chapter image, this one I wish I could draw,it is of Ryushi slaying something)

I wake up with a pounding headache or hunger. The moonlight shines through the curtains, showing the black bars on the window. I open the curtains and lightly reach out and touch the black bars. They instantly turn glowing red and burn my hand, sending shock through my system. It has been quite a while since I was burned by anything other than sunlight. The magic in the burn wraps around my wrist and up my sleeve. It leaves a large burn scar in the shape of a fiery snake around my wrist and up my forearm. I quickly pull down my kimono sleeve to hide the burn, at a knock on the door.

“Yes, what is it?� I ask.

“Master was wondering if you were awake.�Sariel’s voice comes through the door. “I will escort you to breakfast when you are ready.� I hear the door unlock, allowing me out of my room for the first time. I take one look at my red eyes in the mirror before heading to the door and open it.

“Good evening!� Michael happily says, scaring me. I thought Sariel was the only one at the door. Michael ruffles my hair, breaking my shock. Michael shoos of Sariel before addressing me.

“I knew it! You are hungry!� his bouncy voice poses no threat.
“Considering why I am hungry, it is not surprising.�
“But I didn’t expect you to feed him.�
“He is more dangerous hungry.�
“I know, but still…�he looks down, unable to explain why, “Anyway, let’s have breakfast!�
“Michael drags me downstairs and to the left wing, and into a grand dining room, his excitement bubbling out of him.

The dining room, like the rest of the house, is magnificent in both its size and décor. The gold plated chairs and chandeliers contrast the dark red cherry wood of the table. The dark green carpet is covered by a black, Celtic-bordered rug. The golden chairs, like my room, have a twisted pattern that intertwines like vines. The chandeliers have a tree like pattern, with golden leaves holding up the candles. The chandeliers hang around the room in perfect order, dimly lit as to never brighten the room to human liking.

“Here, come sit Ryushi,� Michael’s happy-go-lucky attitude breaks my paralyzed awe. I sit across the long table from Michael. A maid comes in and places a wine glass full of blood in front of Michael and me. I hold the delicate glass and drink slowly. The red liquid clears my senses, and relieves me of my pounding headache. Although the blood is sour, it satisfies my hunger from the loss of blood. Michael watches me, before realizing he is, and gulps down his glass of blood. I get off my chair and turn to leave.

“Do you want to go out?�Michael’s question surprises me, stopping me in my tracks.

“I thought I am caged here.� I reply, stating my confusion. Michael get’s up and walks to my side.
“The other me must have misunderstood, I only meant that you have to live with us.� Michael smiles innocently.

“Oh, well then, let’s go.�We walk upstairs.�Ok, meet downstairs in five minutes.� Michael leaves me at my door, “By the way, you might want to change.� I open my door, walk in and change back into my regular clothes that are still lying on the floor. I give a quick glance to the mark on my left arm, before hiding it by putting on my trench coat. I walk out of my room, remembering how great the feeling of a flowing trench coat feels. I walk out of my room and wait for Michael in the entryway. Michael comes out in the wing to the right of my room, a few minutes later. He is wearing his normal black T-shirt and jean pants. We are silent as we put on our shoes, and leave the mansion.

“What do you want to do, Blood Rose?� Michael’s voice breaks the silence as we are leaving the mansion’s gate.

“Whatever, I don’t have anything in mind.� I lie, thinking about Kaley, I want to see her again.

“Ok, let’s hunt some demon creatures; I’ve wanted to do that again with you for a long time.� Michael smiles.

“Ok!�I also want to fight, even if it isn’t against Kaley. We climb to the top of the nearby building, then jump roof to roof until we reach the forest on the east side of the city. We jump off, landing firmly on the dirt below, and then run half a mile into the forest, not caring about the other presence of vampires in the forest. Soon the city’s tallest buildings could not even be seen behind us. I quickly pick up a scent of blood, non vampire blood.

ok, so I wrote chapters later, like very much so later, as in books later. I am putting them up now, to give ideas of what happens in the second book.

Another musty summer morning in Aulsberry. Morning being completely relative considering it was almost three in the afternoon, but it was the time I woke up everyday none the less. I hadn’t gotten to bed till almost 11 am so I was a little sleepy and therefore a little testy

“Ohaiyo gozaimasu Mikeke-chan!� my roommate cheerfully chanted at me like a bubbly anime character.

“It is far too early for this kind of perkiness.�

“It’s almost three in the afternoon Mikeke.�

“Too early� I grunt as I grabbed a piece of toast and head out the door into the gloom that engulfed the city. I liked this kind of weather, unfortunately so did the vampires. Most of the time, they wouldn’t come out during the day, even with overcast unless they really needed something. The problem was the ones I was after needed something. I took out the picture from my pocket again. It was still the same handsome teenager with his unmade black hair, glasses and the massive headphones around his neck. In actuality he was not a teenager, he was over 3,000 but he was cute none the less. He was close enough to my age that this was going to be fun. I smiled at the idea of a difficult battle finally. I tore my eyes away from the picture long enough to realize I was at the house. It was only about four so he would still be asleep, just the way I like it.

I carefully picked at the lock for several seconds before it clicked open. I turned the door knob and swung it open with a slight creek. Walking through the door I notice that it reeks of blood, far more than it should if he had eaten last night. I follow the stench of blood up the stairs to the bedroom. I wince at the door, imagining what I would see behind it. I kicked the door open with a loud bang.

Coren looked up from his meal of a pretty blonde girl who looked around seven. He wiped the blood from his mouth onto his long-sleeved, black, T-shirt. He slowly got to his feet, staring at me with his yellow-green eyes that seemed to almost glow in the dim light of the heavily curtained room.

I got into a fighting stance and got ready to dodge. He moved slowly, not wanting to attack, but to get closer. I looked past him at the girl on the floor near death, I felt sorry for her. Coren took this opportunity to attack, quickly pulling a knife from somewhere on him and striking downwards. I blocked with the one thing I had, my arm. I could feel the knife scraping across the bone of my arm with its curved, seriated edge. I bit my lip to keep from screaming, my teeth nearly piercing through. I took my free hand and delivered a punch, with enough force to knock him back a few feet, into his diaphragm. He looked up slowly but I was already on the move throwing a roundhouse kick to his head but he was quick as me and dodged easily.

I had to end this quickly; the girl would be dead in minutes. I pulled out my nekode claws from the special pocket in my coat and grip them tightly. I slashed at him making four huge rips across his chest. I swiped again, but he parried with his knife and moved in close, grabbing me around the waist and kissing me passionately. I pulled away quickly, wiping my mouth on the sleeve of my brown leather trench coat.

“What the hell was that?!� I shouted.

“A kiss my dear…wish for another?�

I attacked again ramming my claws deeply into his midsection. It wouldn’t kill him but it caused him to pass out on the floor. I ran to the girl. It was too late to take her to a hospital. There was only one thing to do. I took Coren’s knife and made a slit in my wrist letting the blood flow into her mouth. Why was I doing this? Why did I care about this human? It was too late, the deed was done, she was a vampire like the rest of us. I picked the girl up and put her on the bed. I waited by her side till Coren woke up. I didn’t move as he approached the bed.

“Did you turn her then?�

I nodded.

“Why?�

“I don’t know.�

“She reminds you of yourself when you were young.�

“Why ask a question you already have the answer to?�

“Because I wanted to hear you say it.�

“She looks just like how I use to look.�

“You know this means we’re married right.�

“I suppose it does.�

We both fell silent. Coren moved to kiss me again, but I pushed him away. He pinned me to the wall.

“What are you doing?�

“Taking you for my own.�

I kneed him in the groin and he fell over in pain.

“Just because we’re married does not give you the right to do as you please with me.�

“I am terribly sorry….I…I don’t know what came over me.�

“Ah so there is some human left in that 3,273 year old heart.�

“How do you know how old I am?�

“Erm…� I mumbled “I’m an assassin for the vampire hunters,� I pull his picture from my coat, “and you’re my target.�

“Ah, that does explain why you were sneaking in at such odd hours.�

“I don’t know what I am going to do anymore.� I looked at the girl, still fast asleep on the bed.

“Well, you still have a little while till I must be dead right?�

“A few days.�

“Well then, we still have a few days to spend together and work things out. If at the end of those few days you still want to kill me, then by all means do so.� He seemed to nearly bubble with excitement. “let me make you some coffee.�

“I don’t want any.�

“Of course you don’t, you haven’t tried mine yet.� He ran out of the room and downstairs, probably to make coffee. I followed slowly after him, not really wanting to leave the girl alone. Coren had a huge kitchen and it was stocked with all sorts of human foods. He was humming some tune and dancing around the island when I walked into the kitchen.

“Do you know Sum 41?�
“What?�
“It’s a band.�
“No, I don’t follow human affairs.�
He cranked the music on the speakers which were hooked to an ipod. Music began to ring through the kitchen.
“It’s called Fat Lip.�
“By Sum 41?�
He nodded. “I don’t want to waist my time become another casualty in society, never gonna fall in line become another victim of your conformity.� He sang along with the music.
His singing wasn’t great but I had to admit it was a catchy tune and I started to sing by the end of it. I notice him smile at me as I screw up the words at the very end of the song.
The coffee was soon ready and in no time we were on our fifth cup, it was really good coffee.
“You should really tell me about yourself.�
“What do you want to know?�
“Anything…you know all about me and I don’t even know your name.�
“It’s Makala.�
“That’s a very pretty name.�
“Thanks,� I grumble, taking another large gulp of coffee, “this stuff’s pretty good by the way.�
He smiled in the way he always did with a look of complete and utter happiness behind it. “Come with me.� He said as he got off the kitchen counter top.
“What? Where are we going?�

He took me down a second set of stairs into the basement. He led me into a very dark room that I could barley make out the outline of a big screen TV. The hum of a computer droned in the back corner. He switched on the lights and I could see all the electronics a person could ever use. He had at least three computers running and a giant flat screen TV hooked up to just about every gaming system on the market. He ran over to a wall completely coated in games and pulled one off the shelf. He put the game in a PS2, pulled out the two controllers, and hooked up two guitars. He put the black guitar strap over his head and handed me the red guitar.

“It’s called Guitar Hero. It’s awesome.�
I put on the strap and got ready to play. There was a lot of clicking and a song was chosen. The song was Fat Lip.
“You might want to do it on easy for starters.�
“Yeah right.� I set it to medium.
“Ok, your funeral.�
“No one came.�
The first song started…I was failing horribly for about the first half of the song, then I got the hang of it.
“Ok, ok, you were right. Do another one.�
He smirked as he chose ‘get ready to rock’ by Freezepop.
“Try this one on for size.�

“Your on.� he was doing hard instead of medium, this must be a hard song. I set it to medium. The music began and so did the notes. I was right it was a much harder but I made it through and got more notes than him. “Why did I lose.�
He laughed, “Star power.�
That’s all he said and we started the next song ‘all of this’ by Shamus.
Over the next four days we must have played that song at least fifty plus times, it became our song and every time it was played we’d both sing along and start dancing stupidly around the room, but I’m getting ahead of myself. At the end of the song I heard a small clapping from the back of the room. The little girl ran up and hugged Coren’s knees.

“hey little darling, you awake?�
“Sure am and ready to beat you.�
Coren started to chuckle “We’ll see, but first come play a song with mommy.�
I twitched at being called mommy, I wasn’t ready for kids, they didn’t get along too well with me. Coren handed her the guitar and shortened the strap by a lot. He knelt down beside her and helped her pick out one of the easiest songs.
“I want you to play on hard Makala.�
“I’ll still win� I teased with the little girl.
“Nah-uh.� she protested as she set her’s to easy.

In the end I still beat her but that was to be expected since she was only around seven. We played for several hours and at 2am Coren sent the little girl he called Taiyoo. I followed them upstairs to what must be her room and helped Coren tuck her into bed and read a bedtime story. It was nice for those few hours that I had almost forgotten Coren was my target. We went back downstairs where Coren put on a movie but mostly for background noise.

“Taiyoo…is that her real name?�
“It’s the one I gave her when she appeared on my doorstep five years ago.�
“How old is she?�
“Well I can’t be certain but she said she was four when she finally woke up so I assume nine. We hold a birthday for her every year on the day she arrived at my home.�
“So you’ve been taking care of her for five years?�
He nodded.
“And you’ve been feeding from her for how many?�
“That’s not entirely fair-“
“How many?�
“Five� he grumbled, “Are you mad at me?�
“Yes…no…I…I don’t know.�
He pulled me into a loving embrace. “Come on let’s watch the movie.�
We watched for several minutes.
“So is this what you do with your time? Watch movies and play video games?�
“Mostly, I also do a little work for the government as a hacker.�
“So you’re good with computers?�
“All electronics really, they just make sense you know?�
“No, I don’t. I’m very bad with electronics.�
“Why’s that?�
I ignored the question. “Why do the vampire hunters want you dead? And why did they have to hire an assassin to do it?�
“Why they need an assassin I have no idea, but the want me because I fix their equipment.�
“What? Explain.�