"Kindred, not vampires." Kaoru corrected. "Yes. To turn a mortal into a vampire is to Embrace them. It's done by first exsanguinating a person, then giving them a portion of vitae. Vitae," Kaoru continued to explain the basic terminology, "is Kindred blood. How you exsanguinate a person doesn't matter, only the vitae does. You can slit their throat, drink them dry, riddle them with bullets, the result will be the same so long as they get vitae in the end. Most often, I hear, potential childer are drained dry, because of course they are." Kaoru flattened his lips and rolled his eyes. "Blood is everything to us. It's food, sex, and drugs. Most of us can't even taste food or feel pleasure during sex. Food tastes like ash and sex is akin to rubbing skin. There are exceptions, such as myself, but even I'm confined to the fact that I have to vomit food out eventually, and blood is overwhelmingly better than sex."
"She…" Kaoru cringed momentarily. "She is Julianne Cecil Rosalind Courteney, a Kindred of the Old World. London nobility, a fan of motorsports, a social butterfly, my Sire, and my killer. We're not on the best of terms; it's a trend you'll encounter between most Kindred and their sires. You're in a prime position to understand why: most, me included, aren't given a choice at all, the choice is made for them." Kaoru paused, then performed a drift into the corner. The centrifugal force from the manoeuvre done at full speed would give Akiho's vestibular a run for its money. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, I won't introduce you to her unless I have to."
"The basics of our hierarchy is simple: a city is run by the Prince. The Sheriff is the Prince's enforcer. The Scourge is the attack dog of the Sheriff. The Harpies are the court's gossipers and record-keepers. The Primogen are the parliament to the Prince; they represent the interests of individual Kindred clans. Keepers of Elysium maintain Elysium. Elysium is a neutral ground – it's the law of our sect that nobody fucks around in the Elysium lest they want to find out. You can't use powers in Elysium, at least visibly and you can't be violent in Elysium, and this protection extends to everyone, even the enemies of the sect. Anywhere outside of Elysium is fair game."
"Right… a clan." Kaoru groaned as he stumbled upon yet another subject he has to explain. "A clan is a bloodline of Kindred that share similar abilities. I'm of clan Toreador, I can move and react faster than the mortal eye can see, I can influence emotions of everyone around me, and my senses are much keener than ordinary. There are thirteen clans total, seven of which are within the Camarilla – my sect – two with the Sabbat – to be explained later – and the rest are not aligned."
"Example of how the mechanism works in practice is simple. Let's imagine I let you go and you tell that to a friend on accident. Word gets out. Sheriff learns of this. He comes to talk with me and says that, if I don't take care of this, he will. If I don't take care of you after that, the Scourge comes. The Scourge kills you, your family, your friends, your dog, and your pet goldfish, then she finds me, eviscerates me, and strings my body up in the middle of Elysium for breaching the Masquerade. I'm publicly humiliated, everybody laughs, Prince gives a big speech about the importance of the Masquerade, business continues as usual. That's the best-case scenario; had I been previously found to be in violation of the Masquerade, I might end up staked to a rooftop waiting for the Sun to rise." Kaoru kissed his teeth after mentioning the Sun.
"Of course, it doesn't have to go this way; I can, for example, ask the Sheriff to take care of you as a favour to me. But that can be just as bad, if not worse. Favours are, basically, a currency. Boons have sizes – trivial, minor, major, life – depending on the services rendered. And you don't want to owe a debt to certain Kindred lest you want to become their lapdog."
A hairpin turn came up, and Kaoru effortlessly slid the car through the entire corner on full speed and at a very tight angle – an inch more and the car would have crashed into the guardrail, or worse. "Right now, there are several issues that I'm dealing with: several Primogen, including the Toreador Primogen, have disappeared, leaving the city's power structure in shambles. A rival of mine, Aurelie Cotnoir, has been making a move to take the Primogen seat, and knowing her, she'll try to make my un-life as miserable as possible. I can't allow that. The second massive problem are the hunters, whose presence almost doubled within the last six months. I suspect it has something to do with the Primogen disappearing, but there's nothing concrete as of yet. Three – several of my contacts demand my attention. The defence attorney, Lillian? She represents me in court over a location I'm contesting with Aurelie, and she needed help with a different case, so I had to reach out to my friend in the DA office to settle things. That friend asked for a party with a kilo of blow and ten hookers of, quote, varied ethnicities, so I had to reach out to my friend in Cosa Nostra and spend a non-insignificant amount of cash to provide that to him tomorrow; I have a meeting with a contractor, who is in charge of renovations of my new property where I'll be opening a second café, tomorrow after seven, I have to collect my share of winnings from a street racer kid I sponsor, and do you realize yet why I'm so fucking overwhelmed and why I prefer to run a café instead of explaining everything to you?"
As Kaoru kept ranting, he kept racing faster and faster downhill back towards the city. The turns got tighter, the road narrower, the cliff edge closer, before finally Kaoru slammed on the breaks and stopped next to a scenic overlook of the city skyline. He took the keys out of the engine and rushed out of the vehicle to get some air.
Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)
