"We are monsters to thee, yet heroes as well. We are the incarnation of dark metaphors and surprised desires, yet we are also the nobility of fairy tales, beloved of children. We are a baseless superstition, an artistic genre, a psychological condition, a yearning made flesh, an externalization of a guilt-lust-violence complex, and many other things beside."
Vampire The Masquerade, page 8

The pair walked alone through the cold, dark night. There was no moon to light the way, only a few stars that twinkled as the clouds floated lazily along occasionally blotting them out. The sky was purple-black velvet, the stars like shimmering diamonds sewn in by the nimble fingers of an artisan. The taller of the pair wore a cloak of beautiful red velvet, which was acquired recently from an old friend. The younger person, a boy of barely 14, was dressed simply enough like all of the others his age. The boy had shockingly orange hair that was in need of a cutting. It was shaggy and barely brushed the tips of his ears.
"Keep up," the red cloaked figure said to his young companion. "We are not in good country. We must find some place to rest for the day soon."
Larten Crepsley was two paces behind his master, Seba Nile. He watched Seba's silhouette against the sky for a moment. He realized he wanted to be like Seba one day, dress like him, speak like him, respected like him.
Seba Nile was a vampire. The young Larten became his assistant when Larten had hidden in a crypt that the vampire General was temporarily lodging in. Larten sometimes found a delicately spun spiderweb laying on his things when he awoke some nights. He would smile and brush it away.
"There has to be a town nearby... I mean... We've been traveling for a while..." Larten said to his master.
"That is not always the case," Seba replied, his voice breaking into the silence of the night like Larten's could not, and would not do until he was blooded. "There are places where cities are very far apart..."
Larten sighed and followed closely behind. He was starting to grow tired of the walking and was ready for sleep.
Just as the sun began to tint the horizon pink, the old vampire and his young apprentice came upon a large graveyard. In the center of it were three crypts. As they grew closer, they could see the intricate carvings on the stone. Seba broke one of the rusting locks and strode in, Larten following and closing the door behind them.
Larten sat in silence as Seba commandeered a coffin for the evening, unceremoniously removing the occupant. "Do excuse me, sir," he muttered to the mostly skeletal remains. "I am in need of your resting place for my slumber..."
Watching this made the human boy slightly uncomfortable. There was something slightly monstrous about his master's actions.
As if reading his mind, Seba smiled. "You think me a monster, young Master Crepsley?"
"No... Of course not," he lied.
Seba gave the boy a quick smack on the head. "Do not lie to me."
Larten winced more from the surprise of the blow than pain. "You took a corpse from its coffin..."
"I require it for the day, and then he shall return to his eternal slumber..."
Larten's eyes shifted over the vampire. "Master..."
"Larten, listen to me... We are monsters and we are heroes... We embody dark, hidden desires... But also are the fairies of the stories of children..." He stopped and wet his lips. "We are a great question in life for which the answer is found only within ourselves..." He placed his hand on top of Larten's head. "I never told you that we are not monstrous... And I will never deny that fact, however... We are a part of a family... A very close family... And though it is an odd sort of love, there is love... Tell me, what kind of monster is one that loves?" He smiled.
Larten grumbled a reply and leaned back against the cold rock wall of the crypt. Seba chuckled softly and closed himself in the coffin against the oncoming light of the sun.