Glass of Rum 2

The daunting woman in a long night dress smiled at him, entering the room like a wife who just caught her husband in bed with her sister. Her casual smile contrasting with the deliberation of her steps, however. Suggesting she perhaps didn’t knew how to walk any other way.

“Are you drinking this, or waiting for the bacteria in it to evolve into fishes?”

“I was waiting, actually”.

Waiting for the heads of other vampire families. No one came but you. Where the words implied here, no need to say them out loud.

“Your good will chips are about to expire. You knew that would happen eventually, I hope. Your sponsor demanded special treatment for you, and the predators in this court would not dare to ignore this. Right away. However, you have been sitting on your hands for a decade. They are not likely to take the risk of a direct **** against your house, but they are already cutting you out social reunion. Next step will be kill someone under your protection, I think. By accident.”

“And yet, you are here”

“Your access to inter-dimensional database is at least as good as mine. You know what sets my family apart from others in this Court, aside the fact that we are under the rule of a Queen, momentarily”.

“Origin. You run the only family in this court that is not originally from Planet Earth. One of the few on Earth. I believe your original planet was called Trina, I am probably not pronouncing it correctly. Anyway, yours is the only family from that particular planet on Earth.”

“The only survivor family from that civilization, I’m afraid. We used to run a dozen star-systems, our fall came. Only my family escaped. We have been keeping a low profile here on your planet, keeping our heads down. The profile of this world does not suit us. That’s why I have no interest in fight you for power and territory. We are only waiting for our chance to leave Earth and move for a planet more like Triiniay.

We never conquered a vast territory, but I can be persuaded to sell what we have to you, in exchange for some of those rare gifts left in your hands by your benefactor. Of course, we must wait until my family get that transfer we are looking for.”

“You believe I can help you, by talking with my “benefactor” as you say. I don’t really have her number, to be honest. They are not very accessible, are they?”

“Not in my experience. No. But then, my planet was destroyed when the continent of Atlantis was still sitting in one of your oceans. I was an considered an elder vampire Queen by that time already, and never in my life I saw another deal quite like yours.

You know, most heads of family on Earth assume the Creators are some sort of myth. They do know other populated planets exist in this universe, and that commerce happens between Earth and some of those planets through portals only a handful of vampires can operate. But they assume the scale of this to be just propaganda. To scare them into compliance. You must know as well as I do, that those myths are often euphemistic, never hyperbolic.”

“I try not to think about, Queen Adifa. Honestly. Answer to your question is yes. I do know that”.

“Have you tried the serene green butterfly yet?”

“You mean the elixir bottle? Fancy colourful drink. Smells like honey. Not my kind of drink”

“Oh, but, you should not judge it by look and smell. Elixirs are a sort of **** made by vampires to vampires. They carry a little bit of magic in them. Besides, I have chosen that particular bottle specifically for you. Recipe from the old country, so to speak.”

“What is that Trixnine had of so special that Earth lacks? If you don’t mind me asking, your highness”.

“Variety. Triiniay was one of those planets where many different talking races had evolved. A few hundreds of them. Some dozen with inter-dimensional gifts, like the “magic” in our vampiric blood-seeds. There was elves like those described by your Tolkien, and people with the torso of elves and the lower body of giant spiders, other scorpions. They hated each other, went to war every chance they had. And their hybrids could not procreate, but their blood was unique in taste. Here, the only intelligent prey to hunt are humans. To us, that is terribly unsatisfying.

All anthropoids taste the same, even your neandertals used to be almost identical in taste than the rest human cousins.

I myself, in origin, was not human. My body used to be very different from this figure you see in front of you. More eyes, more legs. I only started looking human after a thousand years living on Earth. When I lost hope of leave your planet as soon as I originally intended.”

“Intriguing!”

“Must you vampire men on Earth always give lewd nuances to this comment?”

“Comes with being a vampire, probably. And Earthling, perhaps”

“How do you see your chances of survival for the next decade or two?”

“Honestly? Individually, I am week. I need more time to develop my vampiric powers. My house has, some solid defences, but they are limited to our main stronghold and a few other places. We cannot be prisoners in our own domain, and still hope to gain strength, respect, or anything else. I do have access to privileged information about other worlds and one of the few portals to commerce with those places, but that commerce is always restrict and limited. We are so few that I could take my family and leave Earth forever, but I cannot find any place exactly safe out there

So, worse-case scenario, we can hold ground for some time, centuries maybe, inside our main stronghold.”

“I agree. I believe even the most powerful vampire family on Earth would need to commit most its resources, and sacrifice its best warriors, to storm your stronghold. Five or more large families could make that adventure economically viable, but they would need to trust each other, and some of them would end up cannibalized by their allies in the process. Everyone will make that math, and few would choose to take the risk.

On the other hand, once your family start hiding under siege is a matter of time until you all go crazy and die. All the vampires, I mean. As you said, there is few of you. Your human relatives would end up as spoils of war, of course”

“You came tonight, knowing that the other heads of family had transferred the meeting to another place or time. Because you have an alternative to offer me.”

“Surrender your house to me. We are old and experienced enough to hold ground, and with your resources we can expand. As my vassal you would be safe, and when we finally get our ticket out I promise to leave you and your people behind. With enough resources to hold your ground. By this point in time you will be stronger”

“Sounds like a great offer. Unfortunately a promise made to a vassal means nothing, the master can keep or broke it any time. Since vassals are little better than thralls, and can be easily reduced to thralls without explanation.

Unlike allies. I could consider an alliance between our families. Arranged marriages, that sort of thing.”

“I do not believe you are in a strong enough position for that. Eight years ago, I would have accepted the offer. Eight months ago, I could have considered. Right now, I do not think that would me in my best interest. Charity is identified as weakness by most vampires, and accept an alliance with you now that others have started ghosting you would lead to inconvenient. Heads of families testing our strength and resolution.”

“Shame.”

“You could challenge me for a duel. Of course, I am millions of years old as a vampire, and had advantages you don’t comprehend even before I was turned into a vampire. I would win a duel, easily. Your only chance in a fight like that would be to use some inter-dimensional weapon left to you by your benefactor. The use of weapons is forbidden by the rules of duel.

Still, defeat would save your honour. If not your pride.”

“Fair enough. I would need to think about it, of course. For tonight, I believe we have advanced negotiation as far as possible. You gave me a lot to think about, your Highness“

“Alright. Your car is waiting for you, to take you back home. I presume.”

“That is the idea”

“What if someone chooses to attack you between you leave this building and your home? The rules of parley only apply to this building, you know. Every head of family in our court who was invited to this meeting know where you are, and where you are going to. You are, for practical purposes, about to became a very easy target.

This is the time to reconsider my offer.”

“By the rules of parlay we cannot attack each other here. The travel in and out those reunions is a grey area. Those who choose to take that liberty are sacrificing their credibility, and reputation. I believe I shall take my chances”.

“Well, that is your prerogative, young king. Good night, them. I wish you well.”

“I wish you well too, ancient queen. Good night.”