A Fool's Massacre
Contains brief reference to offscreen murder.
They are fools.
Ebio loves her sons as if she gave birth to them herself but at this moment all she wants is to tear their foolish heads from their shoulders. Her fingers curl into claws at the thought and she only just quells the rage rising in her. It helps that Xiang is there and, despite her ire, she will not kill her eldest son in front of his child.
Reaching out to touch their chins, she tilted their faces up to hers. Both of them were covered in blood - their own and that of others - and Malloy at least had the harshly puckered scar from a hunter's blade burning bright along his left forearm. Darragh had a similar cut, though smaller, at his collarbone that she could see. And Ebio could smell the hunter's blood, that sharp scent that gave away the witch ritual that gave them their power as well as the sect that aided them in it.
This one had been a Coranus, their blood full of the scent of freshly tilled earth.
"I am disappointed," she said quietly, her voice coming out between gritted teeth. "I expect far better of my sons. Especially you, Itztli."
Her warrior son at least had the good grace to flinch, even though he continued to look her right in the eyes. On the other hand, her prize, her hunter son who was still not quite four decades into his new life, just grinned ferally.
"The hunter started the fight, Mother," he stated, his tone full of giddy amusement. And blooddrunk. Her youngest was drunk on the blood of a hunter, she could smell the earth on his breath as he spoke. "We just finished it."
If he ever knew who his mother was before she had come begging for Ebio's aid, he might feel ashamed. Though that would require her youngest to be able to feel shame in the first place. Even her star's lessons from just a few years ago - which had helped to temper his worst lusts - hadn't managed to change that part of his nature.
"And what were you both doing before the hunter arrived?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. Then she looked sharply at Xiang, who jumped slightly. Her granddaughter also had smears of blood on her - mortal, not the hunter's - but nowhere near so soaked as her sons. And there were no wounds on her, which meant that her Itztli had protected his child from harm in the fight. "Tell me, granddaughter, what your father and uncle were up to."
It was not a question.
Xiang wrung her hands around each other before replying, "They were...we were...making our way through the brothel. Darragh had had his fill with one of the girls before killing her and that set off all of the others after one stumbled upon him with the body. Malloy instructed us to kill them all to hide the evidence. Then the hunter was there and he told me to run."
Sighing heavily, Ebio closed her eyes and stated, "You murdered an entire brothel?"
"Not the entire brothel," Malloy stated. "We didn't manage to complete the job before the hunter came and then we had to fight him."
"It was exhilarating!" Darragh exclaimed, giggling. He then looked at her unamused facial expression as she snapped her eyes open to glare at him and his broad smile turned uncertain. "Only a few of them got away, Mother, we could simply hunt them dow..."
"No," she snapped in response, grabbing both of their chins hard enough to bruise. Malloy merely grunted, used to her sometimes harsher demeanor, but Darragh let out a confused whine of pain, his green eyes wide behind the blood coating his face. "If they saw your faces and saw you kill the hunter, then we are compromised. You will clean yourselves up and pack the house. I will go and arrange for our belongings to be moved to the house in France, as well as grease any palms as needed."
Ebio's grip tightened and she snarled, "And neither of you are to leave the house until I return. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Mother," her eldest son hissed through his pain.
Her young son panted for a moment, whining, and then gasped, "Yes, Mother!"
With that, she released them and turned to look at her granddaughter, who had the good grace out of all of them to look ashamed of the entire endeavour. "You will watch them," Ebio ordered, her tone cold. "And if even a hair is put out of place, you will come find me. Understood?"
"Y-yes, Grandmother."
"Good."
Ebio then swept away, out of the entrance hall where she had found all three of them covered in blood and deeper into the house. She strode down to her room and stormed inside, throwing a travelling cloak on over her dress, before walking back towards the front door. When she returned to the entrance hall, Malloy and Xiang were gone but Darragh was still there, sitting on his knees in the middle of the floor. His gaze was tilted down towards the floor but she could see that his eyes were distant, his thoughts obviously somewhere far away.
Moving towards him, Ebio gently reached out to touch his chin with two of her fingers and tilted his face up towards her. As his head moved, his eyes focused and he hummed lowly, smiling up at her drunkenly. Then his bemused expression cracked, turning to sorrow, and he softly said, "I'm sorry, Mother. It...it wasn't meant to become this tonight. I tried to only make it the one kill, I did. I did."
Taking some pity upon her youngest, Ebio sank down into a crouch and cupped his cheek in her hand. Her feral son, bloodthirsty and ever hungry, this nearly out of control beast that she refused to kill, just looked at her with wide eyes. Like a child looking his mother for comfort.
Her precious star had done well in her tempering of his behavior but there was still more that Ebio could do to control him. So she cupped his blood streaked face and smiled gently as she said, "Shh. Shhh. I know you didn't, sweet boy. You've been so much better since your sister was here."
"It was easier when she was here," he stated softly. "Malloy and Xiang, they don't watch for the same things she does. And I'm not..." Darragh trailed off, closing his eyes and swallowing hard. Then he breathed, "The girl that found me with the one I killed first ran away screaming and I didn't even think. I lunged for her. Two steps and then my teeth were in her throat and the blood, God, the blood. She was so sweet. Then there was another peeking out her door and Malloy said to kill them all..."
"So you did," she said quietly.
He nodded and then turned his face into her palm, nuzzling slightly with his nose before he opened his eyes again. There was a faint sliver of fear in those green eyes in this moment, likely because his blooddrunk state was making him more relaxed. More pliant. Normally her hunter son had no regrets, only broad smiles and a lust for more blood.
"I am trying," he insisted softly.
"I know," Ebio said softly, fanning her fingers out against his cheek. Then she rose to her feet again, leaning over him to press a gentle kiss against his forehead. "Go pack your things, my son," she murmured. "If I can arrange for our larger items to be moved by others soon, we can leave on horseback by the time I return."
Darragh nodded and then his hand rose to cover hers, his fingers trembling slightly. When Ebio looked at him, he quietly asked, "There is something...wrong...with me, isn't there?"
In a few hours, when the drunkenness had faded from him, he would likely not remember this conversation. And Ebio was nothing if not a doting mother to all of her children.
So, she cupped his face with both hands and looked him in the eyes as she stated firmly, "There is nothing wrong with you, sweet boy. I promise."
The lie was bitter on her tongue but Ebio let it roll forth from her lips anyway. It calmed him, at the least, which was her goal.
After all, it would not do to allow her so very nearly Rogue son to go fully off of the deep end. Not after she had done so much to keep him safe.
"Now go," she intoned, patting his cheek lightly, "I expected to see your trunk packed and you in clean clothes when I return."
"Yes, Mother," he replied, some of his eager tone from earlier returned. As she turned to leave, he smiled at her and then rose from his knees with a sigh, shuffling off into the depths of the house. Once he was gone, Ebio pulled her cloak up over her head and left, stepping quickly through the streets at a speed far faster than a normal mortals.
There was blood trailing into the house and she had only a few hours before someone might very well follow the trail. Thankfully most mortals had terrible nightvision, so they would have to wait until the morning anyway to search for clues in the area.
By then, Ebio would have gathered her sons and granddaughter and be gone, leaving only their larger belongings behind to follow them. She would by no means allow mere mortals to arrest her family.
If need be, she would kill those that pursued them herself to keep them safe.
Timeframe: 1701
Location: London, England
Event: When Malloy, Darragh, and Xiang return to their home with wounds from a hunter's blade and covered in blood, Ebio learns that they have not only killed a hunter but have been seen killing several people by multiple witnesses.
Consquences: To avoid the chaos of the evening potentially finding them, Ebio moves her little coven to another home that she owns in Paris, France.
The favorite of the Elder Issuru's children, it is known that she was born in Egypt and that she and her sister, Abana, were turned at the same time. In her life, she has garnered a brutal reputation that makes hunters usually whisper her name and has sired three children, loving them as if they were her own by birth.
The third child of the vampire Ebio, he lost his memory of who he had been when he was turned in the 1660s and became little more than a killer driven by intense bloodlust. By the 1780s, he regained his memory and has since struggled to control the aftermath of his years of bloodthirsty killing and figure out a place to belong. Taking a myriad number of jobs since then, he's spent his long life trying to make up for who he was for more than a century, including taking up the position as a consultant to the FBI that led him to moving to the town of Bigby Fork.
Once a proud warrior amongst his people, Itztli was dying in the streets of Tenochtitlan when Ebio came upon him. There he became her second child and intensely loyal to her when she helped him slaughter the Spaniards that had ruined his people. For centuries, he and his child Yen Xiang Jun remained at his sire's side until she told them to go live their lives.
The only child of Malloy, she at first feared him as the strange man stalking her in the 1570s. After confronting him, fear became desire as he wooed her, eventually leading to her giving herself to him in order to save her brothers' lives after they tried to attack him. The only time after that that she has left her lover's side was to briefly return to Ireland, where she groomed and eventually turned Daman Ó Conaill, hoping to gain another version of his brother. When he did not, she returned to her sire's side as she knew that she would ruin the sweet man that he was.
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