Path of the Vampire forum

Amalea desperately needed help with the chaos that was currently masquerading as her life. Sure she had friends she could ask for advice, but she suspected many would suggest a visit with a psychiatrist. For the average person, that idea would have merit but for the red-head such was impossible. A visit to any human therapist would essentially be an one-way ticket to a padded room; vampires may have been outed but there were still many who thought they were just a product of delusions and fetish clubs. She wasn’t even sure a vampire shrink was even a thing though it would likely just invite trouble given most vampires’ feelings on humans.

With limited face-to-face options, the woman chose to turn to a familiar source for guidance. Retrieving her supplies, she took time to properly prepare her space. Once satisfied, she thumbed through her book of spreads looking for something suitable for the situation given the multitude of issues that were colliding. There was always the option later to do secondary reads for more specific information on a situation, but for now, something general would be best.

Choosing ‘The Path’, Amalea let herself drift into a near meditative state as she shuffled the cards and drew them one by one. Each was laid face down with the first being set with enough room for cards to be laid below. The second card went below and slightly left with the third and fourth cards directly below. Card five was laid opposite card four though to the slight right of the first card. Six and seven were placed directly above, opposite three and two, respectively.

Card one: Temperance Reversed
The Significator

Though the first card was the significator meant to reflect the nature of her query, the red-head never followed the tradition of specifically choosing the card. Rather, she let the cards speak for themselves finding that her results were typically more accurate that way. Releasing a deep breath, she turned the first card over to reveal the Major Arcana card Temperance in reverse. The blood thief had to laugh as it was the perfect card for the mess that was her life currently. It was certainly full of the imbalance and struggle indicated and she knew the caution of needing a plan or assessment was rather accurate as it was indeed why she had chosen the particular spread.

Amalea was no stranger to personal chaos though even she would be the first to admit that she didn’t always heed the warning signs life tended to throw her before the **** really hit the fan…hard. She certainly hadn’t seen them before Reyna had disappeared without a word nor when Phoenix seemed to have done the same. Many would say she hadn’t seen the warning signs that the city had been occupied by vampires when she first arrived in Harper’s Rock, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

She had been fifteen when her father had been killed in a plane crash supposedly while on a business trip for his job as a beer sales representative. The will reading had been uncomfortable as everyone present, except the lawyer, had glared at her when it was revealed that her inheritance was multi-phased. There was a safe deposit box with several small items – a camera, pictures, mp3 collection and some art prints – along with a trust fund for college tuition and an account for incidentals. The rest which the will was decidedly vague on would pass to her on her twenty-fifth birthday.

Nine months prior to her twenty-fifth birthday, Amalea had decided she wanted to move to Canada and explore the Canadian side of her heritage. Given she had some money saved up between the remainder of her college allowance and the jobs she had taken after graduation, she had decided she’d would just move and sort the job out after she arrived. Her aim was to head up a town in Ontario once summer arrived and to take very little with her.

Just three months later, she received a package from her father’s lawyer which contained several bound volumes. Leafing through quickly, she recognized the handwriting as her father’s which sparked her curiosity. Once the red-head had placed the books in chronological order, several days were spent reading through each. They were intriguing; each documented a secret life led in the shadows. One of creatures once believed to be myths turned to reality. Each explored the evidence of their existence along with details on the species. Generally, they were supposed to cruel, vicious monsters that had gone extinct some years before. The town of Harper’s Rock kept appearing throughout as a place of interest. Finding out it was in her target area, she made plans to settle there. Her hope was to learn more about her father’s secret life and the mysterious creatures to which he had devoted it.

Barely two months after moving to Harper’s Rock, the red-head had been shocked to have her first brush with an honest-to-god vampire. Apparently they weren’t extinct as her father had thought and she had managed to become employed by one for a vampire-friendly club. Though the warnings from her father’s book that they were vicious and cruel monsters had rang in her mind, she had chosen to ignore them as she had been treated well thus far. The more she interacted with the customers the more she came to the realization that they weren’t monsters but rather more like humans that most would expect.

Over time, she had become friends with several of the vampric patrons and had developed a fondness for them. That fondness had slowly developed into a desire to help them wherever she could, especially on the human side of things. Today, she was waist-deep in what most humans would still consider the ‘enemy camp’ and even though it tended to still cause chaos in her life (like now), she was still glad she had ignored all her father’s warnings.

Card two: Strength
Rational - Current

The second card of The Path spread was where the reading truly began. It would speak to how she had been and currently thought. Given her mind seemed to be a scary place, even to herself, the red-head was a bit afraid to see what the card would reveal. Flipping the card, she was surprised to see Strength, another of the Major Arcana cards. Such cards typically indicated something of importance and tended to overpower the other cards in terms of effect or impact depending on position.

Strength was an interesting card that was frequently misunderstood. At first glance, most people tended to assume that the card spoke of physical strength. While physical strength could be the implication in the very rare instance, it is a card that speaks more of a mental or emotional strength; that one has the strength to make it through the lemons that life keeps pelting them with – even if they choose not to make lemonade.

In an odd way, Amalea supposed the card suited her subconscious state of thinking. In some odd part of her mind, she knew she could weather the chaos and make it through, even if wasn’t completely unscathed; it just didn’t feel that way. It was possible it also referred to her strength to acknowledge that she needed help.

Asking for help didn’t tend to come naturally for the red-head. She had been raised to be very independent and didn’t have many positive memories of times she had dared to seek help. She had quickly learnt that it was safer to attempt to sort things out on her own, even if she failed.

Learning vampires weren’t truly extinct as she was led to believe was certainly not something she could have asked for help with, even if she had wanted. Humans were liable to either attempt to throw her in the looney bin or to believe her and start a city-wide witch hunt. While she wasn’t a fan of being committed, she certainly did not want to be the cause of the second extinction of vampires. She supposed she could talk with various vampires, but mainly were still wary of humans and she wasn’t entirely certain talking to the cause of the problem was a solution. Thus, she was left to sort things out on her own.

Amalea had come to terms that vampires had existed in the past well before moving to Harper’s Rock; had being the key word. Coming face-to-face with the real deal was a fair bit different from reading about them in a book. That Amara was a vampire who owned a club that catered to vampires had been quite the shock; never mind that the red-head had accepted a job there. The vampire had looked so…normal; the human wouldn’t have guessed the woman had such a secret identity. In fact, most vampires seemed perfectly normal, at least when you first met them.

It had been several sleepless days while she sorted through the entire tangle of emotions and logic, but eventually she had decided that vampires deserved to be treated just like any other person. It wasn’t until you either had known them for a while or gotten up close and personal with them that the differences began to show. Aside from the blood drinking bit, and she supposed the supernatural abilities, were really the only concrete differences that truly set them apart.

After that personal decision, Amalea had made her mission to ensure her new found friends and their friends stayed safe. Reports of vampires were countered with other possibilities in an attempt to control the rise of the hysteria. Potential issues and rumors were passed along. She became a true blood-doll for patrons of the Necropolis as well as befriending several of them. It was a mission that had grown and evolved over the years and it suited the red-head just fine.

Card seven: Three of Wands
Rational - Suggested

The last card pulled was the next one that the red-head would flip over as it was the partner to the Strength card. Where Strength spoke to her past and current thoughts, this card would show how to change the way she thought to help resolve her issue. It would be interesting to see what suggestion would be made. Turning the card over, she revealed the Three of Wands.

Wands were the suit of fire, and ironically, for its position in this reading, of ideas. Generally, they tended to speak of some sort of growth or expansion. The Three of Wands often speaks of some sort of travel and/or of bigger things to come – particularly for already in progress ventures. Here, the red-head took it to mean that she needed to expand the way she looked at and thought about things going forward.

Of course, she also appreciated its meaning of growth and expansion given she was currently in the process of expanding her portfolio of businesses. Sanguine Services would always be her baby, but the red-head had so many ideas for future businesses. Her next business which was in its final stages of incorporation would be a catering company that also delivered meals to all of the city’s inhabitants. It had been something she had wanted to do since her early days at the Necropolis, but had never found the perfect time to do so. After the grand opening for Crimson Delights, as she had named it, she hoped to open a third business within the year. Currently, there were no solid ideas for what it would be, though it would follow the pattern of the others and be for the benefit of her fanged friends.

Card three: The Fool
Emotional - Current

The second pair of cards in The Path spread dealt with emotional attitudes. This first would speak to her current attitude. She knew her emotions could change faster than the weather. While she had been considered ‘recovered’ from the extreme depression that had plagued her a couple years ago, she did find that sometimes it still managed to bite her in the ***. This card, therefore, could be quite insightful. Flipping it, she was shocked to see the third Major Arcana card of the reading – The Fool.

The Fool was an intriguing card. Most would assume that its meaning followed its namesake though that was not the case. In tarot, The Fool would be the 0 card in the Major Arcana which would allow it either be the first or the last. It represents a beginning and an end – that while one door closes another will open to herald in the start of a new journey. That if your journey seems bumpy just smile and keep going; optimistic attitudes are your friend.

This card confused the red-head as she didn’t feel very optimistic at the moment nor did she know of any journeys beginning or ending. Sure she had the opening of Crimson Delights on the horizon, but surely that had nothing to do with her emotions. There was also the in-progress affiliation with Genesis Labs though that fell in the same category as Crimson Delights in her mind. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head and it clicked. There was one recent emotional journey it could refer to, but she would wait to see what the other cards had to say before committing to that interpretation.

Truly, the last significant ‘end and beginning’ that Amalea could recall was the transition from plain old human to blood thief. It hadn’t been something that she had considered before Blake and Phoenix had made their proposal to her. In exchange for aiding them with their daytime tasks (and some nighttime ones as well), they would give her access to their powers. Essentially, she’d be a human servant, but without the thrall bond. She was depressed enough at the time to agree, though had they been friends first, she would have still agreed.

It had been a long and painful process. Finding a blood thief had been the first hurdle and convincing them to agree to teach her another. The real pain began with the first vampire blood feedings. The first few days it was not uncommon for the red-head to projectile vomit the entire content of her stomach – even when empty- within moments of drinking the blood sample. After that dissipated, the cramping and pain remained though it lessened over time. She could have cried for joy the day her teacher pronounced her fully trained as she had been able to feed with no pain.

While she remained the same on the outside, she had known that was the end of her being human. Blood thieves were still technically human, but it wasn’t the same. The abilities bestowed on her by the process – the faster healing and increase in her strength – weren’t normal for humans and had to remain a secret. It still was a secret from humans; though she didn’t completely hide it from vampires given they could sense it. She didn’t take without permission so she never tended to have an issue with the fanged species. The powers she was able to ‘steal’ from vampires were certainly helpful even if she had to be careful as to when and where she used them. She was still grateful that she’d had them the day of the bank robbery otherwise she feared that would have ended worse than it had.

Card six: Seven of Pentacles
Emotional - Suggested

Though it is commonly believed that manipulation of one’s own emotions was difficult, it was possible. It took some dedication and mind tricks such as smiling to evoke a happy emotion but it could be beneficial. This second card of the emotions pair would indicate the way that she should try to make herself feel. After taking a moment to refocus after the last card, Amalea turned the card to reveal the Seven of Pentacles.

Where Wands were fire, Pentacles were earth. In the second irony of the reading, again given the position of the card, Pentacles were associated with manifestation or fruition. Specifically, the Seven of Pentacles speaks of good fortunes in ones future. Between the two emotion cards, Amalea’s best guess was that while she was generally optimistic about things, she needed to be all-in and fully vested in the future and it being bright. Almost as if believing it would be good would make it so.

The blood thief hoped that there was a secondary meaning to the card in terms of good fortune in the future aside from inside her emotional state. She had always been optimistic that one day in the future that vampires and humans would be able to live side by side without open war. She had always worked behind the scenes towards this vision though she had offered recently to be more active when Doc had mentioned wanting to get into politics.

--

A vampire mayor working through the night to ensure the city and all of its inhabitants were well-cared for and safe as their human servant handled the daytime side of the processes. Crime had reached an all-time low with the implementation of fair laws that established equality among both species. Vampires were given free-reign to run gangsters and drug lords out of town while the human police force dealt with robberies and other run of the mill crimes. Vampires were able to appease their desire to kill things while the human police were safer from not needing to deal with armed, trained criminals.

Bars and restaurants served blood alongside their usual fare though it was requested that live feedings be restricted to private quarters or facilities that catered to such. Blood and live blood dolls were readily available to all vampires as feeding from an unwilling human was treated as assault. Any offenders – for assault or otherwise - were reported to the vampiric police who were in charge of ensuring suitable punishments were dealt out. Enough to appease the minds of the humans while allowing vampires to exercise their full nature without letting the humans know just what they were capable of. Misdirection at its finest.

Card four: Two of Chalices
External Stance - Current

The last pair of The Path spread dealt with the External Stance, or how one acted outwardly and/or hoped that others saw them. Being the last card in the first, or current, column, the next card would indicate the way the red-head had been acting thus far. She was a bit intrigued when she flipped the card to reveal the Two of Chalices as it would be the third suit to make an appearance in the reading.

Chalices were the water element of the tarot and associated with emotions and desire. Two of Chalices could refer to a relationship or bond. It could refer to something romantic, but not necessarily. Though it refers to a bond of some sort, the bond itself is not the entire focus but rather on how the bond works. It tends to indicate that such relationship is both mutually fulfilling and beneficial; therefore the bond is well suited.

Amalea laughed softly at the card. She certainly felt that she currently had several such relationships. Each brought something special to her life and for that she was grateful, but there was one that had given her something she had always wanted – a welcoming family.

--

Nearly twelve years to the day we lost dad, mom decided she didn’t want me in her life anymore. I’m not sure why I was so surprised by that given the childhood, or lack thereof, that I had. Boarding school had been the norm since grade one with camps occupying every summer. Honestly, it sucked as anything that wasn’t part of the tuition was an automatic no. Both facilities had letters on file that the school or camp wasn’t even to contact her to request permission or funds for any trips. So a lot of times, I got to watch as everyone else boarded the bus to head off on some amazing adventure that I would hear about later.

She only seemed to really tolerate me when dad was home and we were off on some two week vacation. Even then, though, she was rather crabby when dad insisted on educational, but fun, trips. I think, if she had had her way, her and dad would have spent the two weeks in some exotic location without me. Dad did do his best to try to make things right by sending small gifts to school though with his job(s) it tended to be haphazard at best and since mom was listed as the contact, he was unable to give his consent for trips.

Honestly, I think I would have preferred to have been put up for adoption than grow up in those circumstances. Even though she chilled out minimally after dad was killed, boarding schools and camps with no trips remained the norms. The only real change was to be allowed to spend the time we’d usually use for our two-week vacations with which ever classmate’s or campmate’s family had invited me over – if any had. If not, I would spend the two weeks at home alone – no cable, no car, no daytrips – while she went off on her own trip.

I knew not all families were as dysfunctional as my own, but I never thought that I would find a ‘new’ one at any point. Even in my wildest dreams, I would have never thought it possible. It wasn’t like I was some orphan that needed to be taken in after all. I still had a parent and a family, even if they were dysfunctional.

It’s hard to pinpoint the first time I met someone of the Dragomir bloodline; I wish I could recall. It had probably been some party or just a casual gathering that I had been invited to by someone else. That seems to happen often enough. I do recall one evening in Voodoo when Mortll had questioned what the heck I was doing there as a human; several had spoken up to vouch for my presence which had been amusing at the time. They weren’t all Dragomir, but though various functions I had gotten to meet several of them.

Eventually I had taken a position working for Enzo as his property manager. It is an interesting venture to work for such a high-class and well-respected man. The real shock came the day I found out that not only had he declared me under his protection but also an honorary Dragomir. In addition, the others of the line had accepted it without batting an eyelash.

The fact I’m (mostly) human doesn’t even seem to be a factor in any interaction anymore. It certainly helped to know that there was some sort of unconditional acceptance by a family. It was certainly overwhelming at first given my upbringing, but now it’s just a nice cozy feeling. To know that there is a family to turn to, even if they seem to have become quiet.

One of the other things that seems to have stemmed from such an adoption was the invitation to join Voodoo which has become a second (or third depending on how one counts). It’s a nice way to cut loose and have some fun. I really appreciate being able participate in our monthly tournaments even if I end up getting my butt kicked since I learn something new each time. I also have a wonderful time in our turf wars; it’s nice to be able to beat something up sometimes. But most of all, it’s pretty awesome to have a a couple ‘families’ to hang out with.

Card five: Knight of Swords
External Stance - Suggested

One final card remained to the spread which was also the final card in the column that suggested what changes to make to achieve a solution. This would be the card that would suggest how the red-head should act for the sake of others. What differences there were between this card and the Two of Chalices would potentially point to the behaviors that would be best altered. Curious as to what it could be, she turned it over to reveal the Knight of Swords.

Amalea blinked as she took in the sight of the Sword card. It was the first time she had seen a single card of each suit in a reading. Swords completed the quartet of elements by representing air. She was also starting to think the suit of each of the ‘suggested’ cards seemed to match its position in the spread. Swords were associated with action and movement which suited the card’s position perfectly. The fact that it was a Knight card was also of note as Knights are instigators of change signaling a beginning or an end.

The Knight of Swords was a card of single-minded focus on accomplishing a goal. That nothing was going to stop you from achieving that dream or completing that journey. The downside, though, was that there was some danger as well given one’s narrow focus. One might miss details in the big picture that might be critical to your success; they may not heed the advice of others. To never back down but to think long-term rather than settle for short-term wins that would be deter form long term success.

The message for how she should act was clear and could essentially be summed up by the phrase ‘take the bull by the horns.’ The interaction between the two external cards was, however, interesting. A card focusing on relationships versus a card on achieving a dream – it seemed to make no sense to the red-head. The best guess she had at first glance is that she should act more decisively and chase her dreams, but not forget that bonds could be powerful in the process.

Like the suggestion cards before it, the secondary read of the card was well suited to her life and businesses. It had been a dream of hers, since shortly after she had moved to Harper’s Rock, to start a business that delivered blood to vampires. The original concept had been to find several other like-minded humans and have vampires place their orders much like one would order take-out. She would act as the dispatcher so that no real names or contact information needed to be exchanged. As the red-head had become more familiar with the city though, it had become clear that there was too much risk in the plan.

As the city evolved around her, the red-head had taken up cooking as a hobby and discovered molecular gastronomy. Having played around with the various uses, she began to wonder why the same principles couldn’t be applied to blood to give vampires more options than just a liquid format. It had also been around this time that the idea for Sanguine Services had begun to form. It wasn’t the business she had originally envisioned, but it was something she knew humans would accept and could also benefit vampires as well.

Using some of the early test samples they had collected to calibrate the machines and refine their processes, Amalea had tested her knowledge of molecular gastronomy. It worked beautifully in most cases, but made any non-allurist vampire incredibly ill due to the powers used. It was a setback, but it did give the woman a new idea for a business that might achieve her original dream.

A small catering company that delivered meals from a daily menu while also catering small functions would be the perfect vehicle for blood delivery as well. Non-blood doll deliveries would be able to be handled by the usual drivers so the only persons who needed to be aware of their dual clientele would be the blood dolls, the chef and herself. The chef and blood dolls would be carefully vetted before hired and suitably eliminated if they started to pose any problems.

In her personal experiments at Sanguine, the red-head had discovered that one could make slight changes to a blood sample that would cause it to behave differently. Up the clotting ability of a sample and you would get a nice pudding or jello consistency, for instance. She spent her time between the lab and the kitchen as she developed the first round of human-friendly meals and perfected the vampire-friendly treats.

Her legal staff was currently handling all the paperwork for the city and had advised that everything should be finalized before month’s end. To say she was thrilled that her dream was finally coming to fruition was an understatement. Really, the only thing left besides waiting for the final papers was to plan the grand opening – something that she truly looked forward to.