Path of the Vampire forum

Stryge sat alone in the Den, his face illuminated by the monitor. At some point before his own turning, Pi and Lancaster, the founders of his bloodline, had installed a computer in the d'Artois headquarters for the general use of all Canidae members. As a human, Stryge had not used the internet for much more than Facebook, YouTube, and the occasional porn site. But now all of those uses seemed like fairly trivial pursuits to his vampire mentality. His nature had become that of a tracker, and one of the things that he went hunting for on a nightly basis was information. Sometimes that meant not even having to leave the comfortable leather desk chair in the Canidae Den. In addition to being able to hunt live prey by scent and spoor, the information pathways of the internet seemed to be opening up to him. He was no hacker, a skill some of his fellow vampires seemed to possess in spades, but if it was on the public, or even mildly private, internet, he could probably find it.

Tonight, Stryge was on CrowNet, the very private, and quite possibly mystical, internet server that was used exclusively by vampires. He was doing very different research from his usual background investigation into holding companies and shipping lanes, his way of trying to pinpoint which warehouses around town might hold the best loot which he could pilfer for his faction. Tonight he was researching his family.

As he scrolled through the various forums in the d'Artois family's little corner of the CrowNet, familiar names continued to pop up in the threads


Most of them were strangers to him. He wouldn't know them on the street if he walked right into them. But here on this forum, they seemed so often to bare their souls, as well as quite a lot of animosity at times, that he felt like he knew each of them personally. It was as if knowing this forum was hidden from the world had given its members the same sense of security that a family has behind the closed doors of their home. And with that sense of security came the freedom to air all sorts of dirty laundry. Stryge wondered briefly if he should feel guilty reading this. He felt like a guest awkwardly caught in the middle of a family squabble. There were other names:

Some truly messed up things had happened to this family. His family. There were wounds that cut deep. He wondered if it would be possible to heal them, or if fledglings like himself and Sia, poor innocent Cathy, and Forsyth, who seemed so lost, would suffer for the sins of their "fathers." But he was not here to judge. There were joys and celebrations shared on the board as well. Signs of a family that truly loved each other. From the compressed view of time that binge reading these forums afforded him, he could watch the ebb and flow of relationships, love turned to strife, and how strife turned sometimes back to love again. Though not nearly often enough.

And there was one more name, one that rang out over and over again, the one name which more than any other that seemed to be a source of discord in his new family:
As he read, Stryge began to understand more and more why Sanctuary existed; why Pi had gone through so much grief to bring her childe Stryge into the fold, and the relative safety of Sanctuary's teaching and protection. As a foolish and reckless new vampire, he could have easily fallen victim to the faction who had brought martial law to the vampires of Harper Rock. These were vampires who hunted and killed their own kind. There was no due process. Tytonidae was judge, jury, and executioner. It made little difference in Stryge's mind that most vampires (though, it seemed, not all) would eventually make their way back from the Shadow Realm. From all accounts, the Shadow Realm was as close to Hell as he hoped any of his brothers or sisters would ever get.

Stryge's Texan mentality couldn't wrap itself around this violation of basic rights. The Lone Star State prided itself on being fiercely independent. He tried to imagine this sort of martial law being enacted back home. The entire damn state of Texas would end up turning into one big Ruby Ridge. Stryge closed the internet window and rubbed his eyes. It was telling that rarely had he seen his family go online to complain, fight, or cry for help because of a human vampire hunter, one of these so-called paladins. It was Tytonidae that was a plague upon his house. Well, to hell with them, he thought. Goddamn if he wasn't also from the home of the Alamo. He would die before he'd let Tytonidae touch another member of his family. And, being a vampire, he reckoned that, after that, he would do it again. And again. And again. Until maybe the bastards got the hint.

Stuart got up from the computer desk, stretched, and headed towards one the Den's fade portals. Tomorrow maybe he would take a crack at the Grigori board, which his family's lineage also gave him access to. As it was, he had had enough of the internet for one night.

It was time to go steal some ****.