Chapter 4.45 – The Cauldron Bubbles Over

Note: some naughty bits, no nudity.

Kitty dipped a finger into her little cauldron and gave it a long, slow stir. The mixture began to turn from an ashen grey to a luminous green at the contact of her talon; the viscosity and sheen changing along with it until what Kitty had was an almost solid gloop.

She huffed and blew a loose curl from her eyes. She was certain that potions never used to be this difficult. Back when she was High Priestess of the Windenburg Witches, Kitty had been able to craft potions within hours, and they had always been perfect!

Alas, much had changed since those days, she was painfully reminded as her thirst beckoned to her. She would have to make Caleb available as she understood that her first choice was rather preoccupied with her.

Kitty’s eyes glowed with her envy. She had expected, from the very first encounter, that Seth and Faith would rekindle their romance. Yet she hadn’t expected it quite so suddenly, or so soon. She felt unprepared, unnerved. She had sincerely hoped that giving them each what they most wanted would make them indebted to her, yet, woe, she had a feeling that they would instead prepare to leave without her. Because whatever could she offer them now that they would not find in the other?

Even her attempt to nudge Caleb into interfering seemed to be going awry as the boy lacked the pluck to progress with the object of his desire. Fear of doing the wrong thing had been ingrained into the poor boy and now he was nothing more than a husk with a phallus.

That reminded her; she needed to find him a replacement girl. She had taken pity on the one he had broken in his rage, and set her free to the night, wiped by memory. Perhaps she would acquire him a few more ladies now that he couldn’t take his boundless lust out on Faith.

Faith. She was a tricky one. The Reprobate group had always been about recruiting unique vampires. Seth was unique in his past and his abilities. Caleb was unique: a true rogue, turned as a toddler. But what of Faith? Kitty had still not seen much from the foul-mouthed young vampiress. Stylist skills, but any half-baked human could possess those. Promiscuity in spades. But power? Hardly.

Her humour was brash, her competition childish and her attitude rude. After making as many inroads as she could handle, offering to help Faith train to use whatever power she had, Kitty was now only entertaining Faith for the sake of her baby who, for reasons she could only hope to fathom, was smitten with her.

Love. It surely made fools of us.

Kitty sighed heavily, ruing her failed potion and her failed plan.

Had it been this difficult for Layne back when he had assembled the original Reprobates? Had his command of the rogue vampires been keener than Kitty’s? How did one hold together such a treacherous troupe when the whole basis of their connection was that of animosity and hostility?

It had lacked foresight on Kitty’s part and she was being unkind with herself. At the prospect of, once again, losing her only progeny, she had been rather not herself, kin to morose.

This potion was an attempt to elevate the situation, and yet she could not get it correct. It was not supposed to be gluttonous and lurid; it was supposed to be frothy and light and full of mirth. As she wished to be.

Perhaps this was a sign. Perhaps she did not desire hard enough, perhaps her intentions were misguided. Perhaps she should, instead, lean into her misery.

There must be a way to make Seth stay. There must be a way to make right her merry band of rogues.

She upended the cauldron into the bathtub, refilled it with water and settled the iron pot back onto its fiery plinth.

Her remaining pure magic, as a vampire/witch hybrid, was mostly limited to crafting potions and practicing herbalism. There was only so much she could do within these limitations. She reached down into a small pouch on her lap, withdrawing a dainty clear quartz and smidgeon of mermaid kelp, which she added to the pot.

She drummed her fingernails on the sides of the heating cauldron, whispering to it softly, asking for clarity on the way forward. It would not predict the future, more was the pity, but it would surely grant her the peace of mind she desired. As the liquid began to simmer and steep, she inhaled the mist, allowing it to wet her stale lungs. How pleasant it was to bask in the simmer of a cauldron!

It is much more interesting when the cauldron bubbles over.

As the whisper of rationality began to reach her mind, Kitty responded with a wicked smirk. She exhaled into the steam, listening for the lucidity it promised.

It began to sing her a siren song.

Break the bubble, break the fall,
Who is most rueful of them all?
Stake his sorrow, cloud his sight
Prepare for trust to come to light

What in Lucifer’s red Hell did that mean?

Faith tugged up her towel and stepped out of the bathroom. Despite what Seth had said, the grass was definitely full of mud – mud which had gotten all over her clothes, her limbs and even into her bra, somehow. Unlike Seth, she wasn’t content to wallow in dirt for too long so, while he was off reading in his room caked in even more crud than he usually was, she had taken a cold bath and scrubbed some of her filth away.

Her mind kept flashing back to the previous night, of the pair making out on the grass under the stars. It would’ve been quite romantic had she not been preoccupied with what was crawling on her leg and if her hair was getting matted with shit.

When they’d finally come up for air, Seth had taken Faith to a local pub for a bite to eat. Her choice had been a passably attractive bloke who had approached her as she waited at the bar pretending that she’d ordered a drink.

She’d taken him out back to take what she needed and, when Seth had offered to finish him off, Faith had barely batted an eyelid.

It was just like the good old times, she thought wistfully as she reapplied her lipstick. Just her and her vampire lover draining random men under the streetlights.

After Seth had casually decapitated the guy, he and Faith had had another heated make out session in an alleyway, that had gotten a little handsy but nothing full on. And then, back at the manor, when Faith thought she’d finally be getting her leg over, Seth had excused himself ‘to read’.

Faith didn’t really know what Seth was reading, only that he went into his chambers to do it. She’d gotten a glimpse of the room and had seen that it was packed full to the ceiling with dusty, old books. She didn’t know how fast he could read but it’d surely take him years to get through everything, so she wasn’t expecting him any time soon.

She sat at her dresser and looked around at her dingy chambers. She’d drawn the short straw when Kitty was dishing out rooms, getting the smallest bedroom in the manor and the most tired. Kitty had clearly tried to make them nice, but it looked like someone had had a huge fight in them, with barely patched holes in the wall. Once, when Faith was being nosy, she’d found a torn up portrait of a guy with dreads shoved behind the bookcase, so she assumed that these were his quarters, back in ye olden times, but she had no idea who he was or why his room had been trashed.

Faith was bored. Caleb had been keeping his distance and Kitty had excused herself for the night leaving her with nothing to do. She thought about Seth, surrounded by dusty tomes, and wondered if he’d like company.

Probably not, but he was going to get it.

She lingered at her wardrobe, wondering which of her outfits said ‘come and get me’ the loudest. She settled for a dress that was so low cut that her tits flashed when she walked, and so short it was pretty much just a top, with heels so high that she could only stumble around in them like a newborn giraffe. But they looked good when she was sat down. Or lying down. And would look great when her legs were wrapped around the torso of a master vampire.

She wasn’t planning on walking anywhere significant. She never was.

Dressed, for the most part, she teetered to the door and across the landing to Seth’s room.

Should she knock?

“Come in, Fledgling,” Seth called as Faith raised her knuckles to the wood. Hm, she thought, guess he’d heard the click clack of her ridiculous heels.

She opened the door and peered inside. It was dark, illuminated only by a handful of candles. Seth was seated in the midst of a pile of books, barely acknowledging her arrival.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked. “I’m quite bu—” he looked up and paused, drawing the end of his word out slowly. “—sy.”

Faith wobbled in and closed the door behind her inelegantly.

“Nothing much, just wondering what you were up to.”

“I’m reading about the 1642 battle at Evergreen Harbour.”

“Sounds really fucking dry,” Faith murmured and walked across the room, making sure that he was watching her every step. From the corner of her eye, she could see him eyeballing her legs, which went on for days in this get up. “Is that really all you do when you hole yourself up in here? Read boring crap?”

She turned to him and he cast his eyes down.

“Some things in here are interesting,” he muttered, not taking his eyes off his book.

“Sure,” she snorted and turned on her heel, falling into a table and knocking a book off a pile. “Oh shit!” she gasped and bent down to pick it up, completely forgetting how very short her skirt was until she heard a small, throaty growl.

“Fledgling, you seem to be missing part of your outfit.”

She straightened up, book forgotten and turned to face him. “Which part?” she asked innocently, looking down and around. “Hm… dress, check… shoes, check…”

He got to his feet and walked over to where she stood.

“Anyone would think you’re trying to distract me.”

“Is it working?”

His eyes roamed her body again then settled on her face. “It’s working,” he purred and pulled her close, nudging her lips with his and following with a little bite. His hand slid down her body, cupping her ass and using it as leverage to pull her closer. She locked her arms around him, lifting herself into his deep kiss; his tongue tangoing with hers, his hand tangled in her damp hair.

She unhooked her hands from behind him and ran them down his chest, to his belt which she began to tug at. The old thing was so knackered that leather flaked off as she tried to unbuckle it and he watched, amused, as she struggled.

“Ugh, why is all your clothing so shit? Can’t you steal a new belt?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” he insisted. He loosened it and refastened it with one hand and Faith pouted.

“I think you’re teasing me.”

“That makes two of us,” he whispered as he scooped her up into his arms and carried her over to his bed.

He placed her gently on top of the sheets. Silk, she noticed with disdain, and not moth-eaten like hers were.

Favouritism, she thought and he smiled.

Shit, had he heard that?

He didn’t give any further indication that he had as he dropped to his knees beside the bed. He lifted Faith’s foot and kissed her ankle, up her calf, along her thigh, nipping her occasionally, playfully, until he reached her missing garment, where he stopped and moved back down.

She propped herself up. “Colder.”

He smiled and licked her ankle as his voice whispered in her head: patience.

“Ugh,” Faith moaned and flopped back down. “I forgot how slow you like everything. You’re going to bore me to death first, aren’t you?”

Am I? he projected to her as his tongue continued upwards. Right on upwards. She gasped and gripped the sheets in one hand, a fistful of his hair in the other, completely unprepared as his mouth began to dance on her with fervour, his tongue swirling and undulating until Faith felt like all the edges blurred, like her whole world had been condensed into one small area of her body.

Fuck.

A shower of expletives later and Faith fell back on the bed, her body jolting with aftershocks as Seth’s efforts became softer, less focused. He kissed her thighs and her belly that had become exposed as her barely-there skirt had ridden up. He caressed her legs and her hips until she was down from her high.

As the edges of her world came back into focus, Faith pulled him up to the bed. She reached for his waistband, wanting to free the tantalising bulge she could see within, but he stopped her.

“I’m afraid that’s all I have in me until I’ve hunted.”

“No way, you can’t just wind me up and then leave!” she whined. “Can’t you just lie back and let me at it for once? How much energy would that take?”

“Not much, but where’s the pleasure in that?” He smirked at her. “And I’m not leaving, at least, not quite yet.”

Faith didn’t like the finality in his tone. “What do you mean? You’re leaving? You can’t leave.”

“I can, and I am. As soon as tomorrow.”

“But… you have so many books left to read.”

“I’ve done what I needed to. Faith, these four walls, I can’t abide them. The world beyond is calling me.”

“But what about me?”

“You have Caleb.”

Faith snorted and he smiled at her. “You can come with me.”

“Hm,” Faith screwed up her face. “Last time we tried that we ended up living in a shack and you went insane.”

“Ah, I certainly can’t assure a stable psychological state, but I’ll find us another apartment,” he promised. “Or a house or, hell to it, a mansion. It’ll have electricity…” he drawled tantalisingly.

“I don’t know. Can I think about it?”