Death By Wolf Bite (Book 1) ~ Completed ~

Chapter 1- The First Year And A New Beginning

~ Cassie ~

Death...

What is it? Some say it's the ending of a life; others it's the beginning of something greater.

To me, death is only a fear; a fear that is felt by many people every day. Nestled into their minds as a constant tinkering. A voice that continually mutters the words of death.

But what is that fear? I have no fear in certain ways, and yet in others I have many; such as the feeling of death all around me. That sort of thing tends to happen when your parents are torn apart in front of you as a child.

The darkness of it all ensnares me daily.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, for I have yet to tell you my name. My name is Castile Glass, but to my friends I'm simply known as Cassie. I'm only 15 years old but far from being a normal teenage girl. I'm a fledgling vampire, a "half vampire". Soon I will make preparations to go to an Academy dedicated to training and educating fledglings in preparation for something known as The Transition.

You see, there are two kinds of vampires in our world; those who have gone through their Transition and became full-blooded vampires to adults and eventually elder vampires, and then there's fledgling vampires like myself who are not fully awakened and are their half- vampire children. The Transition is not purely psychological but an irreversible biological change as well.

Many fledgling vampires are afraid of the journey to the Academy, this "House of the Moon", because of the dark rumours and even darker truths surrounding it. The Academy is located deep within a dark forest, famous for the number of tourists that disappear in it every year. But you see, they know the dark truth.

The missing tourists ventured too close to the Academy's hidden location and were ensnared by the magical boundaries protecting it; their bodies left to rot among the brush and razor sharp vines. Those who wish to journey to the Academy must survive, lest they are those who are unfortunate and perish in the dark embrace of death's arms.

To understand the reason that I do not fear death's eerie presence all around me, you must go back three years into my past to view the circumstances of my parent's brutal deaths. I can still remember it clearly to this very day.

It was a spring day with the sun shining brightly and I was with my parents in our backyard, enjoying the warmth of the sun on my pale unmarked fledgling skin.

If you're wondering how this is possible, our weakness to natural sunlight is an annoyance more than anything of most of us and even more so for fledgling vampires; who are able to live mostly normal lives (no tans though).

Mum was explaining to me how in only three short years, I would be leaving to go to an Academy for our kind. Where vampires lived in seclusion away from humanity and their prying eyes. And it is there at the Academy that I will undergo the Transition.

I remember that I was sitting on a picnic blanket wearing a pair of skinny jeans with a flannel t-shirt and Mum was gently speaking to me, explaining what will happen and answering my curious questions. Her elemental marking was glistening in the bright sunlight like a scar set upon her skin for the rest of her life.

"Castile, you may not know much yet but when you enter the House of the Moon Academy you will be there for at least four years." Mum had a small smile on her face knowing that her one and only daughter, her only child in fact was heading off in three years to an Academy widely known as a discreet place of knowledge and wonder. A journey leading to a life of bigger and better things.