Work Text:
Ever since he was a child, death has been Vannevar Thomas' constant companion. He saw plenty of it growing up, and by the time he was embraced into the Clan of Kings it felt like he and death were old friends.
His change from human to Kindred was not sudden. Ventrue rarely embrace someone without careful consideration, and it was no different for Vannevar. His human life ended after weeks of planning. In the end though, it's all the same. A man died and a vampire was born, his human life purged away. His disappearance was blamed on the blossoming American War for Independence. Like so many other young men, he simply never came home. It's always a little easier to embrace new Kindred during wartime, when death is cheap and plentiful. As the decades marched onwards, Vannevar forgot his parents and siblings. They passed on into history.
Many lifetimes later, when Vannevar arrived in modern Los Angeles, he brought death with him. He had fully intended on ending the Anarch way of life there. Sure, he could allow them to survive, but only under his superior rule. It was his right as Prince. He did not expect the enthusiasm of the rebellion he faced when the Anarchs fought back. Who could have predicted they would be so loyal to their chaotic, feral existence? Even his fellow Venture, Victor Temple, refused to see proper reason. Disgusting. Vannevar blamed modern society for this disgrace. The world had changed so much in two hundred years. Vannevar hated it. The rise of video and other electronic technology was nothing but trouble, not to mention the rise of the Thin-Blood threat.
He never would have admitted it, but Vannevar spent his last year on Earth terrified. Reading the Book of Nod, seeing signs of Gehenna everywhere, and having his sense of reality twisted by that Malkavian witch. Even so, when the final death came for Prince Vannevar, he was unprepared. Some part of him believed that even with the oncoming end of the world, that he would survive somehow. Him and his lover both. Kindred like them always come out on top.
Instead, death finally came for Vannevar with fire, explosions, bullets and the shouting of soldiers. His own personal Gehenna. He almost has to laugh. He should have died in a war over two hundred years ago. It is time.
“There will come a time when the curse of the one above will not be tolerated further, when the lineage of king will end, when the Blood of Cain will be weak, and there will be no embracing for his childer, for their blood will run like water and potence in it will wither. Then you will know in this time that Gehenna soon will be upon you.”
Vannevar greets death like an old friend, head held high and arms outstretched, hand in hand with his beloved Suzanne. Side by side, facing whatever comes next.