[C][M] Enemy Territory

It wasn't very often that new people encroached on Giacinto's turf. She's set up shop, so to say, in this city almost forty years ago. Since then she'd had a few people try to overthrow her businesses or leech off her success by setting up similar businesses in the city.

Those were usually taken down quickly and quietly.

This city was hers. She wasn't going to let anyone young and stupid try and take it from her.

So when she received an invitation for a large gathering at a new establishment opening up, RSVP addressed within Catania, her hackles raised.

Not only had someone set up in her city, they'd invited her personally to see the place. They'd signed the invitation Daddy. This vampire was foolish. Young and foolish and cocky.

That wasn't going to fly.

She'd been on the phone immediately.

Now she strode towards the new blood house, tall heels clicking loudly against the cobbles. She didn't lose her balance once.

Behind her were five others. A pretty young human she'd picked out to join her. Zuri, with his own human on his arm; a handsome young man Giacinto wouldn't mind taking a bite out of herself. Dick, looking about as reluctant as he always did when Giacinto called in a favour. And Hank, looking far more curious and interested than his Vampire did.

They were stopped at the door, and Zuri stepped forwards, removing the invitation from his breast pocket.

The pretty young Vampire at the door smiled a bubbly smile and stepped aside for them. "Daddy can't wait to meet you."

Giacinto gave the woman a once-over as she strode past, into the large entrance-way of the building. Their group was guided down the hall until they reached the main function room.

The grand hall was filled with men and woman dressed as beautiful and daring as they could be. Young Vampires, the majority of them. A few Elves and Witches she recognised.

Some staff were Vampires themselves, but most were human. All beautiful humans dressed in white with blood-red accents on their dresses and suits.

Giacinto sucked her teeth disdainfully. She'd worn the same. A white corset dress with red laces holding the bodice closed and thick red lace wrapping her shoulders and the hem of her dress

Fuck. That was a coincidence she'd had preferred to live without.

A human woman with a red sash around the waist of her flowing white dress approached them, with a tray of wines, bloods and champagnes held out.

"Would you like something to drink? We also serve fresh." Here her chin tipped upwards a little, offering the free column of her throat.

"We bought our own, thank you," Giacinto replied with thinly-veiled hostility, reaching out to pluck a glass of champagne from the large tray.

Zuri and their humans followed suit, picking out champagne and wine to taste.

It was difficult for Dick not to show his sour disdain when the woman lifted her neck in an offering.

At least for once, he didn't have to pretend to be polite.

He disliked attending these sorts of parties, but he could put that aside as he was doing this as a favour for Giacinto, with his heels dragging only a little.

What he did dislike more than being at these sorts of parties was Fleck being at these sorts of parties.

Dick liked where Fleck was at the moment. The line he walked between the human world and the supernatural one only smugged a little. Going to this party was only going to

He followed suit and plucked a champagne flute from the tray. The other hand had a firm grip on Fleck's bicep, signal clear; this was his. He would have had them chained together if he could, but that would probably send a different signal altogether.

Fleck himself pulled a glass of red from the tray and took a sip.

Well, this stuff was definitely nicer than the cheap stuff his family usually shared around.

He nudged Dick a little, brown eyes smiling down at his boyfriend. He hoped that his own relaxed state would help calm Dick down a little. The Vampire looked like he was ready to lash out at anyone that even looked at them wrong.

"What a mess," Giacinto sighed softly, eyes scanning the room. And by 'mess' she meant for them. This place was decorated beautifully and organised far too well for her liking. Whoever this Daddy was, they were a good businessman. That made things far more messy for her.

"What's our plans, mami?" Zuri asked, head tilting to the side. The wooden beads at the end of his microbraids clattered noisily against each other. "Are you going to flash some cash or intimidate them?"

Before Giacinto could answer, a husky and deep, but clearly feminine voice piped up. "If it's a pretty lady like you doing it, I'm down for some intimidation."

The woman that approached was tall and slender; tanned with frosted tips in her dark half-shaved hair. Compared to the elaborately dressed men and women here, she was downright casual in a pair of black slacks and a red button-down, not completely buttoned up and sleeves pushed up to her elbows. White suspenders cut the deep red fabric.

"I'm pleased you came. Giacinto, right?" The woman clasped Giacinto's free hand between both of hers and lifted it to kiss the back of it, her deep red eyes looking up into Giacinto's all the while. In her heels Giacinto had a couple inches on the woman, but she didn't seem intimidated at all.

"So that makes you Daddy?" Giacinto questioned, her hand slipping from the woman's.

"All night," the woman replied with jaunty wink. "You've bought friends." Her eyes trailed over the gathering, settling on Fleck. "And snacks. Worried I wouldn't be able to offer anything good enough? I have a great selection."

Dick glanced up at Fleck when he nudged him. His lips pursed and he looked away. He had made it clear he wasn't happy with Fleck being here, and his relaxed state was only putting him more on edge.

His own eyes roamed over the room and came to the same conclusion that Giacinto had come to: It was a mess. While he had no care for these sort of parties, he did care about Giacinto's business.

His own head turned to the owner of the voice and came to another quick conclusion: He didn't like that woman, 'Daddy.' Even more so when her eyes settled on Fleck. He tugged on his bicep.

The possessive tug on the human's bicep earned a throaty chuckle "Chill, gorgeous. I'm not after your human. Just admiring." She dropped a wink to Fleck, who gave a friendly smile back.

"Mingle. Enjoy yourselves. Take advantage of what my humble abode has to offer." Daddy swept her arm out in a grand gesture and began walking away.

She paused, though, and turned back to them, eyes seeking out the oldest of them. She held Tony's gaze for a long moment before slowly and purposefully sweeping her gaze over the ancient. "If you feel the need to serve, pretty lady, I'll be around." Another saucy wink and she was gone.

Giacinto took half a step forwards, fire in her eyes.

Zuri grabbed her arm tight before she could take off after Daddy. "Let's not commit homicide before we have a plan of action."

"We're tearing this business, and that woman, asunder," Giacinto breathed, almost tangibly emanating her ire.

A deep frown and a look of disgust were on Dick's face as he watched Daddy walk away, insulted for Giacinto.

How dare she?!

He reeled himself in and loosened his grip on Fleck's arm.

"Tearing literally or figuratively?"

He turned his gaze to Giacinto. It had been a while since he had seen her this pissed.

"Both," she replied resolutely, spinning so she was facing both her children.

She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly to calm herself. There were too many ears here to be rash about what she did or said. That could come later.

"Let's mingle. Do some networking." Her eyes cut to Zuri. "And some drinking." Now her eyes met with Dick's bright blue ones.

"Dick, Fleck, Roma, shall we find somewhere to sit?" she suggested.

Roma offered her arm to Giacinto, who took it, and guided her child and their humans forward. There were a few seating areas set up around the room, comfortable chairs and couches. All white. Poor choice.

Giacinto turfed a handful of baby Vampires from a small cluster of couches, and took a seat. Roman followed her down, arm dropping around the woman's shoulders.

Dick wordlessly followed Giacinto, leading Fleck.

The couches didn't go unnoticed by him either.

"White," he said, pointedly, as he sat down.

It probably wasn't appropriate to think about how there were still stains they needed to get out of the sheets back home, but he couldn't help himself.

And that was only a small amount of blood. It was probably too easy to imagine how much of a mess they would look by the end of the evening and a few uses. Especially if there were a few messy drinkers.

He pulled Fleck's arms around his shoulders and pressed himself into his side. A hand rested on the furthest thigh, crossing over Fleck's body.

Dick glanced around the room and took a hearty sip of champagne.

"So, when you say drinking...?"

Her flaunting was disgusting.

Giacinto did flaunt some of her cash. She could admit that. But not nearly as much as this Daddy was. She had some taste. This Daddy was all about the glitz and glam.

"At some point during the night. Not now," Giacinto assured, her eyes drifting between Dick and Fleck languidly.

She wanted to show how little she and hers wanted anything Daddy had to offer. The majority of the group wouldn't mingle. The rest of them would network and promote her own business. They wouldn't touch any of the blood whores, or actual whores. And by the end of the night, the entire group would feed from their own humans and leave, making sure Daddy knew they weren't impressed.

Maybe they'd even say so to her smug face.

Then they'd work on really tearing this place apart.

Dick pursed his lips.

"Right."

Both a blessing and a curse. He rather fancied knocking back a few glasses of champagne (which, he wouldn't say out loud, was rather good,) but he knew how much of a handful he could be.

"So," he curled his lip in disgust as a servant walked past, purpose clear, "we're just going to sit here all night?"

"And look disgusted and unapproachable," Giacinto confirmed.

Despite her words, her lips curled upwards, and a twinkle entered her eye. "Tonight is all about appearances."

Zuri was going around doing the real damage right now. Giacinto and Dick were just the extra muscle, really. And what muscle. They were both some of the oldest Vampires around.

If younger Vampires saw that they didn't like this place, then they were more likely to boycott it themselves. Doubled with Zuri's marketing, this place wouldn't be as popular as Daddy wanted.

As Giacinto made herself comfortable, Fleck gave Dick's shoulders an affectionate squeeze.

Dick was still ridiculously tense, and Fleck just wanted him to calm down a little.

"So, really, I don't have to act any different at all?"

Looking disgusted and unapproachable was his norm at these sorts of places.

Dick looked up at Fleck and gave him a strained smile, no more happy about where he was or the situation.

He gave his thigh a squeeze back.

"Why do you think I was so insistent on you coming this time?"

More than once she'd let Dick off coming to events like this one if he griped a little. He didn't have to come to all of them. Giacinto didn't want to torture him.

But she wanted his usual unpleasant behaviour this time. She'd insisted that he come no matter how much he whined and griped this time. It helped that Fleck was here and that made Dick even more unhappy.

It was exactly what she wanted.

Fleck pulled Dick closer and pressed a kiss to his temple. "Relax," he murmured into his ear.

Dick's lips stretched into an obviously fake smile, lips together.

"Thanks."

He leaned easily into the kiss, but his brows pulled into a frown at being told to "relax." It irked him more than anything.

"I will once we're out of here," he snipped, a little more harshly then he intended. He took a deep breath in and out. "Sorry."

He didn't want to take his uncomfortableness out on Fleck.

Tony mirrored his sharp smile. "No prob."

Instead of getting hurt by the sharp snap, Fleck just eyed Dick for a long moment. "Why are you so scared?"

Dick was scared to be here. Fear was the quickest way to get Dick to this level of annoyed. What was scary about this place?

Was he scared for Fleck?

"Good question, Hank. Why are you scared, Dickie? You're probably double the age of the next oldest person here, if not older." Giacinto quirked a slim brow.

Dick should be walking around like he owned the place, really.

Dick shifted, awkwardly, under both of their gazes.

Dick glanced around the room. What Giacinto said was a strange thought. Being so many times older then Fleck made sense. Being potentially older than the oldest vampire here was.

Around Giacinto, it was so easy to think of himself as young.

"I'm not scared," he said in the same snipped tone. "I just don't want Fleck to be here."

But they both already knew that.

"Why?" Giacinto just couldn't understand.

"He's your human. You just have to look at these people a certain way and they'll leave him alone. He's safe."

Nothing would happen to Fleck, so Dick should calm down.

"So... how old do you think these guys are?" Fleck asked curiously.

Giacinto appraised the room idly. "The oldest? Three hundred, maybe. At a push. We tend not to live too long. It's getting easier to live nowadays, though, with medical advancements and the like. Our species had to practically start anew after the plague. None of these saw it." That she was certain of.

Dick hummed, unconvinced.

There was still a chance that he wouldn't be safe. Besides, he would have liked to keep as much distance between Fleck and the supernatural as possible if he had the choice.

Dick glanced back around the room again himself. A genuine, small amused smile set on his face.

"A reminder that in one breath you say I'm probably one of the oldest, the next you say none of them saw the plague. Even I hadn't seen the plague."

A recurrence, yes, but never to the scale that he had heard of.

"You were less than a hundred years after it." She waved her hand dismissively. "Humans hadn't recovered much at that point Vampires were much further behind."

Giacinto sipped at her champagne.

"If it wasn't for Zuri making the voyage from Africa to France, I wasn't sure I'd have survived it myself." Zuri had risked himself to come to her and care for her during her intense starvation. It had been a terrible time for all Vampires.

The Romance countries, the countries that she'd spent her time in around that time, had lost almost eighty percent of their human population. They'd lost closer to ninety percent of their Vampires to starvation at the time.

She drained the last of her champagne and set the glass on the floor by her feet.

Dick studied Giacinto for a moment, swirling the drink in his glass.

"I didn't know that."

To him, she was invincible.

Even with her poisoning. Was she still affected by that? He wasn't too sure. He even wasn't too sure if he wanted to know. He liked her being this unstoppable force and immovable object. A constant in his life.

He drained his own and followed suit, placing his glass on the floor.

"It's not something I speak of often."

Her red eyes turned down to the floor. "I was... four thousand when the Death hit Germany, where I was staying at the time. It's scarier, death, when you're older. I'd lived all those years, survived all that the world had thrown at me, and it was fleas that were almost my undoing."

She shook her head slowly.

"No. It certainly isn't something I advertise."

Why would she?

Giacinto raised her hand to get the attention of one of the servers, gesturing for him to come over, and plucking a champagne flute from the tray he was holding.

"But now there's a cure for everything. Plagues are a thing of the past."

Dick let out an amused sound at the back of his throat when she mentioned that fleas were her almost undoing.

He reached for his own fresh glass.

"I'm putting in a bet now that you're going to regret those words," he said as he took a sip of champaign.

"Yes, probably."

She swirled her glass idly.

"The world'll probably cease to exist because of a futuristic super plague. Everyone dead. Except maybe Elves. Those bastards are worse than cockroaches."

"Mm-hm, that is exactly what is going to happen." A pause. "Probably government caused, too."

Sure, he had been reading a few dystopian too many, but he had lived through enough to know it was very much an option.

Hell, you only had to take a basic history class to see that people were never good to each other and will never learn.

"Oh yeah, definitely. Can't trust the government."

She sipped her champagne. "Never could, even back when I was young." Though the governing body she was talking about was much less refined than what it was today.

Untrustworthy leaders wasn't a new concept.