Irene and John

They are not exactly like Romeo and Juliet, since their families started out as allies, prominent members of the merchant class of Constantinople ~ a sector of the merchant class that enhanced its efforts with magic, in the sort of stew of Christian and pagan elements you see in people much more interested in results than in orthodoxy or intellectual coherence.

Irene and John were both promising magical talents in their respective houses. They were also childhood friends and, eventually, sweethearts. Their families agreed readily to their betrothal, at first, all the more on political grounds (bonding the families seemed a good idea) and eugenic grounds (they ought to produce some powerful talents in their children, for the good of both clans).

But then the two families had a falling out. The betrothal could not be readily broken, but it was put on an indefinite hold that dismayed both the principals. Matters got worse, and the families began talking of sending John to a monastery and Irene to a convent. More dismay.

Then, one night, violence broke out between the young men of the two houses, down at the docks, and John wound up getting knocked out and tossed into the sea. Irene arrived minutes later and, on hearing John appeared to be drowned, played her occult trump card, Simon.

Simon claimed to be an angel but had often demanded things like the sacrifices of lambs or cocks. Simon now appeared as a waterspout (the combatants fled) and demanded Irene's perpetual service as his vampire agent, as his price for rescuing John. She gave it.

Simon then hauled John out of the water, clinically dead. For whatever reason ~ probably to acquire John, too ~ Simon proceeded to revive him by turning him into a vampire, too. John, awaking, learned first what was becoming of him and second what Irene had paid for it. To save both their souls, he refused the bargain and tried to dive back into the sea and finish drowning. Irene, seeing what Simon was doing to John, reneged. Simon wasn't having any of that.

There followed a duel arcane between Simon and the two freshly-vampirized mages ~ a young couple screaming at a waterspout, down at the docks of Constantinople, in the middle of the night, with the waterspout screaming back.

They won, abruptly, after calling on the holy angels, when a lightning bolt struck down through the waterspout, destroying it. Unlike common lightning, it stayed there, dancing on the water. A voice of thunder told them to flee and serve God. The bolt vanished. They fled.

The next night, they emerged from their bolthole and sought out their bishop. They told him . . . much of their adventure. He told them to foreswear magic and dedicate themselves to good works. They assented.

They had not, however, told the bishop that they were still vampires.

Since their families believed them dead, they took the opportunity of vanishing deeper into the Byzantine occult underground. There, they practiced no magic but found they did not need to in order to be keenly aware of its use. They made a marginal and confused living, for some months, as somewhat Robin-Hoody guardians and advisors to victims of the occult. They preyed on back-alley thugs. Then a suave, dapper old gentleman appeared, with a large manservant, asking around for them. They contacted the visitors and learned that they, too, were vampires. In fact, they were Bagoas and Alexis.

Irene and John are expert in occult matters, though they never practice magic. Though "headquartered" on Patmos, they move about a good deal, and, with Bagoas, are the group's main eyes and ears on current affairs.

They are vampires of the same class as Alexis, with the same powers and vulnerabilities.