"Thank you, Nocturne, for dinner." Mori says as she urges the man to slide out from the booth. She turns to the man, "finish your juice you'll be needing it soon." The man is too stunned at how Mori talks and treats one of the lords that he does what he's told to do. Nocturne looks on in amusement.
"Very good. Maybe I should take you to the courts Mori. You'd have the vampires in line in no time. I'd bet you'd even have my brother on his knees begging for mercy." Nocturne jokes with her. He doesn't notice how white the man has become.
"Shush Nocturne, you've scared him." Mori says in irritation.
"He's the king isn't he?" The man manages to get out through chattering teeth.
Mori bends down so she's at the mans eye level while he sits. He'd fallen back to the bench at the realization of who the vampire was that is sitting across from him, who'd eaten from his wife's neck.
"Look at me," Mori commands and even Nocturne could feel the power behind that command. He looks as well but for other reasons.
The man is helpless to disobey and looks at Mori, "You and your wife will be alright. Nocturne here assures me that although you are his that you remain under my protection. I see no reason for either of you to die, however, he does need more blood this night. He took more than he meant to from your wife and since he had to heal her she needs to remain close to Nocturne. So what we need you to do is carry your wife back to my cabin. There you will set your wife down on our spare bed, then you'll be his dinner. He won't take as much as he took from your wife. You'll both wake in the morning, eat breakfast then be allowed to leave. You have my word on it, so unless Nocturne wishes to break MY word both you and your lovely bride will be fine."
The man looks at Mori in awe. "How is it you would be able to tell the king what to do? We are his property, his to do with as he pleases and yet you give me such assurances. How is it possible?"
Nocturne steps in to answer. "She is my wife, and this is her valley. Here even I must follow her rules."
At Nocturne's answer the man's eyes grow wider than Mori thought humanly possible. "There's a queen of the vampires?" The man falls off the bench and kneels to Mori. "Forgive me, my queen, I did not know."
Mori is giving Nocturne dagger looks. Everyone else in the diner is looking at them wondering just what the hell is going on. "Get up. No one knows. Nocturne isn't known here and he doesn't want people to know his rank." Mori's words act like a cattle prod to the man and he jumps up.
"Get your wife. Take this road straight up the mountain until you hit the gate. Wait there for me to let you in or you might get hit with buckshot. Stings like hell if it doesn't kill you." The man nods in a daze.
He picks his wife up while the waitress brings over two meals in to go containers in a bag, he takes that as well. He leaves and goes to a car parked out front that neither had paid attention to. Nocturne sniffs. He'd of known if he'd looked to the license plate.
Nocturne pays for the meals and they leave. Nocturne finds it nice weather and wants to fly so he picks Mori up and soars into the sky.
"You're angry with me." Nocturne says while flying. "Is it from earlier, the hit or is it something else?"
"To be honest it's both. It will take awhile for the anger from you hitting me to leave, but what I'm angriest at is how you acted at the diner." Mori replies.
Now Nocturne is clueless. "I don't understand, what did I do at the diner?"
"Seriously, you have no clue? Just how in the hell did vampire's become the dominant species?" Mori asks the heavens that last bit.
Nocturne decides to answer her last question ignoring the first. "We're faster, stronger, better hunters and damn hard for humans to kill."
"Yeah, whatever. I had two of your so called best hunters within a short distance of me. Had I had the proper weapons I could have killed one possibly both. Look you may be difficult but you're not infallible. But to the first question, you Nocturne are an idiot. You wanted to remain anonymous, that's why you gave me the name Nocturne in the first place. However, they are yours and know your name. They WILL be leaving here and know how to get here..."
"I realize that Mori. That will be taken care of when they leave in the morning. I'll do to them what I did to the teen lovers when I sent them to my estate. They won't be able to talk of me or how to get to this valley."
"Still doesn't keep you from being an idiot." Mori replies. She stiffens after she says that expecting Nocturne to retaliate somehow. He does fly down and set her on her feet. He lifts his hand and she flinches expecting to feel pain. He sighs even as he caresses her face.
"You're right, I am an idiot." He kisses her gently at first then with more hunger until the sound of a car intrudes on them. He breaks off cursing the situation while Mori is laughing softly. "Remember Mori, just because they will be there doesn't mean we won't finish what was started. I'm hungry for more than just food tonight."
Mori sniffs and goes to open the gate and shows the man where to park the car. She closes the gate and waits for the man to pick up his wife. "Nocturne, be a gentleman and get their overnight bags and dinner please." Mori says to the glowering vampire.
Nocturne stares at her stunned. Mori returns his look with a raised eyebrow. But when Nocturne refuses to move towards the couple Mori huffs, "fine." She moves to the car and takes the bags from the couple and the food as well.
The man argues but Mori is adamant, the man has his arms full. "Take her to the cabin. Just follow this trail. Nocturne, since you couldn't be bothered to help with this could you at least open the cabin door for our guests?" Mori is more than a little angry with him and it comes out in her voice. Nocturne instead goes to her and relieves her of the bags. "Fine." She hurries ahead of the couple and reaches the cabin doors in time to open them.
She goes over to the bed and pulls out the trundle. She'd forgotten that the mattress needs to be replaced. As she stares at it mortified Nocturne comes up to her, "I got it."
The trundle bed is made up and ready to go by the time the man brings his wife over. "Wait, to give both of us some privacy Nocturne would you please take the bed over there?" Mori points to the darkened corner of the cabin.
Without a word Nocturne pushes the trundle bed to the corner behind their bed. "Thank you."
The woman starts waking up and stretching. "You both should eat now. After I will need to eat from you." Nocturne says to the human male who just nods.
"Mori, it's time you ate as well." Mori smiles delightedly. Nocturne is disturbed by how light her eyes grow at the idea of blood.
By the time Mori is done feeding from Nocturne, he's glad he has another human ready and waiting for him. The man edges around Mori no longer feeling as safe with her there as he had before.
Nocturne gains his attention by caressing his face. "Do not be disturbed by my queen."
"As you wish my king." The man replies no longer concerned about Mori or her odd behavior.
"Nocturne, stop or you'll kill him." Mori says.
Nocturne pulls away from the human. "This one, one of my own, tastes nearly as good as you do Mori. How did he stay unnoticed by me all this time?"
Mori sniffs. "You have huge estates Nocturne, whole states are yours. I hear your primary estate is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. It wouldn't be hard for one of yours to go unnoticed amongst all that."
Nocturne snorts in humor at Mori's words, even as he finds himself caressing the mans face again. "Still, blood like his is rare, Mori. If I had caught even a whiff of it he would have been brought to live at the palace. But perhaps it is for the best that I didn't. Now I can send him and his wife to live in my personal house to eat of his blood..."
"Great, lovely, wonderful. Now are you done fondling your food or do you want to switch beds tonight and take his?" Mori asks archly. She's more than a little tired of watching her husband seduce another. "Perhaps he and his wife are more to your liking this night?"
Nocturne smiles as he turns towards her. "Are you jealous my Mori?"
Mori doesn't answer right away. Was she jealous? She doesn't think so. There's too much anger but not at the humans. Tears that she doesn't realize are there fall silently down her face. "No, not jealous. Perhaps I should take the trundle. The other bed will fit the three of you better."
"NO." Nocturne says and releases his hold on the human.
The man returns to his wife's side and helps her sit up. Soon he has her up on her feet and helps her to the table where Mori has set the dinner containers down.
While the man and wife studiously ignore the other couple Nocturne talks soft and furious to Mori. "What the hell was that about Mori?"
"Looked to me like you wanted to be with him tonight. I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, I know it's not my place. But neither am I going to be a part of a threesome. So if you want him then you'll get her as well." Mori replies without rancor or heat of any kind.
"Mori." Nocturne says with a great deal of patience. "I'm not taking anyone to my bed..."
"Stop. I don't want anymore lies. I don't know how 'marriage' works in the vampire world, but in the human most people expect fidelity. Had I married a human what you did this morning would be grounds for divorce. And I would have. So don't tell me you won't take anyone to bed, because you did this morning." Nocturne looks surprised for a fleeting second then hides his thoughts. He'd forgotten about her ability to see through his eyes.
"I'm sorry. It was his reward." Nocturne starts to explain but Mori shakes her head and holds her hand up.
"Look, you are the king and you damn well do what you want. I've whored myself out to try to avoid seeing what you do. You and the others may not see it that way but I do. Personally I hate myself after, feel dirty and well you don't care so it doesn't matter. If you want them go ahead, but I won't be a part of it. So just tell me where you want me to sleep. Or I could just leave and let you three have your privacy." Mori is turned around and starting to walk away.
"Mori, stop. They will sleep on their bed and we will sleep on ours. I'm sorry, I know you don't like being with others, but I thought it better than the alternative. Tell me, Mori, just what the hell do you want me to do? I know you aren't a whore and I've tried to explain why your aren't even when you are with..."
Mori runs out of the cabin before Nocturne can finish his thought. The humans look up in surprise before returning to their food.
"Finish your food. The bathroom is that door over there. Feel free to use it. The trundle bed is yours for the night. I'm not sure when we'll be back." Nocturne says as he makes ready to leave the cabin. Then he looks at the man, "Keep an eye on her. My blood is still running strong in her and that could make her unpredictable. Take her to bed, might be the best sex you ever have." Then he leaves and looks for Mori.