Author(s) Notes: Just so we're clear from the get go folks, I'm a recent, to use an in-game/in-lore term, 'Embraced' as far as this rather intriguing setting is concerned, so this won't be connected to Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines in regards to the story. This is still using the lore and maybe even some of the characters as you see them in game, but by and large this is its own story separate from what happened in Santa Monica and its surrounding areas. Most characters will be OC because of this, but there will be mentions regarding those that survived the end of the story, if not outright cameos of those characters that would realistically get around, like Smiling Jack to name one such example. But as a longtime fan of vampires, werewolves, and all those wonderful things that go bump in the night, and after recently discovering this game on Youtube thanks in no small part to Christopher Odd, I figured I'd throw my hat into the mix here on FF. So, enjoy folks!

If I can think of a good fandom to cross this over with at a later date, I'll likely do so, but for now this is my only straight, non crossover story I have on my profile. At any rate, enjoy!

Disclaimer: We own nothing regarding White Wolf's World of Darkness or any of its adaptations. This is purely a work of fanfiction with no monetary gain whatsoever. So, fun and mayhem of our own creation follows from here on out, we're just the lucky guys that get to play in their world, as many of you can no doubt attest to. D Enjoy!

Also, any religious and/or political viewpoints, etc, are merely for the use of the story and do not in any way reflect those of our own. Any mention of real life movies, music, etc, are also claimed by their original owners.

Chapter 1: Lesson Learned

Stop me if you've heard this line before. Let me tell you the story of how I almost died. Sound familiar? Denzel Washington, playing the part of some hotshot New York City detective in a movie appropriately called Fallen, got in way over his head when he ran afoul of an entity well beyond his simple, human understanding. This entity, able to jump between people with a mere pass of the hand, would quickly tear his life apart before being outsmarted by the cop in question, only for it to get away in the end by the skin of its teeth. It makes for a good story, and even now I consider Fallen one of Denzel's better movies at this point in time.

Funny thing about fiction though, there's always a bit of truth hidden between the lines. I didn't understand that, until I ran afoul of something that changed my own concept of reality and turned it on its head. Unlike Denzel's detective though, there was no almost dying for me. Guess I should have listened to my mother and all those Sunday school stories she tried to cram down my throat, otherwise I probably wouldn't have woken up in the city morgue, minus a heartbeat.

Well, on the other hand, who would have thought that a little clubbing would cause a severe case of undeath? Let me back up a bit first and lay a little groundwork before we get to the real interesting stuff. My name is Alex, short for Alexandria. Don't ask where it came from, because it's too damn embarrassing to repeat in 'polite society', but that's a whole other can of worms which is for later too. Point is, who I was is not who I am now, or what I am might be the better way to describe what has happened to me.

Which will take some time to get used to. Why no one ever told me that spontaneous species change is that easy is beyond me, but here I am. I guess it could be worse, like say burning alive as soon as I step into the sunlight, oh wait, that's exactly what happens. Thankfully I avoided that misstep, no thanks to my Sire, but again I get ahead of myself. Blame my wandering thoughts on this whole enhanced senses shtick, sensory overload doesn't begin to cover it.

Okay, let's do this right.

Some time ago.

New York, New York, the city that those fleeing from the eastern continents for one reason or another often came here first. It's rather fitting that the city of refugees, vagabonds, and more would be the start of this particular story. What better place to start a new life? Just don't mind the organized crime that everyone pretends doesn't exist in the darker corners of the city. You can get mugged on one street corner, sold into prostitution on another, and maybe even stabbed to death in a dark alley all in one day if your luck is about as bad as mine was when I first showed up in town, hoping to get away from a single mom who was the very definition of a bible thumper, born again, "Can I get a Hallelujah?!" Christian. Except she forgot the part about compassion, understanding, and went right for the fire and brimstone sections of her Bible with a vengeance.

I love this city, really, so many possibilities, many of them bad for your health sure, but at least you get a choice here, more or less. Even without adding the complexities of the politics of vampiric life, or unlife I guess, there were certain rules you went by if you wanted to survive in New York, but those tended to be the same for any big city like this one. Man, my life was so easy back then, no stupid pompous Ventrue looking down on me, thinking they were superior or some other vampire looking for trouble, or even better, a werewolf wanting to tear you limb from limb. My advice, should you ever be unfortunate enough to find yourself in the last situation, run, run like hell. Seriously, don't mess with those things, even the 'civilized' wolves aren't to be fucked with. Thankfully there aren't many in the cities, otherwise I would be someone's chewtoy by now, knowing my luck.

As for the rules regarding traveling through, and thriving in a city like this one though? It's pretty simple really. Don't sign anything without reading the fine print, especially if you're trying to get a job in the 'fine arts of acting'. Chances are you'd find yourself in some dirty backroom, and 'asked' to take your clothes off for some old man with a hidden camera. I was a writer, so I didn't have to worry about that personally. Another good thing to go by is to be able to defend yourself. A gun? Doesn't do shit if you can't hit your target, although against a vampire it just pisses us off, unless you're packing a twelve gauge, or a flamethrower, but who carries those around in public? No, if you want a chance, hand to hand is the way to go, and I'm not talking about a twelve week course in some faux form of martial arts. Find a real master of kicking someone's ass with their bare hands and go from there.

Oh, and of course look out for older vampires, they have way more experience than you do, both in life and in ass kicking, let alone in being able to use all kinds of creepy ass powers. Don't piss them off either, unless you have a really awesome guardian angel who enjoys coming to your rescue for the rest of your eternal life then, you're good to go. I got lucky a few times during the first couple months, but there's a time and a place that you have to either grow a pair or go home in an ashtray. I grew a pair, and made myself indispensable, for those few 'allies' I trust not to screw me over without giving it some serious thought first. As for those few I actually trust with my life, well, those fall under their own category of badass, more on that later though.

So, what happened to the fresh faced virgin to the big bad city? Things went about as you'd expect for someone that had just 'come out of the closet' among a small community that knew everyone else's dirty laundry. My mother hated my guts, my neighbors soon knew that I had a thing for women, and the rest was pretty much history from there. So I packed up, took dad's truck he left me for my eighteenth birthday before he got into a fight with a telephone pole, that he lost in a head on collision one rainy night of September, and I left town the next day. I had planned to leave my little country life behind anyway, I just left a few months earlier than planned was all.

Unfortunately, those few months might have made all the difference. Finding an apartment almost killed me in its own right since it turns out everything is much more expensive in the big city. And far harder to get, because the moment you might suspect that a flat is available you better give the landlord a call, otherwise you're too late. I was almost prepared to either sleep on a park bench by the time I found something, or possibly murder someone in order to get their apartment when I did finally get my own place.

Although, that park bench looked pretty inviting compared to the place I was able to make my own those first few weeks. The cracks in the walls allowed a pretty cold draft to blow through, the lock on the door would have been a mere annoyance for your average human thief, let alone something with the strength to bench press you with one hand. Although, if a thief had broken in during my early days before I became a vampire, he would have likely taken pity on me and gave me something rather than steal anything. Such was the state of my dear home at the time, but now it's… better, I guess you could say. For one thing the cold doesn't bother me anymore, so that's a plus. And now I could easily tear apart a human thief with an arm tied behind my back and blindfolded, and I would probably still get killed by the first vampire who decided that he didn't like my face. Oh well, such is life.

So here I was, with an apartment that was probably a fire hazard in the making, and about out of money, but thankfully, I found work behind a bar of a club. Yes, I said a club, and no, it wasn't a 'gentlemen's club', although clothes still had a tendency to come off in the dark corners. Every night was a party, an atmosphere that was encouraged by the club owner, and I have to say, I rather enjoyed it, still do really. And then one night in the late April, I saw her.

Stop me if you've heard this story before. Girl meets girl, girl talks to girl, girl ends up going home with girl. It didn't happen all at once mind you, if anything said girl, pale goddess I had thought of her at the time, with strangely luminescent emerald eyes and alabaster skin that could have been cut from the finest marble, was shyer than I was. I didn't find out later until her teeth were in my neck why she was so hesitant to get close to anyone. Funny how life works out like that.

Just so you know, for the victim of the vampire, this whole sucking blood thing feels really pleasurable, well for the vampire too, but nevermind that. Imagine the best sex you've ever had, throw in a little heroin, and you might get close to how good it feels to be fed on, let alone be the one feeding. I wouldn't advise you to turn into a blood whore or something like that though, most vampires can and will use you until there's nothing left. I'm nicer than most. I wouldn't do that, not unless I got good reason to, like say you shot me in the face, that makes me kinda cranky. Or when I'm really, really thirsty and you are that type of unsavoury person I can feed on without feeling guilty. Survival of the fittest takes on a whole new meaning from a moral standpoint for people like us given the whole Beast wanting to be unleashed. I was lucky in that I was Sired by a Toreador, one of the few clans that actually try to keep in touch with their humanity.

I mean, sorry to say this, but the Nosferatu aren't gonna win any beauty contests anytime soon. They have pretty useful qualities, those being a knack for computers and assassinations, but I wouldn't want to live looking like that. The Malkavian on the other hand are all insane, literally all of them have lost more than a few marbles in one way or another, yet they somehow manage to see and know things no sane person ever should. Creepy I tell you, especially when you're talking to one and suddenly they start throwing your most embarrassing secrets in your face, all while smiling creepily. Yeah, not the most pleasant experience, trust me. And don't get me started about those blood mage bastards who can create gargoyles, among other supernatural entities that don't even have names anymore. There are fewer things more terrifying, even for our kind, than running into a flesh crafted monstrosity better left to some Lovecraftian horror story.

As for me, Toreador I might be, a 'degenerate', hedonist, and all that other garbage, but I actually work for a living, unlike most of the rest of those that came before me or will come after me no doubt. Yeah, I have a thing for art, for beauty, and all the trappings of the finer things in life, partly because of my upbringing, as religious based as it might have started, partly because of the cursed blood in my veins, but I always worked for what I wanted. Nothing was ever handed to me. So make all the jokes you want about me and the clan I happen to be a part of simply because of who made me, but I'm not my clan. I know a dozen ways to snap your neck with just my bare hands without breaking a sweat, if I could sweat, so don't fuck with me and I won't leave you as a pile of ash.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's continue with the story. Now where were I? Ah yes, the whole being sucked on thing. First, it was really awesome, although the sex beforehand hadn't been bad by any stretch of the imagination. Toreador specialize in being hedonists, remember? For some, that translated into being very, very skilled lovers. However, once my vision began to darken since I was busy dying, it became a whole lot less awesome. To this day, I don't remember what happened next, or the taste of my Sire's blood on my tongue as she brought me back from the brink, I only remember taking a ragged, deep breath that I no longer needed only to realize I was in a metal box set into a wall. I found out later that my Sire, like someone else across the US, wasn't supposed to make a new Kindred. Not for the same reasons perhaps, since LaCroix, bastard I've heard he was before he was blown up or something, had no say in what happened in New York, no matter what he thought, arrogant little princeling. But the point is, the Powers that Be and shall, for now, remain unnamed, busted down my apartment door, dusted my Sire, and stuffed me into the nearest morgue they controlled so they could clean up the mess in peace. And….let's just say there was a lot to clean up, ash pile not included. ….Moving on.

Trouble is, they were a little late to the party, and I ended up waking up a little earlier than anticipated. So when I did wake up, there was no committee of vampire elders waiting to greet me, to explain what had happened, why it shouldn't have happened, and what they were going to do to me, if anything. Needless to say, waking up in a morgue cabinet would have been enough to make anyone panic, and given how my night had gone, as good as it might have started, I was beyond scared shitless. I didn't notice I was wearing nothing but a paper dress that I lost at some point as I made a break for the nearest exit, only to immediately jump back into the shadows when the sun started to burn my skin away upon shoving the doors out of my way. The early hours of dawn are not the best way to come into vampirism, trust me, and the smell of burning flesh lingers in the nose like nothing else, except maybe raw sewage. And yes, I've been in the sewers, not something I want to talk about right now.

To make matters worse, I was hungry, as hungry as I've never been before or have been since then. Side effect of being new to the V club I guess. Anyway, there I was as good as naked, unable to go outside and hungry enough to drink dry a dozen people, and dead man's blood doesn't do shit for the hunger in question, believe me I tried. Not a good start as far as I'm concerned.

Thankfully, someone had apparently expected this and prepared a lot of transfusions in a little box for me. How they got it in there without anyone asking what the hell he or she was doing I will probably never know, but I didn't particularly care at that moment. I think I was on bag number six before I came to my senses, such as they were, and in typical fledgling fashion, I tried to immediately throw it back up as the horror of what I had just been doing caught up with me. Yeah, that worked out real well. Not only had I already digested what I had drank down in the time it takes a chain smoker to go through a single cancer stick, I had no gag reflex to speak of anymore.

And I was still damn hungry with my instincts screaming at me to stop screwing around and order the next round of red juice. With nothing better to do other than wonder if I was losing my mind, I saw little point in arguing the point further and went back to my box of juice bags. When I had finally pushed the worst of the hunger away, I was able to get off the dirty, cold linoleum and actually take stock of myself and my immediate surroundings. Looking up though, I realized I had been drinking not ten feet away from a fresh cadaver, but thankfully the Y incision cut into the poor guy's chest was sewed shut, otherwise I might have found a way to vomit. Blood, gore, and all of the bodily fluids associated with violence and death doesn't bother me like it used to, having seen and left behind my fair share by this point, but at the time, I was still new to this whole thing. I had a sensitive stomach, had being the operative word.

Okay….okay, I'm in a morgue. Dead bodies on metal slabs kinda give that away. I remember thinking, as I tried to get my unnecessary rapid breathing under some semblance of control. My next thought was rather predictable. What am I doing in a morgue? Oh god, am I some kind of weird zombie thing?! I don't wanna be a zombie! They are so gross. As I said, predictable, but also fitting given my liking for all those kinds of movies and stories. I am still an unrepentant nerd, with a capital N, but now I can't help but laugh at how many things all those shows get wrong.

Next I was forced to face a serious problem, that being I was naked in a morgue with deadly sunlight outside, empty blood bags all around me, and probably looking like a serial killer after his latest killing spree. Thankfully, every morgue has a showering station within easy reach for those technicians that work in places like this, so cleaning up the mess I had made of myself and the immediate area was easy. After the shower, I had a chance to see my own reflection, and yes, we do have reflections, unless some of our more gifted members are using powerful illusion magics to conceal themselves.

Blue eyes, while not entirely as I remembered them, stared back at me. The face they were set in, which was thankfully still mine, was unnaturally pale and blemish free. I had always had problems with pimples, no matter what I tried to do to get rid of them, but now it was as if they had never existed. Pale, smooth, soft as silk, I could have fooled anyone into thinking I had just walked off the set of some gothic fashion show. My hair at least was exactly the same, although the ponytail I usually kept my long, brunette hair contained in had been undone at some point, either by my recently deceased vampire girlfriend who I didn't know had been dusted, or by the vampires who had dropped me here.

So basically I had died, and been returned to this world as an undead, even though I wasn't aware of that fact, at least not at that point, but I was smoking hot, which was a plus. I was grasping at straws, trying to keep my sanity, what was left at the time, intact, sue me for finding comfort in something so mundane as my physical appearance. As for the rest of me, well, I hadn't been bad to look at before, but now? Having seen my first vampire what felt like an eternity ago, it'd be hard to imagine not turning heads everywhere I went as I looked now. What they don't tell you about being a vampire is that the attention you tend to attract can get real annoying real quick, especially when dealing with ghouls, but more on that another time. Let's just say ghouls, humans who have been given vampire blood without being drained near to death themselves, make golden retrievers seem useless by comparison because they're somehow able to sense vampires a mile away.

Having taken in my new, ravenous form long enough, which, as I said, hadn't been bad to look at before given the fact that I had worked for a living, meaning I was no stranger to physical exertions, I left the shower room in the hopes of finding clothes I could….borrow. Luckily for me, the possessions box the techs put extra clothes, pocket watches, jewelry, etc, and catalogue it either for evidence in active police cases or whatever, hadn't been emptied out, or it was left for me purposely to take my pick. I wasn't about to question it either way, so I was able to find something to serve as replacements of my lost belongings.

Pulling a pair of blue jeans out of the box along with a black, long sleeved shirt and a gaudy looking pair of red bra and panties, don't ask, I wasted no time in getting dressed. It was probably just as well because no sooner had I stepped back into the main room, where the dead guy was thankfully still as lifeless as I'd left him, a guy in a black suit came into the room, his hands held up before him in what was probably supposed to be a placating gesture. I took it as a reason to jump backward, far further than I had intended, and hit the back wall with a loud clang. "Easy easy! I'm a friend….well, friendlier than most you're likely to run into in this town." Suited guy said, keeping his distance even as he tried to convince me to relax.

Word of advice, don't try to tell someone to calm down. It never works. "Yeah? Why should I believe you? You could be the guy who brought me here for some reason, is this your murder house? Some kind of sick fantasy where you first murder people and then autopsy them, part of your little game?"

"Wow, you should write books with this kind of fantasy. You'd make a killing." The man replied with an easy going smile. A smile I wanted to punch right off his stupid face.

"Har har." I spat back and rolled my baby blues in retort before slowly peeling myself away from the wall. The claw marks I left in the steel door I didn't see until later. "Start making some goddamn sense you suited ape, or I'm going right through you."

That kind of threat should have gotten a more terrified response, but the 'suited ape' in front of me had seen my type before. "I don't doubt that you could, but that wouldn't accomplish much, unless you want to turn into some kind of genderbent Human Torch."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, beyond confused despite having not so long ago made that exact mistake. I couldn't make the connection though, but as I said, I was freaking out.

"Hello? Sunlight? You step in, you burn. Come on you have to know that." He shot back with an eyeroll. "They told me you were intelligent for christ's sake. You obviously drank the blood in that box, you're very pale, and much stronger than before given how far you jumped away from me. Any of this ringing any bells?" I gave him an uncomprehending look in return, and he sighed in response. "You're a vampire. Now repeat after me, I am a vampire."

"I'm a...vampire?" I repeated, dumbly I might add, but saying it aloud and with what I had been doing before I regained my senses, made something click. It didn't make me feel better, but it helped, or it would soon enough. At that time though, I had the powerful urge to rip the guy's throat out for how stupid he was sounding. "A vampire? Me? Sure that girl had a bite fetish but-"

"You're going to be one of those huh?" He groaned and facepalmed. "And here I thought we were making progress. Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Um yes?" I asked, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world, or that he was the most moronic person I had come across, take your pick. Jokes on me, I would find out later. "Vampires? You couldn't come up with a better one than the most cliche thing there is?"

"Well, I tried." Despite my enhanced senses, reflexes, and everything else that comes with being a newly Embraced fledgling, I didn't move when the guy pulled a gun from a side holster that I hadn't registered until he revealed it with a practiced flick of his wrist. Before I could begin to think about moving to either get out of the way or rip the gun from his hand, he turned the silenced pistol on me and pulled the trigger.

The pain was….remarkably not as bad as I thought it'd be even as a hole formed in my right side, and a quick examination of my back revealed the shot had gone through and through. "Y-you shot me." I stammered in disbelief and shock. Small town living meant small time crime, and most of that was quickly broken up by the cops before anyone was hurt. AKA, I had never been shot before. Funny thing about being turned into a vampire, your life gets a lot more interesting.

More amazing was the fact the suited ape looked utterly bored, as if he'd done this before. It turned out he had. "Yes, now, as you can see you are perfectly fine aside from the pain of course, an-"

But I wasn't listening, but would you listen to a guy who had just put a nine mil slug into your side? "You shot me… I'm dying! You killed me." I moaned through the pain, which had already started to fade. All that blood I had slurped down, as well as the simple fact bullets just piss us off, aside from something more powerful like buckshot, had kickstarted the regeneration process.

"Oh god no, no one can be that stubborn." The guy moaned in exasperation and looked close to using the pistol on himself if it meant getting away from my moaning and continued denial. "You are not dying! You're undead! Unless you get burned to a crisp or fancy walking on sunshine you should be fine. Why do you have to make this so complicated? Just look under your shirt."

"Fine!" I snarled back, unaware I had just bared my fangs for the first time as I pulled up my black top and saw, to my utter amazement and shock, that the hole I had expected to find was already fading literally before my eyes. Besides a small little stream of blood that had escaped from the perfectly round wound, there was soon enough no trace of him having shot me in the first place. "Wha-...how? This is…."

"Insane? Utterly beyond comprehension? I've heard it all before. I've only had to shoot five fledglings, uh, newly awoken Kindred like you, to get my point across."

"Gee thanks." I muttered and pulled my shirt back down with a huff. After having seen irrefutable proof of my recent transformation, all of that shock and denial was starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth. It was still there, don't get me wrong, but I was able to put the worst of it to the wayside for the moment.

"Now that you are finally beyond the denial stage of your little transformation, let's get you out of here, before someone walks in and wonders why the hell the freshly deceased woman is walking around." The guy said rather cheerfully and clapped once. "Alright, you ready to go?"

"Um, one question genius, what about the whole turning into crispy critters?" I asked, my hands on my hips as I leaned forward for effect. Under any other circumstances, the view I was unintentionally presenting would have had anyone with a pulse eager to worship at my feet, but the guy before me merely turned his back with a cough.

"Did you miss the part where I've done this before? I have it all worked out." The shit eating grin on the guy's face, which now that I wasn't busy freaking out and in total denial, I had to admit looked rather handsome, was annoying me to no end. The urge to rip his throat out returned, but I held it in check, somehow as he gestured with his right hand for me to follow him. "I have a van in the parking garage with tinted windows, UV resistant. You'll be fine. I wouldn't be doing my job right if I didn't take into account your kind's….unique needs."

"My kind? Fuck it, let's just go." I grumbled, too tired, metaphorically speaking, to give a flying fuck at that point. I just wanted a quiet place to process this insanity, maybe wake up and realize it was all a bad dream. No such luck in my case.

Seeming to sense my thoughts or maybe I wasn't hiding them so well off my face, the guy started to reach out to put a hand on my shoulder, only for me to flinch away at the heat his skin radiated. "Sorry." He offered, and the whipped puppy dog look that came over his handsome face did more for my nerves than anything he'd done so far, shooting me aside of course. Although I had no idea how someone as annoying as he was could make me feel as bad as he did with the look he was giving me, I remember muttering an apology for flinching away when he was just trying to help. It was enough for him as that damned grin started to return. "Let's get you out of here. We have a bit of a drive ahead of us."

The drive was the easy part. Getting out of the hospital just as the morning shift of nurses and doctors started to file in? That was something else. If not for the suited ape's steadying presence anchoring me, I might have lost what control I had and found myself a snack, or twelve, on my way out the door. Enhanced senses is not something you want to awaken to in the middle of a crowded building, in the middle of the day no less. Everything was new, as if I was seeing the world for the first time, and in a way, that wasn't wrong to say.

I most certainly saw it differently, like you were watching VHS, you know, old video cassette tapes, your whole life and suddenly switch to Blu-ray, something like that, only everything was more pronounced. Sounds, smells, everything. Still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It can be good, especially if you're trying to track someone down, but also quite bad, so yeah. Meh, depends on the situation I suppose, and if you're able to prepare yourself mentally ahead of time. I had none of the skills I do now though, so everything was hitting me at once. As I said, sensory overload? That would have been preferred by the time we got out to the guy's van, and even then it wasn't much of an improvement. I could smell the three year old coffee stains in the back seat, let alone the far fresher scents of fast food, cigar smoke, and at least one tryst in the back that had ended with one person coming out on their feet. The poor bastard she had been...having fun with however, had gone out on his back into the river once she had taken her fill. How I knew that was beyond me, but it was there for the taking. The van was its own history book, and I had access to every detail. Which kinda sucked at that moment, because I most definitely would have prefered it to sleep or something like that but no, my enhanced senses denied me that. It didn't help my new sleep schedule hadn't kicked in yet, having woken up in the early morning hours, so I was already fucked on that account. Thankfully tomorrow morning would see me passing out just as the sun came up, whether I liked it or not, but that was a long ways off yet, and I didn't know any of this still.

One thing was for certain though, my life was undeniably changed. Could I go back to work like this? Looking like I had been replaced by a better looking, if pretty pale, version of myself? How was I supposed to explain that to my boss? "You don't." Looking up, the knowing look on my driver's face was something close to sympathetic. "You're wondering if you can go back to your own life? You don't. Your old life's over, hate to say it, but that's the truth. You can do whatever you like, but if it puts the rest of the supernatural community at risk of exposure, you better rethink your options real quick. That's the only big rule you need to worry about, but you'll get that talk as soon as we reach our destination. Just….be respectful, the elders you're meeting today are far more powerful than you will ever be."

"So that much the movies got right at least?" I asked dumbly, realizing how I probably sounded, but I was trying to make sense of it all.

"Pretty much, but that's about the only thing they got right, that and the whole sunlight bit. Water doesn't hurt, but you found that out already I wager. Crosses? Religion in general? All that bull? Nothing. Garlic? Nothing, but it smells bad for your kind I hear. Fire does pose a problem, since you tend to burn easier, but overall you'll heal from pretty much everything else. The only other thing you need to worry about is magical creatures and their assorted powers. You're not invincible, but you can take a beating and walk it off with a quick suck on someone's neck. Rats and vermin in general will help in a pinch, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you're a part of one of the more 'refined' clans." The way he said refined made me visualize air quotes. "Not only will it taste pretty foul, again so I've heard, but certain clans look down on those who eat animals. I don't know what clan Sired you, only that you're a part of the V Club now. I was told to pick you up, do what I could to help you, and get you to safety. I learned to have blood bags ready after the last girl I was told to pick up." The shiver that passed through him might as well have been a full body convulsion for all the good it did him to try and hide his discomfort at the memory.

"Thanks I guess." I replied, and wondered if the smell of the dead guy said girl had probably munched on was the same girl my new friend was talking about. I then realized I probably didn't want to know.

"Eh, don't mention it." The guy shrugged, but he shot me a little smile anyway, "I mean how many people thanked you for doing your job?"

That oddly enough made me smile back even as I had to think about the question. "Now that you mention it… depressingly few. Huh." I had to blink my blue eyes and cock my head to the side as I tried to remember the times I had ever been thanked for tending the bar I had worked at, albeit for a short amount of time. It was a welcome distraction, needless to say, but it didn't last long when we hit a pothole and I was jarred back to my present circumstance. "Does it get easier?" I ask, morose and sorrow filtering into my voice as the reality came crashing down on me with renewed vigor.

"Depends on your definition of 'easier'. Does it get easier living with all the benefits of being a vampire? Yeah, that part gets easy, just give it time." The guy at my side had the decency to lose his grin as he gave me the rest of his latest bit of 'sage advice'. It wasn't cheerful, to say the least. "As for the conflict of morality with what you'll have to do to survive, the constant battle with the Beast all your kind fight to keep hold of some semblance of what you were, that doesn't get any easier, especially if you try to keep to a higher standard than most of the vampiric community who use and discard humans like used soda cans."

I didn't understand what he meant then about this Beast business, but it wouldn't take me long to figure it out. That crack about my intelligence wasn't without warrant, since I've always been pretty smart, but any ignorance on my part could be forgiven with what happened to me and all. That and no one had left a handy, user friendly manual regarding the perils and benefits of vampirism for me to find after all. Not that I could blame them now, since exposing the supernatural community, something my new friend had hinted at already, is something we can't risk, but it would have been nice at the time, jerks.

Thankfully, the time between the hospital and our destination passed in silence after that, and it gave me time to compose myself to the best of my ability, the lingering hunger notwithstanding anyway. Those blood bags hadn't exactly been fresh or the best quality in regards to my 'refined palate', something I'd learn about later, but they had done the job they'd been meant for. As for the scenery outside, tinted windows or not, I could still see enough to get an idea of where we were despite my limited time in the city. Upstate New York was kinda hard to miss since it was nothing but glass skyscrapers and clean, almost immaculate streets as far as the eye could see. There were still places one just didn't go such as the dark alleys and what have you, but overall, the worst crime that happened here, where celebrities and powerful CEOs resided, tended to happen behind closed doors, in the office buildings and high rise penthouse suites where the real power originated in the city. The mayor I'd find out was just a figurehead, the real movers and shakers of this city, and pretty much everywhere else that mattered, were those that led the vampire populations, and I had an appointment with one such group.

If my driver had told me that on the way there beyond the hint he had dropped earlier, I might have hopped out of the van, the sun be damned. I was in no shape, mentally or otherwise, to be talking to people like that, but he didn't say a word, and I didn't ask as we pulled into an underground parking garage. "We're here. Now, try to be respectful. These guys are not to be messed with, that's all I can say."

"What can you tell me oh wise one?" I asked as I got out of the passenger side.

"That sarcasm might end up with you defanged, at the very least." He deadpanned right back, but the all too serious look on his face suggested he wasn't joking anymore. I had to swallow the lump in my throat at that as I did my best to keep my overactive imagination in check. A losing fight, but I tried as images of standing before a collection of dried up suck heads all looking down at me in dismay and disappointment before being consigned to some dark dungeon to rot for the rest of eternity. Writer's imagination for you, what can I say? "Just be polite and you'll be fine. They didn't dust you on the spot, so that means they don't mean to kill you today."

"That's comforting." I muttered as I followed my guide into an elevator some distance away from his van and stuffed my hands in my jeans pockets as the doors shut in front of us.

"Isnt it? Sorry to say, but I'm not gonna make you any promises I can't keep." He told me with a small shrug. "Oh and one other thing, no matter how some of them might act and look. Don't. Freak. Out."

"Why, do they have Nosferatu knock offs walking around?" Remember I said I was a nerd? I used to love Monster Movie night with my pops, before is run in with said telephone pole, and he had a thing for the classic horror romps. So when the guy next to me gave me a strange look, I could only stare back as an uneasy silence fell between us. "You're kidding right?" I finally asked, putting two and two together.

"As I said, don't freak out."

"They have, oh damn I'm screwed." I furiously whispered back. "Can't you take me out of the city before I offend someone and get my head ripped off or something like that? Please?"

"Sorry darlin', duty calls, and I'm just a delivery boy at the end of the day. I don't warrant high enough to ask for favors of any kind." Translation, he was only human, no better than cows are to those that run the slaughterhouses. "As I said, you'll be fine, just be respectful, and if anyone gives you any trouble, well, they have that right I'm afraid. They've been around a lot longer than we have, and they've earned every bit of disdain they might throw your way."

"Great, so I should expect to be treated like dirt, but as soon as I talk back, I'm screwed?" Great, my chances, which were already low to begin with, at least as far I was expecting, just dropped just shy of a negative five.

"Well, with some yes. Others though… not every vampire is an asshole. Some are really nice, and care about humans… too much in some cases." He said with a far away look before he put another smile on his face, though this one lacked any real cheer. "Now, I'm afraid I have to go, my kind isn't exactly welcome at these meetings." No sooner had he finished speaking that the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing a marble foyer that could have come out of some Victorian palace from the eighteenth century. When he made no move to come with me, I swallowed another nervous lump and stepped onto the hard stone floor, expecting someone in a red cape with a thick Transylvanian accent to come swooping out from behind one of the pillars on either side of the main hall.

Instead, there was only a set of intricate oak doors behind a lavishly appointed mahogany desk, where a receptionist was waiting to greet me. "Alexandria I presume?" When she looked up from the computer in front of her, the boredom on her face hardly faded as she took me in at a glance before she tapped a few keys on the keyboard in front of her. "First room on the right. They're expecting you."

"Thank you." I replied meekly and she merely rolled her eyes in annoyance. Which made me wonder if I would turn into a stuck up bitch like her too or if I would retain my personality.

"Fledglings." I heard her mutter on my way by. How she managed to put so much venom into that single word I didn't know, but I did my best to ignore her as I pushed my way through the doors in question, mindful of the fact I had probably just left enough dirt to mar the brass handles to the point no amount of cleaning would restore them to their original luster. Not that I cared since that receptionist had put me in a bad mood.

Turning to the right as instructed, I was once more disappointed my imagination wasn't living up to the reality since I had expected something….more, than a board room behind a plain wooden door like the ones I had passed through already. That said, I still found myself taking a steadying breath I didn't technically need, and just started to reach for the handle when someone came bounding out to greet me, her all too perfect teeth, and pale, alabaster skin much like my own, the first hints that made it obvious she was lacking a pulse.

"There you are my dear. Are you alright? I know it can be quite disorienting to wake up after the Embrace." French, accented, beautiful? Why did these guys have to be so damn ravishing and sexually stunning? But one thing I noted as the French woman, hair done up in a tight bun of platinum locks, her jaw pointed and cheeks sculpted to perfection, was that her eyes did not match the kind smile on her face. They were predatory and they weren't friendly as they fell on me and her full, pouty lips turned into a frown just as quickly. "Hmm….I had hoped dear Samuel would have made it a point to dress you in something more appealing, but we'll get that sorted out later I suppose. We have all of eternity after all. Come come, those among Clan Toreador must stick together my dear girl."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what a clan is. Would you mind explaining it to me?" I asked her politely, chanting in my head that this wasn't too different than talking to customers at the bar.

"Oh yes, of course. My apologies." She had the decency to lose the frown, and that predatory gleam in her brown eyes disappeared about the same time. Manicured nails attached to long, slender fingers that were likely used to working a piano fell on my shoulder before I knew what was happening. "Before that though, you must be starving, darling. And we never did get introductions out of the way did we? What is this world coming to when I forget my own manners?"

I am the woman who is going to act all friendly until I have you where I want you to be, just like a spider lures a fly into its web. I couldn't help but think with a barely suppressed shudder. "Alexandria, although most people call me Alex." I offered instead, trying to keep this little meet and greet as civil as possible. Even if all of my knowledge of the supernatural came from movies like Blade and shows like Supernatural, there were always a few common threads, and one of them Samuel had told me already. Meaning, this woman could probably gouge out my eyes with those perfectly manicured nails before I could begin to raise a hand against her.

"Charmed. You may call me Catherine, childe. Tis a pleasure to meet you despite these unfortunate circumstances that has brought you into the fold." Right, charmed, then why did I get the impression she was trying not to wrinkle her nose at me? Still, even if her kindness was feigned, it was nice to talk to someone that knew what the hell was going on. Before I could say anything though, she turned on her heel, all regal perfection even if it was contained in a form fitting, smart business attire rather than a dress made of the finest silks I could ever imagine, and beckoned me to follow her into the room she had just come out of.

Catherine as she identified herself, led me to a group of other vampires, whose apparent leader didn't even try to hide his disdain for me. Given the look on his face when he looked at me, I could have been something he scraped off the bottom of his shoe, which said shoes probably cost more than my mother's house by themselves. His entire outfit just screamed old money, perfectly tailored to his imposing, tall form that had me thinking about all those guys you see on the front of fashion magazines, and not the drop dead sexy, smiling variety either. More like the unscrupulous, unrelenting, uncaring businessmen types that would as soon step on you like a cockroach as look at you. An immediate dislike began to form towards the man the longer I was in his presence. A dislike that only became more pronounced the moment he opened his mouth. "Yes, yes. You are confused and want to know what's going on and what's going to happen to you now. How tragic really. Now that we've got your complaints out of the way, we can discuss more important things. Like the rules you will abide to if you wish to live for any amount of time as a Kindred. The fact we're having this meeting at all in the middle of the day is bad enough, so you'll forgive us if we're not more welcoming." Yeah, I believed that asshole.

Catherine clucked her tongue in disapproval towards the man at the head of the long, metallic table as she sat down right next to me, whether I liked it or not. "Charles, darling, do be more polite will you? She is just as lost as we've all been at one time or another. It wasn't her choice to be Embraced, as you well know. Eliza was told she couldn't turn anymore people until next year, yet she disobeyed our directives. Hence, she was dealt with, as was our right and duty to do so. This is merely orientation, not an execution."

"Toreador waste." Another of the men on Charles' right muttered into his glass of what I at first took to be red wine, but given the setting and the nature of those around me, I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't wine he was drinking. Catherine's lips twitched at the slur but otherwise remained unaffected by the comment.

"Eliza… guilty heart… wishing to undo her sin. Night shadows, nightmare. Hahahahah." Another woman laughed, her pale skin even more pronounced than my own, and laughing in a way that would have impressed the Joker himself. Beyond that, she looked remarkably mundane in a black, low cut dress that looked more appropriate in a dance club than a board room such as this. Short, red hair pulled into a little ponytail, soft, pixie like facial features, and amber, if crazed, eyes darted about like two ping pong balls. Functional crazy might have been the best way to describe her, if a very loose definition was applied anyway.

"Peace Juliet….but our Malkavian friend is right." An asian, older gentleman said, situated on Charles' left side. Unlike Charles, the asian man's face was kind and almost inviting, a little too inviting. Slightly wrinkled and drawn skin, fitting his oriental origins, and little brown eyes that seemed to contain a great deal of wisdom and experience swept over the room at large before settling on me for a moment before moving back to Charles the Cunt. "Eliza's...soft heart was indeed at fault perhaps, but we all know her unfortunate past. While it is regrettable we had to take steps against her, she did at least leave a promising new childe for our organization. From what our techs have provided, Ms. Alexandria Watson is an exceptionally gifted young woman, she just needs refinement and time to adjust."

"Wait what? You hacked-"

"Yes Ms. Watson, we hacked into your private life. Get used to it." Another woman, this one looking like she belonged in a pro wrestling ring, or an MMA octagon, I couldn't decide which, grunted out at me. "It saves the more technologically adept among us time to get our more traditional members up to speed by taking the expedient route. So, yes, we had people hack your life. Now, unless you have something useful to say, shut it." Brujah bitch number one, and she wouldn't be the last of her clan I'd run into.

"Promising… angry, rage… voices, always voices… Eliza… regret without end!" Juliet moaned from the side, shaking in horror at whatever she was seeing.

"You will have to forgive Juliet, Eliza was a good friend of hers… she is quite shaken." The polite asian guy from before said and turned to tend to his still shaking friend. "Peace, Juliet." When his right hand started to glow bright red as he waved it in front of crazy pants, Juliet's frantically darting eyes stilled, and her distressed groans stopped. When she had calmed sufficiently, the asian man let his hand fall back into his lap, sans freaky light show. "There, that's better, yes?"

"Miss her still." Juliet groaned softly, but nodded, which seemed to satisfy the vampire at her side.

"I know childe." Sensing my utter disbelief at what I had just seen, the asian man chuckled sheepishly as red lightning danced across his fingertips. "Tremere, blood magic runs strong in my line Ms. Watson."

"Oh….good to know." Magic….genuine magic, and asian guy wielded it as easily as some people dealt out cards at a poker table. Good to know messing with a Tremere was a good way to end up dead most likely, or worse if my dark imaginings that had started back up with a vengeance were to be believed. To make it worse, the asian man only smiled knowingly, as if he had a direct line into my thoughts. It turned out telepathy is a real thing for certain clans, although I'm still not sure if the Tremere man in question actually had that particular gift or not.

He is going to make your blood boil! My brain was screaming at me, coming up with ever new ways of horrible deaths to keep my mind occupied. Not something that I would consider enjoyable no matter the environment, in front of vampire leaders discussing my fate, even less so. But Catherine's reassuring smirk made me relax, more than should have been possible at a glance, yet it did, and I wasn't about to argue with the results as the proverbial cold sweat that had started to form died just as quickly.

Charles chose that moment to start talking again, so it was probably just as well. "Yes yes, we all know Eliza was an unrepentant bleeding heart. That doesn't change the facts, she broke our laws, put our secrecy at risk, and has left us her mess to clean up, again. I say we are better off without people like her who disturb our carefully maintained status quo." And I say again, the Ventrue are assholes, and Charles was king of the assholes in New York. Not even twelve hours in and he was all too happy to spit on Eliza's ashes.

If not for Catherine's hand finding a place over my own as my nails started to dig into the table, I might have jumped the smug prick then and there, only to end up dusted for my trouble most likely. As it was, I still had to do a silent ten count before I was able to look at the man without wanting to disembowel him. I had gotten to know Eliza after all, before she had Embraced me, so hearing him talk about her like she was a piece of shit was not doing him any favors.

"Arrogance… fire! Burn, burn burn." Juliet began to laugh again and looked at Charles with a crazy look in her eyes, well, crazier. As I've said, Malkavians are all utterly batshit crazy, some much more so than others. Juliet would turn out to be relatively tame compared to some Malkavians I've met since.

"Now now Juliet, you can't burn him to ash just because he's a dick. Maybe later though, knowing him he'll give you plenty of other reasons in no time." The Brujah woman said with a smirk directed at the king of douchebags. Then she turned that smirk on me next, and whatever respect I had started to feel for her evaporated just as quickly. "So, what do we do with Eliza's ill begotten offspring? We already agreed we wouldn't execute her, otherwise our friends that raided her apartment would have dealt with her then and there."

"What we do with all newly Embraced, no matter their origins, Lisa." Charles replied, having since brushed off Juliet's insane ramblings and ignored the obvious threats to his person that were well warranted if I were any judge. "We see if she's worth keeping around. Get her set up in a safe house."

"Don't I get a say in this?" I dared ask, and wasn't all that surprised when Charles glared down at me as if he was only noticing me for the first time and didn't like what he saw at all.

"No." He hissed at me and narrowed his eyes. "And please remain silent while your betters converse." Well, I couldn't say Samuel, the 'ape in a suit', hadn't warned me about these people treating me like shit. Still, I bit my tongue and sat in silence as they talked over me as if I wasn't even in the room. But at least I had one, ally might have been a stretch, but Catherine's presence kept me still and my temper mostly in check as the proceedings continued without any further input from me.

I did pay close attention however as the rules were laid out in no uncertain terms, the biggest being as I've said before, not revealing our presence to the rest of society. Any feedings, supernatural acts, etc, had to be kept to the shadows or there would be hell to pay for the offender. To use their words, the Masquerade had to be maintained at all costs, and the Camarilla, the thirteen original bloodlines, or clans, not counting the Sabbat, the Anarchs, and the Antitribu of course, were the law of the land on all matters Masquerade.

As for the rest of the rules, they were pretty standard fare in comparison, and mostly common sense stuff I won't bother getting into here. Suffice it to say, by the time it was over, I was more than happy to have Catherine at my side as my fellow Toreador escorted me to a lounge area where the Tremere asian man was waiting for us. How he got there ahead of us I wasn't about to ask as Catherine let go of my arm and moved with refined grace to a nearby fridge, where I immediately felt my eyes be drawn to when the contents inside were revealed. "Here we are. You look like an A- girl." Yep, you guessed it.

Emptying the blood bag into a crystal wine glass that certainly fit the marble foyer I had passed through earlier, Catherine handed it over before pouring herself a glass. "Welcome to the clan, and the Camarilla, my dear. I do hope we get a chance to see each other again soon." I only nodded, my mind going in a thousand different directions as she toasted my health before taking a sip of her hemoglobin on the rocks. I did the only thing I could do and followed her example while our Tremere friend watched on, that knowing smile on his face doing my nerves no favors.

End Notes: And there you have it. The beginning of what I hope will be a regularly updated story. What I didn't mention before in the opening notes, is the reason this story began, beyond inspiration as a whole after watching Christopher Odd's walkthrough, lackluster as it might be as a whole. The beginning, regardless if you're playing the unmodded version or not, which allows you to play as the inverse of the Camarilla and the clans, as well as the sects involved on either side, just did not make any sense.

You get Embraced, you get judged, and your character is totally okay with everything that's happened. Nomad and myself, while we're fans of the game, although he's actually played it, lucky bastard, called bullshit on that whole thing. Yes, I get that the game was never properly finished, so there's a lot of holes like that, but I was driven to make a more 'realistic' opening sequence as you've seen the beginning of. All that denial, rage, and everything else you've seen? That's also just the beginning since I don't believe the transition can be that easily, not by a long shot.

As I've said before though, I've only recently gotten into the whole VtM scene, so any mistakes I make I apologize for in advance, but we have been doing what research we can as myself and Nomad-117 continue this little project, between a couple others we've been devoting our time to. Unharmonic Convergence on Archer83's profile for example, as well as The Eternal Effect on Nomad's side of things. Now there's this one. D Anyway, see ya folks! Let the Masquerade commence!