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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 117: Brown 324
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 120
“Vampires?” Vashti inquired. “You’ve mentioned them before, but what exactly are they?”
“That’s a good question,” Derek answered. “There are a lot of legends about them, and it’s difficult to know which ones are true. In fact, from what I can gather, there are different kinds of vampires in different worlds. I think that they have a few things in common, though. One is, they were once living people, but they died, but somehow they walk around dead. Also, they steal life from living people, usually by biting them and drinking the blood. Traditionally they bite the neck, and have fangs to pierce the blood vessels there. Not everyone they bite dies, but some who do become vampires themselves. Otherwise, they can’t be out in the daylight, and usually have to return to their coffins to rest. Beyond that, there are a lot of variations. Most are repelled by holy symbols, and sometimes something called holy water burns them. I’ve heard that they can be killed by driving a stake through their heart, trapping them in the sunlight, or drowning them in running water. They are otherwise said to be invulnerable, that is, ordinary weapons don’t hurt them. But it looks like Mister Hunter was gathering a lot of information about these vampires, so I’m going to have to go over it carefully.”
“Why?”
“Well, we don’t know that we’ll run into them, but it seems that there were files on the Grunch and the Rougarou, and our Mister Scratch brought them against us, so the fact that we have this file on these vampires is the best lead we have on what we might face next, or if not next, at some time in our defense of the city.”
She nodded, and he returned to his reading. It looked like the traditional notions were mostly true, plus that they couldn't enter holy ground such as a church or a blessed cemetery. Because of that, Hunter had theorized that they had been interred in a Cajun graveyard somewhere. They also were able to become bats or rats to escape, and they had the ability to control weak-willed people.
He also believed that to kill them he would have to find their burial site. He never did. He did note that the brothers were particularly active during Mardi Gras and the few days leading up to it.
That was still a few weeks away, although celebrations here in New Orleans were already getting started. They could be out there any time now.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
