When awareness returned to me I found I was already awake, and moving. I was drowning in a world of foreign instincts and sensations, and almost like breathing I had been moving and operating without any real higher function dictating my actions. I stood stock still for a moment as I processed my surroundings.

I was still in the darkness of the crematorium, I could hear the fire crackling behind me as the elder vampire corpse burned. The crumpled form of one of the guards lay in a corner, his head completely removed. In my hands I grasped crumpled plate.

I withdrew my fangs from the throat of another guard, watching his blackened blood leak quietly down his neck. Something told me it should be coming out in spurts, but I had already drank too much for that to happen. It was lukewarm, tasting of rotten blueberry, not altogether terrible but unpleasant to be certain.

I let the corpse drop to the ground, looking to my now far paler hands. So it had worked then. I had managed to turn myself. Already I liked this plan better than waiting for Alvarado to let his guard down and attempting to kill him as a delirious dying man. Sure I had died either way, but this was far more preferable.

Now I just had to figure out exactly how much had changed. I didn't feel necessarily stronger, or more powerful than I had before. I Just felt...numb, tingly, and most importantly thirsty. Pins and needles danced along my spine, and throughout the rest of my body. I distantly heard the sounds of orders being dealt out from up the staircase and in the ballroom, alongside indistinct chatter far too mixed for me to accurately pick up on.

The sound of metal hitting the ground tore my attention from the sounds above. The guards body finally landed on the stone floor. I took a few steps forward, grasping the handle to the crematorium door. I wasn't sure what my next move was. I couldn't leave, I didn't know the outside any better than this place.

I couldn't fight vampires more experienced, better armed and more numerous than myself. They had even implied growing older had a positive effect on how strong you where. Which meant I had one option, but it was one I would have had to take regardless. It was the only one that presented the opportunity to be with her.

I opened the door wide, before stumbling away at the thrust of a spear. barely avoiding being impaled by more creatures in blackened armor. They must have moved quietly enough to escape my notice. I stepped to the side as it attempted to run me through again, and as more of them began to stream into the room.

Their weaponry was the same strange metal that had impaled the elder, and glinted almost blindingly as swords and spears were brandished in my direction. Something to avoid then. The creatures growled at me, and I could hear their teeth nashing in my direction. They were predators of a world I wasn't aware of even a few hours ago. I should have been afraid. I wasn't.

I ducked under a sword swing, before grabbing an overextended arm and throwing one of them into an outstretched spear. They were slow, and it was easy to fall back on instincts that already felt far too natural. I was moving before the fourth even fully entered the room.

I kicked the one in the door way, watching him strike the opposite wall with a booming clang, before backhanding another just to my right. I caught an axe swinging into my midsection, tearing it from the grasp of a ghoul and using it to bludgeon another into the ground. A casual toss behind me took the head off of one trying to follow me, embedding the weapon into the wall.

I grunted as a spear tore through my ankle from behind, immediately feeling notably weaker. I pulled its owner into me and bit into its throat, draining it as more of its fellows came down the stairs. It was like I was fighting children. They were angry, relentless, and carried a slew of weaponry I knew was dangerous, but they were weak.

I tore the spear from my leg when I was finished, licking my lips at the ghouls coming down the stairs. They stopped for a moment at the sight of the bodies around me. I noticed that there was also alot of them. I could hear hundreds more from around the castle throw silence to the wind, charging towards the sounds of combat.

I slowly picked a sword up off the ground with my free hand. This was going to be fun.

Lord Pedro De Alvarado was not a patient man. He had thrown this celebration in hopes of impressing his step-father, and as a means to prove he was an individual of respectable standing within the Western Houses, just like his predecessor was. Then his wife threw her little tantrum, parading a human around as if he was a concubine, implying to all their guests that she was bringing a mortal into their bed because her husband did not satisfy.

In one mere moment she destroyed years of scraping and groveling for every scrap of prestige and honor he could get his hands on. Decades of preparation on his knees, bowing to those who thought of him as nothing but an upstart with strong patronage. First to his ancestor, and then to the "mighty" Alek Vasiliev. Everything he had worked for was ruined, and this night had become a desperate scramble to save his honor.

Whats worse, was that his wife, the beauty he had spent years courting, battling older and stronger men for, smiled as he pretended not to hear the incessant mockery of their guests. She danced away without a care in the world, enchanting the ballroom with every twirl. For every insult the old lords had for him they had praise for his wife.

Where he was a useless, weak-blooded upstart with delusions of grandeur, she was the pure-blooded daughter of one of the most feared vampires to have ever existed. Where he was a coward with ideas above his station she was a rightfully ambitious woman desired by even the most loyal of husbands.

Where he was a wretch who grew off of the power of better vampires, she held the strongest manifestation of metaphysical magic anyone had ever seen. She could bewitch even elders with her own mixture of physical allure and natural glamour. There was a time he loved that about her. Now it only emphasized his shame.

Whats worse is that he could not rid himself of her. Even if he waited for her to let her guard down, and managed to kill her, her father would personally hunt him down, and feed him to the ghouls. No, he was with her until the end of time, nothing more than a toy for her to manipulate. The only way to restore his honor was wait, and hope that sometime in the next thousand years he would have the power and respect to seek his revenge on those who "whispered" in his hall.

So he waited, kept his smile up as he was insulted and put down. He waited as his step-father and Cassius took the glory his assault had earned them. They may have defeated the chinaman, but it was he who had noted the weakness in the walls of their fortress, he who had signalled the elder, all the while holding the breach Cassius' created.

Perhaps their valor had earned them the right to steal the power of the would be emperor of the east, but it was he who gave them that chance. Yet they bathed in glory, and all he had to show for it was a growing reputation as a cuckold.

He had thought it safe to assume the evening couldn't get any worse, and then the captain of the guard, grin, came in warning about an enemy disguised and running about as one of the servants. More importantly one that could ruin his already tattered reputation. His first thought had been to keep it quiet, and contained, but his guests were not fools. There was a notable chance some of them were being made aware as he spoke. They would all know by the nights end regardless of what he did.

The human slaves were simple things, and they would almost always betray their lord and provider for whatever false promises another vampire made. They always seemed to think it couldn't get any worse, that the grass was greener in another masters hands. Foolish of them, but the nature of mortals was not easily changed.

The best action was to react with speed, force, and precision. He rallied the guards, sent them through the halls in search of suspicious servants, and had all the ones in the banquet hall lined up to be searched and questioned. It had ruined the event in many lords and ladies eyes, but at this point it wasn't his celebration anymore.

Servants were questioned, searched, and in some cases consumed as the hunt went on. Several were brought in from outside, screaming as the ghouls pulled them from whatever task they had been set to complete, begging not to be the next meal. He had been ready to tear the throat from his head servant when one of the maids ran in.

She was a pretty little thing, breathing heavy and terrified even as she shouted to the hall.

"I saw a man rushing to leave the celebration! He was covered in blood!" He looked to guards in the hall, failures that couldn't even maintain the security of his home! He snarled at them, and then at the girl.

"Where!?" She paled at his rage, quivering for a moment. Grin left the room, ordering his lesser's to attend their master.

"He went down the servant passage, to our quarters master!" Then there was no escape. Some good news at least.

"You heard her! He's hidden in the servants quarters!" Several ghouls ran out of the room, hunting now for the mortal that had displeased their master. "Find him!"

They were simple beasts, but they would be quick to secure a human. He drained a goblet of blood as his father in law stepped up to him. He didn't speak a word, only glaring into his eyes. He took a step back at the slight growl the old man sent his way.

Only four centuries older and the man already commanded the respect of every vampire in the room. Alek shoved past him a moment later, no doubt making to speak his disapproval to Trua. Alvarado shook his head, before collapsing onto his throne.

She would speak down to him, cry on her fathers shoulder for a time, but she would remain his wife. She had more to lose than reputation and honor. He had reminded her of that far too many times for her to ever forget. No matter what she threatened.

He stiffened at the sound of something over the ever louder gossip in the hall. Many other lords and ladies, all experienced in battle, began to quiet at the sound of bright-silver ringing out. It was immediately notable that it was growing closer.

A ghoul crashed through the main doors of the banquet hall, sliding against the floor and directly to his throne. A familiar man stepped without a sound inside, black blood trailing down his face. With casual ease he pulled a sword from his back, before flinging it into the ground.

Alvarado threw a glance to Trua at the sound of a gasp, looking to the ashen, terrified form of his wife. He stepped forward, before dropping into a kneel. "Lord Alek Vasiliev!" He rasped.

"I've come to pledge my service."