“What are we doing here?” – there is quite a bit of panic and desperation in Michael’s voice as he says that. He and his Mentor are standing in a hospital hallway near a back entrance door. The walls are pale and everything about the building seems sterile: the lights, the hard floor, the doctors, each hurrying about their own business.

But that is true only for a mortal eye, as Michael’s senses tell him something quite different. Blood. Everywhere. The ER is near and there is blood on patients and doctors, there are miniscule drops on the floor and the walls. Nobody notices it, but the young vampire spots every drop. And, worst of all, there is warm delicious Vitae coursing through the mortals’ veins, just waiting to be taken. After all, these sacks of meat exist only to sate the Kindred’s hunger.

Michael shakes his head wildly, trying to get rid of the thoughts that are haunting him. He hasn’t fed for days per his Mentor’s instructions and after he used the very last drops of Vitae to make him look mortal, he became empty. There is nothing in his system, he’s just a walking corpse with a pretty façade, mere hours from torpor. All this flashes through his head as he turns around to find that Andrey is no longer near.

Panic becomes outright terror when he realizes that his so-called mentor has lured him into a trap, forcing him to cause a real bloodbath inside the hospital. A very important and rational question drifts somewhere on the edge of his mind, but Michael doesn’t have any thought power to spare. He needs to get away. Turning around, he finds the door to be bolted from the other side, and, as he attempts to force it, the doctors come closer to help him. One of them has a fresh cut on her hand. A pretty young thing, about 28 and so tasty…

In a panic, he forces his way through the medics, trying the doors on the side, to find a place of refuge. All he can think now is to separate himself from the Kine, to protect them from certain death. It has been about a year since his Embrace and Michael knows full well what will happen if he gives up and lets go. So he doesn’t.

Finally, he finds and open door and busts his way into a room, with a young female doctor performing an autopsy on a recently dead patient. The smell of blood is intoxicating.

“What are you doing here, Mister? Is something wrong?” – she starts to approach him, still holding a bloody knife.

“No. Don’t.” – Michael tries to turn away, but all he can do is alternate his gaze between the blood on the blade and the artery on the girl’s exposed neck, promising sustenance, promising life, promising salvation.

And then he just lets go.