"Can you tell me what happened there?"
Asked Orion as he finished his bowl of super early Ramen. He had finally gathered the courage to ask him about the incident.
He needs to know as they couldn't always pretend it didn't happen. Moreover, they might have to deal with a vampire in another way from this moment on. Next time when they come knocking on the door, he is not going to go with them peacefully.
Ed sighed as he capped his bottle of cold beer and then crossed his hand on the table and leaned forward. Although they were the only patrons in this early morning on this local stall, he didn't want to talk about it loud.
He'll, he didn't want to talk about it all. But he had to, his friend Orion is new to this world. Some things which people know are obvious, he knows nothing about them. So asking for information is the one thing Ed does not want to discourage Orion about.
"To know about it let me give a small rundown about us Vampires again.
We are dead creatures that mostly live on human blood to extend our life as well as gain our powers. Theoretically, we are immortals but that is not true but it is somewhat true that the more we drink blood stronger we become. That's why older vampires tend to be ruling the vampire class everywhere.
Now when you know about our powers and weakness is only sunlight and some holy mumbo jumbo, how does the deal to become a Vampire sound to you?"
Orion was caught off guard by the sudden offer but seeing Ed was serious he gave it genuine thought. Superpowers, for the cons of just sunlight inconvenience and drinking the blood of humans, seriously it was not a bad deal.
"Mmm, ...if you had asked me before becoming conjurer, and honestly even if I was not on the hit list, I would have accepted it later or sooner. I could even have sought you out for it."
Ed tapped his fingers,
"That's it. That's what I am saying, do you seriously believe when for outsiders it is so tough to enter a hidden world by other paths. Vampires could share their curses like the plague. In a few years, they will be ruling the society, not humans. If it was so easy then why is the reality so different?
We are less, even less than werewolves in number. Just our visibility is high because most of us can only hide in major cities where the loss of human or human blood is a daily crime."
Orion shook his head, he didn't know vampires are few?
"That's because that is not the only price we pay to rise as dead. First, you need to understand turning a man into a vampire is a tough task, not only requires just biting but a serious ritual.
Second, we have to die like literally, to become a vampire then come back to live as dead.
It means we are no longer the same as we were living. "
Orion scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he was revealed about the secrets of the fallen race.
"Something breaks, when we come back….something human…" Ed tried to describe something as he raised his hand to vague shape but then shut it back.
"The thing is, only twenty percent of people are successful in coming back to life as dead. Rest never comes back and gets lost just as millions of dead people ghosts who wander in this plane. This is the biggest risk.
To come back you should have a desire to live, nothing else, no emotion, no sense, nothing at all…."
Ed took a deep breath as he continued, he had to stabilize his scared mind because awakening is the most dangerous step of the ritual, and talking about it made him remember his horror experience.
"But here comes the fun part, even if you come back. You are not sane. Boom, you are now a psychopath. "
Orion was surprised, even after such bad odds when they finally came back and became mentally ill.
"Mentally deranged?".
"Yes, insane, crazy you can call them anything similar. It's natural, Orion. Humans are not designed to live without breathing and a cold body. So when Vampires break those natural rules, they pay for it by their damaged brains who actually failed to comprehend how it is working."
"But you didn't look like crazy to me?"
Asked Orion immediately because it was too difficult for him to believe.
Ed chuckled and said,
"Think again…."
"Ok, a little bit but not like you are describing…"
"That's because I am from those percentage who manages to overcome this partial craziness and be successful in restoring most of our ability to be in society.
And where we store these crazy parts depends individually. Mine is this" he said as he shaked his vodka bottle in his jacket. " You can call them incurable addictions or call us addicts. It's just our unique way of managing our broken mind."
Orion was blown off by his explanation. So that's why he always remains in a drunk state. He is sane only because he has alcohol in his system. It's his addiction.
"So, Florence….."
"You got it, like many others she has lust as her addiction. The male-female doesn't matter but she had to satisfy herself unless she would be driven into blood lust. That is animalistic, non-able to think violent Vampire state."
All the instances of his meeting with Florence began to come to his mind. Like her exaggerating breathings as she was beginning to get close with him. Looks like I triggered her lust somehow, but she didn't want to kill me yet, so she called her girlfriend to satisfy her.
"I still have several questions, why the girl she was with didn't notice of anything right to her violent death? Didn't she feel any pain?"
Ed thought for a while and then stood up and told Orion to follow him.
"Let me tell you this before going over it. The Vampires are able to charm people like simple hypnosis. We are basically masters of it, and that's why we are usually so attractive and charming. It's all magic. "
He walked to the shopkeeper who smiled and said the bill to him, who just snapped his fingers in front of him. Suddenly the shopkeeper forgets all about them and their bill and began to look confused.
Ed took Orion away from the shop without paying and both of them began to stroll among the early morning crowd of street Tokyo.
"These tricks are simple, so to charm common man and woman, it is super easy combined with our fabricated good looks.
Now comes the second part, when vampires bite the other person they leave some of their blood in him too. It makes them drudge or blood servants. These are not vampires but human puppets of the vampire.
They can't ignore their master's order and live on the drops of blood of their masters. The employees working in that building other than Roger were all blood servants working for Florence. "
Orion gasped at the information. It was too much for him to swallow down, she is slaving so many people.
"What are authorities doing?"
Ed looked around to apologize to people who were startled by the Orion. He pulled him ahead and continued,
"They are usually not under her control all time, and they willingly chose to become a drudge. Authorities can't do sh*t. People fantasize to live long, to live young and when the opportunity arrives they jump at it.
But the vampire's saliva also has other things too. It's a drug or aphrodisiac. So when she kisses any man or woman they go into mind blank lust state, which that women were too. Thus she never noticed right till she ate her neck off.
Blood servants and common people are attracted again and again towards vampires. They think it is because of attention or love but it is all chemicals in our saliva working. Thus, we never had any problem picking up girls or boys. "
Orion was now sitting at the bus stand with Ed who was again drinking. He was silent for the last half an hour thinking how close he was becoming a slave to her. He was caught like a fly in her charm. She was too dangerous.
"What about that monster transformation?"
He suddenly spoke out to Ed who was startled and nearly choked on his drink.
"Cough...couhh.
Come one, don't scare me like that."
He cleaned his face and then turned to Orion. He opened his mouth a little and soon all teeths in his mouth began to grow out to sharp fangs. His lips cracked to increase his mouth to the end of both sides of his mouth as skin ruptured over his cheeks to display his sharp teeths. He was looking like a similar monster of hell like Florence was in blood lust.
Orion watched with wide eyes and in the next second, he covered his face with his hand and revealed his normal mouth with skin healing over to form lips and cheeks at visible speed to naked eyes.
"We are Monsters, Orion. What do you expect our real face to look like? "
Ed replied in a grim voice.
I forgot to clear up that magic users can be immune or resist from charms of vampires. It was just Orion was new so he doesn't know how...
Drudges are just common people, who get under vampires for supernatural benefits although they can be controlled by master anytime, usually they are on their free will...
Happy reading.. I would be happy to discuss details or lore with you, so please share your views by comments....