Private Tales Clashing Fangs

[Victoria O'Connor]

There was certainly tension for the remainder of the meal, though everyone seemed to be doing their best to ignore it. Victoria was calmed only by Fallon's closeness and the warm strokes of her thumb. Her attention was wholly captured the moment her wolf leaned in close.

"You could never cause me grief," she said with a smile of surprising sweetness. "I am glad that you did. There should be no pretense of hiding ourselves in our own home."

Our home. For as long as Fallon wished it to be.

Her eyes drifted lazily down the long table, focusing on nothing in particular as she answered the next question. "He will die," she said as plainly as if she had been reciting the evening's menu. Her mind had flashed a hundred ways to kill him almost as soon as he'd burst to his feet, but she was satisfied with where her thoughts had landed.

The vampires around them did not appear surprised nor upset by the news at all. If anything, their Lady's temper had mellowed since her return. Forgiving was not in Victoria's nature.

 

[Fallon]

'You could never cause me grief'
​

It was meant as assurance, especially said with such sweet a smile, and at first that was exactly how Fallon took it as she smiled back, her canines visible as her lips curled further at the mention of her home. But then came a sudden rush of pain and guilt that she hadn't expected, catching her so off guard that her expression paused and she dropped her gaze to Victoria's hand in hers.

Oh but she had caused her grief. She'd caused her harm. Grievous harm.. and then she'd left her. It'd been conflicting at the time for reasons she hadn't truly considered but the thought of such things now was enough to rob her of breath. She would never cause her pain like that again. She would never leave.

'He will die.'
​

Had he been human, perhaps that might have been a problem for her before. She honestly wasn't even sure she was that creature any more - what right did she have to be that creature, one of such nobility and honour who's sole purpose it was to protect the defenceless against creatures such as those she now dined with? Such as the one she now loved more than words could ever hope to describe?..

Regardless, he wasn't human, and it didn't matter what he was - he'd offended them both and had it been Fallon's call, she'd have torn his throat out too. And so she dipped her chin, broaching no argument on the matter. They were likely never going to accept her, but if it meant every last one of them had to die then all the more room for Fallon and her Queen.

"You know I love you. So fucking much." she sighed, leaning to graze the tip of her nose just under her ear, desperate to pinch at the skin there with her teeth. Her hand roamed. Let them squirm in their chairs, she silently fucking dared another to have an outburst.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria caught the shift in Fallon’s face, the quiver in her pulse. What had she said? As connected as she felt to the Garou, she could not truly read her thoughts.

Perhaps, she thought with a pang of guilt, Fallon yearned for her mountain home and her pack. Her true family.

Hush now, she lashed at those thoughts. I am her family. Her blood and soul. But as much as she wished to claim Fallon, she was not her only family.

Victoria took family very seriously. She had rebuilt her ancestral home, kept her given name (not a sure thing among vampires) and, yes, had even first been drawn back to Fallon by the promise of finding living kin. She could not, would not fault Fallon for missing them. Instead, she felt a hot sear of shame for her selfishness. She wanted to keep Fallon all to herself, but Fallon was far too grand to be contained.

The true reason for Fallon’s sadness eluded her, for while the memory of their separation pained her, it was tempered with the knowledge of their reunion, and how much stronger their love had been made by it.

Thoughts ceased as her mind was once again made blank by her wolf’s voice and caress. Victoria’s porcelain face melted from the regal composure it had been holding. Eyelids fluttered under the velvet fire of Fallon’s face on hers, and short breath caught in her lungs. Yes, she thought, Touch more. Touch me more.

 

[Fallon]

Oh but she did.

She heard the scraping of chairs and the sound of near silent excusals, then the steps moving toward the great doors with that snap of sourness in their strut. Apparently the sight of her near devouring their Mistress' neck as her hands obliged in wringing whatever enjoyment they could from her fiancée was enough to churn at their blood-filled bellies.

Fallon didn't care. She was saving all fucks for the woman sitting next to her, the one she was currently tugging from her chair to sit in her lap. Victoria didn't have to answer to anyone. She could do as she pleased and with whomever she pleased, and from now on that 'whomever' would he her, whether those present liked it or not. The Garou may or may not have been rather purposefully rubbing it in their cold, disdained faces, but if they chose to stay just a few minutes longer they'd see just how devoted to Ms Victoria O'Conner her wolf really was.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Vampires were about the opposite of "prudish." Victoria was not the only one amongst them to have utilized the dining table for recreational purposes, and it would not be the first meal where diners tasted each other rather than food. Nevertheless, there were some uneasy eyes on the pair of them.

No one dared to say anything, of course, no one else was that stupid, but what was unsaid could be as dangerous as what was spoken. Victoria knew the line she walked, and she knew she would need to stay ahead of the tension if she hoped to control it.

Well... she had known that, and she would know it again. In the meantime, though, her mind had been all but switched off by Fallon's pinching teeth and wandering fingers. The room fell out of focus as more and more of her host departed. When her inner circle took their leave the meal was officially done, and the pair were left alone in the vast hall.

Seated at the head of the long table, with the most beautiful creature on Arethil paying her the sweetest attentions... it did make her feel quite queenly. Here, in her home, her domain, she could take whatever she wanted.

She lifted Fallon's head and kissed her, hard, before pulling the silver-haired woman onto her lap. Victoria leaned back in her throne, hands on Fallon's hips, and devoured her with blood-red eyes.

~*~

"You should sleep," Victoria cooed at Fallon after the pair had sated each other. "I have to talk to my counselors, but I wouldn't think of boring you with it."
Victoria had in fact slept soundly each day since her return, finding herself drawn to the relaxing (albeit totally unnecessary) ritual for the closeness it allowed her to her wolf. Today, though, there was work to do. The execution of the blustering vampire at dinner was but a single housekeeping task of many... though it would probably be the most enjoyable.

 

[Fallon]

Dark lashes opened and closed in slow sweeps, driven to drowsiness by every tentative touch. Fallon let out a soft growl of a sound in response to the statement that she could broach no argument with. She was idly pawing at the crimson waves, her lips curled with contentment as she draped lavishly across the throne with her Queen. She drew in a deep breath turned to nose at the line of her Victoria's jaw.

"You should know that I want to insist that you ignore your duties and come to bed with me... But I won't." she nipped at the porcelain skin. She did need sleep, so much so that she could barely keep her eyes open, but if it meant another minute of looking at her fiancée she'd stay awake.

She sighed, relenting. "Be careful?..." she asked quietly. "I have a feeling they'll have much to say..." she smirked, but it wasn't lost on her just how insulted they'd be given that they were horrified enough at her being here, but that she'd spoken against them and given them yet further reason to despise her by dragging her hands and mouth all over their mistress at dinner.

She winced at the thought, once again sobered by guilt at the grief she'd no doubt caused. "I love you." she said, rather than apologising.. She couldn't say she'd regretted a moment of it. She drew her into a far gentler kiss, her lips still stinging from far more branding way she'd claimed them last.

"I'll warm the bed for you." she smirked sluggishly.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

A soft murmur of contentment escaped the throat Fallon nipped, along with a tingle that radiated from Victoria’s neck to her ears to her belly.

"You should know that I want to insist that you ignore your duties and come to bed with me... But I won't."

”You know I would oblige… but it would make for more trouble.” She passed a gentle hand through Fallon’s moonlight locks to show that she did not necessarily mind such troubles, not usually.

”Don’t worry about me. This is my home, I am at my safest here. Soon, very soon, it will be the same for you. But in the meantime, if anyone troubles you, be a good girl and kill them, won’t you?” She dragged a nail down Fallon’s thigh.

~*~

Serafina was easy to speak to. She asked no questions of Victoria, she was far too loyal, but Victoria gave her answers all the same. The general had earned that, and so it was reiterated (in terms that she could understand) who Fallon was, the services she had done Victoria, and why she was to be protected at all costs. Furthermore, all silver on castle grounds was to be immediately confiscated and stored in the Vault.

“All of it?” Serafina asked, as though merely clarifying a command, but Victoria knew her question.

”All of it,” even the weapons. Especially the weapons.

The execution would be held an hour prior to sundown. The grand hall would be cleared today and the prisoner “prepared.”

Financial affairs were strained mildly by her absence, but her advisor ran a tight ship. The coffers would not run dry in this century, if he had any say.

Victoria met with her other advisors, her spymaster, her head of house staff. Dull, overall, but a single message was made clear: Fallon was here to stay.

It was close to noon by the time Victoria returned to the chambers she and Fallon were occupying while her room was being repaired.

 

[Fallon]

The bed was too big for her alone, and too damn warm without Victoria in it beside her, and so she woke after barely any sleep at all and it was difficult to settle again when she realised she was still alone. Her feet warmed the cold tiles as she paced back and forth across them for the better part of an hour. They were keeping her from her on purpose, no doubt. Keeping her as busy as they could rather than suffer the thought of her returning to the bed occupied by a wolf.

Rage and jealousy born of nothing but idle thoughts and an overactive imagination had never been the sort of thing Fallon had to worry about. She had a strong and logical mind, she had always been wise beyond her years, she offered counsel and taught her kin how to calm their minds and find their inner peace. Right now however she felt her muscles ripple underneath her skin with the need to shift and hunt the very creatures she currently shared these walls with.. She was willing to let them be for Victoria's sake, loving the woman so intently that she was willing to set aside everything she knew and everything she was simply to be with her. It was an easy decision. But if they got in her way?... What if for the first time in Fallon's life she truly lost control of herself? She could feel it now, stirring by the mere thought of those monsters keeping her away from her.

A sharp pain seared through her spine and her legs buckled. She swore, holding onto the bedpost as she slowly lost the fight to calm herself, and her body shifted. Naked already at least, there was no tearing fabric, only the sounds of bones snapping and claws scraping at wood as she gripped onto the post so hard it snapped entirely.

Run. She had not lost her mind, she knew that she had to get outside and run, she had to get as far from the coven as could for now and hunt something else. She left through the window, the moonlight catching her snow-white fur and doing absolutely nothing to camouflage her as she ran through the darkness. She was a beacon, and here, a potential target, but part of her fucking welcomed any to try and hunt her right now.

In the hours that passed, she ran until it became too much to bear, until she was too far from Victoria that it physically hurt and she had to run back. She gave chase and tore down whatever beast she caught scent of. By the time she climbed back into the room, the sun had long since risen, and so she was surprised to find the room still vacant.

What had they done to her?! The hind wolf had taken two purposeful strides toward the door when it opened and she snarled, her maw still bloody from whatever she'd feasted upon last and her claws splayed and ready to swipe at anyone but Victoria. The relief was instantaneous, and the wolf's expression softened, her massive paw falling to her side as she fell to a knee with a deep huff..

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Her pupils flared as reflex shook through her body. Cold instinct took hold of her: werewolf, here, danger. She had taken half a breath in surprise, bared her fangs, and raised a hand in defense before her mind caught up to her body and she recognized her love.

Her face immediately softened from the hardened, bat-like lines her snarl had formed. Her eyes widened, and her hand relaxed.

”Fallon, wha-“ The sentence died in her mouth. She couldn’t muster the air to keep speaking. She turned and shut the door quietly, locked it, then returned to stand before Fallon. Even kneeling, the war wolf was near her height. She saw the blood, the broken bedpost. Fallon would not take this form without reason, she knew, and she immediately thought the worst of her own people.

What had happened? Who had hurt her? There was no one else in the room. Had Fallon destroyed them entirely, or had they simply left a trap for her?

But something didn’t fit. She leaned forwards and sniffed the blood on Fallon’s muzzle, wrinkling her nose and recoiling slightly. Elk.

Victoria had been so alarmed by Fallon’s appearance and distress that she only now noted the fresh air flowing into the room, the glass on the floor, and the blinding, hideous stream of sunlight through a torn blind.

She hissed automatically and shut her watering eyes, crouching down before Fallon’s massive body. Her shadow was welcome darkness, her scent, though muddied by forest and fauna, was calming.

The pieces began to come together. The crimson vampire opened her eyes and took Fallon’s colossal head in her hands. She looked into those silver eyes, the ones that never changed with the rest of her, the ones that told her this was her wolf.

”Tell me what happened,” she said in a tone of utmost love and concern. ”Please.”

 

[Fallon]

The wolf only breathed as she stared back at Victoria, her chest rising and falling with each greedy lungful of her scent, and slowly but surely she started to ease enough to connect her spiralling thoughts to some semblance of rationality.

A ponderous paw reached out to curl around the vampire, covering her lower back in its entirety and pulling her in close. She was safe. She was here. She was hers.

Fallon’s breaths grew deeper and slower, until a long, shuddering exhale accompanied the twisting and snapping of bones as her shape shifted and realigned. Silver-white fur receded into her dewy skin, and the shrinking hand settled on her fiancés back didn’t dare forfeit its place by letting her go for one moment.

Now she felt foolish. Her brow furrowed as she considered how exactly to explain herself, though she was suddenly reminded of a far more pressing concern as she felt sunlight on her back. Shit.

Fallon stood, lifting the sheltering woman in her arms as she did so and stalking straight for a door in furthest corner of the chambers. The room was tiny, so much so that had she not just shifted she likely wouldn’t have fit at all, but it was pitch dark and cramped and she couldn’t have chosen a better place for them to hide right now, whatever it was.

With Victoria’s feet on the ground and the door closed behind them, she drew her love close once more and finally spoke, her voice a gritty whisper.

“I’m sorry. I..” she swallowed, an audible awkwardness. “This is.. still new to me. I haven’t ever lost control of myself like that, I just.. there are instincts that are difficult to fight when it comes to sharing residence with a coven of creatures I’ve dedicated my entire life to hunting, and who have hunted me. And, when it comes to you…”

Fallon winced sheepishly. “I.. May have gone a little out of my mind convincing myself that they were trying to keep you from me, and iiiiiii got .. jealous.” She groaned at how juvenile it sounded, her hands running through Victoria’s hair as she stared at her face in darkness that even she struggled to see anything in.

“You make me a little.. unstable.” she laughed under her breath. “Please don’t be angry with me.”

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria pressed herself close to the shrinking woman before her, trying to make herself as small as possible to remain hidden from the light. In Fallon's arms she felt safe enough to be helpless, and she did not open her eyes or relax her curled body until the door to the small closet was shut and the light stricken from view.

"I'm not angry," she breathed, blinking away the sun tears, but she took a long time to say anything else.

She placed her hands on Fallon, slowly sliding them over her warm skin. How different she was from the cold vampire, how wonderfully, perfectly different. The sun to her moon, fire to her ice, life to her death. Everything about her moved and reacted, while everything about Victoria remained exactly the same. Forever. Could that life ever thrive here, in a place where death ruled?

"Fallon... are you going to be alright here?" She wanted Fallon in her home. Desperately. She wanted a life with her wife in her castle and bed, a Queen beside her at all times. But would Fallon be happy? If this was the product of a single week, what would another month look like? A year? A decade? Was she torturing her by making her stay?

She felt cold tears well up, not brought by sunlight, but she willed them away. She had to be strong right now, and she had to stop being selfish. Greyrock had been her life... but it couldn't be a home without Fallon.

 

[Fallon]

"Yes. I am here. With you. Whatever challenges there are we face them." Fallon frowned, her words spoken without hesitation and with such inflexibility that left no room for doubt. Her hands were on Victoria's face now, drawing the glassy red orbs to look at her, forcing her to see the truth of her promise in her own. "I will adapt. I already have.. There will no doubt be bumps in the road, but I will never be gone from your side again." she said, a little too quickly as some of her own panic bled in. "Unless you tell me to leave..Please, please never do that."

That Fallon could be happier here, now, in a coven of vampires than she had been back in the Caern with her pack and without Victoria was proof to herself that this was where she was meant to be. The rest, she could deal with, it would just take some getting used to.

She drew in a deep breath, the woman's scent ensnaring.. "I thought they might have been trying to keep you from me, then you were gone for so long I feared something had happened.. I've never.." her head shook and she growled, suddenly forcing Victoria back into the wall with a snarl of rage not intended for her.

"Victoria I will murder any who think it is wise to step between us. They won't live long enough to regret it." she squeezed at the woman's hips possessively, her body pressed in and her breathing heavy with way too many emotions at once. She cast one last look over her features, barely discernible in the perfect blackness, and then her mouth was on her neck, kissing, biting.. claiming.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

"I won't," the red vampire promised immediately, almost before Fallon could get the words out. "I will never tell you to leave." The clear pain in the garou's voice, even at a momentary hypothetical, ripped at her heart.

As Fallon again explained herself Victoria's mouth began to turn into a soft smile. She could not deny how much she liked Fallon's jealousy, but she didn't want it to truly pain her love. Besides, no one in this castle could restrain the Lady against her will... not easily at least. "They wouldn't-- huff!"

Fallon's strength pushed the breath from her and she felt hard stone at her back. Stunned into silence, the low timbre of Fallon's growl sent tingles to her fingertips. She stared back, and in contrast to Fallon she could see in perfect clarity. Fallon's face had turned primal. Victoria could hardly look away, though she did eventually follow the red bloodstains down her neck to the rest of her body. Fallon put every sculpture in the castle to shame.

Victoria revealed her fangs with a wide sigh as she was claimed. She ran the delicate fingers of her right hand through Fallon's hair while her left scratched down the roiling muscles of her back. Her body softened, yielding to whatever the warrior's hands took.

"Kill them all," she sighed. Bring me their blood on your body, she thought, but she didn't say it. She was not in command here, in this closet, in this moment. She didn't even belong to herself right now. Right now she was only spoils, a prize to be taken. Right now Fallon could do whatever the fuck she wanted.

 

[Fallon]

She knew Victoria well enough now to know that she didn’t need to be gentle, and that tenderness was not what either of them wanted right now. Fallon’s need to take what was hers, to claim and make her mark on it, was almost… primal. Just as it had been when she’d lost control of her shift to the burning need to run and hunt. Something about this vampire had made her question her very existence. She was no longer who she had been back in the Spine. No more was the wolf who had it all together. She had broken, the pieces now disarranged, or lost entirely.

She knew who she was now, and who she would always be. Hers. Fuck all the Gods she had lived to serve and monsters she’d dedicated her life to destroying. She was a fucking monster, and every shattered piece of her belonged to the woman in her bruising grasp. Her jaw tightened it’s hold on the smooth slope of Victoria’s neck and the skin broke under her sharp teeth, pulling the coppery tang of blood onto her tongue and urging a guttural growl as her control slipped that bit more.

Fallon’s tongue laved over the punctured skin as her hands violently tore at every shred of fabric they could find between them, and she found more soft and supple skin to make the same mark upon.

The Garou aggressively atoned for her behaviour until the sun was set and her body was spent. Even then she wasn’t ready to leave this dark and tiny room, and so kicked the fallen fur coats into a pile and laid her love down before settling beside her to try and tumble back to some sort of sanity.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Exquisite pain shot through Victoria as her skin tore and knit itself back together. She had imbibed a healthy amount of blood at dinner, so although the attacks on her body grew deliciously more violent, none left a mark that took more than a minute to heal. This brought the need for Fallon to make more wounds, and the masochistic ballet continued.

Victoria had never before wished that she would not heal. One of the greatest gifts of her curse was now an unacceptable tragedy. She wanted so badly for even one of Fallon's marks to remain, to have but a single scar. She wanted to be branded with tooth and claw to boldly declare how she had been taken. How could a ring ever be enough?

Alas, despite her breathy wishes, she was laid upon the furs as a perfect replica of the night she died. The wounds Fallon had opened sealed as if they had never existed, the blood that had poured from them licked clean.

She held Fallon closely in the small, dark closet, running cool ivory palms over her sweltering skin. She stroked her neck and and back and over the strong arms that had entwined her. She ran her bare feet up along Fallon's calves and nestled the woman's face against her chest. Her wolf had had a difficult night.

She allowed Fallon to rest. Victoria dozed off from time to time herself, but mostly she lay still and listened to her fiancée's breathing. When at last the wolf stirred, she spoke softly.

"I need you to come somewhere with me tonight. Somewhere I haven't had the strength to go on my own." Fallon would certainly have heard the tension in her voice, and felt the nervous twitches of her fingers.

~*~

The graveyard overlooked the sea. With no light save for moon and stars the tombstones were black sentries on the gently sloping grass. There was a low stone wall surrounding the cemetery, made from the same dark slabs as Greyrock Castle, which loomed just behind the two women. A firm stone's throw in front of them, just beyond the short wall, were the sheer stone cliffs to the crashing sea below.

Victoria had dressed herself in some of the furs they'd slept on, and she walked forwards with a vice grip on Fallon's hand. The headstones were badly worn by salt and constant wind, but the names grew clearer as they moved through the generations of her family. By the time they had walked half way through Victoria began to recognize those names, and her hand began to tremble within Fallon's grasp as they reached the thing she had been dreading. The thing she had refused to look at since reclaiming her ancestral home: her own grave.

Victoria Elise O'Connor
Born 165, Lost 185
Though her body be not found, may her spirit be forever at peace.
​

There was icewater running down her face, and it took Victoria a full minute to realize that her eyes were streaming tears. She did not understand what she was feeling. Did she miss her parents, seeing their tombs set just above hers, forever watching over their daughter's memory even now? Was she conflicted by the tangible reminder that she had died, that she had been murdered, albeit transformed. Maybe it was the wish for her spirit to be at peace, which was quite an impossibility now.

Her eyes panned to the side and she saw what she had expected to see ever since their visit to her distant relatives, yet some small part of her had been hoping it would not be here. Another large tombstone in the plot adjacent which read:

Seamus Arthur O'Connor
Born 187, Died 227
F--h--, --s--n-, Sc--l--​

The last line had been scraped away, rather deliberately by its appearance, but Victoria did not dwell on that and instead tried to decide if she were sad, relieved, or furious at all of this.

 

[Fallon]

Fallon had grown quite attached to the little space they'd shared. Everything else was so great and grand; the rooms, the beds, and there was something quite comforting about the seclusion and darkness. Of course, whatever her Lady wanted or needed was her command, especially something that seemed to cause her stress. And so she tugged on a long coat and accompanied her out onto the cliffs.

She had been focused on Victoria, waiting for any sign of discomfort that she could act upon and hope to eradicate. She had been so ready to conquer whatever there was to conquer that she had not anticipated that what she would see would cause her knees to weaken. Seeing her name on a gravestone was like a nightmare, like her worst fears imagined, that she would lose the woman she currently clung so tightly to. And for a moment she forgot...

Her death hadn't been something she'd ever asked about. Not only had she feared the subject would be upsetting for Victoria to discuss, but more selfishly too she hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. Her Victoria was alive, she was real and she was beautiful. And she was crying.

Fallon's heart twisted, and she reached up with both hands, her thumbs sweeping at the tears. "You're here, with me. Home.." she told her, her voice rising above the crashing of waves below. Fallon swallowed the ache in her throat that came with seeing Victoria cry, her very soul desperate to right whatever was wrong.

She turned to follow Victoria's gaze to the second headstone, her brow furrowing as she tried to read what had been scraped away. Father.... Husband.... Something.. Scholar, perhaps? "Who was he?"

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

No sooner had her eyes begun to blur with tears than Fallon’s hands were on her face. The most beautiful woman filled her vision and Victoria took a shaking, forced breath.

Home. Fallon was her home.

She placed her hands atop the other woman’s and half expecting steam to erupt from where they met. That warmth soaked into her cheeks and down her neck, thawing the tight coils that had frozen around her heart and setting it into a gentle rhythm.

"Who was he?"

”That is what I intend to find out.”

She gently lowered Fallon’s hands from her face and held on to one of them, walking with fingers entwined towards the tombstone bearing her brother’s name.

“Evangeline’s ancestor, and the son my father always wanted. Beyond that… I don’t know.” She looked down the rest of the gentle hill and saw a few more plots, but they quickly dwindled until nothing but bare grass and weeds remained before the cliffs. Evangeline’s account had been correct, it seemed: The family had fallen only a few generations later.

She ran her fingers over the marred headstone. ”This was done a long time ago.” The stone was all the same color, subject to the same amount of wear. ”Who do you think did this? An enemy? Another family member?” She glanced at the other headstone in the plot: a wife who had outlived him by twenty years.

 

[Fallon]

"Ah.." she answered gently, recalling Evangeline's accounts. She stared at the defaced marker with a deep frown for a moment, and then to the other before drawing a long breath.. "Or, perhaps someone who didn't want his family to be found?.." she asked uncertainly.

"If I had to guess.. His wife didn't want anyone to know that he married and had children.. Or where they could dig up information about him. Like, she wanted the line to end there, for anyone looking for family.." her brow arched and she shrugged. "Though, that's just a guess..." she added with a glance to her side and a gentle squeeze as she tugged her closer against her, a gust of wind playing through tresses of silver and red.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria leant into Fallon's pull. For several minutes she stayed there, letting the salted wind mingle her strands of fire with Fallon's silver snow. She had feared coming here for so long, feared facing her own name and then facing the cold, hurtful truth. But she wasn't afraid now, she wasn't even that upset. Not with Fallon's living warmth ebbing through her. Not with this woman by her side.

So her parents had borne another child after her loss. No matter. So his memory had survived longer than her own. No matter. The past was as dead as her own drying eyes and she had made her place in the present. Greyrock was hers, the territory was hers. People know the name of Lady Victoria O'Connor, and soon the name of her consort: Lady Fallon. Even in this graveyard she smiled to herself at the title.

She tipped Fallon's face into her own for a soft kiss, placing delicate icicle fingers on her cheek. "Thank you." For being here. For coming with her.

 

[Fallon]

It was as though her very soul trembled with pride as Victoria thanked her. As though the gentle kiss were a reward for mollifying her woes and worries. Garou wolves, just as their distant cousins, were loyal creatures, and as proud as they were, they lived to serve. They lived to love and protect their loved ones, and there was not a thing that mattered more to her now than the woman in her arms, and that she was safe and happy. There was no greater pride than knowing that her presence made her feel that way.

A warm hand closed over those cool fingers against her cheek and she leaned into the touch with a soft rumble, grazing her lips over her pale wrist. "Why don't you show me around a little more.." she suggested, trying her best not to acknowledge how inappropriately warm her skin had become in such a moment.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria obliged Fallon’s request, eager to shift her mind to the more pleasant task of impressing her fiancée. Her mind would come back to her family tree eventually. Make no mistake, she intended to scour every branch, but later. Now she led Fallon along the crumbling wall by the cliff’s edge. The wind was fierce and chill off the black waves; she did not feel the cold, but Fallon’s warmth moved to fill her with increased urgency.

”There is a harbor to the south of the castle,” she explained, gesturing ahead of them down the jagged coast. ”The shoreline here is too dangerous. It is an excellent defense, but it would be nice to sail from my own back door.” Indeed, if Fallon looked over the wall, she would see an army of sharp, black rocks peeking through the ebbing tide. A hungry mouth eager to tear apart any ship fool enough to come too close to shore.

The cemetery wall eventually joined a much sturdier barrier that rose alongside blocky stone steps. This lead them to a cobbled walkway, which widened to form a sizable courtyard at the back of the castle. Here Victoria lead Fallon to a gently curving balcony that leant over the cliffside and gazed out at the colorless expanse.

”I fought very hard to get all of this back.” The patio behind the pair bore clear lines where new stones had been set next to old, and where fresh mortar had been laid to seal old cracks. ”My family, whatever remained of them after myself and my sister, either did not or could not stay here. I didn’t expect that to make me angry, but it does.” She didn’t look angry, though. In fact, she had a soft smile on her lips. ”But it does mean I am more deserving of this place, and my name, that any of them.”

The jet horizon was gradually giving way to purple as dawn approached. They mustn’t linger, Victoria had planned a show for her beloved in the grand hall at sun’s first light.

 

[Fallon]

It was a hard throw from living in caves and sleeping on rocks, and she had to hand it to humans. Their craftsmanship was something to behold. They really did build quite beautiful things..

She took it all in as Victoria spoke, and thoughts of how Victoria's human life might have looked played on her mind. She thought of the calm seas and warm days, the gardens plush with foliage and flora, the sound of laughter and pleasantries. But none of that felt right. This was Her Victoria, the ascended Queen, the winds biting cold and the seas dark and churning. She was fierce and dangerous, and it was exactly how she liked her.

Her arm curled around the red woman's waist as she stood on the balcony, and Fallon pressed herself against her back to rest her chin atop her shoulder with a quiet growl that she wanted her to feel as much as hear. "Wonderfully said." she murmured against the cool porcelain neck with a graze of teeth. "Its yours." she kissed. "I'm yours.." she kissed again, her fingers kneading at her hip.

"The entire fucking world is yours if you wish it."

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria hummed serenely at Fallon's lips at her neck. The garou infiltrated her thoughts so seamlessly that sometimes Victoria wondered if her mind was truly her own, or if she had been so thoroughly bewitched by Fallon that the line between their desires was gone. She certainly knew how to feed Victoria's baser instincts. Yes, mine. It all should be mine. She raised a hand behind Fallon's head, lacing her fingers through the silver cascade while her other arm reached down and around her lover's hip, her hand somewhat lower. She clenched at flesh and hair for a single sigh of possessive indulgence... and then let go.

She spun beneath Fallon's fingers to face her. "I have a show for you. Come with me to the hall."

 

[Fallon]

Fallon growled a soft sound of approval as it seemed Victoria felt like participating in her pleasures. There were times that they were slow, when touches were teasing and tensions were built gradually, and then there were times when clothes were torn and the need was so great that there was simply no restraint. The way she moved against her now threatened to drive Fallon to seize such necessities until she let go and turned within her grasp.

A breath shuddered out and she laughed under her breath, her cheeks dimpling as she smiled down at her. "Well.. Now I'm intrigued.." she rumbled as she brushed her nose against hers and dared steal a cool kiss before releasing her.

"Lead the way."

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

It was rare that Victoria could control herself long enough to truly let Fallon's temptation linger, but the effort was rewarded in part by the hunger she saw in the wolf's eyes. Let that hunger grow, then, by depriving it for just a bit longer.

She took Fallon's hand and lead her through a set of rear doors back into the castle. It was not the most comfortable structure, but it held enough warmth to be a stark contrast to the whipping sea winds of the balcony. Their footsteps rang out on the hard stones, but the castle was murmuring with activity. Most of the nocturnal residents should be heading to sleep as dawn approached, but as they neared the grand hall it became apparent that they were not alone.

The hall was in fact quite full. This was expected, given Victoria had ordered it. Humans and vampires alike stood around the long banquet table which had been cleared and finely polished. At its center, chained to a heavy black metal centerpiece, was a man.

He appeared almost skeletal in his nudity, kneeling with a curled back away from the grand doors from which Fallon and Victoria entered. Though the red vampire wore only loose furs over her own nakedness, she walked with a confidence that dared anyone to comment, and strode round to the head of the table.

“Shrew!” the shackled vampire clamored, “Harlot!” The voice was even more shrill than it had been during his dinner outburst.

Victoria flashed a wild grin as she took her seat, bidding Fallon to sit on her lap. She could think of far more graphic ways to throw this in his face… but then she wouldn’t get to feel Fallon squirm.

Thick curtains had been drawn across each of the grand hall’s tall windows, save one, which aligned perfectly to the prisoner’s position. He continued.

“This is the judgement of speaking truth in this coven. The punishment for not quietly sliding into madness!”

Victoria did not speak, she just kept smiling and casually slid her hand down Fallon’s muscular thigh. The captive vampire’s blustering continued while the eastern sky began to lighten.