It was midnight at the Luxor, and the grand casino hotel was in full swing. The gambling floor, clubs and dining rooms within were thronged with people so thickly that moving even a few feet became an intimate adventure. Thousands of dollars was changing hands by the minute to the tune of ringing coin and clicking chips. Tourists and stars, idle weekenders and dedicated gamblers rubbed elbows beneath the angles of the huge pyramid, and the long front drive was filled grill to bumper with limousines and rich sedans as the wealthy and the wanna-be's continued to arrive.
One such car pulled forward into place before the palatial entrance, and a trio of young men in hotel livery stepped forward - summoned by the gesture of a doorman whose sharp eyes had noted the license plate of the car as one he knew well to watch for. In a flash the three youths had opened both rear doors and the trunk as the doorman hurriedly retreated to make a discreet call. As luggage was unloaded and the occupants of the car began to emerge, the doorman returned with his best welcoming smile.
"Mr. Szadan," He beamed flawlessly, bowing slightly to the tall and excessively handsome man that stepped from the car. "…back so soon? Welcome once again." He bowed slightly from the waist, his smile verging on genuine.
Nikolo Szadan smiled his trademark grin and chuckled, spreading his hands. "What can I say, Romero? I just can't stay away." He adopted a casually curious pose and glanced around, tapping his lip with a finger. "I would assume Tatiana already knows I'm here?" He smiled with a too-innocent air.
"Of course, sir, she…" The doorman began to reply, but his words stopped in his throat and his eyes growing wide as the other occupant of the car straightened to full view. Nikolo turned to follow Romero's gaze, his grin returning. "Ah… yes. Romero? Allow me to introduce my sister, Ildiko."
She stood as if enraptured, turning a slow circle and gazing upward and around at the spectacle of the casino, her soft lips spread in an open, frozen gasp of delight, her dark eyes wide and shining. Romero's attention was caught by those eyes, then irresistibly swept along down the long tumbling cascade of dark auburn curls to follow the sleek lines of black silk that hugged her slender curves. As she took a step, a hip-length slit in the narrow skirt utterly destroyed his wits, and the soft giggle that followed as her eyes fell to her brother furthered Romero's distraction. "Oh, Niko… it is so delightfully much more than you described… I am sure I am in love." She breathed, stepping around the car to link her arm in Nikolo's.
Nikolo laughed and bent to kiss her cheek, "Now, Ildi… you haven't even been inside." He gestured past the still speechless Romero to the grand entranceway, and if possible - Ildiko's eyes widened even further. "There is more, sweet brother?" She gasped, peering around him with eager delight in the direction he indicated. Nikolo's answer was interrupted by his own name called in tones of delight from just within the entrance, and he turned fully to smile at the caller. "Tatiana." He laughed as the stunning blonde swept through the doors with arms outstretched. She reached him with a wide smile spreading her soft Parisian features, and clasped his face between her hands to kiss him full and thoroughly despite the audience.
Ildiko covered her smile with her fingers and blushed, looking to Romero and giggling at the display, while Romero turned his eyes upward discreetly and managed to recover some of his professional decorum.
Tatiana leaned back from the kiss and adopted a mock frown, her hands still framing Nikolo's face. "Why did you not tell me you would be returning so soon, dear?" Despite her expression, her eyes were sharp as they flicked over Ildiko and back to Nikolo. "And who is this lovely creature you have brought with you?" She exclaimed a bit too brightly, immediately lapsing into an exaggerated pout. "Nikolo… are you playing with me?" She purred.
Nikolo reached up to grasp one of Tatiana's hands, bringing it to his lips with a smile. "Hardly, dearest… this is my sister, Ildiko. I'm sure I've mentioned her." He stepped back as Ildiko offered her hand with a delighted smile and Tatiana switched to a welcoming smile. "Yes… yes, you have, Nikolo." She charmed, her eyes still frosty as she took Ildiko's hand and leaned to brush a kiss to her cheek. "Welcome to Las Vegas, dear." Romero caught Tatiana's roll of the eyes as Ildiko giggled and blushed, and wondered to himself how 85 degrees above could suddenly feel so cold.
A step and turn from Tatiana brought her between Nikolo and Ildiko, and she smiled wide again as she slipped her arms into theirs. "Shall we go in, then? There is much to talk about and the night is still young."
As they swept through the doors, a second doorman stepped up beside Romero and grinned after the trio. "Some babe, eh? How is it some families just seem to get all the looks?" Romero straightened his uniform and glanced the same direction with a lascivious smile. "Yeah, maybe… but some don't get enough brains to go around. He's about as dim as a post… and her elevator is barely making it off the ground floor." His coworker grinned and winked. "Sounds just about perfect to me."
 Ildiko sat and quietly preened under the proud smiles of Nikolo and the slightly too attentive gaze of Tatiana. Her eyes were wide with rapture as she continually broke her gaze from her hostess to sweep it yet again around the luxurious suite the three now occupied. Tatiana controlled her smile, fending off the sneer that threatened as she watched Ildiko idly toy with a lock of her hair. She watched the young girl playing it about and into her mouth absently, and heard her giggling softly as it tickled her lips. By appearance she was perhaps nineteen to Tatiana's practiced gaze, but by demeanor she struck the older woman as no more than ten. The truth of the matter was something that Tatiana was carefully trying to uncover, while being only marginally successful at hiding her disgust at the vapid display.
"Ildiko," She smiled, catching the girl's attention. "Nikolo tells me you have spent your life until recently in Eastern Europe, yet I can hardly hear an accent." She touched her own lips and sighed slightly, speaking quickly to avoid losing Ildiko's easily distracted attention. "Though it has been many years since I spent any great deal of time on the shores of France, my own is still so strong."
Ildiko smiled brightly as though openly complimented. "Oh, I practiced very hard… and I have traveled quite a lot here and there, though this is my first time in the Americas." Tatiana was beginning to find the gushing exuberance this girl used in every reply thoroughly annoying, but she kept her smile. Her patience was nonetheless thin, and she opted for a slightly more direct approach. She reached up to finger the elaborate gold and diamond stylized rose at her throat, and noticed that Ildiko's rapt gaze followed her hand. She leaned back and glanced at Nikolo, who was reclined in his chair and watching with amusement.
"I see… you must have had a wonderful time." She turned her gaze back to Ildiko, "I fail to see the family resemblance, though. Pretty Niko is so French-Italian… while you do have the look of further east. Are you family by blood, or…?" She let the question hang and continued to toy with the pendant.
Ildiko giggled, "Or by Blood?" The emphasis was clear and Tatiana's eyes narrowed. Ildiko grinned wide and nodded, then leaned towards Nikolo with a soft frown, slapping him smartly on the knee.
"He bit me." She pouted, then lapsed back into her seat with a bright gale of giggles, her hands covering her mouth and her eyes flashing back and forth between Tatiana and Nikolo.
Nikolo leaned forward and entered the conversation for the first time since arriving in the suite, speaking just as Tatiana's eyes turned to him. "She was approved by old Gregor before he disappeared, Tat. But I knew she would have to meet you if she was going to spend any time here with me." He smiled softly and watched Tatiana relax slightly. "She is still but a chylde, though law is law." He added, and Tatiana nodded understandingly, relaxing further. She turned her attention back to Ildiko as the girl's giggles subsided, some of her own coldness easing as she leaned forward.
"So you are a Toreador, chylde. Initiated as one of the Kindred and to the ways of the Camarilla?" She smiled with an attempt at softness. "Do you understand who I am, then?" As Ildiko tilted her head with a questioning gaze, Tatiana sighed and shot a glance at Nikolo. He spread his hands and stood, shrugging his shoulders with a smile. Tatiana shook her head and turned back to Ildiko, and Nikolo's attention was drawn by the magnificent view beyond the slanted windows of the suite. As Tatiana continued to speak, he stepped behind her and towards the panorama, seeming lost to the spectacle.
Tatiana found it impossible to hold the younger girl's rapt gaze without snapping, and dropped her eyes to her hands, covering her annoyance with a laugh. "Has Nikolo taught you the word 'elysium' yet, chylde? Or perhaps 'domain' or 'prince'?" She glanced up and saw Ildiko shoot a curious glance at Nikolo, then back to her… obviously not comprehending. Her voice dropped in tone almost to a growl at Ildiko's obvious ignorance. "Nikolo. We will have words on this…" Nikolo dropped his gaze from the window and looked chagrined, nodding at Tatiana's veiled reprimand.
Ildiko's hand flew to her mouth and she gasped, then giggled slightly. "Oh. OH. Are you asking if I understand that this… casino… is a Kindred Elysium of the Camarilla, and that you hold title as Prince within this domain of the Toreador?"
Tatiana's lips were caught between a smile and falling open in shock at the sudden sense of clarity in Ildiko's giggling words, and she nodded, finally opting for the smile. "So he has taught you a few things, after all. Yes, chylde… that is it exactly."
Ildiko threw her head back and galed delighted laughter, then dropped her eyes back to Tatiana, biting back her giggles and smiling sweetly. "Oh, yes…" She glanced up at Nikolo and winked, then returned her smile to Tatiana.
"I know that very well."
It took Tatiana a fatal moment to register the sudden difference in Ildiko's tone - her first tragic error. The girlish giggle had vanished, replaced by a serious and husky note that more suited the suddenly direct and intense gaze the girl was favoring her with. She blinked in incomprehension as she heard a strange and sickening sound come from Ildiko's still upraised hand, and saw her fingers seem to lengthen and take on a harder, curved appearance. She realized in a moment what she was seeing and reacted to the display of vicissitude, surging up from the seat with a speed augmented by her own vampire's blood. But her second error lay in turning to look to Nikolo, a question on her lips for the man that had been her trusted lover and confidant for many months.
She had no chance for a third.
As Tatiana turned, Nikolo's hand rose in a hard, fast arc that caught her just below the jaw. She felt bone crack as she was lifted by the blow and flung backwards, her legs catching on the couch and flipping her into a sprawl behind it. She fought back a wave of dizziness from the unexpectedly powerful blow and tried to rise, finding her blonde curls loose and in her face - obscuring her sight. Still shocked and disoriented by the sudden and brutal betrayal, she reached to sweep them back as she struggled to gain her balance.
Ildiko landed on her hard, one knee driving into her stomach and a hand at her throat driving her back to the floor. Tatiana looked up in sudden fear as she saw the girl's other hand drawn back and poised, now nothing more than a curled claw of bony talons. "Tzimisce…" she choked as she felt Ildiko's fingers tighten mercilessly on her throat. She fought to summon the powers of presence and charm her Toreador blood gave her, but as she felt them begin to work - Ildiko lifted her by the throat and slammed her head down hard against the floor, breaking her concentration. "No-no, …bad girl." Ildiko smirked, slashing the claw down to tear long gashes across Tatiana's cheek, then drawing it back and driving it straight through the pinned woman's shoulder, eliciting a shriek of pain.
Nikolo was already moving as Tatiana screamed, and was beside the door of the suite as it burst open and two overlarge men made a rush into the room. A hard backhand sweep of his arm took the first guard at mid chest, knocking the man cleanly off his feet in a flip that saw him collide with the floor on his back and skid further into the room. The second guard was treated to Nikolo's other hand catching him in follow-through with an iron grip to the throat. A sharp heave added to the guard's momentum and he found himself sailing into the suite as well as Nikolo reached and shut the door.
Nikolo turned and smiled as the first guard wobbled to his feet, trying to shake off the hard blow. "Hurry, syre… before we have more volunteers than we can accommodate." He hissed through the smile as the guard charged.
Ildiko glanced up with a giggle and saw Nikolo deftly avoid the guard's charge and drive a blow downward that obviously crushed the man's back. "Oh, Niko… sweet chylde. You worry so much." She lifted the dazed Tatiana's head from the floor and slammed it down again with a slight crunch from the softening bones. "They soundproof these suites, and you have already determined that this lazy cow preferred privacy to security here in her 'sanctum'. Once you are done with your toys… we will take our prize and go home." She wrenched her talons free of Tatiana's mangled shoulder and jammed them with all her strength into the woman's face below the eyes. The wickedly hard and sharp claws - backed by her vampiric strength - easily pierced bone and flesh, and she lifted the woman's head up to her by this new grip.
"Silly Tory… a hundred Kindred or more in this decadent place… and only two ghouls outside your door." She tsked and smiled, again on the verge of a giggle. She leaned forward and licked the spatters of Tatiana's blood from the back of her hand, shivering in delicious delight. "How do you get to be so old, being so stupid?" She murmured, watching as Tatiana's eyes rolled in abject terror. "You don't deserve the power of your blood… but I can put it to so much better use. In the service of the Sect, in the service of my dear sweet Sister…" She trailed her tongue between her claws along Tatiana's cheek. "Once the rituals are done… in the service of the Sabbat." She cocked her head as she heard a sickening crunch that marked the death of the second ghoul, then smiled softly.
"You have such lovely eyes…" She purred. |
