Private Tales Dancing Claws

[Fallon]

Fallon felt the tension coiling within Victoria like a tightly wound spring, and her concern deepened as she witnessed the strain etched into her wife's features. The usually composed and confident vampire queen seemed to falter under the weight of the evening's demands, her veneer of control fraying at the edges.

Victoria's strained words were another glimpse into the vulnerability she rarely allowed herself to show. Fallon's heart ached with empathy, understanding the toll the night had taken on Victoria's usually unshakeable resolve. It was everything not to tear open her own throat for her right then and there.

Settling into the plush seats, Fallon expected Victoria to take her place opposite her, to maintain a safe distance between them. But Victoria's actions defied logic, defied the very instincts that screamed for restraint. Instead, Fallon found herself pulled in her wife's lap fierce urgency that sent a shiver down her spine.

The predatory fierceness in Victoria's kiss ignited a primal response within Fallon, a surge of desire tempered only by the knowledge of Victoria's struggle. The whispered plea resonated in the air between them, and Fallon growled softly. "There's nothing I would deny you." she frowned, grazing her nose against that of the vampire.

Without hesitation, Fallon wrapped her arms around Victoria, holding her close with a gentleness born of love and understanding. "If it is restraint you want, I will try." she answered. The pair were well matched in strength, it would be no simple task if Victoria lost control.

The urgency of their situation hung heavy in the air as they journeyed forward toward their sanctuary. Fallon's heart raced with a mixture of desire and determination, a gentle hand pressed to Victoria's chest as she kissed her, ready to restrain the woman if necessary.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

"There's nothing I would deny you."

Those words loosed an ancient sound from Victoria's throat: a breathy, gutterral hiss that could almost be a growl. Her lips quivered as they received conflicting commands to stay closed versus open wide, and Victoria made a conscious effort to keep her glimmering eyes open. If she could see Fallon, look upon her face, then maybe that beauty would distract from the blood rushing through her veins. She clutched the hand at her chest, drawing it closer to communicate what her voice could not.

She was not being fair to her wife right now. How could she both pull Fallon in and ask her to step back? Foolish, selfish Victoria. She should have drunk at dinner, just a little, just enough to soften her thirst. Perhaps then she could have remained in control, and Fallon would be free to lose herself in the moment. Her thoughts swirled back to the last time she had tasted the wolf's blood and the pure, terrifying power of it. The memories were disjointed and hazy, but the euphoria had been crystal clear.

She did have a plan for this evening... if the pair could make it to their honeymoon. There was a smaller house in the countryside... well... smaller compared to a castle. A manor for summertime holidays where her father had taken them from time to time. Rather than the seaside cliffs Victoria had spent most of her childhood alongside, this place sat amongst rolling hills and fields. While her father hunted, she walked the meadows, or practiced her stitches in the solarium. She remembered the sunlight... though she could not recall how it felt. She also remembered the wine cellar, with thick, cool walls of stone where one may contain a creature of great strength, should the need arise.

Fallon's embrace was tender, but Victoria felt the strength that rested just beneath the surface. She knew what iron-hard cords rested in those arms. She had felt them, and she wanted to feel them again. "Tighter," she whispered, with a slight smirking curl of her lip, "You won't break me." Fallon could control her, surely she could. She would have to, if these damned horses didn't quicken their pace.

She nestled into the arms and inhaled deeply. And it was a mistake.

"Tighter." There was a break in her voice now. Urgency had replaced flirtation. "Don't let me breath. Don't let me smell you." Her heartbeat was spiking, pushing the pitiful dregs of blood that her body had left.

 

[Fallon]

Fallon understood the turmoil raging within her wife, the battle between instinct and restraint that threatened to consume her. But Fallon was determined to be the anchor that steadied Victoria amidst the storm.

'Tighter..'

With a gentle yet firm resolve, Fallon complied, tightening her grip, pressing harder, though not yet with all of her strength. Her silver gaze met Victoria's glimmering eyes, offering a steady presence amidst the chaos that threatened to overwhelm them both.

'Tighter..'

Victoria's whispered plea carried a hint of desperation, a challenge and an invitation all rolled into one. Fallon's grip tightened once more in response, pinning the desperate woman with a protective strength that belied her tender touch. She felt the tremors that coursed through Victoria's body, the rapid rhythm of her starving heartbeat, and it was everything not to let her wife loose upon her neck.

"Close your eyes, take your mind somewhere else..," Fallon's voice was a soothing murmur. "I've got you." she assured, prepared to do whatever it took to honor that request, to keep her wife grounded until they reached their sanctuary.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria felt strong arms squeeze the air from her lungs. The was such a tenderness to what would otherwise be a violent act, a tenderness amidst unbreakable power that defined Fallon better than words ever could. The vampire obeyed, closing her eyes and trying to think of another place, somewhere without… without what?

The source of her agony, of her desperate hunger, was the person she loved most. Any attempt to take her thoughts to a place of safety immediately went to Fallon. She could not, would not tear her thoughts away. She would rather feel these hunger pangs, like knives in her gut, than spend a moment apart from her beloved. Somehow she knew that would be worse.

She could no longer draw breath, so Fallon’s scent did not flood her airways, but the ever-tightening grip made Fallon’s heartbeat a palpable drum in Victoria’s side. Her mouth was open with the exertion of control, and she felt herself salivating. She was hanging by a thread that was rapidly fraying. She didn’t even have the energy to curse herself for being so foolish in starving herself. Chasing a high that could now endanger her wife.

The carriage thundered on, driven by Victoria’s pounding on the wall. She did not believe in gods, not for a long time, but it seemed like a cruel and deliberate act to place a stone upon her carriage’s direct path. A stone large enough to splinter a wheel and send the carriage lurching. The entwined women were jostled to the side, and Victoria’s hungry lips were thrown directly against Fallon’s satin-soft neck.

The shudder that wracked Victoria’s body was certainly felt by Fallon, just as clearly as her jugular pulse was felt by the vampire’s lips. It was her only warning as Victoria’s mental control completely broke, and she bit deep into the wolf’s neck.

 

[Fallon]

As the carriage jolted violently, Fallon's instinctive reaction was to tighten her grip around Victoria and pull her close, when it should have been to hold her back.
There was a flicker of realisation across her features, her eyes flaring as she felt her wife's mouth against her neck, but she was too late to prevent the inevitable.

The suddenness of the action left Fallon reeling, the pressure of cold fangs sinking into her flesh sending a surge of conflicting emotions flooding through her. Pain, yes, but also white hot heat.. She understood the depths of Victoria's struggle, the relentless hunger that gnawed at her insides, and she had wanted so badly to ease her suffering. To be devoured if it meant the woman was satisfied..

Fallon's breath hitched in her throat as she felt the tremors that wracked her wife's body. "Ff-Victoria," Fallon's voice wavered, choked with a mixture of pain and desire to give the woman everything that she wanted. She struggled to find the words, and struggled further still to find the will to try and stop her as she pulled the blood from her body.

She found herself instinctively holding Victoria closer, offering a silent reassurance in the midst of chaos, her body writhing as her heart pounded wildly in her chest until it started to stumble in attempt to keep up.
Her hand stroked tenderly through her hair, crimson strands pouring through her fingers as she whispered words of comfort.

"There..." she murmured, her muscles shifting and rippling under her skin at the wolf's instinct to fight for her life.

"Not too much.." she whispered.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Fresh blood rushed into Victoria’s mouth, and her starved body surged into action. Her jaw locked around Fallon’s throat, four sharp punctures surrounding a soft and desperate tongue that lapped up wave after wave. Her arms were bound by Fallon’s iron embrace, but her fingers reached out to grab whatever they could, tearing through fabric and upholstery alike. If skin found its way beneath her nails, it was torn too. Her body undulated and struggled against her restraints, writhing snakelike in a heady cocktail of euphoria and longing. She grew stronger as she drank. Her heart beat furiously to circulate this new meal and her paper-white cheeks began to flush with the faintest shade of pink.

Fallon’s blood burned her throat, burned her stomach, burned in her veins. The divinity of her wife’s being clawed at her, lashing out against the dark pit that had been her soul. It hurt, but not so badly as it had before.

The first time Victoria had tasted Fallon’s blood she had gone completely feral. The reaction of her body had been violent and dangerous to both of them. Was it her starvation that tempered the holy burn, or had she simply built a tolerance to it? Her stomach still screamed to reject the blood, but her instincts countered more powerfully as they drove to her feed on something, anything she could sink her fangs into. Her mind was hanging by a thread, barely conscious beneath the rush of blood and sensation.

Not too much…

The words came to her as a whisper, but they reverberated in the head until they grew loud enough to awaken Victoria from her beastial trance. Her eyes snapped open, inky black where white had been surrounding deep red irises. She detached herself from Fallon, an expression of horror warping her features until she saw that the Garou still breathed. The bleeding from Fallon’s neck would quickly still, but Victoria did not have time to give her apologies before the spasms wracked her body.

As it had each time before, Victoria’s very being recoiled from Fallon’s divine blood. She coughed, spattering the opposite wall of the carriage in crimson, before doubling over in numbing, euphoric pain. Though something was different this time. The burning sensation had faded from acid to a hot tingling, the sort of pain that felt as good as it did bad. That burn, that power, she could feel it rushing down arteries from her shoulders to her fingers, felt it creeping up veins along the insides of her thighs like scalding, wandering fingers.

Another spasm took her, this one arching her back so powerfully that she felt her spine snap. Almost as soon as it had, however, it knit back together. The same happened for her foot, which had kicked clear through the side of the carriage, shattering a toe or two, with near-instant repair.

Focus. She needed to focus. Somehow she knew she had not taken a lethal amount of blood from Fallon, but that didn’t mean her new wife was free of harm. It was difficult to make sense of where she was, every scent and sound was so terribly amplified. She wanted to run, wanted to rush screaming from this splintered carriage, but she held fast to whatever spiritual chain kept her grounded to Fallon.

She managed to reopen her eyes, letting a few bloody tears roll down her face before reaching for Fallon. She clutched at her wife’s shoulder too tightly, with an arm that held much more defined muscle than it had moments prior. Victoria noticed only now that much of her beautiful wedding gown had been shredded.

“Fffallon…!” She managed to rasp out, her words slurring and her lips still slick with the wolf’s blood. “I’m sorr… Fallon!”

Again something inside told her that her wife was alive, but her mind was fraying while her body told her to run, hunt, kill.

 

[Fallon]

Fallon's body writhed, her brow furrowing as claw like nails tore desperately through bodice and skin, and her own sharp canines were bared in a snarl, her knuckles white as she gripped at her wife's shoulders in attempt to push her back. How quickly She drank. How strong She became..

"Victoria.."

Fallon's pulse thundered, as though it wanted nothing more than to feed the woman currently feasting on her neck. Muscles shifted, slowly rippling beneath her skin. Too weak, too fast. Her silver eyes were wide with panic as the carriage started to spin around her, as her vision darkened at the edges.

She was aware of Victoria tearing herself away, and how her heart stumbled slowly over itself. Her body felt too heavy to move, her consciousness drifting in and out and so she was only vaguely aware of the fact that something was wrong.

Her name, she heard that, but it was not until she heard the apology that she forced her eyes open and turned her head to look at Her. "Why?.." she asked, her voice lazy with confusion. "I.." she sighed and frowned at the pounding in head. "I'm fine..." she assured.

"I'm sorry.." she murmured and let her eyes flutter close again, a tear slipping free. This was her fault, not Victoria's. So desperate was she to nourish her wife, so jealous was she of any other who did so that she was happy to let her starve. She had hoped this time would be different, that her blood would be good enough.

"Are you.. alright?"

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

"Fallon!" Victoria shouted, as though that would rouse her love from her weariness. In any other circumstance it may have worked, for her cry was loud enough to shake the windows of their carriage and carried a deep timbre it had not borne before. Her vision was both blurred and impossibly sharp, her thoughts hyper intense and yet unfocused. Her world was shaking, but that may have been the dangerous pace their coachman had set despite a broken wheel. Thralls were nothing if not loyal; his queen had said to hurry, so he hurried.

Victoria's heart beat like a beast, every sinew and fiber in her body was taught and glaring in the shifting light. Her graceful form had hardened, with coils of muscle that Fallon herself could compare to. She was still unsteady, and hated herself for how tightly she gripped her wife's shoulder, how violently she pressed her opposite palm to her neck to try to stem the last trickles of blood.

The hunger had left her. In fact, never before had she been so sated. She wished she could spit the blood back into Fallon's body, to return what she had taken... but what was lost was lost. If she were to give Fallon blood... no. That thought did not bear mentioning.

She brought her face close to her lover, so newly her bride. Her eyes, dark as night, bored into the garou's. "Stay awake, ok?" she tried to smile, though a more terrifying snarl would be difficult to imagine. "You took care of me. Now I will take care of you. Just stay with me."

She felt another shudder creep its way up her spine, but she crushed it with her will, biting back the sanguine bile in her throat. She would not break while she held Fallon.

 

[Fallon]

"Hmm.." Fallon answered drowsily, dreamily, as though she was being roused from the most tranquil of slumbers. Some part of her was quite aware of her Wife's worry, and so she mustered the strength to lift a clammy hand and settle it atop Victoria's, her pale lips softening into the hint of a smile. "I'm here.." she murmured.

She tried, but failed to open her eyes - her heart slowing as her body was being forced into a regenerative sleep. The wound on her neck was slowly closing under Victoria's palm, and the tension in her body slackened as her mind was pulled beyond the veil and into the Umbra, far from the carriage and a little closer to the dead she had not spoken with in some time.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Fear in a feral beast can be indistinguishable from rage. Victoria's mind was fraying beneath the electric current of Fallon's holy blood, and it was hard to focus when she could sense everything around them. She could hear the hearts of the black mares almost as loudly as Fallon's own, and smell small creatures that fled from their path a hundred foot ahead. The cold night air chilled her for the first time in centuries, and she could almost taste the dew turning to frost along the roadside grass.

She grit sharp teeth and pulled her overloaded senses back to the here and now. The horses were moving too slowly, she had weakened Fallon and her wife needed caring now. She lifted Fallon into her arms as carefully as possible, but winced at the bruises her untrained new strength was sure to cause. She will heal, she reminded herself, She is strong.

The red Queen kicked out the side door of the carriage. It spiraled and splintered violently on the rocky path, but Victoria was gone long before it had even touched the ground.


~*~*~*~*~*~

Fallon would wake in a soft bed. Silk sheets enveloped her, and thick furs had been placed atop these to guard her against the night's chill. A fire had been stoked in the hearth, and though Victoria could not bring herself to transport the coals in a warming pan for the bedsheets, she had been able to light the first spark with less pain than usual. The drapes had also been pulled back. Only moonlight shone through the fine panes now, but soon the dawning sun would follow. Victoria had hoped it may rouse her wife should she remain asleep through the night.

Victoria herself stood watch from a small recess at the other end of the room. She had loomed bedside for a time, but the fire's aggressive light had become painful as the hours wore on. The night sky was lightening to purple as well, and while Fallon's blood had reduced the fire's sting, Victoria would not test that resilience against her greatest weakness.

It was odd, to stand so still while such boundless power coursed through her. She had so much energy, and her very bones were itching to move and run and jump and hunt and tear and kill and kill and kill.

But she would not. She would keep watch over Fallon, keep note of every heartbeat and breath. She would watch every droplet of blood make its miles-long journey through her body. She knew Fallon would wake, she knew she would recover. If she did not, Victoria would walk into the dawn this very morning. But no, she would wake.

She just did not know when.

 

[Fallon]

Fallon stirred slowly, her consciousness breaking the surface of a deep and dark sleep. She felt the softness of the silk sheets beneath her and the comforting weight of thick furs atop her. The warmth of the fire seeped into her aching bones.

As she became more aware of her surroundings, she sensed a presence nearby—familiar and dear. She opened her eyes to the dimly lit room, moonlight casting a gentle glow through the drapes, and her gaze immediately seeking out Victoria.

The vampire's form was a silhouette against the purpling sky, her stance rigid with a tension that Fallon could feel even from a distance. Fallon's eyes glimmered with a fierce intensity, with worry and confusion. The fire, the uncovered window when dawn was so near..

"Victoria." Fallon called softly, her voice hoarse but steady. She pushed herself up on the bed. "What are you doing?" she rasped quietly, tossing the furs from her body to slip out of bed and go to the window and draw the drapes.

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria moved to Fallon's bedside abruptly, stopping quick enough that the ends of her hair tickles Fallon's cheeks. Her hands hovered above Fallon's shoulders for an instant before very gently making contact. She was still adjusting to the immense strength that had only just started to wane.

"Are you well enough to stand?" she ignored Fallon's question. Her eyes, ruby rings within inky night, scoured Fallon's face and body. She took in every detail of her skin as blood returned to it, and had been listening intently to the heartbeat for hours.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I thought I could be stronger. You're just too... enticing." She tried an apologetic smile.

 

[Fallon]

"It's alright," she assured her, ensuring the drapes were firmly shut before dousing the fire and returning to her wife's side, her concern evident as she looked over Victoria's beautiful face, her own eyes welling up with tears. "Fallon reached up and cupped Victoria's face with a tenderness that belied the pain she had endured. "I'm alright. Are you?" she asked, her voice trembling.

She rested her forehead against her wife's, swallowing down her bitter shame "I'm sorry, I should have made you drink something," Fallon continued, her brow furrowing in frustration. "I was being selfish... I wanted..." She cut herself off, swallowing hard. "I wanted to be the only one, at least today."

She sighed, a heavy weight of guilt settling in her chest. "I hate that my blood makes you sick." she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper. "I just wanted to give you everything. I should have known better. I should have protected you."

 

[Victoria O'Connor]

Victoria stayed by the bedside as Fallon made her circuit of the room, blocking out the approaching dawn and quelling the flames in the hearth. The cool darkness was pleasant, though the fire had not made her eyes water the way it usually did.


She wanted to melt into Fallon at her touch and pressed back longingly. Fallon’s skin was still paler than usual, though the aroma of her blood was growing stronger by the hour.


”I wanted you to be the only one.” She threaded her fingers through the wolf’s silvery cascade, keeping her face close. ”I didn’t want you diluted by anything lesser. The banquet, the servants… compared to you it’s all water.” She passed her lower lip through her fangs just to occupy the needy itch that arose when thinking about Fallon’s neck.


Victoria gripped just a little harder at the back of Fallon’s head when she tried to disparage her own veins. ”Your blood is incredible. There is… some pain, but were it not there I… I do not think I could stop.” Victoria had only tasted Fallon’s blood twice, and on each occasion the garou’s life had been spared only by the vampire’s violent reaction.


She pulled back so that she could look at her wife, taking her face in both hands to give her a wide, sharp smile. Victoria’s eyes were still inky black, with only her ruby-red irises glinting from the darkness. ”But the pain, the sickness, Fallon it is nothing compared to the pleasure. It is… it is like feeling you fill me entirely. It is like your fingers are rushing through every vein in my body. I can feel your lips over every inch and… fuck Fallon, look at me!”


Victoria stood and took two steps back to stand before the closed curtains. Her wedding dress was barely holding on to her, tattered first by her convulsions and then by wind and gravel. She slipped off the few strands that still held it in place and let it fall to her ankles along with her cracked corset.


She stood fully on display for Fallon, and while she enjoyed the wolf’s eyes ravishing her, lust was not the only cause for her disrobing. Fallon’s blood had wrought physical change throughout Victoria. Even in the dim room, every muscle beneath her porcelain skin stood obvious and defined. Areas that had been smooth and silky now rippled with power. She could feel the sinews in her neck, hands, and feet coiled tense, while her nails and fangs had lengthened and hardened. Her face, almost imperceptibly, veered towards the feral. She could also swear she had grown taller.

”Last time I was too intoxicated to notice how much you affect me.” She ran her fingers over her stomach, down tight abdominals and defined hips. Victoria pivoted and glanced down at the backs of her own legs, and enjoyed how powerful the lines of her thighs appeared. ”I feel invincible.”

Victoria’s self-satisfied smiled faltered. ”But I don’t ever want to hurt you. It is just so hard to control, to fight that rush.” Despite the remorse in her words, her tone and face had become flustered. ”In the moment, when my fangs are in your neck, it feels like I would die if I stopped drinking, stopped tasting.” Her hands continued to wander aimlessly across her own body, exploring each new ridge and crevice. ”When I first tasted you in the carriage I…” her voice hitched. ”…well I… it felt very good.”

 

[Fallon]

Fallon’s eyes darkened as she took in the sight before her. So concerned had she been for Victoria's safety that she hadn’t truly looked at her wife. Now, as she stared at the vampire's transformed physique, a feral reaction surged within her. Victoria’s scent was different, something heady that sent Fallon spiraling. The wolf writhed beneath her skin, her own muscles rippling, coiled taut like an animal about to pounce. Her pupils dilated as she watched Victoria's hands slip over every contour, feeling a pang of jealousy that she was not the one touching her.

The movement seemed to take even Fallon by surprise. One moment she was standing, staring in awe, and the next she had rushed Victoria against the wall, pinning her there with a forceful urgency. Her chest heaved with each greedy breath of that intoxicating scent. Her mouth was on Victoria’s neck, her body pressed flush against hers as her hands roamed, grasping at whatever glorious flesh she could.

Fallon growled low, a sound of both desire and desperation. "You are incredible," she murmured against Victoria’s skin, her breath hot and heavy. "And you’re mine."

Her hands traced the hard lines of Victoria’s muscles, her fingers pressing into the newly defined ridges and curves. She reveled in the power she felt beneath her touch, the strength that had always been there but now seemed amplified. "I will always be yours to drink from," Fallon whispered fiercely. "But I will never let you lose control again. I will never let you fear for me again. I will stop you if I must but, in that moment I do not want to. I want to give you every drop."

A breath shuddered from her as she her hand slipped to her wife's inner thigh, and slowly climbed. "I want to fill you entirely." she grinned, her sharp canines on full display as she echoed her wife's words.. "I want you to feel my fingers rushing through every vein in your body. To feel my lips over every inch of you.. Always."