Logan Allister Buchanan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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newyorknoire2012-08-08 04:33 pm
loganthebrave) wrote in newyorknoire2012-08-08 04:33 pm
Entry tags:
"But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong... I'm movin' on."
Who: Logan Buchanan, Aidan Wright and Juliette Rousseau
What: Plan of attack
Where: Soho, New York City
When: Follow Juliette staking Kurt out in the bar
Logan was sitting at the kitchen bench of the modern-designed loft apartment in Soho, New York City. It was the place he and his mate had acquired about a year earlier when Logan took a keen liking to the city. He wasn’t technically classified an infant Kindred anymore, he had managed to find his feet just fine, but he knew the more... developed in age of his kind around him would often think otherwise. Sure, he had a very reckless streak, and he liked to have fun. It was probably inevitable he would get itchy feet in one place, and that was exactly what happened. His Sire had to loosen the apron strings on him, much to her chagrin. A child of a Prince, it was difficult to be a free-spirit, but he wasn’t a happy little Kindred when he was isolated, as it was discovered, and they had to give into his wanderlust.
New York was where things took him, and Aidan, of course, followed him. They were mated and even though they discovered early on that Logan wasn’t going to be a monogamous Kindred, they still had to return to each other after going out to play with others. But it was usually Logan who was the wanderer with more varied taste. Aidan was happy to be the more mature of the pair, whilst Logan indulged whenever he felt like it. He had been developed into a beautiful Kindred with very distinct Presence to him, and with his blond-haired, blue-eyed angelic look, he could draw whoever he took a taste for. But in an odd turn of events, when they got to New York, it was Aidan who actually took a keen interest and attraction to a young homosexual American fashion designer. As a Ventrue, Aidan adored all things expensive and beautiful, but he was fascinated by the young man and his work... much to Logan’s amusement.
But now everything had turned into quite the predicament. Not only had the kid walked in front of an oncoming speeding car to top himself in a miserable hole of depression one night after leaving a socialite party Aidan and Logan inserted themselves at, but having sensed the boy was in danger due to his dip in mood, Aidan followed him home and was on the scene in a heartbeat (or not, ironically) to save him. It was too late, though. The injuries he sustained almost killed him instantly. CPR was useless, and it was as he was drawing his last breaths that Aidan panicked and begged Logan to Embrace him on the spot... the young man was just too beautiful and Toreador material to commit further sins of forcing him into the Ventrue world.
Logan was slightly bored, though. Yes, he had Embraced his first pup and yes, the kid was fucking immaculate, but he was Aidan’s toy. Logan would never, ever fight his mate for prey or even a playtoy like that. Neither of them just took into account that Kurt would be a feisty little bitch, and in his Kindred infancy, was proving quite the handful. He had followed Logan in the early days, and connected to Aidan, but now he was restless and a loose canon for some reason. There was something deep inside him affecting his ability to prioritise his Embrace and hone it, but it wasn’t something any of them could put their finger on, especially when Kurt kept evading their presence and brushing them off. If they tried to stronghold him, he got bitchy... which rapidly turned into vicious and he had actually attacked them both. Aidan had pointed out that it was almost like Kurt was protecting a pup of his own, but he wasn’t married, he had no children, and was single. It made no sense.
So, that they had called in back-up. One Juliette Rousseau, the mate of the French Kindred Prince, and one of the finest Toreadors of her time. It helped that she happened to share a Sire with Logan, and that Kurt seemed to connect more on a friendship level with females than males, but boy did she have her work cut out for her. Logan sipped the dark liquid from the wine glass in his hand and set it on the counter, watching Aidan and Juliette across the counter closely. Juliette had just arrived from analysing Kurt interact with a friend in a bar, and even then, he had left before she could approach him. “I’m telling you, the wee shite is a pain in the arse. Aye, he’s gorgeous, and aye, I’ll fucking kill anyone who gets close enough to him to hurt him. Aye, Aidan would probably burn all of New York down if someone lay a negative finger on his very gorgeous chestnut head, but... there’s something we’re missing. You get too close to him, it’s like sticking your hand into the mouth of a fucking croc. He’ll take it off, and your head and dick with it,” he pointed out, shaking his head. “He wasnae a good choice to be taken against his will.”
Juliette tilted her chin up as she gave her “half-brother” a serene smile and worked on taking her earrings out carefully as she started to relax in the confines of the loft. She would have been happy to have stayed out all night, but she knew the two male Kindred were waiting for word. She also knew that she had a phone call to make to Blaise because if he didn’t come to New York soon she would have to amuse herself some other way. Not that monogamy ever stopped either of them, or was ever an issue but some itches she preferred her Prince to scratch.
She hummed as she walked behind Aidan and ran her fingers over the back of his shoulders and nearly laughed when she saw him tense. “Now, now. You don’t need to get so touchy, mon cher. I’m not about to jump you. I know where your tastes lie. And because of that, I know that I won’t get my non-existent penis bitten off by your darling protege.” She stepped out of her heels and even stepped out of her dress so that she was just in her slip. Juliette carefully lay the dress over the back of a chair before she wandered back towards Logan and gave him a playful nip on the earlobe. “Have you missed me, mon frere? I’ve missed you. Now, with your little pup it’s hard to pin down but given what I could manage to pick up from the conversation between him and his little... friend... well, I think you’ll find there’s one part of his human life he hasn’t given up completely. A lost love. Or perhaps a puppy, I don’t know. You know how those base notes in a club can interfere with our hearing.”
Aidan watched the two Toreadors but he didn’t relax. He showed no sign of it. For months now this had been weighing on his mind. He knew it was never easy. Lord knew he’d had his hands full with Logan when he’d first been Embraced but they had known the issues. They had realised why he’d never quite settled. Ros had helped, even Juliette though the French woman had sometimes rubbed Logan up the wrong way more often than not. Aidan sipped at his own glass before he huffed out a noise that was a frustrated and stunted growl. His eyes flashed briefly before he shook his head and just waved a hand. None of this was what he’d planned. Coming to New York was not supposed to end in the creation of a new Kindred, and yet here they were. If his hunger hadn’t gotten the better of him then he never would have found Kurt. But the young man had been touched by a near death experience and given how rare it was to find a human that satiated his taste, Aidan had been driven to the point of obsession to get his fangs into him. Only now he’d been denied. Now he was a Sire and not just a hungry set of fangs to feed. Logan had been the one to Embrace Kurt. The one to taste his blood and there was a small part of Aidan that was annoyed by it all. Logan couldn’t have even appreciated a single drop.
“This is all such a clusterfuck. What did we really know about him? Fucking nothing. Just that I wanted his blood and that he was a fashion designer and that he had been in danger and just--fuck it all. Honestly, if he doesn’t start trusting us and talking to us then he’ll never calm down. He’ll never settle in his new skin, and honestly that’s just a scary thought to me. I just want to know there’s a way in.”
“He’s into fashion,” Logan offered unhelpfully, gesturing with his glass. “He has a brother, and parents that really care about him. Google said he lost his mum when he was a kid, so it must be a stepmother with his dad now. He used to be really musical, into performing, but didnae get into it professionally after he made it in the fashion world. Who the fuck is this friend, though? What was he talking to them about? I cannae even buy he’s pining after a puppy. He isnae the sort to let pet hair on his clothing. Who would be?” He gave his nose a disgusted scrunch and stuck his tongue out. Nice clothes were fantastic, who would want to taint them like that? In fact, even now, he gave his shoulder a small brush to free it from invisible speck. Ironically, in fact, it was one of Kurt’s designs. The label was Aidan’s choice for both of them lately, but Logan couldn’t deny the fabrics felt wonderful.
He reached over and gave Aidan’s arm a soothing rub. “I know, it sucks, babe. I know you’re irked I got to...” he waved his hand, “experience him before you did, and he was your project, and all that. But you didnae want him to kick the bucket! You wanted him to stay, and you panicked, and now we’ve got to deal with that. We still need to somehow figure out how to get him to put being fang happy, but content, before everything else or he’s going to keep spinning the fuck out of control. I know, I’ve been there. I didnae believe any of it because the friggen tumour had me forgetting it. It sorta sucked, until I got used to it. But, I mean... how does it feel for you hearing he might have someone special after all? He fucking kept that concealed. I thought he was single. The guy better be worthy, and at least have a nice arse.”
Juliette checked her fingernails as Logan brushed the invisible lint away. She started to hum softly to herself as she replayed the scene in the club in her mind. “Books. Vampire novels. That friend of his is an author. I remember her face. She’s not actually that bad, but like any other human writing about us she gets the details wrong.” Juliette glanced between the two men. “She has a crush on that boy with the lightsabre. I think Logan might have to go undercover, you know. Do as I did and get close. He could almost pass for a Jedi.”
“No.” It was out before Aidan could stop it and he pushed an unnecessary breath through his nose. It was more just the act of it, of needing to deflate his chest like any normal man would when frustrated. He tugged at his shorter locks. It was strange not having his ponytail lately, but the change was needed. Necessary. He still hadn’t quite decided where he wanted to settle his business in New York. Not when he and Logan were starting to entrench themselves in the social scene. It wouldn’t do to fallback to being a cop, or even FBI. “Well, yes. I mean we do need more information and this female friend could be a bridge. If Kurt himself hasn’t mentioned it, or hasn’t brought this lover out into the open then we still need to find them. It’s enough to have him causing mayhem and mischief. To have him refusing to settle. Clearly this person is someone he’s missing in his life. Perhaps even someone that would at least get him to stop and think.”
Logan shot Juliette an offended glare. “I’m way hotter than that whining brat,” he scoffed. Clearly, he was never much of a fan of the new Star Wars movies. Old school all the way. “Did he know you were there watching him? Because he has blatantly told the both of us to go fuck ourselves at different times. Others, he’ll tolerate us. Mostly, he just screens our calls and does his own fashion designer thing, albeit in the night hours now. He had to have been pretty independent before he decided to make himself roadkill. You should have felt him that night, though. I’ve never been around anyone suicidal being Kindred before. It was awful...” he murmured, a hint of a troubled frown appearing on his face. He knew Aidan had been really worried that night, and even though Logan had wanted to stay at the party and find himself a nice takeaway meal to indulge in, it was one of the only times since his post-Embrace phase that Aidan had strong-holded him and demanded they leave.
And then the next thing Logan knew, Aidan was shoving him down over Kurt’s broken body on the sidewalk practically screaming at him to do it. Luckily it was a deserted street, save for the speeding car. Probably why the car felt it could speed in the normally traffic-congested city. In the heat of the moment, Logan had just panicked too, tapping into Aidan’s emotions as his mate, and did it without thinking. It took a good few months in the wake of it for him to come to terms with what he did, and it had put a strain on their relationship for awhile. Luckily, Blaise had stepped in to help them both. He had taken Juliette to be Embraced against her will to save her, via Ros, so he understood Aidan’s predicament 100%. “So, you want me to just interrogate the woman? Fuck, I dinnae have to read the fucking books, do I? Please tell me there is a movie version. What was said about the lover? Any details, or is it going to be like finding the Holy Grail?” He looked at Aidan in concern again, and he could feel his lover’s discontent. Kurt was probably the closest thing to a child he really ever had... and probably would have. Logan had to wonder if that was part of it. Aidan always seemed the sort who probably would have had a family of his own in life if he hadn’t been Embraced. That was one of the biggest things Kindred were denied, and Kurt was so young, and Aidan so protective. Logan should probably be jealous, but there was so many more deeper issues running here.
Juliette flashed Logan a devilish grin before she moved away to help herself to a glass of refreshments. She also took a peek at Aidan’s laptop that he had setup on the counter to check the stock markets, but she quickly changed the screen to Google and searched for the author before spinning it around to show Logan. “Et voila! Your mission should you choose to fuck her, hm? I’m sure Aidan won’t mind you getting literally under the covers. An interrogation is so unnecessary. So... pedestrian. Do it the old fashioned way and seduce her. And non, no movies unfortunately. She seems to be stalling on that front. I had a meal who seemed obsessed with the novels, but I naturally made him understand the reality was so much better. I dare say reading the novels is not a requirement, I can give you the basics. I think we have the lover’s name though. I did have to make sure I heard right because at first I thought they were talking about Blaise, but apparently it’s ‘Blaine’.”
Aidan’s gaze flicked between the monitor and Logan before he just walked around the counter to sit next to his mate. He settled on the stool and hooked his foot through the bottom of Logan’s so that their legs touched. “You might have to do it, love. I’ve given up being jealous of you, and you know that. You have a much more open taste. I can’t deny it.” And it wasn’t as if Logan should feel jealous of Aidan and Kurt either. It really was a strange feeling. It was starting to feel more like a paternal attachment than anything driven by lust so in that Logan wasn’t far off the mark in his thinking. Aidan just had no idea how to deal with it because even as a man he hadn’t thought children would happen. He’d always preferred men. He had no idea how to deal with children past the ones he’d met through work. Through the ones he’d witness grow over the decades. Kurt would no longer age, but would mature as a Kindred. “Please, Logan. I need to help him.”
Logan threw his hand up in frustration. “Did he know you were there?!” he demanded with a small growl. “Because I need to know if there’s a chance he might be pissed now we were tailing him again. Last time that happened, he ended up rocking up here and attacking the doorman because he hadnae eaten. He hasnae learned how to satiate himself when he’s high on emotion well enough because he hasnae let us close enough to train him and teach him. He’s worse than I was! I know I was a giant pain in the ass, but this one is a survivor too, he’s used to going it alone, and whilst that is really, really fucking annoying, it’s... well, it’s heartbreaking. Look at him,” he said, gesturing emphatically to his mate. “Mr Cool Ventrue is losing it because he’s all tapping into some sort of... parental instinct he didnae know he had. He used to want to consume the laddie simply because he was this immaculate soul, he wanted to taste him and engulf him, but it’s different now. And he isnae even his Sire. I am... and I sorta just want to give the lad a wee clip around the ear, and that scares the shit out of me, because I’ve never wanted kids. That was Rory’s deal. We’re turning into Brangelina, only instead of wee foreign kids, we suddenly want to adopt this wee sassy gay bitch we cannae get near for the life of us unless it’s on his term. If we try, we’ll end up exposing the whole Masquerade in New York, and that will piss off the big guns anyway.”
He looked at the laptop screen anyway, and he knew what he was going to have to do. This woman was probably the biggest lead they had to finding out more about Kurt, and Logan had the luxury of being bisexual and a Toreador with the ability to use both to his maximum benefit. He could probably have her putty in his hands in the blink of an eye and he gave a tilt of his head in contemplation, skimming the details on the screen. “Exposure could be our key with her...” he mused quietly. “She isnae just going to start spilling her guts about Kurt, no matter how much I wave my cock at her. If this is her realm, and she’s getting it all wrong... oh fuck me dead, she thinks the mirror thing is real? I couldnae survive without my mirror!” he cried when his eyes landed on one detail of the writer’s fictional vampire kind. “Knowledge will be the key to drawing her in, not dick.”
Juliette held her hand up before she blew Logan a kiss. “No, he didn’t realise I was watching him. He knew I was there. We both sensed each other. We exchanged longing gazes across the club. Actually we didn’t, but he was definitely watching moi, not the other way around.” She took the laptop back and navigated towards YouTube to find an interview she’d watching with Tina Cohen-Chang. She pushed it back towards Logan and Aidan so that they could both watch. “She’s a little naive. I think she still finds a childish excitement with our kind, but I can’t fault her for her research. She’s just wasted time on the wrong research. If you think knowledge is what she needs to light a fire in her heart and give us the information then you may want to check with the Prince of New York regardless. I know Blaise would prefer knowing who was being outed and for what reason if this were France. We’ve already traveled this road before, hm? It does not always end well. Just this time your adopted gay bitch is on the line.”
Aidan had been resting his hand on Logan’s back as he took comfort in his mate’s physical presence. There was a part of him that wanted to do more than just touch his back, but the more human aspect was too troubled. Hard to feel relaxed enough to engage in sexual activity when all he could think about was their ‘child’ out there threatening the Masquerade. If he did expose them, if he did cause such a disaster for Kindred in this city then they would all be at risk of losing their lives. Even Juliette simply for associating with them. He leaned forward as he hit the spacebar on the keyboard and watched the woman closely. “If we did this without the Prince’s consent then we would need to be absolutely certain that this Ms Cohen-Chang would not expose us. It may mean that we have to take drastic measures for both her sake and ours. Not to mention Kurt’s.” His brow was furrowed deeply and it felt like the frown was a permanent fixture. “But at the end of the night, this still isn’t about us. It’s about Kurt. All this is for his well-being. Whether I’m his Sire or not I have to help him.”
Logan drummed his fingers on the countertop as he thought the whole thing over. At the end of the day, he still functioned very much with his MI6 brain that had failed him when his human mind was destroyed by a brain tumour. All that was gone when he was Embraced, though, and after the initial frenzy and confusion he suffered through finding himself in his new skin, his mind had returned with every bit the sharpness and clarity it had before. He shook his head. “Nay, we arenae going to make nice with the New York Prince. Nay yet anyway. This... Ms Cohen-Chang willnae spill our secret, I’ll make sure of that. I’ll tell her just enough to tantalise her, and dangling more information in front of her to ensure we get what we want first. Then we’ll play it by ear. Whether we like to admit it or not, I’m in deep fucking shit doing what I did to Kurt on NYC soil and we cannae be certain Kurt will keep up the ruse. It’s something he has been elusive on, at best. That is what he has over us. He has both promised to say he asked to be Embraced and also in fits of frenzied anger, told me he would tell everyone what I did. He’s too volatile. He’s fucking smart, and clever. He knows what he is, and he also knows what we did wrong. That’s why we have to tread carefully here.”
“I’m worried about this... lover he seems to have. Did it seem serious or was the lad just a good lay Kurt’s desperate for? Because if it’s more than that, laddie could just walk up to this Blaine and tell him everything, then Embrace him on the spot to have him back. Not that Kurt in his normal calm state would do that. I dinnae think he would have the conscience for it. But in a frenzy? Aye. I always thought he was passionate. He’s every bit the thread of Toreador. He’s the essence of what the Clan pride themselves on. If his heart belongs to another, we really could be in a fuck load more shit than we even thought we were starting with,” he pointed out restlessly and watched the YouTube video closely, eyes narrowed a little in thought. “If she’s that frivilous about knowledge of vampires, she will thrive on the mere essence of its concealment. The secret and keeping it is what will hook her. It will consume her with the want to know more.” And then he was smirking at Juliette in amusement. “You were intrigued by him, dinnae even try to pretend you werenae. You were probably itching to get into an original design of his too.”
Juliette held a hand to her chest before she batted her lashes at Logan. “Moi? Mais oui, of course. What woman wouldn’t? But I have my darling fags right here. Even if you are but half a fag. I am still content to be the dear, sweet, sister hag. No doubt this Tina would like to be Kurt’s. I get the feeling she was at one point, though I wonder if it really would change should she find out the truth. If in fact she would think it was too much when she starts to believe vampires are real. You know, Kurt seemed content to tease her about our Kind. Though not doing it directly. I did catch little bits and pieces. I do have to wonder if that was part of why he was watching me. If he wondered if I was about to spring them.” Juliette ran her tongue over fangs and tilted her head to the side as she once more considered the predicament. Considered what she would do if they were on her home soil and back in Blaise’s realm. Part of her wanted to call her mate and ask his advice but if they were leaving the New York Prince out of it, perhaps they should even leave Paris’ out of it too. “You had to know on some level that Embracing him against his will would cause trouble, though I am not condemning your actions. Far from it. I was not so far off a similar fate. But Blaise always had my heart even if Ros was the one to take me. Aidan, you need to keep a firm hand. You need to be his guide, not just his father. You may even need to give him some physical contact. Physical comfort.” Juliette raised an eyebrow. “Though nothing sexual. Just to allow him to know that it’s still possible. But to be perfectly honest having watched him tonight I think that’s part of the issue. He’s not a fan of contact in any fashion. Makes me wonder how he will cope as one of us.”
Aidan nodded as he listened to both of them, though his mind was still on Kurt. If it were possible his stomach would have twisted and clenched. As it was he was close to purging any blood he took in from the stress. He knew they’d made a mistake, but to let a life like Kurt’s go would have been a crime of its own. “No Prince,” he confirmed. Then he looked at Logan and he moved his hand up his back to rub his fingers against the back of the other Kindred’s neck. “But you really don’t have to go to this author if you don’t want to. I would understand, and I feel as if I’ve asked too much of you as it is. It should be me doing this. Should be me trying to make these things up to you...” Aidan dropped his head before he just gave a shake of it. “We need to though. We need to know who this Blaine is because clearly it’s a presence Kurt’s missing. Clearly it’s a dangerous link in the human world that a very unpredictable Kindred is getting antsy about. If he’s not going to be sent into a frenzy over anything else, he may well over this. And Logan’s right. It could result in this Blaine being taken against his will, but Kurt does not yet know all our ways. He won’t know how to mate with Blaine and that would be an even bigger disaster.”
“Of course I fecking knew,” Logan snorted with a roll of his eyes. “But you arenae exactly thinking the most rationally when your mate is there in a near frenzy almost shoving your face down to the throat of a kid who has just made himself roadkill with all of two life breaths left in him and his heart just stopped. We panicked, we both did, aye? There wasnae any time to stop and think if we were doing the right thing or nay. We just... did it. End of story. Now we have to deal with it. The biggest mistake wasnae Embracing him, but doing it nay knowing anything about him. But obviously he’s nearly gone over the rainbow sometime in the past, or Aidan’s fangs wouldnae have been hot for him on any level. We dinnae know how that was or why. For all we know, this wasnae the first time he tried to do himself in. Only, this time, he woulda succeeded if we hadnae have followed him home. It is what it is now, and we just have to figure out the best way to deal with it. And physical comfort is out of the question. He doesnae want either of us, and he doesnae like being touched. You lay a finger on him, and you’re on the receiving end of a very angry Death Glare, silver eyes, fangs and all. Nay in the hot way, either. I swear, he hissed at me once. Which makes me also wonder if it’s worth just finding this lad of his. It might calm him down and turn him into a fluffy kitten of a Kindred, purring even.”
He looked at Aidan with a long-suffering yet affectionate gaze. “Aye, like that is going to work Mr Gay-o-rama who only like people who have nearly been dead. You wouldnae be able to seduce her or get close to her even if you wanted to. Unless she’s nearly topped herself too in the past, but somehow, I dinnae think we will be that lucky. And at the end of the day, she still has a pussy, babe. Nay your cup of tea. Anyway, she could be a bit of fun. It’s nay like she’s hard on the eyes in any sense, and she’s got talent, even if her facts suck giant vampire balls. I’ll make you a deal. You read the books and summarise all the bits I need to know for me, especially all the shitty facts she has wrong, and I’ll start putting myself regularly in her presence so she notices me and I get under her skin.”
Juliette watched Aidan and Logan with amusement and perhaps even a pang of longing for Blaise. She touched her phone again, stroking the edges as she thought about texting him. As much as she loved being with her brother-in-law and his gay mate, she missed her Prince. She missed her reason for being. She licked her lips and made a small mental note to find a meal as soon as possible. She would feel better once she’d played with her dinner. Stop being one of those sickeningly sad women who couldn’t function without a man. She was Toreador. She didn’t need a man. She just wanted them. All the time. “Fantastique, we have a plan. Aidan will suffer through the printed text, you will suffer through her pussy and Kurt will suffer through being at all. I will, of course, do my best to talk to him. Distract him. See if we can’t weasel out a couple of details that way while you focus on the girl. She really is young, isn’t she? I almost envy her youth but then I remember I still have centuries to enjoy being so very good at being me. She has decades before mortality gets the better of her.”
Aidan rolled his eyes at Juliette’s theatricality before pulling Logan into a heated kiss, his fangs catching his mate’s bottom lip before he licked at the blood they drew. His hand clutched at Logan possessively and for a moment he battled with his instincts. Part of him knew that he would always need to let Logan go. Let him wander. The other part wanted to remind the Scotsman who he belonged to. He nuzzled him before pushing him away with a slight smirk. “Yes, yes. I’m terribly gay and horrible at pretending I enjoy pussy. I’m a great actor but not that good. Perhaps you’re right to take that bullet for the team. I will, naturally, read the novels and give you Cliff’s Notes. Preferably while you’re naked. Sucking my gloriously gay dick and giving me one last ride before you start smelling of a woman.” Aidan winked at him before taking a sip of his own glass. “Which reminds me, you’re going to need to be very, very careful about being around Kurt after being near her. He’ll know her scent now. He’s going to know you’ve seen her. Been with her.”
Logan licked over his lips in the wake of the kiss, healing over the bite there without even thinking about it. It wasn’t like he forgot his own days as a very new Kindred, pretty much despising any time someone tried to constrict him in what he did. At the end of the day, their best move had been to give him the freedom and independence he needed because that had been his personality before he was Embraced. Trying to isolate him had only caused him to become more of a pain in the ass. With the freedom, he developed control and a keen knowledge of his Kind and his Clan. It was true, with the blood of the Scottish Prince, he had turned out to be an extremely powerful Kindred in his own right, and a lot of it had been instinctive learning rather than being taught and trained. Now he had Embraced his first offspring, so to speak, even if his hand had been forced, and it was looking like Kurt was showing a lot of his own tendencies. If they weren’t careful, Kurt really could destroy a hell of a lot.
“Pain in the ass wee bitch is the bane of my existence, you do realise?” Logan told Aidan with a pointed ‘You’re lucky I love you and we’re stuck together’ look. “He’s too savvy for his own good, even if I’m sort of getting a clue now how much shit I caused in my early days. But I swear I wasnae this much of a hemorrhoid. It doesnae help he’s a celebrity either. He knows how to use his exposure to his advantage. You couldnae have picked a random nobody, could you? Nay to mention the fact his dad is a congressman. Every time I try to get close to him, he gives me this bitchy look. Seriously, it’s worse than even any of the lassies we know. But... I do want to know how you’re going to try and get through to him. How are you going to even get him to come to you?” he asked Juliette.
Juliette had finally given into temptation and texted Blaise but her attention was soon back on the two men and she raised an eyebrow as she smirked. “Curiosity, mon frere. He saw me tonight. He knows I’m nearby. He might want to know who I am. I won’t reveal our link just yet but I’m sure he’s no idiot. He’ll realise. He’ll work it out. Maybe he won’t know exactly who I am, but he’ll know I am involved with you two. Just leave it to me, hm? I’m used to making people do what they don’t want to. It’s why Blaise keeps me close.” Her phone went off just as she finished and she picked it up. “Speak of the devil. I’ll leave you two lovers to hash out the details while I gather my strength for battle.” She slid off her stool and kissed them both twice on the cheek. Her fingers slid through Logan’s hair affectionately and she gave him a third kiss on the forehead. “You were such a pain, mon frere, but you have blossomed wonderfully. I am glad to have you as my family. I am glad to help with your new one. As hard as it seems now, we are all stronger for having battled through this terrible start. We are not all instant Kindred wunderkind. Sometimes it just takes a little nudging. We will not lose your enfant. I promise.”
Aidan smiled a little at Juliette before she left them and then he turned his attention back to Logan and kissed him once more. He slipped his arms around him and held him before his shoulders slumped. “I never wanted to put you in this position. I never wanted to force you to Embrace someone. This wasn’t how it should have been. And yes, I should have found out what he was about before it happened, but... as you said, my fangs got a hard-on and there was no stopping them.” Aidan smirked a little before he pushed Logan back into the counter now that they were alone and rocked his hips forward. “It would have been better if I could have fucked him, fed from him and left him to forget but it didn’t work out that way. I just fucked up royally and now we have to clean it up. I miss the simple days. No longer a couple of bachelors, hm?”
Logan watched Juliette go and then turned back to his mate with a telltale smirk. He rested his head on his hand and just analysed him for a moment. They knew each other so well, and even if they still clashed now that Logan was a talented Kindred in his own right who hadn’t been able to stick with the monogamy thing, they still ended up returning to each other every single time. It’s how they worked and they had found a niche that, for a little while there, seemed like it would be impossible to get back. “See, I beg to differ. You wouldnae have just picked up any boring old kid. He got under your skin, and it’s because you dinnae know why that he has. It’s just unusual he willnae let anyone close, and you would have been included in that. We werenae to know that. We didnae know his heart was owned elsewhere, and I think that’s a lot of what is steering this whole thing. Somewhere out there, there is some wee guy who can change this whole dynamic, and doesnae even know it. But if that’s the case, why did our darling wee hemorrhoid throw himself in front of a car? If you had fed from him, babe, you wouldnae have ever had the capacity to let me Embrace him, and it would have caused more issues. And I still think you’re tapping into some latent paternal instinct you never knew you had. Dinnae think I havenae seen how you are with Rory’s wee boy.”
“And dinnae think I havenae seen your look of horror from time to time,” Aidan said in a perfect imitation of Logan’s accent. “I know you don’t have that. You’re an amazing uncle. A supportive brother despite everything. And you are a wonderful lover in those moments you devote yourself. But not a father. Am I right? I don’t know what it is. I just know that for whatever reason I couldn’t let him go. I have to own that. His anger needs to be directed at me and no one else. But now that I have done this to him, I need to do whatever it takes to fix it. To find that one thing that will calm him and if it’s this young man then we’ll get him. It’s possible he was even in such a dark place because of not having. Because of something that happened. We won’t know until he talks. The fact that you’re even willing to still stay with me, to still help me through this is something I will never be able to properly thank you for. At least not for a couple of centuries. I adore you, Logan. I’d be lost without you.”
Logan just flipped him off, but he laughed at the imitation. “Asshole,” he responded, though it was affectionately and he was still smirking in the wake of it. “You had me taken in my prime, and you wanted me to stick around this joint for a few hundred more years with you. You have to live with my timeless bachelorhood ways now. But that’s alright. The laddie has a father, even if he isnae in contact with him, he doesnae need two more. But I think he does need you in a paternal sense. He is just pissed off at you right now because, trust me, waking up and finding out you’ve been taken without knowledge? It’s a hard fucking thing. It isnae even confusing, it feels like you arenae you, and you cannae think straight because everything inside is different. There is very little of yourself left, and it’s all masked by this darkness you dinnae understand. You’re just lucky he is smart and has slotted into it so easily. It’s just... almost like he was already mated before he was turned, and now he’s trying to exist without his soul mate. Being Embraced and dealing with that? It’s nay wonder the laddie is all fangs at the ready with us all the time. We stopped him in his quest to silence that want. If he is what you feel like you need to do with the next part of your very, very long life, then aye, by all means. I’ll help you through it. I know you’ve been lost within yourself since I was Embraced, maybe this is what you need? And at the end of the day, I still Sired him. I’m a Scot. We cannae ever just walk away from our family.”
“Your asshole, so don’t go complaining now.” Aidan scrubbed his face with his hand and patted Logan’s arse before he pulled away to stare out the window out at the night sky. He could see the edges of daylight creeping out across the horizon and suddenly he felt the weight of every single year of his life. “I don’t know what I need,” Aidan finally admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But it’s done and now we have to scramble so that we don’t make it a huge clusterfuck. I’m sorry I dragged you into it all, I really am. He’d have been even more pissed off if he woke up Ventrue. Of that I’m sure. And I know I mated with you before you even realised what was going on, but I had to have that link. I needed that link. And since then I’ve been trying to step back so that you could find your feet. And maybe I just lost my own footing. I honestly haven’t had my life tipped upside down like this for centuries. It takes a little adjusting. We’ll get through it. We always do. At least I know you’re here and that I can rely on you. I’m not losing my mind because it’s you going through all this. I never thought I’d be able to handle something like that again. Maybe what I need is clusterfucks so that I feel useful,” he added with a wry twist of his lips and a derisive snort.
There was another snort of amused laughter at this. “Oh, aye... you’re just lucky I was too fucked in the head with a tumour to protest you claiming me forever. It was your evil plan all along, aye? You even pleaded with the heavenly beings to give me a tumour just so you could have me all to yourself. Dinnae even deny it,” he joked, shooting Aidan a cheeky smile. “But seriously, though... I dinnae think you actually paused to consider the enormity of me as Kindred. I dinnae think you could have anticipated it even if you did. I think that’s where you got lost. It was a different dynamic when I wasnae one of you. It was... easier or something. Manageable. I’m nay saying it’s worse now, because I think in the long run, it’s for the better before any of that me getting older than you shite started to come up. But I still think it threw you right off, and you know what I think? I think you saw a lot of my situation in Kurt. You couldnae handle someone else just dropping dead in front of you without warning, so you just reacted. He meant something to you, but until you can get close to him, you dinnae exactly know what it is. But until any of us can do that, we should just seize the day and go to bed, aye? We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow night.”
Aidan turned and moved back to slide his arms around Logan as he gazed at him affectionately. No one ever truly believed Kindred capable of love except Kindred themselves. But he knew he loved Logan. He always would have, human or otherwise. He kissed him deeply before shaking his head. “You should not be as wise as you are. It’s not right. I’m supposed to be the elder in the relationship. I suddenly feel like I’m the child. I just want you to know that even though none of this turned out how we had planned... or considered, I am grateful that you’re here. I will always be grateful.” It was that fact that got him through the times Logan had to stretch his fangs and wander. He nuzzled Logan’s neck before licking it. “Bed sounds like a really good idea right now. I just hope that bringing Juliette here won’t make anything worse. I’ll never get close to Kurt if he thinks we’re attacking him. However it’s true that we need to just stop overthinking this. Or I do at any rate. Rest, and then perhaps I’ll have a better perspective.”
RP LOG, SCENE COMPLETE
What: Plan of attack
Where: Soho, New York City
When: Follow Juliette staking Kurt out in the bar
Logan was sitting at the kitchen bench of the modern-designed loft apartment in Soho, New York City. It was the place he and his mate had acquired about a year earlier when Logan took a keen liking to the city. He wasn’t technically classified an infant Kindred anymore, he had managed to find his feet just fine, but he knew the more... developed in age of his kind around him would often think otherwise. Sure, he had a very reckless streak, and he liked to have fun. It was probably inevitable he would get itchy feet in one place, and that was exactly what happened. His Sire had to loosen the apron strings on him, much to her chagrin. A child of a Prince, it was difficult to be a free-spirit, but he wasn’t a happy little Kindred when he was isolated, as it was discovered, and they had to give into his wanderlust.
New York was where things took him, and Aidan, of course, followed him. They were mated and even though they discovered early on that Logan wasn’t going to be a monogamous Kindred, they still had to return to each other after going out to play with others. But it was usually Logan who was the wanderer with more varied taste. Aidan was happy to be the more mature of the pair, whilst Logan indulged whenever he felt like it. He had been developed into a beautiful Kindred with very distinct Presence to him, and with his blond-haired, blue-eyed angelic look, he could draw whoever he took a taste for. But in an odd turn of events, when they got to New York, it was Aidan who actually took a keen interest and attraction to a young homosexual American fashion designer. As a Ventrue, Aidan adored all things expensive and beautiful, but he was fascinated by the young man and his work... much to Logan’s amusement.
But now everything had turned into quite the predicament. Not only had the kid walked in front of an oncoming speeding car to top himself in a miserable hole of depression one night after leaving a socialite party Aidan and Logan inserted themselves at, but having sensed the boy was in danger due to his dip in mood, Aidan followed him home and was on the scene in a heartbeat (or not, ironically) to save him. It was too late, though. The injuries he sustained almost killed him instantly. CPR was useless, and it was as he was drawing his last breaths that Aidan panicked and begged Logan to Embrace him on the spot... the young man was just too beautiful and Toreador material to commit further sins of forcing him into the Ventrue world.
Logan was slightly bored, though. Yes, he had Embraced his first pup and yes, the kid was fucking immaculate, but he was Aidan’s toy. Logan would never, ever fight his mate for prey or even a playtoy like that. Neither of them just took into account that Kurt would be a feisty little bitch, and in his Kindred infancy, was proving quite the handful. He had followed Logan in the early days, and connected to Aidan, but now he was restless and a loose canon for some reason. There was something deep inside him affecting his ability to prioritise his Embrace and hone it, but it wasn’t something any of them could put their finger on, especially when Kurt kept evading their presence and brushing them off. If they tried to stronghold him, he got bitchy... which rapidly turned into vicious and he had actually attacked them both. Aidan had pointed out that it was almost like Kurt was protecting a pup of his own, but he wasn’t married, he had no children, and was single. It made no sense.
So, that they had called in back-up. One Juliette Rousseau, the mate of the French Kindred Prince, and one of the finest Toreadors of her time. It helped that she happened to share a Sire with Logan, and that Kurt seemed to connect more on a friendship level with females than males, but boy did she have her work cut out for her. Logan sipped the dark liquid from the wine glass in his hand and set it on the counter, watching Aidan and Juliette across the counter closely. Juliette had just arrived from analysing Kurt interact with a friend in a bar, and even then, he had left before she could approach him. “I’m telling you, the wee shite is a pain in the arse. Aye, he’s gorgeous, and aye, I’ll fucking kill anyone who gets close enough to him to hurt him. Aye, Aidan would probably burn all of New York down if someone lay a negative finger on his very gorgeous chestnut head, but... there’s something we’re missing. You get too close to him, it’s like sticking your hand into the mouth of a fucking croc. He’ll take it off, and your head and dick with it,” he pointed out, shaking his head. “He wasnae a good choice to be taken against his will.”
Juliette tilted her chin up as she gave her “half-brother” a serene smile and worked on taking her earrings out carefully as she started to relax in the confines of the loft. She would have been happy to have stayed out all night, but she knew the two male Kindred were waiting for word. She also knew that she had a phone call to make to Blaise because if he didn’t come to New York soon she would have to amuse herself some other way. Not that monogamy ever stopped either of them, or was ever an issue but some itches she preferred her Prince to scratch.
She hummed as she walked behind Aidan and ran her fingers over the back of his shoulders and nearly laughed when she saw him tense. “Now, now. You don’t need to get so touchy, mon cher. I’m not about to jump you. I know where your tastes lie. And because of that, I know that I won’t get my non-existent penis bitten off by your darling protege.” She stepped out of her heels and even stepped out of her dress so that she was just in her slip. Juliette carefully lay the dress over the back of a chair before she wandered back towards Logan and gave him a playful nip on the earlobe. “Have you missed me, mon frere? I’ve missed you. Now, with your little pup it’s hard to pin down but given what I could manage to pick up from the conversation between him and his little... friend... well, I think you’ll find there’s one part of his human life he hasn’t given up completely. A lost love. Or perhaps a puppy, I don’t know. You know how those base notes in a club can interfere with our hearing.”
Aidan watched the two Toreadors but he didn’t relax. He showed no sign of it. For months now this had been weighing on his mind. He knew it was never easy. Lord knew he’d had his hands full with Logan when he’d first been Embraced but they had known the issues. They had realised why he’d never quite settled. Ros had helped, even Juliette though the French woman had sometimes rubbed Logan up the wrong way more often than not. Aidan sipped at his own glass before he huffed out a noise that was a frustrated and stunted growl. His eyes flashed briefly before he shook his head and just waved a hand. None of this was what he’d planned. Coming to New York was not supposed to end in the creation of a new Kindred, and yet here they were. If his hunger hadn’t gotten the better of him then he never would have found Kurt. But the young man had been touched by a near death experience and given how rare it was to find a human that satiated his taste, Aidan had been driven to the point of obsession to get his fangs into him. Only now he’d been denied. Now he was a Sire and not just a hungry set of fangs to feed. Logan had been the one to Embrace Kurt. The one to taste his blood and there was a small part of Aidan that was annoyed by it all. Logan couldn’t have even appreciated a single drop.
“This is all such a clusterfuck. What did we really know about him? Fucking nothing. Just that I wanted his blood and that he was a fashion designer and that he had been in danger and just--fuck it all. Honestly, if he doesn’t start trusting us and talking to us then he’ll never calm down. He’ll never settle in his new skin, and honestly that’s just a scary thought to me. I just want to know there’s a way in.”
“He’s into fashion,” Logan offered unhelpfully, gesturing with his glass. “He has a brother, and parents that really care about him. Google said he lost his mum when he was a kid, so it must be a stepmother with his dad now. He used to be really musical, into performing, but didnae get into it professionally after he made it in the fashion world. Who the fuck is this friend, though? What was he talking to them about? I cannae even buy he’s pining after a puppy. He isnae the sort to let pet hair on his clothing. Who would be?” He gave his nose a disgusted scrunch and stuck his tongue out. Nice clothes were fantastic, who would want to taint them like that? In fact, even now, he gave his shoulder a small brush to free it from invisible speck. Ironically, in fact, it was one of Kurt’s designs. The label was Aidan’s choice for both of them lately, but Logan couldn’t deny the fabrics felt wonderful.
He reached over and gave Aidan’s arm a soothing rub. “I know, it sucks, babe. I know you’re irked I got to...” he waved his hand, “experience him before you did, and he was your project, and all that. But you didnae want him to kick the bucket! You wanted him to stay, and you panicked, and now we’ve got to deal with that. We still need to somehow figure out how to get him to put being fang happy, but content, before everything else or he’s going to keep spinning the fuck out of control. I know, I’ve been there. I didnae believe any of it because the friggen tumour had me forgetting it. It sorta sucked, until I got used to it. But, I mean... how does it feel for you hearing he might have someone special after all? He fucking kept that concealed. I thought he was single. The guy better be worthy, and at least have a nice arse.”
Juliette checked her fingernails as Logan brushed the invisible lint away. She started to hum softly to herself as she replayed the scene in the club in her mind. “Books. Vampire novels. That friend of his is an author. I remember her face. She’s not actually that bad, but like any other human writing about us she gets the details wrong.” Juliette glanced between the two men. “She has a crush on that boy with the lightsabre. I think Logan might have to go undercover, you know. Do as I did and get close. He could almost pass for a Jedi.”
“No.” It was out before Aidan could stop it and he pushed an unnecessary breath through his nose. It was more just the act of it, of needing to deflate his chest like any normal man would when frustrated. He tugged at his shorter locks. It was strange not having his ponytail lately, but the change was needed. Necessary. He still hadn’t quite decided where he wanted to settle his business in New York. Not when he and Logan were starting to entrench themselves in the social scene. It wouldn’t do to fallback to being a cop, or even FBI. “Well, yes. I mean we do need more information and this female friend could be a bridge. If Kurt himself hasn’t mentioned it, or hasn’t brought this lover out into the open then we still need to find them. It’s enough to have him causing mayhem and mischief. To have him refusing to settle. Clearly this person is someone he’s missing in his life. Perhaps even someone that would at least get him to stop and think.”
Logan shot Juliette an offended glare. “I’m way hotter than that whining brat,” he scoffed. Clearly, he was never much of a fan of the new Star Wars movies. Old school all the way. “Did he know you were there watching him? Because he has blatantly told the both of us to go fuck ourselves at different times. Others, he’ll tolerate us. Mostly, he just screens our calls and does his own fashion designer thing, albeit in the night hours now. He had to have been pretty independent before he decided to make himself roadkill. You should have felt him that night, though. I’ve never been around anyone suicidal being Kindred before. It was awful...” he murmured, a hint of a troubled frown appearing on his face. He knew Aidan had been really worried that night, and even though Logan had wanted to stay at the party and find himself a nice takeaway meal to indulge in, it was one of the only times since his post-Embrace phase that Aidan had strong-holded him and demanded they leave.
And then the next thing Logan knew, Aidan was shoving him down over Kurt’s broken body on the sidewalk practically screaming at him to do it. Luckily it was a deserted street, save for the speeding car. Probably why the car felt it could speed in the normally traffic-congested city. In the heat of the moment, Logan had just panicked too, tapping into Aidan’s emotions as his mate, and did it without thinking. It took a good few months in the wake of it for him to come to terms with what he did, and it had put a strain on their relationship for awhile. Luckily, Blaise had stepped in to help them both. He had taken Juliette to be Embraced against her will to save her, via Ros, so he understood Aidan’s predicament 100%. “So, you want me to just interrogate the woman? Fuck, I dinnae have to read the fucking books, do I? Please tell me there is a movie version. What was said about the lover? Any details, or is it going to be like finding the Holy Grail?” He looked at Aidan in concern again, and he could feel his lover’s discontent. Kurt was probably the closest thing to a child he really ever had... and probably would have. Logan had to wonder if that was part of it. Aidan always seemed the sort who probably would have had a family of his own in life if he hadn’t been Embraced. That was one of the biggest things Kindred were denied, and Kurt was so young, and Aidan so protective. Logan should probably be jealous, but there was so many more deeper issues running here.
Juliette flashed Logan a devilish grin before she moved away to help herself to a glass of refreshments. She also took a peek at Aidan’s laptop that he had setup on the counter to check the stock markets, but she quickly changed the screen to Google and searched for the author before spinning it around to show Logan. “Et voila! Your mission should you choose to fuck her, hm? I’m sure Aidan won’t mind you getting literally under the covers. An interrogation is so unnecessary. So... pedestrian. Do it the old fashioned way and seduce her. And non, no movies unfortunately. She seems to be stalling on that front. I had a meal who seemed obsessed with the novels, but I naturally made him understand the reality was so much better. I dare say reading the novels is not a requirement, I can give you the basics. I think we have the lover’s name though. I did have to make sure I heard right because at first I thought they were talking about Blaise, but apparently it’s ‘Blaine’.”
Aidan’s gaze flicked between the monitor and Logan before he just walked around the counter to sit next to his mate. He settled on the stool and hooked his foot through the bottom of Logan’s so that their legs touched. “You might have to do it, love. I’ve given up being jealous of you, and you know that. You have a much more open taste. I can’t deny it.” And it wasn’t as if Logan should feel jealous of Aidan and Kurt either. It really was a strange feeling. It was starting to feel more like a paternal attachment than anything driven by lust so in that Logan wasn’t far off the mark in his thinking. Aidan just had no idea how to deal with it because even as a man he hadn’t thought children would happen. He’d always preferred men. He had no idea how to deal with children past the ones he’d met through work. Through the ones he’d witness grow over the decades. Kurt would no longer age, but would mature as a Kindred. “Please, Logan. I need to help him.”
Logan threw his hand up in frustration. “Did he know you were there?!” he demanded with a small growl. “Because I need to know if there’s a chance he might be pissed now we were tailing him again. Last time that happened, he ended up rocking up here and attacking the doorman because he hadnae eaten. He hasnae learned how to satiate himself when he’s high on emotion well enough because he hasnae let us close enough to train him and teach him. He’s worse than I was! I know I was a giant pain in the ass, but this one is a survivor too, he’s used to going it alone, and whilst that is really, really fucking annoying, it’s... well, it’s heartbreaking. Look at him,” he said, gesturing emphatically to his mate. “Mr Cool Ventrue is losing it because he’s all tapping into some sort of... parental instinct he didnae know he had. He used to want to consume the laddie simply because he was this immaculate soul, he wanted to taste him and engulf him, but it’s different now. And he isnae even his Sire. I am... and I sorta just want to give the lad a wee clip around the ear, and that scares the shit out of me, because I’ve never wanted kids. That was Rory’s deal. We’re turning into Brangelina, only instead of wee foreign kids, we suddenly want to adopt this wee sassy gay bitch we cannae get near for the life of us unless it’s on his term. If we try, we’ll end up exposing the whole Masquerade in New York, and that will piss off the big guns anyway.”
He looked at the laptop screen anyway, and he knew what he was going to have to do. This woman was probably the biggest lead they had to finding out more about Kurt, and Logan had the luxury of being bisexual and a Toreador with the ability to use both to his maximum benefit. He could probably have her putty in his hands in the blink of an eye and he gave a tilt of his head in contemplation, skimming the details on the screen. “Exposure could be our key with her...” he mused quietly. “She isnae just going to start spilling her guts about Kurt, no matter how much I wave my cock at her. If this is her realm, and she’s getting it all wrong... oh fuck me dead, she thinks the mirror thing is real? I couldnae survive without my mirror!” he cried when his eyes landed on one detail of the writer’s fictional vampire kind. “Knowledge will be the key to drawing her in, not dick.”
Juliette held her hand up before she blew Logan a kiss. “No, he didn’t realise I was watching him. He knew I was there. We both sensed each other. We exchanged longing gazes across the club. Actually we didn’t, but he was definitely watching moi, not the other way around.” She took the laptop back and navigated towards YouTube to find an interview she’d watching with Tina Cohen-Chang. She pushed it back towards Logan and Aidan so that they could both watch. “She’s a little naive. I think she still finds a childish excitement with our kind, but I can’t fault her for her research. She’s just wasted time on the wrong research. If you think knowledge is what she needs to light a fire in her heart and give us the information then you may want to check with the Prince of New York regardless. I know Blaise would prefer knowing who was being outed and for what reason if this were France. We’ve already traveled this road before, hm? It does not always end well. Just this time your adopted gay bitch is on the line.”
Aidan had been resting his hand on Logan’s back as he took comfort in his mate’s physical presence. There was a part of him that wanted to do more than just touch his back, but the more human aspect was too troubled. Hard to feel relaxed enough to engage in sexual activity when all he could think about was their ‘child’ out there threatening the Masquerade. If he did expose them, if he did cause such a disaster for Kindred in this city then they would all be at risk of losing their lives. Even Juliette simply for associating with them. He leaned forward as he hit the spacebar on the keyboard and watched the woman closely. “If we did this without the Prince’s consent then we would need to be absolutely certain that this Ms Cohen-Chang would not expose us. It may mean that we have to take drastic measures for both her sake and ours. Not to mention Kurt’s.” His brow was furrowed deeply and it felt like the frown was a permanent fixture. “But at the end of the night, this still isn’t about us. It’s about Kurt. All this is for his well-being. Whether I’m his Sire or not I have to help him.”
Logan drummed his fingers on the countertop as he thought the whole thing over. At the end of the day, he still functioned very much with his MI6 brain that had failed him when his human mind was destroyed by a brain tumour. All that was gone when he was Embraced, though, and after the initial frenzy and confusion he suffered through finding himself in his new skin, his mind had returned with every bit the sharpness and clarity it had before. He shook his head. “Nay, we arenae going to make nice with the New York Prince. Nay yet anyway. This... Ms Cohen-Chang willnae spill our secret, I’ll make sure of that. I’ll tell her just enough to tantalise her, and dangling more information in front of her to ensure we get what we want first. Then we’ll play it by ear. Whether we like to admit it or not, I’m in deep fucking shit doing what I did to Kurt on NYC soil and we cannae be certain Kurt will keep up the ruse. It’s something he has been elusive on, at best. That is what he has over us. He has both promised to say he asked to be Embraced and also in fits of frenzied anger, told me he would tell everyone what I did. He’s too volatile. He’s fucking smart, and clever. He knows what he is, and he also knows what we did wrong. That’s why we have to tread carefully here.”
“I’m worried about this... lover he seems to have. Did it seem serious or was the lad just a good lay Kurt’s desperate for? Because if it’s more than that, laddie could just walk up to this Blaine and tell him everything, then Embrace him on the spot to have him back. Not that Kurt in his normal calm state would do that. I dinnae think he would have the conscience for it. But in a frenzy? Aye. I always thought he was passionate. He’s every bit the thread of Toreador. He’s the essence of what the Clan pride themselves on. If his heart belongs to another, we really could be in a fuck load more shit than we even thought we were starting with,” he pointed out restlessly and watched the YouTube video closely, eyes narrowed a little in thought. “If she’s that frivilous about knowledge of vampires, she will thrive on the mere essence of its concealment. The secret and keeping it is what will hook her. It will consume her with the want to know more.” And then he was smirking at Juliette in amusement. “You were intrigued by him, dinnae even try to pretend you werenae. You were probably itching to get into an original design of his too.”
Juliette held a hand to her chest before she batted her lashes at Logan. “Moi? Mais oui, of course. What woman wouldn’t? But I have my darling fags right here. Even if you are but half a fag. I am still content to be the dear, sweet, sister hag. No doubt this Tina would like to be Kurt’s. I get the feeling she was at one point, though I wonder if it really would change should she find out the truth. If in fact she would think it was too much when she starts to believe vampires are real. You know, Kurt seemed content to tease her about our Kind. Though not doing it directly. I did catch little bits and pieces. I do have to wonder if that was part of why he was watching me. If he wondered if I was about to spring them.” Juliette ran her tongue over fangs and tilted her head to the side as she once more considered the predicament. Considered what she would do if they were on her home soil and back in Blaise’s realm. Part of her wanted to call her mate and ask his advice but if they were leaving the New York Prince out of it, perhaps they should even leave Paris’ out of it too. “You had to know on some level that Embracing him against his will would cause trouble, though I am not condemning your actions. Far from it. I was not so far off a similar fate. But Blaise always had my heart even if Ros was the one to take me. Aidan, you need to keep a firm hand. You need to be his guide, not just his father. You may even need to give him some physical contact. Physical comfort.” Juliette raised an eyebrow. “Though nothing sexual. Just to allow him to know that it’s still possible. But to be perfectly honest having watched him tonight I think that’s part of the issue. He’s not a fan of contact in any fashion. Makes me wonder how he will cope as one of us.”
Aidan nodded as he listened to both of them, though his mind was still on Kurt. If it were possible his stomach would have twisted and clenched. As it was he was close to purging any blood he took in from the stress. He knew they’d made a mistake, but to let a life like Kurt’s go would have been a crime of its own. “No Prince,” he confirmed. Then he looked at Logan and he moved his hand up his back to rub his fingers against the back of the other Kindred’s neck. “But you really don’t have to go to this author if you don’t want to. I would understand, and I feel as if I’ve asked too much of you as it is. It should be me doing this. Should be me trying to make these things up to you...” Aidan dropped his head before he just gave a shake of it. “We need to though. We need to know who this Blaine is because clearly it’s a presence Kurt’s missing. Clearly it’s a dangerous link in the human world that a very unpredictable Kindred is getting antsy about. If he’s not going to be sent into a frenzy over anything else, he may well over this. And Logan’s right. It could result in this Blaine being taken against his will, but Kurt does not yet know all our ways. He won’t know how to mate with Blaine and that would be an even bigger disaster.”
“Of course I fecking knew,” Logan snorted with a roll of his eyes. “But you arenae exactly thinking the most rationally when your mate is there in a near frenzy almost shoving your face down to the throat of a kid who has just made himself roadkill with all of two life breaths left in him and his heart just stopped. We panicked, we both did, aye? There wasnae any time to stop and think if we were doing the right thing or nay. We just... did it. End of story. Now we have to deal with it. The biggest mistake wasnae Embracing him, but doing it nay knowing anything about him. But obviously he’s nearly gone over the rainbow sometime in the past, or Aidan’s fangs wouldnae have been hot for him on any level. We dinnae know how that was or why. For all we know, this wasnae the first time he tried to do himself in. Only, this time, he woulda succeeded if we hadnae have followed him home. It is what it is now, and we just have to figure out the best way to deal with it. And physical comfort is out of the question. He doesnae want either of us, and he doesnae like being touched. You lay a finger on him, and you’re on the receiving end of a very angry Death Glare, silver eyes, fangs and all. Nay in the hot way, either. I swear, he hissed at me once. Which makes me also wonder if it’s worth just finding this lad of his. It might calm him down and turn him into a fluffy kitten of a Kindred, purring even.”
He looked at Aidan with a long-suffering yet affectionate gaze. “Aye, like that is going to work Mr Gay-o-rama who only like people who have nearly been dead. You wouldnae be able to seduce her or get close to her even if you wanted to. Unless she’s nearly topped herself too in the past, but somehow, I dinnae think we will be that lucky. And at the end of the day, she still has a pussy, babe. Nay your cup of tea. Anyway, she could be a bit of fun. It’s nay like she’s hard on the eyes in any sense, and she’s got talent, even if her facts suck giant vampire balls. I’ll make you a deal. You read the books and summarise all the bits I need to know for me, especially all the shitty facts she has wrong, and I’ll start putting myself regularly in her presence so she notices me and I get under her skin.”
Juliette watched Aidan and Logan with amusement and perhaps even a pang of longing for Blaise. She touched her phone again, stroking the edges as she thought about texting him. As much as she loved being with her brother-in-law and his gay mate, she missed her Prince. She missed her reason for being. She licked her lips and made a small mental note to find a meal as soon as possible. She would feel better once she’d played with her dinner. Stop being one of those sickeningly sad women who couldn’t function without a man. She was Toreador. She didn’t need a man. She just wanted them. All the time. “Fantastique, we have a plan. Aidan will suffer through the printed text, you will suffer through her pussy and Kurt will suffer through being at all. I will, of course, do my best to talk to him. Distract him. See if we can’t weasel out a couple of details that way while you focus on the girl. She really is young, isn’t she? I almost envy her youth but then I remember I still have centuries to enjoy being so very good at being me. She has decades before mortality gets the better of her.”
Aidan rolled his eyes at Juliette’s theatricality before pulling Logan into a heated kiss, his fangs catching his mate’s bottom lip before he licked at the blood they drew. His hand clutched at Logan possessively and for a moment he battled with his instincts. Part of him knew that he would always need to let Logan go. Let him wander. The other part wanted to remind the Scotsman who he belonged to. He nuzzled him before pushing him away with a slight smirk. “Yes, yes. I’m terribly gay and horrible at pretending I enjoy pussy. I’m a great actor but not that good. Perhaps you’re right to take that bullet for the team. I will, naturally, read the novels and give you Cliff’s Notes. Preferably while you’re naked. Sucking my gloriously gay dick and giving me one last ride before you start smelling of a woman.” Aidan winked at him before taking a sip of his own glass. “Which reminds me, you’re going to need to be very, very careful about being around Kurt after being near her. He’ll know her scent now. He’s going to know you’ve seen her. Been with her.”
Logan licked over his lips in the wake of the kiss, healing over the bite there without even thinking about it. It wasn’t like he forgot his own days as a very new Kindred, pretty much despising any time someone tried to constrict him in what he did. At the end of the day, their best move had been to give him the freedom and independence he needed because that had been his personality before he was Embraced. Trying to isolate him had only caused him to become more of a pain in the ass. With the freedom, he developed control and a keen knowledge of his Kind and his Clan. It was true, with the blood of the Scottish Prince, he had turned out to be an extremely powerful Kindred in his own right, and a lot of it had been instinctive learning rather than being taught and trained. Now he had Embraced his first offspring, so to speak, even if his hand had been forced, and it was looking like Kurt was showing a lot of his own tendencies. If they weren’t careful, Kurt really could destroy a hell of a lot.
“Pain in the ass wee bitch is the bane of my existence, you do realise?” Logan told Aidan with a pointed ‘You’re lucky I love you and we’re stuck together’ look. “He’s too savvy for his own good, even if I’m sort of getting a clue now how much shit I caused in my early days. But I swear I wasnae this much of a hemorrhoid. It doesnae help he’s a celebrity either. He knows how to use his exposure to his advantage. You couldnae have picked a random nobody, could you? Nay to mention the fact his dad is a congressman. Every time I try to get close to him, he gives me this bitchy look. Seriously, it’s worse than even any of the lassies we know. But... I do want to know how you’re going to try and get through to him. How are you going to even get him to come to you?” he asked Juliette.
Juliette had finally given into temptation and texted Blaise but her attention was soon back on the two men and she raised an eyebrow as she smirked. “Curiosity, mon frere. He saw me tonight. He knows I’m nearby. He might want to know who I am. I won’t reveal our link just yet but I’m sure he’s no idiot. He’ll realise. He’ll work it out. Maybe he won’t know exactly who I am, but he’ll know I am involved with you two. Just leave it to me, hm? I’m used to making people do what they don’t want to. It’s why Blaise keeps me close.” Her phone went off just as she finished and she picked it up. “Speak of the devil. I’ll leave you two lovers to hash out the details while I gather my strength for battle.” She slid off her stool and kissed them both twice on the cheek. Her fingers slid through Logan’s hair affectionately and she gave him a third kiss on the forehead. “You were such a pain, mon frere, but you have blossomed wonderfully. I am glad to have you as my family. I am glad to help with your new one. As hard as it seems now, we are all stronger for having battled through this terrible start. We are not all instant Kindred wunderkind. Sometimes it just takes a little nudging. We will not lose your enfant. I promise.”
Aidan smiled a little at Juliette before she left them and then he turned his attention back to Logan and kissed him once more. He slipped his arms around him and held him before his shoulders slumped. “I never wanted to put you in this position. I never wanted to force you to Embrace someone. This wasn’t how it should have been. And yes, I should have found out what he was about before it happened, but... as you said, my fangs got a hard-on and there was no stopping them.” Aidan smirked a little before he pushed Logan back into the counter now that they were alone and rocked his hips forward. “It would have been better if I could have fucked him, fed from him and left him to forget but it didn’t work out that way. I just fucked up royally and now we have to clean it up. I miss the simple days. No longer a couple of bachelors, hm?”
Logan watched Juliette go and then turned back to his mate with a telltale smirk. He rested his head on his hand and just analysed him for a moment. They knew each other so well, and even if they still clashed now that Logan was a talented Kindred in his own right who hadn’t been able to stick with the monogamy thing, they still ended up returning to each other every single time. It’s how they worked and they had found a niche that, for a little while there, seemed like it would be impossible to get back. “See, I beg to differ. You wouldnae have just picked up any boring old kid. He got under your skin, and it’s because you dinnae know why that he has. It’s just unusual he willnae let anyone close, and you would have been included in that. We werenae to know that. We didnae know his heart was owned elsewhere, and I think that’s a lot of what is steering this whole thing. Somewhere out there, there is some wee guy who can change this whole dynamic, and doesnae even know it. But if that’s the case, why did our darling wee hemorrhoid throw himself in front of a car? If you had fed from him, babe, you wouldnae have ever had the capacity to let me Embrace him, and it would have caused more issues. And I still think you’re tapping into some latent paternal instinct you never knew you had. Dinnae think I havenae seen how you are with Rory’s wee boy.”
“And dinnae think I havenae seen your look of horror from time to time,” Aidan said in a perfect imitation of Logan’s accent. “I know you don’t have that. You’re an amazing uncle. A supportive brother despite everything. And you are a wonderful lover in those moments you devote yourself. But not a father. Am I right? I don’t know what it is. I just know that for whatever reason I couldn’t let him go. I have to own that. His anger needs to be directed at me and no one else. But now that I have done this to him, I need to do whatever it takes to fix it. To find that one thing that will calm him and if it’s this young man then we’ll get him. It’s possible he was even in such a dark place because of not having. Because of something that happened. We won’t know until he talks. The fact that you’re even willing to still stay with me, to still help me through this is something I will never be able to properly thank you for. At least not for a couple of centuries. I adore you, Logan. I’d be lost without you.”
Logan just flipped him off, but he laughed at the imitation. “Asshole,” he responded, though it was affectionately and he was still smirking in the wake of it. “You had me taken in my prime, and you wanted me to stick around this joint for a few hundred more years with you. You have to live with my timeless bachelorhood ways now. But that’s alright. The laddie has a father, even if he isnae in contact with him, he doesnae need two more. But I think he does need you in a paternal sense. He is just pissed off at you right now because, trust me, waking up and finding out you’ve been taken without knowledge? It’s a hard fucking thing. It isnae even confusing, it feels like you arenae you, and you cannae think straight because everything inside is different. There is very little of yourself left, and it’s all masked by this darkness you dinnae understand. You’re just lucky he is smart and has slotted into it so easily. It’s just... almost like he was already mated before he was turned, and now he’s trying to exist without his soul mate. Being Embraced and dealing with that? It’s nay wonder the laddie is all fangs at the ready with us all the time. We stopped him in his quest to silence that want. If he is what you feel like you need to do with the next part of your very, very long life, then aye, by all means. I’ll help you through it. I know you’ve been lost within yourself since I was Embraced, maybe this is what you need? And at the end of the day, I still Sired him. I’m a Scot. We cannae ever just walk away from our family.”
“Your asshole, so don’t go complaining now.” Aidan scrubbed his face with his hand and patted Logan’s arse before he pulled away to stare out the window out at the night sky. He could see the edges of daylight creeping out across the horizon and suddenly he felt the weight of every single year of his life. “I don’t know what I need,” Aidan finally admitted and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But it’s done and now we have to scramble so that we don’t make it a huge clusterfuck. I’m sorry I dragged you into it all, I really am. He’d have been even more pissed off if he woke up Ventrue. Of that I’m sure. And I know I mated with you before you even realised what was going on, but I had to have that link. I needed that link. And since then I’ve been trying to step back so that you could find your feet. And maybe I just lost my own footing. I honestly haven’t had my life tipped upside down like this for centuries. It takes a little adjusting. We’ll get through it. We always do. At least I know you’re here and that I can rely on you. I’m not losing my mind because it’s you going through all this. I never thought I’d be able to handle something like that again. Maybe what I need is clusterfucks so that I feel useful,” he added with a wry twist of his lips and a derisive snort.
There was another snort of amused laughter at this. “Oh, aye... you’re just lucky I was too fucked in the head with a tumour to protest you claiming me forever. It was your evil plan all along, aye? You even pleaded with the heavenly beings to give me a tumour just so you could have me all to yourself. Dinnae even deny it,” he joked, shooting Aidan a cheeky smile. “But seriously, though... I dinnae think you actually paused to consider the enormity of me as Kindred. I dinnae think you could have anticipated it even if you did. I think that’s where you got lost. It was a different dynamic when I wasnae one of you. It was... easier or something. Manageable. I’m nay saying it’s worse now, because I think in the long run, it’s for the better before any of that me getting older than you shite started to come up. But I still think it threw you right off, and you know what I think? I think you saw a lot of my situation in Kurt. You couldnae handle someone else just dropping dead in front of you without warning, so you just reacted. He meant something to you, but until you can get close to him, you dinnae exactly know what it is. But until any of us can do that, we should just seize the day and go to bed, aye? We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow night.”
Aidan turned and moved back to slide his arms around Logan as he gazed at him affectionately. No one ever truly believed Kindred capable of love except Kindred themselves. But he knew he loved Logan. He always would have, human or otherwise. He kissed him deeply before shaking his head. “You should not be as wise as you are. It’s not right. I’m supposed to be the elder in the relationship. I suddenly feel like I’m the child. I just want you to know that even though none of this turned out how we had planned... or considered, I am grateful that you’re here. I will always be grateful.” It was that fact that got him through the times Logan had to stretch his fangs and wander. He nuzzled Logan’s neck before licking it. “Bed sounds like a really good idea right now. I just hope that bringing Juliette here won’t make anything worse. I’ll never get close to Kurt if he thinks we’re attacking him. However it’s true that we need to just stop overthinking this. Or I do at any rate. Rest, and then perhaps I’ll have a better perspective.”
RP LOG, SCENE COMPLETE