Damage Control

_May I bother you a little longer?

_Didn’t you just sold to your husband the notion that I need more time to process all that?

_More or less, my point was ratter that he had pushed you a little too far. Men tend to do that when they talk with other men, sometimes even without realize. In our own way we women do something similar, albeit less obvious. To me, at least. Do you mind if I try to clean up some of the mess we ended up causing here?

_Be my guess, I suppose. Can you catch a bag of blood in that fridge for me? I can do it myself. But my balance is a bit off and everything here is out of focus right now.

_No problem. That’s normal, comes and goes for a couple weeks after the transition end. Are you sure you wish the cold blood from a bag?

_I am not ready to drink human blood from a bloody living human, yet. Even a willingly donner. Tried dog and goat, goat is fine enough but I still prefer cold human blood. Besides, I was told that is not safe to drink too much animal blood.

_Alright, give me just a moment. I will bring you a bottle of something.

Dozen minutes passed, before she return to his room. To find Fredric still buried on the same sofa where he was when she left.

_This is something made for vampires. Helps to easy the angst of transition and tame painful memories, but makes the dizziness worse and the environment blurrier. Tell me how it feels.

_Feels like Ginger and mint liqueur, mixed with hot pepper. Awfully sweet, and hot! There is something else, that’s not how I am supposed to feel, things do not taste the same now, but this, is almost as if I was drinking it as a human. And it calms down the urge, too. That is, human blood, is it not?

_Among other things. This is an elixir. Yes, they are very nutritive. Expensive too, hsrd to fabricate, and not necessarily good for you if you drink too much. A little bit, helps. Like alcohol for humans, in most cases. Keep this bottle. I suggest mix with your cold blood, that way you can drink it for longer before became too drunk to remember your own name.

_Wow, thanks for that advice! I suppose it would have helped me a bit more before I start drinking. Better latter than never. Ho! That stuff is strong…! I am no feminist, actually, militant or otherwise. Is just, do you actually believe all your husband said moments ago?

_I will tell you what I don’t believe, and what I do. I do not believe in individual freedom, free will, or natural rights of any kind. I do not believe in Universal Justice, or self-evident right and wrong. Instead, I believe in language. In grammar, structure. I believe some systems work better than others, some systems do not work at all. I cannot say that equal rights for men and women is a protocol that cannot work in any circumstance. I have not tested it in all circumstances possible in this Universe, let’s not even mention all circumstances possible in imagination. Is painfully obvious that we have no example of any case where equal rights for men and women worked in our planet. This abomination wild humans are trying causes birth rates to drop bellow replacement level, that’s the most definitive prove for a system of human life anyone can give. Humans age and die, if they cannot breed in enough numbers to compensate that they are doomed to extinction.

_I see, but, one thing is to admit that. Another is to say you don’t mind your husband walks around entertaining carnal conjunctions with every cute cattle girl in your farms.

Giggle.

_Yeah. See, Fredric. I am mother of seven, three boys, four girls. All of them are from my husband. Conceived and born when we were still a human couple of course. Fredric has no shadow of doubt about the paternity of his children. I saw many cases of children produced by adventures of the mother, you probably saw cases like that too. The situation is written in the face of the child, and the reflexes of that conspicuous secret is clear in the relationship of those families. The fact that there is a denial only makes it more morbid and cruel for all parts involved. My husband has hundreds of bastards, like most noble boys in the families have. He gives gifts to them, a small sign of his favour when one does something worthy, but they are not his sons in the eyes of this family. My children are. That is syntax, adoptive cousin. That is structure at its best. For a man, the feeling in your guts, I understand, can be different. For me, for any woman who isn’t lying to herself and pretending to be like what men look to be, no moment of pleasure can compensate the satisfaction of hear my home sounding like a well-tunned violine. When so many other homes sound like a cat being subjected to torture by a sadistic dabbler acupuncturist working with nails instead of needles.

_Seven! I would never have figured you as…

_I know. What a mother of seven looks like in wild human society nowadays, anyway?

_Yeah. I see your point.

_Many girls play with other girls in our culture. Sexual games, no one pays any attention to that. As a human, I was never interested to try that. Once you turn into a vampire. Let’s say, the game changes, a lot. The really old, hundreds of thousands, million or more, are practically always bisexual, in theory. Asexual in practice, for the most part. At that point, human impulses are more an idea than a memory, as far as I was told. For people who are experiencing that. That is, far, far away from me. Right now. I play with human girls, make them do sexual things with each other and with human boys, but I like men. I am not, sexually faithful, to my husband anymore. We have, revised that element in our contract. After half a decade as vampires, he still does not accept the idea of my having sex with other vampire males. Human males my dear husband don’t mind.

_But he has sex with other vampire women. I presume.

_Yes, he has! I can live with that. Eventually, I may even invest in some adventure with a hansom vampire man just to tease him. Make him a bit jealous. We don’t have biological reproduction, anymore. There is a blood-seed that allows this, supposedly, but is so rare that may very well be a myth. The most important element in our marriage now is the fact that he is the best ally I can have, and I am his.

_Make some sense, with what you said so far. Structure.

_My husband has the race Sunflower Seed. It means one day he will be able to walk in sunlight, like any human. You can imagine how useful a power like that is. He has some powers useful to combat, and improved mind manipulation tools on top of that. We both have the seed that makes vampires capable to consume and digest human food. I, by my side, am a healer, among few other things. We got our place in the immortal side of the family by individual talent, and as a couple we are far more powerful than the union of our individual capacities.

_As if marriage was a business strategy.

_Survival strategy, actually. A strategy to endure and thrive, make our family stronger, and more useful for our Nocturnal Court. Ultimately, for all vampires.

_I don’t know if I can learn to think in those terms.

_I trust you can, and will. Sooner than you imagine.

_What are you doing!?

_Taking my clothes of.

_Why?

_Because I like this dress, and you would most certainly destroy it with those big, sharp, claws. While we have sex.

_But, you just said you are a married women! Who is obedient to her husband. Your husband do not accept you having sex with other vampire man…

_I also just decided that is time to shake my dear husband. Push him out of his comfort zone a little bit. He wants you as our ally in family politics, I decided he will settle this alliance by sharing his wife’s treasures with you.

_Don’t I have the right to an opinion in that matter?

_Indeed you have! I can see your opinion from here. It is nothing, if not unambiguous.

_but…

_Besides, after than big gulp of that elixir I doubt you would be able to escape me or cry for help. Even if you really wanted to avoid what is about to happen.

_What happened with your plan to have your extra-conjugal adventure with some hansom vampire male?

_Maybe in your former world is different, cousin. In vampiric society, women tease.

_Oh, please! You husband. When he find out...

_Just don’t kill him, if he loses his mind for a moment and challenges you to a duel to protect my honour. I promise you, he will accept our arrangement soon enough.

_Since when that is OUR arrangement?

_Since you forced me to suck that big, grey monster, of yours!

_What?

_Can’t talk now, lover! I’m in the middle of something here. Try to think about someone else, if you don’t mind. Math equations, politics, something to make this a little more difficult. Otherwise, may be difficult for me to believe you are trying to resist my attentions.