Well I'm back with more vampire stories! I know it's been a while, but I've still got so much backstory on my vampire OC's that I decided this was a good way to introduce you to their origins.

I honestly thought this was a quick short story, but I guess the characters had a different idea.

I hope you enjoy, please leave your reviews!

Chapter 1: A Monster Party

October 31, 1:45 am

Blood. It always smelled like blood.

Sure, there was the casual smell of beer and vodka, mixed with sweat and pheromones from the human guests. But with so many vampires gathered at one place, the stench of blood was deeply impregnated in the vip lounge at the casino. Raven figured she had to get used to it, being the girlfriend of the vampire prince and all, as this social reunions of the undead were becoming more and more common.

And we are such the social butterfly… - her sarcastic side quipped in.

Raven sighed. She would rather be home watching old horror films with her vampire while devouring a year's worth of candy. She just wished for one night to actually forget about the world. Ever since her public coming out, it just seemed these social things were never ending. Fortunately, misery loves company…

"Sooo… having fun?" asked the demoness to her sour looking friend.

"As security for Mika's Halloween Monster Mash-Up?" asked Dick Grayson rhetorically. Just as Raven (and the rest of the staff at the party), he was dressed in tux and a Phantom of the Opera Mask. "I don't know why I let her convince us? We are superheroes, not muscle for hire…"

"She is providing us money, is the least we can do." reminded the empath for the umpteen time. Considering the reason the Titans were out of funds from the Justice League was precisely Raven's public coming out, she felt the need to keep the peace between their leader and the vampires.

"You are her girlfriend. Shouldn't you be hanging from her arm instead of doing this?"

"Am not a trophy, asshole." whined the empath as she gently punched his arm with her fist. He pretended to be hurt by the action, although they were obviously playing. "And we are been very careful while on public. Ever since my interview, the media has just tried to pin me with every known lesbian… Besides, she seemed worried something might come up with so many vampires together."

"I thought they got along fine in their reunions… didn't she say violence and hunting were prohibited at… what did she called this… Elysium?"

Before she could answer, Mika's twin sister approached them wearing a provocative Catwoman disguise.

"Hey guys… having fun?" asked Caroline in her sultry voice.

"We are stuck as security for your private Halloween party… yes, we are having a blast."

"Easy with the attitude… we are your sponsors remember." answered the vampire reminding him of their hold on them, something he did not appreciate. "Least you can do for us is this tiny favor without complaining like a little bitch."

"He's just moody because he would rather be with Star…" tried to justify Raven before playfully adding "She got a bunny suit to go trick or treating tomorrow…"

"She did not." quickly interjected Grayson as he clarified. "It's a Wonder Woman costume."

"Well, won't you rather play with a kitty cat?" proposed Caroline as she teased him. Raven rolled her eyes at the interaction. It was as if getting on Nightwing's nerves was a sort of competition between the sisters. She could imagine a scoreboard on their shared apartment with different points according to category: teasing, tormenting and pranking.

"I'm not into villains…"

Caroline grinned devilishly, but before she could make a comeback, the sound of breaking glass and curses interrupted their banter.

"Oh fuck…" murmured the vampire before turning to the 2 Titans present and stepping aside for them to pass: "Well, time to earn your paycheck guys."

Nightwing groaned and Raven sighed as they approached the brawling vampires to defuse the situation.

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The two Titans easily diffused the situation. With minimal exertion, they subdued the aggressor and dragged him to Mika's private office in the back, where she was waiting by the fireplace. It always made the empath uncomfortable to see her like that. Mika took her role as the Vampire Prince rather seriously and she always exuded a mix of wickedness and superiority that sent goosebumps down her spine. She knew it was an act to keep the neonates in check, but sometimes she feared there might be a bit of truth behind it.

"This is the one that started it… He bit one of your mortal guests, and the others got roused by the blood." explained Dick as he threw the offender by the Prince's feet.

"Thank you for bringing him over… that'll be it." replied Mika in a monotone voice.

"No please, don't leave! The prince will dust me in the fireplace as soon as no one is looking!" exclaimed the neonate in panic as the Titans were turning to leave.

"I don't know why you would say that Darien…" answered Mika coldly. "Am I not taking care of you all? Protecting you from the inquisitors in my very home? And what do you do to repay me? Insult me and insult the sanctity of Elyseum."

"I was not trying to vex you. I am simply hungry." justified the neonate.

"I saw lots of blood bottles in the bar. Is not like the Prince is starving you." replied Raven harshly, feeling a bit insulted by the insinuations about her girlfriend.

"The doctor's fake blood is unsavory. I need the real stuff!" whined the vampire as he rose from the ground in indignation.

"Aren't you the little junkie Darien? You know hunting is… frowned upon on this domain…"

"You are a hypocrite! Your sister hunts because she cannot get sustenance from Doc's mix."

"My sister is over 100 years old; she knows what to do to not commit any… accidents. You on the other hand are a child who still drinks from a training cup. You should just make peace with your baby formula." spitted Mika as she grabbed him from the collar of his shirt.

Raven tensed as did Richard. They both knew very few things could get Mika as worked up as any bad mention of her sister. She slightly turned to look at them though, and released the neonate as she subtly growled, showing him her fangs. She then took seat on her high chair again, on what looked like an excellent godfather interpretation and continued to address him in the same monotone voice she used when they entered.

"You are not being held here against your will, you may take your chances outside if you like…" a subtle hint of threat impregnated her voice. She made pause to accentuate her meaning, before bestowing him with one of her characteristic lopsided grins as she continued: "If you get yourself killed I'll just make an example out of you."

Darien rearranged his clothes nervously and turned to look at the door. He began walking towards it without losing sight of the Prince; maybe thinking that he would get pounced as soon as he turned around. Once he reached the door he finally bolted.

"Would you like to explain to us what the hell was that?" demanded Nightwing as soon as the neonate was out of hearing distance.

"Let's just say tensions are running high…"

Mika feigned indifference and pretended to go back to work on her desk. Nightwing crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at her until she finally flinched.

"Ok fine, if you must know we are being hunted. The young ones have been disappearing. Last we heard from one of them was a distress call saying he was being chased; after that, the call got cut short. So I've been keeping them here for protection. They usually like it, but it's not easy for predators to be cooped up together for so long… So everyone is a bit on edge. It's Halloween though; I still wanted to give everyone a good time to take their minds of the current events…" explained the vampire Prince without making pause, hoping that would suffice.

"Why didn't you tell us that?" immediately asked Raven worried. "If you are being hunted we could have offered more protection. You don't have to go all Prince of Darkness on us and pretend you have it all under control."

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to get you worried." Mika looked uncomfortable and a bit sheepish under her girlfriend's stare. "There always have been, and will always be vampire hunters. And you cannot really do anything about it because they are human, not super villains, just ordinary, scared humans. I did not mean to worry you; this is unfortunately something I have to handle on my own."

"You never mentioned vampire hunters before." Raven continued to press on.

"Because for many years I was the only vampire in Jump City, and I don't hunt. So there was no way vampire hunters could have picked up my trace."

"Ok, let me get this straight. You've been feeding them Katherine's synthetic blood, but some of them still prefer to hunt, drawing the attention of vampire hunters." clarified the Titan's leader.

"Before you pin this on me, let me say that I cannot force them, only try and reason with them…. and set the example." Mika quickly defended herself before this escalated into a heated discussion. "All these vampires were released into Jump City by you, from when we cured them from the zompire virus. They are technically not my responsibility. Their sins are not mine to bear."

"Fine. I actually cannot argue with that. You are, after all, trying your best to keep them safe and out of trouble…" conceded the masked vigilante, but before Mika could feel relieved he continued: "Still your sister hunts…"

"Yes, she does…" admitted the vampire. "Unfortunately, she cannot stomach the synthetic. She has special dietary needs. Katherine is trying to fix that… in the meantime she is very careful, she would never ever hurt anyone, and would certainly be clever enough to avoid the hunter's detection."

"You really expect us to believe she's never harmed anyone before?"

Before Mika could energetically object to his insinuations, Caroline walked into the room as she confessed: "I have."

"Caro!"

The twin placed her hand up to stop Mika from making excuses for her. "I have hurt someone before, well actually hurt is a very mild word to what I did, I've killed someone before…"

Everyone in the room remained silent after that. Caroline's face was a mixture of shame, sorrow and pain. Mika looked worried as she turned to look at the Titans present. Raven looked at her with sympathy, for this was the same face Mika had when she had confessed to her previous slips in her unlife. And Nightwing… he remained stoic.

"Only one though… this is him." continued the vampire as she handed them a hand paint portrait.

Raven took the picture. He was a kind looking man in his early 40's; handsome, with fair skin and hair. "Caroline, why do you have a picture of the only man you've ever killed?"

"That's because that is our father…" explained Mika. "And she didn't kill him. She was confused and just found him dead."

"You were not there…" protested her twin.

"And you don't actually remember killing him. You had just woken as the undead. He might as well have been dead before you fed on him. It was 1910, it was the fucking Mexican revolution, and he was a wealthy man, anyone could have killed him!" replied Mika as she stood before her sister in apparent outrage.

For the first time, Nightwing mentioned nothing that could make the moment more uncomfortable. He did not berate them with moral standards or questioned further. He chose to remain silent at the light of this new information.

"Still… he was there because of me." finalized Caroline as he took the picture back.

The vampire prince looked uncomfortable in her own skin, but she still asked: "Why are holding on to his picture anyway?"

"I was thinking we might make an altar for the 2nd of November."

"An altar?" finally asked Nightwing.

"It's Dia de Muertos… the Day of the Dead. It's a Mexican tradition." explained meekly the usually extroverted twin.

"Don't you think it would be a bit ironic that the dead make an altar for the dead?" complained Mika, still unhappy about her sister's sudden honesty. But before she could tell everything on her mind about it, Raven's confused tone broke her from her rant.

"Ok, hold on… I thought you two were Italian…"

"Our father was Italian…" corrected Caroline. "He was born in Italy but raised on Mexico, where he met our mother. We were born in Veracruz."

"You two are Mexican?... Ok, how did you guys even got here?" Raven tried to connect everything she was told with what she already knew about them.

"That's a very long story…"

Before anyone could reply anything else, both Dick's and Raven's communicators began beeping. There was trouble.

"As interesting as your family drama is, we have to go…" announced Nightwing.

"I understand, thank you for helping us with this." appreciated Mika.

Raven began following her leader at a quick pace as she hurriedly called to her girlfriend. "If you are being hunted don't go anywhere alone…"

"I'll be fine…"

"Once am done with this crisis we'll have a chat." added the demoness as she disappeared through the back door.

"She's not happy that you are still keeping things from her." said Caroline more as a statement than as a question.

"No, she's not."

"Why didn't you tell her about this? You knew she was going to eventually find out and get mad."

"It's better if she thinks this is what I'm hiding."

With that, the vampires returned to the party.

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October 31, 2:28 am

"You didn't know she was Mexican?"

"We don't center our relationship on our pasts." replied Raven as she levitated by his side. Her leader was on the Nightcycle as they raced across town to stop the latest menace. "What?"

"I know you're still feeling guilty about… last year's incident…" Raven groaned; she hated to be reminded about her indiscretion with Eris that almost brought hell to Earth. "But, shouldn't you guys be more open with each other by now?"

"Are you going to tell me again how you don't trust her and she's not good for me?"

"No, no, I'm not doing that… she has proven to be our friend and ally. She loves you deeply and I actually think she is great for you." admitted the dark vigilante.

"…but?" asked Raven nervous about where this was going.

"I have the impression that some things bother you about your relationship, but you don't want to bring them up because you still feel guilty, and are afraid that if you dig to much you might push her away… So you hold back and just swallow the things that bother you out of fear."

Raven remained silent for a while. She just looked up front to where she was going. After a while she finally admitted.

"That is very insightful…"

"So… I'm not mistaken?"

"Maybe I've been spoiling her too much…" conceded the empath. "You really think she is great for me?"

"Just don't tell her that."

They both smiled at each other, but before any of them could continue the conversation, the source of distress appeared on their line of sight.

They could see on the distance a big, abandoned construction site. Smoke and flames were rising from the place, although the fire didn't seem to be spreading. They didn't wait for their other teammates to arrive; as they drew near, they could clearly make out the smell of burning wood... and flesh.

Once inside, they found themselves in the middle of a ritualistic kill site. Several bodies were tied to a stake and set on fire. Raven immediately put out the flames by engulfing them on a cloud of darkness. They were too late though.

"Raven, see if the culprit is still nearby, I'll check the bodies."

"The only alive presence I can feel is ours." answered the demoness sourly. "Unless we are dealing with vampires, no one else is here but us."

Nightwing approached one of the bodies; there was a sign on a metal plate hanging over its head. It read the word witch.

Raven took the sign that hung from a lone pyre. There was no dead body there, but the wood had been burning as bright as the other ones. She wondered why they bothered lighting it up if there had been no one there, until she realized there had been, just no one human. The sign read: blood sucker.

"The vampire hunters Mika was afraid of…" Raven turned to look at Dick with evident fear for her loved one. "Richard they were here, they did this. This pile of ashes was one of the missing neonates."

"And it appears they are not only dangerous for vampires…" he pointed at the signs hanging from the other bodies. "Witch, Shifter, Demon whore, Sodomite, Succubus, and Blood sucker… I think that's what they call different supernatural creatures, or well anyone that deviates from their points of view… isn't Sodomite a word used to refer to…"

"Gay people... at least according to the bible."

"Well, it seems that finding them and putting a stop to their fanatic acts just became Titan's #1 priority."

...

To be continued...