Experiment failed. Turns out: Not getting to choose the guy you want as your child inevitably ends in his destruction. Which is a good thing, seeing as it didn’t end in mine as well.

While worrying about Marius’ ass as well as my own I had to come up with some idea on how to test his loyalties and whether or not he’d stick to the rules. So I asked him to drink from me, once. He complained, of course. But after a little help and some artificially enhanced nice words he eventually complied. Come next evening I tell him to drink once more. This time he refuses. This time I’m not making him. Instead I tell him that it is my responsibility to command him in all things. He says that I cautioned him against drinking from other people. I tell him again that he should drink. Which he doesn’t. Being my nice little self I tell him that we’d talk about it some more the next night, only to have him staked during daytime. Later on Greg saw to it that there wasn’t much more than smoldering ashes left of him, now resting in a nice urn on the sofa table.

Truth be told I couldn’t care less whether the guy liked me or not. I stuck my head out for him, hoping that he would see the wisdom in heeding my every order. And that was exactly where I was wrong. He didn’t. Hell, what do I expect of a mechanic. So I did what had to be done. No point in risking us all for some kid who got turned by accident. Don’t feel particularily bad about the kill. I know it made sense. The thing that bothers me is that I let the prince down. While I did stick to her beloved traditions I did not manage to safeguard her humanity in this respect. I should have known better, should have guessed the kid would do as he did. In fact I did! Still I kept telling myself that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. So much for taking chances. So much for playing nicely. I’m done with that now. Knives are out.

Everyone was so worried whether I could deal with the whole thing. For crying out loud, I’m not a kid, guys! I can take care of myself, believe it or not. And I do have the same type of fangs as you do. Never fool yourself to believe that I can’t use them to bite down hard.

The good thing that happened is that I finally managed to talk to the prince, if in the company of Thomas and Jason. I still don’t think I should trust Thomas. The thing with him is that if he manages to sneak past the prince it’s bloody damn likely that he can sneak past me as well. So what’s the point in trying to keep secrets. He’d find out sooner or later. And since he seems to share our worries he might as well make himself useful. Can’t say that he can keep a secret though. Took him less than two minutes to spill the beans to the lady. Thanks for that, Thomas. That really wasn’t any help.

Jason and I got slapped on the fingers for missconduct by Alessandro. I guess he’s right, we could come up with a bit of effort for at least trying to pretend we’re sucking up to elders – those who aren’t the prince. What he also held against us was a lack of interest in politics. Me? Alright, I get that. Fine. This isn’t the right clan for me. Nor is any of the others. So what, this is where I’m stuck. As for Jason… I hope he understood that Alessandro wasn’t kidding about this. Guess that snatching good Coraline right off the domain gathering sort of stressed that point. He and I got lucky. We’re still considered useful enough to be worth putting some energy into us. But once we loose that aspect…

Politics… Right now most people seem to consider me to be Alessandros lap dog. Which at least prevents me from being at the bottom of the food chain. It also means that, should I wish to ascend, I would have to go past him. And there’s two good reasons that keep me from doing that: On one hand I gave my word that I wouldn’t do so. And on the other hand I need a lot more time to analyze how the game is played. And while I’m busy doing that I have to keep my head down – unless I want it chopped off. There’s only two strategies in this society. Either you are insignificant enough for people not to care about you. Or you are scary enough for them to leave you alone. As long as I can’t pull off scary I need to lay low. Makes perfect sense to me. Obviously it makes no sense at all to Alessandro. I’ll try to explain. Again.

Jason… Keeps spinning me about. I’ve never seen a guy who can seem so insecure one moment and dead on confident about himself the next. If my guts serve me right both is an act. Guess it’s once more part of deceiving people the way he learned to do it a long time ago. A shame, really. Mostly because I’m much aware that this cannot be undone. So despite all the acting, all the fake smiles, I still think that there’s something left that is worth being called human. By now I think he needs those big speeches he holds, mostly in order to convince himself that they are true. Or more precisely – that some time ago he wished for them to be true. These days he ends up playing the part of an idealist, just as not to forget who he once was. All of which are pretty safe indicators that I should stay clear of him. Only, I’m not.

I’m not sure whether Dee realizes yet what happened to Marius. That is the other thing that bothers me. She’s human after all. At least human enough to care about human life. Not that she could stay angry for long… My blood is taking care of that. Still. I don’t want her to be angry over this.

“Nate, just stop! Please!”
Natürlich war es nicht das erste mal, dass Nathaniel auf einen seiner beiden Ghule losgegangen war. Allerdings war es sehr wohl immer der selbe Ghul. Die andere wusste immerhin genug um nicht dazwischen zu gehen.
“You’re hurting him!”
Zweifelsfrei schmerzten die Wunden, die die fänge des vermeindlich jungen Mannes gerissen hatten sehr. Mit Mühe zog sich der verletzte Mann über den Boden in Richtung Tür. Seinem Herrn aus der Sicht zu kommen war seine einzige Hoffnung, wie so oft.
Das Zimmer selbst glich einem Schlachtfeld. Möbel waren verrückt oder umgestoßen. An einigen Stellen auf dem Boden befand sich Blut. Ein Spiegel war geborsten und die zugehörigen Scherben ließen die Schritte des Angreifers nur noch gefährlicher klingen als sie es so oder so schon taten.
Dabei wirkte der Junge sonst alles andere als furchteinflößend. Eine Augenklappe, ein fast allgegenwärtiges Lächeln, spitze aber meist scherzhafte Worte für jeden. Alles in allem ein Mann, der sein Leben genoss und den richtigen Zeitpunkt erwachsen zu werden schlicht verpasst hatte. Oder ihn willentliyh weitergewunken.
Es war das gleiche Gesicht, die gleichen Kleider. Aber der Blick in dem einen verbleibenden Auge war alles andere als gezähmt. Alle Wut dieser Welt richtete sich gegen sein Opfer am Boden. Alle Gier gegen das Blut, das sich aus diversen Wunden über den Boden verteilte.

Die Tür fiel hinter beiden ins Schloss. “Greg, you’re such an idiot! Why do you keep calling him that?!” Fluchend und zeternd machte sich Dee daran die Wunden ihres Leidensgenossen zu versorgen, so gut es eben ging. Nach all den Jahren hatte sie einen gewissen grad trauriger Geübtheit darin erlangt. Dennoch stellte sie dem etwas älteren Mann, wie so oft, die gleiche Frage.
“It is his name…”, keuchte dieser angeschlagen zurück. “I will not neglect him or his dignity by calling him anything but that…”
Mit zusammengepressten Lippen versorgte Dee Gregory weiter. Sie erinnerte sich sehr gut wie es einmal war. Früher, da hatte dieser Name ihren besten Freund – der Himmel bewahre sie davor es als Partner zu bezeichnen – zwar wütend gemacht, nie aber zu körperlicher Gewalt greifen lassen. Von der er so oder so kein sonderlicher Freund war.
Aber jetzt, da die Nächte um so vieles besser waren, hatte es sie oft ihren Schlaf gekostet sich um den Butler zu sorgen oder sich zu fragen wann die Nacht kommen würde, in der es Greg nicht mehr gelingen würde Nate rechtzeitig zu entkommen. Zweifelsfrei nur eine Frage der Zeit, so diktierte es jedenfalls die Statistik die Nate jetzt sicher bemüht hätte.
“He will kill you, you know…”
“Most certainly not. I still see the boy I tended to when he was but four.”