Title: Rhapsody In Blue

Author: Twilightstaruby

Disclaimers: L.J.Smith owns all original theory on the Night World. Seraphina and other main characters are mine.

Author's note: Hey hey hey! Me here! Well, what can I say...yeah I know...yet another new story before Song is finished...actually, this was written before Song of the Siren was put up, I just didn't have the patience to type it out as it was written on paper. Actually, I have tons of stories writtened down...(poor treeseh?) but this was one of the better ones...Well, i can't hope for an overwheming response but I really hope this story will be good enough. i discovered that there are not many stories on the shapeshifters around, so i thought that i would do one. By the way, this story is set duing the 19th century and Seraphina was 13 when they met for the first time.

A little background: This story is set when there was a time of unrest amongst the shapeshifters and conflicts had risen between the two royal families from the First house and Second House.

Prologue: Paths that cross

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phœbus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes:
With everything that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise.

-William Shakespeare (1564-1616),Cymbeline. Act ii. Sc. 3.

The forest was quiet; only an occasional rustling of the leaves and shrill cries of insects broke through the serene calm. But it wasn't the sound Seraphina was listening for as she crouched among the bushes in the shadows.

Crack.

She leaped out from the bushes and gave chase to the small dark figure running ahead. Even from this far, she could smell the fear emitted from small figure, which was literally flowing off it in volumes. She caught a whiff of hesitation and saw it stopped for a moment as the path they had been racing on opened into a fork.

Gotcha.

Fangs bared, she leaped, claws extended, onto the struggling form of the rabbit. Then holding the rabbit down using one paw, she shifted back into human form. The rabbit, still squirming vigorously, tried to escape by sinking its teeth into Seraphina's finger.

"Ouch!" Seraphina yelped in pain, then turned accusing midnight blue eyes in her attacker.

Shifting and holding up the rabbit so that it was on eye level with her, she projected the words firmly into the rabbit's mind firmly. Stop it. I am your friend.

Sensing no menace in the human holding her, the rabbit relaxed. As it cuddled willingly into Seraphina's lap, she scented something and glanced up sharply. Then, reaching into her boots, she withdrew a short dagger, and threw it with precision. The deadly dagger cut swiftly through the air before embedding deeply into a tree, the hilt quivering from the impact made by the contact.

"Come out now, whoever you are. If you don't, I will bury the next one into your head instead of next to it," she stated calmly as she got to her feet, releasing the rabbit as she did so to allow it to scamper off into the safety of the woods, all the while withdrawing yet another of the many daggers she had with her.

A figure leaped off the tree branch lithely and brushed absently at the front of his shirt where a few leaves had stuck onto. He was only a barely discernible silhouette under the tree's shadow.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Seraphina's tone was accusing as even as she withdrew another dagger.

"What I am doing here? You are the one who is trespassing, brat." The boy's tone was aloof, condescending even, as he stepped out into clear view. Handsome, breathtakingly so, with brilliant emerald eyes that held a predatory gleam, and features that would put Michelangelo's stature to shame. Golden strands of hair fell untidily into his eyes, which were currently narrowed and directed at Cassie. There was a wild and untamed aura around him that spoke of a predator and set him apart from a normal human. A shapeshifter.

Even the casual clothes he had on couldn't mask the air of royalty and in breed confidence and arrogance that surrounded him like a veil. The heir to the first house of shapeshifters.

Seraphina felt her hackles rising in annoyance at his patronizing tone. No one spoke to her in that tone. And no one, no one calls her brat, except for her brother.

"What is the heir doing here all alone?" her tone held a disdainful note, " After all, this," she indicated their surroundings, " is hardly somewhere where I expected a prince would be."

A beginning of a smile lurked at the sides of his finely sculpted mouth. " Since you know who I am, why do you not give your due respects to your prince? Be grateful I am not holding it against you that you have threatened my life once."

She glared at him, wanting to tell him that he wasn't her prince in any case, but a small, niggling voice told her that she couldn't afford to reveal her real identity since she was on their territory. Biting back her pride, she dipped a jerky curtsy that bordered on disrespect.

She didn't see the prince grin at her obviously unwilling submissive posture. If she had, she would have knocked his teeth out, prince or not.

"Your Highness!"

" Seems like my guard has come to fetch me. I'll make a move first." He moved away towards the trees, then he hesitated before turning back to meet Seraphina's glowing expression. Reaching for his left hand, he withdrew something from his littlest finger.

"Catch." He threw something at her.

Catching it out of reflex, Seraphina stared at the signet ring nestled in her palm, then back at him.

He gave a careless smile, " In case you get caught by my guards on the way back to your lands, let them see the ring. They wouldn't dare to hurt you."

Before she could retort that she did not need the ring, he was gone with a rustle, leaving her to stare at the silver wrought ring in her palm with mixed feelings.

Five years later:

"Seraphina Victoria Elise Roxborough!" Her brother, Christian's, scandalized voice startled Seraphina, causing her to drop the sword she was using to fence with Wayne, her best friend, to drop with a dull, metallic clang onto the ground.

"I think I hear Thomas calling me." Wayne said hastily. With a hasty bow to Christian, he fled the scene, leaving her to face her brother's wrath on her own. Seraphina glared at his retreating back, then turned her gaze guiltily back to her brother's face. He certainly wasn't looking very happy. Christian only used her full name when he was extremely angry.

"Brother," Seraphina curtsied, dropping to the proper degree as was requisite. It was slightly awkward, seeing that she was dressed in breeches instead of a gown, but she pulled it off.

"What were you thinking?" Christian hissed the words as he marched up to Seraphina.

"Learning to fight in case there is an invasion?" Seraphina ventured tentatively, in fear of angering her already irate brother more.

"What are the royal guards for then? Decorating the exterior of the palace? I think not! Do you think they lug swords at their sides for decorative purposes, Seraphina?" Christian fairly yelled, his hands clenching and unclenching at his side. Sera knew that he was probably visualizing them wringing her neck. "Gods above!" He threw up his hands in frustration and disgust, unable to express his frustration in mere words.

"What happens if there are none about, Christian?" Seraphina snapped back, riled by her brother's old fashion beliefs. " What am I going to do then? Wave my embroidery needle at them to keep them at bay?"

Christian sighed. He knew that Seraphina was right. In these times of war and trouble, anything can happen. "But still, a lady must behave as a lady must." He sighed again. " Why can't you be more like Rosabelle?"

Rosabelle was the middle child of the Lord and Lady of Roxborough, Christian being the oldest and Seraphina the youngest. She was the epitome of everything a gently bred lady should be. Seraphina, on the other hand, was the epitome of everything a gently bred lady should not be. In her seventeen years, Seraphina had learnt how to ride a horse astride and backwards, how to bandage a fatal wound, how to use a bow and arrow, how to whip up a decent meal in the kitchen (to the horror of her sister), compliments of the head cook, how to joust and recently of course, how to fence in her eighteen years of age. All of these were done behind her parents back. She simply couldn't imagine what her father would do if he found out what she had been up to all these years. Her mother would probably faint from the shock; her father might jump through the roof. Literally.

She was certain her parents would have a fit if they even knew half the things she had been at. Her brother was already having a hard time accepting her for what she was. Rosabelle, though still disapproving, had long since given up in trying to change Seraphina into the perfect lady.

Seraphina grinned mischievously, trying to lighten up the mood," Why can't Rosabelle be more like me?" she asked.

Christian actually shuddered. "Heaven forbid. Should that happen, I'd turn into a doddering old fool before my twenty-ninth birthday," Seraphina let out a snort of laughter at his declaration, "As it happens, having you is enough trouble. And, for that matter, I can't imagine Rosabelle fencing. She would probably complain that the colour of the fencing costume does not set off her colouring well." Both burst out into laughter at the comical image it conjured up.

Rosabelle, having walked up at this point of time asked innocently, "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, nothing." Christian immediately said, smothering his laughter, but he couldn't stop a smile from escaping nor could he mask the merriment shining in his eyes. Seraphina nodded her agreement vigorously, one hand clapped over her mouth in an attempt to curb the wayward laughter that was threatening to burst out of her.

Rosabelle narrowed her eyes. A gently bred lady she might be, but fluff-brained she was not. "Were you laughing at me?"

A furtive glance exchanged between her two siblings told her volumes. Letting out a very un-lady-like snarl, she pierced them with her frostiest glare. "Later I'll get even with you two. But now-Seraphina Victoria Elise Roxborough! Is that breeches you are wearing?" Rosabelle gasped in horror, having noticed her sister's scandalous garb only now.

"They were suitable for fencing." Seraphina said irritably. One would think that Rosabelle would have been used to seeing her in breeches by now. "You can lecture me later. You were saying?" she prompted.

"Um…right…," She couldn't seem to be able to take her eyes off nor get over the shock and horror when she had seen Seraphina dressed in men clothing," Mother and Father requests our presence at the court immediately. Which would leave you exactly five minutes to change out of your scandalous clothing-"

The words were barely out of her mouth before Seraphina was a mere speck in the distance.

"And hurry up!" Rosabelle yelled after Seraphina's retreating back.

"What?" she snapped, discomforted by the speculative gaze Christian had fixed on her.

"Nothing, nothing." Christian said flippantly, before letting out a howl of pain as Rosabelle kicked him in the shin. "What was that for?" he yelled in annoyance after the retreating back of his sister, at the same time clutching his knee and hopping around on one leg while trying to balance himself in his precarious position.

"Women," He muttered in disgust under his breath as he messaged his abused knee," You will never understand them. And God had to bless, no curse me of all people with two of them. Talk about unfair."

Still grumbling under his breath, he followed his sisters' lead and made his way back to his home, the enormous castle that was home to the royal family of Second house of Shapeshifters.

Review Please! They will be most welcome! Thank you!