Irreversible Decision

Fredric inscribed himself for the exam as anyone does. Chances to get the positive answer from the Nocturnal Court are so low that no one thinks much about. Is like a cultural thing now, the lottery that each person can play only once in life. With immortality as prize. No reasonable person has winning the lottery as life project.

Fredric didn’t just got a letter back, with an invitation for second phase of selection. He got a direct invitation to visit one of the vampiric offices downtown. After sunset, what means the person he was supposed to meet was that kind of people who does not usually leave home when sun in in the sky. He almost didn’t managed the courage to dress himself and walk his way to the train station.

Could be a mistake, he imagined. Or a misunderstanding.

The office was elegant and sobber, just a little black and red velvet. A little burned gold and silver. To satisfy human expectations. Nothing explicitly Victorian in the uniforms of the staff. Polite formality, gorgeous faces. Since the disclosure, when their secret ended, the vampire families quit the efforts to simulate normality in order to avoid suspicious.

They do have superior technology, medical among others, supernatural some insist to say. It includes aesthetic procedures. One of the perks of work for vampires.

Along with the full medical and dental plan, salary above market and qualification programs that no human company could match even if they wanted to. And they do not. There is the expectation of stability. Vampire Families do not care about short term news, they do not let employers go because economy is slowing down or technology is moving up and that eliminates the need for some sectors. They retrain you, always.

On the other hand, you are implicitly supposed to offer absolute loyalty. And you employer is not exactly tied to human laws, in the common sense of the expression. They are recognized by law now, you are not embracing a life of crime when you work for them, that is not the mafia. That is far worse than the mafia, actually. They are, for all practical and most theoretical, purposes, untouchable.

Fredric wasn’t sure what kind of interview that was supposed to be. He had not applied for a job, exactly. He had just made the exam.

New openings to be turned into a vampire are rare, and vampire families have human relatives to place in those positions. Almost never happens, but almost never isn’t really.

The woman dressed like a high executive of some video-game multi-national company looked so casual and real that Fredric would have assumed she was the lawyer of the person he was there to meet. Someone send to say the meeting had been cancelled.

Only the reverential deference of everyone else to that person indicated otherwise. However, that was so tangible in the air that no doubt would be possible.

_Good night, Mr Fredric Torch. I am Anissa Deepwell, First Appriser of Deepwell family. I am here to discuss your possible future as adopted member of our family.

_Adopted? You mean, I would be, like a…

_You would be turned into a vampire, if you choose. That’s what in wanted when you submit to the exam, isn’t that correct?

_Oh, I, sure. Is just that, honestly! I never thought.

_Chances are low, yes, I understand your surprise. You have the qualities we are looking for, but your case demands some additional considerations. I am here to explain what those considerations are. You may choose to go forward and start your new existence, or decide you prefer to remain human. We will accept your decision in either case.

_Is that, …normal?

_Not really, the choice to make the exam gives us the right to turn the candidate at any moment during life. Any Vampire Family in the local court that has an open can claim any candidate. Only some special cases require more careful attention.

_Why?

_Depends on the specifics of each case.

_Let’s say, for instance, this case at hand right now. Which would be me.

_Of course. Vampires are not all the same, Mr Fredric. The specifics of your vampiric powers and characteristics are largely determined by the potential sleeping inside you as a human. Different humans have different potentials to unlock, and my job as an Apprisal is to identify those potentials. It has determinant influence in our decision to invite a human to be turned.

_I always wondered.

_Some vampires suffer changes, that are more visible than others. I can easily pass for a human, as you can see yourself. That’s true for most vampires. You, on the contrary, will be one of the exceptions. Your hands would grow, long black claws will replace your nails, strong and efficient weapons, but unfortunately permanent. Your skin would turn grey, your eyes completely dark. Your toot will look like shark toots. And unlike some vampires who can assume those characteristic at will, in your case that would be permanent. With contact lenses, the hands in your pockets, at distance, in low light, you would maybe be able to pass as a human. Until you speak, your voice will sound distinctively inhuman.

_Oh, wow.

_On the bright side, your specific profile also gives you a head-start. By the end of your first month as a vampire you would be as strong and fast as the average vampire male is after 2.500 birthdays as a child of the night. And about as durable as a 5.000 years old vampire. Your powers would include increasing resistance to supernatural plagues, poisons and other bioweapons. Those claws you would have on the same time would develop poison of their own, that would be under your control. Not a danger for any friendly person you touch by accident, but a significant albeit not very practical weapon.

_Not very practical?

_Requires close contact.

_Oh, sure. I understand.

_Those are characteristics that provide advantage in duels, and our society do have its share of those. Your mind would be even more resistant to attacks than your body, proportionally speaking. Your senses will be more powerful than those of most vampires. Your predatorial reflexes too. You would be a even more natural fighter than most of our kind. The edge may became less significant as the dozens of thousands of years pass, but it never falls in total irrelevance. However, this is still not without inconvenient.

_Being ugly must be very inconvenient. Of course, now that vampires are no longer living in secret I may not have too much to worry about. The worse thing you told me is that I will not be able to pass for a human. That would be very problematic if I could not walk publicly as a vampire. Since that is no longer an issue, maybe I don’t have much to worry about. People with those disabilities can still use their hands to hold things, operate a cell phone, stuff like that?

_Some are very nimble with their fingers. Takes practice.

_How about the rest of your society? There is too much of a stigma in being ugly like that? I assume vampires tend to socialize with other vampires, most the time.

_Most the time, yes. You would face some arrogant behaviour from snob younglings. Not from elders. Your powers of immunity to poison can be developed into the capacity to create vampiric chemical weapons, and also cure and provide resistance against the same sort of warfare. This alchemy is one of the most practical means of defence a house can have and trust, what is the main reason why we have chosen to accept your application.

_I was afraid you just wanted me for cannon folder.

_Finally, you have a potential, hard to develop, to find secrets and hidden things in the distance. A power of intuition, if you will. Never completely reliable, but a strategic advantage all houses like to have when they can. That along with the usual potential to make blood thralls and other common vampiric powers, make you a valuable candidate.

_Still, you are not just having me turned. I have the option. Is not just due to the ugliness aspect, is it?

_That is a factor. However, what I just described as intuition. In this seed there is the potential for contact ancient, dangerous, minds. Older than vampires on Earth. Older than Earth itself, in some cases. It is a two ways street, I am afraid. Sometimes that power develops with little or even no effort. Making the mind vulnerable to attacks that, in the worse cases, make the individual very instable, emotionally.

_Insane.

_That’s not a word I would use. Barely functional, most the time. Those cases are rare, and with the instability and the nightmares, came exceptionally precise information. So, those people are valuable for their families. When they can still be trusted. However, they need constant vigilance. As I said, that is not likely to happen with you, but we cannot be sure. The possibility is reason enough to give you the chance to make an informed decision.

_By giving me that chance, is less likely that I will feel betrayed and turn against the family.

_Is hard for a vampire to turn against the family. Having the chance to decide that by yourself make less likely for your mind to fracture and fall into a state of feral insanity. Further away in the future, when your vampire mind finds itself exposed to pressure.

_Alright them. Let’s do it!

_Are you sure? Don’t you wish some time to meditate about this?

_Nah! I like the dental benefits, and the retirement plan in this job.

_We see it more like an adoption than like a business contract, actually. Anyway, welcome on board them!

_Do I call you aunt An, from now on?

_Not if you wish to survive long enough to be ugly. You can call me aunt Anissa, if you think you want o be seen as my protégé and presumed sexual distraction. Otherwise, you call me Elder Anissa or First Appriser. Like other young vampires in the family do.

_Oh! Boytoy, you say. Grey skin and claws, and all…?

_You would be surprised. We are supernatural predators, after all! Welcome to the family.