Chapter One: Adira
I watched my prey slowly creep towards the small creek, it was a deer. I hadn't fed in weeks, when I'd look in the mirror my eyes were jet-black like my mid-back length hair. I was also forming dark circles and I was beginning to actually look dead. I shifted and the deer cocked up and I knew it would run, so in one swift movement I pounced and successfully captured my prey. I sunk my teeth into its pulsing throat and I instantly felt invigorated, just the flow of the blood in my mouth brought me great relief.
I returned to my home, it was a condo in the heart of Toronto. Quite the way to be conspicuous... "Adira, I got your new birth certificate forged and I forged some other documents so you shouldn't have a problem with enrolling back into high school." My creator, and adoptive father, Isaac Lawton exclaimed. You see, I kind of have a big secret. I'm immortal, a vampire. I feed on blood and I never sleep, I'm impossibly fast and incredibly strong. My flesh is frigid and hard as granite, impossible to destroy... for a human anyways. I've been this way for one hundred and four years, I was changed on New Years Day in 1910. It was just a month and thirteen days away from my nineteenth birthday, I was walking home from a friend's house and at the time I lived in New York City. It was getting pretty late, it was probably near on to midnight, and I had this strange feeling that I was being followed. It turns out I was, he was a nomad and his name was Alistair. He jumped me and pinned me to the ground, he then sunk his teeth into my neck and began my excruciating six-day transformation into a blood-thirsty demon. When I woke up, he explained to me how he had been watching me for months and he saw me as a perfect mate for him. I did not feel the same way for him, so after I was able to learn the ways I left.
"You put my surname as 'Goulding', right? If I have to go through another lifetime as a 'Lawton' I'm going to go insane." I said, as Isaac laughed.
"Yes, don't worry about it! I got it all sorted out."
Isaac was a very handsome and kind man, he stood at 6'0" and was very muscular. He had medium-length dark brown hair and golden eyes of course, as are mine. His face was shaped perfectly, with a chiseled jaw and a long strong neck. He happily adopted me into his life along with his mate, Amelia. Amelia was absolutely stunning and so compassionate, she was tall like Isaac and had a flawless porcelain heart-shaped face. Her hair was a honey-blonde and reached all the way down to her lower back, she was slim and she was very fast, faster than Isaac and even me as a newborn. Her and Isaac were very happy together, until a newborn army attacked us while we were hunting in a forest in northern Canada in the late 1980's. It was a surprise attack and we didn't see them coming, a newborn jumped on Amelia and decapitated her. We were outnumbered by a lot so Isaac and I had no choice but to flee, he was heart broken and infuriated. We ended up going straight to the Volturi to seek justice, but they couldn't help us. We eventually returned home, and now it's been around thirty years and Isaac isn't doing too bad.
I ran upstairs into my room and started going through my bookshelf, I found my very very old diary that I kept from when I was eighteen right on up until I was changed. It was a thick leather book that was dark brown, it also had a dark blue ribbon that I tied around the book to keep it closed. My mother was a seamstress, so I had acquired the ribbon from her. I opened up my diary to the first entry which read:
February 14, 1909
Dear diary,
Today I turn 18, mother says I'm officially a lady now so I should be keeping a diary. I told her I wouldn't know what to write about but she told me to just listen to my heart and write whatever comes to my mind, so here goes.
Today was okay, I've received many birthday greetings and compliments on my new dress my mother made for me. It's absolutely beautiful, It doesn't quite touch the ground and it's white and has lace sleeves and a black belt at the waist. I love it.
My sister Amara has really been making me angry lately, she nearly wasted her tea all over my brand new dress! I will kill her if she ruins this dress.
I'm not really sure of what else to write, my mother tells that at the end of every entry I should write my full name, my age, something I like and something I dislike.
My name is Adira Marlena Goulding and I'm 18 years old. I like to go on strolls with my sister on summer evenings (I miss summer so much.) and I HATE boys because they're nothing but scoundrels and pesky rodents.
That was the first time I had read one of my diary entries in a long time, it brought back many memories of my family and my former human self. My mother's name was Marlena Goulding, she was a beautiful woman and I looked up to her as any daughter would. She was a short woman, shorter than me and we had the same black hair except hers was greying. My mother and I also had the same sly, green eyes that people often complimented. My mother was born in 1872 somewhere in England and migrated to New York City with my father when she became pregnant with my older sister, Amara, in 1888. My father was a very rich man and when he died in 1889 one month after I was born, mom didn't have a problem with money. She did become very depressed for awhile, but she then realized that she had two daughters to raise and she did it very well.
"Hey Adira! C-" I was downstairs in a split second, before Isaac was even able to finish his sentence.
'Yes Izzy?" I teased, he hated it when I called him that.
"I need to go hunt, so watch the house." He said sternly, I wonder what bit him in the ass.
"Of course, what do you think I'm going to do? Throw a party filled with humans raging with hormones?" I laughed and Isaac laughed to, and then he was gone.
I did some house cleaning and I didn't know what else to do, being doomed to eternity can be quite boring sometimes... Especially when we're posing as humans. I remember shortly after I was changed, it was the summer of 1942. It was in the middle of World War II so Isaac, Amelia and I decided to take a break from all the bullshit the humans were going on about and we ran to South America and lived in the Amazon Jungle. It was great while it lasted, not having to hide ourselves and just feeding whenever we want and not worrying about scaring the shit out of a stupid little human. We stayed for a few months until we came across three other vampires. They were a coven of tall and seemed to be built for the jungle, they're names were Kachiri, Zafrina and Senna. They told us we were more than welcome to stay since they didn't feed on the animals anyways, but Isaac couldn't handle the savage-like lifestyle. We returned to New York and then after Amelia died we moved here to Toronto. Of course we've lived in other areas of Ontario, people would get suspicious of our unaging and that would cause big problems with the Volturi.
I don't know why all other vampires find Aro, Marcus and Caius so intimidating. I know they are almost like our own vampire government but if it wasn't for Jane, her brother Alec and all the other guards they'd be just like any other vampire. I am not afraid of the Volturi.
I went back into my room and stopped at my tall oak-wood antique mirror that stood next to my bookshelf. I stood at 5'2" and I was slim, I had large hips though so I sort of had a hour glass figure. My hair was long and reached to my mid-back, it was jet-black and had large natural curls. My eyes are a beautiful golden colour, when I was first changed my eyes were a crimson red colour, but they eventually changed as I drank animal blood. My face is heart-shaped and I have sly eyes, my lips are full and a pale pink. My skin is porcelain and pale; flawless. I always try to think back to when I was a human and what I looked like. Even though I'm a vampire, it's still hard to remember things about my human life. All I remember is that I had really pretty bright blue eyes, and I had a nasty scar across my forehead from when I fell off a wharf, hit my head on the way down and nearly drowned. It wasn't pleasant. The venom changes everything, my hair became coarser and darker, my skin was removed of all flaws and became ver pale, et cetera. I enjoy this life and being immortal, lots of others of my kind complain about it a describe it as a "curse" but, I like it.
I decided to leave the condo and go for a walk, I do it to test myself even though I know I won't lose control. I walk about fifteen blocks until I bump into some random guy and I accidentally knock him onto the ground. "Oh my god I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention, I'm sorry." I said.
"It's okay," he laughed, and I reached to help him up. I pulled him up and a few images appeared in my head of a baby boy, but then a frenzy began. His scent was exotic and made me feel like I was going insane, my throat began to burn and I felt like my mind was going to explode. I let go of his hand and he fell back onto the ground. I walked past him a little ways and then I turned right into an alley and I ran as fast as I could possibly go. I scaled the building to my right in one jump and I stayed on the roof. I began grabbing at my throat and I started growling, I felt like a wild animal. I walked to the front of the building and looked down onto the street, he was back on his feet and he looked puzzled. I turned away and I was in shock, what had happened? I nearly lost control, what was with that boy? What was it about his scent that made me go insane? I would have to go home and ask Isaac as soon as he returned.