Jesse looked down the track, his fist gripping the steering wheel of the beat up old volkswagen. His knuckles would be turning white, if they weren't already. Traditional rally race rules required a co-pilot, to read off the map and make sure the driver got in all the necessary lap types. This crowd, though, did not mandate it. The track, while rough, had no lap types. That meant it was just Jesse in the car, which was exactly how he liked it.

As soon as the engines fired, Jesse reached for his Beast. The power he pulled from it would cost him-he could feel himself grow hungry, as his skin tightened across his frame and his eyes briefly flashed crimson-but it would be worth it. Power flowed through him, his kindred blood rushing through his veins, filling him with speed far beyond anything a simple kine could hope to command.

Within moments of the flag dropping, Jesse was shooting from the starting line. Gravel spat under his tires, dirt flying high as he rounded corners and passed every car in front of him. Gears shifted and the engine purred as his near-instant reflexes let him respond to the slightest kick and pull from the road and the old machine he sat in. To onlookers, it would be like watching a someone running practice laps, his competition almost non-existent around him as he flawlessly cornered and drifted past them.

He finished nearly two full minutes ahead of the second place car. By the time he was done, the shocks on the old car were shot, and the transmission was close to giving out. Jesse had pushed the car to the limits with his powers, but it had won him the trophy. Really, that's all he had wanted. The thrill of victory, the desire to show people that he was better than them, was one of the few aspects of his humanity he had left. Even if the context for it had shifted.

As he went to the parking lot, he saw someone-a gorgeous woman, no less-leaning on his bike. It was hardly a new occurrence, though she certainly wasn't dressed like the usual girls who begged him for a ride. Before he could say anything, though, he felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of fear wash over him as the woman's eyes locked with his. That alone was enough to tell him that she wasn't normal, and that the manila envelope she was holding likely held bad news for him. Tossing the trophy in the trash, he approached, silently taking the paperwork to see what his latest orders from his Sire were. To his surprise, it was not her name written across the top of the documents.