"Convicts sentenced to death. And if you don't trust Maria so much, then drink their blood yourself and see if their crimes deserve such punishment."
Returning to his place from the silent triumvirate, Alexander remained standing.
"I will be the first to insist that we cannot turn into soulless monsters who consider themselves superior to others. We have no moral right to conduct experiments on just anyone. And the morality of the planned experiments itself is questionable. But the monsters who have crossed themselves out of the lists of humans by their actions deserve to be our test subjects."
"You're right about everything. But here's the question — what if it works?"
"What are you talking about, Eugene?"
"Well, if we manage to turn a convict into a vampire. What then? After all, he's sentenced to death for the crimes he committed."
"Then we'll conduct another experiment on how to kill a vampire!" Maria rubbed her hands in satisfaction. "We know from practical experience how quickly we regenerate. And how do we kill us without magic and daylight? This will give us valuable experience!"
"You should first turn them into vampires!"
"Yeah," Sergey chuckled, "that could be a problem. But I have a feeling we're on the right track, gentlemen! Some combination of factors should lead to success, or perhaps it's impossible to turn people into vampires at all, and we'll have to reproduce naturally."
"We'll die of old age sooner than we'll reproduce naturally," Konstantin snorted.
There were indeed some difficulties with this. In the camp, there were roughly equal numbers of men and women, and no one led a monastic lifestyle. But even active sexual activities did not lead to their natural conclusion. Over half a year, none of the vampire women became pregnant, although no contraception was used. To be honest, it was problematic for them to conceive; the only woman in the village who menstruated was Stephanie.
"I, for one, am not planning to die," Sergey bared his teeth. "Vampires are supposed to be immortal! So we have a chance to test it!"
"Alright! If there are no further questions requiring continuation of our meeting... Well, since there are none, then I declare the meeting adjourned; we need to prepare for dawn. And send the team for the convicts in the city."
"Some to the side, and some to patrol," Oleg looked disappointed.
"By the way, about the patrols! I remind you that caravans will start passing through the road today or tomorrow. We got used to them over the winter. Make sure none of ours decide to hunt a little."
Everyone involuntarily smiled. In late autumn, when caravans simply clogged the road in both directions, a couple of teenagers quietly ran away from the village and settled not far from the road, waiting for a lone traveler. The heroes wanted to hunt. Fortunately, they were found before they could do anything irreparable.
Alexander woke up to someone shaking his shoulder. Sitting up in bed, he looked at the vampire who entered his room.
"I must have fallen asleep, didn't even feel someone coming into the house."
"What happened?" Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Alexander wondered why the guard woke him up.
"The guards asked you to wake up; they have news."
The guards were serious. Oleg wouldn't just wake him up in the middle of the day for nothing.
"What time is it now?"
"An hour before sunset."
Nodding, Alexander began to dress. Stepping out of the house, he looked around. Demur was safely hidden among the trees. The daylight still dazzled his eyes, but it couldn't kill him anymore and was quite tolerable. Finding no one in the tower, he had to go to the communal house. There he found Oleg and Leonid together.
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