HematoCorp Blood Center
The Mercy Credo Blood Bank opened its doors in 1948, a pristine facility that served Citron County hospitals and a routine target of robbery by local and wandering Vampires in need of an easy but much less satisfying meal. Staffed 24/7 due to the needs of the medical community, Mercy Credo became one of the first serious centers of human awareness of the undead in San Cipriano, and one of the earliest places where humanity was forced to acknowledge its helplessness against the powers of the supernatural. Staff turnover was frequent, blood donors were generously rewarded, and even the Board of Directors had a brisk change in membership every several months. In the early 1960s, Vampire society decided that this was too important a resource to leave to chance, and the enterprising nosferatu of the Vampire Republic of San Cipriano undertook a legal and financial campaign to take actual control of Mercy Credo as a business entity. They re-christened it as the HematoCorp Blood Center and set undead guards to watch over the blood bank from dusk ‘till dawn.
When HematoCorp proved to be a success, Logan and Daley of the Vampire Court of San Cipriano launched their own initiative to seize control of the blood bank from the Republic. After a vicious conflict, the Republic and the Court created a compromise in which they shared control over HematoCorp—resulting in a sleek, updated compound devoted to both human health and feeding Vampires… for a price.
Since sucking blood out of a glass bottle (or, nowadays, a plastic bag) is not as viable or acceptable for the murderous spawn of darkness as stalking and consuming actual prey, HematoCorp has developed special “low-stress donation rooms” in which living human donors have needles inserted for blood draws and the needles are linked to tubes running from their veins and into a concealing wall. Behind the wall wait hungry Vampires, each with a single tube running from the donor directly to their mouth, and another Vampire guard watching over them. In this locked dining room, paying Vampires may patiently let the human donor’s blood pressure pump blood through the tube and into their guts… with the open understanding that if they should become greedy and kill the donor, the guard in the room will kill them. This arrangement keeps everyone polite.
Although the HematoCorp Blood Center is operated directly by the Republic with limited Court involvement, all Vampires from any local society—or even merely visiting San Cipriano—may dine at the blood bank if they can afford the cost and agree to the terms of feeding. Attempts to rob the place yield immediate retaliation by the Republic, the Court and any other interested local Vampires. It is also a perennial target of newly fledged Slayers, who think they will destroy a huge Vampire nest with ease, but invariably wind up as part of the evening’s blood donation…
