Chapter two

Nightmares

Kassandra stumbled around her village, the village she was born and raised in. Only, the village was destroyed. Houses were on fire, smoke filled the air. There were screams, blood curdling screams. Kassandra looked hastily around for her family. Her layered blonde hair whipped in her face. She had a hard time seeing anything through the smoke. It stung her eyes and made it hard to breath. She could feel the heat from the fire on her skin when she wandered too close to a house.

She looked for her mother, for her uncle, for Tatia. But mostly, she looked for Peter. Where was he? Her dear little brother, not even thirteen yet. "Peter!" she screamed until her voice was hoarse. "Peter! Peter!"

She pushed and stumbled through the smoke, coughing every now and then when she breathed smoky air in. "Peter!" she repeated his name over and over again, chanting it almost.

Suddenly, Kassandra tripped and stumbled, landing on her hands and knees. She closed her hazel eyes to stop them from stinging, due to the smoke. She frowned when she realized she had landing in something hot and sticky and thick. She opened her eyes and peered through the smoke, down at the ground. Her eyes widened, horrified, at the sight below her.

She was in a pool of fresh blood.

She gasped and stumbled, in a frenzy to get out of the blood. She stood up again and started running. Her hands were coated in blood, and the rest of her body was splattered in it.

"Peter! Peter, please!" her eyes watered, partly out of the smoke, and partly out of fear for her little brother.

There was a hiss in her ear, a low, evil sound. It made the hairs on the back of Kassandra's neck raise. She stopped suddenly, her voice leaving her. "Kassssssandra," an almost demonic voice hissed. She was frozen in fear. "Kassssssandra."

A cold, clammy hand clamped down on her arm. It was rotted, scabby, decayed. It was a dead arm, belonging to a dead person. The hand's grip was strong and tight and bruising. Kassandra screamed and yanked away from the hand, before sprinting away as fast as she could.

"Peter!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Peter!"

"Kassie!"

Peter's voice was heartbreaking. He sounded so scared, so terrified. "Kassie! Help me! Kassie! Save me!"

"I'm coming, Peter! I'm coming!" She ran faster towards his voice. She'd save her baby brother if it was the last thing she'd do.

"Kassie-!" Peter's voice cut off into a scream and Kassandra ran as fast as her legs would carry her.

The smoke cleared away into a charred field, blood practically running down the trees. She looked around for her brother. She had to save him, she had to keep him safe. She just had to. She was the big sister, and he was her little brother. It was her job, to protect him.

"Peter! Where are you?" she looked miserably around for him, but he wasn't in sight.

Suddenly, she spotted a small little body near the edge of the field. It was completely still. A sob escaped Kassandra's throat, and she slowly approached it.

"Peter…"

Peter was still and pale, too pale to be healthy. His blonde hair was plastered to his face by sweat and blood. His blue eyes, so bright and clear, were glazed over. His throat was ripped open, blood still dripping from the fresh room.

Kassandra covered her mouth with her hand and sank to the ground. No, not Peter. Not her baby brother. She held him in her arms when he was born. She was all of ten at the time, but she remembered that he opened his big blue eyes for the first time and stared up at her.

"Peter…" she muffled her sobs with her hands and shook silently. "Peter, please come back…"

"Kassie." Her eyes opened and snapped to her brother, her dead brother. He remained still and unmoving, but words still fell from his lips. "Why didn't you save me?"

"I-I tried, Peter," she insisted. "I tried. I promise."

"You were supposed to save me." Peter's corpse continued to talk, paying no mind to her meaningless words. "You were supposed to, Kassie. Why didn't you? Why did you let me die?"

"Peter, I-I didn't! I didn't mean to! Please, Peter!"

"You let me die," Dead Peter accused. "You're the reason I'm dead. How could you let those monsters get me, Kassie? How could you?"

She tried to choke out a senseless apology, but it got stuck in her throat.

"How could you?"

She closed her eyes, tears pouring down her cheeks. She couldn't run away, and was forced to listen to Peter repeat that one question over and over again.

"How could you let me die?"

Suddenly, Kassandra was ripped away from Peter, and her scream echoed around the charred field. She saw red eyes, a flash of fangs, and then the razor sharp teeth tore into her throat.

"How could you?"

Kassandra shot up in her bed, panting. She was sweating like crazy. She closed her eyes, but opened them again instantly. The image of her dead brother was what she saw when she shut her eyelids.

It was just a nightmare. Just another nightmare.

~SYH~

"You look like shit."

Kassandra rolled he eyes as she walked into the bar she worked at, Gracie's Place. It had just barely escaped being classified as a dive bar, but Kassandra loved it. She got free shots and she didn't hate most of her co-workers.

"Bite me, Ruby," she replied. She hardly got any sleep. What, with her nightmare and the fact that she didn't get home until two in the morning from that shitty ball.

Ruby, a short black girl around twenty five, grinned back at her. "You've got the fangs, Kass," she reminded her friend.

Kassandra just rolled her eyes again. Out of all the people she met all over the world over her thousand years of life, Ruby was the one girl Kassandra could ever call a friend, besides Tatia. But, honestly, Kassandra liked Ruby better than Tatia. She was less slutty and didn't have a magic vagina that attracted guys to her like moths to a flame.

"Whatever, witch bitch," she replied, walking behind the bar. She started wiping down glasses with Ruby.

Ruby rolled her blue eyes, standing out even more against her dark skin, and hip bumped Kassandra. Ruby was a witch and knew all about Kassandra being a thousand year old vampire who used to be a witch. She wasn't judgy like other witches, though. Ruby was probably the one witch in existence who treated people based on who they were, not what they were. She and Kassandra got along just fine because of it.

"Long night? When did you get home from that ball thing?" she asked Kassandra, who sighed.

"You were right- I totally regret going to that stupid ball."

Ruby smirked smugly. "Told you so, vampy," she teased.

"Kiss my ass, witchy," Kassandra retorted.

"What did Esther want?" Ruby asked curiously, wiping down the bar.

"Some old Grimoires and herbs of my mother's," Kassandra answered, frowning. She still didn't know why Esther really wanted those things.

"Weird, did she say why?"

Kassandra shook her head. "Nope, she was really vague and cryptic about the whole thing. It doesn't really matter, though. I doubt that my mother's things still exist."

"Well, then Esther's just shit out of luck," Ruby said.

"Guess so."

The two cleaned up the bar for a few more silent moments, until Kassandra finally spoke again. "I saw them there," she said casually, stacking glasses.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

Kassandra rolled her hazel eyes. "Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie," she said sarcastically. "I saw the originals! Who do you think I saw, dumbass?"

Ruby scowled. "Bite me, Kass."

"My pleasure, Rube."

Ruby rolled her eyes and bumped Kassandra again. "Did you say anything to them?" she asked her, focusing her blue eyes on a glass that had a ring that refused to go away.

Kassandra snorted. "What would I say to them. 'Hey there. Remember me? The freaky witch who lived in the same village as you? No? okay then, sorry to both you. Please don't rip my throat out with your teeth.'"

Ruby rolled her eyes again. "Well, if you didn't talk to them, what did you do?"

"Just… watched them, I guess," Kassandra muttered, rearranging a row of whiskey bottles so their labels faced outwards.

"That's not stalkerish of you," Ruby said sarcastically.

"Shut up," Kassandra said, running a hand through her messy blonde hair. "If it makes you happy, Elijah and I had a brief conversation after a tripped right into his arms. I think he remembered me, but I wasn't going to tell him who I was so easily."

"That's my girl, play hard to get," she said approvingly. "Isn't Elijah hot?"

Kassandra almost sighed dreamily, like girls do in movies when they're thinking of guys they have crushes on. But she stopped herself before she could. "He's a very good looking man, that's all I'll say. He looks amazing in a tux, too. All of the originals are good looking, Ruby."

"What a gene pool I'd love to swim in," Ruby muttered.

Kassandra scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Why do I put up with you?" she asked.

"Because you have no other friends," Ruby shot back.

Kassandra actually didn't mind being alone- she was used to it- but she didn't correct Ruby. "Something like that," she agreed.

After the two were finished cleaning the bar, Ruby grabbed a bottle of liquor and the two sat down at a table. "So, my mom called me this morning," Ruby started to say, pouring two shots.

"Did she send me her love?" Kassandra asked sarcastically. Ruby's mother wanted nothing more than to stake Kassandra for "corrupting" her daughter. Ruby's aunt already disowned her niece for befriending a very old vampire.

Ruby just rolled her eyes at her friend. "She was freaking out, actually. Said that she felt a drastic shift in nature while she was making breakfast, like something big was going to go down tonight. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah, weird," Kassandra agreed. Silently, she couldn't help but think that Esther had something to do with whatever was going to go down tonight.

A thousand years had passed since Kassandra last practiced magic, but she still had a good gut sense.

~SYH~

The next night, Kassandra walked into Gracie's for her shift. She had had yet another nightmare, and wasn't in the best mood. It only got worse when she saw who was waitressing with Ruby.

"Kassandra, you know, I have something for those bags under your eyes," Tasha told her snidely, pushing her dark brown hair out of her eyes and smirking at the old vampire.

Kassandra just glared back. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just rip her throat out right now," she muttered to Ruby, as her friend pulled her towards the bar.

"I can't think of one right now, but I'm sure one exists," Ruby whispered back.

Kassandra spent the next half an hour making drinks in her borderline slutty black and white Gracie's Place uniform. She managed to ignore Tasha most of the time, but couldn't resist dumping a martini down the front of her shirt.

Smirking victoriously as Tasha stormed away to clean up, Kassandra turned to face the next customer she had to serve. "What can I get-" She cut herself off, eyes wide.

There, sitting at the bar, was Elijah.

~SYH~

A/N: thank you to: AussieElle, SomebodyWhoCares, Belinda, and Samantha meyers for reviewing!

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~Abby :)