Disclaimer: Anyone you know belongs to AAR.

Prologue: It was forbidden. Plain and simple. Yet Aleandra Vida and Ebon

Kysira didn't care. He was a vampire, her witch line was known for hunting his

kind. They should never have fallen in love, this daughter of Macht and son of

Siete, but they did. And from this union, a child was born. Her mother gave her

life to save her unborn daughter, who would have otherwise been stillborn. The

child's aunt, Dominique Vida, did not know the truth of her niece's heritage,

but she decided that the girl would be put up for adoption. There was a darkness in the girl she didn't understand. She didn't want to.

Chapter 1 – Being Watched: 16–year–old Alexandria Cooper bolted upright, sweat pouring down her face. The dreams were back again, haunting her sleep. Whispers of a girl, an abomination, someone of two kindreds, bitter enemies for all time. Alex felt that the voices spoke of her, but that made no sense. She did not want to think about it, at least not right now. Right now she had to get ready for school. Alex scowled. She was a junior at Kutztown High School and hated it. Still, there was one good thing about today – after school, she could head over to the local bookstore and pick up the latest novel by Ash Night, Ashes to Ashes. According to what she'd heard, Ashes to Ashes was the story of the novelist herself. Of course, that was the plot line only – Ash Night's books were fiction. They were brilliant, though. Alex had all of them, Tiger, Tiger, Dark Flame, and the book published three months ago, Captive of the Night, the story of Jazlyn, a vampire who wanted to be human again. As she understood it, Ashes to Ashes was the sequel to that third book. How, she didn't know.

Alex dressed, brushed her teeth, and ran down the hall, where the stench of her mother's first beer of the day assaulted her. She sighed, grabbed her book bag, and walked out of the trailer. There was no need to tell her mom that she'd be late coming home; Raquel Cooper would be passed out by noon.

That day went just like every day: terrible. Although she got good grades and rarely misbehaved – she was always too bored to bother with acting up – her teachers disliked her. Her classmates couldn't stand her, though she had no idea why. She thought it might be her Goth appearance. She always wore dark colors, mostly black, deep purple, and navy, though she was fond of red and silver (jewelry, mostly). She wore a pentagram necklace and her dangle earrings were shaped like swords. She also had jet-black hair, gray eyes that darkened or lightened with her moods, and naturally fair skin. Yet even before she'd gone Goth, she'd been hated. Oh, well. Life was like that.

There was one unsettling difference that she noticed as the day progressed. She felt like she was being watched. She'd seen some dark-haired guy watching her as she waited for the bus that morning. Now, she saw another stranger, a blond woman, studying her in the bookstore. It was unnerving. Paying for her book, she hurried out. She wasn't looking where she was going and collided with someone standing on the sidewalk. He had black hair and eyes of the same color. He looked like the guy who'd been watching her earlier, but with longer hair. "Hello," he said. "My name is Nikolas. And you are?" She opened her mouth to reply, but she was suddenly feeling dizzy...

A/N: So...This is my first AAR fic, so tell me what you think. I know things progressed pretty fast, but trust me, they needed to, or I'd never get anywhere with what I've got planned. R&R!