*The light flares in front of you*
I met him many years ago, in a little country that has since ceased to exist.
I was investigating the disappearances of a large number of rather prominent people who mysteriously vanished on one of their regular trips to this part of the world. They would all gather from their respective businesses, in their various countries, and meet in a secret place to discuss God knows what.
I had followed the trail of one of the vanished people to an old section of one of the more promising looking towns and was rummaging around in the burnt out remains of a small building, I caught sight of a slender figure, dressed in black skin-tight clothing, who was watching me speculatively from the shadows. I looked a bit closer, trying to see more clearly what he looked like, but he vanished. I was not to see him again for quite some time.
As time went on, I found out more than I had wanted to know about the circumstances of not only the missing business people, but of what these people really were. The first, a man I will only refer to as T, was the wealthy heir designate of a large offshore oil company. His family kept a tight hold on all dealings with the company, and nobody outside the family was ever promoted to a position above middle management. Apparently, they were also a part of Clan Giovanni, a ruthless and very private family of Vampyr who believe in power and not much else.
The second person, a woman who I will henceforth name S was a seductress millionaire who’s high earning ability in the stock markets had earned her a much flaunted partnership in one of the most respected firms in the world. Her ties were to a Clan referred to as Ventrue.
The third person, a slightly over-tense, mouse-like person with a short temper, I will refer to as J. His association with the group strikes me as slightly unnerving. He is a known assassin and terrorist, has claimed responsibility for many single murders and bombings, and has known Middle-East connections. His apparent Clan, although it is hard to know for sure due to the secrecy around him, was Assamite.
The fourth person was truly a mystery, but over many weeks of searching and asking questions I managed to find out a little about him. He was apparently a very powerful corporate executive of a large jewelry manufacturer. His field was that of predicting Market Trends, in other words he told the company what to invest in and they made money off of that information. My sources tell me that he had an aura about him of great purpose, "Almost like he knew the future and wanted to own it!" There have even been whispers of "Maerlyn" at the mention of his name.
In following the trails of these four people, I found myself sifting through the wreckage of two buildings, and sorting through two ransacked apartments. I finally found my way to the one place where they had all been, a large warehouse in the middle of nowhere. The building was surrounded on all sides by dense jungle, and had security systems like you wouldn’t believe. This of course made me curious, why was the security here so high? What was this building doing out here in the middle of nowhere? And why did these four people come here? My questions were soon to be answered.
I entered the building with relative ease, bypassing the security precautions. Upon entering the building I was immediately cracked over the head with a very hard object. I passed out.
When I awoke, I was tied to a chair in the middle of the room. There was little light, except for the one hovering just in front of my eyes, but I could just make out the same slender figure I had seen before. He was standing between four similar chairs, two on each side, in which I could just make out the slumped and battered shapes of other people. My head was throbbing with slow even pulses and I started to see dots in front of my face, I lost consciousness once again.
Some time later I regained consciousness and could feel that the bindings were no longer there, I was still in the chair, but not tied to it any longer. The light had been moved and was now somewhere behind me. I turned my head to look around and was immediately smacked so hard across the face that my jaw clicked hard together. The man I had seen earlier was standing directly beside me. "If you move again before I tell you to, you die," he said. After that vicious slap I was in no position to argue. "I am going to ask you a few questions, you will answer them. First, I must tell you, if I do not like what I hear, you will never again leave this building alive and nobody will ever see you again. Are you ready?" He moved in front of me, presumably to clear up any misunderstandings. His face was sharp featured, it looked like that of a twenty year old, but the voice that went with it spoke of a much greater age. I nodded that I understood and he began.
Many hours later, after lots of smacking, a few punches, and a solid kick to the side, he stopped. I had gone through my story hundreds of times, each time dragging some little extra bit of information out of the now foggy depths of my mind. I told him of how I was hired to find out what had happened to the four people who had vanished. I told him of how I had found out of their alternate lives, and who each of them were. At this he only nodded, apparently already knowing who they were. I told him of my weeks of searching from town to town, and how I finally stumbled upon the building we were now in.
The man pulled a chair over and sat in front of me, his eyes glowing with an unearthly light. "You know much of who these people are, perhaps too much for your own good. But, do you know who I am? Or why I have captured these four?" I shook my head. "Very well," he continued, "You shall know the whole story. Though afterwards you may wish you had never met me, for I am about to give you much more than simple information. I am about to give you the Mortal’s dream of immortality." He leaned forward and whispered into my ear, "And in return, you will give me your eternal allegiance!"
We spent many more hours there, so many that I lost count. After, it had seemed that we must have been there for an eternity. I heard of many things from this man. Of the Camarilla, and it’s backstabbing neonates. Of the Masquerade, and how it is a useless tool of those in the Camarilla to try to conceal themselves from the eyes of Mortals. Of the various Clans and their petty differences. He told me all this and more, he told me of Fae and Lupine, he told me of Mage, which it turns out was what the fourth person was, and of the various other creatures that Mortals know next to nothing about. And when he was finished telling me all of this, he sat back.
"You have a decision to make," he said, "either you can accept the gift that I am about to give you, the gift of immortality amongst the ‘Kindred’, or you can leave here now." He pointed to the doorway. "But, if you choose to leave you will remember nothing of what has happened tonight." He walked over to the window. "Be of haste my new friend, for the dawn fast approaches and while I am protected by the aide of this suit that I wear, I cannot offer you the same protection." He closed all the slats on the windows and covered them over with thick burlap coverings. Moving from place to place, he fortified the building against the all intrusive sunlight. He then moved from place to place, turning on subdued lights. In the new light I could see the four people I had been hired to find. They were all four strapped to the tops of what looked like surgical tables.
After many minutes of hard thought, I had reached a decision, I decided to join this man and accept his proposed "Gift". As I went over to him to tell him, his eyes seemed to light up. "I knew you would accept," he said, "it is a part of you to always seek that which you do not understand." He continued, pointing to the four prisoners, "These four, were conspiring to have me destroyed," the man ripped open the throat of the first prisoner, the one known as T. "For their insolent conspiracy I shall have their very souls, this is known as the diablerie." He bent over and drained the victim of his life’s essence. "In doing this, not only do I destroy him, but I gain from him the powers he posesses." The figure moved swiftly from person to person doing likewise to each, until he reached at last the Mage. "This one," he said, "must be treated differently." Slowly pulling a small orb from his pocket, he whispered something into the orb and was instantly enveloped by a shimmering light as the Magik was drained from the Mage and transferred into him.
Before I could move he was at my side and my life’s blood was pouring down his throat. As I slowly collapsed to the floor, he kept his arm under my arms to support me. I thought myself to be dead, I could not feel anything, not even the beat of my own heart. Suddenly my throat was filled with agony, liquid fire rolling down, ever downward, into my throat and throughout my body. It was excruciating yet pleasurable all at once. I wanted, no needed, more. I realized that the liquid fire was the Blood of this man who had deprived me of my own. He allowed me to have as much as he could spare, and afterward, urged me to sleep. I descended into darkness and slept the sleep of the immortal.
I emerged out of the long dark tunnel that is sleep, only to find it still dark out. I had been so used to sleeping in the night that I was about to roll over and sleep again but he wouldn’t let me. "That is for what you once were, not what you now are," he said. He helped me to my feet and on that day began my new life.
Over the many years we have worked well together, Torrin and I, we both have had our share of both mortal and Kindred blood. Although he has grown much stronger than I, I have also had my share of stolen skills and strength. Torrin prefers to be out amongst his food, and such has been known to frequent an assortment of establishments. I rather prefer to order my food in, having my ghouls do my work for me.
Between the two of us, it should only be a matter of time before we manage to whittle our Kindred into oblivion. We have a strong disliking for them as they have betrayed both of us many times over. Torrin is particularly zealous in this pursuit as he was abandoned by the Kindred swine who embraced him. But that is a story for another time.
You now have a choice to make, either join us in our efforts against the Kindred, and become as us, or leave. But take heed, if you leave here, you will not remember anything that has happened this night!
As recorded by a reporter who mysteriously vanished while researching
a story on Vampyr.