Welcome to the Neighborhood

Posted on Sun Oct 2nd, 2022 @ 1:44am by Gideon Asher & Andrea Carter

Mission: Daemoniacus Tribulatio
Location: The Pages of Time bookstore
Timeline: after Invocatio Potentiae Infernalis

Outside Andy’s shop, slightly down the road, a car was parked. In it were two Blood Ranger surrogates. These operatives were Humans, Lycans of all kinds, even some witches, all of whom could come out during the day. These two, a werewolf and a human, had been keeping an eye on Andy for the last day or so.

“Gross!” growled the werewolf.

“What?” asked his human companion.

“She’s drinking fucking rat blood!” the wolf replied. “I can smell it from here. I mean, maybe if I had to live rough, but even then… and she’s putting it in her coffee?!? GROSS!!”

“Alright, chill out,” the human said. He glanced up at the sky through the car’s sunroof. “Yeah, it’s close enough to sundown. Gonna call the Major.”

“Better you than me,” the wolf said. “Vamps that old seriously freak me the fuck out.”

The human chuckled, then spoke into his phone when someone picked up. “Yeah,” he said. “Surrogate #24601. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, ma’am. That’s right. Carter is still in the shop. Karl says she’s drinking rat blood. Might want to warn the boss so he doesn’t gag when he walks in there. Karl says she’s putting the stuff in her coffee. I know, right? NASTY! Want us to stick around? Kay. We’ll wait until your guys get here. Right. Thanks.”

Not too long after, two cars that 24601 was pretty sure were Blood Ranger vehicles came down the street. One, the smaller sedan, went out behind the building and presumably parked there, making sure Carter didn’t exit that way. The larger, even higher end car pulled up across the street and parked. A Ranger got out of the car and opened the back door, and 24601, whose name was John, saw the top cop of the Tennessee vampires, Havildar Major Gideon Asher, exit the vehicle. Asher looked around, then turned and locked eyes with John from a distance that John would have had trouble seeing a face from, let alone eyes. Asher nodded. John nodded back and started the car. “Well, Karl,” he said. “We’re outta here.”

“Awesome,” Karl said. “I got a hot date with a werepuma.”

John chuckled again as they drove away.

After Gideon dismissed the surrogates, he told his driver to stay in the car and keep it running. He told the other to stand outside, to the side of the door. Gideon knocked on the door.

Andy peeked around the forming rows of shelves to find out who the hell was knocking; damn, she didn’t even have any signage up yet, who was trying to get in here?!

“We’re closed!” Andy belted out, then attempted to get back to work, lining up rows of shelves that would soon be full of books.
“Miss Carter,” Gideon said politely. “I’m Havildar-Major Gideon Asher, head of the Blood Rangers here in Tennessee. We need to talk and I really don’t want to start our professional relationship by ripping your door off of its hinges. That would be rude and detest having to be rude.”

“Then you’re gonna looooove me!” Andy hollered back, resisting the urge to smirk; she was kind of a rude person, so hopefully that would piss this guy off. But, he was an official, so perhaps she shouldn’t piss him off too much as he could make her life here more unbearable than it already was, so with a sigh, she trudge towards the bare glass door and unlocked it, then swung it open.

“What do you want, I ain’t been here long enough to cause any trouble,” Andy said bluntly, not bothering to step aside to allow him entry.

Gideon smiled. “Youngling,” he said. “I’m over 1200 years old. Your bluff and bluster is adorable, and might have been off-putting at some point early in my life, but now it’s just an unnecessary waste of energy on your part and a minor annoyance for me. If you’re going to live off of rats for the time being, you should conserve your energy. Rats won’t slake your thirst forever. Now, if you’re going to live in Nashville as an unaligned vampire, and deal in potentially dangerous items, we have things to discuss. May I enter?”

Andy rolled her eyes, thoroughly unimpressed by his declaration of age, but with a shrug she stepped aside and allowed to finally step inside.

“I’d offer you coffee as a courtesy, but I don’t wanna,” she said as she went back to moving shelves, fully intending on working while they talked. “So, discuss.”

“Would you like some help while we talk?” Gideon said. Gideon figured Carter would refuse his offer, but again, rudeness wasn’t in his nature. “It’s no trouble.”

“Do whatever you want,” Andy replied noncommittally, abandoning her work with the shelves so he could finish it off while she began placing the comfortable armchairs in bare spaces for the future customers to enjoy while they browsed her wares. “So, you know my name, you know what I deal in, what else do you need to know?” she asked to kick start their discussion, carefully arranging the plush seating for optimal lighting for the readers.

Gideon removed his jacket and his button shirt and tie and hung them on a coat rack he saw in the corner. He walked up to one of the shelf units, and without much effort, lifted it and placed it where he thought she wanted it to go. It was a little awkward, but the weight itself was no issue. When he had one in place, he picked up another, and so on.

“There were rules when you were a witch and there are rules now that you are a vampire,” Gideon said. “The Hounds and human authorities will hold you accountable to those rules, aligned or not. That means I will have to as well, because they’ll see you as one of us.” Gideon stopped and looked at Andy. “You’re hungry. I can tell. I can feel your hunger from here. The rats aren’t going to do it for you forever. At some point you’ll either have to give in and drink human blood or become feral and do something that could jeopardize our treaties with the humans or the other supernaturals. This isn’t the old days, you know. You can get it in a bottle. You don’t have to look the human you’re getting it from in the eyes, and they didn’t die giving it. But if you insist on putting off the inevitable, then I’m going to be watching you.”

“You think I don’t know all that?!” Andy said, glaring at Gideon accusingly. “You think I want to put myself and everyone around me in danger? I didn’t ask to be this way, and I sure as hell didn’t want to do it alone, but that’s just the way the cards fell. I’m still figuring all this shit out!”

Gideon nodded. “I know,” he said in a kind tone of voice. “I know you didn’t ask for this. Many of us didn’t. And all of us, if we’re being honest, at one time or another, have lived off of rats and any manner of other things just to avoid drinking human blood. I know you didn’t want this. But, as you said, this is where the cards fell. When you’re ready, you don’t have to do it alone. And just so you know, the Blood Rangers not only protect others from vampires, we protect vampires from others. And you, Miss Carter, are a vampire, aligned or not. So, you don’t have to do this alone, not entirely.”

“Yeah, wish I coulda received such a warm welcome when I was turned,” Andy murmured as she nervously scuffed her boot on the brand new carpeting. “It was a feral outbreak; you probably heard about it, the incident in South Florida… The local coven wasn’t responding fast enough so we went in to take care of them, and in the aftermath when my guild turned their back on me, I went to the coven and they didn’t want anything to do with me. I was just another feral to them, disgusting, beneath them, and I’m kinda surprised they didn’t just put me outta my misery.” Then, Andy stared at her boots, attempting in vain to will her next words not to fall from her lips. “Sometimes I wish they did.”

“I’m sorry,” Gideon said. “I’m sorry for the way you were turned, against your will. I’m sorry you were cast out. That should never have happened.” To say more at this point would have been more about him than her, so Gideon said nothing beyond this expression of compassion and let the silence be until Andy was ready to go on.

Andy let that silence stretch awkwardly, still scuffling her boots on the carpet. “Are the rats really that bad?” she asked abruptly, unable to meet his gaze. In her mind, she had always equated what she was doing with the cattle industry, it was no different than the steaks she used to eat when she was human! The rats were all clean, well fed, even well entertained; was what she was doing really so reprehensible?

“Well,” Gideon said. “Technically you can live on animal blood, if you can fight the craving for the human stuff, I suppose. But you’re young. You need more blood than a few rats a day can provide you with. The younger you are, the more often you have to feed. Our bodies become more efficient over time. I’ve never met a vampire that could go without blood at all, but we can go longer between feedings as we get older. Also, you can’t dilute the blood. You’re not getting enough as it is with rats and if you dilute it, it’s not concentrated enough. However, pure rat blood, even from nice, clean, lab rats, is really nasty. You might try a shochet, a kosher slaughterhouse. Beef blood would be better for you and they spill plenty of it. I know of a place. I’ll get you the information. It doesn’t taste as good as human blood, but it’s far above rat blood.” Gideon hesitated. “You’ll have to drink it straight, though. I promise you, it tastes better than rat. Also, I’m surprised your digestive tract is even functioning at all as far as consuming anything other than blood. You might want to stop eating regular food before you end up with hot wings rotting in your bowels for eternity.”

Andy gave Gideon a dull stare.

“I’m not dumb enough to eat hot wings,” Andy said with a snear. “Just grits for now, not ready to give up those human habits… And I know I’ll have to drink the blood straight, and even human blood eventually, I’m just not there yet. It’s only been a few months, and-” Andy trailed off, not really knowing how to finish her thoughts on the matter. “I’ll look into the butcher, though.”

Gideon nodded. “Noted,” he said. “For the record, I don’t think having grits fermenting in your guts for the rest of eternity would be any better. Just be careful.” Gideon raised an eyebrow. “On another subject… What do you know about the demon Astaroth?”

“Astaroth?” Andy asked, finally turning her gaze back to Gideon; he definitely had her attention now. “Uh, never met him, but read about him; I got a replica of the Lesser Key of Solomon I restored. Why?” she asked, clearly uneasy with this segue.

“What I am about to tell you is not for public dissemination,” Gideon said. “Which means it will be all over Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and so on, very soon if it’s not already. A werewolf and her vampire boyfriend attempted to summon a demon who may or may not have been an aspect of Astaroth. Demons aren’t known for being particularly honest, and lying to appear less or more powerful than they are is a common tactic as you probably know. Needless to say, Astaroth or no, this demon possessed the werewolf, butchered the vampire in the most grotesque way possible, insulted a Hound and a werewolf who responded to the crisis, put on a fireworks display, and ran off. We need to find the possessed werewolf, perform an exorcism, and bind or banish whoever this demon is, before it unleashes Hell on Earth, or maybe just a worldwide plague of severe athlete’s foot, if we’re dealing with a much lesser demon playing Mister Big Demon.”

Andy grimaced, not at the idea of Hell on Earth, but of an eternity of athlete’s foot.

“Well, from what I’ve read, demons at that level actually don’t lie; they get off on the fact that they don’t need to lie in order to corrupt, but if this is a lesser demon playing pretend, then yeah, lie city,” Andy replied, idly running a hand through her flaming curls as she sat on the arm of the armchair, thinking. “Once my antique books are delivered from cold storage, I can dig up my copy of the Lesser Key of Solomon; there’s a binding seal in there, I think, and if this really is Astaroth, then we’ll need that seal.”

“Excellent,” Gideon said. “That would be much appreciated. The sooner the better, in fact. Would it speed things up if I offered to have my people collect your books and bring them to you right now? If you can tell us what is needed to safely transport your books and where to get them from, we can get right to it.”

“I got a crew delivering them later today- uh, tonight, um, I can have them focus on the boxes in cold storage first,” Andy said. “But I could use some help going through the books once delivered, ‘cause I have no idea which box it’s in. Just don’t send anyone human, I can’t be around humans a lot right now; the temptation, I just can’t…”

Gideon nodded. Knowing she’d been assaulted, he didn’t move towards her or try to touch her. “Done,” he said. “I’m going to send over Risaldar Natalie Kahn. She works closely with me. She’ll bring some Rangers to help with the heavy lifting. If you’d like, I can have her deliver some beef blood for you, if you have somewhere to keep it. That way, if you have to deal with humans or even witches, you can drink at least a cup beforehand to reduce the cravings. Miss Carter… Andy, you go by Andy, am I correct? This will get easier for you. It will take time, but it will get easier.” Gideon reached into his pocket, pulled out a card wallet, removed a business card, and handed it to Andy. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to contact me. Even if I’m not immediately available, someone will answer that number and I’ll leave instructions to assist you if I’m not available. Go on, take it. I bite, but my card doesn’t.”

Andy gave her fellow vampire an annoyed glare, but took the card. Intellectually, she knew he was right, that things would get better, but emotion was rarely so rational, and at the moment she could not see the light signaling that an end to her pain was in sight. For a moment, she wanted to ask how he had fared when he was turned, but that was an incredibly personal question, and she wasn’t sure she was in the right mindset to hear his answer anyway.

“Thanks,” she said meekly, turning the card over in her hand a few times, shifting her weight awkwardly. “At the very least, I’ll contact you when I find anything that can help you with Astaroth.”

“Much appreciated, Miss Carter,” Gideon said, gathering his shirt, tie, and jacket and heading towards the door. “I’ll see myself out and let you get back to what you were doing.”