Culled by the Mark(private, Mora&Cotter)

[Cotter (DELETED 6051)]

It was getting weirder by the second. It was no comfort to Dale that Mora was between him and the door leading out of the room. Were it not for the blood bag in her hand, the important query would be the whereabouts of the young woman's fiance. When he recognized the bag, he felt an unfamiliar hunger compelling him to obtain it. His hair stood on end when he noticed that the source of the most agreeable scent in the room was drying on his hand. Disbelief registered in his features when he looked to her again, his stare subtly off-center from one moment to the next. "I'm what?"

[Mora]

“A vampire.” A leg crossed over the other as she nodded her head slowly. Trying to help the man come to an understanding to what he was, because she knew it was a lot to take in especially when he didn’t know what she was at the start. “I am a vampire. You had lost so much blood already, you asked me to help you.” Words were spilling from her mouth quickly as she picked up the white tee shirt and offered it to Dale. With a warm smile etched across her pale, full lips. Moss orbs looking at the man with care, and tenderness.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, I know it’s borderline crazy. You must think I’m crazy. I don’t blame you either. There is a bigger world out there than you thought you knew with fae creatures, and vampires. “ A laugh as she brought a hand up to caress the man’s face. “There is blood on your face, let me get you a wet cloth.” So she got up, and slipped into the small bathroom area within the crypt and ran her purple flannel underneath the tap. Until it was completely damp, and slipped back into the bedroom and handed it to the man. “It’ll help.”

[Cotter (DELETED 6051)]

The damp cloth felt refreshing against his face. Dale lingered a moment when it's coolness came to rest across his neck. As he did, the stream of words and pictures flowed unhindered. He sighed weakly, his shoulders sagged, and for a brief moment, he felt his heart sink. He cradled his head in one hand and shut his eyes, raising the dam to hold back the tide of minds. On opening them again, he quietly did a head count, just to be sure. After wiping his hand, he folded it up to conceal the red mess he'd stained it with.

Crazy or not, whatever Mora had done to him, it had healed his neck without a scratch. She had done it with blood, and now he had a craving for it. It was even more unnerving that she believed that by doing this, she had turned Dale into whatever she was. Like it or not, he was one of "them" now.

He took the clean shirt and started changing out of his bloodstained tee to put on the new one, seizing the familiarity of such a simple task to collect himself. "Okay," he sighed. "So, how many are there? How big is this 'world'?"

[Mora]

She let him do his thing, wipe his face into the wet cloth, changing his shirt. She made sure to twist her head away whilst he did that. Privacy was privacy. After a few moments and he began to talk again she turned her head back to look at him. He looked better, more normal now that he wasn’t caked in dried blood and mud. She let her moss orbs give him another once over. “Would you like some trousers to go with it? I’m sure Jameson has some around here… or even Judas.” She began to talk to herself as she stood up and began to start stalking around the bedroom for a pair of trousers for the man but to no avail. She’d have to text one of them in a bit.

“This ‘world’ is only this small city.” She said after settling herself down again in the chair beside the bed. “Basically, Harper Rock sits on a rift, a void per say. Where the elder vampires slipped through after being trapped there for two hundred years. They escaped – and began to sire again. Though, there is some weird magic at play. If a vampire outside of harper rock was to die, they would stay dead. Never to come back, rather than dying within the city your spirit gets sent to the shadow realm, where you then return after a week or so to your body. Moral of the story, try not to die outside of Harper Rock.”

She laughed, it was more or less a laugh to herself. A story she had recited many of times to those she had sired in the past, but most didn’t listen to her and did die outside of harper rock, or had gone missing. Mora didn’t have the best luck when it came to siring. “As for how many there are.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I couldn’t tell you, because I honestly don’t know. Possibly more than three hundred. Humans and vampires live here, the humans don’t know about us. They cannot know.” She said.

[Cotter (DELETED 6051)]

"Oh, my jeans are fine," he answered. "Besides, I can go back to my apartment and...get some things. I prefer to keep to my own clothes."

When he put the white T on, a memory of Lenna came unbidden. She used to steal a set of clean clothes to wear, he remembered, or from the dirty pile, if I was behind on laundry. It had been that way for years now, every little thing reminding him of a quirk, or a memory. It was hard to look at anything without remembering something. It was part of why he drank. He could sense the river of thoughts beginning to trickle in, and reinforced his will. It was going to take some getting used to.

"Humans and vampires live here, the humans don't know about us. They cannot know."

"I don't think I want to tell anyone." He paused. "So, 'they can't', is that some kind of rule?"

[Mora]

She nodded her head in reply to the jeans, she was quite grateful actually. She didn’t know what she’d do if he started to undress. She’d probably run from the room and then some. Pushing a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear looked the new vampire over with moss orbs. Curiosity spiking within her, well just by the brief appraisal she did of him, he was a Telepath. She worried that she had passed her own path onto the man. She had done it once or twice. There was also a twinge in her stomach. Would he inherit the madness of the Telepath, that madness that Mora tries so desperately to hide from the world, and chain within herself. Who knew, time would tell.

It was also a well-known fact that the Telepaths were the intelligent vampires around here, they added clarity to someone’s storm. Yet, they could jump off the deep end and swim within the depths of vathia, an ocean Mora had swum through many times. It called to Telepaths, sometimes it was far too tempting to ignore. She remembered the time she had been dragged to Vathia along with Elizabeth. That was when she first truly understood what Telepaths could do. The power they truly held.

“It is a rule.” She said finally. “We have a law here, with the vampires that is. Humans cannot know about us, that means using your powers in front of humans. Attacking another vampire out in public, in front of humans. If you are caught, we get put onto something called a bounty list. A faction named Tytonidae will hunt us down, to uphold the law, the masquerade. To make sure our existence is kept unknown, granted there are some humans that know about us. Thralls, people we can enthral with an allurist like power – that’s a path by the way, they are our eyes during the day.” She gave off a light shrug, trying not to melt Cotter’s brain with all of this.

“Drink the blood, it’ll help. I promise.” She said.

[Cotter (DELETED 6051)]

Dale took the bag of blood with a lack of hesitation that made him wonder. He wondered if a hospital would miss it, but he was hungry. The taste was much more than familiar now. Sweet, but not like sugar. There was also a warmth that came from taking it into himself, but from the blood. But it had come from someone.

Like Lenna, he thought. The image of her sodden remains came up rarely in his infrequent intervals of sobriety, a memory faded and weathered by time and substance. He had his fill of what-if scenarios, spawned by an absence of leads and an equal opposite measure of dead ends. He balked at the idea of digging the old wound open, but it would be the last time, his last chance, and with luck he might finally put her ghost to rest. Tytonidae might put him on the path to closure, and give him a niche, help him channel his pain.

Baby steps. Being resourceful and a taciturn shooter was all well and good - in the mortal world. He would need to be much more than that against other vampires, especially factoring in their rate of mortality, dying a final death.

After finishing the bag, he asked, "How does a vampire get stronger?"

[Mora]

She plucked the finished blood bag from his fingers and dropped it in the bin beside the bed and left to go grab another from the shop. She gave the money, and took the blood pack in return before returning to Cotter as she opened the bag for him and handed the other over. Careful not to spill any droplets onto the silk sheets. She was funny about blood on the sheets, she hated to change them. “Here is another, in case the hunger is still there.” She said. “If you prefer it warmer, there is a microwave just over there.” She pointed out of the bedroom into the main area. “Feel free to nuke it.”

She heard his next question and found herself blinking. He seemed so eager already. How did he get stronger. It would depend on what he wanted to do, really. “You train.” She said. “We have many places you can train with a blade or a sword. The Quarantine Zone is a good place to start, practice your skills on the zombies.” She paused, looking at his features. “Zombies are real, not sure how they got there, but they are locked within a small space over in Wickbridge. The humans don’t know about the breach, but the vampires do. We tend to use them as target practice. So, if you want to train – there is your best chance. Stay away from the Feral vampires though. They will crush your bones with one go. Don’t go up against one of them until you feel you are confident to give them a good go. I know they can be quite intimidating at first.”

She did have a spare gun hanging around the crypt. She made her way over to the corner of the bedroom where a rifle rested against the wall – she picked it up, and placed it on the bed in front of Cotter dropping a few boxes of ammo beside it. It was only a couple of thousand, nothing spectacular. “Here is a good gun, if you need one. It should do you well – and ammo.” She said. “I can take you to the QZ, if you feel up to it. Show you around.”

[Cotter (DELETED 6051)]

"Training", an oddly human answer. He'd expected that maybe he'd have to feed on people, gain "essence" or something. He didn't much care for most entertainment featuring vampires, and the furthest into the faux-occult of the creatures was Bram Stoker's Dracula. He wasn't alone in his opinion of the book being required to be read and analyzed, no matter who you were in the college. Thinking back, the little things were starting to make sense together.

"The Quarantine Zone is a good place to start, practice your skills on the zombies.”

The crease in his forehead grew as he raised his brow. A portal that spawned undead creatures, as if vampires weren't enough. Dale appraised the weapon beside him. Even at a glance, he could tell it was indeed a good rifle, at least better than the gun nut's Frankenstein he'd thrown together on a whim a few weeks ago. He loaded the weapon with ammunition, then got off the bed to check the weight and practice aiming, surprised at how light it felt in his hands.

“I can take you to the QZ, if you feel up to it. Show you around.”

"Well, I'm not tired," he replied. "Yeah, okay. I'll have to see it to believe it."