Chapter 3



Aurora flopped on the bed of her studio apartment. The delicious feeling of her down comforter swallowing her gave her the security of being alone. Goddess, seh should get an Oscar for her performance today.

She felt herself begin to sway into sleep, her recent feeding filling her full of warmth. That innocent sophomore boy she'd seen behind the 7-11 would never know that he had been bitten by a vampire.

As she lulled out of consciousness, one of her repetitive dreams began to surface. One of her past lives. She saw herself in a large violet dress to match her eyes. She was a southern belle.

She gave a mental groan. ~Not this one . . .~



~*~



"Dawn?" A sweet southern voice called to her.

Aurora looked around to where it had come from. Her mother . . . there she was! Standing on the porch by the cotton field. She began to walk in that direction, parasol in hand. "Yes, Momma?"

"Hurry, Dawn. Your Daddy is going to be mighty glad to see you when he gets home." Her mother touched her arms lightly. "My, aren't you beautiful? That dress your Auntie Lily brought you from Chicago is just stunning. It brings out your eyes so well."

"Thank you, Momma." Aurora blushed. "He should be home soon?"

"Any moment now, dear. Why don't you fetch one of the boys to find us a hen for supper?"

"Yes, Momma." Aurora walked out to the field.

Under a large tree sat a young man with sandy hair. She called to him, "Josiah?"

"Yes, miss?" He looked up. There was something familiar about him.

"My Momma needs a hen for supper. Would you please run along and find one?" She stood straight and proud, deep inside feeling the misery of commanding another human being.

"Yes, miss." He stood, turning to the chicken coop.

She began to turn away, but stopped in mid-step when she heard the scream.

"Momma?!" she exclaimed, running toward the house. Loud footsteps were coming behind her, but she didn't turn to look.

Soon, her and Josiah were running up the steps of the house. The screaming stopped just as she entered the screen door to the kitchen. They ran through the house until they reached the lounge. There, her father stood over her mother's limp body on the floor. He looked up into her eyes, and she saw something that scared her down to her soul.

* Hunger.*

His eyes had an unnatural silver sheen that she had never seen before. His mouth, like her mother's neck, was covered in blood. The thing that grabbed Aurora's attention more than anything, that couldn't fit into the picture in her mind, were the elongated teeth coming from his mouth.

She swallowed hard. "Daddy? Daddy, what's wrong?"

She felt bare hands on her arms, pulling her back. There was a feeling like static on her skin. Suddenly, her mind was filled with the presence of someone else.

She looked up at Josiah. ~I know you~.

Then she heard his voice, though his mouth didn't move. ~We have to get out of here~. His eyes veiled by his long hair, Aurora suddenly wanted to change her dream. She wanted to be able to move as she wanted. Not knowing why, she wanted to brush away the hair. There was something she had to see . . .

Rough hands grabbed the back of her dress. Her father yanked, tearing the large bow of lace. She reached for Josiah, but her father was pulling her away. With his free hand, he pulled her head back, moving aside the soft chestnut curls that were set around her face.

She knew Josiah couldn't help her. Her life was leaving her fast, her soul being pulled out by the teeth in her neck.

No longer connected to him, she sent one last thought to Josiah, not knowing what she was saying, but knew he could hear her. ~I'll be with you in the next life . . .~

~*~

Aurora sat up in her bed, a cold sweat beaded on her brow. She hated that dream. She hated all of her past life memories. She always died painfully. That's why she tried not to sleep.

She walked over to the desk in the corner of the room. Sitting down she moved aside all of her papers. Letters with the seal of the Council in the top corner, stating her mission, mixed with notes from her classes of that day. Amidst them all, she saw a piece of paper with the Circle Daybreak letterhead. The signature at the bottom was illegible, but could not be mistaken: Thierry Descouedres.

The dreams had been what brought her to Circle Daybreak to begin with. She had started seeing a therapist when she was sixteen. One day, a tall boy with a sad face that looked no older than her, but seemed to have seen ions, was sitting in the room as she entered.

She remembered the conversation as if it had been yesterday.

The therapist had been sitting at his desk. "Aurora, I'd like you to meet someone. This is Thierry Descouedres. He's a good friend of mine."

She had gone to shake his hand, but he waved it off. "It's not her, Richard."

Eyebrows raised, she looked between the two men. "I'm not who?"

Thierry gave her an unconsolable smile. "These dreams you've had. You're killed in every one of them?"

She nodded, suddenly outraged that her therapist had broken the client confidentiality. She wanted to speak, but Thierry stopped her.

"Richard didn't tell me anything. All he said was that you were having dreams."

She calmed a little. "How did you know I died?"

He evaded the question. "Are you killed by these vampires in every dream?"

She was dumbfounded. "No. In most of them it's vampires, but there are dreams where I'm being killed by wolves, panthers, birds, and even warlocks. I die in every one of them."

He nodded. "Do you believe that these creatures are real?"

She turned her head to the side. "I was raised to think that they weren't, but I can't deny what my mind tells me. These have been past lives. I've lived and died multiple times."

He smiled. "I want to tell you a story, a true one, about a world that exists beside your own."

Thierry had told her about the Night World and Circle Daybreak. He had told her about Hana of the Three Rivers, and his endless search for his soulmate. When he was done, he waited for a response.

Once again, Aurora looked between the two men. Sighing, she gave a sort of half-smile. "I hope I'm not paying for this session."

For the next year and a half, she was an avid member of Circle Daybreak. She was there when the terrible Ash Redfern changed his colors. She was a part of a search team for Hana of the Three Rivers. She actually shook hands with "The Cat."

Somewhere in that time she had met Oren Rasmussen.

Oren was lamia. They hadn't been soulmates, but they cared about each other deeply. They always worked together on projects for Daybreak, looking out for each other. Plus, being around so many soulmates, you tend to take love for granted.

The story about the attack had some truth behind it. While on a scouting mission for Thierry, Aurora, Oren, his cousin James, and James' soulmate, Poppy, had split into two teams to search for a child who's parents had been killed by wolves. It turned out to be a trap.

Poppy and James had made it to safety, but Aurora had received a serious attack. A vampire had drained her of most of her blood. She would have been lucky to survive the night. A few of the witches in the Daybreak hospital had tried to repair the damage to her spirit, but things weren't looking too optimistic.

Since she had been killed so tragically in all of her lives, her soul had taken quite a blow. This time, there was so much damage, she probably would never come back.

Oren loved her dearly. Him and Thierry had come to her room and discussed it with her, the idea of changing her, if she wanted to live.

Being so close to death, with the idea of never coming back, she took the chance.

Every day since his death, she wished Oren had never convinced her.