Hey, guys this is my first fanfic and I really want to know what you think. I'm hoping to get at least one review before I put the next chapter up. Although, I have no idea when that will be. I just got back from regional track last night and I'm also going to state, yay!, next week so I'm going to be pretty busy. I'll do the best I can though. I am also writing my own book, Heirs, which you can learn about at .com. If you're interested in it and want to read more please contact me in the appropriate place on my web site. I should be getting an option up to read more than just the prologue for people that are more interested. Oh, and as you can guess I don't own the Night World series – I just like to write about it. Enjoy and PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! I CAN'T BECOME A BETTER WRITER IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT IF I'M DOING IS ANY GOOD OR NOT!! Thanks! ~Riverine

Jeanne's Story

Chapter 1- A pleasant tune

The ceiling had 148 ceiling tiles. They stretched 4 wide and 37 long, a maze of black and white spotted squares. Jeanne was bored. No, more than that she was trying desperately to figure out what to do with her life.

Since Maggie and Delos had freed the slaves, Jeanne had thought, stupidly that she could just go home. Go home and see her family – something she had dreamed about since she had first been kidnapped when she was 14. So she had been excited, at first she had tried to find her parents. A couple of members of Circle Daybreak worked in the government with records of people and they had said that they'd be able to help Jeanne find them.

And they had found them for Jeanne alright. The bad part was that they were dead. Her mom and dad were dead. Her brother was dead. They had been killed in a freak car accident about a year after she'd been abducted. One of the witches had made her copies of the obituaries in the newspaper. Jeanne still had them and she looked at them from time to time, when she was lonely or she missed them.

Jeanne had been sad, but she hadn't given up yet. No, she'd still been hopelessly intoxicated by the promise of hope that Maggie had given her. Jeanne tried to find other members of her family. Aunts, uncles, grandparents even an estranged cousin, but there weren't any. Jeanne's parents had been orphan's themselves ironically, and had no idea who there relatives where, thus Jeanne had no way of contacting them. Jeanne was alone. She was alone as she stared up at 148 ceiling tiles in the small room the Circle Daybreak had given her. They'd given her a place to stay and food to eat since she didn't have anywhere to go.

Not that she wanted to stay here. Not that she wanted to be among the shapeshifters, and werewolves, and witches and worse – the vampires. Jeanne couldn't stomach it when Maggie was around Delos. They were hopelessly in love with each other, just like all the other soulmates, and they even kissed. Jeanne shuddered at the though of a vampires teeth that close to her skin. Maggie didn't seem to notice though and that was the problem – she couldn't understand why Jeanne was so intolerant of the Night World people. Maggie had gotten out early. She hadn't had to see what the werewolves and the shapeshifters and the vampires did to humans. She didn't understand. She never would. But Jeanne knew. She knew that she couldn't trust any of them. Even the ones who had been kind to her here at Circle Daybreak.

Jeanne sighed impatiently. There were several things that appealed to her – hunting vampires was one of them, but she knew that Circle Daybreak would never approve and she needed to be on their good side to still have someplace to stay and food to eat. Not only that but she just didn't have the skills to become a vampire hunter. Sure she knew a few tricks that she'd picked up when she was a slave, every female slave had, it was the only way they survived. The fact remained that she just didn't know enough to take on a vampire without getting her ass kicked. So who could teach her? Jeanne had already tried to get Keller, one of the elite teams that went searching for Wild Powers, to teach her but Keller had instantly refused her.

Keller had taken one look at her short halo of red hair and angry green eyes and refused.

"I won't teach you to kill a vampire when you're like this," she'd said shaking her long mane of black hair in a defiant no.

"Like what?" Jeanne had protested.

"What you want is revenge. You want revenge for what the vampires did to you as a slave. If I give you the skills to do that, you won't ever stop. This kind of revenge is all consuming. No matter how you try to stop yourself, you won't be able to. Eventually, you'll kill yourself either by taking on an opponent stronger than you or because you'll kill yourself on your own. I won't be responsible for that."

Then she'd walked away, leaving Jeanne clenching her fists so tightly she drew blood from her palms. Jeanne only found out later that Keller was a shapeshifter and even then, she'd scoffed at herself for stooping to ask one of Them.

Next, she'd gone to Rashel who had refused similarly as well. It was only after again, that I found out that she and Keller were sisters. I had balked at the though of going to Jezebel. She was one of Them – and the worst kind at that, even if she was only half a vampire. Jeanne had gone to a couple of the human's – the soulmates of Night World people but they hadn't known anything about fighting. She was stuck. What could she do? Jeanne was an outcast of outcasts, sullenly snapping at anyone and everyone who had tried to make friends. Eventually they'd stopped trying and she'd resigned myself to counting ceiling tiles in my room.

Jeanne put my hands behind my head and sighed once more. She was bored. It wouldn't be so bad if she had something to do in my room but the fact was she didn't. All that was there was the bed she was laying on and a small desk in the corner. Circle Daybreak was large enough, an old manor of one of the uppity vampires, and Jeanne had once thought of exploring it but had been too afraid to walk the halls along. Now though, she'd smuggled a wooden knife and a silver cross so I'd be protected from most of Them. They were both with her at all times, the cross around a chain on my neck and the small knife in my boot. Jeanne yawned and then got off the bed. She might as well explore the manor while she had the chance. Besides now was as good of time as any and at least I had protection now.

Jeanne checked both the cross and the knife, to reassure herself they were still there and then she slipped quietly over to her door and out into the corridor. There was no one there and after checking both sides Jeanne chose one and started walking, letting her feet carry her where they would. Jeanne lived in the newer part of Circle Daybreak headquarters. It was an addition to the manor, very new and only added on about a month before Maggie had freed the slaves thus stranding Jeanne here.

Her meandering took her past he non-descript modern hallways to the manor and old corridors touched with time and death. She walked slowly, looking in rooms and doors, curious but not curious enough to stop. At the end of the corridor she was walking in there was an archway that led to another corridor, this one much narrower and darker than the others. Jeanne hesitated, not all too willing to go into this dark corridor. She couldn't see where it led to and part of her balked at going into a dark and strange place but then the stronger part of herself pushed through. Who's going to be there? She chided herself. Besides, you have weapons and even if anyone is there you'll catch them by surprise and at least be able to injure them enough to get away.

Jeanne hesitated for a moment more, before pulling out a Bic lighter and flicking it once and then going through the corridor to give her some light. It was dirty, not clean as the others had been, with cobwebs and dust falling everywhere. The corridor itself was only about 20 feet long but it felt like an eternity. When she finally made it to the end, there was a stout wooden door, which was unusual for a vampire's manor. Jeanne turned the rusty handle and walked inside.

The room was small and what diluted light there was flooded the small room through a moss green curtain over a large window. Jeanne thought it was empty at first until she saw the piano. It was old and beautifully made. The grand piano was closed and it stood stoically and majestically silent in the small room. Jeanne smiled and walked over to it, lifting the top of it, and peering inside to see if the strings were still intact. Amazingly, as she shone her lighter over them, it appeared they were. Jeanne pulled out the bench and sat, a smile on her face, the first real authentic smile in a while, as she lifted the cover that concealed the row of black and ivory keys before me. Jeanne hesitated, her hand hovering and then went ahead and struck a C.

That one noise, that simple key, brought back memories rushing into her mind like a dam being unleashed. Her mother, who had the same straight red hair as Jeanne but with cool grey eyes, driving me to my first piano lesson, feeling nervous as she stared down at the many black and white keys before me as she could feel the people's stares on me waiting for me to play. The feeling of unrestricted joy as she mastered a particularly hard piano piece, that same feeling of outright joy as Jeanne felt the cool keys beneath my fingers and heard the music pouring into the world.

She placed my hands on the keys and hesitated. Could she still play? It had been so long… Was it possible that she could still do this? Could Jeanne really still make music? Her resolve solidified as she told herself, You'll only know if you try. Jeanne hesitated once more and then began playing.

At first, her fingers didn't quite know what to do. They stumbled over the keys as she tried to remember how to play her favorite song. But then as she let the music take me, they seemed to remember more and more and no longer did they stumble. Instead, they moved quicker, nimbly jumping over the keys and playing the notes perfectly. Jeanne smiled again. She could still do this. The music reached a climax, and her heart beat faster and then the music slowly went back down, inevitably to be ended as the music slipped back into the first memorable tune. And then she stopped playing, her hands still on the keys as she breathed hard, her heart pounding.

And then Jeanne nearly jumped out of her skin as a voice with a sharp menace immediately shocked me out of my brief moment of peace.

"Just what do you think you're doing here?"

A/N : Okay, this is an updated version where I've fixed the stuff that was going back and forth between first and third person views… Otherwise it's the same… Sorry about that!! I write in a first person view but L.J. Smith writes in a third person and I kept forgetting that!! Tell me if I missed anything k? And as always REVIEW!!!!