Private Tales Temptation

[Lottie Beaufort]

Jennifer and her husband had both tensed when Lottie had voiced the query of both husbands dying but they relaxed a little when Raziel confirmed that rules were rules.

"You're both sick," Tyron muttered as he stared at his wife's body as blood oozed from the many wounds on her torso as if he couldn't quite comprehend what had just happened. Lottie took the knife and stood up. Her heels echoed on the floor as she walked over to him and crouched down in front of him, turning his face towards her.

"Maybe," she ran the knife tenderly along his jaw and he flinched but her grip tightened on his chin. "But you're the one who supports a Prince who is corrupt. You're the one who kept your wife in a cage to wheel out on special occasions," her voice was low so only he could hear her and perhaps those who had enhanced hearing. She motioned for the guards to let him go, took his hands and closed them over the hilt of the blade. "You're the one who should be ashamed," a glazed look crossed his eyes as her illusion took effect. He stiffened. The scene played out of what had happened to her but instead of her face it was that of his daughters as he stood by and turned a blind eye for the opportunity of power. His whole body shook as the vision grew darker. She stood up and stepped back and then watched as he raised the knife and plunged it into his own chest over and over again.

 

[Raziel]

"Now that was true artistry," Raziel declared as he moved alongside Lottie. The man held the knife tight against his own chest one final time until his hands fell away.

She clearly had some anger to work out and Raziel was more than happy to be the instigator to see where it would go.

"I can't keep the guards for very much longer," he admitted. He was burning through his own blood now and if he started to turn dizzy then he was going to struggle to get out of here.

"You have a final flourish for the crowd?" he asked, grinning from ear to ear.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie didn't stand up until the glassy eyed look of death claimed the man. She wanted to make sure that the image stayed with him till the last minute so it was what he saw when he drew his last breath. Raziel's comment snapped her out of it and she glanced up at him before standing. Blood clung to her gown making it heavy and she lifted them slightly as she stepped over to a cleaner patch of floor.

"I think one last flourish is all I have left in me," she admitted, motioning to the illusion he was holding. Bits were beginning to show through like the tail. Slowly she looked around them as if contemplating what to paint next before snapping her fingers with excitement. "I have an idea... do you still want the egg before we go?"

 

[Raziel]

"Well I suppose a priceless treasure like that should be more important to me than a little mayhem," he replied. It wasn't true. Watching these elegant creatures of sophistication turn to savagery put everything else from mind.

"Hold your illusion, let go of mine if you need to," he said. No one would really be able to pin all this on their identities. However, Lottie needed to keep hers a secret. After this he was going to go far from Oban anyway.

The commander of the guard was struggling again and shouting at him. Raziel wasn't willing to entertain such behaviour. A step to the side and as the shadows held his arms, Raziel's tail slipped around his neck and drew tight. Whether he would remember to loosen his grip before the man died was up for debate.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Raziel had said he should not that he did so Lottie thought about whether she would like a Griffin egg for herself. It would definitely fetch a pretty penny and did she really want a Griffin to be born to this idiot? If the Tiefling didn't go to the study to get it then perhaps she would let Wren know, or the less corrupt authorities, so they could come and have it returned to its proper place. Either way it was a problem for later, it was far more fun to focus on the here and now.

Lottie nodded to his words and the illusion fell like shattered glass revealing him for what he truly looked like. There was a sharp intake of breath around the room. Non-humans weren't exactly rare around here but it was a shock to see him revealed so abruptly. It probably called into question who exactly she was but she had no intentions of revealing that yet.

She took a breath and raised her hands as part of the act and fire appeared to leap up the thick velvet curtains. Smoke soon began to fill the air and people tried to break for the exits. She turned and offered her arm to Raziel with a bright smile.

"Let's not forget to shut the doors on our way out," though there was no chance of harm from real fire the people in the room wouldn't know that and she was curious to see what lengths they would go to in order to get out of the room apparently being consumed by flame.

 

[Raziel]

She was actually a very powerful illusionist. Raziel could, as always, think of many ways to take advantage of such power. Unfortunately he felt that leaving Oban, or at least the city walls was going to be required.

He eyed the windows. Thick stained glass held in place by lead. Devilishly expensive and about to be shattered by some panicked aristocrats.

The commander was gasping for air. A knife materialised in Raziel's hand and he held it towards her, hilt first.

"This one seemed to have truly wronged you. You should finish the job."

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie looked at the blade in his hand and her heart began to race. It was a temptation. Everyone in here had wronged her in some way or another but the Commander, he was right, had done it more than most here. She slowly reached out and wrapped her fingers round the hilt then looked up at him. A small part of her hoped to find something there that would stop her from taking it but his eyes reflected her own desires. Her grip tightened on the hilt and she nodded.

Her magic was drained but she wanted nothing like that to cloud this moment as she knelt in front of him.

"You are meant to protect the citizens of this kingdom but you fail every day," she whispered. He looked at her with equal parts confusion and anger until she let her own illusion drop. Recognition sparked.

"You..."

"I want it to be my face you remember," he began to splutter apologies, beg as she drew him up to his knees and then watched with morbid fascination as she ran the blade across his throat. The blood cascaded like a ruby waterfall over her hand that still held him by the chin before she very slowly let him go. He slumped to the floor beside his wife and she stood to pass Raziel his knife back.

"I need some wine," she announced, wiping the blood on her hand against her skirts.

 

[Raziel]

Raziel's tail quivered in unrepentant exhilaration. His grin was spread from ear to ear. As she had deliberated over the choice he had been enraptured by here. Nothing mattered by the choice.

And oh how well it went. She held the man's gaze as his life leaked out across her fingers. Raziel left his wife, unconscious on the floor. It might have seemed a more cruel twist to finish her off and leave the commander maimed. This was revenge that had to be truly sated. Finality.

"Keep that blade," he declared, "a momento of your victory. Now...was their wine in that case you stole? I fear our welcome is truly out stayed within the city walls..."

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie glanced back down at the blade and then shrugged and wiped it against her skirts too in order to remove the blood from it. She would never say no to another blade. From his grin and the way his tail moved she had a feeling she had passed some sort of test or filled a need and she wasn't entirely certain if that was a good thing or not. Perhaps when the blood pact was over he wouldn't come looking for her straight away.

"I believe there was," wine was a much better focus. She wanted out of this dress and she wanted out of this house. "I know a nice spot," far away from the camp her sisters and Rob were in too. If they saw her covered in this much blood they would ask questions she didn't want to answer. Not tonight.

The sounds of screaming fell behind them as they left the house and walked back the way they came.

"Do you..." Lottie paused, thinking how best to word the question. "What do you do exactly? You don't give off the sellsword vibe but you seemed pretty at ease with that back there."

 

[Raziel]

"Well now that is an interesting question. I do whatever I am paid to do usually. Ever hear of the bloody rebellions of Has Naad?" he asked.

It was a city a long distance down the coast but still known for trading. The rebellions were well known for how brutally the Royal families had been disposed of. The city had been sieved by the Kings uncle and had ended in an even bloodier manner.

His blood was still pumping from the thrill of the ball. Taking such precise organisation and turning into gloriously brutal chaos was what he did. It simply took many forms.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Raziel seemed in high spirits and they were in a way infectious. She had been starting down the path of beating herself up in pre-preparation for her sisters abuse on what she had done but decided instead to follow the suit of the man whose company she kept right now. His job, if it could be called as such, was an interesting topic of discussion. Her brows pulled down and knotted as she racked her memories for the Kingdom he spoke of.

"Was that the one where the Queen and her children were thought to have made it out of the country but their guards ended up betraying them and slaughtering them then leaving their bodies in their safe house?" all she could remember was how much it had unsettled the nobility here. Revolution was never something you wanted to hear about when it was your neck that would be on the chopping block.

 

[Raziel]

Raziel laughed. It was a particularly disturbing topic to be laughing about.

"I didn't even arrange that one. Despite the thoughts of the upper classes the peasant folk can be quite conniving when there is a need. I think the rich just like to imagine they have something...special about themselves. Something that separates them from the rest. Makes them almost invincible. I adore seeing them confronted with that falsehood," he explained.

The tiefling would not normally be so forthcoming. He was unwrapping some part of his core, a heart of his motivations. It wasn't a secret. Most who learned it simply did not have long left on this world.

"I feel you learned this lesson a long time ago?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie didn't think she had actually heard him laugh before. It was a startling sound and she cast him a look unsure if it heralded some further mischief or genuine mirth. Given the topic of discussion it could probably go either way. The way he spoke about his line of ... 'work' was interesting however even if it did make her subconsciously rub at her neck. It hadn't been that long ago that she was a part of the group he claimed to love messing with so.

She almost missed the slight tilt at the end of his sentence that made the statement a question and she nodded slowly as she contemplated it.

"I suppose I did. My older sisters basically raised me and they have been jaded to the world we were born into for a long time before my arrival. When we left it became even more apparent though, they just can't... function without their little flourishes or tea parties or diamonds," her eyes flicked then to the gem on her hand which had brought the two together and she held it up to admire it in the twilight now.

"Actually no I can understand the diamonds."

 

[Raziel]

"So you're stealing from the road to find your 'being rich children' habit? And I was just starting to find you interesting," Raziel purred.

"Ah that's not true," he admitting, thanking of her expression as she watched the light fade from the commander's eyes.

"I suppose if you started killing on the road the guard would send rather more men to flush you our of the woods."

It was probably an accurate observation. Raziel didn't make such things for no reason. He hoped to just plant enough of a concept that she would indulge herself again in the future.

"Now where was this wine?" he purred.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Should she be relieved or worried that he admitted he did find her interesting? Ignorance was bliss, Lottie decided and stuck her tongue out at his light ribbing of her rich child habit.

"My rich child habit robbed you of a diamond at least, you wouldn't appreciate such fine things," her voice was almost a perfect replica of the woman whose death they had faked. Hiking up the skirts of her dress she took them off the main pathway back towards the trees where they had hidden the chest with his clothes and her prizes. She was a little annoyed she had gotten blood on this dress but Rob would be able to get it out, he was a miracle worker with silk and blood.

"That," Lottie conceded to his point about killing as she dropped into a crouch and began uncovering the chest. "Is why my sisters have the no killing unless necessary rule. They're worried if they catch us I will be forced into going through with the marriage. The official stance is that they kidnapped me, because what girl in her right mind would want to run away from the Prince, right?" she rummaged around then made a small noise of victory when she found the bottles of wine and passed him one, taking one for herself and then moving to sit with her back against the tree.

"What about you, do tieflings get themselves stuck in weird arranged marriages?"

 

[Raziel]

Worse things had happened to those who had disobeyed the crown. The civilised so enjoyed their elegant balls and fine carriages. Yet they were also first to demand public and bloody execution for sport. Raziel had watched a lord laughing heartily as old lady was slowly crushed by rocks for worshipping the wrong gods.

"Oh I haven't been around many of my kind in a long time. Marriage can still be a bartering tool among my people of course. Perhaps not so common."

Raziel dropped to his haunches next to her knees. His tailed draped itself across her shins.

"It wasn't necessary to kill that man, was it? You enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Seeing that passion rise to the surface then watching you use it..." His words trailed off as his tail swished across the front of her shins.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie had never met a tiefling before so the small bit of insight into his people was an interesting point of conversation for her. She was about to ask another follow up question when he crouched down beside her and encroached on her personal space once again. It was bothering her less now that she had spent such an evening with him so she didn't remove his tail from where it draped across her legs. Heat rose from her throat to her cheeks at his words though. There was no denying he was right. She had enjoyed it. There had been so much satisfaction in the action.

Despite him saying he enjoyed seeing that passion in her she couldn't meet his gaze; it had been a moment of lapsed control and she knew her family would be horrified at her for it. She gently ran her fingers over his tail and played it about her fingers.

"It was... a good evening," she would admit that. With him.

 

[Raziel]

"It's fine to admit that you enjoyed getting back at people who wronged you," he purred. His tail twisted and flicked in her grasp, clearly enjoying the attention.

"Don't be embarrassed by it. To deny yourself what you want is to deny who you are. You and your sisters take what you want don't you?"

Now his attention was firmly back on Lottie, but in a very different way to earlier. His rage had been sated, but his heart still fluttered at possibilities.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie's lips twitched in amusement as the tail wound about her wrist and she petted it more. She wondered what it was like to have such a thing.The smile followed her as she turned her gaze up towards his but she scrunched her nose up a little at his question then turned her attention to the bottle of wine and began to open it.

"Well. My oldest sister prefers to steal things we can sell and then give money to the poor. I steal things I want - she doesn't approve," a shrug. "My other sister is only in it for the booze, so I have to hide that," success. Lottie smiled triumphantly as she popped the cork then took a swig. "I think tonight was the first time in a long time I've done things how I want to do them," she passed him the bottle. "What about you, you just do what you want all the time?"

 

[Raziel]

"Very much so, yes," he replied. His yellow eyes seemed to glow with mirth. Despite having a bottle of his own he decided to wrap his hand around the neck of her own bottle to try and ease it from her hand.

"Your sisters sound delightful," he mused. "You all just hide out in the woods here together?"

He knew full well that she was going to be defensive about it, but now he was back to amusing himself. The high of the evening had been to great to just lie down and rest.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

For a moment, Lottie let herself imagine what it would be like to do what she wanted every single day of her life. It definitely didn't seem to be doing Raziel any harm. She made a noise in her throat as if she were considering the possibilities and then reluctantly let the bottle go when he tugged at the one in her hand.

Her gaze became guarded however when he asked about where they lived. He had promised not to hurt her for a year, but he had made no such promise to her sisters. She hoped the evening might have earned her some of his respect - he had at least listened to her no kill rule even if she had broken it herself.

"We travel around, but yes we all live together," her sisters most definitely would not like him. Well. Wren would despise him, Blanche... That would depend on how much she had drunk and if they came bearing more wine. "Do you have siblings?" skirting the issue she tried to bring the topic back to him.

 

[Raziel]

An obvious deflection, but he let it slide. He did not truly have an interest in her sisters. She held his full attention, captivating the tiefling blood mage. It was not a sensible position to be in. That did not mean it could not be enjoyable.

Raziel lifted the bottle from her hands and tilted his head back to take a long swig of wine. The evening had been thirsty work, though it was not sensible to replace the lost blood with wine.

"No, no family at all I'm afraid," he replied without a trace of regret in his voice. "Do you know, you are quite lucky you met me this way?"

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

His tail was still wound loosely round her wrist and now her other hand had been robbed of the bottle she returned it to petting it. She thought briefly about making a comment on how lucky he was about not having a family but it wouldn't be the truth; Lottie couldn't imagine a world without her sisters. It was why their opinion mattered so much to her and why she would be keeping this evenings events hushed. Her lips did curl at his other sentence though, the arrogance and amusement in his own voice.

"What, getting drunk?" her eyebrows rose as she looked at the half a bottle of wine now left. She reached for it and gently tugged to see if he would actually share it. "Not trying to flay the skin from my bones?"

 

[Raziel]

Raziel let the bottle slip from his grip freely. He laughed out loud and his tail gave a sinful flick.

"My other job, when I am not keeping myself amused, is hunting rogue mages. Could have been a contract worth my while on your family," he replied.

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie raised the bottle to her lip then froze when he confessed his other job. She grimaced a little and then took a long drink of the bottle, her eyes briefly closing with the motion. The highway woman set it back down when she was done and then glanced at the tail around her wrist and held it up.

"Could have... So this isn't me under arrest?" her head canted to the side for a moment before offering up the bottle to him once again.