A Cruel Jest?

17

True to his word it didn't take long for Nocturne to return with food for her. Mori is still more than a little overwhelmed by all that is happening to her and shows it by picking at her food rather than eating it like she had the day before.

"Mori, I didn't get the food for you to look at, I got it for you to eat." Nocturne says watching her play with her food. "It's getting cold and unless the food is supposed to be eaten cold it always tastes better hot."

Mori obediently takes a bite of her food and takes as long as she can to chew and swallow it.

Nocturne sighs, "What is it Mori?"

Mori looks up, "You know all about me, don't you Nocturne?" She asks and looks at him expectantly.

"Yes, the first night when I drank from you..." his voice trails off as Mori nods.

"I thought so, I remembered things I didn't even know I knew, and things I intentionally made sure I would forget." Mori says sadly and her emotions leak through her mental barrier she keeps up at all times.

"Again, that wasn't what you wanted to know is it? What is it?" Nocturne is curious, it's obvious Mori wants to ask something and is hesitant in doing so.

"I know a bit about you Nocturne, everyone does as they are taught, but the reality of who you are isn't. I don't know anything about you or your life. I know it's presumptuous for me to ask, that's why I didn't..." Mori trails off.

Nocturne has to rein in his temper again. It truly wasn't her fault, she has no idea just what she's asking. And he did tell her that she could ask, but that he might not answer.

Nocturne sighs deeply, "This question, Mori, it isn't presumptuous, but neither am I sure that I should answer it. The life of the vampire, especially at court isn't an easy one."

"Of course Nocturne, forget I asked." Mori says and returns to picking at her food and only occasionally taking a bite.

"If you will actually take a bite of food I'll tell you a bit about my life growing up. But as I talk I want you to eat. And Mori, I hope what I say won't make you sick." Nocturne replies slowly. He really doesn't like to think about the time he grew up but at the same time, what happened then has a great deal of impact on the now. On her possible future, she does deserve to know.

Mori starts actually eating and so Nocturne has no more reason to avoid the subject.

"In the vampire world strength is everything Mori. My father thought Vena and I would do better growing up in the court rather than outside it. From the first, jealous or power hungry vampires would try to ambush us. If we died before majority it would make it easier for them to take my father down.

"Fortunately my brother and I were powerful in our own right, but when we worked together we were unstoppable. Many of our so called friends would try to slip us poison, or get us to go into secluded areas where they had others waiting to take us down.

"Other vampires thought Vena and I were easy targets and tried to take us down on their own. Of course they were wrong.

"Even among our friends that didn't try to kill us, many of the heirs didn't survive. Strongest of the fittest is the password in the vampire court. Many Lords had to find new brood mares to give them a new heir.

"I learned many of my cruelest tendencies from those that lived next to my father. Hatred and death were passwords growing up. Kindness and compassion would get you killed.

"Everything was allowed at court. I have had many things done to me that I never wish to think about again. And I've done everything Mori. There isn't one single depraved thing out there that I haven't done or participated in.

"I have enjoyed torturing people for as long as I can remember. But humans are far too fragile and break all too easily. I usually reserve my fun for those of my people that displease me."

"Where is your brother now, Nocturne?" Mori asks softly. She had managed to finish her meal but isn't sure she wants to continue this line of questioning.

Nocturne looks over at the vulnerable human sitting on the bed beside him. "If I knew that Mori, I wouldn't be here now.

"Close to two hundred years ago my father decided he wanted to retire. Actually I think he was just waiting for Vena and I to reach our majority. Perhaps to see if both of us would be eligible for the throne, I don't know.

"The fight for the throne was brutal and harsh. Vena and I worked closely together at that time, he was my closest friend and confidant. Terrance was the only other member of our circle. Slowly we were able to take down all those that had pretensions for the throne until it was just Vena and myself, although at the time I hadn't known that Vena wanted the throne for himself. He had always told me that he preferred the lifestyle of being prince to the lifestyle of being the king. It had been decided that he would be my closest and most trusted councilor.

"It was therefore a shock when Terrance came to me and told me that Vena was actually planning an ambush to kill me at our next planned meeting. I didn't believe him, I didn't want to believe him and I damn near killed him before I realized that he was telling me the truth.

"It was because of Terrance that I was able to reverse the direction of the ambush and in the end take the throne. My biggest regret was Vena got away.

"He's tried twice more in the last hundred years to take the throne away from me, humans know those attempts as the great war, WWI and the second WWII. We try not to allow our politics to fall into the human realm, but at times it is inevitable.

"Both those times I won and took land and power away from him, but I wasn't able to kill him. Although I did find his human, the one he'd chosen to breed with."

Mori isn't sure she wants to ask the next question. "What did you do to her?"

Nocturne looks at her, "She was pretty for a human, young not yet twenty of your human years. Although she was already breeding it didn't show yet, early stages, a couple of weeks maybe.

"She made me welcome thinking I was her Lord. Apparently my brother hadn't mentioned that he had a twin brother. I took on his semblance.

"I took what she offered Mori, only I wasn't nice about it. I raped her repeatedly and beat her before I was merciful enough to drain her. For her I had made an exception to my torture as well. When my brother stopped by to visit he found her broken body whipped and obviously raped."

Nocturne returns to the here and now to look at Mori. She didn't look like she was about to lose the food she just ate and he's grateful for that. "The stories about me aren't exaggerated Mori, if anything they don't tell the true level of cruelty I posses. And if I ever catch up to my brother I have special plans for him, things that not even I have done before."