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The dimly lit office felt less inviting than it ever had as Tammy sat quietly on a towel in one of his chairs. The best way to describe how she looked was a mess, and that was being kind. Her suit was no longer dripping blood, but it was apparent that the shirt at minimum was completely unsalvageable. Her hands were balled up tightly, sitting in her lap as she kept her eyes clenched tight with her head turned downward. She had lost track long ago of how long she had been sitting there, listening as Zacharias' voice resounded through the room.
“Any respectable Ventrue would be able to control themselves enough to not have this issue! One time is an accident, a second is a mistake, but three times this month alone? Unbelievable, disgraceful even!” Tammy could hear his loud, thundering footsteps as he paced along the back of the office. “You have been embraced for two years now, there is no reason for you to have the feeding capabilities of a damn newborn!” His volume finally hit its maximum as the fear rose in her heart and mind. No matter how foolish she had been before now, no matter how angry or upset or worried she had made him, he had never outright yelled at her.
Tammy struggled to regain her voice, to answer him without betraying the shame and fear she felt, but it was to no avail. Her reply came out as a soft, shaky answer as she dug her fingernails more into the skin of her palms. “Yes sir. I understand, sir.” Her attempt at appeasing him to get this over with faster backfired however when she hears the loud, stomping footsteps get closer and closer to where she sat.
“No, I don't think you do understand.” He was standing in front of her now, she could tell by the direction of his voice. “Not only is it a genuine issue that you have no control over yourself when you feed, your feeding preference while being one I can accept, makes this behavior even more intolerable!” All at once Tammy felt his hand reach underneath her chin and pull her head up. “Look at me when I am talking to you, Miss King.” Though Tammy opens her eyes and stares up at him, his hand remains on her chin. “I could accept your feeding preference being difficult to determine. I held my tongue when you failed to grasp even the most simple of basics. Basics that even a ghoul could understand! This however is something I cannot allow, not any longer. You aren't even making an attempt to control yourself, and though I have cleaned up your incidents countless times, you don't seem to care how much trouble you could be in!”
At her sire's accusations, Tammy frowned and grit her teeth. He didn't understand that she had been trying to get better about feeding, about the frenzies. He only thought about the times she messed up, not all the ones where she was able to feed with no issues. “Sir, I do understand and I am trying to get better about it!” Unable to keep silent any longer, she stared up at him as she lashed out in return, voice trembling. “I'm trying really hard, sir. I promise I am-”
Zacharias cut her off with a glare that silenced his childe and made her shrink down more in her chair, as much as she could with his hand clutching her chin and cheeks. “I find that extremely difficult to believe. For instance, if you truly did care you wouldn't have been sitting here eyes shut staring down at the floor, hunched over in your chair gripping your hands together hard enough to draw blood!” It took all her strength in that moment to continue to sit upright, eyes watching her sire as he let go of her chin. “If you cared you would be actively listening, showing that you do care and you want to try harder! You're acting as if you don't even want to be here. If you are actually trying, perhaps I would believe you if there were any fucking results!”
Zacharias sighed and stepped away, circling her and walking back towards a bookshelf situated behind Tammy. She doesn’t dare move to continue looking at him, instead she continues to sit staring directly forward with her eyes trained on his empty desk. Any wrong movement could set him off at this point and since she had never seen him like this she wasn’t sure how far his anger could take him. Above anything else it was clear to Tammy that her sire’s patience was wearing thin and no amount of promising to try harder or get better would salvage this.
“Each of your little episodes is a potential masquerade break as well as a genuine danger to the health of your victims! I have dutifully covered up every frenzy, every incident that you have caused for the last two years, Miss King. You need to learn moderation, you need to get a grip and figure out just what your fucking issue is and why you keep constantly frenzying every time you drink blood!” Just when Tammy thought he couldn’t get any louder, the volume of his yelling increases and it takes all of her strength to not cower in her chair. She knew he was right, but she had known this for months now and had been trying her hardest to fix it. Nothing she did worked, she hated feeding, she hated hurting people. But if she didn’t she couldn’t keep living. “If not for me you would have surely been left for the sun by now, but I’ve been so graciously cleaning up after you. You’re my responsibility, after all.” Zacharias circled back to the front of the office, sitting at his desk and staring across at Tammy. His expression was unreadable, and his head sat on his hands propped up on the desk. “I wonder if you were a mistake.”
Feeling her eyes widen and tears threaten to fall, she keeps her sight trained on her sire, restraining herself from leaning in as she begins to beg him to explain. “Sir? Please I… No, what?” The words are faint and near silent and Tammy can feel herself shake as Zacharias examines his childe before continuing his thought.
“Your embrace, I mean. It is extremely rare, but I do make mistakes now and again. It's the kind of mistake that would be simple to tie up the loose ends of. Simply release you from accounting and let your next incident not be swept under the rug. Maybe then you would understand how difficult it is to deal with you, maybe you'd figure out how to hide the evidence yourself, or maybe the sheriff would find who did it and stake you for the sun. Right now any of those sound pleasant!” Tammy watches him in silence, vision clouded by the red bloody tears that have been building up throughout this entire scolding. “Two years isn't too long, I can make up for lost time. Maybe then I'll be able to have a competent child that isn't a worthless waste of space and could actually make me proud to be a fucking sire!”
All the fight leaves Tammy all at once as she doubles over, sobbing at the last words left hanging in the silence of the office. The tears she fought so hard to keep at bay all flow forth, leaving dark red streaks down her cheeks and dripping onto her ruined suit. “If that is how you really feel, sir…” Tammy speaks through choked words, barely audible between her crying. “Then I'll get out of your sight. Please excuse me.” Without waiting for a response as Zacharias began to push himself to his feet, Tammy stood up and ran out of the office pushing her chair to the ground as she did.
Left alone in his office, Zacharias watched with an arm outstretched as his childe ran out of the room and down the hall. Hearing the door to her room slam shut as her cries faded more and more into the distance, he fell fully into his chair and sighed, laying his head on his desk and closing his eyes.