Chapter 1: What She Was Then

**WARNING: Aside from the steamy scene, this chapter that you're about to read mentions/reference suicide in a very light manner - like when Rose decided to jump off the back of Titanic - if scenes like this trigger you, please read with care. **

Her name was Jenny Duff and her parents and twin brother, Jacob, died six months ago. They were driving Jacob home from a party when the car swerved off Black Hollow Bridge, dumping them into the pitch-black water.

She was in her room when her Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie woke her up some hours later. Aunt Silva was weeping and describing what had happened to her parents and twin brother, telling her that she was suddenly alone.

That couldn’t be right. Why or how was I alive, but my parents and Jacob weren’t?, she thought and cried for hours after that.

After that, all Jenny wanted to do a month after they buried her parents and brother was follow them into the afterlife. She was not convinced that the afterlife was real at the time, but after losing them, all she wanted was for it to be true. Then courage surged through her veins once she reached the age of 16. So, one night, when Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie were too exhausted to check on her after nearly an hour of loud and rough sex, she slipped out of their house and drove off to Black Hollow Bridge.

As she arrived at the bridge, the storm was already underway. And in a matter of seconds, she was completely soaked. When she got to the railing, she tried to wipe away the tears off her eyes, but it didn’t make much of a difference because she was already drenched from the rain.

Jenny’s heart thudded inside her chest after lightning flashed through the sky, followed by a loud crack. She was terrified, but she was even more terrified of living without her family – the only world she’d ever known was them.

Then she jumped.

The horror and pain of water flooding her lungs, as well as the trauma her body experienced that night, were still fresh in her mind. She felt she'd actually be able to find peace again. But she was mistaken for it was just the beginning...

Her heart raced in her chest as she allowed her mind to succumb to her death. Then the nothingness transformed into a dream. This was the first of the many visions she’d have about them.

Darkness started to curl around Jenny until she found herself in a place she had no memory of ever visiting before. A dreamy, dark crescent moon shone and lay peacefully in the beds of fluffy cotton candies in the distance, while eerie clouds drifted past her and a star swung just out of her reach.

Everything was dim and dreamy.

As she struggled to understand what was going on, the darkness around her pulsed and pulsed, and she suddenly dropped to the cold earth. She twisted and turned, trying to find a comfortable place. She was gasping for air. She yelled, and everything came to an abrupt halt.  She took a look around and discovered herself in an ancient, massive home. A mansion, most likely.

Is that it? Am I dead? She closed my eyes, and when she opened them again, she was already running, her vision blurred by hot tears of terror.

What is going on?

She turned around to look behind her, but as soon as her gaze fell on a pair of sharp amber eyes in the shadows, she quickly turned around and pushed herself to run a little faster. She swallowed a whimper and rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes.

A young boy, who appeared to be about her age, if not older, was chasing her. And the harder she fought, the more he seemed to enjoy chasing her. He was also undeniably appealing. Girls would swarm around him without a doubt, but his seductive, devilish appearance terrified her.

How could someone allowed to hold such beauty?

Jenny’s fiery, red hair swayed violently in the frantic wind as she continued to run until her chest clenched tightly and her legs burned. Then, she flung herself into a door and slammed it shut. She leaned against it, exhausted, inhaling big, shaky breaths, and sobs breaking through her erratic breathing.

Suddenly, a room appeared in front of her.

She brushed her tears away with her sleeve as she searched for the knob and flipped it open. The room was silent, and a chill shot up her back. As she took a cautious step forward, she shook off the idea of whatever could be hiding in the dark corners.

After she pressed the stiff light switch, the light flickered slightly above her. Suddenly, the whole room was bathed in bright light. She took a deep breath and swallowed hard.

When she walked in further, there was something unnervingly quiet about the room that almost hurt her ears; the only sound she could hear was the thunderous pulse beating against my chest.

When she heard his laughter, she dashed to the shelves, trying to remain as concealed as possible. When she looked up, however, she felt as her blood had frozen. Her parents and Jacob had vanished from her mind. Her eyes welled up with tears.

“Hello there.” The raven-haired boy appeared as he walked slowly towards her. His amber eyes shifted to a pair of glowing red orbs.

As he advanced on her, she swallowed hard again, taking a step back to match his every step. “Who are you?” she asked. Her back slammed onto a wall. She did not have time to blink until he was looming over her, his hands propped up on either side of her head on the wall. She made a feeble movement against his chest.

With an ice undertone to his lips, the raven-haired boy smirked. Before she could beg him to let me go, he drew her close to him, kissing her throat with light butterfly kisses. “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I had a taste of what’s mine.”

“A taste? What do you me―?” His fangs sank just above her collar bone, making her gasp before she could finish her question. Her eyes popped open, then her vision blurred, and she was suddenly lost in the darkness.

And then Jenny was back in her own depressing and heartbreaking reality―barely breathing.

The rain was already coming down in buckets, and the wind was howling. The night was bitterly cold, causing the blood in any human veins to freeze. The one who saved her, though, was not human because around her, the man exuded such warmth.

She was frozen and passed out for a few seconds until she heard people screaming from a distance. Then someone yelled in the roaring wind about how blue her fingers looked and how stiff her toes were like they might never move again. Her head lolled from side to side.

Jenny was not sure if she was still alive, but she was sure she was dying.

“We’re going to take her home and get her cleaned up,” someone said.

She wanted to scream at them, to tell them, whoever they were, to leave her alone. Still, given her present situation and the wretched condition of her body, all she could do was groan.

“What have you brought me this time, Randall?” she suddenly heard a woman ask. Suddenly, all she could sense was warmth and the sound of the wind had been muffled.  “Oh, my moon goddess! You brought me a human girl! And she’s wounded! Where did you find her?”

“The hunters found her floating on Hollows River,” replied the man Jenny believed was carrying her. She soon heard a water running, and she was suddenly being laid down on what felt like a couch. Then she heard a truck start up.

“What had she been doing out there in the middle of the night, in the midst of this storm?”

“I don’t know. How soon do you think Dr. Ryan can get here? She’s white as ghost. She wounded and I think she’s lost so much blood.”

“It would likely be an hour. With the weather outside, I’m not even sure he’d consider coming to check on a human.”

“If that prick does not turn up, the Alpha will find out about it.”

“Randall, are you mad? The Alpha wouldn’t care. This is a human girl. Not one of ours,” the woman argued.

“Alpha Callum is a reasonable leader and a kind man, Celeste,” Randall, replied. “The tub is nearly filled. Can you turn the water off and let it cool? I’m going to search through Selene’s closet for something this kid could use.”

“What’s your plan? Are you going to keep her? We can’t have humans as pets. You know that,” Celeste reasoned.

She was right. Keeping humans as pets had long been forbidden and unlawful, since since the peace treaty was signed by the first leaders of the three dominant strains: vampires, shifters, and humans. This fact somehow Jenny some relief since being a pet to these creatures could be more terrifying than death itself.

“This girl’s lucky our hunters found her before those damn, shitty rotters did,” Randall spoke again. “You heard anything about a missing girl?”

“No. No missing human girl.”

Jenny's lips parted. She was desperate to tell to them that she hadn't vanished. She fled in the hope that Aunt Silva and Uncle Benjie would never find her again. After tonight, there was simply no turning back. She was either going to die or she was going to vanish. She couldn't return to her previous life. There were simply far too many memories and far too much anguish to bear.

She blearily blinked and forced her eyes to remain open for at least a few seconds. And that’s when she saw him—standing tall in a corner.

The raven-haired boy.

His eyes bore into hers.

Everything went dark around her after that. Then, a deafening silence followed.