Title: Midnight Love
Author: Icebyrd67
Type: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Fiction
Book: Midnight Predator
Rating: Pg-13
Disclaimer: All rights belong to Amelia-Atwater-Rhodes. I'm just borrowing her world and characters. Unknown characters are mine.
Chapter One
You're a Kennan. You should be proud of that, Danica. Don't let anyone take that away from you. As long as you embrace who you are, you will never be alone. Remember that, Dani. My little girl. You are Kennan.
Danica brushed her tears away. She could still hear her mother's voice in her ears, even though it's been a good three years since she had been ripped violently from life. Danica remember vividly all the events that night.
Her mother had only just dropped her off for a dance recital. Helen Kennan-Sheldon had promised she would be back in time to watch her only child dance in the ballet. She only had to go to the store to pick up a few items. Dani remembered how she had been so anxious to dance for her mother. Only a year before, at fifteen, did Dani tear half the muscles in her left leg in a horrible accident. She was finally able again and had trained so hard to be in that year's recital. She was just so excited!
But the curtains opened, and Helen was nowhere to be seen. Dani remember just how mad she was at her mom for not being there for her. So mad that she wasn't there to see her dance. She remembered dancing perfectly and beautifully, and yet her form was still wrong, because she had so much anger.
Then after, Dani remembered standing in the cold, waiting for Helen to come pick her up, only to have a police officer come. Danica could remember his exact words. "We need you to come to the station and identify the body of your mother."
There was nothing after that. No warning of what had happened. Just a 'come and identify'. He hadn't even bothered to be nice about it. According to him, this was just another of the dozens of murders that the slums of New York received every week.
Danica shoved herself off the wall she had been leaning on. Ever since that day, she had vowed she would find her mother's murderers and exact revenge. If only she knew who it was.
Danica lived with her Grandmother Kennan now, having no father and no other close family. Her mother had always been careful on who she would allow close to their family. Dani only barely remembered the aunts and cousins and uncles she had. Then she was thrown in among then, trying to understand their strange ways and practices.
Dani had always known there was something special about her mother, but she had never suspected that Helen Kennan-Sheldon had been a witch. Nor had she suspected her mother's entire side of the family was witches and shape-shifters. And she had definitely not thought she were a witch or a shape-shifter.
It was when she was orphaned did Danica learn the true meaning of her mother's babbles. The Kennan family was a powerful one in the witching world. They had influences everywhere, and were hated by a good many vampires and creatures of the night. It was a vampire that had so cruelly taken Helen from her child.
Dani wrapped her jacket closer around her body as she walked across the Quad of her school. She was tired, after a night of training in one of the Kennan training gyms. She only wanted to get home, to sink into her bed in front of the TV and sleep away her nightmares. She wasn't expecting to be attacked in any case.
Dani knew there was a vampire behind her, but she really hadn't cared. There were vampires all over the college campus. As long as they didn't kill anyone or torture anyone, she really didn't mind them. But when a group of vampires suddenly appeared, Danica allowed a trickle of fear to enter her body, stimulating her adrenaline.
One of the creatures lunged at her with fangs bared. Danica reached out and kicked it hard with a heel kick. She heard the crunch of bones and it's muffled cry of pain. She had only just turned to deliver a kick to one of its friends, when she heard the snap of a whip. She had no reaction time as she slid into the blackened darkness that awaited her.