A/N: Hello Everyone!

I'm terribly sorry to have kept you all waiting. I hope you will find this chapter to have been well worth the wait. But before we proceed, I'd just like to quickly thank those kind enough to review chapter 15:

WotcherTonks, The Grim, EyesofEmerald, Neoma, Titou Moony :-P, browneyedgirl2004, Riaelfgirl, Aerandir, Yavannie, The Parrot has ceased to be, PaarsKonijn, Aerlalaith, and esta-gr.

Thank you all so much for reviewing! I truly appreciate the time you take to read and review my little story!

Ninde Annare

Chapter 16:

Night has fallen, and yet I do not wish to rise. I want to remain in the safety of my coffin until all the events of last night fade from memory. But it is of no use; my idleness acts as perfect portkey for my wandering mind to travel back to last night. Grudgingly I lift the cover of my coffin to hear something slide across its top. With a loud thud, it hits the ground. Crawling out of my crypt, I peer behind it to find a large, leather-bound book. A small white card lies abandoned beside it. The card reads, in thin, curly emerald letters:

It had been your Maker's wish that someday this book would come to be yours. Use it wisely.

I turn over the card in search of more words but they are not to be found. Odd. I pick up the book and study its cover. It is bound in burgundy leather, and embossed with a golden lion. The leather is soft with a fine grain.

Taking a seat at my lectern, I open the book and inhale the sweet smell of age and ink…and blood? A small yellowing envelope falls into my lap. My name graces its front in long, sweeping letters. It has been sealed with a rigid but ornate 'A' moulded into ebony wax. I break the seal, relishing the light crack it makes as it crumbles. I pull out the letter and read the beautifully written calligraphy:

Dearest Kaida,

It is with great sorrow that I write this letter to you, for in mere hours I will have to leave you. The slayers have found me; they will descend upon me just before sunrise-I have seen it in my dreams; I know it is my destiny. This is why I must leave you; I cannot risk them finding you…killing you.

Do not worry yourself over my fate, for I plan to walk into the morning sun; I refuse to fall prey to them! It is in these last few moments of life that I wish to reminisce, to remember happier times, to remember how you became so dear to me.

Being the clever girl that you are, I'm sure you have noticed that this ink reeks of blood. I have taken the precaution of writing my words in a mixture of my blood and ink so that only your eyes may feast upon my words. Only those who have my blood and essence coursing through them will ever see these words. Now let us begin.

Firstly, you must know that you are the only one I have ever created. For centuries I was content to live on my own; that was before I found you. I'm sure you didn't realize this at the time, but I had been watching you for seven years before I was certain that you were the one.

I saw you for the first time in Diagon Alley. You were shopping for school supplies, alone. I found it odd that a child your age would be left to their own devices, but then I saw your beautifully sombre eyes of yours and realized that you were no child at all! I followed you that evening, as you darted in and out of various shops, and was taken by your strength and maturity. That is how it all began.

It had been my intention to take you that night-to feast on you. I followed you home; I followed you to your prison. I saw the sadness in your eyes as you crossed the threshold of your cage, as you willing accepted your father's abuse. How I longed to take him, to shake him violently as he did you. But I could sense that that was not what you wanted; so I refrained from killing him. I watched you die slowly. I watched as he tore you down at every turn, and for the first time in all my immortal years, I felt powerless.

It was only when I saw your suffering that I came to appreciate your spirit. I began to follow you; I wanted to protect you…there was not an evening that I would not be by your side.

I had been present for your sorting; I stood in the shadows peering in through a nearby window. I remember how excited I was for you. I was certain that your bravery would surely win you a place in Gryffindor. I had hoped that you would honour my house with your brave heart. But it seemed that your ambition and desire to rise above your father's scorn was far stronger than your courage, for you were sorted into Slytherin. This of course, threw me, as Gryffindors and Slytherins were sworn enemies of old. But that was only momentary, for ultimately, my feelings for you were too strong.

For the next seven years, you ensnared me with your wit and beauty. I watched you with great fascination and came to realize that I loved you. I watched you grow and flourish at Hogwarts only to die again in the summer. I wanted to free you from your cage; to watch you soar to greatness, to rise to your rightful place in life…but I did not… It would be you that would free yourself from your shackles.

It was the evening after your graduation that you escaped. I watched with a heavy heart as you struggled to survive on the streets-I wanted to help you, but I had nothing to offer.

As the days passed you grew weaker, you were starving…dying slowly yet again. It was only when you collapsed for the third time did I come to you. I wanted to end your suffering…to end my own; I couldn't bare to watch you in so much pain. I tried to cloud your mind with happy thoughts, wreathe your senses with visions of elation, but you would not allow it. Most mortals beg for me to cover them in a veil of illusions before I take their lives, but you wanted to stare death in the face. So much courage in such a fragile mortal shell, it seemed unnatural.

As I drank from you, your thoughts became mine and mine became yours. You asked me to take your memories away, to stop the pain of your past. I drank deeply, trying to rid you of this bane, but your mind remained strong-it refused to surrender. That is why your memories of the past seemed fractured and broken-I had failed to cleanse you of them.

I watched your lithe body grow limp as I siphoned the life from you; it was then that I felt a pang of selfishness. You deserved so much more; you deserved to live…I wanted you to live. I wanted you to regale me with your wit, your beauty. I wanted you. That is why I created you. You gave my existence meaning again-in you I found salvation. Who would have known that only days after your creation, the slayers would find me?

This book that I give to you is the product of decades of discovery. I began writing this book long before you came into my life, long before I had a purpose. I had started writing it in order to record our people's ways. In just the first chapter you will learn more than humanity will ever know of us.

I loathe myself for leaving you like this…for leaving you with only a book to show you the way, but this is how things must be. Know that I love you-that I have always loved you and will continue to do so even when my body is reduced to ash. I do not want you to be saddened by my passing; rather I want you to revel in this new life. Honour my memory by knowing happiness and love.

Good bye my dark angle, it is through you that my cursed soul has found deliverance.

Forever Yours,

Adelais

I touched his words with my fingertips, brushing them lightly. My eyes sting as a fresh wave of sadness descends around me. He knew me before I even knew myself…he loved me so completely that he was willing to die for me. I wonder if I will ever know such love again.

I wanted to weep for Adelais…I wanted to weep for his sacrifice…. but the tears would not flow. Though his words were tender and sweet, my heart refused to fall back into mortal habits-perhaps it is still reeling from the night before.

I returned the letter to its folded-paper home before placing it in the safety of the burgundy covers. I turn to the first page and am filled with awe. Adelais spared nothing, every imaginable aspect of vampire life was documented; from the clothing we preferred to the manner of capture-everything was divulged. I stared at this vampiric Rosetta stone, the ways of my kind displayed in all its bloody truths-finally my questions would be answered.

A/N: I will try my very best to post soon, but it really does come down to inspiration and motivation;) So please review everyone, I do enjoy hearing from all of you. And feel free to email me at anytime-always glad to get emails from readers!

Ninde Annare