Synopsis, Chapter 1:
Many of the Kindred of Sacramento, long-standing residents and newcomers alike, find themselves in a strangely sterile version of the city's familiar streets, under a dark sky lit only by a blood-red moon. Many of these vampires appear different than their usual selves: Younger, or with their features distorted or idealized, as if in a dream. Some are barely recognizable at all.
One of the Kindred present is marked with symbols associated with Belial's Brood. After a tense confrontation between this one and many of the other vampires, a formless, spectral presence that had been noted earlier by some of the more perceptive vampires briefly takes the form of several of the local Kindred destroyed by the mad elder Bethem or during the still-myserious Lost Nights. As quickly as it formed, this group of figures fades from view, and immediately afterward a chorus of spectral voices informs the gathered vampires that they have passed the first test.