#rbooknerdk

Jax, the Lady, and Asher are pov characters.

Jax-- Mathias Augustin Jaquinot, french, dating back to the French revolution, gay. He’s got some weird Oracle of Delphi type powers, and is the Lady’s second in command. he spent a decade or so getting tortured by Echo. (ravenclaw)

the Lady-- she goes by a lot of different names, middle eastern, she dates back to before the Roman Empire. She is one of the leaders of the vampire world, and also an ace lesbian. (slytherin)

Asher D’Amboise-- french, jewish, moved to america with his mom and uncle after his dad died. he knows his dad was killed by vampires, but nobody believes him bc “vampires aren’t real.” He’s bi. (hufflepuff)

the rest of these characters are mostly important for one reason or another

emmerich speidal-- he is the main villain, and the leader of Echo. he’s kinda crazy, bc Echo is an organization dedicated to wiping out vampirism, but he’s the leader. His thought process is something like “I’ll kill all the vamps then kill myself.” (also slytherin)

Gabriel Anderson-- he’s Asher’s friend, but he went missing a year or so before the story starts. He shows up a few chapters in turned into a vampire and being used for experiments by Echo. He chills with the Lady until Asher finds the vampires. (gryffindor)

Silver Barnes-- Gabriel’s half-sister, Asher’s bff, and kind of a stereotypical “bad girl.” She’s pan, and her hair is bright purple. (gryffindor)

Seraphine Vallee-- the Lady’s former Second, and current life partner. she mostly chills in the french countryside and makes wine (ravenclaw)

Corin-- they’re the Lady’s bodyguard, non-binary, and date back to Elizabethan times. (gryffindor)

and a snippet, with some deep conversation between Jax (before he’s Jax), and the Lady

(cw: torture mention, death mention)

“I have a question,” Mathias says carefully. He hasn’t fully settled into his new skin, still less than a hundred years old. He isn’t sure where he stands with the Lady.

The Lady waves her free hand, the other holding a long pipe with smoke drifting out of it.  “Ask away, petit soleil.”

“Why did you…” he falters, and the Lady lowers her pipe. “Why did you turn me?”

“I’ll admit, turning you was a whim, but…” she cocks her head, thinking. Takes a drag from her pipe. “You have not given me cause to regret it.”

“But, the time with Echo? Surely that is cause enough to regret it?”

“You were tortured, petit soleil, and you still did not waver in your loyalty to me, even if I wavered in my own to you.”

“You owe me no loyalty,” Mathias says, and the Lady sighs.

“I cannot trust you to have faith in me, if I do not also have faith in you. That was the first lesson I learned, after I died.”

“What was the second?”

“That everyone dies. Immortality does not give us invulnerability. Death will come for us all, one way or another, and nothing we do can stop it. No matter how far we run, Death will always come for us.”