#16 Nocturne Ink

Las Vegas—city of sin, excess, and forgettable nights. Beneath the neon glow and the thumping bass of the Strip, Lilith Vael Montressor has perfected the art of ethical feeding.

A centuries-old vampire with a distaste for mindless slaughter, she’s found a way to blend into the modern world. Her underground tattoo studio, Nocturne Ink, caters exclusively to the city’s late-night revelers—drunk, high, and eager to immortalize their debauchery in ink.

Open only from midnight until dawn, the studio thrives on those making irreversible decisions in the haze of excess. They stagger in, sit for the needle, and leave with a permanent souvenir… never realizing Lilith has taken just enough of their blood to sustain her.

A painless, undetectable transaction.

But lately, something is wrong. Clients are waking up with more than just hangovers and tattoos.

Their ink… moves. Shifts. Some claim to hear whispers beneath their skin. A gambler is found dead in his hotel room, his tattoo pulsing like a living thing.

A showgirl swears the serpent winding around her thigh hissed at her. And a wealthy biotech mogul is offering Lilith a small fortune—not for a tattoo, but for whatever secret she’s hiding in her ink.

The truth is, she’s not the only one feeding in the city. The Red Circuit, a cult of transhumanists, has taken an interest in her work. They believe that within her ancient blood lies the key to the next phase of human evolution—something beyond flesh, beyond mortality.

Their experiments in merging skin with technology have already begun, using stolen samples of her altered ink. Bodies are turning up in back alleys, their skin laced with circuits that grow like veins. And they want more.

Now, as the Strip’s bright lights cast long shadows, Lilith must make a choice: fight to keep her carefully controlled existence intact, or embrace the predator she has spent centuries suppressing.

Because in Vegas, everything is for sale—even the blood in your veins.