It was silent in the main hall while Emma sat with Kat. The mansion was pretty empty except for a few kindred that had gone up to Camille's room, and Danielle was still sick from blood loss and needed to rest. The cuts on Emma's arms were slowly starting to close up again and she didn't feel as faint as before.
"So, what was this all about?"
She held up her arms, expecting some sort of explanation from Kat.
"It's a side effect from your bloodline ability. Usually only second generation kindred can use their bloodline abilities to the fullest. We know Jacob chose you as his successor though, so this means you have access to some of the more higher tier abilities. I'm guessing your body can't keep up with the amount of energy those abilities suck from your body."
"Bloodline abilities? Is this something specific to our bloodline or do other bloodlines have it as well?"
"I do not know many other ancients, but each bloodline has a different ability and it manifests in their lineage in different ways. Hysteria was able to manipulate the blood in her body to such extents that she could partially shapeshift. She also regenerated faster than you could inflict any sort of damage on her. Further than that she is the only ancient known to have embraced her beast, which means her abilities were on an inhumane level."
"So almost invincible..."
"Yep. Both Jean and Jacob got different aspects of her abilities. Jacob's ability was, well," Kat vaguely motioned at Emma's arms, "Blood manipulation. Jean on the other hand-"
"Has enhanced regeneration, just like Hysteria."
Emma had already learned this information from Jes. She knew and had witnessed before how well Jacob was at manipulating his blood to the point of using it as a weapon. Jean had none of that, but she could tank so much more damage than a regular kin. She shivered, remembering how horrendous it had felt to watch her fight Nehut. Getting mauled over and over again and getting up as if nothing happened. That must have hurt, and a part of Emma wondered if she was feeling all of that, if a part of Jean was still seeing what was going on as she mindlessly attacked and killed. The yellow of her eyes was still fresh in Emma's memory. She missed seeing the gray in them, missed feeling her embrace and talking for nights under the moonlight. She missed Jean.
Buried in her own thoughts, Emma didn't realize for a while that Kat had been keeping quiet. When she looked up, she saw her staring at Emma with slightly creased brows.
"...How did you learn about this information?"
Emma looked surprised, not expecting the question. She had always found out about information out there somewhere and no one had questioned it up until this point.
"Well... In the underworld. I found out about a lot of stuff there."
"No." Kat interrupted her, "This information is way too specific. Ancient's abilities are somewhat known but they keep their descendants' abilities strictly secret. Who did you get this information from?"
"What..?" It was Emma's turn to be confused, "I didn't know it was such a tightly kept secret."
"Emma." Kat had never sounded this serious before, something in her expression sent a chill down Emma's back. "Tell me who told you about this information."
"..." Emma was quiet, shocked at how serious Kat had gotten. "I learned it from Jes."
There was a tense silence as Kat's eyes opened up in surprise, her mouth falling open in near shock with her answer. She looked down and up again, trying to process the information. It was like she had gotten the answer to a question she had asked long ago, and it wasn't a relieving one.
"I have many questions, and with each one I am afraid to uncover a worse information."
Emma felt at unease, she didn't want to deal with another anxiety filled conversation right after her near death experience.
"I'm assuming you must have gotten pretty close with Jes to reveal this information, which is an entirely problematic thing on its own, but I want to ask if she ever revealed to you why she knows this much about Jean's lineage."
At that, Emma felt unsure for a while. She thought their rivalry with Jean would already be known to her companions. Then again, how would they even know about Jes's long held grudge? She realized it was probably information she revealed to Emma out of trust, or something else entirely. She knew why Jes had been there to help Jacob and why she let Emma get killed along the way. Yet a part of her hesitated to reveal all of that to Kat.
Hesitated?
Why did she hesitate? She was Jean's companion, and she would have to do everything she can to share information. Why did she feel like she would be betraying Jes in that situation? Especially considering how lethal all of this knowledge could be.
Kat waited patiently as Emma went through the moral dilemma in her head. She had to give an explanation. She hated being left in the dark, and didn't want to do the same to Kat.
"She helped Jacob because she knew it would cause a conflict between him and Jean. Apparently Hysteria, along with Jean, killed a lot of her friends in the past and she wanted revenge for that. When I asked how she knew so much information about our bloodline she told me it had become a special interest of hers some time in the past."
The expression on her face was unreadable as Kat took in all of this information. She looked up at Emma again, her following words not something Emma expected to hear.
"I knew... I expected her to have some sort of interest in you, but just how close have you two gotten?"
Right as she finished her sentence the silence of the mansion was broken with loud footsteps running through the upper hall and dashing down the stairs.
"Salope de infidèle!"
Before she even had the chance to talk or react, Emma was caught and thrown across the room, the wall shaking as her body slammed onto it. Camille didn't stop, and even Kat was too stunned to react or intervene when she went over to Emma and caught her by the neck, pulling her up and hitting her on the wall again with fury in her eyes.
"Jean trusted you! She went ahead and risked her life for you, and this is how you pay her back? By going and fucking that corpse bitch behind her back?!"
By that point Kat had gotten out of her shocked state enough to run over and interfere, and Camille pushed her back harshly, showing that she wasn't afraid to hurt if pushed further. Emma groaned and held onto the hand on her neck. She couldn't even progress for a while what had just happened and tried to peel off the fingers that were choking her.
"Camille, stop-"
"Stay out of this Katherine!", she turned her attention back to Emma again, "Dominic sacrificed his life for you and your mortal friend, all of us accepted you between us."
"Camille!"
"How dare you betray all of us!" She squeezed tighter and Emma let out a pained groan that got choked up.
"Camille!!"
Kat took her gun out and pointed it at Camille, at which she finally turned over to look at her, shocked and speechless to see the gun pointed at her.
"Let Emma go."
She stood there unmoving, squeezing Emma's neck tighter in her angered state until it almost snapped. Kat opened the safety lock of her gun and returned Camille's gaze with a stern one.
"I will shoot if you don't let go now."
Camille looked like she could go feral any moment, her eyes holding madness inside them, then she let go of Emma's neck and let her fall on the ground. Emma coughed, holding her throat and trying to recover from her crushed windpipe. It sucked more than she could have imagined. Now Camille's attention was drawn to Kat instead.
"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you. A half blood freak like you should never have gotten involved with us."
Kat didn't lower her gun for a while, not seeming that affected by Camille's words. She finally put her gun down once she was convinced Camille had some control over her actions again.
"I know you are mourning, Camille. So am I. Dominic wasn't just your friend, I cared about him as well and that fact isn't going to change no matter how much you insult me."
Camille's lips were pulled back in a thin line, obvious that she was fighting the urge to snap at any given moment.
"If you keep losing control and taking it out on Emma we will never fucking get Jean back, and Dominic will have died for nothing. Get a hold of yourself. If Emma didn't want to save Jean she wouldn't even be here, and like it or not this is the only way we are getting her back. So save whatever grudge you have for after we take care of this mess."
The tension was still palpable in the room, and as Emma watched the two argue a part of her wished for Dominic to come downstairs and break it off like he used to. He wasn't with them anymore, there was no one to intervene or soften the mood with a joke, and his lack of presence was made clearer with each passing day.
"Do you not care an ounce that she is sharing beds with a necromancer of all things? One that wanted Jean dead for years? How can you even trust that she isn't being manipulated to hurt Jean further? That bitch killed Emma, does it not create suspicion that Emma could as well be being manipulated?"
Kat looked over at Emma with those words, and for the first time, she had doubt in them. Emma stroked her neck which was already starting to bruise up, sitting on the ground and trying to figure a way out of this. Really... What was she thinking? That they would just be okay with her befriending Yasmin after everything that happened?
Well... A part of her expected them to. Kat had sounded like it would be obvious for Jes to be interested in her, and Emma wasn't betraying Jean, she had done all of that to find and help her. Or had she? She creased her brows, thinking back to the time when Caleb had pulled her away from the oncoming wave of frenzied kindred. When Jess had put her trust in her, shielded her from danger, kissed her. Emma hadn't resisted any of that. She didn't feel like she returned the same feelings exactly, but the idea of never seeing Jes again hurt her. How had she even come to that point?
She spoke up when her throat was finally healed up enough, her voice a bit hoarse.
"Whether you like me or not I am here because I love Jean and, I want to save her. I only did what I had to do to find her."
Camille seemed enraged at her audacity, Emma had never seen her this angry before, but despite that she stood in her place and talked in a cold but calm voice.
"I will let you help until we get Jean back. But don't expect you'll be welcome anymore after that."
She stood there another moment to try and calm herself down, then headed upstairs and went to her room, pulling the door close with such force that the hinges cracked in their place. Emma was still sitting on the ground and holding her neck, the lobby full of an uncomfortable silence. Kat looked at her after a while, then came over and reached a hand out. Emma took it, pushing herself up and trying to find her balance again.
"..."
Kat was keeping quiet, and she really didn't like that.
"I still love Jean, I mean it, no matter what happened between me and Jes I will do anything and everything I can to get her back."
"What then?"
Kat looked up at her again, but she didn't look very convinced.
"What do you think will happen after we get Jean back? Can you promise that you will cut any kind of contact you have with that necromancer?"
Emma let out a bothered sigh, crossing her arms.
"I get it, you don't trust me anymore, none of you trust me. And I can't do anything about that, okay? I don't know if I can promise that I'll cut communications with her, I don't even know what the fuck is going on between me and Jes. All I know is none of it matters if we can get rid of the crusader and get Jean back. So just trust me on that, Kat. I really need it."
Kat looked unsure, but then shook her head and sighed.
"Fine, okay, I'll trust you. But be careful, our numbers are getting smaller and if anything happens to me, there won't be anyone left to defend you."
Emma remembered about Dominic again when she said that, her heart sinking with a somber feeling.
"Where is he?"
Kat stood quiet for a while before answering, her mood shifting into a more somber one as well.
"In the guest room next to Camille. We're still looking for a suitable coffin for him."
"Oh... So kindred get buried too?"
Kat looked at her with a weirded out expression.
"No? Kindred wouldn't disintegrate like humans, plus that is straight out disrespectful."
Emma got caught off guard with that answer, but even more so by the fact that burials were considered disrespectful.
"Then what is the coffin for?"
"To preserve his body until we find a suitable day for a cremation ceremony."
Guess that made sense.
"Did you do the same with Jacob? I don't remember a cremation ceremony for him."
There was a long silence. Kat looked like she was unsure about what to say for a while, opening her mouth and then closing it again. Emma raised her brows at that, tilting her head and squinting her eyes at Kat.
"I have a feeling that I'm about to hear something I really won't like."
"Jean did not want to burn him."
A short silence followed Emma's surprised expression.
"...So? What did you guys do with the body?"
Kat sighed, looking like she really didn't want to be a part of any of this.
"Nothing. His body is in the cellar."
"...In this cellar, the one right under us?"
Emma pointed at the floor and Kat nodded. It took a while for her to process that information. All this time, the full half of the year she was there, Jacob's dead body was right underneath her? She didn't really know if she wanted to find out why Jean did that, and with each new information she found out her worries about Jean's mental health was worsening.
"That's kinda fucked up..."
"Yeah. I know. We all know. It's not that uncommon to do that in kindred's world though. Not many of us are sane and in a world where you are considered invincible, you end up forgetting how to deal with loss."
Emma still wasn't sure if she felt okay with something like that. Maybe she just wasn't parted with her humanity enough to be okay with the ethically questionable stuff the kindred did. Yet a part of her was curious. She hadn't seen Jacob since the day she was embraced. Someone who shaped her whole way of living down to the curse she was stuck with, yet she had only seen him once in her life before he died.
"Can I see him?"
Kat raised her brows at that, looking surprised and doubtful.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Actually no, but I feel like I have to. It's... It just feels strange. He somehow became a part of my whole existence yet I'm not even able to question him, or ask him about anything."
"Tell me about that..." Kat sighed and stood up, "Fine, follow me then."