This is Our World of Darkness. 

Before we begin, I’d like to make a disclaimer.

This story is set in the Vampire the Masquerade universe, to be more specific in the fifth edition (V5) timeline. However, I have decided to disregard some of the core rules and added a number of new custom discipline powers to serve the plot. That being said, let’s proceed. 

The Embrace. 

The act of a vampire draining and replacing a victim's blood, with a bit of their own, to pass the curse of vampirism to a mortal. This is how it all begins. Every kindred, willing or not, becomes what they are through this unholy process. 

Chris is no different. When he entered through that door, when he laid foot in this room, he knew he wouldn’t walk outside with his heart beating. He had been ghouled for barely two years, and already cut ties from all he knew back in his hometown. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t nervous. After all, his life was on the line. 

Alexander, his domitor, was waiting for him in that hotel room. Chris found him looking at the night sky through the window, shirtless. Alexander was a mysterious man to Chris, even after two years of servitude. And despite that, he would trust his life to the vampire, as he was about to do that very night. 

“Did you watch the sunset as I told you?” Asked the black-haired vampire to his thrall.

“I engraved it in my memory as if it was the last one.” Replied the white-haired mortal to his domitor.

An eternal instant of silence fell between both of them, as Alexander shifted his arms from resting behind his back and into his pockets. 

“I told Alfredo to get you new clothes and a suit.” He pointed out, making another pause in his speech afterwards. “You’re aware you might not make it through tonight, right?”

Chris looked down, he had thought about this moment for more than a year now, and the possibility of death still haunted him. He looked back up, with a slight frown and a glimpse of determination in his eyes. 

“I forfeited my life when I left all I knew about the mortal world. This is a risk I’m willing to take, this is my purpose.” He said, willing to become what his master was, to enter the world that hid in the shadows of reality. 

“So be it. You know what to do.” Was the last statement of the old vampire.

Chris nodded, he guessed the process would be messy, so he also took off his shirt and laid back in the marriage bed in the middle of the room. There was a plastic sheet on top of it, most likely to prevent blood spills from staining the place.

He closed his eyes, without a god to pray for this to go well. The first sensation was familiar, two pleasant piercing wounds on the left side of his neck. This time, however, it was for longer. Bit by bit, his blood was leaving his body through Alexander’s mouth. He felt his lifeforce weakening, flickering as a candle under the storm. 

And just like that, Chris was dead.

—

Darkness. A blur. Two blinks. 

Chris’s first feeling as an undead was that of the cold wooden floor on which he was laying down, on a pool of blood that he wasn’t sure was his own. He got up, failing to do so a couple times, as he tried to adjust to this new way of motion. 

“Don’t.” A familiar voice said. “Your nerves, muscles and tendons are now obsolete. If you try to move your body as a mortal, you’ll fail.  You’re dead: Command your blood.”

The last three words resonated deeply within Chris’s mind. Command Your Blood. He took a moment, focusing on how he would be able to do that. He tried the blunt basics, first by thought, by focusing, and through picturing the idea of moving. All of these, of course, failed. 

“Keep trying.” He heard from his now Sire. The both of them knew none would give up that easily. 

He then tried to study carefully the sentence that Alexander had told him. “Command your blood” seemed more of a puzzle than a lesson at that point. The white haired young man started focusing on his blood, not mentally, but in the physical manner. He felt where his blood was, from his stomach to his heart, from his heart to his limbs. He felt the blood, realizing the power within it. And he tried to seize that power. 

Once more, now with a bit more information, he gave it one last try. Not by mind, not by motion. But by force of will. He made his blood boil inside his body, burning the red vitae and granting him power to first clench a fist. Then place both fists on the floor. Then extending his arms to lift his torso, and lastly, his legs to stand up. 

He looked at his cold, dead hands, realizing it was through the blood, no, through his willpower commanding his blood, that he was able to move. He looked around. 

The place was a a mess. There was blood in the walls and floor, and much less colorful things in the plastic sheet. He also saw a body on the floor, upside down. Another young man, a worker in the hotel that was dragged into this process for no better reason than feeding a recently embraced Chris. 

“You got lucky. He’s not fully dead.” Alexander spoke, now where Chris could see him. Covered in the shadows of the corner, resting on the couch and soaked in blood. “You can save him. If you’re willing to.” It was quite obvious to him this was a moral choice. But, was there a right answer? He looked at the body, it was in a sorry state, bloodied and ready to pass away. And although unbeating, Chris still had a heart. 

“What happens If I save him?” He asked, trying to shed some light into this choice.

“He becomes your ghoul.” Was all he got for an answer from the older Kindred. The young man closed his eyes, trying to foresee every possible outcome. Yet there was something that made him lean on the moral choice, no matter how cold he tried to think. 

Humanity.

That one saving grace from the kindred that tried to keep the Beast at bay. That one feeling they still felt after their hearts stopped. He clicked his tongue and sighed, giving up on the calculations of his mind. Walked to the body and turned it around, biting his wrist to let the vitae flow into the victim’s mouth. And the other young man drank, trying to get a bigger cut than he was allowed to, but Chris separated his arm with his newfound strength. Cutting the supply short. 

The worker coughed, as the vitae regenerated his wounds. “W-where am I? What’s going on here?!” He asked. Just to be replied with a sucker punch from Chris that put him back to unconsciousness. 

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“Potence. That’s your first gift.” Alexander commented, with an emotionless tone. “It will grow naturally as you use it. You are now able to break mortal flesh and bone as paper. But you’ll soon lift cars and jump over buildings with the same ease.” He made a pause once more, to let Chris absorb the information. 

Chrins’s hand buried itself below his white hair, in a gesture of resignation. “There’s already too much going on tonight. There will be time for him to live as my thrall in the coming nights.” He explained, with a slight tone of mental exhaustion.

“Very well, I’ll have Alfredo take him to a safe place and teach him what he needs to know.” The newly titled Sire said, getting up from his seat and starting to put on his white shirt. “There’s two hours left of night. Seek haven and survive.” Was his next order. Chris was aware that until he became fully fledged in the kindred society, he was still under his sire’s wing. So he had to obey. Chris's perception of Alexander was of a good man, although serious and demanding. He knew that was a necessary evil in such a place like kindred society. No one wanted a weak childe after all.

A last thought crossed his mind before leaving. "Who's going to clean all this—?" He said, turning his head again to his sire. But when he looked, the sentence was cut to half. For there was no one there.

—

Chris spent the day in a flat that was given to him by none other than Alexander. It was the easy answer to the "Seek haven and survive" order, however, being his first day as kindred, he felt like he needed the comfort of taking it easy. That was his first mistake.

He woke up at the first hour of darkness. Feeling a cold, wooden object placed gently on his hand. A stake. A warning.

Chris grimaced at the stake, letting it drop to the ground as he got up. He looked around… He felt he was not alone. Someone had to place the stake on his hand, after all.

"Most kindred become paralyzed when a stake is driven through the heart. But some simply die for good." Alfredo said, picking up the stake after revealing his presence. 

"I'm sorry, Alfredo. I didn't know you were here." Chris replied, dragging a hand down his own face. "Where's Sire?" 

"That's a very good question." The suited ghoul commented. Retiring back to the kitchen. "He ordered me to keep vigilant on the flat while you slept. And to remind you that you should quench your thirst before it becomes a problem." He opened the fridge, and got a bottle of water, serving himself a glass. "Oh, and one more thing. You have to learn a new power by midnight." Alfredo's tone was nonchalant, as if he had already seen every single horror in this world and couldn't care for it anymore. He finished the glass of water and approached Chris again, unbuttoning his sleeve and offering the white haired vampire his wrist.

“I’m not hungry.” Chris stated dryly. 

“Neither am I when my wife cooks, but believe me, sometimes it is better to do as you’re expected and get done with it. Especially if it's an order from Lord Alexander.” Alfredo kept his wrist up, letting Chris think about his statement. 

Chris shrugged, biting without too much interest. He didn’t draw too much, just enough to make it seem like he was sated. He licked Alfredo’s wound, closing it and then got up from sitting on the bed. 

“So, about that new power.” Chris wondered. “How am I supposed to learn without my master?” 

“On your own, young Lord, on your own.” Alfredo said, without even flinching.

The white haired vampire looked down, he was certainly not expecting that answer. “I’ll figure it out.” He said to himself, after a silent couple of seconds. “Yeah, I’ll figure it out.”

He began thinking, and looking around to see if any clues had been given to him. Tough luck, he was on his own. Took him hours to search the house, and by the time he was done and empty-handed, it was ten minutes to Midnight. He knew the price for failure was great, and he knew that if he didn’t manage to develop something on his own, he’d pay it. He called on the blood, commanded it with stress and rage from the lack of time, trying to improve his Potence. But alas, nothing happened. Would this be the end of his own unlife? Was this the result of two years of servitude? Was his blood not strong enough? After these questions, despair reigned. And after just a few moments, despair left room for the feeling of emptiness. The nothing. The Void.

—

Five more minutes took for the Sire to arrive. Five minutes where Chris just looked at the wall, without anything but darkness on his mind. The door to the flat opened, and a pearl-suited Alexander walked in. His face was emotionless.

Chris, in his acceptance of failure, directed his sight to his sire, and barely managed to form a sentence. “I… failed…”

“No, you didn’t.” Said Alexander, in a somewhat offended tone. “But there’s no time for that, get dressed, pick that new suit in your wardrobe.” He rushed the fledgling. “The Camarilla of this city awaits you to present yourself as my childe.”

The confusion from this matter was enough to make Chris frown under the white hair, but also to bring him back to the present. He dashed towards his room, getting dressed in that perfectly fit black suit that Alexander ordered for him. He didn’t know why he wasn’t dead. But he wasn’t gonna poke the sleeping lion for anything in the world.

—

Elysium:

A place for vampires to meet together without fear of harm; Usually cultural locations, such as opera houses, theaters or museums.

The route to Elysium didn’t take long, nor was it too much of a hassle. After all, everything was quite comfortable inside of a limousine. However, it gave Chris enough time to pull himself together. If he truly had learnt a power… Which one was it? And most importantly, how? He stood pensive the whole run, which was not difficult since his own sire was also completely silent.

But the run came to an end, and as long as they exited the limo they found themselves in front of Elysium. 

The Elysium building was a theater, in one of the richest parts of town. And the sheer sumptuous feeling of the place was more than enough to make anyone feel small and cheap. However, Alexander and Chris entered through the front door. 

“You are going to meet the Prince, Christian. Show respect and your best manners.” The Sire declared in a commanding tone. Chris nodded,and clenched a fist, not oblivious to the several glares the new white haired face was getting in Elysium.

As they made their way through the theater, and into the smaller rooms and offices, Chris felt something he hadn’t felt in a few months. A reassuring hand in his shoulder, from his very own sire. 

“Remember why I chose you as my descendant. No matter how small he makes you feel, you are a world in your own right. And no one can take that from you.” Alexander said, as they approached the door that led to the Prince’s Office. 

The very moment the came into direct line of sight with the door, it opened, presenting two blonde women who were exiting the office. They both seemed to be Kindred, however, the shorter one, who was blonde and wore an expensive white shirt and leather pants, seemed much more agitated than the taller one, who was in a red and golden dress. It was an easy guess to know which one was the younger.

The woman in the dress made a passing bow to Alexander, who in return did the same. 

But the two childer looked at each other, as complete strangers, in a glance that seemed to slow down.

And then, they were gone. Chris wondering about the name of the blonde, short girl. But before he could try to get too deep into his own thoughts, Alexander was already knocking on the door.

“Come in.” The voice from inside said in a louder tone, so he could be heard through the wooden structure. It was a masculine voice, albeit not a low one. Sounded friendly, as far as Chris could tell.

Alexander opened the door, and Chris followed.

—

Prince Carlos was a man of regal customs. But also, a man of the street, leaving himself in a duality that allowed him to move like a chameleon between high and low society without any problem. He looked up from his documents to see Chris and Alexander standing on their feet, awaiting.

“Lex, you’ve known me for a terribly long amount of years now.” Chris was surprised. Lex was a name he hadn’t heard from anyone’s mouth while referring to his Sire. “When I tell you you don’t need the Prince’s permission to take a seat, I mean it.”

There were two chairs in front of the Prince’s desk, and as Alexander rested himself in the left one, Chris awaited, patiently for orders. But instead of that Prince Carlos got up and set himself in front of Chris, looking at his eyes in such an intense manner anyone could have thought it was mind-reading.

And the pressure was crushing. Chris did all he could to take it, however, it was overpowering him. “State your name, generation, and clan.” Demanded the Prince. 

“I’m Christian Robles,” The white haired vampire replied, with fear threading between his words. “Of the thirteenth generation, Clan-” 

“Stop.” Said Carlos, without a single emotion showing. “Listen to me.” As those words were pronounced, Chris felt like the Prince’s voice was the only thing he could pay attention to. Everything else; blurry. “Your name matters not, your generation matters even less. What matters is that you’re in MY city, and that means your soul belongs to me. I don’t care what you have done in life, and I surely don’t give a single fuck about your plans for the future. But if you even think for a mere second that you can take my place, that you can disobey my rules, or God forgive you, that you even have the genius idea of breaking my Traditions - MY Masquerade - I’ll fry your sorry ass to the Sun faster than you can even blink. Catch my drift?”

Chris couldn’t even move from the sheer fear the man injected into his mind. And silence fell. Chris could see how the man slowly curved his dry lips into a grin, fangs glimmering under the artificial light. And then, the world around them came back. Just to hear a thunderous laugh as the prince came back to his leather chair. “I’ll give you credit, Lex, you’ve chosen a tough one to break. I like this kid.” Carlos commented, casually as if he just didn’t threaten the newly embraced into certain death. 

“Well, I followed your advice. Searched for someone with a strong willpower.” Alexander replied, cold as almost every other night.

“Sit down, boy, don’t stay just there.” Carlos said in an inviting tone to Chris, back to a friendly visage. “You passed my test. I approve of you. Now we just have to make a full fledged kindred out of you. And for that you’re in good hands. But I’m sure you already know that.” He glanced at Alexander as Chris sat down.

“Christian Robles. It is my absolute pleasure to recognize you as the In-training childe of Alexander Espino. And soon, future member of the Camarilla of this, our city." The Prince extended a hand towards Chris, which he took for a handshake. 

"I'm pleased to see there's a great future for Clan Lasombra in this city, as it always should have been. Now, both of you are free to go. Good evening, and good luck."