I rolled over the little golden pendant in my hand, as I sat at the edge of the skyscraper's roof. The street below me was still lit up by hundreds of cars. So many people still up and about at this hour of the night.. It was obnoxious. How was anyone supposed to sleep with all that ruckus? Still, at least things were a little quieter up here, hundreds of feet above the ground. Waiting for Lucien, mulling over memories. I roll the pendant in my hand again. Cross had given me the locket when we were little kids. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Our old little town was painstakingly boring. We had this silly little hideout in an old abandoned house, and we'd go there to play all the time. One of those times, he insisted that I go blindfolded, and I played along. When we got there, he took what felt like hours, getting something ready for me. Then, he tore off my blindfold, and asked a really weird question; "Selicy, do you promise to be my friend forever, and ever?" I didn't really think about it much at the time. I just smiled, and said "Yeah, best friends! Forever, and ever!". Then he pulled the pendant from his pocket, and handed it to me, along with a cup of red liquid. "Then drink up!" I remember thinking it looked weird, but I took a big gulp anyway. It tasted like I had a bloody tooth, and I spit most of it out instantly, but not before swallowing some of it. With that disgusting flavor still lingering in my mouth, I asked. "Ew! What was that!?" He pulled up his sleeve, and I showed me the bloody bandage. He had just given me a cup of his own blood. I thought it was just one of his pranks, he did weird stuff all the time, but when I went home that day, and my family all sat down for dinner, my father handed me a big plate of mashed potatoes. Starving, I took a big bite, and immediately grew sick to my stomach. "What's wrong, dear?" My mom asked. "It's gross.." I muttered. She reached over, and scooped up a small bite for herself. I couldn't help but stare intently at her wrist, like something was.. Calling me. The next thing I knew, I had sunk my teeth deep into her arm, and had started sucking up her blood. Once I realized what I was doing, I immediately pulled out my newly grown fangs, and threw my hands over my bloody mouth, tears welling up in my eyes. I remember seeing both of my parents' faces. Terrified of me.. But, they must've seen how terrified I was of myself, and they knew I was still their little girl. Cross had snuck into my room through the window that night, and put another cup of blood on my dresser. There was something different about him, now, though, and while I couldn't pinpoint exactly what, I knew it was because he was like me.. I didn't expect things to go back to normal as quickly as they did. Mom and Dad accepted it almost instantly. No questions asked. Cross began bringing me all the blood I needed, and I got the feeling he had planned this all out from the beginning. That was probably why he gave me that cup of his blood to begin with.. But, things didn't stay normal. I was coming back from playing with Cross one day, to see my house was on fire, with a couple of men standing side by side, staring at the flames. I ran in, towards them, screaming for my parents, but once they heard my cry, they turned to me, with a cold murderous look in their eyes. "There's the monster." One of them said, pointing a heavy crossbow at me. I stumbled backwards, in shock, and should've been an easy target, but that's when Cross lunged in, crawling, and swiping, and biting at the men, like some sort of rabid animal. "Selicy, run!" He yelled. "Cross!? Wh-" "Run!" He yelled again. The men managed to grab a hold of him, and throw him to the ground. He tried to scramble to his feet, but one of the men fired the crossbow into his neck before he could. That was when it really sank, as the life left Cross' body. These men were going to kill me. I screamed, and cried, but somehow I found the strength to start running. And I ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. I had never really fed by myself. I would've probably just starved to death if Lucien hadn't found me. Adopted me into his clan. He had us under a policy of isolation, and secrecy. Always in the shadows.. We're not supposed to interact with humans as much as we can help it, and we're supposed to interact with others like us even less than that.. But I found a new blood. I saw his terrified little eyes, and was reminded of me all those years ago.. So here I am, waiting for Lucien. Mulling over memories. "Selicy." Lucien's voice said, cutting through the silence. I jumped, and nearly fell off the edge of the building. "Lucien! You need to get a bell or something, don't sneak up on me like that!" I yelled, turning around to see the cloaked figured behind me. "What did you want to speak about?" "I found a new blood in the forest, and-" "This again, Selicy? Just like the last dozen times, we aren't accepting new vampires into the clan. Any new vampire is a potential spy for the Witch Queen, and the larger we grow, the bigger target we become to the hunters." "The Witch Queen is dead! She has been for, like, ever now! And the more people we have, the bigger chance we have of-" "Of adding a feral to our ranks! Even if you're right about the Queen, and I'm not sure that you are, that's no excuse to start getting reckless! The more careless we become, the more emboldened the hunters do! If we induct a feral, and they get tracked back to our den, we cannot survive that! If they turn out to be a spy, and the Witch Queen launches an assault on our den, we cannot survive that! Do you understand? We are vulnerable! I have kept us alive by keeping us in the shadows! I won't sacrifice our clan for a lone new blood. End of discussion." I sighed. As stubborn and paranoid as always.. "Fine. But those last dozen times you mentioned? I want to let you know I followed up, and checked in on them the other day. They're all dead. I'm sick of letting these people die, when they're right there. When I can help them. If the clan won't support me on this, then I won't ask for the clan's support. I'm helping this one, though! I'm going to help him get ahold of his powers before he winds up getting himself killed!" "And I won't stop you from that much." Lucien said, turning away. "But I'd like to warn you, Selicy. If you're doing this, and you wind up in danger with the hunters because of this new blood, we can't risk the exposure to help you. You'll be on your own. And if you ever try to bring this new blood to the den, we'll be left with no choice but to kill him." I didn't respond. Instead I vanished in a cloud of smoke, and reformed down in the shadows of an alleyway near the ground. I know Lucien is wrong. We have to help our people, or we'll go extinct.. I'll work on changing his mind later, though. For now, time to help my new protégé not die. I step out onto the sidewalk, and begin walking down the street. [spoiler]So, as you may or may not know, Blaze became a vampire recently. This is Selicy Cross, who is now (with his permission, of course) Blaze's vampire mentor! Which means pretty much nothing. She's [i]technically[/i] there to help Blaze get the hang of his new vampire powers, but more than anything it's just an excuse for me to make a new vampire character! At least for now, Selicy will be my default RP character ('cause you know, I've totally been joining those lately), and as such I think it's fair to let you stop her on the street and chat with her if you'd like. However, keep in mind she's spent decades mastering the powers of deceit and illusion to hide the fact she's a vampire, from the way she looks, all the way down to the scars on her soul. In other words, even if you can normally tell the difference between a vampire and human, you can't tell with Selicy, unless you’re a vampire yourself. This is a first draft, and I didn't even give it a reread, so it's probably not great, but even so, criticism is appreciated as always! But that's all for now folks, jambuhbye![/spoiler] Edit: [spoiler]P.s. you don’t have to be a vampire to talk with Selicy. She’s perfectly well fed right now; she ain’t gonna bite![/spoiler]