I don't own anything of the Night World. The only characters I own so far are Nila Snow, Kali Descouedres (from "Thierry's Secret"), Urbena Harman- Redfern and Crysta. Everything else belongs to L. J Smith. I'm just using her characters for fun.
Names that people might not know how to pronounce:
Nila = Nile-ah
Kali = Callie (I think…I could be wrong).
Urbena = Ur-been-ah.
Crysta = Chris-ta (like Crystal, only without the 'L').
Who Are You?
********************************* PART 1 ********************************
Hi. My name is Nila Snow. My dad was an archaeologist, and was obsessed with Egypt, so naturally when I was born, he named me Nila, after the river Nile that runs through Egypt.
The story I am about to tell you happened not that long ago. In fact, it was only about two months ago.
It all happened when my cousin Hannah Snow asked me to stay with her and her new husband; Thierry Descouedres, in Las Vegas.
The first thing I noticed when I found the place, was that it was not a house, as I first thought, but a massive white mansion. The place looked as if it had about two hundred rooms in it or more.
The next thing I notice is that in every window, a black rose is exquisitely etched into them. The black roses are used like a family crest or some sort of seal, but the roses are lovely.
I walk through the big black, iron gates, and up the long twisting driveway, that seemed to go on forever.
I reach the heavy mahogany double doors and I ring the doorbell.
As I was waiting for someone to answer the door, I decided to look around from where I was standing on the porch.
There were limpid blue fountains, palm trees everywhere, and fake manicured grass.
The door behind me opens, and when I turn around, I come face to face with my cousin Hannah. She is tall, about a head and a half taller than me, longish fair hair in different shades of wheat that comes down to her shoulders, wise grey eyes that seem too old for her age, and on her left cheek, just below the bone, she has a birthmark the colour of watered down wine.
Both of us have the same grey eyes, only Hannah's always seems to hold the knowledge of the world, and we also have the same smile, only mine is more lopsided than hers.
My hair is jet black and goes all the way down to my hips, I'm about average height, around five foot six/ five foot seven. My dad always said that I look like an Egyptian, but that's hardly surprising considering that my mum was an Egyptian. I'm half Egyptian, half American, even though I live in Cairo, Egypt.
I notice behind Hannah, is a really attractive young man. He's tall, about half a head taller than Hannah, which makes him two heads taller than me; he has white- blonde hair, and ageless night dark eyes. He also has the most amazing smile. Correction Nila, he's not attractive, he's beautiful. I correct myself.
"Nila? Hi, long time no see." Hannah greets me, she then comes out onto the porch and gives me a great big hug, both of our dads, who are brothers, before Hannah's dad died, always called our hugs "the Snow hugs" for some unknown reason.
"Hi Hannah. How are you?" I ask, in my Egyptian accented English, hugging her back. Of all the cousins that I have, Hannah is my favourite.
"I'm fine. How are you?" She replies, smiling like a Cheshire cat.
"I'm a little tired, and my feet feel as though they have been pounded with stones, but other than that, I'm fine." I reply.
Hannah turns around, and taking me by the hand; pulls me inside the mansion.
"Nila, I'd like you to meet my husband, Thierry Descouedres. Thierry? This is the cousin that I have been telling you about, Nila Snow." The young man- Thierry smiles and takes my hand, he then kisses the back of it.
"It's nice to finally meet you Nila." He says; he has a very nice voice.
"It's nice to meet you too." I reply. Turning to face Hannah, I add. "You sure know how to pick them, Hannah. I mean, he's a complete gentleman, a very rare quality in men, not many men are gentlemen."
"Thank you." Both Hannah and Thierry reply in unison.
I take a look around the foyer and Whoa! Talk about being massive, the mansion is even bigger inside than out. The ceiling of the foyer is very high. There are also pillars in specific places, from floor to ceiling; the floor is made from white marble. And of course... a curving staircase.
Plus not to mention paintings and sculptures galore, there are paintings by Monet, da Vinci, Picasso, Bruegel, and other artists that I have never heard of.
"Damn! Nice place you got here." I say, continuing to look around the foyer in awe.
To Thierry I ask. "Do you own this…castle?"
"Yes. Do you like it?" He replies.
"Oh yeah. Who did you have to kill to get a place like this?" I ask, looking away from the paintings, and at Thierry instead, who smiles at me.
"Well, no one really. It's just been in my family for years. My parents died about four years ago, so legally the mansion belongs to me." He replies, the smile dropping from his face.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask a question like that." I reply, blushing a little.
Thierry's smile comes back, but it's a little pained.
"That's alright. You didn't know." He replies, giving Hannah a strange look, but I can't figure out what the look is trying to say, so I just ignore it.
"Well, Nila. Let's go see about getting you a room." Hannah says.
"Okay." I reply. I see some movement behind Thierry, and I see a very gorgeous young man, around the same age as Thierry, about nineteen.
He's tall, but about half a head shorter than Thierry, has brown hair pulled back into a neat ponytail, and dark glasses cover his eyes. He is also wearing a black suit and looks a lot like a young CIA agent.
"Ah, Nilsson. Would you be so kind as to take Nila's bags up to her room, please? I'll show you where it is." Thierry asks the CIA guy.
"Sure thing." The CIA agent – Nilsson replies smiling at me, while taking my bags from me.
All four of us walk up the curving staircase, about two floors up; we stop in front of a door.
Thierry opens the door and leads us in.
"This is it. I hope you like it?" he says to me.
I gasp as I look around the room. This one is at least three times bigger than my own bedroom back in Cairo.
The whole room has a gothic feel to it; the walls are painted in a blood red colour, the ceiling has blood red sheer fabric hanging from it, the same fabric is hanging on the huge four- poster bed. The posts on the bed, as well as the headboard, seem to be made from iron, and are painted black. There is also a black iron type of chandelier hanging from the ceiling; it's that type of chandelier that hung on the ceilings in a medieval castle.
There are heavy blood red and black curtains hanging from the window. Most of the furniture is made from some sort of ebony coloured wood; the dresser, complete with mirror, the bed- side cabinet, the desk, the chair which is also covered in black leather, and the huge walk- in wardrobe, are all made from the ebony wood, the floor is carpeted in blood red and swirls of black, the carpet is so thick, that you can't hear any footsteps.
"Whoa!" Is all that I could manage to say.
"Hannah told me that you like the whole gothic look. So I had this room made up for you specially." Thierry says, at my shocked expression.
"It's…it's…wow!" I manage to choke out. "I…uh…thank you, Thierry."
"You're welcome. Now, get settled in, and then come down and meet the troops." Thierry replies.
"Troops?" I ask befuddled.
"The rest of the household, only the others. Don't worry, you'll like them." Hannah says, coming to my rescue.
"Oh. Okay." I reply.
"I'll help get you settled in Nila." Hannah continues.
"Thanks." I reply.
"Well, we'll leave you ladies to unpack. Come on Nilsson, I've got to go on an errand." Thierry says to Nilsson.
Both of them walk out the door, leaving my cousin and I behind.
A/N: Please review. Even if you don't like the story, please review. I'll even take flaming, let me know if you like/love or even hate the story.