The Midnight Sun

It seemed he was interested in learning from her. She would be curious to see what he was capable of. Despite his unwillingness to fight or be violent, Grandma still felt he might have some potential.

“Although I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about vampires, I should be able to uncover at least a few of your dormant abilities. Even if you don’t wish to use them regularly, I’m sure they could prove useful in self defense. After we finish eating I’ll do a preliminary overview of you to try and make some of your powers manifest themselves.”

As Grandma finished speaking, the waiter reappeared, bringing their food over to them. Taking a large bite of the lobster, Grandma nodded in satisfaction. Most excellent and the ghost pepper added that extra bit of spiciness, well, more than a bit.

“How is your Kabab? Satisfactory I hope?”

Roy nodded. Grandma was smart, and she clearly had studied lots of things. Surely, she would be able to teach him how to use vampire abilities. 

"Alright, that sounds great! How would you do that, though? The preliminary overview, I mean. Do you have some sort of magic lens that shows hidden powers?"

When the food arrived, Roy bit right into his kebab. It was hot and greasy and burned his mouth, but tasted excellent. He dipped it into the coriander sauce, but decided that he didn't like the taste of coriander and ended up not using the rest of it.

"It's good, Grandma! Really good. I had no idea this place had such tasty food!"

Roxanne nodded. It seemed simple and straightforward, which meant that there was a catch of some sort. Nothing that paid this well was ever so simple, after all. There were monsters, of course. But what else? Was the artifact cursed?

"That's excellent, Benedict. Sounds simple enough. Tell me, what sort of monsters do you think we'll see down there? And why on earth do you have monsters in your basement? How did you even get them down there? Also, do you know of any booby traps that we should be aware of?"

“You could say I’m self taught in some ways. Of course, I’ve followed countless others examples in using magic. Some of these people I’ve met first hand, others I’ve learned of through books they wrote about how to replicate their magic. One of the reasons I love traveling so much is all the things I can learn along the way, it’s quite enlightening.”

Pouring herself some more wine, Grandma pulled one of her shrimps from the wooden stick they were skewered on. These shrimp were quite superb, she wasn’t sure which she liked more, the shrimp or the wine.

“Well, nothing for you to worry about. Maybe having you try some different types of blood, seeing how you react to certain objects, stuff like that. Things of that nature should be harmless enough. That reminds me, what type of blood do you consume to survive and how do you acquire said blood?”

So the boy didn’t want to drink blood, well, that would most likely stifle his growth. Perhaps she could do something about that. If he hadn’t received actual blood for ages, he should be ravenous at the very sight of it. Communicating through her ring to the waiter mentally, Grandma told him to bring them a drink of a different kind…

“Although it is admirable that you don’t wish to hurt anyone, not drinking fresh blood might stifle your growth as a vampire. I would suggest that you find some method of gaining blood, preferably human. Perhaps I could assist you with this…”

Grandma takes a sip of her wine as she says this, licking her lips with satisfaction at its taste.

“Although I have heard tell that perhaps there are even better blood types than human blood for a vampire to consume. Some tales say that each blood type has properties it can give the vampire if they consume the blood for long enough. Whether these tales are true or not, I don’t know, but perhaps we should test their validity.”

Roy thought she was talking about animal blood? He truly was naive, but Grandma had already known this. It seemed she would have to spell it out to him.

“I am referring to the blood of magical creatures, elves, fae, perhaps even something like a dragon. I have heard tales that such creatures blood contains the ability to boost a vampires capabilities, but as I said before, I cannot be sure about this as they are only rumors. There are also many ways to get blood as long as you have the right connections… Many are willing to sell some of their blood for money and as long as they don’t part with too much of it, they suffer basically no ill effects.”

As Grandma said this, the waiter approached, holding a wine glass filled with a dark red liquid. It looked rather thick in consistency. Placing the glass before Roy, the waiter offered a bow before departing once more.

“This here is human blood and fairly fresh to boot. You should try some Roy, I’m sure consuming just black pudding from the butchers doesn’t truly satisfy you. Remember, simply having this is doing nobody any harm. Infact, I would say you should drink blood regularly, to keep your urges in check. Although you may be satisfied with such a diluted version of it now, in the future it might not do enough to keep your in control of yourself."

“Well, there are ways to get the blood of such creatures through more peaceful methods. Of course, it can also be taken from one's destined to die anyways…”

Grandma didn’t see inclined to elaborate into what she meant by “one’s destined to die”, instead simply taking a sip of her wine. Roy liked dragons? That was slightly surprising, Grandma had expected him to be terrified of them, but perhaps he had ran into a nice one. On second thought, hadn’t he mentioned something about meeting one?

“Well, as I mentioned, some will sell blood for a price. I have connections to a number of services that get blood in that manner, but there are of course other methods… So tell me, how does it taste? Do you feel anything different than normal after drinking it?”

Studying him hawkishly, Grandma looked for any sign of the bloods effect on Roy.

Ah, excellent, Roy appeared to be remembering the taste of fresh blood. He was beginning to look more energetic, and he had also stated that his senses were growing in power. Goodness, the boy had been starving himself on a low quality source of blood.

“Good, good, you are now remembering how it truly feels to be a vampire. I believe due to your dislike of blood you have been previously starving yourself of the stuff, weakening yourself without need. Now that you remember how it taste and how it feels to be in a proper state, you wish to continue living in such a way, yes? If so, I would be willing to assist you in acquiring the necessary blood.”

The waiter reappeared, clearing off the table of their meal plates unless Roy was still eating. Grandma would simply continue to watch Roy, still looking for signs of change from him.

“One of The Midnight Sun’s associates used to practice fleshcraft. The master himself has since departed, but his creations roam free in his absence, unregulated and mostly unrestrained.”

This is stated very matter-of-factly, as if such things are commonplace; as if Benedict was simply stating the time of day.

“As for what sorts, your postulations are about as well-informed as mine might be. I could tell you a bit of what I know, but the extent of my knowledge isn’t very thorough, and, to be quite honest with you, there don’t quite exist words to specifically describe some of the things I’ve seen. ‘Terrifying’ and ‘grotesque’ not being specific adjectives, of course.”

“On the bright side, however, you are fully free to do what you will down there. No beast down there is any friend of mine. Kill them all, if you’d like to. I may see it fit to apply a bonus to your compensation, should you remove any significantly nasty problems from this world.”