Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines or any of the World of Darkness. They are the legal property of Troika and White Wolf Studios. If you pay enough attention to the disclaimer to read this far, then you must be a fledgling ficcie.

Van: My first VTM fic. I don't know too much about the World of Darkness, so this is a step into the shadows (pun fully intended). Feel free to drop a review afterwards if you like, and I hope you enjoy it.

Chinh: I'm a Malkavian!

Kindred's Hope

Chapter 1: The Power Vacuum

And when Caine, weeping bitterly, fled the land of Eden, he traveled eastwards towards the unknown reaches of Nod, and it was there, in that black forest, that he discovered Lilith, the fallen widow. Her task for redemption was to bring Caine back to the light. Caine however, was impervious to Lilith's tongue, and he smote her down in his anger and left the forest for the East.

– Excerpt from the Book of Nod

Although the 13 known bloodlines of the Kindred have changed and their alliances and enmities have shifted over the centuries, it has always seemed that there have been two warring main factions, with one led by the Ventrue and the other by the Tzimisce. Many Kindred believe this dates back to the original Antediluvian fathers themselves.

- Excerpt from introduction of the Lora Vitae Camarilla

The full moon shone down on the city from above, her rays illuminating the streets with a pale white light that threw the open city into view, but left in shade the secret and often terrible events of the backstreets.

Los Angeles...a city of intrigue and never-ending conflict amongst all beings, was a dangerous place at night, for not only humans with a misplaced sense of morality stalked in the darkness, but beings far worse and much more terrible.

A secret to most people they were, but not to all. Two men in hooded trenchcoats stood beneath the cathedral, the glow from their lit cigarettes the only indication of their presence. One of them spoke, his voice in a whisper.

"Are you sure that we should continue this hunt, Mattingly? If that one is the one responsible for that explosion downtown, shouldn't we get help dealing with it? It is our work to hunt down and eradicate these abominations, but surely it would be folly to attempt to destroy one so powerful on our own!"

The other one glared at him and spoke. "We are protected by the light, Tyler. No matter how powerful this cursed fiend may be, we are in the right, the cause of faith and good, and that alone will guarantee our victory. I don't see why you are so worried. Think of the praise and favor that Father Barwinek will give us upon our return with the thing dead. We can do this. Come now."

"But…"

"No buts, Tyler. This is our sacred and ancient duty, and we will not shy from it just for the sake of satisfying your cowardice. We are hunters. Dare you defy such a duty! Come! We hunt!"

The one named Mattingly stalked off into the night, and, meekly, the younger one named Tyler followed him.

But they were unaware of a presence above. Every word they had said, and every secret they spilled, had been heard by the very one they sought.

"Infernal deluded hunters…" I snarled, curling back my lips over my slight fangs.

Did they really think they would be able to track me down? I had beaten many like them before with little effort and even less trouble, and it seemed that their foolhardiness in hunting me alone would make them easy enough to pick off anytime I so wished. If I was ever in the mood to do so, that is…

The younger one, Tyler, had been right. If only he had shown a little backbone he might have been able to get at least some small chance to save himself if he and his kind ever did run into me.

But I could not let that foolhardy pair simply run off into the night. Hunters were human, fair enough, but they were fairly conspicuous, and with more and more humans becoming aware of my kind by the night with the collapse of our cover, I would have to be rid of them before they could cause any more damage.

Gathering my strength, I vaulted off the top of the gargoyle statue I had been sitting on. It was a cold and blustery night, and the wind whipped my long leather jacket and ponytail about me in my leap. I landed neatly on the next rooftop and crouched to distribute the force of the landing throughout my body and make as little noise as possible.

I gazed down at the alley they had vanished into and began to move across the rooftops to follow them.

They turned into the next alley to come round to the main road, and I knew I only had a few moments before they would be in plain view and so out of my reach. Much as I disliked killing, I knew I would not be able to evade these fanatics forever. It had to be done. Besides, these hunters not only killed those like myself, but many of their own kind who were even suspected of involvement.

And I made no attempt to justify my killing when it happened, yet these hunters concealed their own bloodlust beneath excuses of righteousness. They had to be stopped.

I tensed myself and leapt from the roof, landing silently behind Tyler. He might have sensed me only a split-second before, but he died without even a scream as I smashed my lower palms down into his shoulders, crushing his collarbones and lacerating the blood vessels and nerves beneath. Mattingly whirled around and saw me, but with the boost of Celerity I was upon him before he could even draw the blade sheathed beneath his coat.

My front-kicking boot caught him solidly on the breastbone and I could hear the sickening crack of his ribs breaking beneath the pressure. He flew backwards and crashed onto the ground.

He choked and coughed up blood from his punctured organs, but he was not dead…yet. I approached him silently and stood over him. He gazed up at me, his eyes filled with pain and hate, and he managed to spit "Curse you, vampire!" Then his eyes glazed over and he fell back onto the road with a sigh.

I shook my head and sighed to myself. It was terrible to see one fade slowly out of life right before my eyes like that. I hated it, and I hated killing. Was this truly the way my unhappy kind would be forced to live forever? Was this what the father of us all had wanted when he created the first of us? When he created the…

Kindred?

Sensing the sun on the move, I departed the scene, leaving the two bodies behind. I knew they would be found, but no policeman would ever guess it was the work of a vampire. The fatal injuries I had inflicted on them could very well have been performed by any strong human martial artist, not just a vampiric one.

I began the long trek back to my haven, going, as I preferred, across the rooftops so I could contemplate my thoughts with the open sky and the bright stars for company.

I cursed myself again briefly at all the events that had led that pair, and probably all of their kind and at least half of my own, to seek my blood in these dark nights.

It had only been a few months, but it already felt like years since…

I had been sired.

It had been a bad day and night. It had been the day that grad school had released the results, and I had failed to pass my finals. My girlfriend, Samantha, and I had an almighty argument because of that, and I was angry and upset.

In my depression, I had gone out to a nightclub and sat at the bar next to this young woman…or at least I believed that was what she was at the time. I was deep into my drinks, not really interested in talking, despite the girl's constant attempts at conversation. Undeterred by my mere grunts, she pressed on until I finally let her snuggle up to me just to shut her up.

The next thing I knew, she was leading me out the front by the hand and into this seedy motel next door. By that time, I was so inebriated by drinking that I could barely have managed to put up a fight, no matter how little I cared for what I thought she was implying. Fighting, as it turned out, would've been useless anyway.

She tackled me onto the bed and spoke those chilling words that I would remember for the rest of my existence.

"I want to show you something…"

Then there was this terrible stab of pain in my neck, the scream rising from my throat, and then a crashing wave of what can only be described as ecstasy as that monster sated herself upon me.

I blacked out. And it was a while before I awoke at the feeling of something slipping down my throat. I sat up, and there she was, sitting in a chair across the room and smiling at me. I felt a terrible wrench inside of me at that moment, and a stab in my lower lip as a pair of fangs sprouted from my canines.

As I felt them, that was when it dawned on me what had happened, but it would be a while before I was ready to accept it, if indeed I ever did at all…

She opened her mouth to speak, but at that moment, the Camarilla, the Kindred vampire faction enforcing 'law and order' burst into the room and staked her and myself.

When I awoke, I found myself staring into the face of Sebastian LaCroix, the vampire 'prince' of the Camarilla, in a downtown theatre with my sire and I captive before an audience of high-ranking Kindred. LaCroix stated some Camarilla law mumbo-jumbo that I can barely remember before he ordered his enormous henchman, the 'Sheriff' to decapitate my sire.

As she dissolved, I might've had the feeling that I was to follow if I had not still been dumbstruck and numb with surprise at all that was unfolding before my eyes so quickly. It did seem that the prince intended to kill me also at first, had it not been for the outburst of Nines Rodriguez, the Anarch leader, at that point. As possibly the most powerful vampire in LA next to LaCroix, his anger at the injustice of my execution was enough to bring out the objection of the other Kindred in the audience, and change LaCroix's mind for fear of rebellion. Indeed, Rodriguez's faction, as I soon found out, were passionate about their freedom and had no interest in Camarilla law.

After that, I was allowed to leave unharmed. But LaCroix made it clear that I worked for him from then on, and he assigned me to a little beachside backwater called Santa Monica, where I assumed I was to be left and forgotten, if not destroyed.

As I knew nothing of how to live as a Kindred, or of their Masquerade to live amongst humans, LaCroix would probably have gotten his wish if I had not been instructed that night by an eccentric Kindred named Jack, who followed me.

It was then that I had my first encounter with the Sabbat, the cult of vampires that reject all humanity and seek to destroy all Kindred but themselves. It was then I learned the difference and the importance that came with remembering myself and containing the evil instinct within myself and all Kindred, the Beast. If I failed, I would become like those wretched, murdering Sabbat, and I vowed never to let that happen.

I've managed to keep my vow…so far.

Shortly after that, with the help of some other Kindred, I destroyed a Sabbat stronghold in Santa Monica that bought me a return to downtown LA and LaCroix's presence. He sent me to retrieve an ancient sarcophagus that he believed contained a sleeping Kindred elder from human hands. Despite my protests to the fact that this task was better suited to a Brujah or Gangrel clan Kindred than to a Toreador like me, I was eventually successful in this task, but during my search for the sarcophagus I encountered a strange race of non-Kindred vampire-like creatures from the lands of Asia, known as the Kuei-jin.

The leader of these Kuei-jin, Ming Xiao, had eventually revealed to me LaCroix's dealings with her to frame Nines Rodriguez for the murder of an elder vampire and attempt to destroy him and his Anarchs in exchange for her possession of the sarcophagus. My previous intervention and murder in self-defense of two of her warriors to claim the sarcophagus for him was enough to convince her to break her alliance with LaCroix and reveal to me what had happened. Why? I still cannot be sure.

The news that LaCroix had dealings with the natural enemy of all Kindred, both Camarilla and Anarch, would have been his immediate downfall as prince, and quite possibly have meant his execution. So when I rather foolishly discussed this with him, he made up his mind in the midst of his denials to do away with me, as I was by then dangerous to him. As I owed Rodriguez a favor, I managed to persuade LaCroix to pardon him in exchange for my silence. He agreed and sent me to offer this, and an alliance against the Kuei-jin, to the Anarch leader.

I obeyed, but I soon found LaCroix was double the backstabber I had ever expected. He, and Ming Xiao as I later discovered, had conspired to remove me and Rodriguez at our meeting by attracting werewolves to the scent of our blood. Rodriguez and I were separated in the following struggle, and I barely escaped with my life. But then LaCroix pinned the blame for Rodriguez's supposed death on me and ordered a blood hunt, and soon, almost every Kindred in LA was out to kill me.

Jack, who was and is perhaps the only vampire I can truly trust, came to my aid again and hid me away until I was strong enough to follow my path of justice. He directed me to a strange driver who provided guidance in my course from there. The mysterious and odd Kindred, he must have been an Elder or something - no other Kindred possessed that much insight, had made me come to realize that from then on, the only path I could possibly walk was my own, free from the chains of any faction, vampire or otherwise. The Jyhad was a bad joke, a bloodline hatred born from the cursed Beast within us all, and even Rodriguez had followed along with it. But I would never follow the Jyhad again…or so I hoped at the time.

I disliked the idea of confronting Ming Xiao at first, but when I learned that she had been playing me for a fool all along and possessed the stone key needed to open the sarcophagus, I broke into the Kuei-jin stronghold in Chinatown and fought my way down to meet her face-to-face. As I expected, she would not back down without a fight…

I still have no idea how I managed to overcome the she-demon's immense power, but at the end of our struggle, Ming Xiao broke into steaming pieces and I left with the sarcophagus key. I always felt regret. Even though Ming Xiao had betrayed me, we had been somewhat friendly at one time.

I had the key, but no intention of opening the sarcophagus. As by then, due to the advice of the only other Kindred vigilante I had come to trust…somewhat, the Gangrel 'historian' Beckett, I did not believe it contained the doomsday ancient everyone was so worried about.

I then penetrated into Venture tower, the haven of LaCroix, to gain my revenge and clear my name. Not without resistance, I found him, destroyed his Sheriff, and slashed him in rage. Even though I had mortally wounded him, he was stricken and mad with greed for the supposed 'power' within the sarcophagus in his office. I threw up my arms in disgust and tossed the key at his feet before leaving, sated in the belief that he was doomed no matter which path he took.

Sure enough, on my way down out of the tower, his penthouse level exploded, taking him along with it. A suicide perhaps? It appeared then that I would never know.

Though I was somewhat glad to see Nines Rodriguez, wounded, but still standing, gazing up at the tower from the street outside, I was no longer interested in fighting for him or any faction. I pushed past him even as he offered me joint leadership of the Anarchs and strode off and out of the world of Kindred politics, I hoped, forever.

My elation was short-lived, as even all that I had done could not keep the sun from rising. I now had no haven, and for Jack and Beckett I had no idea where to look, and so, I had to call in an old favor.

The Toreador 'dancer' named Velvet Velour, or VV to her friends, was the only remaining friend I had who was in deep touch with her humanity and sense of compassion enough to shelter me (despite the annoying string of bad poetry she was bound to reveal to me). And so I went to her smoking Hollywood Elysium, the Vesuvius nightclub. The club was closed, for it was very early in the morning, just before sunrise, and I hoped she was still inside and willing to listen to my explanations.

As it turned out, VV needed no encouragement at all to believe I was innocent. I had barely taken two steps into her club before she leapt onto my back, hugging me hard and laughing with relief. I tried to explain things, but she hushed me, placing a finger to my lips, and ushered me upstairs into her private room before the sunrise, at which we both promptly passed into sleep on the couch.

After the sunset, we awoke, and VV listened to my tale, her eyes widening at the fate of LaCroix. She had never been particularly fond of him, I knew, but she needed a push to see killing as the answer to anything, like most Toreador, myself included.

"So what will you do now, Anh?" she asked me in wonderment.

It had been a hard question to answer. With Rodriguez alive, it was only a matter of time until LaCroix's scheme was exposed and I was proved innocent, but there was still no telling what repercussions would follow my killing of the Camarilla prince and I didn't know what to expect from the handful of Kuei-jin remaining in LA either. Even worse was the fact that my battle with the Sheriff on the top of Venture tower would once and for all have thwarted the Masquerade in LA. Before the end of the week, every single kine in town would be aware of the supernatural beings in their midst and mass panic would grip the population.

One thing was certain, I would have to go underground for the time being. Perhaps literally as well as figuratively. I had no need or desire to follow any particular leader now, except myself, but it was inevitable that the Camarilla, and perhaps the Anarchs, would eventually try to claim me as theirs, for use or for execution.

I was, by now, tired of this existence. Vampiric unlife was blood, just blood, and a never-ending war. I believed that there was a reason the Kindred existed, and a role they had to fulfill in the world, but I knew it not, and nor did any Kindred I had ever met.

There was only one other who sought this mystery out, and now, out of curiosity more than anything else, it seemed I wanted then to seek the truth. The truth about the Kindred, what we were, and why we were created. And the place to start, or rather the person to start with, was probably miles away by now.

Beckett.

If anyone knew where to start the search for the vampire's purpose, he would.

And it was this night, now, when I would begin my search.

Beckett had left LA, it seemed. There was only one Kindred I could think of who might know where he had gone, and luckily enough, that Kindred was not too far from my new haven…

As I stepped out of the alley, a familiar voice broke my thoughts.

"Where to?"

That deep voice resonated through my head and filled my throat with a pleasant chuckle.

"Ah…Jack's mysterious driver. I was wondering if I would ever see you again…" I said as I saw him leaning on his cab window. His stoic, sharp-featured expression never changed in all the time I saw his face.

"I have only ever seen few of Caine's Children succeed in casting off Jyhad…" he said quietly. "…and still fewer who managed to survive for long afterwards. It might be interesting to see where your path will lead from here, vampire…"

I chuckled again and strode over to the back seat door of his cab. "And I guess I'll probably be killed on the way on this impossible road, but I'm going to do it anyway."

"Courage…a misguided label for bravado. The folly of all Kindred…" I swore I could hear the trace of a smile in his voice as I jumped in the back seat and he started the engine.

"To the Hollywood graveyard…" I said. "I've got some rats to chase down…"

"As you wish…" he said, and the old cab roared off down the street.

Van: And that's that. Update in a short while I hope. Please read and review. Nurse! Gin and tonic please!

Chinh: I'm a Malkavian!

Van: Yes, yes! We know!