A/N: OMG! It's been so long! Aaaaahhhh! I do have a reasonable excuse, though; my mother has had my computer the last two months. I just got it back on Wednesday. I hate her so much right now. She said that if I can't do my chores, I can't do anything else. I wasn't aloud to watch television for like three weeks. Aaaaaahhhh! (again) I'm sooooooo sorry! I promise to make it up to you; the next chapter (after this one) is the bash! I'm so excited! Okay on with the show! And thank you soooooo much for all of the reviews! I lurve you all! Elisa PS If anyone knows how to make this story really doubled spaced, please let me know. It's so hard to read like this!
Sarah woke up the next day with the bash on her mind. It was in four days. She had a lot of training to do, there would be vampires at this bash that she had crossed, as Anya, and she didn't want to be unprepared if any of them recognized her. Anya was very forward, and spoke her mind. Jeshikah once told her it was a quality that she liked. Most strong vampires liked her, except for the ones she challenged, and beat. Nalia still hadn't shown her face since challenging Sarah to a fight outside one of the neighborhood bashes Sarah attended. She broke everyone of her fingers.
Sarah got out of bed at about nine thirty, she wasn't a morning person, so this was a good day. She rolled out of bed and headed into the bathroom to get ready for the day. After splashing water on her face to wake herself up, Sarah leaned on the sink and looked into the mirror. Water dripped down her face, dropping into the sink, some falling into her slightly open mouth. She looked different. Her originally pale skin was turned a shade lighter when she died. Her deep blue eyes were now black. Her's, unlike most vampires, could never be mistaken as brown, they were too black. Sometimes she thought they imitated the color of her heart, and then she remembered that she could still love. Or at least, do what she remembered was love. She cared deeply for Adianna and Kristopher. Or at least, what she remembered of them.
She thought about Kristopher every day, but lost the feeling of his hand against her cheek. It was a feeling she held onto like it was her last hope for her first few years as a vampire. But after seven years, she no longer could close her eyes and see him standing in front of her. Yes, she remembered what he looked like, what his voice sounded like, but she couldn't no longer see him her dreams. She used to dream that he would come to her and they would talk, and everything would be all right. But now Sarah knew it was just a dream. A dream that would never come true. So she slowly pushed thoughts of seeing him at the back of her mind. She had bigger fish to fry.
She had seen Adi since that night. No matter how hard she tried to stop herself, Sarah sometimes found herself outside her sister's house. Mostly after killing a vampire that was there to try to kill the oldest living member of the Vida line. Dominique Vida had, surprisingly, died of natural causes. A brain tumor. There was a big ceremony held after her death, twelve years after Sarah had become a vampire. She had attended, but only for a few minutes. Sarah was so upset that she couldn't shield her powers, and it didn't take long for the vampire hunters gathered there to sense her presence. That day was very different from the days that Sarah found herself outside her older sister's house. There she was able to hide herself so discretely that not even the extremely powerful Adianna Vida, who had also made a name for herself, would notice she was there.
Adi was older now, about Dominique's age when Sarah was still human. She had gotten married to a witch in the Smoke line, a cousin of Caryn's. She had three daughters, a large number for a hunter. Most hunters feared having children because it caused emotional weakness. Sarah was glad Adi didn't agree. She liked her niece's, or at least what she knew of them. The oldest, Nathalie, was seventeen. She reminded Sarah more of herself, more of a rogue hunter than a technique hunter. Her younger sister, Alyssa, fifteen, was the total opposite. The spitting image of Adianna, she imitated her mother in every way. She was the epitome of a good hunter's student. She was obedient and an extremely good fighter. The youngest, Clara, was only seven. She was too young to actually fight, but was knowledgeable about the vampire race. It was clear that Adianna taught her daughters about their life to come at a very young age. Just like Dominique.
Adi's daughters sometimes caught sight of her outside their house. Sarah new, because usually it was because she wanted to be seen. Adi must have told her girls about the sister she lost, because none of them seemed surprised that there was a vampire that held a striking resemblance to their mother, and themselves. None of them had approached her, though. They seemed wary to make friends with their would-be aunt. Sarah didn't mind, she new it was probably better not to get to know them. She had a lot on her plate, and she didn't need anymore.
Sarah dried her face off and walked back into her bedroom, opening the closet to find something suitable to train in. She decided on a pair of faded burgundy jeans and a white tank top. She pulled her hair into a plait and sat on her bed to pull on her boots. She had to train both her mind and body. She would start with her mind. Sarah had come up with several exercises to help her increase her skill in her vampire abilities. She had taught herself how to use them to anticipate her opponent's moves, sometimes so much that he looked as if he were moving in slow motion. She had also learned to use her 'teleporting' (a/n: Does anyone know what to call it, teleporting doesn't seem like the right word.) abilities to move from one place to another in the blink of an eye. This came in handy when she needed to make a quick getaway or dodge a swing from an attacker. She also heightened her ability to increase or decrease the amount of power concentrating in a person's head. In other words, what she did to Christopher back when she was a hunter. Times ten. All of these came in handy in a fight, and she needed to make them the best they could be.
Sarah sat cross-legged on the floor, closing her eyes and concentrating on the power source in her head. She slowly increased its level, than held it there. She felt her head begin to throb. She then began to decrease it, so much that she became light headed. She broke out in a cold sweat, but held her upright position and did not waver. Once she mastered controlling the power in her own head, she could easily control the power in others. She repeated this act several more times, and finally let herself relax. She opened her eyes and looked up at the clock on her bedside table. Eleven twenty five. Sarah had been sitting there for two hours. She rested her back against the bed and closed her eyes.
She tried to think back to when she was human. What would she be doing right now? Sarah smiled, thinking of Christopher making fun of their history teacher. Like a normal teen. But he was never a normal teen. And neither was she. She shook her head, avoiding the thought of her lost love. She often heard of his twin, there was no escaping the shadow of gossip he always cast over the vampiric world. Did you here? Nikolas was seen in Paris at one of his old haunts! What does that mean? I heard he is vacationing in Rome to get away from Kaleo, who he just had a huge fight with! No way! It never stopped. Sometimes Sarah would hear bits of a conversation that turned towards Kristopher, but they were always vague. I heard he was in Istanbul with his brother, but Marquerite wasn't there. Never anything that really detailed Kristopher's existence. But Sarah didn't mind, she was happy not worrying about him. Part of her wished the stories were true, and they were somewhere far away. Another part of her hoped they were nearby, why she didn't know.
She got up and got a towel out of one of the hall cupboards to wipe her brow. Her eyes slid back to the clock. Eleven thirty seven. Deciding to talk a walk to get her mind off of her past, Sarah dropped the towel on the ground and grabbed her keys on the way out of her apartment. She opened the door to the apartment just as someone was about to buzz one of the names on the switchboard. The young woman waited for Sarah to walk past and then quietly stuck her foot in the door and stopped it from closing. She quickly scooted through the opening; in what she thought was a stealthy manor. To Sarah, it was as if she was banging on trashcans as she tried to quietly close the door behind her. She could tell that it wasn't her button the woman was about to press, not that anyone would, the name on her button was Thelma Rittenhouse. But still she was not worried that the human was looking for her, so she let it pass. She turned left at the bottom of the stairs, and walked down towards the city park. She didn't really like the noisy public place, but it wouldn't be too noisy in the middle of the day on Thursday.
Sarah took a deep breath, inhaling air that she didn't need. New York didn't have the cleanest air, but she was happy to be outside. Central Park was laced with hot dog venders that she had no use for, and the homeless, that had no use for her. Not one to keep random change or bills in her pocket, Sarah was never able to answer the frequent, 'Have any change to spare?' question with anything but a 'Sorry, no'. She did regret it, though, for she new what it was like to be homeless, she was, the first few months after the change. On this walk, as she passed buy a regular, he didn't even bother to ask her, but simply cursed at her under his breath. She was smiling and shaking her head at herself when she heard someone call her name.
"Sarah? Sarah Vida? Oh my god! It's me! Trisha!" Sarah regretted turning around, for she was greeted with hot pink leather pants on a woman that looked to be forty-five.
"I'm sorry, but-" Sarah tried to lie, but was cut off. Trisha took a step towards her, a confused look on her face.
"You must be her daughter. So young! You look exactly like her, almost identical. Except she didn't have such dark eyes….or such pale skin. You teens these days! Never get out into the sunlight, things like AIM and such." She sighed looking far away. Sarah wanted to sigh too, but she did so inwardly, and hoped that this conversation would be over soon.
"But you won't recognize me. I took art with your mom, she was a junior and I was a freshman. Odd, she left that year, I wonder where she went to finish up….oh, anyway, is she in town with you?" She looked hopeful, but Sarah was still stuck on the fact that she had just assumed her to be Sarah's (the old Sarah) daughter. She had been planning to deny that accusation, but now saw it as a waste of time.
"No I'm her by myself, visiting some friends and looking at colleges." Sarah said, hoping she sounded warm and cheerful, she never really used those emotions anymore.
"Oh that's too bad, I was really hoping to catch up with her. Hmmm, well maybe you can give her my number when you get home." She reached inside her oversized ski jacket and pulled out a card. Sarah took it, and smiled at the words engraved on it. Trisha's Devine Design Headquarters.
"Yes, I run my business out of my home, here I'll give you a couple more, give them to your friends if they need an interior designer." She handed Sarah a small stack of cards, and then smiled.
"You really do look exactly like her, so pretty. I wonder if I'd know your father. Christopher Ravena, perhaps. He stopped attending school at about the same time your mom did. Or maybe that Robert, um, what was his name? Anyway they were seeing a lot of each other, they were." She looked questioningly at Sarah.
"Sorry, neither. Someone she met in college. I really do have to be going, it was nice to meet you, and I'll give my mom the cards." And with that, Sarah breezed by her, walking swiftly away before Trisha could respond. Once she turned the corner where the older woman couldn't spot her, she threw the handful of cards in a trashcan.
Forgoing her walk, Sarah turned towards her apartment. Why did little reminders of her old life always seem to worm her way in to the new one? It was like she could never escape it. She shook her head to clear it, and then looked around. It didn't look like there were any more people that knew her, so she continued to walk the short distance to her building.
There was a cop car outside of the building, and Sarah had an idea why it was there. She stopped to ask one of the police officers what had happened, but he didn't even wait for her to ask the question.
"Just a routine burglary on the first floor, ma'am, nothing to worry about." His heavy New York accent echoed loudly in her ears.
"Did she get away?" Sarah asked, and then realized her mistake.
"No, the assailant is in custody and- wait, how did you know it was a 'she'?" He advanced on her, but she easily dodged under is arm.
"Seventy-five percent of burglars are women!" Sarah yelled over as she ran up the steps and into the propped open door. Great, Sarah thought, another thing for me to feel guilty about. She continued to run up the remaining steps to her second story apartment. She unlocked the door and threw the keys onto the table waiting. Sarah paused after she closed to door behind her, sensing the room for anything out of place. Nope, no burglar had been to visit her. She saw that she had a new message and pressed the button.
"Selene? It's Nathaniel. I'm just calling to remind you about the bash this weekend. It's Saturday night; I'll pick you up at 8:00 in front of the address you gave me. It's pretty formal, so I suggest wearing something sexy and black, oh wait, that's all you everwhere! Ha ha ha ha! Oh, I'm just kidding, darling. 8:00, luv, don't be late!' Beeeeep!
Fantastic, Sarah said to herself. As if she didn't have enough on her mind, she had to go shopping now too.