Tori Vordenburg hated planes. It was boxed in, filled with people you didn't want overhearing you, and you had no control over the speed or the route. Give Tori the freedom of a car on the open road any day! She sulked in her seat, Erzulie sitting next to her.
"I still fucking hate that we're traveling with a... 'goth,'" Tori grumbled to Erzulie, hastily trying to compose a secret code.
"I get it," said Erzulie. "I'm as uncomfortable around 'goths' as you are, but they don't all need to be 'dealt with.' Some of them are actually pretty well-behaved for what they are."
"That's how they try to make it look," said Tori, "but I'm not sure I buy it. Take the von Karnsteins, for example. They try to paint themselves as model 'goths,' but look at all the times my family's had trouble with them."
"Maybe so," said Erzulie. "But that's a clan. Megan's an individual, a victim. Just like Fiona was."
"And yet she chose to remain a leech," Tori remarked.
"I just don't get the feeling she intends to hurt anyone," said Erzulie, flipping a stray dreadlock behind her chocolate-skinned shoulder. "Besides, her powers should be useful when we investigate. When does this plane finally reach Seattle, by the way?"
Tori sighed theatrically. "The day after tomorrow! That's two more nights in this flying prison." The punky blonde buried her face in her hands.
Erzulie glanced over at Megan and Fiona talking animatedly in their seats across the aisle. "They don't seem to mind."
"Isnae this sae amazin', Megan?!" Fiona beamed. "Ah've ne'er flown afore! Ah spent mah hail lee oan that lonely Hebrides island, ye see. Ah aye meant tae git aff 'n' see th' world, bit then that vampire lassie had tae ruin hings 'n' keep me prisoner in her castle fur sae lang."
"I don't think you're supposed to say the V-word in front of humans not in the know," said Megan. "Tori says these things are secret, and I don't wanna piss her off more than I already did when I decided to stay a... night person."
"Och, sorry," said Fiona. "Ah'm juist excited. 'Tis lik' bein' in th' belly o' a metal bird. Ah jalouse ye've flown afore? Yer fae America, efter all."
Megan took a moment to decode Fiona's dialect and then responded. "Yeah, I've flown before. Never as a... you know... before, though. I'm looking forward to meeting the von Karnsteins. Hopefully they won't be creeps like Drusilla or whatever her name turned out to be."
Tori quit listening in and turned back to Erzulie. "It's weird how human that fang can sound sometimes. Maybe it's because she's young."
"Doesn't really matter why," Erzulie shrugged. "What matters is she's easily the most likable 'goth' I've ever met. So, what's Stokerville like?"
"It's not the hugest town out there," said Tori, "but it isn't super tiny. It's an old logging town that makes most of its money these days from tourists come to see the national parks. There's a bit of nightlife, but not as much as we're used to from New Orleans. Still, we ought to fit in pretty damn well."
"Why?" asked Erzulie.
"Because every girl from puberty to thirty is a lesbian," said Tori. "A lot of what little nightlife the town has is sustained by lesbian tourism from neighboring towns looking for a place to feel welcomed."
"Exactly how lesbian are the Stokerville girls?" asked Erzulie.
"75% lesbian, 20% bisexual, 5% straight," said Tori. "And that's just the young people. Their moms are around 55% bisexual, 30% lesbian, and 15% straight. The grandmas are 40% bisexual, 40% straight, and 20% lesbian."
"What's with the rising numbers?" asked Erzulie.
Tori chuckled slightly. "Guess."
Erzulie's eyes widened. "Carmilla?"
Tori scoffed. "Who else? You know the impact patriarchs and matriarchs can have on their territory. A depressed one can turn it into a land of constant rain, clouds, and gloom. A lazy, pleasure-seeking one can spread that attitude to all their neighbors. And a really proud lesbian can... well... skew statistics over the generations. I don't even think they do it on purpose. It's something their psychic subconscious does to create circumstances likely to produce a large quantity of likely new clan members."
Erzulie shook her head, trying to process it all. "Jesus, these 'goths' are weird."
"You said it," said Tori. "Even the few that aren't pure evil are just plain weird. And Stokerville has to deal with the just-plain-weird of being the place the von Karnsteins call home these days. They live in the ritzy part of town, in a big neo-Tudor mansion with grounds large enough to be a town in its own right. I imagine it'll be an adventure talking to them; Vordenburgs and von Karnsteins don't exactly have a pleasant history."
Erzulie smiled teasingly. "You're hoping they're the bad guys, aren't you?"
A guilty smile played on Tori's lips. "Well... that's natural, isn't it? Quite a few of my ancestors have died in confrontations with those 'goths.' A lot of others lost body parts. My dad's younger cousin even became a von Karnstein. Her name was Lisa. I think she's calling herself Liesel these days. She was psychic; we think she was part-fairy on her mom's side. She's Carmilla's seer now."
"Your code's slipping," Erzulie whispered. "I don't blame you, though. Was it consensual?"
"I'm sure that's what Carmilla would say," Tori muttered darkly. "I'll have to ask Liesel once I get to Stokerville. I swear to God, if it WASN'T consensual, we're freeing her no fucking matter what the von Karnsteins think of it!"
"And the other 'persons of interest' in town?" asked Erzulie.
"There's some 'hippies' on a homestead just outside of town, obviously," Tori said. "Hippie" was Tori's coded word for a werebeast. "These particular ones are... very passionate about wolves, but some 'hyena enthusiasts' seem to be popping up. The 'hippies' and the 'goths' have a strained relationship at best, mostly because the 'hippies' get real sensitive about protecting their property.
"The 'hippies' are led by a man named Caleb Lyall and his 'wife' Artemis. Caleb's a fairly calm type, but he can be stubborn sometimes. Artemis, on the other hand, can be a territorial ball of aggression. I've heard enough to know that talking to her will be a huge pain in the ass. I almost think it'll be more fun talking to Carmilla. Yeah, there's the deeeeeeply uncomfortable family history, but at least she's a stickler for traditional aristocratic 'goth' courtesy. You know them and their stupid fetish for grand, courtly manners. 'Hippies' prefer to solve problems the animal way.
"Aside from those two groups, we could meet just about any kind of weirdo. The Pacific Northwest is full of them for some reason, and you know how nomadic they are. Well, I think I need to unwind now, babe." She pulled on a pair of headphones and turned on some Metallica. Erzulie gave her girlfriend a quick kiss on the cheek and picked up an in-flight magazine, putting all thoughts of vampires and werebeasts aside for now.