Big city

The boy had said “yes”.
And since he had, Enoch had taken him for a little grand tour, beginning with the essential – the feeding chambers.
The corridor leading to it was bright and clean, resembling very much of a hospital. Logan walked with small steps. Enoch had dressed him up, and since his Maker was no giant, either, he could still fit in his clothes, though they hung very low, since Enoch was a head taller and much wider from shoulders. A full grown beautiful man, whereas Logan was the boy.

A pretty young girl passed them, wearing a light blue robe.
“Master,” she greeted Enoch politely and with a smile.
“Good day, Aubrey,” Enoch nodded and when she had passed, offered a very brief introduction to Logan.
“That was Aubrey Sandoval, one of our most promising young nanotechnologists.”

“Nano...technology?”
“Do not tell me you have never heard of it. Mortals cannot be THAT ignorant.”
“I know what it is about,” Logan pouted. “I'm not that stupid, just that I...”
“Just that you didn't think we, aristocrats, conservatives, would ever have anything to do with it, is that correct?”
Logan was forced to nod in agreement.
Enoch smirked. “The better. We love to keep your government in that blissful ignorance while we pursue after goals their own scientists don't even dream of. You know – if you were interested in it, you could even study it and work in our laboratories. I am certain it would serve you much better than doing whatever it was you were doing as a human.”

“Numbers,” Logan whispered. “I was putting together... numbers.”
“I hate numbers,” Enoch replied. “Let us proceed, now.”

And so they did, entering yet another corridor, and then by some magical force, or so it seemed to Logan, a wall became a door and it opened, admitting them. Logan turned to look at it, but fast as he might have been, the door had already vanished and he just stared into solid bricks.

“A humble version of cloaking technology,” Enoch explained. “I have taken my time to study such things, since they make our lives much easier and safer. Have you wondered why the government has never successfully raided our home, and the hunters only try their luck to take us down one by one outside?”

Logan nodded. It would have been very... impolite... to say that he'd actually never paid much time to wondering about the ways of the vampires.

“Anybody around?” Enoch shouted.
“In a minute,” a male voice was heard from behind another impenetrable wall.
Enoch smirked. “Emmanuel is here. Well, Logan, looks as if you will be meeting the master of this particular place, and our leading scientist. He can surely answer all of your questions, and show you around.”

“You won't be staying... sir?” Logan was confused.
“No. I have other errands, and I cannot waste my time upon one new fledgling when I've got a House to run. Besides, while I was busy with you, I couldn't see to a certain meeting. You see, we have managed to capture a leader of the hunters, one certain man called Xavier Ford, of the Blood Brothers. Have you heard of him?”

Logan nodded. Of course he had. Everybody had. The man was a legend, and by many saying he and his gang was the only front between M106 and the vampires – especially the aristocrats. And now... caught? What would they do to him? Kill him, of course, maybe torture him. After all, he was their supreme enemy, was he not?

“What will you do to him?”
Enoch smiled. “Why do you ask?”
“Because... because I'm curious,” Logan muttered.

“Curiosity killed a kitten,” a smooth, well vocalized voice mentioned. Logan jerked and turned around, only to find himself face to face with a vampire of his own size, dressed in a well-tailored light blue suit, keen, curious lined face and a dark pony tail down his back.
“Well hello Enoch,” the man greeted their Master jovially. “What a pleasure to see you down here, and who is this charming young man?”

“Good day to you, too, Emmanuel,” Enoch replied a little too politely. “This charming young man is my newest child and your kinsman, Logan Chase. I brought him here so that he could be introduced to some of our primal technologies, starting with the feeding chambers. I figured you would love to take the task.”

“With immense pleasure,” the smaller man murmured, but there was something almost devilishly rebellious in his eyes. Didn't Enoch notice, Logan wondered, but when he looked at him now, he realized that Enoch already knew. It was just a game they played, these two that hated one another, or at least Emmanuel hated Enoch while the Master thought of him nothing more than of a particularly nasty pest.

“Good. Then I will leave the two of you. Emmanuel, when do you think it is appropriate to see Mister Ford?”
Emmanuel chuckled.
“In a few hours, my Master. He will have fed by then and hence in much better condition. I was just on my way to check on him.”
“You may check on him later, Emmanuel. By what I've heard you've already been a little too intimate with Xavier Ford.”

A little too intimate? Logan bit the inner flesh of his lip. What did that mean? Had he... had Xavier Ford also been... raped? No, he couldn't imagine that. Nobody could rape heroes, only weak little things like him.

“Sir, you really shouldn't listen to gossip,” Emmanuel smiled. “I have done nothing but what we had agreed upon. I turned him, that is all.”

“And had sex with him while turning him, and tortured him afterwards,” Enoch cut, but he didn't seem really upset that Emmanuel had done all this, rather that the man hadn't told him of this.

Emmanuel smiled wickedly. “I have done so, my Master. Do you object?”
Enoch laughed. “You wouldn't be standing here with that cocky smile, had I objected. Allow me to remind you that I rule this House, not you, Emmanuel. It seems to me that you've been very absent minded recently and the fact just might have slipped from your mind. Well, allow me to remind you, then.”

Logan couldn't really understand, what Enoch did, but he must have done something, since Emmanuel dropped to his knees as if broken, his eyes locked into Enoch's, and then his body convulsed. First he just gritted his teeth, and then he screamed. Logan yelped, but Enoch paid him no attention whatsoever. Emmanuel's eyes rolled in their sockets and finally tears of blood rolled down his face. Only then did Enoch let go of him, and while Emmanuel slumped to the floor, Enoch left through the cloaked door, without a word to Logan.

So, he was alone here, now, with this man, who'd just been terribly tortured. He had no other word for it and he felt sympathy towards the other, although the scientist had confirmed that he'd violated and tortured Xavier Ford. Had he witnessed that, he would have very likely hated this man here, but as he'd been forced to see almost the opposite...

He crouched beside Emmanuel and touched him lightly by the shoulder.
“Sir? Sir, are you alright? Is there something I can do for you?”
He couldn't just leave him lying there, could he. Then the wall opened – not the one whence Enoch had left, but the other one, where Emmanuel himself had appeared, letting in another man. This one was tall and looked more a warrior than a scientist, though he, too, wore a light blue robe on top of his other clothes.
Within an instant he was beside them and shoved Logan aside so violently that the young man crashed against a wall.
“Stop it! Maximilian!”
“I heard your screaming and came to aid,” the tall vampire explained to Emmanuel, who now had his eyes opened.
“How noble and how silly,” Emmanuel whispered. “Thank you, though. Now, give me a hand and help me up.”
“Are you alright?”
“Never felt better,” the scientist smirked. “Being tortured by Enoch is always very refreshing.” He gritted his teeth, but stood up with the aid of the tall vampire. “And you shouldn't have attacked our newest kinsman, Maximilian. Go, offer him a hand now, help him up and apologize. He was trying to help me and you attacked him... Not very nice of you.”

“I'm sorry,” Maximilian muttered. He walked up to Logan and pulled him up. “I apologize. I reacted to the obvious situation, and I was worried about Mister Zimmerman.”

“Aye, aye,” Emmanuel nodded rather impatiently. “We're alright now and you should be watching a certain screen, instead of wondering around in my lab.” He wrapped his arms around Maximilian's waist and licked over his throat. “I'm alright, really. I love you, sweetheart, but go now. See if he has fed yet and contact me. Oh, and – prepare him for Enoch's visit in approximately two hours. Think you can do that?”

Maximilian nodded and left.
“I do apologize,” Emmanuel smiled at Logan. “You were not hurt too badly?”
“No,” Logan murmured. “I was only worried about you. If I may, sir, but you seemed to be in great deal of pain.”
Emmanuel chuckled. “I can assure you I was. Dear Enoch can make one believe that he's in fire, or eaten inside by piranhas. Anything that comes to his mind, and since he is my Master, I cannot really resist him. If and when he chooses to punish me, I must accept. I am alright now, it leaves no permanent damage. Just a bit shaky, one could say.

Now, tell me about yourself, Logan. May I call you Logan? You certainly may call me Emmanuel, because I'm Mister Zimmerman only when on duty and I have no official business with you.
I heard that you are the latest child of our dear Master and the latest addition to our House.”

Logan nodded. He didn't know what to say or whether to trust this one. He was a vampire. They were all vampires. He was a vampire, too, but he so badly needed to talk to someone.

Emmanuel put a hand on his shoulders. His eyes were gray, deep and very pretty, his face appearance smart and trustworthy.
“Listen to me now, Logan. I know very well that you were taken and turned against your will. I know that Enoch did it to get even with his wife. What a reason to make a vampire, huh? I also heard of his intentions of making you his lover, so I can assume he has already taken and forced himself upon you.”

Logan swallowed hard.
“It's true, isn't it?” The voice was soft and compassionate.
He nodded.

“I thought so. Listen, Logan. You might not believe me and you have no reason to trust any of us, especially after what he has done to you, but I'm still going to say it – I can help you. Logan, I have been where you are now – I've been helpless and rebellious, too weak to resist him. I can sense that hatred in you as I remember my own. Logan, we are not a race. I wasn't born a vampire. I was a young man and alive, until he took me and turned me, to become his plaything, his little scientist.
I am still just a plaything to him. You saw it, Logan. You saw how he punished me simply because of a minor error. I didn't do exactly how he wanted me to do, and he tortured me for it. Sometimes he does it solely for his pleasure, or because he senses that I am not so tamed as the rest. I am still rebellious, Logan. And I can help you. I will help you, if you accept it. Do you want me to help you?”

Nobody could lie and look that sincere. Nobody, Logan whispered to himself. And he wanted to believe, more than anything he needed to have an ally. A... friend.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, please.”
Emmanuel smiled. “Good. And just to prove you that I can help you, I will tell you something about the laws of the vampires of this House. You see – in his jealousy our dear leader has sorely forgotten the first rule – every vampire, disregarding his age, has free will, as long as he abides by the other rules. So you see – even Master cannot keep you as his lover unless you agree to it. If he should rape you again, now that you are a vampire, you can take it to the Council – which is a gathering of the old vampires of this House – and he would be punished, though he is the leader.”

“But...” Something certainly didn't make sense here. “Why are you all here? If he cannot make you stay, why did you stay? Why do you let him do all this to you? I'm sorry, I don't understand, sir. Emmanuel.”

The older vampire sighed. “So young, so innocent, so naïve. Where would I go, Logan? Don't you see what he has done by turning us? We cannot go back. Don't you think I didn't wish to go back to my fiancee, to the university which I loved? But I was dead to them, I had been turned into a vampire and no longer could belong with the alive. I was a vampire, though I hated it, but it didn't matter, that I did. I was a vampire and had to learn to live like one, doing my best at it, because it wasn't going to end at my will. Even Enoch, as powerful as he is, possessing many ancient knowledge, is unable to reverse the process. What is live can be killed, but what is dead cannot be made to breath again.

You must accept what you are, Logan, but by this I do not mean to give up. No. Do you think I have given up? Well, it might seem so, yes, but I haven't, and one good day I will prove you and everybody. I'm telling you, Logan – if you seek to avenge for what has been done to you, then stay with me and I will teach you everything, but I will also protect you and help you in your vengeance.”

Logan nodded. It was all a little too much to take in right now. He tried to explain it to Emmanuel, as well, and the other vampire nodded and smiled.

“I fully understand. Come now, I will do as I was told – show you around. Now, before we start, I must tell you a little about how we sustain ourselves. You have had your first meal, I presume?”

Logan nodded. He shuddered, when he thought of the corpse of that boy on the cold floor. All the while they had fucked – he'd been fucked – he'd just lied there, dead. No life, not even unlife for him. Perhaps he was luckier than Logan, but still he didn't wish to die.

“I can't remember... much. There was a boy. He died.”
Emmanuel nodded. “Ah yes. I should have thought so. Enoch is so very conservative. Of course he would choose you to kill someone. And you know why? To kill the human inside you. To make you such a vampire that you would no longer resist, since you'd be broken, the human inside you dead for good.

Well, practically speaking – that is one way, indeed, and the most ancient one in that. A minor version of that is when you drain your victim of some blood, yet they remain alive. Hard to do, since our vampiric nature tends to take over while feeding, but doable. And well – to practice it, one would have to find four-five victims instead of one, since a human being cannot be rid of too much blood without permanent damage to their health. Besides, we are killers by nature, many say. Oh yes. I think we are human beings by nature.”

Emmanuel laughed bitterly and continued. “Now, these are the two most primitive ways of getting nourishment. You see, it is vital. Without sufficient amount of living blood, a vampire gets weaker until they die. I have done my research of the matter, and I am not the only one that has. Both vampire and human scientists have studied this phenomena. To not wear you out with language you wouldn't understand, let me just say that unless our organism is fueled with living blood, it will begin to degrade and will finally shut down. Though it is argued if we are actually able to die, once already dead, I don't find much difference between eternal anguished coma sleep and death. Actually, I would prefer the latter.

However, my ancestors in this field have worked on a solution how to keep up a necessary “blood bank” and now with the help of nanotechnology we have finally, for the last fifty years, had what Enoch called “feeding chamber”.
Come, let me show you.”