I felt the warm breeze brush against my bitter cold skin. Nice, I thought, but not what I hungered for. I strolled across the icy pavement, listening to the crunching ice under my feet. Colorful leaves formed a blanket over the wet mossy grass as they fell from the frozen trees. The darkness of the black sea exploded against the color filled surroundings. I glanced though the trees as I walked, watching the first rays of the new days break through the darkness. The tall street lamps illuminated the leave-less evergreens. I walked under the glow and between two of the trees, watching the sea begin to lighten as I rested my palm against the icy tree to my right and I felt the slick surface moisten my hand. The frigid cold of the ice never came and I didn’t expect it to.

I stared into the slowly brightening clouds, at the never-ending warmth that I missed so much. The feeling of weightlessness and ease that was included in the soothing heat. The missing piece was almost unbearable but the gift of immortality was said to be worth so much more. I had my entire existence to test that theory. The sun rose more and more over the horizon and I knew that I only had so much time before I was forced to flee back to the darkness. The thought brought an impact of depression that pushed moisture into my eyes. I tried to push away the thought but it didn’t want to budge. The rays became blurry but continued to rise. I wanted to stay in this spot forever, staring into the eyes of what could have been. I tried to think of a better side to my fate and came up with nothing. The tears whelped up in my eyes and began to spill over the walls of pride and I allowed them to but kept my emotions under control.

The thought entered my mind for what seemed like the millionth time. All I had to do was take one step. One step into the sunlight to quench my main curiosity. I had no concern for what was to come of me. But it is forbidden, I told myself. It doesn’t matter. What would they do? Kill me? Would it not be better if I were dead? The argument with myself seemed to end as I took a step to the dark sea being lightened by the morning rays.

“Annastacia?” A cold, fierce voice came from behind me. I recognized it immediately. I froze where I stood, a foot still raised, ready to take the step I had been waiting on. Worry bubbled through me, afraid he was aware of my intentions.

“What are you doing? It almost sunrise-“ He stopped suddenly as I lowered my foot and turned to face him.

His dark brown hair fluttered softly in the wind; the bottom of his bangs skimming the top of his left eyebrow. He kept his hands shoved in the pockets of his black leather jacket. His radiant blue eyes brightened his appearence by laying across his pale white face. The picture in front of me was ruined by the flicker of anger in his eyes, the look I saw far to often. He was staring into my face, no dout the steaks of salt water I had allowed to escape. This only seemed to infuriate him more.

“You know its forbidden,” He spoke through clenched teeth. I could hear the anger and impatitence in his voice clearly. This was not the first time he had caught me in this sort of situation. I was tired of his attitude towards me and the only thing it accomplished was the rise of my own anger. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. The only company I ever took pleasure in was my own.

I moved swiftly to his side to try to avoid looking into his face and stay calm. I glided forwards, my brilliant red hair flowing around the tips of my shoulders, my dark green lace shirt shown through my waving silver, leather jacket.

His arm shot out in front of me forcing me to an erupt stop. He held me tightly around the waist, hugging me to his side. The warmth of his breathe filled my ear when he spoke.

"I’m only trying to keep you alive, Anna. I love you and you know that.” The aggressive whisper found it was through my hair. Whenever he said he loved me or he even slightly touched me I felt utterly nauseated and uncomfortable. I thought I might get sick when I spoke.

“Let me go Grail, we don’t have time to waste. We need to return to the castle, I’m sure they’re waiting.” I finished by breaking through his firm grip and headed toward the black forest on the side opposite of the sea coast.

I could sense him behind me as I headed into the darkness of the forest. I spent most of my time alone out here in the black. It was my only real place of solitude and I saught comfort from it now as I craved to be alone. I was faster than Grail even if he was only a few feet away.

I sped up through the trees, running out of his sight. I only wish we didn’t have such good eyes and weren’t able to see so well in the dark it would have been much easier. I ran fast and took a chance by glancing backwards in Grail’s direction. He had not called after me nor did he chase me. The sun was beggining to cast a dim glow over the edge of the forest but it was becoming darker as I went deeper into the trees. I ducked into a patch of trees to my right and looked around.

The area was a small grassed clearing. Very small, acually. The spaces between the trees was visible and was easy to look around. Only a small ray of light came from the sky. A missing branch allowed it to escape.

The thought flashed through my mind for the second time tonight. One step and I could finally be aware of the secret that has stayed hidden for so long. I planned to find out one day, even if it was the last thing I did. What did I live for anyway? No one knew why the sun was so forbidden. Everyone is just oblivios to what it does to our kind.
Vampires.

The thought hit me and I flinched. I had been so young, so facinated by thier species. I could feel the tears coming and I pushed them away. I forced my legs to move over to a dark corner as tried to ingore the single ray that mocked me. I sat on the hard ground and began to pick at the grass under m fingers. I tried to focus on the trees ad the beauty that surrounded me. I laid all the way back and adjusted myself comfortably. I enjoyed the time I spent alone. Thats all I enjoyed. I had no one in his new world and it had been that way for nearly six years. Six years of pain and misery. My mind only went numb when it rained. Yes, when it rained I felt nothing but uncontrolable thirst. But when I relaxed, I couldn't face myself. What I was. I closed my eyes and tried to relax but every musle in my body was lexed with tention. That was a possitive, I supose. The strength. I was more powerful then most of my coven, more powerful then I should be. I never quite understood why that was. I was simply told that I was special. Our leader, Lord Istalome would tell me that everytime I asked about that diffrenences between me and the rest of our kind. He said my eyes were the biggest difference. Every vampire ever known has the same brilliant blue eyes, but it was only me, who claimed the glorious green eyes. But, the only answer I ever got was that I was special. When a vampire is born thier eyes are turned blue. Mine never changed from the deep green core. Sometimes I wished I was like everyone else that I wasn't as spacial as Lord Istalome proclaimed, but this was my life now and there was no changing that. Lord Istalome was said to always be right. He had led our coven for nearly a thousand years. He had protected us against our enemy in the ten century year old war. The Thaliban Empire was said to have started the war against us Temmerians. Our Temmerian Empire has survived this long, killing them as they trespassed into our land. We were only alowed to kill of they came onto our land. If that rule was not set in place there would be no Thalibans left. We would have killed them off years ago if the silent treaty wasn't organized by our leaders. I had never killed another vampire, I had never came across another Thaliban and it was forbidden to kill inside your own coven. I would be willing to kill another vampire, if I had the chance.

I tried once again to relax and think about nothing but that seemed to be impossible. Everything seemed to be flooding my mind at once. The warm breeze felt soothing to my frigid skin and the evergreen scent was delightful and I breathed in gulps of it as I savored the moment.

It ended quickly as I heard a sudden and low crunch in the distance at least a hundred feet away, good hearing was also becasue I was special. I opened my eyes and blinked. Had I imagined it? As if to answer my question another faint crunch came again, this time only closer. I sat up straight and strained my eyes for anything unusual or misplaced.

I searched through the trees dumbfounded and my head jerked to my right as a black blur raced just beyond the nearest trees.


My heart stopped and I waited to see it again. Nothing happen. I stood and slowly walked over to where I had seen it. I turned my face away from the single beam of light that still shone through the trees and squinted my eyes to focus on the forest in front of me.

"Grail?" The name came out fierce with aggervation. Why did he always have to follow me when he knew I wanted to be alone? Was he simply that obbsesed that he had to follow where ever I traveled? The nausea in the pit of my stomach had returned and I had to force myself to comcentrate.

The crunching had stopped and the only movement was the tops of the trees dancing in the wind. As I re-focused I inhaled as much as possible through my nose. The only scent was the wave of evergreens that surrounded me. I stood there for another minute waiting on something, anything to come, but nothing did.

I tried to relax once more, this time with more success having forgotten the conversation I was having with myself before the inturruptions. I turned to go back to my corner of darkness. I hadn't even taken a step when a fluttering sound erupted behind me. Something was flying straight at my back. I didn't panic, only shot my hand out to catch the creature around its throat.

I laughed at myself as I held the black defencless crow in front of me. Its wings fluttered with panic and fear. I held it in front of my face and looked into its eyes. Pure blackness. Like my heart that felt nothing but, pain, misery, and thirst for human blood. I pressed my fingers softly on the top of its head and smoothed its feathers. It relaxed somewhat but continued to panic in my hands. I gently released it and watched it fly through the trees. It glided gracefully through the single ray from the sun. I sighed with jealousy. One day that would be me, I hoped.

It felt like I had been there far too long. The Empire was having an meeting today. I still had hours before I had to be there but Lord Istalome would be making an anoucement tonight and it would be best to be early. I knew they would be waiting for my return.

I took one final glance at the beautiful clearing and turned to go home only to find Grail inches from my face.





"Grail," I froze as if his furious eyes pinned me there. His name came out in shock but his eyes relaxed and turned to surprise as if I had pronounced my love for him. I only hoped he knew that day would never come.

"Running off again are we?" He tried to push playfulness into his voice but I could still hear the hint of fury.

"You know I can't return to the castle without you," he continued, the fury in his tone becoming more obvious. He didn't seem to be trying to hide it anymore.

"Of course," was all I could say. I didn't want him to know the nausea in my stomach was nearly unbearable. I hated him being so close. I waited silently for him to turn and when he didn't and continued to stare into my eyes I turned my head to stare at the ground with false fascination.

I placed his right index finger under my chin and lifted my head so I know choice but to look into his eyes, the brilliant blue stunned me for half a second before I remembered who they belonged to.

He leaned closer to me as if to kiss me. I closed my eyes waiting for it to be over but I suddenly felt my face turn and popped my eyes open to see Grail next to my face pecking me softly on the cheek.

The nausea in my stomach exploded. I felt my whole body twitch and I grabbed my stomach and stumbled forward. He caught me before I was able to fall into a tree.

"Are you all right?" He asked me, some what pleased with himself as if he had accomplished something.

"Yea, just give me some air," I managed to get out through a thick pant. He released me and stepped back. I took a few deep breaths before I was able to stand straight.

"Sorry, we'd better go," I forced out, the nausea subsiding. He simply nodded and we stepped through the forest. He waited until we were deeper into the woods and my breathing was normal before he placed his arm around my waist. I grimaced and shifted under his hand trying to fight back the uneasiness of his touch. He noticed but ignored me and tightened his grip and began playing with the lace at the bottom of my shirt under my jacket. I began to breathe slightly harder but he acted like he didn't notice and started to speak.

"What were you thinking, you know, before when I found you near the piers?" he attempted to cover his anger and annoyance with curiosity but had no success. I paused, trying to think of the right words. I didn't think there were any that would not make his anger worse.

"I wanted to know what happens, in the sun," I spoke each word slowly and quietly as if I was choosing them carefully as I spoke.

"It’s forbidden‑" this time he showed no attempt to hide his furious and irritated emotions from me. I cut him off. He was only making my annoyance with him rise by his unreasonable counter arguments.

"I know Grail, but don't you ever wonder?" I glared at him with trusting eyes. The impatience in my voice surprised me.

"I only wonder why you seem unable to follow a few simple rules," I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wasn't sure he did either.

"Do you hear yourself? A few simple rules? More like a book of unreasonable rules and ridiculous things that are forbidden!" I walked out of his arm and stood in front of him, my green eyes filled with shock and anger.

"Everything is set in place for good reasons by Lord Istalome, he only does the best for the coven!" He tone had turned fierce and defensive. I knew the argument would end there once Lord Istalome's name was brought into it.

I walked in front of him all the way through the forest. I could sense him sulking behind me. I walked through the final trees at the end of the forest.

We walked into a huge opening filled with a large, dark bricked building. Most of the lights were on in the castle and I could feel the tension and impatience from inside. I knew they would be waiting for me to return. I told myself I had to control my temper and just relax. I placed my hands on the giant, black, intimidating double doors and pushed them into the walls that stood behind them and stepped into the only place I could call home, Grail following closely behind.