Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire: The Masquerade or The Requiem. They are the property of World of Darkness. Likewise, I don't own Bloodlines except on a small set of CD-ROMs. I do own one large frosted mug of watermelon juice that I'm going to chug down as I write this story about drinking blood. How's that for irony?

Author: Next update. Trung Anh descends to meet old friends to check for Beckett's trail. And guess what? They want another favor. And the Camarilla and the Anarchs have come to a decision…

Kindred's Hope

Chapter 2: Guides, Hides, and Endangered Lives

The practice of Kindred draining the blood of other Kindred and stealing their power is the foulest crime Kindred may commit by Camarilla law. However the consumption of some, or even all, of another's blood with their consent is not considered to be diablerie. Indeed, some dissatisfied elders, including the Antediluvian Malkav himself, have been rumored to embrace their final death by ordering their childer to drain them dry and so pass their 'inheritance' to them. Today, however, this does not happen often, and some diablerists have tried to protest innocence by claiming they had the consent of those they drained. – Excerpt from the Lora Vitae Camarilla

The bodies of Kindred are dead. Their only ecstasy comes from feeding. And they reproduce by siring. Thus, Kindred no longer have any mating drive and they are both physically and mentally incapable of mating. Many younger Kindred still retain the concept of romance and sensuality, but from a more superficial level, and their idea of showing their love is by taking beloveds as ghouls or childer. In the case of loving other Kindred, love is shown by sharing their blood with them to build a bond. – Conclusion from the Species X Analysis

A lot of people these days often hope that their driver would forget to turn on his meter so they could scramble out without paying a cent, but it was odd that this one appeared to have forgotten his meter every single time I went with him.

I offered him a fifty as we arrived at the graveyard gates, extending my hand from the back seat over his shoulder, but he waved it away wordlessly and motioned for me to get out.

"Well, er, thank you." I said lamely as I opened the door and stepped out of the cab. He ignored me and simply sat there, staring into space ahead of him.

A strange one, I mused to myself. What kind of Kindred elder carted younger fledglings around in a cab without an explanation or accepting any kind of payment?

Shrugging, I dismissed the thought. This driver was useful, and he seemed trustworthy enough. I turned towards the rusted, dented gates to the Hollywood graveyard. The large and sinister iron demon's face still lay in a pattern on the top. Strangely fitting considering what rested behind the gate in this simple graveyard. During my brief period of service to LaCroix, I had entered here before in my search for the sarcophagus, and somehow wound up having to help a ghoul by the name of Romero blow the heads off a legion of zombies that suddenly rose from the ground...well, it was either that or go make an idiot of myself by going out for him and trying to herd a hooker into the freak show for him.

So it hadn't seemed like that bad an idea at the time, but the zombies had very nearly dealt me a final death, and Romero was not pleased at all.

After I had dealt with the ones responsible for the raising of the zombies and the infestation of the Hollywood sewers – the Sabbat – things had quieted down, but the gates were still buckled and dented from the abominations' assault and the ghoul was nowhere in sight.

No matter. I hadn't cared much for Romero anyway. I had a job to do here. I gave the rusted gates a solid kick and they swung inwards.

I stepped cautiously into the misty lawns and drew a breath, sniffing the air – something I hardly ever did anymore since I did not need to. The air was stale and dank, and I could tell, even though a sizeable portion of my nasal integration was dead, that this was not the particular fragrance anyone would want to stand for long.

Squaring my shoulders, I set off down the dirt path to the crypt I knew lay on the far side of the graveyard hill. I felt something splatter on my shoulder and looked up to feel raindrops on my face. Great. Rain. Just what I needed right now. Picking up the pace, I sprinted over to the stone doors of the imposing crypt below.

The old mausoleum looked like something out of a horror movie. The structure was tall and imposing with stone carvings artfully worked into the pillars surrounding the main wall. The front door was made of stone, and a normal human would have difficulty moving it. But being far from normal I had no problem at all ramming through it into the dusty hall beyond.

Rows upon rows of carved niches lay before me, bearing the names of the dead ones within. It was a hall of whispers. Wraiths I knew truly existed chattered from all the corners at my intrusion into their place of rest. Not one of them recognized me, as ghosts tended to retain only the simplest of consciousness in their drifting. They were of course easy to manipulate because of this, yet most Kindred did not bother with them because of their limited abilities and confusion. Still, I had encountered one powerful ghost in my time…

Maybe they could help me now if I was lucky.

"Hello…" I called softly into the gloom. The whispers stopped, and I was aware every wraith in the place was watching and waiting. "Hello…I'm lost. Can you help me please?"

Nothing.

"I'm looking for the false one…" I said quietly. "Do you know where it is?"

Nothing again. I cleared my throat.

"I want to go home…" I said more quietly still, preying upon what I guessed was the soft spot of every ghost. "Do you know what it's like to want to go home?"

Suddenly, the ghosts were whispering so loudly and frantically in comparison to their earlier silence that it sounded deafening. And then, sure enough, an insubstantial, stark white hand formed in the darkness and pointed down the hallway to my right.

I nodded. "Thank you." I said as the hand faded back into the darkness.

Turning down the hallway, I felt the ghosts lose interest in me and focus their attention back on their self-pity. They weren't bad, just insane. Reaching the large antechamber I remembered, I pushed aside the gate with a light clank and entered, my footsteps echoing hollowly in the darkness.

I narrowed my eyes to focus on the separate niches in the walls, before I leaned up against the closest and began to tap on them, listening with my ear against the stone.

After a couple of minutes of fruitless tapping and thumming, I at last heard a hollow clack behind the niche I tapped on in the bottom right row. Here it was.

I moved my hand gingerly over the stone carvings around the niche, feeling for a tiny recess that held the button, until I at last felt my fingertips brush over a small depression in the stone. Reaching in with my finger, I pushed the button and heard a tiny click.

The stone tablet pulled back into the wall and shifted to one side to reveal a narrow crawl space. It was here, from this door, that I had exited the haven below the last time I was in Hollywood. I knew what lay beyond, and I wasn't too happy about having to go down. But I needed the guidance of the Nosferatu primogen, Gary Golden.

I had sought him out before under the instructions of LaCroix, and the intervention of the Sabbat in Hollywood led me to him. A Tzimisce elder had holed up the Nosferatu in their warrens beneath the city, and I had followed his lackeys down to find them. I had exited the warrens through the tunnel I now crawled down through. It was dark and foreboding, and no doubt covered in slime and moss from the dripping water. I was clearly going to arrive in Gary's chambers looking a little worse for wear.

Finally, I squeezed through the last opening in the tunnel and emerged before the patterned door to Gary's Elysium. If I knew the old fox, he would be waiting for me inside by now. Nothing moved unchecked by Gary in this city, and I hoped that he would be in a telling mood when I brought the subject around to Beckett.

I pushed the doors open, and, sure enough, there was Gary, waiting for me, but not alone...

The old Noss looked no different from the first time I had seen him, decked out in an old, dirty, moth-eaten tuxedo with blue skin and long claws gracing his fingers. But standing next to him and talking urgently was a vampire I did not recognize. A Ventrue I guessed, from his smart clothing and blond hair. There was another, a human, next to him. A young Asian woman dressed in pants, tank top, and jacket with short, burgundy hair that came down to her neck.

As I stepped gingerly into Gary's haven, he turned and glared at me irritably.

"About time you got here, boss. I've had half the city shouting in my ear for me to find you!"

Somewhat happy that I was getting my own back against the old monster for all the irritation he had given me before, I simply shrugged and smiled at him. "We all pay the price for being famous, old one. And who are your friends here?"

The Ventrue narrowed his eyes at me. "You are Trung Anh the Toreador?"

"That depends. Who wants to know?" I answered him in an equally unfriendly fashion.

"My name's Alexander. Strauss sent me to find you. He orders you to go at once to Venture Tower downtown and explain all this."

"You can tell Strauss that I'm not interested in answering to the Camarilla anymore. Tell him to go to Nines Rodriguez for an explanation." I snapped.

"Rodriguez already explained you were framed. But what in the name of Caine were you thinking?! You slaughtered half of the Ventrue clan on your way up to LaCroix!" Alexander looked very angry, most likely because of said bloodshed against his clan. It was true that a great number of Camarilla Ventrue had attacked me in my revenge trip to Venture Tower, and I had dusted all those who did.

"They weren't exactly ready to sit down and talk, Ventrue..." I said to him quietly. "If I hadn't killed them first, they would've…"

"Yo, boss! Leave the spats till later, will you?" Gary interrupted, frowning. "Alexander, tell Strauss that I'll make sure Trung Anh answers up eventually. That should be enough for now…"

I frowned at him. He ignored me.

Alexander frowned too, before nodding curtly and walking over to the door. He turned and looked at me.

"I'll be waiting outside this filthy hole."

Slam! He was gone.

"Tut tut. Ventrue seem to forget their manners often these days…" Gary muttered after hearing him spite his home. "As for you, boss, it seems that Ikomi here has something to tell you…" He gestured to the human next to him, who was glaring at me.

Why did everyone want to kill me?

I glanced at her and then walked over to Gary. "I don't have time now, Gary. I need your help. I've got to find…"

"Kindred!" The human called Ikomi said sharply.

I turned again and glared at the girl. "What is it that's so blasted important, human?!" I spat.

"You have performed an unforgivable crime against us! You should consider yourself lucky we haven't killed you yet." She said angrily. "The Kuei-jin Mandarinate will want your head for this if you don't listen…"

I stared at her, and then I rolled back my head and laughed. "You're in over your head, girl. You're no Kuei-jin!"

"Actually, boss…" Gary muttered. "She is…kind of."

I stared at him. He shrugged.

"Seems the Kuei-jin were as surprised as you were to find a giant squid in the Chinatown Temple…"

"What?" I cast my mind back to when I had fought Ming Xiao beneath Chinatown. She had transformed into a large squid-like war form before I had killed her. The girl called Ikomi spoke again.

"While one dharma of Kuei-jin strength grants that ability, Ming Xiao did not follow that path. She should not have been able to transform into that creature…" Ikomi looked angry, but not at me, as though she believed that she had done something humiliating and was ticked off at the world. "When we investigated and drained the body, it revealed another one. A traitor…"

I stared at her. "What are you saying, girl?"

Gary answered me. "Seems that the thing you killed in Chinatown wasn't the real Ming Xiao, boss."

I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. Ming Xiao was still alive?! Then I still had a score to settle with her and I would be in danger for as long as she was alive.

Gary held up his hand as he saw me twitch. "Ah-ah, boss. We said the Kuei-jin were as surprised as you! That means they were deceived too. For all we know, boss, so was LaCroix…and you may never have even met the real Ming Xiao."

I stared at him for a moment, and then my eyes unfocused. I was thinking hard. Was there anything I had seen at all? Any way of knowing if the Ming Xiao I had killed was any different from the one I had met during my search for the sarcophagus? Then again, if the Kuei-jin hadn't noticed anything wrong, then it made sense that I wouldn't have a clue either.

The girl named Ikomi glared at me icily and said. "The creature you destroyed was a foul abomination, Kindred, even more so than your own cursed brethren. It was an akuma. A Kuei-jin that chose to pledge itself to the service of the demons of Yomi, the underworld. It somehow managed to remove and replace our leader, Ming Xiao, and continue her work without any of us noticing any difference. That akuma was slippery, but in the end, its tricks fell away…"

"Thanks to me!" I interrupted her sharply. "I did the Kuei-jin a favor, so please kindly tell your masters to leave me alone in return! Nice talking to you!" I turned away, but Ikomi spoke up again.

"No, Kindred! You may have revealed the akuma to us, but that does not make up for your murder of a score of Kuei-jin. Many of those lost souls will never fulfill their karma now, and it is all your fault! You should consider yourself lucky I have not killed you yet!"

Irritated at this Kuei-jin wannabe's pretentiousness, I bared my fangs at her and snarled, advancing on her menacingly. "Foolishness, human! You are not a Kuei-jin, and didn't you ever learn not to pretend to be something you're not?! You won't even know who you are when I'm finished with you!"

I darted towards her, fangs bared in anticipation of feeding and leaving her insensate for the rest of my little visit, but unfortunately, that was not to be…

She darted backwards with more speed than any normal human could ever hope to muster, and spun around sharply, making me cop a smash against my jaw in an impressively-pulled backswing kick.

That kick might've seriously injured a normal person, but I merely stumbled slightly and stopped in my tracks, glaring irritably.

"Okay…so you're not human either. What are you then?" I muttered, disgruntled, as she crossed her arms and smirked in triumph.

"You don't need to know that, Kindred! It's enough that you know I speak for the Kuei-jin Mandarinate now-"

"She's a dhampir, boss…" Gary interrupted her. "The child of a Kuei-jin and a human. Sort of like a ghoul on steroids."

Ikomi glared at him. "Compare me not to one of your miserable human slaves, Nosferatu! My father assures me-"

"Shut up or get to the point!" I cut her off that time. "What do the Kuei-jin want from me?"

I knew by then that all vampires, Kindred or otherwise, sent their messengers only to ask for something; if they wanted me dead they would attack in full force.

Ikomi cleared her throat as if she suddenly realized what a windbag she was being. "You are to come to Chinatown to discuss your case with my father, Yue Hin. If you refuse, we Kuei-jin will kill you. If you do as we say, perhaps you will have the chance to atone for your crimes against us, Kindred."

I rolled my eyes. How long was it going to be before I could free myself entirely from the whims of others? I couldn't trust anyone in the afterlife, and definitely least of all the Kuei-jin. They despised the Kindred in a similar fashion as humans despise vermin, and I knew I would certainly never be treated with any honesty or respect from them.

I shook my head at Ikomi. "No. I don't trust you to play fair…"

Ikomi's eyes blazed, and it was clear she was going to start squealing again when Gary cut her off by waving a clawed hand in her face. "Leave it, dhampir! I'll talk with him and see what I can do. Go outside and wait with the other one."

Her voice tightened like she was choking on a dozen arguments she wanted to spew at once. "You don't command me, leech!"

"But I command this Elysium…" Gary retorted calmly. "And if you speak to me like that again, I'll spill your foul guts to feed the worms, dhampir. Get outside and wait! I'll talk some sense into this fledgling here."

Ikomi opened her mouth…and then shut it abruptly and turned to storm out the door.

"Why do you put up with this?" I asked Gary rudely as Ikomi slammed the door shut.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Because they'll become an even bigger nuisance if I don't, boss. Anyway, you have a fair few people to answer to, I think…"

"No, Gary!" I said sharply. "I'm tired of running errands for lazy honchos! I just need some information…"

Gary sighed again. "You said it yourself, boss: we all pay the price for being famous. And what you did downtown certainly did that! Pretty soon, every Kindred elder on the west coast is going to be looking for you and trying to woo, con, force, or blackmail you in with their own lot! I'd say until you have enough to dig out your own fort, you're pretty much going to be everyone's favorite errand boy, boss!"

I glared at him. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm leaving soon anyway. Gary, I need to find someone…"

"Oh no, boss. You've got to clean up this mess first! Until then, I'm not telling you anything!" Gary sounded annoyed. "Both the Camarilla and the Kuei-jin want you to state your case, and if you ever want to get out of here alive, you're going to have to humor them. You won't last a night out there with the whole city after you…"

I waved my hand dismissively, raising my voice along with him. "Been there, done that, Gary!" He smirked at me as I crossed my arms and growled. "This isn't fair…"

"No-one ever said unlife was fair, boss…but look at it this way…if you humor all these whining, puffed-up, self important capes, they'll be out of your way at least, and you can press on with your own goals as you wish. After all, they don't bother to chaperone you, do they?" Gary grinned. "Except my own little girlie, who made sure you were a good boy and toed the line in your search through Chinatown…"

"Don't you ever stop scheming, old one?" I asked him half-heartedly as he chuckled.

"Certainly not, boss! Where's the fun in that? Scheming is what we Nosferatu do best…something you pretty Toreador can never understand…"

I sat down on a chair. "Save it. Alright, I'll go out there and deal with the Camarilla and the Kuei-jin, but I'm not doing anything for those slavering monsters anymore. I want some information now…please."

Gary grinned. "I thought I'd never…er…live to see the day you used the magic word, boss. How can I refuse such a diplomatic entreaty? What would you like to know?"

I sighed. "I need to find Beckett…"

Gary actually looked startled. "Of all the…you know, boss, you've actually just given me something that might be a challenge. Beckett just slips in and slips out like water between your fingers…"

I hung my head and ran my fingers through my hair with one gloved hand. "So you can't find him?"

"Of course I can, boss. It might take a night or two, but I can find out where he went. Why are you following him of all people, boss?"

I shook my head. "A historian would be useful for what I have in mind…"

Gary stared at me before he caught on, and then he actually laughed. Not his ghastly little chuckle, but a real, full laugh this time. Magnified beyond his guttural whisper, I realized that Gary's voice was actually quite rich.

"Oh! So that's it, is it?! You're after the cure! Well, congratulations, boss! You're only undertaking the quest which, oh, what was it, every single fledgling has undertaken before in their life! Ha ha ha!!!"

I glared at him as he stopped laughing and smirked at me again. "You're in over your head, boss. Don't you think that if there was such a thing, older and more powerful Kindred would've already found it long ago?"

I shrugged. "Perhaps. But does that mean we should stop trying?"

Gary nodded. "Exactly that, boss. If our curse came from God and His angels, then only He could take it away."

"Not everyone believes in that sort of thing, Gary…"

"But you do, don't you, boss?"

"…" I didn't answer him because it wouldn't have made any difference.

Despite my nature, I still wore a small steel cross on a cord around my neck, set with a sapphire in its center. I had tried to use my cursed existence to help people. Perhaps I could redeem myself in the eyes of God by using my dark power for the benefit of humanity and vampire alike…or so I had felt at the beginning. I was beginning to think it was all a lost cause.

From what I had seen as a creature of the night, I wondered just why the Sabbat bothered. Given time, the humans were bound to wipe themselves out, and the Camarilla was mired with treachery and corruption and likely would not live out the next few years, though it had existed, from what I had been told, for the last several hundred years.

I looked up again at Gary, who was watching my wool-gathering patiently. I repeated my request. "Please find out where Beckett went…"

Gary nodded. "Okay, boss. I did promise you a favor if you needed it. Take this phone." Gary motioned to the small cell phone sitting on his table. "I had it ready for you when you got here. Just wait for my call."

I nodded, slipping the phone into a coat pocket. "I guess I'd better go see what Strauss wants…"

Gary didn't answer. He just faded into thin air right before my eyes. I sighed and stood up.

Now that one old face was gone, there was another one to attend to. A blue, bespectacled face that never showed any emotion at all.

Author: And that's Chapter 2. Expect another one sooner or later. Please R&R.