Beth had poured Ralf another glass of her gin and lemon concoction and handed it over.
“I used to make these all the time in my former life of barmaid,” she laughed. “Not for the patrons; they only wanted beer. Cheers!” She tapped her glass against his and sat back in her chair, still talking – but he was good at blocking that out.
It was early and technically he was on the clock, but it was the weekend and he had to admit it; he liked this carefree, chatty side of Beth. Prior to today, Ralf had barely given her the time of day let alone found himself embarrassingly pre-occupied with the shape of her hazel eyes and her supermodel high cheekbones.
“Was it porn?” Beth asked.
“Um, what?” Ralf stuttered, crashing back into the room from the cloud he had been floating on.
“On your computer earlier? I walk in, you shut it down and run out for a ‘sausage butty’. Is that your term for, you know?” she made a rude gesture with her hand, “You can tell me. I’ve got five brothers; I’m no Sheltered Susie. Will would plaster every wall in our house with pictures of boobs, if I’d let him.”
“It wasn’t… that,” Ralf huffed, his cheeks burning. “It was CCTV footage.”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “Why would you hide that?”
Ralf didn’t want to answer but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “Because it contains something I can’t explain and I’m wondering if Jessica’s theory was right.”
“Interesting,” Beth said, in a bored fashion, like she was humouring him. “And what was Jessica’s theory?”
“That there are vampires,” Ralf replied quietly, unable to stop the words spewing from his reluctant lips. He concluded that there must be a lot more gin in this drink than he could taste to make him this unburdened. “Isn’t that mad?” he added, laughing uneasily.
Beth tapped her glass and returned it to the table, without taking a sip. Ralf noticed that the rim of her glass was free of lipstick stains and he connected the dots; she hadn’t taken a drink the whole time she’d been sitting here. And he’d had… a few.
“Vampires? That’s rather a far-fetched theory, up there with aliens and mermaids,” Beth mused. “I’m struggling to comprehend it. Perhaps you should elaborate?”
Ralf was willing himself not to answer, fighting himself, but the words tumbled out regardless.
“Chase was completely drained of blood, a woman in a hotel was partly drained of blood, we found a sack of transfusion bags at the hotel along with sketches of a mysterious man. A man who, Jessica was adamant, was present the night Chase disappeared, who is then positively identified by the receptionist as her attacker.”
“This man sounds like a lunatic, but a vampire? Really?”
“The CCTV footage shows the alleged victim being carried through the reception by an invisible force.” Ralf knew he’d gone too far. He tried to close his mouth but that didn’t stop the spiel. “Then, I slipped to Wilbur that Jessica thought vampires were a viable theory and he locked her up.”
“Is that why he did it?” Beth asked. “Have you told anyone else these theories, Ralf?”
Ralf bit his tongue but it broke free from his teeth; he twisted to leave his chair but his body held firm. He wanted to answer that he hadn’t, he wouldn’t. He wanted to lie, but he couldn’t.
“Not yet, but I will,” he confessed feeling the ground drop out from beneath him.
Beth smiled, drumming her fingernails on the table.
“No. You won’t.”
—
“Wyatt and… Sandy?” Sage repeated, for the dozenth time. “Together as in… together? How old is April, eighteen? So this was, what, late nineties?”
“July 1998,” Broof replied. “Back when Sandy was hardly known, making those seedy b-movies.”
“1998. So Wyatt would have been… gracious moon! And it was consensual?”
Broof groaned. He’d often thought about what it would be like when Sage eventually learned about her granddaughter, but he hadn’t envisioned that she’d get so hung up on the how part of her coming to be.
“Sandy was pretty drunk and Wyatt was hi— um, hiding, yeah, because he was star struck, so he was hiding, ahem,” Broof cleared his throat, but appeared to get away with it. “They got chatting and he was trying to impress her; I think he told her that he was a movie director or some such.”
“I’m not sure that Sandy believed him because she did have eyes,” Broof commented. “But she flattered the pants off him anyway. Knowing what I know now about Sandy, I don’t think it actually mattered who he was or what he did, just that he showed an interest.”
Sage leapt on this nugget of hope. “With respect, Broof; if Sandy was that loose, then who knows how many men she slept with! And she was adamant that April was Travis’s, so—“
“She didn’t meet Travis until the October,” Broof took a deep breath ahead of his scathing assessment. “I think Sandy chose the least rubbish option she had when she found out she was pregnant, Sage.”
Sage spluttered, pressing her hand to her chest. “Excuse me?! Wyatt is not perfect, but he’s not rubbish!”
“Objectively. He was young, jobless and,” constantly loaded to the eyeballs to deal with his dad’s passing, “had a few issues. Meanwhile, Travis had a good job, or at least his father did, his own place, famous clients to mingle with. No-brainer really, from Sandy’s point of view.”
“He’s far too good for that overprized harlot,” Sage muttered under her breath. She scowled at Broof. “What makes you so sure? I know you wouldn’t make a claim like that without more evidence, Broof.”
“A few things,” Broof replied. “They have similar mannerisms and April started to fall behind her human peers, as would be expected of a witch, in her teens. Not quite as much as Wy, but definitely substantial.”
“Maybe the girl is simply a bit dim?” Sage suggested. “If you had a genuine suspicion, you would have raised it with the coven, not let a potential witch roam the world, unsupervised.”
Broof felt his blood boil at this suggestion, hearing the echoes of Sandy, the music of the mansion: stupid girl! “A witch can tell a witch,” Broof pointed out. “April wasn’t allowed to roam the world. She wasn’t allowed to do anything. And if I’m completely honest with you, Sage; my faith in the integrity of the coven took a real knock after I lost Cabbage and downright died when they voted Claudia to be a senior witch,” Broof snarled. “What would they have done if I told them that the daughter of a world-famous actress was magically inclined? Do you think Claudia has the tact to keep that under wraps?”
Sage winced; Broof knew that she had her own doubts, but she was far too indoctrinated to state them. She fixed him with her penetrating stare. “Even if April was ‘magically inclined’, she could have been a new bloodline, it doesn’t mean that she is Wyatt’s.” Sage folded her arms and shook her head. “What’s to say that Sandy didn’t sleep with another witch around that time?”
Broof sighed. “She’s Wyatt’s. She has the same rare blood type—“
“Rare, but not unique,” Sage pointed out, unmoved.
Broof ground his teeth, trying to think of how best to convince her. If this wasn’t quite literally a matter of life and death, he would have laughed. Wyatt was just like his mother; both rolling their eyes, similarly stubborn to accept this possibility, no matter how much Wyatt claimed that he took more after his laid-back dad, Warren.
“Warren!” Broof reached abruptly into his pocket, startling Sage who was looking at him with a mixture of shock and concern at the abrupt shouting of her late husband’s name in this conversation. “Look at her eyes, Sage. She has Warren’s eyes.”
Sage sighed like this task was a huge burden, but played along as Broof loaded up a photo of April on his phone, zoomed in and passed it to her.
“Sweet mercy,” Sage whispered, heart-stricken. “It’s been a long time… I…” she paused, unable to find traction with her sentence. “Does he know? Does Wyatt know?”
Broof was momentarily startled to realise that the photo had worked. He looked down at the image of April, then back at the sorrowful, silent woman before him, feeling that pull to comfort her as he always had with April. If the two weren’t related, he’d eat his metaphorical hat.
“He does,” Broof confirmed, reaching out to pat her arm. “I’ve told him enough times.”
Sage shrugged off his touch and hardened, screaming Wyatt’s full name and scaring Broof half out of his skin. “Get out here! Now!”
It was barely a minute before Wyatt sheepishly entered the room. He took one look at his mother’s face and baulked. “Can I grab a glass of water, maybe a coffee before you start? No?”
He sighed heavily at Sage’s weighted silence. “I know, OK? I screwed up big time, you can’t trust me, I’m an awful son and a shame to the Harper name. I’ll work a whole week on the shop floor with no pay and go to your room, Wyatt. Gladly, as long as he’s OK.”
Sage brushed past Broof and hissed at her son, “You get your skinny bottom back here, you responsibility-shirking rascal.”
Wyatt groaned and turned to face her. “I swear, I don’t know why Thor fainted. OK, he had a lot of rum, but he was fine one minute, bragging about his infidelity, and then bam! floor.”
“And what about you; did you have a good night while you were intoxicating my employee?” Sage asked making no attempt to sprinkle her usual sugary coating on her words. “Or were you too busy having irresponsible romantic encounters in closets?”
“Actually, it was Thor who—” he trailed off as his mother gave her knowing look and the penny dropped. Wyatt looked at Sage, horrified, and then turned on Broof. “Why would you tell her that?!”
“It sort of slipped out. Look, he’s the vampire, Caleb Vatore,” Broof said, gesturing towards Sage’s bedroom. “And I think you were right; I think he did take April as his bride and if he did, I guess then you’re, what, his father-in-law?”
Wyatt shook his head feverishly. “No, he’s just Thor, he’s not a vampire. There aren’t any vampires, right Mum?”
“Oh, drop the act, Wyatt – you are a terrible liar!” Sage spat. “You don’t think all the sudden interest in the zombified leeches went unnoticed, did you?”
Wyatt made an incredulous noise, looked at Sage’s bedroom door and then back at Sage. “Wha—? Shouldn’t we like, be staking him or something?”
“We can’t do that while he’s bound to April,” Broof said. “We have to find her first.”
“Wait… is that what the repellent was for?” Wyatt asked. “To stop him biting me? You let me party with a vampire?! Why didn’t you tell me? He could have had my throat out he… OMG, Roxie! No wonder she looked like death this morning! She could have died!”
“She wouldn’t have died; I doubt he even managed to drink from her if he’s this listless; at least that part worked,” Sage took a step closer, waving her finger in Wyatt’s face. “As for you; I left you in an impeccably controlled, monitored environment, with set instructions, a heavily subdued threat and, as back-up, enough repellent in your veins to make even me want to disown you! Whatever illicit magic you cast to override that is not on me!”
Wyatt chewed his lip. “I didn’t cast anything, not that you’ll believe me,” he muttered, reaching for his bedroom door handle.
Sage slapped his hand from the door knob. “Don’t you walk away from me! Why didn’t you tell me that you might have a daughter, Wyatt?”
“Because I don’t!” Wyatt whined. “Look, even if it was Sandy in that closet – which it wasn’t – we only did it one time—“
Sage’s pointed look alone could’ve slain a vampire. “I’ll get my diagrams. We clearly need another in-depth talk about the birds and the bees.”
“Oh, Mother Earth, no. We really don’t.”
Sage took a deep, mellowing breath and rubbed her temples. “If April really is a witch, if we can prove it, that might be her only chance,” she said thoughtfully.
“A chance?” Broof asked, jumping on his sliver of hope. “So, what? It’s possible to cure her, but it’s just not allowed for humans?”
“I never said that.”
“We can save her?” Wyatt asked. “It’s possible?”
“You’ve changed your tune.”
“Mum, come on. I don’t think she’s mine, but I don’t think she deserves to be staked. To be honest; I don’t think either of them do,” he said. “Not when there’s a cure.”
Sage sighed. “The coven stopped working on a cure a long, long time ago. It could take decades to create one. It may not even be possible to cure them, especially not with a bound pair.”
“We should still try!” Broof cried. “We can find her, catch her, bring her here.”
“You will do precisely nothing!” Sage ordered. “If the other witches find out there are more vampires, that you two knew about them, that they’ve been allowed to multiply,” she shuddered. “If they found out we were harbouring vampires after what they’ve done to our kind throughout the centuries… I may as well build us a pyre now.”
“They won’t find out,” Broof assured her. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“The answer is ‘no’.”
“Please, Sage.”
“Please, Mum.”
Sage looked between the two younger witches and shook her head, firmly.
“Even if you found her and somehow managed to get her here, whatever will we feed them? You do know what they survive on, yes? And we’ll need to feed both of them, a lot, daily.”
“They can feed off me,” Broof said.
“And me,” Wyatt agreed. “There’s a potion, isn’t there? That speeds up how fast red blood cells regenerate? I’ll learn it. I’ll make as much as we need.”
“Oh please. You faint when having your vaccinations; how will you handle a vampire bite?” Sage laughed. “Plus, the erythrocyte elixir takes a full lunar cycle, Wyatt. It is a notoriously challenging potion.”
“If I can make LSD, I can make eurythmic elixir,” Wyatt said confidently.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Sage murmured. “Are you two even thinking? What if Thor and April are just the tip of the iceberg, hey? What if there are thousands of vampires? Are you going to bring them all here?” Sage argued. “There cannot be one rule for one, and one rule for another.”
“Of course there can be,” Wyatt said. “I’ve got different rules to everyone else.”
“Yes, because you’re special,” Sage said.
“So is April,” Broof replied, with determination. “You don’t have to help us, Sage. But if there’s a way to help these creatures, we should and I will.”
“Yeah, I’m with you, Hoggy,” Wyatt nodded. “Have you even read the Rede, Mum? An it harm none, do as thou wilt. ”
“Please,” Broof murmured. “Help us save April. Guide us.”
—
You’ve missed one.
I’ve bought you some time.
Find it.
< Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter >
Almost Eternal 
Ralf your brain-blown potato head! 😠
Even though Ralf does not trust Beth’s motives, he still allows her to drink him under the table. He only has himself to blame for he lifted the glass to his lips time and time again.
Now he is lying on the floor like the irresponsible rag doll he is. Stupid, stupid man.
Now I only need answers on who Beth is in league with and who needs more time? Her father-in-law?
I have a hard time guessing what his motive should be unless he himself is a vampire.
He is hardly the leader of a humanitarian fruit-growing dynasty that cultivates plasma fruits for a healing program for infected vampires 🤨
Broof has finally convinced Sage that Wyatt is the father of April. There is too much evidence and too much detail. That explains a lot about April’s sometimes special properties.
The only stubborn denier is still Wyatt.
Damn. I would hate to be in Wyatt shoes when Sage gets a rage outburst. There is not much of her sugary icing worshiped today, but the dialogue with Wyatt when she spider him is hilarious 😂
Her threat to teach him the flower and the bee.🤣
The question is what will Sage do with her new knowledge?
This does not suggest that the community of witches can help. On the contrary, they are just another challenge due to a talentless leadership.
It gradually seemed to me that everyone is chasing everyone in this saga 😵
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Poor Ralf. He thought he was making a friend, but all he made was a mess. Hey, I could have been misleading you this whole time and the Wangshafts are actually the good guys…
Yep, the only one unsure of April’s paternity is Wyatt. Perhaps he just needs to meet her to make it seem ‘real’ – he is still quite immature as I’m sure his little exchange with his mother here has shown. 😆
“It gradually seemed to me that everyone is chasing everyone in this saga” you’re not wrong. Will anyone catch who they’re chasing?
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Well! Maybe you have 😉
It will not be the first time that the good guys turn out to be the bad guys and vice versa.
I keep all options open.
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Oh, no. I wanted to trust Beth, I really did, since there’s enough danger everywhere already. But her feeding Ralf drinks and then the realisation that he’d been chugging them down and she hadn’t taken a single sip… oh, that’s bad. That is so very bad. A real slip-up on Ralf’s part, too. Especially with how wary he was before. She’s feeding him drunk to try and pry all of the information she can from him, isn’t she?
Wait, it’s worse. Ralf doesn’t seem to be able to stop. Did she spike his drinks with something? Some kind of potion? Or is there something else working on his mind there? Holy cow he can’t even get up from his chair, there definitely is more to Beth than meets the eye here, and none of it is good 😨
“No. You won’t.”
Gaaaahhhhhhhh nooooo Ralf 0.o oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Is it strange that I find it weirdly hypocritical of Sage to be so angry about Wyatt not “taking responsibility” for his kid while she grasped at every other explanation and literally had to be shown a picture of April to finally believe Broof’s words? And Sage is already a parent. Wyatt is mentally still a teenager. This is a huge thing to come to terms with no matter how you look at it. She jumped on him casting magic right away, too. I don’t know – something about this is rubbing me the wrong way.
Do as you will, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. I wonder how many people in AE would be better off if they kept to the rede.
Oh geez, Ralf T.T did she kill him? I can’t imagine her having just knocked him out, unless he’s supposed to wake up in the tower, too. “You’ve missed one”… one loose end? One loose vampire? Something else? Judging by her “find it”, the vampire option is more likely than the loose end option, as Beth just effectively silenced it… which means that whoever was on the other side of the phone is now after Caleb at the very least. I wonder if it was Wangshaft she was reporting to, or someone else.
Also, noooo, Ralf 😱 is he dead? He’s dead, isn’t he? I didn’t like the guy all that much, but dang, I’d gotten attached to his half-assed, lazy ways. I hope that gin tasted good.
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Not very sensible of Ralf, but it’s what he does; drinks with the Wangshafts. Only difference here was that it wasn’t whiskey that cost a fortune. Definitely the only difference. Yup. “There definitely is more to Beth than meets the eye here, and none of it is good” Not convinced she’s just a friendly, slightly crude mum-of-one then? Oh.
Hahaha, no it’s not strange, there is a certain element of hypocrisy here. Sage likes her i’s dotted and her t’s crossed so curveballs like this really upset her, and if they’ve been hiding something this huge, what else have they been hiding? Or, from Sage’s point of view, what else has she overlooked…
If everyone in AE was following this Rede it would be a much better place, for sure. But hey, never say never.
Is Ralf dead? You’ll find out soon enough I guess.
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Beth used to work in a bar? That would clear up how she met Will. Though how his bar antics impressed her if she saw him there on a regular is a mystery, lol.
Interesting. I have a feeling Beth checked out the CCTV footage herself and now is just checking how truthful Ralf will actually be to her. One way of seeing how trustworthy the other party is. I wonder if she employed that technique in her marriage – she must have had suspicions about her husband.
There we go. That smile Beth gave Ralf at the end of the scene is chilling.
Sage is adamant to make this April thing go away, it is really inconvenient for her plans. It’s like she’s only half taking it all in. No wonder where Wyatt got his denial from, though hers is for a different reason. Broof worked for the Moss family for almost 20 years, and knows Wyatt better than most too, he’s clearly more capable of assessing the situation than anyone. Sage came very close to just murdering her granddaughter in cold blood. If she did, I reckon she’d never entertain the possibility April was related to her after that, could never go there. But yay, she still has some fondness left in her heart for her late husband, so that’s something.
Oof, this whole exchange about whether Cleb and April are allowed to live intense. I’m not sure what to think ofit. Sage does have some valid points but the irrational part of me is hating on her, unsurprisingly – clearly I’m consistent with my biases lol. So I’ll continue to hate on her. I hope you weren’t expecting something well thought through from me today 😀
Interesting little tidbit about April’s development though. So that’s why she was so childlike… oh man, Caleb and April are the worst possible combination we could have had, aren’t they. I wonder what this means about April’s development now – will she remain forever mentally stunted? Caleb did still evolve somewhat, even though his empathy didn’t, does that mean April might still grow into her faculties a bit? And would a possible cure get her back on track with that? Even if there is a cure, can one fully heal from being a vampire if their insides were rotting? Seems like they’d probably have some side effects forever.
Oh damn. Oh damn. Did she flat out kill him or just knock him out? Beth, the smiling assassin. Phew. Poor Ralf.
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I once knew a guy (through a mutual friend and, thankfully, I never ever see either of them anymore, unless they read this in which case – damn) who would go up to women in nightclubs and simply say ‘me and you are fucking tonight’. OK, most of the time he got ignored or slapped around the face, but his success rate using that line was appalling. I don’t think there was a single night where he didn’t pull, and some of those poor women actually became girlfriends; I think one became wife. There is a Beth for every Will, is what I’m saying. 😆
Finding out that someone you’re supposed to kill might be your relative has got to suck, right? Sage really does have some valid points, which is just as well as she’s been hunting vampires for centuries, good that she learned something in that time. 😂 And she’s totally right of course; it’s not just Caleb and April who are running around all undead and emptying people. Nah, you continue to hate on her, it’s all good. And I actually think your comment is rather well thought through!
Yeah. AC trainwreck is pure carnage; April and Caleb should not have been a thing, but game insisted so here we are! A cure, if it exists, would certainly be interesting and would definitely have side effects, I would imagine.
Maybe Ralf is just having a little rest. 😴
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This begs the question what are Beth and the Wangshafts’ motives to want to keep vampires a secret. Also wondering what Beth is to have made a truth serum or whatever she did to make Ralf talk like that. Is it purely to rid the world of vile creatures and keep it all sunshine and rainbows? What’s their bigger motivation here.
For a moment I had this super farfetched theory that somewhere down the line of generations Wangshafts became vampires themselves. Haha! But That wouldn’t explain how Windenburg is a vamp sanctuary and them living there. Was a nice thought to think that Will is alive this whole time stuck in April’s suitcase. Haha!
I wonder what Beth is. How did she get the truth out of Ralf so easily like that. It’s not just a truth serum but somehow controls his movements too. The only other person who has abilities like that is Seth. Maybe Beth’s a vampire. Or maybe Wangshaft’s psychotic prison is a secret lab where they milk vampires for their abilities. Idk how that’s even possible. But those Seth-like abilities did come from a flask 😀
I have to say Sage went down a hella lot of points for me the moment she suggested April is dim. And then we can see that she’s night and day when it comes to Wyatt. And finally, someone defends April. Finally. Like. 肏. Yay! I’ve been waiting for this moment for a looong time. I could bring out the wine glasses.
Oh. I’m surprised they’ve extended their help from April to all vampires. I was so sure Broof’s daughter was somehow attacked by one. The way Wyatt used vampires to try and get a rise out of Broof, I wouldn’t have expected this scene but at least the teens have someone on their side even if they don’t know it.
This chapter does make me wonder if the vamp hunters are aware of spellcasters. They’re fighting a common enemy. And Beth has some pretty interesting potions. or abilities. 😀
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Maybe the Wangshafts do want the world to be sunshine and rainbows! About time someone in this pit did, right?
Haha! Nope, Will is not alive in a suitcase, I can answer that for definite. So the Wangshafts are all vampires, maybe Beth’s a vampire too or they’re milking vampires to create ‘Seth Potion’. You’re sort of not far off, but also totally way off? How do you always do this? Literally, like change 2 words in your comment, and you’ve got it almost spot on. 😆 “The only other person who has abilities like that is Seth.” Are you sure? 😉
Sage is not so ‘bibbidi-bobbidi-boo’ when things go wrong; I anticipate her losing a few more points over time. And she’s old and set in her ways whereas Wyatt is very ‘carefree’ but hey, it’s not over yet. OMG! Chinese swearing! Yes, Broof is very fond of April, he’s definitely going to defend her, even if that means standing up for himself, which he’s typically not great at. Hurrah! Another one joining Melinda on team April. 🥂
“I’m surprised they’ve extended their help from April to all vampires.” Their main motivation for saving Caleb is that he’s bound to April. It remains to be seen if they learn there are other vampires and how motivated they are to save them. “I was so sure Broof’s daughter was somehow attacked by one” so close to a huge cookie with this one… gahhhhhhh!
That last paragraph of your comment… OMG, need to zip tight for all of that. 😅🤐
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I can´t. Everyone is too calm. Nobody is connecting the dots. No spoiler policy in full effect.
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What lurks beneath has the power to drown us.
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No spoiler policy repealed, then. *whew* Okay. Now that I´m freaking out marginally less, I shall try to explain myself openly.
So why did I freak out in the first place? Because Beth just made Ralf tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Fact 1) This is bad in and of itself, because it makes her able to interrogate possible witnesses very efficiently and thus makes her very good at finding people… or digging out any other sort of info for that matter. And Beth is the first efficient cop we´ve had and so our hapless cast is actually in danger. /Immediate/ danger.
Fact 2) This is made much, much worse by it being exactly the same effect Seth has been under from the start of this story and… my, what a coincidence.
So, let´s see, here. What options do we have? How could this be linked together?
Option a) I have theorized before that Seth´s actions such as killing Rose who ran away from the Tower were awfully convenient for the Wangshafts. There is a possibility that this truthfulness is something the Wangshafts can inflict somehow and Seth being under its influence would mean he had indeed been somewhat working for them.
Conclusion: This would be bad, but it is not very likely, since then I believe he would have at least tried to talk Caleb out of going to Windenburg. Unless, of course, he doesn´t give a dime about what happens to Caleb. Which may be the case given that Caleb chose to stay with Lilith after the Breakup, which I wager Seth will be bitter over still.
And, since Mercury´s theories do have merit, let´s see what options do they give us, as well.
Option b) Vampire experimentation. Seth is not the one who can do this, if anything, he had been in Ralf´s place. However, from his patchy memories, we may GUESS the vampire who turned him was the one who inflicted the truthfullness on him. We don´t know her name yet, but she had this wild curly hair so let´s keep calling her Medusa for the Gorgon. We know that Seth had been “abandoned” shortly after turning into a vampire, but we do not know why. It could easily be because Medusa was being hunted at the time and she may have ended up in the Tower, being turned into a lab rat and somehow, the scientists may have found a way to replicate her powers in serum form.
Possible Evidence:
a) The Tower does seem to have an interest in the iron levels of its human inmates. Possibly to feed vampire test subjects.
b) Truthfulness serum would have been easily slipped into Ralf´s gin.
Possible Evidence to the Contrary:
a) Medusa was the only free female vampire of her time, before Lilith became a second and she was being accepted by the group of lawless Rogue vampires. This suggests a very high power level which would have made it difficult to trap her.
Conclusion: This would be worse, because if the Wangshafts actually caught Medusa and replicated her powers, who knows who else they have and what else they can do.
Option c) It is an innate power. It could have been that it was Beth who made Ralf talk and she just made it easier on herself by getting him drunk first. In this case, it would suggest Beth herself is a vampire and high likely either Medusa herself in non-dark form or another childe of hers, Seth´s sister so to speak.
Possible Evidence:
a) If Beth was slipping Ralf a serum, she could have made herself a plain drink and downed it. But she wasn´t drinking, so maybe she is a vampire and doesn´t want a mouthful of ash.
b) We´ve never seen her touch someone, have we? And she is very skillfully avoiding handshakes by being almost rude in introductions. Practice, possibly?
Possible Evidence to the Contrary:
a) She´s just had a baby. Or has she? We´ve never seen the boy, she seems rather lean for /just/ having given birth even if… Sims do that of course and we do know the child had been screaming a lot. Perhaps trouble feeding him?
b) She´s out by day. Then again, so can Caleb.
c) It would require her either fooling the vampire hunters into not realizing what she is or striking a deal with them, but both of these are possible.
Conclusion: This would be THE WORST because if Wangshafts in possession of some of Medusa´s power are scary, the genuine being is off the charts terrifying and I don´t want her out and about and most of all, near anyone even remotely likeable… scratch that, I wouldn´t wish that encounter even on Lilith and lemme tell you, that´s still saying something.
Now, I apologize for the novel and shall go back to running around like a headless chicken. Aaaaaaah!
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Beth sure is good at interrogation; the WBPD should be glad to have her! Except for the whole police chief on the floor thing; a good cop probably shouldn’t floor her colleagues. But that’s beside the point. The point is: what made Ralf spill? Something in his drink, or something in his company? So, on to your options.
I can tell you that although your facts are, well, factual, lol, one of your options is totally wrong, one is a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and one is more right – but none are completely right. And yet all of your conclusions have merit.
This vague, non-answer probably isn’t helping your headless chicken scenario, but is the best I can give you without any spoilers. 😆
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*nervous giggle* Oh, this is definitely a tangled up problem and I´m sure I´ve missed pieces of evidence as well as we just generally miss pieces of evidence so I´m not at all surprised I´m off. That´s actually good news, because I sure hope we aren´t gonna meet that demon in present, especially not without her being locked up somewhere. It´s still very worrying, but there´s that at least. 😮
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