"as I told you the previous night, after the death of my mother I went more than a little wild. You must understand the world was different back then. The people were different, the royals remained safely inside their castles leaving the commoners to fight for their lively hood. I had grown up knowing a sort of charmed life, much better than most.

My adoptive mother and father were both hard working people, with two members of the house hold working we had more money that most. There were few jobs for women back them, they were either home makers seamstress or midwives. My mother had been more than lucky, she had long slim arms and strong fingers….perfect for delivering babies." Aro stopped and gave Tessa a minuet to process the information. In order to understand herself she had to understand this man's past. He continued.

"she had been good to me, despite the fact that she had robbed me of my throne, something she never forgave herself for. My true father, the king, died in his sleep, murder was suspected but never proven, something else never written down. My true mother being a woman could not ascend to the throne, so they quickly married off my oldest sister, she and her husband eventually ruled peacefully.

By this time Joshua, the man who had raised me as his own, had passed away leaving Victoria, my mother, and myself alone in that world. Money was tight but I had taken over Joshua's small shop selling small things made from steal. It was a labors job just to make daggers and wedding rings it would have been impossible for a man of my stature to do the work of say a black smith or farmer.

Victoria was outraged to find that my sister was to be queen when I was still living. She gave me some very fiery speeches, she was so good with words. Together we reviled ourselves, she paraded me down the street in the finest cloths our meager savings could buy. BEHOLD THE SELF PROCLAIMED KING! People came from miles around to see me.

With Victoria's political voice and myself, the handsome devil I was back them, leading the way every one wanted to help me become king. I was suddenly more popular than I had ever been. Every guy wanted to be my friend, every girl wanted to be more than my friend. I was their savior, a voice for the people. A king raised by commoners, to them any thing was possible!

Victoria led the attack, with all our new friends following. They stormed to castle calling for blood and the crown. It was a blood bath. our little band of rebels, farmers and craftsmen, didn't stand a chance against battle hardened soldiers. I barely got away with my life, no one else survived." he paused again. This was something significant, his humble beginnings laid bare. Tessa knew she was hearing something no one had heard in four hundred years. But for all that had gone wrong something must have gone right, because she now sat in front of a man called king.

"so many lives were lost that night. I was still young, around twenty or so. In on e horrible night I was disowned by my birth family, lost my real mother, and lead hundreds of people who called them selves my friends to their deaths. I was truly alone. My memories of that time are fuzzy, a number of things contribute to that one of those you are not ready to hear, the other major one was alcohol.

You'd think drinking my self into a drunken stupor in not a big deal, but it was. I was poisoning myself with it, back then beer was served in lead mugs. The toxins I willingly chugged were ruining my body and mind. I went from bar to brothel to the gutter. I didn't care where I was, who I hurt. I don't know how but I wound up in Egypt. Their drinks were better and they had drugs. Blue lotus flowers that induced sexual feelings, dried herbs they burned to induce hallucinations. I was at the peak of my self destructive spiral. There were girls there, like every where else, I used them and abused them.

After a particularly bad binge of drugs and sex I woke in a bed of silks and linen. My head hurt so bad I though it would split with the sound of the sheets rustling as a struggled to sit. My vision was blurred but I could see that I was surrounded by the most brilliant and amazing colors I had ever seen. I would have felt I had died and was in heaven were it not for the pain in my head.

Then she was there. The most beautiful woman to ever grace this earth. Words can hardly describe her. She wore her hair long, past her waist, it was straight as a pin and blacker than midnight. Her round eyes were so dark they almost matcher her hair, but the spark of life in her glowed from behind those memorizing eyes, a luminescent brown. She wore hardly a stitch of clothing, sheer fabric that left nothing to the imagination. Her long slender form, was curved in all the right places, formed just so to make men's heart beats quicken and their minds to fantasies.

When she spoke it was like a sweet high bell chiming in the wind, so soft and gentile it did not hurt my pounding head, I wanted nothing but to hear her speak again. "Robert Stuart" she said. "I have found you amongst the lowest of men, yet you were born for greatness. You have not yet fallen from grace." I looked at her in amazement I am sure my mouth was hung open in awe and I must have looked like the biggest of fools. "you can redeem your self my young friend, stay by my side, learn from me, and you shall be granted a glory few have enjoyed." I nodded dumbly.

This woman was to be both my savior and my killer. I toiled at her side, becoming stronger. I almost forgot about Victoria, Joshua and all of the others. I was happy, she thought me things about the world that man should never know, thing I will one day teach you my dear. She told me I was destined for greatness, she would see to it personally that I was king, I knew not what she meant, I know now.

I don't think even if I had known the truth, that my life would be like this, that I would have refused her. I could refuse her nothing. She had such power, I hungered for her powers, I wanted to be just like her. On my last night with her She took me out into the night, back to the world she had saved me from. Together we entered the dark and dank room Egypt's version of a night club. The musicians had primitive instruments, drums and flutes made from reeds, but still we danced. She stood before me her hips mesmerizing myself along with every other man in there.

As the music ended she fined a yawn and moved slowly toward the door. I followed, but some one else did as well. In the warm night air she took a deep breath in. I watched her spin arms in the air head thrown back, she looked like a goddess bathing in the moon light. A hand came down upon my shoulder. "beautiful isn't she?" a man asked. His hand was cold as ice, strange in that warm climate. I turned to see a man smiling at me. I know him now as Marcus, my oldest and dearest friend. "beauty is not what it seems." at this she turned her head, and with a squeak of joy she ran to him. She whispered some thing in his ear, he nodded.

In a blur I was surrounded. The woman was before me, Marcus behind holding my arms with one hand and he held my head to the side. She let out a hiss and before I knew what was happening it was over. I lay slumped on the ground at their feet, blood pouring from my neck. She had bitten me. Suddenly I understood, she was stronger, faster, and older than any one else on earth. The Egyptians called her the goddess Isis, she was a Vampire, and I didn't want to be like her any more." he stopped talking. Tessa stopped breathing. Her face turned ashen and her eyes widened.

"Tessa breath, speak your feelings." Demetri pleaded. He didn't touch her, didn't want to add to her fear.

"your telling me….that your…a…a…vampire? No!"

"yes."

"no! no! No! vampires aren't real. People don't live over four hundred years! This isn't real, I'm still dreaming, this had to be the longest dream I have ever had." Tessa was shaking her head, but even as she denied it she knew in her heart it was true. She was different from her friends. She had always felt different, she had grown faster than any of the other girls in the orphanage, she knew things before they happened, her grate grate who knew how many grates grandfather was a vampire.

"that's not the end Tessa, I haven't gotten to the part about you." Aro said calmly.

"no more! Not tonight!" she stood from the table and backed away slowly. Demetri stood, moved towards her hands held out. "no, your not coming with me, no more you no more weird ancestors… I'm going home, back to being little orphan Annie, and normal!!!" with that Tessa turned and ran out the door. Demetri made a move to follow but Aro held up her hand.

"don't follow to closely, she needs space and time."

Still looking for a beta reader. Hang in there.