Princes of the Undead

Part 41

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"Hmmmmmmmmm you taste...wonderful." Dracula punctuated his remark with a kiss to Agatha's shoulder blade, his hand stroking the length of her exposed spine. "Positively moreish." He added with a bite.

"Pig."

Snorting with amusement at the memory that insult provoked, Dracula ran his fingernails over her pale skin, the faint pink scratches left by his talons a pleasing contrast. "Does that make you my little truffle?"

"As pet names go that is not my favourite." Agatha's reply was muffled by her pillow, yet she arched into his touch.

"Agatha..."

"Hmmm."

Tilting his head as he studied her naked form, Dracula couldn't help but wet his lips in anticipation. "Tell me again exactly what you did...how exactly you did it."

Pausing for a moment as she considered her answer, Agatha felt a flicker of concern about just why Dracula was asking. When he had first arrived at the hotel, he had been both relieved to see her without a scratch on her and raging that Pazzi had dared to make such a move against them. Despite Agatha's reassurances that she was fine, that she had handled it, that she doubted anyone would try to harm her again, not once word got around, Dracula had been insistent that this was war. That they were going to destroy Clan Pazzi, root and stem, and he had been irritated when Agatha hadn't immediately agreed with him.

In an effort to both distract Dracula and avoid an argument over her preference for pacifism, Agatha had revealed an abbreviated version of just how she had defended herself. A tactic that worked, a little too well, as she had never seen the Count go from frustrated to horny quite so fast, and certainly not while they were both fully clothed. He had been positively feral, and Agatha wasn't certain she was recovered enough to go there again.

So, Agatha settled for teasing deflection. "I'm not sure if I should, considering how excited it got you last time I did."

"Can you blame me? I had just learnt my beloved was our Clan's secret weapon."

Sighing at his turn of phrase, Agatha forced herself to turn over, grasping Dracula's hand. "I am a person, not a weapon Vlad."

Frowning at her reply and having his advances thwarted, Dracula stretched out beside her, rolling out the kinks in his shoulders. "You know what I mean my love, do not twist my words. I am not suggesting that we go on a murder spree of all the vampires who irritate us, but we would be fools not to use this unknown power to our advantage."

"How do you propose to do that, without putting me at risk? I don't relish the idea of being exiled for what I did, but at least I can argue I was defending myself. Also I can justify it to myself, that it was him or me, and he was a monster, he deserved the sentence I passed on him. In a full out war, innocents would be harmed, and I wouldn't...I couldn't live with that; I won't be turned into a mindless weapon by anyone or for anyone...not even you!"

"Don't you trust my judgement in the slightest?" Dracula huffed, more than a little put out by Agatha's lack of faith in him and his restraint. He was capable of restraint, he just chose not to exercise it often.

"Pazzi has to be dealt with Agatha, if we leave this situation alone then it is us that will look weak. We will encourage our enemies to take another shot at us, because they believe will not retaliate. Now is precisely the time for a targeted attack, something that will show Clan Pazzi just how outmatched they really are and send a message to any others who might challenge us."

"If you cut off the head of the hydra, another will just replace it."

"Not if you slice the all the Hydra's heads into little pieces they won't. It doesn't even need to be you that does it my darling, just tell me in detail what you did and let me take care of it." Dracula's voice was persuasion personified, yet still he could see Agatha wavering, the ties from her mortal life, her belief in the sanctity of all life hobbling her; so Dracula decided to try a different tactic.