crystal ashtray to stub out his cigar. “She may not have all of our secrets, but what she does know would give the Huszars a leg up on taking us over.”
He turned to me. “Maybe we need to give you a little background.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Blood has always been a food,” the Baron began. “There are many, many organisms that live off blood sucked from a host. Much of the endemic diseases in humans have evolved because of bloodsuckers. Tse tse flies, mosquitoes, internal parasites, bed bugs, lice, fleas. Many of those suck blood from animals as well, and the transmission of diseases is well-documented. What isn’t documented is the transmission of the act of feeding itself.”
Toward the end of the first pandemic outbreak of the plague in the 14 th century, a tale began about cattle and other domestic animals found dead with all their blood drained. Famers kept watch and some saw shadowy things circling around the downed animals. The stories began about witches and demons until one particularly keen-eyed farmer spotted a bat swooping around the corpse. This story spread through the region that would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As the stories and animal deaths spread, bats by the thousands were trapped and bagged as they slept during the day, and clubbed to death. During these years, a mutation happened. An occasional bat would attack a human and this transmitted the need to feed on blood. Bats could only drink so much, but as humans began to feed on their own kind, the need for food would often kill the victim.
A secondary characteristic was that sometimes blood would circulate between the feeder and the food. And when that happened, the victim received a bonus; rather than killing him, the mixture of bloods gave him an life that could only be snuffed out by extreme methods. The victim became a blood-sucker, a vampire, the only way that vampires could add to their numbers.
The tales got a boost with Vlad the Impaler, in 15 th century Romania. He tortured and killed thousands of his subjects by impaling them on wooden stakes. Vlad’s bloodthirsty, sociopathic nature added to the stories of random death and impalement became the legendary way to kill these almost indestructible beings.
By the middle of the 16 th century, several small bands, or tribes, of vampires lived in the Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian—the Carpathian Mountain—area. Initially, they staked out territories; eventually they ended up warring on each other. As food supplies dwindled—more peasants were killed or left the mountains in fear—the tribes took to fratricide, which kept the numbers down. Within a hundred years, the tribes had coalesced into two major families, the Kandeskys and the Huszars, who developed large feudal estates near each other.
The vampire “families” existed with a fragile truce for almost 400 years. They agreed on hunting territories, splitting up middle Europe. As long as the peasant population held, they culled, taking care not to mix the bloods. Occasionally, one or the other of the families would add a few new members, but they were careful to keep the numbers low enough that they had ample food. About 150 years ago, the Huszars lost two of their older leaders when they were caught by a frenzied mob outside a village. The vampires had taken two young village women, intending to mix blood and use them for mistresses.
Impaled with wooden stakes through their hearts, the death of the leaders left a power void and a domestic war. When the dust and blood cleared ,the new leader of the Huszar family was a relatively young man who’d been in the family for less that 200 years. He wasn’t satisfied with the ways and determined to control all the vampires in Middle Europe. The Huszars embarked on an all-out war, taking over small villages. Most of the peasants ended up as food but a few—those comely or strong or teachable or loyal—became blood-suckers and joined
He turned to me. “Maybe we need to give you a little background.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Blood has always been a food,” the Baron began. “There are many, many organisms that live off blood sucked from a host. Much of the endemic diseases in humans have evolved because of bloodsuckers. Tse tse flies, mosquitoes, internal parasites, bed bugs, lice, fleas. Many of those suck blood from animals as well, and the transmission of diseases is well-documented. What isn’t documented is the transmission of the act of feeding itself.”
Toward the end of the first pandemic outbreak of the plague in the 14 th century, a tale began about cattle and other domestic animals found dead with all their blood drained. Famers kept watch and some saw shadowy things circling around the downed animals. The stories began about witches and demons until one particularly keen-eyed farmer spotted a bat swooping around the corpse. This story spread through the region that would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As the stories and animal deaths spread, bats by the thousands were trapped and bagged as they slept during the day, and clubbed to death. During these years, a mutation happened. An occasional bat would attack a human and this transmitted the need to feed on blood. Bats could only drink so much, but as humans began to feed on their own kind, the need for food would often kill the victim.
A secondary characteristic was that sometimes blood would circulate between the feeder and the food. And when that happened, the victim received a bonus; rather than killing him, the mixture of bloods gave him an life that could only be snuffed out by extreme methods. The victim became a blood-sucker, a vampire, the only way that vampires could add to their numbers.
The tales got a boost with Vlad the Impaler, in 15 th century Romania. He tortured and killed thousands of his subjects by impaling them on wooden stakes. Vlad’s bloodthirsty, sociopathic nature added to the stories of random death and impalement became the legendary way to kill these almost indestructible beings.
By the middle of the 16 th century, several small bands, or tribes, of vampires lived in the Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian—the Carpathian Mountain—area. Initially, they staked out territories; eventually they ended up warring on each other. As food supplies dwindled—more peasants were killed or left the mountains in fear—the tribes took to fratricide, which kept the numbers down. Within a hundred years, the tribes had coalesced into two major families, the Kandeskys and the Huszars, who developed large feudal estates near each other.
The vampire “families” existed with a fragile truce for almost 400 years. They agreed on hunting territories, splitting up middle Europe. As long as the peasant population held, they culled, taking care not to mix the bloods. Occasionally, one or the other of the families would add a few new members, but they were careful to keep the numbers low enough that they had ample food. About 150 years ago, the Huszars lost two of their older leaders when they were caught by a frenzied mob outside a village. The vampires had taken two young village women, intending to mix blood and use them for mistresses.
Impaled with wooden stakes through their hearts, the death of the leaders left a power void and a domestic war. When the dust and blood cleared ,the new leader of the Huszar family was a relatively young man who’d been in the family for less that 200 years. He wasn’t satisfied with the ways and determined to control all the vampires in Middle Europe. The Huszars embarked on an all-out war, taking over small villages. Most of the peasants ended up as food but a few—those comely or strong or teachable or loyal—became blood-suckers and joined
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