Eveshka and Julius walked slowly towards her penthouse. A thin mist gave the streetlights an eery halo causing them to cast a thin, wan light onto the street. "Now that we've been seen together..." Julius trailed off. Eveshka just nodded and carried on walking. Time passed silently, save for the click of Eveshka's heels on the hard pavement. "Where is it, Julius?", Eveshka asked eventually. "Safe.", he replied with an expansive gesture, as if to say "walls have ears". Eveshka nodded, again.

Click, click went the heels on the pavement, then suddenly stopped. "This is depressing," said Eve, who grinned and raised an eyebrow. "I've got a present for you, back at the Penthouse."
"Oh?", smiled Julius. "Mmm..." Answered Eve, slyly slipping off her heels, "But you have to catch me first!". Eve took off, laughing furiously, with Julius in hot persuit, each testing the limits of their celerity. Eveshka reached the Penthouse scant seconds ahead of Julius, just time enough to gather herself and appear nonchalant when Julius caught up. "Slowcoach!" She giggled. For reply, Julius took her in his arms, for a deep and passionate kiss. "Can you guess what the present is?" Asked Eveshka, purring as their lips parted, "I've got an... FUCK!"
"Well, yes love, I imagine so, but..."
"MY CAR!" Julius' celerity engaged a second time, as he sped to the underground garage where the Ferrari was parked. A single kindred, Julius could tell from the aura, was in the process of throwing a firebomb into it. As if in slow motion, the bottle of petrol traced an arc through the air, the lit rag burning down towards the flammable contents within. The bottle impacted upon the sleek Pinan Farina curves.

Of all things in the world that Julius loved, his collection of Ferrari's was amongst the most important. If you wanted to upset Julius, torching his car was one of the best ways. In fact, he still hadn't forgotten the car that had been stolen in Rome, this time he would get some payback.

"Boy!" he shouted, "You in big trouble." He raised his hand and the author of the blaze impacted upon the wall of the garage with a sickening thump. Eveshka arrived on the scene just in time to witness the car explode and see the kindred squirming on the wall, held there with shackles of fire. "[i:219588fc3b]Creo[/i:219588fc3b] fucking [i:219588fc3b]herbam[/i:219588fc3b]", yelled Julius, a stake appearing in the hand of the enraged Tremere magus. "[i:219588fc3b]Rego herbam![/i:219588fc3b]" And the stake flew through the air to embed itself in the heart of the attacker. Julius released the body and it fell to the floor. "Oh yeah, I'm gonna have fun with you." Said Julius purposefully.

"Julius, are you ok?", asked Eveshka. "Oh, I'm just fine." He replied, glancing in her direction. Eveshka saw the look in his eyes. It was not a look she cared for, having seen it before. It was a look that spoke volumes, a look that revealed the other side of his nature, the Magus of House and Clan Tremere, smouldering in his wrath and terrible to behold.

He concentrated for a moment, seeming distracted, as if in contact with someone... elsewhere. Turning to Eveshka, "They go too far, Maryushka, this." His voice expanded to fill the room, "You hear me? Hiding there in the shadows?"
"It's not over, Tremere!" Whispered a voice from somewhere in the dark reaches of the garage. Julius whirled and threw a fireball, but whoever had spoken the words had vanished.

A number of cars screeched in, Tremere apprentices bailing out, heavily armed, with both magic and more conventional weapons. The Regent approached Julius. "Pontifex?"
"Clean this mess up," Julius ordered, "and take that," he pointed to the staked body, still quivering on the floor, " to the chantry, I will be there soon." The Regent shuddered, then nodded. "It shall be as you command, Pontifex Darrant."

((I will post something spiffy to go with this in a few days. Gotta pull two more 14 hour shifts. Working 40 hours in 3 days sucks moose cock :( )

[i:578a48c60c] In a black SUV driven by the Tremere [/i:578a48c60c]

"Is all of this about that damned scroll, Julius?" asked Eveshka heatedly.

Julius said nothing but merely looked out the window as the SUV rolled through Montparnasse and into the 14th Arrondissement, where the Tremere Chantry for Paris was located.

The SUV pulled into the parking garage of St. Anne's Hospital. Eveshka grew more and more irritated as each moment passed. Julius looked at her in a cold, businesslike fashion. "Stay here," was all he said to her. All the doors closed and she was left alone in the SUV with the driver who would not turn his head to acknowledge her presence, but who nonetheless kept his eyes on her. Normally Eveshka LOVED to have eyes upon her, but the eyes this Tremere whelp laid on her made her feel as if she were a rat under a magnifying lense. She tried to open the door to leave but it was locked. They were ALL locked.

"Please stay here My Lady, it is not safe for you outside," he said with a lot of conviction. He knew that if something were to happen to, in his mind, this brainless Toreador Princess, Pontifex Darrant would most likely turn him into coffee grounds. That was if he was lucky.

Eveshka on the other hand was on the verge of going into a rage and would have none of it. "Do you know who I am," she asked, her calm voice hiding the inner fire that was beginning to approach a melt down.

"Yes, Comtesse, you are the Prince of Touraine, and my Pontifex' courtesan."

Her eyes flashed as the melt down commenced, "YOUR PONTIFEX' COURTESAN!?!?"

The driver cringed slightly, but did not back down. Instead, he merely raised the tinted window separating the passenger compartment from the driver compartment. He visibly slumped in relief as he heard muffled thumps on the bulletproof glass and as the car rocked back and forth violently. Yes, the brainless Toreador Princess was ripping the inside of the passenger compartment to shreds, but she was still safely inside the vehicle. Torn upholstry he could deal with. Being turned into air pollution for losing his Pontifex' toy, he could not.

Suddenly all was silent. He did not dare lower the glass to see what was going on back there. Ten minutes later he opened his door to meet the Pontifex and warn him of the the caged lioness waiting for him inside the SUV. Julius merely waved him aside impatiently and opened the door to find a well collected, beautiful, and completely serene Comtesse Eveshka sitting cross legged amidst the demolished interior of the SUV.

Julius cocked an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He merely reached in to brush a piece of foam from the seat cushion out of Eve's hair. He smiled and took her hand. Eve docilely stepped out of the SUV. Julius signaled for another vehicle and opened the door for Eveshka himself. "I'm sorry love, but you would not have made it out of here with your skin intact had you left this vehicle."

Eveshka looked at him sharply and was at a loss for words. Julius gave her the words she might have said, "Yes, this is plce is what you think it is, and you'd do well to conveniently forget that bit of information. Driver, take us to the Comtesse's Haven."

Eve looked out the window wondering what really would have happened had she tested Julius' loyalty to her versus his clan. She decided that she didn't really want to test that particular issue, and never raised St. Anne's up with Julius again. Julius knew that Eveshka, although a Toreador in the truest sense, was a Toreador of old and could be trusted with certain secrets. He was completely aware, after all, that she had abilities that don't normally rest in a Toreador. He also knew that she had never betrayed him before and she had been privy to some pretty sensitive things about House Tremere. But for all of those things, he also knew that she WAS a Toreador, WAS a young methuselah, and therefore could never be completely trusted.