Fb-fb:
That upsets the hypothesis that this all was a flashback. It is worrying but there does seem to be a disagreement among the evil ones. Let us see.
Well, there are still some flashbacks, but indeed not all of what you've just read with Huard is flashback. And will there be fighting? Likely, very likely.
That is a.... wow.... a twist and a half. I did not see that coming. So scott is dead and Sebastion is on the war path, so now it is Vampires vs. Vampires? But what of Temple? I reckon he will come in a save the day by freeing Huard from the Vampiric grips! Woo! Go Temple!
Indeed, we have a bit of a battle to look forward to. As for Temple, we'll have to see what he thinks of all this. He's not gone anywhere.
But of course. She would not abandon him, for he is her asset. Her play. Sebastion does his dirty work himself, but this lady appears to desire to set something up a little distance from herself.
He has to exist with his altered state now. That will not be easy, but then Huard was already a little possessed as far ago in London, thirsty with a different hunger. Now perhaps he is given the sort of existence that can withstand his famished intellect even as it makes new demands on gut and gullet.
Well stated, sir. Indeed, his change will come with consequences and choices, which you allude to a bit later in the comments. I'll address that in a sec.
I guess this means a vampyric civil war of sorts! What a shocker~
Maybe not a full on civil war, but certainly two very powerful vampires.
Soon everyone is a vampire.
Maybe not everyone, but I have some ideas. One in particular I want to put in here if there is any way I can. Not saying who, however. Not yet at least.
A fine but somewhat expected twist! I look forward to the vampyric infighting!
Indeed, I've been setting this for a while. I did not want to whole change over all at once. I wanted to look at it in stages. Hopefully it drew out the tension a bit as well.
When do you introduce the Lycans?
Great stuff, coz. The setting is properly moody, Scott's frantic terror quite palpable. Sebastion definitely seems like a fangs-on kind of vampire, while the lady appears to be a touch more subtle in her methods.
Heh. If there's room, maybe in chapter 2.
I'm glad you thought Scott's terror worked. I had not built that up enough at first blush and had to tinker with that scene a bit. Great that it came out as desired.
Stupid vampires. What do they know? Always sucking on blood and things like that . . . looks like Scott blew it, in a manner of speaking, both with his dispatch of Huard and with his getting totally killed by a vampire. I guess that vampire chick alluded to in the previous chapter either signed off on this or decided to go out for a stroll at a really inopportune time.
Scott may not have come out well with Sebastion, but his "dispatch" of Huard has more to it than simply sending him to his death...well, his final ending, let's say. As for the vampire chick...well, we'll see more of her motivations soon.
This really is the kicker. If she merely wandered off at the wrong time, Huard has a chance of retaining some form of morality even if he becomes a vampire, but if the former we have a horrendous plot...
Her desires play into this, definitely. As for wandering off, I'll admit, the timing was imperfect, at least for Scott. Do you wonder if she is aware Sebastion is so close?
Ultimately it will be Huard's choice whether or not to retain his morality, the lady can only influence him. She cannot choose for him.
The for all we know the lady could be motivated by the purest of motives in abandoning Scott. Or maybe not. I suspect the truth is somewhere inbetween. Perhaps she will serve what is right not because she is inherently good, just because she is opposed to one who is inherently worse.
I think this is spot on. Huard will have to be the one to deal with what he's become from this point forward. And her motivations...well, there's a bit there that I'll have to paint as we got forward.
You make good points but I would add that it probably is easier for him to retain his own conscience if there is demonstrably the choice to be made.
He'll try, but there will be some hurdles obviously. Can he remain moral even though he is a monster?
That is true. But the lady so far has shown one capacity Sebastion clearly lacked - she has obviously worked with Scott. Abandoned him yes, but worked with him. Sebastion clearly does not work with mortals.
This is a good point too. She's got something Sebastion does not...or it could be looked at the other way around. They are certainly different, but how different I guess is the question. Likely no way to tell that until the reader knows more.
Stake anyone?
I think I must have missed when he did the cross over.
The cross over came in a few updates, a little bit at a time. See Stuyvesant's comment as he's got a good idea on that.
Wow. Unexpected to say the least. What is going to happen I can only guess. I assume good ole Abe will still be good, but I don't know if I can continue to hope for that. Two vampires racing for the eye? I like it, though the mysterious woman is the root of it. She is probably the mastermind that pits her pets (vampires) against each other so that she can have the prize (eye).
That's a great thought there - I'll have to keep that in mind and see how close you are to the mark.
It seems that the 1792 flashbacks (or the 1792 flash forwards, depending on what you take as the baseline) have caught up with the 'present time'. Ebenezer Scott was killed by this Sebastion, who then moved on and assaulted Huard (as seen in the first post), Huard was nursed back (well, not really nursed back, considering he's still a vampire) by the mystery woman, then he dug his way out from his grave and ran wild through the streets, until the same mystery woman again ensnared him.
It seems a safe bet that the woman who has Huard in thrall is the same woman who hid in Scott's store. Others have already discussed whether that means she's good or bad. Finding out what her agenda is has become, to me, the most interesting current thread in this tale.
I agree with stnylan: the lady can work with others. And as Scott showed, she can work with humans. A capacity that Sebastion lacks, thankfully. As powerful as Sebastion is, his direct-action, take-no-prisoners approach is a handicap.
Based on the few interactions we've witnessed between the lady and Huard, I'm not hopeful that she'll turn out to be one of the good guys. Maybe an enemy's enemy is the best we can hope for.
I think you have it, by jove. Nice piecing it together. I thought it would be more interesting to keep the audience guessing. Hopefully it has worked. I think it has, though were aren't quite done with the "transformation." In truth, it'll be a struggle from now on. As for our lady vampire...an enemy's enemy...I like that. Not saying that is what she is just yet, but that is close enough to the mark.
To all - I hope to have another update tonight but it may not get there. I'll work on it but some other stuff may come into play. Thanks for reading and your great comments, especially the discussion over Huard and our lady vamp. Very interesting to read your theories. It let's me know what is working and what isn't. Thanks!