As Evanna had said, Mag left her care soon after her eighteenth birthday, a bit earlier than expected, but Evanna could not explain why without upsetting the delicate timeline. Fortunately, Evanna had trained Mag well in all things Mag had also been born with one gift even Evanna could never teach; a beautiful voice. So Mag left Evanna's care and struck out on her own to America to become a singer. It was there that she met Marni Wallace, who was at that time twenty-seven years old. The two immediately became best friends and Marni helped Mag train her voice and also helped her deal with the human world without sight. At that time, Marni was dating Rotti Largo, a wealthy and powerful business man. Rotti told Marni that he could help Mag see.
Meanwhile, Pavi was fourteen years old now and Luigi was nineteen. Pavi and Luigi had become very close within the last year. It was no secret to Luigi that Rotti had treated young Pavi as a bed warmer between Carmella's mother and Marni and Luigi thought it was disgusting the way Rotti had used Pavi, but one good thing came out of it, it brought Pavi closer to Luigi and the two of them were happy together even if Pavi did sometimes bug the living hell out of Luigi or if Luigi was sometimes too rough with Pavi.
Graves had sometimes felt that he should step in and help the kid who would grow into the savior of the vampire race, but the vampire princes had warned him about stepping in before Pavi was old enough to be blooded. Graves' instructions were very specific, wait till Pavi was a grown man, twenty one to be exact, when no one would notice if he stopped aging for a few years. Graves noticed Pavi was a pretty good looking kid; he took very good care of himself and cared a lot about how he looked. He sent a mental signal to his princes asking them if they were sure they wanted him to go through with blooding him. He wouldn't be very keen on ever going to Vampire Mountain with how he was, what with the icy waterfall for a shower, the bat broth for dinner, the brutal games. Graves got a resounding 'yes, you must blood him' in response, the prophecy of Mr. Tiny was not one to be trifled with.
Over the two years that followed, Luigi and Pavi dealt with their first real brotherly feud and break-up over their father's girlfriend Marni. During that time, Pavi became a good friend of Mag. Through Evanna's training, Mag could see in Pavi's future that he would one day be responsible as savior to the entire vampire race, but she couldn't tell him that. She did drop hints though, like her mistress' father. Of course, Mag didn't do it out of disrespect for Evanna, some things just slipped out, things like 'Pavi, have you ever thought of how cool it would be to be a vampire?' or 'Pavi, have you ever looked at blood and liked it?' Pavi, at fourteen and fifteen, thought it would be very cool to be a vampire. He'd never really read much about them, so he assumed it would be a lot of breaking into women's bedrooms and seducing them to drink their blood and to Pavi, that sounded just dandy.
"Why, Mag? Do you wanna me to come suck-a your blood?" He laughed, pouncing on her and nipping playfully at her neck.
"Oh, you!" Mag laughed, shoving him off. "No, that's not how vampires actually do it…they…well…shall I show you?"
"Are-a you a vampire?" Pavi asked.
"No. But I've met enough of them." She smiled.
"Ha-ha, so funny! You like-a to make The Pavi look foolish, so you tell-a him to believe in vampires when-a his papa and fratello tell-a him there's-a no such thing." Pavi laughed a little. "I get-a it."
"Alright, but supposing there were vampires, this is what they do, they would take their long sharp nails, make a small incision somewhere it wouldn't hurt you and then, they just lean down and suck the blood that bubbles up. And I'm telling you this for your own benefit, I mean how else will you….Oh dear…I've said too much." Mag said, getting up and leaving the room before she gave away too much.
"What was that all about?" Luigi asked, walking into the room, cocking an eyebrow.
"Vampires, I think-a." Pavi blinked.
"Right, you know they don't exist, right, Pavs?" Luigi asked, laughing a little.
"Right-a. Mag seems to think-a they do, though." He said softly.
"Well, Mag's a little bit…off…." Luigi said, shaking his head.
"No she's not-a." Pavi shook his head. "She just really likes-a horror stories. She says-a her adoptive mother told-a her all about vampires, if-a papa said something, you'd-a believe him, so maybe it's-a the same way for Mag."
"I guess you're right." Luigi said, shaking his head, he didn't feel like arguing right now, he was in a rare good mood. "So, you wanna have some fun, Pavs?" He asked.
Pavi grinned and nodded, lying down. Luigi eased himself over him and kissed him.
Meanwhile, Graves had staked out (no pun intended) the building where Pavi's father worked; he had set up a home in a dumpster right behind the building. However, in a hotel room a few blocks away, a purple skinned red haired man had reserved a room. Gannen Harst, brother to Vancha March, had set up camp there and was also staking out the building. He, unlike Graves, had an edge because Luigi actually worked at that building already at age twenty and next year, Luigi's twenty-first birthday, Gannen would blood him as a half Vampaneze.
Marni had recently left Rotti for a doctor named Nathan Wallace, all orchestrated by Mr. Tiny. He'd introduced himself to Marni as a long lost uncle.
"It pains me to see my own niece with such an awful man." He'd said, hiding his smirking face under a wide brimmed hat. "Let me introduce you to a nice doctor I know, maybe he can even fix that arm Rotti broke." And with that, he'd sealed Marni's fate. She died that very year, poisoned by Rotti for 'infidelity' even though she'd married Nathan (the doctor) and been carrying his daughter at the time of her death. The child had lived, it was a girl named Shilo, another integral part of Mr. Tiny's plan.