stormentos

Helena: You vampires sure do love your secret underground establishm- Whoa.

Lilith: Welcome to Underworld. Artemesia’s little gallery is good cover – the humans like it, and it doesn’t arouse suspicion – but this is the real draw.

Helena: [awestruck] It looks like something straight out of the 1920s.

Lilith: It is. Prohibition was one of the best things that could have happened to vampires. For once, being below ground was all the rage. Speakeasies provided our food and our fun. The Faulkners have kept this place well preserved.

Helena: The Faulkners?

Lilith: They own the building. Nico tickles the ivories, Toni slings the booze. They were the first vampires we met, after Straud. We bonded over our shared immortal siblinghood. How quaint to think on it now. We had a grand old time in San Myshuno until we ran out of money and drifted our separate ways. The two of them landed here and swindled the owner out of the property in a rather blood-stained poker game. I’m afraid it’s vampires only these days. There were a few too many… unfortunate incidents. But Toni’s got the finest blood reserves on tap, and we’re free to drop the ruse and reveal our true natures.

Helena: Hold on. Is this you?

Lilith: Oh, that silly old thing. I always forget I had a brief modeling stint back in the day. Now, I think it’s time we get you loosened up. That plasma fruit nectar you’ve been sipping with my brother will hardly do.

Toni: Well, well, well, if it isn’t Lilith Vatore. I reached for the house blend as soon as I spotted you.

Lilith: Excellent.

Toni: And for your… friend?

Helena: Oh, uh, I’ll have what she’s having.

Lilith: [laughs softly] Go easy on her, Ton. She’s a bit of a lightweight.

Toni: With you, I doubt she will be for long.

Helena: [dubiously] What’s in this anyway? Besides the obvious.

Toni: Sorry, love. That’s proprietary information.

Lilith: [conspiratorially] Toni fancies herself a chemist in her spare time.

Helena: [too loudly] Drugs? Lilith, you can’t just hand me a drink and not tell me it’s-

Lilith: You’re immortal, Helena, and you must start living like it. This is one of the few human pleasures still available to us – except now our bodies have no limits, which makes it even more pleasurable.

Helena: I still don’t even know what exactly is in-