All the characters appearing in Dark Series belong to Christine Feehan and is copyrighted.
No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.
All original characters are the property of Sleeping Angel

Please review first story! I only used escaflowne because it gave me a few ideas for the race, not actually a crossover. The song can be found on YouTube at this address /watch?v2HoyAZqXPCQ

An ancient sat huddled in the center of the village's children along with a few of their parents and older villagers who always loved hearing the elder's stories when she passed through their village. It had been a century since some had last seen her.

Being unable to see all of their faces in the faint evening glow, the Ancient coughed loudly to capture everyone's attention.

"Listen closely my children to the tale of two majestic tribes and how each came to be. It was during the time when shape-shifters and angels still roamed the earth without restraint."

She paused for effect, knowing that many of the adults drifting into the circle were hearing the story of their beginning for the first time.

"After viewing a Dragon from a great distance, an Angel sat on a mountaintop for days, waiting to get a glimpse of the magnificent creature again. During the Angel's revelry of the Dragon's beauty and power, it failed to discern one of the many beasts that roamed the land. The Angel was brutally attacked without warning.

The Dragon, overhearing the Angel's cries of pain, swooped down upon the beast, killing it instantly. Alas, the angel lay dying in a pool of its own blood. The mighty dragon instinctively drew one of its long nails across its foreleg and blood spewed out of the opening. Dripping the bright red liquid into the angel's mouth for an endless amount of time, the Dragon finally realized that its efforts were futile. It flew over the land, carrying the lifeless body to a village on the outskirts of the forest. Lying the angel down gently in the middle of a crowd the Dragon backed away slowly, bowing to the Angel.

The villagers knew how Angel's loved the earth and carried it to the outskirts of their homes where the soil was soft and white. They formed a circle and pulled the soil back with their bare hands, forming a pit deep enough to encase the angel's body. With bruised and bloodied hands they lowered the blood soaked body gently into the silky earth. The Dragon and Villager's blood pooled swiftly with the Angel's pure blood and spread quickly to stain the earth for miles around. From that very soil, during the full moon, the first Karpatii was born. The Karpatii felt the first stirrings of life when the soft rays of moonlight spread across him and forever took to loving the night. For generations to come the Karpatii would gain many aspects of the dragon's noble personality. They would inherit the Dragon's prolonged existence, powers over the elements and would be able to control the minds of weaker individuals. The one trait that was both redeeming and condemning at the same time was the inability to love more than one person for a lifetime. The need for their soul mate left the Karpatii in great danger of extinction."

"Thus...," the ancient one continued, "with the first rays of light, our people, the Escaflowne were born."

She waited quietly, absorbing the faces of the little ones clustered near her.

As the Ancient's teachings slowly sank into their hungry and eager psyche, the children realized she was talking about their own families. They gave a gleeful cry and turned to see if everyone else had grasped her meaning. Later, they would relate the ancient one's teachings of their miraculous beginnings to anyone who would listen.

Coughing once again to regain their attention, she said, "The Escaflowne takes on the aspects of the angel's peaceful personality, but compared to the Karpatii, we only have a butterfly's lifespan. With that, we were given the gift to enjoy all that life could give us, the sun and the moon. To a few, the gift of angel's wings and the ability to bring life back by traveling down the'tree of life' was given. As a result of the human blood being mixed into the soil, the power was given sparingly."

As Serenity slowly awakes, she perceives a haunting melody in the distance...

Win dain a lotica
En vai tu ri
Si lo ta
Fin dein a loluca
en dragu a sei lain
Vi fa-ru les shutai am
Enriga-lint

Win chent a loticaEn vai turi
Silota
Fin dein a loluca
si katigrua neuver
Floreria for chesti
Si entina

Within minutes, the incessant Beep…Beep…Beeping… of her alarm clock twisted her insides into a jumbled mess.

"Awwww Crap! Seven already?" she complained, while flipping her tawny blonde hair and pounced wildly on the annoying clock. "What is it with these strange dreams? I really don't have time for the aggravation!"

Serenity's emancipation hearing, school exams and final auditions for the ballet solo were all scheduled for that day. She fell back on her bed and pulled the covers over her head.

Simultaneously, the doorbell rang and she jumped as though she had been shot!

"Who the hell would dare show up here so early on a school day?"

"Who is it?!" she shouted into the speaker by the door.

"Serenity, Julie Adams here. May I come up? I have something very important to discuss with you." The grating whine of her new Case Worker came through loud and clear.

"Uh, sure…" Serenity mumbled as she pushed the button for the front gate.

"Great! Now I'll be late for school for sure!"

Ms. Adams ran for the clicking gate and walked up a flight of stairs to Serenity's apartment. She walked straight in and plopped her things onto the only furniture available in Serenity's studio apartment, the bed. The room was void of decoration except for a cross hanging from a chain, draped on the apartment's doorknob.

"I need to talk to you about your hearing this afternoon ..."Julie began.

"Yeah, I figured that" Serenity grumbled while staring into her barren refrigerator.

"Well, I personally don't think you should go through with it because..." Julie began again.

"Why the hell not?" She twirled around belligerently to face the irritating woman.

"You know what I've been through…, going from one foster home to another after the people who found and adopted me died! I don't think I need to remind you of the humiliation I've gone through with all of those money hungry families that the courts put me with!" Serenity declared her disgust while giving Julie a look of defiance.

"Settle down sweetie. It's because of what happened to your most recent, foster family and you pushing for this emancipation, that people are starting to question whether you did killed them or not!"

"What?" Serenity whispered while sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.

"Yes well," Julie continues" I'm not supposed to be repeating this to you but the Agency was already wondering how it was possible that your entire family was so brutally murdered and you were able to survive without a scratch."

"I told everyone what happened!" she stormed out as her fury returned, "And, they weren't my family!

"And that is just 'One More Thing' that is going to go against you at the hearing. They are worried about your anger management issues and fear for your sanity. Of course I know what you've endured and evidently it has been traumatic to you, but you can't just let you imagination run wild. No one is going to believe a vampire attacked everyone in that house ..." She started laughing coolly, "except you, even if there was such a thing as Vampires! So we are going to the police department this morning and you are going to tell them exactly what happened at ..."

"I want to talk to Mary Ann…" Serenity uttered almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"I want to talk to Mary Ann Delaney. She was my counselor before you." Serenity stood up and walked to the door.

"But…, Ms. Delaney moved out of the states. She's in Europe or, or…Bolivia somewhere!"

"I know, but I will not talk to anyone else until I have a chance to talk to her. Now if you will excuse me, I have to dress for school.. "

She opened the door widely. "As always, it's been wonderful talking to you."

The door slammed to with a resounding 'Bang' and came within inches of smacking Ms. Adams amply endowed derrière.