Vampire Cultivation System in a Hidden World of Monsters

Alice locked eyes with Victoria in a serious but unthreatening manner and said, "What if I told you it wasn't so ridiculous?"

"It isn't?" Victoria said, pleading. Pleading it to be true, and deathly afraid it wasn't.

"It's not," Alice said. "I was in love with you Victoria Mae Waters. Were you in love with me, Alice Marie Fairfax?"

"I don't know," Victoria said. She looked lost in a sea of self doubt and confusion.

"You don't know?" Alice said, with a slightly raised voice. "Would you Victoria Mae Waters have taken me, Alice Marie Fairfax in sickness and in health, til death did we part?"

"Yes! Of course I would have!" Victoria said, trembling.

"That's love you imbecile!" Alice said.

"Then, I guess, I Victoria Mae Waters did love one Alice Marie Fairfax once upon a time in England. There, I said it! Are you happy?" Victoria said, trembling, tears running down her cheeks.

"It doesn't matter if I'm happy you said it, Victoria. Are you happy you said it?" Alice said.

"Y-yes. I am!" Victoria broke down in tears, whimpering with her lower lip stuck out.

Marco came out with the first course. "Ey, ey, no crying until the appetizers are on the table, please! This is L'Antipasto della Nonna or Grandmother's Appetizer in English. In it we have prosciutto, various aged cheeses, marinated olives and grilled artichokes. Special family recipe, the artichokes. Enjoy!

Now you can cry."

Marco went back into the back. Nothing but a professional that one. He didn't bat an eye at the tears. If anything, it seemed like he expected it. It was the reunion of a lifetime after all.

"Have you been well?" Victoria asked as she dabbed at her tears, trying her best not to smear her make up.

"At first, no. The first thirty years without you were very hard. But I adjusted. Now I'm a very happy successful single female vampire actress!" Alice said. "How have you been?"

"Oh, you know, just tearing my way across the countryside until I got snatched up by the Vampire Association, and made to live a humble and respectable lifestyle, taking only what I needed and no more than that," Victoria said.

"The Vampire Association? What's that?" Alice said.

"You never encountered them? I guess you wouldn't with how you travel around so much and don't feed through blood as Dylan tells me. Feeding through the emotions you evoke in your audience. What a poetic way to feed," Victoria said, as she took a bite of food. "You continue to amaze me even after all these years."

"And you don't think your method is poetic? Feeding off the pleasure you give to others? You're taking exactly what you're giving. If that isn't poetic, I don't know what is," Alice said. "I thought I'd seen the last of you, Victoria, and I am so happy to be wrong!"

"Aww, you flatter me! I'm not that amazing. I'm just a woman trying to make a living, just like everyone else," Victoria said. "But to get back to what you asked, the Vampire Association is a group of vampires that work together to keep humans from finding out we exist. I'm not with them anymore though, as of today, actually!"

"Oh! That sounds like an interesting outfit. What made you leave?" Alice said, taking a bite of grilled artichoke. "Wow! This really is amazing! Thanks for recommending the Tour of Italy, Dylan.

Otherwise, I probably just would've got a pasta dish and that's it."

"Oh, no problem!" I said. Enjoy more content from empire

"Actually, it's funny. He's the reason I left the Vampire Association," Victoria said, pointing at me.

I was trying to staying as silent as humanly, or vampirically, possible. I was just a fly on the wall. It was their reunion. Not mine.

"How so?" Alice said.

"Well," Victoria sighed. "He was our best and our brightest and he thought it would be a good idea to clear out the caves around the school of monsters. Him and a professional exterminator stumbled upon a colony of giant bats right next to the school!"

"While Dylan was exterminating the bats, some of them attacked the school and killed a dozen people. Dylan killed the entire colony of bats single handedly, but they blamed him for the deaths. It turns out, these bats had been picking off anyone who wandered out of the school into the caves alone. So before Dylan came along dozens of people had gone missing because of the bats."

"Dylan probably saved dozens more future people, but they didn't even count that. After charging him with being responsible for the deaths, they sentenced him to death!"

"So that's when you left the association?" Alice said.

"No. Me and an Elder friend of mine tried to rescue Dylan, but some really strong dude kicked our asses and made sure Dylan got executed," Victoria said.

"So that's when you left, right?" Alice said.

"No," Victoria said.

"Victoria! How many strikes does it take to make you realize you were on the wrong side?" Alice said.

"Several, apparently," she smiled sheepishly. "So then some other stuff happened and Dylan finally convinced me to leave after I found out he was still alive."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Thank goodness!" Alice said. "You know, you are hopeless sometimes Victoria."

"I know," Victoria said hanging her head. "But I try so hard not to be."

"And that's why we love you," Alice said.

Marco came out again, this time with the second course. "La Zuppa del Cuore or Soup of the Heart. Here we have a traditional Tuscan bean soup, served with fresh-baked crusty bread. The soup contains a secret family recipe of herbs and spices!"

I looked at Marco, shook my head, and said, "Why does everything have to be a secret with you, Marco?"