In Plain Sight

Velvet, all things considered, was actually rather content at the moment. Sure there were unspeakable evil monsters out there, and some of them were likely actively plotting against her loved ones, but at this exact moment? With her childhood friend turned girlfriend Weiss on one side, and Ruby the doctor turned girlfriend on the other, she was happy. 

Ruby had been right in that talking with Coco had made her feel better. She was sure Coco had felt the same, and she was glad they’d patched things up or at least cleared out any lingering issues with their relationship. 

Ruby was always good at that. Helping people help themselves. 

It was one of the first things she’d noticed about her superior, aside from how absurdly attractive she was. 

Soon they’d need to talk about workplace relations, and if she needed a new job or not, but not tonight. 

She did have to admit she’d never thought she’d be in such a relationship, nor that she could attract either Weiss, or Ruby but somehow she’d managed it. 

She kept the massive smile she wanted to display to a small grin as she gently ran a hand through Ruby’s short locks as she read a book likely older than all of them in Menagerian, meaning only she could really read it. 

Velvet had some small amount she could speak under her belt, mainly asking for directions, but only Ruby was fluent, although she and Weiss were fluent in Atlassian so that was something of an even trade. 

While Ruby was looking more into vampires and potentially what was happening with Weiss’s family in general, she and Weiss were researching other were-creatures looking for any more information they could glean about her condition. 

According to Cinder it was possible to control her transformations and retain her memories which she very much wanted to do. She’d been so very lucky Ruby had been understanding and let her think she’d been drunk. 

Her face went red at how mortifying that revelation still was and how she could have believed her!

“Any luck?” Weiss asked as she put her head on Velvet’s shoulder to read her book for a few moments. 

“Not so far. A few similarities in werewolves I’ve noted down to remember in case we can’t find anything else out,” Velvet said as Weiss stared at her. 

After a long moment Weiss leaned in and when Velvet didn’t stop her she gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and pulled away. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” Weiss admitted. 

“Me too. So I’m…glad you did,” Velvet said giddily as she felt her lips feel like they were buzzing and she just knew her ears were making a fool of her. 

Weiss smirked and gestured with her eyes toward the oblivious doctor who was sitting so still you’d almost mistake her for a statue as she laid on Velvet’s lap. It was only her rapidly moving eyes devouring information that let them know she was awake. 

It was adorable watching Ruby get so into something although she was mostly doing it to help Weiss which was yet another bit of evidence of her caring nature. 

She didn’t look quite as at home in the new clothes Cinder had gotten for her to replace her bloodstained ones, but Velvet thought she wore the goth look well enough. 

“Anything interesting in your book Ruby?” Weiss asked, startling the young doctor who shuddered and took a deep breath, clearly taken off guard as she sat up and stretched. 

“Not really. I haven’t wanted to skip anything but this is mostly almost like a recipe book for vampires on different ways to prepare blood in case they get tired of the same old,” Ruby said, indicating the book in her hand. 

“Really?” Weiss asked, sounding confused why they'd bothered. 

“I mean it makes sense to me,” Ruby said and then elaborated when Weiss continued to look at her strangely. 

“How many people try different flavors of water ‘cause they get sick of it, or do something different to their favorite food to spice it up a bit? Factor in living for a super long time maybe and yeah I can totally see some vampire deciding to be a sort of cook and try to find a better way to cook blood if they don’t want to waste it eating human food,” Ruby surmised.

“I can see that I suppose,” Weiss admitted although it clearly pained her to admit to understanding vampires were more than the monsters she was taught to see them as, she was at least trying . 

“Any neat recipes?” Velvet asked as she flipped another page in her own book, and went red before flipping a few more just to be safe and ignored the smirk she could almost feel from Weiss who’d caught a glimpse at the page before she turned.

“I don’t know how well they’d work or taste, but they ,uh had some ideas for sure,” Ruby admitted as she scratched her head. 

“Why keep reading it then?” Weiss asked. 

“I mean we basically know nothing right? You’re the expert but not even you know any of this so as weird as it is, you never know what might be helpful,” Ruby explained her reasoning with a shrug. 

“You’re right. We shouldn’t skip over anything at all,” Weiss admitted as she looked Velvet in the eye, removed the book from her grasp before flipping a few pages back and handing it to the blushing woman. 

“You said you had an idea on what this was? On what’s happening to Weiss and I?” Winter asked as Cinder led her to her private quarters for what was sadly far less fun than before. 

Cinder made a mental note to replace the bed and some of the posters that hadn’t survived the fight . 

At least the portrait over her desk hadn’t been damaged. That would have been very bad to explain to her boss. 

“I might have an idea. Something connecting you and the Tzimisce.”

“You think we’ve been flesh crafted?” Winter asked, appalled at the very notion. 

“I doubt it. I just said it’s somehow bringing something to mind. If you’d been flesh-crafted you’d know and so would everyone. They don’t do minor easily hidden changes all that often. Think an arm growing out the middle of your forehead that’s shaped like a spear, and extra legs and feet just cause.”

“Lovely,” Winter deadpanned as Cinder snorted and went over to her shelf of books before selecting a few for a closer inspection and taking them to a study table. 

“You know I'll still care for you even if it turns out you’ve been fleshcrafted into having six toes right?” Cinder joked with Winter who responded by cuffing the back of the vampire's head…which didn’t move at all, and in fact only made her hand sting from the attempt. 

“Do you have any theories on what it could be?” Winter asked while skimming through a book on clan history of the Ventrue clan. She decided she hated them by about the third page. 

She made a noise of distaste and set it back onto the table before picking up a different one. 

“How many pages did you make it?” Cinder asked not looking up from where she was intently scanning the book. 

“Three.”

“So partly through the introduction about how important they are. Farther than I thought you’d get,” Cinder admitted as she looked up from her book for a moment. 

“They remind me too much of my father. Born in a boardroom and lacking anywhere outside of one,” Winter replied coldly. 

“Fair enough. Maybe Toreador or Tremere might be more interesting for you,” Cinder said, gesturing to the books with the names of the clan on the table. 

Winter hesitated for a moment before gently putting her hand over Cinder’s drawing her attention. 

“Which one is…yours?” 

“Ah, you should know that even amongst my clan I’m kinda a bit different, but,” Cinder reached for a book she handed over. 

“Brujah?”

“Idealist, passionate, freedom loving and ready to find and throw down for a cause at any given moment,” Cinder said proudly. 

“I thought you said you were different?”

“Oh, I am, but I wanted you to be prepared for the kind of history you were going to read.”

“I’ll do my best,” Winter promised as she looked for somewhere to sit and read and cringed at the broken bed. It would be…serviceable she supposed. 

She sat down and began to read. This was much more tolerable than the drivel she’d been reading before even if they were a bit…much at times at least the clan as a whole were much more sympathetic. 

She was startled by a knock on her door as a mint-haired woman with piercing red eyes entered the room after being granted permission from Cinder. 

“You called for me ma’am?” 

“I did, yes. I have orders for you. They’re important enough that if you succeed I’ll see to it that you’re granted the right to get Coco embraced ahead of time.”

Emerald went ramrod straight at that. 

“I thought you’d like that,” Cinder smirked before she became more serious. 

“You’ll be going and looking for any and all information in Atlas you can find about the Schnee family, and a few others I’ll have written down for you. You’ll leave in an hour so say your goodbyes to Coco for now,” Cinder ordered. 

“Ma’am?” Emerald asked, tilting her head to the side. She’d always been allowed to bring Coco with her before. 

“Coco will be staying here while you’re gone and we'll make sure she's fed. This is entirely too dangerous for her to accompany you. In addition you’ll be taking at least Hazel with you. This is potentially very dangerous, and if you’re not careful will lead you to your final death. So you can turn down the job if you want.”

“No ma’am. I’ll do it!” Emerald declared frantically. The idea of getting to embrace Coco potentially years or a decade ahead of time far too enticing to pass up. 

“I had thought you might, but as I said go find a few of the others who can go with you if you want, except Mercury. Sending out Mercury after those idiots started a fight earlier will just draw more attention to you.  I’ll have the specifics and your travel arrangements written out for you to memorize by the time you get back,” Cinder dismissed the woman who practically fled the room in her haste. 

“What are you looking for besides information on my family?” Winter asked, trying to understand the vampire’s thought process. 

“Information on who could potentially be behind this for one, but a few other hunters based on and around the area. Little Red wants more blood for testing, and so far it’s all been very fascinating so I see no reason not to get more if we can.”

“You expect hunters to just give up their blood, to vampires?” Winter asked incredulously. 

“Hardly, well some of them might. Not every hunter is as gung-ho about killing every vampire they meet. Besides, yours is the one that fixates on vampires. Some of them go after werewolves or even Fae. I’m old as shit. I got money to spend, and they can get an I.O.U too. My name should still carry weight with a lot of people, your family notwithstanding.”

“I can’t believe our training was so inadequate. I feel as though I barely know anything at all,” Winter opined. 

“Hey it’s probably not your fault, and if you want to learn about vampires then I mean I can help you out. Just I’d prefer you not try to kill everyone you meet. A lot of them truly are just trying to make it out there,” Cinder offered. 

Winter sent her a look at that. 

“Ok, it’s not a majority but it’s not an insignificant amount either,” Cinder corrected herself with a smirk. 

“I can only promise we’ll try our best to avoid snap judgments when we can in the future.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Cinder said as she scribbled down a few instructions on parchment. 

Winter was unable to make out much of it and only saw a few letters that she could decipher. ‘Z' and 'Gr’. She didn’t know the significance but she also couldn’t see the full names either. 

Were they a person? Place? Yet another clan? So many things to learn. 

“Do you think you could tell me what you suspect?” Winter asked after a moment when Cinder finished her letter and sealed it. 

“Truthfully? I’d rather not. If I’m right it’s…yeah no let’s just say I hope I’m wrong and leave it at that. You wouldn’t like it if it were true. Emerald will likely have the answers I need before the week is out unless something goes wrong.”

“Very well then. Are the rest of us free to go hunt or the like? “ Winter asked, more to see what Cinder’s response would be than anything else. 

The Elder vampire bit her lip a bit but nodded as she turned around in her chair to stare at Winter. “I can’t stop you, well ok, I could, but if you have other things you gotta do then at least promise me you’ll be extra careful. You know that dick and his buddies are gonna want to mess with you, and are waiting for a chance to do it.”

“I think between Weiss and I we can handle ourselves,” Winter said with an eyebrow raised in defiance. 

“Listen I know we kinda just met each other but trust me when I say I have a really bad feeling about everything. You don’t live to be my age without trusting your gut instinct. That’s not to mention all the other creatures out there, and then this whole deal with you potentially causing issues with the club neutrality,” Cinder explained. 

“How so? Surely they can’t believe you’re responsible for us?” 

“They kinda do. Neutrality is a big deal. Essentially the reason the club gets to stay neutral is a truly powerful figure wants it to be and is willing to personally enforce rules to make it that way. 

If people that get into fights here start turning up dead then it’s up to that person to figure out why and if it’s related then they need to…balance the scales so to speak,” Cinder said. 

“So any hunting we do or fights we get into are your or your bosses' problem then?”

“Yes and no. If you’re minding your own business and those douchenozzles attack you then by all means do what you gotta do. It’s why nothing came of the scuffle earlier since in the end no one was hurt in a lasting way,” Cinder explained. 

“I see…so we’d need to do hunting far afield then, which would put us outside of your influence or ability to protect us,” Winter mused. 

“Other side of town and if you get in fights with someone that had frequented here and you started it? That’s real bad. My boss is more understanding than most but they’d have to act to keep the balance.”

“Your boss you mentioned…”

“Sorry, I have to stop you right there,” Cinder interrupted holding up a hand, looking actually sorry about it. 

“If keeping my status under wraps is such a big deal that most of my own employees don’t know then my boss is far more so. If they thought I’d leaked it to anyone I’d be dead and dusted inside the hour,” Cinder informed her with a shiver.

“I thought you said they were better than most.”

“They are. Trust me that is much better than almost all of them. Probably cause they’re not from my clan.We’re both basically Autarkis or outcasts which means we don’t follow the rules or acknowledge any other typical authority for vampires.  

I only follow them cause they’re that strong, they’ll protect me if I need it and they’re mostly easy to deal with. Most of my clan are also out in the west so there’s not really one to follow here, not that I would. Haven’t seen a half decent one in a while,” Cinder shrugged. 

“Is that significant? You not being the same clan as your…“boss”?”

“Very and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. There’s a reason they’ve been able to survive this long,” Cinder said before she leaned back and sighed. 

“If worst comes to worst I’ll have to ask Beckett for a favor,” Cinder muttered distastefully as she began scratching out another letter as she waved Winter back to her reading. 

“Wait, you mean you don’t want blood soup?” Ruby asked mirthfully as Weiss eyed her in irritation. 

“Shockingly no I do not.”

“Velvet, do you want blood soup?” Ruby asked, barely able to keep the smirk off her face. 

“I…not really no,” Velvet said with a small smile as Ruby huffed good naturedly and set the book down. 

“Guess that book didn’t have anything we needed. So one down hundreds to go,” Ruby complained as she rubbed her eyes. 

“Why don’t you take a break and get some sleep,” Weiss said sympathetically. 

“Weiss is right you’ve been up since the middle of the night, and then went into work, and then all of this. I don’t think you’ve had any real sleep in the last few days,” Velvet said worriedly. 

“You're probably right,” Ruby admitted. “I just feel like I can help. There’s something I can do, that the answer could be in one of these books, and I need to help if I can, you know?” 

Weiss grabbed her shoulder to keep the doctor from standing up to get another book. 

“Be that as it may there’s nothing saying the answer is in one of those books, and you’ll read faster if you take a break, right Velvet?” Weiss asked her newly acquired girlfriend, or one of them, to back her up. 

“You’re the one who told me that being tired leads to being sloppy and mistakes which patients don’t deserve,” Velvet implored the woman who sighed in defeat. 

“Yeah, yeah alright I got you. There’s just so much to read…but I suppose a bit of a nap won’t hurt since I don’t go in tomorrow unlike a certain someone,” Ruby teased as Velvet’s eyes shot open. 

“I completely forgot!” Velvet admitted as she eyed the clock and winced. She’d run on less sleep before but it wouldn’t be pleasant. 

“Just sleep. I don’t have a job to worry about so you two take advantage of this lovely couch and I’ll keep watch for anyone who comes into the room,” Weiss assured them both. 

Ruby gave her a long searching look but after a few moments agreed before leaning over to kiss her and Velvet on the cheek and laying down in Weiss’s lap with her face cuddling into her stomach. 

Weiss looked at Velvet, her face a bit red and smirked at how absurdly out of sorts Velvet looked.

“You too Velvet,” Weiss whispered.

Velvet merely smiled shyly at her before she nodded and aped Ruby’s style of laying down on Weiss’s lap. 

Winter wasn’t sure how much time passed before she felt something was wrong. Emerald had come and gone once more, and she’d checked in briefly with Weiss who had the other two sleeping in her lap. 

It was honestly rather cute even if she’d made sure to snap a few more pictures for fun. 

It was only now sometime later that she felt a sense of wrongness fall over the room. Well not wrong exactly, but more like her senses were screaming at her that something huge was coming and she needed to flee and remove herself from a predator's sight. 

She looked over at Cinder and saw her shooting glances at the portrait over her desk. She’d ignored it before but the portrait was of a heavily robed figure with almost nothing visible except for a single gloved hand holding a lantern that seemed to almost pulse in time with the feeling she was getting. 

Cinder winced as the feeling spiked in the room once more before she went over to Winter. 

“Come on, you need to leave the room for a bit,” Cinder said, offering her a hand up. 

“This feeling?” 

“Yeah my boss wants to talk to me, and you need to be very not here for a while. Please trust me on this,” Cinder said, leading her to the door. 

She looked conflicted for a moment before in a show of intimacy she leaned over and gently kissed Winter on the forehead and smiled as she closed the door in her face. 

Winter heard several locks being put into place and then footsteps fade away as Cinder went further into the room. 

“Master,” Cinder greeted the portrait whose eyes were now open, red, and staring right into her soul from under the figures veil.

“ I have looked over the information you sent, and I am… displeased,” the voice said neutrally.

Even so Cinder flinched. 

“ Calm yourself. You have performed your duties admirably. If I truly cared I’d take more of an issue with your new…paramour was it ?” The voice asked in amusement as it watched Cinder flush. 

“I sent Hazel, and Emerald out to look for more information, and I’ve put out feelers for Beckett in case they can’t find anything,” Cinder informed her patron. 

“ A sound plan. Beckett is useful as he is irritating at times. I’d hate for you to sacrifice a rare tome for information I already possess. Still… ” the voice mused trace amounts of a Vacuin and Menagerian accent intermingled to form a pleasing sound. “ What do you think? ”

Cinder tensed. Her first instinct was merely to ask her patron or boss rather for the information, and Cinder knew they’d provide it without a single lie, but if they were asking then this was likely a test of some sort although she couldn’t fathom the possible reasons. 

Seeing if she’d part with something valuable? Her commitment? Some scheme set into motion centuries before she’d even been born? All of the above?

“I believe I’d like to try to find out the answers for myself, but if there is an issue I won’t hesitate to ask for assistance,” Cinder genuflected with a lowered head. 

She tensed as she felt something settle onto her head and realized it was her master’s hand reaching through somehow to gently reassure her. 

“ Continue your service as you have these past several hundred years and I shall continue to protect you as always …”

“Master?” 

“ Events are in motion that are nearly a millennium in the making. Continue to act as you have and not only will you receive the answers you crave, but a long standing grudge or two will be settled. Perhaps it will even stave off Gehenna, ” the voice chuckled far more warmly than before. 

Cinder snorted, finding it equally as amusing as her master.

“ Perhaps…yes I believe I’ll have something sent to you soon. A piece of the puzzle you wish to solve. You have more than earned a reward, ” Her patron explained. 

Between one moment and the next the feeling left the room and she was alone again before she could say anything in response and she was left breathing heavily in response. 

Meeting with her patron in such a way was awe inspiring and humbling with the difference in strength between them. She needed a few moments to recover. 

Outside the door Winter and Weiss traded a concerned look. There was clearly much more at play here than they thought. 

They took a few moments to gather their strength and slowly walked away. Even being so close to Cinder’s master’s mere presence had affected them deeply and left them unable to move although it was far worse for Winter for some reason as Weiss recovered far sooner and aided her sister. 

Still they needed to get away for now and get back to the other two sleeping on the couch.