The abrupt command sliced through the air like a razor wire ripping through the thick nighttime air, this hiss of a command nothing more than a whisper and yet it is no less commanding. The silence was humming with crackling energy, that very static snapping within her veins. She couldn't even hear the breath below all those felines, she cared not for the attention it might draw in that very instant. Hunters that would dare show their face now would be obliterated while this power thrums through her.. Those cats would make short work of it. She knew it. Felt it as tangible as her own manicured nail that pressed against the metal rail before her. It was as quiet as graves filled with bones never to utter a sound, almost suffocating if they were not within the city limits. It was a sound so sweet that even though she relished in that chaotic clamouring symphony from before it was the clutches of deadly quiet that seemed more impactful. That midnight she-devil felt beyond it, beyond Cade and that very council that seemed to be looming over head. The expulsion of energy seemed to sooth that incessant irritation that she harboured within. There was a promise of a looming battle beyond the horizon, soon, she could nearly experience that bloodshed and that very notion seemed to give the vampire purpose. A new enemy to decimate, Risque hardly idle in the least. There were always enemies to slay.

That indication of a smile upon her undead cowboy's lips was not lost upon Risque at the mention to dominate those vampire forces that would soon be amongst their ranks, temporarily. There was a sick anticipation that she knew would feed that domineering desire she had so easily drew within the grotto of his psyche. How she feeds him, knowing very well the very beast she cultivates. That indebted coven hardly weak-willed children and would certainly offer some challenge, although surely not too much of a challenge for her lover and second. No, they would need a firm hand to lead, one Risque herself didn't have the time to baby sit. There was a level of trust issued in these moments, trust that had not been there when that news had been broken to her.

Those words leave his lips and it drew a sense of appeasement as those very words have been uttered from her own many times before. Everyone breaks. Every last one had a breaking point that Risque had expertly broken in some way. It was a game to her, one she was its master as it was of her own making. There wasn't a single creature that could avoid that very punishment when she had her sights on that complete control. She had little doubt that he would do just as he said, she expected no less from Darcy. He was a man that did not fail and she had come to expect it. "I suspect you make an example of one of them, the strongest, the rest will follow suit." She suspected they wouldn't cause that much trouble but it hardly hurt to display that dominance when there was time to do so. Just how much time they possessed, it was impossible to tell, hopefully those spies of hers would give them that knowledge they needed. Just how close were they for that assault? Days.... Weeks... months? Too many gaps in the knowledge they needed filled. It was infuriating and yet it only proved to add to thicken the plot of this art of war.

Trapped within the thoughts of it, she sent those felines below on a different course, a unique impromptu pattern of her own design. It hardly took much power at all and yet the way they moved in unison which seemed to temporarily amuse the feline vampire queen however fleeting as it was. They almost looked strictly for entertainment, but those cats, together were murderous. To assume other wise.. would have been a mistake. They could wipe out beings like a wave of fury and claw, shredding those in the way to oblivion. Her gaze broke away for but a breath of a second in order to capture a glimpse of that flitting intrigue that shone then in her pale depthless eyes.

How careful Darcy chose those words, requesting she share that knowledge her spies provided her. His voice exuding that polite tone as if not to upset her further. He was smart not to utter that demand in that moment. To not share that knowledge would be a fatal error and yet at the same time she must not let that knowledge spread if there were a traitor in their midst. One she was so very positive still lingered. Cade could use their own knowledge against them. A tactic she had used before. That haunting saccharine voice danced through the moonlit air, that worry of the impending war hardly worrying her other than feed into already lingering paranoia. "It is imperative to find a weakness and more so when they plan to strike." Then they could manipulate it and shift it to their advantage. A careful balance that would most likely no matter how much planning, it would become unhinged upon that very day. But there was one for certain she was positive she could manipulate... and that was drawing Cade out from hiding.

Their plotting to draw Cade from his safety where he could oversight his soldiers like he was playing mere a game of chess was the easiest decision of all. She tapped a long-manicured finger upon that railing then, listening to that pinging, envisioning that battle that was to come as sure as the sunrise itself. The sands of time waiting for no one, not even her it would seem. Just how quickly they would need to assemble their forces still lingering with her mind. She was certainly ready to concoct a special little surprise for the vampire who dared to revolt against her. Darcy seemed to slip-up amidst explaining her fool-proof plan. Those cracks showing in that dominant virile form, and how quick she was to pounce, claws unsheathed upon that very notion. He still treads in dangerous territory after all... there was a particular way that she-devil needed to be spoken to, especially now. How that utter vile dominance that rolls off her in powerful waves!

Whether there was no room on that veritable throne or whether she preferred to keep him just below was a question that had never been uttered outloud. In many ways, people respected him as they did her... They were above them.. that's all that mattered.. but between Darcy and Risque. Now that was a convoluted web, one that was bound to get tangled within rather than to understand its complexities.

How much of her human life had been suffocated within that patriarchal society where men were meant to dominate females. How she rioted against it them all, against the authority that was forced down her throat. She demanded that equality and in her own way achieved it, at every chance she could seize it. There were luxuries afforded to her simply because she was nobility which allowed a certain tolerance that the most were not allowed to touch. She was considered rebellious in her human years, her mother had once accused her of allowing the devil to sully her very soul when she would come home at a less than decent time for a lady. She rarely thought of that past, rarely allowed it to enter her mind. It was a time when she was pathetic. Weak. Human. Even though no one would have called her those things, not then and certainly not now. Once turned, she had had been forged from the coals of hell, self-made and arguably by the artful paint brush of the devil. As though she allowed those putrid thoughts to overtake her to corrode her.. To carve out her revenge on all those that had let her down. However, when there were no more enemies left standing, those very enemies grew far vaguer those vile grudges would grow and calcify into something else.

She could hardly remember the day she made that potent decision that would change her entire outlook, her world in general. The night where she gave up her humanity. Risque would bow down to no one; they would bow down to her. No one would let her down, no one would abandon her or else a fate far worse than death would come for them like a veritable plague. Darcy was the rare creature that had creeped the closest to her throne, that she would allow to linger there, but even then she purposefully kept him at bay, by those possessive tendencies and that necessity for control. That chain around his throat made it quite obvious to whom he belonged to, one she continuously reminded him of. How suffocating her ownership was.. and yet in a sick way she needed it. They were either hers or slaves, or nothing at all. It was the only way she could ensure that loyalty, that they could not leave her constrictive hold unless she banished them to the final kiss of death.

Darcy easily surpassed those in time.. what a strange thing to consider. How their bond had altered over those years, perhaps only growing more intense the more time took its toll. But how treacherous and turbulent that space around her was, even more so inside of her. Darcy was getting ahead of himself tonight, she was sure of it. If it not from traitorous actions than what was it? It was cleared from her mind that the man she was convinced she made would ever dare to raise against her. How her mind would not forget, and would dissect it.. she was sure of it. Even with him conceding. There were far more pressing things upon her mind, like keeping that very mantle she had fashioned for herself.

How delicately that conversation so skirts away from him and onto that liquid silver. Far safer ground to trample. "I have injected it.. it is perhaps more painful than painted on the flesh. I haven't used it on flesh yet.. Perhaps Cade... or maybe when that traitor surfaces from its stasis. They always do.." There was that mistrust again, for the world at large creeping its way to the surface once more. She felt his gaze lingering upon her. She pivots her head just enough to allow those hypnotic pale depthless eyes to glance upon his chiseled features. "I have a reserve... and more coming.. Find me my rat and perhaps we can see. I want to see how fast it eats flesh.. Until their screams are silenced.. How long until it eats away an arm.... A leg... a face.. I feel Cade would crumble the second it touches his face, but I want it diluted enough that I can make it last... He fancies that face of his above all. How do you think he will respond if he looked into a mirror?" She hummed at the though, peering out into the inky horizon. How her eyes seemed to gleam! There was nearly a girlish sound that left her lips that did nothing of the sort, only forming a lump that never left. How she relished in the thought of something new. After all she had done it all... it was all together rare to find a new way to torment.

How that smile seemed to find her lips then, that smile an altogether genuine as she uttered those very words. When was the last time she truly smiled like that, fueled by that inner excitement? There have been short lived battles, many of them, but it was rare for the promise of true carnage upon the changing winds. An opportunity to truly unleash the true monstrosity she was, the veritable honed weapon she could pierce the world with. A once dormant creature starting to stir from its long slumber. How she could remember a battle just like that... the night she met him to be exact.

Darcy allowed those memories to draw to the front of his mind, sharing what now lingered with that very mind of his. There was not a night that could compare to that one.. Not even the night she murdered all those in her family home and... the dismemberment of that very coven that had changed her for good, defined her... no, ascended her.

How her mind drew to that vivid memory of that blood riddled battleground that had become a backdrop into the demon duo's origin story. It was a simpler time then just as it was chaotic. Enemies stirred at every corner, that reestablishment to remove any and all threats that would stand in her way. Then there was Darcy, that grey area that lingered then just as it did now. A creature that stood upon his own. How that memory seemed to distract her for a time and consume her very thoughts. Burning inside. That talk of the war ahead of them was put to bed it would seem... that night regaining a semblance of tentative peace between them. How easy it was to relive those moments, at least a pale echo of it, that past one she would always carry around with a twisted fondness. Even then she had collected memento of that night... but it was lost to the cleansing fire... That riotous fire set from her own feline and traitorous progeny. Thankfully, that was not the memory that danced impishly within the hellfire.

She faces him truly now, that very movement sinuous and deliberate while that memory of blood seemed to draw at the strings of her own hunger, icy claw memories raking down the length of her spine. A hellion released upon the world, no one left alive on that blood slick battle ground except for the two last vampires standing. How easy it was to decimate an entire coven to ruin. She enjoyed every moment of that gory mayhem, that matched her tattered soul. She found harmony in that very ruin of chaos. That very lack of fear, it was so stark in comparison to the men she shredded with her bare hands.

It was that mention of her power that seems to stroke that ego of hers, drawing a purr of contentment to her lips. "It continues to grow, every day, every moment I can feel it. It is only a matter of time before this whole city is quaking at its knees." Whether or not she wanted it she hardly knew, but what did anyone with power ever want? More of it. How she could inspire fear and they would all fall to the floor if she wanted it so. One day, perhaps. First, they would deal with their enemies, which only brought them one step closer. "You have come a long way since then." She admits, the reminiscing voice a few octaves above a whisper.

She spoke of that very night, that saccharine voice painting that very scene, seducing it to life with that richness of molten honey. lilted with that diluted accent that still remained after all the time. How she could hardly help the way she closed that very distance between them, that touch upon his face, showing where that blood refused to stain his face that night. Yet.. by the time they were finished there wasn't a single piece of flesh that wasn't slick with crimson.

Smoothly that hand moves from that trailing of the side of his face before her slender hand encased his neck, feeling the groves of it beneath her fingers, her hand without those usual accoutrements that usually embellished her flesh. There was no need for them up here... even though it was a rarity to go without. There was no silver brushing against his very flesh.. that grip was firm but hardly that crushing smothering grasp she could have held him within. How that desire seemed to stir at the very coaxing of her, toying with it like tendrils she so ensnared herself to, that hold seemed to lessen before she released it.. weaving that tale just so. How easy it was to draw that sound from his lips.. the question slid like liquid velvet from her. She enjoyed feeling it beneath her fingertips.

How close she was to ending him then, but a hair away to send him to his demise.. Yet... that demise never came and it could have. Should even a pinprick of fear wafted toward her, or even a wrong glance would have seen to his undead life's end. He was young, with such potential and yet... so very unaware of the very world. He was essentially a blank canvas sprawled out before her. His words reached her, that southern drawl almost as potent as that very night. How she hardly understood a word he said then. It was fortunate in the beginning they didn't do much talking. "I wanted to end you, you were the last one standing. How close you were to that sweet embrace of the true death, you could have known it, I wouldn't have known. Not once did you betray your fear.. Every man seems to cower in the face of death and you embraced it, you enjoyed it. I tested and consumed you until you were reborn in our battle of bodies and your mind.. If it were not for the closeness of the rising sun I don't know if we would have collapsed from exhaustion or..." She had not felt release like that in that point of her life since she had been turned. That pain and pleasure that wracked her very form had satisfied something so carnal and deep within her, a ritual she couldn't get enough of. How Risque hardly held back and he clung on like she was life itself, he took her abuse fed into her pain as she relished in her own. They were like animals.. the sounds that came from them were hardly human. She had fully intended to kill him the following day.. to have her fill of him just one more time and yet.. One day turned into two.. to weeks.. to months to years.. until almost two centuries later, until they stood here now upon that midnight garden. That worship never left his eyes, that awe and wonder... that adoration.

That mention of that moment where both vampires were locked in that intense battle of wills. She could taste that desire from him just as potent as she did now. Just like that his hand brazenly reached out to find her hip, they had been here before. She hardly held that same surprise as she did that night and yet it was surely.. bold considering her accusations before. It was the look in his eyes... that reminded her just where his loyalties lie.. where they always have. She releases the intensity of her hold but kept her hand there, allowing him to move to close that short distance between them. His lips crushed with no less fervor against her own. There was a yield of her own lips, that allowance she offered him as her own eyes closed, feeding into that kiss. They had come a long way since then. She claimed her own kiss, it was fierce as it was short. How she could have claimed more, but her mind was burdened. That kiss was but a memory, one that vanished just as quickly as thoughts did once relived. She never once uttered that very reason why she claimed him instead of releasing him from this world. It was a secret she stored away, as though keeping it unspoken had held a power over him. A power she hardly wanted to relinquish.

She relished in those praises, affirming what she already knew. She was certain she was deserving of. "and you are better at that.. and other things now.." There was a knowing trickle of a chuckle that escaped her then.

After a moment, they drank in that night air, that business seemed to find them once more as that question uttered. Harley... and Tetradore. They would surely be summoned to fight that battle. They needed those numbers and Tetradore's powers would prove to be useful. Harley would be able to prove her worth... How Risque intended to solidify the pairs bond... what better way to toy with those very ties of a makers bond than to have the fight along side one another. Perhaps even save one another. How convenient it would be to have yet another thing to hold over his head. He truly was the sentimental type.

She peered out, those selected larger cats would wait for her command so she could examine her new toys. They would wait for her in the dark shadows near that club until she summoned them later, she had seen to that. That power was like a collar and chain embedded within their throats that they could not break free of. The pavement below was once again exposed.. for a purpose she would reveal later.

That mention of Harley and those powers seemed.... Unsurprising. A minor detail one she intended to use to her own gain. She may be an asset yet. "It will be forced out of her in battle.. and it would do her some good to have her fight for her life.. to be forced to fight for us.." She expressed with a nonchalance, all playing pieces to serve a purpose for victory along with setting far more complex gears into motion. As always was her way... building layers upon layers to tangle her victims within until they were drowning in it. That complaint of the raven haired woman seemed to amuse her, her brow rose as she asked if he needed her assistance with her. Surely he could handle one small girl. "Then see to it that you do. See to it that she has fear to the consequences if she doesn't fight. I can pull Tetradore's animal without the use of my powers.. He was designed to serve.. Some things can be trained. He knows it even if his mind so easily forgets himself. Tetradore is easy enough... you know his heart and you hold the key to the man.""I will never understand it.. it is almost like he.. has help. Yet there is no one foolish enough to risk that chance.." Right? Her eyes narrow, those pale blue eyes gleaming in careful consideration. No, she was sure of it. Such a thing would have already been revealed by now. "But wounds on the outside are inconsequential... in comparison to the damage within. Yet... I have made him strong... like I have you." It was the way that he shrug that betrayed him and yet she almost craves to needle and pry. To press that weakness and expose it. It wasn't often that soft spot present itself like the underbelly of an animal exposed to a predator. How she could not ignore that metaphorical blood in the water, including when it pertained to her lover.

How that very mention of Harley's brother seemed to ignite a spark of recognition. Oh, it had been years since she had come into contact with that slayer. He was so deadest on murdering her brother for the mayhem he had caused upon that very family. How unaware he was of Risque's own involvement. "Pity... The Westwards seem to be so irritatingly difficult to kill. There is no need for his execution just yet. I have his sister, I suspect he doesn't know that yet.. If he keeps showing his face, then we deal with him when the war is over. Morals... are like the noose for the weak ruled by their misguided emotions. I have no doubt he will be made short work of when the time arises." There was hardly concern over the youthful hunter at least not yet anyways.

There was a slow devilish smile that soon curls upon her lips. "Harley mentioned him? What did that stupid girl have to say about the matter?" She nearly rolled her eyes, and yet she demanded to know all the same. Her words came down like a guillotine blade. "Did she mention Nathaniel ended her parents? They were dabbling in things they shouldn't. Or how he then wooed Harlequin.. Made her his little pet. She didn't even know that she was fucking the man who killed her parents. That imprudent little girl loved him. Fell in love for the man who killed her family in cold blood, drank off them.. enjoyed in their very demise." There was an amusement to her very words, almost like she got enjoyment of the depravity of the situation. "Of course she didn't know until later.. But then that little witch... bespelled him. My brother is useless now.. He knows if he shows his face here again I will end him myself. He betrayed me. I thought him worthy once.. I was blinded by the last family ties I knew. I know better now. He chose.. her. A human.. over me. He always thought himself stronger, how wrong he was." How that bitter laugh escaped her then, blended in with a scoff of utter revulsion. "Fool.. he fought for her... and he lost. He lost his human trinket and me. And now she is mine.. and you will break her and she will live out her days serving the creatures she hates, being what she hates.. There is something cathartic about it all." Maybe she should send her to hunt down Nathaniel to kill him just to see who would be left standing. What a marvelous thought. Either way... one would die.. or maybe both. She brought an idle finger to her lips in that careful consideration, envisioning plot after plot play out within her mind. Her brows stitched together in a frown deep in thought. But first... the war.. Then the other. There was always so much to do. Always... A contemplative sound that nearly cloaked itself in a sigh escapes her lips.

His words drew her attention back toward him. Wine, how could she turn it down? "You are right, far more than most. And they will serve me. I suppose, I am feeling parched." Her voice is frigid, drenched in apathy as she composed herself.

"I have also showed you what I can do.. I want to see yours, not the little things I have seen you do countless times. I want to see the kind of vampire you have grown into. I have cleared your stage... It has been some time , too long, since I've seen the true extent to those powers." That challenge expressed which was truly just cloaked within a demand, her gaze drawn to him. "Unleash... but first I want those drinks. It would seem that tonight calls for it."