For those of you that haven't been reading Gone with Darkness, this is the prequel to that story. It is about a woman named Laine and her adventures as a Dorean Squire. This fan fiction takes place during Night Embrace.

Chapter 1

Laine was sitting testily in her Toyota Corolla, jiggling her leg, as she waited for Nick. The other Squire was sometimes more of a girl than she was when it came to his hair and clothes. His sleek, black Jag parked in front of her was beginning to seem like a pretty good target to take out her frustration.

"Come on, boy," she hissed under her breath and eyed the gas pedal. "I'm not your date, and I'm pretty sure none of the Hunters will appreciate your looks."

Just as she was about to jump out of her car and bang on his door, Nick stepped jauntily out of his new (and she might add, expensive-looking) house, pushing his hair back so that it looked slightly tossed and messy. As if he hadn't just spent the last thirty minutes gelling it.

He opened the car door and squeezed his six-foot-four frame into her passenger seat, making a face as he did. "Why the heck do you insist on driving this thing when I know you're getting paid enough to buy at least ten of them?" He reached down and pushed the seat back to a more comfortable position.

"Because, Nicky," she said sarcastically, "I like pissing you off."

The truth was, she had never liked showing off her new wealth. Never in her life had she had money, and she wasn't used to buying all the nice things she could now afford as a Squire, and so she decided she would save her new fortune. Who knows? Maybe someday, she would want to buy out Microsoft.

Nick whistled low as he pulled out the seatbelt. "Whoa, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Laine started the car and both seatbelts buckled at the same time with no one having to touch them. Nick really was moving too slow for her taste today. The other Squire gave a little jump. "Quite the contrary. I was bright and chipper the whole day until I had to wait almost an hour in your driveway for you to dress and powder your nose. I hope you know that we're going to be late."

He glanced down at the digital clock on her dashboard. "Not if you let me drive." He smiled and cocked his eyebrow at her.

The girl almost laughed out loud. "No chance in hell. The last time you drove my car, she wound up in the shop for a week." His seatbelt jerked back nastily.

He choked for a few seconds before pulling down the belt, and sat back, unhappy to be in the passenger seat. "I hate it when you do that," he said grumpily. "And I was only pushing 100! It's not my fault your car is almost a decade old!" Nick was one of the few people who knew about Laine's telekinetic powers and still pressed his luck with her. She didn't know why she put up with the boy and hadn't killed him in one of her fits of anger.

He made a disgusted sound as Laine got on the freeway at a cool 65. "What?" she asked. "Someone out of the bunch of us Squires has to be a normal driver."

"That's not normal. You drive just like I thought you would."

"Excuse me?" She glared at him, her foot coming down harder on the accelerator.

"Just saying." Nick gave her a wicked grin. "You're Asian and a woman. I'd hate to see you drive when you're old too."

"See this," she said, and held up her middle finger as she ground her teeth together. Sometimes, Nick was too much, even for her, to handle. He only laughed, watching her bristle. Laine was ready to open the window and push his big, fat head out with her mind, but realized that answering to Acheron wasn't worth the trouble.

"One question, babe." Nick leaned in a little closer, the stupid grin still on his face. "How the hell are you going to fit another six-foot-something guy in this midget-sized car?"

On second thought, answering to Acheron seemed like a small price to pay for the relief she was going to get. She turned, gave Nick what she hoped was her best death glare, and, using her powers, she pushed him back into a more comfortable position. "First, you and me? We're not dating. That means you don't get to call me 'babe.' Second, this is not a midget car. It is a perfectly-sized car for normal-sized human beings. And finally, I don't care how Zarek will fit. He can sit on the roof for all I care. I'm just transportation. You get to entertain the guy."

Laine watched as Nick shuddered at the thought of serving the reputedly psychotic Dark-Hunter. She couldn't help but feel a little gleeful at his discomfort and silently thanked the heavens that she hadn't been assigned to Zarek's for his stay here in New Orleans.

Normally, Laine liked Nick, but today, having gotten the notice that she needed to get Zarek to the French Quarter for a meeting with Acheron, Talon, and Valerius, she was not a happy clam. More than anything, she knew, she would have to babysit and make sure the Hunters' testosterone-filled egos wouldn't get the best of them.

In actuality, she was on good terms with Talon and Acheron, or as good of terms as one could be with a Celt and the who-knows-how-old leader of the Dark-Hunters. It was Valerius she had a problem with. The first time she had met the guy, he had given her one of the haughtiest glances she'd ever seen, and then turned his head as if she didn't exist. Like some Dark-Hunters, he had taken one look at her Apollite heritage and connected her with the Daimons. That was Roman royalty for you.

Then, there was Zarek, who she knew nothing about, but had read from the Dark-Hunter message boards that he was a crazy bastard and unstable at best. It was why Ash had assigned him to Alaska, though she didn't know why, if he was so insane, he would be moved into New Orleans for Mardi Gras duty.

And of course, there was the little bit about how Valerius and Zarek hated each other's guts. Acheron must be getting senile in his old age if he thought that the two could work so closely together in the heated times of Mardi Gras. For some reason, around this time of year, the Daimons had a hey-day and more Dark-Hunters were needed to keep normal humans safe.

The Daimons were Apollites who decided to prolong their short lives by taking other peoples' souls into their own bodies. Apollites had been cursed by their creator, the Greek God Apollo, to only live for twenty-seven years before dying a horrible death because their ancestors had killed one of Apollo's young mistresses. It was incredibly unfair when Laine thought about it, and she tried to shut out these thoughts as she drove. She was only a quarter Apollite, and as far as she was concerned, she had barely inherited any of the telling-Apollite features, but she had never known her father because, as a half-Apollite, he had not been so lucky to escape the curse.

Because her ancestors had killed Apollo's mistress and made it to look like an animal had done the deed, Apollo also cursed them with animal features, such as long, sharp incisors, and the necessity to drink each others' blood to survive. Also, so that he would never have to look upon them again, he banished them all from daylight. Usually, full-blooded and half-blooded Apollites never ate, but survived on blood, and could never go out into the sun unless they wanted to be burned alive.

Laine's incisors were normal sized, and though she could never get a great tan, she had no other trouble when being out in the sun. The doctors had once told her she was slightly anemic, but it was nothing that a little iron supplement couldn't cure.

However, because Apollites were naturally stronger than normal human beings, when they turned Daimon, it was especially easy for them to hunt down humans and take their souls. This was why Artemis had created the Dark-Hunters. These were cursed, soulless men who hunted the Daimons so that the human race was safe. Because they hunted the Daimons, they were given some of the same features, such as fangs, inability to go out in sunlight, and supersensitive eyes.

So that they wouldn't have to keep them minds on anything except fighting the Daimons, the Dark-Hunters had Squires to look after everything in their lives, from getting food to finding possible sexual partners. And, of course, they got paid exorbitant amounts of money to do it.

"Look, there's the helicopter." Nick pointed out of her windshield.

It was already landed, and Laine could see a dark outline leaning on the side of the bird. "Ooh, Zarek's not going to be happy that you kept him waiting," she teased.

The other Squire undid his seatbelt as she pulled up next to the helicopter. "Yeah, let's not talk about that too much." Laine gave him one of his own annoying grins back as she cut the lights and the two of them descended into darkness.