“I’m setting up the Meet-Me room now. Lazenti’s fine with meeting.” She unlocked her tablet and brought up the Meet-Me room, and a moment later, she propped it up so we could see Lazenti.
“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for being available on the spur of the moment.”
“No problem,” he said. The room behind him was so non-descript that he could have been anywhere, and I understood why Saturn—the unofficial mayor of Underground Seattle—had swept him away to a safe-haven.
“So, we’d like some advice, if you have it. Would someone, if they had fantasies of becoming a vampire, start out by setting themselves up as a bloodwhore? And if so, do you think they’d keep the information quiet from their family?” I asked. “I know this is making generalizations, but we could use your opinion.”
Lazenti raised his eyebrows. “What on earth are you up to now?”
“New case. Woman’s husband went missing.”
“There are a lot of reasons a woman’s husband could have vanished, including a mistress. He might be a criminal, he could have accidentally drown or been murdered, any number of things that don’t include deciding to join the vampires,” Lazenti said.
“Right, but…” I told him about Penn’s psychometry, and the nature of the disappearance. “We’re looking into the Tetrachordian Temple, and there’s a dearth of information on it. Given Penn’s psychometry, we’re thinking it might be something as simple as a vampire-wannabe finding someone to turn him.”
“Well, true. Vampires have to come from somewhere, and barring ending up on the wrong end of a rogue vamp, well…you generally have to petition someone to become your sire. For most vampires, that means presenting a damned good case and creating legal contracts proving that you gave them permission. You have to be of age. The most common reason is the presence of a terminal condition,” he said.
I thought for a moment. “What would compel you to turn someone? What would they have to say to you?”
Lazenti hesitated for a moment. “Honestly? I’ve only turned one other person since I became a vampire. I seldom talk about it, but…” He drifted off, looking like he wanted to do anything except answer.
“If it’s too personal, don’t—” I started to say, but he shook his head.
“It is personal, but I believe more vampires are like me, rather than raring to increase the population. So I’ll tell you. The woman was my ex-girlfriend. Well, she’d been my girlfriend until I was turned. I just vanished, and she had no clue what happened. One day, about two months later, I snuck around to check on her. I must have tuned in that she needed help, or the gods were merciful, but when I peeked in the window of her house, I saw her lying on the floor, blood all around.” He sounded so pained that I regretted asking him.
“What happened?” Carson asked.
“I had been in the house many times while still alive, and she’d never barred me from it, so I was able to break in. She was on the cusp of death. She was still conscious—barely—and she seemed so relieved to see me. She said that she thought I was dead, and she didn’t want to live without me. It was too late to get her help, but I offered her the chance to live as a vampire. She took it. I’m pretty sure she thought we could go on as we had.” He gave a little shrug, wincing.
“But you couldn’t?” Dante asked.
Lazenti paused, then said, “It might have been possible, but being turned changed her more than it had me. When she was conscious and had fully transformed, the love had drained out of her. She was more feral than me, and when I asked her to marry me—we could be together forever at that point—she refused. She laughed at me, and then, she left. I’ve never seen her since that night and I never went looking for her. She’s my one regret, twice over. I regret losing her when I was turned, and I regret turning her when I found her again.”
“Do you think she went rogue?” I asked.
“I honestly don’t know but I think it’s probable. She had a wild streak in her and I think it took over when I turned her. I’ve never sired anyone else.” Lazenti looked haunted in a way that I’d never seen him look. The glamour faded for a moment, and I saw the regret and pain behind the allure.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“I’m all right,” he said. “But I think a number of other vamps have similar stories to mine. Siring vamps they now regret. A few, however, run businesses based on minting new vamps, even though it’s illegal to make it into a business. No money is supposed to change hands. But they’re usually wealthy and stealthy enough to avoid being found out.”
“Sire for hire,” Sophia said.
“Money,” Lazenti said. “Money makes the world go round you know. And there’s a lot of money to be made with the wannabes. So many are young, emo kids who only see the mysterious glamour and the dark glittering side of this life. They don’t see the blood lust or the long, lonely decades and centuries, when everyone you ever knew has died. Almost everybody knew back in the days when I was alive is gone now.”
“Too many people are willing to sign their life away because they think bigger, better…” I paused, then said, “but back to our case. If Mark wanted to become a vampire, how would he go about finding a potential sire?”
“That’s easy enough. Some of the nightclubs in the Underground welcome bloodwhores, and once you sign up for that, it’s not a far stretch to find the sires-for-hire. The fees for siring someone…that’s what we—vampires—refer to as actual blood money. A bit of a different meaning than on the outside of the culture, you know.” Lazenti thought for a moment. “If you wanted to investigate, you might go undercover as a bloodwhore. But bear in mind, playing that part comes with a lot of danger.”
I thought about it. I had no desire to play the part, nor to ask anybody else to. “Okay, we’ll wait on.”
“Can I ask what makes you think this guy wanted to become a vampire?”
Lazenti hadn’t heard me talk about the case. I explained about Penn and the watch.
He hesitated, then said, “That would track, but honestly? My instincts are telling me you’re looking in the wrong direction. At least this case. And what’s this temple?”
“Mark Ryle joined what sounds like a cult. We’re having trouble finding out much about it, except that it’s been around for over a hundred years, and they charge their inner participants plenty. Carson, can you fill him in? I’m going to run to the restroom.” I stood, stretching, then headed out of the breakroom.
