Prologue

I'd been watching her for years, ever since she entered middle school. I know, I'm a complete and total stalker, but she… called to me. I ran across her sent when I was hunting, miles from where she was, but it hit me like a thousand bricks. The sweet, warm, sweetly spicy smell she had. I knew she was with family, I could hear their conversations through their minds, and with my exquisite hearing. I'd forgotten all about my prey, and turned my attention to her, and only her. Before I knew it, I was standing in the middle of the store wildly searching for her. 'Whoa! Did that guy appear out of thin air? No… stupid mind, always playing tricks on me.' I mentally chastised myself for being so careless, for a human girl. "Mom, I can't believe this! They have the new Bruno Mars CD! I need this mom, like literally I need this!" Her voice was high-pitched and scratchy; growing into the quiet melody it would be in a few years. She was short for her age, and skinny, her skin was caramel colored, and she had long curly hair that was naturally black as night. Her eyes were a bright, impressive and shocking blue green. It stood out against her caramel skin, and curly hair. Her smile was perfect, as well as her teeth. I hadn't noticed I'd been staring at her, mentally, through her mother's eyes until her mother spoke to her, only five seconds after she had spoken her need for the CD her mother wasn't planning on getting for her. Hmm… I could buy it for her, leave it somewhere she would find it, and no one would be the wiser. I decided I would, risky or not. "I can't get this for you, Karlie, I don't have enough money, and your father is a dead beat good for nothing piece of—" Hmm… "So Karlie was her name? Well it fit. "Mom! I get it, trust me I really do. But please… he is still my father. He wasn't always like this." Karlie said, cutting her mother off in mid-sentence. She was noble, honorable, and true. That much could be picked up from just about anyone, and being a vampire, I picked it up extra fast. 'Just a few more years… four more years Karlie… four more years.' She kept repeating that same line to herself. What was in four years? She'd be sixteen in four years, but the only significant thing about being sixteen is being able to drive… it hit me then. She's going to emancipate herself. This strange, young, unknowing girl was beyond any human I'd ever seen, and in two-hundred years you'll see a lot. She held my attention, something no woman had been able to do, even before my time as a human ended.

Fours years later.

In the past few years, I became antsy about Karlie turning sixteen. She'd barley had enough money save, and it was a week away until her birthday. Karlie was stressed beyond belief, her mother had abandoned her two years previously, and no one knew. Karlie worked under the table to continue paying the rent for her small, one room apartment, and the essentials all humans need to survive. I wanted to help, and the need was so strong I almost did. But I had to wait, no matter what situations she went through. Karlie, the happy, bubbly little girl I had first seen in the store four years ago was gone. She had slowly, slowly, drifted from outgoing and boisterous, to quiet and analyzing. She was ruthless. She kept it together since she was fourteen, and was on her own. Around fourteen and half she started smoking cigarettes, hitting the pipe, and drinking. I was so disappointed, but I couldn't step in. Not yet. I was only months away, and I wasn't going to mess it up now. She was still an angel in my eyes, especially when she was completely relaxed and peaceful… when she slept. I started that soothing, peeping-tom habit six months after her mother had left her. She seemed to be oddly calm, loads of stress taken off, but added back on. A battle between normalcy, and going under, down the dark path so many people have tripped, and stumbled their way into. Karlie would be something, I knew it. With all that was going on, she was in all honors classes, and has amazing writing skills. She wrote about eternity a lot, and supernatural things. Things like vampires. Things like me. She wanted in, and was willing to give up whatever, do whatever, kill whoever… just for forever. Once in a journal entry she'd written on the page:

Dear journal,
I want to be a creature of the dark, bound to the night, forbidden to enter the light.To feed on the pulse that beats feverishly on their neck, to have venom pool in mouth. To be impossibly fast, strong, and immortal. Beautiful and alluring. I want my prey to some to me, and love me before I sink my razor sharp teeth into them… draining every ounce of blood that pumps through their body. To be invincible. To be ruthless, and to become what I've always wanted. To be a vampire.

When I read that, I wanted to come out and tell her everything would be ok, she didn't need to become a monster that never dies, and preys on the innocent. But again, I couldn't.

Six months later.

Today was the first day I would officially meet Karlie.