Chapter 1

I backed up against a tree quivering in fear. My father lay lifeless on the cold ground eyes open. Luke was coming toward me blood dripping off his snow white chin.

"Ebony I wish you wouldn't of seen that" He said as he came toward me stepping over my father as he came, I froze.

He stepped into the light of the lantern that I had brought I could see his features his beautiful face with black eyes his skin so smooth but snow white his black hair wind stricken and his lips...dripping with blood.

"What did you...do?" I asked terrified

"I was hungry he was outside so I took him" He half smiled

"You....You drank his blood?" I asked still frozen against the tree

"Yes is there a problem with that" He smirked "I said I was hungry, so I drank, you can understand that I hope you won't tell anyone. Will you, tell anyone?" He asked still smiling.

"Umm....I....I..." I stopped in my tracks.

My legs unfroze I looked up at Luke his eyes black as coal I was frightened I turned and ran. I past trees and bushes as I ran through the forest. I did not hear Luke following me so I slowed down. I reached a large tree and hid behind it trying to think of a spell that would stop him from following me but I couldn't think of any that would be powerful enough so that a young witch like myself could use I knew I was powerless against a vampire. I was still heavily breathing. I looked around the tree to see if he was looking for me. I didn't see him but I still looked . I heard a thump behind me .I turned very slowly he was there. He smiled and took me by the neck. I screamed His teeth coming so close to my neck . He laughed "Ebony....Where is your dark strength now?" He chuckled and I felt his teeth sink into my flesh.

My eyes shot open and I screamed. Just a dream, just a dream I thought but this wasn't just a dream this had really happened about four hundred years back. During those four hundred years I became one of underworld most prized vampires as long as I was still one of the favorites of the vampire part of the underworld council. When they wanted anything they sent for me to get it and I got it. I started having this dream or more like nightmare when I met Luke at the age of thirteen and I never knew why I had this nightmare about this totally nice charming not to mention cute guy and I told no one about it .when I turned fourteen Luke had told me he was a vampire and I knew why I had the dreams and I told him I was a witch but I did not think the dreams would actually come true. By the age of seventeen he was my best friend until that dreadful night when he killed my father and he bit me the one hundred and sixty two year old vampire boy who I trusted killed me. When I woke up after the week of being changed Luke was gone and during my four hundred years I have looked for him.

"Ebony are you alright?" Violet asked as she entered my room.

Violet was the little eleven year old girl I had turned into a vampire only because she was dying. She had been stabbed four times in the chest and she was bleeding to death and there wasn't a lot of blood left in her so I had to do it I made her two years ago and she had just learned to control her thirst so now she could go places with me . Her face was a very petite she had not the black eyes Luke had or any other vampire in the world had she had my eyes she had emerald green eyes with thick lashes covering them . Her hair was very different from mine, hers was sunshine blonde and mine was raven black but we both had pail white skin and red lips and very fine cheek bones.

"Yes I'm fine I just had that stupid dream again" I jumped out of bed and

walked over to Violet and gave her a kiss on the forehead .

"How did you sleep Violet?" I asked

" very well. Oh and The council sent a letter to you" she gestured to the open door.

"Again? what the hell do they need now?" I groaned. Violet shrugged.

I went to my closet and got dressed in black skinny jeans and my favorite yellow tank top the reason why I liked it was because it was very ironic it said 'Bite Me'

I put on my high heeled black boots and my leather jacket from down east.

I didn't feel like going down the twisty golden colored stairs so I hopped over the banister and landed gracefully in a crouch.

"Show off" Violet said as she came down the stairs

I laughed "where is the letter?" I asked as I straightened up.

She pointed to the table in the enormous living room with silk blue drapes hung over the windows and the white carpet and a few pieces of furniture to keep the room full . I smiled and walked over to a little table and read the letter.

"They have some kind of nerve telling me to do something on my day off." I said as I read the letter.

Violet chuckled "What do we have to do?"

"The stupid council made a booboo and made a half human half vampire freak seventeen years ago and now we have to find him and protect him from who knows what they will tell us once we have found him."

"Really, how are we going to find him?" violet asked as she stood beside me.

"I don't know I know what city he is in I just don't know where"

"Well what is the city?" Violet asked as she tried to look over my shoulder to read the letter.

"Aspen Colorado, it's a fair sized city but I don't know how to start looking for him" I put down the paper and Violet snatched it up and read it. As she read it her face changed into her idea face.

"He is about your age so he goes to high school, right?"

"Right"

"So you go to the high school and find him!" she sounded very enthusiastic

"You. Want Me. To go to a school full of boring weird humans to find a half human half vampire freak" I laughed at the thought.

"Eb, if you don't do this how else are you going to find this guy?"

"Um.....Let me think....Crap I can't think of anything, fine I will go to this human school." I agreed.

"Good, now we just have to enroll you in the school we will have to buy a new house so that we can stay there and....hmmmmm" she stopped and looked me over.

"What?" I asked

"You will need to get new clothes" she announced.

"Why?"

"Well for one thing I don't think the kind of stuff you wear is all that appropriate for high school"

I looked down at my clothes confused. These clothes were alright my shirt was nice I liked it, it was a low V-neck tank and it was very flattering and so were my jeans I looked very good and this was how I dressed to make it easier to get something to eat they would just come to me instead of me having to go to them. Then I realized when I put on these clothes I played a women in her twenties now I would have to play my real age not a twenty year old women but my true age a seventeen year old girl.

I sighed "yeah, I guess your right I wouldn't want any of the teachers thinking I was a substitute and coming onto me right." I laughed and so did Violet.

"I am glad you agree, I'm going to go book the flight." Violet ran off .

I stood there for a second...what am I doing I thought I have to give up my clothing and go to some stupid little school filled with stupid little humans and pretend to be interested in whatever the teachers will be talking about. Then protect some half and half freak for I don't know how long and stay in Colorado in the middle of freaking winter. I sighed and went upstairs to go pack the things that were appropriate but I did pack a few grown up things for those nights I am to tired to hunt in the streets and run after people. I packed Violets stuff also, she never has to worry about anything like being attractive because she can just go to a street corner and look sad, pretend to be a lost little girl then she can pounce on whoever comes to help her, her life is so much easier then mine I thought as I packed the rest of her stuff.

When I came down stairs Violet had already rented a house close to the school and booked a flight from Victorville California to Aspen Colorado. We left the next day and arrived in Aspen at about 4:00 in the afternoon.

"Eb, can we go shopping?" Violet asked as we walked to the front desk of the car rental place.

I sighed "Fine, where?"

She pointed across the street to a little store with mannequins in the window. I nodded and went to talk to the person at the desk who was reading a magazine apparently Angelina and Brad are back together again, human gossip is so boring .

"Hello, I would like to rent a car." I announced.

The girl at the desk did not look up she handed me a form and a pen and waved her hand for me to go fill it out. I scowled and turned around to sit down on a bench near by. I looked at the questions, easy enough. I filled out the questions quickly only stopping to tell Violet to stop fooling around with my cell phone and play with hers.

When I was done the girl was not finished her magazine so I handed her the form and waited. She sighed and looked at the piece of paper then she turned to the computer on her desk.

"What kind of car would you like? We have SUV's, van's a few pickup trucks and cars." her voice sounded old I didn't notice before but her hair was grey and her face was wrinkled.

"Can I have that Jaguar over there? I like fast cars" I asked pointing to the one I could see .

"Are you sure you want that they are pretty expensive here" she never looked up.

"Yes I am sure I can pay for it" I smiled to myself of corse I could pay for it

"Ok, I just need your driver's license" She looked up at me and her facial expression changed from annoyed to suspicious.

"Aren't you a little young to drive?" she asked I scowled and threw down my drivers licence.

"Aren't you a little old to still be working?" I said coldly.

She frowned and looked down at the licence she opened a box and handed me keys.

"Your car is right there in parking space L." she said as she went back to reading her magazine.

I smiled and went walked to the car it was a candy apple red with leather seats and a very good stereo. I drove to the store Violet had pointed to because she was now in there I could see that in the window she was yelling at the sales lady and holding up a piece of blue fabric. I chuckled to myself and parked the car in front. The store was tiny but it had a very good inventory.

"This, Is thirty dollars! really this little thing I should say that is a little expensive ain't it! back home I could get this at my sisters store for five bucks! I should say you better lower the price!" I knew whose voice that was.

"Violet stop that! I am sorry miss she has a bit of a temper." I apologized.

The lady smiled "It's alright I think I will change the price, thank you little girl for bringing it to my attention." The lady with the name tag Madeline smiled and walked away taking the little piece of blue fabric with her.

I pinched Violet in the arm.

"OW, hey what was that for?" she asked.

"You shouldn't be yelling at people, they are going to start wondering about you then they are going to find out what you are , what we are, so stop it!" I whispered. Violet shrugged and went to go look through a clothes rack.

I saw a comfy looking chair by the dressing room and sat down it wasn't long till I had to get up Violet brought back twelve shirts, eight pairs of pants and three skirts.

"I am not wearing those" I said pointing to the skirts.

"Why not? I wear them all the time" she gestured down to her puffy pink and white skirt.

"Have you ever seen me in a skirt, I do not wear skirts or dresses or any thing that looks like squished a clown." I pointed to the second skirt Violet had in her hand it was he ugliest piece of clothing I have ever seen. Violet scowled and dropped the multicolored skirt in a bin.

"Come on, Just try on these two please, please, please!" she said that putting her small face into begging mode making her eyes wide and her moth into a frown. Oh how I hate that I can never say no to her when she does that.

"Fine, But you will owe me."

"Yay!" she handed me the clothes and jetted off to get more of them.

By the end of the day Violet made me spend six hundred dollars on clothes alone and we were headed off to go see our new home.

"Who is our 'parent' on this mission?" violet asked as we rounded the corner of our new street.

"Um....I think it's going to be Victor, you don't know him. Here is a picture" I handed her a picture

"Ok, that's him right now.....Hi Victor!" she stuck her head out the window and yelled the last part. I pulled her back in.

"Violet he is supposed to be our dad call him dad not Victor" I snapped.

"Oh sorry.....Hi dad!" I parked in the drive way and she ran out to greet him.

Victor was someone I worked with about fifty years back on a important mission but I thought it was pretty stupid who ever thought having to keep a very, very old and weak vampire alive important. Victor had red hair and coal black eyes he didn't have a power like Violet and I. Besides being super strong and fast and incredibly beautiful like most vampires Violet and I have other powers Violet can hypnotize and control animals and humans but mostly animals, my powers are since I am still technically a witch I can do most anything.

"Ebony, Violet... How are you girls" Victor said as he hugged Violet. Making a show because a few neighbors were outside shoveling driveways.

"How about we go inside" Victor said gesturing to the fair sized house and pretending to shiver, truth is we could stand outside in the freezing cold weather without a coat on and still be toasty warm. We nodded and followed him inside.

"Ebony, there has been signs of vampire hunters in town and if they are any good they know who you are and what you look like , either you dye your hair or we get you a wig" Victor said as we walked up to my new room.

"Why does she need to do that and why would they know who she is?" Violet asked.

"Sweetie, Ebony is a very successful person in our organization, she has done a lot of things that would catch a vampire hunters eye, and they know all about the underworld and what lives there and they know who are at the top and at the bottom they have pictures of the vampires they want to kill. Since Ebony gets things done she is at the top of their list." Victor nodded to Violet and she left to go get the rest of her stuff.

"So," Victor said when Violet left the room. "What color wig should I buy?"

"Ugh....um...how about a.....trip to the beauty salon get highlights and get some blue contacts, how about that?"I giggled and started putting away clothes in the walk in closet.

"Fine, but don't blame me if they find you out." he lectured and left the room.

I stuck my tong out after him.

After that we went to the beauty salon I got light brown highlights and after we went to the drug store and got a few packs of blue contacts.

Violets and my dinner consisted of a few deer. we are not aloud to hunt humans when we don't know who the vampire hunters are. This wasn't a problem for me but Violet didn't like it one bit she never went a day without having some form of human it was very annoying when she complained that the deer didn't taste the same or that she didn't like having to chase down her food ,she was used to having them come to her I called her a brat and she stopped complaining and started to prove me wrong. I got a kick out that.

The next day was my first day at a new school. A school full of fragile easy to control humans.

"Wake up! Wake up Ebony!" Violet was sitting on top of me.

"Get off!" I rolled over and she fell to the ground. I laughed and she was on her feet again.

"So, what are you going to wear today?" Violet asked with excitement.

"Um... Let me look" I pushed off the blankets and jumped over to my closet.

I pulled out a blue t-shirt , a white sweater and a pair of blue jeans.

"How about this?" I asked Violet smiled and nodded her head.

"what about that?" she said pointing to a black mini skirt.

"Um...no, Violet I know we can't feel the cold but people would think I am crazy if I wear that today." I pointed to the outside window where there was snow blowing all over the place and ice chunks hitting my window. Violet frowned.

"Oh yeah, I'll see you downstairs" she glided swiftly past me and out of my door. I got dressed slowly and came downstairs today we had to settle for human food and I have to say it doesn't look so appetizing I poured a bowl of cereal and set it down on the table and stared at it for five minutes before throwing it in the trash.

"Good morning girls!" Victor said as he walked through the kitchen.

"Eb, you know how to find this person right"

"You mean the freak? Sure I know what to look for"

"Don't call him that, He is still a person and people need to be treated very well especially if its one of your own kind" Victor lectured

"He is not one of us he is half and half so who cares what we call him he is a freak a freak of nature and he is not normal" I snapped at him

"But...."

"Save it, I'm leaving I going to be late," I grabbed my bag and stormed out of the house

Why does Victor always have to be so compassionate and for what, some sort of weird thing I thought about this all the way to the school. I drove past beat up little cars and big trucks until I parked near the front office. Time to act. I walked through office door and there was a lady with red big glasses and a cardigan sweater with a name plate on her desk saying .

"Hello, My name is Ebony" I said in my sweet innocent voice.

"Oh, Thomson right?" a new last name they thought of everything I was expecting to hear that my last name would still be Mave.

"Yes"

"Ok, well my name is I am the secretary here, here is your class list your first class doesn't start for another fifteen minutes and here is a map of the school" smiled I smiled back and walked out into the hallway. I looked at my sheet that she had given me my first class was English it was down he hall and to the right I didn't even have to look at the map I studied the lay out of the building last night so I wouldn't have to. I walked into the class there were about twenty-five seats in the class room. I walked up to the teacher who was writing something on the board.

"Um... I'm Ebony Thomson I'm new do I have an assigned seat?" I asked in my sweet tone.

The teacher looked at me and his mouth dropped open then closed. I smiled I knew I looked good even in this frumpy outfit.

"Yes...You can sit right there and Ebony my name is " he pointed to a seat in the back row and turned back to the board.

I smiled at him and walked to the back seat. I sat down hard in a red chair and watched the students pour into the room one by one they were quite boring until a group of people came into the class there were three boys and five girls crowded around the two in the front middle a girl with long red hair a small face and a freakishly big nose and a boy with chocolate brown silky hair and blue eyes that looked like sapphires gleaming he was also the palest one there he had chiseled features and I could see his muscles through his thin turtle neck , he also looked awfully familiar . have seen him before? I asked myself . the group took their seats somewhere else except the brown haired boy who sat next to me.

"Hi, my name is Damien. What's yours?"

I stopped breathing. This boys name was Damien. This boy looked like the Damien I know and had the same name as him. It couldn't be him the last thing I herd was that he was stationed somewhere in Italy.

"My name is Ebony" I answered and looked him straight in the eyes they were like sapphires.

His Face got suspicious then he smiled.

"Where did you move from?"he asked

"California"

"Shouldn't you be tanned then?"

"I didn't go out in the sun much" I put my head down and doodled on my notebook.

"I know what's its like to be new, I came here about two years ago" He started shifting through a English text book.

Now's my chance to see if it's him I thought.

"Where did you live before here?" I said looking up from my drawings.

"Italy"

I froze. This was him I never met him before but I know who this boy is. Damien. Damien the most notorious Vampire slayer in the world.