Prologue

No one really knows how the Nightstalkers came to be or where the legend of the "cat people" began. But like all mythical creatures, there was a time when they walked amongst the humans, out in the open, unafraid. That is, until the time known as the Great Raids. During the Great Raids, the humans began to fear the unknown – fear anyone that was different. And they turned on us, the same way they turned on all the other "night creatures." They hunted our kind, right along with the vampires, witches, werewolves and shape shifters, claiming we were a threat to their species. We were more powerful than they were, but they outnumbered us drastically. It was easy to see who would win the battle if it came down to a war.

And so began the age of secrecy. We weren't the only ones who fled the country, who went into hiding, but we did have the most success blending in with the human society. Even the vampires, most of whom were once human themselves, had more trouble blending in than we did. Mostly, this was due to the fact that, while they still resembled their former selves, their unnatural beauty stood out amongst the modest human beings. The werewolves, who spent the majority of their time in human form, had trouble coming up with excuses during the full moon to cover up their mysterious disappearances. And so, the nightstalkers were able to integrate with the humans, as long as we refrained from shape shifting into our animal forms.

I'd never really given much thought to my way of life. The way my family lived was the same way my ancestors had lived for centuries before us. I knew we were different, but that's just what it meant to be a nightstalker. For centuries, we had to live in secret – to hide our true forms from the humans – and eventually the secret caught up with us. Over time, we lost the ability to transform into our more animalistic forms at all, but we didn't lose everything. We may not be able to shape shift anymore – er, well, at least, most of us couldn't – but we still had other abilities unique to our kind. We were fast – abnormally fast. We could run up to 200 miles per hours for several hours without tiring. We could hear for miles in any direction, see farther than any human, smell fourteen times better than any human, and regenerate five times faster than any human. We were faster. We were fiercer. We were superior.

And yet we hide. Our numbers had been greatly decreased during the Great Raids of our ancestors. We were feared because of what we are. Feared because of the power we possess. And they were right to fear us. After all, it is the human's flesh and blood that keeps us alive. It's not like we want to be monsters. At least, I don't want to be a monster. But feeding is a necessity. Without their blood, we would cease to exist at all. And so the elders made a decision that changed the way we live forever. We went into hiding, trying to blend in with the humans, only taking what we needed to survive. But once every 3 months, we still have to kill – to feed. And that's when people go missing.

There were many of my kind who believe that we are gods. They believe we should not be forced to hide our true nature from the humans. The humans are weak, they say. The humans are no more than a food source, a plague, sucking away the world's resources, some argue. And the more I hear these ideas, the more I fear for their species. The humans are not that much different than our kind. Sure, they are slower, not quite as advanced as we are. But they have something our kind lacks. The humans base their relationships on more than convenience. They form bonds out of love. Nightstalkers stay with the colony because that is the way it has always been. But when your society is based on laws and rules that govern your every choice, every thought, every decision, how can you ever know if what you feel is real. My parents married because their parents told them it was the right thing to do – to keep the bloodlines pure. I was a product of careful planning, not choice. Not love. I refuse to follow down that same path. My life WILL have meaning.

That's how I ended up here, on this plane, headed to someplace far away. I couldn't live the way my ancestors lived. I could never grasp the mentality of my leaders. They claim that humans are not worth saving or mourning over. Their lives were insignificant, I was told over and over. But they were wrong. See, there was more motivation to keeping the bloodlines pure than just convenience. Only those born of a pure blood possessed the special abilities that had become so rare in our kind since the intermingling of our species with the humans. I was one of a select few who carried on the pure nightstalker genes. My special ability manifested itself in an ability to read a creature's soul. I could see someone's best and worst character traits, their likes and dislikes and their true aura. I could instantly tell if a creature was innately good or evil with just one glance. The humans were not much different than our own kind. Sure, there were those humans who gave the rest of them a bad reputation. There were the murderers, the thieves, the liars. But there were also good humans. There were ones who were just trying to help others. There were ones who really cared about the world and about each other. And despite what my fellow nightstalkers might think, these humans – the innately good ones – were beautiful in their own way. Yet, just like with the humans, there were both innately evil and good kinds in our own species. And the ones promoting re-exposure and disinterest in the humans were mostly the ones out for themselves. They were the ones out for power and dominance, which is why I could never believe what they might say about the human race.

Just when I had almost completely given up hope for the future, I had heard talk of a vampire clan in Washington who had learned to live amongst the people without feeding on them. They had discovered a way to survive off of animal blood instead of human blood. This news had given me hope. It had shown me that maybe there was an alternative to the way my people lived. And so, even though my kind had been warned of the dangers of vampires and had declared them mortal enemies, I had to find out for myself. I had to go to Washington and see if there was a way for me to survive without feeding on humans… even if it ended up costing me my life.