Prologue
She felt her dark red blood pouring out with every weak thump of her heart, and smelled the rusty iron in the air. It was starting to make her skin feel tingly and cold, all the while the heat ravaged her chest. She grasped at the dirt, her fingers clenching without purpose at the moist earth. The cold and heat were starting to get unbearable now, and she wanted more than anything to let go. The last she saw before her mind went blank was the grimy, wet dirt underneath her fingernails and the obscene blood stains born from her hopeless writhing. Blankness.
Chapter One
As she looked into the heavy, gilded mirror, she was pale, deathly pale. Her once fair skin was now ashen, her once warm eyes puzzlingly dark. She touched her face with her ice-cold fingers, icy skin against icy skin. Her fingers were clean, any remnants of the accident gone. Her clothes consisted of a black cloak covering black pants and the simple, old-fashioned black shirt. She wondered.
"Julie, welcome to Alternia," slithered a chilling voice just behind her. Julie swivelled around, and came to a man whose age was impossible to guess. He looked human with his delicately florid cheeks and eyes full of life. Although his well-chosen clothing was the blackest of blacks, his hair was the color of filtered sunlight, tied back with a thin black ribbon.
Julie felt panic, and her eyes darted around for escape. The room was very elegantly furnished with rich oak paneling and luxurious Persian carpets. It spoke of old-world wealth and charm, and she did not know why she was here.
"You can't escape," he said, without any hint of emotion, or perhaps faint regret. Julie's eyes widened in fear. "You don't want to, anyway. There are dangerous creatures out there without your weapons,"
"Weapons?" she croaked. She had never held a weapon in her life.
"Knives, bows and arrows. The symbols of the powerful Archer family," He silenced her questions with a glance. "I am Adrian, responsible for easing the new members in the Archer House. A vampire," He said, and waited for the familiar disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Mr., ah, Adrian. I do not have time for jokes at the moment, I must get home. My wounds are healed, and I thank you and your hospital, but my family will be worried. They are notified of my going home, of course?" She spoke politely, feeling weak and drained.
Adrian bowed his head and did not speak for a few moments. He hated this part of the job the worst- telling them that they were, pretty much, dead. That they could never see their loved ones again, or at least that their loved ones weren't to be allowed to see them.
"Julie," he said as gently as he could. "You are dead. Your family thinks you are, knows you are dead. You are a vampire, part of the Archer House now. I assure you, becoming an Archer is not an open for all event, very prestigious... You were chosen specifically for your abilities as a hunter, a fighter, a predator. The Archers are the elite of the vampire world- feared, powerful, united..."
Julie didn't know why, but she found herself believing this nonsense. She felt her mind opening up, his calming voice speaking directly to her judgement. But she was alarmed at the idea of being a fighter. She had always been quite timid.
"I know what you think about becoming the fighter. But I assure you, I am never wrong in the guessing of potential abilities, never. Through the next few weeks you will learn the craft of the fight, the craft of the hunter. You will learn from the best, you will be the best. Understand and accept, as the power of the mind is a great thing,"
"Mr. Adrian, I'm sure that you mean the best for my health, but truly, my mental health is just fine and- "
"You must understand that I am not joking," his gentleness was gone. "You are here, whether or not you want to. You would have simply died and vanished if we hadn't spotted your potential when you were half dead. Even we do not have the power to turn death back. But we can stop it when it's halfway- that's what we are. Half dead, half alive. You cannot die fully unless.., well, I suppose we'll have time for your learning our ways later."
"I don't believe it," she said stubbornly.
'This is an outrage, he must be smoking something,' she thought to herself.
"I'll prove it," the man said, and quietly pulled out a gun with practiced swiftness. Julie's brain started to cloud with panic, the human instinct at the sight of a gun pulled out.
CLICK.
The top quality silencer muffled the sound, but Julie could see the bullet clearly as it hit her between the eyes. She could see a bullet? And she wasn't dead?
Julie then felt a searing, unbearable pain that spread red before her eyes. Collapsing, she held her hands to her head, and cursed in pain.
She deemed it a miracle that the shot hadn't meant instant death. Julie felt careful hands caressing, caressing, and was almost hypnotized. The hands left her skin, and she touched her forehead. Seamless.
There was an awed silence.
"See?" said Adrian, almost with regret. "Now, the bullets of mortal men can only injure, never kill. You are vampire,"
Still awestruck, Julia could merely nod. This was a real mess she had gotten herself into. A vampire? Hours ago she would have laughed.
But Julie's wonder turned into determination. She was a true perfectionist through and through, and if this is what it took to be the best, she would do it. Julie had always been an imaginative child, perhaps that fueled her belief in the rather unbelievable vampire world, or perhaps it was Adrian's famed powers of breaking the barriers of the mind.
Five months had passed since the day of her arrival to Alternia. She had risen in time for sunrise every morning to practice with her knives, bows, and arrows, and Julie was quickly reputed through the vibrant rumor community of Archer to be the most brilliant green fighter since the green days of the greats Dima and Eryk.
Her self-control was also increasingly powerful, as she was able to keep the bloodlust away enough to feast on her victims but never to kill them- instead, trusting her natural memory-loss elixir that was produced through her ever-potent saliva.
Her personality had changed to great lengths too. She was decisive, deliberate, sometimes even coldly and fiercely so. She had begun to be feared, and her rise through the stiff ranks was marked by the entire vampire community.
Julie's friends were carefully chosen among the elite, or perhaps the elite had carefully chosen her. Either way, her contacts with the powerful were strong, and even feared. Other than the Archer House, she had connections in the houses of Elliair-Dulac, Dario, and Sohm- the major houses in the vampire world, all under a sacred truce. She had grown to be very close friends with Adrian, and he was much like her mentor through her developing years while learning how to form a grip on the minds of others and control thoughts and such.
The black sheep of the vampire community, however, was the House of Desdemona. Its' great power rivaled the magnificent houses of the Avalbane, but its root was of great evil- unrestrained, unrestricted, wild, drunken power that was far from the civility valued by the houses of Avalbane. Its' leader, Siyavash, was reputed to possess the greatest black power of the time. Not an admirable feat- to possess black power, but grand and terrible all the same. The son of Siyavash, Keir, was hidden and feared by all. Even the greats of Avalbane were forced to admit the power of Keir. It could control the minds of even the heads of Avalbane when caught off guard, and his fighting skills were legend. However, Siyavash kept the young Keir away from all eyes, in the Desdemona establishment where he was guarded and trained furiously.
The fighting between the House of Desdemona and the Houses of Avalbane had been going on forever, but was currently under a shaky cease of fire that was as untrustworthy as Siyavash himself.
Our story starts here.