Struck (A Vampire Novel) ✔

Twelve

I was reading through the literature in front of me, Social Science of Vampirism- A Look at the Spiritual Bond. Xander had left not long after leaving me in the bedroom and both he and Aveline hadn’t come back for well over a day now. I had assumed he was off to find his mate and console her if not ask for forgiveness. If I had a say in it, I would point out that he did say not to get attached, but that probably would result in my head missing from my body. Anyway, neither of them had returned and I was resolved to continue my readings and glad to know that the very annoyed kitchen staff was told to bring me foods and liquids occasionally.

Of the books I had left to read, I knew Human Slavery; Unethical or Simply Natural was the second book Aveline hadn’t suggested for me to read so I decided to read that last. A part of me wanted to read the other, The Tyranny of Vampire Hunters, but I had long since decided not to piss off my roommates by bringing that up anytime soon if ever. This left me the book on spiritual bonds, which I was very interested in knowing about, and then Civil Rights and Laws as Passed by Royals. I wondered if I would be dead before I finished the complete collection.

The Social Science of Vampirism began by explaining what exactly the spiritual bond was. Apparently, humanity and vampires were common in that they were social by nature. Vampires often went rogue though, void of all bonds, and tended to become crazed and blood thirsty creatures: true monsters. Vampires who bonded naturally found peace and were more civilized.

The spiritual bond was a connection vampires had to their life force. It was a supernatural connection that allowed them to manipulate their life force on a spiritual level, allowing it to be shared and even strengthened by mutual bonding. There were six levels of bonding: Royal to Royal, Royal to Master, Master to Coterie, Mate to Mate, Maker to Kindred, and Vampire to Human.

The first level, Royal to Royal, was the most powerful being that it was eternal and unbreakable. This bond was created simply by being a Royal, birthed by another Royal. It was the bond of their bloodline. It was simple; their existence was created by sharing their life force by blood, flesh, and spirituality. That’s why Royals continued to be the most powerful vampires in existence. The bonds of their bloodline allowed them to always know where each other were and to lend strength to one another. It also allowed a mental link between the Royals in a bloodline, so that they could even speak to each other thousands of miles apart.

Royal to Master, the second level, was a rare form of bonding due to the fact that it was considered invasive and dangerous. A Royal who bonded with a Master would inherently bond to any and everyone else bonded to that Master. It was different from being accepted into a coterie. It was having control over an entire coterie. There was a law in place by Royals themselves that forbade this type of bonding, though it didn’t specify the true reason for it. I assumed it gave the Royal too much power which was bad for business.

The third and most common bond was that of Master to Coterie. Reading through this section, I found I basically had this already figured out. The Master was what made a Coterie and it was through the Master that the Coterie was bonded. It was like a web, in which all the members were bonded to each other, but in the center of the web was the Master that held them all together. Without a Master, the coterie would degenerate and the members would be lost among themselves and alone. Being in a coterie meant the members could sense each other when needed, send out distress signals in a way, and have protection from dangers be that other coteries or hunters. The more bonds created, meaning the more members there were, the stronger the coterie was which in turn meant the stronger a Master was. Masters were only as strong as their ability to bond the members together, though. While some Masters could hold a bonded coterie of about ten people, others could hold hundreds. It just depended on the power of the Master at hand.