1 Chapter 1

It was cold and the rain was still drizzling with the sun setting. In an alleyway just off the main road, a young woman lay in a pile of trash and filth, lifeless and covered in blood.

Small cracks, like those in a teacup, began to form around her eyes as they fluttered open. Her body felt stiff, she attempted to move, but her body wouldn't let her so using everything she had she forced herself to move. In response, she was wracked with pain as every joint in her body popped audibly.

Remaining still to allow the pain to subside, she noticed something, wisps of her hair instead of being their usual brown they were now a silvery-white. Leaning up she grabbed a handful of her hair and moved it in front of her face, it was all the same silvery-white, doing this she also found her hand to be covered in blood.

She tried to hold it in, but she couldn't, she let out a yelp and shot to her feet... a decision she regretted now she noticed that hadn't been laying on just garbage, just below where she had just been where the bodies of her two friends.

Her breathing quickened just before her stomach made her double over and began to reject its remaining contents, then she felt it, a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright, just try to slow your breathing.", the voice was soothing and comforting.

Turning she came face to face with a caramel-skinned woman with hair like hers and strange eyes, behind her were a few men in odd uniforms carting off her friends.

"H-Hey, wait are they-", the young woman stopped herself she knew the answer already.

The older woman patted the young one's shoulder, "Come with me, everything will be alright now."

Slowly nodding she went with her, they got into the older woman's car and they got onto the road, "I'm Rosa Valentina, how about you young lady?"

"Y-Yvette Turner, b-but where are we going?", Yvette had been watching the buildings outside and they were leaving the city rather than going further in.

Rosa smiled at her and place a hand on her shoulder, "We're going to get you somewhere safe and clean you up, then we'll be talking about what happened and where to go from there."

She frowned ever so slightly, it was too late now, but something felt off about all this, "You're a cop or something right?"

"Heavens no, I'm the dean of an academy, we have classes for everyone no matter how young or old they are.", as she finished speaking she pointed out of Yvette's window, "See that's the school right over there."

It was still a little bit away, but she could see it, it looked to be an old mansion that they converted and built extra buildings for. As they came closer to the school a thin fog rolled in with the rain picking up some more and the students she could see began to scatter.

Rosa pulled over and together they quickly ran inside the main building, Yvette didn't have a chance to look at anything as she was quickly escorted to the top floor and into Rosa's office.

From there Rosa opened one of the doors and pulled out a set of all-white clothes, "Here you are, these are for incoming students, now go on through that door there and get yourself cleaned up and changed... then we'll talk."

She gave a quick nod and stepped through the door she was told, it was a surprisingly spacious bathroom, though everything except for the light-bulbs was antiquities.

Setting the clothes down on the sinks counter she stared in the mirror she looked so different than she had just last night, her skin once looked warm and reflected all the time she spent in the sun, but now her skin looked cold-like porcelain and she even had the strange cracks around her eyes to match.

After staring at herself for a while longer she began stripping off her old clothes, wincing as they peeled spots of dried blood from her skin, but to her surprise below the cuts, tears, and blood... there were no wounds.

She moved into the tub and was thankful to find it had a showerhead, she made sure the water was warm, then began washing.

When she stepped out of the bathroom she had done more than just showered, Yvette's hair was no longer able to reach past her shoulders and she had it pulled back into a messy bun.

The all-white clothes made her seem like a doll that had never been taken from its box; the sweater felt hand-tailored for her, the skirt sat just above her knees perfectly, the white stockings were beautifully designed, and the slippers were soft and fit perfect. She'd never been more comfortable in anything else she had ever worn.

Rosa looked to her with a warm smile, "You look much better, do you feel any better?"

Slowly nodding Yvette sat in the plush chair setting in front of the dean's desk, "I feel warm, almost tired."

"That's good, try to hold onto that feeling, it's time we talk about what happened to you."

Yvette sat up straight, "Well my friends and I went out for my twenty-first birthday last night, we drank a good bit, but I don't remember anything else... t-that's weird I feel like I remember more, b-but I don't."

"That's normal, you were put into a trance most likely and on top of that, your brain is probably keeping them locked up because of what happened to you.", As she said that Rosa fiddled with her computer for a moment before looking back at Yvette.

The young girl frowned a little, "Why do you sound like you know more about it than I do?"

"Because I do. I know exactly what happened to you last night... however, before we get to that, please drink this.", Rosa held out what looked like an apple made of glass, but filled with blood.

Yvette shook her head, "No thank you, I'm not thirsty... and no offense but that doesn't look very good."

"True... but the smell is intoxicating.", running a sharp fingernail down the side of the fruit it began to bleed.

At first, she thought the dean was just weird, but the scent reached her nose... her mouth began to water and before she knew it she had reached out to take it, but Rosa took it away and drained it herself.

Now Yvette began to twitch and shake, as hunger pains started eating at her stomach.

"You were attacked last night, by a vampire.", her words snapped the young woman out of her daze, with a chuckle.

It took her a minute to stop chuckling, "Miss Valentina, do you expect me to believe that, but please refrain from the jokes my friends died last night."

With a roll of her eyes, Rosa cut her wrist, letting Yvette see the blood running down it, and just like with the fruit the smell made Yvette lose control and go for the source, but Rosa easily shoved her back into her chair and flicked her on the nose as the cut sealed up.

"If you still don't believe me after you went for my blood, then you'll just play along until you do believe! 'Cause dammit girl you and your friends were murdered by a vampire!", Rosa let out a sigh and whispered an apology for being blunt.

Nodding Yvette looked her in the eyes, "If I was murdered how am I alive?"

"Vampirism, it's a curse that spreads like a disease, you have to die and then the curse will start you up again there are also different ways the curse will react to your body... that's why you look so different than you did yesterday, especially the cracks around your eyes.", as she said that Rosa removed the contacts she wore revealing her real eyes, "I'm known as a Seer, you can identify me as one because of my eyes, one looks blind and the other is unnatural in some way."

She quietly studied Rosa's eyes, one blind, the other was red with a cat-like pupil... unnatural indeed, "So then what am I?"

"You don't have any of the identifying marks of any particular breed of vampire, so you're most likely just regular, but don't feel bad about that anything other than regular is abnormal."

"I see... so what happens now?", Yvette asked as she began to wonder about how vampire society worked if there were other things like vampires that exist.

On cue the doors to the office swung open and a man who looked a few years older than Yvette walked in, he had brown hair and eyes, but he also had cracks like Yvette... though his were much worse, three ran from the bottom of each eye down to his cheeks.

He looked at Yvette closely, walking up to her, grabbing her by the chin, and looking her over closely.

Then after a moment he took a few steps back and spoke, "Next you have a few choices; you can leave and go it on your own or you can stay here and learn what you need to survive out there."

"I wish to learn."

"Good now comes your next choice.", the man cut his wrist open with an 'X' shaped cut and held his arm up, "You can become my child or find someone else, but if you choose me you might die."

Yvette had to cover her nose, not because his blood smelt bad, but because it was far more alluring than everything else so far it was the forbidden fruit... but her body didn't force her to go for the blood, she may have been starving but her body could tell the danger his blood posed.

She looked up at him, "W-What benefit do I get for taking the risk?"

"I can't tell you that, not unless you accept, seems dumb... but there's a purpose behind it."

As her canines grew in length, slowly her body's apprehension was dispersing so, she knew she had to make the choice, "I'll do it!"

He lowered his arm some and she lunged at his wrist, but he caught her by the hair and held his wrist over her mouth, her eyes wild with hunger.

The man was forcing his blood to come like a stream and as she writhed trying to drink and break free of his grasp her beautiful white clothes were being stained with blood.

Just as he decided it was time to wrap up and began letting his wrist heal, he let go of her hair thinking she had calmed, but the instant she was freed she latched onto his wrist and began drinking more.

Seeing this Rosa jumped up, but the man motioned for her to stay, "Varric stop her! What are you doing?!"

The man stayed quiet for a few moments, letting her drink from his wrist, "I decided I might as well let her do it her way our way always results in death, maybe there's a reason for all this."

"You mean besides your blood being heroin for newborns?", the man shrugged in response and gently petted Yvette's hair as she drank... until she fell asleep like a baby, still drinking from his wrist.