So Many Questions: Friday Night Bites Edition, Part One

You may have seen my post on questions I had from my reread of Some Girls Bite​. I'm here today with the questions I had while rereading Friday Night Bites. I actually have so many this is only part one of two for just this book! It has been a little while since I reread these early books. It was nice to get back into them. It also made me think of a lot of things that happen down the road in this series and, things that haven't happened yet. I don't know if the lovely Ms. Neill has seen these posts, but feel free to answer as many of these questions as you'd like! :) Anyway, keep reading after the jump to see what my Friday Night Bites questions are.



Do we ever/will we ever get Merit's official stats on her strength?

Turns out that while I was a pretty geeky human, I was a pretty strong vampire.

Various people say multiple times over the course of the series that Merit is a Very Strong vampire. She manages to hold her own mere days after going through the change against Ethan. And, at only several months old, she bests him. But, will we ever get the official word on her strength? Of course, I want to know her Psych and Strat scores as well. Are those Very Strong also? Or different? I feel like with her connections, her Strat score would be pretty high.

What are the governing bodies for the rest of the world's vampires?

.....the Greenwich Presidium, the council that ruled Western European and North American vampires.

The GP rules Europe and North America. Who rules Asian, Africa, etc? Later, when Ethan mentions his man crush, Amit Patel, he says that he has avoided membership in the Sabha for years. Is the Sabha another of these governing bodies? Is there some sort of UN/G8 meeting of vampires? Do they consult each other on policies? How do the rest of the world's vampires feel about Chicago's shenanigans? How did the rest of the world react to the outing of vampires?

This is not a question. Just a plea to Chloe Neill.

Vampires' eyes silvered when they experienced strong emotions-- hunger, anger, or, in my case, proximity to the blond cupcake that was Ethan Sullivan.

I NEED Merit to call Ethan a cupcake within his hearing. Please? Please, can we have this before the series ends? I would also accept stud muffin, hunk, or any other embarrassing endearment. Please? I need this in my life.


How much is Merit's stipend?

The Cadogan stipend was one of the upshots of having been made a vampire.

How much is this stipend, exactly? Is there some sort of stipend schedule based on what you do? If someone has a job outside of the House, do they still get a stipend? I would assume that Merit's stipend is one of the higher paying ones, given the nature of her position and the danger that she is so frequently in. Is that assumption correct? Does Ethan get a stipend? His is probably the highest stipend, right? Is Malik's second highest? Clearly, older vampires have the potential to be extremely wealthy, even if their stipend isn't that great. They have very few expenses, if they live in the House. Do vampires who have jobs outside the House pay some sort of church-like tithe? How does the House continue to bring money in? Investments? Is the stipend equal between Houses or do they set their own stipend levels?

How big of a territory do the Chicago Houses oversee?

So I munched on celery sticks and carrots as we plotted over a map of Chicago locations believed to host raves. They included a club in Urbana, an expensive suburban home in Schaumburg, and a bar in Lincoln Park.

Where is the next closest House to Chicago? Is it Kansas City, where Jonah is from? There's obviously not a House in each state. So, I would assume that the Chicago Houses have to keep an eye on Rogues and any vampiric activity on the GP's behalf in places where there are no Houses. But, how big is this territory exactly? Urbana is almost three hours from Chicago, but still in Illinois. Ethan and Merit also go to Iowa after Mallory. Is their territory specific states or is it a mileage or a time frame? Anything within say five to six hours is their problem? Or, are the states that border Illinois their territory and everything else is someone else's problem?

Who else in Cadogan, besides Lindsey, has extra powers?

I'm psychic, remember?

Merit has some resistance to glamour, Lindsey is psychic. Does anyone else have any powers? Does a power come with some a certain level of strength? What other powers are there, in general, throughout the world of vampires? Does vampire superhero, Amit Patel, have a power besides super strength? Does anyone have a cool power like manipulating metal, or weather control, or fire manipulation? Are those kinds of things limited to sorcerers? Do vampires make prophecies too? We know sorcerers and shifters do.

How many former Houses are there?

His Master wasn't strong enough to keep her House together, and she was ix-nayed by a rival.

Lindsey was talking about Malik's former House here. How many other ex-Houses are there? Is there a list of past and present Houses in the Canon? While we are on the subject, how many Houses are there currently? We know there are 12 US Houses. What about European Houses or Mexican or Canadian Houses? Do vampires outside the purvey of the GP abide by the House system also? Or do they have another system? Also, Ethan talks later about the origin of the House system after the Clearings. What is the oldest House in the GP? Do any of those original Houses still exist today? I would assume they are in Europe. Where in Europe are they, if they do exist? 

Why did Catcher get kicked out of the Order?

Apparently, union or not, the Order doesn't have a local in Chicago, notwithstanding the fact that we're the third-freaking-biggest city in the country. Anyhoo, not your problem, that's some kind of historical crap, and it's part of the reason he got kicked out....

I think I'm going to need a prequel short story on Catcher and why he got kicked out of the Order. I know that in one of the later books, he says that he had a premonition about Chicago. What was that premonition? Why did wanting to act on that premonition get him kicked out of the Order? Is Catcher giving us the whole story or is his version clouded by bias and grumpiness? Was Simon or whoever was in charge of the order at the time intimidated by his power and wanted an excuse to kick him out? What is up with the governing bodies in this world? Besides the Packs, every other one seems to have some severe issues.

Who runs Blood4You and the other blood companies?

Comforting--like chicken soup for vampires. That it came from plastic bags and was delivered to our door by a company uncreatively named Blood4You didn't diminish the comfort, although it wasn't much in the way of chic.

Are they run by humans or vampires or a mixture? Are they beyond reproach? It seems to me that tainting or spiking bagged/boxed blood would be a hell of a way to turn public opinion on vampires. Or, you could also potentially incapacitate a lot of vampires with the right mixtures. I'm honestly a little surprised something on a larger scale hasn't been tried yet. If you can't get to the packaging company, what about ambushing delivery drivers? We know vampires take drugs and drink. Someone could spike the blood of potentially every vampire living in a House like Grey or Navarre, who don't allow drinking from a human. That could have pretty disastrous consequences. Not to mention the fact that a sexual predator could take advantage of this and give someone spiked blood.

How old is the oldest vampire in this world?

For an eternity, if I managed to last that long.

We know Ethan is about 400 years old. But, we also know that there are vampires older than he is. Who is the oldest living vampire, right now? How old was the oldest vampire ever? Ethan says vampires when he was changed were different. Have they evolved alongside humans? Or was their barbarous nature just a product of the times? As industry and society changed, did vampires change too? What are this universe's creation myths? Who was the first vampire? Was it Cain, like so many others? Or, was it something else. Because they are so connected to magic, was it a sorcerer that magicked the first vampire into existence?

What happened to Amber?

...The girl who'd witnessed, firsthand, his betrayal by Amber. The girl who'd seen the look on his face when Amber confessed her sin, her involvement in Celina's conspiracy.

We know that Peter was sent to the GP for punishment. But, Amber just walks away. We know she was stripped of her Cadogan membership. Did she seek refuge at another House, maybe Heart House with Nicole? Or is she a Rogue now, surviving on her own? Is she privy to any information that could come back to bite Ethan? Did she hear about his death/resurrection? Will we see her again before story's end? She seems to be the type to hold a grudge against Merit for "stealing" Ethan. She also seems the type that would perceive what happened as Merit stealing Ethan, not Ethan choosing a partner rather than a fuck buddy. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we are quite done with Amber yet.

Well, that's it for Friday Night Bites, Part One. Stay tuned for Friday Night Bites, Part Two.

Do you have any answers for me, Readers? Are any of these answered and I've just forgotten? Do you have any questions of your own from this half(ish) of the book? Let me know in the comments!