Disclaimer: The Nightworld does not belong to me it belongs to L.J. Smith. Khalida on the other hand does belong to me so please do not use her without my permission.

Author's Note: I started this fic a while ago and felt like picking it up again so I'm going to start posting it. Let me know what you think.

Warnings: Language, violence, gore

Khalida's Story

Kynthia

Prologue

The girl was running as fast as she could to keep from being late for dinner. Her mother would be distraught if she was not home by nightfall. Her mother seemed to become upset by everything since her father had left to fight in the war. She cared for her mother and didn't want to cause her any problems until her father was safe at home.

"Ow!" she exclaimed as she tripped on the exposed root of a tree. She quickly dusted off her skirts and looked around as she realized how late it had already gotten. The full moon hung in the night sky and was the only light she had as she began her long run back home once again. She couldn't suppress a shutter that crawled up her back as she looked through the darkened forest. It was odd. The night had always been a comfort to her in the past but tonight she couldn't bring to mind that old feeling of contentment. 'Something is going to happen soon,' was the only thought that came to mind.

As she ran she tried to only think about the excuse to give to her mother about being out so late. She surely couldn't tell her that she had gone to the old witch in the woods. The girl began to think about the visit once more. She had heard of the old woman through gossip in town, most people believed that she had sold her soul to the Devil for power and that she should be lynched to preserve the good of the town. The girl knew deep down though that it wouldn't happen because most of the self proclaimed "righteous people" had already gone to her to employ her services instead of saving her soul.

She knew her mother would stop her if she had found out where she had gone so she had waited for her to go to town to do some errands and left in the hopes she could get home first. After reaching the small cottage on the other side of the forests she had been met outside by an old crooked woman wearing a dark shawl. The old woman had agreed to read her fortune in a cracked voice but for a price. She had paid the woman with money she had managed to save while selling clothing she had made in town. The woman had taken her to a small room where no sunlight could get through a small window. After being seated the gray haired woman had begun to stare into a large crystal that sat on the table and began to speak.

"You will live a long life-," she began but quickly looked up and gave the girl an odd look.

"What is it?" she had asked.

"I don't know. Let me try again," she had said quickly. She waited a moment before beginning again and her gaze saddened but her tone was dead, "You will live quite a long life but you are surrounded by a darkness. You don't recognize it yet but soon it will strike and will take your life, yet you will continue to live. There is much blood here. There is pain but not your own. You will receive love but not return it. You will live two lives," she hesitated for a moment, "I am normally right about readings and in this one I feel that your future will be a dark one."

For the first time since their meeting the woman had looked into the girl's green eyes. When the girl matched her gaze she gasped. The woman had bright violet eyes.

At the thought of the eyes the girl came back into the present. The reading the woman had given didn't bother her much because she didn't fully understand what the things said meant but what had bothered her was the woman's reaction to them herself. In a way she had seemed frightened by her own words. As she thought this over she didn't hear the crunch of leaves behind her and so was surprised by the hand that was by now covering her mouth against the screams she fought to release.