Author's Note: This is my very first attempt at writing a story. I hope it goes well (*fingers crossed*). English is my second language but i have tried to avoid any major grammatical blunders. Please read it and let me know what you think. I would really...really appreciate any feedback. Thanks...and enjoy:)

Disclaimer: None of the characters in this story are from the series by Miss Christine Feehan. They are a product of my own imagination. The idea of the story and the theme is, however, taken from the series.

CHAPTER 1

Adelva lo Ulrayun Yunkkre Szod looked at her image rippling on the surface of the little pond infront of her and sighed softly. She sat down, crouching lower and bent forward on her hands to get a closer look. The lush grass was still wet with morning dew. She gave a momentary thought to the scolding she was likely to get for ruining her dress but discarded the idea immediately. She would go home and change before anyone noticed her.

Her concentration was again centered on the image before her. A chubby face with a small nose and dark, sad eyes stared back at her. She touched her hair. It was brown and braided in a simple knot ending just below her shoulders. For the thousandth time, she silently wished she could have had straight hair, shiny and beautiful like her friends, like most of her people-the Carpathians. Then she could have left them untied letting them fall on her face. Instead, they were curly, bushy and unmanageable unless tied tightly in a braid. She dipped her small hands in the water to try to smooth the stubborn wiry hair near her temples that refused to sit quietly.

"May be licking your paws and using saliva would help. After all that's what dogs do."

She turned around sharply to the snickers that were all too familiar. Standing up, she glared at the two boys. Bunching her hands in tight little fists, she looked at the one who made the rude comment, the bane of her life.

"You have no right to be here."

Vyvyan lo Kardez'e Yarre-y'un Rotharae smirked. He and his brother had followed her here. It was an interesting game to make Adelva squirm.

"Why, do you own this place?"

She took a deep breath and turned to leave. It was better not to exchange words with the Rotharae brats. Experience had taught her that it always ended badly for her.

"Oh, leaving so soon?", Vyvyan's twin brother Ledaius's bored voice greeted her ears. "And here I thought we were going to have some fun."

She took one more step before she had to stop immediately. Vyvyan stood infront of her, looking down at her with his trademark lofty expression. He had flash stepped, she realized with a shock. It was too soon, she thought frantically, how could he have learned that so soon!

"Well, don't be leaving us too soon, lil ducky", he bent a little closer, "And don't look so shocked, it makes you look uglier," his smirk grew nasty, "If at all that is possible."

She cringed and took a step back. "Let me pass."

Hearing Ledaius's steps behind her, she turned to face him. "Hmm, tell you what, we will let you go, if you go down on your knees and beg us."

When she was very young, she thought Vyvyan was the evil twin, but she had found out that evil comes in pairs. Ledaius was as cruel as his brother, if not more. They had tormented her for as long as she could remember; taunting her and making fun of her. In the beginning she had tried to stand up to them, but she soon realized that retaliation brought her more problems. She had tried to tell her nanny several times, but was punished for telling 'lies against the perfect pair of adorable angels' the nanny had ever seen. Everyone thought them to be created in the image of saints. They were just so perfectly well behaved in front of everyone else in addition to being fortunate enough to have perfect looks. Parents gave examples of them to their children. No one knew what they really were but Adelva, sadly, did know them very well. They had been cruel little boys who enjoyed her discomfort; making her feel little and unworthy like a bug crawling on the ground. There had been a time that she actually started believing it all but since her tenth birthday last year, she had promised to never let self- doubt take root in her mind. She had accepted her situation, the fact that the twins would traumatize her time and again. She had come to terms with it but this was going too far.

They were scaring her and although she made a brave face, she was a little girl that was frightened. Lately, their torture had increased another notch. She had started feeling physically threatened in their presence, and she had no doubt that they were aware of it.

"N-Nev-er", she breathed out.

The brothers laughed. She backed away from both of them. They looked so menacing to her young eyes. How fast they had grown, she thought worriedly. They had grown nearly a foot in merely one year and towered over her while she was just as she had been before - a midget.
Vyvyan tilted his head and looked at her. His cerulean eyes never ceased to give her shivers.

"Oh! The high and mighty princess of the House Szod has spoken, brother," Ledaius offered dispassionately, " I am trembling in my boots."

Vyvyran grinned at his twin, " Your sense of humor has improved."

"My wit was never in question, Vyvyran, but we are getting off the issue here."

Ledaius leveled his dark eyes on the girl infront of him, " Would you be kind enough to repeat what you just …whispered."

Adelva backed away.

"Come now, don't tell us that the little display of bravery was for nothing, we were just beginning to enjoy."

'I believe the word 'never' came into play somewhere," Vyvyran said softly hearing the frightened rhythm of Adelva's heart.

Ledaius raised a brow at the girl, "Oh, did it? How… rude!"

She didn't answer.

"Never say 'never' as it might become 'forever'", Vyvyran chided. "Beg, and we promise, we will let you go."

Adelva looked around. Panic was gripping her little heart. She knew it was very early in the morning and no one was going to come here. It was her secret place where she could relax and play for hours. She had found it one day while running after her pony. She thought she had been lost but the pony found the way back. From that day onwards, she had come to this place every other morning. She made sure that no one knew by getting up hours before everyone else and sneaking out. She always returned before she was missed at breakfast.

If she didn't return soon, the secret would be out and she would never be able to come here again, she thought mournfully.

"You know you can't even out run us now, not that you ever could with those short legs, we will catch you even before you take a step", Vyvyan strode closer, "And you don't have much time before the Szods realize you are not in your bed like a nice little girl you are supposed to be."

He knew it too, she thought with a sinking heart. He knew she came here without permission.

"Perhaps she needs a better incentive, brother", Ledaius was never the one to stay behind. His dark eyes were shadowed while his face wore the usual bored expression.

"I see you have been here with your beloved horsey, hmm?", she watched him observe the pony's feces near the trees on her right.

His half lidded gaze returned back to her, "Lets see how much you love him, shall we?"

Before she realized what was happening, Ledaius dragged her to the trees. She bit, scratched and kicked but to no avail. He was much stronger than her. She was roughly thrown on the ground a feet away from the droppings of her pony. It was Vyvyan's crouching figure in front of her that came in her view as she tried to get up.

A hard kick on her back sent her down on her knees. She cried out in pain.

"Well, that is music to my ears, brother, don't you agree?", Ledaius's voice came from behind her.

"Indeed, Ledaius," Vyvyan grinned, "It pleases me so much that I would love to hear it again".

She was scared, very scared. Her back hurt. Without realizing, tears fell down her cheeks.

"Oh look, the fat little piggy is crying." She heard Vyvyan's amused voice, "And you know what pigs do?"

He gripped her head and pushed it down in the horse dump on the ground.

"They eat shit," he laughed cruelly.