Note: I know VTM has a lot of vocab that if you are not a fan you might not pick up on. I try to dumb it down for the lay man but this is here to help:

Vampire 101

Vampires have titles for how old you are and where you stand in the grand design.

Fledgling – new vampire or child (Sam is one of these)

Neonate – Young and still very human but able to be on their own (Mango would be in this area because she doesn't have a sire to look after her)

Ancillae - lived past their human lifespan and are able to play with the big boys while still being young.

Elder – over 300, and is really able to play in the vampire world.

Methuselah – nearing 1000 or more. Get to this point and you are a bad ass. Problem is there are other bad asses out there who are worse.

Antediluvians – 3rd generation vampires, the original founders of the 13 clans. May or may not exist and it is believed by some will come back and bring about the end of the world.

Generations – The progenitor of the vampire race is #1. Each generation is one more going all the way up to 15. Gen 13 are the last full vampires, after them there are discrepancies with if someone is truly vampire. Most 14th can't embrace and 15th are sterile. The lower your gen the stronger you are and better chances of promotion/survival.

Thin-Blood – The Thin-Bloods are kindred of the 14th and 15th generation. They are weaker and can't achieve the same levels of strength way the pure kindred do but they are able to develop a wider range of abilities because their blood is not clan specific. Because they are also partially trapped in some form of mortality there have been a very few that were able to conceive children or withstand the sun and even age physically. However a thin blood is still a vampire and while more human it is still subject to the curses that come with unlife.

Chapter 6: Clan Ventrue – known as Blue Bloods, Patricians, and Warlords. Its members work to maintain a reputation for honor, genteel behavior, and leadership. The clan possesses a genuine belief that the Ventrue know what's best for everyone. They see themselves as the enforcers of tradition and the rightful leaders of vampire society. Historically members are chosen from the ranks of nobility and privilege, whether kings or merchant princes, but they have also been known as knights and warlords who sought to live by the laws of chivalry and duty. In the modern nights Ventrue are more politician than noble warrior, more CEO than baron lord. They remain the largest supporters of the Camarilla and the Masquerade, believing both institutions to be the surest means of protecting vampires from the growing mortal masses, and of guarding their own power.

Samantha Carter woke up in her bed. Turning her head over she saw the clock 9:20 a.m. Slowly she got up and got dressed. She walked by Cassandra's room. Poking her head in she saw the lump of a human form under the covers on Cassandra's bed. The blinds were open and light was pouring in. It hurt her eyes enough that she couldn't go in. Backing back out into the hall she blinked her vision clear.

Carter stood very quietly for a moment. The events of last night were still fresh even after the brief sleep. She remembered how close Cassandra had come to dying or worse and how the Kindred had come to help her. Well maybe not all the vampires but the ones that she knew and she had to admit the ones that she liked. There was also a memory of how she had treated Mango after arriving home. Carter knew she had made a mistake there as well. The girl had just been trying to help, to keep Cassandra calm. She hadn't disserved Carter's anger. Sam also thought of Liam. She had hated him and depended on him and he had risked his own life to help her. There were a lot of things she needed to think over; her perceptions of certain people on the top of that list.

Sam went down stairs and check on her living room. It was clean and the couch back in place. Liam had not only finished sweeping but had gone so far as to straighten the pillows and anything else that looked like it had been disturbed. There were no blood stains or dirt marks from the small crew of vampires that had laid out there just a few hours ago. Like they had never been there at all.

Sam went to her garage and looked for her cooler of blood. There was none. Of course, they had brought it up last night. Sam realized that she would have to get more. But Liam had always been the provider before. Sam had promised to change last night. Did that mean Liam would stop bringing blood?

Carter came back into the house and went to the basement entrance. She opened the door and went down the wooden stairs into the dark. She could see easily and instantly felt more comfortable down here than she did upstairs. She had never realized just how uncomfortable she could be in her own home. Coming fully into the basement she saw Punk laying on the ground. Her old sleeping bag was laid out under him. He didn't ster. Had she not known better she would have thought he was dead. There were no signs of life; his chest didn't rise and there was no sound of breathing.

Mango was also laid out on top of Sam's traveling luggage. Sam stopped herself from laughing. The sixteen year old girl was just slumped over the large black trunks like a great big cat just lounging. The humor died away when she also remembered why Mango was so tired. There had been bullet holes in her.

Sam looked around for James or Liam but didn't see either. She looked around but they weren't there. Had they somehow left? Sam walked around and then went back up stairs. No point disturbing anyone and if she were down here when Cassandra woke up it would only complicate things. Going back up Sam went by her answering machine and saw several messages. She hit the play button.

Message One –

Hey, Sam, its Daniel. We just got back. Checking out my apartment but wanted to see how you are doing…Vala stop that…anyway we'll check in with you later, if not over the weekend than I'll see you at work.

Sam was going to listen to the next message but the floor board creaked and Sam turned around. Cassandra was coming down the stairs. Sam remained very still watching the younger woman, waiting for any sign of her remembering what had happened the night before.

Cassie turned seeing Samantha, "Good morning," She said smiling. Carter was relieved to see that her girl seemed fine. But that relief was shortly replaced with confusion. Cassandra walked past her to the kitchen. Cassie was wearing a clear pair of pajama pants and a white spaghetti strap top. She was clean, and the lingering sent of shampoo was in the air. And there wasn't a mark on her. Cassandra's exposed shoulders and neck showed not a single bruise or bite mark.

Sam caught herself stepping forward to examine her friend but didn't. That would have been – uncomfortable. Cassie went into the kitchen to fix breakfast presumably. Sam followed not sure if she should risk asking about last night.

Cassandra closed the refrigerator pulling a carton of milk, that only she drank, and closed the door. "Hey," she said. "When did you get back in? How was Washington? Did you run into Jack?"

Carter blinked breaking her concentration. "What um…oh yeah. No, I didn't run into Jack. I was busy." Her mind caught up. The cover story for why she had skipped going to the SGC for the last half week.

Cassandra looked over her bowl of cereal at Sam. "You okay? You seem out of it."

"Yeah," Sam said shrugging, "maybe a little tired."

"Oh well go back to bed. It's Saturday; if not now than when can you sleep in?"

Cassandra went with her cereal back to the living room and turned on the TV. Sam stayed in the kitchen. It was like nothing had happened. Her skin crawled thinking of how so much had happened and now there was virtually no evidence at all that she could see of it. If she wasn't sure, deep in her gut sure, and the two vampires weren't downstairs in her basement she might have doubted it had ever happened. That kind of power, to just cover something like that up so completely…

Sam was no stranger to cover ups and government conspiracies. Heck she had worked on the most top secret project that the US had ever had. But even their best work at preventing the Stargate from becoming common knowledge had taken hours to prep and plan and hundreds of personnel and resources and billions of dollars. In the space of a morning the Kindred had reaffirmed their Masquerade and left no clue as to their existence. Even the one human directly involved had no recollection of how close she had come to real honest to god monsters. Sam walked up stairs thinking that that kind of power was scary. Really scary. How easy would it be to erase a person?

Liam stood in the corner while the Prince finished his business with the Primogen. The representatives of each clan left after kissing the Prince's ring. A sign of their submission to his continued rule.

The room was already dark but with the adjusting of a switch Hadrian turned down the lights even more. "Come," He said.

Liam did so. He waited for the Prince to give him permission to speak. Hadrian sat in his chair looking at a piece of paper. "Silencing a call to the police and making three people forget a strange van with unsavory characters." He put it down and looked at Liam. "Losing your touch?"

Liam put on a small smile and shrugged.

Hadrian leaned back. "I thought it was strange that you asked for Sam to be sent home early. So let me guess. You arranged for there to be an opening in our perimeter and let a pack of Sabbat into my city. You gave them the address and then gave them a hostage with instructions not to hurt her. Then you bring the Colonel to them and kill everybody before you can be reviled as the one that set it all in motion. Did I miss anything?"

Liam didn't stop smiling. "Well if I must be honest, the Pack got in here on their own. One of your boarder teams must have caught sight of them but instead of fighting they turned and ran then lied to cover their own cowardly asses. But for the rest, yeah, you're mostly right, Sire."

"That was a risky maneuver. If she had figured it out than she would have turned on you and the damage would have been irreparable." Hadrian's voice told nothing as to his feelings. Liam guessed that he disapproved. The Prince for all his power and history was still an 'honorable' man. There was little doubt in Liam's mind that the Prince would never have used a human as bait intentionally to get someone to join him. Well, at least not without thinking hard on it first.

Liam shrugged. "It worked, and now she is ours."

"We will see," Hadrian said.

Liam held his smile. He had no doubts about where Samantha Carter's loyalty would be.

The Ventrue eyed the Lasombra a few moments more than nodded. "Well your timing couldn't have been better." Hadrian got up and walked around to a canter that held blood in it. He poured himself a glass and offered one to Liam. Liam took it, smelled it and sipped. "Virgin, male and a grad student. Hard combination to come up with."

Hadrian nodded, "Yes, they don't make them like that very often." He sat again this time in one of the comfortable chairs in his office. "I have been in contact with the Justicers. Our latest intelligence suggest the Sabbat didn't want to ship to attack us."

"They were trying to shuttle vampires off world." Liam said.

The Prince raised an eyebrow. Liam leaned against the opposite chair from the head vampire of two cities. "I guessed that much when I first learned about the Stargate program."

"You didn't feel the need to share this idea with me?"

"It was only a theory and I didn't have proof." Liam said looking at his glass.

"Walk me through your reasoning." Hadrian said. It was subtle but the order was clear.

Liam shrugged, "The Sabbat hate the Camarilla but that is just another form of the old clan wars. They fear the ancients coming back and devouring us."

"Yes, I know the Sabbat has been digging for Antediluvians, and ancient Methuselah. So what? Why would they want the Colonel and going off-world?"

Liam eyed the Prince. He's already figured this out. He thought to himself. He just wants me to confirm it. "Because, Sire, they have dug up this planet and have found very few of either. Considering the latest discoveries that the SGC has made over the last 10 years there is now strong evidence that would suggest the ancients are not hiding on earth at all."

The Prince thought about that. "Scary thought." He said. He looked up to Liam, "If there are ancient Methuselah in other parts of the galaxy then who knows what they can do."

Liam shrugged. "I'm not too worried, Sire."

Hadrian drank the rest of his blood. She had a lazy smile "Why not?"

"Because the Kindred have been killing their sires sense the clans first were created. The Lupines, the Mages, the Church and even the Kuei-Jin have never been able to destroy us. Our track record speaks for itself. I may one day meet final death and so might someone of your stature but the Kindred remain. We are going nowhere."

"What a very Lasombra, thing to say."

Liam shrugged again and finished his glass. "Survival of the fittest. We are the fittest and as long as we can play on human greed there will always be Kindred."

Liam had just left the office.

"Liam, you bastard," Hadrian said under his breath to no one. He believed the Lasombra antitribu when Liam had said he didn't let the Sabbat Pack in. But to use a human child as bate, that – that was low. Unfortunately he also got results.

He sighed, a human gesture considering he didn't need to breath. In truth it was hypocritical to judge Liam for his methods. Few were as capable as he was at such a young age. Alexander had behaved similarly in his early unlife. Kindred society valued success above all else. Methods and morality were ever changing and always subjective to the needs of the moment. And I benefit yet again from less than honorable actions. He didn't let it bother him, not much anyway.

There was a reason the Justicars had forbidden the infamous SG-1 from being embraced. It was profiled that the 3 humans were too strong willed. They would break instead of bend under the harsh reality of Kindred existence. He did not envy Samantha Carter. Already she was tricked into picking a side. It was the right side considering the alternative but still it was just going to be the first of many deceptions the fledgling would have to endure.

Note: This is just a short bit to let the readers now I'm alive and still writing. And to give a bit more education on the VTM world. Comments are welcome and may help inspire me.

P.S. working on my Buffy Story and the Terminator rewrite.