Book one: A Death as Cold as Ice
Prologue:
Blood.
The one word said it all. The room was covered with the thick, dark red liquid; fallen bodies lay across the room and even more lay in the chamber just outside the room.
A hushed silence hung over the room as the only person left alive slowly died, filled with the thoughts of her past. Her hazel eyes dimmed and looked weak as they lost more and more of their life. She had long, dark brown hair that covered one eye and wore an old fashioned dress that seemed to come from the Victoria Era, her time. Her hand grasped a round, small dagger as she fall deeper into her eternal sleep
I saw it, all the pain and fear, in this one room…just how reddish the blood truly was when it was spilled over the floor…
I saw everything... all because of who I am, what my destiny is.
I was the chosen one…the one who's supposed to fight the virus of other worlds unknown to those who called this world 'ome. I am the one girl chosen from every generation to fight this ongoing plague…
I am the Slayer, she is me, and I'm she…but I'm different from the others: I'm weaker…but its too late to correct my mis'akes, my time is up.
The young slayer's eye began to close as she fought the darkness that surrounded her, the same darkness that had tainted her in the beginning, the darkness that costs her everything…
~~*~~
Chapter One:
A small town near Paris, France, 1870 – The Victoria Era,
A young girl moved slowly down the stone road humming a tune softly as she skipped lightly from time to time. Her fancy skirts and pale blue blouse were already dampened with mud, her dark, brown hair flowing over her shoulders as she moved. She was around five or six years old.
She noticed a small pebble sparkling softly on the stoned road. As she bent to pick it up, a low hissing sound sounded near by. The girl froze and cocked her head back and waited for the noise to sound again. The hair on the back of her neck stiffened and a chill ran up her spine.
When the hissing sounded again, this time closer, she found herself wishing to be anywhere but there at that moment. "Anywhere but here" she kept thinking over and over again in her mind.
Before she could signal her brain to jump into action, she felt herself slam into the ground, hard, knocking the wind out of her. She could then feel the pressure against her back as long nails that felt like hot knives dug at her skin as her attacker manage to flip her over.
She saw its face first: long and dirty, with eyes that looked so hollow it were as if she wasn't even there. Those sharp nail had felt like knives. His clothes reeked of dirt, as if he had been in some grave recently. She noticed most of all those pointed, fang-like teeth and the sinister, almost hungry look on his pallid face. If it weren't for the fact she could now feel the drops of blood from the cuts on her arms, dropping on the road, she would have thought that this was all only some nightmare.
As her attacker once again slammed her onto the stone road, she watched in horror as those fanged teeth arched closer to her small neck. She finally found the strength to scream as those teeth sunk into her skin.
"This is it. It will all be over soon," she thought as pain demented her body and mind. She couldn't think; the pain was all too much for her. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed it would be over soon.
She was surprised to suddenly feel the pressure lift from her neck as a growl sounded to the cold night and then she felt something like dirt cover her small body. She opened her eyes to see someone standing before her, but not her attacker. This was a young woman wearing a white dress, fairly plain, holding a…was that a stake of some kind?
Where was her attacker? Where had he gone? The new girl held out her hand and gently lifted the little girl back to her feet. Before she could say anything, she heard voices echo farther down the road. The little girl turned and saw her parents as she began to feel lightheaded.
It wasn't long before her parents had reached her and begun scolding her for running off like that. Tending to her wounds, her father even threatened to search the whole town for that low-life-minion-of-Satan that had attacked his daughter. It wasn't until after his comment that she remembered her savior who was now long gone. That made two disappearances in one night….
~~*~~
The young woman watched as the little girls' parents collected her and set off back home. The stake that she had used previously was still in her hands. She felt the light touch of fingers as she was tapped on the shoulder; she turned swiftly to the man behind her.
He was only there to rank her performance in slaying. That was his job, to make sure she carried out hers as she was trained to. He was what they called a watcher, there for her own good, or so they had told her. "They" were The Council, her employers, the head guys – and she, she was the slayer, the 'cause of all this fuss.
"Veronica, you were a bit slow tonight. Perhaps if you…"
"If I what? I did what I was suppose' to. He is dust now isn't he? An' not a threat still like Angelus." She spoke with a slight French accent
Her watcher, Alexander, coughed and looked sharply at her. He didn't like he her joking about Angelus, since Angelus was an actual threat to 'em, what with all his killing sprees lately. But then Alexander was never one for jokes at all.
"I was only 'kidding."
"Yes, I know, but still do you have any idea what Angelus would do to you, if he found you out to be the next Slayer, considering what he did to the last one?" He, himself, spoke with a British ascent
Veronica sighed. Here he was, going on again with the Angelus fuss and then there was the Darla mess. What's next a William: the bloody debate? Goody, an excuse to make some tea. All this talk of how every Vampire was out to get them, The Slayers, to stop them before they could turn more of their care into ashes… Veronica just rolled her eyes, getting fed up with the conversation.
Its was the same as all the one she heard during her years working for The Council, and he still had no clue that she never listened, not really, anyway.
"Veronica, how many times have I had to tell you to stop that?" He had apparently caught the eye roll. He wanted her to be perfect, an angel, the best Slayer ever, his prefect little mod', lady lik', everything she was not. Poor him. She suppressed the need to smirk at the fact.
"Come now, time to go"
"What? So soon and here I was just began to like this little town "
"Move it Veronica!"
She sighed and wondered how annoying Watchers would be in the 21st century. If they were any worse than Alex here, she feared for all future Slayers.
~~*~~
"What do you mean she's coming back here!" whined Emma,
She couldn't believe it, her sister, coming here after being gone for a whole three years at some far off Castle in England. She never bothered to write her family, or anyone, and now she was coming there to visit 'em, acting like she even cared, just because she was chosen to be this Slayer thing.
God, what a brat!
"Now come on Emma, she's our sister, our blood, act like it for once," cried Serena. She knew Emma would have a hard time with this, but she didn't think the girl would downright cast her own sister out in the cold. Emma could be bad, but even she had her limits.
"Its not like she acts like it, she is it! Besides, I bet she's only coming here for Slayer business "
"Nonsense Emma…"
"Actually she's right"
Both sisters turned to the doorway and looked at the two people standing there. One was a man in his late 30s and the other was their sister, Veronica.
"Excuse us, Ladies, it's just that door was open and, well, Veronica said we could just come up and, well, we did and we, er…" The man looked embarrassed; however, Veronica looked as calm as ever.
"This is Alexander Notes. Not the best of names, but the Notes part does fit hi' well. Alexander is my watcher. Alex, the one tall one is Serena and the one who isn't the happie' person to see me is Emma, my younger sister."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, ladies," smiled Alexander, though Emma noted that he didn't seem too pleased with the anything but proper introduction that Veronica had given.
~~*~~
The old clocked ticked by in the hall of the overly large mansion, the mansion being part of the Taylor estate, a fairly big piece of land left to Taylor's father, who was now deceased. Serena now took care of it but could hardly called it hers. The fate that lead to her ending up with the place was a bit odd, but then was it more odd than having a sister for a Slayer? The mansion was big and spacious and decorated with a variety of fabrics and pale colors. Despite its colorful decoration, the mansion often had a darkened and eerie feel to it. In fact, many tended to like to stay away from it all together, since it had a history of unfortunate events.
But she wasn't going to worry about all that mess. She was only here to finish her mission as a Slayer, she was specially chosen for. Normally, The Council wouldn't have chosen such a young Slayer but it wasn't as if they had a choice.
Cyril and his order needed to be stopped before they would become a plague to mankind. Now, after three other Slayer's failures it was her turn to face Cyril, her turn to face a monster that had already destroyed three of her kind before her calling. It didn't exactly give her much faith in her situation.
Veronica shifted in her queen-sized bed, staring at the ceiling above her. She truly didn't know how this would come out, but then it wasn't like she was following The Council's orders to a 'T.' She didn't want to come out of this one a winner, she wanted to lose…