"In my world, we've 'come out of the coffin' as the news media likes to say. We call it the Great Revelation. With the invention of TruBlood, we've claimed to humans the world over that we don't need to hunt anymore to survive, and thus they are safe. They know that we exist, some like to be around us - hence this bar. Others, well, they don't." Eric thought of the church in particular, and all the idiots within it. "There are vampires who have actually done what we call mainstreaming, and drink nothing but TruBlood. Then there are the rest of us, who rely on the supply of willing donors. Very few are alive still that truly hunt and kill, or take without permission."
He didn't bring up the boy he'd fed off of again. It wasn't a fight he wanted to re-have. It had been an act of defiance on his part. As had the girl in the park. The girl had gotten away with a better deal, though. Mostly because she hadn't been an arrogant twat. The boy had angered him. So Eric had left his mark and erased the boy's memory. It was a small joy, but one took what one could.
"We started out with very few rights, but are gaining more as time goes on. There is a fight now to pass a law that will allow vampires and humans to marry. Not that I have any idea why one would want such a thing."
But he supposed that anything to further their cause or whatever.
"We are organized into a feudal system. Each state is it's own kingdom with a king or a queen which rules over the entirety. Then the state is divided into areas, the size dictates the number of areas. I am the Sheriff of Area Five. I answer only to the Queen herself. She is not older than I am, nor more powerful. But she is my Queen." He decided he wasn't going to go into how the Kings and Queens were picked, how they got their kingdoms. It was more than enough that he'd shared this much with the strange vampire. "How many of us there truly are, I can't say. We are rare enough, however, that killing one of our kind is a crime. Punishment for such a thing carries a wide range. Eighty percent of our newborns don't last their first year. They go insane, they don't feed, they feed too much, become feral, do stupid shit and get themselves killed. Any number of reasons. We have laws, our own laws, to govern us, and don't much care about the human laws."
Eric tilted his head at the strange word. "No. I have not heard of the Talamasca."