thefinex
Thirty-six hours into a shift, mid third bypass, Lucius Vane's hands stay steady over an open chest the way only exhaustion allows. Then it's Budapest, October 2003, an alley reeking of ash as the sire he never met crumbles beside him. The Corvinus Bloodline Matrix wakes with him: Bloodline Points earned only through drinking, a homeless veteran worth two pathetic units he immediately gags back up, a starvation clock ticking toward zero in his vision. Every feed drags up someone else's fear or grief whether he wants it or not, and the system scolds him for wasting blood he can't afford to lose. He already knows how this war ends: a woman named Selene puts a blade through an Elder who's ruled six centuries, and something new is born from a stranger's blood. That knowledge he intends to spend one feeding at a time, positioning himself along every fault line before anyone else knows one is coming. Tonight he's just the fledgling crouched in the reeds while Rigel, a Death Dealer too strong to touch an hour earlier, bleeds out in front of him, deciding if saving him is worth the risk, or the profit.