Captain Vincent Craft is a vampire serving as the leader of the Spitfire Saints. He was formerly a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War, who achieved many accomplishments before a fateful crash led to his transformation. Having aerial combat experience, as well as keen reflexes and supernatural abilities, Vincent is the perfect candidate to take the reins on this experimental dragon operation.
Vincent appears to be 35 years of age, despite being over one hundred years old. He is a handsome, elegant man with brown skin and deep red eyes. His black hair is tightly curled, styled with a side part, and tapered down the back. He maintains a clean-shaven face, with sharp cheekbones and a small dimple in his chin. There is a scar on the right side of his neck—a pale, veiny streak with two puncture wounds.
Vincent is tall and well-built. Standing at 6 feet 2 inches, he has long, sturdy legs and a refined posture. His physique is muscular with wide, strong shoulders. In moments of amplified rage, his frame appears larger, his muscles stretched taut, giving his whole body a sharper quality.
Before turning into a vampire, Vincent had dark brown eyes, and his skin-tone appeared warmer. His features were also softer and less angular, and his body not as densely muscled.
Vincent Clarence Craft was born in Hampstead, London on the 23rd of August 1909, to Ida Duany and Nelson Craft. His father was considered a member of the landed gentry, a fairly wealthy Englishman who inherited at least two estates and a sizeable fortune. His mother was born in the St. Elizabeth parish of Jamaica, later emigrating to England to become a housemaid. Nelson was predominantly English and Scottish, while Ida’s ancestry can be traced back to Nigeria.
Vincent was brought up in the Church of England, attending church services every Sunday and participating in the boys’ choir. He was accustomed to a wealthy upbringing, living in an opulent townhouse in London, with the family’s country estate in Northamptonshire serving as a summer retreat.
From his father’s side, he had two cousins—twins Martin and Montgomery—of whom he had a petty rivalry with in their youth. When he was born, Vincent’s paternal grandparents refused to meet him, since they stubbornly refused to accept their son’s marriage and conception of a child with a black woman. Vincent would later meet his grandmother at his grandfather’s funeral, when he was twelve, but she gave him a very cold reception. He never met any of his Jamaican relatives from his mother’s side.
For education, Vincent was enrolled in a prestigious preparatory school until age 13, then was sent to a private boarding academy for boys during his teenage years. His father strongly encouraged enlistment into the military and pulled strings to get Vincent accepted into the Central Flying School at RAF Wittering in 1927, at age 18. He would go on to become an official Royal Air Force pilot and later an officer.
Vincent’s family tree
Vincent’s father, Nelson, was born with a congenital limb deformity; his left leg was underdeveloped since birth and grew shorter and weaker than the other as he reached maturity. The condition affected his gait and required the use of special shoes and a cane, a handicap which Nelson internalized as a profound weakness. As such, he was prohibited from participating in sports as a child, and later disqualified from enlisting in the military as an officer, which was a particular point of contention for him.
In order to increase his status, Nelson used some of his fortune to fund and manage a shipping company in the late 1890s. One of his business partners, Harvey Mayhew, was responsible for running exports from Jamaica. In the summer of 1905, Mayhew returned with several local Jamaicans who sought passage for a new life in England, and hired most of them for his own personal house staff. Ida Duany was one of those immigrants, and she became a housemaid in Mayhew’s London townhouse. Having frequented his associate’s residence on occasion, Nelson took note of the changes in staff, but had no objections. That was, until he noticed Mayhew’s increasingly objectionable behavior. There were multiple instances where the man appeared to harass members of the female staff, making vulgar remarks, even touching them inappropriately in the presence of guests. Nelson had held his tongue at first, but one such incident compelled him to intervene. He caught his business partner cornering one of the housemaids, Ida, attempting to reach under her skirt and becoming outwardly violent. Nelson immediately pulled the man off of her, berating Mayhew for his indecency. The two exchanged heated words, escalating when Nelson stepped in to offer the maid a position in his own household. Mayhew’s verbal blows struck lower, implying he did not consider Nelson physically able enough to defend this woman, let alone himself, due to his handicap. Rather than resorting to fisticuffs and proving him right, Nelson coolly escorted the maid away, observing how frightened the exchange had made her.
Nelson held true to his offer of bringing the woman to his own townhouse, just a few blocks away. Ida was hesitant, clearly traumatized by the events of her previous employer. Whether Nelson was prepared to overcompensate her for her troubles, or still fuming from the blows to his pride, he made the impulsive decision to marry her. No one took this proposal seriously at first, including Ida herself, and when Nelson relayed the news to his parents, they were outraged. The concept of their son marrying a black woman could not even be considered, and Nelson argued with his father for hours over the threat of potentially forfeiting his inheritance. But Nelson refused to budge. Spite fueling him further, he arranged a hasty marriage, securing Ida a place by his side, and reconfiguring the business in the wake of Mayhew’s dismissal. As for his feelings towards Ida, he was courteous, albeit distant, and it’s uncertain whether their marriage ever formed anything resembling true affection.
Ida made herself as comfortable as she could, given the circumstances. She was used to a harsher, more difficult life in Jamaica, and had traveled to England hoping she might seek better prospects. The events that led to her living in luxury with a white stranger could not have been anticipated, but she convinced herself that this was the best outcome she could have hoped for. Despite this, it was clear she and Nelson had very little in common. She was 23 at the time of their marriage, Nelson 34, and her entire family remained in Jamaica, so she had no one else to rely on. Much of her daily time was spent isolated in the London estate. Nelson feared for her safety, claiming a woman of her background would pose a target for potentially discriminatory and violent acts, but Ida suspected he was hiding her away from the public eye. Her life became a series of compromises; she was largely allowed to do as she pleased in the household, but rarely went out with Nelson to social events—not that he was particularly social. But if it was an event where Harvey Mayhew was attending, Nelson was sure to bring her, just so she could stand at his side all night. Ida also requested foodstuffs and items of comfort from her home island, and Nelson indulged, though he rarely ever asked her about her culture. In fact, they seldom communicated at all. Acts of intimacy were also exceedingly uncommon; it was only on the rarest occasions that Nelson would express vulnerability in seeking her out in her separate bedroom. This was usually after arguments with his father, but occasionally the pain in his leg would act up. Ida offered to help soothe it for him, fixing a healing balm from the cocoa he’d had sent from Jamaica. These rare moments were the most they ever expressed an attachment for one another. In any event, Ida conceived a child in the autumn of 1908, the final straw for Nelson’s parents to cut off contact completely and relinquish the majority of his inheritance to his younger brother, Cecil. They were not present for the birth of their first grandson, Vincent, in August of 1909, and would refuse to acknowledge his existence.
Vincent experienced a fairly privileged life for much of his childhood. He grew up in the family’s London home, but frequent visits to the countryside as a boy enabled him to foster a fondness for the outdoors and nature. He was particularly close to his mother, as the two of them had a special, inherent bond. Vincent’s relationship with his father was quite strained, even at a young age.
Ida took to being the main caretaker for her son; she would teach him about Jamaican culture, telling him stories, guiding him through recipes, and singing lullabies for him to fall asleep to. The two of them would often set up blankets on the balcony to stargaze. When he got a bit older, Vincent took on a protective role with his mother. He believed it was his duty to take care of her and shield her from any potential harm, which Ida found very endearing.
Nelson was strict with his son, insisting that his well-being and education be of the highest standard, while generally keeping his distance from the boy. There were only a handful of occasions that Vincent could recall ever sharing a connection with the man. Once, when he was ten, Vincent took a bad fall from a horse that dislocated his elbow. They had been visiting the country estate with Nelson’s brother’s family; his twin sons quickly developed a rivalry with Vincent, and Vincent saw fit to challenge them at any chance. The boys had been riding through a field outside the estate, Marty and Montgomery being far more experienced riders, but Vincent still attempted to upstage them. His inexperience led to him being flown from the horse, however. Nelson had been watching on from the sidelines, and he rushed over immediately, stumbling as he dropped his cane. To Vincent, the man’s reaction seemed furious, his father shouting about the risk and lack of responsibility. What surprised him more was when his father scooped him up and quickly brought him to the house for medical care. After inspecting his elbow, and some further scolding, Nelson eventually brought Vincent out to the stables, showing him the horses up close and teaching him about proper handling and riding techniques. Vincent knew his father never rode any of the horses, but he showed a gentleness with the beasts he never expected from the man, and the two spent several minutes petting and brushing their coats.
Things changed when Vincent was sent off to boarding school in his teenage years. He was able to make friends with some of the other boys, but he dearly missed home and had to deal with bullying from some of his less tolerant peers. Being a young mixed-race boy in the 1920s, Vincent experienced racism in varying degrees. Some of his teachers outright ignored or neglected him, and a few of his peers made rude and bigoted remarks at him in passing. Vincent was headstrong, refusing to be affected. He did get into a few fights, however, though most of these were in defense of someone else. Eventually, he had a small group of friends that made the experience more tolerable, though he still missed his mother, and felt guilty about being apart from her.
When Vincent was old enough to consider military prospects, his father insisted that he serve. At first, he was intended to enroll in the Royal Military Academy following his formal education, but Vincent didn’t express much interest; he had more inclination for artistic pursuits, but this was quickly discouraged by his father. It was only when Nelson mentioned flight training that Vincent conceded, and at eighteen years old, he enrolled in the Central Flying School. Nelson had to pull some strings, as there were a few minor objections to letting a mixed-race candidate take the course. He would demand his son be given proper recognition, and later, persuaded on Vincent’s behalf that he be made an officer. At the time, only ’natural born or naturalized British subjects of pure European descent’ could be eligible for commissioned positions. Nelson was outraged over this, and made sure Vincent’s heritage was considered entirely English. Vincent, though embarrassed and incensed over the need for this treatment, appreciated his father’s efforts.
Vincent excelled at the flying school, demonstrating a keen knack for basic airmanship skills early on. His first time in an aircraft was rather nerve-wracking, but Vincent was one of the only recruits who wasn’t sick for his first circuit. There was something about being in the air that he came to appreciate; a sense of freedom he rarely felt in his young life.
Graduating at the top of his class, Vincent earned his pilot’s wings after the year-long course, earning the rank of flying officer in the Royal Air Force, the first non-white individual at the time.
For much of the interwar period, the RAF struggled to remain relevant, with frequent defense cuts and the majority of support being allocated to the army and navy.
Vincent participated in several RAF ‘pageants’—annual air shows to garner interest from the public. These shows involved dramatic set pieces, mock battles, massed formation flying, as well as a display of aerobatics—rotations and spins of an aircraft. Vincent had a sturdy stomach, so he was often chosen for these. Their Majesties the King and Queen were in attendance, along with representatives of other royal houses, so it was a major publicity event that championed the air force.
Vincent was also able to travel more frequently during these years, gaining experience in the air while helping to maintain the British Empire. He grew closer to some of his fellow pilots, developing a reputation as a bit of a ‘charmer’. Despite this, Vincent was quite modest with his romantic interests, engaging in short dalliances with only two women during his late 20’s. On more than one occasion, he felt a distinct attraction to some of his male comrades, though he never acted upon it.
Towards the latter half of the decade, with an imminent war on the horizon, investment was returned to the air force, now with a greater emphasis on strategic bombing. In 1938, the first production Spitfire came off the assembly line, the Air Ministry ordering 310 models. Vincent was one of the first test pilots, praising the aircraft for its speed, maneuverability, and firepower.
Following the declaration of war on the 3rd of September 1939, Vincent served with No. 41 Squadron, stationed in RAF Catterick. They spent the first months of the war on routine patrols in the north of England.
In May of 1940, the squadron assisted in the evacuation of Dunkirk, Vincent flying top cover to provide support for the men on the ground.
In July, the squadron headed to the south of England to participate in the first phase of the Battle of Britain. Vincent shot down his first enemy aircraft, one of ten for his squadron, with a further 7 damaged, though they suffered the loss of one of their own pilots.
From September to October, 41 Squadron were in the thick of the Battle of Britain, incurring losses alongside victories. A close friend and fellow pilot of Vincent’s named Paul Daly was killed—a man he’d secretly been harboring feelings for. There had been no way of knowing if those feelings were requited, because Vincent refused to act on the risky impulse of expressing romantic interest in a male comrade. Following Paul’s death, Vincent turned the hardship into vengeance in the air, shooting down more enemy aircraft and earning himself a Distinguished Flying Cross. It was only afterward that he was able to properly acknowledge his grief.
In February of 1941, Vincent’s squadron returned to Catterick for a well-earned break. Vincent was able to arrange for a short visit with his parents, who had been relocated to the Northamptonshire estate to escape the London bombings. His father’s health was ailing at the time, due to a recurring cardiovascular issue, and he was bedridden due to the effects on his limb condition. Vincent was concerned, especially for his mother’s evident stress over caring for his father, on top of dealing with the war. Ida confessed that she worried over Vincent daily, and he tried to assure her that he was being careful. She was brimming with pride when he showed her his cross. Vincent spoke with his father briefly about his exploits, Nelson offering a few short responses, but not appearing overly interested.
In the summer of 1941, the RAF began recruiting airmen from the Caribbean and West African colonies. Vincent was tasked with training some of the black recruits. He ended up bonding with the men, feeling a kinship due to their race and backgrounds. He wrote to his mother about several of the Jamaican recruits, and she was pleased to see him connecting with his heritage.
In May of 1942, Vincent was still serving as a training officer in Essex when he received word of his father’s passing. This came as a shock to Vincent, as he’d previously heard from his mother that Nelson’s health seemed to be improving. He was granted leave, and returned to the family’s summer house to find his mother overwhelmed with grief. Vincent took over and made all the arrangements, sharing one last moment with his father’s body before the funeral. He felt a keen sense of regret in never achieving a proper bond with the man, but most of his concern was now for his mother. Without Nelson, Ida struggled to maintain her status in the family, Nelson’s brother Cecil causing issues by stirring up matters of inheritance. This would escalate after Vincent’s return to duty, and he would discover a year later that the Craft family had evicted Ida from Nelson’s London townhouse, leaving her without accommodation. Vincent was furious and distressed. He appealed for another leave of absence, but was denied due to his squadron being deployed for bomber escorts in France. Vincent sent numerous letters to his mother, finally receiving a reply months later; Ida claimed that she’d found boarding in London and was being taken care of, but Vincent was still distraught over the situation.
On June 6th 1944, Vincent and his squadron provided air support throughout the D-Day landings in Normandy. They would spend the summer targeting V-1s, with postings in France and Germany.
Vincent was finally granted leave in November before his unit was to be shipped to Belgium. He met with his mother in the boarding house she’d been living in, unable to control his fury at the situation. Ida told him not to worry about her, but Vincent had half a mind to track down his uncle and make him pay for what he’d done. Regardless, they managed to enjoy each other’s company while it lasted, Vincent telling Ida abridged stories of some of his daring adventures. He left her a sizeable amount of money from his wages, and promised that he’d return to make things right once the war settled down.
On March 14th 1945, Vincent was sent on a clandestine aerial patrol in the Hesse region of Germany. Forty-five minutes into his circuit, Vincent and the other three pilots in his flight encountered enemy aircraft. They engaged in combat, Vincent managing to swerve to avoid Messerschmitt artillery. After the second pass, however, the right wing of Vincent’s Spitfire had taken heavy fire. A crash was inevitable, but Vincent managed to draw the enemy aircraft away from his comrades, eliminating one of them. Now losing altitude, Vincent attempted to steer his plane into a wider, open field. There was nothing to be done to avoid collision, and so the plane crash-landed on the stretch of grass. Vincent lost consciousness as his head hit the control column.
[⚠️This section contains descriptions of topics that may be considered triggering, such as violence, torture, and references to historical atrocities. Please read at your own discretion.]
Vincent awoke to the feeling of his body being dragged from the wreckage. He was in and out of consciousness for a while, and in a fair amount of pain; the crash had given him a severe concussion and had broken four of his ribs. Distantly, Vincent registered that Germans were carrying him, depositing him in the bed of a truck. He would learn later that his plane was unsalvageable, and his status would be listed as ‘missing in action’ until eventually, ‘presumed dead’.
Vincent had very little recollection of the journey; they’d switched transports twice, and someone with medical knowledge gave him an inspection before he was tossed in the back of another truck. Several hours later, they arrived at a compound. While Vincent had assumed he’d be taken to a POW camp, that wasn’t the case. Upon arrival, he was escorted into a cell in one of the larger buildings. He caught glimpses of other prisoners, and they all appeared to be civilians, of varying ages. The Allies had some awareness of the horrific treatment to which the Jewish population and other minorities were being subjected in Nazi concentration camps; at the time, little was confirmed about the barbaric and inhumane experimentation being done in some of the camps. Vincent attempted to wrestle away from one of the guards once he realized the scope of the situation, but he was struck over the head and collapsed once more.
When he returned to consciousness, Vincent was strapped to a chair, German voices muttering in the background. A man entered the room, whom Vincent would later identify as Untersturmführer Heinrich Stoll, a Nazi officer from Bavaria. Stoll had a passable grasp of English and began interrogating Vincent, the questions largely about his racial background and health. He then began a thorough and invasive physical examination, spending a fair amount of time inspecting Vincent’s teeth. Stoll confessed that he’d been a dentist before joining the SS. He complimented Vincent on his remarkable dental anatomy, then, without warning, grabbed a pair of pliers and ripped out Vincent’s upper right canine. Vincent was in shock, the pain overwhelming. Before he could react, Stoll inserted a damp swab into the hole in his mouth. Whatever substance was on the swab immediately started burning. Vincent cried out, feeling his entire mouth engulfed in electric fire. Stoll sat back and observed while Vincent writhed for twenty minutes. After the intensity died down, Stoll inspected the state of Vincent’s mouth, writing something down in his notes before repeating the entire process with the left canine.
It took two days for Vincent to realize that his teeth had started growing back, a week before they’d reached full growth, now with a slightly sharpened edge.
For the next few weeks, Vincent would undergo various heinous experiments. Several of these were tests involving blood coagulation, and the effects of certain substances on his exposed skin. Stoll was the main supervisor, often performing these horrific tests with little reaction, though he would occasionally give personal anecdotes in between bouts of torture. During one test, all of the skin on Vincent’s left forearm was stripped away, then sprayed with that toxic, burning substance. Stoll then angled the limb to be exposed to sunlight, and Vincent couldn’t refrain from screaming at the pain. All the while, Stoll continued telling him about his favorite festivals in Bavaria. It took three weeks for Vincent’s skin to grow back. Another test involved infecting him with malaria; as the symptoms began to present, Vincent experienced a violent seizure, and was then injected with a diluted dose of the toxic substance and kept under observation. The pain was immense, and Vincent refused to speak or cooperate with Stoll for the next week.
During his time in the camp, Vincent had little interaction with the other prisoners, though he attempted to communicate with them when he could. Many nights, screams could be heard from the other cells. There was a pair of twins two cells down from him, and Vincent deduced that one of them had been chosen to undergo the experiments, while the other was kept as a control. The prisoner next to Vincent’s cell was a Jewish schoolteacher named Samuel, and they were able to communicate a little in a mix of English and German. Samuel had been taken for several experiments, and after one of them, he was returned to his cell with visibly red, bloodshot eyes. Samuel screamed out in pain all night, claiming his eyes were burning. In the morning, it was revealed that his cornea had disintegrated, the entire sclera turning red, leaving him blind. The Nazi guards came and took him away, and Vincent never saw him again.
Once, Vincent caught a glimpse of a prisoner kept in one of the anterior rooms—a young Polish Roma girl who couldn’t have been older than six. He was horrified by the implications, and would later hear the Nazi guards referring to her as ‘nachtengel’, or ‘night angel’. From what Vincent gathered, this girl never underwent any of the gruesome experiments, and was treated as a special guest. He would later hear whisperings of an upcoming ritual of sorts; Vincent’s German was still rusty, but he asked one of the other prisoners to translate, and he surmised that this girl was ‘chosen’ for this ritual, an act that would allow her to ‘ascend’. Vincent caught one more glimpse of the girl as he was being escorted back to his cell, and she had a look in her eyes that he could only describe as haunted.
Evidence recovered from the camp in the days afterward would confirm the cause of the incident that occurred on April 30th 1945—the same day as Hitler’s suicide.
For three years, the camp had operated under an experimental research venture called ‘Projekt Zwielicht’. The experiments were predominantly conducted to study the effects of supernatural elements on human subjects—in most cases, from vampires. The Nazi researchers working towards the project had acquired sizeable amounts of both vampire blood and venom, from unnamed sources. Most tests involved using small, diluted doses to study the impact on human anatomy and physiology. This was a classified operation, and as evidence would suggest, the only camp of its kind.
On the evening of April 30th, the research team prepared a concentrated dose of vampire venom to inject into a human subject. The young Polish Roma girl—who had been identified simply as ‘Agnieszka’—had been taken from her home in Borzęcin, and sent to a concentration camp in early 1944, only five years old at the time. After a series of selective tests, the girl was deemed a worthy candidate and transported to the Zwielicht camp in February of 1945. In preparation for the ritual, the Nazi researchers erected an altar in the main research lab, placing Agnieszka in the center, strapping her down with metal restraints. Just as the sun finished setting, Agnieszka was injected with the full dose of venom. The Nazis observed from a distance as she began to writhe and scream; this lasted several minutes. Suddenly, the girl snapped through the restraints, and within seconds, she had launched herself at one of the researchers, latching onto his neck. What followed was chaos; Agnieszka went on a killing spree, slaughtering at least five of the researchers within a minute. The rest scrambled away, attempting to subdue her or flee. Agnieszka appeared to have enhanced strength and speed, as well as a feral bloodlust, so she continued slaughtering all of the men in her path.
Heinrich Stoll had been one of the witnesses to the event. Upon seeing the carnage, he fled to one of the adjacent research labs with another soldier, though as they were attempting to close the door, the other man was snatched and violently killed. Heinrich managed to barricade the door with some of the lab equipment, cowering in fear as he could hear the sounds of slaughter from outside. In a moment of desperation, he grabbed the second, remaining vial of concentrated vampire venom and injected it into his arm. The result was an agonizing, drawn-out transformation; Agnieszka’s rapid recovery was clearly a fluke, as Heinrich suffered for ten hours as the venom coursed through and mutated him. Overnight, his canine teeth had fallen out and had regrown with sharpened edges. It was near dawn when he awoke again as a vampire.
The first instinct of a newborn exalted vampire is to quench their bloodthirst; if a sample is not given within the first few minutes, the vampire will spin into a violent frenzy. Heinrich was no exception. As soon as he exited the lab, he began feverishly lapping the blood streaks on the floor, but his new physiology craved a fresher source. The camp had been on lockdown since the incident, reports afterward claiming Agnieszka had killed thirty-six individuals before vanishing into the forest. Heinrich approached the prisoner barracks, barging through the locked door with his enhanced strength. He began tearing through the cells, grabbing each prisoner and draining them entirely of blood. He got through six of these before reaching Vincent’s cell.
Unaware of the incident that had occurred the night prior, Vincent was wholly unprepared for the creature that was now wearing Stoll’s skin. He attempted to reason with him at first, but Heinrich appeared animalistic, and easily broke through the bars of his cell. Before he could register it, Heinrich had latched onto the right side of Vincent’s neck, biting down and sucking. Vincent tried and failed to beat him back, feeling mortal terror as his blood rapidly drained. He knew within a matter of seconds that he was going to die. With Heinrich still latched onto his neck, Vincent began to fade and then went limp. Heinrich continued drinking until he drained all of Vincent’s blood.
Afterward, the surviving Nazis cornered Heinrich in the barracks; he’d now had his fill and was beginning to lose the effects of the bloodlust. They brought him in for a more thorough observation, as he was showing signs of coherency. As for the victims, they dumped them all in a pile behind the research facility until arrangements for incineration could be made. The Nazis now focused on shutting down the operation and cutting their losses.
Vincent’s body was disposed of alongside those of his fellow prisoners and the Nazi researchers, a heap of over forty victims. He had been declared dead at 8:46 in the morning on May 1st, following Stoll’s rampage. Each victim had been declared entirely drained of blood, with no indication of cardiovascular or brain activity. Despite this, a small amount of blood remained in Vincent’s system, a volume which, when it finally reacted with the intake of venom in his system, began to slowly course through his circulatory system.
Vincent ‘awoke’ around noon. He was paralyzed, and couldn’t see or breathe. All he felt was an astonishing shock of agony. Eventually, some of his senses returned, and he registered that he was stacked on top of several bodies, right under the twins. Attempting to move elicited a torrent of pain. He could hear himself croaking, but couldn’t scream, even as the venom scorched like fire in his veins. That pain only intensified as the sun cast down on the pile, and Vincent realized his exposed skin was burning. He managed to move slightly, angling his face away from the light, but he still experienced third-degree burns on his left arm and the back of his neck. His canine teeth fell out, and he could feel them regrowing through his gums. There was a constant, electrical shock running through his whole system, as if he could feel his body convulsing between life and death. Vincent couldn’t be sure how long the process lasted; he was sure it was longer than a lifetime, but in reality, the transformation reached completion in no less than sixteen hours.
Just before midnight heralded the 2nd of May, Vincent emerged from the pile of bodies, a freshly exalted vampire.
Since Vincent had been virtually drained of his blood, he was considerably weaker than he would have been at full capacity. It took him a while to move properly and stumble into the nearby forest. The bloodthirst was overwhelming him, and his mind was not quite his own. There was a presence in his head, the voice and essence of Heinrich Stoll. Vincent would later learn this was a soul bond between a vampire and its paragon—the vampire who turned them. In established vampire culture, a paragon would turn a human, making them their emanation; through a blood ritual in which the emanation would drink from their paragon, the soul bond would be enhanced, enough to enable full body and mind control. Since Vincent hadn’t performed this with Heinrich, their bond was less intact. Nevertheless, Vincent began to hear Heinrich’s voice intruding in his head, sporadic thoughts and motives overlapping his own.
To suppress his thirst, Vincent hunted and killed wild deer, drinking from them to restore some of his strength. It hadn’t fully satisfied the bloodlust, but Vincent lingered in the forest until nightfall, battling the internal rage until he was prepared to return to the camp. All the while, impressions of Heinrich flitted through his mind, and he honed in on that presence enough to track the man.
When Vincent snuck back into the camp, it was already being decommissioned. Some of the personnel had remained, so Vincent’s feral instincts took over, and he slaughtered each one that crossed his path. Finding Heinrich wasn’t difficult; he was being kept in the main research lab, under a full medical inspection for his new vampire abilities. Vincent stormed into the lab, killing the remaining researchers before reaching Heinrich. The Nazi officer showed no surprise at Vincent’s arrival. He stated calmly that he felt his presence, and had been waiting to see if he’d join Heinrich soon thereafter. Vincent was still seething with wrath, but the voice in his head kept intruding, trying to convince him to drink Heinrich’s blood to complete their soul bond. Vincent resisted, taking his rage out on destroying the lab equipment. Heinrich continued trying to convince him to join him in this new cause—a vampire regime that would take over Europe. Between Heinrich’s monologue and the constant barrage in his head, Vincent was beginning to spiral mentally. Yet, underneath it all, he clung to the part of his soul he was able to recognize as his own—a memory of stargazing with his mother, hearing her soft voice singing a lullaby. Vincent embraced that feeling, able to briefly snap out of the spell. Within the span of seconds, he surged forward, wrapping his hands around Heinrich’s neck as he ripped his head off.
Uncertain if the vampire was truly dead, Vincent doused Heinrich in petrol and set fire to him. This set off a painful flash in his mind, so he assumed it had been enough. Vincent then went about scouring the research lab, taking stock of the documents before burning everything, including the buildings, to the ground. After, he made sure to dig a proper burial site for the bodies of the prisoners. As for the ‘nachtengel’ Agnieszka, all evidence suggested she had disappeared after the attack, and though Vincent spent some time searching, he never caught sight of her again.
Vincent returned to the forest, still struggling to overcome his dark urges, but he lurked around nearby villages in the aftermath of the incident. It was in one of these villages that Vincent overheard news of Germany’s surrender—May 8th 1945, seven days after his transformation. The war was over in Europe.
Following Heinrich’s death, Vincent had assumed that the voice in his head would also vanish. But that wasn’t the case; remnants of Heinrich’s soul continued intruding on his thoughts, a lingering impression of the Nazi left behind in his mind. Vincent eventually mastered controlling this presence, but in the early days, it was difficult to ignore. He felt like he was going insane half the time, and on top of that, his bloodlust was overwhelming. Vincent spent the first weeks following his transformation drinking from animals, but eventually, he started tracking fleeing Nazis and killing them indiscriminately.
Securing passage back to England proved difficult. There was a fair amount of disorder and uncertainty after Germany’s surrender. Vincent had stalked nearby Ally bases at nighttime, but he knew his vampiric presence would be too complicated to explain, so he kept his distance. Eventually, he made his way north to the British occupation zone. By this point, he had pawned off some Nazi valuables, so he was able to bribe his way onto a boat sailing for Britain, under the guise of a blinded veteran returning home; he wore sunglasses to hide his red eyes, and used a file to flatten the edges of his sharpened teeth.
By now, it was September, four months after the incident that turned Vincent into a vampire. Despite the inner turmoil he was experiencing, Vincent’s first priority was to locate his mother and attempt to explain everything about his predicament. But when he inquired at the boarding house, he’d learned that she’d been taken to a sanatorium; having received the news of Vincent’s ‘presumed dead’ status, Ida couldn’t cope with the shock. She’d quickly deteriorated, falling ill over the summer. Vincent managed to track her whereabouts, arriving at the sanatorium to find his mother in a very poor state. As a black immigrant, Ida had not been given prioritized treatment, and Vincent was appalled at the conditions. He approached his mother cautiously, but she appeared delirious, not recognizing him at first. He sat and held her hand, talking with her a bit. There were a few moments where she seemed lucid enough to remember his name, but she kept going on about how her brave son had died. Vincent spent the whole night full of grief and regret. He returned for three more evenings, but on the fourth night, he’d been told that Ida had passed in her sleep.
Vincent was inconsolable, and the intense emotion triggered a response inside of him. He went to see his mother’s body one last time, but by then, the feral, dark vampiric energy began taking over. He spent the night hunting, drinking from would-be criminals, and a few innocent victims. The rage was consuming him, coupled with Heinrich’s influence goading him towards violence. Vincent stormed over to the Craft London residence, convinced that if his uncle and family were there, he would slaughter them on the spot. But they weren’t there, and instead, Vincent began ransacking the place, securing some of the family’s heirlooms and beloved keepsakes before destroying much of the rest. He loaded the items into one of his father’s old cars, and hid them securely for safekeeping.
Vincent lost track of time for a few months. Underneath his rage, he sensed another presence—similar to Heinrich’s, but with a fully intact spark. It took a while for him to identify this presence, but once he became more aware of it, it began to feel like a lure. When he was able to mentally ‘speak’ to the voice, it offered him much-needed guidance. It had been clear that Vincent’s post-transformation life had been difficult, and the challenges of coping with his vampiric traits were too challenging without proper principles. This voice—naming itself as Antonella—began to influence Vincent, controlling his emotions, and guiding him towards her location.
In March of 1946, Vincent secured passage to Italy, drawn to an unknown location by this presence in his head.
Vincent followed the psychic influence all the way to a remote village outside of Naples. From there, he approached a gated villa, two guards emerging out of the shadows. They questioned Vincent’s motives, and despite having no prior knowledge of the language, Vincent was able to answer in perfect Italian. He was then escorted into the expansive property, where a woman was awaiting him in the courtyard.
She introduced herself as Donna Antonella, the Lady of Casa Attorcigliata. Vincent was immediately stricken by her intense aura and beauty. She allowed him to kiss her hand, and then told him she’d been waiting for him. Vincent confessed that he’d been hearing her in his head, and Antonella explained that that was because she was his grand-paragon—the next vampire in his bloodline. Vincent briefly explained the circumstances of his transformation, describing how his paragon, Heinrich, had injected himself with a vial of venom. Antonella expressed anger. She brought Vincent to a secluded shrine in one of the buildings, showing him an altar with two opulent chalices—one filled with blood, the other with a shimmery, translucent liquid. Antonella explained that this was the sangue immortale, a sacramental offering that sanctified her status as the head of the household. The chalices contained her own personal blood and venom for safekeeping. She told Vincent that her previous offering had been stolen over a year ago, likely the work of a rival clan. Eventually, her venom ended up in the hands of the Nazis.
Vincent admitted that there was still much for him to learn about the ways of the vampire, and he beseeched Antonella to teach him. She agreed to let him live in the Casa, under the condition that he perform a blood ritual to secure their soul bond, and become a member of the recollective—a clan of vampires who shared her bloodline. Vincent, largely under her mental influence, agreed.
That night, under the moonlight, Vincent drank from Antonella’s wrist. The result was a heady, feverish sort of intoxication. He began to lose sense of what was his and what was hers, their thoughts and souls intertwined. It felt as if he couldn’t control himself, but he didn’t even want to; all he wanted was to feel what Antonella felt. After letting him drink once more, Antonella lured Vincent into bed, and the two had passionate sex throughout the night.
The following day, Vincent was formally inducted into the recollective.
Vincent learned many things regarding vampire customs during those first few years in Casa Attorcigliata. Arguably, the most important was discovering the Axiom.
According to tradition, there is an original vampire called the Master. The Master created vampires in their image, and thus shares a bloodline and neural-soul connection with all vampire-kind. To achieve a connection with the Master, a human must undergo the Strange Exaltation, the process of transforming into a vampire. Upon survival of the exaltation, a new vampire will likely be taken in by a recollective of the same bloodline. These like-minded vampires will share an Axiom.
The Axiom is a representation of the Master’s Will. It is a sacred set of principles and beliefs that act as a foundational creed for vampires. Connecting with an Axiom on a personal level requires intense reflection and trance-like meditation. Some vampires claim to have a firmer grasp on their Axiom, while others will rarely experience its influence at all.
The interpretation of an Axiom has been the main cause of division amongst vampires—for what is meant to be the indisputable truth of the Master, the cultural exegesis of disagreeing vampires has brought about conflicting, tribal identities. There are many different interpretations, but most vampires will find themselves aligning with one of the seven main branches, called the Seven Scions. For each Scion, there exists a common purpose and emphasis on certain behaviors and actions.
The Axiom, and recollective, followed by Donna Antonella and her bloodline was called the Serpent’s Call. In a broad sense, this Axiom gives vampires the impression of envy toward humans; they believe that humans don’t deserve to live mortal, enriched lives, and are covetous of their non-vampiric qualities. As such, vampires under this branch will often present personality traits resembling jealousy, insecurity, stubbornness, and overprotectiveness. Their common cause relates to pursuing ways of taking back from humans, and enacting revenge on those who have wronged them. The Axiom establishes vampirism as a burden rather than a blessing, and many of the rival branches view this as extremely offensive.
Upon joining the recollective, Vincent participated in deep meditation, attempting to bond with the internal tether that led back to the Master. Due to the unorthodox nature of his transformation—through ‘artificial envenoming’ via Heinrich’s method—Vincent did not develop a strong connection to this supposed Axiom. He was uncertain at the time if he’d be able to properly connect at all, but with Antonella’s urging, and more blood rituals, Vincent began to form an opinion that aligned with hers, whether this was the ‘Axiom’ or his grand-paragon’s own influence.
Though he knew little of the woman’s history at first, Vincent came to understand that Antonella had been born in the 1600s in the Kingdom of Naples. She lost her entire family, including several children, to the plague of 1656. A mysterious stranger turned her into a vampire, and she then spent the next several centuries gaining influence and power, becoming the head of her current recollective.
Antonella expressed a keen sense of envy towards the humans in their vicinity, particularly for young and beautiful individuals. She would occasionally invite these human guests to the villa for banquets and ‘entertainment’. For vampires, a policy of secrecy was always enforced; they were never permitted to reveal their vampirism, and used various methods to conceal their true natures. Antonella had procured a special vapor to be sprayed into the eyes, turning the red color into a neutral brown. It was speculated that she’d contracted the services of a witch, exceedingly rare.
By this point, Vincent was entirely under Antonella’s influence. There were some periods where he had no recollection of what had occurred for days, sometimes weeks. Under this spell, Antonella used Vincent to lure some of the young, attractive townsfolk during these banquets into the bedroom, where she would then drink from them, hoping to cultivate their youth and beauty, even letting Vincent engage in the act. Vincent had blank gaps in his memory for these moments, and had no free will to protest when Antonella took control of his mind and body.
Almost all vampires go through a transitional period that lasts about as long as their previous lifespan. This Second Cycle is often where a vampire exhibits the most intense, primal expression of their new nature. Previous personality traits become exaggerated; a corrupt individual would become more wicked, a resentful individual would become more vindictive, etc. A vampire is often the most aggressive, yet unstable, during this period.
For Vincent, his thirst for vengeance could not be easily sated. During the post-war era, he and a group of others in the recollective began hunting down Nazis and war criminals. They spent years tracking down the perpetrators who had escaped justice, traveling across Europe and even to South America to see that they paid for their crimes. This became an increasingly violent operation; Vincent carried out some particularly gruesome torture and execution for many of the more heinous criminals. He felt the presence of Heinrich revolting in his mind, but he used that rage to fuel him further, giving in to the dark urges and embracing all of the power and passion of his new nature. Instead of clinging to what made him human, Vincent became entirely obsessed with revenge, and felt like his bloodlust could never be sated.
Throughout, Vincent remained held under Antonella’s spell. The gaps in his memory continued, until he came to realize that so much of his time had vanished without him realizing it. There were only rare moments where his true self would come to the surface, leaving him briefly horrified at what he had become before the bloodlust took over again. The only thing that could potentially pull him out was that flash of a memory of his mother singing, but it was getting harder and harder to hold onto.
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