Chapter 3 - Blood Traditions and Memories

1015 AD… Rouen, France. The night sky glittered as the bloody moon stared at the village. The whole place is littered with corpses.

“Leif!” a man screamed as he struggled for his life. The young Viking prince stood in horror at the sight of his men slaughtered by the beast. Holding his sword, he ran towards the beast in attempt to avenge his comrades. The vampire threw him yards away. The Viking stood up and ran right back at the vampire.

“My… are we that persistent…” the vampire said in glee. “How noble of thee…” “Nobility doesn’t grant me the right to enter Valhalla…” Leif answered as he swung his sword at the vampire. “Courageous words… I should say… But only a fool or a complete idiot dares challenge a vampire at night… Which are you?”

“Enough talk, vampire!” the Viking finally struck the vampire in the shoulder. The vampire kicked him away in response, sending the Viking smashing right through the wooden walls of a house. He then removed the blade stuck on his shoulder. In anger the vampire rushed towards the Viking. Holding him still, the vampire finally delivered his bite. But before draining the Viking dry, the vampire paused, quietly thinking to himself. “A choice I should say… between life and death…” he finally said as the Viking struggles with his breathe. “I’m offering you now immortality… What should you say, Viking?” “Never…” Leif muttered. “Yet, I find fate to be misleading. Character such as yours make a very fine Ventrue…” the vampire added.

“Kill me now, vampire…” Leif said with his last dying breathe.

“Yes… and give you so much more…” the vampire said as he bites the Viking again. The Viking lay lifeless in the arms of the beast.

Leif woke up screaming… the vampire stood adjacent the door. Puzzled he began to look for his sword. “Swords are no longer useful…” the vampire said. “Pardon me, the name’s Bela… Bella Lugosi of Ventrue… and you are?”

“Leif… Leif Keiffelson” he replied in response. “What have you done with me?” “A gift…” Bella smiled. “An opportunity to live endlessly in the night.”

“Courage such as yours deserves such rewards…” “And deprive me of Valhalla!!” Leif shouted in anger. “Valhalla is a myth, a sheer ideological concept… An idea you no longer need to believe.” Bella countered. “No gods, no man nor prince can hold you now… The paths you chose are of your own. Immortality is real, Leif…” The Viking then attempted to stand but lost his consciousness due to his current condition. “You Vikings are crazy…” Bella said in contentment. “Rest now, and regain your strength... Vahnzynn”

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The vampire prefect then woke up… staring at the darkness that is his coffin. Opening the casket, he was met by a pretty face. An expressionless face, his only response. “What wrong?” the question she asked of him. “Nothing Flu, my past always comes back to haunt me.”

“Tell me about it?” Flu replied.

“It’s none of your business, nouveou…” his only remark. The prefect left Flu and proceeded towards the elder’s quarters. Flu was surprised by the sudden change in the prefect’s mood.

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A lonely traveler walks on Hillingdon streets alone. Unwary of the dangers that lurked behind the shadows of the night. A stranger perhaps, following where her instincts tell her. She seems to be looking for something or someone.

“Ey there sweetie… You lost?” the guy said as he blocks the lady’s path. “My friends and I are willing to help you..” Five more men showed up around the stranger. “Pretty girls such as you should not be wandering alone… might get you into trouble. But… that will spoil the fun…”

“Fun?” she responded… “What is fun for the likes of you? You want me to show you what fun is?”

The men just laughed at her. “Brave little girl…” the guy in front of her said. The rest began to move towards her. The lady stood still. “Well, you’re right… This is really going to be fun…”

The lady suddenly moved towards the guy in front of her, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him across the street. Dodging the fist of another, she kicked the third that sent him crashing towards two others. Her fist landed on the face of the fifth guy, sending him to kiss the ground. The two guys left stood in shock at the strength and speed of the woman. She stood in the middle with the rest of the guys groaning in pain around her. “Are we having fun yet?” her only question as she reveals two glowing eye filled with the urge to kill. The guys soon realized that the lady is no longer a human being.

Screams echo through the dark alleys of the city.

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The prefect suddenly felt something weird. A sensation which was all too familiar with him. “What is it?” the Elder asked him… “It her… she is here…” the prefect answered. “I know… I sensed her too…”

“It has been too long… since she left…” the prefect said. “She still blames me for Bella… Her hate has created a void between both our existences…”

“She is Ventrue… you are Ventrue… Bella was Venture and I am Ventrue… That is all that matters.” Valgathri said. “Forgive you she must… We all did for Bella’s sake…”

“She loved him, like her own father… I was the fool who failed to defend him from those mongrels…” The prefect remarked. “Her hate has become unbearable. Irony it seemed but Bella asked me to watch over her…”

“And you shall…” Valgathri ordered. “Now, go fetch my brother’s prodigal daughter…”

Rayne then entered the hall. “Another vampire has suddenly showed up out of nowhere…” he reported. “We know… it’s her” the prefect answered. Rayne now stood puzzled. “Come Rayne, I have something for you to do…” The two then bid the elder’s presence.

The Elder sat silently as he watched the two leave his presence.

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The park is a perfect place to stay and cool your head off. It has been a busy night. Refreshed by the fun she lately had, the lady wants to give her mind peace as she sat in contentment. She does not want to go back to this place, but she must. Fate must be cruel to her to return after leaving for a long time. Hate… hate still lingers in her heart for that man. She can’t help it, but tears now flow in her eyes as she thinks of her long forgotten past.

“My lady…” A voice came behind her. A hand now rests in her shoulders. “Lord Valgathri has sent me to fetch you…” She the turned towards the man. “Rayne …” A smile came to her face, hiding the tears in her eyes. “We have missed you for so long… it is time to go home…” The lady nod in agreement.

“It has been long… too long…” She replied. The lady stood up, staring at a direction. Her eyes now glare in anger. Rayne gestured to her the way. She nods and follows him.

The prefect watched them from a distance. He knows that she knew of his presence. The prefect bowed his head and disappeared as well.

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Flu wanders in the mansion garden. She cannot understand what really is going on. Confused by everything lately she felt betrayed by fate and its unbearable cruelties.

Sitting on the fountain, she had gargoyles for company. These statues litter the garden like guardians to a lost treasure.

“Would you mind for a little chat?” a man asked her. “Or you would rather not enjoy company?”

“Not at all...” Flu replied to the man she met at the mansion before. It is the Tremere… “The night is too lonesome, anyway…”

Deudonne smiled. “The name’s Deudonne… of the clan Tremere…”

“Flu…” She answered. “I’m sorry but I don’t know what I am…”

“You are the prefect’s nouveou, right?” Deudonne asked. Flu nod in agreement

“A Ventrue then…” he replied. “Yours is the responsibility of Kindred politics, ours is the practice and knowledge of Vampiric Magick.” He then produced a glowing orb in his bare hands. “A trick we learned through the centuries.”

“But the prefect fights like an Assamite…” she asked.

“Well, most of us does, we must learn to fight. Although Assamites are the best warriors in the kindred, except for him of course. The prefect is an exception to the rule. We all must fight, there is a war out there… and we must learn to defend ourselves. Do not let immortality fool you… For us vampires can die also…”

“But who is he?” she asked suddenly out of the topic. “Call me ignorant, and laugh at me… but even as his nouveou, I don’t even know his name.”

“Well, most vampires tend to use another name for themselves. Keeping their mortal identities to their graves, accepting the fact that they are no longer the same person. Yet some use their original names, it doesn’t matter though. As for him, most vampires knew by the name Vahnzynn. A name given to him by Bella Lugosi of Ventrue, his maker.” Deudonne answered.

“The same way he changed my name…” Flu said in confirmation. The name Lilah Sorena now lingered in her mind.

Then Deudonne stood up, seeing Rayne and the lady enter the mansion from a distance. “She is back…” he muttered.

Flu also stood up and stared at the direction. “Who? Who came back?”

“Leixandra…Leixandra of Ventrue”

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The Hillingdon sewers, the empty darks tunnels weave like labyrinth across the city underground. Noises echo from the sewers… The city underground sewer system is filled with life.

A large sewer section interconnects all the tunnels. It has become an underground city.

“My children…” A shout came from the center of a large horde of people. “We have hid ourselves for too long… They thought they have hunted us to extinction…”

“Let them believe that… let them celebrate victory now… For we shall strike them where they least expect it.”

“Their Kindred is ravaged by political unrest and arrogance. They are fighting within themselves.”

“They imprudently claim that the night is theirs… They have overestimated us…. We shall challenge that claim.”

“For now, we shall rise up to the surface and show them the pure meaning of pain…”

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