Risika's Fledgling

Chapter 1 – A New Mother

When Sara woke up, she thought that it had all been a dream. It was not a dream, however, for she realized that she should have been able to recall a dream more vividly that she could remember the previous night. The night before was nothing more than a blur right now. She was in a small, dark room. It was night again, but the room was made even darker by the black-out curtains that hung in front of the windows. Despite that, she could see as clearly as though she had a cat's night vision. A voice in the back of her head told her that she should not be able to see that well. Her hearing and sense of smell were more acute, too. She could smell the scent of an Italian restaurant from a half a mile away, even through the glass of the windows. She could also hear the slightest creak of the floor as someone walked up the stairs towards the room. Her pen-pal, Jessica, had told her about the vampires she writes about in her stories, how they could do everything that Sara was doing right now. She refused to believe that she was dead, but she didn't care whether or not she had lost her "immortal soul" as Pastor Kathy had called it. She had never had that much faith; she had only gone to the services because she liked to sing. She would sing to calm herself down, or cheer herself up. Well, she needed that right now, so she took a deep breath to sing one of her favorites, "How the Moon Must Feel," from Thomas and the Magic Railroad. As she did so, a sharp pain in the center of her chest forced her to the floor. It was not until then that she realized that while she had been pondering what had happened to her, she had not been breathing. The door opened and a young woman, not too much older than Sara herself, glided in and helped her up, then sat her on the bed.

"It will stop hurting in a moment, child," a gentle voice said.

"Why does it hurt so much?" Sara whimpered.

"You have not needed to breathe for quite a few hours now," the voice said. "How is it now?"

"Better," Sara answered.

Then she looked up at the woman. She was as pale as the winter sky during a snowfall. Her eyes were that of a tiger, they looked a lot like Madam Hooch's eyes in the first Harry Potter. The woman's hair was even tiger-striped. She looked kind enough, though scary at the same time.

"Who are you?" Sara asked of her.

"My name is Risika," the woman stated. "If you will relax, I will tell you everything that you need to know. I will teach you everything I know and you will be strong."

"What happened to me?"

"I have changed you, Serali, now you are one of my kind."

"What is your kind?"

"You are a vampire. I was changed when I was not much older than you are now. I was seventeen, and I lived in this town over three hundred years ago. I resented what I had become, mainly because I feared that I was doomed to eternal damnation."

"Where are we now?"

"In a town called Concord in Massachusetts."

"But-but I live in San Francisco."

"I know that, I have brought you here to teach you. Is your pain nearly gone, Serali?"

"Yes. Why do you keep calling me that? My name's Sara Hernandez."

"I am your vampiric mother. I know that I did not give birth to you, but I have changed you into what you now are. My blood mother named me, so I have named you."

"Do I have to kill people? I get really queasy at the sight of blood."

"It is what you must do to survive, don't worry, you'll get used to it. Come with me, you must be hungry."

And that is how it began, Risika with a new person in her life, her only thing to love (a good thing for her, especially after what happened to Tora), and Serali, with a new mother and the adventure that she had so often dreamt of.

Thanks for reading this, please tell me what you thought of it. I'm planning on bringing Aubrey into it at some point and we can all guess what he is going to do. Let me know about anything else you think I should add to it.

I'm not going to bother with defining aura, seeing as everyone who has read the book should know what it is.

Chapter 2:

The next week went by rather smoothly for Serali, until, that is, Risika took her into Ambrosia for the first time. The dimly lit room was full of other vampires, more than she could have imagined existed in one city. Even in New York, the city where the most strange events take place, she never expected so many. She was a fast learner, and by now, Risika had taught her how to shield her aura; therefore, no heads turned in their direction. None except for Jager's. He was sitting at the bar, still keeping his eyes green, as always. Risika greeted him warmly, and introduced Serali to him.

"He-hello, sir," she stammered.

"Sir?" he laughed. "Why, no one's called me 'sir' for years! Just call me Jager, or Uncle Jager, if it makes you feel more comfortable."

"Yes, si – I mean, Uncle Jager."

"Now, that's better," he turned to Risika. "Seen much of old Aubrey lately? I heard he's still quite angry about you beating him. There are even rumors flying around that he's planning to avenge that night."

"Let him try," she