Broken Heart 04 Wait till Your Vampire Gets Home (26 page)

Ancient:
Refers to one of the original seven vampires. The very first vampire was Ruadan, who is the biological father of Patrick and Lorcan. Several centuries ago, Ruadan and his sons took on the last name of “O’Halloran,” which means “stranger from overseas.”

Banning:
(see: World Between Worlds) Any vampire can be sent into limbo, but the spell must be cast by an Ancient or, in a few cases, their offspring. A vampire cannot be released from banning until they feel true remorse for their evil acts. This happens rarely, which means banning is not done lightly.

The Binding:
When vampires have consummation sex (with any living person or creature), they’re bound together for a hundred years. This was the Ancients’ solution to keep vamps from sexual intercourse while blood-taking. No one’s ever broken a binding.*

*Johnny D’Angelo and Nefertiti’s mating was dissolved by a fairy wish. It is the only known instance of a binding being broken.

The Consortium:
More than five hundred years ago, Patrick and Lorcan O’Halloran created the Consortium to figure out ways that parakind could make the world a better place for all beings. Many sudden leaps in human medicine and technology are because of the Consortium’s work.

The Convocation:
Five neutral, immortal beings given the responsibility of keeping the balance between Light and Dark.

Donors:
Mortals who serve as sustenance for vampires. The Consortium screens and hires humans to be food sources. Donors are paid well and given living quarters. Not all vampires follow the guidelines created by the Consortium for feeding. A mortal may have been a donor without ever realizing it.

Drone:
Mortals who do the bidding of their vampire Masters. The Consortium’s Code of Ethics forbids the use of drones, but plenty of vampires still use them.

Family:
Every vampire can be traced to one of the seven Ancients. The Ancients are divided into the Seven Sacred Sects also known as the Families.

Gone to Ground:
When vampires secure places where they can lie undisturbed for centuries, they “go to ground.” Usually they let someone know where they are located, but the resting locations of many vampires are unknown.

Loup de Sang:
Commonly refers to Gabriel Marchand, the only known vampire-werewolf born into the world. He is also known as “the outcast.” (see: Vedere Prophecy.)

Lycanthropes:
Also called lycans. They can shift from a human into a wolf at will. Lycans have been around a long time and originate in Germany. Their numbers are small because they don’t have many females, and most children born have a fifty percent chance of living to the age of one.

Master:
Most Master vampires are hundreds of years old and have had many successful Turnings. Masters show Turn-bloods how to survive as a vampire. A Turn-blood has the protection of the Family (see: Family or Seven Sacred Sects) to which their Master belongs.

PRIS:
Paranormal Research and Investigation Services. Cofounded by Stanworth Industries heiress Theodora and her husband, Elmore Monroe. Its primary mission is to document supernatural phenomena and conduct cryptozoological studies.

Roma:
The Roma are cousins to full-blooded lycanthropes. They can only change on the night of the full moon. Just as full-blooded lycanthropes are raised to protect vampires, the Roma are raised to hunt vampires.

Seven Sacred Sects:
The vampire tree has seven branches. Each branch is called a Family, and each Family is directly traced to one of the seven Ancients. A vampire’s powers are related to his Family.

Soul shifter:
A supernatural being with the ability to absorb the souls of any mortal or immortal. The shifter has the ability to assume any of the forms she’s absorbed. Only one is known to exist, the woman known as Ash, who works as a “balance keeper” for the Convocation.

Taint:
The Black Plague for vampires, which makes vampires insane as their bodies deteriorate. Consortium scientists have had limited success finding a true cure.

Turn-blood:
A human who’s been recently Turned into a vampire. If you’re less than a century old, you’re a Turn-blood.

Turning:
Vampires perpetuate the species by Turning humans. Unfortunately, only one in about ten humans actually makes the transition.

The Vedere Prophecy:
Astria Vedere predicted that in the twenty-first century a vampire queen would rule both vampires and lycans, and would also end the ruling power of the Seven Ancients.

The prophecy reads:
A vampire queen shall come forth from the place of broken hearts. The seven powers of the Ancients will be hers to command. She shall bind with the outcast, and with this union, she will save the dual-natured. With her consort, she will rule vampires and lycanthropes as one.

World Between Worlds:
The place is between this plane and the next, where there is a void. Some people can slip back and forth through this “veil.”

Wraiths:
Rogue vampires who banded together to dominate both vampires and humans. Since the defeat of the Ancient Koschei, they are believed to be defunct.