The jokes came easily. Touch yourself.

It didn’t help that this was one of Quinn’s talents. He could imagine well the training she would put hi through if he asked her help in mastering obfuscation. If he ever got the time. He wasn’t opposed to learning from masters. It was just that life… unlife got away from you.

There was never enough time. A truism, even in immortality.

He’d spent hours in the House touching objects, hoping they would disappear, to get to this point.

Learning to hide the beast.

It came hard. (Yeah, easy jokes, he got it.) It wasn’t in his blood like… shaping. This came slowly. He thought he had it a month ago, but it failed just as before. How did you hide the beast? JC knew the basics of hiding himself, of hiding himself, how to see through such falsehoods. It should just be a process of backtracking those skills to apply to… the immortal predator that resided inside him that all other predators could see as plain as day. When they saw him, when they heard him, when they touched him.

JC pinched his nose. He was able to project his anger so easily. Utilize it to grant him some control of his feelings. Why was hiding them so hard? He remembered the Prince’s words. How she didn’t bother. How she wanted to people to fear her.

However, that wasn’t the goal for him. JC wanted to hide the beast because… because he felt the difference. He remembered how he’d thought of Quinn before. The rage, the anger, the murderous intent. And now…. Well the murderous intent was still there in that he wanted to drain all the blood in the world. But the hate was gone. The taint no longer reacted. And while that ws true for him, he knew it wasn’t true for her. And if he could just do that one small step… it would be a step in the direction that Kindred society need to go.

Not free of blood lust but at least free hate and fear.

He shut his eyes.

The Dark Eyed Man shut his eyes.