ME: So...this is just a sample chapter. No one has probably read this story before, but I had it up for nearly a year. I decided to post this to see how the story will be taken. This was originally named "Identity." I deleted it all off Fictionpress because a relative of mine found my account by fluke chance, and nearly 13 chapters of it were written, 12 posted.

So, if you read this first chapter, you might find that things move very fast. This is another role play story from my pal, Genesis Rose! But this story did not turn out so well as Azure Sky did. (Because I had a direction that the story was not taking, and I stopped it out of frustration. It's hard to explain, but...oh well.) I assure you, once we move past the two-person written storyline, things slow down a bit. (But not too much!) The middle of this story is most likely the best, seeing as the beginning is a bit bumpy and well...the ending is written yet!

So if you read, please review. I'm not asking for super-dooper intelletual in-deepth strip downs of the stories entire plot, just a casual "Hey, it sucked, you ding-dong," for the shy ones and maybe some typo alerts from the good readers. But...I'd like really good reviews too...so if you'd be so kind...

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

Preface

Something dark is going to grip the world. Humans aren't alone anymore. Man is being slaughtered by vampires…vampires are being eradicated by something even worse. And to make matters worse, we're never going to see it coming.

Allies are going to be hard to find…but enemies will be around every corner.

The Value Of Blood

Chapter One

Verde pushed Leah up against the brick wall of the high school.

"Verde…" She gasped.

He pushed more air out of her, a casual smile on his face.

"Shh…this will only take a moment." He murmured. Seizing a handful of her blond hair, he tilted her head up, exposing her neck. He inched closer, smelling the sweet fragrance of her peach perfume.

"Ver…"

His white fangs punctured her neck, straight into her juggler vein. Soon fresh blood ran down his throat, refreshing him. It was the first time in weeks that he had fed. He left his former girlfriend's body in a lifeless heap on the ground, as he walked away, concealing his fangs.

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

Far away, Synapse woke.

He sensed cool fluid surrounding his entire body. Slowly, his dark eyelashes parted, revealing deep gray eyes, full of malice. The tube in his mouth and ran down his throat, nourishing his developing mind with fresh oxygen. He was being suspended in a tank by wires inserted under the skin into his arms, back, neck and head, and vibrant strands of electricity flowed down them. Every time the electricity struck him, new information was encoded into his brain.

His entire mind was slowly being pieced together in a dark, inhuman work of science.

He gazed through the glass walls of his circular prison at a girl. Her face was pressed against the glass and her eyes were filled with thrill, and wonder. He watched her, taking in all her features an adding them with the rest of the information he was receiving.

For a while they stared at one another, until suddenly the lights flickered off. Synapse's eyes burned, until suddenly the darkness came through to him as clear daylight, and the sensation faded. His eyes scanned the entire room with killer's precision.

His eyes alighted on a man stalking behind her. He was dressed in a dirty gray shirt, and his sunken eyes were suddenly covered with night vision goggles. The girl looked about her, frightened. She turned to face the direction of the man, keen to his footsteps.

Synapse watched the distraught man's actions intently. He yelled something, but Synapse could not hear through the thick glass.

The man raised a gun.

Synapse recognized it as being a weapon to kill. Light flickered for only a moment from the barrel of the weapon as the bullet was fired. Black blood seeped from the girl's back. She turned towards Synapse, and he could see a bullet wound in her chest. She fell against the glass, smearing crimson and gray blood across it.

The man approached Synapse's container. He was somewhat tall, with light brown hair that was flecked with gray. His expression was torn between fury and grief. He removed the goggles.

Synapse was drawn back to the girl as she staggered to her hands and knees, fazed but alive. The emotion worry was drawn across her face. Perfect time to attack, then kill, Synapse analyzed. He went trough the proper motions in his mind,

Left juggler…use upper hand to attack straight on…puncture with right thumb…

His mind ran through similar techniques.

The man followed Synapse's blood-lusting gaze, and the girl came back to his attention once again, thanks to the green haze that the tank gave off. Instantly he shot again, causing the girl to wail and curl into a ball. She did not get up. The man surveyed the glass, then stood back, and shot at it twice.

The glass splintered, and liquid seeped from the two holes made by the bullets. Then the spider web glass finally gave away and poured out rapidly at the man's feet. Synapse felt his skin pull away from the wires. His mind became a complete blur. He was falling straight down, towards a pile of shattered glass and wires, but the man's outstretched arms saved him. He clamped Synapse protectively to his chest and said in a panicked tone, "Lance…speak to me…Lance...please". Synapse felt tired and his hearing grew distant, his eyes grew blurry.

"Get away from him, it doesn't belong to you anymore!" A voice called. Gunshots were fired. And then suddenly Synapse's world was darkness once again.

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

"Can we salvage it?" A man said. His voice was rough and demanding.

"He had just woken up. Nearly all his primal instincts were downloaded, and we had just started on assassin instincts…but if those are still there, he was not given intellectual aspects or reason. There's no way we can control him." A young female voice said.

There was a long silence, when finally the man spoke.

"Read them."

After a shuffling sound of papers, and the young voice cleared her throat.

"The machine's last reading showed no brain activity at all, but the most probable cause of that is because the sensors had already been removed. Without brain activity, our models die, just like humans. But he is still breathing, and obviously not dead. So there is some personality inside him right now."

Synapse's vision was still black when he opened his eyes. He tried to blink. Something was over his eyes. Handcuffs bound his wrists together. He was lying on his side against cold, hard ground.

"Can we stick it back into one of those machines then?"

"Mr. Adams has damaged the equipment beyond repair. Unless you're willing to pay for another one, there's no way we can redo everything we've done to his mind."

"It's junk, eh? That idiot ruined everything. Because of him I lost a VS, a perfectly capable killing machine." The man groaned. "Someone fetch me some coffee. I'll put you in charge of disposing of its body. Waste of money…"

"Sir…Mr. Adams has badly mangled this body you lent me. Won't you spare me a new one? I was only trying to protect Synapse…" The girl pleaded.

"I can't waste more money than needed on a useless technician. Your VS is going to die, so you're currently as worthless as it is. You'll just have to function without a good body. Actually…" He chuckled darkly,

"Since you no longer have any work to do, I'll have one of the operatives disassemble you. You can't do anything but monitor the VS, anyways, right? Hah."

A door shut. The lights flickered for a moment, and then went out. For a while the room was silent, except for the hum of computer fans and the occasional groan from the heavily damaged machinery.

Synapse heard footsteps approaching him. He felt a hand on his chest. It slid up to his neck until it reached the blindfold. Another hand grasped it and lifted off his eyes. Synapse's white-blond hair spilled over his eyes. It was still damp.

A girl smiled sadly down at him, though she did not look directly into his eyes, for she could not see in the dark like he could. A tear slid down her cheek. Her hand lingered on his face for a moment. It was trembling.

She stumbled through the darkness to unlock the handcuffs, silent.

Her body was shot up and bloody. Steel was visible beneath a layer of blown away skin. The outer layer of skin looked real, but the inside was glossy like rubber. The steel insides of her body were a twist of tubes and wires.

Even though Synapse had witnessed her being attacked, he did not remember anything. His mind was blank as a fresh slate. But thoughts soon riveted in his consciousness.

He could see her as clear as day in the pitch black. But he wanted to see more. Like a second eyelid, a subsequent level of vision was revealed to him. He could see a soul of a girl, shackled to a makeshift body. What he was able to see amazed him.

A mind inside a different body…Was she a cyborg?

"Who are you?" He asked. He had never heard his own voice before. It was soft and melodic, a young voice. He sat up. Is this speaking?

"Here…let me turn on the light so you can see." She crawled across the floor towards the wall. "Everything was destroyed in this room. The lights won't work on this level."

"I can see." He said, confused. Speaking. This is how I communicate.

"No, Synapse. Seeing is when you…it's hard to explain…just wait." She felt along the wall for the switch. She left bloody handprints of the floor.

"But I can see you just fine. And I can tell that you aren't in a real body." She called me Synapse?

The lights flickered on. Her face flashed with surprise, and a tinge of embarrassment. "Let…let…me answer your first question." She walked over and knelt in front of him. Her face was red but she smiled at him wholeheartedly.

My name is Genevieve; at least that's what they tell me. I was the technician assigned to keep you stable while you were created. I don't know much more, my memory was erased by Sigint. And it seems I don't even now half of what a VS can do. I had no idea about the night vision."

Hundreds of questions swirled around in his mind, but he asked the most important one.

"And…who am I? Synapse? You called me that."

Genevieve looked down to avoid his importunate gaze.

"I was in charge of making sure you were created, not creating you…. Right now, I don't think anyone knows who you are. Apparently…all your memories of who you were are lost...Just like me."

Again using his higher vision, Synapse's regular eyesight concentrated down, while in front of his eyes he could see the top of his head, as if he were standing over himself. He adjusted the obscure view so that he could look into his own face.

A pale skinned, grey-eyed boy. His hair was blond, almost white. It was unruly, and it brushed against the back of his neck in juts of silk. The only clothes he was wearing were a pair of jeans. His body was skinny and muscle toned.

A black mark, visible from the top of his shoulder, suddenly caught his eyes. He returned his vision to normal, and peered over his shoulder to look at it.

The mark he had seen was a tip of a triangle but when he saw more of it, he realized that it was woven into an intricate design of circles and lines that ran across his left shoulder blade to the back of his neck. Genevieve pointed out the letters VS in the tattoo.

"What is this?" He asked.

"That tattoo marks you as a VS."

"So…not even you know who I am?"

"You say that as if you expect me know all the answers! I was not assigned to create you! I told you I don't…" Then seeing Synapse's eyes suddenly cast downward, she stopped.

"I'm sorry…I know what it's like to not know what's going on, or who you even are." She took his hand in her own, and ran her fingers across it. "Listen…I can tell all I know about Synapse, at least. He is a VS, which stands for,

"Vampire Slayer."

♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

To be continued...

(If I get enough interest! AKA REVIEWS...)

(Remember, there are TWELVE CHAPTERS already written...)