2

You were back in the States, dead broke and with a headache that never fully went away, staying at the house of a "friend" who pitied you more than liked you. That evening, you stood on the little wrought-iron balcony, watching the sun set over a city you didn't like, idly making plans to leave. Maybe you would reenlist. Maybe you'd take up that job offer. Maybe you'd kill yourself. You couldn't decide.

When your roommate shouted at you to carry a box of his old shit to Goodwill, you shrugged and went downstairs with it. Of course, Goodwill was closed. And when you came back it was night, the door was locked, and no one would answer their phone.

And then a shadow detached itself from the wall of the alley.

When you rose again, burning with Hunger and sticky with your own blood, your killer did not call you Kindred, or Cainite, or "vampire." First, you learned about your clan, your lineage—a bloodline that existed since before history, before all cities except one.

Your killer said you belonged to—

The Clan of Kings rules from the shadows, controlling modern boardrooms as they once controlled courts and cathedrals. The mental powers of the "Blue Bloods" also protect the Masquerade.

Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence. Ventrue study two distinct paths of mental control: Presence is more subtle, Dominate more direct. Some are also nearly indestructible, even when exposed to banes like fire and sunlight.

Clan Weakness: Refined palate. Ventrue cannot drink bagged or animal blood, and most are restricted to a particular kind of human prey.

Your sire was a new kind of Ventrue, barely a century old and unfettered by tradition. Elin Olivecrona was an overachiever before that term existed, with a hundred-year plan to claim sole sovereignty over a US city. She didn't care which one. Year eighty-two required two childer of her own Blood, one a reflection of her own talents and abilities, the other a complement, with a skill set that would shore up her weaknesses rather than reflect her strengths. You were that second childe.

When the first childe didn't work out, you understood what Olivecrona did to those who failed her, and you made plans to escape.

Despite the loss of her lieutenant, Olivecrona went ahead with her plan. Contemptuous of the other clans, she whipped the old Prince of Tucson into a murderous frenzy; together they began to exterminate thin-bloods and the Nosferatu—the hideous sewer vampires that lurk beneath most major cities. His cruelty led to the Prince's destruction, but not to Olivecrona's elevation. She barely escaped the burning city.

She wanted to take you with her, but you had already disentangled yourself from your increasingly desperate sire. And when Olivecrona realized you would not follow her into exile, she ordered her ghouls to destroy you. Ghouls—mortals fed on vampire Blood, who gain agelessness and a little power in exchange for slavish devotion to their masters—were always Olivecrona's favorite servants.

How did you survive them?