Lost Humanity Series: Content Warnings

Lost Humanity Series
by H.S. Kallinger

Content Notes: police, alcohol, drugs, assault (physical and sexual), addiction, trauma bonding, abusive relationships, violence, death, intimate partner violence, ableist language, homophobic slurs, suicidal ideation/attempts, self-injury, disordered eating, torture., vampire-human age gaps, kink, BDSM, human trafficking, slavery, racism, queerphobia/homophobia.

Notes: This series deals with cycles of abuse and domestic violence. There is on-page 'dubcon' (coerced) assault, but no on-page rape. There is the psychological fallout from it. Healthy BDSM (RACK model) is included and contrasted against unhealthy/toxic (also on page) sadomasochism. Vampires in this series produce an euphoric chemical in their saliva that can lead to physical addiction.

Book specific extra CNs: pregnancy loss in Pet and Bridges. On page sexual assault in Hotel of Lost Souls and Castles. On page judicial flogging in Castles and World of Lost Souls.

Image Story: Social Media Crush

 Lost Humanity Image Story

This story is provided for free by H.S. Kallinger as part of the Lost Humanity universe.

Timing: During Bridges with an update during Predators and a final one during Castles. Each update has a warning before it begins. This is a comedic short.

This story is told through social media formatting (Facebook, specifically). CW: language 

Note: Alt text is taken as direct copy/paste from original text, so the comments say "3y" instead of "1 y" because the images were originally created four years ago and most screenshots taken two years later.

Social Media Crush

Update Timing: Beginning half of Predators (original post was one year before the comments)

(Note: The gif above was of a person doing butterfly knife tricks, and at the end, the blade is shown to have the words "SEND NUDES" written on it)

The following update takes place during Castles:

I hope you enjoyed this departure from the standard short story format! I may have a few more for the future!

LH Short Story: Chain of Command

Lost Humanity Short Story

This story is provided for free by H.S. Kallinger as part of the Lost Humanity universe.
Timing: early Predators.
Content Warnings: police, military mentions, vampire politics

Chain of Command

I sighed at the report in front of me. Two guards under St. John were up for disciplinary action. One was marked to transfer, but the other needed to be passed on to Lukas at the next whiner meeting. I wasn't really sure what would happen to her then, but it wasn't my problem at that point. She could appeal to me if she wanted to, but if St. John had tagged her, I didn't expect to hear a peep out of her. The guards in Oakland regularly tried to argue their way out of trouble, and a few times, I had granted clemency, but Diego didn't tend to be any more unfair than St. John. He just got given more troublemakers.

And he was about to get another.

St. John's other discipline case was going to be Diego's as of next week. Reassignment meant that he had a history of insubordination at the least. I hadn't seen a transfer order that didn't have that in the list of reasons why, and this one was no different.

But those weren't my real issue. No. We had a problem with a pair of police officers down in Oakland. They were getting heavy handed with our people, and they were on our payroll. That was not okay.

“Roland again?” Diego asked as he looked over at the guard staring morosely at the window. He was leaning against the wall, one foot on it, his arms crossed over his chest. I frowned with him. I felt bad for Roland. He hadn't had any issues before having his head fucked over fighting with Polly, Garret's flockmate, and our ex-enemy. Ever since, he'd been passed back and forth between Petaluma and Oakland every few months. “Poor bastard. Still won't talk about whatever that bruja did to him.”

“I can only imagine,” I muttered. “Three minutes of it made me never want to see her again. He actually fought her while she screwed with his head. You work your own magic on him; get him back in order again.”

“Yes, sir,” Diego said, nodding. “Am I getting Ramos, too?”

“Nope. She's going to Lukas,” I said, following his gaze to our other surly guard. She had come to St. John from Diego originally. She lived in Oakland, but she'd made her transfer long before I'd taken over with the guard. She didn't look hostile, though. She looked vaguely embarrassed and defeated. “She was only fighting. No insubordination on her ticket. Looks like she just couldn't control her mouth. Again. I'm sure as hell not one to talk there.”

“She's just as likely to talk her way out of it,” Diego said. “I don't think she's ever failed to. One was certainly close, though.”

“Mm,” I acknowledged, not really certain what that meant. I had shied away from asking questions about punishment so far. I didn't need any more nightmares about changing than I was already having. I knew I'd find out eventually. That whole 'offering offense' thing made me nervous because I wasn't kidding about having no stones to throw. My mouth was going to get me in trouble. It was just a matter of 'when.' “So, our police situation...”

“Ingrates,” Diego grumbled.

“Do they just want more money?” I asked.

“I don't know. To be honest, I'm not good at dealing with them. That's why I put in the request for help. I was hoping someone else could figure it out,” he admitted.

“Maybe an ex-officer,” Allen Green suggested. “Not me.”

“I think you have the most ex-police under you,” I mused. “Suggestions? I could ask Grant Williams, I guess. He—”

“No, sir,” all three of the captains said together, stopping me. I looked between them, startled. Allen continued, “We don't involve Williams in anything shady if we can help it.”

“He deserves better,” St. John agreed. “He is an honorable man. We protect that honor.”

“Okay, who's going to tell me what the deal is?” I asked. “When the cops found out who he was after Polly and Garret's attack, their whole tune changed. They were acting like he was one of them. I know he used to be a police officer, but this was... like he's one now. More than even the VU gets usually.”

“Well, he founded the VU,” Diego said. I blinked in surprise.

“Say that again?” I said, not sure I'd heard him correctly.

“He's from San Francisco originally,” Diego told me. “From the sixties. He was a cop pre-Truce.”

“He was a police officer from the forties to the sixties,” Allen continued. “After the treaty was signed, his jurisdiction was rife with anti-vampire hate crime. While a lot of precincts looked the other way due to post-war prejudices, his continued their record of service to the whole community: white, black, human, vampire.”

“Williams was a pillar of that community, and he chose to change in the line of service,” St. John said. I glanced around the room. Williams wasn't here tonight because it was his night on at the VU. He was the chief of the local unit. In the guard, Allen outranked him, but in the VU, it was the reverse.

“He and three other members of his department became vampires to better protect us, as new citizens, and try to end hostilities, prove that the Truce was the real deal,” Allen told me.

“He served as a vampire for five years before two of the vampire officers were firebombed in their squad car,” St. John said softly. All three captains cast their gazes down at the same time. I looked down, too. Vampire cops. Holy shit. Vampires had never been allowed to serve as public police officers in my lifetime.

“Williams' partner hunted down the bombers and beat them beyond recognition,” Diego continued, just as softly.

“He turned in his badge, and the incident was declared an unfortunate accident caused by a combination of grief and vampire strength,” Allen said.

“Williams retired a few weeks later because he felt he could no longer work with humans safely,” Diego continued.

“More specifically, he was afraid that any human partner he was assigned would be at risk just 'cause he was a vampire,” Allen corrected. “He kept helping the department, though. He joined up with the vampire guard, got them to start policing their own. Emidio was all for it, I hear. They say he was a big supporter of the Truce.”

“He convinced several of his brethren that it was not impossible to be an officer of the law and a vampire,” St. John said. “He then founded the first 'Vampire Unit Safety Force' in the mid-seventies and worked to get it sanctioned, recognized and funded by the government. Its employees were declared peace officers shortly after opening, and when it spread to Miami, I joined my local unit. It was the early eighties when it was upgraded to 'Health, Safety and Security Station Vampire Unit' when they began employing former emergency medical personnel, nurses and the occasional doctor to include vampire ambulatory care services.”

“I didn't know any of that. The VU has existed the way it is my whole life—or as long as I can remember anyway. I didn't ever know the history of it,” I said. “We didn't have a specific station in my hometown. It's part of why I thought we just didn't have many vampires in Ohio.”

“You have so much knowledge about vampires that it manages to surprise me when you don't know basic things like this,” St. John, said, and I shrugged.

“You mean like how Zack thought we wouldn't know who you were?” Allen teased. My face got hot.

“I didn't know who he was,” I muttered. “I had no idea who anyone outside of the council and a few guards were. I didn't know the hierarchy, and... I basically learned everything and ended up in this position because of you.”

“Dammit. I owe Reynolds ten bucks,” Allen muttered. “I bet that you thought we didn't know. He bet that you didn't know. No one had the balls to ask.”

“You have done well learning on the job,” St. John assured me. He made a sour face and looked away. “I can hardly blame you for assuming someone who couldn't wake in control of himself was low in rank.”

“You were in control enough to know not to eat me when you heard my name,” I pointed out, making Allen laugh.

“I am still in your debt,” St. John said, nodding to me. “I know who will work best to deal with the police situation. I will assign him.”

“Who? It's great that you know, but I need to know for future reference,” I said.

“Bryan Phillips. He was a corrupt officer himself, older than Williams. He generally assists up here,” St. John said. “He'll be able to get to the root of the issue and deal with it. He will need immunity for whatever needs doing.”

“He's got it,” I said. “No consequences if things go sideways unless it hits Truce threatening levels.”

“Gracias,” Diego said. St. John and I both nodded to him.

“De nada,” we said in unison, and I snorted.

“You speak Spanish or just the easy stuff like me?” I asked St. John.

“I speak it,” St. John confirmed.

“You came with Lukas from Miami, si? Did you learn it there, or...” Diego asked.

“Spain. I spent time there, but my father spoke it as well, so I knew it going in. His father was Spanish,” he told Diego, and then they switched to Spanish. I listened curiously because it didn't sound like what I was used to. I couldn't follow along and only picked out a few phrases. I needed to learn Spanish. Maybe I could take classes after I changed.

“You speak Spanish?” I asked Allen. He shook his head.

“I took French in school to try to pick up girls,” he said with a grin. I laughed.

“Did it work?”

“A few times, yeah,” he said, nodding. “I'd forgotten most of it by the time I changed, though. Didn't need it for my wife. As I understand it, it would have been useful in Lukas's last flock.”

“Yeah, French was the primary language of the flock,” I confirmed, “followed by Italian. Lukas's lack of an accent makes me forget sometimes how little he actually spoke English before us.”

“Really?” Diego asked, looking surprised.

“Yeah. He sometimes starts speaking in French or Italian without remembering that Sarah's the only one who speaks either of those. She's no help because she just goes off in French with him, and it takes him a minute to realize Jamie and I are lost. Italian gets him Jamie replying in Spanish, and he gets annoyed because he can't speak it. She doesn't speak Italian, but she can understand more than the rest of us.”

“Can you only speak English?” Diego asked. I shook my head.

“Nein. Ich spreche Deutsch. But, hablo muy poco Español,” I replied, making Diego laugh. “He's been speaking more German around the house since Eva was born, so not only do I speak it fluently, Eva and Mia speak it as fluently as English. What's weird is that I catch myself thinking in it.”

“That happens,” Diego said.

“Naturally,” St. John said at the same time.

“Well, now I feel like I need to brush up on my French and pick up another language,” Allen said. Diego and I laughed with him. St. John smirked.

“I think I'm going to take Spanish after I change,” I voiced my earlier thought.

“So you can annoy Lukas with Jamie?” Diego asked with a grin. I laughed.

“Definitely a perk, but I was just thinking that it's practical,” I said. “And I already know some of the basics.”

“You excited about the big night?” Diego asked, and I nodded.

“Excited and nervous,” I confirmed.

“Hey, at least you get to prepare for it,” Diego said. I nodded again.

“I got almost a week,” Allen said, getting our attention. His brown eyes were focused in the past. “After getting infected. Of course, it was an awful week. They tried to make me spend the whole thing in the hospital, but I wasn't having it. I watched every sunrise and sunset, ate nothing but my favorite foods—which I threw up every time, but I didn't let that stop me—and I went up and down the coast and had one last hurrah before I came back and met my nest master. I was so miserable by then that I asked him to end it. I'd talked to every vampire I could find before that, trying to get an idea of what was coming.”

“Did it prepare you?” I asked. He shrugged.

“A little. Some things, you just have to experience no matter how well someone else describes it,” he said. He met my eyes. “Some of that is good—you've got amazing things in store for you. You're gonna love it.”

“Yeah, you'll finally be one of us,” Diego said, patting me on the shoulder. “I can't tell you how weird it is having a human for a Commander.”

“I thought St. John was the commander?” I said, confused.

“I am,” St. John said. “Your rank is slightly different. Being a council adjunct means that you outrank me. You are the Commander. It was Lukas's position to Sébastien.”

“Whoa, whoa, no. No, no, no, no, no. I am not—”

“You are,” St. John stopped me. “You are not his second but his spouse. Lukas was second and Commander.”

“I wasn't planning to take your job.”

“You haven't. The flock didn't have a Commander position,” St. John said, shaking his head. “I have been de facto commander ever since we needed to take on a second and third captain. Lukas fulfilled the Commander role himself.”

“I'm confused,” I said, shaking my head.

“American vampires use the Vampire Revolution Militia ranking system,” St. John explained patiently. “The vampire general who created the system was an Englishman who wanted it to be different from existing systems largely for simplicity. Since the majority of Revolutionists were not military, formal ranks were largely unnecessary, but people needed to know where to report. Thus the system became General, Commander, Captain, Lieutenant, and soldier.

“Here, we are not an army, so we do not need generals, but the guards are essential, so we still use the Commander-Captain-Lieutenant rank in honor of those who freed us from kings and gave us the power to overthrow any ruler that did not represent us.”

“So how do we have two commanders?”

“We don't. You are the Commander. I command the guards. My rank is Captain. You command not only the guards but the council as well.”

“Hold up. I do what now?”

“As the spouse, you already had power just below Lukas,” Diego explained. “It's a lateral shift.”

“But the spouse doesn't command—”

“No, but it's a general rule that the spouse's word is assumed to come directly from the master,” Diego said.

“Which is why I asked if I should report to you,” Allen chimed in.

“The Commander's power is direct, not an adjunct like the spouse,” St. John said. “It exists to allow the Commander to take immediate action in the event of a hostile incursion or to discipline a council member.”

“I'm not doing that.”

“You don't need to. Lukas prefers to do that himself. But if he were incapacitated, you could effectively use it to protect him,” Diego told me, very quietly. He continued at normal volume, “What you're doing right now is the Commander's work.”

“Organizing the guard?”

“Si.”

“The council as a whole outranks the Commander. Spouse outranks the council. What that means is that if you declare an emergency as the Commander and the council takes a united stand against it, they win. However, if two council members side with you, your power takes over, and they have to follow your directions,” St. John told me while my head spun.

“But Lukas didn't want a Commander position,” I said softly.

“All that means is that he will not have you disciplining anyone beyond what you are doing here today,” St. John told me.

“You know I'm not ready to know what that means,” I realized, and they all three nodded.

“Lukas said that you'll know when you're ready and to remain vague until then,” Allen said.

“Yeah, I can do this most effectively because even though I'm pretty sure I know, I don't think about it,” I admitted, turning my attention back to the tablet with the report. St. John frowned.

“If you remain Commander, you must stop hiding from such things. You are no coward,” he chastised me.

“I... just realized that.” I looked up at the reproach in his eyes, but it vanished quickly and I wondered if I was just projecting. “Only a few more guard meetings before I die. Then I'll learn one way or another. It's not that I'm avoiding responsibility for my decisions, and I swear that I consider every case with compassion. I know I'm not sentencing people for lectures and time outs. It's that I'm not entirely ready to know what's going to happen to Sarah. I can't handle thinking of one of these revolving around her.”

All three of them looked at me as I waved the report. Allen reached out and squeezed my shoulder, giving me a sympathetic look. St. John nodded in what appeared to be understanding. Diego offered me a crooked smile.

“You're worried about your wife,” Diego said and let out an amused breath. “Not you?”

“Me? I'm kinda worried that knowing will let me weigh the consequences and decide they're worth it,” I admitted sheepishly. Diego burst out laughing, St. John rolled his eyes and Allen chuckled. “But I remind you of my mouth and my poor control of it, and I just kinda don't want to know yet.”

“Fair,” Diego said.

“It it your choice,” St. John said, and I felt like that was a disagreement with Diego.

“You do your job just fine. I don't want to talk about it, either,” Allen said, surprising me. All of us had gotten quieter as the room filled, and I did a quick head check to see if everyone was here.

“Well, thanks for the history and chain of command lessons,” I said, looking out at the crowd. “But everyone's here, so it's time to get this party started.”

“Soto agrees it's a party,” Diego said, smirking. He shouted over at Frank Soto in Spanish, and his lieutenant stopped flirting with another guard with a long-suffering sigh before moving to sit with the rest of the lieutenants. I was surprised to see the other guard was male. I hadn't realized Soto was bi. Maybe I'd mistaken playful banter for flirting. God knows I was terrible at recognizing anything that wasn't super obvious. I stood up and took my place at the front of the room and addressed the crowd of guards that kept our territory safe.

“Okay, everyone. Let's do this.”

Predators: Chapter One

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