Prologue

Rome 42 b.c.

Author's Note: There were a few people who wanted to know what happened to Jillian. Here's a short for them. If you wish to know more, there will be a chapter in Hunter's Moon that will explain this more in depth. I'll give you a hint to when it's coming. It's when Dante and Amadora finally get married! So if you want to read more, keep an eye out for that chapter. That said, please enjoy Prologue.

JPOV

I was at Florinian's home alone for the time being. Florinian and given Felix a job working at the bar with him. He was planning to give the bar to him as soon as he was old enough. I had a feeling Lia wouldn't have wanted him working as young as ten, but without her here, there was no one to tell Florinian otherwise. I'd come to his home after Lia's funeral as Felix had told me to and I've been taking care of them since then. The next day, I'd gone to his home to check on him, but he wasn't there. I wasn't too nervous at first. I figured he was at a bar somewhere and decided to wait until that night to check on him. But when he still wasn't home that night, I began to get worried.

A fortnight had gone by without a word from Felix and I was nothing but nerves. I'd gone to some soldiers and a commanding officer of his and asked if they'd seen him. Evidently, he hadn't shown up in days and was now officially labeled as being a deserter and would be punished greatly for his actions if they ever found him. Florinian was worried too and he asked all his friends and patrons to keep an eye out for him. But after five months of searching for him and getting nothing from any of Florinian's patrons, we were forced to accept the possibility that he either ran from Rome, was murdered himself, or committed suicide. I knew the last option wasn't true. Felix would never take his own life no matter how depressed he was. He was far too fond of himself for that. I hated giving up hope, but there was no other option for us.

But I knew that Felix wouldn't want me wasting time, as he would put it, looking for him. I promised I'd take care of Florinian and Felix and that's what I did. Florinian never officially freed me, but he would sometimes give me money to spend on myself whenever he was feeling a little less sad. And Felix had taken a liking to me since his mother was gone. And I did my best with him and treated him like he was my own son. Sometimes, I would think of him as just that.

"Hey Jillian." I turned from the dishes and looked at him.

"What are you doing home? Don't you have work?" Felix smiled.

"Dad said I could come over and get some lunch. The bar food is vile and I was hoping I couldn't have a home cooked lunch instead." I smiled and nodded my head.

"Alright. What are you in the mood for?" Felix walked over to the table and took a seat.

"What fruits do we have?" Jillian took a moment to look around the kitchen and found some apples and grapes. Then she held them up and let Felix pick which one he wanted. "I think I'll have some grapes."

"Good choice. I got these just yesterday. I was thinking of turning them into raisins." Felix scrunched his nose and shook his head.

"I don't like raisins." I giggled and walked over to give him his grapes then kissed his forehead.

"You're so cute. You know that?"

"You tell me every day." I smiled.

"I suppose I do." Felix started eating his grapes, then awareness came to his eyes.

"Oh, and Jillian?"

"Yeah?"

"Before I forget. Dad gave me some money to give to you." Felix reached into a pocket and pulled out some coins. "He said you should treat yourself to dinner tonight, He said we're having dinner with one of his patrons tonight. I think he has a daughter dad wants me to meet." I laughed a little to myself.

"You're father's making you grow up too fast, Felix."

"Don't worry about me, Jillian. We're not exchanging vows or nothing. He's just making us meet, and we'll see each other a lot from now on. It's not so bad. And dad says women are fun. You're definitely fun." I giggled and sighed a little before kissing his forehead.

"I'm glad to hear it, Felix."

When Felix finished eating his grapes, he went across the street back to work. I waited until the end of their work day and they didn't come when before I started thinking about what I would do. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I ended up leaving the house and walking around for a place to eat. While I was walking, I passed a little shop that advertised itself as a fortune teller. I think I stood in front of that shop for a few minutes before finally walking away. I was so tempted to walk in and ask what happened to Felix. But I resisted and walked further down the street to a little restaurant and had something to eat. I stayed there looking out the window for an hour, poking at my food. When I was done, I took the same route home and passed the same fortune teller's shop.

I stopped in front of the shop again and saw that the lights were bright from the windows, indicating that someone was there to assist a walk in. I stood there a little longer staring at the shop. I was about to walk away, but I had some money left and gave into temptation this time. I doubted this fortune teller would be able to tell me anything useful about Felix, but I figured it was worth a try. When I walked in, there was an older woman sitting alone at a table looking at bones. I began to approach her slowly before she spoke.

"You needn't fear me, child. Come sit down." I was a little surprised, but realized she probably heard me walk in. So I walked a little faster until I reached her table. She looked up and her face was shrouded with wrinkles that betrayed her obvious age. And her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. When I took a seat, she grabbed a hold of my hand, startling me. "Fear not, girl, I'm merely enquiring as to why you're here."

"I'm here because…" She shushed me and continued holding my palm. It sent a chill down my spine. A moment went by before she started talking again.

"You wish to know of a loved one. A man you loved long ago. Felix." She let go of my hand and looked at me again. "You wish to know what happened to him."

"He disappeared and we weren't able to find him."

"And this happened seven years ago. By now, he's either long out of Rome or dead." I got a little angry.

"I want you to tell which it is and how it happened." The woman sighed and reached down beside her and pulled up a human heart. It took me by surprise and she noticed.

"The person was dead when I took this. Calm yourself child." Then she reached for a knife and made a large incision into the heart. Once she finished, she pulled it apart so the cut portion was easily visible to her.

"This is what's going to tell you what happened to him?" She nodded.

"Your request is made from love. Love exists nowhere but the heart. I can't very well check for love in the liver now can I?" I sighed and didn't comment on her sarcasm. "I'm surprised a slave has the money to pay for this. Your master is very grateful to you obviously for helping him with his son." I sighed.

"Felix.."

"Felix asked you to. I know. In holding your hand, child, I already know what you'll have in response. Your history is all in my head now."

"Whatever you say." The old woman giggled.

"A skeptic I see. I suppose you don't want to know what happened to Felix." I shook my head.

"No, I want to know. Please tell me." The old woman smiled and looked back into the heart. She looked around for a moment, then looked confused. "What's wrong?"

"The signs are crossed."

"What does that mean?"

"There are crevices and lines that determine life and death. For Felix, these are crossed. It means he's between worlds. He's neither living, nor dead." I was silent a moment. I really wasn't sure if she was trying to fuck with me or if she honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

"How is that possible?" The old woman didn't answer me at first. She kept looking at the portion that had the crossed signs, then she started looking at other parts, then adding a deeper incision to the heart. "Please tell me what you're doing?"

"I'm trying to answer your question." Instead of arguing with her, I sat back and let her do what she was doing. As she was looking, her face seemed to become more horrified. Eventually, I couldn't stand to wait for her to talk to me anymore.

"What's wrong?" The woman looked a little scared. This surprised me.

"Your lover. Felix. He's no longer human. He's a monster that feeds on the blood of men." My eyes widened.

"Excuse me?"

"That day. When you cremated Lia. He left to go to his home to dispose of the bodies. When he came home, there was a blonde woman there. Beautiful and flawless. She was drinking his wife's blood. He walked closer in interest and asked who she was. Another woman, one of mahogany hair, grabbed him from behind having appeared suddenly. He fought them, but to no avail. The blonde bit his neck and the mahogany woman bit his ankle. The women's leader was impressed with his strength, so he asked him to ally himself with them. He agreed." She looked away from the meat and at me. "Forget about him." It was a moment before I could respond.

"Forget about him? How can you demand that?" The old woman shook her head.

"He's lost to you. To all humanity. Don't waste your heart on a creature that would sooner kill you than love you." Tears were beginning to burn my eyes. I took a few deep breaths to ensure that didn't happen. "He loved you, Jillian." I looked right into her eyes.

"He did?"

"Yes, he did. Keep that knowledge close and move on. He's lost to you now."

"I can't do that." The old woman sighed.

"I know you're hurt. But you know what happened to him." I shook my head.

"No, I don't. You've told me he's the undead. What does that mean? What is he?" The woman was silent a moment. I think she was reluctant to tell me. But she eventually did.

"He's a vampire, child. A human's natural enemy. They are a creature that drinks the blood of men and wander in the night out of our sight. For your sake, I suggest you let well enough alone."

The woman looked back into the meat and started making more incisions. One incision she made brought a concerned look to her face yet again. I wasn't sure if I could handle more surprises. She kept looking and her face gradually changed to further horror. I sat quietly for worse news. I was sure she would tell me something outrages happened to Felix and now he was truly dead or something of that nature. But instead, she stood away from the human heart and kept backing up. I stood up in response and she was covering her mouth in fear I could swear. Then she looked at me, took a deep breath, and motioned her hands towards me, telling me to leave.

"Your future is set. You must go now. You will see him again. You must be patient Jillian. Wait for Diti and Antonia. They will become your companions until you find your love again. Now go." I stood there dumbfounded a moment. I had no idea what she was so scared about. When I didn't leave immediately, she raised her voice slightly. "Go! You have a destiny that you can't walk away from. And remember. You will burn for three days. Then a new life will welcome you. Go, Jillian."

This time, I began backing away. Only because I was really scared of this woman now. I didn't want to listen to her gibberish anymore. She was probably wrong about the whole thing. I walked out of the shop and started walking down the street. It wasn't for another few blocks that I realized I was going the wrong way and had to turn around. When I passed the fortune teller again, there was a group of men there that I hadn't seen before who were clearly drunk and causing a great deal of noise. But I ignored them and tried walking past them without a word.

"Hey, woman!" I continued to ignore them both times when the man called to me. But the second time, he ran to me and grabbed my arm. Once he had a hold of me, he covered my mouth so no one could hear me scream and took me to the ally where his other friends were. "How does she look boys? The best part is she's free." The two other men laughed. The eldest one spoke.

"She'll do fine. I've had too much wine to care." He laughed, and the slightly younger man laughed with him.

"I hope she's a virgin." The man holding me chuckled evilly and tossed me to the eldest man. They began tearing at my clothes and I continued to scream. "I'm in the mood for something clean."

I kept screaming and fighting them off as much as I could, but they were both stronger than me. While I was fighting them, I remembered something that Felix had taught me. When I was still at the whore house, Felix taught me a few forms of self defense. At the time, I had thought it was a little strange to teach me self defense, but right now, I was grateful I remembered everything he taught me. The eldest man grabbed my hair from behind, so I used my free arm, twisted the arm that was in my hair until he let go and heard his arm crack. I didn't stop at that. Felix had taught me that while I had my attacker in this grip, I would have the opportunity to punch him. So with the palm of my other free hand, I started slamming my palm into his face, not stopping because I was so scared. By the time I stopped, his entire face was almost nonexistent anymore and there was blood all over from his cracked skull and misshaped nose.

I was so stunned with what I'd done, but I tried throwing the best punch I could at one of the other men. It ended up being the first one to grab me and he hit his head on the bricks and fell to the ground. But the last one standing managed to get a hold of me that I couldn't get away from and I had to go back to screaming again. All I could do was loosen his grip enough times that he couldn't do what he wanted. Out of reflex, I ended up elbowing his nose, breaking it. While he was disoriented, I looked around for any weapon I could. I kept looking but when I found something I could use, I felt a sharp pain in my side from a knife in my lower back. I screamed in pain and fell, expecting it to get worse. But while I was waiting for another stab from the knife, I heard the man yelp, then I heard a defining crack and the man fell to the ground. I turned on my side that wasn't hurt and saw a woman with black hair and pale olive skin standing before me.

When that man was down, she bit into his neck and remained there for a few minutes. She did the same thing to the other two men and sighed in joy when she was done. When she was done, she looked at me with a contented smile on her face. I tried crawling away, but she was before me in an instant and then she kneeled down so I could see her face. It was a beautiful face with almost an innocent look to it. But the innocence was muddled by her bright red eyes.

"I have to say, I owe you one. You saved me the trouble of hunting." I was shaking violently now. I had no idea what she was and I didn't know what she would do to me.

"What…." I tried asking her what she wanted, but I was in so much pain and my voice was weak from screaming.

"I'm not sure I should explain anything to you. You did me a favor and all, but from what I can tell, you were hit in a bad spot. I can either take pity on you and change you, or be cruel and kill you now. Frankly, I'm forced to do one or the other regardless."

"Please….just…." The woman hushed me and kept looking at me thoughtfully.

"Let me think." The woman was silent as she looked at me for a moment. She pushed my hand away that was covering my wound and looked at it. She looked really uncomfortable for a moment. Then she let go and let me cover it again and sighed. "I don't have the heart to kill you. It seems so unfair to have your life end at the hand of another. I'll change you. It might not be much better, but I doubt it's worse than death. I never thought it so anyway. What's your name?"

"Jil..lia..n"

"Jillian. That's a pretty name. I'm Antonia." I felt a chill go down my spine then. She kept smiling at me and grabbed a hold of me and tossed me over her shoulder. It was so gentle, I barely noticed she was lifting me. "I better get you out of the city before I change you. I wouldn't want your screaming to attract attention."

I questioned her when she started running, but she didn't answer me no matter how many times I asked. As she was running, she seemingly jumped to the top of the buildings in one grand leap. For all I could tell, it was one jump. I wasn't paying much attention to her anymore. After running for a few seconds, Antonia stopped and started talking to someone.

"You going somewhere with your food Antonia? You're not even going to share with me?"

"I'm not eating her, Diti. I'm planning to change her. She saved me the trouble of killing my food for the most part and one of them stabbed her. I feel bad for her, so I'm changing her." Diti shrugged.

"There's no middle line I suppose. Did you leave some blood for me?"

"What do you think, Diti?" I heard Diti hiss, but I couldn't see what was happening. I could only hear them talking.

"Such a greedy bitch." They shared a laugh and then Antonia began running again. This time she never stopped and she gently placed me on the ground when we were in the part of the woods that she deemed appropriate.

"I'm going to bite your wrist alright? That's often a good place. Once I bite, you'll feel like you're burning. But don't worry, you're not. This will last three days, so be prepared." I wasn't bothering with being surprised anymore. It seemed stupid by now.

Without further warning, Antonia brought my wrist to her mouth and bit down, making me scream. I only felt warmth for a moment, but once the burning started, I resisted screaming. But once I started feeling the pain all over, I couldn't hold it in anymore and I screamed loud enough that blood was running from the ears of anyone unfortunate enough to be too close at the moment. I'm sure Antonia was talking at some points while I was burning, but I didn't hear her. I couldn't concentrate on anything but the pain. I couldn't even seem to count the days judging by the sun. I couldn't pay attention to it, no matter how hard I tried. It was the longest three days of my life. It felt much longer. I was able to concentrate when I noticed the pain was starting to go away.

Eventually, the burning was only in my heart, which I could hear pounding furiously. But when the burning was gone, so was my heartbeat as I breathed out. When I breathed in again, I didn't feel any relief from it. In fact, it burned in my throat. But I could taste everything. It was wondrous and unexpected. And when I opened my eyes, I could see everything. I saw dust particles, I saw rays from the sun, I even saw colors that I never knew existed before now. I sat up and looked at Antonia, who was sitting next to me with a big smile. There were rays of sun hitting her skin and she sparkled from the light. I looked at my hand that was also in sunlight and saw the same thing on my skin.

"My god you're a screamer. But I'm happy to see you out of it at last. How do you feel?" I wasn't sure how to answer her. I felt stronger in a sense, but I was parched as if my throat was so dried that it had cracks.

"I'm thirsty." Antonia nodded.

"I know. It'll be night in a few hours, so we'll go back to the city and hunt then. Unless we can attack a drover cart before that."

"What are you talking about?"

"You need blood, Jillian. We'll get you some as soon as possible."

"What am I?"

"A vampire, Jillian." I was a little stunned, but I wasn't surprised at all. I'd stopped being surprised by the fortune teller's predictions, though she didn't actually tell me this was what would happen to me. All she said was that my destiny was set.

"You said your name is Antonia?" She smiled.

"I'm surprised you remember. Most newborns don't remember much of their human life."

"Really? I remember everything." She looked surprised.

"Really? It's not even blurry?" I shrugged.

"Not especially. Only events that I don't especially remember. But those were memories I didn't really see a need to remember." Antonia smiled.

"You're lucky then. Most don't remember much. I'd savor that if I were you." Antonia came to attention a moment, then looked at me with a sinister smile. "I smell them. It's not drovers. But whoever they are, I'm sure they'll taste delicious."

Antonia lifted me to my feet and began running towards the smell. I smelled it too and followed after her. It was a smell like metal. We came across a caravan of six men that were carting a large cart down a road away from a city. It must've been money. But I wasn't uninterested in that and went right for the gullet of the driver without a second thought as to what I was doing. It wasn't until after Antonia and I had brought everyone under the cover of trees and I'd drank most of their blood before I started thinking and was horrified by what I'd done so willingly. Antonia kept reassuring me that it was natural and that I'd get used to it. We ended up leaving the cart where it was. She told me that Aro would probably go for it when he found it. That led into a discussion about the Volturi and why she had the choice of killing me or changing me. I started thinking about what the fortune teller told me. She'd said Felix was a part of something in this new life. I wondered if maybe the Volturi was what she was talking about. I told Antonia, and she didn't know about any new members of the Volturi, but she figured the less one knew about them, the better. It meant you didn't encounter them, which was apparently the best thing to do. When Antonia found someone she'd been looking for, the woman smiled. She was clearly Indian and was a very beautiful one at that, even with her sinister face.

"She turned out well." Antonia nodded.

"Yep. So, Diti, do you mind having a new coven member?" Diti shrugged.

"I don't see the harm. Especially if she's bi-curious." Diti giggled and I felt uncomfortable. Antonia laughed and rolled her eyes.

"You never know. But at least get to know her before you start trying to get under her skirt why don't you." Diti smiled evilly at me.

"I'll try. But she's certainly something worth going for." I shook my head.

"I'm not interested in women that way." Diti's face fell just a little.

"Oh well. I can always go for an old lover." Antonia laughed.

"You're such a whore, Diti."

I didn't talk much to them that first day. I wasn't sure if I had anything in common with these women. All I knew was the fortune teller had told me to stick with them. She'd been right so far, so I figured it couldn't hurt. And they were nice once I was used to them and they were used to me. I never slept with Diti, but it certainly wasn't because of lack of trying on her part. Antonia didn't remember her human life. But I found out that Diti's father had been a good's trader and had brought her and her mother with him to Rome and she was changed shortly after coming here. I never forgot anything that I wanted to hold dear from my human life. I remembered everything the fortune teller said to me, I remembered what happened to me, my family before Rome, how Lia died, Florinian and his son, and most importantly, Felix. I would never allow myself to forget him. And because I wanted to keep my promise, I looked out for Florinian and Felix, but from afar.

Felix eventually inherited the bar like his father had wanted. And he married the little girl who turned into a beautiful woman that he'd met the night I was killed and they had three beautiful children. The two girls, the oldest named after his mother and the second named after me, and a son named Felix. That all made me smile. And once Felix senior had passed away and his children were grown and on their own, I decided to let them go and live their lives without me. I stayed with Antonia and Diti for centuries until it was the winter of 2003. That's when I'd lost a little hope in the fortune teller and went on my own. I stayed in Rome mostly by myself. I'd heard about the fall of the Volturi, but I didn't believe it for a second. It wasn't plausible to me. I stayed alone for the most part. And for years that was my routine. I'd lost hope that anything would change and I kept to myself as the little lady that everyone saw but no one knew.