Questions and Answers
Jane woke up the next evening. The first thing she felt was an unusual coldness, or rather, she herself felt cold. The second thing she noticed was what she didn't feel. There was no hunger, no thirst. Only a subtle pull in her stomach. Jane usually woke up with a dry mouth, but tonight the thought of drinking anything disgusted her. Tonight. She gently removed her blankets from her body as she sat up, repeatedly blinking her eyes to adjust them to the darkness. It didn't take long to figure out that she wasn't in her own bedroom. And after that to even more quickly realize why. Instinctively Jane placed her fingers on her teeth, swiftly trailing over them. The sharp touch of her fangs confirmed her suspicions. That all that had happened the night before, wasn't some fever dream. Jane drew a sharp breath and suddenly started frantically gasping for more air. It had dawned upon her that she hadn't breathed in quite a while. Slowly she tried to control how much air she let into her body until she let in no more air at all. Sixty seconds passed and oddly enough she wasn't suffocating. It even seemed more...natural not to breath.
Jane had been sitting at the kitchen table for a few minutes, freshened up and idly staring at the news on the TV, when Rosemary came in. The woman had a few bags in one hand and with the other was in the process of tucking something else away into the pocket of her black hoodie. She placed the bags on the table and took a seat next to Jane, pulling off her hoodie and revealing her red dress again with a sigh. The sound of a door in the apartment opening could be heard and Vincent appeared, dirty faced and still wearing his clothes from yesterday. Rosemary made a disgusted sound and grabbed one of the bags again, handing it to him.
'Here's a change of clothes. Why don't you go wash yourself before we start talking. Off you go.'
Rosemary impatiently shooed Vincent away, who silently took the bag and shuffled to the bathroom. The woman turned back again to Jane, raising an eyebrow.
Jane only shook her head.
'He's been like this ever since the ritual. He hasn't even said a word to me, this is the first time I've seen him since yesterday too.
Rosemary's only response was to shrug her shoulders. Instead of saying more, she nudged the last bag on the table closer to Jane. Jane, taking the hint, snatched the bag and made her way to her bedroom. There she hastily dressed herself. A long dark coat, dark pants and a dark red top. All in all, not too bad. She quickly scanned the coat for a hood, but had to let out a frustrated sigh. Seems like she'll have to buy an umbrella if it starts raining again.
Rosemary and Jane waited in awkward silence for Vincent to get ready. Jane didn't feel like making small talk and Rosemary had made it clear that questions would only be answered when Vincent was there to hear them too, so instead the two women said nothing. Vincent came back after half an hour, hair still wet from his shower. He wore a dark blue collared shirt and black pants, and he, together with his now cleaned up face, looked considerably better, though he still had that dead look in his eyes. Rosemary offered him her seat, but he stopped her with a wave of his hand and instead leaned against the counter, arms crossed. 'Talk.'
Rosemary gave him a confused look. 'About what? I need a question first.'
'Fine. My first question is then: is it true what they said yesterday? Are we actually vampires?' Rosemary nodded her head. 'Why? Why would I – we', Vincent quickly glanced at Jane, 'be turned into vampires?'
'I'm going to be frank with you guys, I have no idea. People get embraced for all kinds of reasons. Out of love, jealousy, to teach them a lesson. It depends on the sire. Now, the thing is, sires need to get permission to turn kine into kindred, and your reason needs to be damn good, especially if we're already with way too much kindred like now. I really don't know though why you two got picked and why it was done in secret.'
'Why do vampires need to get permission though? Aren't you guys like powerful beings that can do whatever they want?'
Rosemary burst out laughing. 'Yeah, we're powerful in relation to humans, but a bunch of powerful beings together need rules and leaders to be able to live together. We're like our own society. Each domain, that is a city - we don't live in rural areas, is ruled by either a prince or a baron. Or another leader from another faction. They're usually elders, because we're sadly not all equally powerful. The lower your generation, the more powers you have. But to get back on topic, the leader is usually an elder and they decide the rules in the city. You see, there is this thing called 'The Masquerade'. This is basically the most important rule for a kindred to follow. The gist of the Masquerade is that humans are never allowed to know of the existence of vampires. So we need to appear as lifelike as possible, to masquerade as humans, if you will. Now, in order to make sure that humans never get to learn of us, we need to keep our population to the bare minimum. The more vampires you have, the more easily they can be discovered. That's why kindred need permission to embrace.'
'Jesus, you're monologue raised even more questions. Generations? Elders? Factions? Also leaders and permission? Can't you guys like kill each other for positions or is that not a thing?'
'Well first of all, no. We're not allowed to just kill each other off. That's basically the ultimate punishment. We call it the Blood Hunt. That right belongs to the leader of a domain. If a kindred misbehaves badly, a blood hunt is called. That means that they're outlawed and anyone is allowed to kill them. As for generations and elders, do you remember Caine, that dude from the bible? He's the original vampire, I won't get deep into the lore, even more because I barely remember it, but to put it short the generations stand for how far you are removed from Caine. The lower your generation, the more of Caine's power flow through your veins. The higher your generation, the more Caine's blood becomes diluted. An elder is a kindred who has lived for more than two hundred years. They're usually of a lower generation than recent kindred too. As for the factions, we have two main ones. The Camarilla and the Anarchs. The Camarilla try their best to preserve the Masquerade, but truth be told, they're also just a bunch of old vampires who desperately try to keep power into their own hands. The Anarchs also want to keep the Masquerade, but they're tired of all the rules the elders make. Depending on where you are tensions are rather tense between them. I wouldn't advise you to go to Brussels right now for example, but here in Antwerp they do live rather peacefully together, for now. The Anarchs have a lot of say in the drugs trade here, so The Camarilla can't do much. Here in Belgium you also have a different faction. The Ambachtsgilde, they're a very old, from the time Flanders was still known for it's cloth industry. But they're practically powerless now, they only still exist because of the Camarilla.'
'Alright. So the leader of the Camarilla in Antwerp was that blonde woman right?'
'Yes, that was prince Hilde. Stern woman, but I've met worse Camarilla members. The two other voices you heard that night belonged to the leaders of the other factions. Boudewijn is the leader of the Anarchs and Cécile that of the Ambachtsgilde.'
'And if I may ask, what were you doing there? You're not a leader right? And you don't seem particularly fond of the Camarilla.'
'That you have remarked well. Though I'm not going to reveal much. Let's just say that I've made a considerable reputation for myself in Europe, and that as such I'm more than welcomed in a lot of domains. Though I do am aligned to the Camarilla in a certain way, but that has more to do with my ties to a certain Tremere chantry. That reminds me though of another important rule. Never talk too much about yourself. We may not be allowed to murder each other, but that doesn't mean that no one will make use of you or manipulate you. Don't ever give them the ammo to do so. Don't talk about your past, don't talk about your secrets, and make sure that you know where your friends loyalties lie.'
'Well that's fucking depressing. But if I remember correctly, Tremere is a clan right?'
'Yes there are seven main clans: Tremere, Ventrue, Brujah, Gangrel, Toreador, Malkavian and Nosferatu. Tremere are basically blood sorceres, Ventrue and Brujah I've already told before. Gangrel are feral little shits, Toreador are edgy artists, Malkavians are bat shit crazy and Nosferatu, well, if you've heard of or seen the movie, they're basically that.'
'You're... you're not very good at explaining things are you?'
'Do I look like a fucking historian to you? How am I supposed to know the detail of every little thing? If an alien asked you how to explain how humans work, would you be able to give him a precise and detailed explanation? It's better to show than to tell honestly, you'll figure it out on your own. Is there something else you want to know?'
Jane cleared her throat, having carefully listened to the conversation between Vincent and Rosemary.
'What myths about vampires are true? And do we need blood to survive?'
'Uh. Well, daylight will kill you, so that myth is true. Unless, you're a thinblood, but I'm not going to talk about that right now, seriously I'm getting tired. Fire is deadly too. Stakes, garlic and holy weapons are completely harmless, most of the time. There are a few kindred with folkloric banes, but for most of us they pose no threat. And yes, we do need blood to survive. No food or drinks anymore for you, although there are vampires who can drink red wine and a few who can eat and drink, though they do need to throw it up at the end of the night. You see, you're dead, so your body has no use of that and no means to dispose of it too. Every fluid in our body is solely composed of blood now. We need it use our abilities. Abilities use up blood, but not drinking over time makes you hungry too. And no, you can't just ignore it. There's this thing in us called the Beast. I don't know how to exactly explain it, but it's some kind of instinct. Forcing us to hunt and drink. It's kinda like the complete opposite of humanity. But in order not to become a mere animal, you need to fight it. You do that by regularly drinking blood and making sure you don't frenzy. When you frenzy the Beast takes complete control over you, ravaging and rampaging and so on, it's not a pretty sight, and has a very likely risk of violating the Masquerade too.'
Vincent spoke up again. 'What exactly are our abilities?'
'That depends on the clan. Brujah can use celerity, it makes them strike fast. They use potence too, to make themselves stronger and presence to focus attention to them. Ventrue can use dominate, to well, yeah. Fortitude to resist damage and they can use presence too. Don't worry those abilities come natural.'
After that Jane intently stared at Rosemary, carefully choosing her words. 'Is there anything else you need to say?' The latter only blinked in surprise, for a moment a flash of annoyance appeared on her face, but her expression quickly became neutral again.
'You've figured it out pretty fast. But it's not easy to dominate another kindred. Especially one of a lower generation than you. Also, very rude to try it on your mentor, so don't do it again please.'
'You've used the word kindred several times, it's another word for vampire right?'
'Yeah, we have our own words for things. Vampire is kindred, humans are kine, uh, I forgot the rest, but you'll pick up on them soon enough. Now, any other questions can be discussed at a later time. But there's still one more thing I need to do.'
Rosemary placed her hand into one of the pockets of her hoodie and pulled out two cellphones. She placed them on the table.
'These are for you. We took your other ones and destroyed them. These are only for contact with other kindred, and for professional use so no small talk and no talking about our vampirism. Also, don't ever try to contact your family again. You're dead, they think you're dead, and keeping in touch with them is a Masquerade breach, have I made myself clear?'
Vincent's face contorted with anger, as he slammed his fist against the fridge.
'Are you fucking kidding me?'
'Do I look like I'm fucking kidding with you? I told you about the Masquerade rule, did you really think that wouldn't apply to your family? "Oh, we need to act as humans, but that'll be no problem! I'll only just appear before my family at night and when I'm hungry and the Beast comes out I'll just act like it was all a joke! Never mind the fact that I look like a fucking dead corpse!" Is that what you were thinking? Your previous life is over Vincent, there's no going back. You'll never see your family again. Try to disobey us and we'll kill you.'
The room went silent. Vincent was fuming with anger, but he didn't say a word. The quietness was only broken when another phone went off in Rosemary's hoodie. Rosemary grabbed the phone and read the message that was displayed on it. She let out a sigh, though Jane couldn't discern whether it was out of frustration or relief.
'Your anger issues will have to wait. Hilde's got a job for you both.'
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