Disclaimer: I don't own the whole 'Night World' concept, the credit for that is received by the ever deserving L J Smith. But these characters are mine (excluding a few last names)
They say that life is never just black and white. Some are completely blind to these wise words.
Innocence is something you're born with, no matter who you are.
If you live a happy life, bringing no harm to others, surrounded by all those you love and always doing what is right, you're good.
But what about those who had their innocence corrupted the moment they were born? What about those who have their souls torn in two, and their hearts splintered?
What about those who are blessed with a curse?
The Damned?
There will always be light and darkness, black and white. But it is a hard lesson to learn that in life there are also shades of grey.
The Damned Series: Shades of Grey
Prologue:
The water's smooth surface gave way as a raven haired girl emerged, gooseflesh appearing on her creamy skin exposed to the chill of the night. Her wet hair cascaded down her back in waves and as she moved, the midnight hair did not twinkle different colours as usual, but remained fathomless obsidian.
Smoothing away the hair plastered on her face, Lady Dominica hoisted her self onto the brittle and dry grassy banks with none of her usual graceful manner. Battle weary, with stinging cuts and fresh bruises, she detachedly dried off the sheen of water that clung to her bare body with her clothes and then donned the damp silk shirt and leather leggings.
The final battle still haunted her, even after a full moon phase. She knew that she would die now; she had used the Fury and summoned wraiths. Her deeds would hunt her, and she had no escape. She remembered her last, vengeful deed, and once more felt the Blackness coil inside her. The same Black Fury had formed in her, then slowly, as she danced and parried with Him, grew until it replaced the blazing white light that was in her mind. Until the image of her one love was replaced with Him. His high cheekbones, His burning eyes and sneering lips.
She remembered her hand trembling as she lunged at His heart with her weapon, His golden irises engulfed as the black pit opened up. In her mind she forced the hands of wraiths to choke Him, to reach their gnarled fingers into His soul and tear it to pieces, just as He had torn her. The Black Fury smoldered within her, shattering her very soul and demanding to be released on her enemy, on Him.
A stilted voice in the depths of her now glacial mind protested to the urge to let the Fury sweep down and destroy. It will be your undoing. But as Dominica looked in her soul, she saw that it was too late. She fleetingly tried to conjure up the image of her love but all that came was the fear in his eyes as he saw what she had chosen to become, the tremble in his voice as he tentatively spoke her name …Monica?. As though he couldn't believe that the monster, over taken by the Black Fury, was his beloved Dominica. As though he couldn't believe that he had once touched, let alone caressed her skin.
So now, Lady Dominica encased the stilted voice. Encased it in a black glacier because she would have her revenge. She would not only kill the man who had destroyed her, who had made her one love turn away from her in disgust and fear, but she would also let the Black Fury sear him with such pain that it would haunt Him in His next lives. She held His life line in her hands and with a tight laugh that was a witch's cackle compared to her former melodic richness, poured the Black Fury into Him.
Poured her poisonous soul into her rival. The Destroyer, who was now the destroyed.
