by P. Mattern
“Good evening,” Lux said , speaking into the microphone, his blonde hair giving off golden glints underneath the track lighting.”And welcome to the Noble Farm. We are elated to see so many of you here. And we give you kudos for your bravery. These are times of great change that demand wise decisions and a strong sense of commitment.
I know you are here because you refuse to have your freedoms compromised and your bodies mutilated. We applaud you and respect you. We know that you are taking a risk just to attend this meeting. Namaste to you all.
My brother Castor Noble will fill you in on what we are planning so far. We understand that you have nominated some to leadership among you, and we will be meeting with and keeping in close touch with these individuals. And now I give you….Castor Noble!”
There was a polite smattering of applause as Cass jumped up lightly onto the small staging area. Only Mitzi could tell that he was nervous. This was unusual for Cass, but she thought that she understood why his nerves were getting to him.
He was about to share knowledge with the only phylum of beings that could insure their own survival as vampires. And part of his task was to be convincing enough to earn their trust; this after they had already been betrayed by their OWN chosen leaders.
It was a daunting task, Mitzi thought. But if anyone could speak eloquently enough to garner trust from the humans, and convince them that a symbiotic alliance between the two phylums was not only necessary but vital, it would be Cass.
As she watched ,Cass surveyed the roomful of individuals, taking time to make eye contact and nod to several of those in attendance. The crowd seemed to appreciate his attention, changing the tense and paranoid atmosphere in the room and warming it a little.
“Greetings, and thank you for coming out tonight, all of you. I want to start by commending you on your bravery and your courage in standing up for your freedoms. It took guts to be here. I want you to know that I appreciate that.
Part of the reason I am standing up here tonight is to introduce myself as a vampire. The government has made you acutely aware of our existence in recent weeks, but portrayed us in a very negative light. This was done no doubt to create fear and circumvent any alliance between us. One thing that I would like you to keep in mind this evening is that nearly all of us were once fully human, and as V-net vampires have the utmost respect for humanity. And I will be frank : Vampires need human blood to be able to function optimally. Blood from other creature phylums will do as a last resort but does not grant us the strength of our preferred ‘food.’ I know how repugnant that sounds-and I know that I am just as uncomfortable saying it to you as you are in hearing it. But it is the truth.
What you may not be aware of is that you can donate blood in several ways, and we can receive it in just as many ways…ways in which both our phylums may be preserved intact and unchanged. That will be one of our goals.
We have much to offer in exchange. With the correct food supply-your donated blood-we will be able to protect you from attack, hunt for you so that even vast numbers of you can eat and supply homeopathic medicine for your illnesses. The relocation will take time and effort, but we know that the CPC lacks the manpower to track and exterminate all of us, and we have some equipment at the ready that can be used for defensive surveillance.
If none of what I have just described is to your liking, you are free to opt out and remain here in Fort Hunt to face more neighborhood chipping roundups. You already know that receiving the implanted RFID devices will interfere with your brain activity, and your immune and reproductive systems. There have been some studies that indicate the ‘chipping’ over time can cause sterility in males, even birth defects in some cases. Your free agency and ability to make an informed decision is your sovereign right and we respect that. But we are committed to helping those of you determined to elope, and will commit all our powers and resources to help you achieve that end.”
Well, Cass reflected, he had given the humans present a good introduction . Now it was the time he’d been dreading since he’d taken the podium.
“Any questions?” he asked.
Immediately several hands shot up.
“Sir!” Cass called to an older gentleman wearing a plaid shirt.
The man was blunt.
“What guarantee do we have that you won’t kill us all in our sleep? Or kill us off slowly on the way to wherever we are going?”
The older man’s question caused ripples of murmuring to run back and forth across the audience.
“Good question.” Lux said, stepping up to the microphone at Cass’s nod. There really is nothing that would stop us from doing what you’ve just described…
…..except HONOR.” He finished. “In the Vampire Net we have abided by a code of honor for years regarding human beings. In the past 5 decades we have used short dated donated human blood from blood banks to meet our nutritional requirements. Instead of thousands of gallons of donated blood being disposed of, we distribute it to vampires living in human populations. In instances where humans are attacked by a ‘rogue’ vampire we conduct our own investigation and deal with the perpetrator harshly. To destroy humans is to guarantee our own extinction. YOU are the only source of what we need to function optimally in our immortal lives.
Your lives are as sacred to us as our own.” He finished.
Cass stepped up to the mic.
“Next question?” he asked, pointing to a young attractive blonde woman on the left side of the Great room.
“How can you get blood from us without turning us into vampires?” she asked. As she finished her question she dropped her eyes and blushed visibly. She’d been staring at Lux the entire time he’d been onstage.
Cass picked up on the girl’s attraction to Lux and said with a teasing smile to his brother, ”Why don’t you field THIS one too brother? Seems to me that you’re on a roll.”
Picking up on the nuances of the situation Lux shot a brief sideways glare at Cass as he stepped back up to the microphone.
“This sounds strange but it’s really simple. First there are two ways to orally extract blood from a human. One is by suction. As vampires we can apply enough suctioning pressure to cause blood to seep through the skin, in a kind of reverse osmosis mechanism. This will leave a bruise similar to a ‘hicky’. Less of our venom antigen is absorbed in the backwash and chances of a human being turned into a vampire are negligible unless- and this is the important part-unless the suctioning goes on for more than 3 minutes. This method must be, and will be, carefully timed. As far as quantity needed, it should take less than a minute for a seasoned member of our phylum to extract enough blood to subsist for two or three days.
The second way is the more theatrical way that you have all seen in horror and vampire urban fantasy movies. We do have functioning fangs-scary looking if you’re not used to them. They don’t appear unless we are feeding or in defensive/protective attack mode. This shouldn’t need to be an option, and we will be using the suction/osmosis technique in it’s place. Using fangs exposes the human to much more of the venom antigen and in that sense is riskier. Once again, if the situation demands it, it will be done very carefully and quickly so that no human is in danger of turning. It’s the last thing that we want to happen…and I’m sure that you feel the same way.”
Cass fielded the next question from a man in his thirties sitting and holding hands with his wife, whose face seemed paper white after hearing Lux’s explanation of how blood would be harvested.
“I wanted to know if we have a destination, and if there will be supplies and some sort of infrastructure waiting for us there.”
Hearing the man’s question another muted buzz arose from the gathering, though Cass began speaking over it.
“We are open to suggestion, but at this time we would like to make a case for resettlement in the West. We cannot discuss the destination at this time, because this is an open meeting and there may be infiltrators present. I can assure you that we already have contacts i
n the area, and supplies are being transported there as well. This is rather remote and rugged terrain, chosen for your safety and protection from being detected by the military. That is all I am able to say, except for this.
There are beings of Light that have made this area their home for centuries, and when informed of your plight, the plight of humanity, they lovingly volunteered to take you under their wing. Their vision is to assist you in building a new society that respects the basic rights of human decency, privacy and freedom.”
“I know it’s a lot to ask you to trust beings that you have never known, particularly after those systems and individuals that you’ve trusted for decades have betrayed the very principles they promised to uphold when you voted for them. It’s a gamble, but one worth taking. Upheaval is difficult, but you can start anew. Over millennia human beings have shown a brilliant capacity to evolve and adapt, and I am sure that will be the case in the present.”
In the back a lone hand was raised.
Cass peered toward the back of the room. The person with the raised hand seemed to be standing behind another person and Cass couldn’t quite see him, but spoke into the microphone.
“Yes sir-you in the back-did you have a question?”
The man’s voice was deep, the accent curious and unidentifiable.
“I just wondered…” the voice intoned,
”If you were tired of screwing my Declared Woman yet?”
Several females in the gathering screamed and a gasp went up from the gathering as Cass, fangs protruding flew off the stage and met a laughing Adrastos in the air. Adrastos disappeared almost immediately, leaving layers of a noxious thin black vapor hanging over the group. Several people in the area began coughing and hacking as Cass descended lightly downward. Lux was at the microphone.
“Is anyone hurt? “he asked, ”We have to apologize for the intruder-he is a rogue vampire and not a member of the V-net. He appeared in a nonsubstantial form, almost a hologram if you will, because our security measures would detect him if he actually entered our domain! I apologize for the disruption.”
Cass walked back up to the podium, the crowd seemed to have calmed down.
“Well now you’ve seen me at my worst,” he said into the mic, eliciting a smattering of laughter and applause. “I hope that didn’t freak you out too much!”
A nerdy looking man in glasses raised his hand, and when Cass nodded said,”Well I for one am relieved. I thought it was great to see you, a vampire, in action. It seems to me that we couldn’t ask for better protection and faster response time. You guys are like—“
“Superheroes!” another, younger, human called out.”Like Superman with fangs!” The young man began clapping enthusiastically again and suddenly the room was filled with applause.
When the meeting had adjourned and the human guests were gone, Lux went over to Cass.
“Great response bro’! I didn’t see that coming. You really need to get a restraining order against Mitzi’s ex.”he joked.
Cass looked relieved.
“Actually Adrastos did us a favor, even though he didn’t mean to. That demonstration of one portion of our skills set actually helped to break the ice. I think our human friends are seeing that this can be a mutually beneficial alliance finally, and that they have nothing to fear from us. Plus-a lot of them have dealt with stalker ex-spouses, so it made us seem more human to them!”
Lux shook his head.
“Some things never change.” he commented, ”They even seem to perseverate cross-phylum.”
Mitzi came running up to throw her arms around Cass’s waist.
“You were fearsomely awesome my love. I am so proud of you. And so mad at –well, I refuse to even say his name aloud any more, disgusting beast! I think things will turn out better than we expected.”
Cass’s brow creased momentarily.
“I’m sure it will take awhile for the humans to get their bearings...the problem is we don’t HAVE a ‘while’. We’re down to days. And also the humans don’t know enough to ask some of the really important questions I’ve been asking myself. For instance how are we going to be able to move equipment , other than bring it along with us? We can’t move it through the portals-they are quirky and fragile anyway, and I’ve been doing calculations and guess what? Trying to squeeze anything much bigger than a suitcase through them would cause them to destabilize completely. I’m at an impasse!”
Mitzi , her arms still clasped around his waist, looked up at him smiling.
“I think you’re over thinking it, my brilliant scientific darling! Even if we have just a couple of days, we can ship things ahead-by rail or cargo plane if we have to, a bit at a time. We can also load up some folks heading there ahead of time to get things set up for a camp. We have a contact that is preparing places for our congregation as we speak! I know you’ve heard of him. He’s the Most High Prescient over all of the Western V-net territories.
His name is Dante Febere.” she finished, still smiling adoringly up at her husband.
Nora and Blue spent the afternoon of the next day in the Cottage packing. They wouldn’t be moving far, because Fress had bequeathed the camper to them as permanent living quarters, suggesting that they move it straightaway to join the rest of the vampires at the Farm. Fress was planning to move the rest of the Cottage residents in two days, giving them time to gather their things.
Even as she supervised the transition in an organized manner, Fress’s heart ached at the thought of leaving her comfortable home. Though the Hybrid battle had taken place there it was filled with many wonderful memories. She had first lived there with Cass and Lux, when they had been her only family. Then Charley had come into the picture…and unexpectedly Daniel. She smiled thinking about her first hostile encounter with Cary, who now seemed like the son she’d never been able to have on her own and was devoted to her and protective of her. The rest, Kimbra , Avi, Channing for a brief while and Blue and Nora had followed and enlarged and strengthened her extended family group. Even Byron Chance, loner that he was, she considered a vital addition to her ‘tribe’.
As much as she reminded herself that her family was intact, and that the Cottage was only a collection of walls and captured space, she still felt a sadness in her breast. She had hoped that she would stay here for another score of years. Before the Government had ‘exposed’ their existence, vampires were already used to the necessity of moving periodically. The fact that they never showed signs of aging demanded that they relocate at intervals so that they didn’t arouse the suspicions of their neighbors or others in the community. Cass and Lux had been enrolled in a dozen high schools and , only after they complained to her that they looked old enough to be college students, at least a half dozen universities. The both had several degrees, but they both loved knowledge and learning. Fress mused that even though they had that trait in common they approached learning differently. Cass viewed knowledge as a weapon.
Lux loved learning for its own sake.
On the other hand she couldn’t wait to be closer to Charley Rabbit. It was a shame that he would be moving also. It seemed as if the open house at Mitzi’s former residence that she had turned over to Charley had only been a few weeks ago instead of months. Time seemed to be speeding up somehow. She remembered Lux had written about this phenomena in the Reverendum as being a harbinger of the approaching Great Upheaval.
Fress sighed. She had mastered the art of detachment centuries ago. She had faith that wherever her extended family found themselves would be fine, not only now but for some time to come. She felt that the vampires had the upper hand strategically and would be able to successfully relocate , emerging better and stronger than before and reshaping human society--at least the part that still valued individuality and freedom.
In her opinion it was the only part that mattered. The rest consisted of greed, manipulation ,loss of vision and betrayed trust.
Her centuries had given her a unique perspective, and allowed her to see bo
th the best and the worst of what different societies offered the individuals that comprised it. As difficult as the early days of America’s existence was, especially for her, Lux and Cass as vampires, there was integrity and a feeling of community among humans. And a high vibrational level of love of neighbor and love of country had carried America upward to the position of World Power.
For a great while.
Now, she reflected, there would be a period of tearing down and rebuilding. She only hoped the evil that had taken hold of the country she’d migrated to and learned to love with all her heart would be extricated before any more blood was shed.
Byron Chance’s wrists were tied by strong silken chords to the ornate cast iron headboard of Alexiandra’s bed. It had been painted white. His feet were similarly bound to the equally elaborate foot board, but by a series of leather straps . The entire room was white: spotless shag carpet, thick gauzy curtains at the windows, the white custom fitted damask duvet cover on the bed and the two innocuous looking occasional chairs situated by the windows. Byron was spread-eagled face up on the bed, clad only in his light grey designer briefs. A white scarf covered his eyes.
He couldn’t have been more delighted.
He could hear Alexiandra enter the room, and heard her quiet breathing as she walked around the bed. When she spoke her voice was authoritative and had a smokey quality to it.
“Byron Chance I believe you’ve been a naughty boy. A very naughty boy. Would you agree with my assessment? And I’ll give you a hint of what you should answer when I ask you something. The only proper way to respond to my questions is “Yes Mistress Alexiandra.” Do you understand?”
“Yes Mistress Alexiandra.” Byron responded.
“Good boy.” Alexiandra responded. Byron felt her slide something down the length of his body, starting at his throat. It felt like a small whip. She carefully and slowly dragged it back and forth over his chest and six-pack, stopping momentarily at the waistband of his briefs.