Keeping Up Appearances

[hellfire_child]

Alistaire Shaw was the Black King of New York. That much had been put in place by the highest authority of the Hellfire Club, his grandfather; and he had fulfilled the duties of his office appropriately. Alistaire knew the game well enough to know that wouldn't be nearly enough, however. A King needs to do more than simply maintain his kingdom. He conquers. He pillages. He assures his subjects that not only does he do right by them, but also reminds them that none of them have the power to dethrone him.

The problem was that Alistaire was still on his 'being good' project. His relationship with Reiko, for example, was moving along nicely. Alisa's recent freedom had given him back an enforcer he could trust the fealty of. The old him would have had no trouble making some suitably ruthless financial gain, or manipulating events to kill a rival, but now he had to choose his targets more carefully, so as not to destroy the 'progress' he'd made. Still, even with the conflict with his grandfather on the approaching horizon, he had to keep things moving in the here and now.

Normal channels of communication were too risky, so he'd arranged for a special intermediary. A minor functionary in one of his real estate companies, given a particular dose of MGH, to give them temporary telepathy. After a careful 'test' to make sure he wasn't interrupting any marital time with her husband, he opened a psychic channel to Stephanie.

Life had really been much simpler when he'd arranged things so he just had to sign papers, drink, and occupy Selene's bed.

Comments

[pyroprincess]

Stephanie was aware that Alistaire was trying quite hard to be a better person, and seemingly, was making some progress there. At least, he hadn't done anything evil in awhile, though his insistence in staying in the Hellfire game suggested that he clung to most of his old ambitions. And how will that work out in the long run? Stephanie sometimes wondered.

They didn't always get along, and they certainly didn't see eye to eye on everything, but he was also essentially the only family she had. That meant something.

But when she felt his presence in her mind, everything curdled as her mood turned black and angry.

I don't know how you did this, Alistaire, but get the fuck out of my head. Now.

It wasn't a request. It was a demand, and there would be hell to pay if he didn't immediately accede to it. If he was so tonedeaf as to how invasive it was to enter her head like that, especially considering all that had happened, then maybe she had to reconsider how important it was to her to have biological family, anyway.