I paced the lounge room, grateful that no one else was using it on a Sunday. I'd surprised myself by calling Ceri. I was just curious about how a Moroi such as herself had ended up with human parents, living with humans. That's what I was telling myself at least.
Not that she wasn't beautiful, but after Illiana I'd promised myself that I would never date for looks alone again. Not that Illiana didn't have a great personality, but... She wasn't for me. She would find someone better, I knew she would.
Prim was a different story. Growing up with her made it hard for me to see her as simply beautiful, to appreciate her body as I had done with Illiana. I knew I loved Prim, but I didn't know what way I loved her. My feelings for her were all over the place. They weren't something I was willing to delve into.
But simply being friends with Ceri wouldn't hurt me, hell maybe she would make my life less miserable. Someone I didn't have a past with . Since she was from the human world, she didn't see me as such a freak among freaks.
I was still pacing, still thinking, when she walked in. She was beautiful, though.
Her tight curls bounced with each step, a dark brown with caramel highlights. Her hair reached just past her shoulders brushing her dark skin. She smiled at me, smiling with her fangs, dimples appearing on her cheeks. Her soft gray eyes crinkling at the edges when she did so, her round glasses pushing up with her cheeks.
"Hello, Mason." she said, doing a slight bow, her accent more prominent now than it had been in the throne room. She was wearing jeans rolled up at her ankles, revealing black hi-top converse, and a marvel avengers t-shirt paired with a black unzipped sweatshirt.
"Hello, Ceri... Am I saying that right?" I asked.
"It's pronounced pretty similarly to Kerry. My full name is pronounced Ker-i-dwen."
I nodded, taking in her accent. "So, can you speak any other languages?" I asked, just making conversation. Unsure what we were to do when we hadn't planned for anything. This was odd for me, to feel awkward. I was Mason Belikov, I oozed social charm. I was a spirit user. This was uncharted territory for me.
"I speak Welsh as well."
I nodded. She laughed.
"See, you're plenty different from the rumors. Everyone says Mason Belikov is a partier, and a real flirt with the ladies."
I rolled my eyes. "People also have said I'm a monster since the age of five, rumors are just that. Rumors."
"I completely agree. Which is why I wanted to come and get to know you myself. Maybe, just maybe, convince you to help in my research."
"Your research about Moroi and Dhampirs we lose to the human world?"
She nodded. "Yes, I was thinking with your magic you'd be just the one to help me study it, and find them of course."
"Why, what kind of magic do you possess?" I asked, curious.
Her brow furrowed. "Haven't you checked my aura yet? I heard, and I know this isn't a rumor because the Queen herself told me, that you're a much stronger spirit user and can see what magic Moroi possess just from glancing at their aura."
"While that is true, I haven't checked your aura yet. I wanted to get to know you for myself, without cheating and using magic."
She smiled again, and my heart thud in my chest. "I knew there was a reason I liked you, Mason Belikov."
"To be honest, I've changed a lot these past few months. I was the person that the rumors say I am, a partier, a womanizer. I'm working on being better though, that's why I quit the academy and came back to court. Less temptation."
She pondered this for only a moment. "I believe people can change, and if you say you're trying I'm happy to help by being your friend."
"Cool." was all I said at first, then remembered what we'd been talking about. "So, about your research, you seem like a pretty smart girl, and there are plenty of other spirit users who can help you out I'm sure. I'm more of a fighter than a researcher."
She nodded, like she'd been expecting that answer. I didn't like how well she could read me. It was uncanny, she was reading me as well as I usually read people... Unless.
I let my spirit magic flare up, and was surprised to see her aura. Her golden, spirit-laced, aura. Unbelievable. She'd been reading my aura as she'd talked to me.
"You're a spirit user." I stated, dumbfounded.
She just stood there, not saying anything. Then she took a seat on one of the couches and motioned for me to sit across from her.
I did so. "I just said how I wasn't going to cheat getting to know you, yet you're doing that same exact thing to me?"
She let out a sigh. "I wasn't aware we weren't allowed to use our magic. I thought that to be more of a rule you had for yourself."
My magic was still up, surveying her aura. Something was off about it. Something was different. Her magic was stronger than Lissa's, if I was reading her right. Not quite on the same level as mine, as far as I could tell.
"You're different." I said softly.
"Of course I'm different, I've been living with human parents all my life."
I shook my head. "Spill."
"My parents were two Moroi who lived in Russia at the time of the Buria Battle. Strigoi were battle hungry, and just plain hungry. All the Dhampirs in the area were preoccupied with the battle, so the Strigoi who weren't fighting pillaged." There wasn't much emotion in her eyes, she obviously didn't have much for memories in way of her biological parents.
"My father was killed and turned, my mother narrowly escaped with her life. She was frantic, swearing to herself that she'd never be allowed to be turned. Shortly after was when they discovered the vaccine that prevents us from being turned into Strigoi, however the Strigoi can still kill us they can't turn us. The spirit vaccine. My mother took it when she was pregnant with me. It reacted with my DNA somehow, giving me stronger than average spirit magic along with a few other tricks up my sleeve. Such as getting my magic before puberty. My immune system is crap though. I'm always sick. I was a sickly child."
"That doesn't explain how you ended up with the humans."
"One of those other tricks up my sleeve is being able to see... Paths, ways that things can go. Options. To say it bluntly, the future, but it's not like you think. I was 2 when my mother lost me, we were on vacation in New York. I saw a vision of Strigoi, and I ran. My mother and her two Guardians couldn't find me." She said, shrugging. This meant nothing to her, it was like she was rehearsing a script. She had no memory of this.
"You got lost in New York and ended up in Wales?"
She nodded. "A Welsh couple found me crying, took me to the police. They were visiting New York. They extended their stay to make sure I was okay. My adoptive mother was a social worker..." Her voice was rougher now... I remembered from the other day, her Welsh human parents had been slaughtered. The parents she grew up with.
"You don't have to talk about it, if it's too hard."
"I want to... It helps, in a weird way. My adoptive mother was a social worker, like I said, and knew how the system worked.They knew I wasn't normal right away, with how pale I was... They didn't know about my fangs right away. But they fell in love with me, wanted to protect me. It was probably my magic, making them love me. Who knows. They moved to New York for a year and a half and fostered me, waiting to see if my parents came forward. But there are a lot of missing kids in New York, the month I got lost there were 144. That's just in the area I was lost in. The Alchemists couldn't find me, Dhampirs couldn't find me, they all assumed I'd gotten snatched by a Strigoi. No one knew at the time, but now I think I wasn't found because I didn't want to be. I likely missed my mom, but I think I saw the two futures I could have and wanted the one without magic or as much as a danger of strigoi. My parents moved myself and them back to Wales, and... You know the rest, basically."
I took it all in. "Even after finding out you were different, they kept you? Not trying to be rude, just trying to... Understand." I said, realizing how it sounded after I said it. Realized I was gawking at her the way people had towards me all these years.
"They found out about the fangs pretty soon after they took me in fostering. I'm still not sure about the full story about when I got lost and taken in by them. They never told me everything. My father was a doctor, which was helpful. But they took turns feeding me, I didn't get a lot of blood except when I was sick. They gave me more than. They tried to get me to eat mostly food. They just... They were just my parents, they insisted I could be normal. I could go to school. Make friends. So I did."
I was amazed. "What was it like? Being normal, being human?"
She laughed quietly, forcibly. "I wasn't normal. I had visions of Strigoi so often, visions of the future. But at least my parents and I knew what places to avoid: the places where we got murdered in my visions. I saw the future with other things too, like my dad finding money on the street, or my mom winning a contest. When we would be getting a new foster kid. All sorts of things."
"And then they were killed... I'm so sorry to hear that, I can't imagine. I complain about a lot, but... I still have my parents."
Ceri looked hesitant.
"What is it?"
She took in a deep breath. "I can show you. I can show you the day it happened. I haven't shown anybody, but I can show you. Maybe sharing it will help with the nightmares."
I held out my hand in answer. She took it. I felt her magic flare up and I used mine to help her, letting our spirit intertwine. She took in a breath, and suddenly we were watching a memory through her eyes.
I looked around the Cafeteria, sitting empty handed at the lunch table. Everything on the menu was gross, and I wanted none of it. I wanted blood. But mom and dad both insisted that I had to try to eat food, not blood. So I tried for them. Despite years of trying, and always needing blood at some point or other.
My friend, who knew me well but knew nothing about my thirst for blood, or the fangs I worked so hard to keep hidden, noticed my hesitation. "We can go off campus to eat if you want Ceri, I don't mind. In fact, I'll buy."
I shook my head. "No, I'm not that hungry. Thanks though, Ashanti."
She rolled her eyes. "I know you're hungry. You never eat. Which explains your model body, but still. Not healthy."
I sighed, looking Ashanti up and down. She always made jokes about how I was the beautiful model, and she hung around me just to make me seem more beautiful compared to her dull looks. It was all crap though. Ashanti was beautiful, and normal which made her even more appealing as a friend to me.
She was beautifully tanned, her skin nearly as dark as my own, with long straight ink black hair and deep brown eyes. I envied her for her life, the normality of it. She was an average college student.
Life had been getting harder for me. My parents and I wanted answers, answers to my visions, my taste for blood, why the sun bothered me so much, why I was the way I was.
Everything we looked into said Vampire, which made sense. I was a vampire, I'd accepted it. But there had to be more like me.
My biggest fear was turning into the monsters I saw in my dreams, in my visions. The monsters I saw tearing into people, into my parents and I sometimes. The true vampires.
My parents shared my concerns.
"Ceri? You're zoning out and totally not listening to me." Ashanti said, concern in her eyes. "What's on your mind?"
I forced a smile onto my face. "Nothing. Just worried about school."
She snorted. "You're the smartest person I know."
"How do you think I get that smart? I worry about school and do my work."
She shrugged. "Doesn't seem worth all the work to me. She waved some of her turkey sandwich at me. "Sure you don't want any."
I knew she wouldn't stop unless I ate something, so I accepted half the sandwich forcing myself to chew every bite and swallow. It didn't make me any less hungry.
We stood to get up, getting ready to go to one of our shared classes, Algebra, when my magic jolted through me. A vision filled my eyes, it was my house.
My mom was humming to herself as she cleaned, and didn't notice the dark shadow that I did. I knew immediately what it was. I saw her phone on the kitchen table light up, my face appearing. I was trying to call her and warn her, but her phone was on silent.
Suddenly the monster was there, staring down my mother.
She heard it, and turned. She dropped the pan she'd been scrubbing.
The monster smiled, her fangs showing. "Where is she?"
I saw my mother shaking. "I don't know who you're talking about."
The monster just glared at her. "The young Moroi girl you have here, living with you. I can smell her on you."
My mother eyed her phone and grabbed it, turning and running into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her, calling my dad's number.
We both flinched as we heard the monster laugh. "Call whoever you like, I'll kill them too."
My dad answered. "Andras," my mom said frantically. "One of the bad vampires is here, get to Ceri and run with her. Please, protect her. Tell her I love her."
"Berwyn, wait! I'm coming home to help, just hold on." I heard him say on the other side of the phone.
"I love you." my mom said, hanging up.
I snapped back into reality out of my vision. I'd dropped all my books and my backpack onto the ground.
"I have to go." I said immediately, I was shaking.
Ashanti could tell I was freaking out.
"What's wrong?"
I just shook my head. "Tell the professor I got sick, I've got to go!" I repeated, running. Part of me knew I wouldn't make in time though.
---
When I got to the house it was too quiet. I had better hearing than my parents, which we all had contributed to me being a vampire. My mother always hummed. There was no humming. Also, my dad's car was crookedly parked in the driveway. He was home too early from work. I was too late, I knew it.
When I opened the front door I could smell the blood, and the faint smell of that monster.
It was in the kitchen where I found the blood. Both of my parents were gone though. There was enough blood here though where I knew they weren't alive.
I collapsed to the floor, breaking apart. Tears streamed down my face and I could barely make it to the bathroom where my moms phone was on the floor to call the police.
"My parents have been murdered." I said when they answered.
---
I wasn't supposed to go back to the house. My therapist said it wasn't good for me. I'd been back several times though.
I'd been placed into a group home, as I wasn't 18 yet. I was too old to be adopted yet.
I was scared, I had no clue what I was going to do. I knew I could control people's minds, to an extent. Get blood that way. But my mother had thought that was wrong, and I'd always agreed with her. Until now.
I hadn't had blood in forever, and the crushing grief of my parent's death wasn't helping anything. I was lost, a monster, a freak, and I had no one.
I took my key I still had, that I hadn't returned despite the house being seized.
I stuck it in the front lock but was surprised to find it unlocked. There were no cars in the driveway. I looked out on the street though and saw a silver prius.
Part of me was telling myself just to leave. The other part of me was telling myself to just go in anyways.
I listened to the latter.
I pushed the door open and was met face to face with a tall man, muscles rippling under his clothes from what I could tell, and a surprised look on his face.
"What are you doing here? Who are you here with?" he asked.
I took in a deep, steadying breath. "This was my parents house."
He just stared.
"I came to make sure I didn't forget anything." I said, a little white lie. I knew the house had been cleared out already.
"The people murdered here were humans." he said, dumbly.
My heart skip a beat. He knew. He knew I wasn't human.
I burst out crying, despite myself. "I'm not like those bad vampires, I swear I didn't kill my parents. I'm good, as good as I can be. I've never killed or hurt anybody."
He blinked.
"I know you're not a Strigoi." he finally said.
I blinked back at him, tears falling down my cheeks still. "Is that what they're called?"
"You know what you are, don't you?"
I took in a breath, trying to calm myself before I got hysterical. "I'm a vampire... And you're a vampire hunter or something, aren't you? Tracking what killed my parents?"
"Oh my god, you don't have any clue do you? Did these humans raise you?"
"Yes... I was adopted."
He straightened himself up. "My name is Dakota, I'm a Guardian. A Dhampir. I'm sworn to protect Moroi, that's what you are. I'm sworn to protect you against all dangers, including Strigoi. It's my job. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you... What's your name?"
I processed his words, and something in me clicked. I wasn't alone. "I'm Ceridwen."
"Nice to meet you. I'm gonna have my friend come down, she's human. She'll help get you settled in somewhere... With oher Moroi, people like you. Good vampires." He looked me up and down. "When did you feed last?"
"Before my parents died." I said quietly.
"Hey, Theresa!" He turned, yelling up the stairs. "Get down here!"
A woman came hurrying down the stairs, a golden lily tattoo on her cheek.
I swallowed. I wasn't alone.
Ceri let go of my hand and I took a huge breath.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that."
She nodded, her eyes wet. I wasn't surprised to find that mine were too.
"I'm sorry your life had to get uprooted so much. Not only did you find out you're a completely different species, but you had to move. Leave the home you grew up in, leave school, your friends."
"I still talk to Ashanti over the phone. She worries about me. I told her I got offered a scholarship at a school in America, that I couldn't stand to be in Wales anymore without my parents. She wants to come visit and I keep giving her excuses."
I thought for a moment. "Why not let her visit? She doesn't have to know we're vampires. She can stay at a hotel outside of court and you guys can do some fun stuff together. Around court is one of the safest places anyways, I'll come with you and guard you if you want. You can say I'm your friend."
Her eyes lit up. "You think the Queen would allow it?"
I laughed, though my heart wasn't in it. Not after seeing her sad story. "I'm practically her nephew, I can make it work. We have to wait for a few days though, I don't know if you know about another Pure Dhampir being born but I have to wait for her to arrive before I can leave."
Ceri nodded. "I do know. I would love if you can help me meet up with her. I miss her. Do you want to go get some ice cream or something? We need to lighten the mood up."
I nodded. "I would like that."
We got up, and as we walked away she grabbed my hand. I felt her magic settle as she did so. It wasn't because she was making a move on me, just that she needed reassurance. That she was safe, that everything was okay.
I squeezed her hand back.
(A/N: Hey guys! If you were one of the people who has characters who are going to be in the book expect them soon! I got one of them in this chapter and more in the next. Thanks for being patient!)