Promising Submission

Chapter 3


Harry had only been in St. Louis a few days, but he decided that tonight was the night he should see what the night life had to offer. He found himself sitting in the front row at Circus of the Damned watching what appeared to be a Lamia dance in front a large amount of Muggles without persecution. It was entertaining for him to listen to her as she talked to the snakes which were part of her show. “These stupid humans”, “The things I am forced to do to get a decent human to sleep with.” And of course the snakes were answering back in their own way, “Mistress, why must I go into the basket, you forgot to let me out last time.”




Harry found it more entertaining than mystical as the other humans seemed to. His show however was interrupted by a cool, strong hand on his arm. Harry looked up into the bright blue eyes of a dark haired Vampire with a neatly trimmed mustache “Can I help you with something?” Harry asked. “Ah, I hear you are from the mother country as well, please come with me and allow me to get you a drink somewhere quieter.” Harry frowned and glanced back at the Lamia, buying time. Had he done something wrong? “But the show isn’t over?” he whined slightly, but smiled when the Vampire sat in the seat next to him and offered to wait until the show was over. Harry watched uninterestedly at the rest of the show thinking desperately about the possibilities. His Gryffindor side was telling him he was silly and that the Vampire just wanted a drink, (hopefully not from him) but he knew he had forgotten to wear his ‘I’m from Britain’ shirt today, and before he’d spoken there was no way the vampire could have known where he was from. No. he’d be searched out specifically. Harry wondered if the Council had sent word of his coming.




When the show ended he clapped enthusiastically, deciding to stick with the innocent British tourist who knew nothing of anything. He followed the vampire through the circus into a labyrinth of corridors that he just knew he’d not be able to find his way out of again, until they stopped at a door. The vampire knocked sharply and Harry heard a muffled noise, obviously only loud enough for Vampire or lycanthrope senses. When he entered he was more than surprised by the sight that met him.




Behind a desk were two of the most beautiful men he’d ever seen in his life. He was momentarily without breath. He felt the one with hair like molten gold covering half of his face, attempt to roll him and smirked internally as he looked elsewhere. To the beautiful vampires’ right stood a threesome of were wolves, Harry assumed it was the Ulfric and his second and third. To their left against the wall was a thoroughly tied up brunet woman who seemed to be drained of blood to unconsciousness with at least one gun holster, and appeared to be stripped of weapons. She appeared to be unconscious, but Harry had learned that appearances were not to be trusted and so did not discount her as a threat. Along the walls and seated in some chairs were various different lycanthropes and a few vampires. “Wow! Is this like the VIP room?” Harry asked the vampire who’d lead him here. “Because I don’t think you have the right guy.”




“Monsieur you are le plus sans doute the man we were expecting. Although, we were expecting you plus tôt .” (Mister you without a doubt the man we were expecting. Although, we were expecting you sooner.) The last bit was without a doubt directed at the vampire on his right. “Huh?” Was Harry’s intelligent reply. Although he was fluent in most languages, he’d never found it advantageous to flaunt his knowledge to unknown persons, especially since it seemed that the vamp was being obnoxious with the language difference. “I’m sorry but most of that was in French right? That’s really neat, I had a friend who spoke French but she only told me how to say a few phrases.” Harry spoke excitedly while in the back of his mind he calculated how much power he would need to use to leave the room and mentally tugged on the bond with Dobby just in case as the mustached vampire lead him to a seat and asked him what he’d like to drink. He took a glance at what the other’s seemed to be drinking and asked for a cognac.




“ Oh, s'il vous plait parles these phrases your friend taught you pour nous. ” The brunet vampire asked. (Please say these phrases your friend taught you for us.) Harry figured this was the Master Jean-Claude since the other’s seemed to be taking his lead. “Oh well lets see..umm…oh well she never did tell me what they mean so do you think you could tell me?” the vampire tilted his head to the side in a way Harry took as a yes. Oh he was going to have fun with this.




“Vous êtes un garçon sale qui doit être puni” (You are a dirty boy who needs to be punished) Several of the vampires and a few lycanthropes coughed and the Master vampire froze while his second laughed. Now he knew who spoke French and who didn’t “She told me it was a very ritualistic greeting but I don’t believe her after the first time I used it.” Harry smiled innocently and turned his head when he was addressed by a werewolf sitting on the floor in next to nothing. “What happened?” He asked excitedly. “Oh well her father started yelling at her and me in French and I didn’t really know what was going on. He didn’t seem to like me much” Harry accepted his drink and took a sip, while those who followed the story chuckled




The master seemed to get over his surprise and translated it for him. Harry opened his eyes and mouth wide in shock and blushed as hard as he could, before saying, “well that explains why she never invited me over again.” He pouted amongst the laughter of the rest of the room as they now appreciated the whole story.




Harry decided to take a chance, “So…Um…now that I know you’re not at least going to kill me right now,” he paused for dramatic effect with laughter in his eyes and asked the Master, “why is the lady tied to a chair?”




Harry tried to bring up as many innocent emotions as he could from his occlumency training while looking at the room as a whole, as though he didn’t really know who the leader was.




“ Bien, mon petit renard that would depend on who you are.” The Blond sex god said. Harry smiled widely and said, “Oh, I’m sorry I’m Harry Potter. Nice to meet you.” Harry knew that at least two vampires knew that name because their expressionless masks dropped and they started wide eyed before resuming their façade again. “I moved here a few days ago. So far I like it here, but it’s my first time out at night.” Harry rambled on about his experiences here while sipping on his drink until the blond vampire interrupted him to speak to the Master in French.




“Je ne crois pas que ce soit celui que le Voyageur a mentionné. ” (I don't think this is the one the Traveler mentioned) Harry huffed as his tirade was interrupted. He turned to the seated werewolf who liked his story. “Don’t you think it’s rude that people talk in languages you can’t understand while you’re talking to them? They could have just told me I was boring them.” The little wolf smiled behind his hand along with a few others, but the Ulfric laughed openly. “I believe they thought you were someone else.”





“Oh” Harry said, “Who were they looking for and why did they think I was this person?”




The Ulfric smirked at the glare he got from the master of the city, but did not answer his question. “We are not sure what he looks like.” The vampire said. “Really? Well then how will you know if you had him I mean, he could be me and I could not know it. How are you going to tell? Does he know you are looking for him?” Harry dropped his innocent gaze and looked at the vampire piercingly, locking eyes with him and smirking at his attempt to roll him. He was all business now. They were looking for him and he wanted to know how they knew he was here.




Several of those in the room seemed shocked at the abrupt change from innocent tourist to someone cold, calculated, and obviously powerful.




“ Nous cherchons celui que le voyageur a dit viendrait pour s'occuper de Mlle Blake. ” (We are searching for the one the Traveler said would come to take care of Missis Blake) Jean-Claude spoke, and Harry smirked at his effort to begin determining how much he’d been played. “ Le voyageur t'a-t-il dit pourquoi vous avez eu besoin de quelqu'un pour prendre soin de votre problème ? ”( Did the Traveler tell you why you needed someone to take care of your problem?) Harry almost laughed out loud at the gasp the perfectly fluent French caused some in the room. Really for being the escorts of a Master of the City they were surprised a lot.




Jean-Claude obviously wanted the others in the room to be a part of the conversation because he abruptly switched to English. “No, I contacted him about finding out how to rid of it ourselves and he told us you were already on your way. Requiem here, felt your power when you entered the circus and recognized it as the same power that caused the influx of energy a few nights ago. We had not been able to find out the source. Would you care to tell us what you were doing? We were searching for you anyway.”




Harry frowned in concentration, “A few nights ago all I did was ward my property. You shouldn’t have been able to feel that.” Harry dismissed his confusion; he could figure it out later. Right now he needed to find out what they knew about Ms. Blake. “So, what did she do that caused you to want rid of her, and why can’t you do it yourself?” The Ulfric growled slightly at the reference to the tied up being in the room and Harry wondered at the cause of it. “It appears that mon petite has been bewitching several of us, normally this would simply get her a reprimand, but she seems to have become attached to the power.” Here the blonde took up, and Harry saw a flash of pain in the Master of the City’s eyes. “We cannot simply rid ourselves of her influence, because several in our company are bound for life to her.”




Harry nodded to himself and thought about the repercussions of them finding it out on their own. It certainly made his job easier, he wouldn’t have to try and persuade them that he wasn’t a lunatic. But on the other hand, would he not be owed the favors from Belle Morte now? He’d have to ask the Traveler later.




“Well that’s easy enough to take care of.” He stood up and released his power dampeners. He rolled his shoulders and reveled in his power for a moment. It wasn’t even close to full strength, just what he naturally projected to others. He’d have to work on his dampeners if the vampire had felt him though. He noticed several of the submissive lycanthropes on the floor looked excited by his power, the wolf he’d spoken to earlier, and a lavender eyed kitten. Harry smirked at him.




Harry considered his choices brefly. The Traveler had explained how most Vampires passed around the mortals among them as little more then party favors. Belle Morte might not honor their arrangement, and if she did, she would only pay for Jean-Claude and the Ulfric. Either way he could claim the submissive leopard as payment.




He walked over and put a hand on her unconscious head. He pried open one eye with his thumb and performed a wandless, soundless legilimency on her. He searched out the bonds within her and found a great many disturbing things. She seemed to have a lot of animals in her for a human. She also had been playing with at least two other Masters of Cities and was stronger then he imagined. He made a mental note to let the Traveler know, for a price anyway. If he severed the bonds from her side, there would be a backlash and it would harm the others.




He stood up frowning and told Jean-Claude what he found. “I will have to sever the bonds on the other side. She is to powerful for the others to survive the backlash unharmed. I am assuming you don’t care if she’s harmed as your just going to kill her anyway?” At this a few wereleopards seemed upset and made protesting noises, among them the kitten Harry had decided he wanted. This would not do; did they not know what the woman had done to them?




“So how many of you did she force to love her, I only ask because I can take away her influence if you’d like.” Ah that shut them up. “Love her?” the Ulfric whispered. Harry looked at him sadly. “Yea looks like she used the Ardeur to make a great many of you love her as well as using her necromancy to control not only your Master of the City but it looks like Kansas City and Las Vegas’ as well.”




Harry watched as everyone in the room seemed to deflate. “I’m sorry I thought you knew.” The blonde Vampire shook his head, “It is good that you have told us, I for one do not wish to pine for another, when I am not sure my love is true.” Harry smiled at him and nodded. “I can check you for influence but I need to remove the bonds first because it will take the most effort.”




Jean-Claude looked angry however and his power rose, creating a frozen death quality to the atmosphere of the room. Harry wasn’t effected or moved by it however, in his anger the vampire slipped into French again “ Comment vous connaissons-nous avoir été envoyé par le Conseil pour l'enlever de nous et pour nous rendre faibles ?”( How do we know you have not been sent by the council to remove her from us and make us weak?)




Harry didn’t have to answer because the blonde, who’s name Harry finally remembered was Asher said, “ Mon amour, je vous connais sentir trahi mais vous ne pouvez pas réfuter cette évidence. Il n'était pas ici avant pour faire à son acte la manière qu'elle était. Nous l'avons suspectée nous commandant pendant des mois avant qu'il soit venu ici. Lui permettre d'enlever son influence de votre esprit ou de mon esprit avant qu'il casse le lien si vous êtes incertain.”( My love, I know you feel betrayed but you cannot refute this evidence. He was not here before to make her act the way she was. We suspected her controlling us for months before he came here. Allow him to remove her influence from your mind or my mind before he breaks the bond if you are unsure.)




Harry watched them talk it out. It was decided that Asher would be cleared of influence and then say whether or not it was safe and then Jean-Claude would be, before the bonds were broken. Harry walked up to the blonde vampire and spoke softly knowing that every ear heard it anyway. “This will most likely be uncomfortable to you.” He looked him in the eyes and spoke the incantation allowed to give the vampire warning, “Legilimins”




Memories and thoughts swept past Harry but he didn’t pay attention to any of them he was looking for the core of his mind. From experience, Harry learned that the core was like a map of the mind and he could find where the influence was the strongest there. He would from there also be able to remove it from the mind without needing to see the memories themselves. As he reached the cold center, he first searched out the black goop that represented the necromancy and eradicated it, almost like wiping it off. Then Harry looked for the red or pink tinged with yellow that would signify false or implanted love or positive emotions and removed that as well. It wasn’t as severe as he’d thought it might be but considered that she just didn’t like Asher that much.




He removed himself from the vampire’s mind to find his arms full of softly crying vampire. He’d never seen a vampire cry, his shirt was stained with blood tears but he wrapped his arms around the blond and whispered nothings in his ear in French while making eye contact with Jean-Claude who was looking very worried. “He will be okay.” The Master nodded, but everyone waited for Asher to calm down enough for a report.




After a moment or two Harry released him and stood up going back to his chair, and Scorgified his clothing, while Asher spoke about how freeing it was to not be in love with her, and how horrifying it was to know that many of his actions and decisions for the past few years had not been of his own doing.




Jean- Claude looked resigned to his fate when Harry came up to him to clear him. Harry gave him a small smile of reassurance. “It will take longer but would you like to see what I see? It may be less traumatizing for you.” He nodded so after the whispered incantation Harry brought the vampire’s conscious mind with him into his memories. They were much better organized then Asher’s were and Harry commented on it. Jean-Claude laughed darkly, “When you are connected to Mon Lupe and Mon Petite as I am, you learn to organize to keep your thoughts your own and theirs separate.” Harry nodded and began explaining what they were looking for. “We are looking for your core; it will be a ball of energy and will be like summary of your mind and power. With it we will be able to see how much she has been influencing you without having to search out every single moment she interacted with you.” The vampire nodded again and they set out looking for it in amicable silence until Harry let out a “Merlin” at the sight of the black goopy substance that they assumed was his core. Harry had to use quite a bit more power to remove the black goop. Harry noticing the murderous glint in his eyes said, “You cannot kill her until I break the bonds or you will kill yourself and my kitten and I will not be happy with you.”




Jean-Claude looked at him with less murderous intent, “Ah I see you have found a suitable payment for your services then.” Harry smiled darkly, suitable indeed.




Next Harry removed the red substance from the core until it was all Jean-Claude. “Would you like to remove your bond while we’re here?” Jean-Claude nodded and Harry instructed him to think about where she touched his mind. The vampire was shocked to see what looked like a tube in his mind covered with the black goop of her necromancy. “Well this is it” Harry said and raised his right hand up in front of him and made a quick fist. As his hand closed the tube closed until it was sealed tight with an audible snap. “That noise was the connection breaking, it will have back lashed onto her but since she’s not awake she probably just twitched.”




Harry and Jean-Clause returned to their bodies and Harry set about removing the bonds from the Ulfric and the Vampire who introduced himself as Damian, but who Harry referred to as ‘the warrior’ in the privacy of his mind. It was a shame that Jean-Claude had this man dancing. Both men were very emotional although the Ulfric tried his hardest to not be as effected as the blonde vampire. It is seriously emotionally traumatizing to realize that your feelings had been usurped for a number of years.




Harry saved his kitten until last because he wanted to take the leopard with him like he did Jean-Claude and it would take some time. “Would you like to see what I see kitten?” At his hesitant nod, Harry whisked them both in. It was immediately apparent that the panther was terrified because he kept thinking of all the times he thought his mind was breaking, and since he was thinking about them Harry could see the memories.




With every memory Harry got angrier and the kitten grew more terrified and shamed. Harry decided to stop this before it got any worse. He slowly pulled the slightly smaller man into his embrace and rubbed his back. “Shh kitten, I’m not here to break you. It’s okay kitten, I am not angry at you, but at those who treat you wrong. We are here to free you; if you want I will return you to your conscious mind and continue without you.” Harry could feel the man shake his head into Harry’s neck. So Harry said, “Alright kitten, come now.” He told the man to think about his connection with Ms. Blake but instead got red tinted memories of the woman yelling at him, and misunderstanding his needs. “No kitten, do not think of her, think of your connection, of when you talk to her mentally.” Through the memories Harry saw a now familiar looking tube and told the kitten to look at it. Once he’d gotten a look he snapped it shut. Both men felt the connection to Damian fail and lavender eyes looked up at him fearfully, “don’t worry kitten, it was supposed to happen, she was the tip of your triangle and holding you both together, without her you are free.” His kitten mumbled, “I am alone,” Harry sighed and tightened his grip. “You can be mine if you’d like. I was thinking about asking for you as payment for freeing you all.” Harry looked down and saw eyes filled with tears and hope. “Yes kitten, I wanted you before and I want you now, and I’ll want you when were done here, but first I want to show you what her influence looks like, and how much of what you feel is fake.”




Harry walked them to the leopard’s core which was a warm white ball of light tinted red from all Anita’s influence. Harry let the leopard look and get suitably angry before he wiped it away. Privately Harry thought there would be more of her influence on this one and wondered if she didn’t bother because he was so submissive. He sighed mentally, so many didn’t understand the power the sub had in the relationship and so misused them.




They exited the leopard’s mind and Harry moved to sit in his chair. He was very pleased to see his kitten move to sit at his feet. Harry put his hand on the long hair at his knee and carded his fingers through it. A hissed, “Nathanial,” caused him to shift his attention to a standing Alpha leopard that he ignored in favor of addressing the master of the city.




“I should be able to free everyone else from her influence from here. I shouldn’t need to do it individually but will if that’s what you want.” Jean-Claude shook his head slightly and smiled, “What ever you think is necessary Mon renard.” Harry rolled his eyes at the pet name feeling it was similar to Dumbledore calling him ‘my boy’ and released a good chunk of his power. He smiled when he felt his kitten arch into him and moan. He tightened his hold of the hair in his hand to hold him steady. He let his magic seep into all present even those already cleaned and wipe away all traces of necromancy and Ardeur. He frowned mentally when all but one was free of the Ardeur and tried again. He stopped when he heard Jean-Claude speak. “Mon renard, you will not be able to remove the Ardeur from me and you are awakening it by trying.”




Harry opened his eyes, shrugged and smiled, pulling back his power to a more reasonable level. “Every one should be clean. Was there anything else you needed?”

Harry watched the calculating glint take hold of the master’s eye and mentally sighed. This vampire had better not try and manipulate him after he saved their asses. Remembering that the job wasn’t complete yet, he removed a silver knife from his arm and aimed it at the bound woman’s head. He glanced around for anyone who wanted to protest, but found only approving angry gazes and so he let it fly burying it in her forehead and felt her die. Thus ending the rein of the Executioner. He bowed his head in a short prayer for her soul, for swift judgment. He felt the weight of guilt leave him and assumed he’d been forgivin.




“Now then,” He spoke to the two master vampires, “I’ve had a long day and a busy night and I think I’ll take my payment and go, have a good night all.” Harry stood up and was again pleased that his kitten stood up with him to leave. They were both stopped by the remaining wereleopard.




“What do you mean payment; you can’t have Nathanial as payment. He’s a person; you can’t just toss him around like nothing.” Harry smirked and pulled the lavender eyed cat to his side where he molded himself to Harry’s hard chest. “Ah that’s where your wrong, I spoke to both your master and the kitten and it was agreed, just because you weren’t there doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.” Harry glanced into his angry eyes and saw his protective stance and said, “Of course he is a person and I am grateful that you have cared for him, but you were unable to protect him from Ms. Blake or any of the others, and I can. But since you tried I will allow you to visit in a few weeks. Here is my card give me a call.”




With that he and his kitten walked out of the office and Harry had to apparate them to his house because he got lost.