*Alright, those of you just starting, this is THE WORST chapter. It gets a lot better, I assure you. This just sets up the premise. In fact…you might just be able to SKIP it to be quite honest.*

Intro

They didn't mean anything by it. All that the Casts meant to do was bring vampyres into a better light. They wanted them to be celebrated and not these feared monsters that hide in the shadows waiting for a meal to walk by. They didn't mean to cause the vampyres any harm. How could they know, how could any of us know, that the government would start chasing the entire vampire community down? The Cast women wanted the world to be a decent place for their vampire friends to exist in. They wanted everyone to be aware of them and accept them just as they had.

But people are ignorant. They are afraid of things they don't understand. I remember watching the president try to explain away all of America's fears. He told us that they only wanted to understand the science behind vampirism and that there was nothing to be worried about. He meant that humans had nothing to worry about. He probably had no idea that the vampyres would be dragged from their homes with white bags over their heads and disappear into what we assumed was a testing facility. He might have even assumed that, at some point, they would stop taking vampyres or even that they would allow the vampyres to return home. Whether he had any idea about these things or not…I hate that he had anything to do with it.

I wasn't exactly a vampyre activist. I didn't belong to the V.A.M.P (Very Angry Mortal People) or the F.A.N.G (Fighting Against "Normality" in the Government) organizations. They were big groups with mob mentality. They weren't exactly helpful. I did little things. I gave blood to the certain organizations that secretly gave the blood to underground vampyre rings. I donated money, clothing, and what have you to the underground rings. Still, vampyres continued to disappear while the vampyre romance novels continued to fly off the shelves.

"Write a vamp novel Mari," my agent told me.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and glared at him. "I can't. You know how I feel about those things."

"But we'd make a killing," he sighed. I simply continued to glare. The man bled money, it was all he cared about. I had told him about the correlation between vamp romance novels and the increasing amount of vamps being taken to the testing facilities but, now that he heard the money clinking in his head, he seemed to have forgotten my morals. "Look," he sighed, closing the door to his office, "every other fantasy author is following this craze."

"Not Tamora and Maria," I replied, listing my two favorite authors who had quickly become my friends in the writing world.

My agent's face lost all color. "They've both been placed on a watch list. Maria and her family narrowly escaped the Baggers last night and Tamora escaped this morning without anyone noticing. They've gone into hiding." I felt my stomach clench. The Baggers were the people who took vamps and "dangerous vamp supporters" in the black of the night.

Still, I refused to write about vampyres. I continued to write the series I had been working on before. Eventually, I was interviewed for some crappy teen magazine. They asked the usual questions about my books and writing then…the interviewer went political. I quickly was placed on the watch list.

I spent two years running around the country. I hid in underground vampyre rings, with underground vamp activists, in homeless shelters, churches and, occasionally, I was able to rent apartments under fake names. I never stayed anywhere long. If I did, the Baggers found me and those who were good enough to hide me were hurt.

After two years I finally stopped in Paris, Tennessee. A small town that would change my life.