Chapter Text
Vinny Inculta felt like he was the protagonist of a dramatic romance novel when he was with Dante Giovanni. One that was full of forbidden romance, sensual trysts, high stakes, and antagonists of higher power who would no doubt punish the two if they found out about their relationship.
The illicitness and scandal of it all definitely added a certain thrill to the whole thing, Vinny had to admit.
The stakes were especially high when he was inside the Giovanni manor like he was now.
The idea of Dante’s family discovering the nature of their relationship was a truly terrifying one, one even more horrifying than the Camarilla finding out in Vinny’s opinion.
Sure, the Camarilla would probably panic a bit about the possibility of him spilling Camarilla secrets to the Giovanni, but he had connections in the Camarilla. Vinny had no doubt if he acted a bit remorseful and promised he had never done anything of the kind, Aaron would take pity on him and plead his case to both Prince Hartington and Sheriff Lopp and possibly save him and Dante from facing any sort of higher punishment.
The Giovanni however… that was a different story.
The Giovanni were highly-paranoid, highly-suspicious, highly-vindictive, and a lot of the members had absolutely no moral code. If they found out one of their family members was fraternizing with a Kindred outside of the family and possibly giving away secrets… well, there was a high chance both Dante and Vinny could end up being torture toys for the rest of their miserable undead lives. Even death wouldn’t be an escape, as the Giovanni could just call back their wraiths and torture them even more.
It wasn’t a pleasant thought. The price of either of them being careless could very well be an eternity of torture.
But hey, what fun was life without a little risk?
That was what Vinny told himself as he pressed his lips against Dante’s own, causing Dante to stiffen as he always did whenever Vinny initiated any sort of display of affection in the manor.
“You can’t do that here. How many times do I have to tell you that?” Dante chastised as he pulled back, shoving Vinny away lightly. Vinny noticed that Dante’s eyes were flickering across his room, like they always did whenever Vinny decided to press his luck like that.
For a while, Vinny had no idea why he did that, until one day Dante confessed that he was making sure he couldn’t see any wraiths that his own family potentially could have sent to spy on the two of them.
It seemed that there were none, as Dante seemed to relax a bit, his eyes flicking once more to his door, which still remained shut and shielded them from potential prying eyes.
Noticing the glance towards the door, Vinny said in a low voice, so only Dante could hear, “Oh come on, you don’t think they can hear us kissing can you?” Then coyly, he added, “Well I know you have a tendency to melt and whimper when I kiss you but-”
And as predicted, a flush colored Dante’s cheeks. Scowling, he shoved Vinny hard enough to almost knock the Gangrel off the bed, hissing, “Shut the fuck up. How that rotten mouth of yours hasn’t gotten you killed yet is beyond me.”
Vinny snickered. Toying with this prey was too easy.
He was about to open his mouth to tease Dante more, when suddenly a sound caught his attention, causing the black ears on the top of his head to twitch.
It was a small sound, but a strange one. It sounded like a combination of both scraping and tinkling, like something was scratching at glass. And whatever was doing it, was very small, like a rodent.
“What is that?” Vinny questioned, his ear flicking, somewhat wary. The Giovanni had all sorts of tricks up their sleeves and God knows how many ghosts who lived in this manor. Who knew what kind of supernatural nonsense could be happening-
But Dante didn’t seem bothered at all. He just sighed and got up from the bed. Running a hand through his hair, he walked over to the large ornate white-and-gold dresser he had in his room and said, “Nothing. I think Victor just heard us talking and now he is wanting out.”
Victor? Who the hell was Victor?
Before Vinny could question though, Dante quietly opened the top drawer of the dresser and pulled out what appeared to be a large glass mason jar on its side.
Vinny blinked and leaned over, unable to make out what was even in the jar. It looked like a bunch of trash honestly. He could see cotton, scraps of cloth, vibrant colored cotton balls. Was this an art project gone wrong?
But then Vinny made eye contact with the creature pressing its body up to the side of the jar and jerked back in surprise, yelping, “What the fuck? You kept that thing?!”
Staring at him through the jar with glowing red eyes was one of the creatures he had comically deemed as Mini-Vinny’s. Little anthropomorphic fox-like creatures that were made with his vitae that were only about five inches long. They were strange creatures both in appearance and action. They could run on both four legs and two legs, and this one, Victor apparently, was definitely utilizing its ability to stand on two. This one had bright orangish-red fur with a white underbelly, black paws, and a tuft of extra fur on the top of its head, giving it the appearance of “hair.” They tended to have what appeared to be a vest, for reasons Vinny could never understand and little claws that were always extended, much like a real canine.
His old packmate, Jack, was the one who taught him how to do that power, which Vinny had eagerly learned to try and freak people out with. The little bastards could be useful for slipping into places too and bringing things back as well, and luckily, they seemed to die within a night so even if one of them managed to escape, he didn’t have to bother with worrying about them for long.
Or at least he thought they died within the night.
Dante glared at him and hissed, “Can you be quiet? If Squalo finds out about him he will definitely eat him and I don’t want that.” Victor glared at him as if he agreed with Dante’s sentiment. Or maybe he was glaring at his creator because he didn’t like him, Vinny couldn’t tell.
“Sorry, sorry,” Vinny said, obediently lowering his voice but he said, “But why do you even have that thing?”
Dante had been one of the Kindred he had decided to gross out with his presentation of the mini-Vinny’s one night, pulling Victor out of his mouth and presenting it to him. Dante had seemed both repulsed and horrified at the creation at the time, especially when said creature began to run around his room and let out garbled barks of hostility at him that Vinny had assumed when he left Dante would either pull it out and step on it or just let it die. That had been nearly two months ago.
But apparently, Dante had not only kept the thing, he had somehow managed to keep it alive and in a jar like a little kid would with a pet bug.
“That thing is named Victor,” Dante said pointedly, as he gently set the jar down. Getting down to his knees, he began unscrewing the top which Vinny noticed seemed to have little air holes screwed out on the top. When he pulled it off, Victor immediately darted out of the jar on all fours, letting out excited garbled yips as it ran across the room. “And I kept him because I like him.”
Vinny blinked at the earnestness of the statement. Dante usually wasn’t so keen to show his interests first thing, but it seemed Dante genuinely seemed fond of the little creature, continuing with, “He is actually kind of funny to watch and he’s managed to snag me back a couple of things various family members stole out of my room without them noticing which is neat.” He sounded almost proud as he spoke those words, as if Victor was a pet he had personally trained himself.
He nodded to the jar and said, “I have to keep him in that jar in my drawer so my family doesn’t see him because they will definitely squash him or eat him or pull his limbs apart or God knows what else, so I tried to fill it with things that will amuse him while I am gone. Luckily, he sleeps a lot most of the time, but occasionally, when I am here, he will want to go out so he can play.”
Vinny got off of the bed, and carefully approached the jar and saw the deluge of what he had thought was just garbage was actually various things meant to entertain Victor. The various cloths and white cotton balls appeared to serve as bedding and blankets, judging by the way they were bunched together though some of the cloths did appear to be victims of tearing teeth and claws. There appeared to be a miniature needle felt bear that definitely looked like it had been teethed on but was somehow in good condition. There even seemed to be a small neon blue colored dog dish that looked like it had belonged to a doll’s playset that had red stains on it of god knows what-
But one of the things he didn’t understand was, “Why are there so many colored balls in there?”
Dante perked up a bit at that and said, “Oh those? He likes to play ball actually, though it's hard to find anything his size since he is so small.”
He plucked one of the balls out of there and glanced around the room, saying, “Victor, Victor. Get away from there!”
Vinny glanced over and saw that Victor seemed to be curiously poking his nose under Dante’s wardrobe, clearly planning on hiding in there. Dante looked at him and explained, “He likes to try and crawl under hard to reach spaces. I usually have to block off a lot of them before I let him out.”
Snapping his fingers until he got Victor’s attention, he said, “Come here you little bastard, you want to play ball?”
It seemed Victor did as he scampered over immediately, his eyes lighting up with mischief. Dante waved the cotton ball mockingly around before he tossed it across the room and Victor immediately raced over to fetch it.
Vinny had to admit he was impressed as he watched Victor race back over to hand it to Dante.
It was funny to see a mafioso, who Vinny had personally witnessed do horrible things to people because they got in the way, be so smitten with such a tiny weird creature he supposed.
But there was one question still pressing in Vinny's mind. “How did you even keep him alive? I have never had one of those things last more than a night.”
Dante blinked in surprise, saying, “You don’t know how?”
Vinny shook his head. Granted, he never had much use for them staying alive, but he supposed this is information he could use in the future.
Dante sniffed haughtily and said, “Honestly, the Camarilla hires people who don’t even know the extent of their own powers…” But then nodding down to Victor, who, seemingly displeased Dante was still holding onto the cotton ball, was now mouthing and clawing at his hand trying to get the ball out of his hand, he said, “He’s like us… he feeds from vitae.”
He suddenly gently picked Victor up by his midsection, ignoring the little fox things garbled growls and snarls of protest as it tried to wiggle its way free. Holding a finger up to the things mouth, Victor suddenly seemed to see an opportunity and Vinny watched in fascination as the creature suddenly fastened its teeth around the tip of Dante’s finger. Dante and Vinny both watched as suddenly, it seemed to relax in a content daze as it lapped at the beads of blood that began to form from the tip of Dante’s finger, looking content.
Dante watched him as he fed, saying, “If I know I have to leave for extended periods of time, I put some of my blood in the dishes in his jar so he can feed. It seems to work long enough to keep him alive.”
Ah, so that is what those stains were on the dish he saw in the jar.
Vinny was surprised at how much Dante seemed invested in the little creature.
Pulling his finger away from Victor, he gently pressed the creature up to his shoulder like one would a baby and began to stroke its ears idly, which Victor seemed to happily accept judging by the way he relaxed, his eyes closing and his tail wagging slowly. With Victor seemingly sated for the time being, Dante continued, “I found that out because just like his father, he seems to have a penchant for biting me. Being annoying must be genetic.” He gave Vinny a pointed look after saying that.
Vinny grinned, because guilty as charged, but something in what Dante said caught him off-guard. Father?! Well, he supposed he was the one who created Victor and his probably dozens of dead siblings, so in a way he would be their dad by some weird sort of logic.
Though he had to say, he was a pretty bad one given the fates of all the other ones. He vaguely recalled when he had eaten one of them in front of his coterie-mates and the Ghouls, just for the shock value of it all. Cyrus had looked like they were going to be sick. It was hilarious, though not exactly good fatherly behavior.
Victor should find himself lucky that Dante seemed to have developed a strange fondness for him.
He watched as Dante petted the creature for a few more moments, before sidling up close to him. Leaning close to Dante, he rested his head on his free shoulder and said, “So wait, if I am Victor’s dad does that make you his mommy-”
Suddenly, he felt a sharp sudden pain in his tail and he yelped and pulled back with a flinch. Dante had cruelly given his tail a sharp pinch, which was a low blow.
“You deserved that,” Dante said without pity when Vinny glared at him. And was it his imagination, or was Victor grinning in wicked delight, as if he was happy to see his own master in pain. Little bastard… if Dante wasn’t there he would’ve flicked him away like a bug.
Still, Vinny supposed he could file away the information that Dante liked the mini-Vinny's for future reference.
Who knows… he could take advantage of this. A wicked smile of his own formed at the thought.