Bewitching Brews- Discworld- It's True About Vampires
Title: It's True About Vampires
Fandom: Discworld
Character/Pairing: Young Vetinari/Margolotta
Prompt List: Bewitching Brews
Prompt: Intrigue. A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.
Rating: T
Word Count: 537
Author's Notes: Just re-reading The Fifth Elephant and enjoying the implication of what happened on Vetinari's youthful Grand Sneer with Lady Margolotta. This is the result.
Summary: A certain teenage Assassin learns his first lesson in control from Lady Margolotta.
Young Havelock leaned against the wall, waiting for the woman to turn around. He’d only seen the back of her head so far- deep red locks that seemed to have been forced into the submission of immoveable waves. He unconsciously straightened his shirt collar- somehow, being in the same room with the woman made even the coolest assassin feel unkempt.
"This is the part where you’re supposed to say that you don’t appreciate being kidnaped." She sounded a bit like the instructors in the guild, cold and condescending. But there was something else he couldn’t quite place.
"Not really", Havelock said. "It’s always good to keep in practice- those locks in your cellar provided quite the challenge. I’m also not very curious about why you placed me there- you wanted to see what I would do."
The woman finally turned to him.
"And I imagine that if you had not been curious about me, my henchmen would be dead right now."
It should be said, first of all, that she was beautiful, but that goes without saying. If a teenage boy is abducted by a powerful female vampire with a name longer than most national anthems, it would be in the worst possible taste for her not to be good looking. What was somewhat out of the ordinary was that she was dressed in something modest and pink, albeit embroidered in bats. Everyone knew that the female vampire in such situations was supposed to wear black velvet, or preferably leather.
But young Havelock could appreciate a few breaks with tradition. The student Assassin bowed, and she smiled.
"Lady Margolotta Cassandra Erzbet Silvana Arabella Xanthe Salinatix Novella- well, I’ll stop before I take up all night. I heard some very good reports of you, and I wanted to see just how accurate they were."
She stood, and as she looked him over Havelock could finally identify that extra quality she had. Hunger.
"You have skill", she went on, "and style. You are intelligent enough not to let the first two traits cloud your judgement. However, I was a bit disappointed to find one thing you hadn’t yet learned."
"Pray, do go on."
"Control."
Havelock went over to her couch, which was all but smothering in pink cushions. Leaning back, he was suddenly conscious of how young he must seem to her. Late teens meant nothing to someone who eased her way through the centuries.
"Is that why you brought me here?", he asked. "To teach me control?"
Margolatta pursed her lips.
"I would use the word ‘demonstrating.’ Whether you learn anything from it is your affair."
It was true about vampires, he reflected. If they can’t have blood, they’ll hunger for something else. Havelock also realized that, although Margolotta was standing perfectly still, his hands were moving of their own accord, beginning to work at the little bat-shaped buttons on her jumper. He could have sworn his brain wasn’t sending the signals to his body...
This kind of control was something he needed to learn. But it would be a very interesting lesson. After all, he thought to himself as he kissed up her now bare arm, he’d get to find out what else was true about vampires.
Fandom: Discworld
Character/Pairing: Young Vetinari/Margolotta
Prompt List: Bewitching Brews
Prompt: Intrigue. A sultry, exotic scent that inspires devious plotting and clandestine affairs. It is a scent painted in artifice, veiled in deceit, and slithering with whispered secrets. Black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes.
Rating: T
Word Count: 537
Author's Notes: Just re-reading The Fifth Elephant and enjoying the implication of what happened on Vetinari's youthful Grand Sneer with Lady Margolotta. This is the result.
Summary: A certain teenage Assassin learns his first lesson in control from Lady Margolotta.
Young Havelock leaned against the wall, waiting for the woman to turn around. He’d only seen the back of her head so far- deep red locks that seemed to have been forced into the submission of immoveable waves. He unconsciously straightened his shirt collar- somehow, being in the same room with the woman made even the coolest assassin feel unkempt.
"This is the part where you’re supposed to say that you don’t appreciate being kidnaped." She sounded a bit like the instructors in the guild, cold and condescending. But there was something else he couldn’t quite place.
"Not really", Havelock said. "It’s always good to keep in practice- those locks in your cellar provided quite the challenge. I’m also not very curious about why you placed me there- you wanted to see what I would do."
The woman finally turned to him.
"And I imagine that if you had not been curious about me, my henchmen would be dead right now."
It should be said, first of all, that she was beautiful, but that goes without saying. If a teenage boy is abducted by a powerful female vampire with a name longer than most national anthems, it would be in the worst possible taste for her not to be good looking. What was somewhat out of the ordinary was that she was dressed in something modest and pink, albeit embroidered in bats. Everyone knew that the female vampire in such situations was supposed to wear black velvet, or preferably leather.
But young Havelock could appreciate a few breaks with tradition. The student Assassin bowed, and she smiled.
"Lady Margolotta Cassandra Erzbet Silvana Arabella Xanthe Salinatix Novella- well, I’ll stop before I take up all night. I heard some very good reports of you, and I wanted to see just how accurate they were."
She stood, and as she looked him over Havelock could finally identify that extra quality she had. Hunger.
"You have skill", she went on, "and style. You are intelligent enough not to let the first two traits cloud your judgement. However, I was a bit disappointed to find one thing you hadn’t yet learned."
"Pray, do go on."
"Control."
Havelock went over to her couch, which was all but smothering in pink cushions. Leaning back, he was suddenly conscious of how young he must seem to her. Late teens meant nothing to someone who eased her way through the centuries.
"Is that why you brought me here?", he asked. "To teach me control?"
Margolatta pursed her lips.
"I would use the word ‘demonstrating.’ Whether you learn anything from it is your affair."
It was true about vampires, he reflected. If they can’t have blood, they’ll hunger for something else. Havelock also realized that, although Margolotta was standing perfectly still, his hands were moving of their own accord, beginning to work at the little bat-shaped buttons on her jumper. He could have sworn his brain wasn’t sending the signals to his body...
This kind of control was something he needed to learn. But it would be a very interesting lesson. After all, he thought to himself as he kissed up her now bare arm, he’d get to find out what else was true about vampires.