SWNOVELS Chapter 28: The Coven
Angel’s POV
She needed to be free of the charm’s radius and feel like herself again. The charm sucked out all emotions for Castiel, and he became just a grumpy boss she once made out with a million years ago. It felt too awkward. Outside the Yard now and away from the bar she felt she was breathing easier and thinking clearer. Castiel’s beautiful face had returned in her mind and she felt a tingle over her skin everywhere his hands had gripped last night. Damn the charm that he couldn’t enjoy these memories like this too.
Once Alastair stalked out of sight, she turned ninety degrees and headed for the Hospital grounds. She had questions for the vamps and knew Castiel would have immediately squashed the idea of her going to them. She didn’t want to hear no from him right now.
Besides, Ellie and Eva’s group were becoming almost friends and she chalked her experience with Damien up to the same day one fears she originally had of Dai. As the tall building came into view, she worried a ‘what if you are wrong?’ question and heard Gabriel’s warning of ‘they don’t ask no permissions’…
The hospital doors slid open and she found herself in a converted lobby with ornate carpets and plush couches. She had expected full brooding darkness for a vampire home, but this was lit and open.
A shadow moved to her right and a white suit with long black hair appeared in her peripherals. “Little Angel, what an absolute pleasure.” Damien. Still unnerving. Still scary. Shit.
Angel turned to face the vampire leader and poured every fiber of courage from her ears to her toes into her mouth. “Mister Damien, I w-wish to see if an agreement can be made for your participation in a c-city war in 4 days time.” Standing with back straight, she hoped she came across confident. She was mush inside though as black eyes dragged over her amused.
“Is that so? Well I’m sure we can find SOMEthing to agree on little one.” Damien’s thin lips lifted in a smirk that exposed a white fang. “I would suggest firstly that we agree you look absolutely mouthwatering today?”
Her flight response was kicked into high gear and she glanced at the exit doors behind her. In the Yard she had heard a few accounts of persons dragged to the Coven, but none had ever returned. She decided to test a lie, turning back to him. “Sir, I- um. There are many who know I am here to talk, and we must first agree that I will safely leave this building.”
Damien lifted a hand and pretended to think while tapping his fang. It was a passive power play. “Fair. And while I know how DELIGHTFUL neko nectar is, I will promise that you shall leave here with blood still coursing your veins. This is only a discussion, not an invitation to dinner.” His silky voice was beyond creepy.
She squinted eyes closed a moment and nodded. Damien smiled a fanged grin and hand gestured to follow him. He glided through hallways and two sets of automatic doors to turn into a library of sorts. Crammed bookshelves lined 3 walls and a desk with two chairs in the centre sat atop plush red carpeting. Collages of picture frames fully decorated the final wall. He spun a chair to sit backwards on it, leaning with crossed arms over its top. “So little Angel, what is it you ask?”
“It’s two things sir.” She moved as she walked to place hands on the back of the other chair and stand behind it, adding a weak barrier between herself and Damien. “The first is.. I- I have an agreement with Syndicate for weapons against the lycans, in return for blood samples. Would you be w-willing to give them vials of vampire blood in exchange for.. mine?” His eyebrows raised high. She quickly got out the rest of her speech with eyes closed, reading too much into his changing expression. “And second would be if you would add your defense in the streets on the full moon against the lycans? A city-wide stand.”
“My my little dove, you ARE bold.” He was silent considering. Or glaring, since she still had eyes squinted shut. “How do you propose to share YOUR blood?”
“A t-trade for each vial you give. I don’t know the differences between a blood bag collection or a, um, physical feed, but I will give one for one vial as fair exchange.” She opened her eyes to see him inches away from her face with one foot propped on the chair she was holding and she jumped back. He smiled wickedly.
“A live feed requires much less blood to flow. A few pulls anywhere you stand would leave us satiated. A blood bag draw takes 30 minutes and must be done here, in our Drawing Room.” She caught the pun. Standing with a monster for a minute versus stuck in their lair for 30…
“Then.. I would ask for the.. live feed.” He raised his eyebrows again at her answer.
“I should accept in a heartbeat, but I would be remiss without adding that our teeth inject poison as we feed little one. There would be an overwhelming desire to mate after. An insatiable urge that would last hours while the venom dissipated.”
Angel stared with wide eyes. That detail wasn’t in any of her storybooks. Without Castiel to help her relieve urges like that, she needed to opt for the blood bag donation. “The- the blood bag. I’ll do the blood bag then.”
Damien made a pouting face. “Shame. The taste is SO much better FRESHHH.” He tapped his fang again. “There is ONE requirement before the Drawing Room though, and that is a taste test little Angel. A formality, really.” He was lying through his fanged teeth, she was sure.
She glared a moment as the annoying curious voice inside nudged her. ‘What was it like?’, it wondered? There was a connection here with the adventurous sexuality of Tribe that she was formulating, but how could Angel suggest something without first experiencing it herself? She leaned on her bluff. “Just a.. taste. And then one donation. I have a demon and an angel expecting me s-shortly.”
“Of courssse.” Damien’s sickening grin implied he saw right through her. He removed his foot from the chair and started to roll up his long white sleeves into cuffs at his elbows. “After, while you repose in the Drawing Room we can discuss what I think is fair for our presence in the streets.”
Angel nodded her resolve and hugged herself. If she did make it out of here alive, Castiel would most certainly kill her for her stupidity.