The outfit was pretty great Estelle had to admit. A midriff sweater, with a tube top, Katherine's hard worked abs on full display, and tight athletic leggings that ended in very cute overpriced sneakers with pink stripes. Her make-up was immaculate, flared winged tips striking at the edges of the eyes with a very light eye shadow that accentuated the green in her hazel irises. Tiny white freckles had been added to her cheeks with make-up pen, and her hair was loose and flowing. She wore a slip chain necklace, and dangling earrings with tiny mushrooms on the end of chains.
Estelle on the other hand had gone to an old reliable ripped tee with a band that hasn't played in twenty years on it, roughly distressed jeans and black boots, makeup calling to mind decades of punk rock excellence, having to be stopped from spending four hours caking her face in white and black. Her light brown hair's left to its own devices, brushed twice to make sure its presentable but otherwise ignored.
In the living room, both women were waiting for the third, Estelle tapping her boot with an annoyed look, "You said I couldn't spend all night painting my face, and then she gets to be in there an hour and a half!" She stick a finger at a bathroom door annoyedly, mostly just complaining to complain.
"She's still in there?" Katherine said shocked, "I've been done for twenty minutes."
The door opens, revealing a tight, nearly ankle length dress on Eleanora's body, blonde curls further treated until they bounce with every step, a purple lipstick used to contrast incredibly with her already pale and foundation assisted skin, each nail is done in a different shade of blue, an eye catching effect as it seems to reflect light metallically. She's wearing fairly tame heels for her standards, barely three and a half inches, she puts a hand on her hip, waiting for reactions with a smile.
A small gasp escapes Katherine's lips, and she breathlessly says, "I take it back, well worth the wait. Look at you!" She takes a few steps forward, examining Eleanora, walking around her and back. "You look amazing, the nails especially, I don't think I've seen that before." To be fair, Katherine didn't really get out much now did she?
"Ah, mon amour, it was a style I saw not too long ago, I remembered it as I was in there and had to…how do you say, restart?" She admits looking at her nails, "I was almost done with the first coat when I had the thought." A smile tugs at her face at Katherine's reaction, turning to Estelle who is smirking as she raises her hand to her mouth and gives a whistle.
Eleanora is simultaneously annoyed and pleased, a look of mild discomfort and entertainment at Estelle's antics. "Alright, lets get this show on the road, I'll be drivi-" She's cut off by Eleanora giving her a sharp look.
"It is my automobile. You two are passengers, oui?" She firmly states, turning and sauntering off with a hypnotic sway, waiting for the other two women at the door.
"I don't care who drives, as long as it's not Me. I get nervous." Katherine admits, then touching her chin as she follows Eleanora before saying, "I guess I get nervous about everything, but driving feels like it needs special mention."
Estelle rolls her eyes, jokingly, "Like I said, my favorite passenger princess." As the trio exits and slides into the silver-framed Bentley, leather seats smelling fresh and almost unused, something like black pine.
"For some reason, I was expecting a Model-T Ford," Katherine says with a wink, giving Eleanora a kiss as she slides into the passenger seat. "Wait, are we all unarmed? This is my first time leaving the house without a gun… Ever. Since I was sixteen."
"I've got mind control powers." Estelle shrugs, "So..not really?" Whilst Eleanora smoothly starts the engine, gently accelerating the vehicle into a start, sliding onto the road and making it to a light as she carefully follows traffic laws and keeps to the speed limit, eyes watching every direction almost at once.
"Mon amour, I would not pain you so. There's a pistolet in the glovebox." She smiles at Katherine lovingly, "And more in the trunk, if you need."
"Oh good," Katherine said with a deep breath, her heart rate going back down "Good. I know it's easy for you two you can just go all… Angry chipmunk and tear people apart, but I feel naked without a gun." She admits, "Something about the weight I think." She pulled out her phone, and quickly marked down that she felt panicked without a gun, and that she left the house without her own guns.
The Bentley attracts eyes as Eleanora comments, "I did have a Model-T for a short while, but~!" She gives a short giggle, "It was where I learnt what a motor accident is like." The smile definitely isn't one of a bad memory, "I was inside someone's restaurant when I was next aware, they had no roofs in those days—the automobiles I mean."
"That sounds… Horrifying to be honest, did you ever go back and try the food at the restaurant?" Katherine asked, curiously.
"Mhmm! A few…years? Years later, in nineteen thirty seven. With my new Ford Lincoln, fresh from America." Eleanora chuckles.
There was a momentary pause, "You were in Europe in the late thirties… Early forties? That must have been… An experience." She said with a weak chuckle.
"Ah, yes, the German's war. I was in La Résistance for most of it. Working at night, but they had Kindred of their own. It was a bloodbath." She recalls with a slight frown, "But I did meet this lovely man, one of those rare ones that capture your heart, you know?" Estelle's listening closely, interested in Eleanora's stories.
"Very rare, maybe twice in my lifetime." Katherine admits there was a longer string in her head but she kind of wanted to listen instead of killing the mood with neuroses.
"Mhmm, it was… fast. Over in four years. He died in Berlin. I begged him not to go, but I do not force my loves to listen." She's reminiscing, a small pain to her that makes Katherine's own heart twitch, "I hoped my blood would be enough, but modern machines of war seldom leave enough to heal." She takes a smooth turn as the date-site gets closer, a movie theater. Eleanora perked up when a theater was mentioned and so, it came to be where they would be going.
Estelle shrugs, "Woulda just tied him down. Men are stupid when it comes to one of three things, sex, country or money. It's always at least one of those." She's now leaning against the two front seats, head sticking out into the front compartment as she enters the conversation properly.
"I wouldn't know, my first boyfriend got isekai'd" Katherine says with a small laugh. Then she looks at the other two women who look very confused, "Fell off a skateboard, flattened by a moving truck. Third month in when I was sixteen."
"Huh, bad luck with men from the start." Estelle comments again, "Can see why you turned lesbian, I woulda." She's now focused on tapping at Katherine's arm, trying to see how much she can get away with in terms of annoying physical contact.
"More turned me off spaghetti, can't eat anything ground up in red sauce. Tire got his head." She admits, looking at the pokes with a smile. "Jokes on you, I love being touched."
"Yeowch. I remember when I was a kid." Estelle remembers, "So it was the sixties right, you know much about sixties Ireland? North chunk specifically? Yeah so my family moved there, big mistake." She's smirking at the memory.
"Why, what happened in Ireland?" With a confused look, "Aren't they a part of the UK? Like Scotland or Australia?"
"So!" She laughs, "More like a hostage state. Lotsa things culminated, but uh, when I was seventeen, the whole thing kicked off when the Crown sent the military to strike break. Nineteen sixty-nine! After that, I was going to school one day when a car bomb turned a teacher of mine into a blackened streak in the air." She's still smiling, "That's when I learned, uh, I like people in pieces." Estelle admits sheepishly.
"He was a protestant, so its fine. The teacher I mean." Quickly, the vampire assures Katherine.
With a turn to Estelle, Katherine nods, "So the drink was named after that?"
"The irish turned carbombing into an art, I think…Twenty to thirty a day at one point. Killing bobbies left and right."
Katherine looks at her with wide eyes, "Why?"
"I thought an American would get it, independence!" She smirks.
"Independence from… Europe?" Katherine responds confused.
"You, uh–Okay, There's the English right? They're bad. Well, 'cept me." Estelle starts to explain carefully.
"Right, the European Union or United Kingdom or whatever." Katherine nods while listening. Clearly following along.
"No no the Europeans kicked the UK out, but anyw—."
She cuts Estelle off, "The European Union kicked itself out?"
Estelle tilts her head, "Are–So. The United Kingdom is what's now composed of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, like the United States has fifty of the fuckers,they have four. The European Union'ss a bigger federation, which has like sixty states in it, now it has fifty nine, cause they–"
"Wait, so there's a North and a South Ireland, it's not all just Ireland. When they say on the news like 'thing happened in Ireland,' they're talking about both?"
"Usually just Ireland, which is the majority of Ireland. North Irelands the chunk the UK still has, and where all the car bombs are." Somehow, she's able to explain this calmly.
With a slight quirk of the head she nods, "Wait so… That would be recent if there were car bombs. I didn't think stuff like that still happened."
"I think the last one was… 01?" Estelle considers, "Yeah, two-thousand and one. It's been settling down ever since the government and IRA came to some agreements. And Thatcher died."
NOW, Katherine was confused, "The IRA… Like… It can't be what I'm thinking of like taxes right?"
"Sorta? Worse, uh, you couldn't get a job if you were Catholic, paid more for housing, usually paid more taxes. Systemic oppression, yeah?"
"An IRA is a savings plan for retirement in my mind? So it must be something different." Katherine admits now sheepishly, "I went to an LAUSD school, and… Sorry."
Estelle laughs loudly, "Irish Republican Army." She's now incredibly bemused, "I'm gonna call some of my old friends and tell them that joke, that was great." Estelle stops for a moment, "Oh, uh, Republican over there means…want more people to vote and engage with the government and not have a king. Not what it means here."
"Like the metric system but for politics." It made sense in Katherine's head at least, "Ok. So England invades Ireland in the sixties, so you keep blowing them up until they fuck off, but they kept a chunk of land beca—"
"No-no, England had invaded Ireland, but they hadn't been terrible enough to really go after till the sixties" She clarified, "Like how England took America in the sixteenth century, but you all didn't rebel till the eighteenth."
"Right, Ok, I think." She turned to Eleanora, "Did England ever invade France?"
"Several times, we invaded them back." She answers, "When I was un jeune fille, mortal even, I remember hearing from the crier that France was at war, but in those days, you would have to be there to see a battle happen." Eleanora is looking for parking in the parking lot of the theatre, packed as it is. "I remember… oh, when was it? Yes!" She remembers, "England and France had eight wars in two hundred years when I was still a young Kindred. Very nasty, some of them, nasty enough that even we felt it."
"You know, something I don't think about, you've been through like, double digit Europe-shaking conflicts, haven't you, Eleanora?" Estelle looks as if this is the first time thinking of this, "What's seeing that much carnage like?" The question makes Eleanora frown ever so slightly, though what the frown is caused by isn't exactly shown.
"You lose your taste for open war quickly. If you are lucky anyways." She answers, finally parking. "However, we've much more entertaining things to do, mes amours." Eleanora smiles as she steps out of the car.
"You're one of her amours now," Katherine says with a wink at Estelle as she gets out.
"What the fuck does that mean?" Estelle whispers, following Katherine out.
With a big smile she says, "I think it means we're a triad, but I don't know for sure. I don't leave the house much, just for murder and the movies." The only two times she's left the house, so technically accurate.
Eleanora twists her head back, looking at Katherine with a lot of emotion suddenly, before bringing it back under control. "Tu dois voir plus de choses dans le monde, mon amour." You must see more of the world, my love. She whispers, barely audible.
"Mais tout mon univers est juste ici, mon amour." But my whole world is right here, my love. She turns to Estelle, "She said I should see more of the world, and I replied but my whole world is right here. It was incredibly smooth."
Estelle nods, "I still refuse to learn French, even if that was sexy with no understanding of it." The theatre is packed at this time of night, packed enough that no one notices Eleanora appear in absolutely no mirrors at all. Estelle complains just as they cross the door, gritting her teeth, "Fucking water mains." Looking as if she has a migraine now.
"Can I carry you over it? Does that work? You're pretty light." Katherine says, getting a nod from Estelle. She very quickly scoops her up, holding her to her chest, "How far do I have to walk?" She says as she moves forward giggling.
"Well, if you're a good girl, you'll take me to my seat~!" Estelle laughs, leaning into Katherine's chest and watching the stares from the crowd with delight.
"And if I was a brat~" Katherine says with a wicked gleam, "I might drop you." She takes a few more steps and shakes her hands suddenly.
"Buuuut." Estelle leans up to whisper, "Good girls get rewards." She growls into Katherine, a scent of menthol on her breath.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
"But Brats get stupid prizes," She growls back. Then Katherine turns to Eleanora and kisses her, "I feel like we haven't talked in forever." That was explicitly not true, it had been at most, half a day. Though it was the longest Katherine had been apart from Eleanora in a very very long time.
"I know, mon amour. It's been a true shame." She smiles at Katherine, delighting in her attentions as she moves to the theater. They sit together, in essentially a slightly extended couch for viewings. Very quickly, Katherine moves and picks up a tablet putting in their reservation number, and a server comes and scans her phone for their tickets.
"What would you all be having today?" She says, with her own tablet in hand.
"I'm not hun—" Katherine stops as she gets glares on both sides of her, "A cheese burger with garlic aioli and fries please, and ranch on the side. Oh, and uh…" She very quickly pulls the menu up again on her phone, "Oh and three Brandy Alexanders, I think." She looks to the other two to see if they wanted anything.
Both undead women shake their heads, "We'll share with you, Kat." Estelle chuckles.
"Ok, excellent if you need anything, just press the button in the arm, and a waiter will be right out." The server says with a smile.
Once the waiter left out of ear shot, Katherine clarified, "All three Brandy Alexanders were for me by the way, if you wanted something else…"
"I cannot drink." Eleanora smiles, leaning into the seat.
"Oh! Right." Katherine replied, "I'll do the drinking for all of us then."
Estelle nods as well, "I wonder what happens when both of us bite you." Casually laying out that idea as she sits next to Eleanora.
"God I do too." Katherine says the words almost ripped out of her against her will. Then immediately looking at Eleanora, "Sorry, I do. It'd be like… Ice and fire simultaneously. Salt and sugar."
"Mon amour aime-t-il la douleur?" Does my love like the pain? Eleanora asks with a wry grin.
"J'aime autant la douleur que le plaisir. Est-ce de l'amour si ça ne fait jamais mal?" I like pain as much as pleasure. Is it love if it never hurts? Then turning to Estelle, "She asked if I was a bottom, I gave an emphatic yes."
"Oh, that's cute." Estelle laughs, leaning into Katherine and looking at the still empty theatre screen. "Hey, Eleanora, you wanna split her later?" She brazenly asks, smirking.
Katherine turns bright red at this suddenly very flustered. Her hands gripping at what they can find to steady herself. Eleanora's thigh and Estelle's arm.
"I think she wants it very badly, Estelle." Eleanora smirks as well, covering Katherine's hand with hers.
"God bless Europe." Katherine said quietly to herself. "How the hell am I going to pay attention to the movie now?" Already her mind was filling with wondrously terrifying scenarios, of being almost torn apart by claws and fangs. Blood everywhere an entire room covered in her life essence both wome— Wait when did the movie start? Katherine wondered to herself.
About fifteen minutes in, the drinks and food were brought in, and politely she asked for six more, telling the waiter it was so she didn't have to make two trips. She only took a few bites of food, but had finished all of the drinks rather quickly. The chocolatey shakes making her feel loose and limber. A little bold.
This was her first date to the movies… Was she… Allowed? To let her hands wander, she looked at both women, neither seeming to pay attention to her. Estelle draped over her lap, while Eleanora on her shoulder. Could they hear her heart beating? Did they know how happy she was right now? She moved her arm slowly upwards from Eleanora's waist, not looking at her. Not entirely sure how brazen she was being. Though Katherine quickly realized as she started to awkwardly tweak her shoulder, that while she had long arms she was not double jointed.
"Katerina, would you like me to move?" Eleanora asks, shifting slightly.
Katherine gulped, "Would… You like… To move?" She said turning bright red as her hand quickly moved… Somewhere appropriate though she wasn't entirely sure where that would be. The physical logistics of her intentions suddenly playing hell with her mind. " I was trying…"
She trailed off quietly a bit sheepish.
"I think." Eleanora turns, resting her back against Katherine, allowing access to her front. "I'd love to move, mon amour." She whispers, drawing Estelle's attention to this engagement.
She wondered if she was glowing red in the movie theater as she tried to seem smooth and casual. Panic and elation mixing as she let her hand rest on Eleanora's chest looking for some sort of reaction, though not sure exactly what. The other she went to put on her leg, before remembering that Estelle was there. The hint was the soft give she felt as her palm came to rest, sending more nerves through her. She looked down at Estelle who was now making eye contact she couldn't hear the movie anymore, instead just blood pounding in her ears.
Estelle squints at Katherine, who suddenly snaps her view straight forward. A gremlin-like smirk, evil and wicked sprouts across Estelle's face, as she very quietly imitates a soft moan, one only Katherine can hear. Katherine's eyes go wide at that, and she looks back down in panic as Estelle's grin only grows wider.
"Hey Kat." She whispers, grinning suddenly.
Katherine opens her mouth to speak, but can't, the face moves as if it wishes to relay words, but none seem to come to her in voice.
"Mon amour, has Estelle taken your voice?" Eleanora asks, curious as she pulls a finger across Katherine's jaw.
Words, Use your words. Katherine takes a breath to speak, but instead, shudders and then let's out a high pitched but quiet squeak that's drowned out by squeals of terror on the screen of whatever slasher flick they had gone to see. One which Katherine had been unable to follow for quite a while now.
"Maybe we should take her somewhere private, hmm?" Estelle moves, settling against Katherine's right side, "Somewhere where…we won't be interrupted?" Her sunglasses drift down, showing dangerous, slit eyes that glow in the dark.
"Somewhere dark, somewhere…" Eleanora trails off, kissing the side of Katherine's neck, moving in on her left side, working with the other woman to almost pin her to the seat, "Where there's only us?" She asks.
Katherine actually squeaks, panicked at this with glee. It's a very shuddering quick chirping noise as something tries to make itself heard but falls apart. She looks at both of them not sure how to focus as she's suddenly confined entirely to the seat, and not hating a minute of it.
The movie slowly drifts forwards, "But we don't want to miss the movie." Estelle grins wickedly, sharp fangs on display in the half-light of the theatre. "Eleanora paid for it." She taunts, scraping her teeth against the other side of Katherine's neck.
Wanting to somehow get the upper hand, but unclear on the rules or how she decided to go with her gut, "Then I guess you'll have to… Endure?" She said quietly with a smile as she slips her hand into Estelle's waist band on the side of her hip.
"My love." Eleanora's tongue flickers across Katherine's jugular, "I think it is you who must…endure." She whispers, letting her teeth barely drift onto the vital tideway of blood and life.
"I guess we will see whose more hungry for it by the end of the movie, mes amours." The other hand touching the bottom of Eleanora's chin to tilt her into a kiss.
The movie is forgotten in the background as Eleanora returns the kiss, gently avoiding her own fangs in the press of lips whilst Estelle nips and suckles at Katherine's neck, both women slowly ripping breath from Kat until they have to separate and let her gasp.
At some point during all of this, the rest of the drinks appeared, though now slightly too far out of reach from Katherine's pinned position.
An idea sparks in Estelle as they watch, "Eleanora, I have an idea!" She laughs, shifting and putting a leg between Katherine's, looking at the smaller woman. Eleanora tilts her head, languishing against Katherine as she is.
"Hmm? Explain Estelle." She leans up as Estelle's grin grows. Estelle then leans forward and kisses her, bringing a delighted noise of surprise to Eleanora as they meet and press into eachother in front of Katherine. Hands reaching for one another, expertly brushing, touching and holding one another for minutes at a time.
Katherine watched and held her breath, as if even breathing would stop what was happening in front of her. Suddenly surprised with lust now catching fire across herself. She watched with wanting eyes, their bodies twisting in front of her causing her throat to catch completely unsure of what to do. Could she touch? Was she allowed? Would she mess something up if she said anything? She didn't want it to stop. Though occasionally she was distracted by the six melting drinks ahead of her, the two women between her and them.
Eleanora doesn't separate, but does grab a drink, moving it between her and Estelle as her free hand sinks into Estelle's hair, giving it to Katherine with a warmly amused look to her blue eyes. Estelle is far too busy sinking into Eleanora as she's the best kisser anyone will likely ever meet to notice.
Katherine sips on tiny straws, and then a terrifying thought hits her. Not sure what would happen entirely, wondering if it was the worst idea in the world, or the best. She puts her hand into her midriff jacket where she kept a small Kabar, while watching them very closely for a reaction, as she knicks the tip of her thumb.
Both women snap their heads over, eyes full of creeping black, fangs out and bodies tense. They start to lean in slowly, predatorily.
Oh. "Too much, or did I win?" She said quietly as they leaned in. A moment of panic as they approached, while she had never been scared of them before, it was still unsettling knowing that she was prey, teasing two wild predatory animals.
"I think, mon amour, you did indeed win." Eleanora hisses, a low, dark noise moving to the left side of Katherine's neck.
"You might regret winning." Estelle moves to the right side, licking across her carotid with a hungry growl, bestial in nature.
Both women's hands hold her fast to the couch as they stalk their gazes and tongues across Katherine's vital arteries, holding back by barely an inch, just because of the many eyes around. They tighten their holds, leaving small bruises in an annoyance of lacking fulfillment. Both pulling away black eyed.
"Mon amour, will you come with us?" Eleanora smiles.
"But you paid for the movie Eleanora," She said shakily, bright red and eyes gleaming with delight as she squeezes her thumb against her fist. "Shouldn't we wait until the end?"
"Oh you bitch." Estelle hisses as the blood hits her nose with a vibration of her body. "I'm going to drink you." She growls, threatening with fangs and a grin.
Delight engulfs Katherine as the movie ends moments later. Her hand now having a thin stain of blood that trickled over her fingers. She wasn't entirely sure what would happen if she revealed her hand, wondering if maybe the game had gone a bit too far. Shakily she pulled it out to reach past them for the remaining drinks, slowly, trying not to make sudden moves as they watched her like hawks at a particular juicy dove.
Katherine gets the drinks under tight observation by a grin and a smile, both somehow more threatening than the other as her eyes dart between the two.
"I feel I have made a terrible mistake," Katherine admits, as she quickly drains the last two of nine Alexander Brandys, "Though I don't think I will regret it. If I sprint to the car, will you promise not to kill me?"
"I won't." Eleanora's smile grows. "After all, we have so much left to see." She pulls away, leaving a lane of escape, like a fox playing with the hens.
Estelle growls, shifting a step back, "You better outrun me." She threatens, coiling like a spring.
"I'm the only one wearing running shoes." Katherine says quietly, pressing the knife's edge, deep against her thumb, and then breaking in a full, giggling sprint. Quickly navigating around the leaving crowd, pulling in front of them in an instant. A few looking miffed, while other couples chuckling at the semi-common sight of people running around after having to sit still for so long. Though rarely in their early to mid thirties. She gets to the door, and slips out her feet pounding against pavement as if her life depended on it. Still giggling the entire time..
As she slides into the car and slams the passenger door shut, she hears a terrifying crash. Estelle is at the window, glaring with glowing eyes and fangs, having dented the door with an impact.
"Oh so that's how the Firebird got dented," Katherine says grinning, "You should be gentler with your dates." Though she realizes her hand is now covered in blood.
Eleanora starts the engine from the drivers side, smiling. "I think that's…how you say? Off the table?' Unlocking the doors and letting the ravenous Estelle slip into the car, sitting in the backseat with a grin of hungry need.
"Yeah, Kat. We're…gonna have fun tonight." Somehow, Estelle saying that is terrifying.
"It was worth it, I beat two vampires with years of experience over me, at an ancient game." Katherine had a winning smile, knowing full well that terrors may soon be in store.
"You did, my love, my Katrina. And now you reap what you've sown." She gets the car moving smoothly, slipping into the street and then the road proper. Twenty minutes of driving before…something. Left in the silence of a growling Estelle and a beautifully humming Eleanora, both women letting the fear, delight and anxious energy build.