It makes the most sense for Joe Coldstone, Materyllis’ rapist and transmittor of vampirism, was a practitioner of hoodoo, but I’m not going to use that word because it sounds like voodoo, which has enough misconceptions around it already. So I’ll say he was a conjure man, practicing a syncretic form of healing/rootwork/matural magic that borrows from various West and Central African religious and healing traditions and throws some New Testament Christianity into the mix.
Here’s an online book, which should be good for an introduction to the subject.
Anyway, Joe transmitted vampirism to Materyllis. He also probably tossed a gallimaufry of spells at her, love spells, obedience curses, domination hexes, etc., etc., etc. Materyllis was then forced to be his servant.
Materyllis was kept as a prisoner in Joe’s house, forced to do that very thing that she never wanted to do: housekeeping. There was also more rape involved.
Materyllis spent any spare moment monitoring Joe and learning his secrets. After 3 years of slavery, she had amassed enough of her own conjure knowledge and skills to kill Joe and free herself.
After her imprisonment, she basically came out of the darkness into a new world. Not only had she mostly missed World War II, but her family had scattered. Her father, who had never been healthy, had died of a stroke half a year after Materyllis’ illness. Both of her brothers had died in combat. Her sister had taken her example and gotten a job as part of the war effort, and now she was out in California with her husband who had come back sefely from the service. Materyllis’ mother remained in the house on Yerxa Road, increasingly frail and lonely.
Materyllis reunited with her mother and cared for her until her death in 1948. After that, she kind of took over Joe’s old position and became a conjure woman. At first, she started healing some of the damage caused by Joe’s perversions. Of course, Materyllis wasn’t the only woman that he had tried to ensorcel, sexually exploit and dominate, so Materyllis tracked down the others and tried to help them.
For example, Susie Langdon had been a victim of his in the 1920s. Barely out of girlhood, she had been hiding ever since then, convinced she was sinful, shameful, polluted and less than human. Materyllis restored her confidence and her strength. Susie ended up going down to Mattapan and joining the Chocolatiers, where she is still doing well today. Susie gave Materyllis the name that she goes by today.
Materyllis didn’t have as much success with other women. There was one, Affie Marks, vamped by Joe in the early 1800s, who had spent all of her undead life unclanned, uninitiated and unacknowledged. The strain of death and over a century of isolation had left her mostly nuts. She seemed to have the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, and she alternated between tractability and violent damaging rages. Materyllis brought Affie to her house, hoping that, with gentle treatment and some judicious application of conjure magic, Affie would regain her sanity.
With Materyllis watching her, Affie seemed to improve, becoming more peaceful and more coherent.