Warring Logics (Book 1 of The Institute of Fantasiological Studies)

Hans mumbles a thank you and eyes the bright yellow mug I hand him as though it contains poison, not water. I smile at him when he looks up at me. He places it on the coffee table in front of him without taking a sip.

I lean back in my chair and look away from him to the vampire standing on the other side of the room next to the door, “Albert, we discussed this, I need you to leave so I can do the interview with Hans”

Hans raises his arms and places them on the back of the couch, “Yeah Albert, you need to leave”

Albert’s eyes switch back and forth between mine and Hans, “I don’t like this”

“What do you think is going to happen? We are just chatting for a few hours. You are the one who set up this interview” Albert is acting weird.

“I know but-“

“I’m not going to bite her, Albert, that’s gross”

I spin around to look at Hans. What happened to wanting to taste me? I think I should be offended, “Gross?”

“Don’t look at me like that, Alexis, it’s not that you aren’t pretty, it’s just that-“

“This is why I can’t leave you two alone” Albert interrupts.

“As I was saying” Hans continues “now that I can smell you better, you’re clearly an O- and well, I’m just not into O-“

“What?” I can barely believe my ears. Also, I’m pretty sure I am B-.

“Look, it’s not you, it’s-“

“Oh my God” I roll my eyes before I shift again so I can see Albert, “Albert, I’ll call you when we’re done”

“Fine” Albert’s lips are in a tense straight line as he exits the apartment.

I turn back and smile at Hans. It feels weird having this smooth-talking vampire sitting on my cheap couch, but he looks relaxed. He is dressed in a suit that hugs his tall frame and runs his hand through his hair as he flashes an expensive-looking watch. I don’t recognize the brand, but it’s safe to say that Ph.D. students living month to month are probably not their target demographic.

It only takes me only a few minutes to explain to him the interview process and finish signing the informed consent forms. I set them on the coffee table and I turn on my recorder.

Opening my notebook to my preset questions, I ask the first one on the page “So, uh, can you tell me a bit about yourself and your role within the coven?”

Hans smiles, “I’m Hans von Graf, I have belonged to the coven for around 150… no I think its 153 years exactly and-“

“Wait, von Graf?” I grab the informed consent form. It’s written there in plain English, Hans von Graf. I didn’t even notice. With fabulous observation skills like mine, it’s no one wonder I became a researcher.

“Yes, Alexis, I am Fredrik’s brother,” he says patiently picking up the mug of water from the coffee table. He almost takes a sip before he glances down at the mug. He makes a face before setting it back on the table.

“Can I get you something else? Orange juice, maybe?”

“No that’s fine.” He pauses for a moment “As I was saying. I am the Primus’ brother and I act as a sort of… how would you say it? Assistant manager, making sure the under vampires are doing their tasks. I also help with projects if something goes wrong. So yesterday I had to renegotiate our lease for the club because the landlord was proving difficult” Hans crosses his legs and folds his hands onto his lap.

“Interesting and umm…” I glance down at my notebook, “What do you think the main purpose of a coven is?”

Hans looks me dead in the eyes, “We keep the vampire population under control. Not everyone has the… constitution to be a vampire. We provide a community to our members and prevent our members from creating new vampires without prior approval. This way we prevent humans who would not take to be a vampire, well from… becoming a vampire”

Instead of continuing with the questions in my notebook, I decide to get him to elaborate, “So, what does it take to become a vampire?”

“Superior intellect and moral code, but most importantly a potential vampire must have a true strength of mind. It’s rare and so we only approve new vampires every five years or so, and even then they are mostly approved because they are the beloved of our existing members” It’s clear from his tone that he believes strongly in what he says.

“Beloved?” I ask without thinking. I could smack myself, of course, I read about beloveds when I researched vampires.

“A spouse basically.”

“Hmmm” I hum making a mental note to write down elitism in my notebook when Hans can’t read my writing. I look down at my notebook again, “so, ah, does the coven contribute to social and political change?”

“We mostly mind our own business, we don’t mess with the human world if they leave us alone, but when the need arises we advocate for ourselves much like anyone else.”

“How do you advocate for yourselves?” I can’t help it and my mind flashes to old vampire movies, vampires attacking people in dark alleyways, everyone screaming. Perhaps I have watched one too many bad Halloween movies.

“The usual way… we write our politicians, write the newspaper- I think there was even a piece in the Frankfurter Tagespress last month about discrimination in apartment rentals”

“Oh,” I quickly scribble down a note to check out the Frankfurter Tagespress. It will be in German, but I can always google translate it, “and how has the coven changed over time?”

Hans smiles at this, “Coven’s don’t change- they never change. They have a Primus and with him, they live or they die”

*****

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