Agreement Between Old and New Vampires

*** DISCLAIMER – THIS BLOG IS FICTION AND THE AUTHOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE ACTION OF ANYONE WHO PERSISTS IN THINKING IT IS NOT FICTION ***

There are a few things on which both Old and New Vampires agree.

One of them is that a vampire can wear whatever a vampire wants.  Normally Old and New vampires leave one another alone, but if an Old Vampire verbally attacked a New Vampire’s clothes (or vice versa) then any vampire (Old or New) would take that vampire down and the Vampire Hunters will not interfere.

Another is that unless Old Vampires and New Vampires seek one another out, both of us leave one another alone.

If I, or another Old Vampire is out hunting and we chance upon a New Vampire, we give one another a polite nod and both of us leave the area immediately.

It’s very annoying as I have lost food this way, but it prevents confrontation which would bring the Vampire Hunters down on both of us.

It’s much better to lose food and live than to gain food and never be seen again.  Vampire Hunters let New Vampires get away with far too much, but if a New Vampire is bringing down exposure on all of us, they will not hesitate to deal with her or him.

When Old and New Vampires have to meet, we follow the Rules of Engagement.  The Rules are strict, but we all know that if we stick firmly to these Rules a bloodbath will be avoided.

Occasionally there is a New Vampire who does not stick to the Rules.  The rest of the New Vampires then literally fold their arms to state they are doing nothing and watch us deal with her or him.

The one time the Rules do not apply is when a vampire is losing a fight against another supernatural being.  If it’s only vampires fighting, anything can happen, but allowing others to beat up vampires sets a dangerous precedent.

Changes

*** DISCLAIMER – THIS BLOG IS FICTION AND THE AUTHOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE ACTION OF ANYONE WHO PERSISTS IN THINKING IT IS NOT FICTION ***
1989 and 1990 is when my whole life changed.

First my husband disappeared in June 1989, then the stock market crash of Black Monday in November 1989 took most of my money with it.

I put the castle on the market in January 1989 and it was sold within a few months.

I had to downgrade to the Victorian semi I now live in. It was hard enough getting used to life without a husband and a castle, but it soon became obvious the money I had left would not be enough to sustain an Old Vampire’s lifestyle, even one which had been pared down as much as mine. So I had to work.

It was all so new to me, but fortunately Adele saw me through it all as she owns a large recruitment agency.

Adele came down personally to help me out. She could have just left me to her manager and cut all ties with me. Instead she helped me.

A lot of people on her books are New Vampires who either still want jobs and/or do not have enough money to give up work.

She started the agency to help vampires change identity. On the face of it, it is a respectable employment agency. Behind the scenes, her employees (all New Vampire servants who want to become Old Vampires) help with all vampires’ documents.

It used to be that you didn’t have to prove your identity, you were who you said you were. It used to be that you could just walk in with your money and change things. Nowadays you have to have two different pieces of paper just to open a bank account.

When a vampire gets to eighty, it’s time to change identity. Our identities used to change at thirty, but now we can use the excuse of plastic surgery.

I was lucky. Some Old Vampires have no such friends to count on.

Husband

*** DISCLAIMER – THIS BLOG IS FICTION AND THE AUTHOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF ANYONE WHO PERSISTS IN THINKING IT IS NOT FICTION ***

My husband was called Jeffrey von Sydenhow.  We both had a love of polite society, but we also shared an enjoyment of the façade of life : the pretences and appearances it was necessary to keep the illusion of being human.

It was so much fun.  Jeffrey was one of my friends who helped me with my gambling addiction, and after that we started life in the 19^th century anew, but much poorer.

Jeffrey still had his money, but he invested heavily in stocks and shares and lost most of it in the crash of 1929.

It changed him.  Unlike me, he had never had to suffer a serious loss before.

First he spent more and more time in his study, pouring over the financial world.

After ten years of this he was spending half his days in there and I grew concerned, as I knew this was becoming addictive.

I talked to him about his behaviour, but he said he was trying to see where he went wrong.  I told him that stocks and shares were a gamble at any time and it was bad luck and no fault of his own.

He started locking the door after that.  Oh, a locked door is no impediment to a vampire, but if you survive going through a door a vampire has locked, society will shun you unless you have a very good reason for doing so.

After twenty more years he stopped attending social functions.  Our friends became concerned when he hadn’t attended a function for a year.

I had told them all about his behaviour, but they thought he would snap out of it.

In the morning of June 2^nd 1989 I came back home from a rather good party and realised that he was no longer there.  The only thing he had taken was his coffin.

Marriage

*** DISCLAIMER – THIS BLOG IS FICTION AND THE AUTHOR IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF ANYONE WHO PERSISTS IN THINKING IT IS NOT FICTION ***

In the past all female vampires had to get married. Then marriage gave a veneer of respectability over what we were and did the same for humans.

Back then, it was expected that you would be married and any woman over the age of twenty five who was unmarried was definitely an old maid.

Some humans never did get married, but since a vampire is always young and beautiful, we attract attention. And attention is the last thing a vampire wants to attract. So I got married.

As I have said before, vampires cannot love. So the best thing is to marry a friend. Someone who you get on with and have common interests.

Some of us vampires enjoyed being married, and in the early to middle ages it was easy enough to find an abandoned baby which could be brought up as one of our own. In later centuries vampires often adopted.

It is easy for an Old Vampire to provide what was seen as “a good home” for foundlings. Most of us have money, and money provides anything. And everything, if you have enough of it.

Human children were mostly liked, but never loved. A great deal of work goes into choosing a child, because although children who are disliked by vampire parents have accidents, too many accidents draw attention.

A human child will be brought up in vampire culture and will be turned vampire when they are twenty-one. It’s quite a ceremony, coming of age.

I was not one of the vampires who had children. I liked my husband and we were good friends, but I did not like the constraints of marriage when I was human and I was never maternal.

Some women are just not natural mothers and I found it difficult enough when I was human, so when I married as a vampire we told everyone that I couldn’t bear children.