VLAD’S HOUSE
HENFORD-ON-BAGLEY
VLAD
Even knowing what to expect, he was still startled at seeing his daughter standing in the foyer.
“Oh!” she gasped. “I didn’t realize Ethren was here.”
Vlad looked down at his clothing and groaned. After a quick mist to the laundry room to grab a shirt, he was back, steering Lilith out the front door. “Ethren is not here. Thank you for visiting. I love you; now go away.”
“Why?” she whirled around and folded her arms.
She knew. Latimer had almost certainly blabbed about Alice on one of those infernal family video chats. Vlad ground his teeth. “I’m indisposed.”
“Oh,” she cocked her head innocently to the side, “Do you mean like when you were at my conference?” Her smile widened into something dangerous—icy. “You know, the one you deigned to attend and then left early?”
“I didn’t leave early. I saw your whole talk and filled out that occult-forsaken feedback card. Five stars, by the way. Now if that’s all you wanted to know…” He turned to go back inside.
“But I haven’t even told you about Caleb coming by looking for help.”
Vlad skidded to a halt. “Help? What happened? Is he in trouble?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realized his mistake.
“Of course, you’d ask that,” Lilith scowled. “If it concerns your precious Caleb, you’ve got all the patience in the world. Meanwhile, you can’t be bothered to spend a fucking weekend doing what I need you to do because you don’t give a shit about my life. Probably because I’m a witch, and you’re tired of parenting me.”
Part of being a parent was not letting your children push your buttons until you freaked out. Unfortunately, that was the part Vladislaus struggled with. “Of course I loathe witches,” he hissed, “What’s to like? And yes, I understand what parenthood is. I don’t need you to remind me.”
“Seems like you do; you don’t bother to do it!”
“You are over three hundred years old, Lilith; what parenting am I not doing?”
“Caring about me!” she stomped her foot. “Maybe I’ll just go lie in a ditch somewhere and die! Make you happy with your beloved son and this perfect family you’ve built!” With a scream of frustration, she stormed off.
“Perfect?” Vlad yelled after her, “This entire occult-forsaken family is made up of lunatics! Who would choose this?”
POLICE PRECINCT
SAN MYSHUNO SUBURBS
BELLA
Bella paced the hall. Deacon was right; her records request was a bust. It set off a bunch of red flags, and now military lawyers were making the chief’s life miserable.
“Goth! In here now!” he yelled.
Bella lifted her chin and walked into the office.
“What in a San Myshuno fuck is this records request?”
She couldn’t help but flinch as she took a seat. “It’s for a case.”
“A case?” He slammed a folder down on his desk. “Do you mean the one you’ve been dicking around on for months with no progress?”
“It’s…complicated.”
“It’s a murder!” the chief cried, “Two murders. Unsolved. What is going on with you? Your partner is flapping in the wind, and before you get worked up, Deacon has your back. He lies his ass off for you when it’s clear to everyone you’ve iced him out.”
The sick feeling that started in her stomach was spreading. “I’ve been running some things down, working some angles—”
“Like the Landgraabs? Do you know I had to sit on the phone with that uppity bitch and beg her not to sue this department? Bella, when I brought you on, it was against recommendations. Everyone thought you were some rich sim’s spouse trying to keep herself from being bored. Your work has been exemplary, but now this? What the hell is going on?”
“I’m having a midlife—” Bella choked the sentence off. She would not fail at this. “I mean, I have a suspect. A real one.”
She explained everything Salim told her, along with what she’d gathered from Caleb’s updates, minus the supernatural stuff. The more she talked, the more confident she grew. “That’s why I put in the records request. I wanted to have as much backup as possible, but I am sure Alice Martin murdered Eliza Pancakes.”
“And I believe Salim Benali murdered Johnny Zest. In fact, I know it.” Bella always gave her suspects storylines and motivations; it helped get in their heads. But now, those flourishes came pouring out like facts. “Salim and Alice had a twisted love that became violent. Poor Johnny and Eliza got in the way—innocent bystanders who were swayed by the charisma of these two master criminals!”
By the time she finished, even the parts she wasn’t sure about felt true.
The chief held eyed her suspiciously before he nodded. “Alright, Goth, I trust you. We’ll bring them in, but you better ensure we have enough to hold them, or the next time we meet in this office, I’ll be firing you.”
The Paragon of assistants : P
Honestly I love how much depth there is to every single premade in this story. Makes me wish I’d paid more attention to some of them.
LMAO I never thought I’d ever see Vlad as a sub, love it. Though I do like that even with Vlad’s playful responses and even though he has vampiric strength Alice still makes sure she’s not doing anything he’s not cool with. Love them both. I honestly love the way you write NSFW stuff so much because sometimes people don’t know what the fuck they’re doing and it’s just perfect. AND ALSO THE ‘trying stuff out and realising it’s not for them’ and the ‘that’s cool, well if you’re not into this then I’ll do something I know you like’ and dDA:SGLL the ‘dirty’ talk XD
OHHHH MY FUCKING GOD I laughed my ass off when Lil saw him in that XD AND THE COMMENT ON ETHREN LMAOOOO. Vlad, give Lil a little time of day, will you? I love those pics for Bella’s explanation off her looking absolutely batshit, but really, the case really IS that batshit crazy. But try explaining that to this guy. XD I WANT ALICE’S WOLF JUMPER IRL
‘It was difficult to break the cycle of doing everything the hard way just to feel like she earned it.’ GOD I FUCKING LOVE this line sm. I’m not sure if I am in the mindset of ‘these are the last people I want as babysitters’ or ‘these are the ONLY people I’d hire as babysitters’!
WELP I’m not sure ‘just calm down and do your jogging’ is advice for a werewolf, Matilda. Penny’s gonna have to find a way to work through all this and come to terms with it, not just hope to run off the fury. I laughed so hard at Bear Week because I actually forgot about in-game Bear Week and thought it was a night purely for a certain type of gay man XD
HOLY SHIT PENNNY GO FERAL! To be honest, she might blame herself for that, not speaking up when it felt right, but there’s a few things: I remember I once called out to a friend that his girlfriend was being super emotionally abusive and controlling of him, and everyone acted like I was wrong to have done that for…some reason? And ancient history back when my friends at the time said they had doubts about my ex, I wouldn’t have believed them if they told me back then. It’s hard to know what to say or not say, but alas, being AFAB, every decision you end up making is apparently the incorrect one XuX I don’t think Penny should blame herself. It isn’t her fault for not saying anything, it’s Salim’s fault for being a bellend.
HOLY SHIIIIIT Lilith’s overcharge is amazing, esp when she’s floating above all the red energy all zombie like. .YRE THERE SHDFDJADF THERE THEY ARE! The demon teeth! I already love Vlad’s dark form. Overcharged spellcaster VS dark form vamp, what more could you want? I thought the end to that scenario was heartwarming…in the Vlad sense of the word.
♥️♥️ ok I know I already blabbed about this chapter with you so I won’t make you suffer through me repeating everything 🤣 but I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Oh man, I love the empathy you still have for Penny. She needs it, even if she is in a hard spot.
Omfg the cas for the werewolves pack was TOP NOTCH