Chapter Text
"Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong." Says the mantra repeating in Meredith's head; over and over, banging the interior of her skull like a hammer as she is filled with certain dread. She tries to shake the feeling, breathing in deeply as the elevator takes her down into the lobby. She exhales as the doors open, tightening her grip on her coat.
"It's nothing - you're fine. Everything is fine." She whispers in the attempt to silence the overbearing paranoia. All she needs to do is go find Derek and they can leave together - they'll have a nice night, Derek will refuse to stay over again out of some distorted sense of chivalry and Meredith will sleep soundly in her sheets. Tomorrow will be a new day - preferably, one where Meredith doesn't feel overwhelmed with the feeling she's going to die tonight.
She catches a glimpse of Derek on the other side of the lobby; he balances a laptop on his leg while looking at a paper folder in the opposing hand. She sighs, slowly walking over to greet him when she is stopped in her tracks.
"Excuse me! You wouldn't by chance know where the Urology wing is, would you?" Asks the man in front of her. Once again, Meredith can't help but feel uneasy; something about him is deeply unsettling. He wears a pristine, vintage suit, nimble-looking fingers fiddling with the buttons of the blazer; his smile looks practiced - almost painted on, mannerisms more akin to an imitation of a person rather than someone genuine.
Meredith swallows, "Oh, uh-" She stutters, looking behind herself only to turn her head back and make eye contact with the man, "-the Urology wing is-"
"Follow me." The man says, an unmistakable predatory glint in his eye.
She feels like a prisoner in her own body - she wants to fight, to run, to yell obscenities - but instead she feels herself saying "Sure." before blacking out.
She comes to on cold floor, the night air hitting her lungs as a hard wall digs into her back. Meredith blinks frantically, looking up to see the man sitting on the ground opposite to her.
"And so, the childe awakens. But what's this? She's not alone! Will our courageous heroine escape death's clutches, or will she succumb to her fate? Tune in next week to find out!"
"What the fuck?" Meredith whispers, scrambling to her feet.
His smile falters, eyes widening mockingly. "This is the part where you run, little lamb - you'd be crazy not to."
He's right - she should run... So why can't she? Why are her legs stuck in place, knees shaking as her heart pounds in her ears? She tries to move - to run, to hide, to scream - but fear paralyses her completely.
He grins wolfishly, slowly rising to his feet; he gets close enough for her to see the long, sharp fangs in place of his canine teeth.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you."
She can barely manage to whisper her next words. "What the-"
"Welcome to the family, little lamb."
He sinks his teeth into the side of her neck and Meredith is filled with pure bliss. She's being born, she's being made love to, she's being buried. Her eyes roll into the back of her head as pure, unadulterated ecstasy overtakes her and she lets out a shameful moan as he drains her dry. She doesn't notice the blood leaving her body until he stops, gently licking her neck to close the bite wounds before he takes a razor blade to slice his finger tip, hanging it above her lips.
"Drink." He says.
Her vision trembles as a drop falls onto her tongue: sharp, metallic and bitter-sweet. The aftertaste makes her scrunch her nose as she passes out.
Her body is on fire. Every inch of her skin burns and she wakes up feeling the life draining out of her; it's euphoric, in a way - the overwhelming feeling of complete stimulation unlike anything Meredith has ever experienced. Her skin scratches against the grass beneath her and she sits up in a panic, frantically scanning her surroundings. All around her stand tall, wide trees - moonlight hitting her through the branches.
"Pine trees?" Meredith whispers.
"Douglas Fir, actually." says a voice.
She startles, a small squeal escaping her mouth. "Who said that?!"
"Relax, little lamb. I'm not out there. I'm here with you. I'll always be with you."
"This isn't real. This can't be real. What the fuck?"
"Like I said, welcome to the family."
A wave of information fills her head all at once - a trailer to the west inhabited by a dog and an orchid mantis, barking and chirping at each other in fury, the river on the east flowing towards a lake, the smell of blood to the north, the-
"Blood?" Meredith whispers.
An overwhelming hunger grips her - a hunger so intense she feels like she's going to die if she forgoes it any longer. She can't think of anything else, it overtakes her mind completely as she stumbles forward. She hears it before she sees it: a pained cry - distinctly animal. The smell of blood fills her nostrils and under any other circumstances Meredith would panic at the fact that it is making her salivate gleefully; instead, all of her attention is on the cowering deer before her, leg stuck in a trap. She blinks, canine teeth extending and sharpening in her mouth as she lets out a quiet hiss. The deer stares at her, eyes wide and frozen in place. She pounces before she can think, biting into the deer's neck and beginning to drink. The deer relaxes, leaning into Meredith's touch as warm, foul-tasting blood fills her mouth. One part of her wants to retch, another part is filled with a pleasure more intense than she has ever known.
The deer grows cold in her arms, collapsing into her as reason returns and she realises what she's done. Meredith drops the carcass, blood dripping down her chin as tears prick in the corners of her eyes - her dead lungs spasm as she draws breath for the first time since waking up, hyperventilating as she wipes her eyes only to see blood.
"What the fuck?"
Rather than transparent, salty tears filming the back of her hands, the unmistakably bittersweet aroma of blood - much like the blood of the man in the pin-striped suit - fills her nostrils as a deep red covers her fingers; her vision swims with red as even more tears well up.
"Go west - find the feral and the aesthete." The voices whisper.
Meredith covers her ears. "Shut up! You're not real! It's just a dream! A really vivid, really terrifying dream!"
The voices laugh, "Then why can't you wake up?"
She groans, trailing onwards as the voices go silent once again.
The pain begins as a metal trailer comes into view - a burning sensation in her chest that rises up to her throat, nausea beginning to seep into her bones. An all too familiar white Land Rover is parked out front next to a bright red vintage Porsche. She walks over to the cars, moving to pass them before a sultry voice fills her ears.
"And just where do you think you're going?"
Meredith rolls her eyes. "What is it this time?" She grumbles, looking around in hopes of finding the source of the talking.
"Over here!" The Porsche calls.
Meredith blinks at the car - cherry red paint job glistening in the moonlight, top pinned down behind the seats. "The car? I'm talking to a car?"
"Maybe you are - or maybe it's just the easiest way for your brain to process all of... whatever it is that's happening to you."
"Do you know what's happening to me?"
The Porsche laughs, "Well of course I do, sweetie. But where's the fun in telling you?"
Meredith wipes her face and sighs. "Seriously? Seriously?"
"Hey, look - it's not all bad! There is plenty of enjoyment to be savoured from this new existence of yours!"
"Like what?"
"Well for one, you'll never be short of company."
Meredith huffs, crossing her arms defiantly. "What if I want to be alone?"
The Porsche sighs, "Oh, Meredith... You & I both know that alone is the last thing you ever want to be."
Shame floods her chest - she tries to argue. "That's bullshit."
"Really? Then what have you been doing for the last two months playing a sociosexual game of cat and mouse with your attending?"
Meredith opens her mouth to respond before quickly shutting it again.
The Land Rover snorts, "Damn, she's got you dead to rights."
"A second talking car? Are you fucking kidding me?" Meredith lashes.
"Woah, hey! Calm down, lady! Let's all just relax a little, alright? You wanna hear a joke?"
"Is it the one with the tuna again?" The Porsche asks.
"No, it's a different one." The Land Rover.
Meredith shrugs, "Sure, I guess. I would love my boyfriend's talking car to tell me a joke."
"Okay, so a bear is stuck in a trap, right? Can't get out at all. The more the bear tries to get out of the trap, the more it hurts itself. Then, a hunter comes across the bear. Now, the hunter, she sees the way the bear's growling and bearing its teeth and decides to sit next to the bear - just far away enough to not get hit by the bear and eventually, the bear finally gives up and lies down, defeated - only for the hunter to free it from the trap."
"...I don't get it."
The Land Rover groans, "Of course you don't. Serves me right for using my best material on crazy dead ladies."
"What?"
The Land Rover doesn't respond. Something tells her it never will again.
The nausea is beginning to distract her as she walks over to the trailer door - muffled voices bleeding through the walls as Meredith's stomach churns in a vice; the pain has become blinding. She frantically bangs on the door with a blood-covered palm and it opens moments later. Derek stands before her, eyes wide with shock.
"Meredith? What happened?"
"Oh God, Derek! I don't know what's going on!" Meredith sobs, clinging to him for dear life. "There was - there was this guy in the lobby and he made me - he made me follow him into an alley? I couldn't control my own body and he - he said something about lambs and he bit me and I woke up in the woods and everything hurts. I think I - I think I just killed a deer? I drank its blood, it was awful and then your car started talking to me and there's these-"
She looks up from his chest to face him only to see a flash of red in her peripheral. Turning her head, Meredith sees a woman she's never seen before, long red hair falling onto a sleek, black dress with a matching fur coat discarded on the bed. The woman stares at Meredith with sharp green eyes and she's unsure of whether to shrink under her scrutinising gaze or stare further into the abyss of the woman's pupils.
Derek prickles from underneath her touch, quickly to moving to stand between Meredith and the other woman. "Oh, wow - uh - I'm really sorry this is how you two meet, uh... Meredith, this is Addison. Addison... this is Meredith."
Addison clenches her jaw, eyes flicking down Meredith's (no doubt utterly disheveled) figure. "You must be the woman who's been screwing my husband." She greets, outstretching a hand as she gazes at Meredith condescendingly.
"He's married?" One voice cries.
"He left her for you? Talk about a downgrade." Another chides.
Humiliation. A total, complete and utter ego death. She should scream. Or cry. Or maybe just kill her. Pure, unbridled rage courses through Meredith's veins - she bares her teeth as fangs jut out once again and hisses, ready to pounce- only for a final wave of nausea to course through her instead.
"Oh, fuck." Meredith whispers, reaching a hand over her mouth and rushing to the trailer's cramped little bathroom.
Her throat burns in agony as she vomits into the toilet, blinking at the putrid, red abyss before her.
"Is that... blood?" Meredith coughs, only to quickly begin the process all over again.
Long, delicate fingers trail through her hair between retches, nails scratching her scalp as Addison gently holds her hair in place.
"Careful, you're gonna get your hair in there." Addison mutters, using her free hand to rub Meredith's upper back reassuringly.
She hears shuffling from the other side of the trailer as Derek speaks. "Did you seriously have to provoke her into a frenzy?" He grumbles.
"I didn't think it was going to be that offensive to her!"
"How? Were you that wrapped up in your dramatic fantasy?"
"Is this seriously the time you want to have this conversation, Derek? While your fledgeling girlfriend is getting rid of her stomach lining?"
Meredith lifts her head from the bowl. "What?"
Addison grimaces, "Oh, you don't know... um - look, just try not to get your stomach acid all over my shoes, please. These are Louboutins."
Derek scoffs, "Your shoes! Of course you're only worried about your shoes right now - typical!"
"They were six-hundred dollars."
"Does that impress the other degenerates?"
"We can't all be flannel wearing, wood chopping farmers!"
"I'd rather be a picky eater than a blood-sucking hooker!"
Meredith coughs as she finally raises her head, gingerly wiping her mouth and turning to face the other two. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Addison's eyes narrow as she tilts her head. "Oh, wow - you really don't know, do you?"
"Know what?"
Derek and Addison freeze, quickly looking to each other wide-eyed; she gesticulates, he shrugs.
Addison sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. "There's no easy way to say this, but... you're a vampire."
"What?"
"You're a vampire. A blood-drinking creature of the night; and we should know because, well - we're vampires." Derek states.
Meredith's jaw drops. No, she thinks, he must be lying. This is a dream, or a joke, or some kind of elaborate, definitely illegal hidden camera show. She can't possibly be a vampire, right? She gulps, mind going into overdrive trying to put the pieces together: she was bitten, she drank blood, she hasn't been breathing this whole time and she's fairly certain if she checked her own pulse right now she wouldn't feel anything. Then, she finally processes it: Derek just called himself a vampire.
"You're - you're a vampire? This whole time?" Meredith croaks.
"Well, we call each other kindred but-"
Derek cuts Addison off. "Yeah. I am. I'm a vampire."
The confession hits her like a slap to the face. She swallows, "You've been lying to me this whole time?"
"Meredith-"
"Oh my God - did you drink my blood?"
"Meredith-"
"You drank my blood, didn't you?"
"I-" Derek sighs, wiping his face with his hands. "A few times, yeah."
Addison scoffs, "But I'm the blood-sucking prostitute?"
"I never drank it consistently, though - I only did it when I was desperate or hungry."
"You still drank her blood, Der." Addison chimed.
He turns to face her pointing at her frustratedly. "The ice you're on? Thin."
Meredith rubs her eyes - the stress of the last several hours has begun to give her a headache. When she opens her eyes again, she's presented with a different scene to what came before. In place of Derek and Addison, Meredith sees the same dog and orchid mantis from earlier. She opens her mouth to speak, but finds herself at a loss for words. The mantis holds up a foreleg in front of the dog, turning to face Meredith; the dog in turn looks to Meredith, tilting its head to the side as an inquisitive whine escapes its mouth.
"Hey, so uh - are hallucinations a vampire thing too or did I just... lose my mind?" Meredith asks, closing her eyes shut and hesitantly opening them again.
Addison's (not an orchid mantis, just Addison) eyebrows shoot up her forehead. "You're a Malkavian? Fuck!"
"Malkavian?"
Derek clears his throat. "Not all kindred are... created equal, so to speak. This - uh - condition effects us all differently depending on us as individuals and who embraced us-"
"Turned us into... what we are." Addison clarifies.
Derek rolls his eyes. "There are a bunch of different types of kindred - clans, if you will. Some of us are pretentious snobs-"
"Or budget werewolves-" Addison hisses.
"-or, uh - in your case... lunatics."
Meredith chuckles dryly. "I'm sorry?"
Addison grimaces, "Every clan has a curse - a secondary curse, really, to the whole vampirism thing - that sets them uniquely apart from the others. Some of us are naturally a little better at certain things than others and different types of people are embraced into different clans." She clears her throat, pointing towards herself. "Toreador - my clan - are... very fixated on beauty and aesthetics to the point where we sometimes get... completely swept up in it and can't focus on anything else." She swallows, then pointing to Derek. "Gangrel are more closely in touch with their instincts - we call it 'The Beast', the impulse to hunt, feed and kill - and are usually a bit more... animalistic, though through no fault of their own."
Derek begrudgingly nods.
Addison continues, "Malvakians, to their credit, have a very unique insight on the world - they see things through new perspectives, letting them be prophets of a sort... but they have that different perspective because well, they're insane."
"Oh." Meredith says.
"How has..." Derek trails, gesturing vaguely to his own head. "That been going for you?"
Meredith swallows, "It's - it's going... your car told me a really bad joke."
Addison and Derek glance at each other, both grimacing.
"Is that bad? Like, even for a Mal-whatever?"
"It could be worse." Addison assures.
"A lot worse." Derek affirms.
A beat. Derek shuffles to the fridge, opening it and taking out a blood bag. He looks to Meredith sympathetically. "Hungry?"
Addison shudders. "Bags? Eugh."
"They're for emergencies." Derek grumbles.
"Where did you get that?" Meredith asks.
Derek grabs a pair of scissors, cutting the top off of the tubing. "The blood bank. Don't worry, it's just A positive - easy to replace."
Meredith gulps, "You want me to - to drink that?"
Addison squints, "Strange. You're not immediately going for it?"
"Why would I?"
Derek sighs, fiddles with the cut-off part of the blood bag's tubing. "Usually after we're embraced we're starving. First time we see blood-"
"We go a little nuts. We call it frenzy."
Warm, short fur and the smell of cold steel flashes through Meredith's mind. "I drank a deer. It was in a bear trap, or something."
Derek tsks. Addison raises an eyebrow at him.
"That was my dinner." Derek bemoans.
Addison snorts - the gnawing, aching hunger grips Meredith into a vice once again.
"I'll - take the blood bag." Meredith mutters.
Derek gently hands it to her as Addison scrunches her nose in contempt. Meredith holds it gently, careful not to grip it too hard and make a mess. She wraps her lips around the tubing, slowly drinking the cold, stale blood. If the deer's blood was foul, the bagged blood is simply bland. Meredith swallows hesitantly, slowly emptying the bag in her hands.
"Huh." Addison says.
"What?"
"That's - palatable for you?"
"It's fine? Tastes like nothing, really."
Derek waves a dismissive hand in Addison's direction. "Ignore her. She's just jealous because she can't keep it down."
"You can barely keep it down." Addison argues.
He raises his hands in mock surrender.
Meredith looks down at the empty bag in her hands. "Why do I still feel hungry?"
For the first time, Addison looks tired - maybe even devastated; the mask only slips for a second, however, before she quickly composes herself again.
"The beast is... insatiable. The only way to shut it up-"
"Is to kill someone." Derek finishes.
Tears prick up at the corners of Meredith's eyes - Addison silently offers her a black handkerchief, Monogrammed A.M.
"I have to - I... what?" Meredith sobs, furiously wiping her eyes only for the handkerchief to acquire a thin layer of blood over the top.
"You don't have to - really, you shouldn't. The more you give in to The Beast, the more it tries to take you over until-"
"-until you're a mindless, ravenous beast that kills everyone in sight and gets put down like a rabid animal." Addison finishes.
Derek glares at Addison before giving Meredith a tight smile. "It's a balancing act."
Meredith sighs, "So, what? Am I just like this... forever now?"
Addison's gaze softens, Derek looks down at the floor.
Addison clicks her tongue. "I mean - it's not all bad? We're not like the vampires you see in movies."
Derek nods, "Garlic is useless."
"Crosses also - unless the person holding it is really religious, but that's rare these days." Addison adds, an uncharacteristic nervousness in her eyes.
"What about wooden stakes? Or running water?" Meredith asks.
"Stakes aren't lethal - they do paralyse you if they get you in the heart, though." Derek says.
"Running water is harmless - we still bathe, we're not animals." Addison adds, before chuckling to herself. "Well, maybe not the Nosferatu."
Derek snorts, giving her a high five.
Meredith nods slowly. "Okay - so is there anything that does hurt us?"
Derek nods, "Sunlight - that's a big one."
"Ashes in seconds." Addison adds.
"Fire is more of the same." Derek says.
Addison grimaces, "Extensive head trauma too - decapitation or say, a shotgun blast to the face."
"We call it 'final death' because technically we're already dead."
Meredith sighs, "Cool. Great. I always wanted to work nights." She quips.
Addison's face dawns in sudden realisation. "Oh! Right! This is the really important part, actually: you can't let anyone know that you're kindred. Or that we exist, for that matter."
"No one?" Meredith asks.
"Not a soul. Pretty much the only universal rule we have is the masquerade - not letting humans know that we're real because they could very easily kill us all."
Derek clenches his jaw. "There are some exceptions, but those exceptions are usually only for people with high standing - even then it's pretty dangerous and you're just putting a target on that poor person's back. Especially if you didn't ask the Prince for permission."
Meredith raises an eyebrow. "The Prince? What is this, the dark ages?"
"They're usually from the dark ages." Derek jokes.
Addison rolls her eyes. "We're governed by a group called the Camarilla - the Prince is basically the kindred mayor of any given city. If you wanna leave the city, enter the city or embrace someone the Prince usually has to hear about it and approve of it."
Derek's eyes narrow in contemplation. "Wait - who is your sire?"
"My sire?"
"The one who embraced you." Addison supplies.
"I uh - I don't know. Blonde - creepy blue eyes, wore a suit from twenty years ago, really unsettling. He led me into an alley? I think? Took over my mind, kinda - then I woke up in the woods."
The other two freeze - glancing at each other; Derek's features remain impassive, Addison's eyes betray her panic.
"No." Derek barks.
"Derek-"
"No! We're not inserting ourselves into this! For all we know the guy's gonna come back tomorrow and do it himself."
"Then why the second location? She woke up here! She hasn't seen him since!"
Derek opens his mouth to argue before sighing, snapping it shut. "Fine."
"What are you guys talking about?" Meredith asks.
Addison and Derek glare at each other, Derek speaking first. "We need to see the Prince."