After yet another scolding from Lucien and a few unexpected jabs from Raphael — which only served to inflate his ego as a pride demon because, apparently, the older ghoul cared enough to be offended — Gabriel had decided to give the Italian councilman a belated Father’s Day gift. Part of the reason he didn’t do it in the first place was the furious pace at which he’d thrown himself into work, devouring nearly every scrap of his free time. The other part? He was fairly certain that giving Raphael two gifts to celebrate a father-son bond that had only existed for a few months might come off as clingy. So he had let the holiday pass quietly.
Apparently, that had been a mistake — one he fully intended to make up for, in style. Finding the perfect idea for the gift had been easy: something he was sure Raphael would appreciate and that would also benefit Lucien. The hard part was the execution. But with the arrival of Heat Week and a wad of cash slipped to a hunter looking for some extra coin, he’d managed to acquire the necessary materials and whip up a prototype in just a few days. All he needed now was a test subject, and he knew exactly who to ask.
“Good afternoon, brother mine!” he exclaimed with a wide, shit-eating grin as he walked into Cairo’s office like he owned the place, without even knocking. Gabriel was way to excited for those kind of formalities. He knew his brother was a sexual deviant — and yes, Gabriel was quite proud to have been the catalyst of that discovery — but he was still a Gaudet-De Luca. Gabriel was confident that professionalism, reputation, and dedication to his duties mattered just as much to Cairo as they did to him. The older one wouldn’t risk it all, not even for their perverse little game… unless Gabriel’s new creation helped him loosen up a little. If it was strong enough to override Lucien’s Pavlovian conditioning, it would be more than enough to win back Raphael’s favor.
“Apologies for the interruption, oh mighty Head of Security,” he mused before pulling a small vial from his pocket. It was filled with a clear, amethyst-colored liquid. With a lazy flick of his fingers, he dropped it to the floor, letting it shatter into a thousand shards. From the small puddle of liquid, thin streams of violet vapor immediately began to rise, and a warm, enveloping scent of dried lavender spread through the room — along with the effects of the potion Gabriel had just released. The key ingredients? Purified hormonal extracts from creatures affected by Heat Week — mostly werewolves and shifters, with a few traces of rarer beings — bound by magic to synthetic pheromones found in most humanoid species. When inhaled, the concoction was designed to stimulate the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the nucleus accumbens — the regions of the brain responsible for attraction — using a blend of witchcraft and biochemistry.
The result? An arousal-inducing haze that no one — not even humans — was immune to. That was his gift to Raphael: the ability to induce a less intense, more manageable but still satisfying heat at will in any target of his choosing. Gabriel knew that if the potion worked, he’d be just as affected as Cairo. But since everyone seemed to think it was fine to disturb him during work hours, it only felt fair that Cairo got a taste of what it was like to walk in his shoes. His feelings toward his older brother were complicated, but pettiness like this? That came as easily as breathing.
“… But I do have a very big, very hard, very persistent problem that only you can help with.” he said, his voice low and raspy as he studied his brother’s frame with a clinical eye. “But first things first—how are you feeling, C.?”
Honestly, the incubus hybrid figured the ideal answer to that question would’ve been ‘I feel like I want you to kneel and blow me under my desk’, but he couldn’t tell if that was the potion talking or just his good old incubus libido.
@cairorenaud
