PREFACE

"The neighbors said she moved away
Funny how it rained all day
I didn't think much of it then
But it's starting to all make sense
Oh, I can see now that all of these clouds
Are following me in my desperate endeavor
To find my whoever, where ever she may be."

-All Time Low

It was hideously ironic, the way my heart seemed to have ripped in half, as soon it finally felt whole.

I knew I reacted on impulse when I left the academy, but I needed to save Dimitri. I needed to stop him from becoming a monster.

Dimitri… Dimitri… Dimitri…

It was wrong for him to become strigori. It was wrong for him to be a bloodthirsty monster.

And, even at the cost of my own life, I would save him.

I would save him because I loved him. Dimitri, who my mentor. Dimitri, who was seven years older than me. Dimitri, who was also suppose to be Lissa's guardian. I knew the score, I knew it was wrong to have fallen so deeply head over heels in love; but you just cant control who you fall in love with. Fate has its own plan. And, by some miricle, Dimitri loved me to. At first, we ignored the attraction between us, but soon it became to much to deny. Dimitri decided to resign as Lissa's guardian so we could be together.
That day, our school was ambushed by a group of Strigori. Strigori were the undead vampires. There were Strigori, Morori, and Dhampirs. Morori are born; Strigori are made. Morori suck the blood off willing humans, but never drained them entirely; Strigori took any blood, and always killed their food. Morori could use magic; Strigori were super fast and super strong. Morori could die of old age; Strigori were the undead. Dhampirs protected the Morori from the strigori. We were considered their guardians.

Anyways, we killed most of the Strigori, but some got away… with prisoners.

Strigori were known to take away Morori and Dhampirs, they used them as a snack, or sometimes to further their race.

Usually, the guardians never looked for the hostages. They named it to big of a risk; but I couldn't let the strigori get away with all those novices and Morori. So, I convinced the school guardians to help the hostages escape.
That's were I lost Dimitri.

We were doing so well at first. Thanks to my shadow-kissed abilities (I'll explain more about that later) I had a very reliable way of knowing when strigori were near me. I could feel them. So we took out a lot. But there were more than we bargained for. In the end, we helped all the hostages escape, but I had to watch as Dimitri was tackled to the ground, and bitten by the blonde vampire who wanted to finish out the Dragomir line. (Lissa Dragomir was the last surviving Dragomir in existence. You could say it's a very large title to live up to; The Dragomirs were a vary popular, and very powerful family. Up until Lissa's mom, dad, and brother Andre died in a car crash. I was there. The car crash should've killed me to. But Lissa has a very rare magic ability unlike most of the Morori. Lissa had spirit. She could bring things back to life and heal people. We found this out much, much later; but Lissa revived me. That's how I'm shadow-kissed. Because I died, I have a certain carefree, reckless life because somewhere in me knows I should have died. I have can also communicate with ghosts. Weird, huh?

Here is the sick part: Not all Strigori all changed by force. Some, like Christian Ozera's parents, were changed at their own free will. To do so, you have to be a Morori who completely drains the blood out of someone else. This is called "awakening" because when your done, you're a strigori. Easy right? Well, it is if you don't have a problem taking someones life just for your own selfish reasons. Immortality, however, is a very motivational reason in some selfish eyes.

When you become strigori, you loose all reasonable thinking; everything and everyone you ever cared about doesn't matter. All you care about, all you need is blood. And you want it at any cost. That's why Dimitri told me that, if it were to happen to him, he hoped someone would destroy him. There were only three ways to destroy a strigori: fire, decapitation, and with a silver stake through the heart. I had my stake, and I was ready.

A/N: Hey guys, sorry for all the boring background stuff, but its pretty necessary. Anyways, for those of you who were wondering, the title "Je T'aime" is French for "I love You." Pretty cool, eh? I thought it sounded better & more interesting.