Disclaimer: It's not mine, the characters anyway and any places that you may recognize. The plot is mostly mine though. Starts with a bit of a journal entry, mostly in first POV until I get tired of it.

We arrived to the fortress in the cloak of night, as we usually do... or at least those who had opted to travel second arrived then. I was sent ahead with the advanced team to prepare the fortress for the inevitable arrival. And since we arrived, we train and we wait. Everyone grows tired of waiting, the atmosphere has become beyond thick with tension... no one really understands why we are waiting here. We aren't sure why this place stirs up so many memories, but it seems that ever since we arrived two weeks ago; many of us have had problems sleeping, concentrating.... we become so easily distracted in spite of ourselves. Of course, we aren't ignorant to our location, full well realizing that for many of us; centuries ago, this place was home.

Home.

Over the past five hundred years, I have called many places home and yet, whenever we return to this place, I can never think of it that way. Perhaps it is because it hasn't been home for years, perhaps it's because we don't visit frequently.. or perhaps, it's because this place hasn't been home since I walked amongst the living as a mere mortal. Sometimes I think it was easier back then, or at least what I can remember of it... but then again, under the protection of Lord Calaway and with the ever guiding hand of Scott.. for me, at least, home has become more a matter of company than of exact localities and buildings.

But this place, this particular building and this particular wing... this room. It was mine.

I remember standing on that balcony merely footsteps from this desk, the warmth on my cheek as the sun started to rise on a crisp Autumn day. I remember running through the hallways with my sisters, while our nursemaid would chastise us for not acting ladylike as we should. I remember going out for hours on end with my horse, swimming the stream on the back end of the property, having picnics with my family... I remember sneaking out of my room to meet with the peasant boy. A boy who was really the same as I, but due to my fathers oath of allegiance to Lord Calaway, he had inherited a large amount of land.

It is because of my fathers oath that I became what I am, though according to that old gypsy woman; I was destined for this.

Sometimes I wonder what happened to my sisters after I was taken, no one ever informed me and I never bothered to ask. Perhaps I didn't want to know or perhaps I was already trying to forget. They were my family, but at the same time... and as Scott frequently reminds me, I gained a new family. A stronger family, sometimes I think a stranger family, but I made that assessment over time. It's not like we're exactly lacking on time, being immortal and all. Even if some of us are a little bit more on the negligent side with our immortality, there is plenty of proof to the contrary, because when treated properly; accepted fully... immortality is just as much of a blessing as it is a curse.

That was my first lesson from Scott, the night I became what I am; a vampire, in the midst of blood war between the old school of thought and the rebellion.

With a flourish, Amy shut the leather bound journal, tucking the book away carefully in a hidden drawer of the desk. As soon as the sun set, there would be a knock at the door; perhaps one of the lackeys summoning her for another meeting... or perhaps, she would finally have an evening free to speak with Scott. Because of the new moon and the unpredictability of his nature, Lord Calaway forbid any interaction between the vampire and the werewolf guardian. It had been that way for centuries and Amy knew not to question Lord Calaway's authority, or at least not to his face... She trusted Scott more than anyone else under the House of Calaway. And that said a lot when she really thought about it, Amy part of an elite attack squad... and she had to trust her teammates every time they went out. Her relationship with Scott, however, is completely unique in the House of Calaway. A vampire with a werewolf guardian was not entirely unheard of in their circle, but Scott was more than a guardian to her … he was her mentor, her teacher, her friend... a father figure.

And as Amy would later learn, she and Scott were two of three key factors to changing the tide of the war that had raged on for centuries.