musesandlyrics | 9.3. Oscar Wilde quote
9.3. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
Oscar Wilde
Co-written with histhornedrose
[Follows THIS and THIS]
The only time Blaise chose to leave Rory's bedside was once he was satisfied the blood transfusion was running, and that Rory's obs were stable. Initially, they hadn't been. Initially, the second drain seemed to be too much stress on him and he went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, the military medical team were the best in their field and they had him stabilised with a relatively small amount of work. Rory's heartbeat started to get stronger once the blood was well on its way to being replenished. There was not a single command, order, or angry glare that would have caused Blaise to leave the Scot. What he did wasn't a claim, but it was his responsibility. Blaise never left someone he fed on without ensuring they had adequate assistance to survive the feed. He never drained them to the point their life was seriously in danger, but this was different. Rory's body had already been through extensive stress. That was the risk in what Blaise did, but as he had watched the terrible scene play out, it became more and more inevitable that Rory would have caused himself irreparable damage if he remained in the Brujah state of mind. It was beyond who he really was and he was on a rage overload. He would have killed or been killed. No question about it.
But with Rory now under Blaise's influence, Blaise stayed with him as long as it took to know he was okay. It was a few hours later before he was satisfied to even leave the room, but there was nothing that would get him to leave the building until Rory woke and he could talk to him about what had occurred. Now he was entering one of the consult rooms at the facility on the medical floor, finding Juliette had returned and was waiting for him. One of the soldiers had told Blaise of the fact awhile ago, but again, he hadn't been able to leave Rory at that point. Now, he closed the door behind him, his eyes calmly locked on Juliette as he did so. "I was never going to let you drain him, mon amour," he stated simply.
"Yet you cannot deny you knew exactly how I would feel about it," Juliette replied quietly. It was a struggle to keep her tone and temperament even. Despite the feed that had calmed her somewhat, looking at Blaise right then was enough to start pushing her buttons all over again. She hated that a mortal could bring that out in her, but Rory really had gotten under her skin. It had been centuries since someone had destabilised her so much. The last person had been Blaise himself. "About it being you. Why shouldn't I have been the one to drain him? Why do you get to choose?"
Blaise knew his answer was going to enrage her, piss her off, yet he was going to be nothing but honest. "I did not care about how you felt about it," he told her. "You are Toreador. A Primogen, oui, yet still you have no control over Brujah in any way, shape or form. This situation was not going to be any different simply because you harbour romantic desires towards him." Her other comment flared up his own anger, though and he was over in front of her, in her personal space in the blink of an eye, holding her gaze when his own eyes flashed. "I get to choose because I am Prince!" he spat, though he kept his hands to himself, not touching her. "Do you disrespect me, Juliette? Do you go against my wishes?" he challenged her with a growl.
Juliette growled right back, not shrinking away from him just because Blaise had chosen to invade her space. "Je m'en fous! Oui, I am disrespecting you because you have shown no respect for me. Prince or not, mate or not... You do not get to be the one to take this from me! To take him from me. I have had to watch as Brujah controls him, and now I get to watch as Ventrue controls him. What are your wishes, hm? Tell me that, Prince!"
"To ensure no more uncontrolled emotions put lives at risk in my city!" Blaise exploded back her her and stepped away, pushing his fingers through his hair in an attempt not to lay a hand on her. If he remained in her space, he would hurt her. "You have been nothing but reckless when it comes to this mortal! I do not trust your jealousy or your emotions and your reactions right now are nothing but proof of this! I did not trust you not to Embrace him! Not to take him when you finally had him under your control! There was too much at risk and there needed to be a more powerful influence over the Brujah within him! If your drain did not work, we would be back to square one! There would be no proof a Toreador would overpower a damn Brujah with that much rage! He needed to be under my control. There is no way I believe for a single fucking second that you would not claim him once you had the chance to feed from him!"
"Merci beaucoup for having so much faith in me, mon loup. So nice to know that my Prince thinks so highly of me. That my mate thinks so much of me. Now I know, oui? Now I know what you really think. Even if Toreador would not have been enough, I would not have claimed him, or Embraced him. Mon dieu! That fille really does have your head spinning around in all directions. How can I really be sure your intentions towards Rory were so pure, hm? That there wasn't just the slightest need for a little revenge. I cannot believe that you assume I would lack such restraint when it came to trying to save him! I do not want him under my control, or anyone else's."
Blaise was furious. Beyond furious. The more he listened to her, the more the anger increased within him. Instead of reacting and exploding at her even more, he just stood there, stilled, as he looked at her with a vicious glare, his eyes now an intense silver and a sneer formed on his lips. The things she was saying, if it was anyone else, he would have stripped them of their Primogen role by now and ordered them from his presence. She was insulting him and disrespecting his decisions, and it was going down about as well as Buffy's blood was right now. "I can assure you they were pure, Juliette. But right now, revenge is tasting monumentally sweet. Do you really wish to continue taunting me like this now he is under my complete control? In one tiny shift of faith, I could have him despising your very inner soul until the day he dies. I can remove every memory he has of you. I can make him fall deeply in love for another at your witness. And I will, if you do not afford me some respect," he bit out dangerously. The thing that was angering him the most was that above all else, he actually did this for Juliette. He knew how the Scot felt about Kindred and the feeding and the Embrace. If Juliette drained him, he would resent her for it because he had requested that she not do it. Resentment was human instinct. But she couldn't see it and the way she was blatantly insulting him right now, he was very close to claiming some sort of revenge.
Juliette stayed quiet as she watched him with silver eyes, trying to work out if Blaise really would follow through in his threats. Of course he would. He really would make Rory hate her with every fibre of his being, and he would make him fall in love with another as Juliette could only watch. She folded her arms under her chest in an effort to not reach out and slap him. Blaise was still pissing her off, even with just the mention of what he would do with Rory. It really did take all her willpower not to keep screaming at him. "Your acts of revenge always were so poetic."
"Fitting. Not poetic," Blaise returned quietly, a growl still edging his tone. He stayed where his was, his arms now crossed securely over his chest. He didn't move, and instead just continued to watch her. "You might be my mate, Juliette, but I do not have to explain my actions to you. You are to respect my judgment, no matter how passionate you feel that this was some sort of err against you and your control. Kindred instinct is something I have had nearly five hundreds years to witness and experience. I have seen people who have professed nothing but deep and respectful love for another Embrace them in a fit of uncontrollable Kindred ecstasy. Rory's own dear friend is plain evidence of that. Oui, she was Embraced against her will. I can see it in her eyes. This is not about a war between Clans, or who is more stronger and powerful than the other. It is about control, and nothing more. No other in this city can overpower a drain of my own. He is not at anymore risk of anyone else doing this to him. But merci beaucoup for believing I only did this for selfish gain."
Juliette looked away briefly, an act of surrender even if her jaw was clenched. She still wasn't going to swallow what Blaise had done easily, but he was her Prince. He was thi city's Prince, and she really wasn't about to go against him. "Misunderstandings abound. Perhaps we're both too lost in what's been going on to keep our heads. Or maybe it is just me that's lost mine. Still, I cannot help but feel the way I feel. He's... I do care about him. A lot. Not only have I fucked up and caused him to be attacked by Brujah in the first place, he has then had to go through another drain." She tilted her head slightly. "The brother's partner is Kindred. Ventrue. And I highly suspect they're more than just work partners."
Blaise gave a slight nod. "I sensed it on him as soon as he entered the room. This is not a bad thing. He will have some minor understanding of the situation, one would hope. I trust you got him safely to his partner?" he asked. He might have been in the post-feed haze, but it hadn't been lost on him how distraught the brother had been. And injured. He needed to be taken care of, and hopefully this partner would be adequate for that. Blaise could still feel the anger pumping though him. It would take a lot to dilute how bothered he was by her words. He stepped over to her as his nails sharpened and he sliced one across his wrist, the deep, red blood seeping out of the wound. He held his wrist up to her lips, meeting her eyes. "Go on, amour. Taste him. Secondary transfer, understandably, but it's him all the same."
Juliette gave a shake of her head. "I'm not so sure. Logan really was quite troubled. And the partner will be... Well, curious to say the least. If he's worth anything, no doubt he's already been looking into all of us." Juliette's nostrils flared as the copper tang of the blood seemed to fill the air and it was all she could do not to just snatch up Blaise's wrist and suck him dry. Instead she took a step back. "Non. He doesn't want me to taste him. Smelling him is enough torture. Even if it is secondary transfer there is a reason why he would not let me bite him. Even you could not take watching me feed on your fille."
"I still do not understand why you had to feed on her," Blaise told her calmly. It was a fact that was lost on him, to the point he just pushed it to the back of his mind when all the rest of the confusion over Buffy overtook and plagued him. He glanced down at the blood dripping from his wrist, but made no move to close the wound over just yet. He tilted his head a little and ran his tongue slowl across his lip. "He does not want you to control him. There is a difference. Perhaps you should think on that point for just a few moments, hm?"
"Because you could not, I wanted to try and give you a way to enjoy it," Juliette admitted. "And because I still wasn't sure if she was poison to you. If her blood was what was hurting you. I couldn't think of any other way to find out other than tasting her for myself. It is a metaphorical bullet I would take gladly for you. You might piss me off, make me angry sometimes but you are still my mate. Deep down your wellbeing is still paramount to me." Juliette looked at the wound, her brow creasing slightly as she did consider his comment for a few moments before her eyes turned silver and she took his hand to bring Blaise's wrist to her lips. Her fangs extended and she glanced up at him before she bit down with a growl.
Blaise just watched as she bit down on his wrist, a small frown on his face. He was starting to wonder if he would ever have the ability to taste Buffy, and doubting it more and more. She didn't seem to easily be anything he needed, and he didn't think what he needed was anything complicated. Love. That's all he wanted. Sure, he needed it in its entirety, and he needed it to be true and pure, but if she wasn't capable of loving him like that, time would need to come where he just walked away, despite the claim. He glanced away, feeling like he was intruding on Juliette's moment, for some reason. The feed lacked it's usual thrill and rush because his own feelings were so troubled. He was not happy at all about the whole turn of recent events. In fact, most of it saddened him deeply. He felt like he had failed and he felt like the weakness he was experiencing was somehow affecting his ability to govern his city. He hated feeling like a failure.
Juliette pulled back before she did anything stupid, anything that would prove Blaise was right when it came to Juliette not being able to control herself when it came to Rory. The taste of him, however secondary, sent a thrill down her spine and she licked at her lips to get every drop before she ran her tongue over the wound on his wrist and sealed it over. She dropped his hand and looked up at him. "Merci, mon loup."
"De rien," Blaise replied quietly and folded his arms across his chest again. There was tension between them. Obvious and strong tension. He wasn't sure at this point if that was something that could ever be rectified again. He was hurt from what she accused him off, and he had already been hurting from yet another misunderstanding with Buffy. A small chill crept into his skin again that had been accompanying the apparent illness he had been experiencing. Trying to shake it off was pointless. Juliette was the only person he truly trusted in this world, but times like this, all he could feel was completely alone.
Word Count | 2,652
Oscar Wilde
Co-written with histhornedrose
[Follows THIS and THIS]
The only time Blaise chose to leave Rory's bedside was once he was satisfied the blood transfusion was running, and that Rory's obs were stable. Initially, they hadn't been. Initially, the second drain seemed to be too much stress on him and he went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, the military medical team were the best in their field and they had him stabilised with a relatively small amount of work. Rory's heartbeat started to get stronger once the blood was well on its way to being replenished. There was not a single command, order, or angry glare that would have caused Blaise to leave the Scot. What he did wasn't a claim, but it was his responsibility. Blaise never left someone he fed on without ensuring they had adequate assistance to survive the feed. He never drained them to the point their life was seriously in danger, but this was different. Rory's body had already been through extensive stress. That was the risk in what Blaise did, but as he had watched the terrible scene play out, it became more and more inevitable that Rory would have caused himself irreparable damage if he remained in the Brujah state of mind. It was beyond who he really was and he was on a rage overload. He would have killed or been killed. No question about it.
But with Rory now under Blaise's influence, Blaise stayed with him as long as it took to know he was okay. It was a few hours later before he was satisfied to even leave the room, but there was nothing that would get him to leave the building until Rory woke and he could talk to him about what had occurred. Now he was entering one of the consult rooms at the facility on the medical floor, finding Juliette had returned and was waiting for him. One of the soldiers had told Blaise of the fact awhile ago, but again, he hadn't been able to leave Rory at that point. Now, he closed the door behind him, his eyes calmly locked on Juliette as he did so. "I was never going to let you drain him, mon amour," he stated simply.
"Yet you cannot deny you knew exactly how I would feel about it," Juliette replied quietly. It was a struggle to keep her tone and temperament even. Despite the feed that had calmed her somewhat, looking at Blaise right then was enough to start pushing her buttons all over again. She hated that a mortal could bring that out in her, but Rory really had gotten under her skin. It had been centuries since someone had destabilised her so much. The last person had been Blaise himself. "About it being you. Why shouldn't I have been the one to drain him? Why do you get to choose?"
Blaise knew his answer was going to enrage her, piss her off, yet he was going to be nothing but honest. "I did not care about how you felt about it," he told her. "You are Toreador. A Primogen, oui, yet still you have no control over Brujah in any way, shape or form. This situation was not going to be any different simply because you harbour romantic desires towards him." Her other comment flared up his own anger, though and he was over in front of her, in her personal space in the blink of an eye, holding her gaze when his own eyes flashed. "I get to choose because I am Prince!" he spat, though he kept his hands to himself, not touching her. "Do you disrespect me, Juliette? Do you go against my wishes?" he challenged her with a growl.
Juliette growled right back, not shrinking away from him just because Blaise had chosen to invade her space. "Je m'en fous! Oui, I am disrespecting you because you have shown no respect for me. Prince or not, mate or not... You do not get to be the one to take this from me! To take him from me. I have had to watch as Brujah controls him, and now I get to watch as Ventrue controls him. What are your wishes, hm? Tell me that, Prince!"
"To ensure no more uncontrolled emotions put lives at risk in my city!" Blaise exploded back her her and stepped away, pushing his fingers through his hair in an attempt not to lay a hand on her. If he remained in her space, he would hurt her. "You have been nothing but reckless when it comes to this mortal! I do not trust your jealousy or your emotions and your reactions right now are nothing but proof of this! I did not trust you not to Embrace him! Not to take him when you finally had him under your control! There was too much at risk and there needed to be a more powerful influence over the Brujah within him! If your drain did not work, we would be back to square one! There would be no proof a Toreador would overpower a damn Brujah with that much rage! He needed to be under my control. There is no way I believe for a single fucking second that you would not claim him once you had the chance to feed from him!"
"Merci beaucoup for having so much faith in me, mon loup. So nice to know that my Prince thinks so highly of me. That my mate thinks so much of me. Now I know, oui? Now I know what you really think. Even if Toreador would not have been enough, I would not have claimed him, or Embraced him. Mon dieu! That fille really does have your head spinning around in all directions. How can I really be sure your intentions towards Rory were so pure, hm? That there wasn't just the slightest need for a little revenge. I cannot believe that you assume I would lack such restraint when it came to trying to save him! I do not want him under my control, or anyone else's."
Blaise was furious. Beyond furious. The more he listened to her, the more the anger increased within him. Instead of reacting and exploding at her even more, he just stood there, stilled, as he looked at her with a vicious glare, his eyes now an intense silver and a sneer formed on his lips. The things she was saying, if it was anyone else, he would have stripped them of their Primogen role by now and ordered them from his presence. She was insulting him and disrespecting his decisions, and it was going down about as well as Buffy's blood was right now. "I can assure you they were pure, Juliette. But right now, revenge is tasting monumentally sweet. Do you really wish to continue taunting me like this now he is under my complete control? In one tiny shift of faith, I could have him despising your very inner soul until the day he dies. I can remove every memory he has of you. I can make him fall deeply in love for another at your witness. And I will, if you do not afford me some respect," he bit out dangerously. The thing that was angering him the most was that above all else, he actually did this for Juliette. He knew how the Scot felt about Kindred and the feeding and the Embrace. If Juliette drained him, he would resent her for it because he had requested that she not do it. Resentment was human instinct. But she couldn't see it and the way she was blatantly insulting him right now, he was very close to claiming some sort of revenge.
Juliette stayed quiet as she watched him with silver eyes, trying to work out if Blaise really would follow through in his threats. Of course he would. He really would make Rory hate her with every fibre of his being, and he would make him fall in love with another as Juliette could only watch. She folded her arms under her chest in an effort to not reach out and slap him. Blaise was still pissing her off, even with just the mention of what he would do with Rory. It really did take all her willpower not to keep screaming at him. "Your acts of revenge always were so poetic."
"Fitting. Not poetic," Blaise returned quietly, a growl still edging his tone. He stayed where his was, his arms now crossed securely over his chest. He didn't move, and instead just continued to watch her. "You might be my mate, Juliette, but I do not have to explain my actions to you. You are to respect my judgment, no matter how passionate you feel that this was some sort of err against you and your control. Kindred instinct is something I have had nearly five hundreds years to witness and experience. I have seen people who have professed nothing but deep and respectful love for another Embrace them in a fit of uncontrollable Kindred ecstasy. Rory's own dear friend is plain evidence of that. Oui, she was Embraced against her will. I can see it in her eyes. This is not about a war between Clans, or who is more stronger and powerful than the other. It is about control, and nothing more. No other in this city can overpower a drain of my own. He is not at anymore risk of anyone else doing this to him. But merci beaucoup for believing I only did this for selfish gain."
Juliette looked away briefly, an act of surrender even if her jaw was clenched. She still wasn't going to swallow what Blaise had done easily, but he was her Prince. He was thi city's Prince, and she really wasn't about to go against him. "Misunderstandings abound. Perhaps we're both too lost in what's been going on to keep our heads. Or maybe it is just me that's lost mine. Still, I cannot help but feel the way I feel. He's... I do care about him. A lot. Not only have I fucked up and caused him to be attacked by Brujah in the first place, he has then had to go through another drain." She tilted her head slightly. "The brother's partner is Kindred. Ventrue. And I highly suspect they're more than just work partners."
Blaise gave a slight nod. "I sensed it on him as soon as he entered the room. This is not a bad thing. He will have some minor understanding of the situation, one would hope. I trust you got him safely to his partner?" he asked. He might have been in the post-feed haze, but it hadn't been lost on him how distraught the brother had been. And injured. He needed to be taken care of, and hopefully this partner would be adequate for that. Blaise could still feel the anger pumping though him. It would take a lot to dilute how bothered he was by her words. He stepped over to her as his nails sharpened and he sliced one across his wrist, the deep, red blood seeping out of the wound. He held his wrist up to her lips, meeting her eyes. "Go on, amour. Taste him. Secondary transfer, understandably, but it's him all the same."
Juliette gave a shake of her head. "I'm not so sure. Logan really was quite troubled. And the partner will be... Well, curious to say the least. If he's worth anything, no doubt he's already been looking into all of us." Juliette's nostrils flared as the copper tang of the blood seemed to fill the air and it was all she could do not to just snatch up Blaise's wrist and suck him dry. Instead she took a step back. "Non. He doesn't want me to taste him. Smelling him is enough torture. Even if it is secondary transfer there is a reason why he would not let me bite him. Even you could not take watching me feed on your fille."
"I still do not understand why you had to feed on her," Blaise told her calmly. It was a fact that was lost on him, to the point he just pushed it to the back of his mind when all the rest of the confusion over Buffy overtook and plagued him. He glanced down at the blood dripping from his wrist, but made no move to close the wound over just yet. He tilted his head a little and ran his tongue slowl across his lip. "He does not want you to control him. There is a difference. Perhaps you should think on that point for just a few moments, hm?"
"Because you could not, I wanted to try and give you a way to enjoy it," Juliette admitted. "And because I still wasn't sure if she was poison to you. If her blood was what was hurting you. I couldn't think of any other way to find out other than tasting her for myself. It is a metaphorical bullet I would take gladly for you. You might piss me off, make me angry sometimes but you are still my mate. Deep down your wellbeing is still paramount to me." Juliette looked at the wound, her brow creasing slightly as she did consider his comment for a few moments before her eyes turned silver and she took his hand to bring Blaise's wrist to her lips. Her fangs extended and she glanced up at him before she bit down with a growl.
Blaise just watched as she bit down on his wrist, a small frown on his face. He was starting to wonder if he would ever have the ability to taste Buffy, and doubting it more and more. She didn't seem to easily be anything he needed, and he didn't think what he needed was anything complicated. Love. That's all he wanted. Sure, he needed it in its entirety, and he needed it to be true and pure, but if she wasn't capable of loving him like that, time would need to come where he just walked away, despite the claim. He glanced away, feeling like he was intruding on Juliette's moment, for some reason. The feed lacked it's usual thrill and rush because his own feelings were so troubled. He was not happy at all about the whole turn of recent events. In fact, most of it saddened him deeply. He felt like he had failed and he felt like the weakness he was experiencing was somehow affecting his ability to govern his city. He hated feeling like a failure.
Juliette pulled back before she did anything stupid, anything that would prove Blaise was right when it came to Juliette not being able to control herself when it came to Rory. The taste of him, however secondary, sent a thrill down her spine and she licked at her lips to get every drop before she ran her tongue over the wound on his wrist and sealed it over. She dropped his hand and looked up at him. "Merci, mon loup."
"De rien," Blaise replied quietly and folded his arms across his chest again. There was tension between them. Obvious and strong tension. He wasn't sure at this point if that was something that could ever be rectified again. He was hurt from what she accused him off, and he had already been hurting from yet another misunderstanding with Buffy. A small chill crept into his skin again that had been accompanying the apparent illness he had been experiencing. Trying to shake it off was pointless. Juliette was the only person he truly trusted in this world, but times like this, all he could feel was completely alone.
Word Count | 2,652