Damiano was sat about as close to Ethan as he could get without ending up in his friend's lap. Luckily for him, Ethan seemed to be of a similar mind, because it had been a mutual decision.

"I know Ethan introduced us earlier," Sofia said, giving him a small smile, "but I am Sofia Lilandro and I'm what you might call a specialist. I'm very pleased to meet you Damiano, I just wish it was under better circumstances. This is Leo Tremierei, he is a Magistra, to our community what a police officer is to the general population."

"Hi," Leo said from where he was standing.

"Leo has been chasing Tera for years," Sofia went on. "His team is the reason she did not get away with her plan last night."

"Just wish we had been there a little sooner," Leo commented.

Damiano wished they had too, but he didn't say so. The man did sound genuinely sorry about their predicament.

"What did happen last night?" Damiano asked, because his memories were all kinds of crazy and he needed something to help sort them out.

He fingered the gauze on his neck and did his best to push away the horrific memory of teeth tearing into his skin.

"Perhaps if I give you a little background first it will make more sense?" Sofia offered.

Damiano nodded.

"Vampires have lived alongside humanity for as long as we can trace back," the woman explained. "Most of the legends about our kind are fabrications or the product of fear. We do require blood, we are sensitive to sunlight, although it is in no way fatal, and we are functionally immortal. We heal the majority of injuries almost instantly and we are much faster and stronger than normal humans. There is a metaphysical aspect to what we are, but we are not demons, and we do not sleep in coffins. We also have no need to kill to feed. In modern times we don't even need to bite someone."

"How then?" Damiano found himself asking.

Sofia nodded to Leo, who turned and walked towards the back of the room where there was a curtain in front of something.

"In little cartons mostly," Sofia told him. "Although feeding marks fade within hours and the experience can be euphoric under the right circumstances, I am sure you can imagine that in modern times it is far safer not to have to find willing donors every day or so."

Leo came back holding what looked like a small cream carton and gave it to Sofia.

"This is for you," Sofia said, placing it on the bedside table not too far from him. "You have been through and are still going through significant metabolic changes and you need to keep your strength up. We do eat normal food, but blood is the only thing that will really help at the moment."

When he saw that there was a straw stuck to the side of the carton, the desire to laugh waged a battle with his desire to be sick. He just could not imagine drinking honest to god blood.

"It doesn't taste how you think it will," Ethan said quietly and he turned to look at his friend. "They gave me one when I woke up. It's not anything like you're thinking."

"You said earlier that we were deliberately infected," he said, deciding he needed a moment to process before he could even think about what Ethan was saying. "Biting doesn't do that?"

"No," Leo was the one who spoke this time. "It is a conscious, deliberate act. To force it on a human is a crime."

"So why did ... she," was the best he could do as her mad stare flashed through his head.

"Tera believes humans are animals and the rest of us are fools and she is addicted to causing pain and suffering," Sofia said without preamble. "She takes pleasure in fear and chaos. She enjoys creating others in her image and sending them out to wreak havoc. Sometimes she does it quietly and occasionally, like this time she likes to cause a spectacle."

"A spectacle?" Damiano said as too many possibilities barrelled into his head.

"She made sure she was seen," Leo said, "but it is being handled. As far as the rest of the world knows, your band has been attacked, but they have no idea of the less than human aspects of the case."

"And our families?" Damiano asked.

"They are being contacted, you do not need to worry about that," Sofia assured him. "You all have the right to decide who is told what and for now, we will be handling this as if you are in protective custody."

He was not overly reassured, however. He had a niggling desire to trust Sofia at least, but he couldn't figure out why, which was making him a little paranoid. He realised he was shaking and he felt completely exhausted. Sofia stood up, coming to stand beside where he was sitting, picking up the carton of blood on the way.

"You will feel much stronger and much more centred if you have this," she told him, holding it out.

"She's right," Ethan encouraged gently.

Damiano looked to his friend who gave him a serious little nod. He trusted Ethan and that really annoying voice in the back of his mind was telling him that Sofia was on the level as well, but he was still conflicted. Reluctantly, he reached out and took the offered carton. It was fridge cold, but why that surprised him he had no idea.

"Need a hand?" Ethan asked quietly when Damiano couldn't stop his hands shaking enough to open the damn thing.

He felt utterly pathetic, but let his friend take the carton. Dextrous fingers had the cardboard open and the straw inserted in moments.

"Thanks," Damiano said as he accepted it back.

"Think of it like one of those high caffeine energy drinks," Ethan told him when he hesitated. "That's what it was like for me."

For a bizarre second he couldn't help thinking this was all an elaborate joke and someone was going to leap out and yell, "Gotcha" or something equally as inane. But he lifted the straw to his lips anyway. Part of his brain that wasn't just trying desperately to cope with everything noted that the straw was paper so the vampire community was eco-friendly, which seemed sensible, what with immortality. And then he had to think about something else because that thought was far too big for his current mental state.

His first sip was tentative, but it didn't stop him from shuddering from head to foot. He almost dropped the carton. Luckily Ethan grabbed his hand and held him steady as the most amazing taste burst across his tongue, his nerves tingled and his whole body sat up and took notice. He swallowed reflexively and gasped, leaning against Ethan for support.

"Damiano?" Ethan asked

He couldn't reply. He was too busy feeling his system waking up in a way it had never done before.

"Is he okay?" Ethan asked, clearly worried.

"Damiano received the worst injuries of the three of you," Sofia said, although she did reach out and place a hand on Damiano's arm, "his reserves were lower and so the blood is having a more extreme effect. Damiano, can you take some more? It will speed up your recovery."

He took a longer drag on the straw the second time as Ethan helped him keep it steady. Closing his eyes, he savoured the wonderful feeling spreading through his body. It was like a wave of sunlight bringing to life plants and flowers under its progress. He mentally snarled at the far too poetic imagery even as it flashed through his brain. Demanding that his body obey him he took another mouthful of the blood and forced himself to breath through what was happening.

Only now did he have a chance to think about what the blood actually tasted like. Ethan was right, it wasn't how he had expected. In fact he wasn't sure he had tasted anything like it before. His only guess was that being a vampire changed the flavour, because it wasn't as if he hadn't come into contact with blood before. There were layers of flavour, pleasant flavour, almost like the blood was spiced. It was bizarre.

"Better?" Ethan asked.

Damiano closed his eyes for a moment and demanded his mind focus. It was what he did before a performance and it worked this time as well. When he opened his eyes again he turned to Ethan and gave him a nod.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

The shaking had stopped and he felt much stronger, just like Sofia had told him. It was crazy, but then everything was crazy at the moment so he just had to accept it.

"So, back to last night," Sofia prompted as Damiano finished off what was in his carton.

He nodded along with Ethan, shifting on the bed and pulling his feet up into a less tense sitting position.

"We were lucky," Leo said. "We have been after Tera for a long time and we are usually only in time to clear up her mess. She's old and, with us, that means powerful. The usual methods we have for tracking down criminals of our kind don't work with her. This time she was overconfident and intelligence reached us of what she planned to do. Unfortunately it was too late to stop it completely."

"So you arrived after she did," Damiano concluded.

Leo nodded.

"She had already sent Rex out with Victoria when we surrounded the building," he explained, "and she was waiting for him to return. Given the population centre we could not use all our methods to catch her and she slipped past us."

"As I mentioned earlier, becoming a vampire is part physical, part metaphysical," Sofia took over, "and the metaphysical part requires a maker's presence. Because she left you behind you were reliant only on your own strength, unbolstered by hers, which is why you required assistance. Usually a new vampire will wake just before dawn on their first night."

"But we slept all day," Ethan said.

Damiano was paying attention and listening to the conversation until he suddenly wasn't. He found himself looking across the room to where Thomas was still sleeping. There was no indication that Thomas was waking up. The monitor was beeping quietly in a regular rhythm and Thomas wasn't moving, but Damiano just had a feeling.

He had not seen anything that had happened inside his place after he had been attacked, but he definitely, one hundred percent did not want Thomas waking the same way he had. Uncurling from where he had pulled his legs up, he sat up. When Ethan pulled away from where the drummer had been leaning against his shoulder, he turned to look at his friend. Ethan gave him something of a confused frown, but did glance over at Thomas.

"Is something wrong, Damiano?" Sofia asked.

"Thomas is waking up," he said and pushed himself off the bed.

The floor was cold under his bare feet, but he ignored it in favour of walking over to his younger friend's bed.

"Are you sure? There..." Leo started to ask, but stopped when Thomas moved.

Damiano picked up one of Thomas' hands, leaning over the bed so Thomas would be able to see him easily when he opened his eyes. He realised Ethan had followed him when their drummer put a hand on his back so they could lean in together.

Thomas blinked open his light brown eyes a moment later.

"Hi," Damiano said, "how are you feeling?"

"Like we just won ESC again and I've gone two days without sleep," Thomas replied. "What..?"

It was obvious the moment memory caught up with Thomas. Damiano could only be thankful that his friend did not have as extreme a reaction as he had done.

"Someone attacked us," Thomas said, free hand going to his throat.

Damiano nodded.

"But we're safe," he said, "someone came to help us."

He glanced over his shoulder to indicate Leo and Sofia. Thomas forced himself up onto his elbows so he could see.

"Sofia and Leo," Damiano vaguely introduced.

"Where's Vic?"

Apparently Thomas' thoughts went to exactly the same place Damiano's had gone.

"The ones who attacked us, took her," he said as succinctly as he could, "but Leo and Sofia are going to help us get her back."

"Get her back?" Thomas sounded just as confused as Damiano remembered being.

Damiano nodded.

"They saved us and they will help us save Victoria too."

He did his best to make the statement sound perfectly confident, even if part of him was just as anxious as Thomas looked.

"Who took her? Why?" Thomas asked.

Damiano looked to Sofia. Everytime he tried to think of how to explain his thoughts filled with what had happened to him and words vanished.

"The woman's name is Tera, the man's Rex," Sofia stepped in for him. "They are both rogue vampires and their aim is simple, to cause suffering. You were to be their method to that, as well as their fun for the evening."

"Did she say vampires?" Thomas asked, eyes wide with incredulity.

"Yeah," Ethan replied, "and she made us like her."

"Everyone in this room is a vampire," Damiano added.

Thomas looked between them, then over at Sofia and Leo, frowning. He said nothing for several seconds.

"Is that why I feel so shit?" he asked, and surprised the hell out of Damiano.

"We both felt like shit when we woke up too," Damiano said, "but they gave us some blood which helped."

"And I won't feel like shit anymore?" Thomas asked.

Damiano nodded.

"And then what?"

"Then we find Vic," he replied.

And apparently that was all the impetus Thomas needed.

Only once Thomas was settled and sipping on his blood carton with apparently none of the trepidation Damiano had exhibited, did Damiano focus back on their hosts. Sofia was giving him a contemplative look, but as soon as their eyes met, she smiled as if it was nothing.