Dampyr #172 (2014) pages 45-46: Follow the money

Olimpia Maidalchini was a wealthy vampire in the seventeenth century. When she disappeared, her Italian estates ended up in the hands of a vampire lord who may have been her sire:

“It is a certain Jean-Baptiste Verdier.”

“That Verdier?”

“I think so, Kurjak. The same Master of Night that I killed in Paris and who, thanks to necromancy, had become one with a house in Montparnasse.*”

* See Dampyr #10, “House of Blood." (Another Master of Night had his spirit united with.a castle in Dampyr Speciale #1, “Dracula Park.” That one wasn’t quite dead though.)

“So you think it was he who vampirized the 'Lady Pope'?”

“I believe that Maidalchini's hunger for power knew no bounds, not even in death. In addition to the properties, she could have obtained positions of power for Verdier in Rome at the time. When Maidalchini felt her time was coming, she completed the last business of her life, that is, to become an immortal creature. By giving authority and possessions to Verdier, she laid the foundations for the Master of Night to seize power. She must have then staged her death, to return in the form of a vampire. She probably haunted the inhabitants of San Martino al Cimino.”

Another possibility is that Verdier vampirized an unwilling Olimpia to gain control of her assets. As we know from Anne Rice, vampires like to live in style. My young son likes to point out that not all vampires get to live in castles. Dracula did, because he was already a Count. Anyway, we later learn that Harlan was right; Olimpia volunteered to become an immortal monster.