Chapter 2

His hands gripped into Jack's suit and shirt and lifted it. His desperation even ripped it, but then, it was a cheap suit. He'd really have to buy Jack a nice suit after this.

"Ok, I'm seeing ... ten holes. Fuck that Daeva bitch! Shit shit shit." He let Jack curl back up into a ball as he stood up. Panic-filled eyes looked around from deep within the alley. It would take only a second to get Jack out into the street, and maybe ten minutes to get him into a hospital. What good would that do? He'd been stabbed ten times.

"I ... I'm not a doctor, but I think..." The little guy coughed up some blood between words. "I think ... I'm dead."

"What the fuck Jack, how can you ... you're dying!" Julias pulled Jack up to sit against the alley wall.

"I guess I'm just ... intellectualizing? I'm sure ... it'll hit me ... later ... when I'm dead." Being sat up brought a new fit of coughs, and Jack clutched at his stomach hard. Julias could see it wasn't only from pain, the kid was actually just trying to keep his guts from spilling.

"Well stop intellectualizing! God damn it Jack, I ... shit this is my fault."

" ... wha—"

"That Deava cunt! She did this to you to get at me, to stop me. To ... hurt me."

"Daeva, I don't un—" Another coughing fit cut Jack off, and he stopped trying to talk. Instead, his draining eyes looked up to Julias. The little guy's face was getting very white.

"Jack, I ... fuck it. Jack, I'm going to help you."

"You ... look at me." Jack pulled his hands away from his stomach, which let loose another pool of blood to spill over his fingers. "I'm dead Julias, just ... take me to the hospital, so ... mom can get me after."

What the fuck was wrong with this kid? He was dying, he would be dead in minutes, the amount of blood pouring out of him was insane. And yet he was just accepting it. His last moments would be spent just happily giving in? No.

"No, fuck that, fuck that 'quietly into the good night' shit you stupid bastard."

"But ... you can't—"

Blood stains really are a bitch.

"Yes I can ... yes I fucking can." Julias reached down and pulled Jack up into his arms. The tiny guy was weightless. He took him deeper into the alleyway, and then, jumped.

"Holy..." Little Jack tried to yell, even flail a little, but the small man was exhausted and shivering. Good. It made carrying him up the side of the building easier. Julias jumped the fire escape railing, and then onto the railing of another, and another still, until ten floors were scaled in a matter of seconds. He landed on the rooftop, where only darkness and moonlight waited.

"How did—"

"Do you trust me?"

"Julias, I—"

"Do you trust me?" Julias yelled this time as he sat down. He put Jack down between his legs with his back to his own stomach. He cradled the small guy in a hug, and rocked him back and forth. He was getting cold.

" ... yes."

"Then just relax. Just relax and take a breath."

"I don't..." His words trailed off when Julias sank his teeth into Jack's neck.

Julias knew the reaction. He knew it well. It was always the same. First, his prey would twitch for just a second while his bite first punctured and then numbed the area. And then, they would simply relax into the Kiss. Jack relaxed far too quickly, far too easily, and the blood that flowed into Julias's mouth was slow and lacked volume.

"What ... are you..." Jack shivered a couple times, trembled, and went limp against Julias's chest. His heartbeat grew slower, and slower, but Julias kept drinking.

How long had it been since he'd drunk someone dry? Years. But his friend? How long had it been since he'd done this? A lifetime.

"I'm ... getting ... tired." The poor little guy couldn't even lift his arms anymore. He could barely talk. At least Julias was making the loss of blood feel good, right? He could feel it in Jack's body. He wasn't struggling, and he was probably high on the pleasure of it. But then, he probably thought he was dying and that his pleasurable feelings were his body's chemical responses to death. Well, he was half right.

Jack trembled, and then as his trembles faded, he shivered, and then not even that. Now was the time, right? It had to be. The tiny man's breath was almost gone. Julias could feel his anxiety growing. What if this didn't work? Think, what had Viktor done? Viktor had drained him ... completely.

"I can't ... feel ... Please, Julias ... I'm ... scared..."

Jack started to shake. The blood wasn't flowing anymore. He sucked forcefully now, actively, trying to pull the blood out of Jack's body. No more came. Jack's breath turns into nothing but a cold haze.

" ... a dream. That's all it is. A dream, Jack. Just a dream. Now I have to wake you up."

All it took was a slice of his fingertip to cut into Julias's own wrist. The blood didn't come; it fought to stay inside him. He could see it in the cut, refusing to fall free of his skin. He glared at the blood, at the Vitae that kept it within. All or nothing, Julias. Just another step toward damnation.

He placed his wrist against Jack's mouth.

Jack woke up screaming.

"God! Oh god!" He looked around in a panic. Couch. There was a couch. Paintings on the wall. Even a giant window. Julias's place. He looked around some more. There was Julias, standing behind the counter of his kitchen. His face was a weird mixture of relief and pain, Jack had to guess.

The throbs hit him hard, and Jack fell off the couch to his knees.

"Oh god, Julias! What the fuck ... what the hell is going on." He looked to Julias in panic, but the tall man was just standing there, watching and waiting. "Julias! Come on, what ... oh fuck. Oh fuck was it all a dream? Did..." With trembling hands, Jack sat back and looked down at his clothes. They were still soaked in blood.

"It wasn't a dream," his friend said.

"What the fuck Julias!?" Jack raised his shirt to look at his stomach. His abdomen was covered in his blood, but the wounds were closed. Not healed over. Just closed. They should still be bleeding, but as far as he could tell, they'd stopped. "What's going on? I can't ... what the fuck is going on!?" Jack crawled forward until he was on his knees, and forced himself to stand.

It didn't last long. He reached out to grab one of Julias's stools, but fell with a hard thud to the floor. He clutched at his stomach again. There was a weird mixture of pain, but also a hunger pang. A deep hunger pang that was well into the pain realm too.

"Here. Drink this." Julias came over to him and knelt beside him with his glass of red in hand.

" ... you've ... never offered me a drink before." Jack looked between his friend and the drink. The deep red was oddly alluring. Normally it never seemed appetizing, but with it right there in front of him, he had to admit, he wanted a sip.

"I'll explain everything, don't worry. Come on, drink."

With a sigh of relief, Jack reached out. His hands were still bloody, and now that Julias was so close, he couldn't help but notice the huge stains of blood in his suit as well. Drink though. Julias said drink, so he'd drink.

The first sip was strange, to say the least. Was that metal? The thickness poured over his tongue, and he just had to take a second to let it coat his taste buds. Damn what a taste. Sips soon turned into gulps, and he drank down the glass entirely. It was euphoric. He could feel it in his belly and spreading out, making him feel warm.

"Wow ... this is ... really good." Jack had to laugh at how the drink managed to make him forget about his current predicament. "I don't normally drink wine. What's it called?" The hunger pangs subsided, at least a little.

"Later," Julias said. Jack squinted at Julias before his smile faded. Julias was frowning.

"Ok, ok ... so, what's going on? I remember ... some woman, and then ... a knife." After handing back the empty glass to Julias, Jack reached down and pulled up his shirt again. He felt his muscles, his abdominal muscles, where the knife had punctured him. He could feel the holes, tiny little vertical slits just enough for his fingers to catch against subtle indents, but the wounds were closed for the most part.

If there was one way he was going to die, it'd be getting stabbed by some beauty in a dark alley.

"This can't be real, Julias. What the fuck is..." Julias had stood up and offered Jack his hand. Jack took it, and slid onto the stool. As if psychic, Julias was already pouring him another glass of red.

"It's very real. Here," Julias said, and put the glass straight into Jack's hand. Jack drank the newly found, delicious sin with fervor. He almost growled into it when the thick liquid started to coat his throat.

"So, what? What happened? I got stabbed, Julias! I got stabbed a fuck load of times. I've read enough to know what extreme blood loss is like."

"Yes. You were bleeding to death. You had minutes to live."

"Well then what the fuck!"

Jack was stuck somewhere between panic and joy. He should be dead, but he wasn't. He could see the blood all over him, all over his best friend, but he was still alive. It was obviously the same night; the blood on him wasn't completely dry yet.

Julias sighed and sat down on a stool across the counter. Since when did Julias look so pale? Jack had to give him a few double takes to see it, but there it was. His skin was white, and thin.

"Check your pulse."

"What?"

"Check your pulse, Jack."

"I can't take a shower first? I mean my god look at us, we're—"

"Check. Your. Pulse."

Jack grew quiet. Julias was staring at him, with steel eyes and dead calm look. Dead was an understatement. He'd never seen Julias look so ill.

With an annoyed sigh, Jack put his index and middle finger to his wrist.

" ... um ... hold on, hold on." He put the same fingers against his upper neck, near the jaw. " ... hold on, hold on." He put his hand over his heart. "Julias ... where's my pulse?" Jack cracked a worried, fake smile at his friend, but Julias just shook his head.

"I didn't think you'd remember. You were low on blood, and ... most Kindred never remember being embraced. Not with any clarity."

"Kindred? Embraced? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"What do you feel, Jack? Inside, right now, what do you feel?" Julias's stare was stone and more than a bit unsettling. Jack couldn't help but lower his gaze at the intensity of it.

"I feel ... I don't know. Just ... I feel ... hunger."

"Anything else?"

"I don't know what you mean, dude. I just ... I feel..." He had to take the time to think about it. That throbbing ache in his stomach, in his whole body was subdued but there. There was a strange anxiety mixed with fear and rage, but that had always been there, right?

Jack took a step back. No, it hadn't always been there. He had trouble looking Julias in the eyes now; he never had that before, not like this. A part of him tingled with the fear of it, the fear of ... Julias? A part of him was itching to run too. A part of him really, really really ... i really wanted to tear into something and eat.

A towel hit him in the face.

"Go wash up, get the blood off of you, and take a long look in the mirror."

Since when has he been this skinny? Jack couldn't help but stare down at his body while the water of the shower washed the blood from his skin. He could see the stab wounds, closed, and he managed a small smile at the sight of his abs. Julias had been forcing him to eat right and exercise for five years now, and it certainly paid off. Despite his small size, he was a lean and tough little thing, and he ran his fingers up his abs to feel them, and the multitude of stab wounds that still marked them.

But he wasn't just lean anymore. He was thinner. His stomach was pulled in just slightly. His skin was thinner, and paler too. Well that made sense, he had just lost an insane amount of blood. But then, how the hell was he still standing, and moving around as if perfectly fine? He could see the stab wounds like he was some recently stabbed, embalmed corpse.

And that hunger, that hunger wasn't going away. It ached inside him, and not just in his gut. He could feel it coursing through his limbs. He could feel ... something inside him, clawing at him. Something inside was fighting him.

Eventually he got out of the shower, and stood in front of the mirror. He wiped away the moisture with a nearby towel, and let the vapors fade away with the turning ventilation. Slowly, his face came into view.

"Oh my god..." He put a hand against the wall and leaned in close. What the hell happened to his face? His face was pale like the rest of him. His eyes had no sparkle. Everything seemed so ... still. So dead.

" ... dead. Oh my god. Oh my god oh my god oh my god." Jack spun around and scampered to gather the clothing Julias laid out for him. He struggled to get on his boxers, and his pants came on one leg at a time while he tried to get the bathroom door open. His efforts earned him a hard land on his side and arm in the hallway, and Julias leaned around the hallway from his stool in the kitchen to peek at him.

"Dead! I'm dead, Julias! What the fuck! I'm a zombie. I'm a goddamn zombie! Oh my god oh my god oh my god." Jack didn't even try to get up. He just lay there, half naked with his pants only on one leg and his hands on his face.

"Figured it out did you?"

"How can I be a zombie? What the flying shit god damn fuck, Julias! Zombies aren't real."

"You're not a zombie."

"What?"

Julias gave a sigh and walked over to Jack with a reached-out hand. The big guy pulled him up and, with a half-smile, helped Jack sit down so he could put on his pants.

"You're not a zombie. You are dead though."

"I, I... " Jack had to take a moment to breathe. Breathing didn't seem to do much though. The little man let his head fall and his chin landed in his palms with his elbows on the counter, before his head slid further and his eyes planted in his palms instead. Breathing wasn't doing anything.

"I wasn't supposed to do this to you so suddenly, Jack. I was going to ease you into it, and you were supposed to have the option to say no. I ... you got pulled into this though, and it was either let you die, or turn you."

"Turn me ... oh god, you..." Jack almost choked on his tongue. He forced himself to raise his head and make eye contact with Julias. The steely gaze, the pale skin. Julias didn't look like this before, but now he had that same dead look Jack did.

"We're vampires, Jack." Julias gave Jack a tiny little smile and exposed a long fang. It wasn't normally there, but there it was clear as day on his lip before he hid it in his mouth again. He slid another glass of red toward Jack.

"Vampires. Vampires ... fucking ... vampires." Jack's eyes lowered down to the glass. They sank into the pool of it, the swirling mass of its intoxicating appearance. He never cared about the stuff before, and now he couldn't stop looking at it. " ... that's blood isn't it?"

"Yes."

"You gave me blood."

"Yes."

"I ... how could ... Julias, I..." Jack pulled his eyes away from the drink with great effort. It looked so fucking delicious. "Julias you fucking turned me into a vampire! And you're a vampire, apparently. I'm freaking out, ok. I am freaking the fuck out." Even as he complained and ranted, Jack had to stop to drink that delicious, sweet, fulfilling glass of red. That throb in his stomach wasn't going away, not completely, but the blood drink was at least suppressing it.

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry. This is never easy for anyone. I ... I couldn't just let you die, friend."

"But I am dead!"

"Well yes." Julias scratched at his suit collar. He was still covered in blood, and Jack had to cringe at the sight of it. All of his blood. "We're vampires. Kindred."

"How come I've never seen it on you before? You don't normally look so ... dead."

"Kindred can perform the blush of life. It makes us look human and function like a human for a little while."

"So you've been a vampire, a Kindred, this whole time? How long? ... How old are you?"

His words hit something sensitive. Julias turned around and reached into his fridge to get another bottle, and poured the two of them another glass. Now Julias was the one who was avoiding Jack's gaze.

"I was turned during the first world war."

"The first ... world war ... World War One. Wow." Jack ran his fingers through the buzz of his hair. "Wow, you're ... wow that's old."

"Joys of being Kindred. You don't age."

"Wait, is that why you got me exercising and eating well? You were going to turn me?"

"I was preparing you, yes, but I was never going to force you. I was going to explain everything, and that's what that business proposition was about earlier. Then I was going to explain what being a Kindred meant. Immortality, but a blood lust, the beast inside, the Danse Macabre, the politics and the other Kindred and the—"

"Dude, dude! I ... ok I am barely keeping it together. I am..." He put his head in his palms again, and let the weight of the insanity pull it down to his elbows. "I just ... I need to think. I need to think. I need to contextualize. I ... you said, earlier today, that my family and friends would think I was dead? That I'd ... be staying here in the South Side?"

"Yeah."

" ... so my life ... it's all gone?"

"Yeah..."

Jack had to get up. He left his glass behind and started to pace around with his fingers on his buzzed hair. They both went silent. Jack wanted to pant, but breathing didn't come naturally anymore. All the little fidgets of his body were gone, or at least lessened. He had to make the pacing more frantic, just to make it seem justified.

"So I'm ... immortal now?"

"You won't age, but fire will burn you like dry paper. And ... sunlight will do the same."

"No sunlight?"

"No." Julias grimaced with the word.

"Oh god ... so that's ... that's why I can't ever see my family again? My friends?" Jack fell to the couch with his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. He kept looking around, desperate for something to focus his mind on.

"Partially, but also ... that pain in your gut. That's the blood lust, Jack."

"Blood. I have to drink blood. Fucking god I'm Dracula."

"Don't say that around the Prince if you want to keep your head ... which losing will also kill you, by the way. But beyond that, you're not going to die. Bullet to the head won't even do it."

"Oh, that's actually pretty—wait, Prince?"

"Yes, Prince, a ... you'll see. I wanted to turn you because you're my friend ... but also because I need an ally, Jack." Julias came over to sit down next to Jack, bloody suit and all. The couch was likely ruined, but Jack figured Julias had enough money to ignore it. Or that the situation made it not worthy of note.

"So we're not just two blood suckers enjoying eternity, are we?" Jack said.

"No. There are others. I figure there's over three hundred Kindred here in Dolareido. And there's a structure to it."

Holy shit. Three hundred other vampires in the city, with their own structure? Were they all like Julias, with mobsters painted on their forehead?

"How come I've never heard of this ... any of this."

"Rule number one is to preserve the Masquerade. If you tell people about vampires, the sheriff will leave you out for sunrise. You have to do everything you can to make sure people don't realize what you are. As my new child, you're my responsibility, and I will help you as much as you need."

"Masquerade. Masquerade, got it. I ... think I got it. Rules ... so there's more than one rule." Jack turned his head from within his palms to catch Julias in the corner of his eye.

"I know that this all got dumped on you without warning, but it's not all bad." Julias got up and started to take off his jacket. "You're immortal."

"I ... I guess."

"I have to shower, then I'll show you the clothes I've prepared for you." He winced. "Then we're going to meet Viktor."

"Viktor?"

"My sire."