VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE

NIGHT SOCIETY

"Sir, someone wants to see you."

Sebastian LaCroix looked up from his desk, his face betraying slight annoyance. He had far more pressing matters to deal with than the complaints of some noisy rabble. "Well, who is it?" The receptionist, a portly man with thinning black hair and a simple, grey suit, faltered, then continued "he calls himself Christof Romauld."

LaCroix seemed shaken by that. Slowly he got up from his "throne" and moved to the left of his large mahogany desk. "Let him in." he said. The receptionist took a short bow and hurried downstairs. While he went to usher him in, the Kindred prince of LA was busy blankly staring at his "courtroom"-a large, gold-painted, dome-shaped building with an ornate ceiling at the very top of the headquarters of LaCroix Group of Industries, a large conglomerate which stretched over the western coast and had its hands in the hotel, healthcare and shipping industries.Lining the walls of the room were the portraits of past CEO's dating all theway to the company's founding in 1855, by Sebastian LaCroix.

The large wooden doors that led to his throne room suddenly swung open violently. Christof marched briskly to the front of the prince's large desk. Almost immediately, the Sheriff emerged, seemingly out of thin air, to stand beside Sebastian."Christof" LaCroix began benignly "It has been a while. You've finally become active again, I presume?"

"You have a lot of nerve."Christof began, his deep, steely voice rang out. His facial expression betrayed no sign of any sort of emotion. "You have the nerve to foist this bastard childe on me without my permission."

"I honestly do not see how this counts as an offense." Sebastian began, to the vampire several centuries older than he. "This childe was the illegal creation of a brujah such as yourself. Rather than destroy her I decided to let her live. But even at that I cannot educate her in the ways of the kindred myself. I felt that had to be done by a distinguished member of her own clan, hence you."

Christof stared coldly at him for what seemed like an eternity, then gave off what seemed like something between a snicker and a scoff. "Very well then" he started, turning to leave."I will keep your childe." And he left, just as conspicuously as he came.LaCroix went back to his desk, going over the reports of the contents of his latest arrivals.

Liz sat on a wooden chair-It was the only piece of furniture in the mansion- in the middle of the giant hall, kicking listlessly at the floor. She had discarded the jeans jacket in order to beat the heat, even though she no longer sweated. Christof had told her to stay put in the mansion until he returned and she obeyed, completely.She was far too terrified of him to disobey him, especially after what she had seen him do. She began to recall what had happened after he massacred those Sabbat. How he began to move towards her, his whole body covered in blood and his eyes gleaming with predatory hunger. How she was literally quaking with terror. How she tried to run, but could not. How he stared into her eyes with those blood-red eyes of his. Then how he issued a command-to go into a dark cellar and spend the day-then realized she no control over her body. By the time she woke up, he had gone somewhere, presumably with a car, leaving a note on the door of her cellar that contained the instructions she was currently following (the handwriting was barely readable). At that point, she decided to simply roll with the punches. Nothing could surprise her now. Or so she hoped.

She heard a car slow to a halt just outside the mansion. She quivered, was he back already? She went outside to have a look. The car was a regular looking Toyota sedan, but the man who exited the car from the driver's seat wasn't the scary vampire. He was tall and rather lanky and wore his curly, sandy blonde hair like an afro. That,combined with the rather plain monkey suit (minus the tie) he was wearing, made him look completely unassuming and harmless. He seemed to be nervous, his large, onyx eyes darting left and right as he walked briskly to the entrance,but he calmed down as soon as he set his eyes on Elizabeth standing at the entrance and proceeded to give her a warm smile.