Deals with the devil

Jack slowly climbed the stairs to Satan's night club, an impending feeling of doom sinking farther in the pit of her stomach. She honestly felt as though she were signing away her freedom with each step closer to the man who was sure to revel in the news she was going to bring him. Jack honestly did not think that Vito would betray her to the Death Eaters- she had too much control of his fate at the Ministry, and he had never been very loyal to the Death Eaters either.

But it wasn't as if he were loyal to her, either.

By the end of this, Jack would kill Matt. She had realized, with this decision, she had signed away her life. The end to normalcy and peace was upon her. For the next era of her life, she would constantly be lying, would be pretending to be someone she wasn't, would be having to decide how much harm she could do to be convincing and when it became too much that her conscience simply couldn't handle.

Jack would never admit it to anyone, not even Nemo, but she was scared.

She reached the familiar door that led to Vito's private quarters, and it was here that the new barman had said she could find the poltergeist. She tightened the straps of her knapsack and swallowed the memories of the last time she had been in this room- Chase pressed heavily upon her mind. Jack reached up to rub the sorrow and exhaustion from her eyes, trying to feign some of the strength she used to exude, and then dropped her arms. She took a breath and knocked three times on the door.

“Oh,” Vito tsked with a snarl of a smile; an ugly, gnashing expression formed by lips unfamiliar with the true image of mortal sympathy. He drew threateningly nearer with that smile, as though in preparation to tear from the face of his lover her nose between his teeth, “Do speak up, Doll Face.” Vito’s below-zero irises had retreated behind the cover of his dilated pupils and his eyes had been cast in a horrid shadow; one which glinted through his heavy lashes and peered into the fear-stricken eyes of the redheaded women whom he had lured into his kingdom that evening. She squeaked shrilly when her wriggling lips parted, after much anticipation, “Perfect. You are perfect. You’re… b-beautiful and b-bloody flawless.” But alas, her voice had not increased in volume since the poltergeist who bound her to his bed had made his request.

His smiled narrowed to form a morbid, pleasured smirk whilst he arched his neck and slowly, he inhaled blood’s heavy scent, savoring it as it hung from the evening air. The smell would surely dissipate when the body was disposed of, and it had been several days since he had last had the privilege, thus it was with one last, lingering breath that he spent the woman’s final moment of life.

“No – stop!” The redhead gargled as his index finger, armed with a freshly manicured nail, swept fluently across her throat. And he chuckled softly through her hair, momentarily intoxicated by the cocktail of relief, power, and faultlessness that pooled beneath his skin – made warm by the body heat of the woman whose life he had stolen. But he was drawn downward from his high by the curt rap of knuckles against his bedroom door. “I told you not to disturb me tonight!” He growled fiercely and stood from the mattress to prowl across the room to the lavatory, collecting an elegant satin robe as he went.

He met the gold-framed mirror in the restroom, which revealed the truth that he had suspected. Though his reflection jerked violently between transparency and existence, the blood with which he had painted his mouth stood out against his fair skin in stark contrast. “Mmm, mmm,” Vito purred sarcastically to himself before slotting his cupped hands beneath the facet, allowing the water to pool along his heart lines. He splashed the water over his mouth, washing clean from his face a sinful hue of diluted red which sloshed quickly about the sink.

“I do hope you aren’t particularly fond of your heart,” Vito informed whomever existed behind the recently replaced mahogany of his door as he doubled back through his room. “Because I have been struck with a craving,” He concluded his threat with mild irritation, drawing the door open to reveal someone whom he had never again expected to lay eyes on. “Mrs. Monster,” His proud shoulders fell in surprise and he took a frightened step backward to reveal to her the woman who lay slaughtered across his bedspread. “Kill another of your pals, have I?” He inquired. "In my defense, this one never let on that she knew you."

Jack listened to the menacing voice behind the door, calming herself for this all sounded so familiar. The voice, the hate; she flourished in this strange web. She wondered what it would be like if Nemo saw this part of her life. For, despite the darkness that shrouded his life, she did not know if he had seen an evil like this. And what would he think of her, walking so openly and comfortably into the den of evil. The thought made her feel evil and dirty herself, so she pushed the thought away.

Besides. She was doing this for him. Soon, she would see him. Soon, she could save him.

Vito spoke of tearing out her heart. She couldn't help it. She responded, "I'm sorry to disappoint, I've been told I lack one." The door opened and her vision was flooded with the figure that was Vito Dee Symons. He seemed proud to show off his doings, but she turned her head, shielding the view. If she saw, she would react, and if she reacted, her business would never be done.

"I have business to discuss," Jack said, looking up at him from the corner of her eye. "I think you'll be very pleased. It is a sensitive matter, though."

With grace that was intended to reinstate the precision that usually accompanied his actions, but that he had lacked in his stutter away from the door and the redheaded image that it dwarfed, Vito twirled on the spot and swept in long, feline-esque strides towards his wardrobe. "Come in, then," He sighed, as though inconvenienced by the very presence of the woman who had permitted him continued life. "It is not as though she will hear us," Vito added with a nonchalant flourish of his fingers in his previous victim's direction.

"Why don't you clean that up?" He proposed while he withdrew upon a gold hanger the suit in which he intended to dress; his suit of armor against the negotiation that would surely follow Jack through the door and into the midst of his world; the smallest corner that he had been allowed, seized once more by the tyrant - the child. With coiled fingers, which were chilling quickly in the absence of the human warmth that his prey had provided, Vito snatched from the wardrobe's upper shelf a tie and watched as it unraveled in the manner of snake and fell from its previous height to rest against his chest.

"What business do I have with the likes of you?" Vito inquired, poorly stifling the resentment in his tone as he resumed his most favored position before his mirror.

Jack followed him in, fighting to keep a blank look on her face as she entered the room she had become so well acquainted with. Her eyes trailed over to the woman and she tried to imagine that the woman deserved this fate- unsuccessfully. Vito told her to clean up 'the mess' and Jack blinked, looking at the woman.

She moved and began doing about the same process she had gone through with Chase, though without the same care. She closed her eyes, cleaned her wounds, and wrapped her in a sheet she conjured. With that, she sent her to the guest room of her own home, with a scrawled note of explanation in case anyone else found her, somehow.

Once it was said and done, Jack sat down on the bed, watching Vito. Finally, she said, "It has to do with the Death Eaters. Before we say anything, I'd like to make a promise. I haven't reported any of your crimes in the Ministry. They are in an undisclosed file that is sealed. I hope that you can keep this conversation the way I've kept those- secret."

A comfortable smirk reinstated itself across Vito's otherwise stoic face as he spied Jack's reflection behind himself, where she sat, so evidently uncomfortable atop his bed in place of the dead woman’s now-absent corpse. "You compliment a crime scene beautifully," He sarcastically informed the girl as shrugged his robe from his shoulders, allowing it to pool in the manner of water in a shimmering heap around his feet, without a thought paid towards such things as modesty.

"You just arrived and already you're resorting to blackmail?" Vito inquired with an incredulous and overstated roll of his eyes, and around his waist he fastened the pinstripe pants that he had fussily chosen for the approaching evening. He narrowed his brown lashes at Jack's doppelganger from beyond the glass. And threateningly, he purred, "Get out. You're boring me.”

Jack did her best to appear nonchalant at his words, looking as un-phased as ever. Of course she complemented a crime scene beautifully- what would one of Vito's crime scenes be like without Jack present, swallowing down all of her own guilt and dutifully cleaning up all of his messes for him. However, Jack was still a pro at pulling on a fake smile, flicking her eyebrows. "Why thank you."

He soon after dropped his robe and Jack's eyes flicked away from his figure. She had her plans for the night, and being exposed to Vito's bare arse was not among them. She busied herself with straightening the sheets that had been burdened by the corpse, carefully doing something to take her attention from Vito so she could maneuver her way through these dangerous waters.

He was bored with her? "Bored?" she said, fluffing the pillows. "What a refreshing change! You're usually so pleased with me!" She finished with the pillows, reaching over to dust off the bed, clearing her throat, her eyes still on her work. "How involved are you with the Death Eaters?" She looked up, meeting Vito's gaze. "Involved enough to have pull enough to introduce me as one of them?"

With a snap, Vito rode his heals on the spot to face Jack, whom he advanced upon with merciless ferocity and seized in his coiled fists amongst the tie that lay between his fingers the lapels of the redhead's shirt. "I no longer answer to you," Vito growled as his iron resolve to remain as good tempered as was allowed of him quickly began to rust and erode. "You will not dangle your empty threats over my head in the hopes that I will do as you tell me. You lost your hold when you abandoned me," His voice rumbled on and the gleam of regret flaunted its betrayal of his true feelings on the matter, dancing across his eyes. "I don't give a f-ck if you have business with me; I told you to get out. Leave."

He gave his hold on Jack's shirt a violent jerk before releasing it from his fist, and he straightened. "I try to avoid the Death Eaters when I am capable of it. They are disrespectful, unintelligent serpents," Vito answered, despite and in spite of his previous command. And he faced his mirror once more as his nimble fingers quickly flicked over the buttons of his shirt. "Hey," He added, feigning sincerity, "You might get along with them after all."

Jack felt his approach and she didn't do anything to stop it. She knew he was going to be angry, he was going to be violent, and while she still had some strength in her, she was going to bear it.She briefly closed her eyes as his shadow loomed over her, as though closing her eyes would protect her from whatever hell he would unleash on her. Jack was not afraid of dying by Vito's hand. The two had tried to off each other enough times to figure out that wasn't the way the world was going to let them go. Their curse wasn't to destroy each other, but to be forced to live in the midst of each other.

He grabbed her shirt, pulling her up off the bed and cutting off her hair. She managed to suck in one breath of air as he pulled her up. She stood on her tiptoes in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure on her throat and she locked eyes with him, her expression unchanged in all ways except for the natural contortions of someone trying to make the air in her lungs count.

She honestly hadn't meant to threaten him. Jack doubted she had the energy to maintain a threat. She just hoped that he would agree he owed her some return for staking her entire reputation on preserving him. But it was empty- she was on her way out of the Ministry. Still- Sawyer Weasley was going to have one hell of a time getting his hands on Vito's file.

'You lost your hold when you abandoned me.' Jack blinked, swallowing a bit, ending all flow into her lungs. She still didn't understand- she hadn't tried to abandon him. She thought it had been mutual, the distance between them. She couldn't keep herself from getting happy. Only Vito had the power to dash away her happiness, and he had never shown. She felt like the abandoned one.

He released her, and she fell back on to the bed, quickly opening her mouth wide to receive air. She clamped it shut, breathing out through her nose and beginning to stabilize her breathing. He continued on speaking of the Death Eaters, for they both knew the command to leave was never one Jack followed. His words actually.. stung. As used to his jabs and insults, that one stung.

He didn't want to help her. He wasn't going to help her. Not unless she gave him something. And she knew just what that might be.

Leverage.

She looked at his reflection in the mirror. "I'm trying to spy on them," she said. "I'm going to be a double agent. Technically, for the Order. But the Order isn't strong enough to do anything with any information I give them anyway. It's for me. So that I can go in there, save my loved ones, and cause hell."

She was staking everything on Vito. He could ruin her right there, expose her, and the whole thing would be ruined. But Jack hoped Vito was still up for one last game. She was going to owe him. He would finally have the definite victory. If he did this for her, she was his. She lost their game. "You're my only chance to do that."