in his throat for just a moment. Just enough for those close to him to catch it.

[ab_npc]

Belle fills Musette again, indignant at the dismissal. "I can feel your fear, wolf. I know you remember me. Remember this, too, then. I shall be playing with you quite soon. But first, I will finish my fun with that one."

Belle sees that Asher had done his very best to appear invisible. He had stopped moving, breathing, barely let his eyes roam the room, as Richard argued with Jean-Claude and Anita. Now may not have been the time for Mr Zeeman to protest his role in events, but it certainly provided a welcome distraction. Not, however, a permanent one.

Still he tries, going as still as stone, fighting the urge to flee, to grab Nathaniel and run as far as he could. Only his eyes give away his fear, wide and panicked, darting around the room as Musette glides slowly towards him, Belle spilling out of her like a ghostly afterimage overlaying the younger vampire's form.

[anita_blake]

Anita sees Richard's confusion and answers the question before he can ask. "Musette is Belle Morte's surrogate. Belle can use the body when it suits her. And she is. Which means we are in a shit load of trouble."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

He turns his head to look at Anita, “I’m Ulfric, Anita, that doesn’t just change because some high-ranking vampire comes to town.” Some of his anger had leaked away because of the fear he now felt. He couldn’t help fear Belle’s power with it so up close and person. “I can’t be both master and slave.”

[anita_blake]

Anita just stares at Richard, eyebrows raised. That's what this is about? He thinks Jean-Claude's undercutting his authority? They're a triumverate -- all equal parts in the power structure.

"Yeah, actually you can." She holds up a hand before he can try to respond to that. "Look, we so do not have time to go into this. If we live through tonight, we'll talk about it tomorrow, okay? Now, please, for the love of God, shut up."

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

He frown, not fully understanding. “She’s not here in the flesh, it’s only metaphysical games. How bad can it really be?” He’s still thinking that the world plays fair, that horrible things don’t really happen. He likes that world. He still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that he’ll never live in that world though.

[nathaniel_kitten]

As Belle comes closer, Nathaniel crouches down, keeping his eyes on her, his fear racing through him. The rest of the pard is crouched as he is, except Micah, who remains standing, placing himself between Belle and Asher.

But that first scream, Asher's scream, rips through Nathaniel and brings tears to his eyes. He wants to turn and look, but instincts tell him not. Never let the thing with more claws and sharper teeth out of your sight. He might not be the most vicious of their pard, but Asher was his vampire, no matter what else had gone on.

Nathaniel growls softly, his growl joining Elizabeth's, Caleb's, Zane's, Cherry's, their pard's. One growl, one voice, protecting the master vampire as best they can.

[puppyeyedulfric.livejournal.com]

Richard's gaze shifts to Asher for a brief moment, trying to figure out why he's screaming. There's no scent of blood and she's not close enough to touch the vampire. It's a testament to how far from the world they live in that this puzzles him. How little he's learned about the vampires he's got an alliance with and how little he ever learned about Jean-Claude when he was in Jason's position.

[anita_blake]

Anita glances at Richard. She realizes, as she takes in the look of confusion and mild hurt on his face, that he will never change. Never. He was always going to be the good boyscout who only shed blood when there was absolutely no other option, like a wild animal cornered and lashing out.

Which, in Anita's opinion, makes Richard particularly dangerous, even if oblivious.

She turns away from him, and Jean-Claude offers her his arm. Anita takes it, and no one else moves with them as they approach Belle. The wererats couldn't move, the wolves were forbidden to help by their Ulfric, and the wereleopards would be slaughtered by Belle and her people. Asher's scream makes her want to cringe, and she doesn't quite understand what's going on, but she can feel Jean-Claude does.

As they come closer, though, she can see the changes. Asher's skin clung to his bones, as if Belle's touch wasn't just sucking blood from him, but everything. It's horrible to witness, and the screams are awful to hear. Anita tries to remain calm -- as hard as that is to do -- and turns to Jean-Claude, waiting... waiting for something... for anything... and she wonders, in the back of her mind, how long it would take for her to hate Richard, because the wolves could have stopped this.

The wolves could have changed everything.