Nina Learns a Lesson

Nina stood before the grand mansion, her hand trembling at the door. Tom had been right that she feared men too much back at the brothel, but this was something entirely different. She felt fear and she knew in her core it was absolutely justified.

The letter had been brief:

You’ve been an utter disappointment. Come to my home and learn a few things to try and improve yourself. I hope it’s worth my time.

Renee

Renee didn’t have to bother with any threats, Nina knew they were implied.

She shoved her hand back in her pocket and started to walk away.

A cold sensation shot down her spine as two memories forced themselves to the surface.

This woman called down a mid level mobster to attempt to kill you just because you didn’t tell her about Tom. This woman eats her young.

The second memory had been more of a vision. In those hazy early days after she was turned, the flavor and burn of Renee’s blood was ever present in her mouth. The flavor eventually became a dream that haunted her regularly. The first night of the dream led to a charcoal drawing, which she now understood was a vision drawn from Renee’s blood. A giant wolf spider wildly devouring infants from their cradles.

Resolved not to get herself further into Renee’s bad graces, Nina returned and knocked on the door.

A pallid, listless butler opened the door immediately, but Renee was standing just beyond him in the foyer.

“Disgusting.” she hissed.

Hours later Nina was well versed in her failings as a prophetess and as a childer, especially in her failure to take Alistair’s blood at the Ashen Ball. But she was also a little wiser in the art of Presence.

She stumbled out into the street, knees shaking beneath her. The cost for this wisdom was staggering.

“You know the man Benito Gallo, yes?”

Nina remembered him as a vile pig of a man, but just shrugged.

“I want you to take his blood and render me a vision. Useful, if you please. And don’t fail this time. I won’t teach you another thing until you do this and if you fail I will ruin you.” Renee said this as carelessly as any other woman commenting on the weather.

“Very well. Any reason I should leave him alive?” Nina wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the little thrill within her at the prospect of removing an old torturer, but it was there all the same.

“Well, diablerie is typically frowned upon.”

Nina’s hackles went up and her consciousness screamed. He’s a kindred?? She simply replied, “Ah. Yes, well so it is.”

“I assume you know where to find him?”

She did indeed know where to find Gallo, but she had no desire to to find out what this mobster kindred was doing, nor have any risk of being indebted to his vitae.

I need more power and to find a way out of this. Renee doesn’t just mean she’ll ruin me if I don’t do this… she means destroy.