Pros & Cons of Dating the Undead
We boil at different degrees.
—Clint Eastwood
So you think you’re sold on dating a vampire, but what about other creatures of the night? Simply put, if you were interested in dating a human, you would not be reading this book. As far as mates go, disembodied spirits, zombies, werewolves, and humans all have their pluses and minuses.
Disembodied spirits can be entertaining, and we have rarely met a girl who has been disappointed by a nocturnal tryst with an incubus. However, it is extremely difficult to form long-lasting relationships with incorporeal beings. Ghosts are irrevocably stuck in the violence of the moment they were killed and will spend most of their time relating the details of the incident ad nauseum. Conversations with ghosts tend to be one-sided streams of consciousness. Ghosts have no care for the future and are notoriously scatterbrained. Any semblance of domestic bliss is usually out of the question, particularly with poltergeists, and if you value your grandmother’s china, it’s best to keep these guys out of the house.
Zombies are just plain messy, and they are only interested in one thing: brains. Realize, however, that it isn’t any big loss, as they really have nothing to offer.
Humans? If you want to date a human, you are best served by signing up with an online dating service, though it is not uncommon to find zombies there, too.
However, the werewolf’s curse is different. If you’re not sure that a vampire is the right monster for you, a werewolf would likely be the next place you would turn. Werebeasts tend to be extremely clannish, gravitating to their own out of a desire for safety and a loyalty to their community. They are an emotionally volatile, primal, and extremely violent species, and are noted for their pagan piety. Because of their insular nature, werebeasts rarely choose a mates without infecting them with lycanthropy. While there is a great deal of wild freedom to be found in werebeast society, it is a condition best left to nature lovers and rural types. Urban werebeasts are uncommon and often find themselves uncomfortable in polite society. As opposed to being a part of daily life, the werewolf’s curse recurs on a monthly cycle. (Hmmm… We wonder where this tale had its beginning?) The vampire, on the other hand lives with his curse every day (or should we say night?) of his existence.
Both the curse of the werewolf and that of the vampire allow for special attributes that help offset any awkwardness of the conditions. Vampires enjoy far superior strength, agility, speed, stamina, and senses compared to normal humans, as well as the ability to heal any injuries with incredible speed. They are impervious to almost all forms of disease, expect for leprosy. Werewolves also enjoy increased strength, speed, agility, and stamina. Vampires have a heightened sense of smell, as do werewolves, who also have a heightened sense of hearing. So far, it is fairly even except for that nagging time-lag thing.
If a werewolf catches the odor of fresh blood, or if it is the time of the blood moon, the first full moon after the harvest moon, his primal instincts become uncontrollable and he spirals into a feeding frenzy. For this hairy beast, the transformation will begin as soon as the full moon rises completely above the horizon. He doesn’t even have to look at it—it needs only to happen. His body goes through a rapid, agonizing series of changes. While transformed, he has absolutely no control over his body, and his entire existence begins to revolve around the thrill of the hunt and the desire to feed. While these points may hold their own form of attraction for you as a prospective date or mate, for most folks, they are at least minor red flags. Any creature that the werewolf bites or scratches but does not kill will carry the burden of the same curse.
If your attraction to a werewolf can overcome the physical repercussions of his curse, the biggest problem with your wolf boy is that as soon as daylight starts popping its head above the horizon, he will revert back to his human form and have no recollection of the events that took place during his transformation. It’s very much like a drinking binge. So much for eternal love. If you find a way to overcome a werewolf’s little memory problem, you just might have a good life together.
However, don’t be so quick to dismiss the vampire’s charms. He can enthrall humans with irresistible charisma. There is an incomparable connection when two people are bound in blood, especially if you eventually join your mate in undeath. Together, the two of you will then be entwined throughout all time. You share a real piece of each other, blood and soul.
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The Aequitas Foundation
One of the first vampire attorneys to publicly declare her vampirism, Ekuwa Adutwumwaa Adofo, a Philologi, founded the Aequitas Foundation along with Sandalio Mahin Romero, a prominent werewolf tribal leader from the mountains of Aragon. The Aequitas Foundation works to educate the vampire and lycanthrope communities about the laws that are in place to protect their kinds as well as to protect human society from vampiric and lycanthrope depredations, helping to create a safe environment in which all can coexist.
Ms. Adofo is the preeminent vampire champion of human rights and has campaigned to ensure that the penal codes of each country are expanded to include vampire and lycanthrope crimes of violence; she is particularly vigilant with regards to the savage acts perpetrated by Interfectors and Transeo. Although she also fights against hate crimes directed at vampires, her activism for human and lycanthrope rights have made her exceedingly unpopular with some facets of the vampire community. As a result, she is almost always accompanied by her bodyguards, the twin lycanthropes Atá Pánin and Ataá Kúmaa, three of her most loyal progeny (also attorneys), and her pack of Schutzhund-trained side-striped jackals.