Chapter 1

2005

Twelve-year-old Daniel Bleu sat in the corner of his 'room' with his knees to his chest and his face buried in his hands. He couldn't help but let out all the pent-up tears, though he tried to keep his sobs as quiet as possible. He knew that if anybody heard him, he'd be found and punished. He was a boy, and boys don't cry. All of them were taught that, from the time they got there. The boys worked, were tough, never cried, and the girls were pampered, allowed to do whatever they pleased, whether it be sleep all day or demand the boys do something or even hit the boys. They were the royalty, and the boys were the servants.

The mop of messy black hair was brushed away from his eyes as he lifted his head. His blue eyes were shining with tears as he slowly stood and grabbed a blanket to cover his naked body. After covering himself, he slowly limped to the bathroom across the hall, wincing as he felt something warm and wet drip down between his legs.

He closed and locked the door of the bathroom and ran the shower. He stepped under the boiling spray and broke down again, starting to scrub every inch of his body. He was dirty, he needed to get clean, he needed to get rid of the dirt. He couldn't stop until he was clean.

He scrubbed for hours, not stopping until there was a loud bang on the door.

"Boy! Get out of there, NOW!" A woman's voice demanded loudly. He sniffed.

"Yes, Ma'am," He called back. He gave one last rough scrub to his shoulder, then shut off the water. He got out and dried off slowly, running to his room to put on his uniform.

"Daniel! Hurry up! You have to start dinner, now." Daniel ran down the stair and into the kitchen.

"Yes, Madam Yorgason." He pulled out some pans and the ingredients for dinner.

He cooked in silence, finishing just under twenty minutes. He waited in silence as Madam Yorgason inspected it.

"It's burnt," she said slowly, turning to look at him. He looked down, staring at his shoes.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, it' won't happen ag- AH!" He cried out as a hot pan suddenly connected with the side of his face. He fell to the floor as tears sprang to his eyes. He blinked furiously, trying to hold them back.

"You better hope it never happens again." He slowly got up and rubbed his eyes quickly with the back of his hand. "Aw, are you crying?" He shook his head. "Liar!" He fell to the floor again as he was punched in the stomach. He let out a sob as he was kicked viciously over and over before unconsciousness finally claimed him.

~*O*~

Hours later, Daniel woke up in the dark, laying on his tiny cot in his room. He concentrated on his body, trying to see what was wrong with it. Right off the bat he could feel immense pain in his ribs, and the left side of his face felt tight. When he reached up to feel it, the skin was rough and blistered, and he could feel the heat coming from his face a few inches away.

He knew he couldn't stay here much longer. He was sick and tired of being beaten, of being raped. He was always getting punished for things he didn't do. Things that didn't seem possible. His mind went back to the time he was beaten for waking up one morning to find his missing tooth fully regrown. Madam Yorgason had knocked it out herself with her foot. The resulting punishment had given him a black eye, a broken ankle, and a few bruised and fractured ribs. He was constantly getting punished because he healed faster than all the other boys.

Daniel sighed and slowly sat up, wincing at the pain in his ribs, and picked up the old clock from the floor. Two-thirty in the morning. He sighed again and looked around at his room. He didn't have much. Just a few clothes, a pair of sneakers, and a few books he'd snuck from the library in the orphanage. He could be packed and gone by first light.

With a quick nod to himself, he got up and pulled the pillowcase off his pillow. He shoved all his things (which wasn't much) into it and pulled on his shoes. He slowly and quietly opened his door. After listening for a moment to make sure nobody was awake, he slowly started walking down the hallway to the stairs. He tip-toed down the stairs and opened the coat closet by the front door. He paused for a moment, then turned to the kitchen. He grabbed two loafs of bread and a few cans of soup, putting them in his pillow case before going back to the coat closet. He grabbed one of the big furry coats and opened the front door as quietly as he could. He slipped out, closed the door, and walked down the driveway to the street. He walked away from the hell he lived in and never looked back.

~*O*~

"Can I help you, kid?" Dan jumped, startled at the sound of a female voice behind him. He turned around on the bench to see a woman about 60 years old with short brown hair and hazel eyes. She was smiling gently at him.

"Do…do you have a bathroom I could use?" He asked timidly. She nodded at him.

"Of course, dear. Where are your parents?" she asked as she motioned for him to stand up and follow her.

"Um... I… They're dead." He replied quietly. She gasped softly.

"I'm sorry, hon. Not recently, right?" He shook his head. "Do you need a place to stay?" He looked at her cautiously.

"Are you serious? Can.. can I stay with you?"

"Of course, kid. Come on." She turned and walked up the porch steps of a cute little house on their left. He followed her into the house, his pillowcase over his shoulder.

She led him up the stairs and down the hall, stopping at an open door.

"You can stay in here. It was my son's room, he moved out about three years ago. You can use whatever you want in here. He told me to get rid of this, but I've never gotten around to it. There are some clothes in the closet. They might be a little big for you, but at least they're clean." She smiled at him. "I'm going to go start dinner while you settle in. I'll call you when it's ready, so probably in fifteen minutes. I suggest taking a shower and putting on some clean clothes." With one last smile, she turned and made her way back down the stairs.

He walked into the room and looked around, his mouth open slightly. The walls were a dark green with some black and white pictures of old buildings and people. The huge bed against the far wall had black sheets and a grey duvet cover, with tons of fluffy pillows stacked on top of each other. There was an open door next to the bed, through which he could see a bathroom. There were two dressers on the wall next to him, and across from that was a large sliding door that he assumed led to the closet, considering it was what his door looked like.

He set his pillowcase on the bed and walked to one of the dressers, opening one of the doors. Inside, he found a few pairs of black boxer shorts. He picked out a pair and threw them on the bed before walking to the closet. He slid open the door and his eyes widened. The closet was deep, so deep he had to walk in to get to the clothes piled on the shelves. He picked up a pair of black jeans and held them to his waist. They looked a little big, but they would work. He turned and looked at the t-shirts hung up on the hangers. Sifting through them, he stopped on a black shirt with long sleeves and a wand on the front with sliver 'magic' swirling around, the tip of the wand glowing white. With a smile, he pulled the shirt off the hanger and walked out of the closet. Grabbing the boxers from the bed, he walked into the bathroom, closed the door, and started the shower.

Ten minutes later, he was showered and dressed and slowly making his way down the stairs. He followed the smell of potatoes and found himself in a spacious kitchen, watching the nice lady setting the food on the table. She turned around and smiled when she saw him.

"Do they fit you alright, then?" she asked. He nodded. "Good. Come, sit, the food is ready. What's your name, kid?" she asked. He moved to the table and sat down in one of the chairs in front of a plate filled with steak and potatoes.

"Daniel. Daniel Bleu." He answered quietly.

"My name is Dana Nightingale. Where are you from, Daniel?" She picked up her fork and watched as he did the same.

"Um, I don't know. I was never told where we were. Um… where are we?" Dana gaped at him.

"You don't know… wow. Well, son, we're on the outskirts of Bend, in Oregon. It's a small town, I like it a lot. What did it look like, where you came from?"

"I wasn't allowed off the property. The house was in a forest. They never let any of us out, but they took the girls out sometimes." She looked at him for a moment, clearly shocked.

"What kind of place were you stayin' at, Daniel?" she asked.

"It was an orphanage. Run my Mr. and Madam Yorgason." Dana noted how shyly he said their names, as if they would find him just from that.

"And why did you leave?"

"I…. I couldn't stay there any longer. They were hurting me, and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to leave, please don't take me back!" He begged. He looked at her with such fear and pain that she put down her fork and grabbed both his hands.

"Daniel….. I promise you… I won't take you back, as long as you tell me what happened. I need you to tell me everything, everything you remember." He nodded and began his tale, starting to cry softly in the beginning, but when he got to the part of his first rape, he began to sob.

"And I n-never knew wh-why I w-was being pun-nished, but they always t-told me it was bec-cause I was a f-freak, and I n-needed to be n-normal l-like the oth-other boys." He finished, still sobbing. Dana stood up and kneeled in front of Daniels chair, pulling the crying twelve-year-old into her arms.

"Shh… It's alright, Daniel. You never have to go back. And you know what?" She waited for him to respond.

"What?" he asked, attempting to calm down.

"You're not a freak. You are normal. Just not… their normal." He raised his head, looking at her with shining eyes.

"What do you mean?" She gave him a small smile.

"Eat first, then we'll move to the sitting room. I'll tell you all about it then." He nodded and picked up his fork. Dana waited until he put a piece of meat into his mouth before moving back to her own seat and eating.

After their meal, she led Daniel to the sitting room, where she flipped a switch on the wall that started the fire and told him to sit down. Once he was sitting, she began.

"Daniel, from what you've told me about yourself… and from what I can feel from you… You're like me."

"Like you?"

"I believe you're a wizard, Daniel." Daniel just stared at her. "Daniel... I want you to tell me what your parents' names were."

"I… I was told my mom's name was Bryanna and my dad's name was Corbyn. Why?" Dana slowly smiled and nodded.

"Just as I thought." She muttered to herself. "I knew your parents, Daniel. Very well. They named me your Godmother." Daniel's eyes widened. "And you've been lied to. You last name isn't Bleu. It's Sixkiller."

"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Daniel asked.

"Because it's your name. You recognize it because it's your family name, it's who you are." Dana studied him for a moment. "I've always wondered what happened to you, where you disappeared to. I knew you didn't die with your parents."

"Um, how did my parents die?" Daniel asked quietly.

"They died protecting you. There was a man – Donovan – who believed you were an abomination. He wanted to kill you." She stopped at the look of horror on Daniel's face. "I should tell you why. Your parents weren't… like me. Yes, they were magical, but they weren't… human. They were vampires. Both of them. It was believed that vampires couldn't have children, so nobody thought anything of it when your parents got married. But when your mother got pregnant with you, the community was in an uproar. Everyone was shocked, though most people didn't have a problem with it. Only a few, like Donovan, didn't approve. When your mother gave birth to you, most people were happy. The few that weren't happy about it were too afraid to go against your parents, because they were powerful. The Sixkiller family goes back generations, an ancient bloodline. Everyone knows of it. Everyone fears it. Everyone but Donovan. He made the mistake of confronting your parents. He went intending to kill you, to get rid of the Sixkiller bloodline. But your parents placed you in your crib and put all their power into you and the safety wards surrounding your crib. After they did that, they were powerless, which is why they were killed. When Donovan went to kill you, the wards around you did their job. He was blown away by the force of it, and nobody's seen him since. A good thing, too. Everyone was so angry with him. They believed he succeeded in killing you along with your parents."

"But… why does everyone think I'm dead?"

"Ah, that would be Brinly's fault. Brinly thought it would be best if he took you away, and let you live a life away from magic." Dana shook her head. "That old coot does nothing good for anyone. Look how wrong he was about you." She shook her head again. "Anyways. I believe your power drew you to me, after you left your orphanage."

"So… does this mean I can stay with you for good now?" Daniel asked quietly.

"Indeed. I'm your Godmother, I'm not going to make you sleep on the streets!" She shook her head. "Now, I would like you to try some magic. Will you do that for me?"

"I'll try, but I'm not sure how, exactly…"

"No worries. Now, I want you to point at the fire and say Expono." Daniel nodded and pointed at the fire.

"Expono," he said. With a small hiss, the fire went out. Dana clapped and squealed.

"Now say Lux," she told him. He did, and the fire lit again. He had a huge smile on his face when he looked at her.

"Wow, that was so cool!" He exclaimed. Dana smiled at him.

"I will teach you more magic. I believe, over time, that you will be able to perform nonverbal magic. You do, after all, have all your parents' magic in you, plus your original magic." She smiled as his eyes lit up even more.

And so began his life as a wizard.