Authors Notes:
Thank you, you have given me hope once more. VODKA18, this is for you who reviewed and if you want more chapters review and empower me with inspiration. Just a heads up, I've decided to incorporate some aspects the Ekon, Jonathan Reid from Vampyr, it won't be a crossover, just using a few ideas. Special shout to Curse of Kings, for inspiring a new way to look at the story.
I Don't Own Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.
VMVMVMVMVMVMVMVMVMVM
Chapter 1: Wrong End of a Standoff
"Ventrue? What does that even mean?" Draco asked himself aloud, it's as if the information just fluttered into his mind. His question was answered by an almost hysterical laughter.
"Hahahaha haha. Well what do you know; the cream of the crop doesn't even know the crop." The man had long grey hair with a massive beard, wearing an open vest over his chest, a pair of rugged jeans and boots.
Draco saw his fangs and knew he was a vampire. Taking a few cautious steps forward, Draco met the Kindred's eyes; they held only mischief and experience.
"And you are?" Draco asked the stranger who clearly had more to say, but he was not yet sure who or if he could trust anyone. Taking from the prince's example, it wasn't off to a good start.
"I'm Jack, and I'm gonna help you, seeing as your blinne than a bat." Jack smiled at his more than ironic pun.
Jack told Draco all he needed to know, like feeding and keeping up the Masquerade of living, sun light, at least I can still bathe and avoid shotguns, all for the immediate purposes as well as a few pointers.
Then everything went Sabbat shit crazy, gun fire and bombs were the least of the night's entertainment.
"…What the fuck is this?" Jack hissed like a cat caught taking a leak, mean cat.
Draco had no words for a response for he didn't know if it were him Jack were referring to.
Jack put a hand on Draco's shoulder, and looked seriously into the fledglings eyes. "Look, you get inside and head upstairs. I'll see you inside but first, I gotta check out the ruckus."
Draco POV
Not having to be told twice, I opened the door to the warehouse and ran inside without hesitation. I smiled as I realized, this is the chop shop I sold my old man's car to when I first fled to LA.
'First things first.' I looked around for stairs to get to the second floor and found none, only a hole in the railings.
I eyed the railing like I eyed the human from earlier before I fed for the first time, and Jack was right; it was amazing.
Then before I could even think, I felt my body move without actually moving, as though my being was altered somehow. I found myself at the point I was focused on, but I felt dizzy; like I'd throw up my guts. I looked back down to where I stood not a moment ago, I could have sworn I saw a trail of something behind me.
I shook off the dizziness and took a step forward and caught sight of a lockpick, I just thought it may come in handy and I found it in my hands. These reflexes are going to take some getting used to.
I turned a corner to find Jack looking out the windows lining the wall. "Stay away from the windows." He whispered while gesturing for me to come closer.
I stood next to him and followed his eyes to see three goons in the street, two looked like your average assholes but the one in the middle looked something bizarre. Slouched over, arms long; nails longer dragging across the ground and hairy. I'd think his a werewolf and then he howled and I was certain something was more than a miss.
"Oh…it's a Sabbat raid." Jack glanced my way before continuing. "The Sabbat, they're uh…" Jack stopped. "I was hopin' to spare you this shit till later…" Jack groaned under his breath before taking another breath. "Well, their mostly mindless bloodthirsty assholes." He finally worded.
"Could've guessed that much, so what's up?" I asked looking back to the idiots shooting sky for nothing but kicks.
"They probably got wind of the gathering, figured they raise bit of hell and put heat on the new prince." There's that word again, 'prince'; it's what the prick referred to himself as. "The prince, of what if I may ask?" My tone reeked of malice and Jack picked up on that.
"No time for political rundown, first we need to get outta here alive. Save that spunk for the Sabbat, they may be mindless but they hit you like truck with a drunk driver at the helm. Nothing a fledgling like you wants to tangle with." Jack voiced down well trying to keep a level head.
Before I could ask what he had planned, Jack put a finger to his lips to signify to be quite. "Shh-Shh, heads up, back away." Jack hushed as the three goons in the street spotted something to shoot at, the massive muscle who cut Michelle's head off. Now I was almost rooting for the Sabbat, they unloaded their automatics at the brute; missing completely.
The massive… man; if you could even call him that, looked indifferently toward his attackers, he raised a hand and an eerie glow came off the tips of his claws. Then two wolves came from nowhere; literally, they seemed like the ghosts in movies. They jumped up and took out the throats of the Sabbat gunners; the one with claws looked back for a second before charging the brute. The brute didn't even flinch before blowing the Sabbat a kiss, suddenly a gust of wind picked up and spun around the remaining Sabbat.
The remaining Sabbat was caught in what looked like a tornado, when the tornado cleared; only ashes remained of the crazed vampire. I looked in horror as three vampires were reduced to ashes in the space of a few moments with minimal effort from the muscle of the prince.
My breath was caught in my throat when he looked up and made eye contact with me, his eyes that seemed to be a milky grey but let off an eerie red glow that told me, a predator was watching. Without sparing a second glance, the brute turned around and left out the way he came.
Jack didn't look too spooked, but he didn't look chill either. "We gotta vamoose out the back, you get the door; I'll keep watch." I nodded and went down the hall till I found the door. Taking out my pick, I inserted the head and began to wiggle around, it's all in the feel but super hearing helps as well. It wasn't more than 30 seconds and…
Click
I grinned to myself. "Amateurs should get better locks." I opened the door and I heard the window break followed by chuckling. I was on high alert until I peeked around the corner and saw Jack inside the room standing on broken glass, grinning like a parrot that just got a cracker.
He saw me approach and pointed to the window. "Shortcut, but you weren't exactly an angel in life?" He questioned my methods of entering, properly half expecting me to kick in the door.
"Only to my mother, but I had my moments amongst noble and infamous alike." I answered with blunt honesty.
"Cool. Now take notes from those Sabbat assholes on how not to act. You're a vampire now, great… now keep it to yourself. Go juggling dumpsters or outrunning the 8:15 from Sacramento, and that's the type of greeting you can expect from the Sheriff next time you meet." Jack said with seriousness but with sarcasm.
"Makes sense, the wolf doesn't howl and let the sheep know his there; he stalks in the shadows…" I paused as I realized why I used to wake up oblivious to this world in the morning; that's something I won't miss, never was a morning person. "Like a masquerade or the Masquerade in this case right?"
Jack nodded. "Keep our secrets secret and make it easier for us all. Fuck-ups ain't tolerated we got cell phone cameras to worry about these days, though this ain't a casual thing for a fledgling like you." Jack gave me the warning but I caught that last part.
"Wait, what do you mean and what could happen?" I questioned.
Jack's eyes narrowed. "That party back there, with the guy in the suit and the Magilla Gorilla, assholes called the Camarilla, they enforce their rules as vampire law and will kill anyone who doesn't follow suite." Jack concluded and I think I just figured out what the prince is prince of.
"So the prince is prince of his own ass but likes to pretend his ass is LA." I spoke my mind and Jack could only chuckle in response, we stopped when we heard another explosion outside.
I turned to see the door out had a magnetically sealed lock, no way through that. I looked to the computer and knew there had to be something on it. Pulling a trick or two I picked up working all over LA over the last few years, I cracked the security system easily enough and found a manual override command program for the door. Entering the right command to release the lock, the door made a beeping noise. "And Open Sesame." I said dramatically as I span around to Jack with equal enthusiasm, Jack only grinned.
"Get your butt outside, I'm going to check things from topside." The elder kindred said his part and I decided to play my part seeing as his obviously been doing this for a long time.
I ran to the; now unlocked door and found stairs going down and hopefully leading to safety.
No such thing.
I opened the door into another alleyway and before I could relax, I heard the distinct sounds of guns clicking and cocking. I turned left just in time to glance the smirk of the pair of Sabbat gunners wave me bye-bye.
Unarmed and unprotected with the opposition directly the opposite in more ways than one, I was on the losing side of the Western Draw. Flashes like the paparazzi just caught Michael Jackson at night club lit up the dark night. I stood in the middle of gunfire and damn it! It Hurt!
Bullets passed through my flesh and shot out my back like a white hot butter knife passing through prime tenderized steak and it felt something similar. I thought I was done for before the sun even rose again after I died and was reborn in the same night.
Then my saving grace; came flying down from the roof. Jack fell like a weighted anvil but landed like a dove feather behind the furthest gunman. Then it became a blur, not because Jack was moving fast; it's because my eyes looked up where Jack had fallen from and despite the pain, my focus never wavered from the focus of my attention.
My eyes were locked onto the constellation that was now my namesake and something came over me, like a blanket the blocked out the rest of the world, even the pain was numb.
Time seemed to slow down as the glow of the stars wrapped my mind in a tender embrace and then I heard her voice…
"My Childe… so lost and alone… while wondering how you will survive… I will not allow you to fall this night or any other." That voice, it was Michelle's voice! But she's dead.
"Worry not my Childe, you are stronger than they can even imagine for none of my children are weak. Look into your blood and find your power, let it out but be wary that your power doesn't consume you…" The voice of my sire faded and I did what she said out of pure instinct of survival.
Normal POV
Jack had just dusted one of the Sabbat goons and was ready to send the next packing. He charged his inner strength into his arms; an electrical discharge seemed to emanate from is whole frame.
But just before he could even lay into the waste of unlife that was reloading his automatic, Jack found himself looking at the unbeating heart of the feral Kindred.
Blinking quickly and taking a step back, Jack found that the heart was being held by a red right hand, the Sabbat was barely moving after meeting his heart and the hand that removed it.
The hand then crushed the heart and the Sabbat burst into ashes with the same action. Jack finally saw the young fledgling before him, but he knew something was up. "Colour me im-fucking-pressed, kid!"
The new Kindred before the senior Kindred held eyes where the sclera was pitch black; his irises were glowing blood red and his pupils were slit like that of a cold-blooded reptile.
Jack almost got chills, almost.
"Kid, pull yourself together! Don't let the Beast out!" Jack was not frantic but close enough; Draco saw that Jack was still ready for an attack, ready to defend himself against him if things flew south.
Then as quickly as the killer impulse came, it receded, it was by no means gone. Draco could still feel it, whatever it was, it was strong and scary.
Jack eased up when Draco got his bearings straight.
"Man, I've seen some stuff in my time, but a Newblood taking a Sabbat's heart out like that is a first. Thought you went full Beast but you're still in your own head, your something kiddo."
Jack eyed the bullet holes that littered my clothes. "Look at them potholes, their cleaning themselves up quite nicely." Jack stopped and sniffed the air like a bloodhound.
"There's a easy catch down that way. Not the freshest, but he'll do. You better go feed." Jack pointed Draco to the street bum down the alley.
"What's the difference?" Draco inhaled as well, he sneered and almost doubled back, the stench he smelt from the human was overpowering.
"The quality of a human affects the quality of the blood; humans like him don't back much compared to the first class bred human." Jack surmised.
Raising a brow at Draco's behaviour, something clicked. "Oh yeah, you're a Ventrue right? They're clan is one of the more refined clans, as they put it, they can stomach 'lowborn' blood."
Draco shook his head. "No, that guys sick with something. If I fed on him, it would probably kill him."
"Good! Keep in touch with your humanity; it will keep you out of trouble with Kindred and humans alike." Jack smiled at Draco's reply, seemed that most vampires don't share the decency of his present company.
"We better get moving. Head for the building behind me, keep low. Don't know if there anymore Sabbat skulking around." Jack kicked the gate open with a back kick for Draco to proceed.
Draco POV
Following Jack's instructions, I kept low and stuck to the shadows. I stopped when I saw another hairy Sabbat goon with a nasty looking tire iron. I moved slowly at first, when he rounded the corner where I was hiding, I was blinded by the flash of an explosion. I looked to find the Sabbat was still present but only in ashes.
Grabbing the tire iron for defence, I snuck into the building.
Jack seemed worried, all the different scents and noises was confusing him on what the Sabbat were doing, seemed crazier than their reputation the way he put it.
I headed into the basement, as soon as I hit the shadows; I felt that strength return. Only this time, it wasn't as ravenous, more of a rush.
I found one Sabbat trying to read the warning on the wall. Tire iron in hand, I snuck behind him and broke his neck.
The door to the next room was locked; the brand of lock gave me cause for concern.
Spent months trying to crack these bastards, on impulse I drew on the strength of my blood.
I could feel every groove and mark through the pick, smell the oil in the hinges, even though I could easily break the door down, Jack said not to kick the hornets' nest.
Sides, this is more my style.
I could feel where the tumblers slipped easier and when the grooves hit unused lanes in the metal.
In a minute; the satisfying click that eluded me in life rung for me in undeath.
Entering the room in the veil of the shadows, I rounded a few crates that littered the room and found another mongrel vampire.
Feeling another pull; but slightly different, I lifted my hand and focused.
It was obviously some kind of power of being a vampire, though I felt like freaking out; I shrugged it off to focus on surviving for now.
My magic power leapt at the Sabbat mongrel and his shoulders almost instantly relaxed, he let his guard down.
I looked almost faster then I intended and noticed he was light on one foot.
'A Weakness!' My thoughts rang before I felt the same urge from earlier returned but more precise somehow.
My sight went red again and I could see further than before, like looking through a predators binoculars.
I sprang from my hiding spot with no effort to hide my presence.
The Sabbat noticed immediately and span around to meet me head on, he held his arms up to guard against any swings I would take. Instead of going for the typical attack, my hands almost moved by themselves and I swung at the ankle with the tire iron.
I heard the bone shatter and the force swept him under his feet; the pain was clear on his face. Without the expected hesitation for taking another life, I swung again and took the mongrels head off.
In awe and shock at how easily that came to me, I left the ashes and proceeded into the next room, where two more mongrels awaited me.
Focusing my power again, they bodies relaxed but I didn't spot any physical weak points like last time. I attacked the two, outnumbered; I felt my blood boil and my muscles tightened with unbelievable strength.
The boost allowed me to take most of their assault, I took note of how sloppy their attack and coordination was. Jack said the Sabbat liked to take shock troops with less training then myself, but it was almost pathetic.
"I'm waiting mutt!" I taunted them, without knowing who I meant; they charged simultaneously and ended up ramming each other before they made it to me.
And again, at their moment of weakness; I charged with the same instinct to kill.
I pierced one with the tire iron and he went limp; paralyzes vampires just like Jack said and my own experience proved as much. Turning my attention to the still mobile Sabbat, I proceeded to beat and claw him to death.
When I was finished, I went to finish the impaled mongrel.
I snuck passed the next room; not looking to waste all my strength. I found Jack in the next room with a grin plastered on his face.
"Hahahaha, human, Gangbangers 'protecting their turf'. I'm here thinkin' it Sabbat moving up in here, it's only fuckin' locals looking for trouble." Jack laughed.
"What do we do?" I asked already knowing how vampires would deal with situations like this.
"They seen too much. Take this thirty-eight, fuckin' peashooter will take down a human with a few shots or one well-placed shot." Jack handed me his revolver and an extra magazine of bullets.
I've handled guns before, did a few test shots at a firing range once. Doing security jobs do have their benefits.
"I'm going to want that back do don't lose it or your head. Guns aren't my style, practically useless against vampires but Kindred gotta keep up with times in modern day Los Angeles, which means coming strapped." Jack informed me.
Lining up the sights, I raised a brow at the practically useless part. "What about heavy artilleries?"
"Ouch, if you ever get got up against anything like that; run, hide or do zigzags. Small calibres don't do much, but anything bigger than ten millimetres; be careful. Rifles and shotguns are the one you really watch out for, anything that can put a mountain lion down can probably put you down." That bit was unsettling.
"I hear you." Jack nodded.
"You head up and put those idiots outta their misery, I'll deal with any stragglers outside." Jack said as I entered the elevator up.
I ready myself. The doors open and the first thing I see is a punk with a bat; eyes dilated, probably a drug head. He's skittish and on edge like a deer, any idiot can see his weakness.
The human spun around to meet my gaze when he heard the elevator doors close behind me. As expected my sight turned red again and I could see the terror in the thug's eyes, he tried to charge me with a bat.
A shot between the eyes made him calm down.
Another thug came around the corner to find his pal dead, he froze when he saw my eyes, and I'll need to check them later.
The thug looked on in horror, he pulled a gun on me; while pointed my borrowed one at him.
He hesitated, I didn't. My first shot hit his gun arm and the next two to 'relax' his knees. Kneeling a few feet away from me, I fired the last two bullets at the thug, one in the chest one in the head.
"That's it, kiddo. Just like that and it's all over." I turn to find Jack.
"Something tells me, things might get exciting again." I deduced and Jack informed me that this was probably the beginning; The Camarilla and Sabbat were new in town and just seem to stir trouble for the local Kindred.
We heard a car hooting it horn just outside, probably my ride.
"You got a cab to catch. I was hoping to fill you in a little more but you'll figure it out. If you make it back, meet me at the Last Round and fill you in on the politics, now that's the stuff that'll kill ya. Good luck." I handed Jack his gun back, shook hands and left for the cab.
My first night as a vampire, things can only get interesting from here.
VMVMVMVMVMVMVMVMVMVM
Authors Notes:
Sorry this took so long. I've been busy with other Fanfiction, courses and trying to avoid the modern day plague. Anyway here the next chapter and I can promise things will be getting interesting. Special shout out to Curse of Kings, again but worth it.
Till next time…Fare Thee Well…