I'd woken up cold and wrapped tightly in my sheets. It had been dark in my room and the alarm clock on my nightstand read almost two in the morning. I'd slept almost eleven hours since I'd got home yesterday and somehow I still felt exhausted. With a sigh I'd pulled myself out of bed, flicked on the lamp and began to search through my mother's drawers for anything to keep my mind occupied, so I wouldn't have to focus on the dream.

In a drawer on her dresser I found three diaries, each labelled a different year, my mother never wrote any information down in all the years I had know her yet here was three years worth of writing all neatly packaged in a little set of books. I didn't really know my mother, but I was about to get to know a version of her.

I'd climbed back into bed, taking the earliest dated diary with me and began to read.

I don't know how long I'd read for but at some point I'd fallen back to sleep, I didn't dream this time or at least nothing I remembered anyway. I woke up again around midday, I still felt tired but Aunt Vivian insisted I get up, I put mum's diaries back in the drawer I'd found them, I had a feeling Aunt Viv would confiscate them if she knew I had them and moved from my bed to the couch where I stayed all day watching crappy day-time TV shows and eating whatever unhealthy snacks I could find in Aunt Viv's cupboards – there weren't many. Aunt Viv pottered around me, cleaning or working, whatever she was doing I didn't really care.

Around five my aunt sent me upstairs to get washed and dressed, I had two hours to be presentable to her vampire friend. I'd be presentable alright, along with whatever weapons I could find. I wasn't about to trust one of the creatures that had attacked me no matter how nice my Aunt said she was.

The doorbell ran at exactly seven and when Aunt Viv opened the door I stood at the top of the stairs, looking through the banister railings. The vampire was pretty, all blonde curls and flawless skin. She looked nothing like I expected a vampire to look, but then again neither had the guys who attacked me.

"Hi, Viv." She said in a sing song voice, entering the house and putting her coat on the rack like she came here all the time, and for all I knew she probably did. "Something smells good." She commented and I had to agree with her, whatever my aunt was cooking for dinner had made my stomach growl with hunger more than once while I was sharpening pencils and hiding them in my boots and sleeves. Every book said it the same, wood killed vampires.

"I brought cookies." The vampire said, holding up a plastic box. My aunt closed the front door and led the girl away into the kitchen commenting on how nice she was. I couldn't hear much of their conversation after that but then my aunt called for me to come downstairs. With heavy feet I descended the stairs.

"Caroline this is my niece, Jem." Aunt Viviane said as I entered the kitchen, the vampire was helping herself to plates from our cupboard, she nearly dropped them when she turned to look at me and I let a pencil fall out of my sleeve a little so that I was ready for whatever attack she was planning.

"Caroline," My aunt said, worry obvious in her voice. "Are you okay?"

Caroline explained a little over dinner. All the time my aunt looked more and more worried, she kept casting glances over at me. I didn't know what to think, this was all new to me. Eventually my aunt said I could go to bed, it was more an order than option and I slunk off up the stairs. I stopped halfway to listen to their conversation. I could only hear snippets but what I could hear didn't sound good.

"She could be the answer we need, Viv." Caroline was saying,

"No, she's not ready, she doesn't even know about any of this." Vivian was protesting. I don't know why she was treating me like such a child, I could make my own decisions, why didn't they just ask me?

I didn't go to bed, I went back downstairs and into the kitchen, "You could ask me what I want." I said, my aunt looked horrified to see me, she had never had children, she obviously didn't know that they could disobey.

"Jem, go back upstairs – " she began to tell me but I shook my head at her and cut her off.

"Whatever's going on, I can apparently help. " I said, "I'm a naturally selfish person, I don't do things for other people but – and I don't know why - but I feel like I need to help."

My Aunt looked tired all of a sudden, like she couldn't fight it anymore, "You need to be prepared." She said and it reminded me of my dream, a shiver went up my spine. "I can't do it, we were supposed to do it together, your mother and I, we were supposed to prepare you for what you were supposed to do." But my mother had run, she had run from this because she had wanted to protect me from whatever I was supposed to do and now I was unprepared for it.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked and my Aunt shrugged, told me she didn't know exactly but it involved everyone and everything and me.

"My friend's brother attacked you yesterday." Caroline piped up, "He'd turned off his humanity so he couldn't feel the weight of what killing you would have done to him but when he bit you, I don't really know what happened but you turned his humanity back on."

"I think we need to figure out what you are, before we can figure out what you do." She suggested, it seemed logical and I wanted to know anyway. "Did your mum maybe leave clues?" My aunt shook her head, I guess she didn't know about the diaries either.

"There are some diaries in her room, I've read about half of the first one and nothing so far but as far as I can tell she hasn't met my dad yet. Maybe one of those has something." I suggested.

"It's a start." Caroline replied.

And that's how I started on a path there would be no turning back from.