☼ Prelude ☼

picture; Meredith Reinove

song; "Through the Valley" by Shawn James

author's note; I have run around in circles with this story so many times and somehow I end up back to my original plan. The prelude of the first book has been changed many times; characters names, appearances, events, etc have been changed many times, but this is the original prelude, and I think at this point this is what it was meant to be.

I hope you all enjoy.

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Prelude: The Rouse

~ December 2nd, 2012 ~

I jolted upright in my bed as white-hot terror flooded through my veins and my fingers rushed up to clutch at my chest in a useless effort to slow my rapidly beating heart. My eyes slid across the space of my room as I took in the thick calmness of the air around me.

Everything looked untouched and all was quiet, but the feverish fear that had surged through me wasn't my own. Turning my head towards my bedroom door, I could just make out a shadow slithering slowly past and my breath hitched. Against my better judgment, I called out "Meredith?"

There was no response and I sat in the hammering silence for a few more moments, unsure of what I should do. I began to feel scared the longer I sat there.

It slinked across my skin with a quickness I'd never felt before, making my body turn cold as my heart picked up its pace again. Throwing my cover off, I moved swiftly to the door and my hand hovered over the doorknob.

My breathing became shallow and I closed my eyes. I wondered if I should call again to my mom; maybe she didn't hear me the first time? Sighing out, I dismissed the thought almost as quickly as it had come.

Meredith was a Human-Vampyre; if she could hear a heart beating from across the room, she could definitely hear someone calling her name in the next room over.

My train of thought was interrupted by whispered voices coming from the hall and my eyes widened as my hand settled over the knob of the door and deftly twisted then pulled. I peeked through the crack of my now opened door and saw a man—no, not a man, a boy—facing my mother, his back to me.

My mother's eyes blazed with a coldness I had never seen before. The boy grabbed my mother by her hair and yanked her towards him. She stumbled forward and let out a quieted pained sound.

The boy began whispering to my mom again. His voice was so very familiar, but there was such an icy flatness to his tone I couldn't place where I'd heard it so many times before.

"You will tell me where Cetilayn is, Meredith. I don't have time for your bullshit games." He yanked a little harder on her hair and leaned in closer to her face. "If you don't tell me where she is," There was a long pause before he spoke again, and I could tell that it was through a devilish smile.

"I'll kill Sonya." Both my and Meredith's eyes widened simultaneously and fear skittered down my spine.

"I'm not telling you anything." My mother bit back through gritted teeth. "Cetilayn left to protect us from Darkness," Meredith's eyes slid down the boy before she curled her lips up in disgust.

"You're obviously the one she was really running from." Confusion slid through me for a moment as hurried footsteps landed on the stairs. Another man walked into my line of vision, his woodsy scent wafting to me and realization instantaneously bubbled over.

"Rene," the man spoke the boy's name who still had Meredith in his hold just as I thought it. "Carson says there are Protectors on their way. We need to leave." I almost sighed out in relief.

We would be okay once the Protectors arrived; they would kill all these Lycans for threatening the Reinove family.

"Not," Rene turned away from his comrade to look again at my mother. "Until I get what I came for." He released my mom's hair to grab her by the throat.

"Tell me where she is or you die!" He vehemently whispered.

"No," my mother ground out. "I won't." She gasped from behind his fingers and grabbed his wrist in an attempt to loosen his hold on her.

"You kill me and you'll be labelled a Rogue." Meredith spat with such anger and Rene wrenched back without hesitation before ferociously biting into her throat.

I jolted forward from behind my bedroom door with inhumane speed, easily incapacitating Rene's comrade before pouncing onto his back and yanking him away from my mother.

Meredith's hand flew up to her neck and she breathed out shakily before plunging her hand deep into Rene's chest. His scream of anguish as my mother yanked his heart from his body had several footsteps falling on the stairs.

Meredith's emerald eyes turned to me; they were wide with panic and she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me quickly into her bedroom and shut the door.

I rushed over to the window and opened it wide as Meredith swept everything off of her dresser and wedged it up against the door. She twisted and pulled the pillows and blankets off her mattress then heaved it up and tossed it up against the dresser as well.

"Go, Sonya! I am right behind you." She was next to me in a moment, coaxing me out the window. The wet shingles of the roof were slippery against my bare feet and I lost my footing before finding it again.

I gripped the ledge of the window tightly as I turned my head to look back. Squatting down with as much speed as possible, I released my hold on the sill of the window and slid down to the edge of the roof. I caught myself on the ledge and dangled for only a moment before letting myself fall into the bushes below.

I let out a pained groan as I moved to stand as quickly as my body would allow. A deep, heavy aching rolled through my legs and back and I hissed in pain as I twisted around.

I hastily jogged towards the sidewalk just as four Lycans burst through our front door. Meredith had made it out of the window and onto the roof. I watched as she slid down in the same ungraceful fashion I did. "Go, Sonya! Run! Don't wait for me."

Hesitating for only a second, I twirled on my heels and began to run. Several pairs of footsteps took off after me and I ran as hard and as fast as I could. I wanted so badly to look back to see if Meredith was amongst the footsteps, but I didn't.

I just kept going, ignoring the repetitive shooting pain in my legs, the icy burn in my lungs, and the coldness of my body in the December nighttime air.

Veering sharply around a corner into an alley, I squeezed behind a dumpster to cover my scent. I waited, sneering at the overpowering smell of the rotting garbage and trying not to make a sound; I didn't realize that I was counting the beats of my heart until I heard the footsteps run past a few moments later.

My chest rose and fell quickly in time with my panicked, tired breaths as I let my eyes close for a moment.

"Sonya," Meredith's voice lifted to me in the darkness of the alleyway and I nearly fell back into the dumpster from the startle. She moved hurriedly up to me and grasped firmly at my shoulders before pulling me into a hug. My legs felt like jello as I squeezed her back.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" She quizzed in a hushed tone as her eyes scanned over me with concern like I had seen her do so many times before.

"No, no. I'm okay, I'm okay." I breathed back and fell into her again, pressing my head against her collarbone. I savored that moment and nearly dissolved to tears into her arms. I breathed in her scent and squeezed her as tight as I could.

A sudden gurgling sound rose from her body, and a warm wetness landed onto my cheek. Meredith coughed and sputtered like she was choking.

"M-mom?" I pulled away to look at her face and her jade eyes were wide with blinding fear, deep crimson liquid flowed from her lips and I screeched in terror as her heart was ripped from her back.

"Mommy!" I cried, holding her limp and lifeless body flush against mine.

Hot, relentless rivers flowed down my face almost instantly and I turned my eyes up to look at the person who had stolen her from me.

Rene's once brilliant cerulean eyes had darkened to a murky blue and maniacal grin was fixed across his handsome face.

"You were dead." I choked out through my confusion, a sob causing my voice to shake. I ran my thumb across my mom's cheek as more tears spilled over and fell onto rapidly cooling skin.

"Not exactly." Rene's voice was so casual, so strange. He took a step back before his eyes turned up to the mouth of the alleyway. "Tell me where Cetilayn is, Sonya."

"Fuck you!" I spat as I gently laid Meredith's body down and rose to my feet. Rage flowed through my entirety and suddenly my eyes flashed with a hellish warmth.

"You drove my sister away and now you took Meredith from me too. She was all I had left!" I cried, the anguish morphing into hot fury.

Something unrecognizable flickered over Rene's face and he stumbled another step backwards. A putrid stench surrounded us and the blackness of the alley seemed to move and breathe. It shuddered as if it were a living thing, pulsated almost as if it was in rhythm with my heart beat.

"Sonya..." Rene stopped short, the dark around us began to menacingly close in on him and fear twisted onto his face. Without saying another word, he turned and flitted away.

"I'll kill you!" My own voice sounded so strange, so unfamiliar. I took off running after him when hands settled onto me. I fought to get away, screaming with such body wracking anguish the entire time, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" over and over.

The person who had caught me before I could run after Rene lifted me off my feet and cradled me to their chest. The sounds of anger and desperation that flowed from my body throbbed into the silence of the night and slit ravenously through the air, and I couldn't stop.

It exploded through me and crawled over my skin like a living thing. Rage, despair,and panic had all welled up inside of me with such an oppressive, unmovable weight.

And I continued to scream despite my throat beginning to feel raw and kicked my feet wildly, flailing and fighting as hard and long as I could. Two more sets of hands restricted my arms and legs as someone helped to lug me off to a black SUV that shimmered with a glossy newness in the moonlight.

"She's a fighter." A feminine Spanish accent met my ears and I paused long enough to glower up into a golden-amber gaze, reminding me for a second of Gavin.

"Let me go!" My voice was hoarse at this point and cracked when I screamed again. The hot tears left tracks down the sides of my face and I went still, finally realizing that the person holding me was way too strong and I couldn't get away.

My feet ached from the merciless beating the concrete had given them and my left leg continuously had sharp pricks of pain shooting through it. I twisted in the man's arms to look back at my mother's lifeless body.

Her eyes were wide open, still frozen with glassy terror. The blood that had spewed from her lips cascaded down her chin and neck and stained her pale blue pajama shirt. Her warm brown skin was already turning a grayish-blue from the cold air and I wished I hadn't looked back to see her corpse once more.

"Meredith." I sobbed, the tornado of emotions stirring again for a moment. "We can't leave Meredith! Please, my mother!" I looked up into the face of the person carrying me and peculiar violet-gray orbs peered back down at me.

I was struck by how handsome he was with dark curly tresses and those brilliant eyes. "Please, my mom." I breathed as my body finally truly relaxed.

"Of course, Princess." Confusion bubbled within me but I turned back to see three others hoisting Meredith's body up into a metal coffin. Unstoppable tears continued to roll down my face and I felt a soul-deep weakness pulsate through my body and I began to go limp.

The adrenaline was rushing out of my system and I was left with deep anguish and exhaustion. I remembered how the darkness had pulsated around me with such vitality just before I fell headfirst into deep unconsciousness.

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When I awakened, my thoughts consisted mostly of how long I'd been out, where I was, and who had taken me. These answers didn't come to me until I met Genevieve two and a half days later.

Nurses had come in and out to check up on me, but other than that, there was no one else. I wasn't allowed to use the phone, there was no television or Internet, and I was kept in the same room the entire time.

I didn't even know what the hall outside looked like because the door was made of strong steel that not even I could break through and was always shut and locked with a pass code.

I chopped it up to it being one of those cliché kidnapper's rules that was actually followed in reality. This was funny to me for a while, until the seriousness of the situation set in.

I eventually threw a colossal tantrum and demanded to speak to someone, anyone, who would tell me what the hell was going on and why I was where I was.

Genevieve had long, silky golden tresses of wavy hair that fell all the way down her back and bright ocean-blue eyes. She was taller than me by a few inches, maybe around 5'9, and had a lean, slender build similar to that of a model.

Her way of moving was graceful and incredibly patient; I could tell she had been a Vampyre for many years and soon learned that she was not easily shocked as I recounted to her that Rene Olicidove was the one who'd killed my mother in search of my sister, Cetilayn.

Genevieve was intimidating, but she had nothing on Aven Vierseut.

I recognized his name immediately. He was an Original Vampyre, one of the very first of our kind and the head of the Vierseut Royal bloodline.

He was also the Head of Siekrov Nyx Academia, the Protectors' Academy in Siberia. He came and spoke to me about the arrangements for Meredith's funeral and explained that since my mother had died and Cetilayn Changed and disappeared, I would go to live at the Academy so I was under the protection of the Elders.

"Why?" I quizzed, trying my best to absorb all of the information being thrown at me.

The pain rocketing through my chest, and leg, was still such a heavy distraction I could barely properly pay attention.

"You are the final Child of the Reinove bloodline now; this makes you Princess Sonya Reinove. The Reinoves are not just Royal blood; they are the oldest and first ever of our kind. We will protect you at all costs. There are others who wish to eradicate the Royal lines." Aven had a dulled Russian accent that could easily go from intimidating to warm.

His eyes were so dark they looked to be obsidian black and he had medium length chocolate hair that was swept back in a high-class and elegant manner.

"Why? What have we done to deserve to be killed?" I looked into Aven's face, my eyes brimming with tears yet again.

"Royals forged the foundation of every institution and law in the Unknown World. Others who have been changed refuse to follow our laws and would rather wreak havoc amongst the Unknown and human worlds alike. They're terrorists, simply put."

"Is that what Rene is? A terrorist?"

"Many of the Shifters that are members of his Pack are terrorists." Aven told me matter-of-factly. "I believe, from what you've recounted to us, that Rene artlessly desired Cetilayn." Aven leant back in his seat and peered cautiously at me for a long time.

"I want to train to be a Protector." Genevieve and Aven caught eyes and I looked back and forth between them; the unquenchable rage rose in my chest once again and I swallowed as if that could keep the anger at bay. "I want to kill Rene Olicidove."

Aven Vierseut turned his eyes back to me and smirked. He wordlessly rose to his six foot height and elegantly strode over to the door. Pausing and looking back at me, the smirk on his face had turned devilish. "As you wish, Princess."

The look on Genevieve's face was unrecognizable, but something like apprehension flickered in her cerulean eyes before she masked it with a smile.

Aven turned his devilish grin in her direction and she swiftly followed him out of the room without a backwards glance towards me and I was once again sat alone in the deafening silence.