Awakening

As I stood there, watching my reflecting, my average height, the pale skinned, maroon hair, and my amber and green eyes I couldn't help but stare. My hair never stayed short, it was always long, flowing and as entrancing as my appearance was.. Oh and how I loved my hair, it was the color of the mixture between my mother and father. A sigh escaped my lips then, my father wasn't, had never been a topic mother would talk about. The only thing she had reluctantly mentioned about him was that he was a mortal who I was destined to lie to and that for that very reason she kept him a mystery. Some how I found that hard to believe, destiny was something you made for your self, you chose how to live your own life and at the moment I was choosing not to kill.

I was getting ready for my fifteenth birthday, mom was going to take me out shopping and then we'd go see a movie but the truth was that I really didn't want to go out. Lately the outside world seemed too boring, too bland and too crowded. Not to mention that I had started feeling sick the night before and when I woke up everything just suddenly seemed so alive, so much more louder and clearer than it ever had.

"Izakura we're going to be late! Lets go!" mom yelled from the first floor.

"Coming!" and with that I was off, forcing that sickening feeling to the back of my mind for later.

When we got to the mall everything was way too loud and there seemed to be way too many people. Mom was wearing her normal hunting gear but with no weapons. Which was actually a surprise, she was always on guard and ready to fight, no matter where we went there was always at least one weapon on her.

"So hows it feel to be another year older and another year wiser." mom teased as we rode the escalator up to the third floor. A smile formed on my face then, thats what I loved about her. She never acted grown up, she was always relaxed and easy going but whenever there was something you needed to talk about or a serious matter to take care of she was there, as serious as someone twice her age could be.

"Eh, nothing special really. So, where to first?" I asked, looking around and taking in my surroundings. Everyone was rushing down to the second floor, apparently there was some sort of sale on a new prep line, whatever. Bright colors were definitely not my thing, hell I doubted anyone in my family wore them.

"Is that so? And I don't know kiddo, that's up to you. Your day, your pick." she said before pausing and thinking about that a minute. "Well anything that's under and or keeps you within a thousand dollar budget." she said, a grin on her face.

"Got ya, then how about that new goth store? Heard it was good." I offered. I didn't really dress goth, I just bought a lot of the coats and the black leather pants that they sold. She nodded and grinned.

As we walked into the store a wave of iron, rust and salt hit my sense of smell. It smelled metallic like, and the more I breathed it the more I seemed to be able to taste it. God did it over whelm me but again I held it all in, I refused to show I felt sick when my mom had gone out of her way to make sure that today was her day off. In her line of work it was rare when she had a day off, well she had two but technically they didn't count because the council usually had her training me. The store was not small but not big, I could see the whole layout from the entrance but knew better than to judge from appearances.

"Knock your self out kid, I'll look around too." she said, in her own little way telling me I didn't have to stay by her side.

"You sure?" I asked, almost uncertain as to whether it was a trick or if she was being serious about it.

"Yea, go." and so with that I went off. The back of the store was where all the jewelry was kept, there wasn't any need for glass or it being kept under lock an key because anyone who shopped at the store respected it. I guess that was the up side to living, growing up in a "dark" community. It didn't take me long to find what I wanted, to try it on and make sure it all fit however what had distracted me was the sudden wave of the smell again. I looked around me, frantically trying to track the source of the smell. Incenses were lit all around me but none of them seemed to be the source, in fact they were lit to try to cover up the true smell. I was about to give up when it suddenly hit me, the smell, that scent smelled like blood. Instantly I was on guard, I was alert and aware of my surrounding. Mom should have felt this, I was positive she would have picked up on it and told me to leave but if we had stayed here this long then she had no idea what was really going on. Great, I had to do my first kill on my birthday, 'luck me' I thought sourly. I was about to go for the back door when all of a sudden the smell faded away and I felt the presence of a powerful vampire. It was female and her level was decent. Quickly I walked to the front only to pause half way. There, in the center of the stoor stood my mom, badass vampire hunter talking with a vampire. She was tall, blonde, pale skin, red eyes and seemed to know a good deal about mom.

"It's been too long of a while, hasn't it Sakura." the vampiress spoke, her tone of voice light and somewhat taunting. What amazed me more was that I could hear her speak, oh I knew she was speaking in a soft tone, in a voice so low it wasn't considered a whisper and yet I could hear?

"Yes, yes it has Ino." mom replied, tone of voice soft and sad?

"Why don't you come back to us, work for us like you used to. Lady Tusnade is still waiting, you were her number one student Sakura. She's headmistress now." the vampiress spoke. Who the hell was Tusnade was my blood question.

"You know that I can't, I work with the council now. Hell I shouldn't even be talking to you Ino." mom said, voice softer and urgent. Was she really friends with her or was this all an act?

"But Sakura..." she started to protest but soon stopped and smiled before bowing her head and walking for the register. Quickly I ducking out from where I was hiding, a smile on my face.

"Ready to pay mam?" she called out to me, causing to hold my smile longer than I had intended.

"Yes." I said, placing my clothing down while looking over one of the rings on display. It was small, silver and simple yet it called out to me like nothing else existed. Then, when I blinked I could suddenly see sapphire stones embedded into the ring, causing the silver to shine and the sapphires to looked like small droplets of blood. She noticed me looking at it but before she could offer it to me mom appeared next to me.

"Is this really all Izakura?" she asked, her tone of voice back to its usual self. She was good, she had to be because I learned from the best.

"Yea, there's another store I want to go to before we catch our movie."

"Ok. How much will it be miss?"

"Twenty three fifty." and with that there was no other words spoken between the vampiress and my mother. It was awkward at first but I knew better than to ask. As we walked out of the store and after taking in the smell of that rusty, salty smell I suddenly realized that I had gotten hungry.

"Do we have time to eat something before the movie?" I suddenly asked, causing my mom to pause.

"Your hungry?"

"Yea, why?"

"No reason." and with that we went to the food court, ate, watched our movie and headed home. The rest of the afternoon was silent, too silent and as much as I wanted to ask about who that vampiress was I knew better. Mom only talked about things when she was ready to talk.

As soon as we got home and the door to the house opened I suddenly felt very dizzy, I felt my blood run ice cold and my vision blurred for a second.

"Izakura, are you okay?" I could hear mom ask in the background but the sudden wave of dizziness and the blurred vision had come so suddenly I had forgotten how to speak. When I shook my head no and dropped the bags to the floor she took my by the arm and lead me to my room. My body felt odd, foreign and not mine. One moment I was burning up and the next my body was ice cold, it was if it hadn't decided what it wanted to feel just yet. My senses kept suddenly growing, one minute I couldn't hear a thing and the next I was hearing too much.

"Make it stop...oh god make it stop." I cried out, my voice soft and strained. Mom rushed up and down, trying to keep me as comfortable as she could. After a while I gave in to the madness and lost track of what was going on, I just lay in the darkness, feeling and not feeling what it was that may or may not have been happening to me.

The next time I woke up in full consciousness I could my senses were strong, and heightened. I could hear mom talking to some lady, a lady who's voice I quickly recognized.

"Sakura you should have stayed with us, you would have been welcomed." Ino lectured, giving Sakura a cold look. Sakura sighed.

"I just didn't know what to do Ino, he and I, we weren't supposed to let things get to that point let alone for this to happen."

"Have you told her?"

"Told her what?"

"Who her father is of course." Ino said, voice strained and annoyed. I knew then she didn't have a good temper.

"No."

"Damn it Sakura, what have you told her?!" she exclaimed and yet some weird way I knew she had whispered it, I knew she hadn't scram out.

"Ino I can't, I don't know how." Mom's voice was torn, sad and unsure. For the first time in my life I heard her sound vulnerable. What the hell was going on here. Slowly and soundlessly I made my way down the stairs and to the hallway.

"She had a right to know, she needs to. I stopped it for the time being but you can't stop the change. She's a half-breed, her vampiric nature was bound to wake up sooner or later." Ino stated as a matter of faculty, causing me to instantly freeze. Vampiric blood? Half-breed?

"Can you get a hold of Lady Tusnade for me, I think its time I, we went back." Mom's voice was soft again, anxious and uncertain.

"No problem, its good to have you back Sakura, healer of the immortal."

"Sush, she might wake up soon."

"Oh come now, I would have..." but before Ino could speak I was suddenly standing in front of them. Surprised showed in all of our eyes then. Ino surprised that she hadn't sensed me, mom surprised that I had moved so fast and so soundlessly and I was surprised that I had. My body wasn't supposed to be able to do that, I wasn't an immortal, I couldn't...immortal. That one word brought me back to reality.

"What the hell is going on?!" I scram, unable to keep my anger in and causing the gravity around us to tighten. Ino's eyes widened some more then, surprised that it had been my doing. Of course I at the time wasn't aware that it was, all I was aware of was of the lie that had been kept from me.

"Izakura, honey calm down. Please."

"No, not until you tell what it is I really am." I said, a burning sensation suddenly building up in my eyes. They felt like they were on fire, as if they were ready to turn into flames. Then, as soon as the feeling had come it had left and I put to sleep. The last thing I saw was my moms tear stained face rushing to catch me.

Once on the floor Ino sighed.

"That daughter of yours it as strong as you now, she will be powerfully. It's his blood in her." she said, voice soft and tired. Meanwhile Sakura cradled her daughter in her hands, sad that she had hurt her, sad that he had found out about her true self this way.

"Promise me Ino, give me your word that not a word of this, of who she is to him is spoke to anyone other than Lady Tusnade her self." Sakura cried before finally taking to her feet and holding her daughter.

"You have my word." and with that Ino left. Sakura walked to the couch and set her daughters body down gently, she knew that she'd stay asleep until she was ready to wake up, until she was ready and able to control the blood awakening in her.

Darkness, darkness was all that met my eyes as I walked down and unlit path. I could feel the cold air brushing lightly against me, feel it wanting to wrap itself around me if only to protect. 'What the?' was all that I thought before suddenly the dark world began to glow in a deep crimson light. I could feel power gather around me then, could feel a sudden thirst grow in me. Was this what it was like for vampires, was their thirst always this unmanageable? Then all of a sudden I could hear this sound, could feel this sudden power heading toward me.

"Stop!" I yelled and before me stood a blood shaped tiger, it's eyes a deep emerald green, those like my mothers. "Who are you?" I asked, looking over its beautiful form. The tiger bowed then.

"I am your blood animal, you have awakened my lady." he said while starting to walk toward me. Instantly I put my hands up.

"Stop, I don't even know what that means."

"Your vampire blood is awaken, it will give you power that you can't imagine. I am your blood animal, I help you with control of your power until you have properly been trained by a mentor or parent." he said. That's when it hit me, my father was vampire, this was a piece, an addition to what it was he had left me with. Then of course by the sounds of it he didn't even know I existed but still, it was from him none the less. When my struggle lessoned the tiger smiled and nodded.

"It is easier when you do not fight it my lady, should you need anything call for me. My name is Hei, and I am here to serve only you." he siad and with that I was back in a world of crimson and darkness, giving in to the changes the blood awakened in me would cause.