Tori parked the car in front of Karnstein Manor. "Megan, Fiona, you two stay in the car," Tori instructed. "The less Carmilla knows about my plans, the better."
"Aw, I wanted to meet her!" Megan whined. "I really need to meet other vampires if I wanna find a clan of my own to settle down in."
"Well, don't pick THAT one!" Tori snapped. "You deserve better than those bitches!"
"Ye pure dinnae like thaim, dae ye?" Fiona chuckled.
"I really don't," Tori said darkly. "You wouldn't either if you were a Vordenburg like me."
"Remind me what happened?" asked Megan. "I think you told me, but it was a lot to take in."
"A lot happened," Tori sighed. "The founder of my family was Baron Heinrich von Vordenburg, a German nobleman who held land in Moravia in the modern Czech Republic."
"Czech? German?" Megan interrupted. "I thought your family was Austrian."
"Yeah, but all those countries were in the Holy Roman Empire at the time," Tori said. "Anyway, Baron Heinrich was in love with a woman named Carmilla, but (being a lesbian) she wasn't interested. Some in my family say she led him on for a while, possibly in hopes of turning him, but who can say for sure? Baron Heinrich moved on, joining a fraternity of noblemen who defended the Moravian peasants from vampires. Unfortunately, a vampire named Count Tiberius von Wisborg hired Baron Heinrich to kill a vampire named Lilita, an escaped consort that Count Tiberious wanted to make an example of. I wasn't long before Baron Heinrich succeeded in beheading and staking Lilita, but vengeance came for him in the form of a familiar face... Carmilla! She'd become the new matriarch of the clan that Lilita had founded, as well as Lilita's lover, and she wanted revenge for her slain soulmate."
"Is that sae streenge?" Fiona said with a shrug. "It soonds lik' she juist wanted some justice fur her deid bride. It cuid hae a' bin a muckle miskenning. Count von Wisborg soonds lik' th' true villain o' this story tae me."
"He was certainly a twisted son of a bitch, don't get me wrong," said Tori, "but I can't let Carmilla off the hook after everything else she did. Like the incident in 1863 with Laura Hollis. That was when Carmilla decided to take a consort for herself, and my ancestor Baron Joseph von Vordenburg did everything in his power to defend the girl. He succeeded, too... for eight years. Then the rest of Clan von Karnstein hired Morgana Faye and her now dearly departed mother Morrigan Faye to restore their matriarch to unlife. Bad move on the Faye family's part. Carmilla instantly found the girl again and turned her into her vampire consort. Fucked up, am I right?"
"Maybe it was consensual," Megan shrugged.
"Consensual my ass!" Tori snarled. "Her clan keeps pulling shit like this! Consider Lisa Vordenburg. She was my great aunt, the sister of my grandpa Jonathan Vordenburg Sr. Now, Great Aunt Lisa was a total hippie and just couldn't stay away from Woodstock. While there, she met a girl named Claudia, and the two hit it right off. One thing led to another, and soon the two were dating. Unfortunately, Claudia was a von Karnstein... and she turned Lisa Vordenburg into Liesel von Karnstein, the seer of Carmilla's wretched clan!"
"She might have wanted it," Megan argued. "I know I would."
"A Vordenburg want to be a vampire?!" Tori scoffed. "Surely you jest!"
"It's best not to argue with Tori about this," Erzulie told Megan. "She feels very strongly about Clan von Karnstein. Well, time to get to work."
Tori and Erzulie got out of the car and made their way through the front gardens. The reached the front door and knocked on the ornate brass ring knocker. An eerily beautiful woman with golden hair, smoky grey eyes, and ruby lips opened the door and frowned at the monster hunters. "Well, well, well!" she sneered. " If it isn't Victoria Vordenburg and Erzulie Lachouette! Our seers saw you coming."
"Good for them," Tori said dryly. "Now Can I please see the matriarch? I need to talk with her about my cousin Beck."
"Give me one good reason why I should let her into this manor," Lenora glared.
"Lenora, you know me," Tori growled. "I have a mission. I won't kill you for no reason, but I will fight you if you insist on keeping me form solving this case. All you're doing is making it look like the von Karnsteins have something to hide."
"I just don't want a Vordenburg anywhere near my family," said Lenora. "I know what your family thinks of my clan."
Tori glanced at her bag, considering grabbing weapon. "You should really get out of the way, fang."
"What's going on over here?" said a familiar voice. Much to Tori's surprise, Lenora was joined by a girl with a copper-colored ponytail and steely blue eyes. Tori instantly recognized her as Will Weiss, her third cousin. Tori's great-grandmother, Lucy Wilhelmina Harker, had been the daughter of the renowned monster hunter Jonathan Harker, and she and her older brother Quincey Jonathan Arthur Seward Harker Sr. had followed their father into the monster hunting vocation. Wilhelmina "Will" Weiss was a direct descendant of Quincey Sr.
"Will?" Tori asked with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing in Karnstein Manor. Leeches not minding their manners?"
"Nothing like that," Will sighed. "I mean, one of them's dating Roxy, but that's not precisely against the rules. The misbehaving ones are the demons. Yeah, spoilers, there are demons in this fucking town!"
"I'm aware," Tori said. "Aunt Kim's spent just about her entire life in this town, and I've visited often enough to learn all the ins and outs of its monster population."
"Could you not use the M-word?!" Lenora snarled.
"Could you please keep out of this, Lenora?" Will glared. She turned back to Tori. "I guess you're here to investigate the succubi, huh? Well, have I got a story for you! I'm in Stokerville because Roxy was eager to have her first date with a girl she hooked up with the other night, a certain Valeria von Karnstein. Unfortunately, they chose Inferno as the venue. I naturally tagged along to chaperone. Well, an employee propositioned us for a foursome, and Roxy was all for it; you know what a daredevil sex fiend she is. Unfortunately, this girl, Opal, was an fiend named Obyzouth."
"Yikes," said Erzulie. "I guess Obyzouth took too much life force from Roxy?"
"She took ALL of it!" Will wailed. "She was gonna fucking die! The only way to save her was to let Valeria turn her into a bloodsucker!"
"I'm right here, Will!" Lenora grumbled.
"Fine, into a vampire," Will sighed. "I would have killed Obyzouth on the spot if the hellspawn who runs the club hadn't come in and turned Obyzouth into plain old human Opal with some fancy Egyptian magic. So now I'm stuck in Stokerville with a vampire sister waiting for her initiation into Clan von Karnstein."
"Holy shit, Will!" Tori gasped. "I'm sorry to hear that. At least Roxy didn't die, I guess. Is Obyzouth still a threat?"
"There's probably not much that she can do now that she's stuck as Opal," said Will. "I'm still keeping an eye on Inferno, though. I need to know if any of the other succubi are dangerous. If they are..." Will narrowed her blue eyes dangerously. "...it won't be pretty for them. So, was it the hellspawn in Inferno that brought you here."
"Not really, but I'll definitely be looking into them," said Will. "The real reason I'm here is because of Beck Hamilton, my first cousin on my Aunt Kim's side. They've been turned into a werehyena, and Matriarch Carmilla knows something about it."
"How do you know about the werehyenas?!" Lenora screamed, her elegant facial features contorting with rage. "Get out of here, hunter! None of this is her business!!!"
"Ugh, are you fighting with Will again, Lenora?" said a third voice. A girl in her early twenties walked up to the entrance. Her curly hair was the exact same coppery shade as Will's, but she wore it loose. Her unearthly ivory pallor matched Lenora's. This was Roxy Weiss, Will's sister and Clan von Karnstein's newest fledgling.
"It isn't Will, Roxy," said Lenora. "This is some other 'monster' hunter named Victoria Vordenburg and her girlfriend Erzulie Lachouette. You know, the ones Liesel and Jinx keep telling us to expect."
"We're here to help Tori's cousin Beck," Erzulie pleaded, "but Lenora won't let us in!"
Roxy glanced to Will. "Do you trust them?"
"With my life," Will nodded.
"Then come on in," Roxy smiled.
"But..." Lenora tried to cut in.
"Cool it, Lenora," Roxy said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just as much a von Karnstein as you are, and I'm inviting them in. They're friends of Will's, so I trust them. I... I sorta owe it to Will to trust her after doubting her claims that the supernatural is real for so long." She turned to Tori and Erzulie. "Sorry about Lenora. She's a little twitchy about the unknown and VERY protective about her clan. She and Will are a lot alike that way. Follow Will and me. We'll take you to see Carmilla."