Will and Roxy led Tori and Erzulie up to Carmilla and Mircalla's room. "I hope we're not imposing," Erzulie said. "I know Carmilla doesn't officially hold court until midnight."
"Don't sweat it," Will laughed. "her seers told her you'd be coming. You're expected." She opened the door. "Hey, Carm! Tori and her girlfriend showed up!"
"Show them in," Carmilla said.
Will opened the door. "Here you go, Tori. Remember to not take any shit from that bloodsucker."
"Believe me, Will," Tori laughed, "no Vordenburg ever took shit from a bloodsucker, especially not from a von Karnstein."
"I can hear you, you know," Carmilla laughed. "Enhanced senses come in handy sometimes."
"Sorry not sorry," Will smirked. "My sister may be part of your clan now, but I'm a monster hunter through and through." She turned to Tori. "She's all yours. See ya around. Roxy and I're gonna go tell your omen-reading great-aunt you're here."
"Cool!" Roxy grinned. "I always enjoy talking to Liesel."
As the Weiss sisters left, Tori and Erzulie stepped into the room. They were greeted by two regal women with eerily pale skin. One had hair so dark that it looked like a midnight sky from a distance, while the other had a mane like a waterfall of gold. Both wore the ceremonial silver crowns of a vampire matriarch and her consort. Tori had met these two before: Matriarch Carmilla and Consort Mircalla.
Tori seethed a bit at the sight of Consort Mircalla. Tori's ancestor, Baron Joseph Vordenburg, had fought to keep Carmilla from transforming Mircalla back when she was a sheltered human girl named Laura Hollis, the daughter of an Englishman in the employ of the Austrian military. Unfortunately, Carmilla had managed to return to life and snatch the victory from old Baron Vordenburg's hands. Tori had naturally offered Mircalla a cure for her vampirism courtesy of Erzulie, but the poor girl had somehow become convinced that she was in love with Carmilla and enjoyed being a vampire. It had to be vampire brainwashing, Tori was sure of it!
"May Mother Night smile upon you, Victoria Vordenburg," Carmilla said politely.
"I'm more of a Father Day girl myself," Tori shrugged. "Or you can call Him God as well. We Vordenburgs have always been good Catholics, after all."
"And yet you're in a lesbian relationship with a witch," Carmilla observed with a slight smile. "What might the Pope say?"
"I said that Vordenburgs are good Catholics, not obedient ones," Tori smirked rebelliously. "Monster hunters need to chart their own moral course. The Vatican's learned not to question it. No sense pissing off the people who keep the vampires and demons at bay, right?"
"I wouldn't know," Carmilla said dryly. "Keeping vampires at bay has never been my specialty. Well, let's get to the point. I know this is about Beck Hamilton."
"That's right," Erzulie said. "Their mom's worried sick about the ways their body's been changing."
"And we've uncovered that they're a werehyena now," Tori said. "Erzulie magicked it straight out of Morgana Faye's head... as well as the fact that you're something of a sponsor for the werehyena pack."
"And you consider this a problem, I assume?" Carmilla said, steepling her fingers thoughtfully.
"Why wouldn't I?" Tori asked. "You know the ancient laws! Non-consensual transformation of a human ranks just below murder on the list of crimes a monster can commit against humanity."
"But Beck did consent," Consort Mircalla insisted. "They wanted to become a werehyena."
"You would say that," Tori scoffed. "Just like you totally fucking wanted to be a vampire. Yeah, sure. Whatever."
"I know you think it's just brainwashing," Mircalla responded, "but I really did ask Carmilla to turn me. I was a lonely sheltered girl in an unfamiliar country locked away in the crumbling old schloss that my father had bought. I only had him and the servants to talk to. Carmilla came and made me feel truly alive. I wanted to run off with her and join her world, but father, General Spielsdorf, and Baron Vordenburg stopped me and nearly killed my poor Carmilla."
"That's not the way Sheridan Le Fanu told it," Tori argued.
"His novella derived from my account to Dr. Martin Hesselius," Mircalla explained. "He was a monster hunter who took interest in my story and started writing to me, pressuring me for the full account. Dr. Hesselius being a monster hunter, I felt the need to disguise my love for Carmilla and my desire for undeath when writing to the man. The account is this more than a little distorted."
"You can't prove that," Tori glared. "And you can't prove that nobody ensnared Beck's mind either."
"Beck Hamilton joined the werehyena pack to ease their gender dysphoria!" Carmilla snapped, growing frustratedly with Tori's pig-headed insistence in seeing the worst in anyone connected to her clan, Selena's pack included. "They craved a penis, and the alpha could give it to them!"
"Beck's too smart to mess around with the supernatural!" Tori snapped back. "No matter what the monsters might offer them, a descendant of the Vordenburg family would NEVER join them willingly!" Welllllll... except for Renata, but she was never the responsible Hamilton sibling.
"So!" Erzulie cut in, eager to prevent the conversation from devolving into s fight. "We've heard that Beck's in Japan, but we don't know why. Do you know anything about that."
"They were accepted into a student exchange program," said Carmilla. "Nothing remarkable."
"Cut the crap, Carmilla," Tori frowned. "We all know that there's something else going on here,"
"Beck seeks their own happiness in Japan," Carmilla said cryptically. "That's all I can say."
"What's Beck's role in the pack?" Tori asked. "Why did Selena want them?"
"You know about Selena Lyall?" Mircalla gasped.
"You bet your pasty ass I know," Tori responded. "Erzulie learned quite a lot from the inside of Morgana's head. Now quit stalling and answer the fucking question!"
"Beck ranks as a delta in the pack," said Carmilla. "The specialist roles are still being doled out, but Beck is unlikely to receive one while they're away in Japan. They may very well fight Skyler for beta when they get back, though."
"Skyler?" Erzulie asked.
"Skyler Bentley," Carmilla said, adjusting her tall ceremonial crown. "Shi's the pack beta. She was born Stella Bentley, but shi changed it after coming out as non-binary. (Shi uses shi/hir pronouns in all forms, if you're asking.) You might have heard of hir father, Warren J. Bentley."
"The retail chain tycoon?" Tori asked. "Isn't his wife that godawful politician, Suzanne York Bentley? The one who's courting the homophobe vote?"
"She'd call it the 'traditional values' vote," Erzulie remarked, rolling her eyes as she played with a dreadlock.
"Yes, those Bentleys," Carmilla nodded. "Skyler's quite happy to be out from under hir mother's thumb."
"I think I like the sound of Selena's pack," Erzulie smiled. "It sounds like Selena's more about liberating girls than stealing them."
"You really think so, babe?" asked Tori.
"I have a pretty good gut for these things," said Erzulie. "I think Beck really DID join to correct their gender dysphoria and fully embrace their non-binary identity."
"You're fucking lucky that Erzulie's feeling good about this shit, Carmilla," Tori frowned. "I don't know why Selena would work with a slippery snake like you if she's so great, though. Maybe she's naive. Point is, I'm pretty sure no werehyenas need to die over this." She emphasized the word 'werehyenas' menacingly. "As for YOU, I'll be watching this clan like a hawk from the shadows, making sure you leeches aren't playing Selena for a sucker. I know you've managed to mind your manners so far, but I have a feeling that this might be the case where you finally slip up."
"Who's the pack's shaman?" Erzulie asked, once again having to interrupt a budding fight. "I've always had an affinity for shamans. Their magic has quite a few similarities to Voodoo."
"A girl from Selena's school named Taylor Wagner," said Carmilla. "She has a background in Wicca, but she's being trained by an authentic werehyena shaman named Kweli Mchawi."
"Can I ask just one thing before we go?" Tori asked, tugging exhaustedly on her eyebrow piercing.
"Ask away," said Carmilla.
"If this is all so wholesome, why wasn't my Aunt Kim consulted?" asked Tori. "She IS Beck's mother, after all."
"Perhaps she should have been," Carmilla sighed. "Only Selena can answer that question for sure. I would guess the answer is the same as it would be for most magicals: she prefers to alert as few humans to her pack's existence as possible."
"Oh, and do you know anything about my other cousin Renata becoming a werefox?" Tori asked.
"So much for 'one thing'," Carmilla chuckled. "No, I don't know anything about that. I know there's a skulk camped just outside of town, to the south of Stokerville and just off of U.S. Route 101. That's all I really know. We vampires try to avoid those dreadful pranksters when we can. I'm sure you understand."
"For once I do," Tori nodded stiffly. "Goodbye, Matriarch. It's been an interesting chat, one I hope to put to good use soon. For now though, I think Erzulie and I need to return to out motel to recharge our proverbial batteries."