Additional notes:
Sorry about the issues with the layout this chapter had. It was late, I was tired and didn't check how the end result looked on the website. I hope it is better now. Still not my finest work, but at least more legible. Please read the notes at the bottom.
Chpt. III - Initiated
Tori sat in class with the others, waiting for Sikowitz to make an entrance. Well, most of the others anyway. She still hadn't seen Jade, neither had any of their friends. Beck had also disappeared after second period. André said the Canadian boy had received a text message and basically ran out of the room. Rex joked that he must have gotten quite a booty call, but while Beck certainly wasn't above indulging in his popularity with the ladies, Tori didn't think he wouldn't skip school just to get with some chick.
She just just hoped he was alright. She was worrying about Jade enough already, she didn't need to add another one of her closest friends to the list. She had decided to visit Jade after school to check on her. It would take a bigger weight of her shoulders than she was willing to admit and if something actually was amiss, maybe she could help her cranky friend somehow. Even if the other girl probably would protest at first.
A loud bang followed by a sudden, violent hissing noise pulled her back to the present, making her jump in her chair. A column of smoke rose in the center of the front stage. Some people gasped in surprise. Tori's first instinct was to run and trigger the nearest fire alarm, but after half a second she realized it was just their teachers newest, if overly dramatic entrance. Some speakers that were next to the stage started playing that theme from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. She waited for the smoke to clear and the eccentric man to appear. When the smoke eventually cleared and the music faded however, the stage was still empty.
"Distraction!" said a voice form the back of the room. They all spun their head around, some so fast there was an audible crack. Their acting teacher leaned in the back corner of the room on the far side from the windows, drinking from another coconut. Under his other arm he had a smallish box. "Have your audience transfixed hard enough on any event, just make it flashy enough, and you could, in theory, rob them blind, as long as you don't break their line of sight to the event. Case in point," He raised his box and grinned. "You can have your phones back at the end of class." Everyone frantically checked their pockets and purses, just to come up empty-handed and cursing under their breath.
Sikowitz's monologue continued for half an hour, in which he gave a broad overview about applications and techniques. Tori mostly managed to banish the dream from her thoughts, but still couldn't shake the feeling that Sikowitz was looking at her more often than usual throughout his speech. Afterwards they did a few rounds of alphabet improv, Tori managed to lose all but one. She just couldn't concentrate on the lesson. Either flashes from her dream or worries about Jade seemed to extinguish every other thought from her mind when she tried to focus for more than three minutes at a time. When the bell rang each of them made their way to the front to collect their phones.
"André, Robbie, Rex, Tori! A word please?" Sikowitz held the friends back. They told Cat they'd meet her at their usual table and waited for the room to empty. Tori mentally groaned. It wasn't his fault, it was her subconsciousness's, but she just wanted to get away from their teacher today and really wasn't in the mood for another one of his 'special projects'. And why did he feel the need to explicitly include Rex? It was weird enough when Robbie acted as if the puppet was alive.
When they were alone, Sikowitz closed the door and turned to the Latina. "Tori, how would you like to join our little book club?" Ok, she didn't see that coming. Tori remembered what André and Robbie had told her when she had asked them about joining the club a few months prior. According to them the books they read were beyond weird, the discussions revolved mostly about Sikowitz's newest coconut induced visions and both of them were in it mostly for the extra credit. She looked at them to see them staring at their acting teacher in surprise. André spoke up. "Umm, Sikowitz, are you sure you know what..." Sikowitz waved him off. "So, Tori what do you think?"
"Errr..." She searched for a way to decline, that wouldn't offend the man. She generally liked the guy and didn't want to risk her acting grade. "Well, I don't think the books would be quite my thing, at least guessing from the ones André told me about. Aand... and then there's this other... extracurricular... thing. That's really time consuming." Yeah, lying wasn't her strong suit.
"You sure about that?" Sikowitz asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm sure we have some books around you'd find really helpful."
With that he reached into his bag to pull out an oversized brown book. Maybe tome would be a better word. It was leather bound and looked ancient. That wasn't what shocked Tori speechless. What did, was the word engraved on the book's cover in thick golden letters: VAMPYR.
"What the Fuck is going on?"
"Jade, please trust me. We're your friends. We do not want to hurt you." Lane tried to placate her. Jade's eyes darted to the door. She had no idea how strong she was. She reckoned the docs and Lane wouldn't be much of a problem, but could she get past the guards before they opened fire? And even if she made it, what then? She had no idea where she was and how to get out. As far as she knew there was blazing daylight behind that door and she would go up in flames the moment she opened it.
Well, one way to find out all of that; better run and die than spend the short rest of her existence as a lab rat. She prepared to make a run for it; her muscles tensed.
Lane stepped in front of her before she could make her move, sensing what was on her mind. "That'd be really unwise. Please, Jade. I will try and answer any question you have later. Now please stay calm." The guards aimed their tasers again and she knew she had no choice. She looked back at Lane, as far as she knew him at least he seemed genuine. She slumped down and gave the 'guidance counselor ' a nod. He picked up a cardboard box and handed it to her. "Good. In here is everything you had with you when, ...well we'll get to that. There's also a new set of clothes. I'm afraid your old ones were ruined."
They pulled a curtain around her slab to give her some privacy while changing. The clothes they gave her were some dark grey-greenish, baggy T-shirt and pants combo. Not her usual, but she wouldn't have to kill every person who saw her in it. She quickly went through her belongings, nothing seemed to be missing. A new glimmer of hope formed when she found her phone. She could check the date and send for help. She pushed the Home button of the device, hoping it hadn't died like she did. Huh, weird thought.
She'd get used to it. No time for that now, she could break down later. Her phone's display lit up. She punched in her pass code. Her homescreen showed that it was early afternoon on Tuesday. Shit, she had lost nearly three days. She also saw that she had absolutely no reception and that she was on her last four percent of battery life. Great, so no help. She didn't see any other chance but to play along and hope to find some escape along the way.
She took a deep breath, ignoring the fact that she didn't need the oxygen. It still calmed her nerves; no need to show them how freaking terrified she was. She pocketed her phone and pulled back the curtain. "Ok, what now?" She asked.
"Now we will give you some answers. Then you get a choice." Lane answered. He motioned towards the door which one of the guards opened. Jade was led through a hallway, Lane up front, a guard in front of her and one behind. Lane led them into what looked like a small meeting room. Lane sat down at the table in the center of the room and motioned for Jade to take the seat opposite of him. He pushed a button on a remote and the pretty redhead reappeared on another small flat screen on the wall.
Then he looked at Jade and took a deep breath, apparently ordering his thoughts. "What's the last thing you remember before waking up?" He asked.
"I was at a club, wanted to get my mind off things." Jade decided to omit that she had gotten drunk as fuck. "I met someone and well," she felt herself blush. She briefly wondered how she was still able to blush without a pulse. "We went outside together and..." She cleared her throat. "You know..."
Lane avoided her eyes and cleared his throat. "Right, Well, there is no easy way to say the next part. You were attacked. According to our files your father is a senior associate at Wolfram and Hart. Seeing how serious these people take secrecy in our experience, you probably are already aware of what happened." He rolled his eyes mumbling something about "damn civilians". Jade decided to speed things up a little.
"I was attacked by a bloody vampire. Yes, I know. Asshole lured me in, I went straight into its idiotic trap and was turned. I am now a daughter of fucking Lilith." She laughed bitterly, trying to mask how close she was to breaking down.
"I had to watch some lame vids about avoiding kidnappings by demons as a kid. Look how great they worked, but they covered the basics. Let's see." She counted the points of on her fingers. "I have to drink blood to survive. I can only be killed with a stake through the heart, sunlight, fire or decapitation. Holy symbols are bad, so is holy water, but neither will kill me. I cannot enter some one's home unless they invite me in. On the other hand I am faster and stronger than most humans and my senses are greatly enhanced. Most wounds will heal relatively fast, I can turn others by nearly draining them of blood and then feeding them my own."
Lane looked at her, waiting until she was finished. "Ok, well, that simplifies things. However, that brings is to the complicated part. As I said, we are the Initiative. As an organization we are both fighting supernatural threats and trying to research them. When we found you, you were already dead and your sire, the vampire that 'made' you, had given you enough blood to turn you into one of them.
Until a few years ago we simply killed any vampire we captured. When we encountered someone like yourself, who was only just turned, we had a problem. They were technically still just victims of the one who sired them. They hadn't hurt anyone else yet, still we had no other choice than to put them down, before they could actually do so. We eventually decided on a new, experimental approach. You might have noticed you are 'you' again, instead of an empty host for a demon." He gestured to the redhead on the flat screen to take over the explanation.
"Hi. I'm Willow, good to see you're not either dead or all murdery anymore. We used an ancient ritual to guide your soul, your essence back to your body and bind it to it. In theory you should feel no different from before you were sired. We had to make some modifications to the original old ritual. I am really glad it worked this time. The last guy we tried it on kinda just burst into flames and exploded. And I probably shouldn't have told you that." She concluded when noticing the glare Lane shot in her direction.
"Anyway, the ritual was originally used as a punishment to make the cursed vampire suffer for what they did when they didn't have a soul. Their soul would make them able to feel guilt and remorse for their deeds. The curse would end when the vampire would stop suffering, the vampire would then revert to a soulless monster. We didn't want to use the ritual as punishment, so we tried to make it work without a clause to automatically break it. Eventually it mostly worked. The bindings used to keep your soul bound to your body are somewhat weakened by our changes, so it is easier to just extract it again for any halfway skilled magic user, but that's more our less it. So there better not be any witches with a grudge against you."
"Thanks Will," Lane took over again "We also implanted you with an Amara-type device, a chip we developed and refined using the remains of a magic artifact we got our hands on. It negates some of the weaknesses vampires normally suffer from.
It makes you immune to holy symbols and water. You are able to go into direct sunlight, but the protection is not perfect. Avoid longer exposure, you won't burn up, but 'nasty sunburn' would be an understatement. Wear sunglasses.
We can't do anything about stakes and fire ...yet, those are still fatal. But for whom aren't they? Should you get into trouble, the implant also lets us locate you and gives us some basic readings about your physical status."
He gave Jade a meaningful look at the last sentence, so she turned it over in her head. "You tagged me like a fucking dog." She thought, what she said was: "So I was turned into a vampire and you guys, the ...Initiative, was it? You gave me my soul back and that implant that protects me against the worst parts of being a vampire. So, now what?" "Now, you get a choice Jade." Lane answered. "Either you can join us, become part of the Initiative and fight demons, stop what happened to you from happening to others. Or you can walk away and live your live as you see fit. We would of course still have an eye on you, both your soul and the implant could make you a target for a lot of bad people, human and otherwise. If you join us we can offer you protection and give you the chance to learn to protect yourself and others." He looked at her pleadingly. "You have a few days to think it over. Don't do anything rush. You are free to go for now, one of the guards will escort you out. This facility is housed under Hollywood Arts, so you will find your way from here. I'll see you tomorrow."
Yeah, right as the nice guidance counselor. Freaking snowball's chance in hell she'd work for them. As far as she could see these guys were just as bad or possibly even worse than her father and the other brownnosers in his firm. All secrets and plans and who knew what their real ambitions were. She sure as hell wouldn't become another pawn in these men's little power plays.
Lane extended his hand for her to shake it, which struck Jade as weird. When she took it, he covertly handed her a small strip of paper. His face remained motionless, so she knew better than to question the action and pocketed the note inconspicuously. She followed the guard out of the room, through a number of hallways to a small elevator with a heavy duty door. The guard punched in a code on a keypad and had his retina scanned to open it. He motioned for her to enter first.
The upper level exit was disguised as a maintenance door on the outside of a rarely used part of the Hollywood Art's building. As the young vampire stepped outside, she noticed the first changes I her unlife brought. The sky was overcast and gray, yet her exposed arms and face felt like she had fallen asleep while tanning at the height of summer. Without sun lotion. The muted sunlight burned in her eyes, causing them to water. She hissed at the discomfort. Her guard smirked. "What's wrong fangs? Weather too hot for ya?" When Jade whirled around to tell him to shut up he raised his gun again. His smirk was still in place, his eyes begging her to make a move that he could claim was an attack.
She quirked an eyebrow. Did that guy seriously think that moronic comment would be enough to provoke her? Alright, under normal circumstances she might have ripped him a new one, but she wasn't stupid enough to physically attack the dude with the gun. She scoffed and turned back around before answering. "Whatever. Later, loser!"
She walked away from that idiot and the secret door toward the parking lot, pulling a pair of shades from her bag. Her car wasn't there of course, but she just wanted to get away from that place.
Her phone beeped, signaling she had missed a few things while underground. When she it pulled out, she saw that she had about three dozen new text massages. They were mostly from her friends, asking if she was alright; a dozen alone were from Vega. Well, that was ...interesting. Yeah, she'd go with interesting. She had no time to read any of the messages or even send out replies though. Her phones battery finally gave out and the light of the small screen faded to nothing. With it went her plan to call a cab.
She really disliked taking the bus. While contemplating to test out her new "super powers" instead and trying to run the distance home she remembered the note Lane had slipped her. She reached into her pocket and pulled it out:
[cant talk openly here
JetBrew ASAP
-Lane]
Say it with me kids: ex·po·si·tion...
Yeah, no my finest work. At least I was a little bit faster than last time. And it's the longest yet; take that, English teachers of old.
Thanks to Azkadellio, Quitting Time, TimelessReader, sym1121, Jeremy Shane, Lushcoltrane and Jori luvr.
Special thanks to Quitting Time and Lushcoltrane for helpful discussion and some really nice suggestions.
Still looking for someone to take this thing over. Honestly, I kinda bit off more than I could chew with this story. If anyone's interested, drop me a PM. Otherwise I'm gonna continue to update at the usual pace.
I'm too stubborn to let this thing die.
I just rechecked the stats for the story and saw that there are actually 25 followers for this. Wow. Thank you guys.
I wanna get this one out tonight, it is late and I wanna go to bed, I'm gonna think of a chapter title later. Suggestions anyone?
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