AN: Wow. I said I was not going to write a SR4 story. And then this o.O Anyone that has read Saints Row - Devastation knows about how in the Ljuniverse, Nyte Blayde is real, Josh Birk's sanity cracking around the edges as he slips into the role permanently. For now this is a one-shot, but I may expand on it more if I get the time/inspiration.

CHAPTER ONE

Ch 01 - Needs of the Night

Lin crossed her arms, shaking her head as she paced the lower deck of The Kirrlov. She had a problem, a troubling one, and she couldn't figure out an easy solution.

She was hungry all the time, now, and so was her Childe. Nyte Blayde refused to feed on the unwilling, finding it a depraved and disgusting act. Lin had willing donors to keep her going, but she couldn't sustain herself indefinitely while fueling Ljubica and Miller both.

She stopped, grinning darkly. Ljubica had told her about Miller's programmed fantasy world starring her Childe, and Kinzie had shown her that story the geek had written.

The vampire reached out with her senses, seeking Nyte Blayde, calling him to her. She waited for several minutes, until he finally skulked into the cargo bay. His off-white body armor was offset by the purple cape he wore, twin katanas on his back, and a pair of KA-1 Kobras on either hip.

"Sire," he growled. "I was enjoying the fake sunlight in Simulation Thirty One."

Lin smirked, nodding, but ignored his bitching. "Does Miller know you're around?"

He shook his head. "I have managed to hide myself from the mortals. Except for Sylvia. Sylvia..."

"Yeah, you need to leave Shaundi alone for awhile, you creep her the fuck out, and that baby thing a few years ago-..."

"Jessie..."

Lin frowned as she was interrupted, glowering balefully until he flinched and looked away. She didn't give a shit if his halfbreed kid had died with the earth, it was an abomination as far as she was concerned and he was lucky it hadn't been slaughtered from the get go.

"Anyway... the Boss told me how she set Miller up for a kill," Lin explained. "He should be dead, but he ain't dead."

"Is he one of us?" he asked.

"Nope," Lin told him. "Didn't I just say he ain't dead? Ghoul, like the Boss. I been feedin' him but I can't stand how he follows me around like some lovesick puppy, and we just don't got enough humans on board to sustain all of us."

"Let him wither and become human again," he told her. "Why should we care about him?"

She shrugged. "He's got some abilities we'll find real useful, I'm told. More than just bein' a hacker, if you get me."

Understanding came over him. "I see. You want me to become his Master, then."

Lin nodded. "Yeah. And I think he will be all sorts of okay with this."

He cocked his head to the side.

"Trust me."

#

Matt Miller lounged in the rear of the ship on the couch they'd somehow found, toying with a portable video game system. Andjela was blessedly off sleeping or harassing someone else, and so he had it to himself for once.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he looked around, peering over the plastic device warily. "Hel-hello?"

Nyte Blayde stepped into the light, letting his eyes bleed to a bright, iridescent violet. "Hello, Matt Miller."

"Wha-what!?" the MI6 agent cried, game system falling from his hands and into his lap. "Who's doing this, is this a joke? Come on, ha ha, very funny Bosh Birk..."

Nyte Blayde shook his head. "This is no joke, I assure you." But then his voice grew stronger, more forceful. "I. Am. Nyte Blayde!"

The vampire's fangs flicked into place and he bared them in a silent hiss, drawing his katanas and swirling his cape dramatically as he posed.

"Nyte Blayde is real!" Miller squealed, too full of fanboy glee to feel the proper fear.

Nyte Blayde frowned, lip curling into a snarl as he stepped forward and invaded the young man's personal space, sheathing his weapons. "Be afraid of me!"

"This is amazing!" the hacker cried, oblivious to the danger he was in. "I'm your biggest fan!"

The vampire grabbed him suddenly, wrenching his head to the side and inhaling sharply at the crook of his neck. "Silence, now, mortal vessel."

"Wha-what, no no!" Miller cried, but when the fangs pierced the soft, supple flesh of his neck, his cry of angst devolved into a low, pleasured moan. Euphoria flooded through him, better and stronger than any drug, and it was only the strong arms of the undead that held him up as his legs gave out.

The vampire fed slowly, restraining himself and beating back the monster inside him that raged for sustenance, roared to drain this body dry. He groaned into the bite, little wet suckling sounds escaping his lips as he fed. A low growl trickled from his throat, grip tightening on the hacker possessively, but he finally forced himself to pull away and lick gently at the twin puncture wounds until they sealed, flesh smooth and whole once more.

"Thank you," Nyte Blayde told him, pushing Miller onto the couch. He crushed out his own sense of bliss from the feeding, self-loathing and hatred of the thing he'd become replacing it within him.

But he also steeled his resolve, he still had another duty to perform.

The vampire bit into his wrist, tearing it open, and offered the bloody wound to the young man who was just now coming out of his daze. Matt latched on immediately, throat working as he swallowed greedily. He was no stranger to the heady rush of drinking vitae, slurping it down with an eagerness that was sickening to the undead feeding him.

Nyte Blayde wrenched himself away, willing the wound to seal closed.

Matt fell back against the couch, eyes glazed and a trickle of blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He felt sated, profoundly satisfied, and didn't want to get up or move at all.

"Thank you, Nyte Blayde," he murmured weakly. He dimly remembered his Mistress back in England, the Tremere that had taught him the ways of Technomancy and promised to Embrace him eventually, but in the wake of the heady rush of feeding his habit, it was a dim memory indeed. Lin was stronger in his thoughts, but she didn't want him, he was charity to her; she did it for the Boss, not for him. But this, this was Nyte Blayde that had fed on him, and fed him the precious blood.

Miller suddenly remembered that story he'd written, the one he'd labelled as not to be read by anyone, and his heart skipped a beat as his mind raced over the possibilities.

"You disgust me," the vampire growled viciously, stalking up the stairs and ignoring the human mewling on the couch behind him.