Vivienne

Vivienne sat quietly for a few moments. “I apologize for that, my new friends.”

Franco waved his hand and sighed, “Doctor Moreau.  I would have done the same, if I had even realized it was a member of The Ripped.”  He combed his hair back with his fingers. “Issac is much better at spotting them than the rest of us.  He claims he is in tune with them.”

Sylvie laughed, “It is more like Kody gave him contacts to see them.”

“Very true, sister.”  Franco looked at the blood bunny in Sylvie’s arms, “Is she alright?”

“Sleeping happily, Franco.”  Sylvie plucked a feather from her small headdress and weaved it in Jessica’s hair. “Her heart is beating strong.  Nothing to worry about.”  

“We have a few minutes before they return.”  Vivienne leaned forward in her chair. “Tell me about these others you are referring to.”

Franco beamed, “With pleasure!”  The elder Israeli vampire sat back and became animated with his hands as he spoke, “Issac Vogels, I mentioned him before.  He has our version of a police force.  They have been instrumental in identifying the Ripped, even if they can’t stop them all the time.”

“Police force?”  Vivienne questioned and raised one of her long eyebrows. “Why do you need a police force?  You should be more than capable of handling humans all on your own.”  

Sylvie started giggling, “Franco is soft.”  She poked his arm playfully, “I don’t know the last time he honestly hunted.”  She pointed to the blood bunny in her arms. “He survives solely off his volunteers and thralls.”

Rolling his eyes lightly, Franco shook his head. “It is true, Doctor Moreau.  I have invested most of my time in running The Crimson Muse and have not been keeping my hunting skills up.”  He shrugged, “I am old enough that only yourself can honestly do any damage to me.”  Franco paused and petted one of the girls near him. “I guess I am too civilized for random blood frenzies in the street.”

“How many of the others are like yourself, Mister Tarsey?”  Vivienne leaned forward with a concerned look on her face.

Franco and Sylvie looked at each other for a few seconds, “Most of us, Lady Vivienne.”  Franco flatly stated. “Issac and his crew are the ones that protect us.  Until recently that was against other vampires that came wandering through the city.”

“Us?”  Vivienne tilted her head. “How many brethren are here in Petersburg?”

Sylvie spoke up, “There are five main troupes within the walls of the bazaar.  I run Ventricular Venus, Franco there runs The Crimson Muse, Issac runs Midnight’s Bite, Kody runs DEDSEC and Livia runs Velvet Underground.”

Vivienne smiled when Faye and Casey returned a few minutes later.  She looked over at Casey, “I have noted your displeasure, Casey.”  She got up and walked over to her ward and gave her a light hug. “You and Faye both have issues with killing.  I am working with her to avoid the need to do so.”  A rush of relief pulsed though her dead body when Casey tightly hugged her back. “My ward, You know I am a vampire.”  She lifted Casey’s chin to look at her. “You keep right on voicing your concerns, Casey, but I cannot run from what I am.”

Casey closed her milk chocolate eyes when Vivienne embraced her.  Casey felt her blood start to churn and her heart race with the attention that her mistress conveyed in the hug they were currently in. “S..I…Some, um…”  Casey closed her mouth for a second to gather her thoughts. “Somehow, somewhere…I knew I was deluding myself.”  She felt her chin get lifted and reopened her eyes, staring into Vivienne’s heavenly blue orbs, “You said we would figure it out as we went along?”

“Indeed, I did.”  Vivienne softly added before pulling slowly away from Casey. “This will be something we work on.”

Casey kissed Vivienne’s hand, “Deal.”

Faye chimed in, “Hey now, none of that attention to one.”  She winked and closed her eyes, with a playful pucker on her lips.

“Mon amour, we have guests.”  Vivienne walked over and pressed her lips to Faye’s.  Vivienne pulled back once she heard her girlfriend moan into the liplock. “Satisfied, mon amour?”

“It will do for now.”  She winked at Casey who was still riding her high. “I still owe you more testing.”

Casey giggled, “Please do.”

Franco leaned forward in his chair after witnessing the sensual events unfold. “So, Doctor. You treat them both equally?”  He glanced over to Sylvie who just shrugged.

“How else do you treat family, Mister Tarsey?”  Vivienne pointed out quietly. “It was your letter about family that made Faye want to attend, as I mentioned earlier.”  She looked at her ward and lover once more. “They are my family.”  Vivienne paused, “If the Ripped are the puzzle that we face, let me continue with the inquisitors and perhaps we can find a solution in the past.”

“I cannot wait to hear this.”  Franco patted his lap and a blood bunny hopped in his lap. “Until now, I never knew about human magic.”  He moved the girl's long hair away from her neck. “I should rather amend that to say, I didn’t care about knowing.  So I probably just ignored it.”  He bit into the woman’s neck, and drank from her as she giggled softly. 

“Very well I will continue.”  Vivienne crossed her legs and sat back, “There was a group of Inquisitors that took on a Greek title that was part of the church, called Klerikos.”  Vivienne held up her right hand. “Officially, these klerikos didn’t exist.  The Catholic church had to denounce any idea that our brethren existed.  Their palms always glowed with a soft silver light.”

Sylvie pointed to the runed diagram, “Issac tells us to look for lime green glows, almost like they are holding a neon sign.”

Vivienne frowned and her blue eyes sparkled with concern, “How did you not gather this was magic of some sort?”

Franco shrugged, “This day and age?  Everyone holds something that glows.”  He pointed at his phone resting on the table. “The building is well lit in the night, we aren’t outside in the sunlight, and at night the area is covered in traffic of all sorts.”  He held up both of his hands, “All cities are glowing balls these days.  I suppose it is easy to overlook.”

Faye cleared her throat, “Viv, it took you smelling coffee in the house to realize someone was in there.”

A sting of prideful pain shot through the ancient vampiress, “Astute observation, my love.”  Vivienne reluctantly admitted to her own lack of foresight, “I have no excuse either.”  She pointed to Franco, “Complacency.”   Taking a deep breath, Vivienne kept with her history lesson. “I had managed to observe the silver tendrils that came from their hands.  Some of the spells would compel a vampire to hold in place, it could protect them from attack as if a shield were around them.”  She held up one finger. “Above all, they could simply hold up their hand and could see our brethren.  Our eyes glowed yellow or red for them.”

“How did you avoid them, Vivienne?”  Sylvie asked quickly.

“I have a theory, but nothing concrete.”  Vivienne rubbed her hands together, “I have outlived many different ideologies.  I have found that there is a neutrality between myself and a true believer.”  She looked over to Faye, “This is where I was telling you about the concept, mon amour.”

“True believer?”  Franco said quietly and questioningly. “I have only seen a handful in my tenure.  Are you telling me there was a critical mass of them within Spain?”

Vivienne slowly shook her head. “Religion is a powerful source for humanity.  There have always been gods and goddesses that they have looked to.  It is a recent evolution that there is one rather than many.”  Vivienne waited for the group at the table to digest what she’d been saying before she restarted. “I witnessed the magic blessing gunshot so it would pierce our flesh and do untold amounts of damage that couldn’t be regenerated by blood.”  Vivienne heard gasps around the table, “That was only the quick spells. I have watched the white strands engulf a vampire and burn it much like they were being held in sunlight.” 

“Did you try to stop them?”  Franco inquired while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Why would I?  Their goal mirrored my own.”  Vivienne rubbed her chin lightly, “If the magic of these Ripped match what I saw before, my best advice is to leave the area.”

“I see.”  Franco opened his eyes again and called another woman over to feed from. “That isn’t ever going to happen, Vivienne.”  He looked over at Sylvie, “The others aren’t going to leave Phantasmagoria willingly.”

Sylvie started nodding in agreement, “He’s right.  We have built a very lucrative place over the last twenty years or so.”

“Phantasmagoria?” Casey asked meekly from her side of the table.

Franco nodded and pointed to Sylvie while he finished drinking.  Taking the cue from her friend, Sylvie spoke up, smiling at the young ward. “That is the name of the bazaar.  Where all the troupes live.  We live like a big commune.”

“How many are there?”  Vivienne leaned on the table, her fingers entwined.

Looking confused Sylvie turned her full moon irises to Vivienne, “You mean total vampires?”

“Yes.”

Sylvie saw the concerned look in the entrancing blue eyes, “I…um…Issac is the biggest with about fifteen vampires and twice that many as thralls.”  She started counting in her head. “I would estimate close to sixty?”

“This city is too small to support that many vampires.”  Vivienne shook her head in disbelief.

Sylvie felt the girl in her arms start to awaken, “Phantasmagoria brings in people from as far north as Washington DC.  We’ve advertised it well.”  Sylvie eased the blood bunny back to the floor, “Let’s see, I know people that have come from the west as far as Roanoke and of course from Virginia Beach to the east.”

Faye excitedly turned to Vivienne and tapped her temples again, “I remember…I have heard of that place.”  She got up and grabbed Vivienne’s phone and punched up Phantasmagoria. “See?  You have to have seen the billboards all over.”

A disapproving look crossed over Vivienne’s features, “Spain all over again.”  She muttered and took a deep breath. “It would appear that you have, on a smaller scale, recreated the situation in Spain.”

Franco waved his hand in dismissal, “We’ve run it for over twenty years now.  The city had been gutted by the drug epidemic of the seventies and eighties.  People and businesses moved away.  The only thing that the city council managed to keep was the army base and the focus on its history.”  Leaning on one elbow, Franco smiled. “The city council was very happy that we took the old rail station and surrounding area of the riverfront and turned it into Phantasmagoria.”  Wiggling his eyebrows, “A select few know what the place honestly is and turn a blind eye.”

Casey bit on her lip and glanced over to Vivienne and then back to Franco. “Phantasmagoria is a little over twenty years old?”  She paused, “Human magic…I…what if, um…he was born with that mark because of that place?”

Sylvie watched as Casey started nibbling on her lip nervously and walked over to the young ward and pulled up a chair to sit with her. “Perhaps he isn’t one of them, Miss Casey.” Sylvie offered with a gentle smile on her face. “You said you never saw the mark do anything.”  Watching as Casey nodded her head, Sylvie looked at Vivienne. “I hate to ask you to backtrack a little bit, but I don’t quite get the human magic and what vampires have to do with it.”  Sylvie’s eyes deepened into a pair of dark irises, once more matching a new moon. “You even mentioned that the Ripped…or inquisitors knew what our eyes looked like, how did you find that out?”

“I asked.”  Vivienne confidently answered. “I can deduce from the blank stares on your faces that there needs to be an explanation.”  Vivienne smiled as the crowd all shook their heads.

“I have a feeling a story is coming.”  Faye beamed, “She’s so articulate about these things.”  

“Mon amour, you flatter me.”  Vivienne blew a gentle kiss to her girlfriend and looked at the group once more. “I had no interest in the Inquisition, I was hunting the last ancient like myself.  Her name was Evangeline.”  Vivienne stood up and began gliding like a shadow around the table speaking softly. “The hunt was all that mattered to me then.  I had also been experimenting with chemical compounds to mix with my blood.”

Sylvie raised her hand like a student in school,  “Kody does that now!”  She exclaimed and clapped. “They are the leader of DEDSEC.  The troupe makes all sorts of gadgets to work with our blood, Vivienne.”  Sylvie glanced at Casey for a split second and then to Faye, who’s green eyes were as bright as stars. “Vivienne, looks like Faye is under a spell.”

“Indeed.  My Tigerlily loves technology.”  She cleared her throat and took on a Spanish accent. “I went by the name Catalina…It was ten years before Columbus would journey to America…”