"Did you get paid to behead people while you drank them to death?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Drinking another gives you his memories. Drinking another as you kill him also gives you much of his strength, even some of his mystickal abilities. And beheading is one of the only ways to slay an immortal." "Have you killed women and children before? Or humans?" "Why would I bother to?" He seemed genuinely perplexed. Somewhat reassured by his answer, she asked, "How did you become a vampire?" His face was drawn with anger. "Nikolai decided to drip his tainted blood down my throat just before I died." "He didn't have to bite you?" "That's only in the movies," Conrad said. "Blood is the agent of the transformation, and death is the catalyst. It's this way for any species to be turned in the Lore." "It's that easy to become a vampire?" "Easy? It doesn't always work. And if it doesn't, you die." "Who did it to them?" "Kristoff, a natural-born vampire - and someone I have no intention of speaking about. Ask something else." "Very well. Can you still eat food?" "Yes, but I have as much interest in eating food as you would have in drinking blood." When her expression screwed up with distaste, he said, "Exactly. Though I do enjoy a good whiskey." So had she. She had a stash of it in her studio. "What about your teleportation, your tracing? How far can you go?" "We can cross the world - not just the living room of a haunted manor." She pursed her lips at that. "But we can only travel to places we've previously been or that we can see." "And the Accession?" "Phenomenon in the Lore, every five centuries or so. Families get seeded and immortals get sowed. Fights break out, and factions war. Lots of immortals get to die." N