you seen the place?” She cocked her head to her left, towards the riotous crowd. The room was now shrouded in a thin veil of cigar smoke, which no one, besides Lilac, seemed to mind.
“Doesn’t seem the kind of establishment that attracts the most law-abiding citizens, now, does it? No one comes to regulate the tavern. At least, they don’t live to tell the tale. Human blood is costly, and donors are compensated, as are we.”
Placing the glasses onto a rack under the bar with uniform plinks, Lorietta lifted her nose to the ceiling. “Casmir is a rich one, and very old. He’s foreign, so when he’s in town, he gets all the women he wants; in turn, they want him just the same. Other vampires will opt for the cheaper, more organic alternative,” she added darkly.
Lilac swallowed. She hadn’t heard of many vampire attacks recently. Maybe they had gotten better at hiding it. “Killing people is illegal,” she said, sounding stupid stating the obvious. “Or so I thought.”
“I don’t think they kill anymore,” the witch said quietly. “The local coven tries to refrain from that, so they drink and entrance victims to forget instead. Mistakes are made from time to time, I’m sure. Illegal, by all means, but they live for the thrill of the hunt. Those creatures are driven by instinct. The king’s law doesn’t matter as much.”
“But Casmir had both,” Lilac pointed out, “the woman, and his goblet of blood.”
Lorietta laughed. “He likes to indulge himself. Regardless of how fresh, the bottled stuff isn’t the same to them. Straight from the vein is best, or so I’ve heard.”
Lilac shook her head, trying to process all of it. “So, no one else here cares? About them doing that? Right there in the open?”
“I asked him to go because, really, it disgusts me, too. And you’re here. But, no offense, why would any of us really care? The Fair Folk haven’t imposed any laws restricting vampires from feeding. Remember, your kind is only allowed into Brocéliande at our mercy. You’re in Darkling territory now,” she said, sternly. “It was never in King Henri’s interest to extend his laws to benefit or cover us. The only mortal laws that affect Darklings are those created to limit our power.” She gave a forced laugh. “And humans have the nerve to wonder why we don’t fancy their rules here.”
“So…” Lilac said slowly. It was impossible to keep up. The Fair Folk were something of a mystery to her, and conversely, to humans in general. As intriguing as it was to see them in the flesh, it was also odd hearing someone else refer to the species so casually. Something stood out to her. “What about the faeries? Imposing laws?”
Lorietta paused to hand a frothing jug of mead to the korrigan struggling onto the barstool across Lilac. Her books had painted the pint-sized creatures as thieves, but he didn’t strike her as such at all. Cup in hand, he contentedly sipped the foam off the top, threw her an attempt at a flirtatious wink, and wiggled back down onto the floor.
Lilac glanced back up to see the witch’s lips purse tightly together—almost as if she thought she’d said too much.
“It is in the nature of the fae to yearn control. They operate through manipulation and are baleful creatures by default.” She lowered her tone. “In fact, faeries don’t consider themselves Darklings at all… but on the occasion that they do need something, they’ve tended to work closely with the vampires.”
At Lilac’s expression of surprise, she added, “Vampires can communicate with creatures and humans alike, while faeries are limited to their Darkling Tongue. So, on occasion, the vampires serve as their informants… their confidantes, if you will.
“The Fair Folk turn their noses up at anyone who isn’t of kin. However, they despise the human race more than all of us combined, so most of us look the other way when it comes to vampires and their survival. The vampires keep the faeries out of our hair, so the majority of us could care less about their other affairs.”
“But witches are capable of speaking to both Darklings and mortals,” Lilac observed aloud.
“That we can. But we know better than to concern ourselves with the Fair Folk. They believe in karma like the French believe in God. When faeries are of service to anyone, regardless of how miniscule the favor, they will always demand something in return. Those beliefs don’t align with our values at all;