Chapter One

I came here in search of something.
I came here in hopes of finding the missing link, the piece of the puzzle that would elucidate the picture illustrated. But there was something else, something groping and pulling… something I couldn't ignore anymore.

"He's everything you want, he's everything you need…" sang Vertical Horizon from my cell phone. I smiled as I flipped it up to my ear.

"ALICE! Alice where in the hell have you been? You nearly gave me a heart attack! You were supposed to call me almost an hour ago!"

"Hi, sweetheart" I managed to get out between giggles. He's so cute when he's worried. "I didn't know the undead could have heart attacks!"

"I just don't like being away from you. Can't I come down there?"

"No, Jasper. I told you I needed time to myself and I wouldn't be very good company—"

"You're always good company to me, Alice. I love you."

"I love you too, Jazz. The sun's coming up in a few hours; I'll be back at the hotel soon."

The only people left lingering were a group of teenagers huddled around a fire, smiling and listening to someone pluck at an acoustic guitar. They looked so happy, so content.

A wave of nostalgia washed over me. Nostalgia for something I can't even remember. I hope I had moments like that when I was human. I hope I laughed, and I hope I knew sunlight.

Jasper says I daydream too much, that I need to be more realistic. Realistic? My very existence contradicts the average individual's idea of reality. I'm a vampire. I'm a vampire that can see the future. Which is why I'm here, sitting on a dirty beach in Biloxi, Mississippi.

"Mary, mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?"

At first I thought it was my imagination, but there she was, all white cotton and blonde hair, throwing flowers at the ocean tide; the girl from my vision. It was her, here, now, but it was wrong. She was supposed to be at a riverbank skipping stones, not on the beach with a wicker basket; and she certainly wasn't supposed to be staring at me.

"With silver bells and cockleshells and pretty maids all in a row"

Her eyes were staggering. A shade of blue I'd never seen before—startling, icy, blue set against almost translucent skin. I was trying to figure out why she seemed so familiar when she started to walk towards me.

"Who are-" I started, but she interrupted me with a bouquet of white flowers.

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember."She said with a slight curtsey.

And then she was gone, racing down the shoreline at the speed of a…

At the speed of a vampire.