“That Order of Assassins was so effective that they tipped the balance of power in the Shadow War. The Knights Hospitaller were skilled fighters, but they were battlefield warriors, not the kind of subtle and nimble assassin who could scale a wall or pass stealthily past picketed guards. The Red Order needed something as effective, but Europe had no precedent. Not even the Roman legions were useful as a model for assassins of such high quality and effectiveness.” She paused and her face darkened. “This is where the story takes a darker turn.”

“Darker?” I said, half smiling. “How much darker can it get?”

“Vampires,” said Mr. Church.

“Ah shit,” I sighed. “I was kind of hoping we wouldn’t get back to that.”

“This is the real world,” said Lilith coldly, “and they are a part of it.”

“Are they supernatural? ’Cause that seems to be the big question.”

Violin moved to stand beside her mother. Her eyes looked haunted, and her mother touched her arm for a moment. Instead of reassuring her, the touch sparked an involuntary shiver. Lilith sighed.

“The Upierczi are monsters,” said Lilith, “and as twisted as they seem, they are a part of nature.”

“You know this for a fact?” asked Church, beating me to the punch.

Lilith nodded. “Arklight managed to obtain tissue samples from one—at a terrible cost, I might add. We did extensive testing. We ran a full metabolic panel—sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, BUN, magnesium, creatinine, and calcium. We did arterial blood gas to measure blood pH and bicarbonate levels. We did full blood count, Hematocrit, and MCV, ESR. We ran molecular profiles—protein electrophoresis, western blot, liver function. Everything. And we ran a full DNA. The Upierczi are genetically human, but they are not Homo sapiens and—”

“I hate like hell to interrupt this Discovery Channel episode, but can we get back to the actual point? The Red Order used the Upierczi as assassins. And—?”

Lilith nodded, accepting my rebuke. “The Upierczi are more than a match for the order of assassins, but their numbers have always been low. There were never many of them, thank God. They’ve tried to change that with breeding programs, however.”

There was a murmur of deep disgust among the women.

“The Red Order began this process. Capturing women, keeping them in pens, encouraging the Upierczi to rape them over and over again until they conceived. Most of the children were stillborn. Some few survived, and of those three quarters were normal babies that showed no significant trace of the Upierczi traits. Others were hybrids—dhampyrs—but attempts to raise and train them as Upierczi met with complete failure for the Order. A few—a handful—were born as Upierczi, and they kept their blasphemous bloodline alive.”