Morgan Drauling:

Full Name: Lieutenant Dr. Morgan Elizabeth Drauling
Species: Vampire (former uncursed human)

Allegiance: MCPD Detective Bureau, Forensic Investigation Division
Religion: Universalist
Social Status: 4 (salary M110,000/yr)

Age: 26 as of 07/07/1999
Eyes: Very dark, almost black; mysterious and piercing
Hair: Black
Height: 175 cm (5'9")

Physical Notes: Elegant, beautiful features; long, shapely legs; porcelain-white skin; moderately-sized bust. Could be a professional model, if she were only taller.

Behavioral Notes: Refined, upper-class accent and speech patterns. Carries herself with a casual, relaxed elegance and an air of understated superiority. Droll, dark sense of humor. Obsessive-compulsive, particularly with regard to her apartment and office. Has a tendency to notice tiny but significant details, whether in her surroundings, in others' words, or in a person's appearance. Bisexual, and very attracted to those of "exotic" appearance. Can be very seductive when she wants to be. The sight or scent of blood excites her predator instincts, causing her to fight to maintain her self-control.

Supernatural Abilities: Standard for a young vampire from a powerful bloodline. Can turn into mist at will; uncontrollable, quasi-psionic abilities when Sharing another's blood; spell-like ability to charm and dominate others; supernatural strength, speed, agility and endurance. Immortal, but subject to the usual vampire weaknesses and limitations.

Morgan is the Head Medical Examiner at Kate & David's MCPD precinct house. She is, visually, an attractive young woman: moderately tall, with long black hair, porcelain-white skin and mysterious, piercing dark eyes. She's also a vampire.

Morgan's casket is in her office in the morgue, which is wonderfully convenient: She sleeps for about eight hours, 4 AM to noon, then works an afternoon shift until 8 PM. At night she goes out on the town to drink, dance and socialize, and to occasionally meet with other vamps (though there are few that will have her, since she has rejected any association with the CEB). She carries a cell phone with her at all times, so if a body comes in during the night she can deal with it (assuming none of her assistants are more available). She tries to keep business and pleasure separate, but she usually keeps some blood in the refrigerator in case of emergencies. (An emergency is about the only circumstance in which she'll use it, too -- she doesn't like the taste of cold, "stale" blood.)

Morgan has a droll demeanor and a keen, if dark, sense of humor, and her jokes are the stuff of infamy at the precinct house. (One time Kate and David came calling to ask about an autopsy subject. When they knocked on the door, Morgan replied, "Nobody in here but us dead people!") She seems to have no particular gender preference in choosing her romantic partners, and in the first year after she was "turned" she made suggestive comments in passing to both David and Kate. (When asked about her sexuality, she usually points out in her own peculiar fashion that gender distinctions don't mean all that much when you're dead.) Our two heroes politely turned her down, at which point she shrugged and dropped the subject.

Kate and Morgan have been real and sincere friends since before Morgan was turned, and their friendship survived her transformation with only a brief hiccup. Morgan has made it her mission in life to help Kate connect with "interesting" men, which has led to a series of double-dates that are infamous around the precinct house. This is largely because Morgan's idea of "interesting" usually involves a touch of the supernatural, something that Kate feels she already gets enough of in her line of work.

Morgan was "turned" three years ago, in 1996, by her then-boyfriend Braddock. Morgan had been unaware that Brad was a vampire -- even as a human she was a night owl, and Brad always claimed that his job kept him busy seven days a week during daylight hours. Brad's superiors in the CEB had commanded him to turn her so that they could gain control of an MCPD coroner. They had hoped that Morgan would help them cover up the mob's contract killings, thus keeping the cops out of their hair. For a few months, it worked -- since he had sired her, Morgan couldn't disobey Brad's direct commands, and her fellow officers were unaware that she had become a vampire because of the hours she worked. But Morgan hated the situation she found herself in, and she longed to find a way out. Finally, she tipped off Kate to what had happened to her by arranging for the policewoman to find her journal, which explained everything that she had been commanded not to tell her friends or superiors in the MCPD. Armed with this information, Kate alerted the Lothanasi agent Janus Starson to the CEB's plot. Braddock was quietly dusted (officially for "resisting arrest"), and with her sire dead Morgan was free to follow her own path.

As a freelance vamp, Morgan is under no compulsion to obey anyone save Talia herself -- and Talia's organization is large enough that Morgan is fairly certain the Vampire Queen doesn't even know she exists. It is because of this freedom of will that Morgan was allowed to keep her job as coroner after her vampirism was exposed. Even so, many of the cops in the MCPD don't entirely trust her -- they suspect that her loyalties to "her own kind" will prove stronger than her loyalties to the department when it comes to a pinch. Kate and David have defended her tirelessly, though, and their arguments (combined with Morgan's uncanny gifting for her work) have convinced the captain of her Forensics squad to allow her to remain on staff.

Those vampires who are part of the CEB's crime syndicate look on Morgan with disdain, anger, and sometimes outright hatred. They view her as a rebel and a traitor who is running from her true nature. Some have tried to intimidate her into falling into line, but Talia has a long-standing directive that vamps are not to kill other vamps except by her personal command. If that changes, though, Morgan could find herself in serious trouble. Because of this, Morgan carries a substantial amount of anti-vamp weaponry when she goes out on the town. While she has never attacked a law-abiding member of the CEB, she has dusted more than a few rogue vampires who were stirring up trouble in the back alleys of the city.

Like all vampires, Morgan is an obsessive-compulsive -- she keeps her apartment, office and morgue fastidiously clean. Her extreme attention to detail comes in extremely handy in her line of work, as she is able to notice small abnormalities and inconsistencies that would escape the notice of most people. While her autopsies often take longer than the MCPD would like, the evidence she is able to salvage from the bodies has led to many convictions in cases that the police had feared could never be closed.

Deeper Back-Story:

Morgan’s aristocratic mannerisms and catlike grace and poise are only partly due to her being a vampire. Even when she was human, Morgan was a pure-blooded skywalker, the disgraced daughter of the noble House Drauling. She doesn’t talk much about her past, or the circumstances that led her to dissociate from her family -- but it’s clear that working for the police department, one step up from the Street, is something her ancestors never would have dreamed of.

The Draulings are an exceedingly wealthy and ancient house that prided itself on its pure human lineage, untainted by blood of outsiders, lutins, Fae or other “freaks”. (Wizards are not considered freakish by the Draulings, however, and they count many distinguished mages throughout their family tree.) Morgan was brought up as a child of privilege and impeccable breeding, attending the most prestigious private schools and receiving personal instruction in charm, etiquette and other “important” subjects from her tutors and governesses. When she showed an interest in science and medicine, her family was delighted – Morgan had no talent for magery and no interest in business, but becoming a doctor was a most worthy and profitable profession.

Unfortunately for her parents, Morgan was always inquisitive, curious, and more than a little reckless. She didn’t believe in the ideal of the “purity” of the human race, and saw beauty in the broad diversity of sentient beings who inhabited the world. This attitude was partly due to the simple rebelliousness of youth, but mostly due to the influence of one favorite governess she’d had during her preteen and early teenage years, Mistress Elena. Morgan had been extremely fond of Elena, looking up to her like a mother, and Elena had quietly taught her love and compassion for all peoples at the same time she taught grammar and etiquette. When Morgan was 15, however, Elena was revealed to be an asimaar, and the Draulings fired her, which made Morgan exceedingly embittered.

Morgan was sent to the Empire University School of Medicine (EUSOM, pronounced “yoo-sawm”), one of the best in the world. After spending her life in a gilded cage, she longed to know how “real people” lived – and she had a deep fascination with the exotic. At university she immediately began making friends with members of all races, species and social statuses, people her parents would never have approved of. Word inevitably found its way back to her parents of the kind of company she was keeping (courtesy of other skywalker scions attending the med school), but she brushed off their attempts to persuade her to associate with people of “better” standing. As she pointed out to them, she knew who and what she was, and while she made friends with others who were different, they certainly hadn’t raised a daughter who was so weak that others could change who she was by mere osmosis. This argument appealed to their pride, and satisfied them for a time.

Another source of friction arose, however, as Morgan’s education progressed. Thanks to one particularly good professor who worked in the field, she became fascinated with forensic medicine. The idea of being a medical detective, using science to solve crimes, was one she had given little thought to before, but her professor often remarked that her keen analytical mind and attention to detail made her perfect for the job. It was completely unlike anything anyone in her family had ever done – but it captivated her, and the more she studied forensic medicine the more she felt like it was the right field for her.

Her parents were distressed when they found out about her new ambition. Being a doctor was one thing, but being a police officer, even a medical examiner, seemed to the Draulings to be beneath the dignity of their house. Morgan, however, was passionate about the idea and sure of her choice, and pursued it avidly. Her parents agreed to continue paying for her education as long as her grades remained high – privately, they were sure that Morgan would transfer to a more profitable branch of medicine once she became disillusioned with how little the police were paid – but the relations between Morgan and her family were becoming extremely strained, and Morgan avoided seeing them whenever she could.

The breaking point came soon after Morgan began her residency, when she started dating one of her fellow interns. Davien was handsome, kind, well-spoken, wanted to be a pediatrician – and he was also an asimaar with a rather dramatic pair of white feathery wings. She hid the relationship from her parents as long as she could, telling herself it was really none of their business – but when they found out, it was a disaster for all concerned. Morgan’s parents forbade her from seeing him, calling him a lot of things that don’t bear repeating, and threatened to disown her if she disobeyed. Morgan furiously told them that she didn’t want to be part of such a horrible closed-minded bunch of racists anymore, anyway, and that they could keep their damned money for all she cared. Unfortunately, Davien broke off the relationship soon after, feeling horribly guilty and not wanting to be the cause of a rift between Morgan and her family. Morgan was left with neither the guy nor her parents, and feeling angry and bitter towards both.

After going to pieces and wallowing in her apartment for more than a week, Morgan picked herself up and focused her anger into a razor-sharp focus and determination to succeed in the life she’d made for herself. She easily secured a scholarship for the remainder of her term of residency, graduated from EUSOM with top honors, and accepted a job with the Forensic Investigation Division of the MCPD Detective Bureau. She astonished everyone with how quickly she learned the ropes and how well she did her work, reaching the rank of Lieutenant in record time.

While Morgan was succeeding professionally, however, her personal life was taking a turn for the worse. Her bad experience with Davien had soured her against romantic involvement with asimaar, whom she now felt were too damned noble for their own good. She began to drift towards attraction to darker figures, dating tieflings and were-creatures – even dallying with an incubus, whose proclivity for assuming both male and female forms awakened Morgan to her own bisexuality. Her fascination with bad boys (and girls) continued as she was promoted to Head Medical Examiner for Precinct 9, at which post she met and befriended Kate Kitaen. Eventually she met Braddock, and while she didn’t know he was a vampire, his obviously dark nature was compelling to her. Sadly, it also proved to be her undoing, and she bears the consequences to this day.