Prologue
1795
Moving down the street with purpose, Genevieve looked around her. It was moving onto dusk and Mama said to just go to Mrs Weatherly, give her the soup that Cook made and then return home.
She suddenly realised that for so early in the evening the street were almost deserted.
She felt a bit scared, because she had heard of the spate of killings that happens just after dusk.
Nobody knows what murdered these people. It looked like some wild animal mauled them. You would think that in 1795 civilization would have scared off most of the wild animals and yet there were these unexplained killings.
She was almost home, only 500 meters, but she still had to pass the piece of veld between their house and the neighbour's house. Now almost completely dark she stopped, hearing something moving in the veld beside her house.
She was half way across the pathway.
Picking up the ruffles of her long dress, she started running. She knew that a lady shouldn't run and definitely should not pick her dress up and show her ankles to the world, but in a flight of panic that was the last thing she was worried about.
Running and feeling the wind in her golden brown hair, which has come undone from the bun on her head. The only thought in her mind was that she needed to get inside their house.
She knew that she should have listened to her mother and let Fielas their stable and garden boy come with her as protection against the criminal elements, but feeling brave in the midday sunshine, she thought it unnecessary.
With a gasp she reached the front door. Knocking and hoping that Feitjie, their live in maid, was in the vicinity of the door.
"Miss Gina, why ever are you making so much noise, " said Feitjie while opening the front door.
"Oh, Feitjie, I heard something rustle in the bushes and I ran as fast as I could to reach the front door."
She sat down in the parlour on one of the extremely uncomfortable chairs.
"Miss Gina, why did you take so long? You know the rules about being home before dark and where is that Fielas, he knows that he was suppose to go with you?" exclaimed Feitjie with a very agitated voice.
"Feitjie there was almost no one on the streets, living near one of the busiest ports at the Southern tip of Africa, one should think that it would always be bustling," said Genevieve with an expression of dread.
"Ai, Miss Gina, you heard about the killings. Last week something broke into the Du Preez families' home and the whole family was found dead."
That night going to bed was a very scary affair. She was still thinking about the rustling in the veld.
Calming down she finally fell asleep in her warm bed.
Unbeknown to her, something was indeed staring at her through the window of her ground floor bedroom.
The hunger was intense and he could not help himself. He knew that he had promised the Council that he would not touch a human while here on his mission. The pull of her blood was intense. He wanted to taste her heat.
He heard the growl behind him, turned around and realised that he had made a big mistake of getting distracted by the human inside.
Chapter 1
2009
As Genevieve, now known as Gina, looked down at the city, where her life started, she tried to remember of how it once was.
She found it hard to picture it. It was so long ago and now the City was bursting its seams with development. Only the mountain behind her was still left of Mother Nature, as she knew it in her time.
Cape Town's lights were enchanting from her vantage point on Signal Hill.
Breaking the enchantment, she rose and proceeded to her Volkswagen Golf City Sport.
With her long leather coat, flapping against her legs, skinny jeans, V-neck top and high heeled boots, she made quite an impressive picture. Her hair cut into a short pixie style was easier to manage than the long hairstyle that she had to wear for almost two centuries.
As the centuries past she had to adjust to current fashion. Being twenty-one forever wasn't easy. She had to fit in with the local young crowd wherever she called home at that moment in time. Only being able to stay for 8 years at a time, made it very hard. Looking 21 the whole time tended to make people suspicious.
The fact that she was also constantly on the run from the Council didn't make it easier.
Currently her golden brown hair was coloured blonde and she was wearing aquamarine coloured contacts. She had to constantly change her hair and eye colour to ensure that the Council couldn't track her.
The only problem she had was the fact that nothing could curb the loneliness. Not having a person to share her life and dreams with was hard on her. She yearned for a mate to hold her in the daytime while she lay sleeping. Someone to care about and who cared about her.
To think if he hadn't come into her life she would have married Francois and had lots of kids. At least she would have died thinking that she knew love.
Now she was still alive and unhappy. No vampire clan wanted her. It felt like she had the plagues and it was his entire fault. If he had just left her alone she would have been fine.
She started thinking back to that day when they met. She just turned twenty-one. Her parents were wealthy and they had connections at the castle. A ball was held at the castle in honour of her birthday.
Her parents were also hoping to find her a prospective husband at the ball the ball that night. Instead they had invited dead in the form of the Le Clercq family. The Le Clercqs' had fled from France at the start of the French Revolution. As part of the aristocrats they had to get to safety. Unbeknown to the French government Monsieur Le Clercq and his family had started to take their money out of the country a few years before the Revolution started and thus he was a very rich man.
Her parents wanted her to meet the youngest two sons in the hope that she would find a future husband.
The Le Clercq family was hunted by more than just the plebs of Paris. When they invited the Le Clercq family, they also invited their enemies.
Gina could still recall her beautiful gown. It was emerald green, with little golden roses embroided on it. Feitjie had spent 8 weeks to create the dress.
Feitjie still called out the first time she saw Gina in it. "Ah Miss Genevieve, you look breathtaking. You are going to make a few men uncomfortable tonight." Gina just gave a shy smile and looked away. She didn't know much about men. There still wasn't a fluttering feeling in her stomach whenever she saw a man. The books that Feitjie lent from the study, without her father's knowledge, for her described how the heroine usually felt. She hadn't met a man yet who made her feel like that.
"Now we only need to curl your hair, Miss Genevieve." Feitjie piled her hair up high on her head with an emerald comb to secure it.
Feitjie helped her put on some of the rouge that they have 'lent' from her mother's dressing table. The red of the rouge against her porcelain skin was breathtaking. She almost didn't recognise herself in the mirror.
That night at the ball she indeed got lots of stares from all the males. Her stomach still didn't give any butterfly wings flutters.
She felt disappointed. She didn't want to become a spinster. She wanted a husband and six children, a husband who would love and cherish her, someone who would hold her and kiss her.
At twenty-one she had never kissed a man and she had never done any of the things that they had described in the steamy romance novels which she wasn't suppose to read. Her parents had watched over her like a hawk.
At a quarter to ten, somebody came in at the door. The hall fell silent and all eyes were on the stranger. She had never seen any man this beautiful, the butterflies in her stomach started fluttering. He was breathtaking in his formal wear. He stood a head above all the other men at the ball. With shiny long blonde hair, a strong chiselled face, piercing green eyes and muscles to die for this man was gorgeous with a capital g.
He oozed that x-factor that made women pant and men want to grab their swords to keep him away from their women.
The women were panting at that moment and the men gave him menacing stares that if looks could kill he would be dead.
He gave a big smile to everyone and showed of his brilliant white teeth. His eyes scoped the room and then it rested on her.
Her heart started pounding in her ears, as he started moving towards her. When he reached her he just said, " Good evening, you must be Miss Genevieve the birthday girl."
She held up her hand and he kissed it. When his lips touched her hand, she shivered. He looked at her with those beautiful eyes.
"I am Stephan, I come from far to give you this gift."
He took a small box out of his pocket and gave it to her. She opened the ornately crafted wooden box. Inside on purple velvet there laid a beautiful emerald ring and earrings. The stones were the same colour as his eyes.
"Stephan this is beautiful, but I cannot accept this, I don't even know you."
He bent over and whispered in her ear before all the people. They were getting odd stares as all the people in the room were watching.
"You do know me Genevieve. I visit you in your dreams quite often. I don't usually meddle in human business, but for you I will definitely make an exception." He winked and then walked over to her parents.
"Monsieur and Madame Gervaise, I have heard about your daughter in the far away kingdom that I live. May I ask your daughter's hand in marriage, that is if she will oblige?"
If this weren't such an unexpected situation, Genevieve would have laughed at the expression of shock on her mother and father's face.
Genevieve was strong willed and stubborn. She was not going to marry a complete stranger just because he said that he knew her. She walked over to where her parents were standing.
"I am over twenty-one and within right to say to whom I want be betrothed. I am sorry Stephan, I don't know you and it is my policy not to get married to a complete stranger."
Her mother gave her a look that said that this is a good time to keep her mouth shut. Nobody knew about the freedom of speech that her family gave her. In this time a woman had no say and it was the head of the house that made all the decisions.
Her father silenced her with the look that he gave her.
She had a sinking feeling that her parents were desperate to find her a husband. Girls at her age were already married and had two children.
A lady was given away by her parents between the ages of seventeen and nineteen to be married.
Her parents even found her a schoolmaster willing to teach a lady and she had schooling that a lady usually didn't receive in this day and age.
Her father turned to Stephan.
"If you have good intentions with my daughter I will oblige to your request, but only if Genevieve is willing to be your wife."
It was very silent in the ballroom. You would be able to hear a pin drop.
Suddenly the chatter broke out again. This had never happened before. If a suitor had enough money and status her parent would give the bride away easily for a big enough heirloom.
Genevieve smiled at her father with gratitude. He didn't just give her away. He gave her a choice.
"Well Stephan, I give you a week to show me if you are fit for my daughter and if she still doesn't want you, you have to leave her in peace."
Stephan looked shocked as if he couldn't believe that anyone would not take his offer immediately.
Genevieve gave him a satisfied smile. She knew she had him in a corner. Who was he to think that she would just jump into his arms? She was nobody's lap dog.
Shaking her head to dispel the memories she drove the remainder of the 20 minutes to her home in the northern suburbs via the N1. Staying so close to the mother city had its advantages. Numerous big shopping centres are open till late.
She enjoyed the monies that she had accumulated over the span of 200 years.
It helped her buy the numerous properties, under aliases, in a few select countries.
A favourite being the Welgemoed property she currently stayed at. With only a few minutes drive from the Nature reserve and no nosy neighbours it was heaven. Maybe she'll stay longer than 8 years this time.
Entering her long drive, she pressed the remote hidden under the main console of the car and opened one of the four garage doors.
She parked beside her other 3 less inconspicuous vehicles. That is if you can call her black Z 4 BMW, black Porsche 911 and black MG TF160 inconspicuous.
"Aye, Miss Gina, you didn't warn me that you were going out," her Butler James said from out of the doorway, which led from the garage to the kitchen.
"Oh, James you know I move during the night and sleep during the day, because of my skin condition."
"But Miss, you usually leave a note. I worry, if I don't know where you are. Your parents entrusted you to my care. I was drafted to look after you."
James didn't know that her parents weren't alive anymore. She had to go to the immortal attorneys often to give them instructions regarding James. The immortal attorneys catered to all of the immortal community. Every eight to ten years they would find her a new housekeeper. Somebody who could look after her needs in the daytime due to the fact that she couldn't join the other vampire clans. As an outcast she was very susceptible to harm. They were all jealous and afraid of her. Once again she could lie this all in front of his door. Oh he would regret it if she ever saw him again.
Living on your own is nearly impossible when you are allergic to sunlight.
Someone could for instance open up your bedroom curtains by accident.
Which could leave a very nasty spot on the bed linen.
"James, did they deliver my medicine?"
"Yes Miss Gina. It is in the freezer down in the pantry as per the instructions on the box." James gave his curtly nod turned around and left the room.
Gina smiled to herself and thought that James must have turned heads at thirty, because at seventy he was still a very handsome man with his grey hair and gentlemanly mannerisms.
She walked over to the computer console; of which there was one in each room that connected to the main computer server located in the basement, and opened up the keyboard.
This computer controlled everything in the house, from the lights to the TV's etc.
She used it to locate James where he was in the parlour. He was dusting an invisible speck off a mirror. She pressed the buttons to activate the mike.
"James, I am going to retire to bed now. You may go to your cottage. See you tomorrow."
"Aye, Miss Gina see you tomorrow." With that James took out his computerised keys and left the house to retire to his cottage in the mansion grounds.
She activated the computer's alarm system from the kitchen console and made her way to the pantry's door that was just across the kitchen.
She took out the box marked with a hospital cross and walked over to the microwave. While popping a blood bag in the microwave she started making herself some hot chocolate.
Luckily she could warrant the use of blood as part of the ailment which she suffered from. A daily delivery from the blood bank was nothing new to James.
It's a pity that she will have to let him go in five year's time, because that's when they usually start to realise that she was not aging.
A long night of research lay before her. She still needed to find the high lord/lady of the Council. Time was growing short. She had to reach him/her before her 250th birthday, otherwise she would be considered a renegade and open hunting for all the other of her kind.
The only ones that have found her in the past 200 years have stumbled upon her by pure accident. One of these creatures has notified the council of her existence and since then the council destroyers were after her.
They were under the impression that she was some kind of killing machine. In actual fact she hadn't had to drink blood from anyone since the invention of blood banks.
She considered herself a civilised sort of monster, with the attitude of, you don't bite me and I won't bite you, but if you do, I will bite back.
Collecting a glass cup from the cupboard she went over to the microwave and poured out the blood into the cup. Taking both her hot chocolate and the blood she made her way into the hall and up the stairs to where her room was located down the hall.
Being over a hundred years old, she only needed the one cup of blood a day to survive, the only times she had needed more, was when she was hurt pretty badly.
Entering her room she put her cups down on the bedside table. The room was decorated in a modern fashion with only the necessary furniture.
She picked up her cordless keyboard and pressed the on button. Across the room on the wall across from the bed, the walls opened up, to show the hidden LCD monitor, which almost covered the whole wall.
She started searching the websites again. The rumour that was going around under the supernaturals was that the high lord/lady's location was hidden, because if something happened to him/her the Council will be in discord, which could distort the balance of power within the supernatural community.
She had also heard from a drunk werewolf at a club the other night that the Council had started up a website a few months ago. This website could give her the information she was seeking, that is if she could find it.
The communities of vampires that were accepted by the Council only knew the name.
If you didn't receive acceptance from the Council you were considered a rabid renegade and put down by the destroyers, which were the Councils so-called police.
These high trained assassins were highly skilled in combat and a couple of hundred years old. You don't mess with them if you want to see the next night.
For the last hundred years she had been trying to make contact with the Council through these accepted communities.
Each and every community has turned her away with the promise of violence should she ever try to contact them again.
A rumour had been going around that something with the same description as her has been terrorising the supernaturals.
They weren't sure of what species this thing was, but even the vampires were scared of it and ready to annihilate her on site. Only promises of never returning had saved her and on one occasion she even had to show her fighting skills. Luckily the other party didn't survive the fight otherwise they would have followed her and exacted their revenge on her not to mention the fact that they would have notified the Council of her skill.
With a sigh she switched the computer to her music files and put it on a low volume, that was incomprehensible to the human ear
She loved her mix of modern pop music with a hint of rock and techno. While the Black Eyed Peas were singing "Boom Boom Pow", she took of her clothes and dressed in her silky negligee.
She fell into bed and almost immediately fell asleep.
Chapter 2
With a jolt Gina woke up. What was that sound? Suddenly realising that the sound she was hearing was James buzzing her over the intercom.
"Miss Gina, Miss Gina are you awake?"
Leaning over she pressed the button on her cordless keyboard.
"Yes, James I am awake now. What ever is the matter that you would wake me in the middle of the day?"
"Miss Gina, there is a gentleman at the front gate that insists that he knows you. He has promised me that he will, excuse my French, whip my ass all the way to Jo-burg, if I don't open this gate."
This jolted one of Gina's memories. It made her think of his first visit after the ball.
The sun was shining through Gevevieve's bedroom window when Feitjie shook her awake the morning after the ball.
"Oh Miss Genevieve, he is here, he is waiting in the parlour. He is very handsome. We should dress you in that new royal blue gown that your mother ordered from Paris. Oh you'll look beautiful."
Genevieve grumbled, "Oh Feitjie, leave me alone. I want to sleep. Tell him to go fly a kite."
In actual fact Genevieve felt excitement bubbling through her veins, but she didn't want Feitjie to know that. She was still angry with him, because he hadn't even asked her first; he just went straight to her parents.
She will let him suffer for a few days, but in her bones, she felt that he could be the one that she had been waiting for. She will tell her father in six days time that she will marry him if this feeling she felt was indeed love.
She forced her mind back to the present. She was getting old now; her memories didn't want to stay in place.
"Oh, James it's Chris, a friend I met the other night, you can let him in."
"The monstrosity with him as well, Miss Gina?"
With a smile Gina thought of Rocky, Chris's Labradour. "Oh don't worry James Chris insists that he is house trained and James please send them up to my games room."
She got of the bed and put on a pair of jeans with a t-shirt and her skechers. She pushed her hand through her hair and looked in the mirror to ensure that she didn't have sleep drool on her chin or anything. Satisfied she made her way to the windowless hall that let to her games room.
On entering the room she saw Chris sitting in her favourite comfy chair in the corner. She didn't like to sit in a room where she couldn't see the door or where someone could get at her back, which is why she preferred the corner.
"Hi Chris, How's it hanging?"
"A little to the left, but better now that I see that you are still okay. It is hard getting past your doorman. You should tell him that he should ease off the fake British accent, I almost couldn't understand a word he was saying."
Gina bowed over and gave him a hug while he was sitting in the chair. She then went to sit on the ground, where Rocky was lying and started scratching in the fur behind his golden neck.
Chris watched her through hooded eyes. "Scary to think that you are a fierce predator, but still Rocky likes you."
"Chris you know normal animals can feel the true nature of your soul and act accordingly."
"Hey I resent that are you calling me a animal Gina? If you want I can show you what a real animal is?" he asked with a fake leering wink and a twinkle in his eyes.
Gina picked up a pillow from the nearest chair and through it at him. "Oh Chris, grow up. I know you are still a pup with only one thing in mind, but really."
Rocky started barking and jumping around with Gina thinking that it was playtime. Gina had to rub his belly to calm him down.
"What really brought you to my door, I told you only to only come here in an emergency and to please call ahead."
"Gina it is an emergency. There is something mysterious happening to the pups in our community. They are acting strange."
"At their age, there is something strange happening, you call it hormones, which is hardly an emergency for which you need my expertise.
Chris gave an exasperated sigh. "Really Gin, do you think I would have come all this way, to risk being a happy meal for a hungry vampire, for nothing."
Gina gave him a knowing smile, thinking of the fact that werewolf blood does increase their supernatural strength ten fold.
She thought better of it to not tell him that she didn't need it. He didn't need to know yet. She didn't want to scare him away, before he knew the full truth about her.
"Oh Chrissie, I don't like the smell of wet wolf on me, you must already know that and thinking of me drinking your blood, eeww, now I need a shower by just thinking about it." She crinkled her nose while saying it.
"OK, Chris, what is happening, spill it and don't leave anything out?"
Chris moved about uncomfortably in his chair and then he leaned back in his chair.
"Well I first noticed it at this party a month ago. The College pups were messing around as usual with the heavy alcohol and party music, having a normal house party. I started seeing male pups disappearing one after the other through a door down the main passage in the house. When the last pup disappeared through the door I knew this wasn't normal behaviour with all the human college girls dancing around. The pups can't help, but listen to their hormones. I creped down the passage to listen by the keyhole of this door. I don't like charging into anything without knowing what is going on. After hearing nothing I opened the door to see that it led off to another small dark passage. There was another door at the end. I crept to it. The door was ajar. A ray of light fell through the narrow opening."
Chris stopped to take a breath and asked: "Where the hell is that doorman with the coffee that I asked for."
"You are not going to continue unless I get the coffee?"
"Right you are Gin."
Gina got up and opened the main computer console and pressed the buzzer.
"James can you please bring two cups of the good coffee to the games room?"
"I will be right up, Miss Gina."
"Chris, really, you can be such an ass sometimes."
"Got your attention now. Have I?"
With a smile she got up and opened the door when she heard James coming down the passage with the tea trolley.
"James I meant the good coffee, not the good China." While rolling her eyes she moved out of the way so that James could come past her.
"When ever a lady serves coffee to a young gentleman, the good china must be used Miss Gina."
With a smile Gina sat down on the couch, waiting for James to serve her coffee.
She couldn't believe that James would call Chris a gentleman. With his torn jeans, ruffled long blonde hair and piercing dark blue eyes, he looked more like a ruffian/rebel than a gentleman. Chris's facial feature's looked like that of a Calvin Klein perfume model.
Most of the werewolf clan were perfect human, with the term human used loosely, specimens. They couldn't mate with each other to produce offspring. They needed to find a human mate. Finding these mates were quite daunting, with the fact that people tended to believe the myths that if bitten by a werewolf you will become a werewolf and in actual fact you can only be born a werewolf or not.
James served them and then he left the room again.
Over the rim of his cup Chris said with a grin on his face: " You know Gin, what's really scary, is the fact that he reminds me of Alfred, the fictional character from those Batman movies, have you watched them? And where is your bat cave?"
Gina suppressed the urge to throw another pillow at Chris and rather just smiled widely, showing off her two long incisors.
Getting the message Chris shifted in his seat again.
"Well, where were we? Oh, I came up to the door. I heard a lot of people talking inside. I looked through the crack and there in the middle of the room was an exact copy of you. Too the T, she even had blonde pixie style hair and violet blue contact lenses in."
"That's reason why I almost bolted when I saw you in that club. I thought you were her."
"I didn't want to tell you at first I needed to ensure that your intentions were good and not harmful to my community."
"Do I look dangerous to you Chris?" Gina stood up gesturing to her lean frame.
"Oh Gin, you look dangerous in another sort of way." Chris winked.
"Wolf boy you better stop with the bad come-on's and quit while you still have a head."
Putting his hands in the air in an Ok I surrender kind of way, Chris just laughed.
"Now wolf boy, you better continue, what happened next?"
" Well the lady was asking the pups to join her army. I don't have a clue what army, before you even ask. Then all the pups that wanted to join had to sign a contract that she pulled out of thin air. Poof just like that." Chris made a waving motion with his one hand.
"Vampire's can't command the magic from the Neatherrealms, I especially know that, I have tried."
Damn did she ever try. Even though she is suppose to be able to, but she couldn't. She still couldn't figure out why. According to the book that she found on her travels she could after that faithful enchanting night, but still she couldn't.
"Well obviously, this lady wasn't what she pretended to be. Most of the pups weren't sober when they signed those contracts and they weren't thinking at all. She promised them untold riches and women. The stupid idiots fell for that and signed it."
"Wait Sherlock, let me guess, all the pups who signed the document are missing." Gina said it in a mock British accent while scratching here chin.
"Hey Gin, this is serious. They vanished last night without a trace from there homes. I went and sniffed around. I couldn't pick up a trace leaving the house. Meaning they just poofed out or something. I don't know."
All the playfulness vanished out of Chris's expression to be replaced by seriousness unbecoming of his years.